{"title":"Social \u0026 Cultural History Books","description":"\u003ch2\u003eUnearth the Past, Understand the Present\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eDive into the captivating narratives of human experience with our curated collection of social \u0026amp; cultural history books. From everyday lives and societal shifts to artistic movements and counter-cultures, explore the forces that have shaped civilisations. Enjoy fast UK delivery straight to your door!\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"women-power","title":"Women \u0026 Power","description":"An updated edition of the Sunday Times BestsellerBritain''s best-known classicist Mary Beard, is also a committed and vocal feminist. With wry wit, she revisits the gender agenda and shows how history has treated powerful women. Her examples range from the classical world to the modern day, from Medusa and Athena to Theresa May and Hillary Clinton. Beard explores the cultural underpinnings of misogyny, considering the public voice of women, our cultural assumptions about women''s relationship with power, and how powerful women resist being packaged into a male template. A year on since the advent of #metoo, Beard looks at how the discussions have moved on during this time, and how that intersects with issues of rape and consent, and the stories men tell themselves to support their actions. In trademark Beardian style, using examples ancient and modern, Beard argues, ''it''s time for change - and now!''  From the author of international bestseller SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548519375230,"sku":"NW9781788160612","price":8.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781788160612.jpg?v=1781514152"},{"product_id":"rational-optimist","title":"Rational Optimist","description":"Shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction 2011.Life is on the up.We are wealthier, healthier, happier, kinder, cleaner, more peaceful, more equal and longer-lived than any previous generation. Thanks to the unique human habits of exchange and specialisation, our species has found innovative solutions to every obstacle it has faced so far.In ‘The Rational Optimist’, acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley comprehensively refutes the doom-mongers of our time, and reaches back into the past to give a rational explanation for why we can – and will – overcome the challenges of the future, such as climate change and the population boom.Bold and controversial, it is a brilliantly confident assertion that the 21st century will be the best for humankind yet.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548520456574,"sku":"NW9780007267125","price":10.57,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780007267125.jpg?v=1781514169"},{"product_id":"who-owns-england","title":"Who Owns England","description":"‘A formidable, brave and important book’ Robert Macfarlane‘Absolutely brilliant…You cannot read this book and defend the establishment’ Alastair Campbell, The Rest is PoliticsWho owns England?Behind this simple question lies this country’s oldest and best-kept secret. This is the history of how England’s elite came to own our land, and an inspiring manifesto for how to open up our countryside once more. This book has been a long time coming. Since 1086, in fact. For centuries, England’s elite have covered up how they got their hands on millions of acres of our land, by constructing walls, burying surveys and more recently, sheltering behind offshore shell companies. But with the dawn of digital mapping and the Freedom of Information Act, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for them to hide.Trespassing through tightly-guarded country estates, ecologically ravaged grouse moors and empty Mayfair mansions, writer and activist Guy Shrubsole has used these 21st century tools to uncover a wealth of never-before-seen information about the people who own our land, to create the most comprehensive map of land ownership in England that has ever been made public.From secret military islands to tunnels deep beneath London, Shrubsole unearths truths concealed since the Domesday Book about who is really in charge of this country – at a time when Brexit is meant to be returning sovereignty to the people. Melding history, politics and polemic, he vividly demonstrates how taking control of land ownership is key to tackling everything from the housing crisis to climate change – and even halting the erosion of our very democracy.It’s time to expose the truth about who owns England – and finally take back our green and pleasant land.*Guy''s next book The Lie of the Land is out now*","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548521111934,"sku":"NW9780008321710","price":10.57,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780008321710.jpg?v=1781514179"},{"product_id":"from-tiberias-with-love-a-collection-o","title":"From Tiberias, With Love: A Collection O","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFrom Tiberias, With Love\u003c\/em\u003e is a journey to rediscovering the magic and mystery, the intimacy and depth of a lost moment in the history of a remarkably relevant conscious community in the Galilee that still has much to teach us. In the year 1777, a group of spiritual seekers from Eastern Europe set sail in search of a promised land, far away from the internal and external conflicts plaguing those souls seeking the infinite within this finite world. Some who set sail identified with the burgeoning Jewish spiritual renewal movement of hasidism, while others seem to have just come along for the ride. Weathering challenges both socio-economic and geographic, this emigrating group sought to establish a center for a burgeoning hasidic \u003cem\u003eethos\u003c\/em\u003e that would radiate to the Diaspora from its renewed center in the Holy Land in Palestine. Tiberian Hasidism provides a model of an intensive contemplative life that is particularly appealing to contemporary spiritual seekers for many reasons, including: its deep focus on mystical theology; devotional practice; and the ecstasy of deep friendship rather than allegiance to an institutionalized religion. This volume focuses on the teachings of R. Abraham haCohen of Kalisk ripe for excavation, offering an authentic roadmap to future contemplative pathways ripe for our age.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548583436670,"sku":"NW9781644694565","price":64.28,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781644694565.jpg?v=1781514613"},{"product_id":"the-radical-writings-of-jack-nusan-porte","title":"The Radical Writings Of Jack Nusan Porte","description":"\u003cp\u003eJack Nusan Porters writings date back to 1966, during the height of the Vietnam War. He describes the anguished struggle against war, racism, and poverty, as well as the radical groups and individuals involvedJewish socialists, radical Zionists, radical Jews, Rabbi Meir Kahane and the Jewish Defense League, the counterculture, liberals, and conservatives alike. In addition, his writings vividly recount the anti-Zionist, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and revolutionary terrorism of the times. Here, Porter draws from the past in an effort to explain the present, walking the precarious bridge between allegiance to Israel and the Jewish people and the universal rights of all people. This collection of older and newer essays combines theory, sociology, film studies, literary criticism, post-modern thought, and politics.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548584681854,"sku":"NW9781644694640","price":15.03,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781644694640.jpg?v=1782739728"},{"product_id":"the-radical-writings-of-jack-nusan-porte-1","title":"The Radical Writings Of Jack Nusan Porte","description":"\u003cp\u003eJack Nusan Porters writings date back to 1966, during the height of the Vietnam War. He describes the anguished struggle against war, racism, and poverty, as well as the radical groups and individuals involvedJewish socialists, radical Zionists, radical Jews, Rabbi Meir Kahane and the Jewish Defense League, the counterculture, liberals, and conservatives alike. In addition, his writings vividly recount the anti-Zionist, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and revolutionary terrorism of the times. Here, Porter draws from the past in an effort to explain the present, walking the precarious bridge between allegiance to Israel and the Jewish people and the universal rights of all people. This collection of older and newer essays combines theory, sociology, film studies, literary criticism, post-modern thought, and politics.