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Spellman, Scott Spencer, Robert Farris Thompson, Richard Torres, David Waldstreicher, and Armond White.Their angles on history and history in the making are enhanced by contributions from new members of First's family of defamiliarizers such as Peter Brown, Wesley Brown, Mark Dudzic, Robert Hullot-Kentor, and Aram Saroyan.  Perspectives by Incongruity touches down in Kashmir, Haiti, South Africa, and Indonesia. There's a vital section devoted to the Arab Spring. But the volume homes in on the U.S.A. as well, digging into race and class structures of feeling (and fantasy). It means to comprehend the Obama era in real time. Music is key to Perspectives by Incongruity's offbeat truth-telling. Contributors sound off on Jay Z and Kanye West, mambo and Afropop, Dylan and Coltrane, Sun Ra and Arcade Fire. First's meaning is (as ever) in the mix.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51107344056593,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51107344679185,"sku":"NIN9781412843119","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52342013853969,"sku":"NLS9781412843119","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53375953142033,"sku":"CIN1412843111G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1412843111.jpg?v=1751337362"},{"product_id":"that-floating-bridge-book-benj-demott-9781412851596","title":"That Floating Bridge","description":"Alive to history in the making, this volume examines Barack Obama's presidency and Lyndon Johnson's, the killing of Trayvon Martin and the death of Andrew Breitbart, Occupy Wall Street and America Beyond Capitalism. The title, That Floating Bridge, evokes Representative John Lewis' line-Obama is what comes at the end of that bridge in Selma-as it quotes a track on Gregg Allman's Low Country Blues, which Scott Spencer lauds here in a review for the Ages. That Floating Bridge includes contributions from Amiri Baraka, Gar Alperovitz, Bernard Avishai, Uri Avnery, Bill Ayers, Paul Berman, Mark Dudzic, Carmelita Estrellita, Fr. Rick Frechette, Donna Gaines, Lawrence Goodwyn, Lisa Guenther, Alec Harrington, Malcolm Harris, Roxane Johnson, Ben Kessler, Bob Levin, Philip Levine, Bongani Madondo, Greil Marcus, Judy Oppenheimer, Jedediah Purdy, Aram Saroyan, Violet Socks, Tom Smucker, A. B. Spellman, Fredric Smoler, Richard Torres, Jesmyn Ward, and Pablo Yglesias. A definitive account of the life and times of famed scholar Franz Boas anchors a section, Family of Humanists, that takes an anthropological turn. It digs into the roots of classic ethnographies such as The Forest People, Diane Arbus' outsider art, Subway Salsa, and the phenomenon of Linsanity. A section titled Criticism of Life brings together exemplary older and younger poets and critics. Songs are key to this volume's soul and plenitude. Ranging from Eddie Hinton's Very Extremely Dangerous to Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet, the music writing soundtracks That Floating Bridge's message to The Democracy.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52131137519889,"sku":"NLS9781412851596","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781412851596.jpg?v=1757508009"},{"product_id":"first-of-the-year-2008-book-benj-demott-9781412808019","title":"First of the Year: 2008","description":"This is the first in a continuing series of reminders that the past informs the present as it infuses the future. As Benj DeMott notes, the aim of First of the Year is to define \"the democratic imperatives and demotic tones that make our ongoing politics of culture matter.\" This annual publication is grounded in the needs of \"dissed\" people: disenfranchised, disadvantaged, disinherited, discomfited, and dismissed. But the concept has been sharpened to acknowledge that though the underdog is owed sympathy, the mad dog is owed a bullet. In short, First of the Year is very much an effort of the twenty-first century.  The publication aims to be more than a launching pad for writers. It attempts to bridge the gap between radical perspectives without losing focus on the centrality of African-American culture to the national conversation. The coming together of figures like Armond White, Kate Millett, Lorenzo Thomas, Russell Jacoby, Adolph Reed, and Amiri Baraka is quite unlike what can be found in standard literary and social publications. They treat the African-American condition as a policy issue or an executive summary report--not as a touchstone for the state of the nation as a whole.  The initial volume also deals extensively and seriously with the issue of humanism and terror, the nature of social movements, electoral and urban politics, and the musical trends of our time. It does so with a sense of urgency often denied in mainstream literary reviews. Issues of \"standards\" are addressed from the angle of African-American cultural traditions, and the mind-body problem as a matter of race not just of metaphysics. In a nutshell, this volume intends to open a new chapter in the Harlem Renaissance; or better, an American renaissance with a Harlem lilt. First of the Year is an attempt to make political arguments breathe through cultural voices. Contributors include Sheldon Wolin, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Kurt Vonnegut, Paul Berman, Charles Keil, and Philip Levine, among others, ensuring its ability to entertain.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52135792574737,"sku":"NLS9781412808019","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781412808019.jpg?v=1757550918"},{"product_id":"first-of-the-year-2009-book-benj-demott-9781412811668","title":"First of the Year: 2009","description":"This is the second volume in the First of the Year Series","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52150744252689,"sku":"NLS9781412811668","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781412811668.jpg?v=1757611062"},{"product_id":"that-floating-bridge-book-benj-demott-9781138533998","title":"That Floating Bridge","description":"Alive to history in the making, this volume examines Barack Obama's presidency and Lyndon Johnson's, the killing of Trayvon Martin and the death of Andrew Breitbart, Occupy Wall Street and America Beyond Capitalism. The title, That Floating Bridge, evokes Representative John Lewis' line-Obama is what comes at the end of that bridge in Selma-as it quotes a track on Gregg Allman's Low