Building on the lively exchange between anthropology and art that has emerged in recent years, Between Matter and Method makes a bold and creative contribution to this rapidly growing field. Taking an expansive approach to the arts, it finds commonalities in approaches that engage with visual artifacts, sound, performance, improvisation, literature, dance, theater, and design. The book questions current disciplinary boundaries and offers a new model grounded in a shared methodology for interdisciplinary encounter between art and anthropology. Gretchen Bakke and Marina Peterson have gathered together anthropologists whose work is notable for engaging the arts and creative practice in conceptually rigorous and methodologically innovative ways, including Kathleen Stewart, Keith Murphy, Natasha Myers, Stuart McLean, Craig Campbell, and Roger Sansi. Essays span the globe from Indonesia, West Virginia and Los Angeles in the United States, to the Orkney Islands in the UK, and Russia and Spain.

In Implied Nowhere: Absence in Folklore Studies, authors Shelley Ingram, Willow G. Mullins, and Todd Richardson talk about things folklorists don’t usually talk about. They ponder the tacit aspects of folklore and folklore studies, looking into the unarticulated expectations placed upon people whenever they talk about folklore and how those expectations necessarily affect the folklore they are talking about. The book’s chapters are wide-ranging in subject and style, yet they all orbit the idea that much of folklore, both as a phenomenon and as a field, hinges upon unspoken or absent assumptions about who people are and what people do. The authors articulate theories and methodologies for making sense of these unexpressed absences, and, in the process, they offer critical new insights into discussions of race, authenticity, community, literature, popular culture, and scholarly authority. Taken as a whole, the book represents a new and challenging way of looking again at the ways groups come together to make meaning. In addition to the main chapters, the book also includes eight “interstitials,” shorter studies that consider underappreciated aspects of folklore. These discussions, which range from a consideration of knitting in public to the ways that invisibility shapes an internet meme, are presented as questions rather than answers, encouraging readers to think about what more folklore and folklore studies might discover if only practitioners chose to look at their subjects from angles more cognizant of these unspoken gaps.

Melville's Philosophies departs from a long tradition of critical assessments of Melville that dismissed his philosophical capacities as ingenious but muddled. Its contributors do not apply philosophy to Melville in order to detect just how much of it he knew or understood. To the contrary, they try to hear the philosophical arguments themselves-often very strange and quite radical-that Melville never stopped articulating and reformulating. What emerges is a Melville who is materialistically oriented in a radical way, a Melville who thinks about life forms not just in the context of contemporary sciences but also ontologically. Melville's Philosophies recovers a Melville who is a thinker of great caliber, which means obliquely but dramatically reversing the way the critical tradition has characterized his ideas. Finally, as a result of the readings collected here, Melville emerges as a very relevant thinker for contemporary philosophical concerns, such as the materialist turn, climate change, and post-humanism.

An ambitious, revisionary study of not only Herman Melville's political philosophy, but also of our own deeply inhuman condition.

With characteristic wit, Harry Berger, Jr., brings his flair for close reading to texts and images across two millennia that illustrate what he calls “structural misanthropology.” Beginning with a novel reading of Plato, Berger emphasizes Socrates’s self-acknowledged failures. The dialogues, he shows, offer up, only to dispute, a misanthropic polis. The Athenian city-state, they worry, is founded on a social order motivated by apprehension—both the desire to take and the fear of being taken. In addition to suggesting new political and philosophical dimensions to Platonic thought, Berger’s attention to rhetorical practice offers novel ways of parsing the dialogic method itself. In the book’s second half, Berger revisits and revises his earlier accounts of Italian humanism, Elizabethan drama, and Dutch painting. Berger shows how structural misanthropology helps us to read the competitive practices that characterize Renaissance writing and art, whether in Machiavelli’s constitutional prostheses, Shakespeare’s pageants of humiliation, or the elbow jabs of Dutch portraiture.

