Reaktion Books: New Titles

Reaktion Books: New Titles http://www.press.uchicago.edu/rss/newreaktion.xml The latest new books from Reaktion Books en-us erg@press.uchicago.edu Boxing http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=5891265 Kasia Boddy <br><br><DIV><DIV><DIV><DIV><DIV>Boxing is one of the oldest and most exciting of sports: its bruising and bloody confrontations have permeated Western culture since 3000 BC. During that period, there has hardly been a time in which young men, and sometimes women, did not raise their gloved or naked fists to one other. Throughout this history, potters, sculptors, painters, poets, novelists, cartoonists, song-writers, photographers and film-makers have been there to record and make sense of it all. </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>In her encyclopaedic investigation, Kasia Boddy sheds new light on an elemental sports and struggle for dominance whose weapons are nothing more than fists. Boddy examines the shifting social, political and cultural resonances of this most visceral of sports, and shows how from Daniel Mendoza to Mike Tyson, boxers have embodied and enacted our anxieties about race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. Looking afresh at everything from neoclassical sculpture to hip-hop lyrics, <EM>Boxing</EM> explores the way in which the history of boxing has intersected with the history of mass media, from cinema to radio to pay-per-view. The book also offers an intriguing new perspective on the work of such diverse figures as Henry Fielding, Spike Lee, Charlie Chaplin, Philip Roth, James Joyce, Mae West, Bertolt Brecht, and Charles Dickens. </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>An all-encompassing study, <EM>Boxing</EM> ultimately reveals to us just how and why boxing has mattered so much to so many.</DIV><DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><br></div> Penguin http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=5891286 Stephen Martin <br><br><DIV><DIV><DIV>From the Penguin Books logo to <I>The March of the Penguins</I>, a certain tuxedo-adorned member of the animal kingdom has long captured our hearts and imaginations. Stephen Martin regales us here with the cultural and natural history of the penguin, revealing many fascinating and little-known facts about this beloved bird.</DIV><DIV>Over twenty species of penguins can be found in the Galápagos Islands and New Zealand as well as in Antarctica, and they range from the Little Bee Penguin at two pounds to the imposing Emperor Penguin, which can weigh in at over seventy-five pounds. Martin details the biological facts and natural history of each species, including their evolution, habitats, diet, and behavior, but he also explores the role of penguins in popular culture and thought—from children’s literature such as <I>Mr. Popper’s Penguins</I>, to Batman’s nemesis, the Penguin, to films and television shows including <I>Happy Feet</I> and <I>Pingu</I>. In addition, over one hundred images of penguins enrich Martin’s engaging text.</DIV><DIV><BR />            A captivating natural and cultural history, <I>Penguin</I> will be an essential addition to the bookshelves of penguin fans everywhere.<BR /> </DIV></DIV></DIV><br></div> Photography and Flight http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=6166019 Denis Cosgrove and William Fox <br><br><DIV><DIV><DIV>Used for everything from geographic evaluation to secret spy missions, aerial photography has a rich and storied history, ably recounted here in <I>Photography and Flight</I>.</DIV><DIV><BR />Aerial photography is marked by its dependency on technological developments in both photography and aerospace, and the authors chart the history of this photography as it tracked the evolution of these technologies. Beginning with early images taken from hot-air balloons, fixed platforms, and subsequent handheld camera technology, Denis Cosgrove and William Fox then explain how military reconnaissance and governmental projects were instrumental in catalyzing these and other innovations in the field. They examine pivotal historical moments in which aerial photography began to establish itself as essential tool, such as in World War II military strategies, high-altitude photography taken from postwar rockets and aircraft, and the use of aerial photography during the cold war and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The book also explores the advancement of geographic scholarship through aerial photography, ranging from military excursions into Antarctica to the images of the curvature of the earth taken during the Apollo space missions.</DIV><DIV><BR />While digital technology and remote sensing have changed the landscape of photography, <I>Photography and Flight</I> argues that they have not diminished the significance of aerial photography in providing images of the earth. Rather, new technologies and resulting innovations such as Google Earth have enabled the mass democratization of access to such information. <I>Photography and Flight</I> ultimately reveals how the camera lens from far away continues to unearth telling details about the land and those who live upon it.</DIV><DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV><br></div> City and Cosmos http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=6899758 Keith D. Lilley <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>In <I>City and Cosmos</I>, Keith D. Lilley argues that the medieval mind considered the city truly a microcosm: much more than a collection of houses, a city also represented a scaled-down version of the very order and organization of the cosmos. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources, including original accounts, visual art, science, literature, and architectural history, <I>City and Cosmos </I>offers an innovative interpretation of how medieval Christians infused their urban surroundings with meaning. </P><P>            Lilley combines both visual and textual evidence to demonstrate how the city carried Christian cosmological meaning and symbolism, sharing common spatial forms and functional ordering. <I> City and Cosmos</I> will not only appeal to a diverse range of scholars studying medieval history, archaeology, philosophy, and theology; but it will also find a broad audience in architecture, urban planning, and art history. With more of the world’s population inhabiting cities than ever before, this original perspective on urban order and culture will prove increasingly valuable to anyone wishing to better understand the role of the city in society. </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Before Disenchantment http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=6899762 Peter Mason <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>Imagine barnacle geese—creatures that begin life as leaves on a tree growing above water, but turn into small birds as soon as they fall in. Or the Lamb of Tartary that gestates inside a large gourd-like fruit.  These are just some of the animal and plant hybrids imagined by early modern explorers and artists to describe unfamiliar flora and fauna.  </P><P>            In <I>Before Disenchantment</I>, Peter Mason explores how naturalists grappled with the problem of representing exotic plants and animals, turning an analytic eye on the sketches of German adventurer Caspar Schmalkalden, the skilled artistic renderings of Peter Paul Rubens, the observations of Dutch beachcomber Adriaen Coenen, and the antiquarian pursuits of Nicola Fabri de Peiresc, among others.</P><P>            Featuring one hundred illustrations of these unusual and captivating creatures—from camel-sheep to races of monopods and red-haired dwarves—<I>Before Disenchantment</I> goes beyond orthodox histories of scientific illustration and champions a sense of wonder often lost in the modern world.</P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Ape http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=6899776 John Sorenson <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>Apes—to look at them is to see a mirror of ourselves. Our close genetic relatives fascinate and unnerve us with their similar behavior and social personality. Here, John Sorenson delves into our conflicted relationship to the great apes, which often reveals as much about us as humans as it does about the apes themselves.</P><P>            From bonobos and chimpanzees to gibbons, gorillas, and orangutans, <I>Ape</I> examines the many ways these remarkable animals often serve as models for humans. Anthropologists use their behavior to help explain our fundamental human nature; scientists utilize them as subjects in biomedical research; and behavioral researchers experiment with ways apes emulate us. Sorenson explores the challenges to the complex division between apes and ourselves, describing language experiments, efforts to cross-foster apes by raising them as human children, and the ethical challenges posed by the Great Ape Project. As well, <I>Ape </I>investigates representations of apes in popular culture, particularly films and advertising in which apes are often portrayed as human caricatures, monsters, and clowns. </P><P>Containing nearly one hundred illustrations of apes in nature and culture, <I>Ape </I>will appeal to readers interested in animal-human relationships and anyone curious to know more about our closest animal cousins, many of whom teeter on the brink of extinction.</P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Simone de Beauvoir http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=6899788 Ursula Tidd <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>Following its publication in 1949, <I>The Second Sex</I> quickly became one of the fundamental works of feminist thought. In it, Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) offered up a statement that has informed nearly all feminist and gender scholarship that has followed, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” And it is the woman Beauvoir became who continues to fascinate, fostering a legend of coffee-drinking Parisian intellectuals debating existentialism in smoky cafes along the Left Bank.</P><P>            Beauvoir lived through some of the most dramatic and significant events of the twentieth century, and a time of enormous change for women across the world. Her personal and intellectual companions were one and the same—and as a result, her intimate relationships with Jean-Paul Sartre and Nelson Algren provide a captivating context to the development of her ideas. In this concise and up-to-date critical appraisal of both the life and words of Beauvoir, Ursula Tidd illuminates the many facets of the feminist icon’s complex personality, including her relentless autobiographical drive, which led her to envision her life as a continuously unfolding narrative, her active involvement in twentieth-century political struggles, and how Beauvoir the woman has over the decades become Beauvoir the myth. </P><P>            2008 marked the centenary of Beauvoir’s birth, yet her ideas continue to reverberate throughout contemporary scholarship. This critical biography will benefit any reader seeking insight into one of the most prominent and intriguing intellectuals of the twentieth century.