'Brent Adkins has provided a great service to scholars, teachers and students with this very clear, precise, and insightful work. I will definitely use it in my courses and have every reason to recommend it to other teachers as well as to professionals looking for an overview of Deleuze and Guattari's complex and difficult text.'
Professor John Protevi, Louisiana State University

A guide to Deleuze and Guattari's masterwork, A Thousand Plateaus

The sheer volume and complexity of Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus can be daunting. What is an assemblage? What is a rhizome? What is a war machine? What is a body without organs? What is becoming-animal? Brent Adkins demonstrates that all the questions raised by A Thousand Plateaus are in service to Deleuze and Guattari's radical reconstruction of the methods and aims of philosophy itself.

To achieve this he argues that the crucial term for understanding A Thousand Plateaus is 'assemblage'. An assemblage is Deleuze and Guattari's answer to the perennial philosophical question 'What is a thing?', and they assert that assemblages are always found on a continuum between stasis and change. Using clear language and numerous examples, each chapter analyzes an individual plateau and examines the tendencies toward both stasis and change for each assemblage found there - whether it be social, political, psychological, musical, biological or linguistic.

This book will appeal to teachers of the text or anyone wanting to engage with it at a deeper level.

Key Features
. Explains all the major terms found in A Thousand Plateaus
. Each chapter corresponds to a 'plateau' for ease of reference
. Provides a singular interpretation of the work in terms of assemblages and connects that interpretation with traditional and contemporary debates within philosophy

Brent Adkins is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Roanoke College.

Cover image: Maranta leuconeura © Mary Sue Ittner

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