A prestigious French academic publisher, Presses Universitaires de France (PUF), has halted the release of a book criticising “woke ideology” in Western higher education, citing an increasingly hostile political climate.
“We believe that the necessary conditions for a calm and reasoned reception of this collective work are no longer in place,” PUF stated in announcing the suspension on March 10.
The book, titled Face à l’obscurantisme woke (In the Face of Woke Obscurantism), argued that wokism, originating in university humanities departments, was a “militant pseudo-science” that suppressed dissent through intimidation and fosters a “moral panic”.
It further said wokism “fuels communitarianism and fractures the nation [France] into a kaleidoscope of competing identities”.
Backlash from journalists and academics intensified ahead of the book’s planned release and PUF then opted to suspend its publication.
In a message to the book’s co-editors, Emmanuelle Hénin, Xavier-Laurent Salvador and Pierre Vermeren, PUF director Paul Garapon justified the decision as an effort to protect the publisher’s reputation.
“This matter has clearly become political,” Garapon wrote. “In these circumstances, my role is to safeguard PUF from anything that could harm it, and I am therefore compelled to suspend publication.”
Criticism of the book gained traction after historian Patrick Boucheron, speaking at the Collège de France on March 7 during an event for the Stand Up for Science movement, targeted the tome.
“A large part of the media is now dominated by entrepreneurs of inaccuracy and distortion, who claim that the greatest threats we face today are ‘Islamo-leftism’ and ‘wokism’,” Boucheron said.
“There are even some useful idiots within academia. Books continue to be published, including one by PUF titled Face à l’obscurantisme woke, ” he added.
The Stand Up for Science movement was launched to counter the influence of US President Donald Trump and “Trumpism” in science in the US.
For Garapon, the political climate surrounding the book had become too controversial to proceed with its release.
According to him, some critics had targeted PUF due to links the co-editors of the book allegedly had with French Catholic and Conservative billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin through his Périclès organisation.
Garapon’s message to the book’s editors underscored the pressure PUF faced: “Some journalists, and not the least influential ones, view the support given by Périclès to the Observatoire de l’éthique universitaire, of which some of you are members, as justification for waging war — not just against the book, but against PUF itself.”
Hénin, Salvador and Vermeren are affiliated with the Observatoire de l’éthique universitaire, formerly known as the Observatoire du décolonialisme, founded in 2021. This initiative, supported by Stérin’s Périclès, advocates academic freedom, secularism and ethical integrity in higher education.
The Observatoire de l’éthique universitaire has positioned itself as a wall against the influence of “decolonial” studies in French academia, which it argued were primarily a vehicle for anti-Western ideology.
According to the group’s website, decolonial movements sought to “dismantle white hegemony in Western civilisation” and serve as the “armed wing of a holy war against the West”.
In France, Sérin has been labelled by left-wingers as the “right-wing George Soros”.
The Périclès’ initiative has funded right-wing organisations and groups such as the magazine L’Incorrect.
In an interview with L’Incorrect on March 11, Hénin explained that the editors wanted to document ideological excesses in research and higher education and publicise the work of the Observatoire de l’éthique universitaire.
With growing scrutiny over its affiliations and political implications, the book has remained in limbo, caught in a broader cultural battle over free speech, academic integrity and ideological influence in France’s higher-education institutions.