Too often there is a tendency to examine intellectual projects in isolation; for some reason this is particularly true of analyses of writers of the 1930s and 1940s. Irwin, through superb scholarship, demonstrates the links between Bataille, Durkheim, Mauss, and Mounier, but where he breaks new ground is the extended linking of Weil and Bataille. This illuminating book considers these two supremely important intellects together and clearly demonstrates their rapports.