Cultural studies Books

Book SynopsisAn intriguing glimpse into the future provides information detailng the political and social collision that could occur shortly after the millennium, based on a repeating series of eighty to one hundred year cycles, divided into four turnings--a High, Awakening, Unraveling, and Crisis. Reprint.

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Book SynopsisBlackshirts & Reds explores some of the big issues of our time: fascism, capitalism, communism, revolution, democracy, and ecology--terms often bandied about but seldom explored in the original and exciting way that has become Michael Parenti's trademark. Parenti shows how rational fascism renders service to capitalism, how corporate power undermines democracy, and how revolutions are a mass empowerment against the forces of exploitative privilege. He also maps out the external and internal forces that destroyed communism, and the disastrous impact of the free-market victory on eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He affirms the relevance of taboo ideologies like Marxism, demonstrating the importance of class analysis in understanding political realities and dealing with the ongoing collision between ecology and global corporatism. Written with lucid and compelling style, this book goes beyond truncated modes of thought, inviting us to entertain iconoclastic views, and to ask

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Book SynopsisToo many popular histories seek to establish heroes, pioneers and martyrs but as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and/or dastardly deeds have been overlooked. We all remember Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those 'bad gays' whose un-exemplary lives reveals more than we might expect?Part-revisionist history, part-historical biography and based on the hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. From the Emperor Hadrian to notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives. This includes fascist thugs, famous artists, austere puritans and debauched bon viveurs, Imperialists, G-men and architects. Together these amazing life stories expand and challenge the mainstream assumptions of sexual identity. They show that homosexuality itself was an idea that emerged in the nineteenth century and that its interpretation has been central to major historical moments of conflict from the ruptures of Weimar Republic to red-baiting in Cold War America.Amusing, disturbing and fascinating, Bad Gays puts centre stage the queers villains and evil twinks in history.Trade ReviewWhy must liberatory history be populated by heroes? And what if it isn't? Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller confront the shadowy side of queer history, a seamy underworld populated by evil twinks and psychopathic villains. Delectable gossip aside, this revelatory book is really an account of toxic power relations, always with an eye to a better, stranger, wilder future. -- Olivia Laing, author of EverybodyA wry, rigorous account of centuries of gay villainy. Lemmey and Miller's historiography sparkles with salacious details and delights in showing us that there is nothing new under the sun. -- Shon Faye, Author of The Transgender IssueA smart, funny (and, just occasionally, catty) tour through the darker side of LGBTQ+ history. Far from being an excoriation, this book is a sign of confidence in a community that no longer has to present its antecedents as saints and martyrs but as real people: some of these gays were well-meaning but flawed; some of them were complicated; and some of them were just bloody awful. -- Juliet Jacques, author of VariationsAn antidote to assumptions that anyone oppressed must be the good guy. -- Catherine Fletcher * History Today, Books of the Year *What a great way to do history/think about identity/consider the history of homosexuality. By turns uncomfortable, outrageous and hilarious, this book, taken from the podcast of the same name, was one of my unputdownables of 2022. Looking forward to the next edition already -- Julia Bell * White Review, Best Books 2022 *In examining the lives of these notorious 'bad gays,' the authors examine the ways queerness has been perceived throughout history, and gives modern-day LGBTQ+ people an opportunity to see what the possibilities are going forward. (Also, everyone loves a villain origin story, so who can resist?!) -- David Vogel * Buzzfeed *The historical perspective is fascinating, and the bits of salty gay humor sprinkled throughout liven the proceedings considerably. * Booklist *Bad Gays succeeds in its goals in every way, offering an infuriating, thoughtful, deliciously judgmental history of the very worst we had to offer. -- Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez * Washington Post *Fascinating-and very funny-deep dives into the lives of the most dastardly queer people in history...Bad Gays offers a riveting look back at historical figures whom the present-day LGBTQ+ community might be less eager to reclaim. -- Liam Hess * Vogue *The authors cruise the wilder and darker side of queer history....Well-researched, humorous, they illustrate how the interpretation of homosexuality itself influenced history. -- E. B. Boatner * Lavender Magazine *A provocative argument, one they put forth in a way that's both thorough and entertaining....a who's who of queer nasties through history. -- Michael Hays * The Gay & Lesbian Review *Succeeds in radically rethinking queer history...Bad Gays is ultimately an act of love-most criticism is, after all-and this is made clear in how compellingly Lemmey and Miller write about their vision for the future. -- Eleni Vlahiotis * PopMatters *Dizzyingly eclectic ... offers a wealth of interesting facts and wide-ranging references -- Sarah Sachs-Eldridge * Socialism Today *

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Book SynopsisAntonio Gramsci''s Prison Notebooks, written between 1929 and 1935, are the work of one of the most original thinkers in twentieth century Europe. Gramsci has had a profound influence on debates about the relationship between politics and culture. His complex and fruitful approach to questions of ideology, power and change remains crucial for critical theory. This volume was the first selection published from the Notebooks to be made available in Britain, and was originally published in the early 1970s. It contains the most important of Gramsci''s notebooks, including the texts of The Modern Prince, and Americanism and Fordism, and extensive notes on the state and civil society, Italian history and the role of intellectuals. ''Far the best informative apparatus available to any foreign language readership of Gramsci.'' Perry Anderson, New Left Review ''A model of scholarship'' New Statesman

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Book SynopsisObject Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. You are what you eat. Never is this truer than when we use medications, from beta blockers and aspirin to Viagra and epiduralsand especially psychotropic pills that transform our minds as well as our bodies. Meditating on how modern medicine increasingly measures out human identity not in T. S. Eliot's proverbial coffee spoons but in 1mg-, 5mg-, or 300mg-doses, Pill traces the uncanny presence of psychiatric pills through science, medicine, autobiography, television, cinema, literature, and popular music. Robert Bennett reveals modern psychopharmacology to be a brave new world in which human identities thoughts, emotions, personalities, and selves themselvesare increasingly determined by the extraordinary powers of seemingly ordinary pills.Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.Trade ReviewBennett is great … in showing how the pill has pervaded popular culture and popular thinking. He coins the genre title of “psychopharmacological thriller,” a mouthful but apt: the film or TV show about not just drugs, but also their making, distribution, and effects. Under this last head, he unleashes a brilliant set piece on Carrie Mathison (played so well by Claire Danes in Homeland.) * The Philadelphia Inquirer *Robert Bennett's Pill, another volume in Bloomsbury's fine Object Lessons series … effectively looks at all areas of the history, understanding, and application of pills as maintenance tools (or presumed cures) in psychopharmacology … It's this careful, methodical journey Bennett takes through these medications and their effects as manifested through popular culture that makes Pill an effective, compelling book … Pill succinctly and comprehensively charts the enigmatic relationship humanity has had with wonder drugs of all sorts, particularly here Thorazine through Adderall. [Bennett] suggests, carefully, and with touching immediacy (especially through the final personal chapter), that there's still work to be done as we understand both the blessings and the curses of these drugs. * PopMatters *In this wide-ranging and readable book, Robert Bennett shows the many ways that our pills are us. Pill is a cautionary tale about putting our faith in easy cures, and necessary reading for anyone who wants to better understand our complex, anxious, and uncertain times. * Rachel Adams, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, and author of Raising Henry: A Memoir of Motherhood, Disability, and Discovery (2013) *Adept in its understanding of the relationship between pharmacology and culture, this book incisively demonstrates how psychotropic drugs engineer the modern self. Pill doesn’t invite us to ask our doctors about Zoloft but rather to ask ourselves how Zoloft defines us as individuals. * Lorenzo Servitje, Assistant Professor of Literature and Medicine, Lehigh University, USA, and co-editor of The Walking Med: Zombies and the Medical Image (2016) *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Pharmageddon 1 Thorazine (C17H19ClN2S): The Psychopharmacological Revolution 2 Valium (C16H13ClN2O): The Psychopharmacology of Everyday Life 3 Lithium (Li2CO3): The Psychopharmacological Thriller 4 Prozac (C17H18F3NO): Existential Quagmires 5 Adderall ((C9H13N)2H2SO4 + (C9H13N)2H2SO4 + (C9H13N)2C6H10O8 + (C9H13N)C4H7NO4H2O): Psychopharmacology Unbound Coda: Waiting for Brad Pitt Acknowledgements List of Figures Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe Cinema of Sofia Coppola provides the first comprehensive analysis of Coppola's oeuvre that situates her work broadly in relation to contemporary artistic, social and cultural currents. Suzanne Ferriss considers the central role of fashion - in its various manifestations - to Coppola's films, exploring fashion's primacy in every cinematic dimension: in film narrative; production, costume and sound design; cinematography; marketing, distribution and auteur branding. She also explores the theme of celebrity, including Coppola's own director-star persona, and argues that Coppola's auteur status rests on an original and distinct visual style, derived from the filmmaker's complex engagement with photography and painting.Ferriss analyzes each of Coppola's six films, categorizing them in two groups: films where fashion commands attention (Marie Antoinette, The Beguiled and The Bling Ring) and those where clothing and material goods do not stand out ostentatiously, but Trade ReviewScholar Ferriss traces and deconstructs how Coppola’s knowledge of interior design, fashion, architecture, art and music informs every aspect of her movies – and their carefully crafted, painterly compositions – and illuminates how deftly style becomes substance. * Everything Zoomer *Suzanne Ferriss presents us with an indispensable study that effectively captures the complexities of Sofia Coppola's universe through the lens of fashion, culture and celebrity. * The Journal of Dress History *Thought provoking for fans of Coppola’s work and casual viewers alike. * Film Criticism *Ferriss offers a sophisticated and wide-ranging analysis of Coppola's films and their intersections with fashion, art and celebrity culture. This is the first study, in particular, that positions Coppola's aesthetic preoccupations from the perspective of neither feminism nor post-feminism, but rather from that of art history. This book, therefore, offers a genuinely new, vital and fascinating take on a currently neglected, or under-studied, aspect of Coppola's oeuvre. Ferriss combines rich analysis with extensive knowledge of Coppola's artistic influences and writes both lucidly and beautifully. This study will be indispensable to both undergraduate students and serious scholars of not only film, but also those working in interdisciplinary subjects such as fashion studies, gender studies and art history. -- Anna Backman Rogers, Senior Lecturer in Feminism and Visual Culture, University of Gothenburg, SwedenSuzanne Ferriss’s timely and lively book makes a convincing case for considering Sofia Coppola a designer as much as a director, creating beautifully fashioned story worlds. Threading together analysis of Coppola’s use of costume, her carefully curated locations, and her eclectic range of photographic and fine art references, this book will appeal not just to devotees of Coppola but also scholars interested in the vibrant interconnections Ferriss demonstrates between fashion, film, and visual cultures. -- Fiona Handyside, Associate Professor of Film Studies, University of Exeter, UKThis vibrant addition to the growing body of Coppola scholarship is an exquisitely detailed celebration of her luscious visual style, in the particular context of costume and fashion, photography and fame. Ferris explores Coppola’s unique set of influences and firmly demonstrates her cultural prestige and indisputable significance. -- Lucy Bolton, Deputy Head of Film, Queen Mary, University of London, UKA tour de force of extensive range yet admirable clarity, The Cinema of Sofia Coppola stands apart in the rapidly expanding field of Coppola studies for its definitive demonstration of the filmmaker's debt and contribution to fashion cultures, broadly defined. Moving nimbly between areas as diverse as fine art, phenomenology and business, Suzanne Ferriss' study conjures vividly the far-reaching impact of "Coppolism" as a densely intermedial aesthetic and social phenomenon. -- Mary Harrod, Assistant Professor, University of Warwick, UKThe Cinema of Sofia Coppola will fast become the go-to reference volume for any student, scholar or cinephile interested in the films of this talented, award-winning director. Writing in a readable and engaging style, the author provides a wealth of well-researched material about the complicated itinerary that lead to the success of one of the world’s most prominent women auteurs. -- Hilary Radner, Professor Emeritus, University of Otago, New ZealandTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Self-Fashioning 2. Fashioning Worlds 3. Film Style 4. The Fashion-Fame-Film Industrial Complex Conclusion Fashion and Film Timeline Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisEva Barbarossa is a writer and researcher based in Los Angeles and Italy. Her writing has appeared in the Review of Contemporary Fiction, Surface, and The Island Review.Trade ReviewEva Barbarossa delights in details and shows how much fun technology can be when science appears to be magic. * Mark Kurlansky, author of Paper: Paging Through History (2016), Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas (2018), and Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of a Common Fate (forthcoming 2019) *In this delightful and engaging account, Eva Barbarossa shows us how our attraction to magnets is just as much part of culture as it is science--and has been for millennia. Magnet brings together everything from magic and mystery to mesmerism and MRIs as Barbarossa unpacks the meaning of a magnet's pull. Magnet is a must read. * Lydia Pyne, author of Bookshelf (2016) and Genuine Fakes: How Phony Things Teach Us About Real Stuff (forthcoming 2019) *Table of ContentsPrologue In which I eat hundreds of magnets. 1. Birth In which humans find a stone with magical properties. 2. Earth In which we discover we live on an ancient magnet. 3. Home In which we use magnets to find our way. 4. Alignment In which man and beast align to the magnetic fields. 5. North In which we hunt for polar magnets. 6. Health In which we believe magnets harm and heal. 7. Transcendence In which magnetic fluids provide hope. 8. Tricks In which we use magnets to make trouble. 9. Toys In which we find magnets for play and pedagogy. 10. Technology In which everything needs a magnet. Afterword In which I do not eat more magnets. Acknowledgements Selected sources Notes Index

