French historian Johann Chapoutot has delved into Weimar Germany to see who made Hitler's rise to power possible. He examines this in detail in The Irresponsible (Angle Editorial, translated by Andreu Gomila). Now that we see, here and everywhere, how many people buy the fatalistic and angry narrative of the far-right ("first our own"), this reading is well worth it. The parallels are so evident that they are unsettling. It is a book that emotionally refers, and provides the entire historical context, to The White Ribbon, the icy film by Michael Haneke.

Christmas is just around the corner. For many, despite the loss of faith, it still holds meaning. What is it? The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus For centuries they have been the most important story in Western culture. A century and a half ago, Darwin, Marx, and Nietzsche began to shake the myth of the son of God. But while the divine aspect has declined, his figure, despite the often lamentable role of the official Church, has maintained moral authority: humility and generosity, radical egalitarianism, forgiveness, courage. Even an atheist philosopher like Bertrand Russell wondered if Jesus was "the wisest of men."