In this book Bokina focuses on political aspects and meanings of operas from the baroque to the postmodern period, showing the varied ways that operas become sensuous vehicles for the articulation of political ideas. "What fascinates Bokina about opera in this gratifying and overdue inquiry is not its soprano rivalries nor its musical particularities, but its political commentary and social function. Indeed, the author raises many new questions about some of the most frequently studied masterpieces of the genre. . . . At least a dozen operas figure into this provocative and original analysis,...

Marcuse brings back to center stage one of the most celebrated and controversial philosophers of the turbulent 1960s, the man Time magazine called the "guru of the New Left."

In Reason and Revolution, Eros and Civilization, One-Dimensional Man, and other notable works, Herbert Marcuse crystallized the essence of counterculture philosophy. His neo-Marxist critique of Western capitalism was widely embraced by revolutionaries, "hippies," and an entire generation of academics who condemned political, economic, and sexual repression in American society. So complete was...