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548584812926,"sku":"NW9781644694633","price":69.09,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781644694633.jpg?v=1782739725"},{"product_id":"bitter-harvest-an-inquiry-into-the-war","title":"Bitter Harvest : An Inquiry Into The War","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eExplores the duality between humans and Earth through a focus on the economic system changes that began with grain agriculture and has now reached its apogee in global capitalism.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHumans are in danger of crossing a divide where their foothold on an earth once abundant in self-willed otherness is slipping away. This is apparent with the sixth mass extinction, climate change, and the many breaches of planetary boundaries. \u003ci\u003eBitter Harvest\u003c\/i\u003e brings clarity to this moment in history through a focus on economic order, how it comes to be what it is, and the way it structures the relationship between humans and Earth. An unusual synergy of disciplines (evolutionary biology, history, economic systems analysis, anthropology, and deep ecology) are tapped to fully explore the emergence of an economic system that contextualized a duality between humans and Earth. Conversations that focus on capitalism and the industrial revolution are subsumed under the longer arc of history and the system change that began with the cultivation of annual grains. \u003ci\u003eBitter Harvest\u003c\/i\u003e engenders a more critical conversation about the complexity of the human relationship to Earth and the challenge of altering the economic trajectory that began with agriculture and has now reached its apogee in global capitalism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548608602494,"sku":"NW9781438489902","price":24.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781438489902.jpg?v=1781514658"},{"product_id":"deficit","title":"Deficit","description":null,"brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548635701630,"sku":"NW9780753561485","price":11.08,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780753561485.jpg?v=1781515183"},{"product_id":"great-escape","title":"Great Escape","description":null,"brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548640551294,"sku":"NW9780241764169","price":15.19,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780241764169.jpg?v=1781515251"},{"product_id":"north-sea","title":"North Sea","description":null,"brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548652642686,"sku":"NW9781837261222","price":15.92,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781837261222.jpg?v=1781515343"},{"product_id":"common-uncommon-scents","title":"Common \u0026 Uncommon Scents","description":"Pleasant smells have long been associated not only with health, wealth and good hygiene but also sound moral character; bad smells indicate lack of cleanliness, ill health, poverty ‒ and immorality. Throughout history, people have applied scents to their bodies and clothing. They have carried perfumed objects, worn scented jewellery, sent scented letters, even exchanged scented coins. Aromas have been used to perfume private houses and public spaces from the ancient world to today. Gaining an understanding of how scents were used allows us to get up close and personal to daily life in any given period.Some uses of scent are particularly revealing: the smell of the impressive quantities of blood spilt in the Colosseum of Ancient Rome was masked by a sprinkler system discharging saffron into the arena. Cosmus the perfumier’s scented pastilles designed to hide bad breath were famous enough to be lauded by the poet Martial. Leather gloves in the Renaissance period stank to high heaven and had to be perfumed. The first designer perfume was created by the fashion designer Paul Poiret in 1920, who scented the hems of the dresses in his collection. The ‘democratization’ of perfume by the introduction of synthetic scent is a fascinating story in itself. Susan Stewart’s analysis is in line with the very latest research into sensory history, tailored to the general reader.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548658344318,"sku":"NW9781445693187","price":17.28,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781445693187.jpg?v=1781515644"},{"product_id":"i-have-a-dream","title":"I Have A Dream","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIntroducing the Martin Luther King Jr Library\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWith a New Foreword by Amanda Gorman\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA beautiful collectible edition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jrs legendary speech at the March on Washington, laid out to follow the cadence of his orationpart of Dr. Kings archives published exclusively by HarperCollins.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood before thousands of Americans who had gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. in the name of civil rights. Including the immortal words\u003cem\u003e, I have a dream, \u003c\/em\u003eDr. Kings keynote speech would energize a movement and change the course of history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith references to the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, Shakespeare, and the Bible, Dr. Kings March on Washington address has long been hailed as one of the greatest pieces of writing and oration in history. Profound and deeply moving, it is as relevant today as it was nearly sixty years earlier.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis beautifully designed hardcover edition presents Dr. Kings speech in its entirety, paying tribute to this extraordinary leader and his immeasurable contribution, and inspiring a new generation of activists dedicated to carrying on the fight for justice and equality. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548658475390,"sku":"NW9780063236790","price":12.15,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780063236790.jpg?v=1781515646"},{"product_id":"solidarity","title":"Solidarity","description":null,"brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548670173566,"sku":"NW9781399431514","price":16.54,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781399431514.jpg?v=1781515842"},{"product_id":"this-is-our-game","title":"This Is Our Game","description":null,"brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548674204030,"sku":"NW9781835985601","price":12.84,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781835985601.jpg?v=1781515905"},{"product_id":"herring","title":"Herring","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe story of herring is entwined in the history of commercial fishing.\u003c\/strong\u003e For over two millennia, herring has been commercially caught and its importance to the coastal peoples of Britain cannot be measured. At one point tens of thousands were involved in the catching, processing and sale of herring. They followed the shoals around the coast from Stornoway to Penzance and many towns on Britain’s east coast grew rich on the backs of the ‘silver darlings’.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFishing historian Mike Smylie looks at the effects of herring on the people who caught them, their unique ways of life, the superstitions of the fisher folk, their boats and the communities who lived for the silver darlings.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith a wealth of illustrations, this fascinating book reveals the little-known history of the herring. And for those who’ve neglected the silver darlings for lesser fish such as cod and haddock, there are a number of mouth-watering recipes to try.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548680069502,"sku":"NW9781803996936","price":14.23,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781803996936.jpg?v=1781516271"},{"product_id":"eighteen","title":"Eighteen","description":null,"brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548681216382,"sku":"NW9781035031290","price":10.22,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781035031290.jpg?v=1781516289"},{"product_id":"athenas-sisters","title":"Athenas Sisters","description":null,"brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548685738366,"sku":"NW9781009672320","price":26.85,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781009672320.jpg?v=1781516348"},{"product_id":"women-race-class","title":"Women Race Class","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRanging  from the age of slavery to contemporary injustices, this groundbreaking history of race, gender and class inequality by the radical political  activist Angela Davis offers an alternative view of female struggles for liberation.