This interview, conducted on the occasion of the publication of Arno J. Mayer’s latest book, Les Furies, recounts the intellectual itinerary of this historian of the contemporary period, nurtured by political science and unorthodox Marxism. It brings out the interesting aspects of the methods and questioning used by this researcher who studies moments of social and political crisis in Europe comparatively and aims at understanding their violence. The political positions taken by A. J. Mayer help explain his writings and indicate the problems and originality of the path taken by a committed scholar who has been working in American universities since the end of the 1950s.