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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2023

        Now that's what I call a history of the 1980s

        by Lucy Robinson

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        May 2024

        A book of monsters

        Promethean horror in modern literature and culture

        by David Ashford

        This books traces the rise to prominence in the twentieth-century of a sub-genre of gothic fiction that is, emphatically, a horror of enlightenment rationality rather than gothic darkness, examining post-modern revisions of Modernist "Promethean" tropes in an eclectic range of gothic, fantasy and SF writing. Whether the subject be terror of London's churches in the psychogeographical fiction of Iain Sinclair and Alan Moore, the Orcs in the linguistic fantasies of J.R.R. Tolkien, King Kong, killer-computers, or demon-children in post-war British science-fiction, A Book of Monsters offers illuminating perspectives on the darker recesses of the post-modern imagination, setting out a compelling, and comprehensive, overview on our contemporary unconscious.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        The language of empire

        Myths and metaphors of popular imperialism, 1880-1918

        by Robert Macdonald

        The debate about the Empire dealt in idealism and morality, and both sides employed the language of feeling, and frequently argued their case in dramatic terms. This book opposes two sides of the Empire, first, as it was presented to the public in Britain, and second, as it was experienced or imagined by its subjects abroad. British imperialism was nurtured by such upper middle-class institutions as the public schools, the wardrooms and officers' messes, and the conservative press. The attitudes of 1916 can best be recovered through a reconstruction of a poetics of popular imperialism. The case-study of Rhodesia demonstrates the almost instant application of myth and sign to a contemporary imperial crisis. Rudyard Kipling was acknowledged throughout the English-speaking world not only as a wonderful teller of stories but as the 'singer of Greater Britain', or, as 'the Laureate of Empire'. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the Empire gained a beachhead in the classroom, particularly in the coupling of geography and history. The Island Story underlined that stories of heroic soldiers and 'fights for the flag' were easier for teachers to present to children than lessons in morality, or abstractions about liberty and responsible government. The Education Act of 1870 had created a need for standard readers in schools; readers designed to teach boys and girls to be useful citizens. The Indian Mutiny was the supreme test of the imperial conscience, a measure of the morality of the 'master-nation'.

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2025

        Dirty books

        by Barry Reay, Nina Attwood

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        Biography & True Stories
        May 2025

        Mrs Dalloway

        Biography of a novel

        by Mark Hussey

        A compelling biography of one of the most celebrated novels in the English language. The fourth and best-known of Virginia Woolf's novels, Mrs Dalloway is a modernist masterpiece that has remained popular since its publication in 1925. Its dual narratives follow a day in the life of wealthy housewife Clarissa Dalloway and shell-shocked war veteran Septimus Warren Smith, capturing their inner worlds with a vividness that has rarely been equalled. Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a novel offers new readers a lively introduction to this enduring classic, while providing Woolf lovers with a wealth of information about the novel's writing, publication and reception. It follows Woolf's process from the first stirrings in her diary through her struggles to create what was quickly recognised as a major advance in prose fiction. It then traces the novel's remarkable legacy to the present day. Woolf wrote in her diary that she wanted her novel 'to give life & death, sanity & insanity. to criticise the social system, & to show it at work, at its most intense.' Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a novel reveals how she achieved this ambition, creating a book that will be read by generations to come.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        November 2024

        Culture is bad for you

        by Orian Brook, Dave O'Brien, Mark Taylor

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        The Arts
        December 2024

        The picture politics of Sir Francis Carruthers Gould

        Britain's pioneering political cartoonist

        by Mark Bryant

        This is the first major study of Britain's pioneering graphic satirist, Sir Francis Carruthers Gould (1844-1925), the first staff political cartoonist on a daily newspaper in Britain, and the first of his kind to be knighted. Written by the distinguished media historian, Colin Seymour-Ure, it is essential reading for anyone interested in cartoons, caricature and illustration and will also be welcomed by students of history, politics and the media. It examines Gould's career in Fleet Street until his retirement after the First World War. It also discusses his illustrations for magazines and books and there is an analysis of his use of symbolism and literary allusion to lampoon such eminent politicians as Gladstone and Joseph Chamberlain. As Lord Baker says in his Foreword, this book is 'a major contribution to our knowledge of British cartooning.'

