Material culture Books

Book SynopsisIn Things with a History, Héctor Hoyos argues that the roles of objects in recent Latin American fiction offer a way to integrate materialisms old and new, transforming our understanding of how things shape social and political relations.Trade ReviewIn this singular book, Hoyos unveils a world of unexplored relations between subjects, objects, materiality, and immateriality. He explores the social pact between words and things. Through the idea of transcultural materialism, Hoyos discusses how contemporary Latin American literature mobilizes cultural meanings to illuminate moments in an exploitative global economy. The book deploys a sophisticated web of literary genealogies, as well as theories of materialism, and engages us in new conversations on literature in the global context. -- Graciela Montaldo, Columbia UniversityThings with a History provides a fresh optic on the new materialisms of our time and on the history of things (rubber, cell phones, corpses) that have shaped the history of our present. Héctor Hoyos engages a wonderful range of contemporary Latin American authors and a powerful tradition attuned to both nonhuman agency and human responsibility, unwilling to unlearn the lessons of historical materialism. Grappling with these regional “literatures of extraction” as a political ecologist, Hoyos contributes to today’s most pressing critical conversations. -- Bill Brown, author of Other ThingsAmbitiously conceptualized and beautifully written, Things with a History takes up the formidable task of connecting the humanities with material science and biology and succeeds in opening up new spaces for critique. Hoyos offers provocative pairings of overconsumption and hunger, abundance and scarcity, overextraction and underutilization. By reading a dazzling array of authors and thinkers from Latin America and beyond, Hoyos demonstrates, with uncommon facility, the urgent need for an engaged world literary politics. -- B. Venkat Mani, author of Recoding World Literature: Libraries, Print Culture, and Germany's Pact with BooksIn a fine-grained textual commentary, Things with a History follows the texts’ meanderings, noting their complexities and avoiding unnecessary reductiveness. Combining critical imagination with theoretical rigor, Hoyos persuasively breathes new life and meaning into “new materialism” and its predecessors. -- Aníbal González-Pérez, Yale UniversityA great example on how to work beyond the false dichotomy of representation and practices and to deeply dissect the benefits and limitations of regional critical takes in the context of a globalized world. -- Valeria Meiller, Georgetown University * ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: A Tale of Two MaterialismsPart I: Objects1. Raw Stuff Disavowed2. Of Rocks and Particles3. Corpse Narratives as Literary HistoryPart II: Assemblages4. Politics and Praxis of Hyperfetishism5. Digitalia from the MarginsConclusions: Extractivism EstrangedNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIn Things with a History, Héctor Hoyos argues that the roles of objects in recent Latin American fiction offers a way to integrate materialisms old and new, transforming our understanding of how things shape social and political relations.Trade ReviewIn this singular book, Hoyos unveils a world of unexplored relations between subjects, objects, materiality, and immateriality. He explores the social pact between words and things. Through the idea of transcultural materialism, Hoyos discusses how contemporary Latin American literature mobilizes cultural meanings to illuminate moments in an exploitative global economy. The book deploys a sophisticated web of literary genealogies, as well as theories of materialism, and engages us in new conversations on literature in the global context. -- Graciela Montaldo, Columbia UniversityThings with a History provides a fresh optic on the new materialisms of our time and on the history of things (rubber, cell phones, corpses) that have shaped the history of our present. Héctor Hoyos engages a wonderful range of contemporary Latin American authors and a powerful tradition attuned to both nonhuman agency and human responsibility, unwilling to unlearn the lessons of historical materialism. Grappling with these regional “literatures of extraction” as a political ecologist, Hoyos contributes to today’s most pressing critical conversations. -- Bill Brown, author of Other ThingsAmbitiously conceptualized and beautifully written, Things with a History takes up the formidable task of connecting the humanities with material science and biology and succeeds in opening up new spaces for critique. Hoyos offers provocative pairings of overconsumption and hunger, abundance and scarcity, overextraction and underutilization. By reading a dazzling array of authors and thinkers from Latin America and beyond, Hoyos demonstrates, with uncommon facility, the urgent need for an engaged world literary politics. -- B. Venkat Mani, author of Recoding World Literature: Libraries, Print Culture, and Germany's Pact with BooksIn a fine-grained textual commentary, Things with a History follows the texts’ meanderings, noting their complexities and avoiding unnecessary reductiveness. Combining critical imagination with theoretical rigor, Hoyos persuasively breathes new life and meaning into “new materialism” and its predecessors. -- Aníbal González-Pérez, Yale UniversityA great example on how to work beyond the false dichotomy of representation and practices and to deeply dissect the benefits and limitations of regional critical takes in the context of a globalized world. -- Valeria Meiller, Georgetown University * ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: A Tale of Two MaterialismsPart I: Objects1. Raw Stuff Disavowed2. Of Rocks and Particles3. Corpse Narratives as Literary HistoryPart II: Assemblages4. Politics and Praxis of Hyperfetishism5. Digitalia from the MarginsConclusions: Extractivism EstrangedNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisDung Kai-cheung’s A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On is a playful and imaginative glimpse into the consumerist dreamscape of late-nineties Hong Kong. First published in 1999, it comprises ninety-nine sketches of life just after the handover of the former British colony to China.Trade ReviewNamed a New York Times Notable Book. * New York Times Book Review *Playful and quirky, the sketches reveal Dung’s eye for this particular moment in history, and his vast imagination . . . Documenting a particular place and time, this vibrant and distinctive collection offers a kaleidoscopic vision of that era. -- Weike Wang * New York Times Book Review *Highly addictive, the equivalent of literary dim sum. * South China Morning Post Magazine *[These tales] are as relevant today as they were when they were first published in 1999 . . . Feed your inner nostalgia monster some of these surrealist pop-culture bites. * Kirkus Reviews *Fascinating and refreshing. * Publishers Weekly *Surreal, comical, and haunting, this short story collection sees magic in everyday items. * Foreword Reviews *Dung Kai-Cheung is Hong Kong’s greatest novelist. * Three Percent *Reading Dung Kai-cheung’s A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On is like descending into a beautiful fever dream of Hong Kong in the late ‘90s. The story collection is both a time capsule, capturing Hong Kong through pop culture references like Hello Kitty and Air Jordans, and an incantation, breathing life into a surreal cast of characters who transform themselves, literally and metaphorically, through their pop culture choices. * Necessary Fiction *Longtime urban chronicler Dung has achieved rare distinction as one of very few figures writing about Hong Kong to win recognition in world literature. He has done so by turning mundane, unexamined items in all our lives into haunting, near-Shakespearian spiritual forces. * Nikkei Asia *Dung Kai-cheung’s catalog is a cultural 'thick description' of popular culture filled with dry wit and humor. His sketches are not short stories. He offers flights of fancy. * Asian Review of Books *These half-allegorical sketches by a uniquely gifted Hong Kong writer bring to us a nostalgic mosaic of the sights and sounds of a city whose cosmopolitan splendor is fast fading. It is even more heart-rending to read them in English today than some twenty years ago when these astonishing literary tidbits first appeared in the Chinese original. -- Leo Ou-fan Lee, author of City Between Worlds: My Hong KongDung Kai-cheung is Hong Kong’s greatest living writer, and this translation is a cause for celebration, giving global readers another path into his unique, uncanny Hong Kong. May it help bring him the wider international readership that is long overdue. -- Antony Dapiran, author of City on Fire: The Fight for Hong KongDung Kai-cheung is the most prolific and imaginative Hong Kong writer of the past three decades. His A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On is a fascinating and singular literary meditation on how “objects” and “stuff” affect people’s everyday lives, create meaning, and contribute to cultural identity. -- Michael Berry, editor of The Musha Incident: A Reader on the Indigenous Uprising in Colonial TaiwanI read these ninety-nine sketches with a mixture of dreamy fondness and rueful melancholy. Dung Kai-cheung deftly captures the city at a time of fundamental change in this series of offbeat stories, and one couldn’t ask for better translators than Bonnie S. McDougall and Anders Hansson. -- Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, editor in chief of Cha: An Asian Literary JournalModeled on a remembrance of the Song dynasty capital city after it fell to northern invaders in the twelfth century, these vignettes record dreams of a bygone (yet never quite gone) Hong Kong with wistfulness and humor, translated by McDougall and Hansson with accuracy and elegance. -- Lucas Klein, editor and translator of Words as Grain: New and Selected Poems of Duo DuoThis publication represents a milestone in broadening the readership of Dung’s work and in fostering the teaching and research of Hong Kong and Sinophone literature. * Asian Studies Review *Table of ContentsAuthor’s Preface: The MaskTranslators’ Note1. Agnès b.2. Cutie Punk3. Magpaper4. Hello Kitty5. Tank Tops6. Sena’s Piano II7. IXUS8. Girl Specimens9. Che10. Pastéis de Nata11. Photo Stickers12. Football Kits13. Red Wing14. Eat as Much as You Like15. A Bathing Ape16. Hysteric Glamour17. Windows 9818. non-no19. Konjak Jellies20. Mebius21. Combat Trousers22. Puffy23. Sony DV24. Aprons25. Air Jordan26. ICQ27. The Colored Sunglasses28. Seiko Lukia29. My Melody30. Snoopy31. Panatellas32. Secondhand Clothes33. Teletubbies34. Ha Kam Shing35. Nokia 881036. Camouflage37. Le Couple38. Bucket Hats39. iMac40. Rolex Daytona41. Viva Japanese TV Drama42. Polaroids43. Lovegety Station44. Prada45. StarTAC46. Colors47. Beatmania48. Adidas49. Gucci50. Yahoo!51. Fujifilm Digital Camera52. Converse Lo Tec53. Hairpins54. Cut Sleeves55. Scarves56. Animal Prints57. The Pleated Skirt58. Miu Miu Flannel59. Gray60. The Cockroach61. The Cowboy Hat62. Signal Youths63. H2O+64. Depsea Water65. The Patagonia Fleece66. The Duffel Coat67. LV Vernis68. Panasonic DVD69. South Park70. Dreamcast71. Tomb Raider III72. Sharp MiniDisc Player73. Burberrys Blue Label74. MP375. Miffy76. Devon Aoki77. Motorola Dual Band78. Cheesecake79. PalmPilot80. PN Rouge Suplinic81. Final Fantasy VIII82. The Waist Bag83. Twisted Strands84. Sunday85. A Temporary Tattoo86. The Neck Pouch87. Cutie Cute & Horribly Horrid88. 5S89. Drawstrings90. The Three Skewer Brothers91. Khaki92. White Blouses93. Ballet Shoes94. Birkenstock95. Cargo Shorts96. Flip-Flops97. Hiromix98. Chappies99. Made in Hong Kong

