Social and cultural history Books

19377 products


  • Camping Grounds Public Nature in American Life

    Oxford University Press Inc Camping Grounds Public Nature in American Life

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisAn exploration of the hidden history of camping in American life that connects a familiar recreational pastime to camps for functional needs and political purposes.Camping appears to be a simple proposition, a time-honored way of getting away from it all. Pack up the car and hit the road in search of a shady spot in the great outdoors. For a modest fee, reserve the basic infrastructure--a picnic table, a parking spot, and a place to build a fire. Pitch the tent and unroll the sleeping bags. Sit under the stars with friends or family and roast some marshmallows. This book reveals that, for all its appeal, the simplicity of camping is deceptive, its history and meanings far from obvious.Why do some Americans find pleasure in sleeping outside, particularly when so many others, past and present, have had to do so for reasons other than recreation? Never only a vacation choice, camping has been something people do out of dire necessity and as a tactic of political protest. Yet the dominant interpretation of camping as a modern recreational ideal has obscured the connections to these other roles. A closer look at the history of camping since the Civil War reveals a deeper significance of this American tradition and its links to core beliefs about nature and national belonging. Camping Grounds rediscovers unexpected and interwoven histories of sleeping outside. It uses extensive research to trace surprising links between veterans, tramps, John Muir, African American freedpeople, Indian communities, and early leisure campers in the nineteenth century; tin-can tourists, federal campground designers, Depression-era transients, family campers, backpacking enthusiasts, and political activists in the twentieth century; and the crisis of the unsheltered and the tent-based Occupy Movement in the twenty-first. These entwined stories show how Americans camp to claim a place in the American republic and why the outdoors is critical to how we relate to nature, the nation, and each other.Trade ReviewYoung deserves praise for creating fertile ground for historians of the environment, race, class, and gender to further complicate the narrative of camping in North America, as well as demonstrating how others can critically engage with conceptions of government responsibility and public nature. * Jessica M. DeWitt, Western History Quarterly *A rich and compelling book that follows two intersecting paths through the history of camping. The most obvious path is that of recreational camping....The second path is the history of protest camping, from Civil War veterans to Occupy protesters.... While Camping Grounds centers on the practices of camping, as recreation and protest, it situates this analysis in the broader overarching concept of 'public nature.'...[Its] concern, one with implications for the future, is that other forms of camping-such as a mode of protest or as a matter of necessity-are delegitimized, as a market-based recreational ethos crowds out the potential for camping to yield broader public goods....This concept of public nature will serve historians well as they wrestle with how we use, govern, and consume nature to reflect, shore up, and challenge hierarchies of power in the United States. * James Morton Turner, Journal of American History *Recreational camping and political camping, two voluntary but contrasting activities, and functional camping, an involuntary activity, are the three forms of American camping explored in this excellent, well-researched book. Most camping scholarship...concentrates on the first of the three forms while neglecting the other two. Young's...demonstration of the interrelatedness of and shaping interactions between the three forms makes it exceptionally revealing and valuable....Young convincingly demonstrates that camping today is complicated, contains multiple meanings, and can be both a highly popular form of leisure and the justification for an arrest by law enforcement. In addition to being a revealing analysis, Camping Grounds is an engaging narrative....I strongly recommend Camping Grounds to readers who wish to better understand how America came to include an everyday activity that is both praised and condemned, often by the same people. * Terence Young, H-Environment *This is a magnificent study of camping in the US, from the mid-19th century to 2019. Camping has had significantly different meanings at different times in US history, and Young explores three different eras. Early camping was primarily a way of sheltering while traveling, or while in a state of military transition, with emphasis on organizing people....Camping as a choice and pastime emerged later and played a role in changing views of class and race in the US....In the late 19th century, camping became an alternative to resort vacations, taking on social and economic implications. The camping equipment industry and planned campgrounds emerged. The popularity of camping in the second half of the 20th century created environmental and institutional problems, resulting in a wilderness ethic and economic opportunities....Relevant to social and environmental studies and law....Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals.A varied and comprehensive overview of modern camping with ample detail and sociological perspective on the origins of camping and its roles in war, protest, consumerism, and class discrimination. * Zebulin Evelhoch, Library Journal *Young, an environmental historian, traces "camping" back to the Civil War and explores its implications for social justice and political discourse—beyond its more obvious role as a mere diversional outdoor activity. * Lela Nargi, The Sierra Club *In Camping Grounds, Phoebe Young presents the surprisingly political history of sleeping outside, in which veterans, vagrants, migrants, recreationists, protestors, bureaucrats, officials, police, and others have fought over the meaning of public nature, with profound implications for American life and the American social compact. Artfully written, creatively researched, a tour de force that will change the way you see your country. * Louis S. Warren, University of California, Davis *In this brilliant new book, Phoebe Young asks a seemingly simple question: 'What does it mean to camp and why does it matter?' The answer is strikingly complex and in its pursuit Camping Grounds offers a radically inclusive vision of America's public nature and environmental culture. * Char Miller, author of Not So Golden State: Sustainability vs. the California Dream *Phoebe Young strips the innocence from sleeping under the stars, revealing this quintessential American pastime as a precarious practice — one long bedeviled by class tensions, legal wrangling over the definition of camping, and ever-shifting claims on public nature. * Elizabeth Royte, author of Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash *My recommendation?: gather 'round the campfire with a s'more, and read this smart, engaging book. Young exposes the 'simple life' of camping as a complex set of negotiations historically about your environments, your government, your fellow citizens...and yourself. * Jenny Price, Stop Saving the Planet!: An Environmentalist Manifesto *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Public Nature Part One: 1850s-1880s Ch. 1. Saving the Union Ch. 2. Seeing the Country Part Two: 1890s-1940s Ch. 3. Tramp Style Ch. 4. Campers' Republic Part Three: 1950s-2010s Ch. 5. The Back to Nature Crowd ch. 6. Tents and Public Statements Epilogue: "We MUST Camp" Notes Index

    2 in stock

    £27.99

  • Escape to Miami An Oral History of the Cuban

    Oxford University Press Inc Escape to Miami An Oral History of the Cuban

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisWhile the Naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba is well-known for its infamous prison camp, few people are aware of its prior use as an immigrant detention center for Haitian and Cuban refugees. Beginning in August 1994, the United States government declared that thousands of Cubans who had launched themselves into the Florida Straits on rickety rafts were illegal refugees and sent them to join over fifteen thousand Haitians already being held on Guantánamo after fleeing a violent coup in Haiti.Escape to Miami recounts the gripping stories of the rafters who were detained in Guantánamo during the 1994-1996 Cuban Rafter Crisis. After working in the camps for a year as an employee of the U.S. Justice Department, Elizabeth Campisi conducted life history interviews with twelve of the rafters, chronicling their departures from Cuba, their rafting trips, life on the base, and their initial experiences in Cuban Miami. Through these remarkable narratives, the book details the ways in which the rafters used creative expression, such as performance and artwork, to cope with the traumas they experienced in the camp. Campisi explores these coping mechanisms, showing that, when people work through individually-traumatic experiences as a group, the new meanings they create during that process can come together to change existing cultures or create new ones.Vivid and engaging, Escape to Miami gives voice to the untold stories of Guantánamo. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in policy, Latin American history, and human rights.Trade Review...Campisi has captured both the triumph and the trauma of what is surely an indelible identity within the Cuban diaspora....[A] strong study....It would lend itself to graduate and undergraduate classes in ethnography, migration, oral history, global health, Latin American and Caribbean studies, and Cuban studies. * Holly Ackerman, New West Indian Guide *

    2 in stock

    £18.99

  • The Maya and Climate Change HumanEnvironmental

    Oxford University Press Inc The Maya and Climate Change HumanEnvironmental

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAn encyclopedic treatise of ancient Maya environmental archaeology and paleoenvironmental science...I highly recommend The Maya and Climate Change to both scholars and students interested in environmental archaeology and the Maya. As a readable, afordable, short, and comprehensive monograph, this would be a great textbook for a Maya-focused, environmental archaeology course. This valuable contribution to the feld will no doubt become a classic reference on ancient Maya ecology. * Maxime Lamoureux-St-Hilaire, The Mayanist *This book provides a thorough, up-to-date, and well-written introduction to the ecology of the Maya civilization, especially during the Classic period...Excellent for courses on, and readers interested in, Mesoamerican archaeology, human ecology, and studies of ancient civilizations... Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Chapter 1: Shifting the Focus Chapter 2: From Camera Lucida to Lidar: A Brief History of Maya Archaeology Chapter 3: Forests Chapter 4: Fields Chapter 5: Water Chapter 6: Stone Chapter 7: Collapse and Resilience Chapter 8: Looking Forward References