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        Business, Economics & Law
        November 2024

        The Island Book of Records Volume II

        1969-70

        by Neil Storey

        The second volume of this highly collectable series, covering the pivotal years of 1969-70. The Island Book of Records Volume II documents the years 1969-70, during which Island sought to build on its success with the Spencer Davis Group by seeking out new British rock talent. By the end of the period, Island was emerging as a major British label, one that could boast releases from Jethro Tull, Nick Drake, King Crimson, John and Beverley Martyn, Fairport Convention and Cat Stevens. Featuring material from recent interviews and from media interviews of the time, and including a comprehensive discography of 45s, The Island Book of Records Volume II is lavishly illustrated with gig adverts (very many at venues that no longer exist), concert tickets, flyers, international LP variants, labels, LP and 45 adverts and other ephemera collector's dream.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2019

        The genesis of international mass migration

        by Eric Richards

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        August 2002

        The rise of the Nazis

        by Conan Fischer, Mark Greengrass

        How and why did the Nazis seize power in Germany? Nearly seventy years on, the question remains heated and important discoveries continue to challenge long standing assumptions. Beginmning with an overview of the historical context within which Nazism grew, looking at the foreign relations, politics and society of Weimar and in particular at the role of the elites in the rise of Nazism. The book questions the anatomy of Nazism itself: What lent Nazi ideology its coherence and credibility? What distinguished the Nazi's programme from their competitors' and how did they project it so effectively? How was Hitler able to put together and fund an organisation so quickly and effectively that it could launch a sustained assault on Weimar? Who supported the Nazis and what were their motives? Where, precisely, does Nazism belong in the history of Europe?. Since the publication of the first edition, important new works have appeared and this new scholarship has been incorporated into the text. ;

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2021

        Water and fire

        by Daniel Anlezark

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2022

        Odd men out

        by John-Pierre Joyce, Simon Callow

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2025

        People and piety

        Protestant devotional identities in early modern England

        by Elizabeth Clarke, Robert W. Daniel

        This international and interdisciplinary volume investigates Protestant devotional identities in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Divided into two sections, the book examines the 'sites' where these identities were forged - the academy, printing house, household, theatre and prison - and the 'types' of texts that expressed them - spiritual autobiographies, religious poetry and writings tied to the ars moriendi - providing a broad analysis of social, material and literary forms of devotion during England's Long Reformation. Through archival and cutting-edge research, a detailed picture of 'lived religion' emerges, which re-evaluates the pietistic acts and attitudes of well-known and recently discovered figures. To those studying and teaching religion and identity in early modern England, and anyone interested in the history of religious self-expression, these chapters offer a rich and rewarding read.

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        The Arts
        January 2019

        The secret life of romantic comedy

        by Celestino Deleyto

        The secret life of romantic comedy offers a new approach to one of the most popular and resilient genres in the history of Hollywood. Steering away from the rigidity and ideological determinism of traditional accounts of the genre, this book advocates a more flexible theory, which allows the student to explore the presence of the genre in unexpected places, extending the concept to encompass films that are not usually considered romantic comedies. Combining theory with detailed analyses of a selection of films, including To Be or Not to Be (1942), Rear Window (1954), Kiss Me Stupid (1964), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and Before Sunset (2004), the book aims to provide a practical framework for the exploration of a key area of contemporary experience - intimate matters - through one of its most powerful filmic representations: the genre of romantic comedy. Original and entertaining, The secret life of romantic comedy is perfect for students and academics of film and film genre.

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        Business, Economics & Law
        October 2021

        The pound and the fury

        by Jack Mosse

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        November 2021

        Encountering The Book of Margery Kempe

        by Laura Kalas, Laura Varnam, David Matthews, Anke Bernau, James Paz

        This innovative critical volume brings the study of Margery Kempe into the twenty-first century. Structured around four categories of 'encounter' - textual, internal, external and performative - the volume offers a capacious exploration of The Book of Margery Kempe, characterised by multiple complementary and dissonant approaches. It employs a multiplicity of scholarly and critical lenses, including the intertextual history of medieval women's literary culture, medical humanities, history of science, digital humanities, literary criticism, oral history, the global Middle Ages, archival research and creative re-imagining. Revealing several new discoveries about Margery Kempe and her Book in its global contexts, and offering multiple ways of reading the Book in the modern world, it will be an essential companion for years to come.

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