Though Michel Foucault is one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century, little is known about his early life. Even Foucault’s biographers have neglected this period, preferring instead to start the story when the future philosopher arrives in Paris.

Becoming Foucault is a historical reconstruction of the world in which Foucault grew up: the small city of Poitiers, France, from the 1920s until the end of the Second World War. Beyond exploring previously unexamined aspects of Foucault’s childhood, including his wartime ordeals, it proposes an original interpretation of Foucault’s oeuvre. Michael Behrent argues that Foucault, in addition to being a theorist of power, knowledge, and selfhood, was also a philosopher of experience. He was a thinker intent on making sense of the events that he lived through. Behrent identifies four specific experiences in Foucault’s childhood that exercised a decisive influence on him and that, in various ways, he later made the subject of his philosophy: his family’s deep connections to the medical profession; his upbringing in a bourgeois household; the German Occupation during World War II; and his Catholic education.

Behrent not only reconstructs the specific nature of these experiences but also shows how reference to them surfaces in Foucault’s later work. In this way, the book both sheds light on a formative period in the philosopher’s life and offers a unique interpretation of key aspects of his thought.

There is no more contentious and perennial issue in the history of modern Western thought than the vexed relationship between the genesis of an idea and its claim to validity beyond it. Can ideas or values transcend their temporal origins and overcome the sin of their original context, and in so doing earn abiding respect for their intrinsic merit? Or do they inevitably reflect them in ways that undermine their universal aspirations? Are discrete contexts so incommensurable and unique that the smooth passage of ideas from one to the other is impossible? Are we always trapped by the limits of our own cultural standpoints and partial perspectives, or can we somehow escape their constraints and enter into a fruitful dialogue with others?

These persistent questions are at the heart of the discipline known as intellectual history, which deals not only with ideas, but also with the men and women who generate, disseminate, and criticize them. The essays in this collection, by one of the most recognized figures in the field, address them through engagement with leading intellectual historians—Hans Blumenberg, Quentin Skinner, Hayden White, Isaiah Berlin, Frank Ankersmit—as well other giants of modern thought—Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, and Georg Lukács. They touch on a wide variety of related topics, ranging from the heroism of modern life to the ability of photographs to lie. In addition, they explore the fraught connections between philosophy and theory, the truth of history and the truthfulness of historians, and the weaponization of free speech for other purposes.

Speedboat, kayak, super yacht...what will you build today? From the popular series of visually rich instruction books for LEGO® creations, this book highlights sailboats, sports boats, canoes and kayaks, fancy yachts—even Jet Skis—all things that float on water. Customized for children ages 5 and up, there's a range of creative models to put together using the LEGO® Classic set 10695, LEGO® Architecture Studio 21050, or bricks that LEGO® obsessives may already have at home. Each book in this interactive series contains 3-5 “dioramas” featuring a diverse range of models. Full color, step-by-step diagrams guide readers through the building process, enhancing the fun.

The third and final volume of All Over Coffee presents some of the most beloved and never-before-collected pieces from the weekly series. Originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle, this timeless work, which includes collaborations with many prize-winning authors, is now collected for the first time into a new gorgeous hardcover edition.

"[Paul] Madonna, Bayview-based artist, illustrator, writer and award-winning author, is renowned for his long-running city-inspired comic strip series ‘All Over Coffee.’ Once described by Madonna as ‘a comic strip without the comic,’ the series paired intricate sketches of The City—a street corner, a view of Alcatraz or a deserted alleyway—with poignant, poetic text. The infusion of art and literature challenged typical comic strip conventions, attracting a regional cult following and setting Madonna on a path of artistic discovery. The third and final installment [of the series], You Know Exactly, launched this month."
—San Francisco Examiner

"All Over Coffee was in many ways a gift to the city. It immortalized the San Francisco that locals see every day; not the one most commonly depicted in movies and on TV. Because of its grounding in familiar corners, sidewalks and liquor stores, Madonna's art can also ask viewers to explore their own psyche, or to suspend their disbelief, or to go on a journey with him they weren't expecting. And sometimes, just sometimes, it'll be so close to home, you'll think he's made a personal visit."
—KQED Arts & Culture

"[A]n impressive coffee-table style volume, You Know Exactly, the Third Collection of All Over Coffee is an inherently fascinating book to browse through."
—Midwest Book Review

You Know Exactly enigmatically melds art, story, and travel to capture the profundity reflected outside and resting deep within the soul. With original writings plus collaborations with award-winning writers including Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Cheryl Strayed, Andrew Sean Greer, Robert Olen Butler, Kristen Tracy, Daniel Handler (otherwise known as Lemony Snicket), and more, artist and writer Paul Madonna pairs words with exquisitely rendered cityscapes to create a poignant, thought-provoking showpiece. Each page offers something unique: short stories, poems, fleeting thoughts, and one-liners displayed alongside pen and ink drawings that travel from San Francisco to New York, from Paris to Tokyo. The effect coalesces into a mesmerizing work that you’ll want to return to again and again.

William Langland's Piers Plowman is one of the major poetic monuments of medieval England and of world literature. Probably composed between 1372 and 1389, the poem survives in three distinct versions. It is known to modern readers largely through the middle of the three, the so-called B-text. Now, George Economou's verse translation of the poet's third version makes available for the first time in modern English the final revision of a work that many have regarded as the greatest Christian poem in our language.

Langland's remarkable powers of invention and his passionate involvement with the spiritual, social, and political crises of his time lay claim to our attention, and demand serious comparison with Dante's Divine Comedy. Economou's translation preserves the intensity of the poet's verse and the narrative energy of his alliterative long line, the immediacy of the original's story of the quest for salvation, and the individuality of its language and wordplay.

★★★★★ "A gift for our 7 year old granddaughter. She loved reading it before our trip to Alaska in July."

A is for Alaska combines dazzling photos with fun and informative couplets which describe the pictures and offer clear picture-word associations. Intriguing facts will add to the non-fiction learning experience.

This book covers subjects important or significant to Alaskans and includes brilliant color photography by top photographers. Each vibrant page highlights a unique aspect of Alaska's beauty and lively culture with either a place, animal, plant or another evocative idea.

The book’s eye-popping design and educational content will hold the child’s interest through countless readings. In addition to the 26 letters of the alphabet is the “Who Knew?—Facts about the great state of Alaska” section which gives parents, teachers, and even kids a deeper understanding of the topic for each letter of this Alaska alphabet.