Bollywood movies have long been known for their colourful song-and-dance numbers and knack of combining drama, comedy, action-adventure and music. But these films rarely reflect the reality of life on the Indian subcontinent. In this book Rachel Dwyer argues that Hindi cinema’s interpretations of India over the last two decades are our most reliable guide to understanding the nation’s changing hopes and dreams. Bollywood’s India looks at the ways in which Bollywood has imagined and portrayed the unity and diversity of India: what its people believe and feel; their views on religion, caste and politics; life at home and in public. Based on twenty years of watching, teaching and writing about Hindi films, working with filmmakers and discussions with critics and fans, Dwyer’s book has much to say to scholars and students of Indian cinema who are curious about the ways in which aspects of Indian life and culture are shown on screen, as well as to the general reader and fan of world cinema.

"Bollywood’s India offers an interesting read for observing changes in India through Bollywood films with themes such as unity, diversity, religion, emotions and homeworld . . . This book is highly recommended to those who are interested in exploring modern India and her Indianness through Hindi films, but it also gives a background to the changes that have emerged over the years to build what India is today and alludes to what it might become tomorrow." - South Asian Popular Culture
"I was gripped by Sandy Nairne’s matter-of-fact but hair-raising account of the efforts to reclaim the two Turners" - Philip Hensher, Books of the Year, The Spectator
"This book is the first and so far the only monographic exploration of the historically omnipresent and continuing tension between an externally imposed regionalism and three internally generated national identities in which the Baltic concept is perhaps useful in times of crises but not descriptive of their sense of self it is also the first to explore in great detail the difference between substance and image in the region . . . very satisfying to read . . . [a] well-written and informative essay" - History
"It could hardly be more timely, and its wonderful material is bound to provoke . . . reflection." - The Independent
"A brilliant analysis of the ambiguous boundaries that separate and bind humans and animals" - The Irish Times
"[a] smart little monograph that ranges across a wide variety of related topics, including the ethics of using animals in entertainment . . . Eccentric, but nonetheless intriguing" - Empire
"Bird has benefited from extensive archival research and he illuminates Tarkovsky’s career in sharp detail . . . His range of references, from classical Russian literature and philosophy to contemporary video art, is wide and refreshing, often triggering new reactions to films that are in danger of passive veneration . . . this is a richly argued and referenced case for Tarkovsky as heir to the symbolists’ quest for spiritual enlightenment." - Sight and Sound
"Pezeu-Massabuau artfully pulls on the thread of discomfort as a unifying them for understanding everything from individualism to the importance of uncomfortable architecture in Japan . . . his critique of a contemporary culture of comfort and his practical considerations on how to fit discomfort into a life are interesting and provocative. Recommended." - Choice
"Fear is a powerful emotion. It can save lives. But it also robs us of our freedom and undermines that essential social glue: trust. Bertrand Russell once said that to conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. Svendsen agrees. In this brief yet wide-ranging and insightful book, he argues convincingly that we need to replace the risk society with a culture of hope and trust." - The Guardian
"[a] sparkling work . . . what we find in Connors book is a series of historical, sociological, metaphysical and existential reflections on intriguing but often neglected aspects of sport . . . Connor does not, it seems, try to persuade us of any grand thesis about sport, yet he rarely fails to illuminate . . . there is plenty here to fascinate." - TLS
"When an investigation into boredom is done well, as it is in A Philosophy of Boredom . . . it is positively gripping." - Times Literary Supplement
"[An] authoritative account . . . if you're intrigued with writing’s past, Fischer’s book is well worth a read . . . a brilliant book." - New Scientist
"The WikiLeaks saga may have drawn us into new, and scary, galaxies of cyberspace, but this survey of the online story so far offers a handy catch-up that will prove a boon to geeks and dabblers alike." - I (The Independent)
"This book is a bold and thought-provoking work that should be read by all serious students of Myanmar. It offers a major reinterpretation of Myanmar history, in part by relating broad historical trends to more recent developments." - Dr Andrew Selth, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
"An ambitious, innovative and remarkably wide-ranging survey by a historian of formidable breadth." - BBC History Magazine
".the sheer catholicism of its sources is thought-provoking, allowing the reader to engage with the multitudinous facets that are involved in the construction of national identity . . . a lively contribution on an urgent issue." - H-net reviews
"Jeremy Black has done it again: elegant, lucid and compellingly interesting . . . For anyone interested in our current predicament, this book is a must." - Rt Hon. Oliver Letwin MP
"Paul Mattick says the recession isn't just a financial crisis it manifests a truth about the socioeconomic system in which we live." - Irish Times
"Shortlisted for the Sir Banister Fletcher Award 2008" - Award
"This excellent addition to the Critical Lives series is, says Paul Bishop, a biography of Jung in books In particular, Bishop locates Jung in a philosophical and literary context, demonstrating how deeply and profoundly Jung belongs to a broader stream of thought in German culture. For Jung, his library was his laboratory and so this approach is especially valuable in revealing the significance of analytical psychology as a cultural project . . . a wonderfully rich intellectual biography." - The Guardian
"According to a brief but brilliant new book by the British sociologist Chris Rojek, democracy (or capitalism) simply cannot operate properly without celebrity . . . Rojeks most original insight is that people have been wanting this ever since the 18th century. He brilliantly rereads Samuel Smiless Self-Help as a manual on the virtues of the celebrity." - The Independent
"captures with astonishing detail the sounds, smells, street dynamics and customs of the city . . . [Golia's] book offers an immersive experience that will prepare you for Cairo’s intensity and bustle." - Yasmine El-Rashidi, New York Times
"Keith Lilleys excellent new book takes as its theme the idea of the city as it was played out, performed and remediated in medieval culture . . . The book, like the urban forms it describes, is impressively far-reaching, beautifully designed and richly illustrated." - Urban History
"Written in a clear and accessible style . . . It is also exceptionally well-illustrated . . . In extending their analysis to extra-filmic discourses, Dwyer and Patel show how movie imagery permeates into the wider culture and society." - Film International
"a gentle, firm, lucid tracking-down of the greatest ever movie essayist . . . There could not be a better introduction." - David Thomson, The Week
