Although Martin Heidegger has been mentioned before as a precursor of deconstruction, Herman Rapaport is the first to develop the connections between the writings of the German philosopher and Derrida. "Heidegger and Derrida" discusses the French philosopher's adoption of certain Heideggerean themes and his extension or overturning of them. But Rapaport does more than show how deconstruction builds on the philosophical foundations laid by Heidegger (and also by Hegel, Nietzsche, and Freud). In the most comprehensive study of Derrida's works to date, he tackles the problem of writing an intellectual history about a figure who has put into question the possibility of such a construction and acknowledges Derrida's concerns with Jewish history in relation to Western thought. Herman Rapaport, an associate professor of comparative literature and English at the University of Iowa, is the author of "Milton and the Postmodern" (1983), also published by the University of Nebraska Press.

(Gregory L. Ulmer)