Search results for ""Reaktion Books""
Reaktion Books Gilded Youth: Privilege, Rebellion and the British Public School
The British public school is an iconic institution, a training ground for the ruling elite and a symbol of national identity and tradition. But beyond the elegant architecture and evergreen playing fields is a turbulent history of teenage rebellion, sexual dissidence, and political radicalism. James Brooke-Smith wades into the wilder shores of public-school life over the last three hundred years in Gilded Youth. He uncovers armed mutinies in the late eighteenth century, a Victorian craze for flagellation, dandy-aesthetes of the 1920s, quasi-scientific discourse on masturbation, Communist scares in the 1930s, and the salacious tabloid scandals of the present day.Drawing on personal experience, extensive research, and public school representations in poetry, school slang, spy films, popular novels, and rock music, Brooke-Smith offers a fresh account of upper-class adolescence in Britain and the role of elite private education in shaping youth culture. He shows how this central British institution has inspired a counterculture of artists, intellectuals, and radicals — from Percy Shelley and George Orwell to Peter Gabriel and Richard Branson — who have rebelled against both the schools themselves and the wider society for which they stand.
£22.50
Reaktion Books Leonardo da Vinci: Self Art and Nature
Published to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death, this incisive and illuminating biography follows the three themes that shaped the life of Leonardo and forever changed Western art and imagination: nature, art and self-fashioning. Leonardo spent his childhood in the Tuscan countryside among farm workers before entering the most reputed artistic workshop of Florence. There he bloomed as one of the leading painters of his time, and began applying his skills to explore and question the world. By the 1480s he had transformed himself into an ideal court artist and was a familiar of kings; by the 1510s he left behind him the solemn image of a magus philosopher. Following the chronology of his life, Leonardo da Vinci: Self, Art and Nature examines Leonardo as artist, courtier and thinker, and explores how these aspects found expression in his paintings, as well as his work in sculpture, architecture, theatre design, urban planning, engineering, anatomy, geology and cartography. It concludes with observations on Leonardo's relevance today as a multidisciplinary artist, one who combined imagination and science to shape his own self and the world.
£17.95
Reaktion Books Birch
Elegant and beautiful, rich in history and supremely useful, birches have played an extraordinary yet largely unrecognized part in shaping both our natural environment and the material culture and beliefs of millions of people around the world. For thousands of years they have given people of the northern forests and beyond raw materials in the form of leaves, twigs, branches and bark, as well as wood and sap, not simply to survive but to flourish and express their identity in practical and spiritual ways. Tough, waterproof and flexible, birch bark has been used for everything from basketry and clothing to housing and transport, musical instruments and medicines, as well as a means to communicate and record sacred beliefs: some of our most ancient Buddhist texts and other historic documents are written on birch bark. Birches have not only shaped regional cultures – creating, for example, the Native American wigwam and the birch bark canoe – but continue to supply raw materials of global economic importance today. Birch explores the multiple uses of these versatile trees as well as the ancient beliefs and folklore with which they are associated. Richly illustrated, this book presents a fascinating overview of their cultural and ecological significance, from botany to literature and art, as Anna Lewington looks both at the history of birches and what the future may hold in store for them.
£18.00
Reaktion Books Coffee: A Global History
Coffee is a global beverage: it is grown commercially on four continents, and consumed enthusiastically in all seven. There is even an Italian espresso machine on the International Space Station. Coffee's journey has taken it from the forests of Ethiopia to the fincas of Latin America, from Ottoman coffee houses to `Third Wave' cafes, and from the simple coffee pot to the capsule machine. In Coffee: A Global History, Jonathan Morris explains how the world acquired a taste for coffee, yet why coffee tastes so different throughout the world. Morris discusses who drank coffee, as well as why and where, how it was prepared and what it tasted like. He identifies the regions and ways in which coffee was grown, who worked the farms and who owned them, and how the beans were processed, traded and transported. He also analyses the businesses behind coffee - the brokers, roasters and machine manufacturers - and dissects the geopolitics linking producers to consumers. Written in an engaging style, and featuring wonderful recipes, stories and facts, this book will fascinate foodies, food historians and the many people who regard the humble coffee bean as a staple of modern life.
£12.99
Reaktion Books Food on the Move: Dining on the Legendary Railway Journeys of the World
All aboard for a delicious ride on nine legendary railway journeys! Meals associated with train travel have been an important aspect of railway history for more than a century - from dinners in dining cars to lunches at station buffets to foods purchased from platform vendors. For many travellers, the experience of eating on a railway journey is often a highlight of the trip, a major part of the `romance of the rails'. Food on the Move focuses on the culinary history of these famous journeys on five continents, from the earliest days of rail travel to the present. The engaging story and vivid illustrations invite readers to discover an array of railway feasts: haute cuisine in the elegant dining carriages of the Orient Express, American steak-and-eggs on the Santa Fe Super Chief, and home-cooked regional foods along the Trans-Siberian tracks. Readers will be tempted to eat their way across Canada's vast interior and Australia's dusty Outback; grab an infamous `British railway sandwich' to munch on the Flying Scotsman; snack on spicy samosas on the Darjeeling Himalayan `Toy Train'; dine at high speed on Japan's `Bullet Train'; and sip South African wines in a Blue Train luxury lounge car featuring windows of glass fused with gold dust. Written by eight different authors who have travelled on those legendary lines, the book include recipes, from the dining cars and station eateries, taken from historical menus and contributed by contemporary chefs. Food on the Move is a veritable feast!
