Amazon.com
The Condition of Postmodernity is David Harvey's seminal history of our most equivocal of eras. What does postmodernism mean? Where did it come from? Harvey, a professor of geography and a key mover behind extending the scope and influence of the discipline of geography itself, does a thorough job here delineating the passage through to postmodernity and the economic, social, and political changes that underscored and accompanied it. As he clearly states, the rise in postmodernist cultural forms is related to a new intensity in what Harvey terms "time-space compression," but this new intensity is a qualitative rather than quantitative change in social organization, and it does not point to an era beyond capitalism as "the basic rules of capitalistic accumulation" remain unchanged. Unlike Fredric Jameson (whose equally rewarding Postmodernism stands as the twin pillar to Harvey's critique), who explicitly relies on Ernest Mandel's periodization of late capitalism, Harvey eschews a narrowly economic focus, the limits and contradictions of production that have led to the rise in the service sector, and takes a more multidisciplinary approach to his history. As comfortable discussing Manet as he is labor markets, Harvey is an excellent writer, and The Condition of Postmodernity is an exceptionally informative and enjoyable read. --Mark Thwaite, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
A great deal has been written on what has variously been described as the post-modern condition and on post-modern culture, architecture, art and society. In this new book, David Harvey seeks to determine what is meant by the term in its different contexts and to identify how accurate and useful it is as a description of contemporary experience. But the book is much more than this: in the course of his investigation the author provides a social and semantic history - from the Enlightenment to the present - of modernism and its expression in political and social ideas and movements, as well as in art, literature and architecture. He considers in particular how the meaning and perception of time and space themselves vary over time and space, and shows that this variance affects individual values and social processes of the most fundamental kind. This book will be widely welcomed, not only for its clear and critical account of the arguments surrounding the propositions of modernity and post-modernity, but as an incisive contribution to the history of ideas and their relation to social and political change.
Customer Reviews:
Good lord.......2005-09-16
Wow, this book is about as dense as the crust of the earth. It takes at least a few reads over to understand what the arguments are. While the arguments in this book are very well articulated, I found myself wanting to shoot myself in the face sometimes while reading this book. It can be really boring, but brings up some very interesting ideas of 80's culture and society.
Po-Mo Schmomo?.......2003-03-04
Ask ten academics about what to call our present fin-de-siecle epoch and you'll get ten different labels, but "postmodernism" seems always the default term. Although it's twelve years old, Harvey's book is the best I've read about the pluralistic fabric we daily inhabit. It's edifyingly reader-friendly (especially compared to some of the Franco-drunk rhetoricians out there trying to get a handle on our current world). In precise prose Harvey outlines the shift to our information-as-capital paradigm since the mid-sixties, and the causes of the growth of the temp sector and "just-in-time" production capabilities. Harvey traces the arrival of "flexible accumulation" to the collapse of Fordist production practices in the 1966-73 waves of recession, but covers far more than just economic factors--architecture, art, literature, cinema--without any self-conscious Neo-Marxist whistling-in-the-dark. In his project to articulate a new (meta?)narrative, Harvey's book will probably give post-structuralists a new constellation of ideas to obfuscate with hip terminology and dense prose...
Manuel Castell's "The Rise of the Network Society" is another good book along these lines.
Best overview of modern/postmodern condition I have found.......2002-08-22
This is a great overview of concepts that are, by definition, very fractured. Harvey clarifies and pulls together a number of seemingly disparate elements in a masterful manner. Though this book could work as a good introduction to these concepts, I think readers with some background in the major writers of modernism and postmodernism will get more out of it. Dogmatic postmodernists may be put off that Harvey has the "temerity" to suggest that postmodernism might be an extension of modernism or that he finds some good in modernism and some excesses in postmodern approaches but, they should get over themselves and realize that their insistence that "all meta-narratives are bad" is their own meta-narrative. Overall, Harvey manages to convincingly express his ideas while maintaining a remarkably evenhanded approach. I especially enjoy the fact that he avoids the postmodernist tendency to ignore the complexities of modernism and, thus create a postmodern meta-narrative about the modernist project.
