bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Iran and French Orientalism
Authors: Hartley Julia Caterina
Published: October 2023

New translations of Persian literature into French, the invention of the Aryan myth, increased travel between France and Iran, and the unveiling of artefacts from ancient Susa at the Louvre Museum are among the factors that radically altered France’s perception of Iran during the long nineteenth century. And this is reflected in the literary culture of the period. In an ambitious study spanning poetry, historiography, fiction, travel-writing, ballet, opera, and marionette theatre, Julia Hartley reveals the unique place that Iran held in the French literary imagination between 1829 and 1912. Iran’s history and culture remained a constant source of inspiration across different generations and artistic movements, from the ‘Oriental’ poems of Victor Hugo to those of Anna de Noailles and Théophile Gautier’s strategic citation of Persian poetry to his daughter Judith Gautier’s full-blown rewriting of a Persian epic. Writing about Iran could also serve to articulate new visions of world history and religion, as was the case in the intellectual debates that took place between Michelet, Renan, and Al-Afghani. Alternatively joyous, as in Félicien David’s opera Lalla Roukh, and ominous, as in Massenet’s Le Mage, Iran elicited a multiplicity of treatments. This is most obvious in the travelogues of Flandin, Gobineau, Loti, Jane Dieulafoy, and Marthe Bibesco, which describe the same cities and cultural practices in altogether different ways. Under these writers’ pens, Iran emerges as both an Oriental other and an alter ego, its culture elevated above that of all other Muslim nations. At times this led French writers to critique notions of European superiority. But at others, they appropriated Iran as proto-European through racialist narratives that reinforced Orientalist stereotypes. Drawing on theories of Orientalism and cultural difference, this book navigates both sides of this fascinating and complex literary history. It is the first major study on the subject.
Latin Political Propaganda in the War of the Spanish Succession and Its Aftermath, 1700–1740
Authors: Coroleu Alejandro
Published: October 2023

Latin Political Propaganda offers the first comprehensive study of the central role played by the Latin language to celebrate or undermine political power during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–15). Waged as much on the printed page as on the battlefield, this worldwide conflict gave rise to an astonishing variety of Latin writing across the continent – in verse or in prose – on both the pro-Habsburg and pro-Bourbon sides. Ranging from official documents, epic, satirical and panegyric poetry to defamatory pamphlets, letters, historiographical and juridical tracts, medals and ephemeral architecture, this vast textual corpus has gone almost unnoticed.

Alejandro Coroleu provides close examination of the literary devices of these texts and shows how imitation of models and figures from classical antiquity was at the heart of the authors’ highly refined verse and prose technique. He also pays attention to the historical and social context in which the texts emerged, and connects the Latin political writing produced at the time with more popular forms of propagandistic discourse (literary or visual) which found its expression in the vernacular. This book reveals how the learned language continued to function – even after the hostilities had come to an end in July 1715 – as an instrument of political discourse and propaganda on both sides of the dynastic feud up until the death of Emperor Charles VI in October 1740.

This monograph offers the first comprehensive study of the central role played by the Latin language to celebrate or undermine political power during the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1715). Waged as much on the printed page as on the battlefield, this worldwide conflict gave rise to an astonishing variety of Latin writing across the Continent —in print and in manuscript, in verse or in prose— on both the pro-Habsburg and pro-Bourbon sides. Ranging from official documents, epic, satirical and panegyric poetry to defamatory pamphlets, coronation and funeral verse and prose, letters, historiographical and juridical tracts, medals and ephemeral architecture, this vast textual corpus has gone almost unnoticed. The proposed book provides close examination of the literary devices of these texts and shows how imitation of models and figures from classical antiquity was at the heart of the authors’ highly refined verse and prose technique. This monograph also pays attention to the historical and social context in which the texts emerged, and connects the Latin political writing produced at the time with more popular forms of propagandistic discourse (literary or visual) which found its expression in the vernacular. Last, Latin and political propaganda in the War of the Spanish Succession and its Aftermath reveals how the learned language continued to function —even after the hostilities had come to an end in July 1715— as an instrument of political discourse and propaganda on both sides of the dynastic feud up until the death of emperor Charles VI in October 1740.
The Future of Syntax
Authors: Kiaer Jieun
Published: October 2023

Proposing a new approach to the study of language, this book argues for the need to consider syntax in context and to engage with a wider variety of perspectives that better reflect the modern world and the changes to our language prompted by increased cultural diversity, the prevalence of social media, AI, and more.