£31.50
Reaktion Books Isaac Newton and Natural Philosophy
Isaac Newton is generally regarded as one of the greatest scientists in history, yet the spectrum of his interests was much broader than that of a contemporary scientist. He was deeply involved in alchemical, religious and biblical studies, and in the later part of his life he played a prominent role in British politics, economics and the promotion of scientific research. Newton's pivotal work Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica, which sets out his laws of universal gravitation and motion, is regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science. Niccolo Guicciardini's enlightening biography offers an accessible introduction to Newton's celebrated work in mathematics, optics and astronomy and to how Newton viewed these scientific fields in relation to his quest for the deepest secrets of the universe, matter theory and religion. Guicciardini sets Newton the natural philosopher in the troubled context of the religious and political debates that took place during Newton's life, which spanned from the years of the Civil War to the Restoration, the Glorious Revolution and the Hanoverian succession. Taking into account the latest Newtonian scholarship, this fast-paced biography will appeal to all those with an interest in this iconic figure and the great scientific revolution of the early modern period.
£17.95
Reaktion Books Hinterland: America's New Landscape of Class and Conflict
Over the last forty years, the landscape of the United States has been fundamentally transformed. It is partially visible in the ascendance of glittering, coastal hubs for finance, infotech and the so-called `creative class’. But this is only the tip of an economic iceberg, the bulk of which lies in the darkness of the declining heartland or on the dimly lit fringe of sprawling cities. This is America’s Hinterland, populated by towering grain-threshing machines and hunched farmworkers, where labourers drawn from every corner of the world crowd into factories and `fulfilment centres’. Driven by an ever-expanding crisis, America’s class structure is recomposing itself in new geographies of race, poverty and production. Drawing on his direct experience of recent popular unrest, Phil A. Neel provides a close-up view of this landscape in all its grim but captivating detail, and tells the intimate story of a life lived within America’s hinterland
£15.95
Reaktion Books Empire of Tea: The Asian Leaf that Conquered the World
Tea has a rich and well-documented past. The beverage originated in Asia long before making its way to seventeenth-century London, where it became an exotic, highly sought-after commodity. Over the subsequent two centuries, tea’s powerful psychoactive properties seduced British society, becoming popular across the nation from castle to cottage. Now the world’s most popular drink, tea was one of the first truly global products to find a mass market, with tea drinking now stereotypically associated with British identity. The delicate flavour profile and hot preparation of tea inspired poets, artists and satirists. Tea was embroiled in controversy, from the gossip of the domestic tea table to the civil disorder occasioned by smuggling and the political scandal of the Boston Tea Party. Based on extensive original research, and now available in paperback, Empire of Tea provides a rich cultural history that explores how the British `way of tea’ became the norm across the Anglophone world.
£19.17
Reaktion Books Gifts of the Gods: A History of Food in Greece
What do we think about when we think of Greek food? For many, it is the meze and traditional plates of a typical Greek island taverna from summer holidays or from Greek restaurants at home. This book takes us into and beyond the taverna to offer us a unique, comprehensive history of the foods of Greece. Andrew and Rachel Dalby discuss how the land was first settled, what was grown, and how certain fruits, herbs and vegetables came to be identified. Moving through prehistorical and classical Greece, and the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires, they explore the variety of Greek foods among communities outside the national borders as well as the food culture of the regions and islands of Greece itself. Through a synthesis of modern Greek food, with all that it owes to Christianity and to Greeks of the diaspora, they lead us into a discussion of Greek hospitality. Greek food is brimming with thousands of centuries of history, lore and culture. With many superb illustrations, and traditional recipes that blend historical and modern flavours, Gifts of the Gods is a fine account of this rich and ancient cuisine.
£24.75
Reaktion Books The Last of the Light: About Twilight
This ambitious account of the arts of the evening, now available in paperback, deftly combines prose-poetry, memoir, philosophy and art history. Intertwining personal, cultural and artistic histories, it is a richly rewarding book written in a unique voice.
£15.95
Reaktion Books Slums: The History of a Global Injustice
More than half of the world's population now lives in urban areas, but a billion of these people reside in neighbourhoods characterized by entrenched disadvantage. These neighbourhoods, known as 'slums', are often seen as a debilitating and even subversive presence within society. In reality, however, it is often the host societies and their public policies that are at fault. In this comprehensive global history, Alan Mayne explores the evolution and meaning of the word 'slum', from its origins in London in the early nineteenth century to its use to describe favela communities in the lead up to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016. The word 'slum' has been extensively used for two hundred years to condemn and disperse poor communities. Mounting a case for the word's elimination from the language of progressive urban social reform, Slums is a must-read book for all those interested in social history and the importance of these vibrant and vital neighbourhoods.
