The Need for Roots

The Need for Roots

Author	Simone Weil
Language	French, English
Subject	Politics, culture, philosophy
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Routledge
Publication date	1949 (French), 1952 (English)
Publication place	France, United Kingdom
Media type	Paperback
Pages	298
ISBN	978-0-415-27102-8

The Need for Roots: prelude towards a declaration of duties towards mankind (French: L'Enracinement, prélude à une déclaration des devoirs envers l'être humain) is a book by Simone Weil. After Weil's death, her parents asked her close friend Boris Souvarine to publish her work under the title "Preclude to a Declaration of Obligations towards the Human Being." In 1949, it appeared in publisher Gallimard’s Espoir collection, edited by Albert Camus, under the title "L’Enracinement". The first English translation was published in 1952.

The work diagnoses the causes of the social, cultural and spiritual malaise which Weil saw as afflicting 20th century civilisation, particularly Europe but also the rest of the world. Weil supports a significant cultural shift, stating that order means society requires a web of social relations where no one must violate an obligation to fulfill another obligation. Weil examines what she calls 'Uprootedness', defined as a near universal condition resulting from the destruction of ties with the past and the dissolution of community. Weil specifies the requirements that must be met so that peoples can once again feel rooted, in a cultural and spiritual sense, to their environment and to both the past and to expectations for the future. The book discusses the political, cultural and spiritual currents that ought to be nurtured so that people have access to sources of energy which will help them lead fulfilling, joyful and morally good lives. A leading theme is the need to recognise the spiritual nature of work.

The Need for Roots is regarded as Weil's best known work and has provoked a variety of responses, from being described as a work of "exceptional originality and breadth of human sympathy" to "a collection of egregious nonsense."

Background

4 Carlton gardens, London. During WWII the building served as provisional headquarters of the Free French Resistance movement. Weil was stationed here while she wrote Need for Roots.

France fell to Nazi Germany in 1940, at which time many French leaders collaborated with the Nazis as part of the Vichy Government. Since 1942, Weil was attempting to return to France. Weil was introduced to André Philip, Minister of the Interior under De Gaulle, by Maurice Schumann, a fellow student of Alain. Phillip stated wrote to Weil, saying he read her work before the war and respected her. Weil attended his lecture while he was in New York, and Phillip called for a moral and spiritual revolution for a Free France, with morals superior to that of Vichy France. Phillip interviewed Weil for a position in the Commiserate for the Interior in London. In 1943 Weil was hired to work there under Phillip and Francis Lous Coston. Weil worked from Mayfair at 19 Hill Street in London to receive and edit reports from France, and also to write. Weil longed to be more directly involved in the French resistance, though officials rejected her more direct involvement including her effort to bring herself and nurses into war zones.

The book was written in the early months of 1943. At the time, Weil was writing an incredible amount of work, including translations of the Upanishads, What is Sacred in Every Human Being?, Are We Fighting for Justice?, and Essential Ideas for a New Constitution, Concerning the Colonial Problem in its Relation to the Destiny of the French People. These ideas influenced the need for roots, and Weil began to envision a world where the Allies obtained victory and a new France could be built. Weil was worried that France would rebuild with the same mistakes as 1798, and Weil was concerned about Phillip's vision for a new country based on universal rights which Weil felt was insufficient, advocating for a new country built on a framework of obligations and needs. Weil also argues for a partriotism not rooted in borders, but rooted in compassion. These arugements reflect the concern Weil and other thinkers at the time have concerning the rebuilding of a free France.

The book's initial form was a report which Weil had been asked to write for the Free French Resistance movement concerning the possibilities for effecting a regeneration in France once the Germans had been driven back. The work was originally submitted along with a shorter companion essay called Draft for a statement of human obligations. "Spirituality of work", a leading theme in the book, was a concept that had occupied Weil throughout her career. According to biographer Richard Rees, her whole life's work can be viewed as an attempt to elucidate the concept, which she saw as the one great original idea of the West. Weil presented physical labour as the type of work most suited to developing a direct connection with God. Her analysis was informed by a year-long stretch as a factory hand and by several periods working as an agricultural labourer.

