Reaktion Books – serie

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72 produkter

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72 produkter

Philosophy of Hope
AvLars Svendsen
Häftad, Engelska, 2024
191 kr
Skickas
In this book Lars Svendsen embarks on a profound exploration of the nature of hope, asking what exactly hope is and how it differs from related phenomena such as wishful thinking. He argues that hope is rooted in the ability to shape one’s own future, crucial for a society built on freedom instead of fear. Svendsen highlights hope’s vital role in giving life meaning, and its intimate connection to identity. He shows that, while hope cannot magically transform the world, it can empower individuals to focus on achievable goals rather than pressing challenges. Ultimately, A Philosophy of Hope demonstrates the capacity of hope to propel both individuals and the world in a positive direction.
Fabulosa!
The Story of Polari, Britain’s Secret Gay Language
AvPaul Baker
Häftad, Engelska, 2020
168 kr
Skickas
A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2019‘Richly evocative and entertaining.’ – Guardian‘A delightful read.’ – Tatler‘An essential book for anyone who wants to Polari Bona!’ – AttitudePolari is a language that was used chiefly by gay men in the first half of the twentieth century. It offered its speakers a degree of public camouflage and a means of identification. Its colourful roots are varied – from Cant to Lingua Franca to dancers’ slang – and in the mid-1960s it was thrust into the limelight by the characters Julian and Sandy, voiced by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams, on the BBC radio show Round the Horne. (‘Oh hello Mr Horne, how bona to vada your dolly old eek!’) Paul Baker recounts the story of Polari with skill, humour and tenderness. He traces its historical origins and describes its linguistic nuts and bolts, explores the ways and the environments in which it was spoken, explains the reasons for its decline and tells of its unlikely re-emergence in the twenty-first century. With a cast of drag queens and sailors, Dilly boys and macho clones, Fabulosa! is an essential document of recent history – a fascinating and fantastically readable account of this funny, filthy and ingenious language.
Medieval Scriptorium
Making Books in the Middle Ages
AvSara J. Charles
Inbunden, Engelska, 2024
299 kr
Skickas inom 3-6 vardagar
This book takes the reader on an immersive journey through medieval manuscript production in the Latin Christian world. Each chapter opens with a lively vignette by a medieval narrator – including a parchment-maker, scribe and illuminator – introducing various aspects of manuscript production. Sara J. Charles poses the question ‘What actually is a scriptorium?’, and explores the development of the medieval scriptorium from its early Christian beginnings through to its eventual decline and the growth of the printing press. With the written word at the very heart of the Christian monastic movement, we see the immense amount of labour, planning and networks needed to produce each individual manuscript. By tapping into these processes and procedures, we can experience medieval life through the lens of a manuscript maker.
Winter Dreams
A Historical Guide to Old Age
AvBarbara H. Rosenwein
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
250 kr
Skickas
One of Daily Telegraph’s Greatest Books of 2025.Winter Dreams is an evocative history of the ways the old have thought, felt and expressed themselves over two millennia, tracking the experience of ageing through artistic, literary and historical records. While old age is often depicted as ‘sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything’, Barbara H. Rosenwein shows that the elderly have always retained their emotional depth and desires. She explores how these have changed over time, as societies’ views of the elderly and of a ‘good’ old age have changed. And through careful exegesis, she allows the elderly, so often absent from the historical record, to speak to us.We live in a rapidly ageing society, yet ageism is rampant and death and dying are taboo subjects. Rosenwein’s book is a finely wrought testimony to the value of ageing and the richness of our Winter Dreams.
Nyhet
Comics at the Movies
From Flash Gordon to Avengers: Endgame
AvJames Chapman
Inbunden, Engelska, 2026
291 kr
Skickas
Comics at the Movies explores the rich and often overlooked history of comic-book film adaptations, from 1930s serials like Flash Gordon to today’s Marvel and DC blockbusters. It traces how the comic and film industries have intersected over the decades, analysing how adaptations reflect their economic, political and cultural contexts. The book examines neglected works such as Doc Savage, Popeye and Sheena, alongside iconic franchises like Superman, Batman and X-Men. It also investigates how these films represent nationhood, race, gender and class, revealing the social politics beneath their spectacle. Accessible and engaging, Comics at the Movies is essential reading for students, scholars and fans alike interested in adaptation, popular genres and the lasting impact of comic-book cinema.
