Whether you call it offal, variety meat or organ meat, or prefer to eat it unwittingly in burgers and sausages, the whole spectrum of an animal's glands, essential organs, skin, muscle, guts and every unmentionable in between can be and is eaten acr…
Few animals elicit such a profoundly honest response of horror, fear and fright as the bedbug. Uninvited, bedbugs invade your privacy; they enter your bed, leave their marks and take away your bodily fluid - blood. From fossils to ancient Greek thea…
Great Economic Thinkers presents an accessible introduction to the lives and works of the most influential economists of modern times: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Alfred Marshall, Joseph Schumpeter, John Maynard Keynes, a…
Great Economic Thinkers presents an accessible introduction to the lives and works of the most influential economists of modern times. Free from confusing jargon and equations, the book describes and discusses key economic concepts - from the role p…
What is a truffle? Is it the highest order of fungal foods, above the many mushrooms we eat? Despite its unappetizing appearance, the truffle is without a doubt one of the most prized ingredients in the world's pantry. Truffle digs deep into the sto…
In the decades between its debut performance in Paris in 1909 and the death of impresario Sergei Diaghilev in 1929, the Ballets Russes was an unrivalled sensation not only in France but in London, New York and the other cities it toured. Attention h…
There is something about a shapeshifter - a person who can transform into an animal - that captures our imagination; that causes us to want to howl at the moon, or flit through the night like a bat. Werewolves, vampires, demons, and other weird crea…
If weddings are the most lavish events in most parts of the world, in Sub-Saharan Africa, by contrast, it is funerals. Funeral celebrations can be flamboyant occasions, particularly those honouring prominent people. Artworks of many kinds are create…
From the milk we drink in the morning to the leather shoes we slip on for the day, to the steak we savour at dinner, our daily lives are thoroughly bound up with the cow. Yet there is a far more complex story behind this seemingly benign creature, w…
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922) spent fourteen years creating A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time), his seven-volume magnum opus. He died when only half was in print, unable to see it become one of the most important literary works of…
Drawing its allure from the gold of the sun and the rule of emperors, the chrysanthemum winds its way through ancient Chinese culture into the gardens of French Impressionist painters and onto the pages of American novels. The flower signifies both…
What is dirt? What does it really mean to be dirty? Or clean? Dirt and cleaning are often associated with ideas of guilt, otherness and social control, but also with living responsibly and in harmony with the environment. In this learned, witty and…
Georgia is the most Western-looking state in today's Near or Middle East and, despite having one of the longest, most turbulent histories in the Christian or Near Eastern world, no proper history of the country has been written for decades. Eminent…
Georgia is the most Western-looking state in today's Near or Middle East and, despite having one of the longest, most turbulent histories in the Christian or Near Eastern world, no proper history of the country has been written for decades. Donald R…
While some gardens are built with a respect towards tradition, others forge new, innovative ways to carve out a space for respite in nature. They can reflect the priorities of modern society, bring new ideas and materials into the world, or seek the…
Carnations permeate our culture from the wedding bed to the funeral wreath. Derided in Shakespeare as 'nature's bastards', they challenged the tulip as the florist's favourite flower, and went on to give their blessing to both a military coup and a…
Mushrooms are loved, despised, feared and misunderstood. They have been a familiar part of nature throughout human history and occupy a special place in our consciousness. Nicholas P. Money introduces the mythology and science of the spectacular arr…
In North Pole, Michael Bravo explains how visions of the North Pole have been supremely important to the world's cultures and political leaders, from Alexander the Great to neo-Hindu nationalists. Tracing poles and polarity back to sacred ancient ci…
The sea, the sky, the veins of your hands, the earth when photographed from space--blue sometimes seems to overwhelm all the other shades of our world in its all-encompassing presence. The blues of Blue Mythologies include those present in the world…
Fat. Such a little word evokes big responses. While "fat" describes the size and shape of bodies--their appearance--our negative reactions to corpulence also depend on something tangible and tactile. As this book argues, there is more to fat than me…
For those who visit the UAE today, staying in air-conditioned hotels and shopping in ultra-modern malls, the country itself remains an enigma - a glass and concrete creation that seems to have sprung from the desert overnight. Keepers of the Golden…
What do they all mean - the lascivious ape, autophagic dragons, pot-bellied heads, harp-playing asses, arse-kissing priests and somersaulting jongleurs to be found protuding from the edges of medieval buildings and in the margins of illuminated manu…
What do they all mean - the lascivious ape, autophagic dragons, pot-bellied heads, harp-playing asses, arse-kissing priests and somersaulting jongleurs to be found protruding from the edges of medieval buildings and in the margins of illuminated man…
There are countless books on war photography, most of these focusing on dramatic images made by photojournalists in combat zones. Photography and War instead proposes a radically expanded notion of war photography, one that encompasses a far broader…
It is probably not surprising to learn that the modern craze for running is not new: our species has been running since we were able to stand upright. What may be surprising, however, are the many ways and reasons we have performed this painful, exh…
In contemporary society, the cult of celebrity is inescapable. Anyone can be turned into a celebrity, and anything can be made into a celebrity event. Celebrity has become a part of everyday life, a common reference point. But how have people like E…
'Most directors have one film for which they are known or possibly two', Francis Ford Coppola has said, 'Akira Kurosawa has eight or nine.' Through his many masterpieces such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, High and Low, Yojimbo, Kagemusha and Ran, Kuro…
For most of us, snails do not elicit feelings of warmth or affection. Apart from our repugnance at its appearance, our relationship with the snail has been influenced by the harm it has inflicted over the years on our garden seedlings. With "Snail",…
