Random House New Releases - Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers

Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview by Hannah Arendt

2013-12-03T00:30:00-05:00

Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview And Other Conversations
Written by Hannah Arendt

eBook | Melville House | Biography & Autobiography - Women; Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Literary Collections - European - German | $15.95 | 978-1-61219-312-0 (1-61219-312-9)

Arendt was one of the most important thinkers of her time, famous for her idea of "the banality of evil" which continues to provoke debate. This collection provides new and startling insight into Arendt's thoughts about Watergate and the nature of American politics, about totalitarianism and history, and her own experiences as an émigré.

Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview and Other Conversations is an extraordinary portrait of one of the twentieth century's boldest and most original thinkers. As well as Arendt's last interview with French journalist Roger Errera, the volume features an important interview from the early 60s with German journalist Gunter Gaus, in which the two discuss Arendt's childhood and her
escape from Europe, and a conversation with acclaimed historian of the Nazi period, Joachim Fest, as well as other exchanges.

These interviews show Arendt in vigorous intellectual form, taking up the issues of her day with energy and wit. She offers comments on the nature of American politics, on Watergate and the Pentagon Papers, on Israel; remembers her youth and her early experience of anti-Semitism, and then the swift rise of the Hitler; debates questions of state power and discusses her own processes of thinking and writing. Hers is an intelligence that never rests, that demands always of her interlocutors, and her readers, that they think critically. As she puts it in her last interview, just six months before her death at the age of 69, "there are no dangerous thoughts, for the simple reason that thinking itself is such a dangerous enterprise."

Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview by Hannah Arendt

2013-12-03T00:30:00-05:00

Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview And Other Conversations
Written by Hannah Arendt

Trade Paperback, 176 pages | Melville House | Biography & Autobiography - Women; Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Literary Collections - European - German | $15.95 | 978-1-61219-311-3 (1-61219-311-0)

Adieux by Simone De Beauvoir

2013-01-09T00:30:00-05:00

Adieux A Farewell to Sartre
Written by Simone De Beauvoir

eBook, 464 pages | Pantheon | Biography & Autobiography - Literary; Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Philosophy - Existentialism | $11.99 | 978-0-307-83218-4 (0-307-83218-X)

Simone de Beauvoir’s account of the last ten years of Jean-Paul Sartre’s life provides a focus for understanding one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century. But the book, consisting of both a year-by-year account of Sartre’s last decade and a conversation between him and de Beauvoir about his life and work, is more than just a philosophical examination. It is also a personal dialogue of astonishing frankness that illuminates one of the most famous and complex relationships of the twentieth century.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Voltaire in Love by Nancy Mitford

2012-11-06T00:30:00-05:00

Voltaire in Love
Written by Nancy Mitford
Introduction by Adam Gopnik

Trade Paperback, 280 pages | NYRB Classics | Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; History - Modern - 18th Century; History - France | $16.95 | 978-1-59017-578-1 (1-59017-578-6)

The inimitable Nancy Mitford’s account of Voltaire’s fifteen-year relationship with the Marquise du Châtelet—the renowned mathematician who introduced Isaac Newton’s revolutionary new physics to France—is a spirited romp in the company of two extraordinary individuals as well as an erudite and gossipy guide to French high society during the Enlightenment. Mitford’s story is as delicious as it is complicated. The marquise was in love with another mathematician, Maupertuis, while she had an unexpected rival for Voltaire’s affections in the future Frederick the Great of Prussia (and later in the philosophe’s own niece). There was, at least, no jealous husband to contend with: the Marquis du Châtelet, Mitford assures us, behaved perfectly. The beau monde of Paris was, however, distraught at the idea of the lovers’ brilliant conversation going to waste on the windswept hills of Champagne, site of the Château de Cirey, where experimental laboratories, a darkroom, and a library of more than twenty-one thousand volumes enabled them to pursue their amours philosophiques. From time to time the threat of impending arrest would send Voltaire scurrying across the border into Holland, but his irrepressible charm—and the interventions of powerful friends—always made it possible for him resume his studies with the cherished marquise.

Voltaire in Love by Nancy Mitford

2012-11-06T00:30:00-05:00

Voltaire in Love
Written by Nancy Mitford
Introduction by Adam Gopnik

eBook, 280 pages | NYRB Classics | Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; History - Modern - 18th Century; History - France | $16.95 | 978-1-59017-593-4 (1-59017-593-X)

McLuhan For Beginners by Terrence W. Gordon

2012-10-30T00:30:00-05:00

McLuhan For Beginners
Written by Terrence W. Gordon
Illustrated by Susan Willmarth

Trade Paperback, 160 pages | For Beginners | Social Science - Media Studies; Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers | $16.99 | 978-1-934389-75-1 (1-934389-75-7)

Marshall McLuhan was one of the most brilliant and original thinkers of the 20th century. He was so far ahead of his time that he predicted the future and offered a critique of human behavior in a media saturated world that is perhaps more valuable in today’s Internet age than it was in his own time.

