Michel Foucault in Death Valley.

It happened in 1975 when Michel Foucault spent a weekend in Southern California at the invitation of Simeon Wade. Foucault, one of the brightest stars of 20th-century philosophy, at the peak of his fame, gave a lecture to graduate students, after which he agreed to embark on one of the most memorable journeys of his life. Led by Wade and his friend, Foucault first experimented with psychotropic substances; by morning he was crying and declaring that he had discovered the truth.

"Michel Foucault in Death Valley" is a story about those long weekends. Captivating and humorous prose immerses the reader in the subversive circles of the Claremont intelligentsia: parties in Wade's bungalow, rich dialogues between Foucault and his students in a Taoist utopia in the Los Angeles forest; and, of course, the legendary trip to Death Valley. Between the search for higher consciousness and the pleasure of revelry, this book tells the story of a blossoming friendship between a young man and one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century.