Yardbirds
The Most Blueswailing Futuristic Way-Out Heavy Beat Sound
AvPeter Stanfield
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
313 kr
Skickas
The Yardbirds were trailblazers in the rapid development of pop music in Britain between 1963 and 1968. With members including Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, they helped to set the basic template of what has been known ever since as rock music, and gave rise to one of the most commercially successful bands of all time: Led Zeppelin. Peter Stanfield situates the band in the evolution of British R&B and the tumult of the psychedelic era. Obsessively detailed about both the band and 1960s pop culture, this is the book fans of the Yardbirds have always needed.
Dinner in Rome
A History of the World in One Meal
AvAndreas Viestad
Häftad, Engelska, 2023
146 kr
Skickas
‘There is more history in a bowl of pasta than in the Colosseum,’ writes Andreas Viestad in Dinner in Rome. From the table of a classic Roman restaurant, Viestad takes us on a fascinating culinary exploration of the Eternal City, and global civilization. Food, he argues, is history’s secret driving force. From the starter of bread, Viestad traces the origins of wheat and its role in Rome’s rise and downfall; from his sorbet dessert he recounts how the hunger for sugar fuelled the slave trade. Viestad’s dinner may be local, but his story is universal. His ‘culinary archaeology’ is an entertaining, flavourful journey across the dinner table and time. You’ll never look at spaghetti carbonara the same way again.
Medieval Scriptorium
Making Books in the Middle Ages
AvSara J. Charles
Häftad, Engelska, 2025
4,0 utav 5 stjärnor. Totalt antal röster:(1)
168 kr
Skickas
This book takes the reader on an immersive journey through medieval manuscript production in the Latin Christian world. Each chapter opens with a lively vignette by a medieval narrator – including a parchment-maker, scribe and illuminator – introducing various aspects of manuscript production. Sara J. Charles poses the question ‘What actually is a scriptorium?’, and explores the development of the medieval scriptorium from its early Christian beginnings through to its eventual decline and the growth of the printing press. With the written word at the very heart of the Christian monastic movement, we see the immense amount of labour, planning and networks needed to produce each individual manuscript. By tapping into these processes and procedures, we can experience medieval life through the lens of a manuscript maker.
English Soul
Faith of a Nation
AvPeter Ackroyd
Häftad, Engelska, 2025
121 kr
Skickas
Now available in paperback, The English Soul portrays the spirit and nature of English Christianity as it has developed over the last 1,400 years. As the predominant faith of the people, Christianity has been the reflection, perhaps the embodiment, of the English soul. This fascinating new history argues that Christianity has been the anchoring and defining doctrine of England, while accepting respectfully that other powerful and significant faiths have also influenced the religious sensibility of this nation.Peter Ackroyd surveys the lives and faith of the most important figures of English Christianity, from the Venerable Bede to C. S. Lewis, exploring the mysticism of Julian of Norwich and William Blake, the tumultuous years of the Reformation, the emergence of the English Bible, the evangelical tradition, including John Wesley, and the contemporary contest between tradition, revival and atheism. This is an essential, comprehensive and accessible survey of English Christianity.
Chromophobia
AvDavid Batchelor
Häftad, Engelska, 2000
238 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The central argument of Chromophobia is that a chromophobic impulse – a fear of corruption or contamination through colour – lurks within much Western cultural and intellectual thought. This is apparent in the many and varied attempts to purge colour, either by making it the property of some ‘foreign body’ – the oriental, the feminine, the infantile, the vulgar, or the pathological – or by relegating it to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential, or the cosmetic.Chromophobia has been a cultural phenomenon since ancient Greek times; this book is concerned with forms of resistance to it. Writers have tended to look no further than the end of the nineteenth century. David Batchelor seeks to go beyond the limits of earlier studies, analysing the motivations behind chromophobia and considering the work of writers and artists who have been prepared to look at colour as a positive value. Exploring a wide range of imagery including Melville’s ‘great white whale’, Huxley’s reflections on mescaline, and Le Corbusier’s ‘Journey to the East’, Batchelor also discusses the use of colour in Pop, Minimal, and more recent art.
