Bollywood’s India

Rachel Dwyer is Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema at SOAS, University of London. She is the author of Filming the Gods: Religion and Indian Cinema (2006) and Bollywood's India: Hindi Cinema as a Guide to Contemporary India (Reaktion, 2014). And, with Divia Patel Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film (Reaktion, 2002)

"Bollywood’s India offers an interesting read for observing changes in India through Bollywood films with themes such as unity, diversity, religion, emotions and homeworld . . . This book is highly recommended to those who are interested in exploring modern India and her Indianness through Hindi films, but it also gives a background to the changes that have emerged over the years to build what India is today and alludes to what it might become tomorrow." - South Asian Popular Culture"I was gripped by Sandy Nairne’s matter-of-fact but hair-raising account of the efforts to reclaim the two Turners" - Philip Hensher, Books of the Year, The Spectator"This book is the first and so far the only monographic exploration of the historically omnipresent and continuing tension between an externally imposed regionalism and three internally generated national identities in which the Baltic concept is perhaps useful in times of crises but not descriptive of their sense of self it is also the first to explore in great detail the difference between substance and image in the region . . . very satisfying to read . . . [a] well-written and informative essay" - History"It could hardly be more timely, and its wonderful material is bound to provoke . . . reflection." - The Independent"A brilliant analysis of the ambiguous boundaries that separate and bind humans and animals" - The Irish Times"[a] smart little monograph that ranges across a wide variety of related topics, including the ethics of using animals in entertainment . . . Eccentric, but nonetheless intriguing" - Empire"Bird has benefited from extensive archival research and he illuminates Tarkovsky’s career in sharp detail . . . His range of references, from classical Russian literature and philosophy to contemporary video art, is wide and refreshing, often triggering new reactions to films that are in danger of passive veneration . . . this is a richly argued and referenced case for Tarkovsky as heir to the symbolists’ quest for spiritual enlightenment." - Sight and Sound"Pezeu-Massabuau artfully pulls on the thread of discomfort as a unifying them for understanding everything from individualism to the importance of uncomfortable architecture in Japan . . . his critique of a contemporary culture of comfort and his practical considerations on how to fit discomfort into a life are interesting and provocative. Recommended." - Choice"Fear is a powerful emotion. It can save lives. But it also robs us of our freedom and undermines that essential social glue: trust. Bertrand Russell once said that to conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. Svendsen agrees. In this brief yet wide-ranging and insightful book, he argues convincingly that we need to replace the risk society with a culture of hope and trust." - The Guardian"[a] sparkling work . . . what we find in Connors book is a series of historical, sociological, metaphysical and existential reflections on intriguing but often neglected aspects of sport . . . Connor does not, it seems, try to persuade us of any grand thesis about sport, yet he rarely fails to illuminate . . . there is plenty here to fascinate." - TLS"When an investigation into boredom is done well, as it is in A Philosophy of Boredom . . . it is positively gripping." - Times Literary Supplement"[An] authoritative account . . . if you're intrigued with writing’s past, Fischer’s book is well worth a read . . . a brilliant book." - New Scientist"The WikiLeaks saga may have drawn us into new, and scary, galaxies of cyberspace, but this survey of the online story so far offers a handy catch-up that will prove a boon to geeks and dabblers alike." - I (The Independent)"This book is a bold and thought-provoking work that should be read by all serious students of Myanmar. It offers a major reinterpretation of Myanmar history, in part by relating broad historical trends to more recent developments." - Dr Andrew Selth, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies"An ambitious, innovative and remarkably wide-ranging survey by a historian of formidable breadth." - BBC History Magazine".the sheer catholicism of its sources is thought-provoking, allowing the reader to engage with the multitudinous facets that are involved in the construction of national identity . . . a lively contribution on an urgent issue." - H-net reviews"Jeremy Black has done it again: elegant, lucid and compellingly interesting . . . For anyone interested in our current predicament, this book is a must." - Rt Hon. Oliver Letwin MP"Paul Mattick says the recession isn&#39t just a financial crisis it manifests a truth about the socioeconomic system in which we live." - Irish Times"Shortlisted for the Sir Banister Fletcher Award 2008" - Award"This excellent addition to the Critical Lives series is, says Paul Bishop, a biography of Jung in books In particular, Bishop locates Jung in a philosophical and literary context, demonstrating how deeply and profoundly Jung belongs to a broader stream of thought in German culture. For Jung, his library was his laboratory and so this approach is especially valuable in revealing the significance of analytical psychology as a cultural project . . . a wonderfully rich intellectual biography." - The Guardian"According to a brief but brilliant new book by the British sociologist Chris Rojek, democracy (or capitalism) simply cannot operate properly without celebrity . . . Rojeks most original insight is that people have been wanting this ever since the 18th century. He brilliantly rereads Samuel Smiless Self-Help as a manual on the virtues of the celebrity." - The Independent"captures with astonishing detail the sounds, smells, street dynamics and customs of the city . . . [Golia's] book offers an immersive experience that will prepare you for Cairo’s intensity and bustle." - Yasmine El-Rashidi, New York Times"Keith Lilleys excellent new book takes as its theme the idea of the city as it was played out, performed and remediated in medieval culture . . . The book, like the urban forms it describes, is impressively far-reaching, beautifully designed and richly illustrated." - Urban History"Written in a clear and accessible style . . . It is also exceptionally well-illustrated . . . In extending their analysis to extra-filmic discourses, Dwyer and Patel show how movie imagery permeates into the wider culture and society." - Film International"a gentle, firm, lucid tracking-down of the greatest ever movie essayist . . . There could not be a better introduction." - David Thomson, The Week"John Rennie Short has trawled through many dusty travel journals and pored over his share of early maps in order to reconstruct this fascinating cultural collision. His book ranges widely, from the cartographic artefacts of pre-Columbian civilisation (maps insribed on birch bark or carved into walrus tusks) to the 19th century exploration of Australia&#39s interior . . . consistently entertaining and even-handed." - Geographical Magazine"As a study of the relationship between contemporary Chinese film and the visual legacy of Chinese arts and culture, this book is superb." - Journal of Asian Studies"Winner of RIBA President&#39s Award 2013" - Award"The many illustrations (often old ads) are fascinating and often funny (1980s businessmen tripping off to work with massive &#34portable" computers), or reveal obscure aesthetic precedents (1983s Orb computer looks suspiciously like the first iMac)." - The Guardian"For those who want an up-to-date bio that’s swift and savvy, there is Linda Simon’s Chanel. It’s a slim volume, but even here we get details we don’t get elsewhere, including a full chapter on the musical Coco, which opened on Broadway in 1969 starring Katharine Hepburn (tellingly, Chanel’s first choice for the role was the much younger Hepburn: Audrey)." - Wall Street Journal"Bourke evokes a real tenderness and understanding for the men who were pushed to breaking point and beyond . . . in a book well illustrated with contemporary photographs and sketches from men&#39s letters and diaries . . . a fine work" - Times Higher Education Supplement"Whiteleys look at design in the 1990s is an account of how the design industry, caught up in its own self-image for the past decade, needs to reinvent itself and focus again on its social role. This means taking greater account of green and feminist issues and creating a new type of socially responsible design. Surely a thesis of relevance to architects." - RIBA Journal"Dark Places is a valuable work for film scholars focused on the horror genre or otherwise. In considering the widest possible legacy for the haunted house on screen and by bringing theoretical and multi-disciplinary sophistication to bear on such an unlikely topic Curtis has fashioned a noteworthy exploration of one of cinema&#39s unsung icons." - Southwest Journal of Cultures"elegiac . . . a wonderful close analysis. Despite the melancholy in cinemas encounters with a fleeting past, the prospects opened up by filmic slowness are, for Mulvey, productive of optimism." - Times Higher Education Supplement"Here, dams take centre stage as their design, construction, beauty, failures and environmental consequences are analysed. Building Design" - Building Design"Sanda Miller has been working on Constantin Brancusi since the 1970s, and her latest contribution to the literature on one of the twentieth-centurys greatest sculptors is a detailed and well-researched biography. A new body of archival material became available to Brancusi scholars in 2001 . . . Such major gifts to art historians require careful unpacking, and Miller has done an excellent job of digging deeply and thoroughly into hundreds of documents and photographs. The resultant book is centred on primary source material, dispelling long-held myths surrounding Brancusi and attaining perhaps as authentic a portrayal of his life and work as will ever be possible." - Slavonic and East European Review"This is an extraordinary volume. While concentrating on contemporary art in Brazil, and attending to its myriad historical, political, social and aesthetic ramifications, Today is Always Yesterday combines Michael Asbury's characteristic critical, objective acumen with an "insider" view of Brazilian culture. Furthermore, the author presents us with much more than another book on the contemporary scene: he gives an in-depth history of Brazilian art in all of its complexity, from the Portuguese era to the post-Bolsonaro, Lula-Redux period of today. Anyone even marginally interested in the dizzyingly complex nature of Brazilian creativity will be more than pleased with Asbury's panoramic contribution." - Edward J. Sullivan, Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the History of Art, New York University"The great strength of this book is that it helps the reader to see beyond the simplistic accounts of such aspects, and to understand the wider contexts that explain the Revolutions survival. The insight and detail offered here reflect a work that is the product of a sustained scholarly investigation of Cuba. Now professor of Latin American history at the University of Nottingham, Kapcia has been studying Cuba, from outside and from within, for four of the Revolutions five decades of fluctuating fortunes . . . Among the approaching anniversary literature, students of Cuba are unlikely to find a more thoughtful or well-informed analysis of half a century of revolutionary change than Kapcia provides in this book." - Times Higher Education"packed with interesting stuff" - The Sunday Times"A welcome reassessment of Satie that places him at the hub of radical events." - Classic FM Magazine"There are lots of illustrations of early technological advances, which always look endearingly quaint. But the outstanding characteristic, in a field where pretentious obfuscation often seems obligatory, is that Gere can not only string a sentence together, but also uses those sentences to produce cogent and interesting arguments. He concludes that our digital culture has been built from elements including: Cold War defence technologies avant-garde art practice counter-cultural techno-utopianism Post-Modernist critical theory new wave subcultural style . . ." - Architects Journal"Readers of Elephant may be surprised at the huge amount of fascinating history, biology, and generally little-known information that can be packed into such a small book. But this is not unusual for the Reaktion series of monographs on animals, many of which, including this one, are surely destined to become classics. Elephant excels in presenting a masterly combination of historical and literary knowledge about elephants with up-to-date facts and figures on the efforts of conservationists to prevent the decline and probable extinction of the living species in Africa and Asia." - Anthrozoös"An interesting, well-informed, critical and comparative overview of contemporary modernisation in East Asian cities . . . A strength of the book is the examination of architectural style and building form. A real sense of cityscape is provided via the accounts of pencil buildings in Hong Kong and the verticality of living . . . This book should be a valuable library reference source . . . The book&#39s content is up-to-date and detailed . . . the numerous black and white photographic illustrations are excellent." - Geography"Brauns meticulous study is rich in detail" - Guardian"Mienke Simon Thomas engrossing account in this book implies the current lack of design focus reflects a wider malaise a sense of drift from a clear purpose. Her survey and insights give much for thought about that doughty small country across the sea with which we British have such a particular affinity." - Architects Journal". . . contains some salient points about the function of film music and its development, from the silent period (when films had live accompaniment) through to the present. It will certainly be a must for Bernard Herrmann fans, given its thorough examination of his score for Hitchcocks North by Northwest. On this count alone the book is worth its while." - Film Review"[a] full and fascinating study of Korean history" - The Guardian"Fashion is an elegant and relatively easily read tour de force along academic and literary roads into the notion of fashion . . . History is combined with contemporary material, academic views with concrete aesthetics designers are used as examples and are treated on a par with great thinkers nothing is too big or too small to be included in his considered analyses . . . A very convincing book, recommended to everyone who is interested in fashion, sociology and philosophy in a practical or an academic context." - Weekend-Avisen, Copenhagen"Jeffrey Sissons short but lucid book describes what he sees as a major revival of Indigenous culture in the settler nations of the New World . . . He astutely observes the need for reconstructed notions of self-determination that escape the binary of traditional/modern, and offer Indigenous peoples and the non-Indigenous fellow citizens new ways to think about the expanding urban populations and dynamics of Indigenous communities in the New World." - API Review of Books, Australia"Writing in succinct prose devoid of academic jargon, McCarter explains what made Wright&#39s architecture so revolutionary . . . While acknowledging Wright&#39s greatness, McCarter has not written a hagiography . . . McCarter&#39s book could have been half as long again it&#39s that much of a pleasure to read." - ARTnews"In the Image of Tibet is the first major study of the fate of Tibetan art since the Chinese occupation and colonization of Tibet. In a richly detailed analysis, Clare Harris provides a fascinating portrait of Tibetan art produced in two parallel, but connected, worlds: the world of Tibetan refugee painters living in exile and the world of Tibetan painters who remain in Tibet, and she explores the problems encountered in crossing from one world into another. Harris has written an important book that will be of great interest to students of Asian art, history and religion" - Donald S. Lopez, University of Michigan"Lincoln rewritten: Fellow citizens, we cannot escape pseudohistory. In heroic resistance, Fritze dives into the Augean stables of popular pseudoscholarship on pseudotopics such as Atlantis, aliens who built the pyramids, ancient catastrophes caused by near-misses with Venus, or the Israelite origin of Britons . . . in his tireless analysis of the bloodlines of some of modernitys most successful claptrap from Immanuel Velikovsky to Erich von D&#228niken to Heavens Gate Fritze does vindicate his claim that Pseudohistory has its historiography and its genealogy of ideas. Nonsense now has its Nietzsche." - Steven Poole, The Guardian". . . richly illustrated, making available much popular iconographic material generally unfamiliar to Western readers . . . a fascinating contribution to the cultural history of Russia." - Times Literary Supplement "A Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2013" - Award"Engaging . . . puts