McLuhan pioneered the study of Media, unified Art and Science, and warned us about the perils of a televised, computerized, famous-for-15-minutes, social media world where we would live in each other’s faces, and become so alike, so isolated, so anonymous that violence would become a scream of identity, a way of saying, “I am not invisible.” McLuhan tried to teach us to guard against these dehumanizing, debasing effects of technology, and a thousand other things, but we got reality television anyway.

The recent centennial celebration of McLuhan’s life and the re-release of his books has led to a surge of new interest in his thinking and teachings. McLuhan For Beginners provides an essential introduction that is clear and comprehensive, easy to understand and remember. It is full of wise and witty art by Susan Willmarth that is a perfect match to Terrence Gordon’s writing. McLuhan envisioned the media generated Global Village before it existed, and no one since McLuhan has described its allure and pitfalls better.

Walter Benjamin by Gershom Scholem

2012-07-11T00:30:00-05:00

Walter Benjamin
Written by Gershom Scholem
Translated by Harry Zohn
Introduction by Lee Sigel

eBook | NYRB Classics | Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Biography & Autobiography - Literary; History - Modern - 20th Century | $19.95 | 978-1-59017-573-6 (1-59017-573-5)

Gershom Scholem is celebrated as the twentieth century’s most profound student of the Jewish mystical tradition; Walter Benjamin, as a master thinker whose extraordinary essays mix the revolutionary, the revelatory, and the esoteric. Scholem was a precocious teenager when he met Benjamin, who became his close friend and intellectual mentor. His account of that relationship—which was to remain crucial for both men—is both a celebration of his friend’s spellbinding genius and a lament for the personal and intellectual self-destructiveness that culminated in Benjamin’s suicide in 1940.

At once prickly and heartbroken, argumentative and loving, Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship is an absorbing memoir with the complication of character and motive of a novel. As Scholem revisits the passionate engagements over Marxism and Kabbala, Europe and Palestine that he shared with Benjamin, it is as if he sought to summon up his lost friend’s spirit again, to have the last word in the argument that might have saved his life.

Learning to Live Finally by Jacques Derrida

2011-12-06T00:30:00-05:00

Learning to Live Finally The Last Interview
Written by Jacques Derrida
Translated by Pascal-Anne Brault and Michael Naas

Trade Paperback, 96 pages | Melville House | Philosophy - Movements - Deconstruction; Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Literary Criticism & Collections - French | $15.95 | 978-1-61219-094-5 (1-61219-094-4)

With death looming, Jacques Derrida, the world's most famous philosopher, known as the father of "deconstruction," sat down with journalist Jean Birnbaum of the French daily Le Monde. They revisited his life's work and his impending death in a long, surprisingly accessible, and moving final interview.

Sometimes called "obscure" and branded "abstruse" by his critics, the Derrida found in this book is open and engaging, reflecting on a long career challenging important tenets of European philosophy from Plato to Marx.

The contemporary meaning of Derrida's work is also examined, including a discussion of his many political activities. But, as Derrida says, "To philosophize is to learn to die"; as such, this philosophical discussion turns to the realities of his imminent death--including life with a fatal cancer. In the end, this interview remains a touching final look at a long and distinguished career.

Ayn Rand For Beginners by Andrew Bernstein

2011-10-04T00:30:00-05:00

Ayn Rand For Beginners
Written by Andrew Bernstein
Illustrated by Owen Brozman

eBook, 112 pages | For Beginners | Philosophy; Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers | $14.99 | 978-1-934389-71-3 (1-934389-71-4)

Ayn Rand, author of the best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, is beloved by millions of readers, and equally despised by a significant number of detractors. Her novels and her revolutionary philosophy of Objectivism have acquired a world-wide following. They have also created legions of readers who are hungry for a deeper understanding of her writings.

