100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Enjoy overnight NZ-wide delivery from our NZ-owned independent bookstore! 🎉

Class

By Andrea Cavalletti
Series: The Italian List
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.73 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating. ( 22 ratings, 1 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Class by Andrea Cavalletti revisits Walter Benjamin's 1936 definition of the revolutionary class, opposed to fearful crowds marked by anti-Semitic madness. Through a striking montage of diverse influences, including Marx, Jules Verne, Benjamin, and Gabriel Tarde, the book examines the resurgence of hatred towards minorities and questions the relevance of the concept of class in today's climate of rising state racism and new pogroms. Cavalletti ultimately challenges readers to imagine a transformative movement capable of unsettling and destroying the dangerous crowd.
Read More
Format: Hardback
$3999
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 3-4 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This thought-provoking work suits readers interested in social theory, political philosophy, and contemporary cultural studies, especially those exploring concepts of class, crowd psychology, and racism.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Originally published as Classe; Torino [Turin]: Bollati Boringhieri editore, Ã2009.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

In 1936, Walter Benjamin defined the revolutionary class as being in opposition to a dense and dangerous crowd, prone to fear of the foreign, and under the spell of anti-Semitic madness. Today, in formations great or small, that sad figure returns—the hatred of minorities is rekindled and the pied-pipers of the crowd stand triumphant.

Class, by Andrea Cavalletti, is a striking montage of diverse materials—Marx and Jules Verne, Benjamin and Gabriel Tarde. In it, Cavalletti asks whether the untimely concept of class is once again thinkable. Faced with new pogroms and state racism, he challenges us to imagine a movement that would unsettle and eventually destroy the crowd.

Series: The Italian List

View all
  • Rain's Falling Up
    A beautifully crafted novel set in the late 1960s and 1970s Italy, a tempestuous period that shaped the lives of generations to come in many countries. What was it really like to be a teenager growing up in Italy in the 1970s, during a time it has become all too easy to file away under “years of lead,” as the...
    By Luca Rastello
    Hardback
    $5299
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The World Machine
    A vivid and unforgettable novelistic portrait of rural Italy, exploring the nature of reality and the human condition. A small-time farmer living in central Italy in the 1960s is the keeper of a great truth: that people are machines built by other beings who are machines themselves. Our true destiny is to build ever-better machines so that society can become...
    By Paolo Volponi
    Hardback
    $4799
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Taste
    Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben takes a close look at why the sense of taste has not historically been appreciated as a means to know and experience pleasure, or why it has always been considered inferior to actual theoretical knowledge. Taste, Agamben argues, is a category that has much to reveal to the contemporary world. Taking a step into the history...
    By Giorgio Agamben
    Paperback
    $2899
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Human Voice
    An inquiry into the origins of language and articulation, exploring how the transformation of the human voice shaped history, politics, and thought. What does it mean to have a voice—and how does it shape what it means to be human? In The Human Voice, Giorgio Agamben embarks on a profound exploration of how the human voice transforms from mere sound...
    By Giorgio Agamben
    Hardback
