Cultural studies Books

Book SynopsisPart family history, part memoir, Behind the Glass tells the story behind the famous Villa Tugendhat.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Part I: House and Family 1. People Who Live in Glass Houses 2. Writing the Family Part II: Family and Firm 3. Before Löw-Beers 4. Founding the Firm 5. The Patriarch and His Siblings 6. The Sister Wives 7. The Double Cousins, before the War 8. Departures and After 9. The Patriarch’s Son Part III: Grete and Her World 10. Grete and Her Family, in Former Times 11. Grete and Her Family, the War Years 12. Grete and Her Family, after the War 13. The Philosophers: Helene Weiss, Käte Victorius, Ernst Tugendhat, Martin Heidegger 14. Tugendhat, after Heidegger Part IV: The Family Regrouped and Represented 15. The Reunion 16. Reconciliations in Brno 17. Looking Back: Conundrums of Identity and Representation Notes Timeline Acknowledgments Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisNew insights into the changing human attitudes towards wild nature through the depiction of wolves in human culture and heritage. Few animals arouse such strong opinion as the wolf. It occupies a contested, ambiguous, yet central role in human culture and heritage. It appears as both an inspirational emblem of the wild and an embodiment of evil. Offering a mirror to different human attitudes, beliefs, and values, the wolf is, arguably, the species that plays the greatest role in shaping our views on what nature is or should be. North America and, more recently, Europe have witnessed a remarkable return of the grey wolf (Canis lupus, and its close relative the Eurasian wolf, Canis lupus lupus) to eco-systems. The essays collected here explore aspects of this recovery, and consider the history, literature and myth surrounding this iconic species. There are chapters on wolf taxonomy, including the coywolf, the red wolf, and the many faces of the dingo. We also meet the Tasmanian wolf and encounter Nazi Werewolves from Outer Space. The book explores the challenges of separating fact from fiction and superstition, and our willingness to co-exist with large carnivores in the twenty-first century. Biologists, historians, anthropologists, cultural theorists, conservationists and museologists will all find riches in the detail presented in this wolf collection.Table of ContentsPreface & Acknowledgments Poem: Trophic Cascade by Camille T. Dungy Foreword Luigi Boitani Part I: Imagining the Wolf 1. The Wolf in the Human Mind Across Space and Time Erwin van Maanen 2. A History of Wolves and People in France Jean-Marc MoriceauandP van Maanen 3. WolvesandOtherMammalsHunted in Medieval English Forests Lee Raye 4. 'Uuluesheued!' The Historical Significance of the Wolf to Early Indo-Europeans Rob Lenders 5. Wolves Behind Bars Helen Cowie 6. Nazi Werewolves from Outer Space: Posthuman-wolf-multiplicities and Their (Mis)appropriations Jamie Mcphie 7. Never Mind the Girl; What about the Wolf? Marie Addyman 8. Whose Wolf Is It Anyway? Wolves, Wilderness and Belonging Chris Powici 9. Defined 'as much by their absence as their iconography': Reimagining Wolves in Cumbria in Sarah Hall's The Wolf Border Penny Bradshaw 10. A 'Wasteland' Infested by Wolves: The Fallacy of 'Dark Age' England Elizabeth Marshall Part II: What Makes the Wolf? 11. The Wolf Pack Peter Davis 12. The Wolf in the Pastoral System of Southern France Jean-Marc Landry and Jean-Luc Borelli 13.Contemporary Public Images of the Wolf Helene Figari and Ketil Skogen 14. "The Sweetness of Freedom": Reflections on the Occasion of the Japanese Wolf Holger Funk 15. Reimagining the Dingo: The 'Australian Wolf' or Just a Feral Dog? Bradley P. Smith, Robert G. Appleby and Kylie M. Cairns 16. 'Pushing the Ecological Niche: A ​Sea Wolf Called Takaya.' Cheryl Alexander and Karen Lloyd 17. 'Hunger-Greedy Appetite': The Wolf in Early-Modern English Natural History Marie Addyman 18. What About the Coywolf? Javier D. Monzón 19. Is that a wolf? Politics, Science and Red Wolf Identity Peter Brewitt and Lawson Giles 20. The Thylacine - A Wolf in Name Only Stephen R. Sleightholme and Cameron R. Campbell Part III: Return of the Wolf 21. Landscapes of Coexistence: Livestock and Wolves in the Mountains of North Spain Nigel Dykes 22. The Wolves of Yellowstone - Saviour of the Songbird or Piece of the Puzzle? TJ Clark-Wolf, Rene Beyers, Peter Brewitt, Ian Convery & Owen Nevin 23. Wolf-Beaver Dynamics in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem, Minnesota Thomas D. Gable, Sean Johnson-Bice, Austin T. Homkes, Steve K. Windels, John G. Bruggink, and Joseph K. Bump 24. The Return of the Wolf in Germany: A Success Story of Rewilding with a Future? James Brückner and Erwin van Maanen 25. Finding Common Ground with Wolves: Interspecies Communication is a Shared Landscape Martin Drenthen 26. The Case for Wolves in the UK Ian Convery, Owen Nevin, Elsie Blackshaw-Crosby, Deborah Brady & Mark Fisher Part IV Personal Encounters 27. Tracking Wolves in Western Europe: A Photo-Essay Photography by Marielle van Uitert and text by Karen Lloyd 28. Speaking Out for Wolves: A Personal Reflection Tracy Hayes 29. To Receive the Wolf Karen Lloyd 30. Úlfr and Gris: Spectral Animal Companions of the Atomic Priest Robert Williams 31. The Three-Legged Stool: Wolves, Shepherds and Sheep Lee Schofield 32. The Helsfell Wolf Karen Lloyd Afterword: The Ecological Disadvantage of Living on an Island Mark Fisher