Green Fuse
Essays in Making Sense of Gardens
AvPeter Dale
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
266 kr
Skickas
Why do interiors of houses mimic nature – the wallpapers and curtains, flowers in vases, a vaporizer in the bathroom? Why do we so often connect our childhoods with gardens? Why has the myth of a lost Eden been so ubiquitous and so formative?The Green Fuse: Essays in Making Sense of Gardens explores our deep-rooted impulses to create gardens, examining them through the lenses of history, religion, nostalgia and myth. It connects gardens with the other arts – painting, music, literature and theatre – and contemplates their intellectual and philosophical significance. Blending lyrical reflections with research, it offers an unusually wide-ranging and thoughtful perspective on gardens and why we make them. It will be ideal for all readers interested in gardening and its cultural implications.
First Russian Revolution
The Decembrist Revolt of 1825
AvSusanna Rabow-Edling
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
253 kr
Skickas
One of Financial Times’s Best Books of 2025: HistoryOn 14 December 1825 a group of young Russian army officers led 3,000 troops to Senate Square in St Petersburg, aiming to force the Senate to adopt a liberal constitution and transform the Russian Empire. The Decembrist Revolt – as it came to be known – was suppressed, with a second uprising in the south meeting the same fate. Five leaders were executed, and many others exiled to Siberia.Why did so many young noblemen risk their lives for regime change, what was their vision for an alternative society, and what were the consequences for participants and their families? This book highlights the often-neglected liberal tradition in Russian political thought and the experiences of Decembrist wives and fiancées, offering a fresh reinterpretation in the light of recent events in Russia.
Berghain Nights
A Journey through Techno and Berlin Club Culture
AvLiam Cagney
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
203 kr
Tillfälligt slut
An Irish Times Book of the Year 2025Liam Cagney is residing in a Berlin squat when one night he finds himself at Berghain. Fascinated by the strange techno and even stranger dance floor, he sets out to explore Berlin’s unique club culture in all its intensity. Berghain Nights is the result, the first major literary exploration of Berlin’s club scene.Blending essay and memoir, Berghain Nights features interviews with major electronic dance music artists like Ellen Allien, Rrose, Luke Slater, Eris Drew and Function, alongside other figures from Berlin’s night-time economy and the history of techno. From kinky parties at KitKat Club to the industrial gloom of Tresor, from the queer garden of Buttons to the gay psychedelia of Cocktail d’Amore, Berghain Nights not only captures the excitement of Berlin’s clubs, it explores how spaces like these can help one find a truer self.
Hayek vs Keynes
A Battle of Ideas
AvThomas Hoerber
Inbunden, Engelska, 2017
243 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
Hayek vs Keynes: A Battle of Ideas offers a clear historical account of the works of the two great totems of modern economic thought: Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and Keynes’s The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money were written against a background of devastation following the First World War. Thomas Hoerber explains the historical context in which the books were written and shows how lessons can be drawn for current economic and political phenomena, such as the recent financial crisis, globalization and European integration. He illustrates how classical economic theory as well as a qualitative method in economics can enlighten our understanding of the present economic environment. With a broad European perspective, this book places the two great economic thinkers of the twentieth century in their historical context, and asks what we can learn from their work today.
Trick or Treat
A History of Halloween
AvLisa Morton
Häftad, Engelska, 2019
156 kr
Skickas
Trick or Treat is the first book to both examine the origins and history of Halloween and explore in depth its current global popularity. Festivals like the Celtic Samhain and Catholic All Souls’ Day have blended to produce the modern Halloween, which has been reborn in America – but there are also related but independent holidays, especially Mexico’s Day of the Dead. Lisa Morton explores the explosion in popularity of haunted attractions and the impact of events such as the global economic recession, as well as the effect Halloween has had on popular culture through literary works, films and television series.Trick or Treat takes us on a journey from the spectacular to the macabre, making it a must for anyone who wants to peep behind the mask to see the real past and present of this ever more popular holiday.
Outrageous!
