{"title":"Porcupine Press","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"fifteen-days-in-the-wilderness-1","title":"Fifteen Days in the Wilderness","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE\u003c\/strong\u003e is best known for having written a brilliant and prescient study of the emerging American democracy, its politics and form of government, its economics, demographics, and attitudes, in short, almost everything that could be known about this new country and the character of the new man, the 'American.' \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis book is, of course, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eDemocracy in America\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, the first volume of which was published in France in 1835. Arguably, few have ever seen America and the Americans with quite so much insight. Tocqueville gained his understanding of the new country and its inhabitants through the experience of a nine-month trip to North America in 1831, when the American republic was about fifty years old. Tocqueville was just twenty-five when he made this trip, a fact that makes his great intellectual accomplishment, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eDemocracy in America\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, all the more impressive. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eFifteen Days in the Wilderness\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a journal that he kept during a two-week side trip to the Lower Michigan peninsula. It is a charming, ironic, and vivid picture of America before it was the country we know today: an America of virgin forests and of Native American culture, both at the point of being overwhelmed by the steady advance of European 'civilization.' It was Tocqueville's understanding of the precarious condition of both the wilderness and its native inhabitants that inspired him to undertake his journey to Saginaw.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Porcupine Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41321645703318,"sku":"9780990859741","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/products\/img_proxy_fc16db60-f7de-48e7-9c08-60dc239b9531.jpg?v=1642160832"},{"product_id":"leaving-my-self-behind-1","title":"Leaving My Self Behind","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe author started life with every advantage. Behind the façade of wealth, however, there was a psychologically abusive mother whose unconscious agendas might have done lasting damage had he not resisted. In these pages, he describes that childhood. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen he reached his majority, he set out to find new ways of thinking and new places to live. The life that resulted, a somewhat disheveled improvisation, included, after intensive psychotherapy, the Army, farming, and ten years as the director of an environmental lobbying organization in New Mexico. The latter experience included encounters with the mafia. He had loves, business failures, and survived cancer. He has written five books of poetry, one of which,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e The Plain of Smokes\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, was critically acclaimed. In the background, his birth family, once among the most distinguished in California, disintegrated. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePersonal experience combined with engagement with the events of his times -- WWII, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, the Hippies, and the political crises of the nineties and beyond -- gradually produced a coherent world-view. In 2006, disillusioned by the reelection of George W. Bush, he moved to France, from which vantage, he reflects on what he has made of himself and what has happened to America. The narrative ends with the Trump presidency.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Porcupine Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41321645768854,"sku":"9780990859710","price":23.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/products\/img_proxy_9855f85e-356f-43fa-b59d-1f961ac795ef.jpg?v=1642160836"},{"product_id":"spinozas-dog-1","title":"Spinoza's Dog","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHarvey Mudd's first published poem was written in 1960. The last poem in this book was written in 2016. In the intervening 55 years, he wrote four books of poetry, two of which were published by Black Sparrow Press of Santa Barbara. One was short listed for the \u003cem\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/em\u003e poetry book of the year. During that period, he was a farmer in Northern New Mexico, the director of an Environmental organization, and a painter. The cover illustration is a painting by Mudd. He traveled extensively, was always active in politics, and raised three children. He has lived in New Mexico, old Mexico, Vermont, New York City, and Massachusetts. When George W. Bush was elected for a second term, he moved to the south of France, where he still lives. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cspan\u003eThis volume contains poems selected from the previous four published books, but the majority are poems written between 2009 and the present. 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Hudson, the poems are a vivid portrait of the poet, his friends and lovers, and the Roman port of Gades in first century A.D.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt would be a stunning discovery, except that Herennius, Glabbis, Paccia, the scholars who studied the scrolls, and the translator never existed. Author Jim Levy has populated an authentic and historically accurate first century Roman port city with fictitious characters.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJim Levy\u003c\/strong\u003e was born in Los Angeles and educated at Pomona College. He spent most of his life working in the public or non-profit sector. He was for a time the director of a museum and library owned by the University of New Mexico. He has written for most of his life but only recently begun to publish.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Porcupine Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41321646162070,"sku":"9780990859703","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/products\/img_proxy_8f0ccf77-7d1d-4bd5-8216-4f1652ee559f.jpg?v=1642160886"}],"url":"https:\/\/itascabooks.com\/collections\/porcupine-press.oembed","provider":"Itasca Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}