Read more less

Book SynopsisOffers a framework for understanding contemporary debates as they have evolved in Europe and the United States. From the visionary museums of Boullee in the eighteenth century to the new Guggenheim in Bilbao and beyond, this book explores various aspects of museum theory and practice: ideals and mission; architecture; the public and commercialism.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Ideals and Mission Architecture Collecting, Classification, and Display The Public Commercialism Restitution and Repatriation Conclusion Appendix Notes List of Illustrations Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisRoger Deakin, who died in 2006, was a writer, filmmaker and environmentalist of international renown. He was a founder member of Friends of the Earth, and co-founded Common Ground. He lived for thirty-eight years in a moated farmhouse in Suffolk. Waterlog, which was first published in 1999, became a word-of-mouth bestseller, and is now an established classic of the nature writing canon.Trade ReviewI jumped in with both feet and wanted to stay for more.Erudite, funky and passionate, a total delight * Independent on Sunday *Charmingly and elegantly written * Daily Telegraph *A delicious, cleansing, funny, wise and joyful book, so wonderfully full of energy and life. I loved itHighly entertaining...Waterlog is a book about a cold, wet subject written with a warmth and passion it surely deserves, but has rarely had before * Guardian *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis* “Children around the world go to sleep in different beds in this ingeniously illustrated picture book…Read this before bedtime to ensure a world of sweet dreams.”--Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewDelightful rhymes and charming hand-stitched art celebrate the many ways we sleep across the world. Perfect for a baby shower gift and for fans of This Is How We Do It.My bed rocks on waterMy bed sways in the breeze.My bed’s beneath a curtainMy bed’s aloft in trees . . . In the Netherlands, some beds rock on water. In Brazil they might sway in the breeze. From Canada to Japan, Afghanistan to Norway, sleep has taken many forms and shapes throughout history. Astonishing, hand-stitched illustrations and a delightful narrative tell the story of sleeping traditions across the world.Trade Review★ "Children around the globe go to sleep in different kinds of beds in this ingeniously illustrated picture book.... All readers will want to return to pore over the details of these imaginative depictions.... A concluding note about the creation of the illustrations will be fascinating to adults and may prompt them to work with children to make some fabric collages. Read this before bedtime to ensure a world of sweet dreams." —Kirkus, STARRED review "This eye-catching volume looks at bedtime....While the text is helpful, it’s secondary to the photos that showcase Mavor’s wonderfully detailed, diorama-like scenes, created with fabrics, beads, wood, and wire and richly, meticulously embellished with embroidery in thread and yarn. Featuring vibrant, harmonious colors, interesting patterns, and folk art charm, the illustrations will impress craft-minded viewers with the artist’s ingenuity and attention to detail. A handsome book to share with young children."—Booklist "Mavor’s immersive signature illustrations charm; the intricately stitched art, handcrafted from fabric, beads, wire, and yarn on embroidered fabric backgrounds, will assuredly catch readers’ attention....this meditation on global similarities and differences is worth poring over for the fabric relief art alone." —Publishers Weekly —

Read more less

Book SynopsisWar has always been close to the centre of British culture, but never more so than in the period since 1850. "Warrior Nation" explores the way in which images of battle, both literary and visual, have been constructed in British fiction and popular culture since this time. The rise of war reporting has helped to shape a society fascinated by conflict, and the development of mass communications has aided in the creation of mass-produced martial heroes and the relation of epic adventures for political ends. To achieve national goals, the notion of war has been promoted as an activity of high adventure and chivalrous enterprise and as a rite of passage to manhood. Using a wide range of media, Michael Paris focuses on how war has been "sold" to boys and young men and examines the "warrior" as a masculine ideal.Trade Review'Ever wondered why Britain has fought and won so many wars? Paris's fascinating book goes a long way to answer this question ... Paris has created a compelling insight into why Britain responded to the call of arms.' -The Good Book Guide 'an absorbing and thought-provoking survey of the presentation of war in popular culture ... It is impossible in a short review to do justice to the historical sweep, the literary insight and the importance of the issues raised by this stimulating and enjoyable book. I warmly recommend it to you.' -Biggles Flies Again 'This is a splendid book, well written and well researched, which throws light on our understanding of the subject.' - Michael Dockrell, Department of War Studies, King's College, London

Read more less

Book SynopsisExamining Iraqi history in a search for clues to understanding contemporary political affairs, this title illustrates how the quality of Ba'thi pan-Arabism as an ideology, the centrality of the first experience of pan-Arabism in Iraq, and the interaction between the Ba'th and communist parties in Iraq from 1958 to 1968.Table of ContentsIntroduction to the 1998 Paperback Edition Note to the Reader PART ONE: THE BA'THIST POLITY 1. Institutions of Violence 2. A World of Fear 3. Ba'thism and the Masses 4. Authority PART TWO: THE LEGITIMATION OF BA'THISM 5. Pan-Arabism and Iraq 6. Formation of the Ba'th 7. The Legitimation of Iraqi Ba'thism Conclusion: The Final Catastrophe Appendix Index Chronology

Read more less

Book SynopsisExamines social representations of the fat body. This work questions discursive constructions of fatness while analyzing the politics and power of corpulence and addressing the absence of fat people in media representations of the body.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Editors' Introduction: Bodies Out of Bounds Kathleen LeBesco and Jana Evans Braziel PART ONE: Revaluing Corpulence, Redefining Fat Subjectivities 1. "Fat Beauty," by Richard Klein 2. "A 'Horror of Corpulence': Interrogating Bantingism and Mid-Nineteenth-Century Fat-Phobia," by Joyce L. Huff 3. "Letting Ourselves Go: Making Room for the Fat Body in Feminist Scholarship," by Cecilia Hartley 4. "Queering Fat Bodies/Politics," by Kathleen LeBesco PART TWO: Representational Matrices of Power: Nationality, Gender, Sexuality, and Fatness 5. "Oscar Zeta Acosta's Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo: A Fat Man's Recipe for Chicano Revolution," by Marcia Chamberlain 6. "Resisting Venus: Negotiating Corpulence in Exercise Videos," by Antonia Losano and Brenda A. Risch 7. "Fighting Abjection: Representing Fat Women," by Leia Kent PART THREE: Fat Perversities? Reconstructing Corpulent Sexualities 8. "Roscoe Arbuckle and the Scandal of Fatness," by Neda Ulaby 9. "Setting Free the Bears: Refiguring Fat Men on Television," by Jerry Mosher PART FOUR: Deconstructing the Carnivalesque, Grotesque, and Other Configurations of Corpulence 10. "'It's not over until the fat lady sings': Comedy, the Carnivalesque, and Body Politics," by Angela Stukator 11. "Devouring Women: Corporeality and Autonomy in Fiction by Women Since the 1960s," by Sarah Shieff 12. "Sex and Fat Chics: Deterritorializing the Fat Female Body," by Jana Evans Braziel PART FIVE: Bodies in Motion: Corpulence and Performativity 13. "'She's so fat': Facing the Fat Lady at Coney Island's Sideshows by the Seashore," by Sharon Mazer 14. "Fatties on Stage: Feminist Performances," by Petra Kuppers 15. "Divinity: A Dossier, a Performance Piece, a Little-Understood Emotion," by Michael Moon and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick Contributors Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisArgues, the financial crisis, a dysfunctional international monetary system, and US policies have paradoxically strengthened the dollar's importance. This book examines how the dollar came to have a central role in the world economy and demonstrates that it will remain the cornerstone of global finance for the foreseeable future.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2015 Gold Medal in Economics, Axiom Business Book Awards Honorable Mention for the 2015 PROSE Award in Business, Finance & Management, Association of American Publishers One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2014, chosen by Martin Wolf One of China Business News' Financial Books of the Year for 2014 "Thoughtful."--Jeff Sommer, New York Times "[A] surprising argument... [L]ucid."--David Wessel, Wall Street Journal "Richly detailed study of global finances, examining how and why the dollar became the favored currency of international trade."--Kirkus "To understand how the world of international finance works, what the agendas are and what is at stake, this work is indispensable."--Henny Sender, Financial Times "In his authoritative new book on the dollar, Eswar Prasad ... argues that China and other foreign countries that own around half the outstanding US federal government debt are trapped in a risky game where the US may be tempted to renege on its debt obligations by printing more dollars."--John Plender, Financial Times "A lively and compelling analysis on currency wars in the wake of the financial crisis--and the likely persistence of the U.S. dollar as the world's pre-eminent currency."--Harold James, Central Banking Journal "Highly recommended especially for those interested in understanding the paradigm shifts that happened in the international monetary regime in the 1970s and 1980s."--Mehmet Kerem Caban, Asian Journal of Public AffairsTable of ContentsList of Figures and Tables ix Preface xi PART ONE Setting the Stage 1. Prologue 3 2. What Is So Special about the Dollar? 11 PART TWO Building Blocks 3. The Paradox of Uphill Capital Flows 31 4. Emerging Markets Get Religion 47 5. The Quest for Safety 63 6. A Trillion Dollar Con Game? 89 PART THREE Inadequate Institutions 7. Currency Wars 125 8. Seeking a Truce on Currency Wars 158 9. It Takes Twenty to Tango 171 10. The Siren Song of Capital Controls 188 11. Safety Nets with Gaping Holes 201 PART FOUR Currency Competition 12. Is the Renminbi Ready for Prime Time? 229 13. Other Contenders Nipping at the Dollar's Heels 262 14. Could the Dollar Hit a Tipping Point and Sink? 283 15. Ultimate Paradox: Fragility Breeds Stability 299 Appendix 309 Notes 317 References 375 Acknowledgments 393 Index 395