Excellent overview of modernity and post-modernity.......2001-11-27
David Harvey's "Condition of Post-Modernity" provides excellent representational cases to show the differences between modernity and post-modernity. Although sometimes difficult to follow (I had problems with the chapter pertaining to architecture), Harvey uses enough examples (i.e., economics, art, cinema, etc.) to make sure one understands the differences between post-modernism and modernism. The economic chapter, "Fordism and Flexible Accumulation" is particulary good and shows the gradual transformation from a modernist to a post-modernist economy and society. I was disappointed, however, that Harvey didn't have a complete section focused towards the differences between modernist and post-modernist lit.
Excellent overview of modernity and post-modernity.......2001-11-27
David Harvey's "Condition of Post-Modernity" provides excellent representational cases to show the differences between modernity and post-modernity. Although sometimes difficult to follow (I had problems with the chapter pertaining to architecture), Harvey uses enough examples (i.e., economics, art, cinema, etc.) to make sure one understands the differences between post-modernism and modernism. The economic chapter, "Fordism and Flexible Accumulation" is particulary good and shows the gradual transformation from a moderninst to a post-modernist economy and society. I was disappointed, however, that Harvey didn't have a complete section focused towards the differences between modernist and post-modernist lit.
Amazon.com
For everyone interested in looking beyond the façades of architectural landmarks to learn about the forces that shaped them, Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity has been a definitive resource since its publication in 1986. Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman, professors at New York University, weave complex information into an engrossing narrative. While the authors' focus is on the Western tradition, shared ancient roots inspired a chapter on aspects of Islamic architecture. In the second edition, Trachtenberg's well-supported opinions add a lively sense of engagement to a new chapter surveying major trends of the 1980s and 1990s (work by Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry, Daniel Liebeskind, and others). Among the special delights of the book are its excursions into fascinating architectural byways, such as the history of castles, why the mendicant monks wanted simpler churches, and the superiority of the truss to the girder. More than 1,000 illustrations, including 91color plates, provide ample visual reference. --Cathy Curtis
Book Description
"Written in exceptionally clear yet imaginative prose by two distinguished architectural historians." —Paul Goldberger, The New York Times Book Review
This highly regarded, exceptionally well-written book brings to life the entire sweep of architectural history, and its greatest buildings, from the prehistoric era to the present. For over 15 years readers have relied on this incomparable work for its lucidity, originality, splendid illustrations, and nuanced interpretation of architecture. Now in its Second Edition, the top-selling history of architecture is better than ever with an updated introduction, new insights based on recent research, improved illustrations including eight additional pages in color, and above all a new chapter—on the most significant and controversial works of contemporary architecture from 1980 to 2000 —that proposes challenges for the future.
Customer Reviews:
This is THE story of western architecture........2006-08-30
I am a Registered architect(with National Certification), Registered Interior Designer and instructor of Architectural History. Trachtenberg and Hyman have written the definitive history of western architecture in this tract. The reading is awkward at times, but the ideas conveyed comprise the foundation of todays architectural theory. There are few, if any textbooks on this subject which maintain a consistant thread of thought all the way through. This one does. If you are vitally interested in the underpinnings of today's designs, you should read it.
Very good text book .......2006-02-23
This book is a very good text book. I have just recently needed it and just started to use it. As far as I have gotten it is easy to read. The only thing that I don't think that I like about it is that it is black and white. If you want to get the full feeling for the achitecture I would think one might need to see it in color but oh well.
Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity.......2003-11-13
This book summarizes over ten thousand years of architectural history in such a practical and clear form. Ignoring its price, I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in architecture. However, though the book briefly studies such vast expanses in the history of architecture, it fails to even touch architecture in the eastern world. Asia still continues to remain much of a mystery and covering it would truly enlighten the human imagination. Yet, doing so would also probably double the size of the book, thus increasing its cost to over a hundred American dollars. The book also, I feel, seems to enter into too much detail in the forms of modern architecture. In buying this book, one most likely seeks to learn more of history not 'postmodernity,' nevertheless it can be interesting to learn how modern architecture has come to pass.
Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity (2nd Edition).......2002-06-15
An update of an acclaimed survey of world architecture that is a much better read than its drab illustrations, dull layout and paucity of plans would suggest. Indeed, itÕs as hard to put down as it is to heft. The close analyses of Philip JohnsonÕs AT&T tower in New York and Norman FosterÕs HKSB tower in Hong Kong are brilliant, and the authors have the audacity to suggest that the high tech look of the one is as dishonest as the faux antique masonry of the other. This is an example of how the authors illuminate architectural history with concrete examples rather than windy generalizations. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)
Book Description
During the last two decades Richard Bernstein has established a worldwide reputation as one of the few philosophers able to bridge different traditions of thought and to clarify, through sympathetic criticism, the key intellectual issues of our time. In these 10 essays he explores the ethical and political dimensions of the modernity/postmodernity debates.
Bernstein argues that modernity/postmodernity should be understood as a pervasive mood - what Heidegger calls a Stimmung - one that is amorphous, shifting, and protean but that nevetheless exerts a powerful influence on our current ways of thinking and acting. Focusing on such thinkers as Heidegger, Derrida, Foucault, Rorty, and Habermas, Bernstein seeks to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of their work and to highlight the ways in which they have contributed to the formation of a new and distinctive constellation of ideas and themes.
Richard J. Bernstein is Vera List Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research.
The Essays: Philosophy, History, and Critique. The Rage Against Reason. Incommensurability and Otherness Revisited. Heidegger's Silence? Ethos and Technology. Foucault: Critique as a Philosophic Ethos. Serious Play: The Ethical-Political Horizon of Derrida. An Allegory of Modernity/Postmodernity: Habermas and Derrida. One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward: Rorty on Liberal Democracy. Rorty's Liberal Utopia, Reconciliation/Rupture.
Customer Reviews:
Accessible--but still challenging--work on postmodern political theory.......2007-09-23
Bernstein's book is one of the more accessible (albeit still challenging to those not steeped in the postmodern tradition) works on postmodern political theory. The work is well worth grappling with. He helps identify some of the characteristics of postmodernism and then explores the contributions that this makes to political discourse.
The Other is an important theme among Postmodern thinkers. It arises, inter alia, from the very nature of language as such thinkers understand it. A key concept is the notion of binary oppositions. To use colors in the spectrum as an example. White is defined in terms of black, but we do not think of white as black--even though black is critical for white's meaning. In a sense, black is pushed to the side and becomes Other. Bernstein says that (71):
"This is the theme [in Postmodern thought] that resists the unrelenting tendency of the will to knowledge and truth where Reason--when unmasked--is understood as always seeking
to appropriate, comprehend, control, master, contain, dominate, suppress, or repress what presents itself as 'the Other' that it confronts. It is the theme of the violence of Reason's imperialistic welcoming embrace."
A classic binary opposition relevant here is Same/Other or Identity/Difference. The first term in each is privileged or "valorized." The second becomes Other, whose meaning is hidden or repressed. Rational ideals of the Modern era have it that we must try to explain all things, that there are underlying explanations to account for everything. We try to make "Same" or explain all components of a particular arena in common terms. However, the idea of binary oppositions in language means that Same can only be defined in terms of Other (remember, the color white can only be defined in terms of the color black--black becomes Other to white). By trying to reduce everything to Same, we are repressing Other.
There is a striking political metaphor here, according to Bernstein. He claims that (71):
"For the 'logic' at work here is the 'logic' at work in cultural, political, social, and economic imperialism and colonization--even the 'logic' of ethical imperialism where the language of reciprocal recognition and reconciliation masks the violent reduction of the alterity of 'the Other' (l'autrui) to 'more of the same.' What is at issue here is acknowledging the radical incommensurable singularity of the Other (l'autrui), to recover a sense of radical plurality
that defies any facile total reconciliation."
For the postmodern analyst, the suppression of the "Other" is a form of violence. What is needed is a "letting be." Jacques Derrida, a major Postmodern figure, calls out for ". . .the respect for the other as what it is: other. Without this acknowledgment, which is not a knowledge, or let us say without this 'letting be' of an existent (Other) as something existing outside me in the essence of what is. . ., no ethics would be possible" (quoted on 184-185). And Derrida clearly wants an ethics of tolerance and "letting be." We must never cease questioning; we must not allow one truth to become dominant and, thus, to disallow other truths to coexist. This questioning thrust is as much in order in the politico-social realm as in the literary or philosophical realm.
The task for democratic theory today is to think through how to do justice to both universality and particularity, sameness and difference, to conceive and develop practices in which we recognize the indeterminableness of conflict and nevertheless can learn to respect the otherness of the other.
