From an authentic American voice, a stunning, gritty tale of a young man's retreat into the darkly glamorous world of the circus. Venice, Florida: On the edge of town sits the winter headquarters of a traveling circus. One day Gary, a drifter, signs up for a job as a bullhand with the circus. Everyone has heard of the ringmaster, the trapeze artist, and the clown, but Gary soon learns that the circus includes others as well: the 24-hour man, the first to arrive in a town to poster the way to the circus grounds; the bullhands who remove elephant excrement from under the animals' bodies; the butchers who distract the audience from the circus spectacle selling them cotton candy or lemonade; the animal people who care for the animals and keep to themselves. Gary instantly falls in love with this new life, riding the circus train from one town to the next in the odd hours of the night. This acclaimed debut tells of a hapless, magical existence-a life for which Richard Schmitt's characters have abandoned everything and nothing at all. In it, the circus unfolds as a wealth of human energy and ambition, and Schmitt emerges as a talent with a magical voice and a high-flying future.

The Aerialist

Literature & Fiction

Schmitt, Richard

Action & Adventure

Mariner Books

Alienation And Freedom

Drawing from existentialism, feminism, the thought of Karl Marx and novelists like Dostoevsky, Richard Schmitt looks at modern capitalist societies to understand what it is that might be wrong for individuals. His concern focuses specifically on those who are alienated-- those persons who have difficulty finding meaning in their lives, who lack con

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Routledge

Beyond Separateness: The Social Nature Of Human Beings--their Autonomy, Knowledge, And Power

Two very different views of persons permeate our thinking. On the one hand, we are impressed by the many social influences that affect us all. On the other hand, we also demand autonomy and individual rights. We have, at present, no suitable vocabulary for giving their due both to our social nature and to the ways in which we are distinct from one

This work assembles reports of and reflections about the varied experiences of alienation from the concrete perspectives of women, people of colour, the old, the handicapped, and others, combining critical analyses of the concept of alienation with a wide range of first-person narratives.

Alienation and Social Criticism (Key Concepts in Critical Theory)

Prometheus+books

Martin Heidegger's Sein und Zeit is one of the seminal works in philosophy of the 20th century. It is also a very cryptic work. Martin Heidegger on Being Human relates oracular claims in plain English and supplies arguments missing in Sein und Zeit to show that its claims are plausible.

Martin Heidegger on Being Human: An Introduction to Sein Und Zeit

iUniverse

An Introduction to Social and Political Philosophy: A Question-Based Approach (Elements of Philosophy)

Social and political philosophy, unlike other fields and disciplines, involves conflict, disagreement, deliberation, and action. This text takes a new approach and understands philosophy not so much as a story of great thinkers or as a collection of philosophical positions but as a series of debates and disagreements in which students must participate. Adopting what may be called an 'active learning' method, Richard Schmitt, who has long taught social and political philosophy in the Ivy Leagues as well at state colleges, presents a range of problems and debates which engage the core question of freedom. Too often, students are bewildered, and then bored, by highly abstract philosophical questions because they are unable to connect those abstract issues to their own life experiences. This text immediately connects issues and experiences, and provides integrated, on-going questions to spark dialogue, whether in class settings or in the reader's own mind, and to help students form strong arguments with good reasons for their positions. In the course of examining different current controversies, the book develops theories of democracy, equality, the state, property, autonomy, and the role of morality in politics, all of which are standard for courses in social and political philosophy.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Introduction To Marx And Engels: A Critical Reconstruction

This book steers a middle path between those who argue that the theories of Marx and Engels have been rendered obsolete by historical events and those who reply that these theories emerge untouched from the political changes of the last ten years.Marxism has been a theory of historical change that claimed to be able to predict with considerable accuracy how existing institutions were going to change. Marxism has also been a political program designed to show how these inevitable changes could be hastened. Richard Schmitt argues that Marxian predictions are ambiguous and unreliable, adding that the political program is vitiated by serious ambiguities in the conceptions of class and of political and social transformations. Marxism remains of importance, however, because it is the major source of criticisms of capitalism and its associated social and political institutions. We must understand such criticisms if we are to understand our own world and live in it effectively. While very critical of the failures of Marx and Engels, this book offers a sympathetic account of their criticism of capitalism and their visions of a better world, mentions some interpretive controversies, and connects the questions raised by Marx and Engels to contemporary disputes to show continuity between social thought in the middle of the last century and today.Addressed to undergraduate students, the book is easily accessible. It will be important in introductory or middle-level courses in sociology, political theory, critical theory of literature or law. It will also be useful in graduate courses in political theory, sociology, and economics.

Westview Press

This book steers a middle path between those who argue that the theories of Marx and Engels have been rendered obsolete by historical events and those who reply that these theories emerge untouched from the political changes of the last ten years.Marxism has been a theory of historical change that claimed to be able to predict with considerable accuracy how existing institutions were going to change. Marxism has also been a political program designed to show how these inevitable changes could be hastened. Richard Schmitt argues that Marxian predictions are ambiguous and unreliable, adding that the political program is vitiated by serious ambiguities in the conceptions of class and of political and social transformations. Marxism remains of importance, however, because it is the major source of criticisms of capitalism and its associated social and political institutions. We must understand such criticisms if we are to understand our own world and live in it effectively. While very critical of the failures of Marx and Engels, this book offers a sympathetic account of their criticism of capitalism and their visions of a better world, mentions some interpretive controversies, and connects the questions raised by Marx and Engels to contemporary disputes to show continuity between social thought in the middle of the last century and today.Addressed to undergraduate students, the book is easily accessible. It will be important in introductory or middle-level courses in sociology, political theory, critical theory of literature or law. It will also be useful in graduate courses in political theory, sociology, and economics.

Two very different views of persons permeate our thinking. On the one hand, we are impressed by the many social influences that affect us all. On the other hand, we also demand autonomy and individual rights. We have, at present, no suitable vocabulary for giving their due both to our social nature and to the ways in which we are distinct from one another.In this ambitious and original book, Richard Schmitt criticizes the assumption that human beings are separate from one another—an assumption that underlies much of mainstream Anglo-American philosophy. Instead he proposes, following two decades of work by feminist theorists, that we consider ourselves as being-in-relation. A large part of the book is dedicated to clarifying these two competing views of persons. In the course of this effort the author examines different conceptions of autonomy, empathy, love, knowing, and power.From these discussions emerges a view of persons that illuminates the ways in which each of us is distinct from others and at the same time does justice to our participation in social networks. Schmitt shows that persons have considerable choice over whether to be separate or in-relation. The controversy between these two views is not primarily theoretical but about practice—specifically, political practice.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Schmitt, Richard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Schmitt, Richard

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Schmitt, Richard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Aerialist

Alienation And Freedom

Beyond Separateness: The Social Nature Of Human Beings--their Autonomy, Knowledge, And Power

Alienation and Social Criticism (Key Concepts in Critical Theory)

Martin Heidegger on Being Human: An Introduction to Sein Und Zeit

An Introduction to Social and Political Philosophy: A Question-Based Approach (Elements of Philosophy)

An Introduction to Social and Political Philosophy: A Question-Based Approach (Elements of Philosophy)

Introduction To Marx And Engels: A Critical Reconstruction

Introduction To Marx And Engels: A Critical Reconstruction

Beyond Separateness: The Social Nature Of Human Beings--their Autonomy, Knowledge, And Power