Here's a foray into anthropology, anarchism, political theory and social activism. Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire by David GraeberBook Description"Graeber's ideas are rich and wide-ranging; he pushes us to expand the boundaries of what we admit to be possible, or even thinkable."-Steven Shaviro, Wayne State UniversityIn this new collection, David Graeber revisits questions raised in his popular book, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. Written in an unpretentious style that uses accessible and entertaining language to convey complex theoretical ideas, these twelve essays cover a lot of ground, including the origins of capitalism, the history of European table manners, love potions in rural Madagascar, and the phenomenology of giant puppets at street protests. But they're linked by a clear purpose: to explore the nature of social power and the forms that resistance to it have taken, or might take in the future.Anarchism is currently undergoing a worldwide revival, in many ways replacing Marxism as the theoretical and moral center of new revolutionary social movements. It has, however, left little mark on the academy. While anarchists and other visionaries have turned to anthropology for ideas and inspiration, anthropologists are reluctant to enter into serious dialogue. David Graeber is not. These essays, spanning almost twenty years, show how scholarly concerns can be of use to radical social movements, and how the perspectives of such movements shed new light on debates within the academy.David Graeber has written for Harper's Magazine, New Left Review, and numerous scholarly journals. He is the author or editor of four books and currently lives in New York City.To get a sense of Graeber's work, here's a link to his entire book Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology.

A few weeks back I linked to an essay Mark Lilla had written for the NYT Magazine. Now the Times has a review of Lilla's new book. I'm not sure whether or not anyone on the site actually wants to consider this one for a Freethinker selection. I certainly think it would qualify, since the topic of the book is the Enlightenment and the modernity it produced, but then, my view of things has never held much water with the BookTalk population at large.The Stillborn GodPs. Let me know if that link doesn't work for anyone else. I tried to find a link that didn't require a login. Edited by: MadArchitect at: 9/17/07 6:22 am