Régis Debray

I read this a few years ago in anticipation of a trip to Italy. It is a forceful and entertaining polemic against the city, which Debray compares unfavorably to Naples. At the time, it seemed to bolster my expectation that I wouldn't much like Venice. To my surprise and delight, that expectation proved very wrong; I enjoyed Venice tremendously and was sorry not to have more time there. It may have helped that it was remarkably uncrowded, being March, and that we stayed in what still appeared show more to be a relatively vibrant residential quarter. I did, however, think that Debray's critique of Venice could, with minor modification, apply very aptly to Florence, a dreadful Renaissance Disneyland where I was very content to spend a day doing laundry to escape the crowds. show less

Debray memorialises a German-Bolivian woman, Monika Ertl. She killed the man, who in all probability was the person mainly responsible for Che Guevara’s execution. The argument behind is the pro and contra of a justified terrorism as answer to the South American dictatorships in the seventies and eighties.

Revolution in the Revolution is Debray's analysis of the Cuban mode of revolution in contrast to the Asian and Russian Revolutions. The Revolution within the Revolution is the shift from a revolution led by a city-based political organisation which controls at a distance the guerrilla arm of the revolution, to a guerrilla-led revolution in which the leaders of the guerrilla group fulfil the function of the political leaders in addition to their military roles. This type of revolution is show more described as being better suited to the Latin American geography and states where Debray has been around in guerrilla groups, and is typified by the successful leadership of the Cuban revolution.
Much of the book is concerned with the role of guerrilla groups in the revolution, and the organisation of revolutionary politics with the aim of overthrowing repressive states. It is based within the Marxist framework generally, though not without criticism of several modes of communist thinking from Marx, Lenin, and Trotsky that have influenced previous revolutions.
This book will be best appreciated by those who are interested in revolutionary or Marxist thought, recent Latin American history, or political philosophy. It is probably not of much wider general interest due to its fairly specific focus on guerrilla-based communist organisation, however having said that it does have the benefit of being well-written and compact, at 127 pages. show less

A MUST READ..if you are fluent in French..R.Debray depicts the role of the image in society and religion over the last 2000 yrs. Using a philosophy of its own, "Mediologie", Debray brings light on the incredibly deep and complex subject of representation and mediation.
From the greeks to the internet, the casual reader may skip a couple chapters, but a complete read is strongly advised to enjoy a wisdom as clear as rare in our times.