About the Author

Francesca Cernia Slovin is an internationally recognized public intellectual and author. Her Doctorate in Philosophy is from the University of Rome, with a dissertation under Lucio Colletti on the fihiations between Rousseaus moral and political philosophy. Having researched and taught French Enlightenment for many years, she has instructed at The New School and at Cornell University. A regular contributor to Italian and American academic journals, she is a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Council for the Humanities, a member of the Foreign Press Association in New York, and a consultant for the Center for Jewish History.

In Principio, her book on the philosophical and political impetus behind the founders of Israel, is required reading in Italian high schools. She edited Gli Anni di Plastica, the history of European design at the beginning of the twentieth century. Her Aby Warburg: Un Banchiere Prestato All’arte was awarded the Commisso prize for Best Biography of the Year and has been translated as Obsessed by Art. Aby Warburg, His Life and Legacy (2006).