Country Blues, which Scott Spencer lauds here in a review for the Ages. That Floating Bridge includes contributions from Amiri Baraka, Gar Alperovitz, Bernard Avishai, Uri Avnery, Bill Ayers, Paul Berman, Mark Dudzic, Carmelita Estrellita, Fr. Rick Frechette, Donna Gaines, Lawrence Goodwyn, Lisa Guenther, Alec Harrington, Malcolm Harris, Roxane Johnson, Ben Kessler, Bob Levin, Philip Levine, Bongani Madondo, Greil Marcus, Judy Oppenheimer, Jedediah Purdy, Aram Saroyan, Violet Socks, Tom Smucker, A. B. Spellman, Fredric Smoler, Richard Torres, Jesmyn Ward, and Pablo Yglesias. A definitive account of the life and times of famed scholar Franz Boas anchors a section, Family of Humanists, that takes an anthropological turn. It digs into the roots of classic ethnographies such as The Forest People, Diane Arbus' outsider art, Subway Salsa, and the phenomenon of Linsanity. A section titled Criticism of Life brings together exemplary older and younger poets and critics. Songs are key to this volume's soul and plenitude. Ranging from Eddie Hinton's Very Extremely Dangerous to Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet, the music writing soundtracks That Floating Bridge's message to The Democracy.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52664499896593,"sku":"NLS9781138533998","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781138533998.jpg?v=1762274766"},{"product_id":"first-of-the-year-2009-book-benj-demott-9781138523609","title":"First of the Year: 2009","description":"This is the second volume in the First of the Year Series. Contributors like Armond White, Philip Levine, Donna Gaines, Lawrence Goodwyn, Irving Louis Horowitz, Charles O'Brien, Fredric Smoler, Paul Berman, and Amiri Baraka are back (and blazing). And there are important new voices in the First mix, such as Vincent Harding, Roxane Johnson, and Bob Levin. If there is a leitmotif to this edition, it is the election and inauguration of Barack Obama as the first African-American president. First aims to be up to the minute of this moment.  As Benj DeMott notes \"a glance at this volume confirms the margin is still the center for us.\" And that margin stretches from Harlem to the world. There are tales of edgy sojourns in Afghanistan, Thailand, and South Africa. The volume also has a Question \u0026amp; Answer with Ousmane Sembi, who taught Africans to resist \"elements of received culture-those fixed rules and values which nobody but those on the margins dare to question.\" A second interview with Adam Hochschild celebrates the Englishman who invented abolition, and an African-American original who coined the phrase \"crimes against humanity.\"  The volume includes a protest against the Israeli war machine by Uri Avnery who has long been a creative outsider in his own society. It makes the case that American ideologues (on both extremes) keep getting the Middle East wrong because they cannot grasp the complexities of any country, including their own. First of the Year's minority angles of vision will help readers see with new eyes. It will help their hearing too. The volume has plenty of music writing marked by loving attention to details of pop performances. In short, this collection reflects its editor; direct, unafraid, urban, and entirely contemporary.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52673414660369,"sku":"NLS9781138523609","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52849312039185,"sku":"NIN9781138523609","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781138523609.jpg?v=1762297025"},{"product_id":"perspectives-by-incongruity-book-benj-demott-9781138529748","title":"Perspectives by Incongruity","description":"Diversity and \"perspective by incongruity\" dene the approach to changing times in this fourth volume of the First of the Year series. Insights come from interesting minds in unobvious juxtapositions. First's roster of irreverent and holy! regulars includes Amiri Baraka, Bernard Avishai, Uri Avnery, Chuck D, Diane di Prima, Fr. 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Contributors sound off on Jay Z and Kanye West, mambo and Afropop, Dylan and Coltrane, Sun Ra and Arcade Fire. First's meaning is (as ever) in the mix.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52682578329873,"sku":"NLS9781138529748","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781138529748.jpg?v=1762318483"},{"product_id":"first-of-the-year-2008-book-benj-demott-9781138523593","title":"First of the Year: 2008","description":"This is the first in a continuing series of reminders that the past informs the present as it infuses the future. As Benj DeMott notes, the aim of First of the Year is to define \"the democratic imperatives and demotic tones that make our ongoing politics of culture matter.\" This annual publication is grounded in the needs of \"dissed\" people: disenfranchised, disadvantaged, disinherited, discomfited, and dismissed. But the concept has been sharpened to acknowledge that though the underdog is owed sympathy, the mad dog is owed a bullet. In short, First of the Year is very much an effort of the twenty-first century.  The publication aims to be more than a launching pad for writers. It attempts to bridge the gap between radical perspectives without losing focus on the centrality of African-American culture to the national conversation. The coming together of figures like Armond White, Kate Millett, Lorenzo Thomas, Russell Jacoby, Adolph Reed, and Amiri Baraka is quite unlike what can be found in standard literary and social publications. They treat the African-American condition as a policy issue or an executive summary report--not as a touchstone for the state of the nation as a whole.  The initial volume also deals extensively and seriously with the issue of humanism and terror, the nature of social movements, electoral and urban politics, and the musical trends of our time. It does so with a sense of urgency often denied in mainstream literary reviews. Issues of \"standards\" are addressed from the angle of African-American cultural traditions, and the mind-body problem as a matter of race not just of metaphysics. In a nutshell, this volume intends to open a new chapter in the Harlem Renaissance; or better, an American renaissance with a Harlem lilt. First of the Year is an attempt to make political arguments breathe through cultural voices. 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