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Book SynopsisDung Kai-cheung’s A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On is a playful and imaginative glimpse into the consumerist dreamscape of late-nineties Hong Kong. First published in 1999, it comprises ninety-nine sketches of life just after the handover of the former British colony to China.Trade ReviewNamed a New York Times Notable Book. * New York Times Book Review *Playful and quirky, the sketches reveal Dung’s eye for this particular moment in history, and his vast imagination . . . Documenting a particular place and time, this vibrant and distinctive collection offers a kaleidoscopic vision of that era. -- Weike Wang * New York Times Book Review *Highly addictive, the equivalent of literary dim sum. * South China Morning Post Magazine *[These tales] are as relevant today as they were when they were first published in 1999 . . . Feed your inner nostalgia monster some of these surrealist pop-culture bites. * Kirkus Reviews *Fascinating and refreshing. * Publishers Weekly *Surreal, comical, and haunting, this short story collection sees magic in everyday items. * Foreword Reviews *Dung Kai-Cheung is Hong Kong’s greatest novelist. * Three Percent *Reading Dung Kai-cheung’s A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On is like descending into a beautiful fever dream of Hong Kong in the late ‘90s. The story collection is both a time capsule, capturing Hong Kong through pop culture references like Hello Kitty and Air Jordans, and an incantation, breathing life into a surreal cast of characters who transform themselves, literally and metaphorically, through their pop culture choices. * Necessary Fiction *Longtime urban chronicler Dung has achieved rare distinction as one of very few figures writing about Hong Kong to win recognition in world literature. He has done so by turning mundane, unexamined items in all our lives into haunting, near-Shakespearian spiritual forces. * Nikkei Asia *Dung Kai-cheung’s catalog is a cultural 'thick description' of popular culture filled with dry wit and humor. His sketches are not short stories. He offers flights of fancy. * Asian Review of Books *These half-allegorical sketches by a uniquely gifted Hong Kong writer bring to us a nostalgic mosaic of the sights and sounds of a city whose cosmopolitan splendor is fast fading. It is even more heart-rending to read them in English today than some twenty years ago when these astonishing literary tidbits first appeared in the Chinese original. -- Leo Ou-fan Lee, author of City Between Worlds: My Hong KongDung Kai-cheung is Hong Kong’s greatest living writer, and this translation is a cause for celebration, giving global readers another path into his unique, uncanny Hong Kong. May it help bring him the wider international readership that is long overdue. -- Antony Dapiran, author of City on Fire: The Fight for Hong KongDung Kai-cheung is the most prolific and imaginative Hong Kong writer of the past three decades. His A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On is a fascinating and singular literary meditation on how “objects” and “stuff” affect people’s everyday lives, create meaning, and contribute to cultural identity. -- Michael Berry, editor of The Musha Incident: A Reader on the Indigenous Uprising in Colonial TaiwanI read these ninety-nine sketches with a mixture of dreamy fondness and rueful melancholy. Dung Kai-cheung deftly captures the city at a time of fundamental change in this series of offbeat stories, and one couldn’t ask for better translators than Bonnie S. McDougall and Anders Hansson. -- Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, editor in chief of Cha: An Asian Literary JournalModeled on a remembrance of the Song dynasty capital city after it fell to northern invaders in the twelfth century, these vignettes record dreams of a bygone (yet never quite gone) Hong Kong with wistfulness and humor, translated by McDougall and Hansson with accuracy and elegance. -- Lucas Klein, editor and translator of Words as Grain: New and Selected Poems of Duo DuoThis publication represents a milestone in broadening the readership of Dung’s work and in fostering the teaching and research of Hong Kong and Sinophone literature. * Asian Studies Review *Table of ContentsAuthor’s Preface: The MaskTranslators’ Note1. Agnès b.2. Cutie Punk3. Magpaper4. Hello Kitty5. Tank Tops6. Sena’s Piano II7. IXUS8. Girl Specimens9. Che10. Pastéis de Nata11. Photo Stickers12. Football Kits13. Red Wing14. Eat as Much as You Like15. A Bathing Ape16. Hysteric Glamour17. Windows 9818. non-no19. Konjak Jellies20. Mebius21. Combat Trousers22. Puffy23. Sony DV24. Aprons25. Air Jordan26. ICQ27. The Colored Sunglasses28. Seiko Lukia29. My Melody30. Snoopy31. Panatellas32. Secondhand Clothes33. Teletubbies34. Ha Kam Shing35. Nokia 881036. Camouflage37. Le Couple38. Bucket Hats39. iMac40. Rolex Daytona41. Viva Japanese TV Drama42. Polaroids43. Lovegety Station44. Prada45. StarTAC46. Colors47. Beatmania48. Adidas49. Gucci50. Yahoo!51. Fujifilm Digital Camera52. Converse Lo Tec53. Hairpins54. Cut Sleeves55. Scarves56. Animal Prints57. The Pleated Skirt58. Miu Miu Flannel59. Gray60. The Cockroach61. The Cowboy Hat62. Signal Youths63. H2O+64. Depsea Water65. The Patagonia Fleece66. The Duffel Coat67. LV Vernis68. Panasonic DVD69. South Park70. Dreamcast71. Tomb Raider III72. Sharp MiniDisc Player73. Burberrys Blue Label74. MP375. Miffy76. Devon Aoki77. Motorola Dual Band78. Cheesecake79. PalmPilot80. PN Rouge Suplinic81. Final Fantasy VIII82. The Waist Bag83. Twisted Strands84. Sunday85. A Temporary Tattoo86. The Neck Pouch87. Cutie Cute & Horribly Horrid88. 5S89. Drawstrings90. The Three Skewer Brothers91. Khaki92. White Blouses93. Ballet Shoes94. Birkenstock95. Cargo Shorts96. Flip-Flops97. Hiromix98. Chappies99. Made in Hong Kong