    1 in stock

    £24.49

  • Bystander Society

    Oxford University Press Inc Bystander Society

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn this powerful and revelatory new work, historian Mary Fulbrook takes on one of the most fraught issues in modern times: the role of ordinary Germans in enabling the rise of Nazism and with it the exclusion, persecution, and then extermination of millions of people across Europe. The question often asked of the Nazi erawhat and when did ordinary Germans know about the crimes being committed in their name?is, Fulbrook argues, the wrong one. The real question is how they interpreted and actedor failed to actupon what they knew; and how, in the process, became complicit.To address these issues, Fulbrook examines German society before and during the Nazi regime, exploring the social conditions that eventually facilitated mass murder. She explores the creation of a bystander society, one in which the majority of Germans were either unable to act or developed growing indifference to the fate of those deemed non-Aryanmainly Jews and therefore outside the Volksgemeinschaft, or national community. Over the course of the 1930s, from Hitler''s assumption of the German chancellorship, through the passage of the Nuremberg Laws, to the devastation of Kristallnacht, this bystander society became more entrenched. Ordinary Germans became passive about the fate of non-Aryans and, by turning away, contributed to their isolation from mainstream society. For many citizens of the Reich, conformity led progressively through growing complicity in everyday racism to more active involvement in genocide during World War Two. In other words, social changes under Nazi rule shaped the perceptions and responses of German citizens, creating the conditions that made the Holocaust possible.Based on an extraordinary archive of personal accounts, Bystander Society moves between the individual and the wider context, highlighting the significance of changing social and political circumstances over the course of the Nazi period by offering first-hand testimony both from those who were its primary victims, and those who initially sought to stay on the side lines but could not avoid being caught up in the violence of the times. These accounts illuminate how interpersonal relations in everyday life shifted, such that some fellow citizens could first be viewed as outcasts and then, in wartime, deportedmost often to their deathsin full view of those who would later often claim ignorance of their fates.Chilling and illuminating, Bystander Society reconceives the whole notion of bystanding within Nazi Germany, offering an interpretation of the conditions for inaction, one with wide and enduring relevance.Trade ReviewA commendable attempt to understand why people stood by and did nothing when confronted with Nazi barbarism, written by one of the greatest historians of modern Germany. * Darren O'Byrne, The Critic *[a] terrific work of historical scholarship * Richard Lofthouse, QUAD *[A] brilliant new book... Fulbrook brings a lifetime of scholarship and reflection, as well as a fearless courage, to the task. * Nicholas Stargardt, Literary Review *Mary Fulbrook superbly weaves contemporary accounts of experiences from Jews and non-Jews into a rich tapestry that shows how Germany under Hitler gradually turned into a society capable of the Holocaust. * Ian Kershaw *With her signature insightfulness, historian Mary Fulbrook addresses the fascinating but troubling problem of 'bystanders' to the Holocaust. She probes how social dynamics in Hitler's early years pushed non-Jews to conform, and how after the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 most fervently did so. By the late 1930s, more Germans became complicit in Nazi crimes and, during World War II, German, Austrian, and Baltic 'bystanders' eagerly engaged in violence, participating in genocide. This gripping account is a must-read for anyone interested in how bystanders became accomplices and later perpetrators, and how democracy could be destroyed. * Marion Kaplan, Professor Emerita of Modern Jewish History, New York University, author of Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany and Hitler's Jewish Refugees: Hope and Anxiety in Portugal *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Introduction: Bystanders and collective violence PART I THE SLIPPERY SLOPE: SOCIAL SEGREGATION IN NAZI GERMANY 1. Lives in Germany before 1933 2. Falling into line: spring 1933 3. Ripping apart at the seams: the racialization of identity, 1933-4 4. Shifting communities: dissembling and the cost of conformity 5. A nation of Aryans? The normalization of racial discrimination PART II THE EXPANSION OF VIOLENCE AT HOME AND ABROAD 6. Changing horizons: views from within and without 7. Shock waves: polarization in peacetime society, November 1938 8. Divided fates: empathy, exit, and death, 1939-41 9. Over the precipice: from persecution to genocide in the Baltics 10. Inner emigration and the fiction of ignorance 11. Towards the end: rescue, survival, and self-justifications CONCLUSION 12. The bystander myth and responses to violence

    3 in stock

    £24.29

  • Oxford University Press The History of Cinema

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisCinema was the first, and is arguably still the greatest, of the industrialized art forms that came to dominate the cultural life of the twentieth century. Today, it continues to adapt and grow as new technologies and viewing platforms become available, and remains an integral cultural and aesthetic entertainment experience for people the world over.Cinema developed against the backdrop of the two world wars, and over the years has seen smaller wars, revolutions, and profound social changes. Its history reflects this changing landscape, and, more than any other art form, developments in technology. In this Very Short Introduction, Nowell-Smith looks at the defining moments of the industry, from silent to sound, black and white to colour, and considers its genres from intellectual art house to mass market entertainment. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introduction series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewNowell-Smith's packed an astounding amount into 120-page, pocket-sized book. Not just a capsule history of movies, but also summaries of technological, cultural and ideological developments, plus reflections on the current multimedia revolution. There's even room for notes on further reading. Ideal for first-year students; but even well versed will find useful insights. * Philip Kemp, Total Film *Never be fooled by the title: there may only be 100 pages of narrative, and you can easily fit the book into a pocket, but packed into that is a wealth of detail Geoffrey Nowell-Smith worked for many years at the British Film Institute, and therefore writes with the benefit of insider access to archive footage and documentary records... Definitely a must read for [those] who belong to film groups * Chris Green, Suffolk Norfolk Life *Table of ContentsPreface 1: Introduction: what is Cinema? 2: Technologies 3: Industry 4: Aesthetics 5: Cinema and the outer world 6: Shaping the imaginary 7: Seven epochs 8: Conclusion Further reading Index

    2 in stock

    £9.49

  • Oxford University Press War and Religion

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, InspiringIs religion a force for war, or a force for peace? Some of the most terrible wars in history have been caused and motivated by religion. Much of the violence that fills our screens today springs from the same source. Yet some of the bravest pacifists have also been deeply religious people, and many of the laws and institutions that work to soften or prevent war have deep religious roots. This Very Short Introduction provides an overview of the history of religion and war, and a framework for analysing it. Ranging from the warrior gods of Ancient Greece and Rome, and the ethical drama of the Mahabharata, through the Islamic wars of conquest and the Crusades, to present day conflicts in Sri Lanka and the Balkans, it considers the entanglement of war and religion. Yet from Just War theory and the restraints on war-making imposed by Islamic jurisprudence, through the Pax Christi of the middle ages, to the non-violence of Gandhi and Bacha Khan; there is also a story to be told of peace and religion as well. Jolyon Mitchell and Joshua Rey consider both sides of the age long drama of war and religion, challenging assumptions at the most fundamental level. Throughout, they encourage a more sophisticated and well-grounded view on these issues that have had such weight in the past, and continue to shape our present and future. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewWar and Religion is written in a clear, accessible style that offers concise, informative details. It would be a useful introductory text for undergraduate students in political science and war and religious studies, as well as the core program. * Arab Studies Quarterly *Mitchell and Rey offer a panoramic narrative of the historical and contemporary relationship between war and religion. Though brief (as expected of a title in the "Very Short Introductions" series), the book covers a lot of ground. Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; general readers. * M. S. Hill, Liberty University, CHOICE *Table of ContentsList of illustrations Acknowledgements 1: Remembering wars 2: Waging holy wars 3: Sanctifying secular wars 4: Softening the horrors of war 5: Invoking peace 6: Questioning religion and war References Further Reading

