The American Politics of French Theory: Derrida, Deleuze, Guattari, and Foucault in Translation

"Demers treats the relationship between French theory and American politics as associative and dynamic rather than as causal and linear. He writes deftly across cultures and established narratives, linking texts to politics both empirically and imaginatively – a difficult undertaking that involves managing an extensive secondary as well as primary literature."

Carolyn J. Dean, Yale University, H-France Review

“Demers’ book provides a new and stimulating perspective on thinkers who, to many of us, have become all too familiar.” Michael C. Behrent, Appalachian State University, Journal of Modern History

"The American Politics of French Theory offers not only a rethinking of 'French theory' as a Franco-American formation, but it demonstrates how we cannot and indeed should not think of a series of events and texts independently from the radical political movements of the 1960s and 1970s."

David Pettersen, Associate Professor, Department of French and Italian, University of Pittsburgh

"Analyzing the interconnected spaces of New York activism in the 1960s, which both inspired and transformed the work of French thinkers like Deleuze and Guattari, The American Politics of French Theory takes you on a fascinating journey crossing in and out of disciplines, and across the Atlantic. By reconstructing this neglected counter-narrative, Jason Demers makes an extremely valuable contribution to the literature on French theory in America."

Edward Baring, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Drew University

"The American Politics of French Theory makes an extraordinary contribution to history, philosophy, and literary studies. In many ways, we have been waiting for such a work for a long time. It addresses the fundamental, unsolved mystery of how French theory developed at the crossroads of French intellectual culture and American cultural politics."

Julian Bourg, Associate Professor, Department of History, Boston College