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTracing the intertwined histories of the abolitionist and  women''s suffrage movements, Davis examines the racism and class  prejudice inherent in so much of white feminism, and in doing so brings  to light new pioneering heroines, from field slaves to mill workers, who  fought back and refused to accept the lives into which they were born.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''The power of her historical insights and the sweetness of her dream cannot be denied'' \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548702089598,"sku":"NW9780241408407","price":10.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780241408407.jpg?v=1781516145"},{"product_id":"late-victorian-holocausts","title":"Late Victorian Holocausts","description":"Examining a series of El Niño-induced droughts and the famines that they spawned around the globe in the last third of the 19th century, Mike Davis discloses the intimate, baleful relationship between imperial arrogance and natural incident that combined to produce some of the worst tragedies in human history. \u0026lt;i\u0026gt;Late Victorian Holocausts\u0026lt;\/i\u0026gt; focuses on three zones of drought and subsequent famine: India, Northern China; and Northeastern Brazil. All were affected by the same global climatic factors that caused massive crop failures, and all experienced brutal famines that decimated local populations. But the effects of drought were magnified in each case because of singularly destructive policies promulgated by different ruling elites. Davis argues that the seeds of underdevelopment in what later became known as the Third World were sown in this era of High Imperialism, as the price for capitalist modernization was paid in the currency of millions of peasants’ lives.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548725387646,"sku":"NW9781784786625","price":14.59,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781784786625.jpg?v=1781516728"},{"product_id":"victorian-house","title":"Victorian House","description":"The bestselling social history of Victorian domestic life, told through the letters, diaries, journals and novels of 19th-century men and women.The Victorian age is both recent and unimaginably distant. In the most prosperous and technologically advanced nation in the world, people carried slops up and down stairs; buried meat in fresh earth to prevent mould forming; wrung sheets out in boiling water with their bare hands. This drudgery was routinely performed by the parents of people still living, but the knowledge of it has passed as if it had never been. Running water, stoves, flush lavatories – even lavatory paper – arrived slowly throughout the century, and most were luxuries available only to the prosperous.Judith Flanders, author of the widely acclaimed ‘A Circle of Sisters’, has written an incisive and irresistible portrait of Victorian domestic life. The book itself is laid out like a house, following the story of daily life from room to room: from childbirth in the master bedroom, through the scullery, kitchen and dining room – cleaning, dining, entertaining – on upwards, ending in the sickroom and death.Through a collage of diaries, letters, advice books, magazines and paintings, Flanders shows how social history is built up out of tiny domestic details. Through these we can understand the desires, motivations and thoughts of the age.Many people today live in Victorian terraces, and so the houses themselves are familiar, but the lives are not. ‘The Victorian House’ will change all that.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548771000702,"sku":"NW9780007131891","price":14.13,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780007131891.jpg?v=1782206597"},{"product_id":"hiram-key","title":"Hiram Key","description":"Was Jesus a Freemason? The discovery of evidence of the most secret rites of Freemasonry in an ancient Egyptian tomb led authors Chris Knight and Bob Lomas into and extraordinary investigation of 4, 000 years of history. This astonishing bestseller raises questions that have challenged some of Western civilisation''s most cherished beliefs: Were scrolls bearing the secret teachings of Jesus buried beneath Herod''s Temple shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman''s? Did the Knights Templar, the forerunners of modern Freemasonry, excavate these scrolls in the twelfth century? And were these scrolls subsequently buried underneath a reconstruction of Herod''s Temple, Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland - where they are now awaiting excavation? The authors'' discoveries shed a new light on Masonic ceremony and overturn out understanding of history.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548793381246,"sku":"NW9780099699415","price":10.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780099699415.jpg?v=1782206930"},{"product_id":"american-slavery","title":"American Slavery","description":"Beginning with the Colonial period, progressing through the Revolution and the Antebellum period, the book chronologically documents the historical evolution of slavery in the USA","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548795576702,"sku":"NW9780140241501","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780140241501.jpg?v=1782207381"},{"product_id":"fall-of-public-man","title":"Fall Of Public Man","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRichard Sennett''s \u003ci\u003eThe Fall of Public Man\u003c\/i\u003e examines the growing imbalance between private and public experience, and asks what can bring us to reconnect with our communities.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Are we now so self-absorbed that we take little interest in the world beyond our own lives? Or has public life left no place for individuals to participate?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Tracing the changing nature of urban society from the eighteenth century to the world we now live in, and the decline of involvement in political life in recent decades, Richard Sennett discusses the causes of our social withdrawal. His landmark study of the imbalance of modern civilization provides a fascinating perspective on the relationship between public life and the cult of the individual.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  ''Brilliant ... One admires the breadth of Professor Sennett''s erudition, the reach of his historical imagination, the doggedness of his analysis ... Buy this book and read it. Ironically, it may provide a key to happiness''\u003cbr\u003e  Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  ''A powerful argument for a more formal public culture and a swipe against the rise of a self-indulgent counter-culture''\u003cbr\u003e  Melissa Benn, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  ''A provocative book ... Sennett brings us to an undeniably recognizable place, the contemporary urban scene''\u003cbr\u003e  Richard Todd, \u003ci\u003eAtlantic Monthly\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003eRichard Sennett''s\u003c\/b\u003e previous books include \u003ci\u003eThe Fall of Public Man\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Corrosion of Character\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFlesh and Stone\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eRespect\u003c\/i\u003e. He was founder director of the New York Institute for the Humanities, and is now University Professor at New York University and Academic Governor and Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548801638782,"sku":"NW9780141007571","price":12.84,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141007571.jpg?v=1781518394"},{"product_id":"engels","title":"Engels","description":"It is by no means absurd to say that Engels invented Marxism. His work did more than Marx to make converts of the most influential political movement of modern times. He was not only the father of dialectical and historical materialism, the official philosophies of history and science in many communist countries; he was also the first Marxist historian, anthropologist, philosopher, and commentator on early Marx.In his later years Engels developed his materialist interpretation of history, his chief intellectual legacy, which has had revolutionary effects on the arts and social sciences. Terrell Carver traces its source and its effect on the development of Marxist theory and practice, assesses its utility, and discusses the difficulties which Marxists have encountered in defending it. