Gift Certificates How to Order

Philosophy & Critical Theory Books in this online selection represent only a sliver of what we offer in the store. If you've got a particular book in mind and want to check on its availability, call us at 415-362-8193.

1 2 >>>     sort list by title | author Pictures of a Gone City Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area Richard Walker This exploration begins by tracing the concentration of IT in Greater Silicon Valley and the resulting growth in start-ups, jobs, and wealth. This is followed by a look at the new working class of color and the millions earning poverty wages. The middle chapters survey the urban scene, including the housing bubble and the newly exploded metropolis. Bunk The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News Kevin Young Award-winning poet and critic Kevin Young tours us through a rogue's gallery of hoaxers, plagiarists, forgers, and fakers. —Recommended by Paul The Responsibility of Intellectuals Noam Chomsky Originally published in the New York Review of Books, Chomsky's essay eviscerated the "hypocritical moralism of the past" (such as when Woodrow Wilson set out to teach Latin Americans "the art of good government") and exposed the shameful policies in Vietnam and the role of intellectuals in justifying it. Against the Anthropocene Visual Culture and Environment Today T.J. Demos Against the Anthropocene scrutinizes the proposal that we are in a human-driven epoch regarding climate change. In this slender but dense volume, cultural theorist T.J. Demos analyzes the biases within contemporary visual culture popular science websites, remote sensing and SatNav imagery, eco-activist mobilizations, and experimental art... Life in Code A Personal History of Technology The never-more-necessary return of one of our most vital and eloquent voices on technology and culture, the author of the seminal Close to the Machine The last twenty years have brought us the rise of the internet, the development of artificial intelligence, the ubiquity of once unimaginably powerful computers, and the thorough transformation... At the Existentialist Cafe Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others Sarah Bakewell Bakewell manifests the freedom and thrill of existentialism with hardly any of the dread. You are free. You decide. —Recommended by Caitlyn Radical Technologies The Design of Everyday Life Adam Greenfield A field manual to the technologies that are transforming our lives The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge Abraham Flexner A short, provocative book about why "useless" science often leads to humanity's greatest technological breakthroughs A forty-year tightening of funding for scientific research has meant that resources are increasingly directed toward applied or practical outcomes, with the intent of creating products of immediate value. We Gon' Be Alright Notes on Race and Resegregation Jeff Chang In these provocative, powerful essays acclaimed writer/journalist Jeff Chang takes an incisive and wide-ranging look at the recent tragedies and widespread protests that have shaken the country.He argues that resegregation is the unexamined condition of our time, the undoing of which is key to moving the nation forward to racial justice and equity. Nan Dòmi An Initiate's Journey into Haitian Vodou Mimerose Beaubrun The first and only insider's account of Vodou's private, mystical, interior practice, a compelling story of initiation and transformation. The Trouble with Being Born E. M. Cioran Crotchety old man snarks about the pointlessness of life. Wonderful. —Recommended by Vanessa, City Lights Books The Grey Album On the Blackness of Blackness Kevin Young Taking its title from Danger Mouse's pioneering mashup of Jay-Z's The Black Album and the Beatles' The White Album, Kevin Young’s encyclopedic book combines essay, cultural criticism, and lyrical chorus to illustrate the African American tradition of... The Neutral Lecture Course at the College de France (1977-1978) Roland Barthes "I define the Neutral as that which outplays the paradigm, or rather I call Neutral everything that baffles paradigm." With these words, Roland Barthes describes a concept that profoundly shaped his work and was the subject of a landmark series of... Existentialism Is a Humanism Jean Paul Sartre It was to correct common misconceptions about his thought that Sartre accepted an invitation to speak on October 29, 1945, at the Club Maintenant in Paris. The unstated objective of his lecture (“Existentialism Is a Humanism”) was to... 1 2 >>>