</P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Caspar David Friedrich and the Subject of Landscape http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=6911580 Joseph Leo Koerner <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) is heralded as the greatest painter of the Romantic movement in Germany, and Europe’s first truly modern artist. His mysterious and melancholy landscapes, often peopled with lonely wanderers, are experiments in a radically subjective artistic perspective—one in which, as Freidrich wrote, the painter depicts not “what he sees before him, but what he sees within him.” This vulnerability of the individual when confronted with nature became one of the key tenets of the Romantic aesthetic. </P><P>            Now available in a compact, accessible format, this beautifully illustrated book is the most comprehensive account ever published in English of one of the most fascinating and influential nineteenth-century painters.</P><P>            “This is a model of interpretative art history, taking in a good deal of German Romantic philosophy, but founded always on the immediate experience of the picture. . . . It is rare to find a scholar so obviously in sympathy with his subject.”—<I>Independent</I></P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Sex and the Floating World http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=6914349 Timon Screech <br><br><DIV><DIV><DIV><P>During the Edo period in eighteenth-century Japan, erotic paintings and prints known today as <I>shunga </I>were popular among both men and women. Yet,  prior to Tim Screech’s definitive study, <I>Sex and the Floating World</I>, no one had attempted to situate these overtly sexual images within the contexts of the sexual, gender, or class tensions of the time. </P><P> Newly revised and expanded, this second edition of <I>Sex and the Floating World</I> examines how and why these images were made and used. Along the way, Screech illuminates a provocative world of sexual fantasy in Edo Japan.</P><P>‘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.”—<I>Japan</I><I> Times</I></P><P>“Screech provides a fascinating and informative introduction to the social and sexual habits of pre-modern Japan, copiously illustrated and full of witty anecdotes as well as solid scholarly research. The ideal bedtime read?”—<I>Insight Japan</I></P></DIV></DIV></DIV><br></div> Curry http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364250 Colleen Taylor Sen <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>Curry is one of the most widely used—and misused—terms in the culinary lexicon. Outside of India, the word curry is often used as a catchall to describe any Indian dish or Indian food in general, yet Indians rarely use it to describe their own cuisine. <I>Curry </I>answers the question, “What is curry?” by giving a lively historical and descriptive account of a dish that has many incarnations.</P><P> </P><P>In this global history, food writer Colleen Taylor Sen describes in detail the Anglo-Indian origins of curry and how this widely used spice has been adapted throughout the world. Exploring the curry universe beyond India and Great Britain, her chronicles include the elegant, complex curries of Thailand; the exuberant curry/rotis of the Caribbean; <I>kari</I>/<I>raisu</I>, Japan’s favorite comfort food; Indonesian <I>gulais </I>and <I>rendang</I>; Malaysia’s delicious <I>Nonya </I>cuisine; and exotic Western hybrids such as American curried chicken salad, German currywurst, and Punjabi-Mexican-Hindu pizza. Along the way, Sen unravels common myths about curry and Indian food and illuminates the world of curry with excerpts from popular songs, literary works, historical and modern recipes, and illustrations depicting curry dishes and their preparations.</P><P> </P><P>A vibrant, flavorful book about an increasingly popular food, <I>Curry </I>will find a wide audience of cooking enthusiasts and hungry fans of Indian food.</P><P> </P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Cheese http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364254 Andrew Dalby <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>Take a slice of bread. It’s perfectly okay in and of itself. Maybe it has a nice, crisp crust or the scent of sourdough. But really, it’s kind of boring. Now melt some cheese on it—a sharp Vermont cheddar or a flavorful Swiss Gruyere. Mmm, delicious. Cheese—it’s the staple food, the accessory that makes <I>everything </I>better, from the hamburger to the ordinary sandwich to a bowl of macaroni. Despite its many uses and variations, there has never before been a global history of cheese, but here at last is a succinct, authoritative account, revealing how cheese was invented and where, when, and even why. </P><P> </P><P>In bite-sized chapters well-known food historian Andrew Dalby tells the true and</P><P>savory story of cheese, from its prehistoric invention to the moment of its modern rebirth. Here you will find the most ancient cheese appellations, the first written description of the cheese-making process, a list of the luxury cheeses of classical Rome, the medieval rule-of-thumb for identifying good cheese, and even the story of how loyal cheese lover Samuel Pepys saved his parmesan from the great Fire of London. Dalby reveals that cheese is one of the most ancient of civilized foods, and he suggests that our passion for cheese may even lay behind the early establishment of global trade. </P><P> </P><P>Packed with entertaining cheese facts, anecdotes, and images, <I>Cheese </I>also</P><P>features a selection of historic recipes. For those who crave a pungent stilton, a creamy brie, or a salty pecorino, <I>Cheese</I> is the perfect snack of a book.