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis exciting, challenging book covers a wide range of subject matter, but all linked together through the key ideas of diversity and ‘Relation’. It sees our modern world, shaped by immigration and the aftermath of colonization, as a multiplicity of different communities interacting and evolving together, and argues passionately against all political and philosophical attempts to impose uniformity, universal or absolute values. This is the ‘Whole-World’, which includes not only these objective phenomena but also our consciousness of them. Our personal identities are not fixed and self-sufficient but formed in ‘Relation’ through our contacts with others. Glissant constantly stresses the unpredictable, ‘chaotic’ nature of the world, which, he claims, we must adapt to and not attempt to limit or control. ‘Creolization’ is not restricted to the Creole societies of the Caribbean but describes all societies in which different cultures with equal status interact to produce new configurations. This perspective produces brilliant new insights into the politicization of culture, but also language, poetry, our relationship to place and to landscapes, globalization, history, and other topics. The book is not written in the style conventionally associated with essays, but is a mixture of argument, proclamation, and poetic evocations of landscapes, lifestyles and people.Trade Review"This is a magnificent translation of a crucial book by Edouard Glissant, which extends his poetics of relation to all the intricacies of Globalisation, making the case for a new form of aesthetics and ethics that would allow for a renewed engagement with social and political justice. The book is eminently topical with regard to its themes, and this translation conveys Glissant’s complex ideas and style with great care and accuracy."Hugues Azérad, University of Cambridge‘This engaging and challenging work by the seminal French-Caribbean writer and philosopher Édouard Glissant features a timely plea for valuing and preserving diversity, relation and the irreducible alterity of the ‘Other’. The book is especially pertinent amidst a historical backdrop plagued by socio-ecological upheavals and the mounting absence of diversity in a multiplicity of forms-from languages to species-which Glissant frequently laments.’ Heather Alberro, Journal of Critical Studies in Language and Literature'Celia Britton's careful and accessible translation captures the poetic, playful, idiosyncratic, and challenging nature of Glissant's language.'Neil Campbell, Western American LiteratureTable of ContentsKey Signs and Key Things: An Introduction to Édouard Glissant’s EssaysTranslator’s IntroductionThe Gardens in the SandsThe Cry of the WorldRepetitionsThe Treatise on the Whole-World by Mathieu Béluse Book 1 Book 2 Book 3Waves and BackwashesThe Time of the OtherWritingWhat was us, what is usPunctuationsObjections to this ‘Treatise’ by Mathieu Béluse, and ReplyMeasure, ImmeasurabilityThe Town, Refuge for the voices of the worldTranslator’s Notes

Read more less

Book SynopsisObject Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Who ponders the sock? This common object is something people tug on and take off daily with hardly a thought. Unraveling the garment's history, construction, and use, Kim Adrian's Sock reintroduces us to our own bodies vulnerable, bipedal, and flawed. Sock reminds us that extraordinary secrets live in mundane material realities, and shows how this floppy, often smelly, sometimes holey piece of clothing, whether machine-made or hand-knit, can also serve as an anatomy lesson, a physics primer, a love letter, a weapon, a fetish, and a fashion statement.Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.Trade ReviewKim Adrian's Sock is the darndest thing. Witty and sly, written with the highest tactile precision, it is at the same time stacked with erudite asides and unexpected perspectives. Adrian reminds us where the ground lies and how we move upon it—and what miraculous things we have encasing our feet as we do so. * Sven Birkerts, author of Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age *Fun, focused, and footloose! * Nicholson Baker, author of The Way the World Works: Essays *[This book] serves to entertain in its erudite approach to yet another unexpected subject. * The Bookbag *Through a discussion of the footwear's material, social and cultural evolution, Sock reflects on the brilliance present in the minutiae of our lives. With piercing wit, idiosyncratic humor and sharply insightful moments of personal examination, Adrian uses the most domestic of items as a lens through which to view the inelegance and wondrousness of humanity. Encompassing the utility of protecting an essentially vulnerable, uncomfortable body and the bonds mothers form with the objects that cover the delicate toes of their babies, Adrian's warm, insightful investigation will give this common object new prominence in any reader's mind. Sock delivers a detailed exploration of human nature through whimsically astute commentary on a common, closely held object. * Shelf Awareness *An utterly engaging investigation — not so much of [the sock], per se, as of human evolution, anatomy, physics, sexuality, fashion, painting, consumerism, manufacturing, and motherhood … illuminating, erudite, deeply intelligent. * Los Angeles Review of Books *If a book called Sock makes you think, 'Twenty-five-thousand words on socks? Uh, no,' then you’re unclear on the concept. You’re also missing out on a thoroughly delightful discussion. * Washington Independent Review of Books *A remarkable read, a perfectly satisfying balance of fact and quirk and charm. * Knitty *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Socks & Evolution 2. Socks & Desire 3. Socks & Industry Coda: Instructions for Darning a Sock Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisCuba is a land of contradictions that is easy to enjoy but difficult for first-time visitors to decipher. The largest island in the Caribbean, it is a tropical paradise that Christopher Columbus called "the most beautiful land that human eyes have ever seen." It is famous for the romantic charm of its crumbling colonial cities, the beauty of its white sand beaches, and its irresistible Afro-Cuban dance beats. But it is also a land of shortages and tight government control, which has been in a sixty-year political standoff with its superpower neighbor, the USA. The homegrown version of single-party socialism created by Fidel Castro has kept Cuba in a Cold War time warp that only now is beginning to change. As travel restrictions are relaxed US tourists can once again visit the island. Greater flexibility toward private enterprise is opening it up to boutique hotels and high-quality home-based restaurants. There is a boom in special-interest tourism for cyclists, hikers, birdwatchers, and scuba divers, while foreign entrepreneurs are eagerly exploring investment opportunities. Culture Smart! Cuba will take you beyond the usual descriptions of Havana nightlife, vintage cars, and hand-rolled cigars and give you an insider's view of an island that is teetering on the brink of historic change. It offers insights into Cuba's fascinating history, national icons, unique food, vibrant cultural scene, and world-renowned music. Practical tips help business travelers gain an edge on the competition. But most of all, this book aims to show you how best to break the ice and get a better understanding of the infinitely resourceful Cuban people, who despite severe hardships and shortages over many years remain optimistic and fiercely proud of their heritage and culture.Trade ReviewCulture Smart! has come to the rescue of hapless travellers...' Sunday Times Travel, ' the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries.' Global Travel, ' full of fascinating, as well as common sense, tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas.' Observer, ' as useful as they are entertaining.' Easy Jet Magazine, ' offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world.' New York TimesTable of ContentsBrief History Politics - Economic Life Traditions - Friendships & Family Relationships Bureaucracy Religion Humour - Local Holidays Taboos Invitations Gifts Dress - Business etiquette - Punctuality & Appointments - Team working Communication Negotiating - Women in Society Tips - Eating Out - Traditional Food - Dos and Don t - Making Friends

