More than any other cultural figure of his generation, Jean-Paul Sartre set the tone of intellectual, philosophical, and literary activity both within postwar France and throughout Europe and the United States. Throughout his long writing career, Sartre probed the moral, historical, and philosophical parameters of the twentieth-century search for identity and the nature of existence. Imprisoned in Germany during World War II and later an active participant in the French Resistance, Sartre founded and edited Les Temps Modernes (Modern Times), which became the voice of French existentialism. Through this journal and his many novels, plays, and philosophical treatises, Sartre challenged not only contemporary ideas about freedom and human liberation, but also the oppression he found in Western capitalism. His relentless search for freedom gave rise to a process of existential inquiry and reflection. For Sartre, human beings are condemned to make their own destiny. Their burden and their...