Despite her undeniably significant contributions to the literary canon and the progression of philosophy, there has been no simple, comprehensive introduction to Rand’s books and ideas, until now. Ayn Rand For Beginners sheds new light on Rand’s monumental works and robust philosophy. In clear, down-to-earth language, it explains Rand to a new generation of readers in a manner that is entertaining, and easy to read and comprehend.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

How to Live by Sarah Bakewell

2011-09-20T00:30:00-05:00

How to Live Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
Written by Sarah Bakewell

Trade Paperback, 416 pages | Other Press | Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Literary Criticism & Collections - French; Philosophy - History, Criticism, Surveys | $16.95 | 978-1-59051-483-2 (1-59051-483-1)

Bakunin by Mark Leier

2011-01-04T00:30:00-05:00

Bakunin The Creative Passion-A Biography
Written by Mark Leier

eBook | Seven Stories Press | Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Political Science - Political Ideologies - Anarchism; Philosophy - Political | $17.95 | 978-1-60980-043-7 (1-60980-043-5)

The spellbinding story of both the man and the theory, Bakunin chronicles one of the most notorious radicals in history: Mikhail Bakunin, the founder of anarchism, here revealed as a practical moral philosophy rooted in a critique of wealth and power.
Mark Leier corrects many of the popular misconceptions about Bakunin and his ideas, offering a fresh interpretation of his life and thoughts. Bakunin is an insightful read for all those who wish to better understand the fundamental basis of modern radical movements.

Remembering Tomorrow by Michael Albert

2011-01-04T00:30:00-05:00

Remembering Tomorrow From SDS to Life After Capitalism: A Memoir
Written by Michael Albert

eBook | Seven Stories Press | Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Political Science - Communism & Socialism; Business & Economics - Economics - Theory | $22.95 | 978-1-60980-001-7 (1-60980-001-X)

In this lucid political memoir, veteran anti-capitalist activist Michael Albert offers an ardent defense of the project to transform global inequality. Albert, a uniquely visionary figure, recounts a life of uncompromising commitment to creating change one step at a time. Whether chronicling the battles against the Vietnam War, those waged on Boston campuses, or the challenges of creating living, breathing alternative social models, Albert brings a keen and unwavering sense of justice to his work, pointing the way forward for the next generation.

How to Live by Sarah Bakewell

2010-10-19T00:30:00-05:00

How to Live Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
Written by Sarah Bakewell

Hardcover, 400 pages | Other Press | Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Literary Criticism & Collections - French; Philosophy - History, Criticism, Surveys | $25.00 | 978-1-59051-425-2 (1-59051-425-4)

Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography

How to get along with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you love—such questions arise in most people’s lives. They are all versions of a bigger question: how do you live? How do you do the good or honorable thing, while flourishing and feeling happy?

This question obsessed Renaissance writers, none more than Michel Eyquem de Monatigne, perhaps the first truly modern individual. A nobleman, public official and wine-grower, he wrote free-roaming explorations of his thought and experience, unlike anything written before. He called them “essays,” meaning “attempts” or “tries.” Into them, he put whatever was in his head: his tastes in wine and food, his childhood memories, the way his dog’s ears twitched when it was dreaming, as well as the appalling events of the religious civil wars raging around him. The Essays was an instant bestseller and, over four hundred years later, Montaigne’s honesty and charm still draw people to him. Readers come in search of companionship, wisdom and entertainment—and in search of themselves.

This book, a spirited and singular biography, relates the story of his life by way of the questions he posed and the answers he explored. It traces his bizarre upbringing, youthful career and sexual adventures, his travels, and his friendships with the scholar and poet Étienne de La Boétie and with his adopted “daughter,” Marie de Gournay. And we also meet his readers—who for centuries have found in Montaigne an inexhaustible source of answers to the haunting question, “how to live?”

How to Live by Sarah Bakewell

2010-10-19T00:30:00-05:00

How to Live Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
Written by Sarah Bakewell

eBook | Other Press | Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Literary Criticism & Collections - French; Philosophy - History, Criticism, Surveys | $15.95 | 978-1-59051-426-9 (1-59051-426-2)

Maimonides by Joel L. Kraemer

2010-02-09T00:30:00-05:00

Maimonides The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds
Written by Joel L. Kraemer

Trade Paperback, 640 pages | Doubleday Religion | Biography & Autobiography - Historical; Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Biography & Autobiography - Religious | $18.00 | 978-0-385-51200-8 (0-385-51200-7)

This authoritative biography of Moses Maimonides, one of the most influential minds in all of human history, illuminates his life as a philosopher, physician, and lawgiver. A biography on a grand scale, it brilliantly explicates one man’s life against the background of the social, religious, and political issues of his time.

Maimonides was born in Córdoba, in Muslim-ruled Spain, in 1138 and died in Cairo in 1204. He lived in an Arab-Islamic environment from his early years in Spain and North Africa to his later years in Egypt, where he was immersed in its culture and society. His life, career, and writings are the highest expression of the intertwined worlds of Judaism and Islam.

