"Gegensatz," pronounced "GAY-gun-ZAHTS," is German for "opposition" or "alternative state of affairs."
Eric v.d. Luft, Ph.D., M.L.S., a professional scholar, educator, librarian, and philosopher, founded Gegensatz Press in 1996 to bring durable, high-quality nonfiction works to the public in a way that is (1) hassle-free for the author, (2) economical for the buyer, (3) preservation-conscious for the librarian, and (4) edifying for the reader.
In 2004 Gegensatz Press published its first full-length book, God, Evil, and Ethics: A Primer in the Philosophy of Religion. A sturdy Smyth-sewn paperback costing only $14.95, we intend it to compete with many higher-priced anthologies and introductions to the philosophy of religion. We believe that its content and organization are equal or superior to any of them.
Gegensatz Press publishes philosophy, general nonfiction, popular culture, poetry, humor, and games.
In 1886, in a speech to a group of military physicians, the prominent German philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) rejected the traditional connection between artistic genius and inspired insanity. Here is an English translation of this speech, together with an extensive commentary.
Four lighthearted autobiographical essays: My Life as a Sports Fan. A Boyhood in North Bay, Ontario. My Life as a Bridge Player. How I Became a Librarian.
High school English and theatre teacher Buddy Lee Walter's fictionalized autobiography, Bring Your Own Pencil! The Making of a Teacher, will keep you in stitches while satirizing frustrated teachers, bumbling administrations, stupid bureaucracies, crazy students, troubled students, cool students, and the social conditions which produced all this.
Irreverent political philosophy from the 1840s in a brash, accessible, sarcastic, no-holds-barred style, sometimes anarchist, social democratic, democratic socialist, communist, or libertarian, but thoroughly revolutionary.
Social, political, literary, and cultural criticism and commentary, presented as if it were a humorous conversation between the author and Muhammad Ali.
Key texts in the history of socialist theory and practice. The 28 selections show the spectrum of socialism from democratic liberalism to just short of communism, but do not extend into either mainstream liberalism (the center left) or communism itself (the extreme left).
Manifiesto de 23 puntos de la revolución socialista no violenta, basándose en el legado del Sentido Común de Thomas Paine y otras importantes declaraciones de propósito izquierdistas.
A rollicking contemporary satire of the phrenology of Franz Joseph Gall, with the most extensive bibliography of the first decade of phrenology yet published.
Is figure skating sport or art? Is the judging corrupt? Why has figure skating's popularity gone into a death spiral? These beautiful essays address these questions and more. Informed by the author's training in philosophy and her familiarity with the work of noted dance critics, this book will help you glide effortlessly to a deeper understanding of the mysterious world of figure skating.
This new edition provides an inexpensive, reliable, and textually rigorous digital version of this seminal text in the philosophy of art, Burke's essay on the sublime, which heretofore has been unavailable as an e-book. It includes corrections, expansions, accurate citations, a 6350-word historical/philosophical introduction, bibliographies, and English translations of foreign language quotations.
The main point is to argue that suicide ought not automatically to be seen as an expression of despair, but that some people have non-despondent, creative, altruistic, unselfish, or advantageous reasons for doing themselves in. The ancients knew this. Our culture has lost this insight in the meantime. Luft wants to recover it.
Brutal, filthy, no-holds-barred imagist poems that use sarcastic honesty, existential tension, and occasional humor to paint stark portraits of the hypocrisy, desperation, loneliness, delusion, and squalor of the substance abuse world.
A 23-point manifesto of nonviolent socialist revolution, building on the legacy of Thomas Paine's Common Sense and other important leftist statements of purpose.
Self-help for conquering stress, anxiety, and fear.
"The Desensitization Hierarchy Method,
described in this book, is a tool for managing
change, but its users will always be in charge of
deciding both what changes they want to make,
and how much they want to do at any one time.
The method is a bit like an automobile, a means
of travel, the driver deciding where to go, and
at what speed."
Andrew Loog Oldham was the original manager of the Rolling Stones, created their image, and made Mick Jagger and Keith Richards into songwriters. Without Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones would not have become "The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World." This is his story.
"There are few books that will both revolutionize your life and also make you laugh so hard that you will nearly choke to death on a peanut while flying from Boston to Cleveland. This is one of those books."
-- Jay Wexler, author of Holy Hullabaloos: A Road Trip to the Battlegrounds of the Church/State Wars (2009).