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Chocolate http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364258 Sarah Moss and Alexander Badenoch <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>Chocolate layer cake. Fudge brownies. Chocolate chip cookies. Boxes of chocolate truffles. Cups of cocoa. Hot fudge sundaes. Chocolate is synonymous with our cultural sweet tooth, our restaurant dessert menus, and our idea of indulgence. Chocolate is adored around the world and has been since the Spanish first encountered cocoa beans in South America in the sixteenth century. It is seen as magical, addictive, and powerful beyond anything that can be explained by its ingredients, and in <I>Chocolate </I>Sarah Moss and Alec Badenoch explore the origins and growth of this almost universal obsession.           </P><P> </P><P>Moss and Badenoch recount the history of chocolate, which from ancient times has been associated with sexuality, sin, blood, and sacrifice. The first Spanish accounts claim that the Aztecs and Mayans used chocolate as a substitute for blood in sacrificial rituals and as a currency to replace gold. In the eighteenth century chocolate became regarded as an aphrodisiac—the first step on the road to today’s boxes of Valentine delights. <I>Chocolate </I>also looks at today’s mass-production of chocolate, with brands such as Hershey’s, Lindt, and Cadbury dominating our supermarket shelves.</P><P> </P><P>Packed with tempting images and decadent descriptions of chocolate throughout</P><P>the ages, <I>Chocolate </I>will be as irresistible as the tasty treats it describes.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Owl http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364262 Desmond Morris <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>From Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussycat”<I> </I>to David Lynch’s <I>Twin Peaks</I>, owls have been woven into the fabric of popular culture. At times they are depicted as dignified, wise old scholars and at other times as foreboding voyeurs who see all and interrogate with an accusatory, “Who? Who?” In <I>Owl </I>best-selling author Desmond Morris explores the natural and cultural history of these predators of the night who embody both good and evil in turn.</P><P> </P><P>In this fascinating book, Morris describes the evolution, the many species, and the wide spread of owls across the globe. Owls are found on every land mass around the world, with the exception of Antarctica; and as a result of their wide distribution, owls appear in the folktales, myths, and legends of many native peoples—in addition to popular art, film, and literature worldwide. Featuring over 100 telling illustrations from nature and culture, <I>Owl </I>will appeal to the numerous fans of this enigmatic bird, from the friendly Mr. Owls to silent, sinister, hunters of the dark.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Running http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364266 Thor Gotaas <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>In the past decade, the number of Americans who consider themselves runners more than doubled—in 2008, more than 16 million Americans claimed to have run or jogged at least 100 days in the year. Though now running thrives as a convenient and accessible form of exercise, it is no surprise to learn that the modern craze is not truly new; humans have been running as long as they could walk. What may be surprising however are the myriad reasons why we have performed this exhausting yet exhilarating activity through the ages. In this humorous and unique world history, Thor Gotaas collects numerous unusual and curious stories of running from ancient times to modern marathons and Olympic competitions.</P><P> </P><P>Amongst the numerous examples that illustrate Gotaas’s history are King Shulgi of Mesopotamia, who four millennia ago boasted of running from Nippur to Ur, a distance of not less than 100 miles. Gotaas’s account also includes ancient Egyptian pharaohs who ran to prove their vitality and maintain their power, Norwegian Vikings who exercised by running races against animals, as well as little-known naked runs, bar endurance tests, backward runs, monk runs, snowshoe runs, and the Incas’ ingenious infrastructure of professional runners. </P><P> </P><P>The perfect gift for the sprinter, the marathoner, or the daily jogger, this intriguing world history will appeal to all who wish to know more about why the ancients shared our love—and hatred—of this demanding but rewarding pastime. </P><P> </P><P>           </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Arab-Israeli Conflict http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364270 Ian J. Bickerton <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>Though more than sixty years have passed since the signing of the proclamation of the State of Israel, the impact of that epochal event continues to shape the political policies and public opinion of not only the Middle East but much of the world. The consequent conflict between Arabs and Israelis for sovereignty over the land of Palestine has been one of the most bloody, intractable, and drawn-out of modern times. It continues today in cycles of aggressive violence followed by temporary, tenuous ceasefires that are marked and complicated by resolute opinions and fractious religious ideologies. In this timely volume, noted military historian Ian J. Bickerton cuts through the complex perspectives in order to explain this struggle in objective detail, describing its history from the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following World War I to the present day.