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Book SynopsisHow product design criticism has rescued some products from the trash and consigned others to the landfill.Product design criticism operates at the very brink of the landfill site, salvaging some products with praise but consigning others to its depths through condemnation or indifference. When a designed product's usefulness is past, the public happily discards it to make room for the next new thing. Criticism rarely deals with how a product might be used, or not used, over time; it is more likely to play the enabler, encouraging our addiction to consumption. With Sifting the Trash, Alice Twemlow offers an especially timely reexamination of the history of product design criticism through the metaphors and actualities of the product as imminent junk and the consumer as junkie. Twemlow explores five key moments over the past sixty years of product design criticism. From the mid-1950s through the 1960s, for example, critics including Reyner Banham, Deborah Allen,

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Book SynopsisA challenging study offering a new perspective on classical Japanese poems and how they interact with and are part of material cultureTrade Review“Anyone interested in Japanese court poetry, court ritual and culture, and painting should read this book with pleasure and come away with a more profound knowledge of the cultures it describes.”—Steven D. Carter, Monumenta Nipponica"Through the adroit use of four multivalent case studies, this authoritative work demonstrates with eloquence and insight the vital importance of material, social, conceptual, and other approaches to premodern Japanese poetic culture."—H. Mack Horton, University of California, Berkeley“Waka and Things, Waka as Things is a major contribution to the field and will be widely acknowledged as a major scholarly accomplishment. The research, writing, and exegesis on display in the book are all absolutely top-notch.”—Morgan Pitelka, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill“The theoretical framework is sound, engrossing, and wholly applicable. The scholarship and research that went into the book are superior, and the integration of primary and secondary sources is adroit and engaging.”—Joseph T. Sorensen, University of California, Davis

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Book SynopsisFrom the The New York Times best-selling author of Cod and Salt, a definitive history of paper and the astonishing ways it has shaped today’s world.Trade Review"The history of paper is a history of cultural transmission, and Kurlansky tells it vividly in this compact, well-illustrated book." -- The New York Times"Kurlansky’s book is published with a deckle edge finish, a process that replaces the regular clean-cut trim of a page with a jagged, pulped roughness... It is a beautiful thing to hold and feel, and it presents a fine argument for the retention of paper as an aesthetically lusty object, let alone one that’s thrived through centuries of change." -- The Observer"Kurlansky expertly argues a case for its [paper's] continuing survival." -- The Scotsman"Kurlansky... explains how something so simple came to play such a vital part in history." -- The Sunday Business Post"Paper is not what you would call a learned book, but one learns an awful lot from it, all packaged in Kurlansky’s whipsmart prose." -- The Times