£27.00
Reaktion Books Berlin
Berlin is a party in a graveyard. It is Europe's youth capital, and its guilty war conscience. It is a disputed construction site, built on the ruins of regimes. Today's diversity - refugees, immigrants, arty expats, East and West - emerges from a history of violence. Berlin is as cutting-edge and contemporary as it is wary of its extreme past. Berlin is a comprehensive short history and portrait of the German capital today. The story of Berlin's vagaries over nine centuries - from a dry place in a bog to the control centre of modern Europe - is expertly portrayed by historian Joseph Pearson. The dynamic present is a palimpsest on this unsettling past. A long-time flaneur of Berlin's streets, Pearson explores how the city's history is visible today in bombsites, museums and industrial club spaces (and a lake hosting a man-nibbling monster). In this book, we find that elements of the city that for some can be unnerving - its emptiness, its provincialism, its ramshackle industrial eclecticism, its sexual freedoms, its confrontation with a murderous past - are precisely what give the city its charge.Pearson poses provocative questions as he reveals the city's many layers and varied neighbourhoods. He argues, ultimately, that Berlin's centrality in European and cultural affairs is only just beginning to be felt.
£15.95
Reaktion Books Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Drawing extensively on Tchaikovsky's uncensored letters and diaries, this biography explores the composer's life in the artistic culture of nineteenth-century Russian society, revealing how he became a figure of international renown. Yet his success came at a price, and Tchaikovsky found the social obligations that his fame entailed burdensome. Setting aside cliches of the composer as a tortured homosexual and naively confessional artist, this engaging biography paints a vivid picture of Tchaikovsky. It contains accessible introductions to his key compositions, as well as suggesting less familiar works for readers to explore, making it essential reading for all those who enjoy classical music.
£12.99
Reaktion Books Edible Flowers: A Global History
Few things in life have as much universal appeal as flowers. But why in the world would anyone eat them? Greek, Roman, Persian, Ottoman, Mayan, Chinese and Indian cooks have all recognized the feast for the senses that flowers brought to their dishes. Today, chefs and adventurous cooks are increasingly using flowers in innovative ways.Edible Flowers is the fascinating history of how flowers have been used in cooking from ancient customs to modern kitchens. It also serves up novel ways to prepare and eat soups, salads, desserts and drinks. Discover something new about the flowers all around you with this surprising history.Constance Kirker is a retired Penn State University professor of art history. Mary Newman has taught at Ohio University and the University of Malta.
£12.99
Reaktion Books A World of Gardens
A Japanese garden is immediately distinct to the eye from the traditional gardens of an English manor house, just as the manicured topiaries of Versailles contrast with the sharp cacti of the American Southwest. Though gardening is beloved the world over, the style of gardens themselves varies from region to region, determined as much by culture as climate. In this series of illustrated essays, John Dixon Hunt takes us on a world tour of different periods in the making of gardens. Hunt shows here how cultural assumptions and local geography have shaped gardens and their meaning. He explores our continuing responses to land and reworkings of the natural world, encompassing a broad range of gardens, from ancient Roman times to early Islamic and Mughal gardens, from Venetian gardens to Chinese and Japanese gardens, as well as the invention of the public park and modern landscape architecture. A World of Gardens looks at key chapters in garden history, reviewing their significance in past and present and tracing the recurrence of different themes and motifs in the design and reception of gardens throughout the world. A World of Gardens celebrates the idea that similar experiences of gardens can be found in many different times and places, including sacred landscapes, scientific gardens, urban gardens, secluded gardens and symbolic gardens. Well illustrated and wide-ranging, this book is a treasure trove of ideas and inspiration.
£25.31
Reaktion Books Tequila: A Global History
With its unique aroma and heady buzz - the perfect accompaniment to even the spiciest tacos - tequila has won its way into drinkers' hearts worldwide. There are few places on earth besides Mexico that have the climate and terrain to evolve the agave plant from which tequila is made, and there are even fewer people who have the patience to wait the seven years or more that it takes 'the tree of marvels' to grow. Tequila is a lively history of this potent and popular drink.Mayans, Olmecs and Aztecs fermented a drink called pulque from the sap of the agave. It was reserved for pregnant women and priests - and their sacrifices. Later the Mexicans began to use distillation to make tequila and mescal and since its humble beginnings as a local firewater, it has exploded into global popularity. Ian Williams visits countless tequila producers, distributors and connoisseurs to tell the story of how tequila started in the agave lands of Mexico, became an icon of youthful inebriation and then developed into a truly artisanal product which today draws the most discerning drinkers. Including recipes for cocktails, as well as advice on the buying, storing, tasting and serving of tequila, mescal and other agave spirits, this book will delight beverage aficionados and anyone interested in the history of Mexico and its unique drinking culture.
£12.99
Reaktion Books Albert Camus
One of France's most high-profile writers, Albert Camus experienced both public adulation and acrimonious rejection in a career cut short by a fatal car accident in 1960. From humble origins in a European family living in colonial Algeria, Camus established himself as a successful novelist, with best-selling titles such as The Outsider and The Plague coming to be translated into scores of languages and earning him a reputation as a figure who captured the mood of the age. It was a world dominated, he reflected ruefully, by war and violence. The Liberation of France towards the end of the Second World War saw him emerge as one of the country's most prominent journalists at the newspaper Combat. But his subsequent position-taking on the Cold War in which, not unlike Orwell, he distanced himself from those sympathetic to the Soviet Union left him adrift from many on the Left in post-war metropolitan France. The worsening conflict in his native Algeria in the mid to late 1950s accentuated his sense of alienation as voices within France increasingly called into question the country's role in North Africa. Camus reflected on 'all the errors, contradictions and hesitations' that had marked his involvement with Algeria but he remained viscerally linked to the place of his birth. Edward J. Hughes analyses the life of an author whose work and position-taking were the subject of both intense interest and scrutiny. 'I do not guide anyone', he was to plead in his last interview, thereby reinforcing the paradox of a leading figure who in private wrestled with the challenge of pursuing his craft as a writer in an age of pressing ideological conflict.