The postmodern thinker would argue that democracy is only possible if we resist the temptation to marginalize/suppress/oppress/repress Other. That is, a "letting be" and tolerance of Other/different is mandated if we are truly to experience freedom in a democracy.
This is a challenging book-not a quick read. But Bernstein is more accessible than many other writers. Well worth confronting to address the many issues at stake.
Bridging Gulfs.......2003-09-23
Bernstein points out in the Introduction his inability to combine the subsequent essays into a single theme, generative principle, or common core. His way of characterizing the refractory nature of these strands is to liken them to a "constellation", which by definition contains elements resisting integration into a unified whole. Thus, the image of constellation stands as the book's central metaphor, and a characterization of how Western philosophy stands following the emergence of the post-modern "Stimmung" or "mood". Put in Hegelian terms, the "other" remains other, because the post-modern negation of reason offers no prospect of being reconciled into a more comprehensive whole. I think it's fair to say that for Bernstein, the "post" in post-modernism really does mean post. And though Bernstein doesn't emphasize the word, a thoroughly pluralist landscape would appear to be the result, a pluralism perhaps uniquely beyond all measure of integration.
Those who see the missing yet vital connecting strand in the triumph of a consumer mentality may find the work inadequate from the standpoint of broader cultural analysis. It's true, Bernstein does stick closely to the narrower philosophical level. Nevertheless, each essay represents a penetrating discussion of major post-moderns and their precursors, figures such as Foucault, Derrida, and Heidegger, along with more diverse thinkers, like Rorty, Habermas and MacIntyre. For me, the two most revealing chapters are the discussion of Heidegger and technology and Rorty's liberal utopia. The former makes a revealing connection between Heidegger's philosophy of Being and his refusal to disavow a Nazi past; while the latter illuminates an important theoretical issue confronting the post-moderns--- how to finesse the paradoxes facing an anti-foundationalist politics as it seeks to avoid outright nihilism. Despite the work's breadth, this is by no means the flabby work of an eclectic. Bernstein's reputation is built upon a sympathetic and fair-minded understanding of both Anglo-American and Continental traditions. This work is certainly no exception.
Product Description
In this concluding volume of his magisterial trilogy, Gary Dorrien sustains his previous definition of liberal theology and his mixture of theological, philosophical, and historical analysis, while emphasizing the unprecedented diversity of liberal theology in the postmodern age. Dorrien argues that liberal theology has been in crisis for the past half-century, yet despite the crisis, and also because of it, it has also experienced a hidden renaissance of intellectual creativity. Liberal theology in the early twenty-first century is more diverse, complex, and marginalized than ever before in its history, he concludes, but its essential ideacreating a progressive, credible, integrative third way between orthodox over-belief and secular unbeliefremains as necessary as ever.
Customer Reviews:
A MASTERFUL STUDY OF LIBERAL THEOLOGIY.......2007-07-05
Gary Dorrien has written an extraordinary work of scholarship, more felicitiously written than one ordinarily expects of so much involved historical material. He gives full and detailed discussions of various schools of liberal theology: Personalism, the Chicago school, the Vanderbilt theologians, Romans Catholic, feminist, and a wide range of many individual theologians. The work is made even more interesting by pertinent biographical information, giving personal location to their work. The evaluations include diligent research into reviews and reactions by colleagues and their responses. The work is also enlivened by reports of many persoanl conversations and responses.
The book seemed to be even-handed in its approach to different points of view. I could not sense Dorrien's personal stance, except that he was in the liberal camp as post-neoorthodox. I felt he did give a very generous amount of space to tracing the fortunes of the Chicago school. I was also impressed with the positive treatment he gave to Nels Ferre, of whom little has been heard in recent years. Dorrien's mastery of massive, difficult material makes one hope he will one day give us his own systematic take on matters theological.
As an M.Div. of Union Seminary, N.Y., in 1949, I have lived through the period covered by the book, and am impressed by its coverage. A few impressions: (1) the courageous endeavor of liberal theology to deal with the world of our time; (2) its extreme pluralistic character; (3) its orientation to the academy, rather than the church; (4) as a pastoral minister for 51 years, it gives me some idea of why the church has had such a struggle, and why it has been so stressful to try to be a "believer" in this period.