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Book SynopsisSUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLERThe most important book of the year' Daily MailThe brilliant and provocative new book from one of the world's foremost political writersThe anti-Western revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It is high time that we revise them in turn'In The War on the West, international bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: if the history of humankind is one of slavery, conquest, prejudice, genocide and exploitation, why are only Western nations taking the blame for it? It's become perfectly acceptable to celebrate the contributions of non-Western cultures, but discussing their flaws and crimes is called hate speech. What's more it has become acceptable to discuss the flaws and crimes of Western culture, but celebrating their contributions is also called hate speech. Some of this is a much-needed reckoning; however, some is part of a larger international attack on reason, democracy, science, progress and the citizens of the West by dishonest scholarsTrade Review‘Murray shows not just how every aspect of western society has come under the iconoclasts’ gaze – from mathematics to music, Kew Gardens to Jane Austen – but how flimsy their case often is.’ – The Sunday Times ‘Murray writes with wonderful lucidity about the many fronts on which the West is waging war against itself. And he writes with a sense of urgency.’ – Real Clear Politics ‘Well executed… a spirited defence against the Left's assault on the Western tradition.’ – The Daily Telegraph ‘The War on the West is a monumental book leading to several pivotal realisations.’ – Lotus Eaters ‘Meticulous, measured… The War on the West is Douglas Murray’s latest blast against loony left wokery.’ – The Spectator Praise for Douglas Murray and The Madness of Crowds ‘Whether one agrees with him or not, Douglas Murray is one of the most important public intellectuals today.’ – Bernard-Henry Levy ‘This is an author who specialises in expressing what everyone sort of knows already and is afraid to say…Well argued, well supported, and well observed.’ – Lionel Shriver ‘Simply brilliant. Reading it to the end, I felt as though I’d just drawn my first full breath in years. At a moment of collective madness, there is nothing more refreshing – or indeed, provocative – than sanity.’ – Sam Harris ‘His latest book is beyond brilliant and should be read, must be read, by everyone. He mercilessly exposes the hypocrisy and embarrassingly blatant contradictions that run rife through the current ‘woke’ vouge.’ – Richard Dawkins ‘Douglas Murray fights the good fight for freedom of speech… A truthful look at today’s most divisive issues.’ – Jordan B. Peterson ‘Extraordinary. Magnificent. Searing. Necessary. I salute il miglior fabbro. ‘And whether they listen or fail to listen… they will know that the prophet has been among them’ (Ezekiel 2:5)’ – Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

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Book Synopsis'A glimpse into the exotic, mysterious, tinged-with-eroticism world of the almost mythical geisha' Val Hennessy, Daily Mail'[An] eloquent and innovative memoir' The TimesThe extraordinary, bestselling memoir from Japan's foremost geisha.'I can identify the exact moment when things began to change. It was a cold winter afternoon. I had just turned three.' Emerging shyly from her hiding place, Mineko encounters Madam Oima, the formidable proprietress of a prolific geisha house in Gion. Madam Oima is mesmerised by the child's black hair and black eyes: she has found her successor. And so Mineko is gently, but firmly, prised away from her parents to embark on an extraordinary profession, of which she will become the best. But even if you are exquisitely beautiful and the darling of the okiya, the life of a geisha is one of gruelling demands. And Mineko must first conten

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Book SynopsisMark Kurlansky is the author of 23 books of fiction, nonfiction, children's writing. His best-selling Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World won the 1999 James Beard Award for Food Writing and the 1999 Glenfiddich Award. His other works include: Salt, The Basque History of the World and the short story collection The White Man in the Tree. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.Trade ReviewRefreshing and invigorating, full of fascinating fact * Independent on Sunday *This is an extraordinary little book, unputdownable, written in the most lyrical, flowing style which paints vivid pictures and, at the same time, punches into place hard facts that stop you dead in your tracks. A compulsive read -- Sir Roy Strong * Express on Sunday *Crisply and elegantly written - piques the appetite and sharpens the senses * Sunday Telegraph *A rich stew about every salt-influenced concoction and creation, from the first sausages and cured hams and fish sauces to the invention of parmesan, tomato ketchup and Tabasco sauce * Financial Times *An entertainingly anecdotal and lovingly partisan history. * Independent *

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Book SynopsisSlavoj Zizek, the maverick philosopher, author of over 30 books, acclaimed as the "Elvis of cultural theory", and today's most controversial public intellectual. His work traverses the fields of philosophy, psychoanalysis, theology, history and political theory, taking in film, popular culture, literature and jokes-all to provide acute analyses of the complexities of contemporary ideology as well as a serious and sophisticated philosophy. His recent films The Pervert's Guide to the Cinema and Zizek! reveal a theorist at the peak of his powers and a skilled communicator. Now Verso is making his classic titles, each of which stand as a core of his ever-expanding life's work, available as new editions. Each is beautifully re-packaged, including new introductions from Zizek himself. Simply put, they are the essential texts for understanding Zizek's thought and thus cornerstones of contemporary philosophy.The Sublime Object of Ideology: Slavoj Zizek's first book is a provocative and original work looking at the question of human agency in a postmodern world. In a thrilling tour de force that made his name, he explores the ideological fantasies of wholeness and exclusion which make up human society.Trade ReviewThe Elvis of cultural theory. * Chronicle of Higher Education *The giant of Ljubljana provides the best intellectual high since Anti-Oedipus. * The Village Voice *The most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in many decades. -- Terry EagletonUnafraid of confrontation and with a near limitless grasp of pop symbolism * The Times *Zizek is a thinker who regards nothing as outside his field: the result is deeply interesting and provocative. * Guardian *Zizek is one of the few living writers to combine theoretical rigor with compulsive readability. * Publishers Weekly *Zizek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation * New Yorker *

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Book SynopsisDonna Haraway analyses accounts, narratives, and stories of the creation of nature, living organisms, and cyborgs (cybernetic components); showing how deeply cultural assumptions penetrate into allegedly value-neutral medical research.

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Book SynopsisA fascinating account of the intellectual origins of identity politics'' Financial Times, Books of the YearThe origins, consequences and limitations of an ideology that has quickly become highly influential around the world.For much of their history, societies have violently oppressed ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. It is no surprise then that many who passionately believe in social justice have come to believe that members of marginalized groups need to take pride in their identity if they are to resist injustice.But over the past decades, a healthy appreciation for the culture and heritage of minorities has transformed into an obsession with group identity in all its forms. A new ideology - which Yascha Mounk terms the ''identity synthesis'' - seeks to put each citizen''s matrix of identities at the heart of social, cultural and political life. This, he argues, is The Identity Trap.Mounk traces the intellectual o