£12.99
Reaktion Books Rice: A Global History
Rice: A Global History presents in detail the historical journey that rice has taken, from its early origin as a staple food in Asian and West African countries to its ubiquitous place in meals across the world today. Rice has become a significant and indispensable agricultural product worldwide, often through slavery, indentured labour and immigration. An important part of many well-known and popular dishes, rice is both a key ingredient of high-end cuisine and a staple of more inexpensive, everyday meals. This dichotomy has existed since the early years of the grain's burgeoning popularity, when the rice trade was driven simultaneously by profits from the high-status commercial export of rice and the lower-quality rice eaten by workers and labourers. Increasing urbanization and the rise of marketing, advertising and military requirements have all influenced the role of rice retail through the years. Though not heavily traded worldwide, rice has long had a strong influence on the global political scene.It also has deep emotional significance at the table, where it holds great importance integral to many ethnic identities and appears in cultural rituals, literature, music, painting and poetry. Our cultural habits, the arts and the myriad ways in which we plant, harvest, package and consume rice help to define peoples all over the world. Containing an array of delicious recipes as well as delving into the history of this essential grain, Rice is an engaging look at one of our most enriching foods.
£12.99
Reaktion Books Pain and Retribution: A Short History of British Prisons, 1066 to the Present
Pain and Retribution charts the rise and rise of a form of punishment that takes place behind the walls of the institution we have come to call 'prison'. It is the first single volume history of British prisons, charting their history from the time of the Norman Conquest to the present day. Written by a former prison governor who is now one of the country's leading criminologists, the book offers unrivalled insight into the prison system in England, Scotland and Wales. David Wilson, using criminological theory, looks at the way in which the prison has needed to satisfy the demands of three interested parties: first, the public, including politicians and media commentators; second, prison staff; and third, the prisoners themselves. The inability of the prison to satisfy all three groups at the same time means that the prison system is perpetually in crisis, and is therefore seen as a failure. Ironically, the prison system continues to prosper in terms of the numbers of prisoners incarcerated and the vast amount of money that society invests in keeping them locked up. Pain and Retribution explores prison as an institution and discusses not only who gets imprisoned but also what happens to people when they are 'banged up'. David Wilson investigates how prisons are designed and how they are organized and managed, allowing the reader access to all areas, from the prison landing to the people behind the locked doors, including the prison staff. He asks searching questions about the purpose of Britain's current prison system and why prison exerts such a hold on the collective psyche and imagination.
£27.00
Reaktion Books Beer: A Global History
Pilsners, blonde ales, India pale ales, lagers, porters, stouts: the varieties and styles of beer are endless. But as diverse as the drink is, its appeal is universal - beer is the most-consumed alcoholic beverage in the world. From pubs and inns to restaurants, bars and microbreweries, beer has made itself a staple drink around the globe. Celebrating the heritage of the world's favourite tipple, Gavin D. Smith traces beer from its earliest days to its contemporary consumption. After exploring the evolution of brewing technology, the book travels from Mexico to Milwaukee, Beijing, Bruges and beyond, demonstrating the dazzling variety of beer styles and brewing processes to be found around the world. Once brewed in monasteries to be consumed as 'liquid bread' on fast days, beer is now the drink of choice at festivals and celebrations worldwide. Containing a wealth of detail in its concise, wonderfully illustrated pages, Beer will appeal to connoisseurs and casual fans alike.
£12.99
Reaktion Books Rabbit
Rabbit is the story of the winsome long-eared animal that hops through children's stories, myths and legends, and back yards. In this richly illustrated book, Victoria Dickenson explores the natural and cultural history of this most familiar creature. From the giant extinct rabbits of Minorca to the tiny endangered Volcano rabbits of Mexico, the book explores the history of the species, with a special focus on the European rabbit, whose history has been so closely intertwined with that of its greatest predator, humanity. Celebrated for its fur and its flesh, the rabbit owes its worldwide distribution to human intervention. Captain Cook took rabbits to New Zealand to provide food for sailors and settlers. Their introduction in the late nineteenth century to Australia resulted in a disastrous plague of rabbits, which could only be brought under control by the introduction of myxomatosis. The rabbit is a paradox. It is prey, chased by a thousand enemies from eagles to foxes to domestic cats. But it is also trickster, who outwits all rivals, and escapes every trap. The rabbit is lucky, and his foot will charm away evil. It haunts the graveyard and dances in the moonlight. The rabbit is suitable as a cuddly companion for children but also as a symbol of unbridled animal passion. From Peter Rabbit to B'rer Rabbit to Watership Down and the Energizer Bunny, rabbits hop through our imagination. Discover the Jade Moon rabbit, celebrate the Year of the Rabbit and enjoy the poetry of rabbits in this fascinating study of an animal that, after the dog and cat, has been granted a privileged place in our homes and our hearts.