Maimonides lived in tumultuous times, at the peak of the Reconquista in Spain and the Crusades in Palestine. His monumental compendium of Jewish law, the Mishneh Torah, became a basis of all subsequent Jewish legal codes and brought him recognition as one of the foremost lawgivers of humankind. In Egypt, his training as a physician earned him a place in the entourage of the great Sultan Saladin, and he wrote medical works in Arabic that were translated into Hebrew and Latin and studied for centuries in Europe. As a philosopher and scientist, he contributed to mathematics and astronomy, logic and ethics, politics and theology. His Guide of the Perplexed, a masterful interweaving of religious tradition and scientific and philosophic thought, influenced generations of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish thinkers.

Now, in a dazzling work of scholarship, Joel Kraemer tells the complete story of Maimonides’ rich life. MAIMONIDES is at once a portrait of a great historical figure and an excursion into the Mediterranean world of the twelfth century. Joel Kraemer draws on a wealth of original sources to re-create a remarkable period in history when Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions clashed and mingled in a setting alive with intense intellectual exchange and religious conflict.

N. R. Hanson by Matthew D. Lund

2010-01-26T00:30:00-05:00

N. R. Hanson Observation, Discovery, and Scientific Change
Written by Matthew D. Lund

Trade Paperback, 253 pages | Humanity Books | Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Science - Philosophy & Social; Science - History | $26.00 | 978-1-59102-772-0 (1-59102-772-1)

Norwood Russell Hanson was a seminal figure in post-war philosophy and history of science. His major works, Patterns of Discovery and The Concept of the Positron, are landmarks in conceptual analysis and the historical case-study approach in the philosophy of science.

This book provides the first comprehensive and exclusive treatment of Hanson’s philosophy. While his thought has often been discussed in connection with Thomas Kuhn’s picture of science, the rationality of discovery, and concept formation in science, Hanson’s philosophy as a whole has not received adequate attention.

In addition to providing an extended biographical treatment of this larger-than-life thinker, author Matthew D. Lund presents a nuanced and historical approach to Hanson’s central philosophical concerns. These include the relation of theory and observation, normative and descriptive analysis, scientific objectivity, the logic of discovery, and the conceptual development of quantum theory. Lund also examines Hanson’s work in the history of science and his attempts to integrate history and philosophy of science.

By clarifying Hanson’s intellectual influences and the intentions behind his philosophical activity, Lund argues that Hanson’s philosophical approach is much more unified and distinctive than is generally recognized. In particular, it is shown that Hanson’s theory of observation, his logic of discovery program, and his work in the history and historiography of science, are closely interrelated and interdependent projects.

Finally, this book demonstrates that Hanson’s epistemic framework couples nicely with contemporary cognitive scientific accounts of analogy, conceptual structure, and problem solving to provide an accurate and fruitful account of the epistemology of science.

Bakunin by Mark Leier

2009-12-01T00:30:00-05:00

Bakunin The Creative Passion#A Biography
Written by Mark Leier

Trade Paperback, 384 pages | Seven Stories Press | Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; Political Science - Political Ideologies - Anarchism; Philosophy - Political | $17.95 | 978-1-58322-894-4 (1-58322-894-2)

Ayn Rand For Beginners by Andrew Bernstein

2009-08-18T00:30:00-05:00

Ayn Rand For Beginners
Written by Andrew Bernstein
Illustrated by Owen Brozman

Trade Paperback, 112 pages | For Beginners | Philosophy; Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers | $14.99 | 978-1-934389-37-9 (1-934389-37-4)

Betraying Spinoza by Rebecca Goldstein

2009-08-11T00:30:00-05:00

Betraying Spinoza The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity
Written by Rebecca Goldstein

Trade Paperback | Schocken | Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; History - Jewish | $14.95 | 978-0-8052-1159-7 (0-8052-1159-4)

Part of the Jewish Encounter series

In 1656, Amsterdam’s Jewish community excommunicated Baruch Spinoza, and, at the age of twenty–three, he became the most famous heretic in Judaism. He was already germinating a secularist challenge to religion that would be as radical as it was original. He went on to produce one of the most ambitious systems in the history of Western philosophy, so ahead of its time that scientists today, from string theorists to neurobiologists, count themselves among Spinoza’s progeny.

In Betraying Spinoza, Rebecca Goldstein sets out to rediscover the flesh-and-blood man often hidden beneath the veneer of rigorous rationality, and to crack the mystery of the breach between the philosopher and his Jewish past. Goldstein argues that the trauma of the Inquisition’ s persecution of its forced Jewish converts plays itself out in Spinoza’s philosophy. The excommunicated Spinoza, no less than his excommunicators, was responding to Europe’ s first experiment with racial anti-Semitism.

