In this incisive book, Michel de Certeau considers the uses to which social representation and modes of social behavior are put by individuals and groups, describing the tactics available to the common man for reclaiming his own autonomy from the all-pervasive forces of commerce, politics, and culture. In exploring the public meaning of ingeniously defended private meanings, de Certeau draws brilliantly on an immense theoretical literature to speak of an apposite use of imaginative literature.

The late Michel de Certeau was Directeur d' Études at the Ecole des Hautes Études et Sciences Sociales in Paris and Visiting Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of California, San Diego.