    5 in stock

    £9.49

  • Aristocracy

    Oxford University Press Aristocracy

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisAristocracies or nobilities dominated the social, economic, and institutional history of all European counties until only a few generations ago. The relics of their power, in traditions and behaviour, in architecture and the arts, are still all around us. This short introduction shows how ideas of aristocracy originated in ancient times, were transformed in the middle ages, and have only fallen apart over the last two centuries. The myths in which aristocracies have always sought to shroud themselves are stripped away, but the true sources of their enduring power are also revealed. Their outlook and behaviour affected the rest of society in innumerable and sometimes surprising ways, but perhaps most surprising was the way in which a centuries-old aristocratic hegemony crumbled away over the last two hundred years. In this Very Short Introduction William Doyle considers why this happend and what remains today.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade Reviewexcellent introduction to the subject, clearly structured and packed with telling examples * BBC History Magazine *Table of Contents1. Meanings and entitlements ; 2. Myths and beliefs ; 3. Living nobly ; 4. Impacts and legacies ; 5. Aristocracy eclipsed ; References ; Further Reading

    1 in stock

    £9.49

  • Mrs Beetons Book of Household Management

    Oxford University Press Mrs Beetons Book of Household Management

    4 in stock

    Book Synopsis''As with the commander of an army, or the leader of any enterprise, so it is with the mistress of a house.'' A founding text of Victorian middle-class identity, Household Management is today one of the great unread classics. Over a thousand pages long, and written when its author was only 22, it offered highly authoritative advice on subjects as diverse as fashion, child-care, animal husbandry, poisons, and the management of servants. To the modern reader expecting stuffy moralizing and watery vegetables, Beeton''s book is a revelation: it ranges widely across the foods of Europe and beyond, actively embracing new food stuffs and techniques, mixing domestic advice with discussions of science, religion, class, industrialism and gender roles. Alternately fashionable and frugal, anxious and blusteringly self-confident, Household Management highlights the concerns of the ever-expanding Victorian middle-class at a key moment in its history. The abridged edition does justice to its high status as a cookery book, while also suggesting ways of approaching this massive, hybrid text as a significant document of social and cultural history. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewThe recipes are excellent and there are all sorts of tips that help me save money, time and temper. * Sandi Toksvig, Daily Express *sold out in Central London book shops within weeks * Red, August 2000 *

    4 in stock

    £8.54

  • War in European History

    Oxford University Press War in European History

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisFirst published over thirty years ago, War in European History is a brilliantly written survey of the changing ways that war has been waged in Europe, from the Norse invasions to the present day. Far more than a simple military history, the book serves as a succinct and enlightening overview of the development of European society as a whole over the last millennium. From the Norsemen and the world of the medieval knights, through to the industrialized mass warfare of the twentieth century, Michael Howard illuminates the way in which warfare has shaped the history of the Continent, its effect on social and political institutions, and the ways in which technological and social change have in turn shaped the way in which wars are fought. This new edition includes a fully updated further reading and a new final chapter bringing the story into the twenty-first century, including the invasion of Iraq and the so-called ''War against Terror''.Trade ReviewI cannot think of a better book to put in the hands of someone setting out on the study of military history. * Military Times *Howard's chief strength...[is] that he widens the study of warfare to take in economic, political and social factors. * Military Times *Table of ContentsPreface to the 2008 Edition ; 1. The Wars of the Knights ; 2. The Wars of the Mercenaries ; 3. The Wars of the Merchants ; 4. The Wars of the Professionals ; 5. The Wars of the Nations ; 6. The Wars of the Technologists ; Epilogue: The End of the European Era ; Notes ; Notes on Further Reading ; Index

    3 in stock

    £12.59

  • SelfHelp

    Oxford University Press SelfHelp

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA bestseller in 1859, Self-Help became one of Victorian Britain's most important statements on the allied virtues of hard work, thrift, and perseverance. Smiles's book is the precursor of today's motivational and self-improvement literature and encapsulated the aspirational Victorian desire for social advancement.

    1 in stock

    £9.49

  • Butcher Blacksmith Acrobat Sweep

    Vintage Publishing Butcher Blacksmith Acrobat Sweep

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisFirst drawn into the sport while a student in Spain in the mid-1980s, Peter Cossins has been writing about cycling since 1993, contributing principally to Cycling Weekly, Cycle Sport and Procycling. The Monuments, his history of cycling's five greatest one-day Classic races, was published in 2014, followed in 2015 by Alpe d'Huez, an appraisal of cycling's greatest climb.For Yellow Jersey Press he has written the definitive account of the first ever Tour de France, Butcher, Blacksmith, Acrobat, Sweep the also the enlightening book on cycling tactics, Full Gas.He lives in the Ariège in the heart of the French Pyrenees.Trade ReviewEssential…The First Tour de France takes you back to the race itself. Cossins produces a deeply researched and detailed description of the race that toggles between background information on the race’s organization and the individual stages, with long stretches of real-time-style stage reporting one chapter at a time.The effect of this, especially the latter, is soaring * Podium Cafe *Enthralling… Full of outlandish characters and ripping yarns, it makes for a cracking good read * Bikes Etc *

    1 in stock

    £11.69

  • Inventing the Alphabet

    The University of Chicago Press Inventing the Alphabet

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Drucker] provides a rich, detailed account of how western thinkers have understood the origins and development of the alphabet. . . . Millions learn the alphabet in childhood, and Drucker's study opens up a fascinating realm of ideas and scholarship into its origins and meaning." * BBC History Magazine *"In its wealth of detail and generous illustration [Inventing the Alphabet] goes some way toward reproducing the experience of reading the catalogs and compendia it describes." * New York Review of Books *"Drucker takes us on a journey through centuries of intellectual history, from the musings of the first historians to the scientific methods of modern archaeologists and linguists. At the heart of it all is the alphabet: an invention that is both ubiquitously banal and world-changingly innovative." * History Today *"This latest book by Drucker is not primarily a new history of the alphabet, although it provides this history, but a historiographical work that traces the ways beliefs in Western thought shaped the discourse around the alphabet’s origins. The author asks who knew what when and how people conceptualized the evidence available to them, from the earliest classical and biblical accounts to contemporary archaeological, epigraphical, and paleographical syntheses. . . Highly recommended." * Choice *"Johanna Drucker​ ’s Inventing the Alphabet is all about writing’s material histories." * London Review of Books *"For ill and for good, our world remains profoundly alphabetized, from classroom rosters, to bureaucratic systems, to the labeling of our very genetic essence, even if random access, not ABC order, has become our everyday search mode. As Drucker somewhat shockingly reminds us. . . the ancient analog alphabet forms the substrate of our digital world." * Critical Inquiry *"Stunning. . . . Drucker deserves our full recognition for this masterpiece of bibliographical scholarship." * Publishing Research Quarterly *“With Inventing the Alphabet, Drucker—scholar, interpreter, and designer of printed words and letters—sheds light on that which has brought humankind out of darkness." -- Steven Heller, author, design critic, and cochair of the SVA MFA Design DepartmentTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. When Did the Alphabet Become "Greek"? 2. Divine Gifts: Original Letters, Moses, and the Tablets at Mount Sinai 3. Medieval Copyists: Magical Letters, Mythic Scripts, and Exotic Alphabets 4. The Confusion of Tongues and Compendia of Scripts 5. Antiquity Explained: The Origin and Progress of Letters 6. The Rhetoric of Tables and the Harmony of Alphabets 7. Modern Archaeology: Putting the Evidence of the Alphabet in Place 8. Reading the Early Alphabet: Epigraphy and Paleography 9. Alphabet Effects and the Politics of Script Coda: Alphabetic Agency and Global Hegemony Notes Selected Bibliography Index

    1 in stock

    £30.40

  • City of Dreadful Delight

    The University of Chicago Press City of Dreadful Delight

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisTable of ContentsSeries Editor's Foreword Acknowledgments Introductions 1. Urban Spectatorship 2. Contested Terrain: New Social Actors 3. "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" 4. "The Maiden Tribute": Cultural Consequences 5. The Men and Women's Club 6. Science and the Seance: Transgressions of Gender and Genre 7. Jack the Ripper Epilogue: The Yorkshire Ripper Notes Selected Bibliography Index