£13.95
Reaktion Books Leopard
The leopard is the ultimate cat. It makes the lion and the tiger appear overblown and all the other members of the cat family look puny. Whereas lions hunt in the open and then share their kill, the leopard is solitary, stealthy and selfish. This cat ambushes its prey and then carries it high into a tree where it can dine alone. The leopard has commanded respect and awe in mankind for centuries, and is called the 'perfect predator', capable of frustrating the most dedicated big game hunter. Leopards are known to attack humans, and the book contains some compelling images of this amazing animal in action. In Leopard, renowned zoologist Desmond Morris shows all sides of the animal's character: its athletic elegance, its predatory skill, its wary shyness, its cunning intelligence, its parental devotion and its preference for solitary living, even its capacity to seek revenge. Morris traces the evolution of leopards, their role in circuses, and how we are now making strides in their conservation. He also describes their rich symbolism, and looks at the leopard print in fashion, both haute couture and downmarket, as well as the leopard in art, literature, film and popular culture.
£13.95
Reaktion Books Nick Drake: Dreaming England
Since his untimely death in 1974 at the age of twenty six, Nick Drake has not only gained a huge international audience, which eluded him during his lifetime, but has also come to represent the epitome of English romanticism. Drake's small but much-loved body of work has evoked comparisons with Blake, Keats, Vaughan Williams and Delius, placing him within a long line of English mystical romanticism. Yet upon closer inspection Drake's work betrays a myriad of international, cosmopolitan influences and approaches that seem to confound his status as archetypal English troubadour. Nathan Wiseman-Trowse unravels the myths surrounding Nick Drake's music to show how audiences have come to think of his work as representing the very idea of Englishness itself. The music itself provides clues, hinting at a specific English landscape that Drake would have wandered through during his lifetime. Yet Drake's interest in blues, jazz, and eastern mysticism hint at a broader conception of English national identity in the late 1960s, far removed from mere parochial nostalgia. Similarly, the framing of Drake's music after his death has done much to situate him as a particular kind of English artist, integrating American counterculture, the English class system and a nostalgic re-imagining of the hippy era for contemporary audiences. Nick Drake: Dreaming England explores how ideas of Englishness have come to be so intimately associated with the cult singer songwriter. Essential reading for any fan of Nick Drake, the book will also appeal to those interested in folk music or English national identity.
£14.95
Reaktion Books Saving the World
The forgotten history of climatic botany, showing how forests create and recycle rainfall.
£18.00
Reaktion Books Shells: A Natural and Cultural History
Shells have captivated humans from the dawn of time: the earliest known artwork was made on a shell. As well as containers for food, shells have been used as tools, jewellery and decorations for dwellings, and to bring good luck or to ward off spirits. Many indigenous peoples have used shells as currency, and in a few places they still do. This beautifully illustrated book looks at the scientific and cultural history of shells, showing how their diverse colourful forms take shape. It examines pearls, the only gems of animal origin, as well as how shells have inspired artists throughout history. The book looks at shells used in architecture and ritual, but also how shells are indicators of changing environmental conditions.
£20.00
Reaktion Books The Point of the Needle: Why Sewing Matters
Tens of millions of people sew for necessity or pleasure every day, yet the craft is surprisingly under-appreciated. The Point of the Needle redresses the balance: this is a book that argues for sewing's place in our lives. It celebrates not only sewing's recent resurgence but sewists' creativity, well-being and community. Barbara Burman chronicles new voices of people who sew today, by hand or machine, to explore what they sew, what motivates them, what they value and why they mend things, revealing insights into sewing's more intimate stories. In our age of superfast fashion with its environmental and social injustices, this eloquent book makes a passionate case for identity, diversity, resilience and memory - what people create for themselves as they stitch and make.
£15.95
Reaktion Books Cats in Art
The cat has been a favourite subject of artists across cultures from prehistory until the present day. A spectacular 7,000-year-old rock engraving in Libya shows the oldest catfight in feline art; Babylonians believed that the souls of priests were escorted to paradise by a helpful cat; Pablo Picasso was known to have loved cats and often portrayed them as savage predators, while Victorian cats were shown in loving family groups with mothers caring for their playful kittens. Today, the cat is one of the most popular domestic pets on the planet and feline art is hugely popular across the world.In this eye-catching book, bestselling author Desmond Morris tells the compelling story of cats in art, tracing its history from ancient rock paintings and spectacular Egyptian art to the work of Old Masters, modernist representations and cartoons, as well as Naive and Outsider art. Morris weaves illuminating stories with specially selected images that have rarely been seen before. Anyone who has a pet cat, or a fascination for our feline companions, will enjoy this beautifully illustrated book.