</P><P> </P><P>In concise and clear prose, Bickerton argues that the present problem can be traced to the fact that each side is trapped by a conception of their past from which they seem unable to break free. This attachment and reaction to history has had a negative influence on the decision-making of Arabs and Israelis since 1948. Ultimately, Bickerton maintains that the use of armed force has not, and will not, resolve the issues that have divided Israelis and Arabs.</P><P> </P><P><I>The Arab-Israeli Conflic</I>t is a plea for reasoned diplomacy in a situation that has been dominated by extreme violence. This book will appeal to a wide general audience seeking a balanced understanding of this enduring struggle that still dominates headlines.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Outsider Art http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364815 David Maclagan <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>The term outsider art has been used to describe work produced exterior to the mainstream of modern art by certain self-taught visionaries, spiritualists, eccentrics, recluses, psychiatric patients, criminals, and others beyond the perceived margins of society. Yet the idea of such a raw, untaught creativity remains a contentious and much-debated issue in the art world. Is this creative instinct a natural, innate phenomenon, requiring only the right circumstances—such as isolation or alienation—in order for it to be cultivated? Or is it an idealistic notion projected onto the art and artists by critics and buyers?</P><P> </P><P>David Maclagan argues that behind the critical and commercial hype lies a cluster of assumptions about creative drives, the expression of inner worlds, originality, and artistic eccentricity. Although outsider art is often presented as a recent discovery, these ideas, Maclagan reveals, belong to a tradition that goes back to the Renaissance, when the modern image of the artist began to take shape. In <I>Outsider Art</I>, Maclagan challenges many of the current opinions about this increasingly popular field of art and explores what happens to outsider artists and their work when they are brought within the very world from which they have excluded themselves. </P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Pablo Neruda http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364819 Dominic Moran <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>Pablo Neruda (1904–73) is one of Latin America’s best known poets, adored by readers for the passionate love lyrics written during his early years in his native Chile, and respected by critics for the dark, hypnotic verses he composed during his later, solitary years as a diplomat based in the Far East. As Dominic Moran shows in his concise biography of Neruda, rarely have the life and works of a writer been so intimately and dramatically bound up as they are in Neruda. </P><P> </P><P>In <I>Pablo Neruda</I>, Moran takes a detailed and often critical look at this relationship, focusing as much on what the poetry sometimes strategically hides about Neruda the poet, the lover, and the political proselytizer, as what it reveals. Moran describes a life that was marked by an increasingly militant communism, the seeds of which can be traced to Neruda’s experiences in Spain during the early months of the Spanish Civil War. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Neruda became a literary torchbearer for the International Left, and he spent his final years campaigning to bring socialism to his beloved Chile. He  lived just long enough to see his hero Salvador Allende unseated by Augusto Pinochet’s bloody coup.</P><P><I></I> </P><P><I>Pablo Neruda </I>paints a fascinating picture of one of the most prodigiously gifted literary figures of the twentieth century. It will appeal to fans of Neruda’s verse who wish to learn more about the life behind it, as well as to readers interested in Latin American literature, politics, and history.</P><P> </P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Snail http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364827 Peter Williams <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>So attached was the author Patricia Highsmith to snails that they became her constant travelling companions. Often hidden in a large handbag, they provided her with comfort and companionship in what she perceived to be a hostile world. Theirs was perhaps an unusual relationship; for most of us the tentacled snail with his sticky trail might be a delicious treat served up in garlic butter but certainly not an affectionate pet. As well, for many a gardener, opinions on the snail and slug (which is a just a snail without a shell) have been shaped by the harm they inflict on vegetable plants and seedlings. With <I>Snail</I>, Peter Williams wishes to change our perspectives on this little but much-maligned creature.