"John Rennie Short has trawled through many dusty travel journals and pored over his share of early maps in order to reconstruct this fascinating cultural collision. His book ranges widely, from the cartographic artefacts of pre-Columbian civilisation (maps insribed on birch bark or carved into walrus tusks) to the 19th century exploration of Australia's interior . . . consistently entertaining and even-handed." - Geographical Magazine
"As a study of the relationship between contemporary Chinese film and the visual legacy of Chinese arts and culture, this book is superb." - Journal of Asian Studies
"Winner of RIBA President's Award 2013" - Award
"The many illustrations (often old ads) are fascinating and often funny (1980s businessmen tripping off to work with massive "portable" computers), or reveal obscure aesthetic precedents (1983s Orb computer looks suspiciously like the first iMac)." - The Guardian
"For those who want an up-to-date bio that’s swift and savvy, there is Linda Simon’s Chanel. It’s a slim volume, but even here we get details we don’t get elsewhere, including a full chapter on the musical Coco, which opened on Broadway in 1969 starring Katharine Hepburn (tellingly, Chanel’s first choice for the role was the much younger Hepburn: Audrey)." - Wall Street Journal
"Bourke evokes a real tenderness and understanding for the men who were pushed to breaking point and beyond . . . in a book well illustrated with contemporary photographs and sketches from men's letters and diaries . . . a fine work" - Times Higher Education Supplement
"Whiteleys look at design in the 1990s is an account of how the design industry, caught up in its own self-image for the past decade, needs to reinvent itself and focus again on its social role. This means taking greater account of green and feminist issues and creating a new type of socially responsible design. Surely a thesis of relevance to architects." - RIBA Journal
"Dark Places is a valuable work for film scholars focused on the horror genre or otherwise. In considering the widest possible legacy for the haunted house on screen and by bringing theoretical and multi-disciplinary sophistication to bear on such an unlikely topic Curtis has fashioned a noteworthy exploration of one of cinema's unsung icons." - Southwest Journal of Cultures
"elegiac . . . a wonderful close analysis. Despite the melancholy in cinemas encounters with a fleeting past, the prospects opened up by filmic slowness are, for Mulvey, productive of optimism." - Times Higher Education Supplement
"Here, dams take centre stage as their design, construction, beauty, failures and environmental consequences are analysed. Building Design" - Building Design
"Sanda Miller has been working on Constantin Brancusi since the 1970s, and her latest contribution to the literature on one of the twentieth-centurys greatest sculptors is a detailed and well-researched biography. A new body of archival material became available to Brancusi scholars in 2001 . . . Such major gifts to art historians require careful unpacking, and Miller has done an excellent job of digging deeply and thoroughly into hundreds of documents and photographs. The resultant book is centred on primary source material, dispelling long-held myths surrounding Brancusi and attaining perhaps as authentic a portrayal of his life and work as will ever be possible." - Slavonic and East European Review
"This is an extraordinary volume. While concentrating on contemporary art in Brazil, and attending to its myriad historical, political, social and aesthetic ramifications, Today is Always Yesterday combines Michael Asbury's characteristic critical, objective acumen with an "insider" view of Brazilian culture. Furthermore, the author presents us with much more than another book on the contemporary scene: he gives an in-depth history of Brazilian art in all of its complexity, from the Portuguese era to the post-Bolsonaro, Lula-Redux period of today. Anyone even marginally interested in the dizzyingly complex nature of Brazilian creativity will be more than pleased with Asbury's panoramic contribution." - Edward J. Sullivan, Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the History of Art, New York University
"The great strength of this book is that it helps the reader to see beyond the simplistic accounts of such aspects, and to understand the wider contexts that explain the Revolutions survival. The insight and detail offered here reflect a work that is the product of a sustained scholarly investigation of Cuba. Now professor of Latin American history at the University of Nottingham, Kapcia has been studying Cuba, from outside and from within, for four of the Revolutions five decades of fluctuating fortunes . . . Among the approaching anniversary literature, students of Cuba are unlikely to find a more thoughtful or well-informed analysis of half a century of revolutionary change than Kapcia provides in this book." - Times Higher Education
"packed with interesting stuff" - The Sunday Times
"A welcome reassessment of Satie that places him at the hub of radical events." - Classic FM Magazine
"There are lots of illustrations of early technological advances, which always look endearingly quaint. But the outstanding characteristic, in a field where pretentious obfuscation often seems obligatory, is that Gere can not only string a sentence together, but also uses those sentences to produce cogent and interesting arguments. He concludes that our digital culture has been built from elements including: Cold War defence technologies avant-garde art practice counter-cultural techno-utopianism Post-Modernist critical theory new wave subcultural style . . ." - Architects Journal
"Readers of Elephant may be surprised at the huge amount of fascinating history, biology, and generally little-known information that can be packed into such a small book. But this is not unusual for the Reaktion series of monographs on animals, many of which, including this one, are surely destined to become classics. Elephant excels in presenting a masterly combination of historical and literary knowledge about elephants with up-to-date facts and figures on the efforts of conservationists to prevent the decline and probable extinction of the living species in Africa and Asia." - Anthrozoös
"An interesting, well-informed, critical and comparative overview of contemporary modernisation in East Asian cities . . . A strength of the book is the examination of architectural style and building form. A real sense of cityscape is provided via the accounts of pencil buildings in Hong Kong and the verticality of living . . . This book should be a valuable library reference source . . . The book's content is up-to-date and detailed . . . the numerous black and white photographic illustrations are excellent." - Geography
"Brauns meticulous study is rich in detail" - Guardian
"Mienke Simon Thomas engrossing account in this book implies the current lack of design focus reflects a wider malaise a sense of drift from a clear purpose. Her survey and insights give much for thought about that doughty small country across the sea with which we British have such a particular affinity." - Architects Journal
". . . contains some salient points about the function of film music and its development, from the silent period (when films had live accompaniment) through to the present. It will certainly be a must for Bernard Herrmann fans, given its thorough examination of his score for Hitchcocks North by Northwest. On this count alone the book is worth its while." - Film Review
"[a] full and fascinating study of Korean history" - The Guardian