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Book SynopsisNow in its second edition, Mobile and Social Media Journalism continues to be an essential resource for learning how journalists and news organizations use mobile and social media to gather news, distribute content, and engage with audiences. Merging theory and practice, the book includes checklists and practical activities in every chapter, enabling readers to immediately build the mobile and social media skills that today's journalists need and which news organizations expect. The second edition retains a focus on journalism's core values, such as authentication, verification, and credibility, while guiding readers on how to apply them to digital media activities. The book also offers an in-depth discussion of the audience's active role in producing content, how mobile devices and social media have changed the way the audience consumes news, and what these changes mean for journalists. Updated to address the latest trends in multimedia journalism, the second edition Trade Review"Every storyteller needs to understand the critical role that mobile and social media play in our ability to communicate with today’s audiences. This book offers specific guidance on how to leverage the power of these unique platforms with a roadmap for developing the necessary skill sets. From thoughtful discussion of social media’s misinformation crisis to a rich exploration of the distinct writing styles needed to create high quality mobile content, Adornato’s text offers educators and practitioners a foundation for developing social media and mobile reporting skills." -Deb Wenger, Ph.D., Assistant Dean, School of Journalism and New Media, The University of Mississippi"With the second edition of Mobile and Social Media Journalism, Professor Anthony Adornato has packed in even more punch than in the first edition—with timely new chapters on misinformation and writing across digital platforms. Like the first edition, the volume is readable, practical, and essential for anyone interested in the craft of journalism today. I cannot wait to assign it to my students." - Gina M. Masullo, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Media, The University of Texas at Austin"The two new chapters—on writing mobile-friendly and recognizing and combating fake news and disinformation—follow the format that makes this book so valuable: relevant and thoroughly researched information, clearly explained and accompanied by practical exercises and advice from journalists on the job. For those who consider themselves tech-challenged, fear not: Adornato is on top of the latest online tools and includes many step-by-step instructions and examples. Throughout the book, he also wisely emphasizes journalism standards while embracing new storytelling platforms. This book should be considered a ‘must-read’ for today’s newsrooms as well as classrooms." -Suzanne Lysak, Associate Professor, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Chapman University"I have been eagerly awaiting the second edition of Mobile and Social Media Journalism for my social media journalism courses. My students consistently give feedback that they enjoy the blend of practical information with a solid theoretical foundation that Anthony Adornato provides. With this newly revised and updated volume, Adornato covers the basics of the mobile reporting skillset budding journalists need to successfully launch their careers. He also provides an in-depth look at how misinformation on social is impacting the industry and society. Importantly, he offers insight into the psychology of fake news and practical tips for how journalists can identify it." - Jill Hopke, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Journalism, College of Communication, DePaul University"This book is enormously useful for anyone looking to gain the essential social media know-how that news organizations today demand. Adornato gives us more than just a practical guide by also offering the theoretical underpinnings that help us make sense of what the evolving media landscape means for the practice of journalism. The strategies outlined here go beyond when or what to post on which platform, and focus on approaches and fundamentals that can be applicable regardless of what new social platform might emerge tomorrow. The second edition is a must-have for courses wanting to combine journalistic principles with the latest emerging technologies." - Summer Harlow, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Journalism, Valenti School of Communication, University of Houston"At a time when impactful journalism is needed more than ever, the updated edition of Mobile and Social Media Journalism presents much-needed guidance aimed at combating misinformation, and simultaneously suggests new ways to build audience trust through innovation, creativity, and technology. It offers new approaches to time-tested strategies that provide journalists with the tools needed to craft engaging content for today’s consumers. In short, Anthony Adornato’s book is a blueprint for journalists both new and seasoned. It lays out the methods needed to meet the ever-changing demands of our industry and our audience." - Dante Mozie, Instructor of Journalism, South Carolina State University "A solid introduction to the real-world challenges and opportunities of social media, Mobile and Social Media Journalism mixes academic research with practical instruction from in-the-field journalists and offers a lens into the fast-paced newsrooms of 21st century media. As mobile devices and social media continue to transform the ways in which audiences access news, this book is an essential resource for students as well as professionals looking to upskill." - Kelly Fincham, Director, Global Media program, National University of Ireland Galway"Before Anthony Adornato wrote his fabulous book, building a proper foundation for students in my mobile/social media course was like driving around to six hardware stores. Buy some planks here, some bags of cement mix there, some rebar for the footers somewhere else. Anthony brought all the crucial and essential elements of mobile-first journalism into one place. It has become a must-have field manual for my course. In the second edition, he explores even more deeply topics students need to understand more than ever: the financial sides of the news business and its ethical imperatives." - Rick Brunson, Senior Instructor of Journalism, University of Central Florida"Mobile and Social Media Journalism is for anyone who wants to learn how to use mobile tools and techniques for storytelling. It is a smart, approachable guide that will help you pick up your phone and start telling powerful stories. Anthony’s managed to weave MOJO ideas together with practical tips that will help you go from the basics to professional practice. I use it to help students shape their stories, and I’ve also shared it with colleagues and working journalists looking to ramp up their social storytelling skills. This book has helped me to better understand what is possible, and it was fun to read. I really appreciate the way Anthony is able to both explain and inspire. The book is not just a ‘how-to guide’—it is a ‘what-is-possible guide.’ And the best thing is that Anthony trusts in the creativity of his readers to figure out what to do next." - Kathryn Gretsinger, Associate Professor of Teaching, Journalism, The University of British Columbia"Every storyteller needs to understand the critical role that mobile and social media play in our ability to communicate with today’s audiences. This book offers specific guidance on how to leverage the power of these unique platforms with a roadmap for developing the necessary skill sets. From thoughtful discussion of social media’s misinformation crisis to a rich exploration of the distinct writing styles needed to create high quality mobile content, Adornato’s text offers educators and practitioners a foundation for developing social media and mobile reporting skills." -Deb Wenger, Ph.D., Assistant Dean, School of Journalism and New Media, The University of Mississippi"With the second edition of Mobile and Social Media Journalism, Professor Anthony Adornato has packed in even more punch than in the first edition—with timely new chapters on misinformation and writing across digital platforms. Like the first edition, the volume is readable, practical, and essential for anyone interested in the craft of journalism today. I cannot wait to assign it to my students." - Gina M. Masullo, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Media, The University of Texas at Austin"The two new chapters—on writing mobile-friendly and recognizing and combating fake news and disinformation—follow the format that makes this book so valuable: relevant and thoroughly researched information, clearly explained and accompanied by practical exercises and advice from journalists on the job. For those who consider themselves tech-challenged, fear not: Adornato is on top of the latest online tools and includes many step-by-step instructions and examples. Throughout the book, he also wisely emphasizes journalism standards while embracing new storytelling platforms. This book should be considered a ‘must-read’ for today’s newsrooms as well as classrooms." -Suzanne Lysak, Associate Professor, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Chapman University"I have been eagerly awaiting the second edition of Mobile and Social Media Journalism for my social media journalism courses. My students consistently give feedback that they enjoy the blend of practical information with a solid theoretical foundation that Anthony Adornato provides. With this newly revised and updated volume, Adornato covers the basics of the mobile reporting skillset budding journalists need to successfully launch their careers. He also provides an in-depth look at how misinformation on social is impacting the industry and society. Importantly, he offers insight into the psychology of fake news and practical tips for how journalists can identify it." - Jill Hopke, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Journalism, College of Communication, DePaul University"This book is enormously useful for anyone looking to gain the essential social media know-how that news organizations today demand. Adornato gives us more than just a practical guide by also offering the theoretical underpinnings that help us make sense of what the evolving media landscape means for the practice of journalism. The strategies outlined here go beyond when or what to post on which platform, and focus on approaches and fundamentals that can be applicable regardless of what new social platform might emerge tomorrow. The second edition is a must-have for courses wanting to combine journalistic principles with the latest emerging technologies." - Summer Harlow, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Journalism, Valenti School of Communication, University of Houston"At a time when impactful journalism is needed more than ever, the updated edition of Mobile and Social Media Journalism presents much-needed guidance aimed at combating misinformation, and simultaneously suggests new ways to build audience trust through innovation, creativity, and technology. It offers new approaches to time-tested strategies that provide journalists with the tools needed to craft engaging content for today’s consumers. In short, Anthony Adornato’s book is a blueprint for journalists both new and seasoned. It lays out the methods needed to meet the ever-changing demands of our industry and our audience." - Dante Mozie, Instructor of Journalism, South Carolina State University "A solid introduction to the real-world challenges and opportunities of social media, Mobile and Social Media Journalism mixes academic research with practical instruction from in-the-field journalists and offers a lens into the fast-paced newsrooms of 21st century media. As mobile devices and social media continue to transform the ways in which audiences access news, this book is an essential resource for students as well as professionals looking to upskill." - Kelly Fincham, Director, Global Media program, National University of Ireland Galway"Before Anthony Adornato wrote his fabulous book, building a proper foundation for students in my mobile/social media course was like driving around to six hardware stores. Buy some planks here, some bags of cement mix there, some rebar for the footers somewhere else. Anthony brought all the crucial and essential elements of mobile-first journalism into one place. It has become a must-have field manual for my course. In the second edition, he explores even more deeply topics students need to understand more than ever: the financial sides of the news business and its ethical imperatives." - Rick Brunson, Senior Instructor of Journalism, University of Central Florida"Mobile and Social Media Journalism is for anyone who wants to learn how to use mobile tools and techniques for storytelling. It is a smart, approachable guide that will help you pick up your phone and start telling powerful stories. Anthony’s managed to weave MOJO ideas together with practical tips that will help you go from the basics to professional practice. I use it to help students shape their stories, and I’ve also shared it with colleagues and working journalists looking to ramp up their social storytelling skills. This book has helped me to better understand what is possible, and it was fun to read. I really appreciate the way Anthony is able to both explain and inspire. The book is not just a ‘how-to guide’— it is a ‘what-is-possible guide.’ And the best thing is that Anthony trusts in the creativity of his readers to figure out what to do next." - Kathryn Gretsinger, Associate Professor of Teaching, Journalism, The University of British ColumbiaTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgements1. Forces at the Gate: An Active Audience2. Navigating Change: The Mobile-First Newsroom3. Your Social Media Brand: Who Do You Want to Be?4. Social Newsgathering5. From the Field: The Mobile Journalist6. Writing Mobile-Friendly Web Stories 7. Social Media Engagement and Audience Analytics 8. Social Media Ethics and Policies9. The Spread of Fake News 10. Mobile and Social Media in Your CareerIndex

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Book Synopsisaeo A major new book by one of the most original thinkers today. aeo Develops a distinctive argument about the a liquida nature of modernity. aeo Re--examines key concepts which look at the heart of orthodox accounts of the human condition, including the concepts of emancipation, individuality, work and community.Trade Review"Bauman on a bad day is still far more stimulating than most contemporary social thinkers. He is the Georg Simmel of our age, and his books and essays will be read when contemporary exponents of social arithmetic are long forgotten." Times Higher Education Supplement "Liquid Modernity is Zygmunt Bauman's term for the present condition of the world as contrasted with the 'solid' modernity that preceded it ... He is a vivid and original writer with an eye for the revealing personal experience.' Dennis Wrong, Times Literary Supplement "Zygmunt Bauman can be counted among those giants of sociology - C. Wright Mills, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber - who are bound together not by a shared ideological or disciplinary alignment, but by a profound and moral passion. I do not employ the term "moral" in the commonly used sense of "judgmental", but to describe their ability to define the spirit of the age, to ask cutting questions about society's direction, warn of dangers and perceive opportunities." Contemporary Politics "These books mark an important advance in Bauman's project. He seems to be trying to bring the intellectuals back into the game, twitting them for their passivity. Bauman wants social critics to take a more active role, taking a lead by showing how the relationships between individuals and society and between the private and public spheres may be rearticulated and the spirit of the agora restored to social and political life." British Journal of Sociology "His work is essential reading for those political theorist who feel that part of their task is to elaborate relevant and compelling normative critique." Contemporary Political Theory "Bauman lucidly depicts what others call the 'postmodern situation' a term that he painstakingly avoids, and his analysis is important for anyone interested in cultural criticism" Caterina Norlin-Brage, Religious Studies Review "One of post-modernity's great commentators." Pete Ward, Church TimesTable of ContentsForeword: On Being Light and Liquid. 1. Emancipation. 2. Individuality. 3. Time/Space. 4. Work. 5. Community. Afterthoughts: On Writing; on Writing Sociology. Notes. Index.