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of the virtues of Whitfield’s approach is that she is able to range far and wide among the various peoples, cultures, and polities of Eurasia and Africa. Though half of her ten chapters deal with objects that were excavated within the present-day boundaries of China—a reflection of the longstanding Sinocentric bias in the field of Silk Road studies—Whitfield goes to great lengths to contextualize these finds within broader Eurasian networks of exchange far outside of China." * Silk Road Journal *"Whitfield certainly seems to have identified a theme worth pursuing: the objects of the Silk Road are fascinating and a single object can encompass within it huge swathes, geographical and chronological, of human history." * Asian Review of Books *"In Silk, Slaves, and Stupas, Susan Whitfield reminds her readers once again why she so thoroughly deserves her reputation as one of the most accomplished of all Silk Road scholars. [The book] demonstrates the author's command of all facets of Silk Road studies, and also her ability to unfold the story of this important period and process in word history by moving seamlessly from the particular to the general, from a single object to an entire field of research." * Central Asian Survey *‘Whitfield’s new book provides us with a brilliant example of how material history should be written.’ * Journal of Asian Studies *"...this is an impressive and comprehensive work, one that can easily be envisaged as a primer for a university course that introduces the principal themes of the Silk Roads. There is much here too, though, for more established scholars working in part or all of this field thanks to Whitfield's research, which is up to date with the latest thinking on manumission of slaves, on the construction of Buddhist stupas, or the techniques of glass making. Susan Whitfield has written a rather wonderful book; it will serve as a gateway that will inspire future generations of scholars to follow in her footsteps." * Journal of Medieval Worlds *"The level of detailed evidence that [Whitfield] unearths . . . is both impressive and enticing." * Journal of World History *"A page-turner comparable to a good detective story." * International Institute for Asian Studies *"All these [Silk Road] objects have intriguing stories to tell, and Susan Whitfield succeeds impressively in giving them a voice." * New Global Studies *"Kaleidoscopic. . . . A pleasure to explore and will delight readers from a wide sphere." * Asian Perspectives: The Journal of Archaeology and the Pacific *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration and Names Introduction 1 • A Pair of Steppe Earrings 2 • A Hellenistic Glass Bowl 3 • A Hoard of Kushan Coins 4 • Amluk Dara Stupa 1 5 • A Bactrian Ewer 6 • A Khotanese Plaque 7 • The Blue Qur?an 8 • A Byzantine Hunter Silk 9 • A Chinese Almanac 10 • The Unknown Slave Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"With its copious fine illustrations and lucid exposition, this is an extraordinary resource for the teacher of Greek archaeology."---Robin Osborne, World Archaeology"In this significant reinterpretation, Arrington convincingly maintains that material culture and knowledge did not flow from East to West just through multiethnic elites; it also flowed through the interactions of non-elites."---C. C. Kolb, Choice Reviews"In his wonderfully stimulating book, Nathan Arrington has the people on the margins of 7th-century Attica have their voices roaring back into the debate. . . . [It] should be read by anyone interested in the subaltern perspective, artistry and pottery, as well as the historiography behind many of the discipline’s accepted assumptions."---Roy van Wijk, The Classical Journal"This is an inspiring book. It is not only well researched, nicely illustrated and elegantly written, but it offers a whole range of new perspectives on the Protoattic style and its wider context, with the objects themselves (and their agency) taking center stage."---Maximilian Rönnberg, Bryn Mawr Classical Review"Thought-provoking and ambitious…[t]his unconventional volume – beautifully phrased and engagingly written – is very clear and well structured, with numerous high-quality images helping readers to follow [Arrington’s] descriptions and readings of the vases."---Adriano Orsingher, The Classical Review"[A] beautifully written book, based on substantial and thorough research. . . . Moving away from the “Orientalizing” paradigm, Arrington succeeds in bringing to the forefront artists, immigrants, and multicultural communities, while challenging the elite connotations of the Proto-Attic pottery. This book, well produced and richly illustrated, is a positive contribution to the literature on seventh-century BCE Attica for students and scholars alike."---Vicky Vlachou, American Journal of Archaeology"[F]ascinating and ground-breaking. . . . [Athens at the Margins] is an intelligent, very well written, and well-presented book."---Conor Trainor, Sehepunkte

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Ralph Gomory Prize, Business History Conference""Finalist for the PROSE Award in European History, Association of American Publishers""[A] sweeping economic, social and cultural history of central Europe. . . . unorthodox and engaging."---Marc Levinson, Wall Street Journal"A wide-ranging and thorough study. . . . this is a riveting story, well told . . . by Marchand, who illuminates so much in an original and entertaining way."---Tim Blanning, Literary Review"As Suzanne Marchand shows in her meticulous new book, porcelain has been integral to German life since its reinvention in Saxony in 1708." * The Economist *"As an economic-business history, Marchand's work is a landmark achievement. . . . Porcelain is a monumental achievement in scope and breadth in illuminating porcelain's European beginnings and its increasingly fragile position in the markets of the present."---Megan Brandow-Faller, Central European History"Marchand paints a colourful picture of the day-to-day life of porcelain factories."---Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth, Apollo"To weave together cultural, economic, and social history so masterfully takes great historiographical experience and skill. All those who are interested in nineteenth-century German intellectual history admire Suzanne Marchand’s books on the reception of classical antiquity and orientalism. Now she has surprised us with something completely new"---Jürgen Osterhammel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung"Marchand, a specialist in German history, writes with clarity."---Norma Clarke, Times Literary Supplement"The remarkable achievement of Suzanne Marchand’s new book, Porcelain, which focuses especially on Germany, is that she moves beyond the celebrated age of discovery in the eighteenth century...to explore modern manufacture and diffusion across a broader consumer society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries .... While Meissen lies at the center of Marchand’s book, one of its great strengths is the broader survey of German porcelain manufacturing."---Larry Wolff, Journal of Modern History

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Ralph Gomory Prize, Business History Conference""Finalist for the PROSE Award in European History, Association of American Publishers""[A] sweeping economic, social and cultural history of central Europe. . . . unorthodox and engaging."---Marc Levinson, Wall Street Journal"A wide-ranging and thorough study. . . . this is a riveting story, well told . . . by Marchand, who illuminates so much in an original and entertaining way."---Tim Blanning, Literary Review"As Suzanne Marchand shows in her meticulous new book, porcelain has been integral to German life since its reinvention in Saxony in 1708." * The Economist *"As an economic-business history, Marchand's work is a landmark achievement. . . . Porcelain is a monumental achievement in scope and breadth in illuminating porcelain's European beginnings and its increasingly fragile position in the markets of the present."---Megan Brandow-Faller, Central European History"Marchand paints a colourful picture of the day-to-day life of porcelain factories."---Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth, Apollo"To weave together cultural, economic, and social history so masterfully takes great historiographical experience and skill. All those who are interested in nineteenth-century German intellectual history admire Suzanne Marchand’s books on the reception of classical antiquity and orientalism. Now she has surprised us with something completely new"---Jürgen Osterhammel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung"Marchand, a specialist in German history, writes with clarity."---Norma Clarke, Times Literary Supplement"The remarkable achievement of Suzanne Marchand’s new book, Porcelain, which focuses especially on Germany, is that she moves beyond the celebrated age of discovery in the eighteenth century...to explore modern manufacture and diffusion across a broader consumer society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries .... While Meissen lies at the center of Marchand’s book, one of its great strengths is the broader survey of German porcelain manufacturing."---Larry Wolff, Journal of Modern History"N/A"---Monika Poettinger, Austrian History Yearbook

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Rarities of these Lands is a rich reflection on the gap between the enchanting facade we call the Dutch Golden Age, on display...in every exhibition of 17th-century Dutch painting, and the riches, rarities and loot in the warehouse behind."---Timothy Brook, Times Literary Supplement"Claudia Swan’s masterful study explores the Dutch taste for consumption, and the means by which distant lands were reached and foreign goods accessed, first by seizing and plundering Portuguese and Spanish cargoes, then by engaging in war and conquest. . . . Rarities of these Lands provides a rich narrative about the circulation of exotic material culture and the history of collecting in the seventeenth century."---Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, Journal of the History of Collections"The early modern phenomenon of the kunstcamer or rariteytencamer (cabinets of curiosities) is a recurrent theme for Swan, and indeed each chapter might be likened to its own self-contained kunstcamer, packed with amazing images and a wide array of intriguing anecdotes. . .All of these wonders and more await the reader in lavishly illustrated pages."---Ellsworth Hamann, CAA Reviews"Rarities of these Lands is a magnificent achievement. . . . [It] integrate[s] art historical and historical perspectives on the history of a single country into a compelling tale of global connections and entanglements."---Maarten Prak, Early Modern Low Countries ​​​​​​​"Rarities of these Lands not only makes important claims about the founding of the Dutch Republic but also speaks to the interdependence of commerce, art, and political self-fashioning among populations across the early modern world. . . . Rich in formal analysis, the passages describing individual works of art are beautifully articulated. . . . An essential work."---Dawn Odell, Historians of Netherlandish Art Reviews"Swan’s prose brings to life encounters in the Dutch Republic and overseas, as she introduces foreign visitors, travelers, and diplomats who were captured in text and images as they exchanged the types of goods discussed and depicted in this richly illustrated volume.—Marsely Kehoe, Renaissance Quarterly"