Synopsis

The book is divided into three parts. Part one is subdivided into fourteen sections, each dealing with a specific human need. Collectively these are referred to as 'needs of the soul'. Part two is subdivided into three sections, dealing with the concept of uprootedness in relation to urban life, to rural life and to nationhood. Part three is undivided and discusses the possibilities for inspiring a nation. Only a small part of the book discusses the specific solutions that were of unique applicability to France in the 1940s. Most of the work discusses the general case and is of broad and lasting relevance.

Part One: The Needs of the Soul

Obligations and Rights

Part one begins with a discussion of obligations and rights. Weil asserts that obligations are more fundamental than rights, as a right is only meaningful insofar as others fulfil their obligation to respect it. A man alone in the universe, she says, would have obligations but no rights. Rights are therefore "subordinate and relative" to obligations. Weil says that those directing the French Revolution were mistaken in basing their ideas for a new society on the notion of rights rather than obligations, suggesting that a system based on obligations would have been better.

Weil states Weil claims that while rights are subject to varying conditions, obligations are "eternal", "situated above this world" and "independent of conditions", applying to all human beings. The actual activities which obligations require us to perform, however, may vary depending on circumstances. The most fundamental obligation involves respecting the essential needs of others – the "needs of the soul".

Weil backs up her ideas on the needs of the soul by mentioning that Christian, ancient Egyptian and other traditions have held similar moral views throughout history, particularly on the obligation to help those suffering from hunger. This, Weil says, should serve as a model for other needs of the soul. Weil also makes a distinction between physical needs (such as for food, heating and medical attention) and non-physical needs that are concerned with the "moral side" of life. Both kinds are vital, and the deprivation of these needs causes one to fall into a state "more or less resembling death".

Weil goes into some detail on collectives. She says that obligations are not binding to collectives, but to the individuals of which the collective is composed. Collectives should be respected, not for their own sake, but because they are 'food for mankind'. Collectives that are not 'food for mankind' – harmful or useless collectives – should be removed. Thus, service to a collective may require total sacrifice, but the collective is not superior to the person, similar to how sacrifice for another person may require total sacrifice without implying that one person is worth more than another.

Needs of the Soul

The remainder of part one is divided into sections discussing the essential needs of the soul, which Weil says correspond to basic bodily needs like the requirements for food, warmth and medicine. She says such needs can mostly be grouped into antithetical pairs, such as the needs for rest and activity, or for warmth and coolness, and that they are best satisfied when a balance is struck allowing both needs to be met in turn. In communities where all essential needs are satisfied there will be a "flowering of fraternity, joy, beauty and happiness".