Bowie in the context of heavyweights like Michel Foucault, Max Frisch and Erich Heckel, who inspired the cover art for ‘Heroes’." - Paul Burston, The Independent"Raises in a provocative way many interesting and timely points . . . destined to influence this debate for years to come." - History Today"The vampire of antiquity was a ghost, who became enfleshed as the revenant, the ghoul then, particularly in eastern Europe, it turned into a blood-sucker. Under the ministrations of western novelists, he pupated into the seductive, cape-wearing aristocrat of modern myth. This process Matthew Beresford delineates with great clarity . . . fascinating." - Independent on Sunday"This fascinating book provided me with a whole new way of thinking about the European Renaissance . . . While offering a series of elegant interpretations of art objects exchanged between East and West... this is also an epic story of imperial rivalry exploring the ways in which courts jostled for supremacy through their display of magnificent art objects, many of which are beautifully reproduced here" - The Good Book Guide Books of the Year"With its vivid language and useful illustrations, Goldfish is sure to engage readers’ attention and imagination. Perhaps even more laudable is the fact that, despite the volume’s brevity, Roos has throughout tried to interject scholarly insights and contextual knowledge." - Isis Journal"This is a superb book on a topic that all too often in the past has provoked texts that either merely list movies that have purported to represent Native Americans or fulminate against what they see as Hollywood&#39s invariable recourse to stereotype, as if both Indians and Hollywood were unchanging entities . . . The book&#39s main virtues are the range of its coverage, its overall approach, and the way it is written . . . Buscombe&#39s work is authoritative . . . It constitutes fine film history and makes a valuable contribution to American cultural history." - American Historical Review "a fascinating and highly readable history of one of the most exotic islands on earth." - The Economist"The work is a much-needed and excellent addition to the limited number of publications dedicated to a very influential and well respected filmmaker . . . This book is an essential companion to the cinema, music and poetry of Jarmusch, and is accessible to both devotees of the filmmaker and newcomers to his work. It will be of interest for film scholars and students, cinema and music lovers alike." - Senses of Cinema"this excellent biography by Rob Haskins sweeps away any possibility of Cage being considered a joker. It illuminates the composer’s life and work and makes eminently clear the intellectual underpinning and circumstances of his multivarious activities . . . This compact volume has plenty for the layperson and devotee alike. It is well laid out and the references and bibliography are excellent. The story of Cage’s life is fascinating and Haskins tells it well, clearly explaining the developments of the maverick composer’s musical ideas." - BBC Music magazine"One of the most thought-provoking books of the year." - The Independent "Keepers of the Golden Shore covers the country from prehistory to the present day in less than 250 pages . . . a welcome, readable and much needed starting point for new readers and new arrivals to the UAE who want a better understanding of the people and places around them." - The National"beautiful . . . well produced, compact . . . with outstanding illustrations" - Manna"Christopher Fraylings entertaining and illuminating book focuses on emblematic films . . . [Frayling] looks at changing representations of scientists and the social anxieties they gave expression to." - Financial Times"Le Blanc is broadly sympathetic to the Trotskyist project and therefore focuses on the final phase of his life . . . He does discuss more critical views, too, and the result is a reasonably balanced and engaging defence of his subject. Le Blanc insists that Trotskys ideas remain relevant as global capitalism endures new crises." - TLS"This is quite simply the best history ever published on the role of mining in shaping world events. It performs the huge task of making sense of a complex range of industries that took many forms and produced many products, over centuries of change and development across every continent on earth. It does so in just 350 pages of succinct but comprehensive prose, remarkably free of errors of both fact and judgment . . . Martin Lynch has managed to present the big picture of mining." - Historic Environment"[an] excellent short biography . . . Apart from a sense that Watt has deftly and with considerable economy tackled all aspects critical to the production of Prousts novel, a particular pleasure is to be had in his neat turn of phrase . . . Proust is judiciously illustrated and has a useful bibliography." - TLS"a gold mine of fascinating data . . . well worth reading" - The Daily Yomiuri"The author guides the reader through this complex debate, building up the historical background and investigating the growth of psychological ideas and psychiatric therapies during the 20th century. His analysis includes an introduction to the principles of art brut as defined by Dubuffet, the evolution of public appreciation, the role of collectors, and the impact of these developments on the artists themselves." - The Art Newspaper"Nathan Wiseman-Trowse analyses what [Nick Drakes] Englishness consists of: the sense of wistfulness and melancholy, the strain of romanticism, and the pastoral landscapes evoked by his melodies and lyrics, as well as the solitary, contemplative images of Drake used for album covers and publicity shots . . . its an astute analysis, and an evocative reminder of the handful (fewer than 40) of beautiful, delicate songs Drake left us." - The Independent on Sunday"Like Poussins paintings, this is a highly polished work. In prose of great elegance, B&#228tschmann achieves an almost perfect balance between exposition and polemic . . . knowledge of the vast literature, discussed in useful footnotes, is offset by sensitive visual observations." - The Times Literary Supplement"a concise biography of the artist and a thorough survey of recent, and occasionally not-so-recent, trends in the literature on the artist. It is this emphasis on critical modes of understanding that most clearly distinguishes the offering from other readily available, short, and modestly-priced primers on the artist . . . provides a superior entrée into the wider field of Cézanne studies" - H-France Reviews"Winner of The Runciman Award 1998." - Award"[Pascoe] tirelessly explicates the numerology and mytho-mania that are the film-makers organising principles." - Guardian"Gill Perrys fascinating book considers what makes a house a home and why artists are repeatedly drawn to it as a motif. Chapters look at particular types of houses, from those that are haunted to beachside retreats and caravans. Rachel Whitereads House (1993) and Michael Landys Semi-Detached (2004) make appearances, and this well-illustrated volume goes on to include a wide range of art from around the globe." - Art Quarterly"The book is delightful, deep but never pedantic. The great philosophers of the past are widely considered and their theories analyzed, but the goal is not to provide a historical excursus on what thinkers of the past wrote about food. The authors compare their work to plumbing, in the sense that they try to understand the nuts and bolts of how things work, and above all how ideas and values often taken for granted and never fully discussed greatly shape the way we understand and interact with the world. There is no more immediate perspective to do this than by looking at food, an experience that everybody, one way or another, shares." - Huffington Post"he argues his interpretations of Chinese art with a great sense of adventure, and it reads tremendously well. Clunas is a master of argument. He presents his texts around carefully considered selections of material culture, which are not simply mustered to illustrate one art-historical point after another, but skilfully used for their value in making several claims throughout a larger discourse." - Times Higher Educational Supplement"very readable . . . A great starting point for thinking about what the city you are fabricating might mean" - RIBA Journal"This absorbing study helps explain the emergence and the endurance of this most apparently vulnerable of countries and how, for so much of modern history it has managed to punch above its weight." - The Scotsman"[an] enjoyable exploraton of retro chic . . . Guffey offers an intriguing investigation of our seduction by the past" - The Independent"From starting-gun to finishing tape may be a clean ten seconds, but behind that moment swirl a few thousand years of human joy and despair and endeavour this seems to be the argument of Gotaass rich and engrossing book." - The Spectator"a well-written, well-translated and well-illustrated book . . . much more than a tourist guide . . . both useful and enlightening from a historical and cultural point of view." - Choice"The first whole book dedicated to the story of dub (reggaes sparser, more wayward, brother), Sullivan takes us on a journey across continents . . . Covers everthing from beginnings in Duke Reids backyard right through to Londons myriad influences, Fran&#231ois K and the dub-disco, Basic Channel, Mark Stewart and Digital Mystikz. Thorough and thoroughly good." - Mixmag"With concern, proportion, wit and a bit of levity, the author of this authoritative and invaluable contribution to scholarship has given us the book for which we have long waited." - Donald Richie, Japan Times"Sky Wars provides an ideal review of the first 100 years of military aerospace power, giving the enthusiast a fuller understanding of the philosophy behind today&#39s major air forces." - Aeroplane"As the quintessence of Earthly remoteness, Antarctica has drawn hordes of scientists, iconic explorers such as Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen, and novelists who have peopled it with vast humanoid lobsters or radioactive elephant seals. Historian Elizabeth Leane tours the research, literature, exploration, and geopolitical maneuverings that swirl around the pole. Hers is a detailed, compelling portrait of a place at once central and marginal, fantastically inhospitable and beautiful, and a mecca for physicists, government claimants, and extreme tourists." - Nature"This is an enjoyable, easy-to-read book and Allen effortlessly weaves a pattern from the multiple strands that have made the global economy … an excellent general economic history and makes fascinating reading." - The Irish Times"[a] weirdly wonderful compilation . . . van Boxsel ranges from wise fools to dumb blondes, via laughing meadows and perfects idiots." - The Observer". . . richly conceived and elaborately thought out. No flicker of meaning has escaped Connor’s ferocious, all seeing eye." - The Guardian"[a] brilliant book . . . a good read. Analysis of the relationship of collecting to identity, memory, and psychosexual development raises fascinating questions." - The Modern Review"Mr. Inglis has made a solid contribution to what I suppose we by now ought to call Beatle’s Studies. As an account of the ideas and ideals that impelled the band through its most formative years, the book is unbeatable." - Wall Street Journal"If you want to understand the historic background to the Arab-Israeli conflict this is a well-researched overview, underpinned by Bickerton’s belief that reasonableness and diplomacy will eventually lead to an enduring and peaceful resolution." - Sydney Morning Herald"[a] potent book . . . This brilliantly argued volume should be read by all art historians" - The Art Book"This intricately argued book (almost impossible to describe without oversimplifying) deals with cyberspace as well as the author&#39s favourite 18th century and he stresses that response to gardens is visceral as well as intellectual." - Historic Gardens Review"This history is a complex and subtle social and cultural stew - irresistibly appetising." - The Scotsman"A lively and controversial symposium . . . thought-provoking." - The Sunday Times (Paperbacks of the Year, 1989)"Although globalisation is not a phenomenon that is readily associated with the Middle Ages Timothy May makes a strong case for the emergence of a quasi-global system from the early 13th to the mid-14th century . . . Written with both clarity and zest and resting upon a wide range of recent scholarship, this book will be widely welcomed as a contribution to the study of world history." - History Today"thoughtful, and at times unsettling, observations on love and work . . . Ziyad Marar's book contains a great deal to enlighten and engage anyone interested in happiness, and that probably includes most of us." - Times Literary Supplement"Halls portrayal of recent Balkan history intertwines intricately the influences of the numerous countries involved, on one another, bringing important new perspectives and nuances to the complicated overall picture." - Central and Eastern European Review"The visual reticence of this little book . . . undersells the expansiveness, diversity and materiality of its subject . . . The Modern Interior presents a compelling argument to consider interiors outside the home, just as it charts the complex interplay between public and private in all interiors, domestic and otherwise. This persuasive book is a well-crafted and engaging read" - Times Higher Education"This is a wonderful book . . . Steve Baker provides the most cogent explanation so far of how the questioning of human identity ineluctably raises issues about animals . . . He has given us a great gift, an understanding of a process unfolding during our own time." - Carol J. Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat"Mary Hilson has made a major contribution to Scandinavian studies in this concise, thorough, and well-written survey of contemporary Nordic history . . . This book is informative, very readable, and even inspiring." - Scandinavian Studies"this is a useful and deeply felt study which addresses many of the most important issues that vex the museum as it advances, ever more popular and more visited, into the 21st century." - Apollo Magazine"[John Macks] scholarly but very readable exploration of the sea includes a fascinating chapter on ships as societies, in which he argues ships are the first truly cosmopolitan spaces . . . From skin-covered currachs and the voyages of the Phoenicians, to the liminal terrain of beaches and the way accurate maps changed the mariners relationship to the oceans, Mack takes the reader on a captivating journey through the sea and its multiple meanings." - The Guardian"[an] intriguing and beautifully styled book . . . the examples presented of modern theme-park practice make for compelling reading. Theme parks enable international travel without the worry of jet lag pilgrims can journey to the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, where the visitor is greeted with a welcoming Shalom instead of checkpoints for potential suicide bombers." - Times Higher Education"In this excellent study, Scott argues that while language is deemed crucial to the interpretation of photography, we have insufficient information about how language is used in relation to various photographic genres . . . Readers interested in photography, film, postmodernism, and the nature of narrative itself will find Scott&#39s book captivating, and, at times, positively breathtaking." - British Journal of Aesthetics"Partha Mitters lucid and well-illustrated The Triumph of Modernism explores Indian artists encounter with the avant-garde from 1922 to 1947. It gives due prominence to pioneers: above all, Amrita Sher-Gil, the Sikh-Hungarian prodigy and firebrand." - The Independent"a most ambitious undertaking, made by someone both experienced and learned in the life and art of [the Nordic countries]" - Independent on Sunday"Inhabitation is the soul of architecture. This important and thoughtful book is one of the very first to discuss the primal nature of the interior experience, which we believe is the place where design begins. The Space Within initiates a conversation that is essential to all who study, practice, and think about architecture." - Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, architects"There is nothing difficult or obscure about these essays. They are as sharp and lucid as precious stones because they proceed not by argument but poetically, by metaphor, story telling and myth." - Architects Journal Books of the Year"Burgin explores the impressionistic qualities of cinema and how, in recollection, the viewer relates to image: exploring how memory and circumstance place certain sequences in our psyches, the overwhelming beauty of certain images and sequences becoming larger than the bodies of work theyve hailed from . . . Burgins art swoon is nearly as tempting as some of the beauty he finds in small, strange places" - i-D Magazine"Baker's vivid critical study of the Beat novelist Burroughs zings with the same energy and humour as his subject's fiction. Judiciously matching the biography to the books, Baker follows Burroughs's peregrinations from his relationship with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac in New York, to