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Book SynopsisWith intellectual reference points that include Foucault and Freud, Wittig, Kristeva and Irigaray, this is one of the most talked-about scholarly works of the past fifty years and is perhaps the essential work of contemporary feminist thought.Trade Review‘Indispensable for feminist theory.’ - Hypatia‘At times brilliant, always groundbreaking, Gender Trouble is bound to make some trouble of its own.’ - Outweek‘The most authoritative attack to date on the "naturalness" of gender. This is a brilliant and innovative book.’ - Sandra Lee Bartky'Rereading this book, as well as reading it for the first time, reshapes the categories through which we experience and perform our lives and bodies. To be troubled in this way is an intellectual pleasure and a political necessity.' - Donna HarawayTable of ContentsPreface (1999) Preface (1990) 1. Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire I. 'Women' as the Subject of Feminism II. The Compulsory Order of Sex/Gender/Desire III. Gender: The Circular Ruins of Contemporary Debate IV. Theorizing the Binary, the Unitary and Beyond V. Identity, Sex and the Metaphysics of Substance VI. Language, Power and the Strategies of Displacement 2. Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix I. Structuralism's Critical Exchange II. Lacan, Riviere, and the Strategies of Masquerade III. Freud and the Melancholia of Gender IV. Gender Complexity and the Limits of Identification V. Reformulating Prohibition as Power 3. Subversive Bodily Acts I. The Body Politics of Julia Kristeva II. Foucault, Herculine, and the Politics of Sexual Discontinuity III. Monique Wittig - Bodily Disintegration and Fictive Sex IV. Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions Conclusion - From Parody to Politics

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Book SynopsisThis is a 'Whole Earth Catalog' for the 21st century: an impressive and wide-ranging analysis of what's wrong with our societies, organizations, ideologies, worldviews and cultures - and how to put them right. The book covers the finance system, agriculture, design, ecology, economy, sustainability, organizations and society at large. In it, Daniel Wahl explores ways in which we can reframe and understand the crises that we currently face and explores how we can live our way into the future. Moving from patterns of thinking and believing to our practice of education, design and community living, he systematically shows how we can stop chasing the mirage of certainty and control in a complex and unpredictable world. The book asks how can we collaborate in the creation of diverse regenerative cultures adapted to the unique biocultural conditions of place? How can we create conditions conducive to life? "This book is a valuable contribution to the important discussion of the worldview and value system we need to redesign our businesses, economies, and technologies - in fact, our entire culture - so as to make them regenerative rather than destructive." Fritjof Capra, author of The Web of Life, coauthor of The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision. "This is an excellent addition to the literature on ecological design and it will certainly form a keystone in the foundations of the new MA in Ecological Design Thinking at Schumacher College, Devon. It not only contains a wealth of ideas on what Dr Wahl has termed 'Designing Regenerative Cultures' but what is probably more important, it provides some stimulating new ways of looking at persistent problems in our contemporary culture and hence opens up new ways of thinking and acting in the future." Seaton Baxter OBE, Professor in Ecological Design Thinking, Schumacher College, UKTrade Review"Daniel's book Designing Regenerative Cultures is a wonderful and well-referenced primer for a new paradigm." Satish Kumar "Clearly our ways of thinking have gotten us in some trouble--here are concrete suggestions for some new habits of mind that could help us climb out of our hole!";Bill McKibben, author: Eaarth - Making a Life on a Tough New Planet; co-founder 350.org, and Schumann Distinguished Scholar, Middlebury College "This is an impressive, broad and forward looking book that integrates design thinking with a diverse range of contemporary and innovative ideas around sustainability, ecology and transformation. Its attention to not just the problems, but also to how address them is timely and much needed. As such the book is now one of the main core programme texts for our MSc Sustainability at the University of Dundee." Professor Ioan Fazey, Centre for Environmental Change and Human Resilience, University of Dundee. "Daniel Wahl... has the capacity to explain complex and subtle subjects such as systems theory, regenerative design, holistic management, biomimicry, the circular economy, quantum theory ... and much more, succinctly. There are so many paragraphs in this book that I highlighted to return to and savour later on. He is also well versed in the integral, holistic worldview and the processes which support the birth of a new consciousness that will enable these regenerative shifts. His book is not only a collection of well articulated ideas, it is a litany of so many of the world's best projects that are already in existence, balancing theory with practice. There is an unstoppable optimism implicit in this book, however care-worn and cynical the reader may feel." Maddy Harland in Permaculture Magazine. "Designing Regenerative Cultures has gained international acknowledgement for its pragmatic approach to the subject, reframing and questioning the current approaches to the challenges that humankind is currently facing with deeper understanding of the possible solutions surfacing with regenerative design." UNESCO Global Action Programme on ESD Aug 2016 "Daniel Wahl has had an important insight that makes this book an essential read for anyone trying to change the world. The necessary catalyst is in the title of this book: "regenerative systems." To quote Wahl, "Sustainability is not a fixed state to reach and then maintain, it is a community-based learning process aimed at increasing the health and resilience of our communities, our bioregional economies, ecosystems, and of the planetary life-support system as a whole." This is the core realization of Rob Hopkins (Transition Handbook) and David Fleming (Lean Logic) as well, but Wahl's book gets to the assembly language programming, explaining how ecological literacy and the social, technological, and entrepreneurial skills required for the transition are the entry point that leads to everything else. Arguably ecological literacy is already the foundation of much that is new in the world of industrial design - it is called biomimicry. Biological and ecological design intelligence is starting to reinvent the way we design communities, businesses, cities, and industries. This book gets out in front of that with the larger picture. We need to do these things, now, or we may not be here in another century. Wahl says, "We need to dare to envision a sustainable world, by re-designing our food systems, transport systems, energy systems, economic systems, and education systems, but most of all, we need to re-envision how we collaborate and how we relate to each other and the natural world." Whether we have time to make this unprecedented change in our social contract is still in doubt. Set your doubts aside for the moment and let this book give you a sense of "... but what if?" If we are going to get this right, it will begin here." Reviewed by Albert Bates, Ecovillage and Permaculture Pioneer, Right Livelihood Award Winner, and author of Climate in Crisis. "6 Star Handbook for Saving Civilization & Earth. This book makes the jump from 5 stars (generally I don't bother to review a book if it is not a four or five star read) to 6 stars - my top ten percent - because of the combination of Questions Asked, glorious color graphics, and the total holistic nature of the book - this is easily a PhD thesis in holistic analytics, true cost economics, and open source everything engineering. Indeed, this book could be used as a first-year reference across any humanities and science domain, they would be the better for it. It is of value to ministers of government, managers of corporations, administrators of non-profit and educational organizations, labor union and religious stewards, and every single citizen planning to be alive in five years and beyond." Reviewed by Robert David Steele on the Public Intelligence Blog and Amazon "Daniel Wahl has compiled a great deal of useful information in a masterful synthesis. That alone is a significant accomplishment, but he's given us more than that. Designing Regenerative Cultures describes the doorway to a possible, indeed, necessary future. We are not fated to the dystopia in prospect. We have, as he writes, the capacity to design and to organize our societies to protect, enhance, and celebrate life. The blueprint was there all along. The awareness of our possibilities is growing. The art and sciences of ecological design are flourishing. The choice, as always, is ours and that of those who will follow." From the Foreword by David Orr (environmentalist and Paul Sears Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College and a James Marsh Professor at the University of Vermont). "This book is a treasure for everyone who is looking for a guide to more sustainable living and a roadmap for re-designing our societies , regenerating our communities , cities and societies in harmony with natural systems and our home planet. Author Daniel Wahl has deep experience to share and his knowledge in this beautiful book will help all those aspiring to be responsible global citizens working for our common future." Hazel Henderson, author and President, Ethical Markets Media , Certified B. Corporation, USA & Brazil "Daniel Wahl's Designing Regenerative Cultures provides an exhaustive review of current thinking on our global challenges as well as a refreshing approach to how we can "live into the questions" that will help us create a beautiful future. Anyone working in sustainability or social innovation will find this book to be a tremendously useful reference and provocative guide for framing regenerative solutions. It is a wonderful blend of passionate vision and practical insight." Denise K. DeLuca, Co-Founder & Director, BCI (Biomimicry for Creative Innovation) "The world is converging on integration and systems thinking, and regeneration of the world is the battle cry of any sentient being in the 21st century. Daniel Wahl provides good insights and inspirations on the index of possibilities -in mass scale regeneration of nature and society." Marcin Jakubowski, PhD, Founder & Executive Director of Open Source Ecology. Designing Regenerative Cultures is a wide ranging synthesis of key knowledge to take us into a more resourceful 21st Century. The book brings forth multiple perspectives on the ultimate challenge of our time. This living material will help one get beyond the bread and circus approach that the mainstream media is foisting upon us, and thereby subtlety turning us into bloated modern Romans without a clue on what really matters, let alone the power to create what matters. Shifting from a narrative of separation and scarcity, to interbeing and abundance opens the conceptual door to the next phase of the human enterprise. Read and absorb this powerful treatise, and learn from the dynamic context Daniel Wahl has created with the publication of his new book. Christopher Zelov conceived and produced the award winning film 'Ecological Design: Inventing the Future'. Recent projects include: A Visit With Magnus, City 21, and Design Outlaws. "To me as a life-long activist nourished on systems thinking and Buddhist teachings, this is one of the most intellectually exciting and soul stirring books I've read in years. I had the sense of drinking it, with pleasure and surprise, not having known what I'd so thirsted for. br> By starting with questions and keeping to questions throughout, Daniel engages the reader, and by example frees her from striving for, or pretending to know, any final answers. This approach -- in itself a rare lesson in systems epistemology - invites trust, openness, and a restructuring of the mind. Among the gifts for which I am especially grateful are these: Conceptual tools for perceiving and experiencing our mutual belonging , and especially what I've come to call the great reciprocity at the heart of the universe. The ways Goethe, Bortoft, Bateson, Maturana, and Varela are brought in, and key insights mediated with economy and clarity. The abundant evidence of the Great Turning, the manifold transition underway to a life-sustaining culture. And, especially valuable to those of an apocalyptic bent like myself, the 'adaptive cycle' of resilient systems, showing that at 'the edge of chaos' comes opportunity for the emergence of greater complexity and intelligence. These are but a few of the ways in which this remarkable book will enrich my thought, my teaching, and my life in this turbulent world of ours." Joanna Macy, environmental activist, scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology and author of World as Lover, World as Self and numerous other books. "This is a seriously rich source of perspective on the nature of whole system design. The future is already here and Daniel Wahl has synthesized the wide ranging progress in the emerging field of `regenerating wholeness'. There is a lot of positive and effective activity happening around the planet! Of particular note, the title addresses "us" as a significant and often missing leverage point in our work towards regenerative relationships: our cultural ability to become collaborative weavers, integral to evolving a condition of long-lasting health. This book shows the powerful potential of how all these dimensions of wholeness are coming together." Bill Reed, Regenesis Group "Life on the Planet has sustained itself for billions of years by continually regenerating itself. Our modern industrial culture has interfered with these natural processes to the point of causing massive extinctions of species and threatening our very survival. This book is a valuable contribution to the important discussion of the worldview and value system we need to redesign our businesses, economies, and technologies - in fact, our entire culture - so as to make them regenerative rather than destructive." Fritjof Capra, author of The Web of Life, coauthor of The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision.Table of ContentsFOREWORD ~ David Orr FOREWORD ~ Graham Leicester INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 - Living the Questions: Why change the narrative now? Questioning dangerous ideologies Facing complexity means befriending uncertainty and ambiguity Caring for Earth is caring for ourselves and our community Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world The 'why' will guide the 'what' and the 'how'Spirituality, soul and solitude in nature Sustainability as a learning journey: pilgrims and apprentices Sustainability is not enough; we need regenerative cultures! CHAPTER 2 - Why choose transformative over sustaining innovation? The Three Horizons of innovation and culture change Evaluating disruptive innovation in the age of transition Transformative innovation is about deep questioning Sensitivity to scale, uniqueness of place and local culture The transformative power of social innovation Collaborative consumption and peer-to-peer collaboration Facilitating systems innovation and culture change CHAPTER 3 - Why do we need to think and act more systemically? Believing is seeing and seeing is believing The whole is more than the sum of its parts From the 'crisis of perception' to the 'systems view of life' Interbeing How can we participate appropriately in complex systems? The IFF World System Model Learning to see nature everywhere Being a process, and seeing in relationships CHAPTER 4 - Why nurture resilience and whole-systems health? Rolling back Earth Overshoot Day Learning to live within planetary boundaries What exactly are resilience and transformative resilience? The adaptive cycle as a dynamic map for resilience thinking Panarchy: a scale-linking perspective of systemic transformation Local and regional community resilience building is going global How can we nurture transformative resilience? From control and prediction to conscious participation, foresight and anticipation CHAPTER 5 - Why take a design-based approach? Design education enables cultural transformation Design is where theory and practice meet Design follows worldview and worldview follows design Ethics and design for regenerative cultures Aesthetics and design Emergence and design Designing for positive emergence (a case study) Scale-linking, salutogenic design for resilience The resurgence of a culture of makers: re-localizing production Collective visioning and design conversations change culture CHAPTER 6 - How can we learn to better design as nature? Ecoliteracy: Learning from living systems Valuing traditional ecological knowledge and indigenous wisdom How does life create conditions conducive to life? Biologically Inspired Innovation Green chemistry and material science Biologically inspired product design Biomimetic architecture Nature's whole system optimization informs community design Living the questions together creates community Industrial ecology and symbiosis are closing the loops Ecologically informed urban and regional planning CHAPTER 7 - Why are regenerative cultures rooted in cooperation? Redesigning agriculture for food sovereignty and subsidiarity Regenerative agriculture: effective responses to climate change Learning from and mimicking healthy ecosystems Redesigning economics based on ecology Creating circular economies Towards a regenerative economy Thriving communities and the solidarity economy Shifting from quantitative to qualitative growth Valuing the commons by cooperatively sharing the gifts of life Earth Law: the enabling constraints of collective living Life's collaborative lessons transform business Co-creating regenerative enterprises Collaboration and empathy as evolutionary success stories Activism revisited: conscious participation and collective intelligence We are coming back to life and this changes everything Learning to listen deeply Inner and outer resilience CONCLUSION - Regenerative cultures are about thriving together

