Ellis Cashmore – författare

Cashmore''s eviscerating analysis of Tyson''s life and the culture in which he grew up, rose to prominence and descended into disgrace provokes the reader into re-thinking the role of one of the most controversial and infamous figures of recent history. Told as an odyssey-style homeward journey to Tyson''s multi-pathological origins in the racially-explosive ghettos of the 1960s, Tyson''s story is part biography, part tragedy and part exposition. His associations with people like Al Sharpton, Don King and Tupac Shakur shaped his life; and events, such as the O J Simpson trial and the Rodney King riots, formed a turbulent background for the Tyson psychodrama.

Over the course of an epic boxing career, Tyson was transformed from the most celebrated athlete on earth to a primal, malevolent hate-figure. Yet, even after being condemned as a brute, Tyson retained a power - a power to captivate. Cashmore reveals that the sources of that power lie as much in us as in Tyson himself.

Scorsese has often described his films as sociology and he has a point: his storytelling condenses complex information into comprehensible narratives about society. In this sense, he has been a guide through a dark world of nineteenth century crypto-fascism to a fetishistic twentieth century in which goods, fame, money and power are held to have magical power.

Author of Tyson: Nurture of the Beast and Beckham, Ellis Cashmore turns his attention to arguably the most influential living film- maker to explore how Scorsese envisions America. Greed, manhood, the city and romantic love feature on Scorsese''s landscape of secular materialism. They are among the themes Cashmore argues have driven and inform Scorsese''s work. This is America, as seen through the eyes of Martin Scorsese and it is a deeply unpleasant place.

Cashmore''s book discloses how, collectively, Scorsese''s films present an image of America. It''s an image assembled from the perspectives of obsessive people, whether burned-out paramedics, compulsive entrepreneurs, tortured lovers, or celebrity-fixated comedians. It''s collected from pool halls, taxicabs, boxing rings and jazz clubs. It''s an image that''s specific, yet ubiquitous. It is Martin Scorsese''s America.

The result is an unparalleled teaching and study resource. No other book presents the highlights, range and complexity of the various attempts to unravel racism, in such a comprehensive and panoramic way.

Haven’t we all seen a Black Panther movie and listened to at least a few Harry Styles tunes? Who hasn’t seen a Taylor Swift video? Or can’t name an incident or two involving the Kardashians? Popular fascination with the rich and famous is an inescapable part of contemporary consumer culture. Celebrity Culture is a comprehensive yet accessible survey of the pervasive phenomenon. This new edition of the textbook is fully revised and updated, incorporating up-to-date examples, case studies and additional features, including a timeline and retrospections at the end of chapters.

Whilst recognizing that celebrities have existed for centuries, Cashmore argues that celebrity culture in the 21st century is a novel and unique phenomenon driven by rampant consumerism, advertising and the media. He describes the evolution of a new kind of fame, the growth of consumerism, the rise of the paparazzi, the fluctuating value of sex scandals, the transmutation of blackness, the metamorphosis of the British royal family, the emergence of influencers, the appeal of celebrity couples, the increased visibility of queer culture, the transformation of politics, the reconstruction of talent and the attempts of theories to grasp celebrity culture’s magnetism.

Celebrity Culture will appeal to a wide undergraduate audience throughout the social sciences and humanities.

Haven’t we all seen a Black Panther movie and listened to at least a few Harry Styles tunes? Who hasn’t seen a Taylor Swift video? Or can’t name an incident or two involving the Kardashians? Popular fascination with the rich and famous is an inescapable part of contemporary consumer culture. Celebrity Culture is a comprehensive yet accessible survey of the pervasive phenomenon. This new edition of the textbook is fully revised and updated, incorporating up-to-date examples, case studies and additional features, including a timeline and retrospections at the end of chapters.

Whilst recognizing that celebrities have existed for centuries, Cashmore argues that celebrity culture in the 21st century is a novel and unique phenomenon driven by rampant consumerism, advertising and the media. He describes the evolution of a new kind of fame, the growth of consumerism, the rise of the paparazzi, the fluctuating value of sex scandals, the transmutation of blackness, the metamorphosis of the British royal family, the emergence of influencers, the appeal of celebrity couples, the increased visibility of queer culture, the transformation of politics, the reconstruction of talent and the attempts of theories to grasp celebrity culture’s magnetism.

Celebrity Culture will appeal to a wide undergraduate audience throughout the social sciences and humanities.

This comprehensive review of the relationship between sport and crime explains how the experience of sport can lead to behaviour that’s harmful to others and is sometimes self-destructive. It challenges the conventional idea of sport as wholesome and beneficial, arguing that sport is often a trigger for crime, in both history and contemporary life.

The book explores how murder, violence, bribery, sexual assault, matchfixing, corporate corruption, crowd disorder, hate crimes, drug offences, alcohol-induced transgressions and cyber-crimes are often caused or accelerated by sport, and it speculates on sports-related crimes of the future. The book’s narrative is driven by hundreds of case studies, and each chapter has summary points. There are also eight descriptive timelines that enable the reader to see at a glance how sport has, over the decades and centuries, been a catalyst for crime.

This is an essential text for any course on sport and crime and invaluable reading for anybody with an interest in the sociology of sport, sport history, sports law, sport management, sport development, criminology or cultural studies. Anyone seriously interested in the study of sport will be gripped.