The Story of Section 28 and Britain’s Battle for LGBT Education
AvPaul Baker
Häftad, Engelska, 2023
146 kr
Skickas
On 23 May 1988, Paul Baker sat down with his family to eat cake on his sixteenth birthday while The Six O’Clock News played in the background. But something was not quite right. There was muffled shouting – ‘Stop Section 28!’ – and a scuffle. The morning papers would announce: ‘Beeb Man Sits on Lesbian’.The next day Section 28 passed into law, forbidding local authorities from teaching ‘the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. It would send shockwaves through British society, silencing gay pupils and teachers while galvanizing mass protests and the formation of the LGBTQ+ rights groups OutRage! and Stonewall.Now available in paperback, Outrageous! tells the full story: the background to the Act, how the press fanned the flames and what politicians said during debates, how protestors fought back to bring about the repeal of the law in the 2000s, and its eventual legacy. Based on detailed research, interviews with key figures – including Ian McKellen, Michael Cashman and Angela Mason – and personal recollection, it is an impassioned, warm, often moving account of unthinkable prejudice enshrined within law, and of the power of community to overcome it.
Winters in the World
A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year
AvEleanor Parker
Häftad, Engelska, 2023
154 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
Winters in the World is a beautifully observed journey through the cycle of the year in Anglo-Saxon England, exploring not only the rituals and customs linked to the different seasons, but the profound relationship between human life and the rhythms of nature. Eleanor Parker provides an imaginative connection to the Anglo-Saxon world, tracing the surprising history of its festivals – many of which are still celebrated today – unearthing traditions now long forgotten and celebrating some of the finest treasures of medieval literature.
Tangled Paths
A Life of Aby Warburg
AvHans C. Hönes
Inbunden, Engelska, 2024
282 kr
Skickas
Tangled Paths tells the life story of Aby Warburg, one of the most influential historians of art and culture of the twentieth century. It also tells the story of a man who, throughout his life, struggled to assert his place in the world. Charting Warburg’s many projects and identities – ground-breaking historian, public intellectual, ethnographer, shrewd academic administrator and founder of a library – Hans C. Hönes explores not only the vagaries of an academic career but the personal demons of a man who relentlessly sought to live up to his own expectations. This biography – the first in English for over fifty years – presents an evocative and richly detailed portrait of Warburg’s personality and career, and of his attempts to make sense of the tangled paths of his life.
Zerox Machine
Punk, Post-Punk and Fanzines in Britain, 1976–88
AvMatthew Worley
Häftad, Engelska, 2024
220 kr
Skickas
Zerox Machine is an immersive journey through the vibrant history of British punk and its associated fanzines from 1976 to 1988. Drawing on an extensive range of previously unpublished materials sourced from private collections across the UK, Matthew Worley describes and analyses this transformative era, providing an intimate glimpse into the hopes and anxieties that shaped a generation.Far more than a showcase of covers, this book examines the fanzines themselves, offering a rich tapestry of first-hand accounts, personal stories and subcultural reflections. Through meticulous research and insightful analysis, Matthew Worley captures the spirit and essence of British youth culture, not only shedding new light on a pivotal movement in music history but crafting a unique alternative history of Britain in the 1970s and ’80s.
‘A Seditious and Sinister Tribe’
The Crimean Tatars and Their Khanate
AvDonald Rayfield
Inbunden, Engelska, 2024
327 kr
Skickas
The Crimean Tatars were the Turkic-speaking native peoples of Crimea who established a powerful khanate in the 1440s, which remained in power until 1783. In this, the first history in English for over 100 years, eminent scholar Donald Rayfield shows that this misunderstood and much-feared nation was in fact a flourishing state with a vibrant literary culture, religious tolerance, a sophisticated constitution and a prosperous economy. Rayfield’s book describes the establishment of the khanate, its reign and its eventual fall, concluding with a vivid portrayal of the Tatars’ ruthless suppression – first by Russia and then the Soviet Union – and the final, effectively genocidal, invasion under Vladimir Putin.This vibrant and ultimately tragic chronicle is essential reading for anyone interested in the background to the current war in Ukraine.
Plunder?