Mexico, where he accidentally shot dead his wife, and eventually to Tangier, where he wrote his best-known work, The Naked Lunch. A literary life that is as entertaining as it is indispensable as a guide to Burroughs's writing." - Sunday Times"Magn&#250sson narrates a well-timed history of Iceland through the lives of ordinary people and local communities in a pointillist style that evokes a rich heritage. He shows how a localised barter economy, based in fishing and agriculture, became a financial system with a global strategy that fatally overreached itself with embarrassing international political and financial consequences. The dust has yet to settle." - The Times"A stimulating and attractively illustrated history" - History Today"With an admirable grasp of Polish history, essential to understanding this not immediately appealing city, David Crowley explains the complex background to the grey pre -1989 environment and changes since." - ArchitectsJournal"Reaktion Books have a nice line in curious art history. The topic here is delightful: the relationship between painting and supernatural visions. This is the far side of Counter-Reformation piety with such subjects as the Mystical Lactation of St Bernard." - The Guardian"Ever wondered why Britain has fought and won so many wars? Pariss fascinating book goes a long way to answer this question . . . Paris has created a compelling insight into why Britain responded to the call of arms." - The Good Book Guide"in this clever little book, [Lindow] traces the history of trolls from their earliest appearances in Old Norse literature through the more familiar creatures of folk tale and fairy tale and right up to the latest manifestation of the malign Other, the internet pest . . . Lindow writes with wit and warmth, but this is also a learned and sometimes unsettling study which brings to light some unexpected facets of the troll phenomenon more generally." - TLS"Turkish Cinema is a serious and open-minded study, thoroughly documented and researched, illustrated with summaries of films that support its many contentions. To be sure, it is an essential tool for the study of Turkeys cinema, but it is equally vital to an understanding of the ideologies that shaped it: why certain kinds of films were made and what led to their demise how nation-building exercises are mirrored in cinema how reigning ideologies and rhetoric give rise to new forms and how relationships between films and viewers build or undo new archaeology in the Seventh Art." - The Asian Age". . . presents a fascinating array of film narratives and characterizations. Her critical interpretations reveal how films can reflect socio-political transitions the voices of filmmakers add authority to the text, as does her personal background in both Islamic and Western cultures. D&#246nmez-Colin shows how cinema may serve either to protect cultural values or to contest them, describing a complex scenario where womens seemingly passive role in perpetuating traditions may be balanced by their courage in defying them . . . underscores the dynamic interplay between cinema and real life in countries where, literally in some cases, women were once dying to go to the movies." - Times Literary Supplement"This anthology, which is rarely scarred by academic jargon, fascinates with its detail, covering enough surface to show how much more is left to be explored." - The New York Times"The Madness of Knowledge challenges the casual belief that there is a thing “out there”, solid and observable, which we more or less manage to cram into our brains . . . His argument – regardless of their truth, our beliefs about knowledge operate in a world of fantasy – is in itself both clear and convincing.," - TLS"Few who read this remarkable study will regard language in quite the same way again" - The Good Book Guide"Winner of the British Association of American Studies Book Prize 2008" - Award"Engaging . . . puts Bowie in the context of heavyweights like Michel Foucault, Max Frisch and Erich Heckel, who inspired the cover art for ‘Heroes’." - Paul Burston, The Independent"A superb new book on medieval food . . . lavishly illustrated." - Sunday Telegraph"Sex Pistols: Poison in the Machine dares to be different. Why? It is not another regurgitation of the history of the Pistols. It aims to place the reader back in the 1960s and ’70s and explore the Sex Pistols phenomenon as it was experienced in the era that spawned it one of scant information, sparse news outlets and very little access to the music. It reminds the reader how different the world of today is, where Pistols footage, audio and even the Grundy show can be accessed in an instant on the internet. Back in the day, if you didn’t see it yourself, you didn’t see it. Importantly, the book helps define how the myth, controversy and enigma of the Sex Pistols was given oxygen by, ironically, this very vacuum." - SexPistols.net"In a series of shrewd and finely etched depictions of political figures during the French Directory (1795–9), Biancamaria Fontana’s Desk Revolutionaries deftly rehabilitates the unjustly neglected years that followed the Terror. These backroom boys may have failed to stop the rise of Napoleon, but by their unglamorous commitment to Enlightenment rationalism, bureaucratic paperwork and republican values they showed that the pen was equal to the sword in shaping the long-term legacy of the Revolutionary decade." - Colin Jones, Emeritus Professor of Cultural History, Queen Mary University of London, and author of The Fall of Robespierre"An excellent book on an important but neglected period in garden history. Mowl, as usual, has researched his topic well and writes beautifully, using evidence and example to great effect." - Tom Williamson, author of Humphry Repton: Landscape Design in an Age of Revolution"Bjørn Berge offers us a treasure trove of insight and reflection. The text sharpens your senses and makes you appreciate the endless variety the world has to offer, which powerful forces are recklessly striving to flatten, homogenize, and standardize." - Dagbladet"The underbelly of Chinese culture was never as poetic and as vivid as in this book on the ars amatoria – arts of love. Erotic and soulful, it takes you into the world of pillow and mat, moon and wind, rain and clouds, scented mountains and gyrating snow. These metaphors for intimacy part the curtains of the bedchamber and enrich the lexicon of love beyond the salaciousness of Western pornography. John Minford, a brilliant sinologist and translator, has brought together ancient, traditional and modern texts, with a flair for winged pleasures such as this one line from the oldest “Book of Songs”: I bring my lithe lass joy." - Vera Schwarcz, Emerita Professor of History and East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University"If there can be a life-affirming book about death, this is it. Jonathan Romain’s compassion and humanity permeate every page. His professional and personal experiences have given him privileged access to the views of patients and their relatives. Their hopes and fears have influenced his opinions and provide the background to this story." - Graeme Catto, former President of the General Medical Council"Of the three volumes in Steven Roger Fischers hugely ambitious and sedulously executed trilogy, the first two dealt with language and writing. This one, however, is the most suggestive and open, dedicated not only to the technicalities of his subject but to the everyday experience of communication . . . Fischer lets his historical readers speak for themselves, ceaselessly seduced by textual magic" - The Independent"To read Linda Simon’s social and literary history of flappers is to feel . . . the relief of the loosening of corsets, the excitement of the shimmy and tango in the dance hall, the thrill of smoking, the bliss of escape from detested chaperoning rules and the swooning effect of watching Rudolph Valentino on the silent screen" - The Times"a succinct and readily accessible account of the history and key issues associated with chemical and biological weapons from World War I to the present . . . an excellent overview of an often underappreciated segment of 20th- and 21st-century security studies . . . It deserves the thoughtful attention of both students and professionals." - Military Review"Sigel’s great subject is the way consumerism eradicates the creative libido. Her book, for all its alarming examples, is convincing in its argument that homemade porn is a valuable anthropological indicator of sexuality that speaks to the era and place in which it was made. Her reader will certainly look at rude phalluses scraffitoed on subway seats with softer eyes. Behold, before me! A radical, unquenchable expression of the irrepressibly horny human spirit." - New York Review of Books"Journalist White uses the stories of different hacks, dating from the 1980s to the 2016 election, to connect illicit activity on the earliest Internet forums to today's cyberattacks by hacktivists and state-sanctioned hacking teams. He humanizes this history by highlighting the people behind the tech: the Filipino student who unleashed the Love Bug, one of the first global cyberattacks to rely on psychological manipulation; the former cybercriminal who worked with the FBI to bring down Silk Road, a dark Web black market for illegal drugs (a scheme that involved him faking his own death); and the audio producer who lost thousands of dollars in a scam that exploited personal information stolen from telecommunications company TalkTalk." - Scientific American"Sir Thomas More emerges from this valuable and compelling new study of his writings as a vigorous and enigmatic author who shaped the political, religious, and literary life of early Tudor England. Andrew Hadfield and Joanne Paul clearly document the major questions in More studies, while also offering tantalizing fresh insights. This excellent book should satisfy established scholars as well as those encountering More for the first time." - Mark Rankin, Professor of English at James Madison University and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society"Dawley’s retelling of Taiwan’s history humanises Taiwanese people and their history in a way that is desperately needed in today’s great-power focused world. No other volume better introduces Taiwan’s complex history and political development in such a thorough yet accessible way. This is a must-read, both for those new to – and familiar with – East Asian history and politics." - Dr Lev Nachman, author of Contested Taiwan"Whispers from Celtic Seas is a fascinating and passionate call for the oral traditions and traditional folk stories of Northwest Europe to be granted the respect they deserve for the deep histories they tell. Patrick Nunn masterfully reveals the traumatic events that constantly redefined the boundaries between land and sea." - Lynne Kelly, author of The Knowledge Gene and The Memory Code"Antisemitism, that light sleeper, is on the rise again. In a period in which it is weaponised on many sides – by the Right wing, by the Left, by Israeli advocates and by anti-Zionists – it is also a real feature of the cultural and political field. In this book Sander L. Gilman, who has done more than any other scholar to unpick the history and character of antisemitism, shows how different “antisemitisms” have arisen and how they function. Through four lively and deeply researched “case histories” – visible difference (appearance), vulnerability (disease), belonging (rootedness) and boundary setting (self-hatred) – Gilman demonstrates the versatility and variability of antisemitic images (and self-images) of Jews, traced historically and conceptually. This is a vivid text that is a vital read for everyone concerned about antisemitic and racial hate." - Stephen Frosh, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London"Antisemitism, that light sleeper, is on the rise again. In a period in which it is weaponised on many sides – by the Right wing, by the Left, by Israeli advocates and by anti-Zionists – it is also a real feature of the cultural and political field. In this book Sander L. Gilman, who has done more than any other scholar to unpick the history and character of antisemitism, shows how different “antisemitisms” have arisen and how they function. Through four lively and deeply researched “case histories” – visible difference (appearance), vulnerability (disease), belonging (rootedness) and boundary setting (self-hatred) – Gilman demonstrates the versatility and variability of antisemitic images (and self-images) of Jews, traced historically and conceptually. This is a vivid text that is a vital read for everyone concerned about antisemitic and racial hate." - Stephen Frosh, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London"Antisemitisms rethinks the very nature of “Jew hatred” with remarkable concision and clarity. Rather than treating antisemitism as a static or “eternal” phenomenon, or trying to define or describe it, Sander L. Gilman illuminates the multi-faceted concept as an ever-changing, adaptive constellation of ideas, attitudes, and prejudices – each responsive to its own political and cultural moment. This pioneering study offers a nuanced, historically grounded understanding of not one antisemitism, but many antisemitisms: opportunistic, multifaceted, and shaped as responses to deeply rooted, longstanding xenophobia. With penetrating insight and elegant restraint, Gilman provides a vivid intellectual map that spans centuries – most powerfully including the time before the Holocaust – while speaking directly to the complexities of our present. Antisemitisms is an indispensable, lucid, and urgent book – essential reading for anyone interested in Israel and Palestine, the history of ideas, the rhetoric of racism and xenophobia, and the tangled legacies that define our contemporary world." - Agnes Mueller, Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina"Antisemitisms rethinks the very nature of “Jew hatred” with remarkable concision and clarity. Rather than treating antisemitism as a static or “eternal” phenomenon, or trying to define or describe it, Sander L. Gilman illuminates the multi-faceted concept as an ever-changing, adaptive constellation of ideas, attitudes, and prejudices – each responsive to its own political and cultural moment. This pioneering study offers a nuanced, historically grounded understanding of not one antisemitism, but many antisemitisms: opportunistic, multifaceted, and shaped as responses to deeply rooted, longstanding xenophobia. With penetrating insight and elegant restraint, Gilman provides a vivid intellectual map that spans centuries – most powerfully including the time before the Holocaust – while speaking directly to the complexities of our present. Antisemitisms is an indispensable, lucid, and urgent book – essential reading for anyone interested in Israel and Palestine, the history of ideas, the rhetoric of racism and xenophobia, and the tangled legacies that define our contemporary world." - Agnes Mueller, Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina"In this wonderfully thought-provoking book, Patrick Nunn dispels the myth about myths, and shows that sea-level changes, particularly sea-level rise, are not recently recognised phenomena. The longevity of myths is breath-taking, and reveals we still have a lot to learn about ourselves from studies of the past." - Colin Murray-Wallace, Honorary Senior Professor, University of Wollongong, New South Wales"The arrival of Evan N. Dawley’s Taiwan: A People's History could not be better timed. Written in an admirably accessible style, it offers an original approach and is chockful of engaging nuggets. Based on deep familiarity with the literature, a thorough amount of original research, and much time in the field, Dawley’s book is required reading." - Thomas Gold, University of California, Berkeley"Investigative journalist Geoff White provides comprehensive and accessible insight into a mostly hidden world, reminding us how computers significantly shape our everyday lives. What happens in the "darkness” of the digital world affects our financial systems, our communication, and our infrastructures. Each relies on computer networks to function . . . Crime Dot Com is an exciting and comprehensible presentation of computer networks and cybercrime. It is not only about technology, but above all about trust (and its misuse) in technology and in communication partners as a prerequisite for interpersonal communication and human-machine interaction." - Technology and Culture Journal"Lisa Z. Sigel’s The People’s Porn attempts the ambitious, unglamorous, but fascinating work of drawing together for the first time an archive of handmade erotic objects made over two centuries of American history. From erotic scrimshaw made by 19th-century sailors to amateur polaroids, it charts a course through the ways in which apparently ‘ordinary’ men and women represented sex in all its variety – cis and trans, straight and queer, in couples or groups, with people or animals and somewhere in between – via prison pornography, pop-up erections, masturbating Santas and feminist embroidery. In doing so, it tells a story of hidden desire that has often been overlooked . . . The People’s Porn is at its most illuminating when exploring the place of sex in shared cultures of humour and