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Book SynopsisBy tracing the footprint of a unremarkable object across the globe, this book provides new ways of thinking about globalisation.Trade Review'A journey through globalisation's backroads ... Innovative, insightful, and by turns disturbing and inspiring' -- Professor Craig Calhoun, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science'If you are invited to Davos, shiny shoes, high heels or ski boots may be in order. For understanding much of the rest of the world, Caroline Knowles shows, you think better with flip-flops' -- Ulf Hannerz, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, Stockholm UniversityTable of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements Prologue 1. Navigating the Territories of the Trail 2. Oil – Maps beneath the Sand 3. Choreographies of Petrochemistry 4. Plastic City 5. Plastic Village 6. Making Flip-Flops 7. Logistics, Borderlands and Uncertain Landings 8. Markets 9. Urban Navigation in Flip-Flops 10. Rubbish 11. Globalisation Revisited Notes Maps Index

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Book SynopsisBy tracing the footprint of a unremarkable object across the globe, this book provides new ways of thinking about globalisation.Trade Review'A journey through globalisation's backroads ... Innovative, insightful, and by turns disturbing and inspiring' -- Professor Craig Calhoun, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science'If you are invited to Davos, shiny shoes, high heels or ski boots may be in order. For understanding much of the rest of the world, Caroline Knowles shows, you think better with flip-flops' -- Ulf Hannerz, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, Stockholm UniversityTable of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements Prologue 1. Navigating the Territories of the Trail 2. Oil – Maps beneath the Sand 3. Choreographies of Petrochemistry 4. Plastic City 5. Plastic Village 6. Making Flip-Flops 7. Logistics, Borderlands and Uncertain Landings 8. Markets 9. Urban Navigation in Flip-Flops 10. Rubbish 11. Globalisation Revisited Notes Maps Index

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Book SynopsisInvestigates how electronic devices we use affect our consciousness, both as individuals and classes.Trade Review'Our obsession with gadgets is a key token of how deeply computer-based connection is now embedded in everyday life and consciousness. Joss Hands offers a highly thoughtful and theoretically astute reading of the possibilities for human reflexivity and agency that still remain' -- Nick Couldry, Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory, London School of Economics'A Swiss army knife of a book, unfolding tools to convert digital devices from exploitation and isolation to meaning and connection. Joss Hands gives us a handheld manifesto for gadget communism' -- Sean Cubitt, Goldsmiths University of London'Takes the seemingly apolitical and trivial concept of 'the gadget' and transforms it into a fascinating path to explore not only the most recent phase of capitalist techno-fetishism, but also, with exemplary radical experimentalism, the blasphemous idea of 'gadget communism'' -- Nick Dyer-Witheford, University of Western OntarioTable of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Question Concerning Gadgets 2. Gadget Materialism 3. Gadget Brain 4. Gadget Consciousness 5. Gadget Action 6. Gadget Futures Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisInvestigates how electronic devices we use affect our consciousness, both as individuals and classes.Trade Review'Our obsession with gadgets is a key token of how deeply computer-based connection is now embedded in everyday life and consciousness. Joss Hands offers a highly thoughtful and theoretically astute reading of the possibilities for human reflexivity and agency that still remain' -- Nick Couldry, Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory, London School of Economics'A Swiss army knife of a book, unfolding tools to convert digital devices from exploitation and isolation to meaning and connection. Joss Hands gives us a handheld manifesto for gadget communism' -- Sean Cubitt, Goldsmiths University of London'Takes the seemingly apolitical and trivial concept of 'the gadget' and transforms it into a fascinating path to explore not only the most recent phase of capitalist techno-fetishism, but also, with exemplary radical experimentalism, the blasphemous idea of 'gadget communism'' -- Nick Dyer-Witheford, University of Western OntarioTable of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Question Concerning Gadgets 2. Gadget Materialism 3. Gadget Brain 4. Gadget Consciousness 5. Gadget Action 6. Gadget Futures Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisUnpacks the political economy of new science and technology projects, and the implications for a utopian futureTrade Review'Disorientates us, showing us how the reality of things is contingent and contestable, never losing sight of what is at stake' -- Sarah Kember, Professor of New Technologies of Communication, Goldsmiths University, Director of Goldsmiths PressTable of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Series Preface 1. Introduction: Problems With Objects 2. The Shadow of Genomics 3. Biosensory Experiences, Data and the Interfaced Self 4. Smart Grids: Energy Futures, Carbon Capture and Geoengineering 5. Real Fantasies: De-Extinction and In Vitro Meat 6. Unreal Objects and Political Realities Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn introduction to the sociology of money, foregrounding how money embodies social relationsTrade Review'An extremely knowledgeable account of existing theories of money' -- Jens Beckert, author of Imagined 'Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics' (Harvard University Press, 2016)'A well-argued exploration of the history and nature of money ... Thorough and comprehensive' -- Mary Mellor, author of Money: Myths, Truths and Alternatives (Policy Press, 2019)Table of ContentsPreface 1. Economic Theories of Money – and Their Critiques 1.1. Barter, Exchange and Money 1.2. Objective versus Subjective Theories of Value 1.3. The Improbability of Exchange 2. Money’s Unlikely Origins 2.1. Gift-exchange and ceremonial monies 2.2. Money and (the End of) Violence 2.3. Economies of Sacrifice 2.4. Secrets of the Coin 3. Money and Finance 3.1. Time and Money 3.2. The Logic of Financial Markets 4. The Politics of Money 4.1. The Foundations and Fundamental Problems of Contemporary Money 4.2. Private Monies (or Bitcoin) 4.3. Sovereign Money 4.4. Central Bank Independence and the Inescapable Politicality of Money 5. Money and Society 5.1. Alienation and Freedom 5.2. Money and Functional Differentiation References Index

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Book SynopsisAn introduction to the sociology of money, foregrounding how money embodies social relationsTrade Review'An extremely knowledgeable account of existing theories of money' -- Jens Beckert, author of Imagined 'Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics' (Harvard University Press, 2016)'A well-argued exploration of the history and nature of money ... Thorough and comprehensive' -- Mary Mellor, author of Money: Myths, Truths and Alternatives (Policy Press, 2019)Table of ContentsPreface 1. Economic Theories of Money – and Their Critiques 1.1. Barter, Exchange and Money 1.2. Objective versus Subjective Theories of Value 1.3. The Improbability of Exchange 2. Money’s Unlikely Origins 2.1. Gift-exchange and ceremonial monies 2.2. Money and (the End of) Violence 2.3. Economies of Sacrifice 2.4. Secrets of the Coin 3. Money and Finance 3.1. Time and Money 3.2. The Logic of Financial Markets 4. The Politics of Money 4.1. The Foundations and Fundamental Problems of Contemporary Money 4.2. Private Monies (or Bitcoin) 4.3. Sovereign Money 4.4. Central Bank Independence and the Inescapable Politicality of Money 5. Money and Society 5.1. Alienation and Freedom 5.2. Money and Functional Differentiation References Index