Here is a Spinoza both hauntingly emblematic and deeply human, both heretic and hero—a surprisingly contemporary figure ripe for our own uncertain age.

From the Hardcover edition.

Betraying Spinoza by Rebecca Goldstein

2009-08-11T00:30:00-05:00

Betraying Spinoza The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity
Written by Rebecca Goldstein

eBook, 304 pages | Schocken | Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers; History - Jewish | $11.99 | 978-0-8052-4273-7 (0-8052-4273-2)

Random House New Releases - Biography & Autobiography - Philosophers

Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview by Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview And Other ConversationsWritten by Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview by Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview And Other ConversationsWritten by Hannah Arendt

Adieux by Simone De Beauvoir

Adieux A Farewell to SartreWritten by Simone De Beauvoir

Voltaire in Love by Nancy Mitford

Voltaire in Love Written by Nancy Mitford Introduction by Adam Gopnik

Voltaire in Love by Nancy Mitford

Voltaire in Love Written by Nancy Mitford Introduction by Adam Gopnik

McLuhan For Beginners by Terrence W. Gordon

McLuhan For Beginners Written by Terrence W. Gordon Illustrated by Susan Willmarth

Walter Benjamin by Gershom Scholem

Walter Benjamin Written by Gershom Scholem Translated by Harry Zohn Introduction by Lee Sigel

Learning to Live Finally by Jacques Derrida

Learning to Live Finally The Last InterviewWritten by Jacques Derrida Translated by Pascal-Anne Brault and Michael Naas

Ayn Rand For Beginners by Andrew Bernstein

Ayn Rand For Beginners Written by Andrew Bernstein Illustrated by Owen Brozman

How to Live by Sarah Bakewell

How to Live Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an AnswerWritten by Sarah Bakewell

Bakunin by Mark Leier

Bakunin The Creative Passion-A BiographyWritten by Mark Leier

Remembering Tomorrow by Michael Albert

Remembering Tomorrow From SDS to Life After Capitalism: A MemoirWritten by Michael Albert

How to Live by Sarah Bakewell

How to Live Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an AnswerWritten by Sarah Bakewell

How to Live by Sarah Bakewell

How to Live Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an AnswerWritten by Sarah Bakewell

Maimonides by Joel L. Kraemer

Maimonides The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest MindsWritten by Joel L. Kraemer

N. R. Hanson by Matthew D. Lund

N. R. Hanson Observation, Discovery, and Scientific ChangeWritten by Matthew D. Lund

Bakunin by Mark Leier

Bakunin The Creative Passion#A BiographyWritten by Mark Leier

Ayn Rand For Beginners by Andrew Bernstein

Ayn Rand For Beginners Written by Andrew Bernstein Illustrated by Owen Brozman

Betraying Spinoza by Rebecca Goldstein

Betraying Spinoza The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us ModernityWritten by Rebecca Goldstein

Betraying Spinoza by Rebecca Goldstein

Betraying Spinoza The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us ModernityWritten by Rebecca Goldstein

Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview And Other Conversations
Written by Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview And Other Conversations
Written by Hannah Arendt

Adieux A Farewell to Sartre
Written by Simone De Beauvoir

Voltaire in Love
Written by Nancy Mitford
Introduction by Adam Gopnik

Voltaire in Love
Written by Nancy Mitford
Introduction by Adam Gopnik

McLuhan For Beginners
Written by Terrence W. Gordon
Illustrated by Susan Willmarth

Walter Benjamin
Written by Gershom Scholem
Translated by Harry Zohn
Introduction by Lee Sigel

Learning to Live Finally The Last Interview
Written by Jacques Derrida
Translated by Pascal-Anne Brault and Michael Naas

Ayn Rand For Beginners
Written by Andrew Bernstein
Illustrated by Owen Brozman

How to Live Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
Written by Sarah Bakewell

Bakunin The Creative Passion-A Biography
Written by Mark Leier

Remembering Tomorrow From SDS to Life After Capitalism: A Memoir
Written by Michael Albert

How to Live Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
Written by Sarah Bakewell

How to Live Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
Written by Sarah Bakewell

Maimonides The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds
Written by Joel L. Kraemer

N. R. Hanson Observation, Discovery, and Scientific Change
Written by Matthew D. Lund

Bakunin The Creative Passion#A Biography
Written by Mark Leier

Ayn Rand For Beginners
Written by Andrew Bernstein
Illustrated by Owen Brozman

Betraying Spinoza The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity
Written by Rebecca Goldstein

Betraying Spinoza The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity
Written by Rebecca Goldstein