conviviality, showing that pornography was as much about male (and sometimes female) bonding as it was about private fantasy." - History Today"This concise work, with its extensive references and bibliography, will be of interest to all students and professionals in the fields of history, political science, public policy, toxicology, and chemical technology. Recommended." - Choice"A fresh, unique view of the iconic flapper. . . . Simon digs beneath stereotype to provide an illuminating cultural study. . . . A fascinating history of thirty years of trailblazing women who "invented a new image and identity . . . in a culture where they were continually warned about the real losses . . . that they might suffer if they acted upon their secret needs and desires."" - Kirkus Reviews"Starting from the Bronze Age and ending with modern emails and a possible future of e-books, Steven Fischers A History of Reading takes in a wonderful diversity of things" - Nature"Jonathan Romain is a gentle, insightful and honest guide to assisted dying, and makes a powerful case for it. This moving book left me thinking this option is a loving and necessary expression of our care for one another." - Revd Canon Rosie Harper"Impeccably researched and elegantly written, this beautiful book is a must for anyone interested in historic gardens, in Jane Austen’s England or in British cultural history." - Steven Parissien, author of Regency Style and Building Britannia"The history of the French Revolution often centres on the Twelve who Ruled, or the dozen members of the Committee of Public Safety who headed the first French Republic between 1793 and 1794. Biancamaria Fontana’s Desk Revolutionaries is the first major study of the Five who Ruled, and offers an original examination of the Executive Directory that governed France between 1795 and 1799." - Michael Sonenscher, Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, and author of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Before the Deluge"It’s a fast read, with clean writing and little editorializing . . . [Scanlan] uses quotes and rare photos to give the reader a sense of the time and place, which is as important to the Sex Pistols as the people involved in their rise . . . Great book for fans of the band who need a little more ammo in the face of trite dismissals, or punk history buffs alike – Poison in the Machine is a fascinating read." - Dying Scene"Oh no! Not whole-roasted ox again! Even for the aristocracy, medieval fare must have been boring, it's been assumed. The reality was quite otherwise, Hannele Klemettilä reveals. This social history with recipes is as delicious in its details as it is mouthwatering in its presentation . . . More enterprising readers may want to take a stab at some of the 60-odd recipes in which Klemettilä serves up a splendid banquet of forgotten flavours." - The Scotsman"An accessible read which can stand proud in the sure-to-expand Bowie bibliography." - Paddy Kehoe, RTÉ Entertainment"Winner of the Lord Aberdare Literary Prize 2008" - Award"[A] delightful and unexpectedly accessible book . . . a virtuoso tour of the linguistic world" - The Economist"Pinning down this wide-ranging book is difficult, but "psycho-literary history of ideas about knowledge" may not be too far off . . . Connor interrogates fictional, philosophical, religious, historical, and other texts to examine the relationships they suggest between knowledge, or the search thereof, and passion, madness, fantasy, and power. Many long passages connect myriad sources and incidents through their common use of a single word or concept. This sometimes looks like the exploratory wordplay that Continental philosophers often use in lieu of an argument or a thesis, but there is more substance here than this comparison may suggest, and the work offers some useful synthetic insights. Though those looking for an analytical, conceptually based central argument may be frustrated, Connor is relatively clear in defining his terms, framing and organizing his remarks, and establishing connections between old and new points. Recommended." - Choice"Tattoos have a strange double-nature. They have an uncanny power to affront, yet they also exert an almost irresistible fascination, even on historians. Jane Caplan&#39s collection of essays from 14 estimable British and American historians provides an informative exploration and interpretation of the tattoo in Western Culture." - Boston Herald"This is one of the few film books I actually want to read. A very necessary examination of Islamic cinema which praises its bolder spirits and doesnt hesitate to criticise those who censor and condemn them." - Derek Malcolm, chief film critic, London Evening Standard"Turkish Cinema provides non-Turkish readers with a welcome introduction to a subject which hitherto has received scant critical attention." - Screen"Blessedly, Trolls: An Unnatural History is many things trolls are not. It is handsome, well proportioned, and not of monstrous size it is full of knowledge, yet unintimidating. The curious person could be advised to seek out Trolls for enjoyment and edification: no special preparation is required . . . It is written in Lindows characteristic style: lucid, economical, gently wry. Every sentence is informative, dense without being convoluted. The casual reader will move through the prose easily and learn a very great deal, but the more attentive one will learn three times as much . . . an enjoyable, rich tour" - Scandinavian Studies"an absorbing and thought-provoking survey of the presentation of war in popular culture . . . It is impossible in a short review to do justice to the historical sweep, the literary insight and the importance of the issues raised by this stimulating and enjoyable book. I warmly recommend it to you." - Biggles Flies Again". . . [a] well-documented, scholarly survey" - Burlington Magazine"The book is engaging, readable, and enjoyable. It made me feel as if I were being shown around Warsaw by a friend who was a long term resident." - Geography"The authors adopt three lenses – poetic, botanic and gendered – to view tea’s growing influence on British daily life, weaving together an impressive array of sources. The plentiful visual material (seventy-seven illustrations in all) beautifully bolsters the detailed narrative . . . For those tempted to begin the tale of British tea-drinking with the Opium Wars, or with the establishment of Indian tea plantations, this book offers a richly textured history of the “empire” that preceded, and long outgrew, those events." - Times Literary Supplement"[a] combination of cultural depth and material backwardness is the central message of Sigurdur Gylfi Magn&#250sson&#39s social history of one of Europe&#39s smallest and remotest countries . . . This book, drawing on Icelanders' astonishingly detailed diaries and letters in past centuries, gives the outsider a rare glimpse into the past lives of an extraordinary people." - Edward Lucas, The Economist"lucid and readable . . . manages to pick its through way through most of Burroughs's major motivations and curious obsessions, and serves as a good introductory text for general readers, as well as a model of concision for Beat aficionados. Repeatedly, in various ways, it asks: just what possessed Burroughs?" - Times Literary Supplement"In Flusser, weve found our Wittgenstein. By that I mean, in the ways that 1960s conceptual artists found his Philosophical Investigations as granting them the necessary permission to see the world around them with fresh eyes, Flussers forays into media have framed, theorized, and unpacked the new complexities of our digital world. By empirically questioning received knowledge and recasting it within crisp lines of history and logic, hes made the digital legible in a time when its theorization is occluded and murky to say the least. Like de Koonings famous statement:History does not influence me. I influence it, its taken Flussers analog-based investigations in the 20th century to show how to be in the digitally soaked 21st." - Kenneth Goldsmith, Los Angeles Review of Books"A succinct, erudite study of the experiential qualities and meanings of interior space. Using his unique knowledge of the design work, writings and thinking of the masters of modernity, Robert McCarter shows that the geniuses of architecture have always grasped the experiential and mental essence of their art form. The Space Within is highly recommended as a significant antidote to todays formalist aestheticization and shallow digital ecstasy." - Juhani Pallasmaa, architect and author of The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses "The Spoken Image displays its author&#39s deep knowledge of a wide range of literature on meaning and photography, and the book is well produced and illustrated." - Times Higher Education"Contemporary critical arguments and critical context, as well as political melodrama, enliven the text. The colour illustrations are stunning." - The Art Book"This book is both a sophisticated social scientific review of the history, development and transformation of theme parks and an entertaining and extremely well-written journey through the world's vacation venues . . . Lukas provides a variety of perspectives and insights into this interesting aspect of an alternative social experience . . . fun and informative . . . a memorable ride." - Studies in Popular Culture"The ambition of this book is admirable, and Mack manages to achieve an astonishing amount in just a couple of hundred pages . . . If theres an ounce of salt in your veins, please read The Sea: A Cultural History. Its learned, fluent and, just like its subject, suitably unpredictable." - Geographical Magazine"The thrust of his ruminations on the nature of collections is that, like collections of people, the sum is greater than the parts because of the dialogues, conversations, connections and interactions between inanimate objects (animated by both curators and public) as well as people. If this sounds twee, it is not, as his writing is spare, elegant and persuasive. And in small compass, the issues he raises are extraordinarily wide-ranging . . . In its quiet, well-mannered way, Thomass essay is a passionate polemic, of profound interest to the visitor and the museum professional." - The Art Newspaper"Well researched, Hilson&#39s book is a most welcome English-language addition to Scandinavian history. In particular, she has shown that Scandinavia holds great promise for future transnational history." - European History Quarterly"The essays are all distinguished by their topicality and lucidity." - Museum News"a perceptive and thought-provoking reflection on the transitory nature of modern life" - TLS"The book written presents the reader with an extensive and comprehensive history of the Balkans. He depicts influences, turbulence and developments within each of the Balkan countries, thereby providing the reader with a general and contextualised history of this region . . . a well-written and structured overview of Balkan history." - European Review of History"There is much food for thought here . . . an excellent book . . . This is a wonderful book for teaching and for new ideas not the least of its virtues is Mays dry humour, which pops up when least expected. [May] brings us to the forefront of recent research and conjecture . . . this is the book of choice for a course that explores the world that the Mongols helped to make." - Journal of Global History"Wearing his twin hats of foodie and social historian, Panikos Panayi can appall as well as engender salivation on his tour dhorizon of the multicultural history of British food. His book demonstrates convincingly that whether drawing on its former colonial and imperial possessions . . . or on its European neighbors, the openness of British society has truly enriched its diet and produced its present-day variegated cuisine." - Washington Times"This book on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict is a little treasure, containing some very interesting observations . . . I find Bickerton’s analysis of the conflict to be fair and balanced . . . beautifully written . . . it is its eloquent - indeed, passionate - call on the parties to come to their senses, abandon war and instead talk peace that turns it into such an exciting read." - Journal of Contemporary History"John D. Hunt&#39s book on the ways that gardens are (and have been) experienced by their visitors brings new insights to our understanding of garden history . . . this book raises important, topical issues for all those concerned with the design, conservation and interpretation of designed landscapes." - Journal of the Garden History Society"Illuminating and timely . . . Eisenman's concepts and questions constitute a challenging discourse on politics and art." - Art in America"Inglis is at his best when summarizing the environmental forces and personal relationships that fostered the intense level of artistic growth the group achieved during their time in that city. In his chapter on the Beatles’ musical influences, he adeptly summarizes, in a short space, the unusual variety of musical currents that entered into their repertoire, including rhythm and blues, rockabilly, doo-wop, and Brill Building pop." - Wall Street Journal"It is by challenging and expanding upon previous ideas and histories of collecting that the book offers ways of rethinking not only the nature of collecting but also the nature of museum practice." - Art History"An illustrated hodgepodge of ruminations, anecdotes, aphorisms and esoterica." - New York Times"South Pole is an enticing cultural and natural history of this real and yet elusive place." - Sydney Morning Herald"The author has skillfully interwoven the history with his own thoughts on the subject and comes up with fascinating theories on how events could have had different outcomes if other avenues had been explored." - Aviation News"Screech provides a fascinating and informative introduction to the social and sexual habits of pre-modern Japan, copiously illustrated and full of witty anecdotes as well as solid scholarly research. The ideal bedtime read?" - Insight Japan"Sullivan is skilled at finding accounts of reggae from its earliest days, and there are several illuminating interviews . . . the books detailed, if not exhaustive account of dubs key junctures, and its later eruptions from London and New York to Berlin and Bristol, provides a solid foundation for a history thats often haunted by myth and rumour. The footnotes and bibliography alone make for fascinating reading, and it features a strong, probing discussion of UK sound system connections, including Saxons influence on fast chat deejays such as Smiley Culture and Asher Senator, and the epochal but unheralded 1987 Soul All Dayer Of The Century Clash." - The Wire". . . an interesting and timely contribution to our growing understanding of the regional geography of a post-communist country about which relatively little is known . . . Boias book is noteworthy as it is neither a simple regional geography nor is it a travelogue . . . a wonderful book about Romania . . . a useful aid to critical understanding - one unfettered by the more common preoccupation with potted histories and dry trade statistics. Scholars will value it for its theoretically sophisticated approach and its respect for its readership." - Geography"As well as being vital to our early survival, running is a universal form of play, as this fascinating study shows . . . Gotaass research ranges as freely across the globe as it does through time. He pays as much attention to modern African champions as he does to European greats, carefully and colourfully describing the lives of overlooked luminaries such as Abebe Bikila, the barefoot Ethiopian who won the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome, and Henry Rono (Kenyas Mr Comeback)." - The Observer"provides an interesting take on the various rapidly recycling revivals of the late 20th century . . . a thought-provoking read it weaves in lots of fresh and stimulating material which adds to our understanding of the complexities of post war cultural life." - Building Design"Newitts narrative is typical of a powerful writer, who is capable of homing in on his most important goal, that is to say the contextualization of Portuguese history within the great narratives of European events, underlining Portugals importance on the world stage at crucial moments in time. His ability to synthesize material and to communicate with both general and specialized publics is worthy of high praise." - European History Quarterly"reveals the tantalizing array of images to be considered in pursuit of a full understanding of Chinese pictorial culture. It is hoped that this study will stimulate similar studies for other periods, creating a wider and fuller understanding of the ways in which images were deployed and understood in China. We still have a long way to go to escape the limitations of the traditional accounts that are the focus of Professor Clunass criticism." - Apollo"Boisvert and Heldke are proceeding from our shared, lived experience as people with stomachs, so prior familiarity with the work of Immanuel Kant and Rene Descartes is not needed. The book is carved with that crisp, clear precision common to academic philosophy texts, never advancing any idea an inch without a concise