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Book SynopsisDaniel Miller is one of the leading anthropologists in Britain today and is well known for his work on material culture This new book is a manifesto for the study of material culture.Trade Review"Miller deftly displays a talent for the uncluttered presentation of ideas,largely eschewing complexity without compromising the integrity of his arguments. By constantly placing his fieldwork centre-stage, Miller allows the empirical realities of ethnography to bolster his key proposals and repeatedly encourages readers to question and reflect upon material culture and their relationships with their own ‘stuff'". Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford "[Stuff] really is a little gem. Timely, well-written and highly accessible, it is a concise and grounded resource in the struggle to analyse the complexities of contemporary cultural life ... For undergraduates and general critical readers alike, it will be a welcome and thought-provoking reminder that the material world of things we have created, and which in turn helps to create us, needs to be understood dialectically - for better and for worse." Times Higher Education "[T]here are fascinating things here: a seven-page description of how a woman who wears a sari navigates daily life through the garment; a portrait of council tenants as "artists" redecorating their flats in different ways; and analyses of fashion, furnishing and "mobile phone relationships" in Jamaica. When Miller is focused on the details, the writing hums with empathetic colour and detail." The Guardian "This is a unique book that comes from a unique scholar. In this one volume, one can see the power of material culture as a means to study culture and society more generally. The specifics are informative and the larger formulations profound. The writing is consistently clear - at times, endearing - and the content brilliant." Harvey Molotch, New York University "This book fizzes and sparkles with ideas and intelligence. Professor Miller develops his dialectical theory of material culture with enviable clarity. Readers are encouraged by his captivating style and lightly-worn scholarship to the frontiers of the subject: they will never look at their stuff in the same way again." Ray Pahl, University of EssexTable of ContentsAcknowledgements vi Prologue: My Life as an Extremist 1 1 Why Clothing is not Superficial 12 2 Theories of Things 42 3 Houses: Accommodating Theory 79 4 Media: Immaterial Culture and Applied Anthropology 110 5 Matter of Life and Death 135 Notes 157 Index 165

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Book SynopsisThe History of Cycling in Fifty bikes tells the story of the bicycle through 50 iconic machines

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Book SynopsisThis beautifully illustrated book takes the reader on a journey through natural history and shows the richness of animal life on our planet like you’ve never seen it before.

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Book SynopsisThe story of ocean liners brought to life by objects and ephemera, revealing life on board, luxury and magnificence, and peril and disaster

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Book SynopsisA treasure trove of gardening information in 50 often little known objects that have transformed the way we think about and work our gardens today.

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Book SynopsisWhy do we see the world the way we do? An unusual history of sight across 500 million years.Trade Review'I was entranced from the first paragraph. A magnificently readable survey of so much that in the human experience is profound and profoundly important to us ... Every page elicits at least one “ah” “ooh” or “wow!”, usually all three at once. Authoritative without being dry, academic or difficult, fluent and fun without being facetious or over simple As Far As The Eye Can See is a remarkable achievement.' -- Stephen Fry 'In his book, Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari gave us a portrait of our broad family history. As Far as the Eye Can See paints a picture that is more intimate, closer both physically and in time.' -- Tristan Gooley, author of The Natural Navigator 'A wonderful, wide-ranging, totally gripping account of the evolution of seeing, from the firelight shadows of 1 million BC to the age of Netflix. Well worth casting your eye over, if only to find out how - and why - you are able to do that ...' -- Giles Coren, presenter, columnist 'From the first fires to the Facebook age, As Far as the Eye Can See takes us on an elegant, sweeping and wholly fascinating tour through human history.' -- Peter Moore, best-selling author of The Weather Experimentand Endeavour'I was entranced from the first paragraph. A magnificently readable survey of so much that in the human experience is profound and profoundly important to us ... Every page elicits at least one “ah” “ooh” or “wow!”, usually all three at once. Authoritative without being dry, academic or difficult, fluent and fun without being facetious or over simple As Far As The Eye Can See is a remarkable achievement.' -- Stephen Fry 'In his book, Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari gave us a portrait of our broad family history. As Far as the Eye Can See paints a picture that is more intimate, closer both physically and in time.' -- Tristan Gooley, author of The Natural Navigator 'A wonderful, wide-ranging, totally gripping account of the evolution of seeing, from the firelight shadows of 1 million BC to the age of Netflix. Well worth casting your eye over, if only to find out how - and why - you are able to do that ...' -- Giles Coren, presenter, columnist 'From the first fires to the Facebook age, As Far as the Eye Can See takes us on an elegant, sweeping and wholly fascinating tour through human history.' -- Peter Moore, best-selling author of The Weather Experiment and Endeavour

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Book SynopsisThe story of the world’s most famous liner, told through a fascinating selection of important objects

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Book SynopsisFamous for its spa heritage, Regency architecture, schools and colleges and annual Festivals, Cheltenham was also once home to many notable inhabitants, including Gustav Holst, composer of ''The Planets'', Edward Jenner, the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine and Edward Wilson, the Antarctic explorer. Compiled by the former Museum and Collections Manager at Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, and based on the Museum''s rich collections, this new book features 100 objects that each help to tell the fascinating story of Cheltenham and demonstrate the importance of objects in understanding our past. This book will appeal to everyone interested in finding out more about the people, places and past life of Cheltenham through the objects and printed ephemera of times gone by.