Referencing big data and drawing on a corpus of linguistic research, the book explores in particular the socio-pragmatic sensitivity and complexity within East Asian languages including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, offering new insights that step away from traditional approaches to formal syntax. In tracing the history of syntactic theory, it highlights the shifts in our communication as we adapt to technological developments, and focuses in particular on the significant advances in AI. Arguing that traditional syntactic theory is no longer in keeping with real life communication, Jieun Kiaer scrutinises current approaches and raises key questions about the need for a more appropriate grammar better suited to the diversity of human language.
Finding Froebel
Authors: Wasmuth Helge , Sauerbrey Ulf , Winkler Michael
Published: October 2023

Friedrich Froebel, the ‘father of kindergarten’, is one of the most influential educationalists of the 19th century, but relatively little is known about his life, and his successes and failures. Based on his letters which have never been translated into English, this book reveals Froebel as a brilliant and flawed man who only began to receive real recognition for his work at the end of his life and then increasingly after his death.

Beginning with his childhood and the early death of his mother, and his difficult relation with his father and ‘evil’ stepmother, we see the early seeds of Froebel’s interest in children and the training of carers. Throughout his life, including his career as a teacher, he lacked basic academic knowledge and understanding due to his poor early education. Nevertheless, he developed ground-breaking educational theories about play and pedagogy and authored multiple books including The Education of Man. The authors describe his complicated relationships with his siblings, nieces and nephews, and his relationship with the mother of one of his pupils, Caroline von Holzhausen. We learn of his early unsuccessful attempts to establish the kindergarten and how the Prussian government banned it in 1851. The final chapter and conclusion look at the global spread of Froebel’s ideas, including his teachings about play, charting the spread of kindergartens throughout the world, and in the UK, the USA and Japan in particular.
For Revolt
Authors: Palmusaari Jussi
Published: October 2023

For Revolt: Rancière, Abstract Space and Emancipation presents an interpretation of Rancière’s uncompromising view of emancipation, drawing on its invariably rational and Kantian-moralist basis. Tracing a logic of abstract or empty space in all of Rancière’s work, it contrasts the prevailing tendencies to emphasise Rancière’s sensitivity to evolving historical forms and changing regimes of sensibility. Overturning the meaning of Rancière’s interest in the sensible enables the capture of the object of his thought as a revolt against the reality accorded to ordered temporalities and forms of appearance as such.

In making its argument, For Revolt reconstructs Rancière’s relations to some of the crucial, yet unexplored, politico-historical frameworks of his thought, such as the Cultural-Revolutionary Maoism and the French Revolution, offering a fresh perspective to these revolutionary paradigms. In contrast to dominating views, the book makes a case for a fundamentally positive influence of Louis Althusser’s philosophy on Rancière’s thought. It develops an immanent critique of Rancière through a discussion of his relation to Marx, spanning its coverage to Rancière’s hitherto undiscussed early student work. It distils elements in Rancière’s thought which resist its own defining orientation, opening ways to alternative developments.

Through a critical discussion of Rancière in relation to other contemporary accounts of revolt and resistance, the book addresses the present predicament of emancipatory politics, its emphasis on the actualities of here and now and its difficulties to envisage programmatic realisations of radically alternative futures.
Intercultural Phenomenology
Authors: Ishihara Yuko , Kirloskar-Steinbach Monika , Raveh Daniel , Stewart Georgina Tuari , Brink Dean Anthony , Morisato Takeshi , Mungwini Pascah , Muireartaigh Rossa Ó , Mandair Arvind-Pal Singh , Uskokov Aleksandar , O’Brien-Kop Karen , Presbey Gail M. , Sánchez Carlos Alberto , Harris Stephen , James Joy , Tainer Steven A. , Kalmanson Leah
Published: October 2023

Intercultural Phenomenology explores the nature of reality by engaging in a cross-cultural dialogue between two of the most influential philosophical traditions of the 20th century.

Drawing on ideas from phenomenology, Japanese philosophy and Zen Buddhism, it follows the philosophers who changed their perception of the world by choosing to suspend judgement. Guided by this philosophical method known as the “epoché”, or suspension of judgment in ancient Greek, it is an introduction to the philosophy and practice of letting objects in the world speak for themselves.

Inspired by Nishida Kitaro’s insight that true reality is beyond the subject-object duality, the book uses a series of examples and exercises to explore the background to Husserl’s idea of the phenomenological epoché, Hans-Georg Gadamer’s emphasis on play in human understanding and the haiku poet Matsuo Basho’s call for a new level of freedom. This practice-oriented approach moves beyond the traditional East-West divide. It connects various traditions, old and new, contemplative and theoretical, and explains why Japanese philosophy and phenomenology can enrich the quality of our lived experience.