What is a person? What company do people keep with animals, plants, and things? Such questions—bearing fundamentally on the shared meaning of politics and life—animate Shakespearean drama, yet their urgency has often been obscured. Julia Reinhard Lupton gently dislodges Shakespeare’s plays from their historical confines to pursue their universal implications. From Petruchio’s animals and Kate’s laundry to Hamlet’s friends and Caliban’s childhood, Lupton restages thinking in Shakespeare as an embodied act of consent, cure, and care. Thinking with Shakespeare encourages readers to ponder matters of shared concern with the playwright by their side. Taking her cue from Hannah Arendt, Lupton reads Shakespeare for fresh insights into everything from housekeeping and animal husbandry to biopower and political theology.

“Why are we socialists?” was written by Dr. Joseph Goebbels in 1929. Goebbels was the Minister of Propaganda under Adolf Hitler from 1933-1945. Goebbels has been described in various ways in documentaries that critique Nazism and Fascism. But what did Goebbels actually say when he talked? To find out, come inside his mouth. See what he said. This book examines the actual words of a man who came close to destroying the planet. If we are to discover the minds of Goebbels (and Hitler), we must penetrate behind the thick curtains of superficial evidence which conceal them and the unreliable media intermediaries who have distorted their speeches and writings. For example, “Why are we socialists?” is merely a small section of a larger article authored by Goebbels that is usually titled: “Those Damned Nazis.” However that is not the title that Goebbels’ gave his larger publication. In the German language the title was “Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler” or “Those Damned Hakenkreuzlers.” Goebbels did not use the word “Nazi” in the title nor anywhere within the pamphlet (The revelations in this paragraph were uncovered in the historian Dr. Rex Curry’s work). “Those Damned Nazis” is a deceitful translation that was intended to cover up what Goebbels actually said. This book reproduces the entire text of “Why are we socialists?” As a free bonus, specific examination of Mein Kampf is made for many comparisons. This book is a useful study guide to Hitler's Mein Kampf, whereby what had been a vague plan suddenly was reality, almost to the disbelief of Goebbels and other supporters. Goebbels supported schools so that his deadly dogma could be spread throughout Germany’s educational system. This book is a startling expose' of the origin of Goebbels’ goals. This book reveals that many of Goebbels’ shocking ideas were borrowed from the USA.

McDonald’s started in 1940 in the USA. At that time much of the planet was being terrorized by Stalinization and Hitlerization. German socialism and Soviet socialism had partnered in a pact to divide up Europe, launching World War II, invading Poland together and going onward, leading to the socialist Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part). It was a globalization conspiracy to make everyone in the world as equal as a cog in a collectivist wheel. After the Allies defeated German socialism, Soviet socialism continued the sordid plot on its own. Stalin’s anti-consumption dogma had already starved millions to death under his collectivization of food. His get-poor-quick scheme continued to impoverish multitudes for decades. In contrast, in the USA, McDonald’s began posting the number of hamburgers sold in 1955. The signs over the golden arches said, “over a million served.” Soviet socialists colluded with Chinese socialists (despite Stalin’s earlier experience cooperating with German socialists). The Chinese mimicked Stalin’s one-size-fits-all food bureaucracy. Soon, Mao’s death toll by starvation rivaled Stalin’s. Their bogus “right to free socialized medicine” could not cure stage-4 hunger (not even pain pills nor palliative care was provided). Soviet socialism and Chinese socialism both independently caused cannibalism (think of it as “slow food”; not “fast food”). While McD’s asked “Do you want fries with that?” socialists asked, “Do you want flies with that?” (Due to the lack of reliable electricity and refrigeration). Similar unhappy meals followed the same irrational socialization chaos in other countries. Socialism is a high-mortality dogma. In 1991 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceased to exist because its socialization economy collapsed. In 1993 “The McDonaldization of Society” (by George Ritzer) was published. In the book, Ritzer writes as if he is ignorant that members of Hitler’s group did not call themselves “Nazis,” but called themselves “socialists” and touted “socialism” by the very word in voluminous writings and speeches. In that regard, Ritzer perpetuates widespread ignorance among college students. Ritzer seems ignorant of the death tolls under Stalin and Mao, who also glorified “socialism” voluminously by the very word. It says more about Ritzer than it does about McDonald’s. In 1994 McDonald's stopped counting hamburgers served because the quantity surpassed 99 billion. Today McDonald’s is so loved that it can boast that “billions and billions have been served.” During that same time, socialists can boast that millions and millions have been starved. To death. The USA has avoided many monotonous horrors of collectivization and socialism’s trademark mass starvations. McDonaldization (and other all capitalism) saved us from McStalinization, McHitlerization, McMaoism, and defeated other McSocialization in America. Even so, “The McDonaldization of Society” is used as a textbook in American college classes that bad-mouth capitalism and glorify socialism. Young people are being brainwashed in schools and universities. In how many other ways is the USA being victimized by anti-capitalist propaganda? The USA was the origin of Nazi salutes and Fascist behavior through the propaganda of an American Socialist: Francis Bellamy, author of the USA's Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. America’s Nazi salute was often performed by public officials in the USA from 1892 through 1942 (near McDonald’s start). What happened to old photographs and films of the American Nazi salute performed by federal, state, county, and local officials? Those photos and films are rare because people don't want to know the truth about the government’s past. American youth groups (Scouting) adopted Bellamy's American Nazi salute (with Bellamy’s encouragement) AND saluted swastika badges (卐) worn by fellow scouts. Many Americans were accustomed to “Nazi salutes for swastikas” long before German socialism (and Hitler Youth) adopted similar behavior under Hitler. That helps to explain another shocking revelation: swastikas were promoted in the US military and worn as a patch on the upper left arm of American soldiers in a fashion that would become uniform under German socialism. There are photos in this book!