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548805964158,"sku":"NW9780192804662","price":9.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780192804662.jpg?v=1781518455"},{"product_id":"coal","title":"Coal","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe fascinating, often surprising story of how a simple black rock altered the course of history, perfect for fans of Mark Kurlansky''s \u003ci\u003eSalt \u003c\/i\u003eand Jeremy Paxman''s \u003ci\u003eBlack Gold\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''A passionate plea for a more considered way of treating the earth, its resources and its inhabitants'' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eDAILY TELEGRAPH\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e____________________________________________________________\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCoal has transformed societies, fueled economies, and expanded frontiers. It made China a twelfth-century superpower, inspired the writing of the \u003ci\u003eCommunist Manifesto\u003c\/i\u003e, and helped the northern states win the American Civil War. Yet the mundane mineral that built our global economy has also caused death, disease, and environmental destruction. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this remarkable book, Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins three hundred million years ago and spans the globe. From the ''Great Stinking Fogs'' of London to the rat-infested coal mines of Pennsylvania, from the impoverished slums of Manchester to the toxic city streets of Beijing, \u003ci\u003eCoal \u003c\/i\u003eis a captivating narrative about the simple black rock that helped build our modern world, but now endangers our future. \u003cbr\u003e____________________________________________________________\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e''\u003c\/i\u003eElegant and engaging . . . No subject is more important for understanding the recent past, and preparing for the future.''\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''The incredible story of Britain''s black goal.''\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eDAILY MAIL\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e''\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eEloquent . . . unsparing . . . The relation between carbon and climate change has seldom been so clearly and readably explained.'' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSCOTSMAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''A\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003es much about the growing scientific evidence of the damage coal causes to the environment as it is about the social history of the Industrial Revolution.''\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eFINANCIAL TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e''\u003c\/i\u003eFreese wants readers to be clear about just how vital coal has been to our era of human development because she hopes to persuade us that it''s time to enter a new one.'' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e''\u003c\/i\u003eAn absorbing book that never loses its grip\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e.'' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW SCIENTIST\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Fascinating . . . It lingers hauntingly in the mind.'' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW STATESMAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''As this human history of coal makes clear, there are no easy answers. . . A\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e welcome contribution to the search for a sustainable energy economy.''\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eNATURAL HISTORY\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548822675838,"sku":"NW9780099478843","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780099478843.jpg?v=1781518743"},{"product_id":"big-house","title":"Big House","description":"The highly praised biography of an archetypal great house and the family who lived there for over 250 years.‘The Big House’ is the biography of a great country house and the lives of the Sykes family who lived there, with varying fates, for the next two hundred and fifty years. It is a fascinating social history set against the backdrop of a changing England, with a highly individual, pugnacious and self-determining cast, including: ‘Old Tat’ Sykes, said to be one of the great sights of Yorkshire (the author’s great-great-great-grandfather), who wore 18th-century dress to the day of his death at ninety-one in 1861. His son was similarly eccentric, wearing eight coats that he discarded gradually throughout the day in order to keep his body temperature at a constant. He was forced to marry, aged forty-eight, eighteen-year-old Jessica Cavendish-Bentick – a lively and highly intelligent woman who relieved the boredom of her marriage by acquiring a string of lovers, writing novels and throwing extravagant parties (her nickname became ‘Lady Satin Tights’), all the while accumulating debts that ended in a scandalous court case. Their son, Mark, died suddenly whilst brokering the peace settlement at the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I; Sledmere was destroyed by fire shortly afterwards.But the rebuilt Sledmere rose from the flames to resound again with colourful, brilliant characters in the 1920s and 1930s including the author’s grandmother, Lily, who had been a celebrated bohemian in Paris.‘The Big House’ is vividly written and meticulously researched using the Sykes’ own family’s papers and photographs. In this splendid biography of place and time, Christopher Simon Sykes has resuscitated the lives of his ancestors and their glorious home from the 18th- through to the 20th-century.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548849316222,"sku":"NW9780007107100","price":11.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780007107100.jpg?v=1781519245"},{"product_id":"salt-a-world-history","title":"Salt A World History","description":"\u003cp\u003eHomer called it a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. As Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates here, salt has shaped civilisation from the beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of mankind. Wars have been fought over salt and, while salt taxes secured empires across Europe and Asia, they have also inspired revolution - Gandhi''s salt march in 1930 began the overthrow of British rule in India. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the rural Sichuan province where the last home-made soya sauce is produced to the Cheshire brine springs that supplied salt around the globe, Mark Kurlansky has produced a kaleidoscope of world history, a multi-layered masterpiece that blends political, commercial, scientific, religious and culinary records into a rich and memorable tale.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548855181694,"sku":"NW9780099281993","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780099281993.jpg?v=1781519326"},{"product_id":"gangs-of-new-york","title":"Gangs Of New York","description":"\u003ci\u003eThe Gangs of New York\u003c\/i\u003e is a tour through a now unrecognisable city of abysmal poverty and habitual violence centred around the infamous slum of Five Points, with its rival Irish and American gangs. Cobbled from legend, memory, police records, the self-aggrandizements of aging crooks, popular journalism, and solid historical research, this is a powerful account of New York City''s tumultuos past. Asbury presents the definitive work on this subject, an illumination of the gangs of old New York that ultimately gave rise to the modern Mafia and its depiction in cult films like The Godfather.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548888670590,"sku":"NW9780099436744","price":10.