Resistance, Rebellion, and Death

''Resistance, Rebellion, and Death'' (, "Letters to a German Friend") is a 1960 collection of

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

s written by

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...

and selected by the author prior to his death. The essays here generally involve conflicts near the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

, with an emphasis on his home country

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

, and on the

Algerian War of Independence The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...

in particular. He also criticizes

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

("Reflections on the Guillotine") and

totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...

in particular. Camus proclaims the call to justice and the struggle for freedom also declaimed in the Old Testament, particularly the

minor prophets The Minor Prophets or Twelve Prophets ( he, שנים עשר, ''Shneim Asar''; arc, תרי עשר, ''Trei Asar'', "Twelve") ( grc, δωδεκαπρόφητον, "the Twelve Prophets"), occasionally Book of the Twelve, is a collection of propheti ...

. But he does so in a modern context, where God is silent and man is the master of his own destiny. Although he sees no

messianic age In Abrahamic religions, the Messianic Age is the future period of time on Earth in which the messiah will reign and bring universal peace and brotherhood, without any evil. Many believe that there will be such an age; some refer to it as the cons ...

, he proclaims the hope that by continuous effort, evil can be diminished and freedom and justice may become more prevalent. Also collected here, in the essay "The Artist and His Time," is the address Camus gave in December 1957 at the

University of Uppsala Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

, entitled "Create Dangerously". The speech is reminiscent of

Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

's essay, "

What is Art? ''What Is Art?'' (russian: Что такое искусство? ''Chto takoye iskusstvo?'') is a book by Leo Tolstoy. It was completed in Russian in 1897 but first published in English due to difficulties with the Russian censors. Tolstoy cites ...

", in that Camus speaks of the social context of art, concluding that "the only justification or the artist... is to speak up for those ... who cannot do so." 1961 non-fiction books Books by Albert Camus French essay collections Alfred A. Knopf books Hamish Hamilton books {{poli-essay-stub