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom the telegraph to the touchscreen, how the development of binary switching transformed everyday life and changed the shape of human agency The Switch traces the sudden rise of a technology that has transformed everyday life for billions of people: the binary switch. By chronicling the rapid growth of binary switching since the mid-nineteenth century, Jason Puskar contends that there is no human activity as common today as pushing a button or flipping a switch—the deceptively simple act of turning something on or off. More than a technical history, The Switch offers a cultural and political analysis of how reducing so much human action to binary alternatives has profoundly reshaped modern society. Analyzing this history, Puskar charts the rapid shift from analog to digital across a range of devices—keyboards, cameras, guns, light switches, computers, game controls, even the “nuclear button”—to understand how nineteenth-century techniques continue to influence today’s pervasive digital technologies. In contexts that include musical performance, finger counting, machine writing, voting methods, and immersive play, Puskar shows how the switch to switching led to radically new forms of action and thought. The innovative analysis in The Switch makes clear that binary inputs have altered human agency by making choice instantaneous, effort minimal, and effects more far-reaching than ever. In the process, it concludes, switching also fosters forms of individualism that, though empowering for many, also preserve a legacy of inequality and even domination. Trade Review "In this deeply ambitious and sophisticated book, Jason Puskar invites us to think more seriously about what happens almost every time we touch one of our devices and turn it on or swipe or click. From the technologies at our fingertips to the vastly larger networks of politics and language that they operate and represent, The Switch provides a fascinating cultural history of how we have made the modern world, and been remade in turn, by the simplest of human actions and the connections they enable."—Mark Goble, author of Beautiful Circuits: Modernism and the Mediated Life "A dazzling, beautifully written history of a pervasive but seemingly unremarkable technology of modern life: the binary switch. Jason Puskar’s delightful and important book will fascinate historians of media and technology; it should be required reading for anyone curious about how fantasies of liberal agency are cultivated in the buttons, keyboards, triggers, and toys that make us human."—Justus Nieland, author of Happiness by Design: Modernism and Media in the Eames Era Table of Contents Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Awake at the Switch Part I. Start 1. Origin Stories 2. Designing the Button 3. Analogs and Analogies Part II. Digital Bodies 4. The Point of Touch 5. Counting on the Body 6. Darth Vader’s Nipples Part III. Keyboard Rationality 7. The Keyboard’s Checkered Past 8. Human Types 9. Chording and Coding 10. The Archaeology of Qwerty Part IV. Objects of Play 11. The Toys of Dionysus 12. Pinball Wizards Part V. Haptic Liberalism 13. The Control Panel of Democracy 14. Switching Philosophies 15. Pistolgraphs 16. First-Person Shooters Epilogue: Self-Destruct Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book reproduces the texts of four lectures, followed by discussions, and two interviews with Lise Gauvin published in Introduction à une poétique du divers (1996); and also four further interviews from L’Imaginaire des langues (Lise Gauvin, 2010). It covers a wide range of topics but key recurring themes are creolization, language and langage, culture and identity, ‘monolingualism’, the ‘Chaos-world’ and the role of the writer. Migration and the various different kinds of migrants are also discussed, as is the difference between ‘atavistic’ and ‘composite’ communities, the art of translation, identity as a ‘rhizome’ rather than a single root, the Chaos-World and chaos theory, ‘trace thought’ as opposed to ‘systematic thought’, the relation between ‘place’ and the Whole-World, exoticism, utopias, a new definition of beauty as the realized quantity of differences, the status of literary genres and the possibility that literature as a whole will disappear. Four of the interviews (Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9) relate to particular works that Glissant has published: Tout-monde, Le monde incrée, La Cohée du Lamentin, Une nouvelle région du monde. Many of these themes have been explored in his previous works, but here, because in all the chapters we see Glissant interacting with the questions and views of other people, they are presented in a particularly accessible form.Trade Review'Far too much of [Eduard Glissant's] writing remained untranslated. This series aims to correct this error and to provide access to some important later essays, lectures and interviews. [...] These new translations illuminate in different ways Glissant's sense of place as nonreductive, nonexclusive, but like the rhizome, endlessly connecting with others. These three volumes give vibrant voice to these "flashes of light", setting out a provocative web of ideas and arguments for a Whole-world in which diverse places, identities and cultures matter in the creation of an unforeseeable but vital future.'Neil Campbell, Western American LiteratureTable of ContentsKey Signs and Key Things: An Introduction to Édouard Glissant’s EssaysPreface (Charles Forsdick)Creolizations in the Caribbean and the AmericasLanguages and langagesCulture and IdentityThe Chaos-world: towards an aesthetic of RelationThe Imagination of LanguagesThe Writer and the Breath of PlaceWatching out for the WorldRethinking UtopiaOn Beauty as ComplicityMovements of Languages and Territories of the Novel

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisHowever we react to it, the global trend towards mixing or hybridization is impossible to miss, from curry and chips to Thai saunas, Zen Judaism, Nigerian Kung Fu, 'Bollywood' films or salsa or reggae music. Some people celebrate these phenomena and others condemn them. This book considers these phenomena.Trade Review"Would work extremely well in world or European history courses at the advanced undergraduate or graduate level." European History Quarterly "[K]nowledgeable and informative." Times Literary Supplement "The book's easy and discursive style makes it accessible to the widest readership without losing out on complexity and intellectual rigour." Sociology "Burke shows how [questions of hybridity] raise issues that are older, broader and closer to our lives than we might think." Times of Malta "An impressive wide-ranging survey of the different forms and practices of cultural interaction in human history, and of the concepts that we now use to try to understand them. Whether we embrace these influences or resist them, globalization, Burke argues, is leading to the emergence of a new cultural order. This book offers us an indispensible guide to the cultural transformations of our times." Robert J.C. Young, New York University "An inspiring and illuminating survey of this highly topical and important field. Burke wears his outstanding erudition very lightly, and seeks to inform and enlighten his readers rather than to impress or browbeat them. He manages to encompass, in this brief survey, a wealth of historical roots and ramifications both within and outside Europe, and maintain analytical clarity at all times. Burke's rigorous, but never rigid, clarity of thought is always flexibly attuned to the complexities of historical experience." J. Th. Leerssen, University of AmsterdamTable of ContentsPreface to the English edition page ix Introduction 1 Varieties of object 13 Varieties of terminology 34 Varieties of situation 66 Varieties of response 79 Varieties of outcome 102 Notes 116 Index 135

