So begins Beginnings, a scintillating work of criticism by Edward W. Said, author of Orientalism, The Question of Palestine, and other seminal works, and one of the most lauded public intellectuals of our time. Tracing humankind’s diverse understandings of what it means to begin throughout history, Said argues that “beginning” is itself a method, the first step in the creation of meaning. It’s what sparks a break  from preexisting tradition, and it’s what authorizes new texts to be.

As ever, Said insists on a criticism that is both humane and socially responsible. Beginnings is about much more than writing: it is about imagination and action as well as the constraints on freedom and invention that come from achieving human intention. The result is a classic and necessary treatise on the role of the intellectual and the worth of criticism.