    1 in stock

    £25.65

  • The Britannias

    Penguin Books Ltd The Britannias

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR''A dazzlingly brilliant book'' Hannah Dawson''Fascinating, often exhilarating ... Albinia is an intrepid, imaginative guide'' TLSThe Britannias tells the story of Britain''s islands and how they are woven into its collective cultural psyche.From Neolithic Orkney to modern-day Thanet, Alice Albinia explores the furthest reaches of Britain''s island topography, once known (wrote Pliny) by the collective term, Britanniae. Sailing over borders, between languages and genres, trespassing through the past to understand the present, this book knocks the centre out to foreground neglected epics and subversive voices.The ancient mythology of islands ruled by women winds through the literature of the British Isles - from Roman colonial-era reports, to early Irish poetry, Renaissance drama to Restoration utopias - transcending and subverting the moTrade ReviewA dazzlingly brilliant book. Travelling by boat, swimming through kelp, riding on a fishing trawler, Alice Albinia takes us on an extraordinary journey around the British isles, revealing a liquid past where women ruled and mermaids sang and tracing the sea-changes of her own heart. -- Hannah DawsonAn artful book of waterways and wildernesses, monastic havens and tax havens. A fascinating demonstration that Britain ‘singular’ is shorthand for something tectonically, volcanically plural. -- Amy Jeffs, author of Storyland and WildThere are books crafted from research, worthy and informative. And there are books that happen. That need to happen. That feel inevitable. As if they have always, somehow, been there waiting for us. The voyages of Alice Albinia around our ragged fringes range through time, recovering and resurrecting the most potent myths. A work of integrity and vision. -- Iain SinclairA passionate rich work of historical scholarship and poetic imagination. -- Xiaolu Guo, author of Radical: A Life of My OwnBewitching and illuminating, glinting with possibilities… I’ll be thinking about The Britannias for a long time. -- Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the BarleyBy looking more closely at the periphery, we might learn something new about the centre ... Albinia’s prose is impressive ... the main impression given by The Britannias is the uniqueness of our outlying islands, each one entire unto itself. -- Guy Stagg * Financial Times *Fascinating, often exhilarating ... By the end of her survey readers may wonder how the term “island mentality” ever became a disparagement. It should connote not small-mindedness but radical, progressive, sometimes magical thinking. ... Albinia is an intrepid, imaginative guide, an adventurer for our more environmentally conscious age. -- Miranda France * Times Literary Supplement *Islands always intrigue, hovering on the horizons of our imaginations ... [Albinia] makes memorable connections, meets some engaging people and offers some salutary observations. -- Derek Turner * The Spectator *Spellbinding... an impressive achievement. * New Statesman *PRAISE FOR CWEM: 'A wild, original, surefooted feminist reimagining of the present and the past that brushes up against the mythical. It reminds us, eloquently and passionately, what is or can be possible, and in its depiction of a revolutionary becomes revolutionary itself. Beautiful work' -- Neel MukherjeeA wild ride! She sees Graves' White Goddess and raises 50 with female magic and transformations. -- Margaret AtwoodMagical, rich and magnificent. -- Maxine Peake

    1 in stock

    £21.25

  • Whisky Opus

    Dorling Kindersley Ltd Whisky Opus

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £24.00

  • Slavery at Sea  Terror Sex and Sickness in the

    University of Illinois Press Slavery at Sea Terror Sex and Sickness in the

    Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWesley-Logan Prize, American Historical Association (AHA), 2017Dred Scott Freedom Award in the category Historical Literary Excellence, Dred Scott Heritage Foundation, 2020"Mustakeem's command of sources and methodology is remarkable. . . . Slavery at Sea is an outstanding intervention in the history of slavery." --Journal of African American History"This excellent work illustrates the paradoxical significance of U.S. slavery studies in relation to the larger African Diaspora."--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society"A compelling and original argument that makes a fundamental contribution to the history of slavery in colonial British America."--William and Mary Quarterly"Mustakeem's groundbreaking study. . . . offers provocative new insights into how gender, health, age, illness, and medical treatment intersected with trauma and violence and transformed human beings into the world's most commercially sought commodity for over four centuries."--Huffington Post"Essential."--Choice"Slavery at Sea does an excellent job describing the importance of the Middle Passage, as well as forcefully rejecting the notion that slave subjugation began upon arrival in America. . . . Excellent research, a clear and engaging literary style, and an appropriate use of primary source material recommend this book for the student of the Atlantic slave trade or the historian who desires new insights into the manufacturing process of slavery."--Civil War News"An intensely social history of the transatlantic slave trade . . . Mustakeem consciously centers her narrative on the very young and old, women, and the infirm to demonstrate the ways in which there was no one Middle Passage."--The Junto"Slavery at Sea is a welcome book because it provides a more sustained account of the deprivations and indignities inflicted upon enslaved Africans by European capitalists and their collaborators in Africa. . . than virtually any other book."--Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Book Reviews"In Slavery at Sea, Mustakeem writes with power and heart, offering a deeply intimate narrative of the experience of dehumanization and the undeniable awareness that nothing good came from this history."--Journal of American Culture "Mustakeem does a remarkable job exploring the untold and overlooked stories of the most marginalized of the Africans. . . . Her work challenges many prevailing assumptions and offers an insightful, alternative contribution to our understanding of slavery at sea." --The Journal of American History "A tremendously important contribution to understandings of the Middle Passage. This work will shift the ways scholars frame the history of slavery in the Americas by extending the terrain of enslavement across the Atlantic and centering the lives and deaths of enslaved African women and men in the Middle Passage."--Barbara Krauthamer, author of Black Slaves, Indian Masters: Slavery, Emancipation, and Citizenship in the Native American South "It is not easy to say new things about the slave trade, but Mustakeem does so, again and again. She strikes a mighty blow against the 'violence of abstraction' that has long governed the study of the subject. She makes us understand the slave trade in a new, visceral way."--Marcus Rediker, author of The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom "Slavery at Sea includes heartbreaking stories of capture, breathtaking vignettes of torture, and harrowing tales of the Middle Passage that bring to life the terror that many enslaved people experienced at sea. This well-researched study also pays critical attention to how age, gender, and health informed the economic development of the international slave trade."--Jim Downs, author of Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction

    £17.99

  • Transparency

    Yale University Press Transparency

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisA wide-ranging illustrated history of transparency as told through the evolution of the glass windowTrade Review“With impressive detail and wide-ranging erudition, Jütte charts the history of a single material, glass, as a product of human ingenuity developed across centuries.”—James Gleick, New York Review of Books“A remarkable achievement—a work of stunning range and erudition. Revelation upon revelation follow in ways that readers will find dazzling and unexpected: very quickly the history of glass and transparency opens up into a much wider vista than the reader ever could have anticipated.”—Darrin M. McMahon, Dartmouth College“Glass is something we rarely look at, transparency something we almost never achieve. Daniel Jütte’s novel account of their fraught entanglement from ancient Rome to the present is a tour de force: lucid, surprising, and consistently illuminating.”—David Armitage, Harvard University“This enthralling book opens a window onto windows: what they’re made of and what they mean. The long history of piercing walls to let in light is rich in lessons about the aesthetics of light and shadow, the politics of privacy and publicity, and the economics of glitzy glass—whether in the stained glass of a medieval cathedral or the reflecting glass of a soaring skyscraper. Daniel Jütte’s long history of transparency is an object lesson in how matter can become metaphor.”—Lorraine Daston, director emerita, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science“Astonishingly erudite and global in embrace, Jütte examines a crucial concept across history, both in thought and, more important, embedded concretely—as building material. A remarkable marriage of intellectual and architectural history.”—Peter Baldwin, University of California at Los Angeles“This world history of the glass window across millennia will take you by surprise and make you think about the material bases of one of the key cultural metaphors of our time. An elegant and fascinating book.”—Francesca Trivellato, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton “Daniel Jütte is already known for a brilliant study of thresholds and power in western history. Transparency presents an equally brilliant history of windows and their associations with both surveillance and democracy, from ancient Rome to the present.”—Peter Burke, Emmanuel College, Cambridge “Enthralling. Jütte’s book will make you think differently about Western history, architecture, art, literature, and your very surroundings. Full of surprises, brilliantly conceptualized, impressively researched, a joy to read and feast for the eyes, it ranks among the best works on material history and cultural studies.”—Ulinka Rublack, St. John’s College, Cambridge

