NP? books of possible interest

[Doug Millison]

Title: Levine, George: Dying to Know
Publisher: University of Chicago Press

In Dying to Know, eminent critic George Levine makes a
landmark 
contribution to the history and theory of scientific
knowledge. This 
long-awaited book explores the paradoxes of our modern
ideal of 
objectivity, in particular its emphasis on the
impersonality and 
disinterestedness of truth. How, asks Levine, did this
idea of 
selfless knowledge come to be established and
moralized in the 
nineteenth century?

For more information, see the book synopsis at
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/15230.ctl


Title: DeJean, Joan: The Reinvention of Obscenity
Publisher: University of Chicago Press

The concept of obscenity is an ancient one. But as
Joan DeJean 
suggests, its modern form, the same version that
today's politicians 
decry and savvy artists exploit, was invented in
seventeenth-century 
France. The Reinvention of Obscenity casts a fresh
light on the 
mythical link between sexual impropriety and things
French. The
Reinvention of Obscenity will concern not only
scholars of French
history, but anyone interested in the intertwined
histories of sex,
publishing, and censorship. 

For more information, see the book synopsis at
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/14816.ctl



Title: Latour, Bruno: War of the Worlds
Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Bruno Latour is best known for his work in the
cultural study of 
science. In this pamphlet he turns his attention to
another worthy 
pursuit: the project of peace. As one might expect,
Latour gives us a 
radically different picture of this project than Kant
or the 
philosophes, asserting that the West has been in a
constant  state of
war both with other cultures and its own--although 
unwittingly so.

For more information, see the book synopsis at
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/15479.ctl


Title: Sahlins, Marshall: Waiting for Foucault, Still
Publisher: University of Chicago Press

First devised as after-dinner entertainment at a
decennial meeting of 
the Association of Social Anthropologists in Great
Britain, this
expanded edition of  Waiting for Foucault represents
some of the
brightest  anthropological satire--mixed in with some
of the most
serious  intellectual issues in the human sciences.
Whether he's
summing up the  state of the discipline ("Some things
are better left
un-Said") or  ruminating on the ancients, Sahlins
delivers a strong
mixture of wit  and wisdom.

For more information, see the book synopsis at
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/15453.ctl



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