Cultural and media studies

If you want to know about writing, about how to make others share the horror and intensity of an experience, try the first piece in this collection, Justice at Night. Martha Gellhorn wrote it as a 28-year-old, having just returned home to the States...

Proverbs, once described as 'the wisdom of many and the wit of one', offer unique insights the way of life and the social mores of past generations.This book features an introduction which explores the role of proverbs in Scottish culture and over 1,000...

In 1801, some five years after Robert Burns' death, nine of his friends sat down to dinner in what is now known as Burns Cottage in Alloway to celebrate his extraordinary life and to give thanks for his friendship. Over the years the informal theme from...

The world food system is put under the microscope in this updated edition of The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food. Wayne Roberts puts under the microscope a global food system that is under strain from climate change and economic disaster. He...

Berries are enmeshed with human history. Widely available in nature, they have been part of the human diet for millennia, and today they inspire everything from lip-gloss flavours to amusement parks. However diminutive their size, berries are of such...

Tolkien's wizard Gandalf, Wagner's Valkyrie Brnnhilde and Marvel's superhero the Mighty Thor: these are just a few examples of how Icelandic medieval literature has shaped the human imagination during the past 150 years.  Echoes of Valhalla...

Perfumed, sweet, succulent, cooling; a ripe melon can be one of the most delicious of fruits. Sylvia Lovegren untangles the melon's long and complex history and follows the journeys of the varied fruits known as melons from the sandy wastes of the...

For over a century, the banana has been rumoured to be everybody's favourite fruit. Quick and easy to eat, tasty and versatile in its culinary uses, the banana is a staple of many diets around the world. The banana's history, however, is more than simply...

Double-decker buses, bowler hats, and cricket may be synonymous with British culture, but when it comes to their cuisine, nothing comes to mind faster than fish and chips. Sprinkled with salt and vinegar and often accompanied by mushy peas, fish and...

This is a detailed history of rice, from its origin as a staple food in Asian and West African countries to its ubiquitous place in meals across the world today. It explores rice in society, literature, music, painting and...

This book explores the apple's history and the latest debates about the use of agrichemicals, the rise of organic and heirloom orchards, and the hopes and fears of genetic crop modification. Beautifully illustrated with...

'Did you keep a list of the words coined by Covid? Wayne Grady did! They're deftly woven into a journal/timeline, taking us through two years of surrealism and limbo.' - Margaret AtwoodThis exploration of the many new terms of...

**One of Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2023****Esquire's August 2023 Book Club Pick** 'If books are important to you because you're a reader or a writer, then how books are sold should be important to you as well...

Nominated for the 2023 Heritage Toronto Book Award A defense of the dying art of losing an afternoon-and gaining new appreciation-amidst the bins and shelves of bricks-and-mortar shops.Written during the pandemic, when the world was marooned at home and...

Nominated for the 2023 Heritage Toronto Book Award Finalist for the 2023 Ottawa Book Award in English Nonfiction Longlisted for the 2023 National Business Book Award The remarkable true story of the rise and fall of one of North America's most...

A writer and anthropologist searches for wild foods - and reveals what we lose in a world where wildness itself is misunderstood, commodified, and hotly pursuedTwo centuries ago, nearly half the North American diet was found in the wild. Today, so-called...

A pragmatic and informative look at better living through cannabis.Cannabis. Weed. Bud. Whatever you choose to call it, it's been a health aid, comfort, and life-enhancer for humankind for more than three thousand years. But while cannabis is used by...

A thought-provoking and provocative challenge to consumerism (with plenty of name-dropping and celebrity antics).Sassy and satirical, Shopomania is an economic, environmental and social study. This light-hearted, dark-souled dictionary of coined words,...

'Newsrooms were these crazy universities, full of experts on the strangest things, people with real understanding and experience of things that mattered, places where you could ask anybody anything, though you might get your head bitten off if you...

Age range 10+You don't need to be an adult to break news and change the world. You can start your career as a young reporter right now! Fun, informative and easy to use, Kid Reporter is packed with inspiring stories from young people who've already...

Thewhite colonisers of Australia suffered from Alliumphobia, a fear ofgarlic. Local cooks didn't touch the stuff and it took centuries for that fearto lift. This food history of Australia shows we held onto British assumptionsabout...

** Winner of the 2021 Henry Mayer Book Prize for Australian Politics **** Winner of the 2020 Colin Roderick Award **** Longlisted for the 2020 Stella Prize **'Prodigious research...illuminating detail.' -TheAustralian 'A tour...

'This is a book about Australian food, not the foods that European Australians cooked from ingredients they brought with them, but the flora and fauna that nourished the Aboriginal peoples for over 50,000 years. It is because European...

A celebration of true friendship in all its messy glory, featuring the best quotes and stills from the show alongside quizzes, lists, tips, and recipes to bring out the Grace and Frankie in best friends everywhere.'You make me feel strong, Grace...