    2 in stock

    £28.50

  • The NoState Solution

    Yale University Press The NoState Solution

    Book SynopsisA provocative manifesto, arguing for a new understanding of the Jews’ peoplehoodTrade Review“Trenchant, plangent, and courageous, Daniel Boyarin’s polemic rewrites the ground rules of what has been known for centuries as ‘the Jewish question.’ Any future discussion must take his ’no-state solution’ into account.”—Haun Saussy, University of Chicago“Daniel Boyarin’s book delves into the very heart of what it means to be Jewish in the world today, not as an assertion of exclusiveness but rather as the starting point for a universalist idea about Jewishness drawn from its complicated multifaceted history. The manifesto is thus a provocation to think anew about what constitutes nation, society, culture, and the ultimate goals of cosmopolitan humanistic enquiry. A masterpiece!”—Ato Quayson, author of Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature“In his intrepid manifesto, Daniel Boyarin calls for a Jewish nationalism not sited in a nation-state. Far beyond the Jewish case, it provokes both those who see no more need for national identity and those who insist on a territorial home for each. As unexpected in his arguments as he is witty in his prose, Boyarin is in characteristically good form in this essential new statement.”—Samuel Moyn, Yale University“Daniel Boyarin’s stirring manifesto for a Jewish diaspora nation proposes an expansive anti-statist argument that makes common cause with the freedom of Palestinians and the rights of Black Lives. His rousing call for subaltern solidarity provokes me to ask: how does the ‘no-state’ solution address the claims for an independent nation-state or a bi-national state as articulated by the Palestinian people whose sovereignty has been repeatedly subverted and whose dignity is daily disfigured? Read this daring essay that invites your argument, not your agreement.”—Homi Bhabha, Harvard University

    £19.00

  • A Short History of War

    Yale University Press A Short History of War

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisAn engagingly accessible introduction to war, from ancient times to the present and into the futureTrade Review“Jeremy Black’s extraordinary body of work regularly returns to themes in military history. . . . His latest book distills his achievements as the most prolific historian in the English language into 40 short chapters that describe war from the ancient world to the present day. . . . A Short History of War offers an expansive and often evocative account of great causes that are never lost or won.”—Crawford Gribben, Wall Street Journal“This is a feat of remarkable compression and erudition...Studded with thought-provoking comparisons and insights and offers a handy introduction to the subject, and to Black’s oeuvre.”—Jonathan Boff, Spectator “Black has demonstrated an enormous capacity for the length, breadth and depth of global military history which will prompt readers to explore further into campaigns they know little about.”—Major General Sir Evelyn Webb-Carter, Aspects of History“This book should be a ‘must read’ for people entering into a study of military history. It will also be a valuable resource for those who already have some broader knowledge in the field or are already possessed of some expertise. This is a book well worth reading more than once, keeping as a reference, and as a start-point for future study.”—Rob Ellis, Royal United Services Institute of Victoria ‘Jeremy Black has somehow managed to condense a vast and complex subject into a very compact and compelling book. His global range, avoidance of repetition of the standard topics, and ability to capture the variety of warfare in all its forms throughout history is truly remarkable.’—Professor Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny ‘This is an excellent overview of the history of war. Highly recommended reading for anyone who wants to understand the evolution of war around the globe from prehistory to the present day.’—Professor Heather Jones, University College London‘This is a truly global survey which amounts to a miracle of compression. Indispensable for students and scholars alike.’— Professor Gary Sheffield, University of Wolverhampton

    2 in stock

    £12.88

  • Unmentionable

    Little, Brown & Company Unmentionable

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisHave you ever wished you could live in an earlier, more romantic era? Ladies, welcome to the 19th century, where there''s arsenic in your face cream, a pot of cold pee sits under your bed, and all of your underwear is crotchless. (Why? Shush, dear. A lady doesn''t question.) UNMENTIONABLE is your hilarious, illustrated, scandalously honest (yet never crass) guide to the secrets of Victorian womanhood, giving you detailed advice on: ~ What to wear ~ Where to relieve yourself ~ How to conceal your loathsome addiction to menstruating ~ What to expect on your wedding night ~ How to be the perfect Victorian wife ~ Why masturbating will kill you ~ And moreIrresistibly charming, laugh-out-loud funny, and featuring nearly 200 images from Victorian publications, UNMENTIONABLE will inspire a whole new level of respect for Elizabeth Bennett, Scarlet O''Hara, Jane Eyre, and all of our great, great grandmothers. (And it just might leave you feeling ecstaticallygrateful to live in an age of pants, super absorbency tampons, epidurals, anti-depressants, and not-dying-of-the-syphilis-your-husband-brought-home.)

    1 in stock

    £13.49

  • A History in Fragments

    Little, Brown Book Group A History in Fragments

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe problem with the history of twentieth-century Europe is that everyone thinks they know it. The great stories of the century - the two world wars, the rise and fall of Nazism and communism, female emancipation - seem self-evidently important. But behind the grand narratives, the politics and the ideologies, lies another history: the history of forces that shaped the lives of individual Europeans.That is the thrust of Richard Vinen''s magisterial survey of this uniquely destructive and creative century. It argues that there is no single history that encompasses the experience of all Europeans, but rather a multiplicity of different, partially interlocking, histories. Some of these histories are told here in a book which seeks to root the generalisations of large-scale analysis in the concrete - and sometimes incongruous - details of individual lives. Challenging, informing and revealing, this is history writing at its finest.Trade ReviewFascinating and immensely readable...often sums up key moments in soundbite phrases that imprint themselves beautifully on the memory. * GLASGOW SUNDAY HERALD *Beautifully written, and can be confidently recommended to anyone seeking to make sense of our recent history. * DAILY TELEGRAPH *A master of telling fact and illuminating insight, Vinen somehow manages to be both opinionated and objective. * Andrew Roberts *I admired [A HISTORY IN FRAGMENTS] very much indeed. It struck me as a tour de force, as impressive in its collation of little-known facts as in its presentation of fresh and always intelligent interpretation. * Anthony Howard *

    2 in stock

    £15.29

  • Free Speech and Why It Matters

    Little, Brown Book Group Free Speech and Why It Matters

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis''Impassioned, scholarly and succinct'' The TimesFREE SPEECH AND WHY IT MATTERSFree speech is the bedrock of all our liberties, and yet in recent years it has come to be mistrusted. A new form of social justice activism, which perceives language as potentially violent, has prompted a national debate on where the limitations of acceptable speech should be drawn. Governments throughout Europe have enacted ''hate speech'' legislation to curb the dissemination of objectionable ideas, Silicon Valley tech giants are collaborating to ensure that they control the limitations of public discourse, and campaigners in the US are calling for revisions to the First Amendment.However well-intentioned, these trends represent a threat to the freedoms that our ancestors fought and died to secure. In this incisive and fascinating book, Andrew Doyle addresses head-on the most common concerns of free speech sceptics, and offers a timely and robust defence of this most foundational of principles.Trade ReviewImpassioned, scholarly and succinct -- Dominic Maxwell * The Times *The primer that we have been needing for some time * Areo magazine *A fantastically timely book written by one of the smartest thinkers in Britain * Piers Morgan *A powerful, timely and sadly necessary book * Richard Dawkins *Doyle's book is terse, restrained, and as carefully argued as a QC's summing-up in a top-drawer courtroom drama . . . a beautifully balanced and comprehensive overview * The Critic *

    2 in stock

    £9.49

  • Taylor & Francis Ltd Understanding the Victorians

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisUnderstanding the Victorians paints a vivid portrait of an era of dramatic change, combining broad survey with close analysis and introducing students to the critical debates on the nineteenth century taking place among historians today. The volume encompasses all of Great Britain and Ireland over the whole of the Victorian period and gives prominence to social and cultural topics alongside politics and economics and emphasizes class, gender, and racial and imperial positioning as constitutive of human relations. This third edition is fully updated with new chapters on emotion and on Britain's relationship with Europe as well as added discussions of architecture, technology, and the visual arts. Attention to the current concerns and priorities of professional historians also enables readers to engage with today's historical debates. Starting with the Queen Caroline Affair in 1820 and coming up to the start of World War I in 1914, thematic chapters explore the topics Table of ContentsList of figures Timeline Preface to the third edition Acknowledgments Introduction: ‘Playing on the Piano-forte’ 1. A ‘green and pleasant land’ of cities and slums: Space 2. ‘Discussions on the subject of reform’: Politics 3. 'Fog in channel—Continent isolated’: Britain and Europe 4. Ruling the world: Imperialism 5. Wealth, poverty, growth, and slumps: The economy 6. ‘Bristling with shops’: Consumption 7. ‘Born into the lower-upper-middle’: Class 8. ‘Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside’: Leisure 9. ‘A common cause with all the females in this kingdom’: Gender 10. A ‘dignified part’: Monarchy 11. ‘The court was crowded all day’: The law and the police 12. ‘Good, murderous melodramas’: Arts, entertainment, and print culture 13. Marriage, free love, and ‘unnatural crimes’: Sexuality 14. 'For all its gathered tears': Emotion 15. ‘Begin and end with the Church whatever you do between-whiles’: Religion 16. Vestiges and origins: Science, technology, and medicine

