Synopses & Reviews
In America, France’s leading philosopher of postmodernism took to the freeways to produce a collection of traveler’s tales from the land of hyperreality. From the sierras of New Mexico to the streets of New York and LA by night—“a sort of luminous, geometric, incandescent immensity”—Baudrillard mixes aperçus and observations with a wicked sense of fun to provide a unique insight into the country that dominates the world. In this new edition, leading cultural critic and novelist Geoff Dyer offers a thoughtful and perceptive take on the continuing resonance of Baudrillard’s book in Obama’s America.
Review
"[O]ccasionally provocative and almost always infuriating ... America is filled with perceptive, almost poetic observations." Rolling Stone
Review
"Since de Toqueville, French thinkers have been fascinated with America. But when it comes to mysterious paradoxes and lyrical complexity no French intellectual matches Jean Baudrillard in contemplating the New World... [He] has become a sharp-shooting Lone Ranger of the post-Marxist left." The New York Times
Review
"A mixture of crazy notions and dead-on insights, America is a valuable (and voluble) picture of what Mr. Baudrillard calls 'the only remaining primitive society' ... ours." The New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
In this, his most accessible and evocative book, France's leading philosopher of postmodernism takes to the freeways in a collection of traveler's tales from the land of hyperreality.
Synopsis
"The collection of wild, often hilarious postcards from his trip to America contains some of the year's most original and beautiful writing."--New Statesman and Society
About the Author
Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) began teaching sociology at the Université de Paris-X in 1966. He retired from academia in 1987 to write books and travel until his death in 2007. His many works include Simulations and Simulacra, America, The Perfect Crime, The System of Objects, Passwords, The Transparency of Evil, The Spirit of Terrorism, and Fragments, among others.