"Fashion is an elegant and relatively easily read tour de force along academic and literary roads into the notion of fashion . . . History is combined with contemporary material, academic views with concrete aesthetics designers are used as examples and are treated on a par with great thinkers nothing is too big or too small to be included in his considered analyses . . . A very convincing book, recommended to everyone who is interested in fashion, sociology and philosophy in a practical or an academic context." - Weekend-Avisen, Copenhagen
"Jeffrey Sissons short but lucid book describes what he sees as a major revival of Indigenous culture in the settler nations of the New World . . . He astutely observes the need for reconstructed notions of self-determination that escape the binary of traditional/modern, and offer Indigenous peoples and the non-Indigenous fellow citizens new ways to think about the expanding urban populations and dynamics of Indigenous communities in the New World." - API Review of Books, Australia
"Writing in succinct prose devoid of academic jargon, McCarter explains what made Wright's architecture so revolutionary . . . While acknowledging Wright's greatness, McCarter has not written a hagiography . . . McCarter's book could have been half as long again it's that much of a pleasure to read." - ARTnews
"In the Image of Tibet is the first major study of the fate of Tibetan art since the Chinese occupation and colonization of Tibet. In a richly detailed analysis, Clare Harris provides a fascinating portrait of Tibetan art produced in two parallel, but connected, worlds: the world of Tibetan refugee painters living in exile and the world of Tibetan painters who remain in Tibet, and she explores the problems encountered in crossing from one world into another. Harris has written an important book that will be of great interest to students of Asian art, history and religion" - Donald S. Lopez, University of Michigan
"Lincoln rewritten: Fellow citizens, we cannot escape pseudohistory. In heroic resistance, Fritze dives into the Augean stables of popular pseudoscholarship on pseudotopics such as Atlantis, aliens who built the pyramids, ancient catastrophes caused by near-misses with Venus, or the Israelite origin of Britons . . . in his tireless analysis of the bloodlines of some of modernitys most successful claptrap from Immanuel Velikovsky to Erich von Däniken to Heavens Gate Fritze does vindicate his claim that Pseudohistory has its historiography and its genealogy of ideas. Nonsense now has its Nietzsche." - Steven Poole, The Guardian
". . . richly illustrated, making available much popular iconographic material generally unfamiliar to Western readers . . . a fascinating contribution to the cultural history of Russia." - Times Literary Supplement
"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2013" - Award
"Engaging . . . puts Bowie in the context of heavyweights like Michel Foucault, Max Frisch and Erich Heckel, who inspired the cover art for ‘Heroes’." - Paul Burston, The Independent
"Raises in a provocative way many interesting and timely points . . . destined to influence this debate for years to come." - History Today
"The vampire of antiquity was a ghost, who became enfleshed as the revenant, the ghoul then, particularly in eastern Europe, it turned into a blood-sucker. Under the ministrations of western novelists, he pupated into the seductive, cape-wearing aristocrat of modern myth. This process Matthew Beresford delineates with great clarity . . . fascinating." - Independent on Sunday
"This fascinating book provided me with a whole new way of thinking about the European Renaissance . . . While offering a series of elegant interpretations of art objects exchanged between East and West... this is also an epic story of imperial rivalry exploring the ways in which courts jostled for supremacy through their display of magnificent art objects, many of which are beautifully reproduced here" - The Good Book Guide Books of the Year
"With its vivid language and useful illustrations, Goldfish is sure to engage readers’ attention and imagination. Perhaps even more laudable is the fact that, despite the volume’s brevity, Roos has throughout tried to interject scholarly insights and contextual knowledge." - Isis Journal
"This is a superb book on a topic that all too often in the past has provoked texts that either merely list movies that have purported to represent Native Americans or fulminate against what they see as Hollywood's invariable recourse to stereotype, as if both Indians and Hollywood were unchanging entities . . . The book's main virtues are the range of its coverage, its overall approach, and the way it is written . . . Buscombe's work is authoritative . . . It constitutes fine film history and makes a valuable contribution to American cultural history." - American Historical Review
"a fascinating and highly readable history of one of the most exotic islands on earth." - The Economist
"The work is a much-needed and excellent addition to the limited number of publications dedicated to a very influential and well respected filmmaker . . . This book is an essential companion to the cinema, music and poetry of Jarmusch, and is accessible to both devotees of the filmmaker and newcomers to his work. It will be of interest for film scholars and students, cinema and music lovers alike." - Senses of Cinema
"this excellent biography by Rob Haskins sweeps away any possibility of Cage being considered a joker. It illuminates the composer’s life and work and makes eminently clear the intellectual underpinning and circumstances of his multivarious activities . . . This compact volume has plenty for the layperson and devotee alike. It is well laid out and the references and bibliography are excellent. The story of Cage’s life is fascinating and Haskins tells it well, clearly explaining the developments of the maverick composer’s musical ideas." - BBC Music magazine
"One of the most thought-provoking books of the year." - The Independent
"Keepers of the Golden Shore covers the country from prehistory to the present day in less than 250 pages . . . a welcome, readable and much needed starting point for new readers and new arrivals to the UAE who want a better understanding of the people and places around them." - The National
"beautiful . . . well produced, compact . . . with outstanding illustrations" - Manna
"Christopher Fraylings entertaining and illuminating book focuses on emblematic films . . . [Frayling] looks at changing representations of scientists and the social anxieties they gave expression to." - Financial Times
"Le Blanc is broadly sympathetic to the Trotskyist project and therefore focuses on the final phase of his life . . . He does discuss more critical views, too, and the result is a reasonably balanced and engaging defence of his subject. Le Blanc insists that Trotskys ideas remain relevant as global capitalism endures new crises." - TLS
"This is quite simply the best history ever published on the role of mining in shaping world events. It performs the huge task of making sense of a complex range of industries that took many forms and produced many products, over centuries of change and development across every continent on earth. It does so in just 350 pages of succinct but comprehensive prose, remarkably free of errors of both fact and judgment . . . Martin Lynch has managed to present the big picture of mining." - Historic Environment
"[an] excellent short biography . . . Apart from a sense that Watt has deftly and with considerable economy tackled all aspects critical to the production of Prousts novel, a particular pleasure is to be had in his neat turn of phrase . . . Proust is judiciously illustrated and has a useful bibliography." - TLS