    15 in stock

    £35.99

  • AngloDutch Connections in the Early Modern World

    Taylor & Francis AngloDutch Connections in the Early Modern World

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis ground-breaking collection reveals the networks of interrelation between Early Modern England and the Dutch Republic. As people, ideas and goods moved back and forth across the North Sea or spread further afield in the vanguard of globalisation and empire Anglo-Dutch relations shaped all aspects of life, with profound implications still relevant today.A diverse range of expert scholars share new research in their discipline, ranging across technology, trade, politics, religion and the arts. Different aspects of this history of competition, alliance, migration and conflict are taken up by each chapter, providing the reader with detailed case studies as well as the broader background and its historical roots. Anglo-Dutch Connections in the Early Modern World aims to be both accessible and innovative. It will be essential to students and researchers interested in European politics, intellectual history, and shared Anglo-Dutch society, while showcasing current resea

    2 in stock

    £37.99

  • Capital Ideas

    John Wiley & Sons Inc Capital Ideas

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisCAPITAL IDEAS Capital Ideas traces the origins of modern Wall Street, from the pioneering work of early scholars and the development of new theories in risk, valuation, and investment returns, to the actual implementation of these theories in the real world of investment management.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments. Introduction: The Revolution in the Wealth of Nations. PART I: SETTING THE SCENE. Chapter 1. Are Stock Prices Predictable? PART II: THE WHOLE AND THE PARTS. Chapter 2. Fourteen Pages to Fame. Chapter 3. The Interior Decorator Fallacy. Chapter 4. The Most Important Single Influence. PART III: THE DEMON OF CHANCE. Chapter 5. Illusions, Molecules, and Trends. Chapter 6. Anticipating Prices Properly. Chapter 7. The Search for High P.Q. PAR IV: WHAT ARE STOCKS WORTH? Chapter 8. The Best at the Price. Chapter 9. The Bombshell Assertions. Chapter 10. Risky Business. Chapter 11. The Universal Financial Device. PART V: FROM GOWN TO TOWN. Chapter 12. The constellation. Chapter 13. The Accountant for Risk. Chapter 14. The Ultimate Invention. PART VI: THE FUTURE. Chapter 15. The View form the Top of the Tower. Notes. Bibliography and Other Sources. Name Index. Subject Index.

    1 in stock

    £16.20

  • High Society

    Thames & Hudson Ltd High Society

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisA global history of intoxication, exploring the international spectrum of drug use in cultures across the world, from prehistory to the present day. Every society is a high society. Every day, people drink coffee on European terraces, chew betel nut in Indonesian markets, take coca leaf on Andean mountainsides and smoke tobacco in every nation on earth. Mike Jay's global history of intoxication looks at the earliest archaeological evidence of drug use, the botanicals of the classical world, the mind-bending self-experiments of early scientists and today's war on drugs'. In High Society Jay paints vivid portraits of the roles that drugs play as medicines, religious sacraments, status symbols and trade goods. He traces the understanding of intoxicants from prehistory to the present, and reveals how the international trade in substances such as tobacco, tea and opium shaped the modern world. First published to accompany the highly successful exhibition at the Wellcome Collection,

    2 in stock

    £11.69

  • Undocumented Politics  Place Gender and the

    University of California Press Undocumented Politics Place Gender and the

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review"Undocumented Politics provides rich theoretical advances to literature on transnational political strategies, the role of local-level contexts, and immigrant 'illegality.' . . . a powerful read that contributes to the literature on international migration, undocumented immigrants, and gender." * ILR Review *"I highly recommend this engaging and elegant monograph, suitable for students and researchers of migration and borders." * American Journal of Sociology *"Andrews has delivered an insightful, well-researched exposition on Mexican migration in the United States. . . . Undocumented Politics successfully showcases the ways that undocumented migrant women have self-advocated, despite their lack of access to legal and electoral outlets of political activism." * California History *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Legacies of (In)Equity 2. “Illegality” under Two Local Modes of Control 3. Stoicism and Striving in the Face of Exclusion 4. Cross-Border Fights, Rifts, and Ties 5. Pathways to Hometown Change Conclusion Methodological Appendix: Listening to Difference Notes References Index

    2 in stock

    £22.50

  • The Sacred Wood Essays on Poetry and Criticism

    Faber & Faber The Sacred Wood Essays on Poetry and Criticism

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis seminal book, Eliot''s first collection of literary criticism, appeared in London in 1920, two years before The Waste Land. It contains some of his most influential early essays and reviews, among them ''Tradition and the Individual Talent'', ''Hamlet and his Problems'', and Eliot''s thoughts on Marlowe, Jonson and Massinger, as well as his first tribute to Dante. Many of his most famous critical pronouncements come from the pages of The Sacred Wood.Reviewing his career as a critic in 1961 Eliot wrote that ''in my earlier criticism, both in my general affirmations about poetry and in writing about authors who influenced me, I was implicitly defending the sort of poetry that I and my friends wrote. This gave my essays a kind of urgency, the warmth of appeal of the advocate, which my later, more detached and I hope more judicial essays cannot claim.'' This urgency is still apparent more than eighty years after the essays first appeared.

    2 in stock

    £10.44

  • Bring the Noise

    Faber & Faber Bring the Noise

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisFrom Morrissey and Nick Cave to The Streets and Kanye West, this is the book that explores the links between hip-hop and rock. Reynolds has focused on two strands: white alternative rock and black street music. He''s identified the strange dance of white bohemian rock and black culture, how they come together at various points and then go their own way. Through interviews he has carried out as a top music journalist for the last twenty years Reynolds is here able to tell a story of musical rivalry which no-one has told before.The approach is similar to Rip It Up and Start Again: a cultural history told through the music we love and the stars and movements that have shaped the world we live in.

    2 in stock

    £17.00

  • Iconicon

    Faber & Faber Iconicon

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisA captivating exploration of Britain's most iconic contemporary buildings, from the Barratt home to the Millennium Dome.***TIMES BOOK OF THE WEEK*** ''A punchy polemic ... Highly readable.''''A love letter to contemporary buildings and a fantastic account of recent British history, rich in humour.'' NINA STIBBE''Brilliant, encyclopaedic, funny and often cutting.'' DANNY DORLINGAn eloquent, witty, passionate tour of Britain since the 1980s.' JOHN BOUGHTON''Recounts the stories of our lived landscapes with wit, passion and a shot of anger.' TOM DYCKHOFF''Grindrod has spoken to everyone and his observations are humane and acute.'' OWEN HATHERLEYWimpey homes. Millennium monuments. Riverside flats. Wind farms. Spectacular skyscrapers. City centre apartments. Out of town malls.The buildings designed in our lifetimes encapsulate the dreams and aspirations of our culture, while alsTrade Review'Wonderful . . . a new way of looking at modern Britain.', Independent on Sunday, on CONCRETOPIA'About the best history of the intersection of post-war architecture and politics that you could hope for.', Owen Hatherley, on CONCRETOPIA

    2 in stock

    £10.44

  • Access All Areas

    Faber & Faber Access All Areas

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis** PRE-ORDER LENNY HENRY''S NEW AUTOBIOGRAPHY RISING TO THE SURFACE NOW ** Sir Lenny Henry rang up the Office for National Statistics to confirm something he'd been thinking about for a long time. They told him that only 29.5% of the United Kingdom's population is made up of white, heterosexual, able-bodied men; so, he wonders, why do they still make up the vast majority of people we see in our media?Joining forces with the former Chair of the Royal Television Society's Diversity Committee Marcus Ryder, he draws on decades of experience to reveal why recent efforts to diversify media have been thus far ineffective, and why they are simply not enough. With wit, humour and unflinching gravitas they analyse the flaws of current diversity initiatives, point out the structural and financial imbalances working against the cause, and provide clear solutions to get the media industry back on track.Access All Areas is an urgent, actionable manifesto that