1. Order: Order is the primary need of the soul, consisting of a web of social relationships. People long to do good, but when actions are required by several strict obligations that are incompatible, they can become wounded in their love for the good. To truly understand order, one must comprehend the nature of needs. The difference between needs and desires is that needs are limited, as are the resources that fulfill them. A miser can never have enough gold, but if everyone is given enough bread, there will eventually come a time when everyone has enough. Just as food satiates hunger, the same is true of nourishment for the soul. These contrasting pairs (hunger/fullness, rest/exercise) also apply to the soul, as opposing needs are fully satisfied. It is important to note that order is dynamic and requires ongoing negotiation and adaptation within social contexts.
2. Liberty: Liberty is described as the ability to make meaningful choices. Societies must inevitably have rules for the common good, which restrict freedom to a certain degree. Weil argues that these rules do not truly diminish one's liberty if they meet certain conditions; if their purpose is easily grasped and there aren’t too many, then mature individuals of good will should not find the rules oppressive. For instance, the habit of "not eating disgusting or dangerous things" is not an infringement on liberty. The only individuals who would feel restricted by such rules may be characterized as childlike. It’s essential to recognize that the balance between liberty and societal rules can be context-dependent and may vary across different cultures.
3. Obedience: Obedience is defined as an essential need of the soul, provided it arises from freely given consent to a set of rules or the commands of a leader. Obedience motivated by fear of penalties or desire for reward is mere servility and holds no value. Weil emphasizes that the social structure must have a common goal, the essence of which can be grasped by all, allowing people to appreciate the purpose of the rules and orders. Mutual respect in relationships of authority is crucial for obedience to be meaningful.
4. Responsibility: Weil argues that everyone has a need to feel useful and even essential to others. Individuals should have opportunities, both big and small, to lead concerning the interests of others in matters to which they are committed. Decision-making and showing initiative are vital aspects of this need. The unemployed, in particular, are starved of this essential experience. For people of relatively strong character, this need extends to the requirement to take leadership roles at least part of their lives. A flourishing community life will provide sufficient opportunities for all to command others at some point, reinforcing the moral dimensions of responsibility in promoting community engagement and the common good.
5. Equality: Equality is an essential need defined as the recognition that everyone is entitled to an equal amount of respect as a human being, regardless of differences. Weil advocates for a balance of equality and inequality in an ideal society. While there should be social mobility, if children have truly equal chances for self-advancement based purely on their abilities, those in lower-grade jobs may be unfairly viewed as being there due to their shortcomings. Weil argues that those who enjoy power and privilege should be held to a higher standard of conduct, particularly when it comes to crimes committed by employers against employees, which should be punished more severely than crimes committed by employees against employers. Weil argues differences between people should not be seen as more or less, but simply as diverse. Weil argues that inevitable differences between people should never result in disrespect. A balance allows individuals to attain the social rank they are capable of fulfilling, supported by universal access to education. While people may have different roles, respect should be universal, and individuals should find happiness in their roles. For example, a soldier may feel proud of his role, a general proud of his, with both respecting one another.
6. Hierarchy: Weil writes of the importance of a system of hierarchy in which one feels devotion towards superiors, not as individuals, but as symbols. Hierarchy in these way symbolizes the obligation of each person to others. True hierarchy acknowledges that superiors understand their role is only a symbol and that the symbol of the obligation is truly what subordinates are devoted to
7. Honour: Honor is the need for a special sort of respect that goes beyond the basic respect due to every human being. An individual’s honor relates to how well their conduct measures up to certain criteria, which can vary depending on their social milieu. The need for honor is best satisfied when individuals can participate in a shared noble tradition. For a profession to fulfill this need, it should have an association capable of preserving the memory of nobility, heroism, probity, generosity, and genius within it. Weil asserts that all oppression creates a famine in the need for honor, as the traditions of oppressed groups are often unrecognized, particularly during colonization. Social oppression can have similar effects as, for example, while the heroism of pilots may be acknowledged, that of fishermen is often overlooked. Weil also advocates for the elimination of categories deemed dishonorable in society, such as immigrants, Indigenous people, police officers, and sex workers. She contends that only crime should remove someone from social consideration, with the ultimate goal of rehabilitation.
8. Punishment: Weil discusses two types of necessary punishment. Disciplinary punishments serve to reinforce an individual's good conscience by providing external support in the battle against vice. The second, more essential type of punishment is punitive. Weil believes that committing a crime places the individual outside the chain of obligations that form a good society, making punishment essential to reintegrate the individual into lawful society. Punishment, including pain, should aim to bring justice to the soul, even up to death. Just as music awakens the soul through beauty, punishment should awaken a sense of justice.
9. Freedom of Opinion Weil emphasizes the importance of being free to express any opinion or idea. However, she advises that very harmful views should not be expressed in media that shape public opinion. Weil argues that literature and media significantly influence society and that once a writer takes on the role of influencing public opinion, they can no longer enjoy unlimited freedom of opinion due to their moral obligations. While this cannot be enforced through law, it should be expressed through a judgment of fairness. Freedom requires protection against propaganda, and individuals should be shielded from social coercion or demands from collectivities to conform in their opinions, even among friends. An immediate response might involve abolishing political parties. Weil states that while interest groups should exist, they must gain members freely, with exclusions only for grave offenses, and organizations must allow for a genuine circulation of ideas. She warns that totalitarian states are formed by totalitarian parties that exclude differing opinions. Weil asserts, “As for freedom of thought, it is true to say that without freedom of thought there is no thought. But it is also true to say that where there is no thought, it is not free either.”
10. Security: Security is described as freedom from fear and terror, except in brief and exceptional circumstances. Weil argues that permanent fear causes a "semi-paralysis of the soul," highlighting the importance of a secure environment for individual well-being.
11. Risk: Weil defines risk as danger that elicits a considered reaction. She argues that an appropriate amount of risk can protect individuals from a detrimental form of boredom and teach them how to cope with fear. However, the level of risk should not be so overwhelming that it leads to paralysis or fatalism. Protecting people from terror does not entail eliminating risk altogether; some risk is necessary to encourage the courage that the spirit can call upon when needed.
12. Personal Property Weil writes that the soul suffers feelings of isolation when deprived of objects to call its own, which can serve as extensions of the body. She advocates that, where possible, people should be able to own their homes and the tools of their trade. Private property is violated when a farmer works land owned by a city dweller who derives revenue from it without direct involvement.
13. Collective Property The need for collective property is satisfied when people, from the richest to the poorest, feel a shared sense of ownership and enjoyment of public buildings, land, and events. Weil argues that owning a modern factory, whether by workers, managers, or boards, is unfulfilling. There is no natural connection between ownership and profit; rather, it often results from a system that prioritizes profit above all else. This system is unhealthy, and money should be detached from ownership. The true criteria for ownership should focus on making good use of the resources available for communal benefit. Items that do not meet the needs for private or communal property should be adapted to do so.
14. Truth Weil asserts the need for truth is the most sacred of all needs. It is compromised when people don't have access to reliable and accurate sources of information. Because working people often lack the time to verify what they read in books and the mass media, writers who introduce avoidable errors should be held accountable. Propaganda should be banned and people who deliberately lie in the media should be liable to severe penalties.