The shark's basic design was perfected by Mother Nature 100 million years ago, and she has been mass-producing them ever since. The shark is so superbly suited to its purpose that it has outlived the dinosaur, the mastodon, the saber-tooth tiger, an…
Walter Benjamin, critic, essayist, translator, philosopher one of the twentieth century's most influential intellectuals continues to intrigue today. His work stimulates a profusion of responses in the form of new novels, operas, films and artworks,…
Art today may be global, Robert Linsley argues in this book, but it is the same everywhere you go: full of intentional meaning, statements, and even branded images that insist on a particular message. That is to say, art everywhere is conceptual. In…
The image of St George - the mounted, medieval knight slaying a dragon - seems so familiar to us all that it is tempting to assume this figure is easily understood. He is, in fact, one of the most significant and complex mythic figures in Christian…
From the Linux logo to The March of the Penguins, a certain tuxedo-adorned member of the animal kingdom has perpetually captured our hearts and imaginations. Stephen Martin regales us here with the cultural history of the penguin, revealing many fas…
The monochrome - a single-colour work of art - is highly ambiguous. For some it epitomizes purity, and is art reduced to its essence. For others it is just a stunt, the emperor's new clothes. Why are monochromes so admired, yet such an easy target o…
Joseph Beuys is arguably the most important and most controversial German artist of the late twentieth century, not least because his persona is interwoven with Germany's fascist past. This book illuminates two defining threads in Beuys's life and a…
Polari is a language that was used chiefly by gay men in the first half of the twentieth century. At a time when being gay could result in criminal prosecution - or worse - Polari offered its speakers a degree of public camouflage, a way of expressi…
Polari was a language used chiefly by gay men in the first half of the twentieth century. At a time when being gay could result in criminal prosecution - or worse - Polari offered its speakers a degree of public camouflage, a way of expressing humou…
A phenomenon that spans human experience, from the ancient world right up to today's ferocious religious debates, blasphemy is an act of individuals, but also a widespread and constant presence in cultural, political and religious life. Acts Against…
The sardine is a paradoxical fish. Seemingly insignificant, its exploitation has made fortunes for some and, when stocks have collapsed, caused hardship for many. Its status has shifted from utilitarian food to a gourmet's delight. Trevor Day - dive…
This book is the first comprehensive comparative study of the artistic culture of the region once located between the Iron Curtain and the Soviet Union, a part of Europe that due to the agreement signed by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta in…
"In the Shadow of Yalta" is a comprehensive study of the artistic culture of the region between the Iron Curtain and the USSR, taking in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. Piotr Piotrowski chronicles the rela…
Over the last forty years, the landscape of the United States has been fundamentally transformed. It is partially visible in the ascendance of glittering, coastal hubs for finance, infotech and the so-called `creative class'. But this is only the ti…
Over the last forty years, the landscape of the USA has been fundamentally transformed. It is partially visible in the ascendance of glittering coastal hubs for finance, infotech and the so-called `creative class'. But this is only the tip of an eco…
Lenin (1870-1924) was the leader of the communist Bolshevik party and founder of the Soviet Union. He was a key revolutionary thinker and a man who, at one time, lived in exile for his political views and survived several assassination attempts. The…
Most women do it at home; men, it seems, do it everywhere. Some consider it a health treatment, others as love for themselves. Yet despite everyone doing it, no one actually talks about it - masturbation is still taboo, and even today the subject is…
A Japanese garden is immediately distinct to the eye from the traditional gardens of an English manor house, just as the manicured topiaries of Versailles contrast with the sharp cacti of the American Southwest. Though gardening is beloved the world…
Coffee is a global beverage: it is grown commercially on four continents, and consumed enthusiastically in all seven. There is even an Italian espresso machine on the International Space Station. Coffee's journey has taken it from the forests of Eth…
The monkey has remarkable intelligence and adaptibility and has enjoyed a close relationship over millennia with human societies. Monkey deities feature prominently in the ancient religions of India, China, Egypt and Central America. Among peoples o…
Assassins have been killing the powerful and famous for at least three thousand years. Personal ambition, revenge, and anger have encouraged many to violent deeds, like the Turkish sultan who had nineteen of his brothers strangled or the bodyguards…
Storms affect our lives in many remarkable and dangerous ways. Gales, hurricanes, cyclones, blizzards, tornados, hail and sand and dust storms regularly demonstrate the awesome power of nature that all of us experience in some form. But what causes…
The Danish aristocrat and astronomer Tycho Brahe personified the inventive vitality of Renaissance life in the sixteenth century. Brahe lost his nose in a student duel, wrote Latin poetry and built one of the most astonishing villas of the period, a…
Universally regarded as the father of French painting, Nicolas Poussin is arguably the greatest of all painters of that school. Yet Poussin's reputation has been founded more on the intellectual and philosophical qualities of his art than its sheer…
Vaccines have helped mankind to tackle the dire threat of infectious disease for more than a hundred years. They have become key tools of public health and scientists are charged with developing them as quickly as possible to combat the emergence of…
Why are growing numbers of parents worldwide questioning the wisdom of having their children vaccinated? Why have public-sector vaccine producers been sold off? And can we trust the multinational corporations that increasingly dominate vaccine devel…
Calling the Spirits investigates the eerie history of our conversations with the dead, from necromancy in Homer's Odyssey to the emergence of Spiritualism, when Victorians were entranced by mediums and the seance was born Among our cast are the Fox…
As one of the most innovative artists of the last six decades, Walter de Maria challenged art in profound ways. He is known worldwide for his important sculptures such as Lightning Field, but his contributions to the practices of music, drawing, pho…
Arthur Schopenhauer devoted his adult life to the articulation of a philosophy for the world, a philosophy that would benefit mankind by providing a solution to the riddle of existence. Often considered a thoroughgoing pessimist, Schopenhauer in fac…