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • As Cruel as Anyone Else
    Reveals a dark chapter in the Italian government's colonial history that has been largely hidden from view. Between the end of the nineteenth century and over the first half of the twentieth, Italy invaded and occupied the Horn of Africa, Libya, and several other territories. Yet recognition of this history of colonial destruction, racist violence, and genocidal aerial and chemical...
    By Angelo Del Boca
    Paperback
    $5299
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Nymphs
    Agamben is the rare writer whose ideas and works have a broad appeal across many fields, and Nymphs will engage not only the author's devoted fans in philosophy, legal theory, sociology, and literary criticism but also his growing audience among art theorists and historians as well. In 1900, art historians André Jolles and Aby Warburg constructed an experimental dialogue in...
    By Giorgio Agamben
    Paperback
    $2899
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Self-Portrait in the Studio
    A rare autobiographical glimpse into the life and influences of one of Europe's greatest living philosophers. This book's title, Self-Portrait in the Studio—a familiar iconographic subject in the history of painting—is intended to be taken literally: the book is a self-portrait, but one that comes into view for the reader only by way of patient scrutiny of the images, photographs,...
    By Giorgio Agamben
    Hardback
    $4799
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Spartakus
    On December 29, 1918, the Spartakus League, a Marxist revolutionary movement, rose up in Germany calling for an end to class rule by the bourgeoisie. Massive demonstrations followed, and more than 500,000 Berliners took to the streets in January—only to be crushed by police and anticommunist paramilitary troops. Several leaders of the League were killed, and the revolt was quashed....
    By Furio Jesi
    Paperback
    $3599
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Studiolo
    A brief study of select Western art from Italy's foremost philosopher. In Renaissance palaces, the studiolo was a small room to which the prince withdrew to meditate or read, surrounded by paintings he particularly loved. This book is a kind of studiolo for its author, Giorgio Agamben, as he turns his philosophical lens on the world of Western art. Studiolo...
    By Giorgio Agamben
    Paperback
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Idea of World
    A philosophical exploration of what capitalistic societies truly mean for the individual. A short vade mecum for unrepentant materialism, The Idea of World collects three essays by Italian philosopher Paolo Virno that are intricately wrapped around one another. The first essay, “Mundanity,” attempts to clarify what the term “world,” as referred to as the perceptual and historical context of our...
    By Paolo Virno
    Paperback
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Kingdom and the Garden
    In a tour-de-force reinterpretation of the Christian tradition, Agamben shows that the Garden of Eden has always served as a symbol for humanity's true nature. What happened to paradise after Adam and Eve were expelled? The question may sound like a theological quibble, or even a joke, but in The Kingdom and the Garden, Giorgio Agamben uses it as a...
    By Giorgio Agamben
    Paperback
    $3199
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Unrealizable
    A patient, genealogical investigation of the dichotomies that are foundational to the Western philosophical tradition. We are so used to distinguishing between the possible and the real, between essence and existence, that we do not realise these distinctions, which seem so obvious to us, are the result of a long and laborious process that has led to the splitting of...
    By Giorgio Agamben
    Hardback
    $5499
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780857424372