"a gold mine of fascinating data . . . well worth reading" - The Daily Yomiuri
"The author guides the reader through this complex debate, building up the historical background and investigating the growth of psychological ideas and psychiatric therapies during the 20th century. His analysis includes an introduction to the principles of art brut as defined by Dubuffet, the evolution of public appreciation, the role of collectors, and the impact of these developments on the artists themselves." - The Art Newspaper
"Nathan Wiseman-Trowse analyses what [Nick Drakes] Englishness consists of: the sense of wistfulness and melancholy, the strain of romanticism, and the pastoral landscapes evoked by his melodies and lyrics, as well as the solitary, contemplative images of Drake used for album covers and publicity shots . . . its an astute analysis, and an evocative reminder of the handful (fewer than 40) of beautiful, delicate songs Drake left us." - The Independent on Sunday
"Like Poussins paintings, this is a highly polished work. In prose of great elegance, Bätschmann achieves an almost perfect balance between exposition and polemic . . . knowledge of the vast literature, discussed in useful footnotes, is offset by sensitive visual observations." - The Times Literary Supplement
"a concise biography of the artist and a thorough survey of recent, and occasionally not-so-recent, trends in the literature on the artist. It is this emphasis on critical modes of understanding that most clearly distinguishes the offering from other readily available, short, and modestly-priced primers on the artist . . . provides a superior entrée into the wider field of Cézanne studies" - H-France Reviews
"Winner of The Runciman Award 1998." - Award
"[Pascoe] tirelessly explicates the numerology and mytho-mania that are the film-makers organising principles." - Guardian
"Gill Perrys fascinating book considers what makes a house a home and why artists are repeatedly drawn to it as a motif. Chapters look at particular types of houses, from those that are haunted to beachside retreats and caravans. Rachel Whitereads House (1993) and Michael Landys Semi-Detached (2004) make appearances, and this well-illustrated volume goes on to include a wide range of art from around the globe." - Art Quarterly
"The book is delightful, deep but never pedantic. The great philosophers of the past are widely considered and their theories analyzed, but the goal is not to provide a historical excursus on what thinkers of the past wrote about food. The authors compare their work to plumbing, in the sense that they try to understand the nuts and bolts of how things work, and above all how ideas and values often taken for granted and never fully discussed greatly shape the way we understand and interact with the world. There is no more immediate perspective to do this than by looking at food, an experience that everybody, one way or another, shares." - Huffington Post
"he argues his interpretations of Chinese art with a great sense of adventure, and it reads tremendously well. Clunas is a master of argument. He presents his texts around carefully considered selections of material culture, which are not simply mustered to illustrate one art-historical point after another, but skilfully used for their value in making several claims throughout a larger discourse." - Times Higher Educational Supplement
"very readable . . . A great starting point for thinking about what the city you are fabricating might mean" - RIBA Journal
"This absorbing study helps explain the emergence and the endurance of this most apparently vulnerable of countries and how, for so much of modern history it has managed to punch above its weight." - The Scotsman
"[an] enjoyable exploraton of retro chic . . . Guffey offers an intriguing investigation of our seduction by the past" - The Independent
"From starting-gun to finishing tape may be a clean ten seconds, but behind that moment swirl a few thousand years of human joy and despair and endeavour this seems to be the argument of Gotaass rich and engrossing book." - The Spectator
"a well-written, well-translated and well-illustrated book . . . much more than a tourist guide . . . both useful and enlightening from a historical and cultural point of view." - Choice
"The first whole book dedicated to the story of dub (reggaes sparser, more wayward, brother), Sullivan takes us on a journey across continents . . . Covers everthing from beginnings in Duke Reids backyard right through to Londons myriad influences, François K and the dub-disco, Basic Channel, Mark Stewart and Digital Mystikz. Thorough and thoroughly good." - Mixmag
"With concern, proportion, wit and a bit of levity, the author of this authoritative and invaluable contribution to scholarship has given us the book for which we have long waited." - Donald Richie, Japan Times
"Sky Wars provides an ideal review of the first 100 years of military aerospace power, giving the enthusiast a fuller understanding of the philosophy behind today's major air forces." - Aeroplane
"As the quintessence of Earthly remoteness, Antarctica has drawn hordes of scientists, iconic explorers such as Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen, and novelists who have peopled it with vast humanoid lobsters or radioactive elephant seals. Historian Elizabeth Leane tours the research, literature, exploration, and geopolitical maneuverings that swirl around the pole. Hers is a detailed, compelling portrait of a place at once central and marginal, fantastically inhospitable and beautiful, and a mecca for physicists, government claimants, and extreme tourists." - Nature
"This is an enjoyable, easy-to-read book and Allen effortlessly weaves a pattern from the multiple strands that have made the global economy … an excellent general economic history and makes fascinating reading." - The Irish Times
"[a] weirdly wonderful compilation . . . van Boxsel ranges from wise fools to dumb blondes, via laughing meadows and perfects idiots." - The Observer
". . . richly conceived and elaborately thought out. No flicker of meaning has escaped Connor’s ferocious, all seeing eye." - The Guardian
"[a] brilliant book . . . a good read. Analysis of the relationship of collecting to identity, memory, and psychosexual development raises fascinating questions." - The Modern Review
"Mr. Inglis has made a solid contribution to what I suppose we by now ought to call Beatle’s Studies. As an account of the ideas and ideals that impelled the band through its most formative years, the book is unbeatable." - Wall Street Journal
"If you want to understand the historic background to the Arab-Israeli conflict this is a well-researched overview, underpinned by Bickerton’s belief that reasonableness and diplomacy will eventually lead to an enduring and peaceful resolution." - Sydney Morning Herald
"[a] potent book . . . This brilliantly argued volume should be read by all art historians" - The Art Book
"This intricately argued book (almost impossible to describe without oversimplifying) deals with cyberspace as well as the author's favourite 18th century and he stresses that response to gardens is visceral as well as intellectual." - Historic Gardens Review
"This history is a complex and subtle social and cultural stew - irresistibly appetising." - The Scotsman
"A lively and controversial symposium . . . thought-provoking." - The Sunday Times (Paperbacks of the Year, 1989)