explanation of its origin. Boisvert and Heldkes combined voice is never haughty or self-indulgent, but instead jovially tries to reach past the classically dry, snooze-inducing language of too-tidy minds into something closer to the tone of sociology or ethnography, lush with specific anecdotal examples and some sense of humor." - Popmatters"Perrys ability to read a work of art, and explain it accessibly while still honouring the artists often complex intentions, is both rare and valuable. For this alone Playing at Home is welcome." - TLS"A supremely intelligent, utterly tuned-in, definitive exploration of the ultimate British auteurs back catalogue, helpfully illustrated at every opportunity. . . illuminating." - Empire"This book is a firework display. It sets off scores of explosions which light up the sky over-arching our field, terrain that is normally traversed nose down and too mindful of the footsteps of our predecessors." - Burlington Magazine"This is a tough but rewarding book, focusing not so much on the context of Poussin&#39s book - its extrinsic framework - but intently on the work itself, and the attitude of Poussin to his subject-matter, from history painting to the holy family, and what B&#228tschmann calls tragic landscape." - The Sunday Times"Contemporary music history stretches back far enough now for received wisdom to assume too great an importance. Information is much more easily accessed than before, but then irresponsibly sourced quotes on Wikipedia and other websites can, through repetition, become adopted as the truth. In complete contrast, in Nick Drake: Dreaming England, Nathan-Wiseman-Trowse starts from first principles in his thorough investigation of Drakes creative life and legacy . . . his approach to the story becomes a compelling mix of rigorous arguments and imaginative explorations." - The Wire"a thoughtful, informative and well-researched analysis of an area of art that defies easy classification or study . . . he shows that in the struggle for understanding of this complex and contradictory genre there is much to learn about art from the outside edge, and through it, understanding of the art that resides in the mainstream centre." - The Art Book"Modern Japanese Cuisine is one of those rare scholarly books that should appeal to the palate of the general literary omnivore as well as to the more specialized tastes of the professional scholar . . . well-researched and concise." - Monumenta Nipponica"Here is an excellent brief life of Proust . . . Watt is succinct without being perfunctory, scholarly without pedantry, authoritative without being exhaustive. He acknowledges his debts to prior biographers, mainly Carter and Tadié, whose publishers afforded them much greater length. And he manages, within the tight constraints imposed by Reaktion Books, to cover all the ground . . . a readable and reliable account of one of the 20th centurys most telling writers." - The Age, Australia"a very profound book about a very profound subject. It can, and will, be used as a reference work, yet it is a splendid story well told. The reader with an interest in history, politics, and economics will find the book rewarding indeed . . . The reader with a background in mining history will find the book a joy from beginning to end. The book builds momentum, the farther along the reader progresses, the more exciting the narrative becomes." - Anthracite History Journal"A most intelligent and insightful presentation of Trotskys thought and historical action" - International Viewpoint"Fraylings book, visually enhanced by scores of black-and-white illustrations, successfully breaks through the walls that often separate art and science. The end product is a highly readable, jargon-free account of scientists on screen that will appeal to both cinema buffs and scientific boffins." - Scotland on Sunday"A richly humane and engrossing book . . . a work that is warm, compassionate, intelligent and thought-provoking." - Building Design"Haskins does a fine job of dealing with Cage’s many facets – his use of chance and thoughts about the ego and individualism, his flair for populism, his poetry and visual art in much the same way he handles the Buddhist element: he deals with them intelligently and succinctly and then moves along . . . Haskins does a laudably thorough job. It’s a quick, intelligent, and quite readable book." - New Music Box"This excellent and readable book, with a wealth of illustrations, begins by charting the early tribal history of the coast and its extensive trading relationships." - The Anglo-Omani Society Review"There is a moving drama in [Fischer&#39s] charting of a remarkable community that has lost its cultural identity and faces a uniquely challenging future." - Daily Telegraph"Sara Piazza has sought to peel away some of the dense layers of Jarmuschs identity in this intelligently written book that suggests that sound without vision is only half of the big picture." - Monacle Magazine". . . a concise and accessible survey of Native Americans in American history, art, literature, and film." - The Historian"Cultural history needs the wider perspective [the authors] enjoin, and, as their reflections suggest, it is a mistake to think one can satisfactorily explain anything about the European continent its art, the growth of it science, its social, political or religious history in ignorance of its close relations with its eastern and southern margins. Global Interests is a valuable corrective to the established tendency to disregard them" - Literary Review "Aficionados of vampire culture will probably find little to surprise them in this fascinating study, but the rest of us will remain gripped throughout . . . This is a fun study but it&#39s also, as Beresford says, a study in our fears, and ultimately, our fear of death." - The Herald, Glasgow"of particular interest in that [Blouet] understands globalization in its wider historical context, rather than its narrowly defined usage of the past" - Progress in Human Geography"An accessible read which can stand proud in the sure-to-expand Bowie bibliography." - Paddy Kehoe, RTÉ Entertainment"Smith addresses biological, social and psychological issues, from an eighteenth-century description of the fidgets to the first cases, the drugs and the diets. With powerful pharmaceuticals involved and US diagnoses running at 9% a year in 5- to 17-year-olds, this is a timely chronicle." - Nature"Both the techniques and the meaning of the long history of icons are explored here the core meaning residing, according to Mr Tarasov, in the icons role as idealised image of Holy Russia. Much of the imagery has never been previously published in the English-speaking world. A treasure trove awaits." - Art Newspaper "In this new age of intellectual chaos, it looks like being a splendid self-regarding spring for hype-resistant readers. They can relish the prospect of hooting from the sofa as lean and hungry sceptics hunt down the peddlers of pseudo-history or pseudo-science and sink rhetorical incisors into the flabby flesh of their prey . . . Invented Knowledge goes in for a more forensic dissection of modern myths about the past. Fritze . . . selects a few choice myths and fads from the fringes of scholarship. He inspects enduring canards, from the Atlantis tales that took hold after the American Civil War, through the centuries-long quest for the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel, up to todays taste for Chinese eunuch admirals whose fleet toured the entire globe in 1421, or the black-African ancient Egyptians whose profound wisdom gave Greece all its glory." - The Independent"Robert McCarter . . . has produced a superb single-volume work that fills in the gaps of Wright&#39s vast influence . . . well-written and superbly illustrated. The work contains a thorough index of references as well as a comprehensive bibliography. It is an excellent contribution to the Critical Lives series" - Journal of Illinois History"An engagement with the profuse spaces, histories, languages and forms of indigenous politics, First Peoples meets these with creativity and care. In moving through and seeking possibilities in processes of urbanization, education, re-workings of knowledges and power, it is a moving argument about indigeneity in the present." - Graduate Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies"Spanning the silent, classical, post-classical and popular stages of Hollywoods music accompaniments, Film Music is ambitious yet accessible. It should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in how musical soundtracks can enhance the viewing experience." - Media/Culture Reviews"Everlasting Flower is significant because for the first time there is a single book which surveys the whole cultural history of Korea, showing Koreas development within the Chinese cultural world, and demonstrating how the civilization of the peninsula changed under the impact of western and Japanese cultural influences in the twentieth century . . . Pratt brings a comparative perspective to his discussion of Korean history which gives the book a breadth often missing in other works." - History"Historical and critical account of the last 100 years, explaining why this small country is at the forefront of European architecture and product design. Thomas puts this in the context of a country whose wealth was based on trade. A well illustrated and referenced text." - RIBA Journal"cogent insights into wartime experience" - Independent on Sunday"tells [Maybridges] story with clarity and economy and is particularly good on the battle between science and art in his photographs" - The Art Newspaper"Broken up into clear sections on taxonomy, physiology, representation of elephants, human use of elephants and conservation and illustrated throughout with 99 different plates, the book give a great overview for someone wanting to learn more about the worlds largest land mammal and how their history has been intertwined with our own." - Captive Animal Protection Society"[this] slim, yet powerful biography . . . Mary E. Davis&#39s fascinating biography adds much to our understanding about this enigmatic yet crucial modernist figure." - Modernism/Modernity"The authors investigate with a fair measure of their own detachment, and the breadth of their study indicates that they really do know where its at." - Independent on Sunday"Taking the colours of the Brazilian flag as the innovative framework for his elegant narrative, Michael Asbury’s playful and erudite book is essential reading for anyone interested in the intersection of politics, history and nationhood in contemporary art in Brazil and globally." - Gilane Tawadros, Director, Whitechapel Gallery"Turpins book is very readable and in only 256 pages encompasses a remarkable depth and breadth of the history and context of dams in their multiple guises. The book is richly illustrated with photographs of the dams and images of posters and other historical materials. The book will be of interest to engineers, academics, and environmentalists, as well as the general reader." - Water Alternatives"This reliably accurate and comprehensive narrative provides an extremely original and insightful analysis of the Cuban revolution . . . [a] persuasively coherent argument . . . Chapter 4 examining the relationship between Castro and Cuba is simply brilliant. Highly Recommended." - Choice"Rethinking the fundamentals of film history through modern audiovisual technology" - Independent on Sunday"His green and feminist critiques . . . blow a welcome breath of fresh air into the design profession." - The Ecologist"This is an excellent book. It gives an almost complete overview of the main trends and views of what is generally called digital culture through the whole post-war period as well as a thorough exposition of the history of the computer and its predecessors and the origins of the modern division of labour." - Journal of Visual Culture"Simons assessment of the designers legacy her fashion helped redefine femininity as a sort of adolescent insouciance is nicely put." - Independent on Sunday"An elegant history of the computers journey from its &#34initial form as a forbidding room-sized construction" to &#34an innocuous box sitting on top of an office desk." Atkinson describes all the important technological milestones stored memory, the first mouse, the development of touch screens but this is more art book than technical manual . . . Computer offers dozens of great photographs of and vintage advertisements for boxy old computers, and Atkinson analyzes these images as a means of exploring how our attitudes toward computers have changed over the years . . . an oddly fascinating history" - The New Yorker"Concrete and Culture is divided into thematic chapters, focusing on the materials conjunctions with history, nature, religion, politics, photography, labour and labour relations, and its putative renaissance. Each is full of insights conveyed with a sharp political and architectural intelligence . . . Its hard to imagine a better book on the subject." - Owen Hatherley, Building Design"sedulously researched and engaging . . . a thoroughly necessary guide." - Modern Painters"The virtue of Lilleys book is that it makes us seriously consider the relationship between the city where medieval people lived and the city of God that they imagined . . . this book would make an excellent reference textbook for graduate students as well as scholars unfamiliar with the field." - Imago Mundi"A most welcome book . . . full of information and delightful illustrations of Hindi film stars and sets of major, even path-breaking productions, both in color and in black and white, that elicit nostalgic memories . . . a must read for Hindi film fans and for students and scholars in film studies and visual studies." - Journal of Asian Studies"While based on obvious deep scholarship, the book retains a flowing conversational style that is accessible to all, thereby rendering its notions even more powerful and potentially far-reaching. It is, in short, a delight to read . . . richly illustrated and attractively produced . . . Cartographic Encounters succeeds in what it has set out to accomplish, and not only positions discovery and exploration within critical historiography but awakens as well our sense of justice and long-overdue attribution." - The Globe"Rojek ranges widely across celebrity culture . . . His feel for the topic means that these necessarily bite-sized snippets of the famously famous reveal a shewdly evaluative aesthetic at work, and his critical sense is infallibly strong. The result is a delightful social history of fame a mix of cultural studies and social theory that works very well." - The Australian"Unlike many biographies of Jung, this is a balanced, unbiased portrayal. As part of the Critical Lives series, the volume looks at Jungs life from childhood to death, examining the culture, contemporary thought, and philosophy of the time period . . . well-researched . . . An excellent companion to Jungs The Red Book as well as Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Recommended." - Choice"a magnificent, multidimensional, eloquent and, above all, intelligent portrait of one of the world&#39s most enigmatic places." - Sunday Times"Discarding all the tired narratives of Britains insular modernism as a faint echo of continental stylistic and technical bravura, Alan Powers gives us an erudite, spirited, sometimes irreverent and ultimately sensitive assessment of British architectural invention from the decline of Empire to the rise of Devolution. Architectural practice itself, and the changing economic and political policies that inflected its trajectories, are given prominence in dialogue with stylistic and intellectual trends. There is a lasting freshness to this account, and an ecumenical embrace of variety, that will make this lively text a standard for years to come." - Barry Bergdoll, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture & Design, Museum of Modern Art, New York"We highly recommend it it&#39s a brilliantly comprehensive and yet miraculously short history and analysis of capitalist crisis . . . Mattick&#39s book is an essential guide." - Socialist Standard"This is a fascinating and comprehensive overview of the thirty years which saw Britain&#39s position in the world transformed." - Kenneth Baker, The Rt Hon. Lord Baker of Dorking"ranges expertly and entertainingly over the fields of politics, history, and high and popular culture." - The Daily Yomiuri"Thought-provoking and usefully targeted to the questions of today." - TLS"This new book by two well-known historians provides a very good introduction to Myanmars history from the premodern period to the present. The book is written in an engaging style . . . But it is not just a superficial recounting of events. The authors examine longstanding discussions in academic circles about Myanmars history, exploring, for example, the role of Buddhism, the reasons behind the rise and fall of its royal dynasties, and the impact of colonization and WWII on the country. Highly recommended." - Choice"an engrossing, well-written account of the Internets founding and the backstory of the underlying protocols and plumbing, which draws on that rich history to make predictions about the nets future." - Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing"[It] is wonderful . . . to see a subject that embraces so much of human civilisation handled with the wide knowledge and breadth of vision it deserves" - Nature". . . amusing, learned, and articulate . . . You would be hard pressed to find a better book to make do with this year than this wonderful little one which is, somehow, despite the desolation at its core, oddly uplifting." - Glasgow Herald". . . an enjoyable, well-written and compelling tour of philosophical treatments of fear harnessed to an emphasis on the social consequences of living against a background state of fear. Scholarly yet accessible, this book offers subtle philosophical exploration alongside examples from novels, films and other popular media, while avoiding preachiness or doom-mongering." - Times Higher Education"Connor muses interestingly on the football pitch as a palimpsest of geometries on why to be in the lead is to have an advantage in time, to have wound the clock forward on the extreme demands made on the too-easily-mocked sports commentator on sprinting as the enraptured attempt to escape the capturing drag of mass on the utility of magical thinking in the follow-through of bat or club and on how one does things with balls." - The Guardian"[an] impressive interpretive study . . . the book contains a rich assembly of stills and other photos throughout the text." - Cineaste"deserves to influence debates about the cultural representation of animals well beyond the bounds of film studies" - Anthrozo&#246s"A work of great interest" - Sunday Telegraph"The author shifts easily between the broader analysis and the telling details that make each country’s experience distinctive. Overall, this is a lucidly written introduction to the region and its peoples. Recommended" - Choice"In Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners, Sandy Nairne describes going underground to help recover the booty of a daring heist. Superheroes all." - Elaine Showalter, &#39Books of the Year', TLS"Bollywood’s India examines the importance of Hindi Cinema over the last two decades and how it can help us to interpret the social aspects of India as we know it today. Be it religion, human behaviour as well as social, political and economic issues which have affected the country in recent years Dwyer looks at how all these have been depicted in Hindi films and the important link between films and reality . . . This is a must for any movie buff that is curious in obtaining a more critical understanding of Bollywood and its important connection to India as a nation." - Bollyspice.com"a riveting, edge-of-seat chronicle of the eight years of subtle sleuthing and wrangling that led to the painting’s recovery. As [Nairne] engages with undercover policemen, top financiers and Serbian crime lords (via seedy lawyers), this is a fabulously involving tale." - The Independent"Purs examines in a sweeping narrative the repeated transformations of these lands and peoples in politics, economics, and questions of national identity . . . . Purs’s text is illuminating and engaging, most of all when he recounts his own personal observations from the quickly changing countries in telling anecdotes. There is no better introduction to these lands and their realities." - The Historian"Lively, impressively researched, and well-written . . . a book that is timely and valuable." - Times Literary Supplement"contribute[s] valuable insights into [Tarkovsky’s] work and new information about his methods . . . his approach is both rigorous and stimulating." - Vertigo"this book will confirm [Connors] reputation as an entertaining and lucid thinker." - Radical Philosophy"Svendsens thoughtful and well written book analyzes the nature of fear and how it has saturated every layer of our life-world." - Metapsychology". . . a fascinatingly modern essay on ennui and emptiness . . . Svendsens thesis is so cool that boredom, linked with desire rather than need, suddenly seems like a desirable state of being in an agitated age." - The Times"contains an unexpected, but most welcome surprise: stories. Amidst the RANDs and ARPANETs, the dates and somewhat dry details, and the numerous footnotes (the book is about as well-researched as any Ive read), Ryan weaves in stories. These stories are what make this such a wonderful read . . . a thoughtful book that is well researched and well written. The stories and historical references add color and life to the text and help show important cultural connections between todays digital age and earlier times." - popmatters.com"offers an alternative perspective to [Burmese history] . . . a compelling and seductive narrative that can be traced over centuries" - Jonathan Saha, South East Asia Research"[a] spirited defence of traditional diplomacy . . . a history of the profession, but with an alternative focus, looking at modern diplomacy&#39s non-Western traditions and its roots in the medieval West. It provides fascinating details along the way about the development of embassies, envoys, and give-and-take or 19th century statesmanship. It almost made me want to rejoin the trade except in a time capsule." - Eamon Delaney, Irish Times"Mattick&#39s book valuably locates the roots of the crisis in the nature of the capitalist system, providing a forceful counter-argument to those liberal-left commentators who have sought to blame the recent crisis on greedy bankers, neoliberalism or other manifestations of excessive capitalism, while arguing for a return to a regulated Keynesianism." - Radical Philosophy"Professor Rachel Dwyer . . . has compiled a perfect primer meant for the newly enamoured neophyte . . . She convinces us to remain hooked on Bollywood cinema’s fictions as a modern mythology that conjoins the various epics, fables, and legends that together constitute the rich cultural foundations of the subcontinent." - Popmatters"This brilliant book dispels the myth that modernist architecture has always been a European and American phenomenon. In a book that is as much about a history of twentieth-century British society as it is about twentieth-century British architecture, Alan Powers explores an architectural language that developed in a number of styles unique to modern Britain." - Kevin McCloud, designer, author and presenter of Channel 4s Grand Designs, The Stirling Prize and Demolition"packed full of observations of enduring worth . . . She writes with wit, immediacy, intimacy and humor." - Times Literary Supplement"This book will be invaluable to students and professionals working in the sociology of culture and media and cultural studies. The work is also notable for the authors elegant prose and critical insights into popular culture." - Sociology"A rich and substantive analysis . . . informative and interesting." - Contemporary South Asia"Her prose is refreshlingly jargon-free . . . Lupton draws thematic connections between isolated moments in Markers films with an ease born of deep familiarity, and her film analyses are lucid and interesting . . . the first complete English-language survey of Markers work is an invaluble reference." - Rain Taxi"an important look at how the urban city of the Middle Ages is connected to Gods hierarchical arrangement of the universe and the citys place within this ordering . . . Lilley has achieved his goal of providing a new perspective on understanding the citys cultural and material construct . . . This book would make an excellent foundation on which to form a course on the cities of the Middle Ages, due to the fact that it contains so many diverse aspects that can be studied in an interdisciplinary fashion and its relatively inexpensive price. The book is well illustrated throughout, giving Lilley the ability to enhance his readers understanding by providing visual references and he does a good job of using illustrations as evidence for his points." - The Medieval Review"This is a book of maps and voyage appropriately available to a wide readership. Forty-nine illustrations, including early maps, persons, and scenes, meld with references, bibliography, and index to educate and entertain those interested in understanding something of the cartographic history that evolved twixt natives and European colonists in the New World. Recommended." - Choice"Bishop employs a critical style: sharp, but always clear and precise any reader from a scholar to someone approaching Jung for the first time can easily follow his argumentations . . . a good source of reference for a non-specialist reader, as well as an innovative reading for both historians and clinicians, showing how hard it can often be, to trace clear boundaries between humanities and science." - History of Psychiatry"Concrete and Culture is a good read, rich in enlivening and enlightening detail but with a breadth rarely attempted. Everyone with an interest in architecture since 1900 ought to read it, and everyone who reads it will be left with new knowledge and new challenges to some of their most fundamental architectural assumptions." - Barnabas Calder, Journal of Architecture"Of all the biographies of Coco Chanel that I have read, Linda Simons relies most on fashion primary source materials such as fashion and womens magazines and newspapers. For the first time, I learned in detail about the wider context in which Coco Chanels fashions were viewed." - Chanelphile.com"stunning" - The Observer"Whiteleys Design for Society is an important and well-reasoned explanation where design stands in relation to environment and ecology in the nineties. It will refocus the discussion from style to need and human issues. It should help to make the shift to more human and spiritual concerns visible to consumers, students and professionals in design." - Victor Papanek, author of Design for the Real World"Mulvey . . . continues to provoke new ways of seeing - or re-seeing - the cinema we think we know." - Film Comment"Dam investigates some of the worlds most famous and awe-inspiring dams and will be of interest to engineers, historians and environmentalists at all levels . . . beautifully illustrated." - The Environmentalist"This is a gem of a book. Atkinson has written a highly readable yet authoritative survey of computing history and its connections to the larger cultural forces that often invisibly guide how technology emerges from and propagates through a society . . . what emerges from Computer is a fascinating story of the progress in computer product design, accompanied by rare and illuminating photographs that show the wide gamut of changing maker and user perceptions of what thisuniversal machine could be . . . I heartily recommend it." - Journal of Design History"Asbury challenges the cliché of national identity in Brazilian contemporary art by provocatively employing the national colours as metaphors. He provides essential historical context, critically deconstructing the themes and concepts examined within the pages of this compelling book." - Ana Magalhães, Director, The Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo"This much-needed account of the Cuban Revolution spans Cubas history since Castro came to power in 1959. The problems of a philosophy of continual change combined with a desperate attempt to survive the US trade embargo by clinging to the status quo make for interesting dilemmas. In particular, Professor Kapcia explains the trauma brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989-91. The book is a handy primer for those looking to the future of Latin America and the current lefty-leaning governments." - Diplomat Magazine"A fascinating, scholarly work, pinning down a determinedly elusive subject." - Literary Review"a lucid, elegantly written biography and a distinguished addition to the general literature on the composer . . . the book&#39s greatest asset is Davis&#39s consistent focus on the complex social milieu of Satie&#39s career and ways that this fertile environment shaped and defined his work. Her exploration of the symbiotic relationship between music, art, and fashion provides a solid foundation for the examination of similar issues with composers from France and beyond. Erik Satie is a welcome step in that direction." - Notes"Brauns detailed study of the life and work show a complicated man, a combination of technical wizard, show-business pioneer, popular scientist and artist, whose work transformed or understanding of the human form." - New Statesman"A hotbed of experimentation, Holland has long been at the forefront of contemporary interior design, from the curious Rietveld chair to the quirky milk bottle lamp by Droog. Recounting the stories behind many of these fascinating pieces, author and museum curator Mienke Simon Thomas reveals all in her most recent must-read. An enlightening guide (and great gift too!) for designers and historians interested in the Netherlands myriad of intriguing products." - Essential Kitchen Bathroom Bedroom Magazine"A very solidly researched, well-balanced and enjoyable read peppered with glimpses of wit and personal observation. It will be a valuable introduction to Korean history for undergraduates, non-academics and more specialist readers alike and one that will hopefully inspire further reading." - Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies". . . invaluable . . . this remarkable book should be required reading for anyone with a desire to understand imperial Russian culture at a more than superficial level." - Slavonica "Matthew Smith doesnt dispute that some kids act up but then they always did, he says. That the ADHD diagnosis is a help to parents and teachers isnt in doubt perhaps, though, this says more about the way weve been trying to micromanage our childrens behaviour than it does about any disorder." - The Scotsman"Offers an impressive marshalling of geopolitical history" - Journal of World History"impressive . . . the discussion is full of remarkable examples . . . there is much that will stimulate thought and excite admiration" - Art Quarterly"In Invented Knowledge, Ronald Fritze makes a level-headed and well-researched investigation into pseudo-knowledge, revealing the tricks used by purveyors of false and sensational ideas. He also shows how attempts to debunk the myths can add fuel to the fire." - New Scientist"Steven Roger Fischer&#39s exhaustive study . . . touches all the bases." - Geographical Magazine "Piazzas book is a lengthy and detailed study of Jarmusch that intelligently explores his work in terms of sound and which does draw on a few academic sources . . . Piazza doesnt merely analyse how sound functions within his films, but argues for the importance of sound in terms of how it structures and permeates them. In focusing on how three sonic aspects work in his films music, words and noise . . . her analyses on the whole are sophisticated and rich . . . an excellent and highly recommended book which contains some extremely insightful reflections on Jarmuschs art." - Viewfinder"Rob Haskin . . . shows, with an often lovely turn of phrase, how brilliantly and profoundly musically Cage was able to apply Zen to the process of writing music." - Los Angeles Times"Keepers of the Golden Shore, Michael Quentin Morton’s fifth book about the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf and one explicitly intended for expatriate readers, provides those newly arrived in the region with a readable, enjoyable introduction to the states and their history . . . Morton’s work is an important step in integrating eastern Arabia into broader historical narratives of the Middle East, which frequently view the rise of Arab identities and states through the lens of the Levant and the Arab republics while ignoring or segregating the rise of oil monarchies . . . a welcome addition to scholarship on the United Arab Emirates, not least because of Morton’s personal experiences in and respect for the country and its people. He resists the tendency to paint an overly rosy picture of British friendship and “protection” of the region, which dominates the archives and some of the scholarship on the Persian Gulf, while also recognizing and accounting for the personalities, feuds, and limitations of ruling shaykhs. The end result is an excellent introduction to the subject." - Arab Studies Journal"Frayling has reviewed in detail the changing role and perception of scientists in more than a hundred years of cinema [. . .] He covers films [. . .] rigorously, detailing lost or forgotten reels with the precision and loving hand of a devoted film historian." - Nature"A remarkably beautiful book . . . As a long-time professor of worship, I spent many years talking with seminarians and pastors about theological and liturgical aspects of rites related to death. Last Landscapes shows that such conversations would be enriched if they were to address topics that Worpole discusses with such sensitivity and insight." - Anglican Theological Review"Le Blanc has written a unique biography of Leon Trotsky, noting that his subject was highly controversial in his lifetime, and beyond. Trotsky was a voluminous writer as a journalist, author, and theoretician, and at the height of his career number two in the Bolshevik Party to succeed Lenin. Unfortunately, he was also very vain and arrogant, and suffered fools not lightly . . . Le Blanc writes a highly educated treatise. Scholars should look carefully at his use of bibliography and structure from Trotskys own writings for a proper perspective on the man and his legacy . . . Highly recommended." - Choice"Watts style is nimble, often witty, and never ponderous . . . Adam Watt, with lively style and vast erudition, makes us see his remarkable life with new eyes, and that much more than cork-lined rooms or madeleines is what Proust is all about. This is the finest short biography of Proust in print today." - H-France Review"There have been so many biographies of the influential singer-songwriter Nick Drake that its refreshing to see a book on this beloved musician that attempts to explore his work from a different angle. Drake is often referred to as quintessentially English, and Nathan Wiseman-Trowse looks at place, national identity, and Drakes deeply melancholic writing, which often references the pastoral, to give a greater picture of why this is . . . a thought-provoking work which would be a welcome addition to any music lover or academics collection." - Songlines"Culinary history has opened up new perspectives in the study of culture, technology, economics, and politics as well as other fields. Katarzyna Cwiertkas recent work is a lucid example of such a treatment of history through foodways, clarifying, on the one hand, ideas of nationalism and ideologies of identity, and, on the other, from the ground up, cultural understandings of taste and human behavior . . . This is a work to read and reread as the detail is so rich. This deeply engaged treatment of Japanese modernizing foodways underscores the power of producers, marketers, and policymakers, along with ordinary consumers, in an interactive system of nutritional and cultural production and consumption." - Journal of Japanese Studies"B&#228tschmann&#39s book is a superb piece of work. His mastery of the existing literature is complete and, in conjunction with detailed visual scrutiny of the paintings themselves, he deploys it with both insight and originality." - British Journal of Aesthetics"deserves to be read and pondered" - TLS"By exposing the creaking plumbing of categorical thinking that undergirds many of our simplistic either/or notions, Boisvert and Heldke help us realize that self-sufficiency is insufficient when it comes to rebuilding community, reintegrating agriculture into culture, and our species into nature. A philosophy that starts with food may just be the way to break down the real and perceived barriers that we have erected between our mind and body, between ideas and between each other, with the overlapping and interconnection of people and ideas demonstrated." - Know Where Your Food Comes From"Perry has written a scholarly, readable and time survey of an important theme. This book reminds us of the capacity of art to deepen our understanding of a contested, contentious concept whose centrality to the way we live today will not have escaped anyone living in Europe during the recent elections." - The Art Newspaper"the book is instructive and ably locates Portugal in its international context . . . throughout, the impression is of a commanding knowledge and judicious reflection." - Journal of European Studies"Sullivans book does not pretend to be a theoretical analysis of dub as a musical form he is firmly on the journalistic side of popular music writing. However, Remixology is likely to prove very useful in academic debates about dub, electronica, rap, and DJ culture generally it provides a very clear, accessible history of a complex musical form, and it links each development to specific musical cultures first of all in Jamaica, then in the UK and US, and then the rest of the world (the book finishes with good accounts of dub-influenced music scenes in Germany and Canada, for example). Inter alia (and itself worthy of note) the book contains an excellent single chapter on the Bristol scene, which traces the evolution of Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead from the early dub experiments of The Pop Group and The Wild Bunch sound system." - Years Work in Critical and Cultural Theory"This is an informative, interesting and provocative book that adds depth and complexity to many aspects of modern art and design history and to diverse related areas of academic study." - Journal of Design History"In this brief centennial overview, Gates juxtaposes air power&#39s technological sophistication with the often inappropriate political and military strategies that have governed its use. Figuring prominently are treatments of strategic bombing theory from Douhet to LeMay, the strategic failure of Hitler&#39s V weapons, Vietnam era technocentric myopia, and observations on military technology&#39s globalizing cultural influences. Less typical of one-volume aviation histories is the cataloging of a first-rate air arm&#39s weaknesses and the unsupportable political expense they can incur . . . Recommended." - Choice"an admirable attempt to cover the running phenomenon, not merely in its cultural and historical sweep but also in its philosophy. Gotaas startsby giving us some of the fascinating history of running, showing that it has been part and parcel of human life since our earliest days and has featured prominently in cultures ranging from that of the Incas . . . to Sumeria . . . It is the attempts by Gotaas to get beneath the surface of running that provide the book&#39s most revelatory moments." - Matthew Syed,The Times"this is a work that has to be considered a real contribution to the better understanding of a range of important Antarctic matters. With Leanes clear and straightforward writing, this book will surely encourage not only polar experts, but also a wider public to take a lively interest in the many stories of the South Pole." - Imago Mundi"If there is one publication that qualifies for immortality and is also inexhaustible, it should be The Encyclop&#230dia of Stupidity." - Vrij Nederland"Informative and thought-provoking stuff." - The Independent"Ian Bickerton’s accessible primer, The Arab-Israeli Conflict, delves deeply into this tangled dispute and covers the British mandate, the wars, the skirmishes and the diplomacy. His sensible message is that the dispute cannot be resolved by military means." - The Canadian Jewish News"An unflinching analysis that will long endure - as will our stark memories of the horrors unleashed by the administration of George W. Bush." - Professor David Craven, author of Art and Revolution in Latin America, 1910-1990"Spicing up Britain is a fascinating, accessible and enjoyable journey through British food and immigration history. It illustrates the way in which the nation&#39s diet has changed for the better over the past 150 years and how immigration has influenced the eating habits of a nation. The book is one that can rightly demand its place on academic bookshelves and on those of lovers of food alike." - Ethnic and Racial Studies"This volumes primary purpose is to show how the Mongols were a catalyst for change in the first stage of true globalization in human history. Rather than the usual focus on only the negative aspects of the Mongols conquests, May stresses their positive role and contribution to Eurasian history, anayzing the Mongols influence and legacy . . . Both general readers and specialists can benefit from this well-written history. Recommended." - Choice"Stimulating" - Richard Cork, BBC World Service"Reaktion has published a number of good national histories focusing on recent decades. This book adds a valuable regional dynamic . . . Hall ably engages with the impact of imperial legacies and pressures, notably the impact of Ottoman, Habsburg and Russian power. These interacted with religious and ethnic identities and alignments. Hall is good on these elements and on the perception of the Balkans . . . It is not easy to cover so much in such a short book. Hall is to be congratulated." - Journal of European Studies". . . an engaging and colourful potted history of the modern interior from the 1900s through to the present day." - RIBA Journal"This book contributes to a better understanding of the Nordic model by highlighting the convergences with and divergences from the rest of Europe and within Scandinavia itself. In doing so, it challenges the preconceived notion that Scandinavia is an entirely distinct region, politically, economically and socially." - Journal of Contemporary European Studies"the conclusion to Nicholas Thomas’s short but inspiring book might be a rallying call for the troubled political times we are living through . . . he not only makes a cogent argument for the relevance of museums in the 21st century, but also connects this to the need to understand and engage with our opponents" - Katy Barrett, Museums Journal"Written from an anthropological and sociological perspective, Lukas puts forward an intriguing and fresh view on the definition and relevance of theme parks to our everyday lives. Indeed, he believes that they have achieved a wider significance by becoming complex representations of the human mind itself . . . this beautifully illustrated and enthralling book convinces the reader to sympathize with Lukas ' view that the world is rapidly becoming a reflection of the theme park." - Journal of Design History"A sumptuously illustrated exploratory guide to Indias artists and the avant garde movement of 1922-1947" - Yoga and Health"[an] excellent overview of the history of trolls . . . Trolls: An Unnatural History weighs in at only 144 pages, but never feels too brief. Lindow takes a long view of his subject matter . . . To follow a thread throughout 1,000 years of history, in several different countries, is not an easy task. In the hands of someone less knowledgeable and less skilled in presenting their arguments, a book can end up as a mess. Here, Lindow avoids all those traps, instead giving us a coherent, insightful and informed exploration of a fascinating subject that deserves a wider audience." - Fortean Times"The author delves into the process used by various designers and examines how they have engaged with interior space and the experiences it can provide. McCarter focuses on modern architecture throughout the world, examining familiar buildings by renowned architects. Although he provides no photographs of the interiors, he makes up for that with his own sketches, done while on-site. Highly recommended" - Choice"An inventive look at the oceans and their influence as barriers, as sources of commerce, life and cultural inspiration on human civilization and the relations among nations." - Los Angeles Times"Exhaustively and meticulously researched, Pin-Ups 1972 is essential reading." - Vive le Rock magazine"It’s a story of great scope. The genre of “The Food/Drink/Condiment that Made the Modern World” has become a cliché, and many performances of this sort are shallow, overstated or merely cute. But in the right hands, telling the history of foodstuffs and foodways responds to current calls for histories of wider scope: histories of the longue durée; of global exchanges and contacts between cultures; and of the relations between human doings, things and the environment. Empire of Tea is an important example, sometimes brilliantly told . . . a history of modernity told through one of its consumable commodities." - London Review of Books"This is a splendid book, well written and well researched, which throws light on our understanding of the subject." - Michael Dockrell, Department of War Studies, Kings College, London". . . thought-provoking . . . the depiction of visionary experiences was a powerful subject for Counter-Reformation devotion, manifested especially in Spanish Baroque art. Stoichita explores aspects of both form and meaning in Spanish paintings of visions (such as the role of trompe loeil, the manipulation of foreshortenings, and even variations in paint strokes), along with analyzing appropriate contemporary writings." - Choice". . . highly recommended for those working on any aspect of cultural identity and Turkey . . . the work is richly illustrated and contains a basic cinematographic register, which makes it an excellent introduction to the history of Turkish film . . . a major work." - Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television"The reader is referred to the excellent books that will provide some of this information and insights . . . Women, Islam and cinema, and Turkish Cinema: Identity, Distance and Belonging, both by G&#246n&#252l D&#246nmez-Colin, are wonderful resources." - Javed Mohammed, Culture Wars"Baker's book is an excellent introduction." - Stride Magazine"This eccentric and entertaining collection of essays makes a strong case for thinking that we should look more closely at human skin . . . There aren&#39t many places where Betty Boop, Wagner, and a succubus or two can be found jostling each other for space. One could be on the tatooed body. The other is in this brilliantly scholarly and scatty book." - Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, The Art Newspaper"Steven Fischer’s intriguing and ambitious study explores a vast terrain . . . Throughout, he addresses hard questions that bear directly on fundamental and distinctive aspects of human nature and achievement. A stimulating and highly informative inquiry" - Noam Chomsky"it is quite safe to say that Connor’s study is original and should be of interest to philosophers, intellectual and cultural historians, and literary scholars, as well as basically anyone who is interested in “epistemopathic” aspects of knowledge . . . As an admirably erudite scholar, Connor delves effortlessly into the storehouse of Western thought, equally at ease discussing the ideas of such luminaries as Plato, Francis Bacon, John Milton, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, and other psychoanalysts as well as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett." - Isis Journal"Shortlisted for the British Sports Book Award 2008" - Award"Klemettilä who skates across the whole of continental Europe in The Medieval Kitchen . . . reveals the delicacy, craft and complexity that underpinned medieval food . . . the book puts us in touch with an essential element of medieval culture and shows how it shaped that world. In helping to restore its reputation [she] also helps to further repair the standing of an age whose rich sophistication is too often unfairly sneared." - TLS"Ambitious . . . Scanlan, who wrote 2015’s excellent Easy Riders, Rolling Stones, breaks from the intellectual slumming that often smothers the band, repositioning the Pistols as Malcolm McLaren’s anarchic art project that misfired when they kick-started the UK’s punk revolution and made a ‘classic album’." - Kris Needs, Record Collector"Beautifully written by a leading authority on the politics of the French Revolution, Desk Revolutionaries focuses on its later phase, between the end of the Terror and the coming of Napoleon. Through studies of the leading figures in government as they struggled to make the new republican constitution work, Biancamaria Fontana shows that they achieved underestimated successes as well as the failures highlighted by later Napoleonic propaganda. In fact, the regime established by Napoleon could scarcely have worked without patient and unrewarding groundwork by these men, who had sought in vain to bring a successful end to an unfinished revolution. This is a book that nobody interested in The French Revolution, or the ideals and pitfalls of republicanism in general, should miss." - William Doyle, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Bristol, and author of Napoleon at Peace"We are so fortunate to have someone as articulate and empathetic as Jonathan Romain to make this crucial argument." - Daniel Finkelstein OBE"It's an exciting story, which the author tells clearly and chronologically" - Daily Telegraph"Social anxieties have a way of coalescing around young women's bodies, Linda Simon demonstrates in Lost Girls, her riveting, deeply-researched counter-history of the flapper. Behind the beads, the bob, the fringe, and the Charleston, there is a much darker story to be told." - Lauren Elkin, author of Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London"provides a compelling case for governments across the globe not to overlook the potential threat of biological and chemical weapons . . . the book is more than just a history of these weapons, but also an important addition to the literature on the types of threat we are likely to face in the future . . . an important reminder of the substantial destructive and psychological power of chemical and biological weapons, as well as an accessible history about how states have thought about their use and utility in the past." - Political Studies Review"a beautifully written and groundbreaking historical study of homemade, handmade and amateur pornographic artifacts. Covering everything from erotic scrimshaw to amateur videos on the web, Lisa Sigel offers a fascinating account of what ordinary people thought about sexuality and desire. This hidden chapter of American sexual history is not only a much-needed counterbalance to ahistorical arguments which dominate pornography today, it’s also a reminder of humanity’s prodigious tendency to create and communicate sexual desires. At times, the images and objects presented in this book might appear shocking, crude, grotesque, problematic, confrontational, unrestrained, unruly; but in the end they are deeply human." - New Books Network"Arguing that cybercrime has grown in power and in