Ishihara and Tainer introduce a new approach to the basic practice of phenomenology and the epoché (suspension of judgment) pioneered by Edmund Husserl. The book is designed to serve readers from the general public seeking ways to improve basic quality of life, as well as undergraduate college students interested in phenomenology’s theory and historical background. Both Western philosophy (Kant, Gadamer, Ricoeur and Heidegger) and Asian contemplative traditions (Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism) are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the Kyoto School tradition, Japanese culture and Zen, drawing upon insights from philosophers Nishida Kitarō, Nishitani Keiji and Ueda Shizuteru, the Zen master Dōgen Zenji and the famous Haiku poet Matsuo Bashō. Theory and practice are combined in a wide variety of experiential exercises and simple life explorations—all potential entries into a more appreciative way of playing with reality.
Philosophy of the Medium
Authors: Lechte John
Published: October 2023

Taking the principle of the ‘disappearance of the medium’ into new territory, this book questions the pervasive influence of the principle that the ‘medium is the message’ – that the best we can hope for is a knowledge of the world that is media specific, and that it is this specificity, rather than media content, that should be made an object of study. Bold and investigative, this book argues that we have for too long focused on the technical specificities of media, when we should have been focusing on what it is that mediums do, that is, on their ‘content’ rather than their formal and technical qualities.

John Lechte actively delves into the thinking of multiple philosophers in his path to this revelation, with a re-reading of McLuhan, a study of the conflicting views of technics as a medium in Bernard Stiegler’s work as well as an investigation into the extent to which Michel Serres’ work on communication sheds light on the nature of medium. Engaging also with the recently arrived concept of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO), and the notion of probabilistic objects in quantum physics and climate change, he explores the way in which measurement is perceived to ‘create’ reality. Concluding with a fascinating study of the implications of consciousness as a medium, this book ultimately reconsiders and offers a deeper understanding, in a startlingly original way, of what we mean by the term ‘media’: it is that which comes ‘between’ and which facilitates the transmission of content, essentially a creator of possibilities, yet never present as such in the light of its success as a vehicle for meaning.
Christianity after Christendom
Authors: Koci Martin
Published: October 2023

What comes after the end of Christendom? Christianity has ceased to function as the dominant force in society and yet the Christian faith continues. How are we to understand Christianity in this ‘after’?

Bringing into conversation seven unorthodox or ‘heretical’ continental philosophers, including Jan Patocka, Jean-Luc Nancy, Gianni Vattimo and John D. Caputo, Martin Koci re-centres the debates around philosophy’s so-called return to religion to address the current ‘not-Christian, but not yet non-Christian’ culture.

In the modern context of increasing secularization and pluralization, Christianity after Christendom boldly proposes that Christians must embrace the demise of Christianity as a meta-narrative and see their faith as an existential mode of being-in-the-world. Whilst not denying the religion’s history, this ‘after’ of Christianity emancipates the discourse from the socio-historical focus on Christendom and introduces new perspectives on Christianity as an embodied religious tradition, as a way of being, even as a faithfulness to the world.

In dialogue with a broad range of philosophical movements, including deconstruction, phenomenology, hermeneutics and postmodern critiques of religion, this is a timely examination of the present and future of post-Christendom Christianity.
Leftover Women
Authors: Fincher Leta Hong
Published: October 2023

Leta Hong Fincher’s landmark book Leftover Women shone a light on the resurgence of gender inequality in 21st-century China. Ten years on, women in China continue to experience a dramatic rolling back of rights and gains in the increasingly patriarchal political climate of the Xi Jinping era.

Leftover Women explores the structural discrimination against women and the broader problems with China’s economy, politics, and development that lie behind them. This updated edition includes a new preface exploring developments in China in the 10 years since the book’s original publication, including the new “three child policy”, the growth in online feminist and LGBTQ activism and the state’s increasingly repressive moves against dissent.
Dialogue and Decolonization
Authors: Kirloskar-Steinbach Monika
Published: October 2023

By bringing together philosophers whose work on political philosophy, intellectual history, and world philosophies pushes the boundaries of conventional scholarship, this collaborative collection opens up space in political philosophy for new approaches.

Garrick Cooper, Sudipta Kaviraj, Charles W. Mills, and Sor-hoon Tan respond to the challenges James Tully raises for comparative political thought. Arranged around Tully’s opening chapter, they demonstrate the value of critical dialogue and point to the different attempts cultures make to understand their experiences. Through the use of methods from various disciplines and cultural contexts, each interlocutor exemplifies the transformative power of genuine democratic dialogue across philosophical traditions. Together they call for a radical reorientation of conceptual and intellectual readings from intellectual history including the Afro-modern political tradition, Indigenous philosophies, and the lived experiences of societies in Asia.

