This book is the first full-length study of Certeau's thought, designed as a guide to draw out not only the exceptional range but the overall coherence of his oeuvre. The author focuses on those intertexts that work most powerfully in Certeau's major writings: contemporary French historiography, the writings of early modern mystics and travelers, Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu, Freud, the linguistics of "utterance," and a broad spectrum of work on contemporary cultural practices.