"Although globalisation is not a phenomenon that is readily associated with the Middle Ages Timothy May makes a strong case for the emergence of a quasi-global system from the early 13th to the mid-14th century . . . Written with both clarity and zest and resting upon a wide range of recent scholarship, this book will be widely welcomed as a contribution to the study of world history." - History Today
"thoughtful, and at times unsettling, observations on love and work . . . Ziyad Marar's book contains a great deal to enlighten and engage anyone interested in happiness, and that probably includes most of us." - Times Literary Supplement
"Halls portrayal of recent Balkan history intertwines intricately the influences of the numerous countries involved, on one another, bringing important new perspectives and nuances to the complicated overall picture." - Central and Eastern European Review
"The visual reticence of this little book . . . undersells the expansiveness, diversity and materiality of its subject . . . The Modern Interior presents a compelling argument to consider interiors outside the home, just as it charts the complex interplay between public and private in all interiors, domestic and otherwise. This persuasive book is a well-crafted and engaging read" - Times Higher Education
"This is a wonderful book . . . Steve Baker provides the most cogent explanation so far of how the questioning of human identity ineluctably raises issues about animals . . . He has given us a great gift, an understanding of a process unfolding during our own time." - Carol J. Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat
"Mary Hilson has made a major contribution to Scandinavian studies in this concise, thorough, and well-written survey of contemporary Nordic history . . . This book is informative, very readable, and even inspiring." - Scandinavian Studies
"this is a useful and deeply felt study which addresses many of the most important issues that vex the museum as it advances, ever more popular and more visited, into the 21st century." - Apollo Magazine
"[John Macks] scholarly but very readable exploration of the sea includes a fascinating chapter on ships as societies, in which he argues ships are the first truly cosmopolitan spaces . . . From skin-covered currachs and the voyages of the Phoenicians, to the liminal terrain of beaches and the way accurate maps changed the mariners relationship to the oceans, Mack takes the reader on a captivating journey through the sea and its multiple meanings." - The Guardian
"[an] intriguing and beautifully styled book . . . the examples presented of modern theme-park practice make for compelling reading. Theme parks enable international travel without the worry of jet lag pilgrims can journey to the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, where the visitor is greeted with a welcoming Shalom instead of checkpoints for potential suicide bombers." - Times Higher Education
"In this excellent study, Scott argues that while language is deemed crucial to the interpretation of photography, we have insufficient information about how language is used in relation to various photographic genres . . . Readers interested in photography, film, postmodernism, and the nature of narrative itself will find Scott's book captivating, and, at times, positively breathtaking." - British Journal of Aesthetics
"Partha Mitters lucid and well-illustrated The Triumph of Modernism explores Indian artists encounter with the avant-garde from 1922 to 1947. It gives due prominence to pioneers: above all, Amrita Sher-Gil, the Sikh-Hungarian prodigy and firebrand." - The Independent
"a most ambitious undertaking, made by someone both experienced and learned in the life and art of [the Nordic countries]" - Independent on Sunday
"Inhabitation is the soul of architecture. This important and thoughtful book is one of the very first to discuss the primal nature of the interior experience, which we believe is the place where design begins. The Space Within initiates a conversation that is essential to all who study, practice, and think about architecture." - Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, architects
"There is nothing difficult or obscure about these essays. They are as sharp and lucid as precious stones because they proceed not by argument but poetically, by metaphor, story telling and myth." - Architects Journal Books of the Year
"Burgin explores the impressionistic qualities of cinema and how, in recollection, the viewer relates to image: exploring how memory and circumstance place certain sequences in our psyches, the overwhelming beauty of certain images and sequences becoming larger than the bodies of work theyve hailed from . . . Burgins art swoon is nearly as tempting as some of the beauty he finds in small, strange places" - i-D Magazine
"Baker's vivid critical study of the Beat novelist Burroughs zings with the same energy and humour as his subject's fiction. Judiciously matching the biography to the books, Baker follows Burroughs's peregrinations from his relationship with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac in New York, to Mexico, where he accidentally shot dead his wife, and eventually to Tangier, where he wrote his best-known work, The Naked Lunch. A literary life that is as entertaining as it is indispensable as a guide to Burroughs's writing." - Sunday Times
"Magnússon narrates a well-timed history of Iceland through the lives of ordinary people and local communities in a pointillist style that evokes a rich heritage. He shows how a localised barter economy, based in fishing and agriculture, became a financial system with a global strategy that fatally overreached itself with embarrassing international political and financial consequences. The dust has yet to settle." - The Times
"A stimulating and attractively illustrated history" - History Today
"With an admirable grasp of Polish history, essential to understanding this not immediately appealing city, David Crowley explains the complex background to the grey pre -1989 environment and changes since." - ArchitectsJournal
"Reaktion Books have a nice line in curious art history. The topic here is delightful: the relationship between painting and supernatural visions. This is the far side of Counter-Reformation piety with such subjects as the Mystical Lactation of St Bernard." - The Guardian
"Ever wondered why Britain has fought and won so many wars? Pariss fascinating book goes a long way to answer this question . . . Paris has created a compelling insight into why Britain responded to the call of arms." - The Good Book Guide
"in this clever little book, [Lindow] traces the history of trolls from their earliest appearances in Old Norse literature through the more familiar creatures of folk tale and fairy tale and right up to the latest manifestation of the malign Other, the internet pest . . . Lindow writes with wit and warmth, but this is also a learned and sometimes unsettling study which brings to light some unexpected facets of the troll phenomenon more generally." - TLS
"Turkish Cinema is a serious and open-minded study, thoroughly documented and researched, illustrated with summaries of films that support its many contentions. To be sure, it is an essential tool for the study of Turkeys cinema, but it is equally vital to an understanding of the ideologies that shaped it: why certain kinds of films were made and what led to their demise how nation-building exercises are mirrored in cinema how reigning ideologies and rhetoric give rise to new forms and how relationships between films and viewers build or undo new archaeology in the Seventh Art." - The Asian Age