(The Rev.) C. Eugene Stollings
Dorrien is the best.......2007-01-23
I have yet to read this volume, but have read 3 previous works, all top notch. His incredible erudition is matched by his fluid writing, making him a joy to read.
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Maracatu Atomico: Tradition, Modernity, and Postmodernity in the Mangue Movement and the New Music Scene of Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil (Current Research in Ethnomusicology, V. 3)
Philip Galinsky
Manufacturer: Routledge
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ASIN: 0415940222 |
Book Description
"Maracatu Atômico" is the first academic work to investigate the mangue movement, one of Brazil's most vital pop culture trends of the last thirty years, and the related "new music scene" of Northeast Brazil. Contending with the widespread poverty and social problems, mangue places a renewed value on the local environment and its myriad folk traditions while embracing modern, global pop influences and technology. The book provides historical and ethnographic accounts of the movement, analyzes salient examples of folk and pop fusion music, and enters recent debates about postmodernity, globalization, and "world music" in an attempt to understand better how local musicians in one "Third World" region interact within a more global cultural system.
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The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity: Small Incisive Shocks
Philip Nel
Manufacturer: University Press of Mississippi
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ASIN: 1578064902 |
Book Description
John Lechte surveys the major thinkers of the post-war era and illuminates the complex thought of each with remarkable clarity. The list of thinkers includes Chomsky, Foucault, Irigaray, Derrida, Bataille,Baudrillard, Adorno and Habermas
Customer Reviews:
A good but biased survey of thought and how to check out surveys of thought........2006-03-10
Any good survey of thought in any discipline or of any particular period ought to meet a few critieria to be highly useful.
1. It must be representative.
2. It must be more descriptive rather than judgmental in its exposition.
2. It must be informative.
3. It must be concise.
5. It must be lucid.
6. It must set the expectation right.
This survey of contemporary thought meets 4 of these 6 criterion. However it fails to be representative, which I believe is the most important chracteristic of a survey of thought. It also sets the expectation wrong with the phrase 'Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers'. It fails to be representative in the following few ways:
A. Most thinkers are French.
B. Most thinkers are those who rose to prominence in 1970s and were on wane in the 1990s.
C. Most thinkers are from philosophy.
D. Some thinkers celebrated here have hardly any widespread influence on contemporary thought like Canguillhem, Cavailles, Pateman, LeDeouff et al. Nor are these thinkers originators of any breakthrough ideas.
E. Some thinkers who have had a major influence on contemporary thought like Giddens, Elias and Luhmann in sociology, Alisdair MacIntyre et al. in philosophy, have not been represented.
6. Written about ten years ago, it is already a little dated with new thinkers like Alain Badiou, Richard Rorty, Daniel Dennett, Roberto Magngabeira Unger, David Chalmers, Michael Walzer, George Sher, Antonio Negri et al., who rose to international proimenence in social sciences/philosophy in the 1990s, not being covered.
7. Scientists will hate this book. It makes it seem as if thought is only social science.
That stated, there are also significant merits of this work which makes it worth reading.
1. I had not heard about influential thinkers like Deleuze/Guattari, Lyotard and others before reading this book.
2. This book gives a very good, concise and lucid overview of the thought of the thinkers selected (irrespective of the bias) in the tradition of Diane Collinson's work (which provided the model for this).
3. The trends covered here are certainly the more dominant or controversial trends rising to prominence in recent decades (in social sciences, especially philosophy).
4. Many (but not all) of the trends/thinkers covered have had a cross-domain influence, although they originated in philosophy.
Perhaps this book would have been more satisfactory if it had been titiled right, maybe Fifty Key French Post-Modern and Miscellaneous Thinkers. With its current title, this book has the bias of leading the reader towards developing an interest in post-modern thinkers. If taken as a reference bible it would opens reader's minds to new thought but end up closing their minds with post-modern rantings.
For a good survey of thought, the readers may also consult some of my favourite sources for catching up with information important thinkers (in areas as indicated in brackets):
1. Thinkers of the Twentieth Century (all subjects till from 1900 to 1970s/1980s)
2. Dagobert Runes' Pictorial History of Philosophy (for philosophy -- ancient to 1950s)
3. Frank Magill's Masterpieces in World Philosophy (for philosophy -- ancient to 1950s)
4. William Ebenstein's Great Political Thinkers (for political thought -- ancient to 1950s)
5. 18-volume International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences and Biographical Supplement (for social sciences - late nineteenth and first half of twentieth century)
6. Charles Coulston Gillespie's Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists (for science - not sure this is the exact title).