This is an urgent methodological provocation for anyone interested in the ethical, conceptual, and political challenges of political thought today.
The ‘Catalan Hermaphrodite’ and the Inquisition
Authors: Soyer François
Published: October 2023

This book examines the life of Maria Duran, a woman who was accused of being a man and subsequently put on trial for sorcery by the Portuguese Inquisition during the 18th century. François Soyer uses Maria’s story to open a window onto the world of the experience of ‘transing’ gender, as well as the gendered attitudes and responses to the transgression of gendered norms that were adopted by churchmen, medical practitioners and ordinary lay men and women.

Drawing on the surviving (and staggeringly 736-page long) sorcery trial dossier, Soyer analyses the secretive life of an individual who actively and deliberately ‘transed’ gender. The dossier analysis enables insights into aspects of life so rarely recorded in early modern documents: the transgression of gender norms, transgressive sexuality and sexual violence in female religious institutions, in addition to the fears and debates about the power that the Devil could wield over the human body. The ‘Catalan Hermaphrodite’ and the Inquisition also reveals how the Inquisition gathered a number of doctors, surgeons and midwives to conduct careful examinations of Maria’s body in general and genitals in particular. Their reports and the discussions of the inquisitors are discussed by Soyer and offer further fascinating evidence of attitudes towards sex and gender in early modern Europe.
Displaced Comrades
Authors: Nilsson Ebony
Published: October 2023

This book explores the lives of left-wing Soviet refugees who fled the Cold War to settle in Australia, and uncovers how they adjusted to life under surveillance in the West. As Cold War tensions built in the postwar years, many of these refugees happily resettled in the West as model refugees, proof of capitalist countries’ superiority. But for a few, this was not the case. Displaced Comrades provides an account of these Cold War misfits, those refugees who fled East for West, but remained left-wing or pro-Soviet.

Drawing on interviews, government records and surveillance dossiers from multiple continents this book explores how these refugees’ ideas took root in new ways. As these radical ideas drew suspicion from western intelligence these everyday lives were put under surveillance, shadowed by the persistent threat of espionage. With unprecented access to intelligence records, Nilsson focuses on how a number of these left-wing refugees adjusted to life in Australia, opening up a previously invisible segment of postwar migration history, and offering a new exploration of life as a Soviet ‘enemy alien’ in the West.
Cocaine, Literature, and Culture, 1876–1930
Authors: Small Douglas R.J.
Published: October 2023

The first significant study of cocaine in the literary and cultural imagination of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, this open access book offers an important exploration of the drug’s symbolic and metaphorical associations in the decades prior to its criminalization.

Examining the paradoxical position of cocaine in this period by looking at its role as an icon of technology, modernity and idealised medical identity, alongside developing notions of habituation and dependence, this book reads texts such as the Sherlock Holmes stories, by Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as work by Arthur Machen, W.C Morrow and Aleister Crowley.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The Wellcome Trust.
Consciousness Mattering
Authors: Hershock Peter D.
Published: October 2023

Consciousness Mattering presents a contemporary Buddhist theory in which brains, bodies, environments, and cultures are relational infrastructures for human consciousness. Drawing on insights from meditation, neuroscience, physics, and evolutionary theory, it demonstrates that human consciousness is not something that occurs only in our heads and consists in the creative elaboration of relations among sensed and sensing presences, and more fundamentally between matter and what matters. Hershock argues that without consciousness there would only be either unordered sameness or nothing at all. Evolution is consciousness mattering.

Shedding new light on the co-emergence of subjective awareness and culture, the possibility of machine consciousness, the risks of algorithmic consciousness hacking, and the potentials of intentionally altered states of consciousness, Hershock invites us to consider how freely, wisely, and compassionately consciousness matters.
Subalterns and International Law
Authors: Bachand Rémi
Published: October 2023

This book provides a theoretical analysis of international law's impact on relations between dominant and subordinate, or subaltern, groups.

It charts the law's role in the reproduction, legitimation, and transformation of systems such as capitalism, racism, and imperialism. It looks at 4 distinct moments: when law structures society; when rules and institutions are formally used; when law influences ideological positions; and when law is used to defend political claims.

The book shows the law as a powerful tool for promoting the reproduction and legitimation of subordination. Offering a fresh perspective, it will appeal to scholars of international law and international relations.
Questions of Liability
Authors: Nolan Donal
Published: October 2023

In this collection, one of the key commentators on the modern law of tort presents 12 of his most important articles and book chapters. These are accompanied by an introductory chapter in which the author comments on the impact and reception of the pieces that make up the collection, and by a provocative new essay in which he argues against strict product liability in the law of tort. A coherent and compelling exploration of topical issues in core areas of tort law, the collection is divided into three parts, dealing with negligence; nuisance and Rylands v Fletcher; and tort in general. The essays in this collection are a significant contribution to debates about the limits and scope of tortious liability in common law systems. Students, scholars and practitioners alike will find it an invaluable resource for understanding tort law in the early 21st century.
Information Rights
Authors: Coppel   KC Philip
Published: October 2023

“An essential addition to the bookshelf of any practitioner who has to consider information rights, however often. The book is the best kind of practitioner text: practical and clear, but also scholarly, thoughtful and analytical.” (Sarah Hannett KC, Judicial Review)

Retaining the position it has held since first publication, this is the 6th edition of the leading practitioner text on all aspects of information law. The latest edition includes a substantially enlarged set of chapters on appeals, enforcement, and remedies, as well as covering over 250 new judgments and decisions published since the last edition.