". . . presents a fascinating array of film narratives and characterizations. Her critical interpretations reveal how films can reflect socio-political transitions the voices of filmmakers add authority to the text, as does her personal background in both Islamic and Western cultures. Dönmez-Colin shows how cinema may serve either to protect cultural values or to contest them, describing a complex scenario where womens seemingly passive role in perpetuating traditions may be balanced by their courage in defying them . . . underscores the dynamic interplay between cinema and real life in countries where, literally in some cases, women were once dying to go to the movies." - Times Literary Supplement
"This anthology, which is rarely scarred by academic jargon, fascinates with its detail, covering enough surface to show how much more is left to be explored." - The New York Times
"The Madness of Knowledge challenges the casual belief that there is a thing “out there”, solid and observable, which we more or less manage to cram into our brains . . . His argument – regardless of their truth, our beliefs about knowledge operate in a world of fantasy – is in itself both clear and convincing.," - TLS
"Few who read this remarkable study will regard language in quite the same way again" - The Good Book Guide
"Winner of the British Association of American Studies Book Prize 2008" - Award
"Engaging . . . puts Bowie in the context of heavyweights like Michel Foucault, Max Frisch and Erich Heckel, who inspired the cover art for ‘Heroes’." - Paul Burston, The Independent
"A superb new book on medieval food . . . lavishly illustrated." - Sunday Telegraph
"Sex Pistols: Poison in the Machine dares to be different. Why? It is not another regurgitation of the history of the Pistols. It aims to place the reader back in the 1960s and ’70s and explore the Sex Pistols phenomenon as it was experienced in the era that spawned it one of scant information, sparse news outlets and very little access to the music. It reminds the reader how different the world of today is, where Pistols footage, audio and even the Grundy show can be accessed in an instant on the internet. Back in the day, if you didn’t see it yourself, you didn’t see it. Importantly, the book helps define how the myth, controversy and enigma of the Sex Pistols was given oxygen by, ironically, this very vacuum." - SexPistols.net
"In a series of shrewd and finely etched depictions of political figures during the French Directory (1795–9), Biancamaria Fontana’s Desk Revolutionaries deftly rehabilitates the unjustly neglected years that followed the Terror. These backroom boys may have failed to stop the rise of Napoleon, but by their unglamorous commitment to Enlightenment rationalism, bureaucratic paperwork and republican values they showed that the pen was equal to the sword in shaping the long-term legacy of the Revolutionary decade." - Colin Jones, Emeritus Professor of Cultural History, Queen Mary University of London, and author of The Fall of Robespierre
"An excellent book on an important but neglected period in garden history. Mowl, as usual, has researched his topic well and writes beautifully, using evidence and example to great effect." - Tom Williamson, author of Humphry Repton: Landscape Design in an Age of Revolution
"Bjørn Berge offers us a treasure trove of insight and reflection. The text sharpens your senses and makes you appreciate the endless variety the world has to offer, which powerful forces are recklessly striving to flatten, homogenize, and standardize." - Dagbladet
"The underbelly of Chinese culture was never as poetic and as vivid as in this book on the ars amatoria – arts of love. Erotic and soulful, it takes you into the world of pillow and mat, moon and wind, rain and clouds, scented mountains and gyrating snow. These metaphors for intimacy part the curtains of the bedchamber and enrich the lexicon of love beyond the salaciousness of Western pornography. John Minford, a brilliant sinologist and translator, has brought together ancient, traditional and modern texts, with a flair for winged pleasures such as this one line from the oldest “Book of Songs”: I bring my lithe lass joy." - Vera Schwarcz, Emerita Professor of History and East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University
"If there can be a life-affirming book about death, this is it. Jonathan Romain’s compassion and humanity permeate every page. His professional and personal experiences have given him privileged access to the views of patients and their relatives. Their hopes and fears have influenced his opinions and provide the background to this story." - Graeme Catto, former President of the General Medical Council
"Of the three volumes in Steven Roger Fischers hugely ambitious and sedulously executed trilogy, the first two dealt with language and writing. This one, however, is the most suggestive and open, dedicated not only to the technicalities of his subject but to the everyday experience of communication . . . Fischer lets his historical readers speak for themselves, ceaselessly seduced by textual magic" - The Independent
"To read Linda Simon’s social and literary history of flappers is to feel . . . the relief of the loosening of corsets, the excitement of the shimmy and tango in the dance hall, the thrill of smoking, the bliss of escape from detested chaperoning rules and the swooning effect of watching Rudolph Valentino on the silent screen" - The Times
"a succinct and readily accessible account of the history and key issues associated with chemical and biological weapons from World War I to the present . . . an excellent overview of an often underappreciated segment of 20th- and 21st-century security studies . . . It deserves the thoughtful attention of both students and professionals." - Military Review
"Sigel’s great subject is the way consumerism eradicates the creative libido. Her book, for all its alarming examples, is convincing in its argument that homemade porn is a valuable anthropological indicator of sexuality that speaks to the era and place in which it was made. Her reader will certainly look at rude phalluses scraffitoed on subway seats with softer eyes. Behold, before me! A radical, unquenchable expression of the irrepressibly horny human spirit." - New York Review of Books
"Journalist White uses the stories of different hacks, dating from the 1980s to the 2016 election, to connect illicit activity on the earliest Internet forums to today's cyberattacks by hacktivists and state-sanctioned hacking teams. He humanizes this history by highlighting the people behind the tech: the Filipino student who unleashed the Love Bug, one of the first global cyberattacks to rely on psychological manipulation; the former cybercriminal who worked with the FBI to bring down Silk Road, a dark Web black market for illegal drugs (a scheme that involved him faking his own death); and the audio producer who lost thousands of dollars in a scam that exploited personal information stolen from telecommunications company TalkTalk." - Scientific American
"Sir Thomas More emerges from this valuable and compelling new study of his writings as a vigorous and enigmatic author who shaped the political, religious, and literary life of early Tudor England. Andrew Hadfield and Joanne Paul clearly document the major questions in More studies, while also offering tantalizing fresh insights. This excellent book should satisfy established scholars as well as those encountering More for the first time." - Mark Rankin, Professor of English at James Madison University and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