£31.50
Reaktion Books Another Darkness, Another Dawn: A History of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers
Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are some of the most marginalized and vilified people in society. They are rarely seen as having a place in a country, either geographically or socially, no matter where they live or what they do. Another Darkness, Another Dawn is a new history that charts their movement through time and place: from their roots in the Indian subcontinent, across the Byzantine and Ottoman empires to western Europe and the Americas, to their place in the contemporary world. This history of Romani people demonstrates how their experiences provide a way to understand mainstream society's relationship with outsiders and immigrants, both in the past and present. Rather than seeing these peoples as separate from the societies in which they have lived, and as untouched by history, this book sets Gypsies' experiences in the context of broader historical changes. Understanding their history is to take in the founding and contraction of empires, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, wars, the expansion of law and order and of states, the Enlightenment, nationalism, modernity and the Holocaust, as well as the increasing regulation of modern society. It is as much a history of ourselves as it is a history of 'others'. Ultimately Taylor demonstrates that history is not always about progress: the place of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers remains as contested and uncertain today as it was upon their first arrival in western Europe in the fifteenth century.
£27.00
Reaktion Books Visionary Experience in the Golden Age of Spanish Art
In this original and lucid account of how Spanish painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries dealt with mystic visions in their art, and of how they attempted to 'represent the unrepresentable', Victor Stoichita aims to establish a theory of visionary imagery in Western art in general, and one for the Spanish Counter-Reformation in particular. He reveals how the spirituality of the Counter-Reformation was characterised by a rediscovery of the role of the imagination in the exercise of faith. This had important consequences for painters such as Velazquez, Zurbaran and El Greco, leading to the development of ingenious solutions for visual depictions of mystical experience. This was to crystallize into an overtly meditative and didactic pictorial language. That Spanish painting is both cerebral and passionate is due to the particular historical forces which shaped it. Stoichita's account will be of crucial interest not just to scholars of Spanish art but to anyone interested in how art responds to ideological pressures.
£19.12
Reaktion Books Caravaggio and the Creation of Modernity
A highly original, beautifully illustrated study of master Renaissance artist Caravaggio.
£14.95
Reaktion Books A Devilish Kind of Courage
The tale of a notorious 1911 London gunfight, the Siege of Sidney Street', and its consequences.
£15.99
Reaktion Books Strike Up the Band
A spirited chronicle of New York's economic and cultural boom during the outstanding decade of the Roaring Twenties. This is the story of the zest for life that gripped New York in the postwar years of the 1920s. The decade ushered in an era of almost unprecedented prosperity and economic expansion that made New York the powerhouse of America and fueled a wave of creativity in music, fashion, literature, and architecture. Strike Up the Band explores how the city became a magnet for a host of outstanding personalities, from literary figures to sports stars, musicians, composers, and journalists, and pays a visit to the places they frequented, such as the Cotton Club and Broadway theaters. From the skyline to the sidewalk, the city itself also transformed as it was redeveloped in the 1920s building boom, with Art Deco becoming the style that dominated the new era. 'The great Art Deco monuments of New York still define the city's look, even as they reach their hundredth anniversaries.
£20.00
Reaktion Books Piero della Francesca and the Invention of the Artist
As one of the most innovative and enlightened painters of the early Italian Renaissance, Piero della Francesca knew how to capture the moment. He brought space, luminosity and unparalleled subtlety to painting, during an era that was aware it was forging epochal change. Piero invented the role of the modern artist by becoming a traveller, a courtier, a geometrician, a patron and much else, and his pursuits were taken up by countless authors and artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Giorgio Vasari. In this nuanced account of his life and art, Machtelt Bruggen Israels reconstructs how Piero came of age. Successfully demystifying the persistent notion of Piero's art as enigmatic, she reveals the simple and stunning intentions behind his work.
£17.95
Reaktion Books Delicioso: A History of Food in Spain
Spanish cuisine is a melting-pot of cultures, flavours and ingredients: Greek and Roman, Jewish, Moorish and Middle Eastern. It has been enriched by its climate, geology and spectacular topography, which have encouraged a variety of regional food traditions and `Cocinas’, such as Basque, Galician, Castilian, Andalusian and Catalan. It has been shaped by the country’s complex history, as foreign occupations brought religious and cultural influences that determined what people ate and still eat. And it has continually evolved with the arrival of new ideas and foodstuffs from Italy, France and the Americas, including cocoa, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, and chilli peppers. This is the first book in English to trace the history of the food of Spain from antiquity to the present day. From the use of pork fat and olive oil to the Spanish passion for aubergines and pomegranates, María José Sevilla skilfully weaves together the history of Spanish cuisine, the circumstances affecting its development and characteristics, and the country’s changing relationship to food and cookery.
£24.75
Reaktion Books The Beatles in Hamburg
'The Beatles are coming! The Beatles are coming!' While the chant will be familiar to any Beatles fan, there was a time before the band took the world by storm, when they were little more than an inexperienced, though talented, semi-professional group of musicians in dire need of practice. Their agent Allen Williams first sent them to Germany in August 1960 and through their experiences and difficulties in Hamburg, the Beatles not only became proficient musicians, but more importantly began to build the reputation that would eventually make them the most popular band in the world. The Beatles in Hamburg is the first detailed, objective analysis of the events and personalities that shaped the Beatles as performers, composers and musicians, and the role that Hamburg itself played in their remarkable story. Ian Inglis illuminates this obscure period in Beatles history, providing a revealing view of a crucial, formative period for the group. Written by one of the world's leading scholars of the Beatles and their music, the book will be of immense interest to fans of the group, as well as those interested in the history of popular music and the social history of the 1960s.
