''Time for Outrage!'' is the English translation of the bestselling tract ''Indignez-vous !'' by the French diplomat, member of the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

and

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

survivor

Stéphane Hessel Stéphane Frédéric Hessel (20 October 1917 – 26 February 2013) was a diplomat, ambassador, writer, concentration camp survivor, French Resistance member and BCRA agent. Born German, he became a naturalised French citizen in 1939. He be ...

. Published in France in 2010, it has sold nearly 1.5 million copies in France and has been translated into numerous other languages.Elaine Sciolino
"A Resistance Hero Fires Up the French"
''The New York Times'' (March 9, 2011). Retrieved March 16, 2011

Content

The 94-year-old author starts with a brief reference to his participation in the

at the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, pointing out that outrage was at its roots. He then outlines two somewhat contradictory views of history that have both influenced him, that of the French philosopher

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...

, who was his teacher at the Ecole normale superieure in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and that of the German writer

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mys ...

, who was a colleague and a close friend of his father,

Franz Hessel Franz Hessel (November 21, 1880 – January 6, 1941) was a German writer and translator. With Walter Benjamin, he produced a German translation of three volumes of Marcel Proust's 1913-1927 work ''À la recherche du temps perdu'' in the late 1920s. ...

. The author asserts that indifference is the worst of attitudes. He speaks of his experience among the drafters of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal De ...

and exhorts young people to look around for topics of indignation. He then presents his own principal indignation at present, the strife in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, the

Gaza strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

and the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. He ends the tract by calling for

non-violent Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

action and for a peaceful uprising against the powers of

finance capitalism Finance capitalism or financial capitalism is the subordination of processes of production to the accumulation of money profits in a financial system. Financial capitalism is thus a form of capitalism where the intermediation of saving to invest ...

. “Ninety-three years old. The last leg of my journey. The end is in sight. I am lucky to be able to seize the time I have left to reflect on my lifelong commitment to politics: the Resistance and the program designed sixty-six years ago by the

National Council of the Resistance The National Council of the Resistance (also, National Resistance Council; in French: ''Conseil National de la Résistance'' (CNR), was the body that directed and coordinated the different movements of the French Resistance: the press, trade unio ...

.” These are the opening lines from “A Time for Outrage!” (“Indignez-vous !”), a 35-page book written by Stephane Hessel in 2010 which sold 3 million copies in 30 languages and inspired protests like “Occupy” in the United States and The Indignados in Spain.

Reception

In France, published by a small publisher in

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

, the 32-page booklet sold almost a million copies within the first ten weeks. It was a Christmas best-seller. It has been criticized for being poorly written and too short, but even critics have acknowledged the booklet has tapped into popular anger. In the beginning of January 2011, “Indignez-vous!” was at the headlines of German newspapers, even if the book was not translated at this calendar date into German and only available in French. It has been translated into English, German, Spanish, Galician, Italian,

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

, Dutch, Portuguese, Turkish, Romanian, Slovenian, Serbian, Greek, Hebrew, and Korean. More translations are planned in Japanese, Swedish, Chinese"Indignez-vous! va paraitre en Chine"
Indigène éditions. Retrieved June 6, 2011 and other languages.

Influence

In 2011, one of the names given to the 2011 Spanish protests against corruption and bipartisan politics was ''Los Indignados'' (''The Outraged''), taken from the title of the book's translation there (''¡Indignaos!''). The Spanish protests later inspired other protests all around the world, including Greece, Israel and

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest Social movement, movement against economic inequality and the Campaign finance, influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial District, Manhattan, Wall S ...

in the United States.

References

External links

Author of ''Time for Outrage!'' Stéphane Hessel interviewed
by Juan González on ''

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

'' October 10, 2011
''Time for Outrage!''

Charles Glass Charles Glass (born November 18, 1951) is an American-British author, journalist, broadcaster and publisher specializing in the Middle East and the Second World War. He was ''ABC News'' chief Middle East correspondent from 1983 to 1993, and has ...

Books, official website (2011). Retrieved March 17, 2011
Indigène éditions
Official website, French edition. Retrieved March 17, 2011
''¡Indignaos!''
Spanish translation of ''Indignez-vous!'' Retrieved June 12, 2015
Get Involved !
Official website for Stephane Hessel's new book "Get involved !" (Engagez-vous !)
Passive, Silent and Revolutionary: The ‘Arab Spring’ Revisited
This article makes some connections between the Indignados of Spain and Greece and the Occupy movements in the US and UK to the simultaneous "Arab Spring" revolts. {{Authority control Pamphlets 2010 essays