"Dawley’s retelling of Taiwan’s history humanises Taiwanese people and their history in a way that is desperately needed in today’s great-power focused world. No other volume better introduces Taiwan’s complex history and political development in such a thorough yet accessible way. This is a must-read, both for those new to – and familiar with – East Asian history and politics." - Dr Lev Nachman, author of Contested Taiwan
"Whispers from Celtic Seas is a fascinating and passionate call for the oral traditions and traditional folk stories of Northwest Europe to be granted the respect they deserve for the deep histories they tell. Patrick Nunn masterfully reveals the traumatic events that constantly redefined the boundaries between land and sea." - Lynne Kelly, author of The Knowledge Gene and The Memory Code
"Antisemitism, that light sleeper, is on the rise again. In a period in which it is weaponised on many sides – by the Right wing, by the Left, by Israeli advocates and by anti-Zionists – it is also a real feature of the cultural and political field. In this book Sander L. Gilman, who has done more than any other scholar to unpick the history and character of antisemitism, shows how different “antisemitisms” have arisen and how they function. Through four lively and deeply researched “case histories” – visible difference (appearance), vulnerability (disease), belonging (rootedness) and boundary setting (self-hatred) – Gilman demonstrates the versatility and variability of antisemitic images (and self-images) of Jews, traced historically and conceptually. This is a vivid text that is a vital read for everyone concerned about antisemitic and racial hate." - Stephen Frosh, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London
"Antisemitism, that light sleeper, is on the rise again. In a period in which it is weaponised on many sides – by the Right wing, by the Left, by Israeli advocates and by anti-Zionists – it is also a real feature of the cultural and political field. In this book Sander L. Gilman, who has done more than any other scholar to unpick the history and character of antisemitism, shows how different “antisemitisms” have arisen and how they function. Through four lively and deeply researched “case histories” – visible difference (appearance), vulnerability (disease), belonging (rootedness) and boundary setting (self-hatred) – Gilman demonstrates the versatility and variability of antisemitic images (and self-images) of Jews, traced historically and conceptually. This is a vivid text that is a vital read for everyone concerned about antisemitic and racial hate." - Stephen Frosh, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London
"Antisemitisms rethinks the very nature of “Jew hatred” with remarkable concision and clarity. Rather than treating antisemitism as a static or “eternal” phenomenon, or trying to define or describe it, Sander L. Gilman illuminates the multi-faceted concept as an ever-changing, adaptive constellation of ideas, attitudes, and prejudices – each responsive to its own political and cultural moment. This pioneering study offers a nuanced, historically grounded understanding of not one antisemitism, but many antisemitisms: opportunistic, multifaceted, and shaped as responses to deeply rooted, longstanding xenophobia. With penetrating insight and elegant restraint, Gilman provides a vivid intellectual map that spans centuries – most powerfully including the time before the Holocaust – while speaking directly to the complexities of our present. Antisemitisms is an indispensable, lucid, and urgent book – essential reading for anyone interested in Israel and Palestine, the history of ideas, the rhetoric of racism and xenophobia, and the tangled legacies that define our contemporary world." - Agnes Mueller, Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina
"Antisemitisms rethinks the very nature of “Jew hatred” with remarkable concision and clarity. Rather than treating antisemitism as a static or “eternal” phenomenon, or trying to define or describe it, Sander L. Gilman illuminates the multi-faceted concept as an ever-changing, adaptive constellation of ideas, attitudes, and prejudices – each responsive to its own political and cultural moment. This pioneering study offers a nuanced, historically grounded understanding of not one antisemitism, but many antisemitisms: opportunistic, multifaceted, and shaped as responses to deeply rooted, longstanding xenophobia. With penetrating insight and elegant restraint, Gilman provides a vivid intellectual map that spans centuries – most powerfully including the time before the Holocaust – while speaking directly to the complexities of our present. Antisemitisms is an indispensable, lucid, and urgent book – essential reading for anyone interested in Israel and Palestine, the history of ideas, the rhetoric of racism and xenophobia, and the tangled legacies that define our contemporary world." - Agnes Mueller, Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina
"In this wonderfully thought-provoking book, Patrick Nunn dispels the myth about myths, and shows that sea-level changes, particularly sea-level rise, are not recently recognised phenomena. The longevity of myths is breath-taking, and reveals we still have a lot to learn about ourselves from studies of the past." - Colin Murray-Wallace, Honorary Senior Professor, University of Wollongong, New South Wales
"The arrival of Evan N. Dawley’s Taiwan: A People's History could not be better timed. Written in an admirably accessible style, it offers an original approach and is chockful of engaging nuggets. Based on deep familiarity with the literature, a thorough amount of original research, and much time in the field, Dawley’s book is required reading." - Thomas Gold, University of California, Berkeley
"Investigative journalist Geoff White provides comprehensive and accessible insight into a mostly hidden world, reminding us how computers significantly shape our everyday lives. What happens in the "darkness” of the digital world affects our financial systems, our communication, and our infrastructures. Each relies on computer networks to function . . . Crime Dot Com is an exciting and comprehensible presentation of computer networks and cybercrime. It is not only about technology, but above all about trust (and its misuse) in technology and in communication partners as a prerequisite for interpersonal communication and human-machine interaction." - Technology and Culture Journal
"Lisa Z. Sigel’s The People’s Porn attempts the ambitious, unglamorous, but fascinating work of drawing together for the first time an archive of handmade erotic objects made over two centuries of American history. From erotic scrimshaw made by 19th-century sailors to amateur polaroids, it charts a course through the ways in which apparently ‘ordinary’ men and women represented sex in all its variety – cis and trans, straight and queer, in couples or groups, with people or animals and somewhere in between – via prison pornography, pop-up erections, masturbating Santas and feminist embroidery. In doing so, it tells a story of hidden desire that has often been overlooked . . . The People’s Porn is at its most illuminating when exploring the place of sex in shared cultures of humour and conviviality, showing that pornography was as much about male (and sometimes female) bonding as it was about private fantasy." - History Today
"This concise work, with its extensive references and bibliography, will be of interest to all students and professionals in the fields of history, political science, public policy, toxicology, and chemical technology. Recommended." - Choice