7. Lewis Haney's History of Economic Thought (for economics, somewhat dated - covers economics till the Keynesian revolution only)
8. Other volumes in the Routledge Key Series (much better written).
9. Ross Stagner's A History of Psychological Theories (for psychology -- ancient to 1960s)
10. Robert Gorman's Biographical Dictionary of Marxism and Biographical Dictionary of Neo-Marxism (for Marxism - the Marxism dictionary has a lot of trivial thinkers of very minor consequence making it seem a laundry list; the Neo-Marxism diciotnary is somewhat better.)
11. Tom Bottomore's Dictionary of Marxist Thought (for Marxism)
12. Elmer Borklund's Contemporary Literary Critics (twentieth century literary critics).
Many of these works except Routledge Key Series are out-of-print although not completely dated, and anyone who gets hold of a copy will find a lot to explore in the areas these books pertain to. For other specific subject areas, I have not been able to find good biographical dictionaries or subject histories, although I tried, and had to pick up references the hard way, through citations and book indexes.
A bunch of keys.......2003-10-13
'... an indispensable reference book on this century's most important intellectual revolution' - from the blurb.
Is it relativity or quantum theory? Does it overturn our ideas on the origin and fate of the universe, or elucidate the deep foundations of mathematics? No, it's pomo. How many people would take this stuff seriously if it didn't sustain an academic job-creation program? Strange that a book calling itself 'Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers' could be published near the end of the twentieth century and contain not a word about about Russell, Carnap, Popper or Wittgenstein. I suppose that, as advertised, this tells us something about our culture.
Chomsky makes the grade, though under grave suspicion of rationality (he can't get his head round post-structuralist doubletalk, even fashionable relativism eludes him); also Freud and Nietzsche for their iconic status and power of myth-making; Saussure, too, of course. Then it's on with the chorus of important revolutionary intellectuals, who happen to be mostly French: Lacan, Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault, Kristeva, Lyotard, dozens of other Key Thinkers you never knew you needed. By this time, if higher education has left you with any critical faculty, you may be thinking: if these are the keys, where is the door?
The book is not badly written by the standards of its subjects, and in a way this is an achievement, but the author's judgment is questionable. Elsewhere he thinks, for example, that Kristeva's early semiotics was marked by 'intricate rigor' - important intellectual-speak for bits of mathematical decoration stuck on at random. I have read it. Whatever it was, it did the trick; Kristeva has been an important intellectual ever since. If you want to find out about these people, this book is as good a starting point as any. The bad news is that you have to read some of the original works. Important lists of 'Major writings' and 'Further reading' are provided for that very purpose. But life is short; read 'Postmodern Pooh' by Frederick Crews instead. And if you find yourself starting to take the title of this book seriously, try and get out more.
A good account, at the same level, of really key thinkers (sadly not all contemporary) is 'The Concise Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy and Philosophers', ed. Urmson & Ree. It even mentions Einstein.
Postmodern and Murky.......2001-09-08
"Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers : From Structuralism to Postmodernity" is not a bad introduction to the seemingly incomprehensible world of modern and postmodern thought. However, the author John Lechte is only slightly less murky in his analysis of postmodern thinkers than they are within their often impenetrable worlds. He clearly identifies with their camp, as well as their (often unintended) support of the political New Right.
Lechte is especially hard on those critics of postmodernism, such as Noam Chomsky - calling him an "embattled rationalist painfully trying to make headway against the forces of empiricism." In my oprinion, Chomsky's wonderfully convincing denunciation of much of postmodern thought has caused this overreaction.
Lechte even dredges up the disproved "Faurisson affair" - stating that Chomsky had a "tremendous lapse of political judgement" in writing "a Preface to Faurisson's notorious book against the Nazi gas chambers". Countless right winged detractors have used this myth in an attempt to undermine Chomsky (who is Jewish). It is false. Although Chomsky did state that all shades of opinion have the right to be heard (which Lechte calls misguided!?), it is now well established that Chomsky never did give his permission to "publish a Preface" for Faurisson.
Although some of my students have found this book useful, considering the above inconstancies and po-mo murkiness, I would caution customers in purchasing this book.