Part Two: Rootedness and Uprootedness

Weil argues that rootedness is a spiritual need which involves their real, active, and natural participation in the life of a collectivity that keeps alive the treasures of the past and the aspirations of the future. Weil believes this rootedness is natural, coming from place, birth, and occupation with each person needing to have multiple roots and deriving their moral, intellectual, and spiritual life from the environment in which they belong. Weil believes that an exchange of influences between places is vital, but the exchange should not have new elements be additions but should should stimulate more intensity of the existing. Weil compares this to a painter entering a museum, who upon seeing other works understands his own originality.

Weil contracts rootedness with uprootedness, a condition where people lack deep and living connections with their environment Uprootedness may be caused by many factors including conquest, colonialism, money and economic domination. Weil states money destroys roots wherever it goes, because the drive to make money supplants everything else. The drive for money requires less attention than other incentives, and thus overshadows them. Uprootedness is aggravated if people also lack participation in community life and uprooted people lack connections with the past and a sense of their own integral place in the world.

Uprootedness in Towns

Sisteron in south east France. Weil considered that the nascent civilisation which existed in the Provence region before the Albigensian Crusade had a culture where labour was free from all "taint of slavery" and the spiritual dimension of work was recognised.

Weil asserts that in 20th century France and elsewhere the condition of uprootedness is most advanced in towns, especially among the lower paid workers who have a total dependence on money. Weil writes their uprootedness is so severe it's effectively as though they had been banished from their own country and then temporally reinstated on sufferance, forced by oppressive employers to have almost their entire attention taken up with drudgery and piecework. For the urban poor without work it's even worse, unemployment is described as "uprootedness squared."