£14.95
Reaktion Books Hyena
In almost every culture, hyenas are regarded as nasty, scheming charlatans, skulking in the back alleyways of the animal kingdom. Scorned as little more than scavenging carrion-eaters, vandals and thieves, since the earliest times hyenas have been both mistreated and misunderstood. In her new account Mikita Brottman offers an alternative view, showing that the hyena is in fact a complex, intelligent and highly sociable creature. Hyena investigates representations of this fascinating animal throughout history. Shrouded in taboo, it has been the source of talismanic objects since at least the ancient Greek and Roman Empires. Many cultures have used parts of the hyena, including excrement, blood, genitalia and hair, to make charms that both avert evil and promise fertility. The book also considers depictions of the hyena in contemporary popular fiction, from The Lion King to The Life of Pi. Despite its reputation the hyena is an intriguing animal with many distinctive and unusual qualities. This book is, in part, an attempt to restore the hyena's tarnished reputation. Richly illustrated, Hyena is aimed at all animal-lovers with an interest in the unusual and the offbeat.
£13.95
Reaktion Books Pig
Curly tails, snouts, trotters, 'oinks', mud and unpleasant smells - these are the cliches of the pig. With their varied roles as sources of food, as pets and in medical testing, pigs have been materially and culturally associated with humans for thousands of years. Today there are more than one billion pigs on the planet, and there are countless representations of pigs and 'piggishness' circulating through the cultures of the world. Pig provides a richly illustrated, compelling look at the long, complicated relationship between humans and these highly intelligent, sociable animals. In his insightful book, Brett Mizelle traces the natural and cultural history of the pig, focusing on the contradictions between our imaginative representation of pigs and the ways in which pigs are actually used as meat, experimental material and the source of hundreds of consumer products. Pig begins with the evolution of the suidae, animals that were domesticated in many regions 9,000 years ago, and points toward a future where pigs and humans are even more closely intertwined thanks to breakthroughs in biomedical research. Pig also examines the widespread art, entertainment and literature that has imagined human kinship with pigs, and the development of modern industrial pork production, which has removed living pigs from our everyday lives. In charting how humans have shaped the pig and how the pig has shaped us, Mizelle focuses on the unresolved contradictions between our imaginary and lived relations with pigs. Pig will appeal to those with a love for all things pig and for animals in general.
£13.95
Reaktion Books Animals in Film
From Salvador Dali to Walt Disney, animals have been a constant yet little-considered presence in film. Indeed, it may come as a surprise to learn that animals were a central inspiration to the development of moving pictures themselves. In "Animals in Film", Jonathan Burt points out that the mobility of animals presented technical and conceptual challenges to early film-makers, the solutions of which were an important factor in advancing photographic technology, accelerating the speed of both film and camera. The early filming of animals also marked one of the most significant and far-reaching changes in the history of animal representation, and has largely determined the way animals have been visualized in the twentieth century. Burt looks at the extraordinary relation-ship between animals, cinema and photography (including the pioneering work of Eadweard Muybridge and Jules-Etienne Marey) and the technological developments and challenges posed by the animal as a specific kind of moving object. "Animals in Film" is a shrewd account of the politics of animals in cinema, of how movies and video have developed as weapons for animal rights activists, and of the roles that animals have played in film, from the avant-garde to Hollywood.
£17.41
Reaktion Books Frantz Fanon
Doctor, militant, political essayist, ambassador, teacher, journalist, pan-Africanist: Frantz Fanon represented a new model of engaged intellectual who sought to decolonize mid-twentieth-century thought, society and culture and move beyond the ideology of race. Born Black in colonial Martinique, he fought for France during the Second World War but later renounced his native land and aspired to be Algerian during the Algerian War of Independence. Emphasizing Fanon’s gift for self-invention and performance, Frantz Fanon charts the key turning points in his short, extraordinary life and explores how his pioneering work in psychiatry influenced his revolutionary philosophy. It is essential reading for those who wish to know more about this unique, visionary figure.
£12.99
Reaktion Books The Illuminated Window: Stories Across Time
The Illuminated Window is a unique journey through stained-glass installations that spans both time and place. Diverse in technique and style, these windows speak for the communities that created them. From the twelfth to the twenty-first century, we find in the windows stories of conflict, commemoration, devotion and celebration. Virginia Chieffo Raguin is our guide through the cathedrals of Chartres, Canterbury and Cologne, and takes us from Paris's Sainte-Chapelle to Swiss guildhalls, Iran's Pink Mosque, Tiffany's chapel for the World Exposition, Frank Lloyd Wright's houses and more. As she reveals, the art of stained glass relies on not only a single maker, but the relationship between the physical site, the patron's aims, the work's legibility for the spectator and the prevailing style of the era. This is a fascinating and beautifully illustrated volume for anyone interested in stained-glass works.
