Jean Baudrillard was perhaps the most controversial of all social and cultural theorists. He has been variously vilified as a 'postmodernist', an 'overrated French theorist' and one of the 'intellectual imposters'. His comments on 9/11, Abu Ghraib and Europe's suburban riots have been eagerly sought and digested, and there is now a chance to read Baudrillard's texts in an overall historical, social and political context and for a cool re-assessment to be made of his life and work, after his death. This book concentrates on what Baudrillard has written over five decades and the order in which...