Please donate to help save PopMatters. We are moving to WordPress in December out of necessity and need your help.

Paula Cerni

Recent

Reviews

Although Contemptuous of Theory, Hitler Fancied Himself a Philosopher

That such bullshit could ever be taken seriously by large numbers of German intellectuals shows that, even in highly educated circles, social and political forces easily trump reason.

Books

Claude Lévi-Strauss Stays the Mighty Hand of History, at Least for a Moment

Legendary French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss catches a glimpse of disappearing traditions through Japanese eyes in these new translations of his lectures, essays and interviews.

Books

Dead Philosophers Are Cool: 'Philosophy Bites Back'

Every interview in this book rewards us with the revelation that a great philosopher, no matter how dead, is still fresh, surprising, and relevant.

Books

A Whole World of Bullshit: 'Bullspotting: Finding Facts in the Age of Misinformation'

Will 2013 be a year for a) conspiracy theories; b) end-of-the-world hysteria; or c) books to enhance our critical thinking?

Books

How China Grabbed Hold of the World In Order to Survive and Compete: 'Restless Empire'

From the peak of the Qing Dynasty to today, China has moved far and fast. Here's a chance to catch up.

Books

Thomas Friedman's Paean to Globalization 'The Lexus and the Olive Tree' Is Back, but We've Moved On

The Lexus is shiny and modern, the olive tree old and rooted, put them together and, dude, there's your simplistic guide to globalization.

Reviews

We Need Glenn Greenwald's 'With Liberty and Justice for Some' for Its Courage

America's legal and political system is sweet for the rich, putrid for the poor.

Books

Enter the Posthuman: 'Alien Phenomenology'

In a world overrun by objects, everything's a 'thing' from another world.

Books

The Wheel, Reinvented: 'Occupy! Scenes from Occupied America'

A book written at the height of the Occupy protests contains clues about the movement's future -- if it has one.

Books

The Quantum Mind-Boggle: 'The Quantum Universe'

Quantum mechanics is a knotty tangle of mathematical, practical, and philosophical threads, itching to be unravelled.

Books

God Among the Test Tubes: 'Science and Religion in Quest of Truth'

What does theology want from science? Above all, the heady feeling of mystery its own traditional texts no longer convey to a sophisticated, urban and multicultural public.

Books

Barbarians Against Barbarians: Henry Kissinger's 'On China'

The diplomat believes he’s a skillful player, he believes he’s in control; but the game is much bigger than he is, and defines what he can and cannot do.

Books

OMG, You Wrote Your Own Bible? 'The Good Book: A Humanist Bible' by A. C. Grayling

Like the 'real' Bible, The Good Book is an eclectic and contradictory mix, containing much that really is very good, but also some that’s bad and ugly, and quite a lot that’s unbearably dull.

Books

Smile, You're in a Rat Race: 'The Social Animal'

David Brooks wants cognitive science to validate modern conservatism, but the opposite case could more easily be made.

Books

Gazing upon the Bitch-goddess of Quantification: 'The Information'

We are drowning in a sea of information. Shall we stop to count the waves, or try to make sense of it all? The first of these two is the way of information theory.

Books

Save the World from Evil Math

On 'proofiness', 'randumbness' statistical boo-boos and other high-level mathematical theories.

Books

'Revolutionary Deists': Fanatics for a Reason

The story of deism proves that America has never been, in an absolute sense, a Christian nation.

Books

The Ol' Rebel Heart of 'The Communist Manifesto' Beats On

The best-known classic of radical activism is as alive and fearless as ever.

Features

20 Jazz Albums You Might Have Missed in 2020

Collapse Expand Features

BROWSE ALL ALBUM REVIEWS

Reviews

Collapse Expand Reviews

PM Picks

Collapse Expand Pm Picks