£27.00
Reaktion Books Radicals and Rogues: The Women Who Made New York Modern
This is the story of a group of women whose experiments in art and life set the tone for the rise of New York as the twentieth century's capital of modern culture. Across the 1910s and '20s, through provocative creative acts, shocking fashion, political activism and dynamic social networks, these women reimagined modern life and fought for the chance to realize their visions. Taking the reader on a journey through the city's salons and bohemian hangouts, Radicals and Rogues celebrates the tastemakers, collectors, curators, artists and poets at the forefront of the early avant-garde scene. Focusing on the women trailblazers at the centre of artistic innovation, Lottie Whalen offers a lively new history of remarkable women in early twentieth-century New York City.
£20.00
Reaktion Books Francis of Assisi: His Life, Vision and Companions
This is an original and historically informed account of Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianity. The book explores how Francis - along with his earliest brothers - embraced a life of poverty, in solidarity with the lowest ranks of society, preaching a message of justice and dignity for all. It examines how and why his vision then expanded to embrace non-Christians, and Muslims in particular, following Francis's celebrated encounter with the Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil in 1219. This new work also examines the clash between Francis and newer members of his Order, the stimulus for his reception of the stigmata, and his final years spent trying to keep his brothers faithful to their original vision, while living as an exemplar of the gospel life.
£16.95
Reaktion Books Concrete Poetry: A 21st-Century Anthology
Now available in paperback, Concrete Poetry: A 21st-Century Anthology is the first overview of concrete poetry in many years. Selective yet wide-ranging, this anthology re-evaluates the movement, singling out its most distinctive and influential works, including the little-known Japanese concretists, the Wiener Gruppe, Augusto de Campos, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Eugen Gomringer, Dieter Roth, Henri Chopin, Cia Rinne, Susan Howe and many others. Perloff's anthology presents individual poems, reproduced in their original languages, together with lively commentaries that explicate and contextualize the work, allowing readers to discover the intricacy of poems that some have dismissed as simple, even trivial, texts.
£20.00
Reaktion Books Worm
Worms are remarkable but often underrated creatures. Exploring their roles from gardener's friend to toothache culprit, this book offers an insight into the mysterious world of worms. The reader is introduced to all manner of 'worms', even though many only superficially resemble the limbless, sinuous archetype. There is discussion of worms as internal parasites, soil dwellers and aquatic forms, and an examination of worms in literature and mythology, showing how humans and worms have an intimate and closely entwined history - throughout the ages, worms have been portrayed as benign, even beautiful, yet at other times spitefully ostracized as deadly creatures. This richly illustrated book looks at the microscopic and the very large indeed, asking what the future holds for both human- and worm-kind.
£13.95
Reaktion Books Crooner: Singing from the Heart from Sinatra to Nas
Crooners sing close to the mic in a soft, intimate style. In this book Alex Coles explores the crooner in popular music from the 1950s to the present. Each chapter focuses on one song and one singer – Frank Sinatra, Scott Walker, Barry White, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Tom Waits, Grace Jones, Ian McCulloch, Nick Cave and Nas – and examines in detail how each contributes to the crooner image. The book describes how crooners traverse era, gender, geography and genre – where Barry White developed out of disco, Nick Cave sprung from alternative rock; where Grace Jones was born from reggae and funk, Nas originated from hip-hop. Ultimately, Coles shows how the crooner continues to be a figure that enables listeners to reflect on and communicate their emotions.
£11.99
Reaktion Books The Food Adventurers: How Round-the-World Travel Changed the Way We Eat
From mangosteen fruit discovered in a colonial Indonesian marketplace to caviar served on the high seas in a cruise-liner’s luxurious dining saloon, The Food Adventurers narrates the history of eating on the most coveted of tourist journeys: the around-the-world adventure. The book looks at what tourists ate on these adventures, as well as what they avoided, and what kinds of meals they described in diaries, photographs and postcards. Daniel E. Bender shows how circumglobal travel shaped popular fascination with world cuisines, and leads readers on a culinary tour from Tahitian roast pig in the 1840s, to the dining saloon of the luxury Cunard steamer Franconia in the 1920s, to InterContinental and Hilton hotel restaurants in the 1960s and ’70s.
£20.00
Reaktion Books H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886–1961) was one of the first writers of free verse in English, best known for her sparse Imagist poems. For over forty years she wrote poetry that resurrected forgotten ancient goddesses, and autobiographical prose that explored her trauma, her desires, and the unique struggles of a twentieth-century woman writer. She was also a scholar of religion, mythology and history, a translator of ancient Greek, and worked in early avant-garde film. Dubbed the ‘perfect bi-’ by Sigmund Freud, she placed issues of sexuality and gender at the centre of her writings. This new biography explores the fascinating life and work of this important modernist figure, once written out of literary history but now receiving the attention she deserves.
£12.99
Reaktion Books Squirrel Nation: Reds, Greys and the Meaning of Home
Squirrel Nation is a history of Britain's two species of squirrel over the past two hundred years. The red squirrel, although rare, is among the most cherished of native species. Grey squirrels, by contrast, are one of the most frequently seen wild creatures in our gardens, parks, towns and countryside, and many Britons consider it to be a foreign interloper, introduced from North America in the late nineteenth century. By examining this animal's colonization of Britain, Peter Coates also explores timely issues of belonging, nationalism, citizenship and the defence of borders within Britain today. Ultimately, though people are swift to draw distinctions between British squirrels and squirrels in Britain, Squirrel Nation shows that Britain's two squirrel species have much more in common than at first appears.
£16.99