    2 in stock

    £7.59

  • Teenage

    Faber & Faber Teenage

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisONE OF DAVID BOWIE''S TOP 100 MUST READ BOOKSTHE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE 2013 DOCUMENTARY FILM TEENAGEWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FROM THE AUTHORThe acclaimed history of the century and a half of ferment, folly and angst that resulted in the arrival of the teenager' in 1945, from award-winning, Sunday Times bestselling author Jon Savage. ''One of Britain''s most trusted cultural historians.''THE FACERinging with music, from ragtime to swing, Teenage roams London, New York, Paris and Berlin with hooligans and Apaches; explores free love and eternal youth; meets flappers and zootsuiters, the Bright Young People and the Lost Generation. The stories come fast and furious, comic, poignant, painfully moving; Savage fuses popular culture, politics and social history into a stunning chronicle of modern life. ''Compulsive reading . . . a rich, rewarding book that makes an important contribution to cultural histo

    1 in stock

    £11.69

  • Hollywood

    Faber & Faber Hollywood

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisEssential . . . thrilling . . . invaluable.' Irish TimesAbsorbing . . . rippling with fun and atmosphere.' Sight & SoundHollywood''s ultimate oral history.' New YorkerThe greatest conversation in the history of Hollywood.From the archives of the American Film Institute comes a unique picture of what it was like to work in Hollywood from its beginnings to its present day. Hollywood: The Oral History, lets a reader listen in' on candid remarks from the biggest names in front of the camera Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Jane Fonda, Harold Lloyd the biggest behind it Frank Capra, Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Jordan Peele, as well as the musicians, writers, sound men, editors, make-up artists, and even script timers, messengers, and publicists who shaped what was heard and seen on screen.Legendary film scholar Jeanine Basinger and New York Times bestselling author Sam Wasson have undertaken the monumental task of weaving these thousands of hours of talk into a conversation that is lively, funny, insightful, historically accurate and authentically honest in its portrait of workaday Hollywood.

    1 in stock

    £17.09

  • The Making of Modern British Politics

    John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Making of Modern British Politics

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe third edition of this successful text has been revised to include a new chapter on the politics of the Second World War, and to reflect recent developments in research into the period. Third edition of this insightful survey of changes in British politics Now extended to cover the politics of the Second World War and the election of 1945 Extensively revised in the light of recent research Looks at the Labour Party''s evolution into a national rather than sectional party Includes updated suggestions for further reading Trade Review"Is to be welcomed. This is a textbook of a superior sort as Pugh disavows the attempt to be a neutral assessor of the work of others and imposes his own interpretation upon the period. This leads to a clearer understanding of events." History Today - of the previous edition "A commanding synthesis ... succeeds brilliantly in finding the right voice to explain what matters now." London Review of Books - of the previous edition "Excellent book, by far the best of its kind on this period ... impressively lucid and consistent ... a remarkable book which will stimulate teachers as well as students for years to come." Society for the Study of Labour History Bulletin - of the previous editionTable of ContentsList of Tables viii List of Illustrations x Preface xi Part One 1867–1900 1 1 Party and Participation 1867–1900 3 Voting and Non-voting 4 Electoral Practice and Malpractice 10 The Rise of the Party Activist 14 Party, Parliament and the ‘Independent Member’ 17 2 The Evolution of the Gladstonian Liberal Party 1867–1895 22 Liberalism, Reform and Religion 23 The Building Blocks of Liberalism 25 The Programme versus the Single Issue 30 1886: The Radicalization of the Party 35 3 The Conservative Revival 1874–1900 42 The Impact of Middle-class Conservatism 44 Organizing the Democracy 48 Tradition and Change 51 Salisbury and Liberal Unionism 54 The State and Social Reform 59 4 The Social Roots of Political Change in Late Victorian Britain 65 Trends and Issues 66 Rural Radicalism 70 Working-class Politics and Socialists 73 Women, Politics and Labour 78 Working-class Conservatism, Empire and Patriotism 80 The Lower Middle Class 86 Part Two 1895–1914 89 5 The Edwardian Crises 1895–1914 91 The Waning of Radicalism 91 Liberal Imperialism 96 ‘National Efficiency’ and Tariff Reform 99 The Crisis of Conservatism 103 6 Edwardian Progressivism 107 Origins of the New Liberalism 107 The Politics of the Pact 1903–1914 115 Edwardian Labourism 123 The Workers and State Welfare 129 7 The Electoral Struggle 1906–1914 130 The Containment of Labour 131 The Franchise Factor 135 Regional Political Culture 138 The Unions, MacDonald and the Pact 1911–1914 141 Part Three 1914–1920s 147 8 The Impact of the Great War on British Politics 149 The Disintegration of the Progressive Alliance 1914–1916 151 Lloyd George and the Conservatives 1916–1918 153 Labour’s Change of Course 158 The Coupon Election of 1918 161 9 Patriotism, Ideology and the State in the Great War 165 Laissez-faire and Interventionism 166 Labour’s Socialist Commitment and the Liberal Inheritance 168 The Working Class, the State and Patriotism 171 Conservatism, Capitalism and the State 1914–1922 173 Part Four 1918–1945 179 10 The Elevation of Labour and the Restoration of Party Politics 1918–1931 181 The Fragmentation of the Coalition 181 The New Strategy 1922 183 Baldwin and Normality 1923 186 MacDonaldism and Socialism 188 The Rise and Fall of the Second Labour Government 194 11 Origins of the Conservative Electoral Hegemony 1918–1931 199 The Impact of the Electoral System 199 The Conservatives and the Constituencies 203 Labour’s Grass Roots 1918–1929 207 Women in Inter-war Politics 211 The General Strike and the Realignment of the Working Class 213 The Election of 1931 220 12 From the National Government to the Popular Front 1931–1939 222 The National Government and Liberal Toryism 222 The Threat from the British Union of Fascists 229 Labour, Socialism and Keynesianism 233 The Left, Rearmament and Public Opinion 235 The General Election of 1935 238 Labour and the Popular Front 1936–1939 240 13 The Politics of the ‘People’s War’ 1939–1945 243 The Churchill Coalition 243 Public Opinion and the Swing to the Left 247 Consensus Politics 249 The Labour Landslide of 1945 251 Conclusions 255 Notes 258 Guide to Further Reading 267 Index 283

    1 in stock

    £31.30

  • Penguin Books Ltd Georgian London Into the Streets

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisTakes readers on a tour of London's most formative age - the age of love, sex, intellect, art, great ambition and fantastic ruin. This book is about the Georgians who called London their home, from dukes and artists to rent boys and hot air balloonists meeting dog-nappers and life-models along the way.Trade ReviewJam-packed with unusual insights and facts about Georgian London. A great read from a talented new historian * Independent *Inglis writes colourfully and engagingly, and offers plenty of odd facts and amusing vignettes * Economist *Full of neat character portraits and engaging plots * Financial Times *Pacy, superbly researched. The real sparkle lies in its relentless cavalcade of insightful anecdotes . . . There's much to treasure here * Londonist *Read and be amazed by a city you thought you knew -- Jonathan Foyle, World Monuments FundFun, fast and factual . . . Lucy Inglis offers, without breaking stride, a delicious panorama of people, quiddities and oddities * Evening Standard *Inglis has a good ear for the outlandish, the farcical, the bizarre and the macabre. A wonderful popular history of Hanoverian London * London Historians *The Georgians had enough scandal and drama going on to fill a dozen tabloid papers. The rather-fit Lucy Inglis crams it all into this startling book which will have you pining for a taste of those debauched days * Sunday Sport *From the Great Fire in 1666 and the covering of the old 'Ditch' where the Fleet river once ran, to the creation of Westminster Bridge, the British Museum and the National Gallery, Lucy Inglis gives us an entertaining romp through well-known parts of London * Who Do You Think You Are? *Lucy Inglis leaves no stone unturned, no coffeehouse unvisited and no dark alley unexplored . . . a dazzling tapestry of 18th-century London life emerges. Lively, engaging, fascinating, humorous * BBC History *[An] engaging and industrious survey of life in Georgian London * TLS *Reading Lucy Inglis's brisk, astringent and highly amusing tour around various quarters of Hanoverian London on Boxing Day is the ideal antidote to the excesses of Christmas and will keep you snugly entertained in your armchair for hours * History Today, 'Books of the Year' *Anyone who is interested in history and our great capital city will be gripped by Georgian London. This book is full of enjoyable nuggets * Soane Magazine *Inglis describes a city that was just beginning to become modern, with all its colourful high and low life * Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society *

    2 in stock

    £12.34

  • The Cat in Ancient Egypt

    British Museum Press The Cat in Ancient Egypt

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisCats can be seen in ancient Egyptian homes, temples and adorning the heads of their gods. Cats in Egypt were probably domesticated by around 4,000 BC from wild ancestors. Over the following centuries, they became popular household pets. In this book, Dr Malek draws on a vast range of artistic and written sources to show how cats became one of the most widely esteemed and revered animals in Egypt.Table of ContentsRunning free: the wild cats; Together at last: the domestic cats; A poor man's lion: the divine cats; Pride goes before a fall: the story cats; Buried with full honours: the mummified cats; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.