</P><P> </P><P>Beginning with an overview of our relationship with snails, slugs, and sea snails,</P><P>Williams moves on to examine snail evolution; snail behavior and habitat; snails as food, medicine, and the source of useful chemicals and dyes; snail shells as collectible objects; and snails in literature, art, and popular culture. Finally, in this appreciative account of the snail, Williams offers a plea for a reconsideration of the snail as a dignified, ancient creature that deserves our respect.</P><P> </P><P>Containing beautiful illustrations and written in an approachable, informal style, <I>Snail </I>will help readers get beyond the shell and slime to discover the fascinating creature inside.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Samuel Beckett http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364831 Andrew Gibson <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>Writer Samuel Beckett (1906–89) is known for depicting a world of abject misery, failure, and absurdity in his many plays, novels, short stories, and poetry. Yet the despair in his work is never absolute, instead it is intertwined with black humor and an indomitable will to endure––characteristics best embodied by his most famous characters, Vladimir and Estragon, in the play <I>Waiting for Godot</I>. Beckett himself was a supremely modern, minimalist writer who deeply distrusted biographies and resisted letting himself be pigeonholed by easy interpretation or single definition. Andrew Gibson’s accessible critical biography overcomes Beckett’s reticence and carefully considers the writer’s work in relation to the historical circumstances of his life.</P><P> </P><P>In <I>Samuel Beckett</I>, Gibson tracks Beckett from Ireland after independence to Paris in the late 1920s, from London in the ’30s to Nazi Germany and Vichy France, and finally through the cold war to the fall of communism in the late ’80s. Gibson narrates the progression of Beckett’s life as a writer—from a student in Ireland to the 1969 Nobel Prize winner for literature—through chapters that examine individual historical events and the works that grew out of those experiences. A notoriously private figure, Beckett sought refuge from life in his work, where he expressed his disdain for the suffering and unnecessary absurdity of much that he witnessed.</P><P> </P><P>This concise and engaging biography provides an essential understanding of Beckett's work in response to many of the most significant events of the past century.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Philosophy of Pain http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364834 Arne Vetlesen <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>“Living involves being exposed to pain every second—not necessarily as an</P><P>insistent reality, but always as a possibility,” writes Arne Vetlesen in <I>A Philosophy of Pain</I>, a thought-provoking look at an inevitable and essential aspect of the human condition. Here, Vetlesen addresses pain in many forms, including the pain inflicted during torture; the pain suffered in disease; the pain accompanying anxiety, grief, and depression; and the pain brought by violence. He examines the dual nature of pain: how we attempt to avoid it as much as possible in our daily lives, and yet conversely, we obtain a thrill from seeking it.</P><P> </P><P>Vetlesen’s analysis of pain is revealing, plumbing the very center of many of our most intense and complicated emotions. He looks at pain within different arenas of modern life such as family and work, and he specifically probes at a very common modern phenomenon, the idea of pushing oneself to the limit. Engaging throughout with the ideas of thinkers such as Søren Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Alice Miller, Susan Sontag, and Melanie Klein, <I>A Philosophy of Pain</I> asks which came first, thinking or feeling, and explores the concept and possibility of empathy.</P><P> </P><P>Vetlesen offers an original and insightful perspective on something that all of us suffer and endure—from a sprained ankle to a broken heart. Although pain is in itself</P><P>unpleasant, our ability to feel it reminds us that we are alive.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Manhood http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364838 Mels van Driel <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>The ancient Greeks paraded enormous sculptural replicas in annual celebration . . . Freud theorized that women envied them . . . an undeniable, global symbol of power and virility since the beginning of humankind—the penis has been much discussed, gestured toward, and depicted, yet seldom understood outside folklore and popular culture’s uneasy mix of self-deprecation and aggrandizement. Despite the penis’s central role in human life or perhaps due to that role, nearly every man seems to suffer in isolation or silence from some perceived inadequacy or affliction. That’s where experienced urologist and sexologist Mels van Driel comes in. In <I>Manhood, </I>van Driel offers an unprecedented history of the penis—with answers to everything you wanted to know, and even some questions you’d never thought to ask.</P><P> </P><P>In<I> Manhood, </I>van Driel presents the history of the male sexual organ from medical, psychological, and cultural perspectives. Investigating the penis and its functions, from the scrotum to the glans, Van Driel’s work ranges from inguinal hernia to infertility, and from impotence to the speed of ejaculation. Psychological factors that have an impact on sexual experience, as well as contemporary phenomena, such as cyber sex, are given enlightening treatment along the way.