The gulf between high culture from the mass of the people that has been widening since the renaissance is another factor contributing to up rootedness. Education now has only limited effect in helping to create roots as academic culture has lost its connection both with this world and the next. Many academics have become obsessed with learning not for a desire for knowledge for its own sake but due to the utility it offers for attaining social prestige.

Weil discussed how uprootedness is a self-propagating condition, giving the example of the Romans and Germans after World War I as uprooted people who set about uprooting others. Whoever is rooted doesn't uproot others – Weil opines that the worst examples of misconduct by the Spanish and English during the colonial age were from adventurers who lacked deep connections with the life of their own countries. Both the left and right include activists who want the working class to be rooted again, but on the left there is sizeable contingent who merely want everyone to be reduced to the same level of unrootedness as the proletariats, and on the right a section who want the workers to remain unrooted the better to be able to exploit them. Disunity prevents good intentioned activists from having much effect.

Another factor hampering reform efforts is the tendency of human nature not to pay attention to misfortune – she discusses how unions often spend most of their energies looking out for relatively well off special interests, neglecting the weak who were being most oppressed, such as youth, women and immigrant workers.

Weil proposes various measures to address urban uprootedness. She says little can be done for uprooted adults, but it would be easier to rescue the next generation. One of her first suggestions is to eliminate psychic shock experienced by young workers when they transition from school where authority figures care about their wellbeing to the world of work where they're effectively just a "cog in a machine." Another ill to remedy is the exclusion of workers from an imaginative share in their companies' strategy.

Machines should be designed with the needs of the workmen in mind, not just the demands of cost efficient production. The author suggests that if people have a suitable introduction to work as children, who tend to see the workplace as an intriguing world reserved for adults, then their future experience of work would forever be "lit up by poetry". Weil also advises that a revival of apprenticeships and the original Tour de France would be of great value.

Weil says that many of the workers' complaints arise from obsessions created by distress and that the best of way of reacting is not to appease the obsessions but to fix the underlying distress – then all kinds of problems in society just disappear.

Reforms in education would also be needed. Weil says providing workers with high culture in a form they can suggest is much simpler than objectors expect. There is no need to try and relay large volumes of literature, as a little pure truth lights the soul just as much as a lot of pure truth. The relationships between various educational topics and everyday life as experienced by the workers should be explored. Without watering down high culture, its truths should be expressed in a language "perceptible to the heart".

Weil says that to abolish urban uprootedness it will be essential to establish forms of industrial production and culture where workers could feel at home, and she discussed various reforms that she advised for France after the war

Uprootedness in the Countryside

Weil writes that though uprootedness is not as far advanced in the countryside as in towns, the needs of the peasants should receive equal attention to the need of industrial workers: firstly because it is contrary to nature for the land to be worked by uprooted individuals and secondly as one of the causes of the peasant's distress is the feeling that progressive movements ignore them in favour of industrial workers.

A peasant's requirements include a strong need to own land, which is important for them to feel rooted. Boredom can be a problem as many peasants do the same work throughout their lives, starting from about age 14. Weil suggests a tradition should be established for peasant youths take a few months out for travel in their late teens, similar to the tour de France that used to exist for apprentice artisans. Those who desire it should also be able to return to education for a year or two.

Rural communities require different teaching methods compared to towns. Religious teaching should be made relevant to the countryside, with emphasis on the pastoral scenes in the Bible. Science should be presented in terms of the great natural cycles, such as the energy from the sun being captured by photosynthesis, being concentrated into seeds and fruit, passing into man and then partly returning to the soil as he expends energy working the land. Weil writes that if peasants have both well tailored scientific and religious ideas at the back of their minds while they work the fields, it will increase their appreciation of beauty and "Permeate their labour with poetry"

In the last few pages of this section the author dwells on her central theme – that the great vocation of our times is to create a civilisation which recognises the spiritual nature of work. She draws further parallels between spiritual mechanism and physical mechanism, referring to parables in the Bible concerning seeds and then discussing our scientific understanding about how plants reach the surface by consuming the energy in their seeds and then grow upwards towards the light. Weil suggests similar parallels could be targeted for urban workers. She says if people can have both spiritual and scientific ideas converging in the act of work, then even the fatigue associated with toil can be transformed for good, becoming "the pain that makes the beauty of the world penetrates right into the core of the human body."