A treasure of my life.......2001-03-30
This book is the treasure of my life. I have the first print of this book for a couple of years. This book could give you clear understanding of the philosophers' thinking without reading the original text. This is the only book in encyclopedia format that I know, can acheive this goal. This book is a must for philosophy, music and art students.
No, Derrida is not a Gallic insult: Lit Theory 101.......1999-05-05
As a student in my final semester of art school, I keep Lechte on my shelf next to other essential texts: Berger's Ways of Seeing; McLoud's Understanding Comics; Forward Through The Rearview Mirror; and Braudy and Cohen's Introduction to Film Theory. Like these other books, Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers is a valuable and succinct introduction to elements of our cultural landscape. Although at first I found the author's style intimidating (not to mention the topic), I quickly was not only put at ease with the subject, but was also engaged and excited by the ideas presented. Soon, I was scribbling in the margins my reactions and thoughts. By presenting various schools of thought and their proponents in a concise yet rigorous manner, Lechte enables the novice reader to join the discouse of current theory. By the end of the book, I had put aside my stereo-type of current philosophers being obscure, incomprehensible, and French (well, they are still French, but two out of three isn't bad). The book's organizational structure makes it an excellent reference volume and the further readings sections are especially usefull for both introductory and advanced students of the subject.
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- The End of the Modern Project
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The Vietnam War and Postmodernity
Manufacturer: University of Massachusetts Press
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Binding: Paperback
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Friendly Fire: American Images of the Vietnam War
ASIN: 1558492380 |
Customer Reviews:
The End of the Modern Project.......2000-06-28
More and more it seems as if the 1970s were not the decade in which nothing happened, but rather was the decade that laid the base and superstructure for the postmodern world we currently inhabit. The essays in this book make a convincing series of arguments that the Vietnam War, rarely mentioned in most accounts of the rise of the postmodern, is the genesis or at least concomitant with rise of the postmodern era. In many ways it signaled the end of the modern project, the end of old-time colonialism, the beginning of "technowar" which saw its greatest expression in pyrotechnics of the Gulf War, the end of the American people's belief in the modern project as expressed by its government leaders. It was in the 70s that the war actually ended, 1975, and in the 70s that the symbolic language and apologetics of the war proliferated. Much of the book looks at the postwar texts that became shorthand descriptors for the Vietnam experience and show not only how reductive these texts were, but also how they came to be manipulated during the hypermasculine Reagan era, which sought to demonstrate that America was not weak, not beaten, and certainly not demoralized by the Vietnam War.
A number of the essays take issue with Frederic Jameson's observation that Vietnam was the "first postmodern war." This works pretty well most of the time as a kind of "Rashomon" device where different authors' interests and optics prismatize this statement. I happen to agree with the editor, Bibby, who suggests that seeing Vietnam as the "first postmodern war" puts the cart before the horse. That it not a war which by its intrinsic nature was "postmodern," but rather it was out of this war that the postmodern experience was given context and impetus. After all it was during and after Vietnam that those damned (and I mean that fondly) French intellecutuals began picking apart our modernist assumptions...and referring to rhizomes, which, as one essayist points out are metaphorical dead ringers to the tunnel systems dug by the Vietcong...
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Latin America Writes Back: Postmodernity in the Periphery (Hispanic Issues, 23)
Emil Volek
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0815332564 |
Book Description
Latin America has been an important basis for theorizing the "postmodern condition" and has been the site of some of the most significant contributions to postmodern literature. However, discourses about postmodernity have overwhelmingly been constructed by European and American intellectuals. This book is a groundbreaking collection of essays by Latin American scholars on the theories and practices of postmodernity. It provides an important forum for Latin American intellectuals to shape the debates on postmodernity that are based, to a large degree, on their own cultural and political experiences. Gathering together new and classic essays across a wide range of disciplines and perspectives, this much-needed collection allows some of Latin America's leading cultural critics to "write back" to their Euro-American counterparts and join the international debate.
Books:
- The Economics of Exchange Rates
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- The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (Great Minds Series)
- The Global Class War : How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future - and What It Will Take to Win it Back
- The Lean Pocket Guide
- The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization
- The Lorax (Classic Seuss)
- The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking, & Problem Solving
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Books Index
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