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Butterfly Defect addresses the widening gap between the new systemic risks generated by globalization and their effective management. It shows how the dynamics of turbo-charged globalization has the potential and power to destabilize our societies. Drawing on the latest insights from a wide variety of disciplines, Ian Goldin and Mike MariathasaTrade ReviewFinalist for the 2015 Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize "[The authors demonstrate] that the increasing interconnectedness of the world makes the world's economics, infrastructure, health and social conditions behave [as] an interconnected meteorological system. The next big crisis will be of unexpected origin."--Professor Rober J. Shiller, Wall Street Journal "This is an important and thought-provoking book."--Shawn Donnan, Financial Times "This book covers many different sectors and points out that globalization brings opportunities as well as threats; readers from diverse professional and academic backgrounds will gain insights."--Library Journal "The arguments put forward are cohesive and coherent with well-constructed logical chapters, good, well thought out examples and jargon free language... Upon reflection of this book, I was left with a clear and defined picture of how systemic risk effects systems and how globalization inherently increases these risks."--Jason Paul Stansbie, Leonardo Reviews "Although the authors' prose is clear and unburdened by jargon, the nature of the topic means this is not a light read. But it will reward the persistent. The issues they raise, and the interconnections they identify, are such that specialists will come away with a deeper understanding of the risks involved in each of the specific fields they cover... To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, this book should be widely read not because it is easy, but because it is hard."--Survival Global Politics and Strategy "In this context of uncertainty about the future of globalization, the book is a very timely intervention, as it focuses exactly on the risks created by the process of globalization itself. The authors have formidable expertise."--Dariusz Wojcik, Journal of Economic Geography "A timely addition to the nascent literature on CT-inspired methods and models... Bound to trigger debate and invite (if not beckon) its readers to pursue further the ideas discussed on its pages."--Emilian Kavalski, Political Studies ReviewTable of ContentsList of Boxes, Illustrations, and Tables ix Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 1 Globalization and Risk in the Twenty-First Century 9 Globalization and Integration 10 Global Connectivity and Complex Systems 13 Globalization and the Changing Nature of Risk 23 Globalization: A Double-Edged Sword 30 The Way Forward 33 2 The Financial Sector 36 with Co-Pierre Georg and Tiffany Vogel The Financial Crisis of 2007/2008 37 Financial Globalization in the Twenty-First Century 39 Complexity and Systemic Risk 54 Global Financial Governance 60 Lessons for the Financial Sector 64 3 Supply Chain Risks 70 Global Supply Chains 72 Supply Chain Risk 79 From Management of Risk to Risk Management 90 Lessons for Supply Chain Management 95 4 Infrastructure Risks 100 Transportation 101 Energy 105 The Internet 112 Lessons for Global Infrastructure 120 5 Ecological Risks 123 The Nature of Environmental Risk 124 Risks from the Environment 129 Risks to the Environment 133 Can Globalization Be Good for the Environment? 138 The Export of Pollution 139 Lessons for Managing Environmental Risk 141 6 Pandemics and Health Risks 144 Pandemic Risk 145 Globalization and Health Risks 147 Case Studies 150 Noninfectious Diseases 159 Global Cooperation and Disease Control 160 Lessons from Pandemic Management 164 7 Inequality and Social Risks 168 Global Integration and Inequality 169 The Channels of Inequality 180 The Risks of Inequality 181 Lessons for Challenging Global Inequalities 195 8 Managing Systemic Risk 198 Moving Forward, Not Backward 200 Confronting a New Challenge? 202 The Need to Reform Global Governance 206 Why Reform Has Been So Sluggish 209 Lessons for Global Policy Reform 212 Managing Systemic Risk 219 Notes 221 References 257 Index 285

Read more less

First published in 1951 Arnold Hausers commanding work presents an account of the development and meaning of art from its origins in the Stone Age through to the Film Age. Exploring the interaction between art and society, Hauser effectively details social and historical movements and sketches the frameworks in which visual art is produced.This new edition provides an excellent introduction to the work of Arnold Hauser. In his general introduction to The Social History of Art, Jonathan Harris asseses the importance of the work for contemporary art history and visual culture. In addition, an introduction to each volume provides a synopsis of Hausers narrative and serves as a critical guide to the text, identifying major themes, trends and arguments.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAnalyzes issues connected to the body - weight and weight loss, exercise, media images, movies, advertising, anorexia and bulimia, and much more.Trade Review"This excellent study links the fear of women’s fat with a fear of women’s power and shows that as opportunities for women increase, their bodies dwindle." * New York Times *"Original, stimulating, and witty." * San Francisco Chronicle *Table of ContentsForeword: Reading Bordo, by Leslie Heywood In the Empire of Images: Preface to the Tenth Anniversary Edition Acknowledgments Introduction: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body PART ONE DISCOURSES AND CONCEPTIONS OF THE BODY Whose Body Is This? Feminism, Medicine, and the Conceptualization of Eating Disorders Are Mothers Persons? Reproductive Rights and the Politics of Subject-ivity Hunger as Ideology PART TWO THE SLENDER BODY AND OTHER CULTURAL FORMS Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathology as the Crystallization of Culture The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity Reading the Slender Body PART THREE POSTMODERN BODIES Feminism, Postmodernism, and Gender Skepticism "Material Girl": The Effacements of Postmodern Culture Postmodern Subjects, Postmodern Bodies, Postmodern Resistance Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Indian Ocean remains the least studied of the world''s geographic regions. Yet there have been major cultural exchanges across its waters and around its shores from the third millennium B.C.E. to the present day. Historian Edward A. Alpers explores the complex issues involved in cultural exchange in the Indian Ocean Rim region over the course of this long period of time by combining a historical approach with the insights of anthropology, art history, ethnomusicology, and geography.The Indian Ocean witnessed several significant diasporas during the past two millennia, including migrations of traders, indentured laborers, civil servants, sailors, and slaves throughout the entire basin. Persians and Arabs from the Gulf came to eastern Africa and Madagascar as traders and settlers, while Hadramis dispersed from south Yemen as traders and Muslim teachers to the Comoro Islands, Zanzibar, South India, and Indonesia. Southeast Asians migrated to Madagascar, and Chinese dispersed from Southeast Asia to the Mascarene Islands to South Africa.Alpers also explores the cultural exchanges that diasporas cause, telling stories of identity and cultural transformation through language, popular religion, music, dance, art and architecture, and social organization. For example, architectural and decorative styles in eastern Africa, the Red Sea, the Hadramaut, the Persian Gulf, and western India reflect cultural interchanges in multiple directions. Similarly, the popular musical form of taarab in Zanzibar and coastal East Africa incorporates elements of Arab, Indian, and African musical traditions, while the characteristic frame drum (ravanne) of séga, the widespread Afro-Creole dance of the Mascarene and Seychelles Islands, probably owes its ultimate origins to Arabia by way of Mozambique.The Indian Ocean in World History also discusses issues of trade and production that show the long history of exchange throughout the Indian Ocean world; politics and empire-building by both regional and European powers; and the role of religion and religious conversion, focusing mainly on Islam, but also mentioning Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. Using a broad geographic perspective, the book includes references to connections between the Indian Ocean world and the Americas. Moving into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Alpers looks at issues including the new configuration of colonial territorial boundaries after World War I, and the search for oil reserves.Trade ReviewThis is a valuable initiation for students to Indian Ocean studies. And yet, for as much as the case is made, the books reads densely. * I. Iumi, Choice, *Table of ContentsSeries Editors' Preface ; 1. Imagining the Indian Ocean ; 2. The Ancient Indian Ocean ; 3. Becoming an Islamic Sea ; 4. Intrusions and Transitions in the Early Modern Period ; 5. The Long Nineteenth Century ; 6. The Last Century ; Chronology ; Notes ; Further Reading ; Websites ; Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst published in 1967, Guy Debord's stinging revolutionary critique ofcontemporary society, The Society of the Spectacle has since acquired acult status. Credited by many as being the inspiration for the ideasgenerated by the events of May 1968 in France, Debord's pitiless attackon commodity fetishism and its incrustation in the practices of everydaylife continues to burn brightly in today's age of satellite televisionand the soundbite. In Comments on the Society of the Spectacle, publishedtwenty years later, Debord returned to the themes of his previousanalysis and demonstrated how they were all the more relevant in aperiod when the "integrated spectacle" was dominant. Resolutely refusingto be reconciled to the system, Debord trenchantly slices through thedoxa and mystification offered tip by journalists and pundits to showhow aspects of reality as diverse as terrorism and the environment, theMafia and the media, were caught up in the logic of the spectacularsociety. Pointing the finger clearly at those who benefit from the logicof domination, Debord's Comments convey the revolutionary impulse atthe heart of situationism.Trade ReviewGuy Debord is a time bomb, and a difficult one to defuse.A" Michael Lowy