</P><P> </P><P>With good humor and much insight, van Driel offers diverse and instructive examples. This informative guide is not just a book for men, but for women too—anyone curious to know the facts behind the many myths and stories of the penis.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Bullfighting http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364842 Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>“Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter's honor,” wrote Ernest Hemingway in <I>Death in the Afternoon. </I>Art? Ritual? Sport? Cruelty? Though opinions are divided, one thing is certain—bullfighting sparks passionate responses. Supporters argue that bullfighting is a culturally important tradition stretching back thousands of years; while animal rights groups argue that it is cruel and barbaric, causing unnecessary suffering to both bulls and horses. In <I>A History of Bullfighting </I>Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier brings clarity to this debate through an exploration of the long history of killing bulls as public spectacle.</P><P> </P><P><I>A History of Bullfighting </I>is the first cross-cultural study of bullfighting, covering Europe, North America, and Latin America. Hardouin-Fugier shows how each continent has its own unique style and tools of the trade. For example, in North America, the favored technique is grabbing the bull by the horns, and in Europe the bull is run through with a sword. In the late 1700s bullfights became mass leisure activities, with paying spectators packing into arenas—the classic bullfight of popular imagination. It was at this time that the bullfight became a big business and the bullfighter became a celebrity. In this vivid and comprehensive history, Hardouin-Fugier also explores the extensive influence of the bullfight on art, literature, and culture from the paintings of Goya to the writings of Georges Bataille. </P><P> </P><P>Enriched with many fascinating and sometimes disturbing illustrations, <I>A History of Bullfighting</I> presents a discerning and intelligent approach to a divisive practice.  Hardouin-Fugier’s informative history will enthrall anyone who has been curious about bullfighting—supporters and detractors alike.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Pigeon http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364845 Barbara Allen <br><br><DIV><DIV><P> </P><P>Our frequent urban companion, cooing in the eaves of train stations or scavenging underfoot for breadcrumbs and discarded French fries, the pigeon has many detractors—and even some fans. Written out of love for and fascination with this humble yet important bird, Barbara Allen’s <I>Pigeon </I>explores its cultural significance, as well as its similarities to and differences from its close counterpart, the dove. While the dove is seen as a symbol of love, peace, and goodwill, the pigeon is commonly perceived as a filthy, ill-mannered flying rodent, a “rat with wings.”</P><P> </P><P>Readers will find in <I>Pigeon </I>an enticing exploration of the historical and contemporary bonds between humans and these two unique and closely related birds. For polluting statues and architecture, the pigeon has earned a bad reputation, but Barbara Allen offers several examples of the bird’s importance—as a source of food and fertilizer, a bearer of messages during times of war, a pollution monitor, and an aid to Charles Darwin in his pivotal research on evolutionary theory. Allen also comments on the literary love and celebration of pigeons and doves in the work of such writers and poets as Shakespeare, Dickens, Beatrix Potter, Proust, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Along the way, Allen corrects the many stereotypes about pigeons in the hope that the rich history of one of the oldest human-animal partnerships will be both admired and celebrated.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Photography and Egypt http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364849 Maria Golia <br><br><DIV><DIV><DIV><P>Egypt immediately conjures images of the pyramids, the temples and the Sphinx in the desert. Early photographs of Egypt took these ancient monuments as their primary subjects, and these have remained hugely influential in constructing our view of the country. But while Egypt and its monuments have been regularly photographed by foreigners, little has been known about the early days of photography among Egyptians. <EM>Photography and Egypt</EM> examines both, considering images from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, including studio portraits, landscapes and photojournalism. </P><P>Two forces drove photography’s early development in Egypt: its link as an essential tool of archaeology and the accelerating effects of archaeological photographs on the burgeoning tourism industry. In this book, Maria Golia examines these twin drives, through the work of Europeans who travelled to Egypt as well as early Egyptian and Middle Eastern photographers. Golia examines how photography was also employed for propaganda purposes, including depictions of celebrated soldiers, workers and farmers; and how studio-based photography was used to portray the growing Egyptian middle class. Today’s young photographic artists, Golia reveals, use the medium to celebrate everyday life and to indict political and social conditions, with photography bearing witness to history––as well as helping to shape it. </P><P>Illustrated with a rich, sometimes surprising variety of images, many published for the first time in the West, <EM>Photography and Egypt</EM> is the first book to relate the story of Egypt’s rapport with photography in one concise and highly readable account.