Politics and the Other Scene Etienne Balibar, Daniel Hahn Verso, 2002 As one of Louis Althusser's most brilliant students in the 1960s, Etienne Balibar contributed to the collective theoretical masterpiece of Reading Capital. Since then he has established himself amongst the most subtle philosophical and political thinkers in France. In Politics and the Other Scene Balibar deepens and extends the work he first developed with Immanuel Wallerstein in Race, Nation, ...             Deforming American Political Thought: Ethnicity, Facticity, and Genre Michael J. Shapiro University Press of Kentucky, 2006 By affirming the relativity of the American historical imagination, political theorist Michael J. Shapiro offers a powerful polemic against ethnocentric interpretations of American culture and politics. "Deforming American Political Thought" analyzes issues that range from the nature of Thomas Jefferson's vision of an egalitarian nation to the persistence of racial inequality. Shapiro ...             The Inoperative Community (Theory and History of Literature)3 reviews Jean-Luc Nancy University of Minnesota Press, 1991 A difficult but hugely important book. + Worth careful reading This book has been very influential in France. If you don't take your philophy neat, of if you are new to Nancy's thought, then I recommend starting with Maurice Blanchot's _The Unavowable Community_, which relates Nancy's concept of finitude to the work and life of Georges Bataille. Blanchot ...             Politics of Touch: Sense, Movement, Sovereignty Erin Manning Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2006 Political philosophy has long been bound by traditional thinking about the body and the senses. Through an engagement with the state-centered vocabulary of this discipline, Politics of Touch explores the ways in which sensing bodies continually run up against existing political structures. In this groundbreaking work, Erin Manning reconsiders how new politics can arise that challenge the ...             Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State6 reviews Friedrich Engels Pathfinder Press (NY), 1972 Tearing Down Social Icons + they were wrong but you have to know why + Why doesn't the war of the sexes ever end? + Relevant Today + To change society we have to understand it             Poetics of Relation Edouard Glissant University of Michigan Press, 1997 Édouard Glissant, long recognized in the French and francophone world as one of the greatest writers and thinkers of our times, is increasingly attracting attention from English-speaking readers. Born in Martinique in 1928, Glissant earned a doctorate from the Sorbonne. When he returned to his native land in the mid-sixties, his writing began to focus on the idea of a "relational poetics," which ...             Accursed Share, Vol. 1: Consumption5 reviews Georges Bataille Zone Books, 1991 A thought provoking work connecting religion and economics. + Sovereignty and Being + still relevant geopolitically + a work of genius             Being and Time50 reviews Martin Heidegger HarperOne, 1962 Some Thoughts on Approaching Being and Time + At the heart of contemporary continental philosophy + To learn Heidegger, don't start with Heidegger + This is the translation to buy!             Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 1, 1913-1926 (Walter Benjamin)2 reviews Walter Benjamin Belknap Press, 1996 Endlessly fascinating... + An Excellent Introduction While his work is as important as Barthes, Foucault, or Derrida, or any other critic of the 20th Century, Benjamin's work has a mystical quality, a kind of enchantment, that resonates much more than any other critic I have read. It is always human and sensitive, even despite his determinedly ...             The Magic of the State2 reviews Michael Taussig Routledge, 1996 A fine example of Taussig's + The modern state as voodoo ceremony Taussig, as his career has progressed, has embraced more and more Nietzsche's dictum that cultural representation must - absolutely must - be inherently radical. The Magic of the State perhaps exemplifies this best - being of a different conceptual order than just about anything out there in ...             Pluralism4 reviews William E. Connolly Duke University Press, 2005 A Must Read + A Worthy Read. + The Bible of Pluralist Theory This is a fantastic book. Pluralism not only offers a sophisticated diagnosis of some of the most pressing tensions and difficulties in contemporary democratic politics today by revealing how broad modes of thought, discourse, feeling and behaviour help shape and orient the mood of Western ...             Bergsonism2 reviews Gilles Deleuze Zone Books, 1990 Insightful into Bergson, but it's really Bergson-Deleuze + An Important Book on Bergson and Deleuze In this book, Gilles Deleuze analyzes and supplements the work of philosopher Henri Bergson. The importance of this book lies in its ability to give insights not only into the work of Bergson but also into the later work of Deleuze. For example, the first chapter of this book deals with Bergson's ...             Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought)2 reviews Carl Schmitt The MIT Press, 1988 Liberalism vs. Democracy + Debunking liberal democracy This book is a must-read for those who are interested in fostering Western democratic-liberal ideals in currently authoritarian regimes. Schmitt challenges the seamless grouping of liberal ideals and democratic ideals, and argues that the principles of liberalism and democracy actually stand in ...             On the Postcolony (Studies on the History of Society and Culture)2 reviews Achille Mbembe University of California Press, 2001 POSTCOLONIAL STUDY OF (SUB-SAHARAN) AFRICA + Fast delivery and very good condition i will begin by saying that Achille Mbembe is now my favorite author/theorist! it is really a shame that no one has reviewed this book yet! it is simply an amazing and absolutely necessary book to read for anyone who wants to consider themselves knowledgable of african politics, culture, economics ...             The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism1 review Todd May Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994 An attempt at uniting two powerful movements Todd May proposes to unify two movements (more accurately, strands of two movements), namely, poststructuralism and anarchism. Poststructuralism, for May, is in need of a framework in order to articulate its politics, and anarchism's commitments to humanism and its views of power as strictly ...             Reflections on Violence (Dover Books on History, Political and Social Science)6 reviews Georges Sorel Dover Publications, 2004 The power of myths, the importance of choosing wisely + Brilliant! + Fascinating Museum Piece "Reflections on violence" was written in 1908 by Georges Sorel, and gives us a good idea of what revolutionary syndicalism was like to him. Even if this book isn't widely read, it is quite important in the history of political ideas. "Reflections on Violence" is a little difficult to read ...             Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life (Athlone Contemporary European Thinkers) Henri Lefebvre Continuum, 2004 In the analysis of rhythms - both biological and social - Lefebvre shows the interrelation of space and time in the understanding of everyday life. He moves between discussions of music, the commodity, measurement, the media and the city. In doing so he shows how a non-linear conception of time and history balanced his famous rethinking of the question of space. This volume also includes his ...             Archeology of Violence2 reviews Pierre Clastres Semiotext(e), 1994 "What is the function of Primitive war?" + Deleuze + Guattari + Strauss + Nietzsche + Marx + Schmidt + Zizek= ??? The answer, to create dispersal, the prevention of power accumulation and the unified hierachical state. This is one of the central thesis' in Clastre's "Archaeology of Violence". In it he argues that along with the defining of territorial limits( which provide incentives for a stabilized ...             Speed and Politics (Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents)6 reviews Paul Virilio Semiotext(e), 2007 Slowly speeding + Insightful Interviews + A remarkable little book "Speed and Politics" is an insightful post-modern examination into what I call 'exponential progress'. In one part, Virilio suggests that since society is increasingly less patient (mostly as a result of technology), people in general are less willing to spend the time to read or investigate their ...             Hatred of Democracy1 review Jacques Ranciere Verso, 2007 briefly, a dense buckshot Ranciere continues with his premise that equality is the true basis of human life, whether in straw man notions, such as intelligence, traditionally the ruling class realm of cultural aesthetics, or the ramifications of governance. His basic thesis is that democracy is not a form of government or ...