danger, journalist White offers a well-written, expertly researched examination of the topic. Relying on published reports and in-depth interviews, the author looks at three different facets: cybercrime gangs, 'hacktivist' movements, and ways in which nation states use cybercrimes. White is at his best when describing this seemingly legally sanctioned hacking, such as in Russia and North Korea. In vivid detail, he explores the 2015 raid on Bangladesh’s Central Bank; the movement Anonymous, which has made attacks on governments; and ways in which data is hacked for profit . . . This is a fascinating, often gripping read, and a solid update to Brian Krebs’s Spam Nation . . . For true crime and technology enthusiasts in search of an overview of cybercrime." - Library Journal"This is the book the world has been waiting for! Since Taiwan is one of the world’s geopolitical hotspots, the history of the Taiwanese people is needed to understand their views. Evan N. Dawley’s gem of a book is at once rigorous scholarship, a delightful read, and a courageous act of decolonization." - Scott E. Simon, University of Ottawa"Whispers from Celtic Seas offers the tantalizing possibility that what are commonly dismissed as myths or “good yarns” may have their origins in remembered experiences of coasts that have changed dramatically in the past 10,000 years. In this current era of marked climate change, Patrick Nunn prompts us to consider the twin issues of our changing environment and how we will respond to the new circumstances that it presents." - Andrew Cooper, Professor of Coastal Studies, Ulster University"Antisemitisms: A History of Jew Hating is the fruit of decades of profound learning. Divided into five evocative parts – Making, Seeing, Healing, Wandering and Unmaking of Jews – Sander L. Gilman reveals the vast, unstable and inconsistent entanglements of Jewish history and antisemitism. Drawing on an exceptionally wide range of examples from politics, art, science and culture, his work weaves together non-Jews, Jews and representations of Jews. Gilman introduces two groundbreaking claims that will transform the field: the use of “antisemitisms”, in the plural, and the development of the “wobbly” as a core category for understanding the phenomenon. This is, quite simply, Gilman’s definitive statement on the subject." - Amos Morris-Reich, The Geza Roth Chair of Modern Jewish History and Professor at the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University"Antisemitisms: A History of Jew Hating is the fruit of decades of profound learning. Divided into five evocative parts – Making, Seeing, Healing, Wandering and Unmaking of Jews – Sander L. Gilman reveals the vast, unstable and inconsistent entanglements of Jewish history and antisemitism. Drawing on an exceptionally wide range of examples from politics, art, science and culture, his work weaves together non-Jews, Jews and representations of Jews. Gilman introduces two groundbreaking claims that will transform the field: the use of “antisemitisms”, in the plural, and the development of the “wobbly” as a core category for understanding the phenomenon. This is, quite simply, Gilman’s definitive statement on the subject." - Amos Morris-Reich, The Geza Roth Chair of Modern Jewish History and Professor at the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University"A delightful, engaging tour of coastal legends of the British Isles and northern France. Patrick Nunn makes a strong case that stories of places such as Lyonesse, Doggerland and Hy Brasil, as well as figures like the Hebridean Huntress, are not mere fictions spun by so-called “dreamy Celts”. Rather, these narrative “whispers” encode the experiences of ancient peoples living during the last ice age." - Timothy J. Burbery, Professor of English, Marshall University"This is the most comprehensive and thoroughly researched history of Taiwan in the English language. Among the foremost historians of Taiwan in the Anglosphere, Evan N. Dawley masterfully distills millennia of history, from Indigenous settlement to Taiwan’s democratization, into one book. Dawley underscores the profound and multifarious effects of settler colonialism on Taiwanese peoples and, consequently, the emergence of a layered and complex Taiwanese identity and nationhood." - James Lin, University of Washington"Crime Dot Com is, at its heart, the story of how cybercrime’s reach, impact, and possibilities, have fundamentally changed as internet speeds and penetration rates have increased around the globe. In that, it achieves its goals with clear and accessible prose, making it a book that will be of interest to those who wish to look back at the patterns of cybercriminal activity and understand its evolution over the course of the early twenty first century." - Criminal Law & Criminal Justice Books"Flipping through The People’s Porn, you will see some amazing things . . . The contrast between these objects—ridiculous, funny, sexy, disturbing—and our idea of what old porn might have been like—sepia, staid – is Sigel’s point . . . I appreciated the historian’s commitment to letting us know why the groups of objects she analyzes have survived to the present and explaining why the archive of handmade porn is so small . . . When private pornography goes public, she writes, there’s always a risk." - Slate Magazine"a comprehensive overview of the development, future, and implications of biological and chemical weapons. Spiers book traces the origins of chemical and biological warfare from their ancient beginnings to the first major use of gas in 1915 in World War I, to more recent uses and suspicions of use." - Arms Control"Lost Girls finds an irresistible history of many girls. They longed to be modern, New Women, and in the Jazz Age, transgressive flappers. They wanted to dance, go to the movies, dress freely, work, be independent, and even vote. Arrayed against them were parents, scientists, politicians, and an imprisoning cult of motherhood. Linda Simon, with verve and wit and eloquence, shows us their battles, scars, and victories – a vibrant legacy for the 21st century." - Catharine R. Stimpson, University Professor, New York University"The best and most balanced account of the assisted dying debate. It favours assisted dying in a way that addresses all its aspects. And it’s very moving as it describes the ways a death may be experienced and marked. It is truly a brilliant, insightful book." - Charlie Falconer, former Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary"In addition to his impressive historical account, Scanlan threads a variety of analytical considerations into the book, thus endowing it with a sound intellectual basis. For instance, he investigates a broader disparity between reality and perception and delves into the indispensability of cultural memory. Of the former, he writes that ‘this gap between the reality and its representation – so at odds with the world we live in today, where the gap is non-existent – also added to the perception that the Sex Pistols had, by 1977 already entered the realms of myth’. The author does some important conceptual unpacking for cultural memory as well. He asserts that this memory is embodied by ‘the panoply of media artefacts, material objects and memoirs that feed into various forms of reanimation’. Examples the author provides of these are film documentaries, commemorative events, and exhibitions. In an embodiment of cultural memory and the reality/perception dichotomy, the author presents the reader with the idea that there were two Sex Pistols: manager Malcolm McLaren’s and frontman John Lydon’s. These two groups were an idea and a musical entity, respectively." - Zach Thomas, Rock Music Studies"[Klemettilä] presents a fascinating picture of a very different mindset when it comes to food and inspired me to get a taste of those forgotten flavors . . . While my palate may not be able to take on an all-medieval diet, it was still a fun, experiential way to encounter another age. The recipes will be worth returning to occasionally, a little pinch of history to season my 21st-century table." - National Catholic Reporter"A treasure trove for boxing historians and aficionados . . . At nearly five hundred densely packed pages . . . Boxing: A Cultural History would seem to include everything that has ever been written, depicted or in any way recorded about boxing. . . . To read Boddy’s book is to confront dozens - hundreds? of inspired mini-essays." - Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books"[An] amazingly rich volume . . . Caplan&#39s anthology of essays is stimulating for further work on the very idea of body ornamentation as a source of cultural history." - Sander L. Gilman, American Historical Review"Baker has made extensive use of Burroughs' letters, and from these, extrapolates Burroughs' perspective on events within the context of his biography. It sounds such an obvious approach, but it does add a new dimension to the Burroughs story and provides a fascinating insight by working from this angle. What's more . . . there is a greater sense of the way in which the writing and the living were intertwined. The other biographies not only separate the two (and thus compartmentalise the writing as secondary), but also seem to focus so much on the non-literary biographical events that one could come to believe that Burroughs simply conjured books out of thin air . . ." - Christopher Nosnibor"an engrossing introduction to a national cinema that has received little English-language attention . . . what D&#246nmez-Colin has successfully achieved is to present a cinema full of interest and surprises . . . it presents Turkish cinema as interesting in general while helpfully singling out specific films that seem like must-see items for any reasonable cinephile&#39s wish list." - Screening the Past"“Tea” has at least five meanings: the shrub Camellia sinensis; its leaf; the dried commodity; the infusion made from it; and the occasion for consuming the infusion. As Markman Ellis, Richard Coulton and Matthew Mauger show in this stimulating volume, history is steeped in the stuff." - Nature"Magn&#250sson&#39s ambitious work provides a unique perspective on the development of Iceland&#39s cultural heritage . . . an unflinching look into Iceland&#39s past through the literary legacy of many average Icelanders and attempts to construct a clearer picture of the development of Iceland&#39s culture and educational past . . . well researched and full of rich resources, the book provides unique insight into a truly unparalleled country and culture, not found in many works available to English readers . . . an important work. Highly recommended." - Choice"John Macks fascinating The Sea: A Cultural History brings an anthropologists intellect to our engagement with the sea." - Condé Nast Traveller"We should welcome, then, Robert McCarter’s The Space Within, a meditation on “interior experience” in architecture, and an appeal on behalf of this experience as “the only appropriate way to evaluate architecture” . . . a dense and compelling portrait of a particular history of thinking about, and making, buildings" - Oxonian Review"With this book Partha Mitter adds further to his already monumental contribution to the study of Indian art. A comprehensive survey of ideas, institutions and schools, it is rich in details that leap out of obscurity to illuminate the significance of the whole. What emerges is a fascinating pattern of contradictions and coalescences that make up the stuff called modernism. Theres nothing simple about this tissue of paradoxes which constitutes the originality of the phenomenon in its subcontinental habitat. By undertaking to describe and analyze its complexities, this book earns its place in the corpus of distinguished critical literature that warns us against an overtly Eurocentric view of modernity, an alarm already sounded in the authors celebrated work, Much Maligned Monsters (1977). Furthermore, it alerts all concerned to the indifference that allows South Asian historiography to remain blissfully unaware of what it can and must learn from contemporary writings on the history of art. There is a great deal here for all narratives of colonialism and modernism to feed on." - Ranajit Guha, founder of Subaltern Studies"a fascinating read . . . you likely wont find another source for such an in-depth look at trolls, internet comment sections notwithstanding." - Spectrum Culture"provides a comprehensive and sometimes compelling intellectual journey through the history of pleasure gardens, world fairs, amusement parks, theme parks, megamalls, and virtual spaces like Second Life. By charting the history of the present of the modern theme park form, and the ways that these sites might shape future possibilities, Lukas provides an insightful text for scholars in cultural geography, cultural studies, and tourism studies." - Journal of Cultural Geography"Nicholas Thomas has written a highly intelligent and intellectually wide-ranging analysis as to why museums matter and are so successful in the twenty first century . . . It is wonderful to read someone who works at the heart of museums writing so inspiringly about the ways in which museum collections (and not just what is on display) encourage artistic interpretation, research, self-discovery and free thinking." - Charles Saumarez Smith, Secretary and Chief Executive, Royal Academy of Arts"a very thoroughly researched and quite balanced treatment of all five countries . . . very well written." - Journal of the Royal Geographical Society"A welcome addition to the library of Museology." - Art Monthly"In using examples of design from around the world, including the US, Scandinavia, UK, France, Germany and Italy, The Modern Interior offers some real insight into why the interior environments we inhabit look the way they do." - Designer Magazine"Mays approach to his material is broad, wide-ranging, often speculative, and very ambitious . . . May has spent years in the classroom honing his talent for making this challenging material interesting to people who know nothing about it . . . He leaves no technical term unexplained no group, person, or place unidentified no theme ignored. In addition he includes the picturesque, gruesome, or even funny details . . . His scope, ambition, and many of his results deserve to be commended." - Journal of World History"a significant contribution to scholarship about the development of modern British food practices . . . this is a fine and authoritative book that will provide inspiration, as well as a very valuable guide to sources." - Twentieth Century British History"Stephen Eisenman’s provocative discussion of the omnipresence of the imagery of aggression, domination, and subjugation in Western art is as disturbing as it is timely. Coming as it does in the wake of the exposure of American torture of detainees, it reminds us that what we call culture is as marked by the evidence of cruelty and brutality as is the history of warfare itself. His book is an exemplary demonstration of the inseparability of the aesthetic and the political." - Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Professor of Art History, University of California Santa Barbara"Matthijs van Boxsel has collected the most fantastic facts and knows how to share with the reader his pleasure in doing so." - NRC Handelsblad"Musicians, artists, writers and sculptors are among those to have visited Pole in the years since Amundsen led the way, and it has left its mark on all of them. This is a highly readable study of the worlds most remote destination." - Geographical Magazine"fulfils its brief brilliantly" - The Independent"In this informative and lively book, Elizabeth Guffey cuts through the ambiguities of the term retro and examines its roots, evolution and myriad manifestations . . . Throughout, the book seeks to understand how and why the recent past has been transformed into a revolving door of pop historicism . . . Based on considerable original research and including rich anecdotal material, the book is aimed at all readers interested in retro as well as twentieth century art, design and consumer culture." - Concept for Living Magazine"At a time when Portugal has once again made the headlines of the international media (with the blame attached to the crisis over its national debt and the weakness of its economy to adapt to the challenges of European enlargement and globalization), this small volume, filled with illuminating and provocative pointers, may be a good way of putting its triumphs and vulnerabilities into perspective." - Journal of Contemporary European Studies"Peppered with clear, mostly color photographs, the seven chapters, introduction, and conclusion interpret houses as interactive spaces permitting exploration and experimentation . . . exhibits use the house to express environmental concerns, cultural experiences, nostalgia, or other aspects of life, and ultimately raise questions that could redefine the way we look around us. Recommended." - Choice"ambitiously panoramic and highly accessible" - Anglo-Hellenic Review"[This book is] required reading." - Art History"[an] excellent introductory volume for the Reaktion Critical Lives series" - TLS"unlocks not only the mystery of the island but also its people and their extraordinary history." - Graduate Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies