America

France’s leading philosopher of postmodernism takes to the freeways in a collection of traveller’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 our world. In this new edition, leading cultural critic and novelist Geoff Dyer offers a thoughtful and perceptive take on the continued resonance of Baudrillard’s America.

“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

Library Journal

Like de Tocqueville before him, Baudrillard, a French social scientist, is in search of the American ethos. His little essay, however, lacks the substance, perspicacity, and originality of a Democracy in America . Rather, Baudrillard's analysis tends to be grandiloquent and sometimes hackneyed, as when he observes ``Americans believe in facts, but not in facticity , '' and ``The cinema and TV are America's reality!'' In addition, the book is overpriced. Not recommended. Kenneth F. Kister, Poynter Inst. for Media Studies, St. Petersburg, Fla.

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.