Information Rights has been cited by the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the Tribunals, and is used by practitioners, judges and all those who practise in the field, including journalists. The new edition maintains its style of succinct statements of principle, supported by case law, legislative provisions, and statutory guidance.

The work is divided into 2 volumes. Volume 1 is a 1,500-page commentary, with a comprehensive coverage of the data protection regime, freedom of information and environmental information law, as well as other rights of access to official information such as local government legislation and the Public Records Act. There is detailed coverage of appeal and regulatory procedures. Volume 2 comprises extensive annotated statutory material, including the DPA 2018, the UK GDPR, FOIA, Tribunal rules and statutory guidance.

Contributors: James Findlay KC, Olivia Davies, John Fitzsimons, Richard Hanstock and Dr Christina Lienen (all of Cornerstone Barristers); Antony White KC, Sarah Hannett KC, Sara Mansoori KC and Aidan Wills (all of Matrix Chambers); Aidan Eardley KC and Clara Hamer (both of 5RB); Rupert Bowers KC and Martin Westgate KC (both of Doughty Street Chambers); Henry King KC and Bankim Thanki KC (both of Fountain Court Chambers); James Maurici KC and Jacqueline Lean (both of Landmark Chambers); Gemma White KC (Blackstone Chambers); Oliver Sanders KC (1 Crown Office Row); Saima Hanif KC (3VB); Jennifer Thelen (39 Essex Chambers); and Simon McKay (McKay Law).
Before Environmental Law
Authors: Richardson Benjamin J
Published: October 2023

This landmark book unveils the history of defending Australia’s natural environment and examines the subject’s legal and political contexts from the birth of the nation in 1901 until the advent of the so-called modern era of environmental regulation in the late 1960s. Across nature conservation, pollution control, natural resources governance and other domains, this book reveals how many of today’s environmental laws emerged from precedents or events much earlier in the 20th century.

The history is told through analysis of lawmakers’ far greater efficacy to exploit rather than protect the environment, a discrepancy that grew as nature’s backlash intensified in a rapidly degrading continent colonised to build the Australian nation. In exploring these dynamics, the book offers a rich tapestry of case studies illustrated with historic photographs that show the origins of Australia’s environmental laws and how they borrowed from international precedents or furnished lessons for other nations to consider.

Through its multi-disciplinary enquiry, the book offers scholars and students of environmental law, legal history and the environmental humanities a unique story about the failures and successes in the making of environmental law.
Private Law and Property Claims
Authors: Jaffey Peter
Published: October 2023

Private Law and Property Claims sets out a distinctive analysis of some general issues in private law, including the nature of categories such as contract, tort and property, duties and liabilities as the basis of claims in private law, and the relationship between primary rights and remedies. In the light of this analysis, it offers a new approach to property in private law, including claims that arise to protect and recover property. It goes on to discuss the law of trusts, fiduciary relationships, and tracing; the remedial role of the trust; the nature of equity as a legal category; and the relationship between property and claims in tort to protect property. It also exposes the misconceptions underlying the modern approach to restitution and unjust enrichment and the problems this is causing in private law.
Immigration Offences - A Practitioner's Guide
Authors: Bunting Daniel
Published: October 2023

Different constitutions of the Court of Appeal have repeatedly warned practitioners (both defence and prosecution) of the need to be fully informed of the law relating to immigration offences and the defences available to criminal charges in an immigration context.

Despite these warnings, there are still a number of such appeals each year. Furthermore, the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 has made radical amendments to existing offences that also significantly widen the number of people who are liable for prosecution.

This practical guide provides coverage of the investigation and prosecution of immigration offences and ancillary proceedings, as well as criminal cases for foreign nationals. It covers every aspect of a criminal case from detention through to the Court of Appeal, with signposts to where further information can be found, and is up to date with the changes made by the Illegal Migration Act 2023.

This is essential reading for criminal law practitioners, immigration law practitioners and the judiciary, as well as for students, academics and those working in third sector and government organisations.