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Book SynopsisThe book explores how we understand global conflicts as they relate to the “European refugee crisis”, and draws on a range of empirical fieldwork carried out in the UK and Italy. It examines how global conflict has been constructed in both countries through media representations – in a climate of changing media habits, widespread mistrust, and fake news. In so doing, it examines the role played by historical amnesia about legacies of imperialism – and how this leads to a disavowal of responsibility for the causes why people flee their countries. The book explores how this understanding in turn shapes institutional and popular responses in receiving countries, ranging from hostility—such as the framing of refugees by politicians, as 'economic migrants' who are abusing the asylum system; to solidarity initiatives. Based on interviews and workshops with refugees in both countries, the book develops the concept of “migrantification” – in which people are made into migrants by the state, the media and members of society. In challenging the conventional expectation for immigrants to tell stories about their migration journey, the book explores experiences of discrimination as well as acts of resistance. It argues that listening to those on the sharpest end of the immigration system can provide much-needed perspective on global conflicts and inequalities which challenges common Eurocentric misconceptions. Interludes, interspersed between chapters, explore these issues in another way through songs, jokes and images.Trade Review'This volume explores connections between media representations, global migrants, and perceptions upheld and challenged by viewers in the UK and Italy during the 2010s. The text oscillates between chapters that unpack issues like "white amnesia" and "postcolonial innocence" among white, Western viewers, and brief "interlude" chapters that convey migrants’ insights into navigating different media perspectives and experiences within their new settings. For instance, the authors note a shift from print to new media consumption that necessitates steady access to the internet and mobile technology, which flies in the face of stagnant images of migrants as "not entitled" to such technology, further limiting their access to and sharing of information. Ultimately, the authors call for building international systems to disrupt the willful "forgetting" of interconnected global histories fueling migrants’ voyages, and to help them thrive in their new countries. This book could be useful for courses in political science, media studies, communications, and ethnic studies. Visual pairings might include pertinent excerpts from British and Italian newscasts from the period, along with relevant news articles and online posts, with the potential to integrate these media into a reflective "migrantification" assignment.'CHOICE -- .Table of ContentsList of figuresIntroduction: Conflict, media and displacement in the Twenty-First Century1 How postcolonial innocence and white amnesia shape our understanding of the “refugee crisis”Interlude: Global war and media absences2 War Narratives: Making sense of conflictInterlude: Songs, jokes, movies and other diversions3 Social media, mutual aid and solidarity movements as a response to institutional breakdownInterlude: How it feels to be made a migrant: restrictions, frustration and longing4 The processes of migrantification: how displaced people are made into migrantsInterlude: Telling stories about war differently5 Refusing the demand for sad storiesConclusion: Unsettling dominant narratives about migration in a time of fluxBibliography

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Book SynopsisEdward Said experienced both British and American imperialism as the old Arab order crumbled in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This account of his early life reveals how it influenced his books Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism. Edward Said was born in Jerusalem and brought up in Cairo, spending every summer in the Lebanese mountain village of Dhour el Shweir, until he was 'banished' to America in 1951. This work is a mixture of emotional archaeology and memory, exploring an essentially irrecoverable past. As ill health sets him thinking about endings, Edward Said returns to his beginnings in this personal memoir of his ferociously demanding 'Victorian' father and his adored, inspiring, yet ambivalent mother.Trade ReviewEdward Said is among the truly important intellectuals of our century. His examined life, from the tragic and triumphant perspective of a mortal illness, is superbly worth living. I know I shall not read an autobiography to match this one for many years -- Nadine GordimerSaid is capable of writing like a gifted novelist, like a Palestinian Proust * Independent on Sunday *Out of Place recreates the sights and sounds, the smells and shouts, of a lost world, as Gunter Grass did for Danzig or Joyce for turn-of-the-century Dublin ... One of the greatest cities of our age has produced a work of art, one of the noblest autobiographies of our time * Irish Times *A fine elegy and a scrupulous reckoning with the past -- Marina Warner, Books of the Year * Daily Telegraph *This delicate and candid memoir by a very private man moved me enormously. Written in "counterpoint" to his illness (leukaemia) at times when he was recovering from chemotherapy, its importance may be measured by the ferocity of the public attempt which preceded and accompanied publication to discredit him as an authentic Palestinian voice -- Ahdaf SoueifOut of Place is an intensely moving act of reclamation and understanding, a portrait of a transcultural and often painful upbringing written with wonderful vividness and unsparing honesty. To read it is to come to know [Said's] family and his younger self as closely as we know characters in literature, to be shown, intimately and unforgettably, what it has meant in the last half-century to be a Palestinian -- Salman Rushdie

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Book Synopsis'A galaxy-brain-level thinker' Torrey PetersSince her canonical 2017 essay 'On Liking Women', the Pulitzer Prizewinning critic Andrea Long Chu has established herself as a public intellectual straight out of the 1960s. With devastating wit and polemical clarity, she defies the imperative to leave politics out of art, instead modeling how the left might brave the culture wars without throwing in with the cynics and doomsayers. Authority brings together Chu's critical work across a wide range of medianovels, television, theater, video gamesas well as an acclaimed tetralogy of literary essays first published in n+1. As a critic, Chu places The Phantom of the Opera within a centuries-old conflict between music and drama; questions the enduring habit of reading Octavia Butler's science fiction as a parable of slavery; teases out the ideology behind Hillary Clinton's (fictional) sex life; and charges fellow critics like Maggie Nelson and Zadie Smith with a complacent humanism. The unifying theme of the book is authority and taste in literature, art, culture and politics: how do we decide what's good, and how do we convince others that our judgement is correct?

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Book SynopsisIn Dancing in the Streets Ehrenreich uncovers the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. She discovers that the same elements come up in every human culture throughout history: a love of masking, carnival, music-making and dance. Although sixteenth-century Europeans began to view mass festivities as foreign and 'savage', Ehrenreich shows that they were indigenous to the West, from the ancient Greek's worship of Dionysus to the medieval practices of Christianity as a 'danced religion'. Exhilarating in its scholarly range, humane, witty and impassioned, Dancing in the Streets will generate debate and soul-searching.Trade ReviewWitty and quizzical ... Her lightness of touch is commendable -- Simon Callow * Guardian *Dancing in the Streets is a genuine triumph of popular critical scholarship - the punchy elegance of her prose makes this an essential purchase * Independent *A sparkling history of mass festivity, from Dionysian cults through ecstatic slave rites to rock'n'roll, it also, in sober vein, records its suppression and containment by disquieted elites and concludes with meditations on some deep-seated troubles of our own age -- Gareth Dale * Times Higher Education Supplement *

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Book SynopsisAn expansive, taboo-busting tour through different sexual fetishes - from latex and leather to medical gear and the gimp mask - that brings these subversive desires out of the dungeon and into the light.

