In 1930s Paris, the thinking world sought guidance from the likes of Sartre, de Beauvoir and Koestler. Lottman follows these intelllectuals and their pro-Fascist counterparts through German occupation, Liberation, and the Cold War, when the superpowers' struggle all but drowned out their voices.

This story begins in the Paris of the 1930s, when artists and writers stood at the center of the world stage. In the decade that saw the rise of the Nazis, much of the thinking world sought guidance from this extraordinary group of intellectuals. Herbert Lottman's chronicle follows the influential players -- Gide, Malraux, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Koestler, Camus, and their pro-Fascist counterparts -- through the German occupation, Liberation, and into the Cold War, when the struggle between superpowers all but drowned out their voices.