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Read the Introduction

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aDiane Rubenstein is without rival in her brilliant use of psychoanalytic theory for political science. No one since Michael Rogin has written so incisively about the American presidency and American popular culture. This Is Not a President radically transforms one's understanding of American political discourse.a--Anne Norton, University of Pennsylvania

In This Is Not a President, Diane Rubenstein looks at the postmodern presidency -- from Reagan and George H. W. Bush, through the current administration, and including Hillary. Focusing on those seemingly inexplicable gaps or blind spots in recent American presidential politics, Rubenstein interrogates symptomatic moments in political rhetoric, popular culture, and presidential behavior to elucidate profound and disturbing changes in the American presidency and the way it embodies a national imaginary.

In a series of essays written in real time over the past four presidential administrations, Rubenstein traces the vernacular use of the American presidency (as currency, as grist for popular biography, as fictional TV material) to explore the ways in which the American presidency functions as a atransitional objecta that allows the American citizen to meet or discover the president while going about her everyday life. The book argues that it is French theory -- primarily Lacanian psychoanalysis and the radical semiotic theories of Jean Baudrillard -- that best accounts for American political life today. Through episodes as diverse as Iran Contra, George H. W. Bush vomiting in Japan, the 1992 Republican convention, the failednomination of Lani Guinier, and the Iraq War, This Is Not a President brilliantly situates our collective investment in American political culture.

This book is a major reassessment of Michael Weinstein's political philosophy. It situates his singular contribution, designated as "critical vitalism," in the context of both canonical American and contemporary continental theory. Weinstein is presented as a philosopher of life and as an American Nietzsche. Yet the contributors also persuasively argue for this form of thinking as a prescient prophecy addressing contemporary society's concern over the management of life as well as the technological changes that both threaten and sustain intimacy. This is the first full scale study of Weinstein's work which reveals surprising aspects of a philosophic journey that has encompassed most of the major American (pragmatic or vitalist) or Continental (phenomenological or existential) traditions. Weinstein is read as a comparative political theorist, a precursor to post-structuralism, and as a post-colonial border theorist. A different aspect of his oeuvre is highlighted in each of the book's three sections. The opening essays comprising the "Action" diptych contrasts meditative versus extrapolative approaches; "Contemplation" stages a series of encounters between Weinstein and his philosophic interlocutors; "Vitalism" presents Weinstein as a teacher, media analyst, musician, and performance artist. The book contains an epilogue written by Weinstein in response to the contributors.

This book explores the oeuvre of Michael Weinstein, one of the greatest political philosophers in contemporary American and continental thought. The essays are divided between inspirational pieces that illuminate the links between Weinstein and authors within the canon of political theory and reflective pieces that use Weinstein's substantial writings to push the literature forward. The collection as a whole is intended not only to argue for a reengagement with both existential-phenomenology and vitalism, but also to suggest that Weinstein belongs in the canon of poststructural political thought.

Divided into two parts, experts begin by looking to the past to the philosophical roots of Weinstein's critical vitalism. By linking Weinstein to thinkers such as Thoreau, Stirner, and James, the authors provide the foundation for Weinstein as straddling both the American and continental philosophical traditions. In the second part, they push Weinstein's work forward in considering the breadth of Weinstein's influence. From Pathak's examination of lived v. perceived authenticity to Kroker's exploration of the demise of American posthumanity and Oprisko's blending of philosophy with physics to argue for a social string theory, Weinstein's influence pushes boundaries and refuses to accept any status quo.

Original and insightful, this book is a valuable and major contribution to the fields of continental and American philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, social theory, political theory, anarchist theory, and vitalism.

View the Table of Contents
Read the Introduction

Read The Chronicle of Higher Ed Author Interview

aDiane Rubenstein is without rival in her brilliant use of psychoanalytic theory for political science. No one since Michael Rogin has written so incisively about the American presidency and American popular culture. This Is Not a President radically transforms one's understanding of American political discourse.a--Anne Norton, University of Pennsylvania

In This Is Not a President, Diane Rubenstein looks at the postmodern presidency -- from Reagan and George H. W. Bush, through the current administration, and including Hillary. Focusing on those seemingly inexplicable gaps or blind spots in recent American presidential politics, Rubenstein interrogates symptomatic moments in political rhetoric, popular culture, and presidential behavior to elucidate profound and disturbing changes in the American presidency and the way it embodies a national imaginary.

In a series of essays written in real time over the past four presidential administrations, Rubenstein traces the vernacular use of the American presidency (as currency, as grist for popular biography, as fictional TV material) to explore the ways in which the American presidency functions as a atransitional objecta that allows the American citizen to meet or discover the president while going about her everyday life. The book argues that it is French theory -- primarily Lacanian psychoanalysis and the radical semiotic theories of Jean Baudrillard -- that best accounts for American political life today. Through episodes as diverse as Iran Contra, George H. W. Bush vomiting in Japan, the 1992 Republican convention, the failednomination of Lani Guinier, and the Iraq War, This Is Not a President brilliantly situates our collective investment in American political culture.

A political history of writing in France during the interwar period and under the Occupation. Rubinstein argues that the prevalent leftist depiction of the ENS-the training ground "par excellence" of the French intellectual-is symptomatically inaccurate in its repression of the role of writing in the construction of the political subject. Through a deconstructive reading of the ENS as text, Rubinstein resituates the ENS's intellectual discourse within the literary politics of the right. "Normalien" discourse is seen to articulate analogous concepts of superiority, hierarchy, and exclusion. This twinning of principles of political and textual authority is developed through analyses of publishing networks of the thirties and the post-war trial sentencing of intellectuals.