Cultural studies

The Pleasures of Cocaine conveys the impartial facts of the uses and abuses of cocaine. Without bias, many different aspects are covered:History, effects, uses, pleasures, dangers Avoiding abusive side effects Determining quality Substances used to cut...

This revised and updated edition of the classic Cultivators Handbook of Marijuana had complete information on growing marijuana indoors and out. Full of examples, fantastic illustrations and horticultural knowledge. Drake is a leading authority on...

Accurately details the history of laughing gas through to modern times (including historical ramblings & jest), and delves into the medical side of things -- in a light-hearted manner. Finally, while it never promotes nor condones the use of this...

Cult classic, revised and updated. Alchemist D. Gold reveals the inner world of marijuana and hashish, uncovering secrets and modern techniques to enhance potency. First published in 1974, the original edition of Cannabis Alchemy sold over 100,000...

Describes the dramatic effects people experience when consuming psychoactive mushrooms. There are over 100 "entheogenic" fungi known to stimulate ecstatic states in curious seekers. Stafford recounts the known history of magic mushrooms, also called...

Provides a framework for understanding the enormous amount of information available on psychoactive substances. Stafford relays the history, botany, chemistry, physical and mental effects, forms, sources, and preparations of LSD-the most potent and...

This issue of Plough Quarterly explores our relationship with the natural world. Hear from leading scientists, farmers, writers, activists, theologians, and artists who have set their hearts and minds and hands to caring for the earth for generations to...

The triumphs and tragedies of growing up as the son of a famous Beat artist.Tosh is a memoir of growing up as the son of an enigmatic, much-admired, hermetic, and ruthlessly bohemian artist during the waning years of the Beat Generation and the heyday of...

There's no doubt that technology has overrun our lives. Over the past few decades, the world has embraced "progress" and we're living with the resultant clicking, beeping, anxiety-inducing frenzy. But a creative backlash is gathering steam, helping us...

Noah Cross, Norma Desmond, Norman Bates, Harry Lime these are a few of nearly a hundred names that inhabit the mind of the narrator as he starts to compose short biographies of some of the most famous characters in the history of film noir. He sketches...

Two volumes in one!This is a complete, two-volume set of one of the greatest books on 19th century Japanese history and culture. Though Lafcadio Hearn went on to write a dozen more books on Japan, this collection of first impressions remains his most...

For anyone wanting to get beyond tired travel guide cliches, A Geek in Indonesia is a hip, irreverent, and streetwise introduction to Southeast Asia's biggest country.Jump from the beaches of Bali to a tour bus circuit of the...

Every year, millions of foreign tourists flock to China - only to find themselves overwhelmed by the complexities of navigating the world's largest and fastest culture. A professor, blogger, and avid China explorer, Matthew B. Christensen created this...

A Geek in Korea reinvents the culture guide for the Internet age. Packed with articles and photographs, it covers all the touchstones of Korean culture - from Buddhism and Confucianism to chapters on the traditional arts and...

Jokes change from generation to generation, but the experience of the comedian transcends the ages: the drive, jealousy, heartbreak, and triumph. From the Marx Brothers to Milton Berle to George Carlin to Eddie Murphy to Louis CK-comedy historian Kliph...

Entertaining television challenges the idea that the BBC in the 1950s was elitist and 'staid', upholding Reithian values in a paternalistic, even patronising way. By focusing on a number of (often controversial) programme case studies - such as the soap...

This pioneering book studies the rise, heyday and demise of regionalism from the Belle Epoque until the Eve of the Second World War. By using a novel comparative perspective it gives a fresh view of the relationship between cultural regionalism,...

Robin Nelson's State of play up-dates and develops the arguments of his influential TV Drama In Transition (1997). It is equally distinctive in setting analusis of the aesethetics and compositional principles of texts within a broad conceptual framework...

Presents the 1925 Paris Exhibition as a key moment in attempts to update the image of Paris as "capital of the 19th century". At the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, Paris itself, as much as the commodity, was put on...

Brazil has one of the most significant and productive film industries in Latin America. This ground-breaking study provides an entertaining insight into the Brazilian films that have most captured the imagination of domestic audiences over the years.The...

Nicola McDonald's collection and the romances it investigates are crucial to our understanding of the aesthetics of medieval narrative and to the ideologies of gender and sexuality, race, religion, political formations, social class, ethics, morality and...

This study traces the evolution of the various categories of "factual entertainment" programmes which have come to dominate our screens over the last decade. The book focuses on issues such as the changes in the braodcasting environment which have given...

An introduction to popular film and the way in which it is studied, this book brings together the critical approaches and issues that have sought to define popular film from the 1950s to the present day. It inlcudes discussion of mass culture theory and...