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Book Synopsis''A groundbreaking analysis of what used to be an impenetrable mystery: how and why do cultures differ? ... Anyone interested in our cultural divides will find tremendous insight in Rule Makers, Rule Breakers'' - Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of Enlightenment NowWhy are clocks in Germany always correct, while those in Brazil are frequently wrong? Why are Singaporeans jailed for selling gum? Why do women in New Zealand have three times the sex of females worldwide? Why was the Daimler-Chrysler merger ill-fated from the start? And why does each generation of Americans give their kids weirder and weirder names? Curious about the answers to these and other questions, award-winning social psychologist Michele Gelfand has spent two decades studying both tight societies (with clearly stated rules and codes of ethics) and loose societies (more informal communities with weak or ambiguous norms). PuTrade Review'A groundbreaking analysis of what used to be an impenetrable mystery: how and why do cultures differ? Gelfand shows that a wide range of divides of class, culture, and coalition are traceable to an intriguing source. Anyone interested in our cultural divides will find tremendous insight in Rule Makers, Rule Breakers' - Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of Enlightenment NowEndlessly impressive . . . In figuring out what causes various tribes and factions to clash and sometime come to blows - whether at the U.N. or in a stadium's upper deck - Gelfand has left no cultural stone unturned. To read this book is to see both yourself and your neighbour for the first time - guided by rules of which you've both been unaware - Susan Cain, bestselling author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking'Remarkable. Not just an enlightening book but a game-changing one. By uncovering the inner workings of tight and loose cultures, Rule Makers, Rule Breakers suddenly makes sense of the puzzling behavior we see all around us-in colleagues, family, and even ourselves' - Carol Dweck, bestselling author of Mindset'A brilliant and timely book . . . Michele Gelfand has exposed a universal fault line running beneath nations, states, organizations, and even families. Cultures that face threat and uncertainty seek order and precision. Cultures with firmer footings revel in ambiguity and risk taking. This idea, at once so simple and so powerful, will forever change how you see the world' - Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of When and Drive'Completely fascinating . . .[Gelfand] reveals how political divides, happiness and suicide rates, and the coexistence of crime and creativity can all be traced to a fundamental but neglected dimension of social norms. You'll never look at a workplace, a country, or a family the same way again' - Adam Grant, bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg"This brilliant book is full of well-documented insights that will change the way you look at yourself and at the world around you. Gelfand presents a wealth of scientific evidence with a light touch that has the reader eager to know what comes next. I can't think of anyone who won't learn something important from this book." - Barry Schwartz, bestselling author of The Paradox of Choice, Practical Wisdom, and Why We Work'Despite their great importance, the hidden factors that influence whether people comply with what is expected of them or write their own script has long gone underappreciated. With this book, Michele Gelfand has done much to unravel the mysteries of human motivation. Anyone interested in how social norms-and, therefore, people-operate will be grateful for her compelling analysis' - Robert Cialdini, bestselling author of Influence and Pre-Suasion 'A fascinating and profound book by one of psychology's most creative researchers. The well-chosen facts and findings about different cultures will make you alternately laugh, nod, and moan-and make you eager to read more. Beautifully written, packed with scientific facts and findings, this important book celebrates and explains the diversity of human culture. It emphasizes a key dimension of cultural difference: Some cultures pressure everyone to follow the same rules, while almost anything goes in other cultures-and Gelfand carefully and impressively lays out the pluses and minuses of both types. Anyone interested in the deep mysteries of human life and cultural diversity will find this book a rich source of information and a thought-provoking challenge to common assumptions. It's quite possibly this year's best book on culture' - Roy F. Baumeister, bestselling co-author of Willpower and author of The Cultural Animal'A delightful, insightful and fascinating look at the remarkable diversity of human customs - where they come from and how they shape our lives' - Daniel Gilbert, bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness'Lucid and fascinating ... achieved that clichéd goal of popular science books: truly changing the way a reader sees the world' - Will Storr, UnHerd'A fantastic book, academically anchored yet also fun to read and filled with practical implications. Its beauty derives from the breadth of its insight as Gelfand focuses in to illuminate, in succession, countries, states, corporations, groups and individuals. How many books pull off the feat of connecting clocks on city streets, to merger and acquisition outcomes, to groups that can both execute and explore? What an achievement!' - Michael L. Tushman, co-author of Winning Through Innovation and Lead and Disrupt'Why do some countries enjoy internal peace, effective governance, and productive economies, while others are dysfunctional and impoverished? In this dazzling book the cultural psychologist Michele Gelfand shows that a large part of the answer lies with social norms - rules of behavior that enable coordination and cooperation in large-scale societies. When people don't abide by socially expected rules, families, businesses, and whole societies splinter apart. But is there a downside to following the rules too closely? Read Rule Makers, Rule Breakers to find out' - Peter Turchin, author of Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth'Is your world tight, or is it loose? In this smart, provocative, and very entertaining book, Michele Gelfand argues that the tendency to devise and abide by rules, or, alternatively, push behavioral limits is the fundamental distinction between human societies, capturing what really matters in summing up the difference between Germany and Brazil, or Mississippi and California, or rich and poor. Whether the arena is large or small-a superpower summit, a boardroom meeting, or a backyard barbecue - this insightful and stimulating work will help you better understand yourself and those around you' - Paul Bloom, professor of psychology, Yale University, author of Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion'Every decade, it seems, someone identifies a pattern that makes sense of a range of disparate social phenomena. Rule Makers, Rule Breakers is that rare book that gives order to our troubled world, explaining the mystifying divides that increasingly inform politics, business, education, and society in general. If you're going to read one book this year to better understand the world's problems and what can be done to solve them, Gelfand's masterpiece should be it' - Alon Tal, author of The Land Is Full and founder of the Israeli Union for Environmental Defense'I devoured Michele Gelfand's new book. This is not just a lively page-turner about some of the most important and intractable issues of the day but a must-read book that will fundamentally change the way you look at the world, particularly at our bewildering cultural moment, moving you past the simplistic, media-driven binaries of globalist-nationalist, red state-blue state, and rural-urban. You will emerge a smarter, broader person, with a deeper, more informed perspective for thinking and talking about the issues that consume us all' - Todd Kliman, Winner of the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award and author of The Wild Vine'A thought-provoking look at the contours of modern tribalism - one that uses a deceptively simple dividing line: the split between 'tight' and 'loose' cultures and personalities. By examining everything from communal norms to socio-economic differences, Rule Makers, Rule Breakers will make you see differently the people, places and organizations you think you know, including yourself' - Dante Chinni, co-author of The Patchwork Nation and Director of the American Communities Project at George Washington University'Gelfand shows through clever psychological experiments and sagacious readings of history that the world's societies have generally tended to cluster around tight norms that favor authority and frown on deviance (as with ancient Sparta, Pakistan and Germany) versus loose norms that allow and even encourage people to bend the rules (as with the Inuit of the Central Arctic, Brazil and the United States). She offers a particularly timely analysis for our current Age of Anxiety and uncertainty, where people and nations no longer feel confident in what the next generation and near future will bring (hence an increasing but impractical nostalgia for a mythic past as the guide for tomorrow)' - Scott Atran, co-founder of the Center for the Resolution of Intractable Conflicts at Oxford University, and Research Director in Anthropology at the French National Center for Scientific Research'Rule Makers, Rule Breakers is that wonderful combination of fascinating theory, well expounded with plenty of examples... a compelling, absorbing and timely read.' - The Psychologist'An extremely important book. Gelfand has identified and explored a hugely significant aspect of culture that accounts for why and when we fall into step with a group, or alternatively, set off on our own path-either to our advantage or our detriment. Moreover, she has accumulated fascinating evidence that explains why no subset of the human population, from the nation state to individual, exists outside the sway of this dynamic' - Richard Nisbett, author of The Geography of Thought: How Westerners and Asians Think Differently...and Why'In this brilliant book, Michele Gelfand unveils how cultures - of all sizes, down to small groups - are shaped by ecological and human threats. In particular, her findings, which are backed by massive empirical evidence, go far to explain why the people of different countries have different worldviews. After reading this, you won't see the world in the same way' - Ronald F. Inglehart, Director of the World Values Survey and author of Cultural Evolution'In an ever-shrinking world, understanding and negotiating cultural differences has become essential to daily life and the fate of nations alike. In Rule Makers, Rule Breakers, Gelfand presents a valuable lens for decoding the nature of our cultural conflicts and an intriguing new tool for solving them' - Colin Woodard, Winner of the George Polk Award, Pulitzer finalist, and author of American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America'In this tour-de-force, psychologist Michele Gelfand take us on a fascinating cross-cultural adventure. Human norms are as varied as bird plumage in the Galapagos, and Gelfand unveils one of the key phenomena accounting for the diversity. Tightness-looseness explains everything from how you cross the street to how you cross over from the living. Never a dull moment in this enthusiastic journey' - Susan T. Fiske, Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton University and coauthor of The Human Brand'Offers a powerful new way of seeing the world. Gelfand's deceptively simple thesis becomes increasingly compelling as her research unfolds across politics, class and organizational behavior. Best of all, she provides a new toolkit for change' - Anne Marie Slaughter, President and CEO of New America, former director of Policy Planning for the State Department, and author of Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family'Fascinating and illuminating . . . Rule Makers, Rule Breakers sheds light on everything from why we embrace new ideas to how culture makes us who we are. We all build order into our days, but as Gelfand shows, some of us like hewing to a line, and others enjoy crossing it' - Jonah Berger, bestselling author of Contagious and Invisible Influence'Visionary and wildly entertaining . . . Michele Gelfand pulls a very big rabbit out of a very small hat. The distinction between 'tight' and 'loose' cultures may sound familiar, but this way of carving up the social world is surprising powerful, delivering insights for educators, CEOs, politicians, revolutionaries, scientists and curious people-watchers. This brilliant book will sharpen your vision and broaden your horizons' - Joshua Greene, director of the Moral Cognition Laboratory at Harvard University and author Moral Tribes'Everyone should read this book! It is rare that one overarching principle can explain so much, but Michele Gelfand nails it with her brilliant analysis of how tightly or loosely people adhere to social norms. In a fascinating narrative full of entertaining examples, she illuminates and explains this distinction, and by so doing increases our understanding of cultural conflict, the partisan divide, organizational success, happiness, creativity and much more' - Timothy D. Wilson, author of Redirect: Changing the Stories We Live By

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Book SynopsisWith marriage in decline, divorce on the rise and the demise of the nuclear family, it is clear that the structures of kinship in the modern West are in a state of flux.In The Metamorphoses of Kinship, the world-renowned anthropologist Maurice Godelier contextualises these developments, surveying the accumulated experience of humanity with regard to such phenomena as the organisation of lines of descent, sexuality and sexual prohibitions. In parallel, Godelier studies the evolution of Western conjugal and familial traditions from their roots in the nineteenth century to the present. The conclusion he draws is that it is never the case that a man and a woman are sufficient on their own to raise a child, and nowhere are relations of kinship or the family the keystone of society.Trade ReviewThis is a blockbuster of a book. Nothing like it has been written since Levi-Strauss's Structures e?le?mentaires de la parente? (1949) or Meyer Fortes's Kinship and the Social Order (1969). Yet in the sweep of its evidence and argument, Godelier's summa is more ambitious and far-reaching than either of these. It is at once a major intervention in the discipline of anthropology, and a work of the widest human interest ... The book is both a monument of scholarship and a gripping set of reflections on universal experience. It is certain to be read and discussed for years to come. -- Jack Goody * New Left Review *Godelier has reasserted the value of our rich tradition of discussions of kinship matters. He has also shown how the category has metamorphosed as it has drawn in new issues of pressing current importance in modern life and made his case that, far from being genuinely in decline, the study of kinship is central to our understanding of what it means to be human. -- Robert H. Barnes * Comparative Studies in Society and History *A truly monumental work -- Wendy James, University of Oxford * Times Higher Education Supplement *

