Camus begins by reflecting on how the moral code of modern Europe appears to have been turned upside down: While once judges sat in judgment of criminals and murder was thought a crime, now criminals are in control and believe they can justify their crimes. The “criminals” to whom Camus refers are the 20th-century revolutionaries who wrought war, persecution, and totalitarian oppression against tens of millions of Europeans. The Rebel is Camus’s attempt at understanding this phenomenon. He argues that, ultimately, it is essential to decide whether men have the right to murder one another in the name of their ideas. Furthermore, he mentions the dominant influence of nihilism in modern European life—a philosophical position that asserts that life is meaningless and all traditional morality is useless. Camus argues that the Nazis were the most extreme embodiment of this nihilistic tendency. He declares his intention to trace the development of rebellion in modern history, from around the time of the French Revolution (which began in 1789) to his own day (1951).

In Part 1, Camus attempts to define what a rebel is and what rebellion means.