A Thousand Plateaus

A Thousand Plateaus (1980) is a book by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. It forms the second part of their Capitalism and Schizophrenia duo (the first part being Anti-Œdipus). This book is written as a series of "plateaus", a concept derived from Gregory Bateson, each identified by a particular date and title. Each refers to a peculiar age or date in which the state described in each plateau had a central role in the world. The book reflects Deleuze and Guattari's rejection of hierarchical (arborescent) organization in favor of less structured, "rhizomatic" growth. The nomadic war machine is opposed to the state apparatus. In the last plateau the noosphere is invoked.