For me, Camus is on the very pinnacle of intellectual, ethical and moral bravery. This book, whilst a dense and complex read, comprises one of the pieces of my backbone.

'What is a rebel? A man who says no.'

Unlike the precedent book (the myth of sysiphus) this one is an hymn of life and radical thinking, a bashing critic of nihilistic thought and every form of totalitarianism.

The main theme of the essay is the revolt.
The revolt is the main thread of human history, it permeates every claim of justice and freedom.
Camus explain to us why the revolt of man against the unfairness of his condition mustn't decay in a revolution against the whole universe, a total negation of every sense and value, even of the human nature and of the humans' sufference that triggered revolt at the beginning.
Camus sets out a series of historical and philosophical examples of revolt: not every one is worth considering, except the main target of the book: Marx.
He hardly critics the position of Marxist dogmas as religious one, he denounces a revolution that betrayed its ideals, ending in a totalitarian regime.
Now this considerations may seem obvious to us, but remember that his book was written in the 50's -Stalin was still alive.
It was a strong breaking off with most of the french intellectual vanguard, it led to the his definitive rift with Sartre.
This book that has much more to share with poetry and art than with philosophy or history, but it's a gleaming example of intellectual courage and honesty. ( )

Why do men revolt? Why do we rage against our masters, our government, our Gods? The short version, we revolt to prove a point. We revolt against our governments to prove that we can do things better than they can, as slaves we rebel against our masters to prove that we are not lesser men, to tell them that we will be slaves no more. As disciples we revolt against our Gods because we want to be Gods ourselves. We revolt to take what we don’t have.

The book is long winded at times but still interesting, Camus is one of the best writers of the 20th century and this essay is one of his best works, in my opinion. Camus discusses both rebellion and revolt, both metaphysical and actual. My favorite part of the book is where Camus discusses the Russian Revolutionaries of the late nineteenth century, one part sticks out to me, a revolutionary was sent to bomb a Colonel who was at a play or concert (something like that) it was a place where a man might be with his wife, the revolutionary said “if his wife is with him, I will not throw the bomb.” ( )