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Book SynopsisAlthough cars and roads promised freedom, they offered drivers a curated view of the landscape. This book takes readers on a journey through the history of roads, highways, and motoring in British Columbia's Interior, a remote landscape composed of plateaus and interlocking valleys, soaring mountains and treacherous passes.Trade ReviewRead British Columbia by the Road backwards. Or forwards. It doesn’t matter. Like the highways themselves, you can drive Ben Bradley’s bright, engaging work on automobility, identity, and landscape in British Columbia’s Interior in different directions. Stop to visit an open-air museum or take a picture of a striking vista. You’ll get to where you’re going. -- Blair Stein, University of Oklahoma * BC Studies, Issue 199, Fall 2018 *Through refreshing and in-depth research, author Ben Bradley … offers up an engaging road trip through time and space, guiding the reader along the twisting, turning, climbing, curated, landscape of the circa 1925 to 1970 British Columbia Interior highway system, where myriad man-made, natural, and historic vistas unfold…. British Columbia by the Road is delightfully interactive, in that the author encourages the reader to slip behind the wheel … [and] an excellent read, [that] serves to shed light on the numerous forces and underpinnings which were at play in the development of the BC Interior highway system. -- David P. Stephens * Material Culture Review *Bradley’s study offers fresh perspectives on tourism promotion, park development, political culture, and public history. Befitting a study focusing on driving’s visual culture, the book has superb maps and photographs … British Columbia by the Road provides a much-needed and sustained analysis of key developments in the province’s interior and is clearly a “must read” for BC historians. For those less engaged and less familiar with the province’s history, it offers valuable and nuanced insights into the political, environmental, and economic history of North America—particularly the regional impact of automobility. -- Michael Dawson, St Thomas University * Histoire Sociale/Social History *[British Columbia by the Road] succeeds admirably in achieving its goals and it will be of interest to a wide variety of scholars far beyond the bounds of British Columbia … the book is a terrific example of detailed, very placeful historical geographical research which succeeds in connecting western Canada’s particular story with a broader argument about how political imperatives, infrastructure investment, and the new technology of the automobile conspired to shape the economic geographies and place identities of many localities across North America and beyond. -- William Wyckoff, Montana State University, USA * Journal of Historical Geography *One of the ways that we experience our past is by driving through it. We hop into our automobiles and motor through the backcountry, stopping along the way at a wide variety of historical markers, parks, and viewpoints to refresh our memories or learn something new. This “public pedagogy” goes a long way to informing the ideas we have about our province’s history and it is the subject of Ben Bradley’s new book … British Columbia by the Road is refreshingly free of jargon and smoothly written; it also presents a thought-provoking new perspective on the history of B.C.’s interior. -- Daniel Francis * BC Booklook *Ben Bradley’s book British Columbia by the Road is a significant contribution to the history of North American automobility … [This] is a highly readable book that can be read not only for its academic merits, but also as a travel book! -- Maude Flamand-Hubert * NiCHE (Network in Canadian History & Environment) *Bradley shows that a regional focus can be an effective way to connect landscape, environmental, tourism, and mobility history. -- Review by Kyle Shelton, Rice University * Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Volume 109, Number 2 *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Automobility and the Making of New Kinds of ExperienceRoute A: A Drive through Nature1 Toward a Park in the Cascade Mountains2 Behind the Scenery in Manning Park3 The Politics of Roads and Parks in the Big Bend Country4 The Failure of Hamber Park and the Big Bend HighwayRoute B: Paths to the Past5 Tracing the Route of the Cariboo Wagon Road6 Changing Times and Crisis amidst Prosperity7 On the Road for the 1958 Centennial8 Mixed Fortunes in the BC Old RushConclusion: Looking Back on British Columbia by the RoadNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisBy offering behind-the-scenery glimpses of how boosters and builders modified the BC landscape and shaped what drivers and tourists could view from the comfort of their vehicles, this book confounds the idea of “freedom of the road.”Trade ReviewRead British Columbia by the Road backwards. Or forwards. It doesn’t matter. Like the highways themselves, you can drive Ben Bradley’s bright, engaging work on automobility, identity, and landscape in British Columbia’s Interior in different directions. Stop to visit an open-air museum or take a picture of a striking vista. You’ll get to where you’re going. -- Blair Stein, University of Oklahoma * BC Studies, Issue 199, Fall 2018 *Through refreshing and in-depth research, author Ben Bradley … offers up an engaging road trip through time and space, guiding the reader along the twisting, turning, climbing, curated, landscape of the circa 1925 to 1970 British Columbia Interior highway system, where myriad man-made, natural, and historic vistas unfold…. British Columbia by the Road is delightfully interactive, in that the author encourages the reader to slip behind the wheel … [and] an excellent read, [that] serves to shed light on the numerous forces and underpinnings which were at play in the development of the BC Interior highway system. -- David P. Stephens * Material Culture Review *Bradley’s study offers fresh perspectives on tourism promotion, park development, political culture, and public history. Befitting a study focusing on driving’s visual culture, the book has superb maps and photographs … British Columbia by the Road provides a much-needed and sustained analysis of key developments in the province’s interior and is clearly a “must read” for BC historians. For those less engaged and less familiar with the province’s history, it offers valuable and nuanced insights into the political, environmental, and economic history of North America—particularly the regional impact of automobility. -- Michael Dawson, St Thomas University * Histoire Sociale/Social History *[British Columbia by the Road] succeeds admirably in achieving its goals and it will be of interest to a wide variety of scholars far beyond the bounds of British Columbia … the book is a terrific example of detailed, very placeful historical geographical research which succeeds in connecting western Canada’s particular story with a broader argument about how political imperatives, infrastructure investment, and the new technology of the automobile conspired to shape the economic geographies and place identities of many localities across North America and beyond. -- William Wyckoff, Montana State University, USA * Journal of Historical Geography *One of the ways that we experience our past is by driving through it. We hop into our automobiles and motor through the backcountry, stopping along the way at a wide variety of historical markers, parks, and viewpoints to refresh our memories or learn something new. This “public pedagogy” goes a long way to informing the ideas we have about our province’s history and it is the subject of Ben Bradley’s new book … British Columbia by the Road is refreshingly free of jargon and smoothly written; it also presents a thought-provoking new perspective on the history of B.C.’s interior. -- Daniel Francis * BC Booklook *Ben Bradley’s book British Columbia by the Road is a significant contribution to the history of North American automobility … [This] is a highly readable book that can be read not only for its academic merits, but also as a travel book! -- Maude Flamand-Hubert * NiCHE (Network in Canadian History & Environment) *Bradley shows that a regional focus can be an effective way to connect landscape, environmental, tourism, and mobility history. -- Review by Kyle Shelton, Rice University * Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Volume 109, Number 2 *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Automobility and the Making of New Kinds of ExperienceRoute A: A Drive through Nature1 Toward a Park in the Cascade Mountains2 Behind the Scenery in Manning Park3 The Politics of Roads and Parks in the Big Bend Country4 The Failure of Hamber Park and the Big Bend HighwayRoute B: Paths to the Past5 Tracing the Route of the Cariboo Wagon Road6 Changing Times and Crisis amidst Prosperity7 On the Road for the 1958 Centennial8 Mixed Fortunes in the BC Old RushConclusion: Looking Back on British Columbia by the RoadNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThe notion of retrieving a bit of the past-by owning a material piece of it-has always appealed to humans. Often our most prized possessions are those that have had a long history before they came into our hands. Part of the pleasure we gain from the...Trade ReviewRosenstein's Antiques: The History of an Idea is a marvelous surprise, a connoisseur's introduction to a conceptual category, the antique, demonstrably inseparable from the life of the arts, critically important for the philosophy of art, as well as for intelligently informed appreciation, puzzlingly neglected, as subtle and as complex a notion as might be pertinently added at this late date: all brought together in a delightfully informal and meticulous conversation that appears almost incapable of exhausting its fresh examples and distinctions. -- Joseph Margolis * Journal of the History of Philosophy *

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Book SynopsisBeads are one of the great New Orleans symbols, as much a signifier of the city as a pot of scarlet crawfish or a jazzman’s trumpet. The first in a new LSU Press series exploring facets of Louisiana’s iconic culture, Mardi Gras Beads delves into the history of this celebrated New Orleans artefact.

