Books by "John O. Spengler"
12 books found
Using the historical-materialist method to unravel the promise and limits of critical practice since the Revolutionary Age, John E. O’Brien investigates the problems and prospects of cultural criticism for the 21st century through absorbing studies of the contested perspectives of Voltaire, Friedrich Schiller, Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Terry Eagleton and Hayden White. In spite of recurrent crises due to a flawed Western political-economy, why is there so much critical intellectual activity with so little effect? Framing his study with the early work by Max Horkheimer, Luc Boltanski and Teresa Ebert, O’Brien's investigation of resistance in America and Europe challenges the bourgeois philosophy of history, pointing to the urgency of critique as mode of analysis and intervention.
The Synthetic Dyestuffs and the Intermediate Products from which They are Derived
by John Cannell Cain, Jocelyn Field Thorpe
1917
The mentor of the green anarchist and neo-primitive movements is back with his first book in six years, confronting civilisation, mass society, modernity and technoculture - both the history of its developing crisis and the possibilities for its human and humane solutions. As John Zerzan writes, These dire times may yet reveal invigorating new vistas of thought and action. When everything is at stake, all must be confronted and superseded. At this moment, there is the distinct possibility of doing just that.''
Deriving its title from the black-covered notebooks which were used in its formative composition, this title brings John O'Loughlin's metaphysical philosophy to its logical conclusion, and is therefore probably the most logically comprehensive of all his works to-date, drawing the various strands of his Social Theocratic philosophy together and presenting it in the uniquely aphoristic style which allows for both formal sequences of related ideas (maxims) and for a more informal presentation of material (aphorisms) that is almost essay-like in its relatively discursive character. That said, the material overall is carefully interwoven and taken well beyond the notebook stage of its inception, so that one can feel confident this is no mere off-the-cuff project but the fruit of meticulous composition which should stand O'Loughlin's philosophy in good stead, as well as add a crucial dimension to it which would not have been possible in the past but which here comes to light in terms of how a basic antithesis, namely that between energy and gravity, plays-out in a number of different or seemingly unrelated contexts in relation to what the author holds to be its gender-conditioned genesis. Some of the material, one should add, has already been published in two previous titles, viz. 'Stations of the Supercross' and 'Supercrossed', but much of it has been reworked and revised here with the incorporation of some previously omitted content, while much additional original material has also been included to give this project its unique character and justify its publication as, in overall terms, a less formal if not looser version of what might seem to some readers the too formal nature of, in particular, 'Supercrossed', with its plethora of hyphenated phrases. Therefore this should prove an easier though still far from uncomplicated book to read. - A Centretruths editorial.
"Mood Matters" makes the radical assertion that all social events ranging from fashions in music and art to the rise and fall of civilizations are biased by the attitudes a society holds toward the future. When the "social mood" is positive and people look forward to the future, events of an entirely different character tend to occur than when society is pessimistic. The book presents many examples from every walk of life in support of this argument. In addition, methods are given to actually measure the social mood and to project it into the future in order to forecast what’s likely or not over varying periods of time. Casti's writing is a pleasure to read and its contents an eye-opener. "They [the chapters] tell an engrossing story, and the mystery heightens as it goes. . . . it's chatty and knowing." Greg Benford, Physicist and science-fiction writer, author of "Timescape" and "Deep Time" "I am struck by how thought-provoking it all is. I am sure that your book will draw a lot of attention" Tor Norretranders, Science writer, author of "The Generous Man" and "The User Illusion".
Polarimetry, Saccharimetry and the Sugars--Viscosities of Sucrose Solutions at Various Temperatures
by Frederick John Bates
1958
Despite the seeming simplicity of its title, TREES is anything but simple, since arguably the deepest and most politically radical of all John O'Loughlin's volumes of poetry, extending beyond as well as summing up earlier themes with an ideological conviction that points towards a whole new approach to culture and, hence, civilization.
In this compilation of over thirty biographical sketches, including Hitler, Stalin, de Gaulle, Ben-Gurian, de Valera, Franco, Dali, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, Norman Mailer,Ezra Pound, Carl Jung, and W.B Yeats, Mr O'Loughlin has attempted to view his subjects through the ideological prism of Social Transcendentalism, in order to see how they are reflected. The results, at times, are quite surprising, if, understandably, also in some instances only too predictable!