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Book SynopsisV. S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932. He came to England on a scholarship in 1950. He spent four years at University College, Oxford, and began to write, in London, in 1954. He pursued no other profession.His novels include A House for Mr Biswas, The Mimic Men, Guerrillas, A Bend in the River, and The Enigma of Arrival. In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for In a Free State. His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include Among the Believers, Beyond Belief, The Masque of Africa, and a trio of books about India: An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded Civilization and India: A Million Mutinies Now.In 1990, V. S. Naipaul received a knighthood for services to literature; in 1993, he was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He lived with his wife Nadira and cat Augustus in Wiltshire, and died in 20

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Book SynopsisA Times Bestseller Shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing 2020 'Remarkable, and so profoundly enjoyable to read ... Its importance is huge, setting down a vital marker in the 21st century debate about how we use and abuse the land' - Joyce McMillan, Scotsman Desperate to connect with his native Galloway, Patrick Laurie plunges into work on his family farm in the hills of southwest Scotland. Investing in the oldest and most traditional breeds of Galloway cattle, the Riggit Galloway, he begins to discover how cows once shaped people, places and nature in this remote and half-hidden place. This traditional breed requires different methods of care from modern farming on an industrial, totally unnatural scale. As the cattle begin to dictate the pattern of his life, Patrick stumbles upon the passing of an ancient rural heritage. Always one of the most isolated and insular parts of the country, as the twentieth century progressed, the people of Galloway deserted the land and the moors have been transformed into commercial forest in the last thirty years. The people and the cattle have gone, and this withdrawal has shattered many centuries of tradition and custom. Much has been lost, and the new forests have driven the catastrophic decline of the much-loved curlew, a bird which features strongly in Galloway's consciousness. The links between people, cattle and wild birds become a central theme as Patrick begins to face the reality of life in a vanishing landscape.Trade Review'For as long as anyone can remember there have been Lauries farming in Galloway. Native is Patrick Laurie's account of returning home and trying to establish a farm on a 30 acre plot. This is a memoir born out of moments of wonder and pain ... It is not so much a lament for a lost way of being, but the loving story of trying to find it again' * The Times, Nature Books of the Year *'He’s a keen observer, of nature and of the general ebb and flow of the world, and he writes with a seemingly effortless lyricism about what he sees… A charming evocation of the harsh realities of farming in the modern world, and the difficulties of marrying food production and conservation' * Geographical Magazine *'Laurie has an authentic ability to balance the pains and joys of small farming. … [Native] works a remarkable balancing act/ the blackened fingernail, bruised by bustling cattle, presses down on a key as richly ambiguous as the curlew’s cry' -- Brian Morton * Times Literary Supplement *'[Laurie's] chapters apply a delightful honesty to the poignant struggle of everyday agriculture, but then occasionally take my breath with a lyrical passage... rapturous writing' -- Nick Offerman'Usually only the Highlands gets a look-in so the relative obscurity of the country that Laurie farms makes the book special... It is a painful book about presence and absence, and it’s worth reading for the quality of prose alone' -- Patrick Galbraith * The Times *'Laurie writes in beautiful detail about the landscape and animals surrounding him. The book represents an ongoing battle between progress and conservation in which the farming industry is integral. A thoughtful read about a man’s love of his homeland' * Scottish Field *'Remarkable, and so profoundly enjoyable to read ... Its importance is huge, setting down a vital marker in the 21st century debate about how we use and abuse the land' -- Joyce McMillan * Scotsman *'Brilliant and Beautiful... This is a book about a place you will probably have never visited: but you should read it nonetheless because what it says has a wider importance, about some of what we have got wrong in the way we respect nature and farming and what we might get right if we change our ways. it is also that most valuable of things, an escape to an open land where curlew still cry and the wind and rain cut in from the sea and city life feels a million miles away' -- Julian Glover * London Evening Standard *‘[A] beautifully written memoir, a mesmerising account of a year of back-breaking labour, personal despair and piercing moments of joy… unforced and utterly authentic.’ FIVE STAR REVIEW * Mail on Sunday *'A farmer with a poet’s eye is a rare thing indeed, and this is a rare breed of a book: an elegy to a vanishing landscape but one not without hope, and to be greatly treasured' * Daily Mail *'Galloway, past and present, is the bedrock of this book, a granite foundation on which Laurie is to build his future… an unflinching account of what it takes to turn into a farmer, bearing callouses, bruises and scars…. moving as well as inspirational. This Galloway farm might be just one stamp in an album, but if a butterfly wing can cause a hurricane, what about a rampaging bull?' -- Rosemary Goring * Herald *'Native is described as ‘a hymn of love to his native land’. It’s an apt description for a wonderful book... a poignant and thought-provoking read, I loved it' -- Matt Johnson * LoveReading *'I work at Forum Books in Corbridge and got a proof of this - it's the most incredible book I can recall reading - prose to compare with Macfarlane. Staggering, should win prizes' -- Bookseller * Forum Books *'I simply adore this book!' -- Polly Pullar'Patrick Laurie's neighbours looked on in amusement when he turned the clock back to follow his grandfather’s way of rearing cattle. But the old ways are paying off and he is now the proud owner of a thriving rare breed herd – and seen the return of threatened wildlife to his land' * Sunday Post *'Patrick Laurie is a wonderful writer. He has written a hymn of love to his native land' -- James Rebanks'In this tender, lyrical book, Patrick Laurie considers what it means to really belong to a place. Throughout, the mud, blood and sweat of the farm are brought vividly to life, and each sentence is charged with passion for its subject' -- Malachy Tallack'A young man sets out to work the land like his forefathers and brings Riggit Galloway cattle in to help him. Nature flourishes ... A good read, although Patrick Laurie may also be the type of farmer on the verge of extinction, along with the curlew' * Birdwatching Magazine *'Patrick Laurie returns to his native Galloway in southwest Scotland, with the sole ambition of farming and raising livestock like his family had before him. Haunted by nature’s declining fortunes, he hopes that by bringing back ‘the old ways’ – mixed farming instead of monocultures, slow-growing rare-breed cattle instead of modern European beef breeds, a sickle and a scythe instead of a combine harvester – he can also bring back the wildlife that once thrived on Galloway’s farmland' -- Geordie Torr * Geographical magazine, Best Books of 2020 Nature, Climate and Environment *'A love song to a way of life, the animals, the birds (particularly the birds) and the landscape' * Sorted Magazine *'With enchanting lyricism throughout, this book will hook you like the long beaks of the little waders themselves as they snaffle up their worms' -- Loretta Mulholland * Dundee Courier, Scottish Book of the Week *'A bittersweet portrait of a difficult and disappearing way of life…Rich with the sense of place and balanced between solastalgia and practicality' * ShinyNewBooks.co.uk *

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Book SynopsisObject Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Feared and worshiped in equal measure, snakes have captured the imagination of poets, painters, and philosophers for centuries. From Ice Age cave drawings to Snakes on a Plane, this creature continues to enthrall the public. But what harm has been caused by our mythologizing? While considering the dangers of stigma, Erica Wright moves from art and pop culture to religion, fetish, and ecologic disaster. This book considers how the snake has become more symbol than animal, a metaphor for how we treat whatever scares us the most, whether or not our panic is justified.Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in the The Atlantic.Trade ReviewCaptivating * Lit Reactor *Deeply personal and highly readable…The navigation among such disparate topics, often at a rapid pace, is decidedly easy going, which has to be attributed to Wright’s accessible and captivating voice… Snake is full of power, packed with sobering reminders about the human-animal relationship and our responsibility in maintaining it. * Chapter16 *We give no creature as much cultural meaning as we do the snake, as Erica Wright shows us in this winning tour through history and biology, religion and fear, medicine and fashion. But the real meat of this book is Wright’s bright sensibility. What she sees when she writes about snakes includes: environmental and biological apocalypse, the meaning of fear, existential crises trying to sleep through the night in an absolutely dark cave, the complicated sublime, "the grace alongside the fangs…awful and beautiful together.” That’s the genius of this book: the self as both instrument and subject. As it turns out, what we talk about when we talk about snakes is ourselves. * Ander Monson, Professor of English, University of Arizona, USA, and author of I Will Take the Answer (2020) *Table of ContentsPreface 1. Kingsnakes and Beauty Queens 2. The Problem of the Serpent 3. From Mademoiselle Dorita to Britney Spears: The Snake Charmer Girls 4. A Mouse in Your Teeth 5. Say Amen and Pass the Cottonmouth 6. Python Pocketbooks 7. Who’s a Good Boy? 8. Snakes Are Not Cheap: Titanoboa and Other Monsters in the Lake 9. The Hobbyist 10. Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth 11. Magnanimity and True Courage Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWith their powerful blend of political and aesthetic concerns, Edward W. Said's writings have transformed the field of literary studies. As in the title essay, the widely admired "Reflections on Exile," the fact of his own exile and the fate of the Palestinians have given both form and the force of intimacy to the questions Said has pursued. Taken together, these essays--from the famous to those that will surprise even Said's most assiduous followers--afford rare insight into the formation of a critic and the development of an intellectual vocation. Said's topics are many and diverse, from the movie heroics of Tarzan to the machismo of Ernest Hemingway to the shades of difference that divide Alexandria and Cairo. He offers major reconsiderations of writers and artists such as George Orwell, Giambattista Vico, Georg Lukacs, R. P. Blackmur, E. M. Cioran, Naguib Mahfouz, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, Walter Lippman, Samuel Huntington, Antonio Gramsci, and Raymond Williams. Invigorating, edifying, acutely attentive to the vying pressures of personal and historical experience, his book is a source of immeasurable intellectual delight.