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Carina Chocano's insightful, witty and moving You Play The Girl, we travel down the rabbit hole into the Wonderland of pop cultureTrade ReviewIn this whip-smart essay collection, pop culture critic Chocano explores representations of women in books, movies, and television, with characters ranging in time and temperament from Edith Wharton's Lily Bart to Mad Men's Joan and Peggy. Remarkably comprehensive and enjoyably associative, the essays move quickly from the haunting performances of French actress Isabelle Adjani to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Bewitched, and I Dream of Jeannie as allegories for the potential of powerful women to "wreck civilization." Chocano astutely observes that Thelma and Louise and Pretty Woman are "dueling metanarratives" from the same cultural moment, offering diametrically opposed messages about women's aspirations. On a personal note, Chocano describes her laborious efforts to raise a daughter without the patriarchy's cultural hangups via an extremely thorough examination of Disney's Frozen and its famous aria, asking-"What exactly is she letting go of?" Readers with even a rudimentary understanding of feminism may find it wearisome to have such seminal texts as Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) rehashed; with a vast spectrum of material, and Chocano's incisive and witty approach, however, these essays will appeal to anyone interested in how women's stories are told. * Publishers Weekly, starred review *Every woman often faces the unwelcome prospect of "playing the girl." These essays by journalist Chocano, inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice, lead readers on a journey to identify and understand just who this girl is and from where she originates. The author interweaves relevant personal stories from her childhood and adult experiences with and entertaining and insightful review of female characters from the last 50 years of pop culture, including television, film and literature. Chocano not only looks back at her own experiences, she also writes emotionally about the realities of the world that her young daughter faces today. Each piece combines numerous, well-connected examples from the author's extensive knowledge of pop culture, with an analysis of a theme related to the various aspects of women's lives: work, relationships, marriage, sexuality, motherhood, and even math. As a result, the essays have a sound research foundation and are well documented. VERDICT: This entertaining, engaging, enlightening tour of the portrayal of women in pop culture will appeal to general readers and researchers in a variety of cross-disciplinary fields. * Library Review *Super insightful book on the female form in film. This will really get your wheels turning about the images we were shown growing up and the new ways women can be depicted in the future * Stylist *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis text provides an understanding of the life and work of Claude Monet and the myth of the modern artist. Levine analyzes the extensive critical reception of Monet and the artist's own writings in the context of the story of Narcissus, popular in late 19th-century France.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis text reflects the design of the world which deserves attention as a professional practice and a subject of social, cultural and philosophic scrutiny. These 11 essays are contributed by scholars with backgrounds in psychology and political theory to technology studies, and philosophy.

Read more less

Book SynopsisBefore the Renaissance and Reformation, holy images were treated not as "art" but as objects of veneration which possessed the tangible presence of the "Holy", Hans Belting traces in this volume the long history of the sacral image and its changing role in European culture.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis work explores the social and cultural hierarchies established in 18th-century France to illustrate how the conceptual basis of the modern house and the physical layout of the modern city emerged from debates among theoretically innovative French architects of the 18th-century.Table of ContentsIllustrations Illustration Credits Preface Acknowledgments 1: Paris: The Image of the City 2: Revolutionary Space 3: Character and Design Method 4: The Neoclassical Interlude 5: The System of the Home 6: Landscapes of Eternity 7: The Space of Absence Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA history of information from its inception in the world to its transformation of culture. Drawing on the history of ideas, details of information technology, and boundaries of the human condition, this text explains the relationship between things and signs, and between reality and information.

Read more less

Book SynopsisBoasting a rich, complex history in Celtic and Christian ritual, Halloween has evolved from ethnic celebration to a blend of street festival, fright night, and vast commercial enterprise. In this colorful history, Nicholas Rogers takes a lively, entertaining look at the cultural origins and development of one of the most popular holidays of the year.Trade Review"This survey of Halloween, its cultural origins and development, will tell you everything you need to know, and possibly more. With a topic this intriguing, the author doesn't need tricks to come up with a treat."--The Montreal Gazette"The best work so far on this increasingly important holiday."--Publishers Weekly"Performs the heroic service of taking all the stuff in stores seriously, as instruments in the creation of a new unreligious holiday of some significance, if the retailers are to be believed.... They say that the devil is in the details, and Rogers is a connoisseur of delicious tidbits of macabre."--New York Times Book Review"Halloween is a rich mix of historical detail and keen cultural observation about the holiday in North America. He reaches far back to the festival's pagan roots and follows its development into a unique celebration of liminality, cultural borrowing, and outrageous invention. Halloween is surely an important contribution to a growing literature that takes seriously our moments of play."--Penne Restad, author of Christmas in America: A History"This book paints its subject in very broad strokes, giving us a glimpse of an increasingly significant holiday over a vast expanse of space and time. How delightful, too, to read about an event through a North American, rather than strictly American perspective."--Jack Kugelmass, author of Masked Culture: The Greenwich Village Halloween Parade