This title is included in Bloomsbury Professional's Immigration and Nationality Law online service.
Principles of International Taxation
Authors: Oats Lynne
Published: October 2023

This title provides a clear introduction to international taxation and presents its material in a global context, explaining policy, legal issues and planning points central to taxation issues, primarily from the viewpoint of a multinational group of companies. It uses examples and diagrams throughout to aid the reader’s understanding and offers more in-­depth material on many important areas of the subject.

As well as practitioners who are less familiar with international taxation principles, this title is also used as a core text by many undergraduate and post graduate students studying business degrees. It is also widely used by those studying for the CIOT Advanced Diploma in International Taxation.

Business is increasingly carried on a global scale and as such an understanding of how international taxation works is very useful for in house finance teams as well as their advisers.

The 9th edition is again fully updated to cover important regulatory and legislative developments, including those in light of the ongoing OECD BEPS project implementation. Other key developments include:

Progress towards a global minimum corporate tax rate to curb base erosion and tax competition (Pillar 2), eg OECD implementation framework and UK draft legislation

New crypto asset reporting framework released by OECD.

Ongoing impact of Covid-19 on international taxation

Progress in relation to tackling tax evasion now that country by country reporting is bedding in.

Further developments in European direct taxation including the debt-equity bias reduction allowance (DEBRA) and new Directive to prevent the misuse of shell entities.

The updating is done by Lynne Oats, Professor of Taxation and Accounting, University of Exeter Business School, and formerly Deputy Director of the Tax Administration Research. She has managed this project since it's inception.
Projecting the End of the American Dream
Authors: Arnold Gordon B.
Published: October 2023

This provocative book reveals how Hollywood films reflect our deepest fears and anxieties as a country, often recording our political beliefs and cultural conditions while underscoring the darker side of the American way of life.

Long before the war in Iraq and the economic crises of the early 21st century, Hollywood has depicted a grim view of life in the United States, one that belies the prosperity and abundance of the so-called American Dream. While the country emerged from World War II as a world power, collectively our sense of security had been threatened. The result is a cinematic body of work that has America's decline and ruin as a central theme. The author draws from popular films across all genres and six decades to illustrate how the political climate of the times influenced their creation.

Projecting the End of the American Dream: Hollywood's Visions of U.S. Decline combines film history, social history, and political history to reveal important themes in the unfolding American narrative. Discussions focus on a wide variety of films, including Rambo, Planet of the Apes, and Easy Rider.
The Story Behind the Dish
Authors: McWilliams Mark
Published: October 2023

Profiling 48 classic American foods ranging from junk and fast food to main dishes to desserts, this book reveals what made these dishes iconic in American pop culture.

Americans have increasingly embraced food culture, a fact proven by the rising popularity of celebrity chefs and the prominence of television shows celebrating food themes. This fascinating overview reveals the surprising story behind the foods America loves.

The Story Behind the Dish: Classic American Foods is an engaging pop culture resource which helps tell the story of American food. Each chapter is devoted to one of 48 distinctive American dishes and features the story of where the food developed, what inspired its creation, and how it has evolved. The book not only covers each food as a single entry, but also analyzes the themes and events that connect them, making the text useful as both a reference and a narrative on the history of food.
Veterans North and South
Authors: Cimbala Paul A.
Published: October 2023

“Based largely on Civil War veterans’ own words, this book documents how many of these men survived the extraordinary horrors and hardships of war with surprising resilience and went on to become productive members of their communities in their post-war lives.

Nothing transforms ““dry, boring history”” into fascinating and engaging stories like learning about long-ago events through the words of those who lived them. What was it like to witness—and participate in—the horrors of a war that lasted four years and claimed over half a million lives, and then emerge as a survivor into a drastically changed world? Veterans North and South: The Transition from Soldier to Civilian after the American Civil War takes readers back to this unimaginable time through the words of Civil War soldiers who fought on both sides, illuminating their profound, life-changing experiences during the war and in the postbellum period.

The book covers the period from the surrender of the armies of the Confederacy to the return of the veterans to their homes. It follows them through their readjustment to civilian life and to family life while addressing their ability—and in some cases, inability—to become productive members of society. By surveying Civil War veterans' individual stories, readers will gain an in-depth understanding of these soldiers' sacrifices and comprehend how these discrete experiences coalesced to form America's memory of this war as a nation.”
The Agony of Argentine Capitalism
Authors: Lewis Paul H.
Published: October 2023

This diagnostic history of Argentina’s economic prostration is full of timely lessons for readers in the United States about how an irresponsible capitalist elite and cynical politicians can lead a wealthy nation to throw it all away.