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780099436744.jpg?v=1781519941"},{"product_id":"feminism","title":"Feminism","description":"How much have women''s lives really changed? In the West women still come up against the ''glass ceiling'' at work, most earning considerably less than their male counterparts. What are we to make of the now commonplace insistence that feminism deprives men of their rights and dignities? And how does one tackle the issue of female emancipation in different cultural and economic environments - in, for example, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent, and Africa?This book provides an historical account of feminism, exploring its earliest roots as well as key issues including voting rights, the liberation of the sixties, and its relevance today. Margaret Walters touches on the difficulties and inequities that women still face more than forty years after the ''new wave'' of 1960s feminism, such as how successful women are at combining domesticity, motherhood, and work outside the house. She brings the subject completely up to date by providing an analysis of the current situation of women across the globe, from Europe and the United States to Third World countries.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548913541502,"sku":"NW9780192805102","price":9.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780192805102.jpg?v=1781520297"},{"product_id":"big-oyster","title":"Big Oyster","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen Peter Minuit bought Manhattan for $24 in 1626 he showed his shrewdness by also buying the oyster beds off tiny, nearby Oyster Island, renamed Ellis Island in 1770. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the Minuit purchase until pollution finally destroyed the beds in the 1920s, New York was a city known for its oysters, especially in the late 1800s, when Europe and America enjoyed a decades-long oyster craze. In a dubious endorsement, William Makepeace Thackeray said that eating a New York oyster was like eating a baby. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTravellers to New York were also keen to experience the famous New York oyster houses. While some were known for their elegance, due to a longstanding belief in the aphrodisiac quality of oysters, they were often associated with prostitution. In 1842, when the novelist Charles Dickens arrived in New York, he could not conceal his eagerness to find and experience the fabled oyster cellars of New York City''s slums. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Big Oyster \u003c\/i\u003eis the story of a city and of an international trade.Filled with cultural, social and culinary insight - as well as recipes, maps, drawings and photographs - this is history at its most engrossing, entertaining and delicious.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548926615934,"sku":"NW9780099477594","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780099477594.jpg?v=1781520477"},{"product_id":"short-history-of-slavery","title":"Short History Of Slavery","description":"As we approach the bicentenary of the abolition of the Atlantic trade, Walvin has selected the historical texts that recreate the mindset that made such a savage institution possible - morally acceptable even. Setting these historical documents against Walvin''s own incisive historical narrative, the two layers of this extraordinary, definitive account of the Atlantic slave trade enable us to understand the rise and fall of one of the most shameful chapters in British history, the repercussions of which the modern world is still living with.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548935758206,"sku":"NW9780141027982","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141027982.jpg?v=1781520759"},{"product_id":"untold-history-of-the-potato","title":"Untold History Of The Potato","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhere does our food come from? The story of one of the world''s most important crops \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the gold potatoes at the Sun Temple in Cuzco, Peru, the muddy ones in Ireland and those grown in China for McDonald''s chips, the story of the spud is both satisfying and fascinating. John Reader follows the thread of the potato''s story through the tapestry of human history, from its origins and evolution to its mysterious arrival in Europe, where it became a crucial part of gastronomic and social fabric. As global population swells and environmental sustainability becomes ever more crucial, Reader asks what role the potato still has to play - in this lively, readable study of our most humble foodstuff. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Each chapter is discrete in content and manner, yet densely connected to the rest. Wonderful: to understand the whole world through a single crisp’ \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57548999197054,"sku":"NW9780099474791","price":14.02,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780099474791.jpg?v=1781521892"},{"product_id":"brother-gardeners","title":"Brother Gardeners","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne January morning in 1734, cloth merchant Peter Collinson hurried down to the docks at London''s Custom House to collect cargo just arrived from John Bartram in the American colonies. But it was not bales of cotton that awaited him, but plants and seeds...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOver the next forty years, Bartram would send hundreds of American species to England, where Collinson was one of a handful of men who would foster a national obsession and change the gardens of Britain forever: Philip Miller, author of the bestselling \u003ci\u003eGardeners Dictionary\u003c\/i\u003e; the Swede Carl Linnaeus, whose standardised botanical nomenclature popularised botany; the botanist-adventurer Joseph Banks and his colleague Daniel Solander who both explored the strange flora of Tahiti and Australia on Captain Cook''s \u003ci\u003eEndeavou\u003c\/i\u003er.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the story of these men - friends, rivals, enemies, united by a passion for plants. Set against the backdrop of the emerging empire and the uncharted world beyond, \u003ci\u003eThe Brother Gardeners \u003c\/i\u003etells the story how Britain became a nation of gardeners.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549000114558,"sku":"NW9780099502371","price":11.08,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780099502371.jpg?v=1782626468"},{"product_id":"voodoo-histories","title":"Voodoo Histories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e**AS FEATURED ON \u003ci\u003eHOAXED\u003c\/i\u003e  PODCAST**\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis definitive book delves into why so many people are ready to believe in conspiracy theories, and the damage it can cause.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eVoodoo Histories\u003c\/i\u003e entertainingly demolishes the absurd and sinister conspiracy theories of the last 100 years, such as:Did Neil Armstrong really set foot on the moon?Was the United States government responsible for the 11 September attacks?Should we doubt the accidental nature of Princess Diana''s death?David Aaronovitch reveals not only why people are so ready to believe in these stories but also the dangers of this credulity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''This book leaves us in no doubt that arriving at the truth is a vital matter - at times a matter of life and death'' \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549057098110,"sku":"NW9780099478966","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780099478966.jpg?v=1781522449"},{"product_id":"life-death-of-st-kilda","title":"Life \u0026 Death Of St Kilda","description":"The extraordinary story of the UK’s most gruelling and spectacularly beautiful islands. Tom Steel’s acclaimed portrait of the St Kildan’s lives is now updated in this reissued edition.Situated at the westernmost point of the United Kingdom, the spectacularly beautiful but utterly bleak island of St Kilda is familiar to virtually nobody. A lonely archipelago off the coast of Scotland, it is hard to believe that for over two thousand years, men and women lived here, cut off from the rest of the world.With a population never exceeding two hundred in its history, the St Kildans were fiercely self-sufficient. An intensely religious people, they climbed cliffs from childhood and caught birds for food. Their sense of community was unparalleled and isolation enveloped their day-to-day existence.With the onset of the First World War, things changed. For the very first time in St Kilda’s history, daily communication was established between the islanders and the mainland. Slowly but surely, this marked the beginning of the end of St Kilda and in August 1930, the island’s remaining 36 inhabitants were evacuated.Newly updated to include the historic appointment of St Kilda as the United Kingdom’s only UNESCO Dual Heritage site, the ongoing search for information about the island and the threats that it continues to face, this is the moving story of a vanished community and how twentieth century civilization ultimately brought an entire way of life to its knees.