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV><br></div> Edgar Allan Poe http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364852 Kevin J. Hayes <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>The life of Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) is the quintessential writer’s biography—great works arising from a life of despair, poverty, alcoholism, and a mysterious solitary death. It may seem like a cliché now, but it was Poe who helped shape this idea in the popular imagination. Despite or perhaps even inspired by his many hardships, Poe wrote some of the most well-known poems and intricately crafted stories in American literature. In <I>Edgar Allan Poe</I>,<I> </I>Kevin J. Hayes argues that Poe’s work anticipated many of the directions Western thought would take in the century to come, and he identifies links between Poe and writers and artists such as Walter Benjamin, Salvador Dalí, Sergei Eisenstein, and Jean Cocteau.</P><P> </P><P>Whereas previous biographers have tended to concentrate on the sorry details of Poe’s life, by contrast Hayes takes an original approach by examining Poe’s life within the context of his writings. The author offers fresh, insightful readings of many of Poe’s short stories, and presents newly-discovered information about previously unknown books from Poe’s library, as well as updated biographical details obtained from nineteenth-century newspapers and magazines. This well-researched biography goes beyond previous scholarship and creates a complete picture of Poe and his significant body of work. </P><P> </P><P>Approachably written, <I>Edgar Allan Poe </I>will appeal to the many fans of Poe’s work—from “The Raven” to the “Tell-Tale Heart”—as well as readers interested in American literary history.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Art, Word and Image http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364856 John Dixon Hunt, David Lomas, and Michael Corris <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>What does it mean to say that a painting has been “invaded” by language?<I> Art, Word and Image </I>answers this question by exploring how visual images and writing can work in dialogue in an artwork. Whether the picture frame is encroached upon by doodlings, as with Adolf Wolfli’s seemingly irrational scribbles, or a plea to spirituality is blazoned across a vast canvas, as in the moving images of Colin McCahon, we can be sure that words here have a special meaning, one beyond everyday communication.</P><P> </P><P><I>Art, Word and Image</I>, one of the first books to examine the use of language in art, is constructed around three major chronological essays by renowned scholars John Dixon Hunt, David Lomas, and Michael Corris. Their essays chart the use and significance of words in art—from Classical Greece through the middle Ages and Renaissance to modern digital media. The three central essays comment upon a variety of movements, and woven throughout are more than 300 images from many very well-known artists, including Picasso, Max Ernst, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Paul Klee, and Jasper Johns. </P><P> </P><P>Also featured are shorter essays that spotlight work by some artists who engage substantially with the intersection of the visual and written. <I>Art, Word and Image</I> will be an influential volume in art criticism, providing the framework for future scholarship in the field.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div> Gertrude Stein http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/rssresolve.cgi?id=8364861 Lucy Daniel <br><br><DIV><DIV><P>“You are, of course, never yourself,” wrote Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) in <I>Everybody’s Autobiography</I>.  Modernist icon Stein wrote many pseudo-autobiographies, including the well-known story of her lover, <I>The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas</I>;<I> </I>but in Lucy Daniel’s <I>Gertrude Stein</I> the pen is turned directly on Stein, revealing the many selves that composed her inspiring and captivating life.</P><P> </P><P>Though American-born, Stein has been celebrated in many incarnations as the embodiment of French bohemia; she was a patron of modern art and writing, a gay icon, the coiner of the term “Lost Generation,” and the hostess of one of the most famous artistic salons. Welcomed into Stein’s art-covered living room were the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway, and Pound. But—perhaps because of the celebrated names who made up her social circle—Stein has remained one of the most recognizable and yet least-known of the twentieth-century’s major literary figures, despite her immense and varied body of work. With detailed reference to her writings, Stein’s own collected anecdotes, and even the many portraits painted of her, Lucy Daniel discusses how the legend of Gertrude Stein was created, both by herself and her admirers, and gives much-needed attention to the continuing significance and influence of Stein’s literary works.</P><P> </P><P>A fresh and readable biography of one of the major Modernist writers, <I>Gertrude Stein </I>will appeal to a wide audience interested in Stein’s contributions to avant-garde writing, and twentieth century art and literature in general.</P><P> </P></DIV></DIV><br></div>