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Book Synopsis*The book that inspired Chrissy Teigen and Sex and The City’s Miranda to quit drinking* _____________ 'An incredible read' - Chrissy Teigen 'Has the power to change your relationship with your entire life' - Glennon Doyle 'This thoughtful, moving book will help a lot of people get to a healthier place' - Johann Hari _____________ We live in a world obsessed with drinking. We drink at work events, lunches, book clubs and weddings. Yet no one ever questions alcohol's ubiquity. In fact, the only thing ever questioned is why people don't drink. It is a qualifier for belonging. As a society, we are obsessed with health and wellness, yet we uphold alcohol as some sort of magic elixir. It is anything but. When Holly Whitaker started to look for a way to recover, the support systems she found for recovery where archaic and patriarchal. Urging drinkers towards a newfound humility is great if you're a man, but if you're a woman and not in a position to renounce privileges you never had, a whole other approach is needed. Honest, witty and trenchant, Quit Like a Woman is at once a ground-breaking look at drinking culture, a call to arms, and a celebration of learning how to claim everything life has to offer.Trade ReviewI've long suspected that Holly Whitaker is a genius. This book is confirmation. It's a brilliantly clever, meticulously researched, fearless, snort-out-loud funny read that grabs you and won't let go. * Catherine Gray *Funny, fast-paced, and bracingly candid … Holly Whitaker is no polished model of self-help evangelism, nor is her memoir-manifesto selling a one-size-fits-all-solution. Her story is a messy human one and all the more convincing that sobriety is a feminist issue -- Melissa FebosAn unflinching examination of how our drinking culture hurts women and a gorgeous memoir of how one woman healed herself. Quit Like a Woman will change your relationship with alcohol - and it has the power to change your relationship with your entire life. * Glennon Doyle *This thoughtful, moving book will help a lot of people get to a healthier place. * Johann Hari *

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Book SynopsisIn this book the author, a clinical psychologist, reflects on her psychotherapy experiences with male clients as she debunks the myth of male alexithymia, the inability to recognise and express emotions. Men are apparently disengaged from wellness practices as they are perceived to be reluctant to seek mental health care.An ubuntu-inspired personhood discourse of trust, empathy and transformation theoretically underpins the author's clinical practice. The integration of the culturally familiar philosophy of ubuntu challenges the hegemony of strictly modern Western psychological discourses and theories. Although the book is not a manual for how to do therapy with men, neither a panacea for all male related challenges, it can ignite empathic insights and kindle gender sensitive responses to male concerns, locally and internationally. Women, who are frequently the targets of gender-based violence primarily committed by men, may play a significant role in the rehabilitation and hTable of ContentsList of TablesList of FiguresAcronymsAcknowledgementsForewordAbstractPrefaceChapter 1Masculinised psychotherapy: From personal resolution to professional contributionChapter 2Context of masculinised mental health treatmentChapter 3Socio-culturally situated masculinitiesChapter 4Starting and sustaining all-male psychotherapy groupsChapter 5‘Every day’ masculine therapeutic discursive practicesChapter 6Father in the groupChapter 7The woman in the men’s groupChapter 8ClosureReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisWhy do we give a damn about strangers? Altruism is unique to the human species. It is also one of the great evolutionary puzzles, and we may be on the brink of solving it. It turns out that, over the last 12,000 years, we have become more and more altruistic. This is despite the fact that, the majority of the time, our minds are still breathtakingly indifferent to the welfare of others. In solving the enigma of generosity in a world of strangers, McCullough takes us on a sweeping history of society and science to warn that, if we are not careful, our instincts and sympathies have as much potential for harm as for good. The bad news is that we are not designed to be kind. The good news is that we can push ourselves to be kind anyway, together.Trade Review‘Exploring the journey from our xenophobic ancestors to the science and technology aiding our psychology today, this book is an intriguing read for anyone interested in our social evolution and the paths that defined us.’ * How it Works *‘An inspiring and engrossing new look at human goodness. Without sentimentality or glibness, and wearing his depth and erudition lightly, McCullough enlightens us on when and why we care for others.’ -- Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of Enlightenment Now‘A deliciously provocative analysis of an entirely admirable human quality.’ * Kirkus (starred review) *'Enlightened by evocative anecdotes and well-explained theory, The Kindness of Strangers is as original as it is persuasive.' -- Richard Wrangham, Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and author of The Goodness Paradox'This fascinating and wide-ranging book presents a new theory of why we are kind to strangers. Michael E. McCullough argues that the standard answers are mistaken—our kindness is not the product of a special evolved system, nor is it a biological accident. Rather, while it is based on part on evolved social instincts, it mostly arises through the exercise of our capacity for reason. This is a controversial position, but McCullough’s arguments are smart, clear, and ultimately persuasive.' -- Paul Bloom, Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology, Yale University, and author of Against Empathy: The case for rational compassion

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Book SynopsisNow is the time for the new, the beautiful and the humane.In Together, award-winning political thinker, author and poet Ece Temelkuran provides an inspiring manifesto for change by revealing fresh possibilities for the better world we might want to live in and gives us a new vocabulary for the political action that the twenty-first century demands.Above all, this book will challenge you to have faith in the other human beings we share this planet with, to turn away from an uncaring world and instead build a new one with compassion.

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Book SynopsisWe see the signs around us every day: the chain cafés and mobile phone outlets that dominate our high streets; the disappearance of knobbly carrots from our supermarket shelves; and the headlines about yet another traditional industry going to the wall. For the first time, here is a book that makes the connection between these isolated, incremental local changes and the bigger picture of a nation whose identity is being eroded. As he travels around the country meeting farmers, fishermen and the inhabitants of Chinatown, Paul Kingsnorth reports on the kind of conversations that are taking place in country pubs and corner shops across the land - while reminding us that these quintessentially English institutions may soon cease to exist.Trade ReviewMagnificent: one of the most important books I have read in a long time. Revealing, stirring and brilliantly written, it should be read by everyone in England -- Zac Goldsmith, Director, THE ECOLOGIST

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Book SynopsisDo you remember how we used to live? British indie favourites Saint Etienne do. But they also remember a load of other stuff that never happened, so maybe they aren’t the best people to ask. Saint Etienne have spent three decades making music out of memories for people who make memories out of music. How We Used Saint Etienne to Live is the story of that reciprocal process, told in the wrong order but the right time. It’s about the methods we use to remember, and what happens when those methods become outdated. It’s a tale that involves tape splicing, town planning, Now compilations and Saint Etienne’s 1995 UK singles chart peak, ‘He’s On The Phone’. Featuring original interviews with Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs and Sarah Cracknell, How We Used Saint Etienne To Live shows Saint Etienne’s minds at work as they make and manipulate history and nostalgia. Expect to be shown the receipts. Expect selective recollections and shameless revisionism. Expect concrete facts and flights of fancy. Don’t expect it to be immediately clear which is which.Trade Review"A vivid collection of memories and lists about the savoir vivre of Saint Etienne — a wonderful book about a wonderful band.""An essential, loving read for Saint Etienne fans — an exploration that’s half Sherpa Tenzing in its commitment to the task, half sunshine girl in its loveliness.""How We Used Saint Etienne to Live beautifully negates the archetypal veteran band biography. Ramzy Alwakeel’s analytical account is insightful and poignant, and this book is a timely, anti-nostalgic reminder of why Saint Etienne have such a special place in so many hearts."

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Book SynopsisBeauty today is a paradox. The cult of beauty is ubiquitous but it has lost its transcendence and become little more than an aspect of consumerism, the aesthetic dimension of capitalism. The sublime and unsettling aspects of beauty have given way to corporeal pleasures and 'likes', resulting in a kind of 'pornography' of beauty. In this book, cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han reinvigorates aesthetic theory for our digital age. He interrogates our preoccupation with all things slick and smooth, from Jeff Koon's sculptures and the iPhone to Brazilian waxing. Reaching far deeper than our superficial reactions to viral videos and memes, Han reclaims beauty, showing how it manifests itself as truth, temptation and even disaster. This wide-ranging and profound exploration of beauty, encompassing ethical and political considerations as well as aesthetic, will appeal to all those interested in cultural and aesthetic theory, philosophy and digital media.Trade Review"In this provocative analysis Han agitates against contemporary notions of smooth air-brushed beauty. Instead he pleads for an aesthetic based on a generative, creative, commitment to truth that can encompass negativity injury and disaster. Ranging from pornography to classical literature this tour de force of thinking about our understanding of beauty reminds us that philosophy can have teeth. Han writes with a compelling urgency about how we live in the here and now, but also how we could live better. Saving Beauty is an aesthetic call to arms; an example of how philosophy can militate for a better world and make us see anew." Karen Leeder, Oxford University “Thrilling… a passionate and engaging read on a notion of beauty that has lost its standing in a digitized world.”Philosophy TodayTable of Contents1. The Smooth 2. The Smooth Body 3. The Aesthetics of the Smooth 4. Digital Beauty 5. The Aesthetics of Veiling 6. The Aesthetics of Injury 7. The Aesthetics of Disaster 8. The Ideal of Beauty 9. Beauty as Truth 10. The Politics of Beauty 11. Pornographic Theatre 12. Lingering on Beauty 13. Beauty as Reminiscence 14. Giving Birth in Beauty Notes

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Book SynopsisThe Posthuman offers both an introduction and major contribution to contemporary debates on the posthuman. Digital 'second life', genetically modified food, advanced prosthetics, robotics and reproductive technologies are familiar facets of our globally linked and technologically mediated societies.Trade Review"The Posthuman makes a vital contribution to feminist scholarship across disciplines… Braidotti’s reading of contemporary issues is out of the box: challenging, encouraging and inspiring." Feminist Review "An important and generative step toward new theories and scholarship and a welcome addition to Braidotti’s already formidable canon." H+ Magazine "Shows remarkable clarity and concision even as it lays out highly technical, complexly theoretical, and deeply interdisciplinary concepts." Choice ''This is a rather startling work that requires heavy concentration on the part of the reader to follow the brilliant thinking of the author. Rosi Braidotti, a contemporary philosopher and feminist theoretician, `makes a case for an alternative view on subjectivity, ethics and emancipation and pitches diversity against the postmodernist risk of cultural relativism, while also standing against the tenets of liberal individualism.' Throughout her work, Braidotti asserts and demonstrates the importance of combining theoretical concerns with a serious commitment to producing socially and politically relevant scholarship that contributes to making a difference in the world.'' Grady Harp, Literary Aficionado "This is an exciting and important text, full of intellectual brilliance and insight. It will make a major mark." Henrietta L. Moore, University of Cambridge "Braidotti's exhilarating survey of the constellation of posthumanity is lucid, learned and provocative. It will be an essential point of reference in future debates about the central philosophical problem of our age." Paul Gilroy, King’s College London "Debates over humanism and post-humanism have been fought over from feminist philosophy to literary theory and post-colonial studies. This latest work by Rosi Braidotti presents us with a clear-headed glimpse of some of the hard choices we have before us. Braidotti knows the philosophy, cares about the politics, and empathizes with those who have been shoved aside in these brutal last hundred years. She shows us how feminism, technoscientific infrastructure and political strands cross, sometimes with sparks." Peter Galison, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments viIntroduction 1Chapter One: Post-humanism: Life beyond the Self 13Chapter Two: Post-anthropocentrism: Life beyond the Species 55Chapter Three: The Inhuman: Life beyond Death 105Chapter Four: Posthuman Humanities; Life beyond Theory 143Conclusion 186References 198Index 214

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Book SynopsisThe System of Objects is a tour de force-a theoretical letter-in-a-bottle tossed into the ocean in 1968, which brilliantly communicates to us all the live ideas of the day-offering a cultural critique of the commodity in consumer society.Trade ReviewA sharp-shooting Lone Ranger of the post-Marxist left. * New York Times *The most notorious intellectual celebrity to emerge from Paris since Roland Barthes and the most influential prophet of the media since Marshall McLuhan. * i-D magazine *Modest, independent, and devastatingly humorous, Jean's work transmitted the lost urbanity of the mid-20th century while speaking of and into the future. -- Chris Kraus

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Book SynopsisThere's nothing nicer than a bowl of delicious hot soup on a cold day! This delightful recipe book celebrates old-fashioned Irish soups that are enjoyed in farmhouses throughout the country, with nourishing traditional favourites that can be enjoyed by all the family. Includes recipes for potato soup, mutton broth, cabbage soup, beef and barley soup, and parsnip soup.

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