Read more less

Book SynopsisEstablishing the fundamental importance of geography in both the generation and the consumption of scientific knowledge, this work does so with historical examples of the many places where science has been practised.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisCombines ethnographic and historic strategies to reveal how dance plays crucial cultural roles in various regions of the world, including Tonga, Java, Bosnia-Herzegovina, New Mexico, India, Korea, Macedonia, and England. This work finds a balance between past and present and examines how dance practices are core identity and cultural creators.Trade ReviewA wonderful collage of enquiries and a remarkable view into the discourses of dance history and dance ethnography. - Mohd Anis Md Nor, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur ""Dancing from Past to Present stands alone as an entry to dance and ethnographic studies. An exemplary offering of interdisciplinary scholarship that deserves attention from historians and practitioners."" - Thomas DeFrantz, editor of Dancing Many Drums

Read more less

Book SynopsisCelebrating the dark origins of our most American music, Country reveals a wild shadowland of history that encompasses blackface minstrels and yodeling cowboys honky-tonk hell and rockabilly heaven medieval myth and musical miscegenation sex, drugs, murder and rays of fierce illumination on Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others, famous and forgotten, whose demonology is America''s own. Profusely and superbly illustrated, Country stands as one of the most brilliant explorations of American musical culture ever written.Table of Contents* Thela in the New World * Orpheus, Gypsies, and Redneck Rock n Roll * The Girl Singers * Loud Covenants * Emmett Millet, 1 * Yodeling Cowboys and Such * Emmett Miller, 2 * Stained Panties and Coarse Metaphors * West Virginia Hills are in the Bronx, Says Barn Barnum * Youre Going to Watch Me Kill Her * Cowboys and Niggers * Yeah, But They Break If You Sit On Them * Northeast Mississippi, 1953