"A fresh, unique view of the iconic flapper. . . . Simon digs beneath stereotype to provide an illuminating cultural study. . . . A fascinating history of thirty years of trailblazing women who "invented a new image and identity . . . in a culture where they were continually warned about the real losses . . . that they might suffer if they acted upon their secret needs and desires."" - Kirkus Reviews
"Starting from the Bronze Age and ending with modern emails and a possible future of e-books, Steven Fischers A History of Reading takes in a wonderful diversity of things" - Nature
"Jonathan Romain is a gentle, insightful and honest guide to assisted dying, and makes a powerful case for it. This moving book left me thinking this option is a loving and necessary expression of our care for one another." - Revd Canon Rosie Harper
"Impeccably researched and elegantly written, this beautiful book is a must for anyone interested in historic gardens, in Jane Austen’s England or in British cultural history." - Steven Parissien, author of Regency Style and Building Britannia
"The history of the French Revolution often centres on the Twelve who Ruled, or the dozen members of the Committee of Public Safety who headed the first French Republic between 1793 and 1794. Biancamaria Fontana’s Desk Revolutionaries is the first major study of the Five who Ruled, and offers an original examination of the Executive Directory that governed France between 1795 and 1799." - Michael Sonenscher, Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, and author of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Before the Deluge
"It’s a fast read, with clean writing and little editorializing . . . [Scanlan] uses quotes and rare photos to give the reader a sense of the time and place, which is as important to the Sex Pistols as the people involved in their rise . . . Great book for fans of the band who need a little more ammo in the face of trite dismissals, or punk history buffs alike – Poison in the Machine is a fascinating read." - Dying Scene
"Oh no! Not whole-roasted ox again! Even for the aristocracy, medieval fare must have been boring, it's been assumed. The reality was quite otherwise, Hannele Klemettilä reveals. This social history with recipes is as delicious in its details as it is mouthwatering in its presentation . . . More enterprising readers may want to take a stab at some of the 60-odd recipes in which Klemettilä serves up a splendid banquet of forgotten flavours." - The Scotsman
"An accessible read which can stand proud in the sure-to-expand Bowie bibliography." - Paddy Kehoe, RTÉ Entertainment
"Winner of the Lord Aberdare Literary Prize 2008" - Award
"[A] delightful and unexpectedly accessible book . . . a virtuoso tour of the linguistic world" - The Economist
"Pinning down this wide-ranging book is difficult, but "psycho-literary history of ideas about knowledge" may not be too far off . . . Connor interrogates fictional, philosophical, religious, historical, and other texts to examine the relationships they suggest between knowledge, or the search thereof, and passion, madness, fantasy, and power. Many long passages connect myriad sources and incidents through their common use of a single word or concept. This sometimes looks like the exploratory wordplay that Continental philosophers often use in lieu of an argument or a thesis, but there is more substance here than this comparison may suggest, and the work offers some useful synthetic insights. Though those looking for an analytical, conceptually based central argument may be frustrated, Connor is relatively clear in defining his terms, framing and organizing his remarks, and establishing connections between old and new points. Recommended." - Choice
"Tattoos have a strange double-nature. They have an uncanny power to affront, yet they also exert an almost irresistible fascination, even on historians. Jane Caplan's collection of essays from 14 estimable British and American historians provides an informative exploration and interpretation of the tattoo in Western Culture." - Boston Herald
"This is one of the few film books I actually want to read. A very necessary examination of Islamic cinema which praises its bolder spirits and doesnt hesitate to criticise those who censor and condemn them." - Derek Malcolm, chief film critic, London Evening Standard
"Turkish Cinema provides non-Turkish readers with a welcome introduction to a subject which hitherto has received scant critical attention." - Screen
"Blessedly, Trolls: An Unnatural History is many things trolls are not. It is handsome, well proportioned, and not of monstrous size it is full of knowledge, yet unintimidating. The curious person could be advised to seek out Trolls for enjoyment and edification: no special preparation is required . . . It is written in Lindows characteristic style: lucid, economical, gently wry. Every sentence is informative, dense without being convoluted. The casual reader will move through the prose easily and learn a very great deal, but the more attentive one will learn three times as much . . . an enjoyable, rich tour" - Scandinavian Studies
"an absorbing and thought-provoking survey of the presentation of war in popular culture . . . It is impossible in a short review to do justice to the historical sweep, the literary insight and the importance of the issues raised by this stimulating and enjoyable book. I warmly recommend it to you." - Biggles Flies Again
". . . [a] well-documented, scholarly survey" - Burlington Magazine
"The book is engaging, readable, and enjoyable. It made me feel as if I were being shown around Warsaw by a friend who was a long term resident." - Geography
"The authors adopt three lenses – poetic, botanic and gendered – to view tea’s growing influence on British daily life, weaving together an impressive array of sources. The plentiful visual material (seventy-seven illustrations in all) beautifully bolsters the detailed narrative . . . For those tempted to begin the tale of British tea-drinking with the Opium Wars, or with the establishment of Indian tea plantations, this book offers a richly textured history of the “empire” that preceded, and long outgrew, those events." - Times Literary Supplement
"[a] combination of cultural depth and material backwardness is the central message of Sigurdur Gylfi Magnússon's social history of one of Europe's smallest and remotest countries . . . This book, drawing on Icelanders' astonishingly detailed diaries and letters in past centuries, gives the outsider a rare glimpse into the past lives of an extraordinary people." - Edward Lucas, The Economist
"lucid and readable . . . manages to pick its through way through most of Burroughs's major motivations and curious obsessions, and serves as a good introductory text for general readers, as well as a model of concision for Beat aficionados. Repeatedly, in various ways, it asks: just what possessed Burroughs?" - Times Literary Supplement
"In Flusser, weve found our Wittgenstein. By that I mean, in the ways that 1960s conceptual artists found his Philosophical Investigations as granting them the necessary permission to see the world around them with fresh eyes, Flussers forays into media have framed, theorized, and unpacked the new complexities of our digital world. By empirically questioning received knowledge and recasting it within crisp lines of history and logic, hes made the digital legible in a time when its theorization is occluded and murky to say the least. Like de Koonings famous statement:History does not influence me. I influence it, its taken Flussers analog-based investigations in the 20th century to show how to be in the digitally soaked 21st." -