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Book SynopsisAt first glance, the Ford Foundation and the black power movement would make an unlikely partnership. After the Second World War, the renowned Foundation was the largest philanthropic organization in the United States and was dedicated to projects of liberal reform. Black power ideology, which promoted self-determination over color-blind assimilation, was often characterized as radical and divisive. But Foundation president McGeorge Bundy chose to engage rather than confront black power''s challenge to racial liberalism through an ambitious, long-term strategy to foster the social development of racial minorities. The Ford Foundation not only bankrolled but originated many of the black power era''s hallmark legacies: community control of public schools, ghetto-based economic development initiatives, and race-specific arts and cultural organizations.In Top Down, Karen Ferguson explores the consequences of this counterintuitive and unequal relationship between the liberalTrade Review"Vigorously argued and thoroughly grounded in research from the extensive Ford Foundation archives, this important book carefully traces the roots of the Foundation's 'developmental separatism' as well as the evolving contours of social and political thought within the black public sphere, effectively putting the two forms of separatism in dialogue with one another." * Alice O'Connor, University of California, Santa Barbara *"Karen Ferguson's Top Down is a provocative and often brilliant history of the single most important philanthropic institution in the long civil rights era. The Ford Foundation and similar philanthropies, she argues compellingly, shaped Black Power and other radical movements of the 1960s and 1970s." * Felicia Kornbluh, University of Vermont *Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I. SIZING UP THE URBAN CRISIS Chapter 1. Modernizing Migrants Chapter 2. The Social Development Solution PART II. TRANSFORMING THE GHETTO Chapter 3. Developmental Separatism and Community Control Chapter 4. Black Power and the End of Community Action PART III. CULTIVATING LEADERSHIP Chapter 5. Multiculturalism from Above Chapter 6. The Best and the Brightest Epilogue. The Diminishing Expectations of Racial Liberalism Notes Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisArgues that the field of rhetoric's recent attention to material objects should go further than simply open a new line of inquiry. To maximize the interdisciplinary turn to things, rhetoricians must seize the opportunity to reimagine and perhaps resolve rhetoric's historically problematic relationship to physical reality and ontology.Trade Review“With this volume, Barnett and Boyle go beyond the reach of the speaker-audience-purpose model of human communication to include material objects. The book comprises four parts: 'The New Ontology of Persuasion,' 'Writing Things,' 'Seeing Things,' and 'Assembling Things.' The contributors—an impressive group of scholars ranging from experts to doctoral candidates—offer essays that explore objects as vibrant agents of persuasion and not just passive nonverbal tools. In a particularly intriguing chapter titled 'The Things They Left Behind: Toward an Object-Oriented History of Composition,' Kevin Rutherford and Jason Palmeri encourage the reader to engage in an empathetic dialogue with nonhuman historical objects: for example, history might be read differently if one examined the writing desks of important figures. This book has deep implications for the present materialist turn in the humanities. Unique for its ontological synthesis of rhetorical theory and nonverbal communication, this volume would be useful as a companion reader to a range of courses in rhetoric—from the basic course to advanced seminars—and it would be excellent complementary reading for courses in nonverbal communication. Summing Up: Highly recommended.” - CHOICE“Many scholars are writing and thinking about rhetoric’s materiality, and this collection’s emphasis on ontology is one of the most popular ways of engaging the subject. The essays in Rhetoric, Through Everyday Things address a notoriously difficult set of theoretical problems in a way that will be approachable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as more advanced scholars in rhetoric. I can imagine it being of great interest to scholars in both communication and English departments.” - Greg Dickinson, coeditor of Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials and author of Suburban Dreams: Imagining and Building the Good Life""This volume is an important and capacious contribution to the arrival of 'thing theory' in rhetorical studies. The tensions across chapters will make this a lively text for discussion. It will be taught and cited for the coming years, and I commend the editors for assembling such a thorough collection of essays."" - Debra Hawhee, author of Moving Bodies: Kenneth Burke at the Edges of Language and Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw: Animals, Language, Sensation

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Book SynopsisA book about ownership. It begins with an essay about being given a man's furniture while he's on trial for murder and follows with essays that question corporeal, familial, and intellectual forms of ownership. Mining her own life and those of others, Sarah Viren considers the contingencies of ownership alongside the realities of loss in this debut essay collection.Trade ReviewWith wonderfully precise and evocative prose, Sarah Viren takes us deeply into her search for her very self. . . . MINE is not only moving, it is instructive and nourishing in a way that only art can deliver. This book is a gem."" - Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog""Sarah Viren is a writer of extraordinary wisdom and grace. . . . I am always taken aback, in the end, when her essays—cunningly, imperceptibly—gather within themselves such stunning emotional power."" - Kerry Howley, author of Thrown""Ultimately a book about belonging, this nimble, beautiful collection helps us better understand ‘what we call ours but is never really ours to begin with."" - Ryan Van Meter, author of If You Knew Then What I Know Now

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Book SynopsisColour permeates contemporary visual and material culture and affects our senses beyond the superficial encounter by infiltrating our perceptions and memories and becoming deeply rooted in thought processes that categorise and divide along culturally constructed lines. Colour exists as a cultural as well as psycho-physical phenomenon and acquires a multitude of meanings within differing historical and cultural contexts. The contributors examine how colour becomes imbued with specific symbolic and material meanings that tint our constructions of race, gender, ideal bodies, the relationship of the self to others and of the self to technology and the built environment. By highlighting the relationship of colour across media and material culture, this volume reveals the complex interplay of cultural connotations, discursive practices and socio-psychological dynamics of colour in an international context.Trade Review “The anthology forms part of a critical yet visionary tradition of interdisciplinary studies on colour. [It] shows that much is to be gained by analyzing colour beyond the symbolic. of a collection…and [by] moving beyond entrenched binaries.” · Journal of Design HistoryTable of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Beyond the Language of Colour Chris Horrocks PART I: COLOUR AND VISUAL CULTURE Chapter 1. Ad Reinhardt: ‘Colour Blinds’ Michael Corris Chapter 2. The Eye Is a Sphincter (Who’s Afraid of the Postmodern Monochrome?) Antony Hudek Chapter 3. Colour Soundings: After the Tone of Francis Bacon Nicholas Chare Chapter 4. Capturing the Ephemeral. Colour as a Bridge between Art and Science Mary Pearce PART II: COLOUR AND MATERIAL CULTURE Chapter 5. Colour in Gardens: a question of class or gender? Beverley Lear Chapter 6. Critical Remarks on the Colour/Form Relation: Creating a Middle Ground Kiki Karatheodoris Chapter 7. Heidegger’s Pixel: Digital Colour as ‘Standing Reserve’ Chris Horrocks Chapter 8. The Disillusion of the Image: Cinematography, Colour, Sound and Desire Liz Watkins PART III: COLOUR, TEXT AND RACE Chapter 9. Chromatic Ambivalence: Colouring the Albino Charlotte Baker Chapter 10. Toussaint Louverture and Haitian Historiography: A Pigmentocratic Approach Charles Forsdick Chapter 11. “Linda Morenita”: Skin Colour, Beauty and the Politics of Mestizaje in Mexico Monica Moreno Index

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