    2 in stock

    £10.44

  • Swindled From Poison Sweets to Counterfeit Coffee

    John Murray Press Swindled From Poison Sweets to Counterfeit Coffee

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisBad food has a history. Swindled tells it.Trade Review'Meticulously researched and fascinating to read, Swindled is guaranteed to give you food for thought' * Daily Express *'A wonderully written, thrilling rollercoaster of a book . . . A must-read: loaded with flavour, it is a satisfying rich stew of savoury details and meaty chunks of information - nourishment for the mind' * Sunday Telegraph *'Riveting . . . If ever a book could convince you that the only food worth eating is that which you have scrupulously shopped for in reputable local shops and cooked yourself from scratch, it is this one' * Daily Mail *'Bee Wilson is not only an able historian but a food writer with a passion rooted very much in the present. She wants to shake us awake, to make us look afresh at the food we eat. She does so triumphantly . . . erudite and entertaining . . . Wilson is a fervent lover of food but Swindled is not blind polemic . . . It is her considered and often humorous approach that makes this book so successful' * Sunday Times *'[Bee Wilson's] intellectual rigour and disciplined research skills prove a great match with her seamless and engaging writing - she manages to bring history alive, and leaves you wanting more' * Time Out *'Gripping reading - don't miss it' * Sainsbury's Magazine *'Lively and well-argued' * Sunday Express *'Engrossing' * Financial Times *'A cautionary tale, it provides ample food for thought' * Tatler *'Wilson brings a humorous touch to the history of swindlers who have tampered with our food' * Oxford Times *

    1 in stock

    £9.99

  • Volkswagen Beetle 804 Shire Library

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Volkswagen Beetle 804 Shire Library

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisFew cars have achieved the iconic status of Volkswagen's classic and much-loved Beetle yet its origins are intertwined with the dark days of Nazism. This book looks at those origins, at the marque's initial post-war rescue by the British and the effect of early VW Director General Heinz Nordhoff's forward-looking desire to perfect one model rather than spread the company's talent over a range of designs, at the impact of radical-minded advertising campaigns and at the Beetle's never-to-be-beaten production record for a single model of nearly 22 million cars. Bringing the reader right up to the present day, marque expert Richard A. Copping recounts the Beetle's story in a lively and authoritative manner guaranteed to delight devotee and casual browser alike.Table of ContentsIntroduction / A Car for the Masses: 1933–45 / A British Volkswagen: 1945–8 / The ‘King of Wolfsburg’: 1948–68 / Poor Management and New Beetles: 1968–78 / The Lasting Legacy: 1978–2003 and Beyond / Further Reading / Places to Visit / Index

    1 in stock

    £8.99

  • A 1950s Irish Childhood

    The History Press Ltd A 1950s Irish Childhood

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA nostalgic look at a turbulent and character-defining decade in Irish history

    1 in stock

    £11.69

  • A History of Ocean Liners in 50 Objects

    The History Press Ltd A History of Ocean Liners in 50 Objects

    2 in stock

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

    2 in stock

    £17.00

  • Piccadilly

    The History Press Ltd Piccadilly

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe first book to chart the hedonistic history of London's Piccadilly

    1 in stock

    £17.00

  • Tangled Souls

    The History Press Ltd Tangled Souls

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe glittering, poignant and sometimes shocking story of the love affair between two members of the Souls, the group of unconventional aristocrats at the heart of late Victorian societyTrade ReviewWith painstaking skill, Dismore lays bare the double standards of the Souls - a brilliant group who thought themselves superior, in morals and intellect, to the rest of their class -- Artemis Cooper, author of Patrick Leigh Fermor: An AdventureHarry Cust has long needed to emerge from the shadows. A rich tapestry unfolds -- Hugo Vickers, author of The Sphinx: The Life of Gladys Deacon – Duchess of MarlboroughBrilliant ... Through original research, Dismore has crafted an upper-class soap opera to rival Downton Abbey and The Crown -- Lyndsy Spence, The Lady

    3 in stock

    £17.00

  • The Prison Service in Britain

    The History Press Ltd The Prison Service in Britain

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisContaining 200 archive images from the NCCL Galleries of Justice in Nottingham, this book is intended for those with an interest in the history of prisons and prison life in Britain from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.

    1 in stock

    £12.34

  • The History Press Ltd Kindly Folk and Bonny Boats

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA pictorial appreciation of the boats and fishing communities of Scotland and North-East England from the 1950s to the present. Gloria Wilson''s unique collection of photographs has never been published before. With information on boat design and construction, it includes some rarely seen naval architects'' line plans. From attractive Scottish wooden-hulled craft to recent steel boats, and with many shore scenes including Mallaig herring port, Peterhead harbour reconstruction, fish auctions and fishermen net and boat-building, this book offers a glimpse into a bygone age. Finally, it considers the work being done to balance fish conservation with profitable fishing, a pressing issue for the fishing industry of the twenty-first century.

    1 in stock

    £13.49

  • Scotlands Malt Whisky Distilleries

    The History Press Ltd Scotlands Malt Whisky Distilleries

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe author, responsible for marketing of the Famous Grouse for fifteen years, has been in a unique position to record the decline of the malt distillery and also to look at the remaining distilleries and explain why they survive today. The story is one of politics, taxation, social history, location, supply and demand and sheer perseverance on the part of some. Illustrated with around 175 colour illustrations of distilleries old and new, and of the processes involved in the manufacture of Scotland''s biggest single export.

    2 in stock

    £17.00

  • The Motherland Calls

    The History Press Ltd The Motherland Calls

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisDuring the Second World War, black volunteers from across the British Empire enthusiastically joined the armed forces and played their part in fighting Nazi Germany and its allies.

    2 in stock

    £12.34

  • A Lady of Cotton

    The History Press Ltd A Lady of Cotton

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn 1789 Hannah Lightbody, a well-educated and intelligent young woman of means, married Samuel Greg and found herself at the centre of his cotton empire in the industrial heart of England. Over the next four decades she fought to improve the education, health and welfare of cotton girls and pauper apprentices at the mill.

    1 in stock

    £13.49

  • The Boot Room Boys The Unseen Story of Anfields

    Ebury Publishing The Boot Room Boys The Unseen Story of Anfields

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisNow also a new documentary film written and presented by Peter Hooton, The Boot Room Boys - BT Sport April 2022.The Boot Room story starts in 1959 when Bill Shankly arrived and converted a 12 x 12 storage room into a meeting place for him and his coaches, a move that had momentous consequences, both for the Club and British football. Fans on the Kop will remember the heart-stopping extra time of the 1965 FA Cup Final, and the jubilation of winning the treble in 1984. But what was the common thread during Liverpool''s glory years? It was the Boot Room. Lifelong Liverpool supporter and editor of legendary fanzine The End, Peter Hooton takes us back into that old storage room, where first Shankly, then in succession Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish drank tea, analysed, strategised, selected and deselected, and built the most successful British club in Europe in the 20th Century. Illustrated throughout with over 100 powerful never-before-seen images from the Mirror''s forgotten archives, The Boot Room Boys captures the story, as it unfolded, of Liverpool''s conquering heroes.

    1 in stock

    £22.10

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