{"product_id":"first-of-the-year-2010","title":"First of the Year: 2010","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is the third volume of the \u003cem\u003eFirst of the Year \u003c\/em\u003eannual series. Contributors such as Armond White, Philip Levine, Charles O'Brien, Uri Avnery, Donna Gaines, Tom Smucker, Scott Spencer, and Amiri Baraka are back (and fractious as ever). And \u003cem\u003eFirst\u003c\/em\u003e's family of writers keeps growing. This volume includes vital new voices such as A. B. Spellman, Bernard Avishai, Rudolph Wurlitzer, and Diane di Prima.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFirst\u003c\/em\u003e never shies away from hot button issues—Fredric Smoler, for example, offers a definitive consideration of America's recent history with torture. But \u003cem\u003eFirst\u003c\/em\u003e's approach to current political firestorms is often marked by a cool sense of the past. History is always in the mix when \u003cem\u003eFirst \u003c\/em\u003ewriters examine the roots of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and contemporary right-wing pundits who falsely claim the mantle of Whittaker Chambers. \u003cem\u003eFirst\u003c\/em\u003e's refusal to toe \"correct\" lines is apparent in Benj DeMott's reconsideration of Chambers' work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe new volume is also marked by its cultivation of radical imaginations. The ideas of the Situationists and Cornelius Castoriadis are revived. A young historian, David Waldstreicher, recovers the radical, useable past in the 60s work of Staughton Lynd. Amiri Baraka evokes the felt quality of Jesse Jackson's 1988 campaign and another poet remembers (in verse) long-forgotten, extreme political acts of American Renaissance poets.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA recent review of \u003cem\u003eFirst of the Year: 2009 \u003c\/em\u003eused a phrase of Kenneth Burke's—\"perspective by incongruity\"—to make sense of the method that shaped it. \u003cem\u003eFirst \u003c\/em\u003eis committed to thought-provoking incongruities. Faith that wonder is our best teacher informs this volume. \u003cem\u003eFirst\u003c\/em\u003e's music writing provides a high-low soundtrack of surprise. Beyond the section on Michael Jackson, there are serious responses to John Coltrane and Bach, World Saxophone Quartet and Mariah Carey, Sonny Rollins and Willie Mitchell. \u003cem\u003eFirst\u003c\/em\u003e's message is in the music.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Taylor \u0026 Francis Inc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54224625762648,"sku":"9781412814843","price":61.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781412814843_d4524843-fb56-4cd7-9b0f-361836c6c250.jpg?v=1770117320","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/first-of-the-year-2010","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}