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewVideo Revolutions is a stimulating and satisfying intellectual tour and argument, chiefly for Newman's ability to encompass often disparate case studies within a single historical lens. -- William Boddy, Baruch College, CUNY Michael Newman has carved out a fascinating intellectual space between television and cinema as they are traditionally understood, to illuminate both as well as to explore the new ground that the concept of 'video' established in the media imaginary. This is a concise and impressive work that should be on the reading list of all scholars of media and contemporary culture. -- Michele Hilmes, University of Wisconsin-Madison Newman does for video what Lynn Spigel did for television: he 'makes room' for it in an accessible and compelling critique that shows how video has become an integral part of our lives. Video Revolutions is a book that is long overdue. -- Michael Curtin, co-author, The American Television Industry Newman's stylish and informative new book Video Revolutions: On the History of a Medium hits pause on key moments in the biography of video, freezing them for closer examination, while always keeping an eye on the bigger picture. Prospect A brief, brilliant inquiry into the history of a complex, contested medium... Essential, engrossing reading for anyone-from high-school YouTube producers to senior media-studies scholars-interested in our ever-evolving fascination with the moving image. PopMatters Densely theoretical yet poetic... lively, accessible... this would make an excellent course text-on either an introductory or advanced level (a rare accomplishment). All in all, a remarkable book. Essential. Choice An enjoyable, masterful tour of the history of a medium... [Video Revolutions] contributes to a much-needed repositioning of video as a cultural form in relation to film, television, and digital media. -- Yvonne Spielmann Technology and CultureTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments 1. Three Phases 2. Video as Television 3. Video as Alternative 4. Video as the Moving Image 5. Medium and Cultural Status Notes Select Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisMore than 450 succinct entries from A to Z help readers make sense of the interdisciplinary knowledge of cultural criticism that includes film, psychoanalytic, deconstructive, poststructuralist, and postmodernist theory as well as philosophy, media studies, linguistics.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAfter the 1929 crash, Anglo-American poet-critics grappled with the task of legitimizing literature for public funding and consumption. Modernism, Evan Kindley shows, created a new form of labor for writers to perform and gave them unprecedented say over the administration of culture, with consequences for poetry’s role in society still felt today.Trade ReviewWith the stories of a handful of prominent modernist poet-critics, [Kindley] traces the shift in culture from the private stewardship of artists to their employment by academic institutions between the 1920s and ’50s…What Kindley’s excellent and thorough history shows us is that, more than anything else, writers have found a way to navigate the gap between the cultural importance of their work and a market that does not wish to fund it. Kindley has an innate understanding of the uncomfortable relationships between artists and the power structures that simultaneously bolster and diminish their projects. For all their individual difficulties and peculiarities, the historical figures who feature prominently in this story are treated, rightly, as people who wanted what was best for their art. Poet-Critics and the Administration of Culture reminds us that the systems that support writers did not change by themselves. Writers changed them, and if they see fit, maybe, they could change them again. -- Bradley Babendir * Los Angeles Review of Books *The importance of a distinctive set of critical arguments to Modernism has long been acknowledged. Kindley offers a fresh perspective by concentrating on the quite specific ways in which Modernist poet-critics came to find institutional berths—largely, but by no means exclusively, in university literature departments. -- Ross Wilson * Times Literary Supplement *It’s an insightful history, composed with an elegance of thought…Kindley fully inhabits the contingency of the past, using a handful of well-known poet-critic personas to tell the story of how contemporary poetry has become so wedded to the university…Poet-Critics and the Administration of Culture is an inventive and fascinating history with a value beyond its relevance to our present intellectual situation. -- Scott Beauchamp * New Criterion *Illuminating…[Kindley’s] book is an insightful look at a period in American culture when modernists went from being ‘bohemians, charged with clarifying byzantine avant-garde practices,’ to ‘civil servants, charged with reinforcing the ideals and institutions of American democracy.’ * Publishers Weekly *We’ve seen a lot of attention to institutions of literature in the past few years, and Evan Kindley’s new study belongs near the top of that crop. Rather than telling us where we are today, how good we have it, or how bad things can get, Kindley uses a wonderfully mixed toolbag—close analysis of poems and essays, attention to ephemera, literary history and social theory—to tell us how we got here. Kindley shows why poets who were also critics and editors (and who defined themselves that way) became both lodestars, and inflection points, as three generations of U.S. modernism moved from aristocratic patronage (and little magazines) into philanthropy and the academic (and more little magazines). Readers will be rewarded not just with a story about institutions, told in clear, careful, and attractive prose, but also with respectful attention to the still-underrated Sterling Brown, with one of the best things I’ve read in a long while on Marianne Moore, and—not least—with models for this kind of work. -- Steph Burt, author of The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read ThemA smart, original, compelling contribution to American literary history. The quarter century from 1930 to 1955 was the period of the modernist neither as patron nor as professor but as administrator, when a union was forged ‘between poetry, criticism, and bureaucracy.’ Evan Kindley’s book is a model of concision, presenting a largely new story about American letters in admirably crisp and readable fashion. -- James English, University of PennsylvaniaEvan Kindley’s Poet-Critics and the Administration of Culture is a stylish, witty, and revealing study of changing cultures of modernist poetry from the 1920s to the 1950s. It adds an essential element to our knowledge of American writers’ relations to authority and patronage in the twentieth century. -- Mark Greif, author of The Age of the Crisis of Man: Thought and Fiction in America, 1933–1973With this brisk and brilliantly argued book Evan Kindley opens a whole new vista on the circumstances of American poetry at mid-century. To the well-known image of the creative writer as a wild man Kindley adds his mirror reversal, the poet-critic in the grey flannel suit. The result is a significant deepening of our sense of the importance of institutions in the unfolding of recent literary history. -- Mark McGurl, Stanford UniversityThis is an excellent book. Its real strength lies in the perceptiveness and sensitivity with which Kindley paints his portraits of important modernist and mid-century figures at crucial points in their development. Modernist studies and the history of criticism will both be much the better for it. -- Joseph North, Yale UniversityKindley’s finely-wrought insights into poetics; his attunement to periodization and institutionalization as continually in flux; and his close readings of pieces by T.S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, W.H. Auden, Archibald MacLeish, and Sterling Brown are all rigorous, producing fresh takes on what he convincingly portrays as the overlooked interwar stage of modernism’s relationship to shifting institutions of American culture. -- Laura Vrana * Journal of Modern Literature *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''Part autobiography, part heartfelt plea to change the way we look at gender, Girls will be Girls is an excellent primer on feminist theory. Every teenage girl should be given a copy'' HOT PRESSBeing a woman is, largely, about performance - how we dress and modify our bodies, what we say, the roles we play, and how we conform to expectations. Gender stereotypes are still deeply embedded in our society, but Emer O''Toole is on a mission to re-write the old script and bend the rules of gender - and she shows how and why we should all be joining in.Exploring what it means to ''act like a girl'', Emer takes us on a hilarious and thought-provoking journey through her life (including singing ''Get Your Pits Out for the Lads'' on national TV after growing out her body hair). Cross-dressing, booty-shaking, sexual disasters, family dinners and full-body waxing are all lovingly dissected in search of wisdom.With game-changing ideas, academic intelligence and lTrade ReviewA fascinating exploration of how we 'do' gender. From the early labeling of infants to the ironclad enforcement of grooming and interpersonal behavior, gender expression is neither a matter of biological mandate nor individual choice. Emer O'Toole nimbly weaves philosophy and personal experience into a vivid depiction of gender identity as performance art. -- LISE ELIOT, author of PINK BRAIN, BLUE BRAINThe blogger and columnist, who is emerging as one of the leading lights of the new feminism, uses anecdotes from her own life - from 'cross-dressing to pube-growing and full-body waxing' - to illuminate some of the the dos and don'ts for women trying to set themself free from gender stereotypes. * THE GUARDIAN Unmissable books for 2015 *A witty, engaging appeal for everybody to stop conforming so rigidly to gender stereotypes.... As this thoughtful, funny book reminds us, being a girl can mean a lot of things. And with luck one day women will all get to decide for themselves what that is. * IRISH TIMES *An entertaining book that makes you question the conventions of gender. I expect it will attract comparisons with Caitlin Moran's How to be A Woman. Like Moran's work, I wish it could be handed out to every teenage girl as a self-esteem booster. -- Rosamund Urwin * EVENING STANDARD *What I love most about Emer's writing is that she is not only able to explain complex ideas about feminist theory in a way that is engaging and relatable, but it is also really funny. If you love reading feminism which is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking, this book is the obvious next step up from Caitlin Moran. Get your hands on a copy. * abstractmag.com *The book is personal, in that it's her own story of playing a different role, and it's chatty and funny and likeable, much as the author herself seems to be. -- Eithne Tynan * IRISH MAIL ON SUNDAY *Part autobiography, part heartfelt plea to change the way we look at gender, Girls will be Girls is an excellent primer on feminist theory. Every teenage girl should be given a copy. * HOT PRESS *As a possible fourth wave of Western feminism beckons, new titles on the subject are appearing with increasing regularity. O'Toole holds her own in a crowded space, albeit one in need of a greater diversity of female voices. Her accessible approach to theory, interwoven with her chatty, self-reflective style and gender insights from an Irish perspective creates a welcome addition to the current crop of popular feminist writing. -- Mary McGill * IRISH INDEPENDENT *In her excellent and eye-opening book Girls Will Be Girls, Emer O'Toole discusses the impact of the often stereotypical 'lenses' through which we see the world and the importance of examining those lenses in order to better understand our ingrained and normalised prejudice. In her book, How to Be A Woman, Caitlin Moran suggests that things would be easier if some pigeons would shit all over the glass ceiling, because we would then at least be able to see what we are dealing with. O'Toole's book performs a similar function... allowing us to see clearly the boundaries that are often invisible and unquestioned... A witty, pacy and exhilirating lesson in beginning to colour outside the lines. -- LAURA BATES * EVERYDAY SEXISM *Girls will be Girls is a funny and compelling read, combining fascinating, relatable storytelling with meticulous research and real practical advice for challenging patriarchal gender roles in your own small, large, thin, fat, feminine, masculine, hairy, unhairy way (and anything and everything in between!) -- Lusana Taylor * THE F WORD *O'Toole follows the personal example set by Caitlin Moran to such powerful effect, as she explores through anecdote and recollections from childhood and adolescence a powerful concept familiar to those who have studies feminist theory since the 1970s: the notion of one's gender as a performance, a construction that can be altered. * SUNDAY HERALD *A hilarious, honest and probing journey through what it means to be female, from haircutting to sexual discovery. * GRAZIA *Girls Will be Girls is bloody amazing, so go and read it right now. * WRITER'S LITTLE HELPER *Girls will be Girls is a funny and compelling read, combining fascinating, relatable storytelling with meticulous research and real practical advice for challenging patriarchal gender roles in your own small, large, thin, fat, feminine, masculine, hairy, unhairy way (and anything and everything in between!) -- Lusana Taylor * THE F WORD *O'Toole follows the personal example set by Caitlin Moran to such powerful effect, as she explores through anecdote and recollections from childhood and adolescence a powerful concept familiar to those who have studies feminist theory since the 1970s: the notion of one's gender as a performance, a construction that can be altered. * SUNDAY HERALD *

Read more less

Book SynopsisEver since the rise of science and the scientific method in the seventeenth century, we have rejected mythology as the product of superstitious and primitive minds. Only now are we coming to a fuller appreciation of the nature and role of myth in human history. In these five lectures originally prepared for Canadian radio, Claude Lévi-Strauss offers, in brief summations, the insights of a lifetime spent interpreting myths and trying to discover their significance for human understanding. The lectures begin with a discussion of the historical split between mythology and science and the evidence that mythic levels of understanding are being reintegrated in our approach to knowledge. In an extension of this theme, Professor Lévi-Strauss analyzes what we have called “primitive thinking” and discusses some universal features of human mythology. The final two lectures outline the functional relationship between mythology and history and the structural r

Read more less