Weil deplores the tendency for education to train workers so they only think intellectually in their leisure hours. She says that while fundamental ideas need not be given conscious attention while workers are busy, they should always be present in the background. Weil presents the case of two women both engaged in sewing; one being a happy expectant mother, the other being a prisoner. While both have their attention occupied by the same technical problems, the pregnant woman never forgets the life growing inside her while the prisoner is always in fear of punishment. Weil says the whole social problem is mirrored in the women's contrasting attitudes. She discusses the two principal forms of greatness, the false greatness based on world conquest and true greatness which is spiritual.

Like any elevated idea, care should be taken when promoting the union of work and spirituality lest it become discredited due to cynicism and suspicion, and thereby impossible to achieve. But Weil suggests it wouldn't need over selling by the authorities as it would be a solution to the problem on everyone's lips concerning the lack of balance created by rapidly developing material science that hasn't been matched with social or spiritual progress. She also suggests the movement towards recognising the spirituality of work could be embraced by all section of society – it would be welcomed by progressives and conservatives alike, with even atheist communists not opposing the idea, as certain quotes from Marx deplored the lack of spirituality in the capitalist world of work – so the movement could create unity.

Uprootedness and Nationhood

At the start of this section Weil regrets the fact that the nation has become the only collective accessible to most people which is still at least partially rooted. She discusses how institutions both larger and smaller than the nation have been uprooted, such as Christendom, regional and local life, and the family. With regards to the family for example, for most people it has contracted just to the nuclear unit of man, wife and children. Brothers and sisters are already a little bit distant, with very few ever giving the slightest consideration to relatives that died more than 10 years before they were born, or to those who will be born after they have died.

Weil discusses the particular problems affecting the French that result from their unique history: the hatred of kings and distrust of all forms of central authority due to the succession of mostly cruel kings that followed Charles V; the trend instigated by Richelieu which saw the state "sucking out all forms of life" from regional and local institutions; the distrust of religion caused by the Church siding with State; the revival in workers' spirits after the Revolution being undone by the 1871 massacre; the counter reaction that set in after World War I, because during the War the French people had exerted themselves beyond the extent provided for by the limited energies they could draw from their diminished patriotic feelings.

Various problems relating to patriotism are discussed: how some lack any patriotism at all, while for others patriotism is too weak a motivation for the demands of wartime. Yet another problem is that for some patriotism is based on a false conception of greatness, on the success one's nation has had in conquering others – this sort of patriotism can lead people to turning a blind eye to whatever evils their country has committed. Weil suggests the ideal form of patriotism should be based on compassion. She compares the often antagonised and prideful feelings resulting from a patriotism based on grandeur with the warmth of a patriotism based on tender feeling of pity and an awareness of how a country is ultimately fragile and perishable. A patriotism based on compassion allows one to still see the flaws in one's country, while still remaining ever ready to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Part 3: The growing of Roots

The final section is concerned with the methods by which a people might be inspired towards the good, and how a nation can be encouraged to re-establish its roots. Weil discussed how in contrast to the explosion in knowledge regarding methods for working with materials, folk have begun to think that there is no method for spiritual matters. She asserts that everything in creation is dependent on method, given the spiritual methods advised by St John of the Cross as an example.