Why have some of the most interesting artists of our time committed themselves to some of the most devastating conflicts on Earth?Why are some of the most interesting artists of our time committed to engaging with conflict and exploitation around the...

Local journalism is on the verge of extinction and this is bad for democracy. This book explains why.Ghosting the News tells the most troubling media story of our time: How democracy suffers when local news dies. Reporting on news-impoverished areas in...

'...witty and packed with detail, this is an intercultural shot that should be heard around the world' - Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review'Bhutto carefully dissects the guts of our popular culture...essential to understand the soul of our...

Car Ma is artist and musician Alison Mosshart's first printed collection of paintings, photographs, short stories, and poetry. It is a book about cars, rock n' roll, and love. It's a book about America, performance, and life on the road. It's a book...

For the first time, step behind palace doors to unlock the little-known secrets behind the Queen's remarkable self-preservation and continued radiance. Extensively researched and delightfully revelatory, it's the story of how one strong queen can make...

The WikiLeaks publisher and free speech campaigner Julian Assange has, since April 2019, been remanded at a maximum security prison in London facing extradition to the United States over WikiLeaks' groundbreaking 2010 publications. Now, in this crisp...

A guide to choosing, completing, and sharing a 100-day creative project. There's a creative person inside every one of us! You don't have to consider yourself an artist to create and share fun or expressive work; sometimes all it takes is commitment...

Celebrate your favorite songs, performances, and music video moments with this official Britney Spears coloring book. From "...Baby One More Time" to the Las Vegas stage, there's no shortage of iconic Britney Spears moments. Now, color your way through...

In From Online Platforms to Digital Monopolies: Technology, Information and Power, Jonas C.L. Valente discusses the rise of platforms as key players in different social activities, from economy to culture and politics. These companies have a daily...

In Towards a Productive Aesthetics: Contemporary and Historical Interventions in Blake and Brecht, Keith O'Regan mobilises a constellative approach to compare the political-aesthetic strategies of William Blake (1757-1827) and Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)...

The German Left and Aesthetic Politics examines the articulation of contending materialist aesthetic practices within the ideological fractures of the German Left between the Second and Third International. It is hinged on the major literary critical...

In The Weight of the Printed Word, Steve Wright explores the creation and use of documents as a key dimension in the activities of Italian workerists during the 1960s and 1970s. From leaflets and newspapers to books, internal documents and workers'...

How was Istanbul, once the capital of the Ottoman Empire and now the financial heart of contemporary Turkey, provisioned in the early 19th century? Tracing how the sovereign's duty to provision the city and protect his subjects from hunger was gradually...

W.H. Auden famously wrote: "Poetry makes nothing happen." Journalism is a different matter. In a brilliant study that is, in part, a memoir of his 40 years as an essayist and critic at TIME magazine, Lance Morrow returns to the Age of Typewriters and to...

"...a timely and entertaining account of how class rivalries as well as political conflicts have shaped and sometimes warped the news industry."-Michael Lind, author ofThe New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite Something is wrong with...

We are now witnessing the build-out of society's first foundationally new infrastructure in nearly a century: the Cloud. It is an ecosystem of information-digital hardware, at the heart of which resides massive warehouse-scale datacenters unlike anything...

An essential piece of Disney history has been unreported for eighty years.Soon after the birth of Mickey Mouse, one animator raised the Disney Studio far beyond Walt's expectations. That animator also led a union war that almost destroyed it. Art Babbitt...

Featuring dozens of interviews with the cast and crew, fans of the franchise, film scholars, former and current cheerleaders, fellow filmmakers, and more.Gabrielle Union, Kirsten Dunst, and Eliza Dushku have all risen to fame since their performances in...

'The Power of Pluswill leave you feeling inspired, motivated, and ready to push for real change, as well as confident and encouraged to embrace yourself, just as you are. This is essential reading for anyone who truly cares about the future of...

A nostalgia-packed, star-studded anthology featuring contributors such as Kristen Arnett, Yumi Sakugawa, Myriam Gurba, and others exploring the lasting impact of Ann M. Martin's beloved Baby-Sitters Club seriesIn 1986, the first-ever meeting of the...

J.A. Adande, ESPN personality and Director of Sports Journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, has curated an essential anthology showcasing incredible feats and diverse perspectives across the world of sports.Selected from a...

From Jeff Friesen, award-winning photographer and author of United States of LEGO, comes a hilarious new book of diorama photographs that uses LEGO bricks to spoof the famous work of the mysterious anonymous graffiti artist known as Banksy...

With each passing day the potential reach of a single false news story-and its ability to negatively impact all of us-grows in both size and scope. Although politicians, activists, and ordinary citizens regularly complain about deceptive or biased news...