Publisher: Seagull Books London Ltd

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 08 November 2019

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Seagull Books London Ltd

Contributors:

  • Edited by Alberto Toscano
  • Translated by Elisa Fiaccadori

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 2.0mm

Width: 13.0mm

Height: 22.0mm

Weight: 340g

Pages: 136

Collections

Andrea Cavalletti Arts & Culture Non-Fiction Series: The Italian List

About the Author

Andrea Cavalletti is professor of aesthetics and contemporary literature at the IUAV University of Venice. He is the author of Suggestion: Power and Limit of Political Fascination and The Biopolitical City: Mythologies of Security. Elisa Fiaccadori is an independent researcher and translator.

Also by Andrea Cavalletti

View all
  • The Immemorial
    A thought-provoking exploration of the fragility of bourgeois identity. Vienna, 1825. News of a sickly, listless boy is making the rounds. In broad daylight, he falls into deep sleep and his personality changes dramatically. While sleeping, he reads, writes, plays cards, challenges his doctors with amusement, and accomplishes the most astonishing of exercises with his eyes closed. A new subject...
    By Andrea Cavalletti
    Paperback
    $5199
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks

More from Arts & Culture

View all
  • Dylan's Pick
    Bold Types
    A tribute to 32 truly independent bookshops throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, from north of Auckland down to Dunedin, and coast to coast. Jane Ussher's photographs show every bookstore in its unique nature - including behind the counter, smoko rooms, the mess which tells the hardworking story behind the joy of matching books with customers. Jemma Moreira's careful editing has crafted...
    By Jane Ussher
    Hardback
    $5999
    Elsewhere:
    $7000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Disney Moana: The Official Cookbook
    New Release
    Disney Moana: The Official Cookbook
    Embark on a culinary adventure with Moana of Motunui with Pacific recipes inspired by Moana and Moana 2! After a long day of sailing to see how far you’ll go or keeping the demigod Maui out of trouble with Te Fiti, catch a break with the delicious dishes in Moana: The Official Cookbook! Featuring more than 50 recipes spanning the...
    By Monique Fiso
    Hardback
    $4499
    Elsewhere:
    $5299
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Did I Ever Tell You This?
    In this unexpected memoir, written in a creative burst of just a few months in 2022, Sam Neill tells the story of how he became one of the world’s most celebrated actors, who has worked with everyone from Meryl Streep to Isabel Adjani, from Jeff Goldblum to Sean Connery, from Steven Spielberg to Jane Campion. By his own account, his...
    By Sam Neill
    Paperback
    $3799
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • This Angry Pen of Mine
    This Angry Pen of Mine by Layne Staley invites you to dive into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice behind Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more. Step into the world of Layne Staley like never before. For the...
    By Layne Staley
    Hardback
    $7299
    Elsewhere:
    $8999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Odyssey
    Composed at the rosy-fingered dawn of world literature almost three millennia ago, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty and power; about marriage and family; about travellers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. This fresh, authoritative translation captures the beauty of this ancient poem as well as the drama of its narrative....
    By Homer
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3599
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • They Bloom Because of You
    Bestselling author and Instagram sensation Jessica Urlichs returns with a new collection of beautifully observed poems about the ever-evolving journey of motherhood - the hard, the magic and the fleeting. ‘A raw and honest read that makes you feel seen and understood in a way that will bring you to tears.’ - Hilary Swank ‘A book to keep close and...
    By Jessica Urlichs
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3600
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    14% off
    Leaves of Grass
    A collectible new Penguin Classics series offers beautiful, slim, clothbound editions of ten favourite poets. In 1855, Walt Whitman published his first collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass. The volume received great praise from leading Transcendentalist poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. This encouragement led to what would become a lifelong project, as Whitman expanded and rewrote the volume until his death...
    By Walt Whitman
    Hardback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Great Writers and the Cats who Owned Them
    Throughout history, cats and writers have bonded together in a magical combination of comfort, companionship and inspiration. The famous authors featured here range from Samuel Johnson, whose cat Hodge dined on oysters, and Edward Lear, whose charismatic cat Foss was missing half his tail, to Margaret Mitchell, L. M. Montgomery and Dorothy L. Sayers, who rescued her kitten Blitz from...
    By Susannah Fullerton
    Hardback
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Beautiful Chaos
    The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller Selected poems from bestselling author and Instagram poet, Jessica Urlichs. 'These words awaken the magic of life by celebrating the ordinary.' - Giovanna Fletcher Motherhood is messy and beautiful, and hard and humbling. We adore our children and sometimes we miss ourselves. Beautiful Chaos is a collection of raw, honest poems about motherhood, capturing everything...
    By Jessica Urlichs
    Paperback
    $2900
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Iliad
    When Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey appeared in 2017—revealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that was "fresh, unpretentious and lean" (Madeline Miller, Washington Post)—critics lauded it as "a revelation" (Susan Chira, New York Times) and "a cultural landmark" (Charlotte Higgins, Guardian) that would forever change how Homer is read in English. Now Wilson has returned with an...
    By Homer
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Wreck This Journal: Now in Colour
    The creative journey continues with Wreck This Journal: Now in Colour by Keri Smith, the latest and most vibrant edition of the groundbreaking series that redefined journaling. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, this edition brings the playful destructiveness of the original to life in dazzling full colour, adding a dynamic new dimension to the beloved prompts. Whether you're a seasoned Wreck-er,...
    By Keri Smith
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Thousand Feasts
    THE INSTANT #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER From award-winning writer Nigel Slater, comes a new and exquisitely written collection of notes, memoir, stories and small moments of joy. 'Nigel Slater’s prose is the rarest delicacy of all: exquisite yet effortless, filled with heart, tenderness, yearning and humour' ELIZABETH DAY For years, Nigel Slater has kept notebooks of curiosities and wonderings, penned...
    By Nigel Slater
    Paperback
    $2999
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

The Latest at Book Hero

View all