Inspiring a nation is therefore a task that ought to be undertaken methodically. To accomplish the task it's essential to simultaneously point people in the direction of the good while at the same time providing the necessary motivation, so as to provide energy for the required effort. Accordingly, the methods available for inspiring a nation centre around public action by the authorities as a means of education. Weil writes this is a very difficult idea to grasp, as at least since the renaissance public action has been almost solely a means of exercising power. Weil enumerates five ways in which public action can serve to educate a nation:

• By raising hopes and fears with promises and threat.
• By suggestion.
• By the official expression of previously unstated thoughts already in the minds of the people.
• By example
• By the modality of the actions.

Weil considers that while the first two ways are well understood, they are unsuitable for breathing inspiration into a people. The remaining three methods could be much more effective, but at present no administration has much experience of employing them. The third method, although not without superficial similarities to the suggestive power of propaganda, can in the right circumstances be a highly effective tool for good. Weil wrote that at the current time (writing in 1943), the French resistance authorities have a rare opportunity to inspire their people as while their actions have an official character, they are not the actual state authorities and so don't arouse the cynicism the French traditionally hold for their rulers.

Four obstacles are listed that make it difficult to inspire a people towards genuine goodness. First and foremost a false conception of greatness, based on the prestige of might and conquest. Weil opines that France was essentially still motivated by the same sense of greatness that drove Hitler. The other obstacles are idolisation of money, a degraded sense of Justice, and a lack of religious inspiration. Only the first and last problem are discussed at length.

Weil asserts that prior to about the 16th century religion and science were united by the search for Truth, but have since become separated and in some cases even mutually hostile, with religion often the loser in the battle for public opinion. She suggests religion and science could become reconciled if the spirit of truth is breathed into both; despite the assertions of some scientists to the contrary, the thirst for truth is not a common motivation for science. As an example she discussed the habit of mathematicians who deliberately obscure proofs for their discoveries, showing that they were motivated by competitive instincts and the desire to be recognised above their peers. Weil suggests that the highest study of science is the beauty of the world.

In the book's last few pages Weil returns to a discussion of the spirituality of work, presenting the case that physical labour is spiritually superior to all other forms of work such as technical planning, command, art or science.

Assessment and reception

General de Gaulle was the leader of the Free French Movement, but had little time for her work and refused to read the whole of Need for Roots

Weil's first English biographer Richard Rees has written that Need for Roots can be described as an investigation into the causes of unhappiness and proposals for its cure. Writing in 1966 he says it contains more of what the present age needs to understand and more of the criticism it needs to listen to than any other writer of the 20th century has been able to express. According to Dr Stephen Plant, writing in 1996, Need for Roots remains just as relevant today as it was in the 1940s when the majority of European workers were employed by heavy industry. T. S. Eliot praised the work's balanced judgement, shrewdness and good sense.

The Times Literary Supplement wrote that the book is about politics in the "widest Aristotelian understanding of the term" and that is displayed "exceptional originality and breath of human sympathy".

For Weil scholar Sian Miles the book is the most complete expression of Weil's social thought. Albert Camus was so taken with the work he wrote it seemed to him "impossible to imagine the rebirth of Europe without taking into consideration the suggestions outlined in it by Simone Weil."

General De Gaulle on the other hand was less impressed, dismissing her recommendations and only half reading most of her reports. For the most part very few of Weils idea's were put into practice during the operations that followed the liberation of France, with one of few direct signs of her influence being that a list of obligations was included along with a list of rights in a French free press release of August 1943. Poet and critic Kenneth Rexroth took a negative view of the book, writing in 1957 that it "was a collection of egregious nonsense" and "a weird, embarrassing relic of a too immediate past."

References

• Weil, Simone (1952). The Need for Roots: prelude to a declaration of duties toward mankind. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 9780060902261. SBN 06-090226-4. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Simone Weil (2005). Sian Miles (ed.). An Anthology. Penguin Book. ISBN 0-14-118819-7.
• Richard Rees (1966). Simone Weil: A Sketch for a Portrait. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-211163-9.
• Stephen Plant (1996). Font Christian Thinkers: Simone Weil. HarperCollins. ISBN 0006279171.

External links

• The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind, p. 0, at Google Books