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549081903486,"sku":"NW9780007438006","price":11.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780007438006.jpg?v=1781522844"},{"product_id":"aristocracy","title":"Aristocracy","description":"Aristocracies or nobilities dominated the social, economic, and institutional history of all European counties until only a few generations ago. The relics of their power, in traditions and behaviour, in architecture and the arts, are still all around us. This short introduction shows how ideas of aristocracy originated in ancient times, were transformed in the middle ages, and have only fallen apart over the last two centuries. The myths in which aristocracies have always sought to shroud themselves are stripped away, but the true sources of their enduring power are also revealed. Their outlook and behaviour affected the rest of society in innumerable and sometimes surprising ways, but perhaps most surprising was the way in which a centuries-old aristocratic hegemony crumbled away over the last two hundred years. In this Very Short Introduction William Doyle considers why this happend and what remains today.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549110182270,"sku":"NW9780199206780","price":9.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780199206780.jpg?v=1781523309"},{"product_id":"thin-paths","title":"Thin Paths","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for the 2011 Costa Biography Award and the 2012 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJulia Blackburn and her husband moved to a little house in the mountains of northern Italy in 1999. She arrived as a stranger but a series of events brought her close to the old people of the village and they began to tell her their stories. Of how their village had been trapped in an archaic feudal system and owned by a local padrone who demanded his share of all they had, of the eruption of the Second World War, of the conflict between the fascists and the partisans, of death and fear and hunger of how they hid like like foxes in the mountains. ''Write it down for us,'' they said, ''because otherwise it will all be lost.'' \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThin Paths\u003c\/i\u003e is a celebration of the songlines of one place that could be many places and a celebration of the humour and determination of the human spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549165789566,"sku":"NW9780099549420","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780099549420.jpg?v=1781524293"},{"product_id":"consider-the-fork","title":"Consider The Fork","description":"\u003cp\u003eBee Wilson is the food writer and historian who writes as the ''Kitchen Thinker'' in the \u003ci\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e, and is the author of \u003ci\u003eSwindled!\u003c\/i\u003e. Her charming and original new book, \u003ci\u003eConsider the Fork\u003c\/i\u003e, explores how the implements we use in the kitchen have shaped the way we cook and live. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the story of how we have tamed fire and ice, wielded whisks, spoons, graters, mashers, pestles and mortars, all in the name of feeding ourselves. Bee Wilson takes us on an enchanting culinary journey through the incredible creations, inventions and obsessions that have shaped how and what we cook. From huge Tudor open fires to sous-vide machines, the birth of the fork to Roman gadgets, \u003ci\u003eConsider the Fork \u003c\/i\u003eis the previously unsung history of our kitchens.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBee Wilson writes a weekly food column, ''The Kitchen Thinker'' in \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Telegraph, \u003c\/i\u003efor which she has three times been named the Guild of Food Writers Food Journalist of the Year. Her previous books include \u003ci\u003eThe Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSwindled!\u003c\/i\u003e. Before she became a food writer, she was a Research Fellow in History at St John''s College, Cambridge. She has also been a semi-finalist on \u003ci\u003eMasterchef\u003c\/i\u003e. Her favourite kitchen implement is currently the potato ricer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A cracking good read, as enjoyable as it is enlightening''  Raymond Blanc, Chef-Patron ''Le Manoir aux Quat''Saisons''\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Wonderful ... Witty, scholarly, utterly absorbing and fired by infectious curiosity''  Lucy Lethbridge, \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''[A] delightfully informative history of cooking and eating from the prehistoric discovery of fire to twenty-first-century high-tech, low-temp soud-vide-style cookery''  ELLE magazine\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A graceful study''  Steven Poole, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549170671998,"sku":"NW9780141049083","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141049083.jpg?v=1781524381"},{"product_id":"witcraft","title":"Witcraft","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Astonishing ... enjoy its riches slowly, and savour every generous, erudite and undogmatic page'' Boyd Tonkin, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''We English men have wits,'' wrote the clergyman Ralph Lever in 1573, and, ''we have also framed unto ourselves a language.''\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWitcraft \u003c\/i\u003eis a fresh and brilliant history of how philosophy became established in English. It presents a new form of philosophical storytelling and challenges what Jonathan Rée calls the ''condescending smugness'' of traditional histories of philosophy. Rée tells the story of philosophy as it was lived and practised, embedded in its time and place, by men and women from many walks of life, engaged with the debates and culture of their age. And, by focusing on the rich history of works in English, including translations, he shows them to be quite as colourful, diverse, inventive and cosmopolitan as their continental counterparts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWitcraft\u003c\/i\u003e offers new and compelling intellectual portraits not only of celebrated British and American philosophers, such as Hume, Emerson, Mill and James, but also of the remarkable philosophical work of literary authors, such as William Hazlitt and George Eliot, as well as a carnival of overlooked characters - priests and poets, teachers, servants and crofters, thinking for themselves and reaching their own conclusions about religion, politics, art and everything else.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe book adopts a novel structure, examining its subject at fifty-year intervals from the sixteenth century to the twentieth. Researched over decades and illuminated by quotations from extensive archival material, it is a book full of stories and personalities as well as ideas, and shows philosophy springing from the life around it. \u003ci\u003eWitcraft\u003c\/i\u003e overturns the established orthodoxies of the history of philosophy, and celebrates the diversity, vitality and inventiveness of philosophical thought.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549201441150,"sku":"NW9780141027418","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141027418.jpg?v=1781524895"},{"product_id":"empire-of-things","title":"Empire Of Things","description":"In this monumental study, acclaimed historian Frank Trentmann unfolds the extraordinary history that has shaped our material world, from late Ming China, Renaissance Italy and the British Empire to the present. Astonishingly wide-ranging and richly detailed, \u003ci\u003eEmpire of Things\u003c\/i\u003e explores how we have come to live with so much more, how this changed the course of history, and the global challenges we face as a result.