"As a thinker, mystic, and social critic, Simone Weil is one of the most extraordinary figures of the twentieth century. She was a Marxist who experienced the relations of power between producing and ruling classes firsthand as a field and factory worker. She was an internationalist who felt that the fall of Paris was a "great day for Indo-China," and yet she wanted to fight for France. She was a mystic and self-styled Christian who refused to join the church because of its intolerance and exclusivism.

The scope of her thought is remarkable, and this concise book covers it all: religion, politics, science, history, and culture. What comes through strongly are Weil's power of analysis and criticism, her love of truth and hunger for justice, her commitment to nonviolence, and, most of all, her regard for everyone and everything marginalized or excluded by orthodoxies and establishments, whether colonized people or heresy."--BOOK JACKET.