Delusions are exposed to reveal the following: The Nazi salute was performed by public officials in the USA from 1892 through 1942. What happened to old photographs and films of the American Nazi salute performed by federal, state, county, and local officials? Those photos and films are rare because people don't want to know the truth about the government’s past. Public officials in the USA who preceded the German socialist (Hitler) and the Italian socialist (Mussolini) were sources for the stiff-armed salute (and robotic chanting) in those countries and other foreign countries. Explore how the "ancient Roman salute" myth originated from the city of Rome in the state of New York (not Italy), Francis Bellamy's hometown. Learn about Mussolini's strange gift to the city of Rome, NY: a statue of two human male infants suckling on a female wolf. That statue remains on display in Rome, NY. See how Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts helped spread the Nazi salute and the swastika to Germany and elsewhere. Discover how Stalin was forced to involuntarily join the allies during WWII. Learn how the word "fascist" is related to the word "faggot." Discover how the military salute was the origin of the Nazi salute. Read why the Pledge of Allegiance would not be performed by anyone today (other than kooks) if the truth were taught in school. Find out who you are, what you are, and how you got to be that way. Also learn who you should blame: your teacher (and the government's schools). Debunk myths about Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, Francis Bellamy (and his cousin Edward Bellamy), Fascism, Unionism, Socialism, genocide, swastikas, the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, the cliche' "under God," Christianity, modern crusades, ancient Rome, military socialism, Sovietology, crony socialism, and the military-socialism complex. "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Today" is long awaited. There is an inferior book from 1841 by author Charles Mackay that is outdated. Mackay's book contains noting on the 20th century, nor the 21st century, nor the last half of the 19th century. This book provides the latest information. The author Ian Tinny brings the newest delusions and madness that are here for you today! So, let your freak flag fly! The Pointer Institute proudly presents another news-breaking volume from Ian Tinny and the Dead Writers Club (DWC). Much of the madness is illuminated from the work of the historian Dr. Rex Curry. Tinny is a philologist and a forensic fraud analyst. Tinny's work led to the arrest, trial, conviction, and imprisonment of America's Dumbest Criminals (and the foreclosure of their homes, along with victim restitution liens, and criminal forfeiture judgments, in amounts totaling millions of dollars). Tinny collaborates with the legendary Dead Writer's Club (“DWC” -an author's group) and assists the Pointer Institute for Media Studies to provide remedial education to journalists about history, economics, and government.