They say those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. Thus the importance of this book. The Agony of Argentine Capitalism: From Menem to the Kirchners is the capstone of a magisterial trilogy exploring the reasons for Argentina's shocking “reversal of development.” In the early 20th century, Argentina was a rising star. It was one of the world’s ten richest countries, on course to a place among the most advanced and prosperous liberal democracies in the world. Then, in 1929, Argentina fell into an economic coma from which no political or military shock treatment has been able to rouse it.

The collapse of Argentina’s capitalist class has been so devastating that little support remains for free enterprise or free trade. Her fate poses an intellectual challenge for First World capitalist countries. As famed economist Paul Samuelson warned: “Argentina is the pattern no modern capitalist may face without crossing himself and saying, ‘There but for the grace of God….’”
The Art of Nonfiction Movie Making
Authors: Friedman Jeffrey , Epstein Rob , Wood Sharon
Published: October 2023

The past few years have featured such blockbusters as Super-Size Me, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, March of the Penguins, and An Inconvenient Truth. And as news articles proclaim a new era in the history of documentary films, more and more new directors are making their first film a nonfiction one. But in addition to posing all of the usual challenges inherent to more standard filmmaking, documentaries also present unique problems that need to be understood from the outset. Where does the idea come from? How do you raise the money? How much money do you need? What visual style is best suited to the story? What are the legal issues involved? And how can a film reach that all-important milestone and find a willing distributor? Epstein, Friedman, and Wood tackle all of these important questions with examples and anecdotes from their own careers. The result is an informative and entertaining guide for those just starting out, and an enlightening read for anyone interested in a behind-the-scenes look at this newly reinvigorated field of film.
Bloggerati, Twitterati
Authors: Cross Mary
Published: October 2023

As timely as the latest tweet, this book tracks the digital revolution as a paradigm shift that is transforming popular culture in as yet unforeseen ways.

Bloggerati, Twitterati: How Blogs and Twitter Are Transforming Popular Culture explores the ongoing digital revolution and examines the way it is changing—and will change—the way people live and communicate. Starting from the proposition that the Internet is now the center of popular culture, the book offers descriptions of blogs and Twitter and the online behavior they foster. It looks at the demographics of users and the impact of the Internet on knowledge, thinking, writing, politics, and journalism.

A primary focus is on the way blogs and tweets are opening up communication to the people, free from gatekeepers and sanctioned rhetoric. The other side of the coin is the online hijacking of the news and its potential for spreading misinformation and fomenting polarization, topics that are analyzed even as the situation continues to evolve. Finally, the book gathers predictions from cultural critics about the future of digital popular culture and makes a few predictions of its own.
Captive!
Authors: Harpster Jack , Stalter Ken
Published: October 2023

This book recounts the amazing life story of a 16-year-old American Revolutionary-era soldier, including his captivity, adoption, and eventual flight to freedom from the Iroquois Six-Nation Indian tribes. The story is retold with historical accuracy and an even-handed treatment of the conflicting interests of the loyalists, Iroquois, and Patriots.

David Ogden was born into an unusually tumultuous time in America—the colonials were struggling to throw off the yoke of British rule while also battling the Iroquois tribes for control of their ancestral lands. The bibliography of anyone who survived a life in the late 1700s frontier days of New York would be a great tale, but David Ogden’s story stands alone, even within historical context of his times.

Captive! The Story of David Ogden and the Iroquois is a compelling true adventure story of one young colonial soldier’s bravery, choosing a daunting 126-mile race to freedom fraught with the risk of death over being assimilated into an alien society. This story is told with all the factual historical information that was missing from all the original captivity narratives, but accurately retains the flavor of the period and the voice of the 18th-century protagonist.
The Civil War in the Border South
Authors: Phillips Christopher
Published: October 2023

The border states during the Civil War have long been ignored or misunderstood in general histories. This book corrects that oversight, explaining how many border state residents used wartime realities to redefine their politics and culture as "Southern."

By studying the characteristics of those positioned along this fault line during the Civil War, the centrality of the war issue of slavery, which border residents long eschewed as being divisive, became apparent. This book explains how the process of Southernization occurred during and after the Civil War—a phenomenon largely unexplained by historians.

Beyond the broader, more traditional narrative of the clash of arms, within these border slave states raged an inner civil war that shaped the military and political outcomes of the war as well as these states' cultural landscapes. Author Christopher Phillips describes how the Civil War experience in the border states served to form new loyalties and communities of identity that both deeply divided these states and distorted the meaning of the war for postwar generations.
Civil War Journalism
Authors: Risley Ford
Published: October 2023

This book examines newspapers, magazines, photographs, illustrations, and editorial cartoons to tell the important story of journalism, documenting its role during the Civil War as well as the impact of the war on the press.

Civil War Journalism presents a unique synthesis of the journalism of both the North and South during the war. It features a compelling cast of characters, including editors Horace Greeley and John M. Daniel, correspondents George Smalley and Peter W. Alexander, photographers Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner, and illustrators Alfred Waud and Thomas Nast.