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549201473918,"sku":"NW9780141028743","price":15.79,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141028743.jpg?v=1781524895"},{"product_id":"better-angels-of-our-nature","title":"Better Angels Of Our Nature","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''The most inspiring book I''ve ever read'' Bill Gates, 2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A brilliant, mind-altering book ... Everyone should read this astonishing book''  \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e''Will change the way you see the world''  \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWasn''t the twentieth century the most violent in history? In his  extraordinary, epic book Steven Pinker shows us that this is wrong,  telling the story of humanity in a completely new and unfamiliar way.  From why cities make us safer to how books bring about peace, Pinker  weaves together history, philosophy and science to examine why we are  less likely to die at another''s hand than ever before, how it happened  and what it tells us about our very natures. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  ''May prove to be one of the great books of our time ... he writes like an angel''  \u003ci\u003eEconomist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e''Masterly, a supremely important book ... For anyone interested in human nature, it is engrossing''  \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  ''Marvellous ... riveting and myth-destroying''  \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A  marvellous synthesis of science, history and storytelling, written in  Pinker''s distinctively entertaining and clear personal style ... I was  astonished by the extent to which violence has declined in every shape,  form and scale''  \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''An outstandingly fruitful read, with fascinating nuggets on almost every page''  \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e, Books of the Year\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549201768830,"sku":"NW9780141034645","price":15.79,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141034645.jpg?v=1782532887"},{"product_id":"rabid","title":"Rabid","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe most fatal virus known to science, rabies-a disease that spreads avidly from animals to humans-kills nearly one hundred percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. In this critically acclaimed exploration, journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chart four thousand years of the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, \u003ci\u003eRabid\u003c\/i\u003e is a fresh and often wildly entertaining look at one of humankind''s oldest and most fearsome foes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A searing narrative.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, ''Sans serif''; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e-The New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In this keen and exceptionally well-written book, rife with surprises, narrative suspense and a steady flow of expansive insights, ''the world''s most diabolical virus'' conquers the unsuspecting reader''s imaginative nervous system. . . . A smart, unsettling, and strangely stirring piece of work.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, ''Sans serif''; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e-San Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Fascinating. . . . Wasik and Murphy chronicle more than two millennia of myths and discoveries about rabies and the animals that transmit it, including dogs, bats and raccoons.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, ''Sans serif''; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e-The Wall Street Journal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549291192702,"sku":"NW9780143123576","price":10.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780143123576.jpg?v=1781526098"},{"product_id":"almost-nearly-perfect-people","title":"Almost Nearly Perfect People","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Danes are the happiest people in the world, and pay the highest taxes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Neutral'' Sweden is one of the biggest arms manufacturers in the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinns have the largest per capita gun ownership after the US and Yemen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e54 per cent of Icelanders believe in elves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNorway is the richest country on earth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e5 per cent of Danish men have had sex with an animal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMichael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians, on and off, for over ten years, perplexed by their many strange paradoxes and character traits and equally bemused by the unquestioning enthusiasm for all things Nordic and \u003ci\u003ehygge\u003c\/i\u003e that has engulfed the rest of the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success and, most intriguing of all, what they think of each other. Along the way a more nuanced, often darker picture emerges of a region plagued by taboos, characterised by suffocating parochialism and populated by extremists of various shades.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''The next Bill Bryson.’ \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Beautifully observed and very funny'' Rory Stewart\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Best Narrative Travel Book Award from the British Guild of Travel Writers\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549313933694,"sku":"NW9780099546078","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780099546078.jpg?v=1781526497"},{"product_id":"evolution-of-everything","title":"Evolution Of Everything","description":"‘If there is one dominant myth about the world, one huge mistake we all make … it is that we all go around assuming the world is much more of a planned place than it is.’From the industrial revolution and the rise of China, to urbanisation and the birth of bitcoin, Matt Ridley demolishes conventional assumptions that the great events and trends of our day are dictated by those on high. On the contrary, our most important achievements develop from the ground up. In this wide-ranging and erudite book, Matt Ridley brilliantly makes the case for evolution as the force that has shaped much of our culture, our minds, and that even now is shaping our future.As compelling as it is controversial, as authoritative as it is ambitious, Ridley’s deeply thought-provoking book will change the way we think about the world and how it works.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549364986238,"sku":"NW9780007542475","price":10.57,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780007542475.jpg?v=1781527146"},{"product_id":"rejected-princesses","title":"Rejected Princesses","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBlending the iconoclastic feminism of \u003cem\u003eThe Notorious RBG\u003c\/em\u003e and the confident irreverence of \u003cem\u003eGo the F**ck to Sleep\u003c\/em\u003e, a brazen and empowering illustrated collection that celebrates inspirational badass women throughout history, based on the popular Tumblr blog. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWell-behaved women seldom make history. Good thing these women are far from well behaved . . . \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIllustrated in a contemporary animation style, \u003cem\u003eRejected Princesses\u003c\/em\u003e turns the ubiquitous \"pretty pink princess\" stereotype portrayed in movies, and on endless toys, books, and tutus on its head, paying homage instead to an awesome collection of strong, fierce, and yes, sometimes weird, women: warrior queens, soldiers, villains, spies, revolutionaries, and more who refused to behave and meekly accept their place. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn entertaining mix of biography, imagery, and humor written in a fresh, young, and riotous voice, this thoroughly researched exploration salutes these awesome women drawn from both historical and fantastical realms, including real life, literature, mythology, and folklore. Each profile features an eye-catching image of both heroic and villainous women in command from across history and around the world, from a princess-cum-pirate in fifth century Denmark, to a rebel preacher in 1630s Boston, to a bloodthirsty Hungarian countess, and a former prostitute who commanded a fleet of more than 70,000 men on China’s seas. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549378978174,"sku":"NW9780062405371","price":15.9,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780062405371.jpg?v=1781527424"},{"product_id":"compleat-angler","title":"Compleat Angler","description":"''I envy no body but him, and him only, that catches more fish than I do.''A unique celebration of the English countryside and the most famous book on angling ever published, Walton''s Compleat Angler first appeared in 1653. In 1676, at Walton''s invitation, his friend Charles Cotton contributed his pioneering exploration of fly-fishing. The book is both a manual of instruction and a vision of society in harmony with nature. It guides the novice fisherman on how to catch and cook a variety of fish, on how to select and prepare the best bait and make artificial flies, and on the habits of freshwater fish. It also promotes angling as a communal activity in which the bonds of friendship are forged through shared experience of the natural world.Anecdotes, poetry, music, and song intersperse the rural descriptions, which promote conservation as well as sport. This new edition highlights the book''s continuing relevance to our relationship with the environment, and explores the turbulent history from which it came.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549392773502,"sku":"NW9780198745464","price":9.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780198745464.jpg?v=1781527601"},{"product_id":"sustainability","title":"Sustainability","description":"The word is nearly ubiquitous: at the grocery store we shop for \"sustainable foods\" that were produced from \"sustainable agriculture\"; groups ranging from small advocacy organizations to city and state governments to the United Nations tout \"sustainable development\" as a strategy for local and global stability; and woe betide the city-dweller who doesn''t aim for a \"sustainable lifestyle.\" Seeming to have come out of nowhere to dominate the discussion-from permaculture to renewable energy to the local food movement-the ideas that underlie and define sustainability can be traced back several centuries.In this illuminating and fascinating primer, Jeremy L. Caradonna does just that, approaching sustainability from a historical perspective and revealing the conditions that gave it shape. Locating the underpinnings of the movement as far back as the 1660s, Caradonna considers the origins of sustainability across many fields throughout Europe and North America. Taking us from the emergence of thoughts guiding sustainable yield forestry in the late 17th and 18th centuries, through the challenges of the Industrial Revolution, the birth of the environmental movement, and the emergence of a concrete effort to promote a balanced approach to development in the latter half of the 20th century, he shows that while sustainability draws upon ideas of social justice, ecological economics, and environmental conservation, it is more than the sum of its parts and blends these ideas together into a dynamic philosophy. Caradonna''s book broadens our understanding of what \"sustainability\" means, revealing how it progressed from a relatively marginal concept to an ideal that shapes everything from individual lifestyles, government and corporate strategies, and even national and international policy. For anyone seeking understand the history of those striving to make the world a better place to live, here''s a place to start.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549425574270,"sku":"NW9780190614478","price":20.09,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780190614478.jpg?v=1781528024"},{"product_id":"stoned","title":"Stoned","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs entertaining as it is incisive, \u003cem\u003eStoned\u003c\/em\u003e is a raucous journey through the history of human desire for what is rare, and therefore precious.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat makes a stone a jewel? What makes a jewel priceless? And why do we covet beautiful things? In this brilliant account of how eight jewels shaped the course of history, jeweler and scientist Aja Raden tells an original and often startling story about our unshakeable addiction to beauty and the darker side of human desire.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat moves the world is what moves each of us: desire. Jewelry—which has long served as a stand-in for wealth and power, glamor and success—has birthed cultural movements, launched political dynasties, and started wars. Masterfully weaving together pop science and history, \u003cem\u003eStoned\u003c\/em\u003e breaks history into three categories—Want, Take, and Have—and explains what the diamond on your finger has to do with the GI Bill, why green-tinted jewelry has been exalted by so many cultures, why the glass beads that bought Manhattan for the Dutch were initially considered a fair trade, and how the French Revolution started over a coveted necklace.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStudded with lively personalities and fascinating details, \u003cem\u003eStoned\u003c\/em\u003e tells the remarkable story of our abiding desire for the rare and extraordinary.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549446709630,"sku":"NW9780062334701","price":9.72,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780062334701.jpg?v=1781528429"},{"product_id":"book-of-magic","title":"Book Of Magic","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''. . . as when iron is drawn to a magnet, camphor is sucked into hot air, crystal lights up in the Sun, sulfur and a volatile liquid are kindled by flame, an empty eggshell filled with dew is raised towards the Sun . . .''\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis rich, fascinating anthology of the western magical tradition stretches from its roots in the wizardry of the Old Testament and the rituals of the ancient world, through writers such as Thomas Aquinas, John Milton, John Dee and Matthew Hopkins, and up to the tangled, arcane beginnings of the scientific revolution. Arranged historically, with commentary, this book includes incantations, charms, curses, Golems, demons and witches, as well as astrology, divination and alchemy, with some ancient and medieval works which were once viewed as too dangerous even to open. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSelected and translated with an introduction and notes by Brian Copenhaver\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549451297150,"sku":"NW9780141393148","price":12.84,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141393148.jpg?v=1781528491"},{"product_id":"descent-of-man-1","title":"Descent Of Man","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''A breeze of a read, makes you see our male-manufactured world a  little differently'' Matt Haig\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''GRAYSON PERRY FOR KING AND QUEEN OF ENGLAND. Imagine how BRILLIANT our country would look if he was'' Caitlin Moran\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrayson  Perry has been thinking about masculinity - what it is, how it   operates, why little boys are thought to be made of slugs and snails -   since he was a boy. Now, in this funny and necessary book, he turns   round to look at men with a clear eye and ask, what sort of men would   make the world a better place, for everyone?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat would happen  if  we rethought the old, macho, outdated version of manhood, and  embraced a  different idea of what makes a man? Apart from giving up the   coronary-inducing stress of always being ''right'' and the vast new   wardrobe options, the real benefit might be that a newly fitted   masculinity will allow men to have better relationships - and that''s   happiness, right?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrayson Perry admits he''s not immune from the   stereotypes himself - as the psychoanalysts say, ''if you spot it,  you''ve  got it'' - and his thoughts on everything from power to physical   appearance, from emotions to a brand new Manifesto for Men, are shot   through with honesty, tenderness and the belief that, for everyone to   benefit, upgrading masculinity has to be something men decide to do   themselves. They have nothing to lose but their hang-ups.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57549452083582,"sku":"NW9780141981741","price":11.67,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141981741.jpg?v=1781528502"}],"url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/en-eu\/collections\/social-cultural-history-books.oembed?page=90","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}