The Production of Space／by Lefebvre

Henri Lefebvre has considerable claims to be the greatest living philosopher. His work spans some sixty years and includes original work on a diverse range of subjects, from dialectical materialism to architecture, urbanism and the experience of everyday life. The Production of Space is his major philosophical work and its translation has been long awaited by scholars in many different fields. The book is a search for a reconciliation between mental space (the space of the philosophers) and real space (the physical and social spheres in which we all live). In the course of his exploration, Henri Lefebvre moves from metaphysical and ideological considerations of the meaning of space to its experience in the everyday life of home and city. He seeks, in other words, to bridge the gap between the realms of theory and practice, between the mental and the social, and between philosophy and reality. In doing so, he ranges through art, literature, architecture and economics, and further provides a powerful antidote to the sterile and obfuscatory methods and theories characteristic of much recent continental philosophy. This is a work of great vision and incisiveness. It is also characterized by its author's wit and by anecdote, as well as by a deftness of style which Donald Nicholson-Smith's sensitive translation precisely captures.

An extraordinary work of interdisciplinary speculation on the creation and meaning of social environments. Combining philosophy, aesthetic theory, social criticism, and the social sciences, Lefebvre reflects on vast expanses. Lefebvre's use of "space" reflects in part the concerns of ecologists, urban planners, and anthropologists. If what Lefebvre means by "space" is ultimately nebulous, he is convincing about the need for an idea both more and less than "world View," "form of life," or "culture." Familiar topics of cultural history Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages, the rise of capitalism, urbanization and modernism (Picasso and Bauhaus architecture) are discussed with fresh insight. Signs and semiotics appear often. Marx (with an emphasis on the non-economic, Hegelian side) is the greatest influence, but there is no hint of doctrinaire Marxism. Other frequently discussed figures include Barthes, Hegel, Heidegger, Kant, Kristeva, and Nietzsche. The afterword by geographer David Harvey (The Limit to Capital, CH, Mar'83) is a good, brief, intellectual biography of Lefebvre, an important French intellectual for over 60 years. The book reads very naturally; one is unaware of the translator except for judicious notes. D. Christie; University of New Hampshire

Descriptive content provided by Syndetics™, a Bowker service.