Written to appeal to those interested in the Civil War in general and in journalism specifically, as well as general readers, the work provides an introductory overview of journalism in the North and South on the eve of the Civil War. The following chapters examine reporting during the war, editorializing about the war, photographing and illustrating the war, censorship and government relations, and the impact of the war on the press.
Conspiracy Rising
Authors: Lee Martha F.
Published: October 2023

This book offers a thoughtful analysis of how and why conspiracy thinking has become a popular mode of political discourse in the United States.

How did conspiracy thinking become such a significant and surprisingly widely accepted form of political thinking in the United States? What compels people to respond to devastating, unpredictable events—terrorist acts, wars, natural disasters, economic upheavals—with the conviction that nothing is a coincidence, nothing is as it seems, and everything is connected?

Conspiracy Rising: Conspiracy Thinking and American Public Life argues that while outlandish paranoid theories themselves may seem nonsensical, the thread of conspiracy thinking throughout American history is a both a byproduct of our democratic form of government and a very real threat to it. From the Illuminati, the Knights Templar, and the Freemasons to the government hiding aliens and faking the moon landing; from the New World Order to the Obama "Birthers," the book explores the enduring popularity of a number of American conspiracy theories, showing how the conspiracy hysteria that may provoke disdain and apathy in the general public, can become a source of dangerous extremism.
The Decline and Fall of the U.S. Economy
Authors: Wallace William M.
Published: October 2023

This highly original book puts the crash of 2008 into a broad perspective by digging deeply into the misguided theories behind the policies that allowed it to happen.

Who was responsible for the 2008 crash? The Decline and Fall of the U.S. Economy: How Liberals and Conservatives Both Got It Wrong makes it clear that both parties were at faul—and explains how and why. This broad and far-reaching book is the first to analyze the crash from the perspective of evolution, or "punctuated equilibrium." As it explains, the punctuated boom brings on change, the bust leads back to a tightly constrained equilibrium. Both conditions pose risks and both—as William McDonald Wallace argues—can be managed to reduce the odds that economic imbalances will arise.

Focusing on the policies that created bubbles in housing, stocks, and more, Wallace pinpoints historical events that gave rise to unrealistic theories and ideologies, showing how they, in turn, gave rise to policies that led to collapse. He explains how Darwin’s now-discredited theory of “uniformitarianism” (evolution as a continuous, smooth process) led economists to ignore how evolution actually influences economies and economic behavior, and he shows what we can do so it doesn’t happen again.
The DVD Novel
Authors: Metcalf Greg
Published: October 2023

Now that television shows can live forever as DVD sets, the stories they can tell have changed; television episodes are now crafted as chapters in a season-long novel instead of free-standing stories. This book examines how this significant shift in storytelling occurred.

In 1981, NBC’s Hill Street Blues combined the cop show and the soap opera to set the model for primetime serial storytelling, which is evident in The Sopranos, The Wire, and Breaking Bad. In 1963, ABC’s The Fugitive showed how an anthology series could tell a continuing tale, influencing The X-Files, House, and Fringe. In 1987, NBC’s The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd changed the situation comedy into attitudinal comedy, leading to Weeds, Nurse Jackie, and Entourage. The DVD Novel: How the Way We Watch Television Changed the Television We Watch not only examines how American television shows changed, but also what television artists have been able to create.

The book provides an alternate history of American television that compares it to British television, and explains the influence of Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective on the development of long-form television and the evolution of drama shows and sitcoms. The work considers a wide range of network and cable television shows, paying special attention to the work of Steven Bochco, David Milch, and David Simon, and spotlighting the influence of graphic novels and literary novels in changing television.
Elderburbia
Authors: Stafford Philip B.
Published: October 2023

An informed and often moving account of the crucial role of place in the lives of elders and what researchers and city planners are doing—and need to do—to make communities more age-friendly.

Elderburbia: Aging with a Sense of Place in America argues that aging is not about time and the body, but about place and relationships. Drawing on the fascinating, multidisciplinary field of ethnography, it gives readers a deeper understanding of how the aging experience is shaped by where people call home, as well as a look at what makes a place well-suited for post-retirement living.

Elderburbia combines cutting-edge scholarship with practical advice. The book provides an introduction to pivotal research on the broad subject of aging and place, including studies of migration and relocation. It also takes readers inside innovative elder-friendly community planning around the United States, particularly AdvantAge—an initiative to help counties, cities, and towns prepare for the growing number of older adults who are "aging in place," as opposed to moving to retiree-only communities. Everyone from individuals and families to social workers, activists, and city officials will find this a helpful, enlightening resource.