A revealing collection of quotations from world-renowned artist Damien Hirst.Hirst-isms is a collection of quotations - bold, surprising, often humorous, and always insightful - from celebrated artist Damien Hirst, whose controversial work explores the...

A unique collection of brilliant quotations from the legendary Pop artistOne of the most influential artists of his time and ours, Andy Warhol is nearly as renowned for what he said as for what he did. Indeed, he is so quotable that things he never said...

Featuring never-before-seen drawings by the renowned contemporary artist, a beautiful facsimile edition that reveals the working process of an extraordinary creative mindSketchbook reproduces original working drawings and sketches by the contemporary...

In a society marked by extreme inequality of income and opportunity, why should economists care about how people feel? The truth is that feelings of well-being are critical metrics that predict future life outcomes. In this timely and innovative account,...

Celebrated artist Keith Haring (19581990) has been embraced by popular culture for his signature bold graphic line drawings of figures and forms. Like other graffiti artists in the 1980s, Haring found an empty canvas in the advertising panels scattered...

*One of Times Higher Education's Best Books of 2015**Winner of the 2016 Gregory Bateson Prize, The Society for Cultural Anthropology**One of Flavorwire's 10 Best Books by Academic Publishers in 2015**Winner of the 2016 Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic...

The last three decades have seen a massive expansion of China's visual culture industries, from architecture and graphic design to fine art and fashion. New ideologies of creativity and creative practices have reshaped the training of a new generation of...

An innovative and accessible guide to doing social research in the digital ageThe rapid spread of social media, smartphones, and other digital wonders enables us to collect and process data about human behavior on a scale never before imaginable,...

A look at the revolution in game live streaming and esports broadcastingEvery day thousands of people broadcast their gaming live to audiences over the internet using popular sites such as Twitch, which reaches more than one hundred million viewers a...

The fascinating untold story of digital cash and its creators-from experiments in the 1970s to the mania over Bitcoin and other cryptocurrenciesBitcoin may appear to be a revolutionary form of digital cash without precedent or prehistory. In fact, it is...

An exploration of the artistic and cultural influences that shaped writer and illustrator Edward GoreyThe illustrator, designer, and writer Edward Gorey (1925-2000) is beloved for his droll, surreal, and slightly sinister drawings. While he is perhaps...

An incisive history of the controversial Google Books project and the ongoing quest for a universal digital libraryLibraries have long talked about providing comprehensive access to information for everyone. But when Google announced in 2004 that it...

A sociologist and former fashion model takes readers inside the elite global party circuit of 'models and bottles' to reveal how beautiful young women are used to boost the status of men Million-dollar birthday parties, megayachts on...

In the age of search, keywords increasingly organize research, teaching, and even thought itself. Inspired by Raymond Williams's 1976 classic Keywords, the timely collection Digital Keywords gathers pointed, provocative short essays on more than two...

A fun and stunningly illustrated introduction to the art of linear optimizationLinear optimization is a powerful modeling method for discovering the best solution to a problem among a set of available alternatives. It is one of today's most important...

Stories for Ways and Means features original "grown up" story collaborations by some of this era's most compelling storytellers from the worlds of music and contemporary art.Ten years ago Jeff Antebi, the founder of music publisher Waxploitation, had an...

Ask about German food and most people think of beer and sausage, or pretzels and Limburger cheese. However, the 82 million inhabitants of modern-day Germany do not all live exclusively on Oktoberfest fare. In fact, as in most modern countries, Germans...

Vodka is the most versatile of spirits. While people in Eastern Europe and the Baltic often drink it neat, swallowing it in one gulp, others use it in cocktails from the Bloody Mary to the vodka Martini or mix it with tonic water or ginger beer to create...

The late 1950s and early '60s were the golden age of science fiction, an era when the farthest reaches of imagination were fed by the technological breakthroughs of the postwar years. While science fiction writers expressed the dreams and nightmares of...

As global temperatures rise and polar bears begin to drown in the melting artic ice, a growing chorus of voices is calling on governments to act now whilst there is still a small chance of saving the planet. Yet the harsh reality ignored by pundits and...

WET, the Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, was published between 1976 and 1981, in Venice, California. WET was an experimental venue for up-and-coming writers, photographers, illustrators, and graphic designers. Nearly all of WET's editorial attitudes and...

The Cannabis Breeder's Bible offers real-world, professional techniques for breeding primo pot and gives precise growing information for 60 popular marijuana varieties. The book covers new hybridization techniques, international seed law issues,...

Olly Moss has quickly become, according to Slashfilm, "one of the most in demand and influential pop culture artists today". For his simple but brilliant first book, Olly has put his own twist on the Victorian art of silhouette portraits. While this...