DOSSIER «LA FIN DU MONDE» | Hong Xiuquan, un lettré raté qui manqua quatre fois ses examens et qui, après une crise existentielle, rencontra Dieu auprès de missionnaires chrétiens, fut l’élément déclencheur de l’un des conflits armés les plus meurtriers de l’histoire.
In 1962, Phil Knight, a former Mile specialist, dreamed of developing a shoe prototype that would enable him to run faster and better. He discovered two things. The first was that, at the time, the market leaders were all manufactured in Japan. The second was that his former trainer Bill Bowerman - well known in Oregon - shared the same dream. So, when Knight teamed up with Bowerman and managed to convince a major Japanese brand to resell a piece from their collection in the USA, the beginnings of a crazy story were set in motion. At the time, Nike had yet to be born, but the running shoe industry was about to undergo a major upheaval.
DOSSIER «LE SEXE SANS COMPLEXE» | The French historian René Rémond, who died in 2007, summed up the answer to this question in a shocking formula: sex, he wrote in 1987, entered politics in 1968! Does this aphorism imply that sex and politics, prior to that date, lived in separate spheres, intersecting only in the private lives of political actors and actresses?
DOSSIER «SWITZERLAND, DEFINITION», Fanny Agostino | The particularities of Switzerland make it a veritable minefield for the question of identity. Unique in the eyes of some, it is plural in the eyes of others. Still others consider it non-existent. To define the contours of this issue, we compared the points of view of two historians specializing in Swiss history, Dominique Dirlewanger and Olivier Meuwly. What is their vision of Swiss identity? And how do they view recent events such as the unbolting of statues and the feminization of street names? Regards croisés.
DOSSIER «SWITZERLAND, DEFINITION», Erica Berazategui | In the midst of its monolingual neighbors, quadrilingual Switzerland is an exception and regularly raises a number of questions. This unique linguistic situation is, however, the simple fruit of history and of a virtually disinterested (but very real!) policy over many centuries towards the languages spoken on the territory.
DOSSIER «L'HOMME ET L'ANIMAL», Enzo Santacroce | Animals occupy a central place in the human environment. They are both endearing companions and savage, aggressive beasts to be slaughtered. This ambivalence is actually our own, since ethologists have demonstrated that the continuity between animal and human behavior is based on the search for food, material security and habitat construction. Seduction games are no exception. The similarities are sometimes so disturbing that the definition of man, and his place within nature, are constantly called into question. In the long history of these ambiguous relationships, animal trials, a veritable institution between the 16th and 17th centuries, bear witness to the fascination that animals hold for mankind.
DOSSIER UKRAINE, Clément Guntern | In 2008, Vladimir Putin told George W. Bush that Ukraine did not exist. At the time, nobody in the West really understood what this meant in concrete terms. We know today. Analysis.
Each month, we feature a column by one of the personalities who give us the pleasure of alternating between the two. Current affairs, history, politics and philosophy: former Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin's readings.
Les bouquins du mardi – Diana-Alice Ramsauer Des livres comme ça, il en faudrait plus. Pas une page de trop. Des niveaux...
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