Emmanuel Mounier (1905-1950) was one of the foremost proponents of the philosophy of personalism and a leader of the French personalist movement of the 1930s. He was the founder of the influential journal Esprit, in which personalism was presented not as an abstract philosophy for academics but as the basis for dynamic confrontation with present-day society. Mounier's work included critiques of capitalism and liberal democracy, of the "bourgeois spirit" of French society, and of fascism and inhumanity in all its varieties, from the hypocrisy of Mussolini's attack on Abyssinia to the "holy war" of Franco and his supporters in the name of Christian civilization. Mounier's philosophy was one of combat, dialogue, and constant engagement with the great issues of his time.

This volume, first published a year before Mounier's death, is his final definition of personalism. It is an eloquent and lucid statement of a perspective in which "man's supreme adventure is to fight injustice wherever it is found and whatever the consequences" (from the Foreword).