How Museums Got Their Treasures
AvJustin M. Jacobs
Inbunden, Engelska, 2024
199 kr
Skickas
In this thought-provoking new work, historian Justin M. Jacobs challenges the widely accepted belief that many of Western museums’ treasures were acquired by imperialist plunder and theft. His account re-examines the allegedly immoral provenance of Western collections, advocating for a nuanced understanding of how artefacts reached Western shores. Jacobs examines the perspectives of Chinese, Egyptian and other participants in the global antiquities trade over the past two and a half centuries, revealing that Western collectors were often willingly embraced by locals. This collaborative dynamic, largely ignored by contemporary museum critics, unfolds a narrative that may lead to hope and promise for a brighter, more equitable future.
Wagner Group
Inside Russia’s Mercenary Army
AvJack Margolin
Inbunden, Engelska, 2024
188 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
This book exposes the history and future of the Wagner Group, Russia’s notorious and secretive mercenary army, revealing details of their operations never documented before. Jack Margolin traces the Wagner Group from its roots as a battlefield rumour to a private military enterprise tens of thousands strong. He follows individual commanders and foot soldiers as they fight in Ukraine, Syria and Africa. He shows Wagner mercenaries committing atrocities, plundering oil, diamonds and gold, and changing the course of conflicts in the name of the Kremlin. In documenting the Wagner’s Group’s story up to the dramatic demise of its chief director, Evgeniy Prigozhin, Margolin demonstrates what the Wagner Group represents for not only the future of Putin’s political system, but also the privatization of war.
Brunelleschi and the Moment of the Renaissance
AvMarvin Trachtenberg
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
481 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
Filippo Brunelleschi is at once the most famous and most misunderstood architect of the Renaissance. The founding architect of the movement that led the way to modernity, his originality was not expressed in words or theory but rather in the materials he used, the scenography of space he engineered, the ingenuity of his designs, the exquisite workmanship of his detailing and the strikingly creative reworking of classical elements that make up his buildings. Marvin Trachtenberg offers a new view of Brunelleschi’s brilliant career as well as his life, guiding the reader through his most iconic works in Florence. In the process, this book sheds light on the driven, competitive culture of Renaissance Italy. This is an original, lively account of a key Renaissance figure.
Émile Zola
A Determined Life
AvRobert Lethbridge
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
282 kr
Skickas
Winner of the Franco-British Society Literary Award 2025.Émile Zola is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest writers, whose reputation was reinforced by his historic intervention in the Dreyfus Affair. This book explores Zola’s life and work and the ways in which these were determined by the traumatic history of his times. From humble beginnings, Zola's life was marked by the determination to succeed. Robert Lethbridge traces Zola's development as a writer, including the earliest texts and his novel-cycles, and further shows how Zola’s extraordinary creativity extended from his journalism to experiments in the theatre and even his own operatic adaptations of his novels. Lethbridge offers the reader new perspectives, informed by the most recent research, which bring together Zola’s writing and its historical context.
Hayek vs Keynes
A Battle of Ideas
AvThomas Hoerber
Häftad, Engelska, 2025
124 kr
Skickas
Now in paperback, this is a clear historical account of the works of the two great totems of modern economic thought: Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes. Thomas Hoerber explains the historical context in which Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and Keynes’s The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money were written, and shows how lessons can be drawn for current economic and political phenomena such as the recent financial crisis, globalization and European integration. The book also illustrates how classical economic theory as well as a qualitative method can enlighten our understanding of the present economic environment. Hayek vs Keynes places the two great economic thinkers of the twentieth century in their historical context, and asks what we can learn from their work today.
Idea of Waste
On the Limits of Human Life
AvJohn Scanlan
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
313 kr
Skickas
The Idea of Waste starts with the premise that waste is inevitable in human society. It explores how we have grappled with both the material reality and the spectre of this shape-shifting phenomenon throughout history – utilizing it, dreaming of overcoming it, yet never escaping it. John Scanlan investigates what waste is and why it seems to be intrinsic to human life, at every turn, in every age and epoch. He demonstrates how waste never disappears completely but rather only proliferates anew. The compelling narrative shows waste to be both an enduring material consequence of human activity and an idea or state of being.
Jean Sibelius
Life, Music, Silence
AvDaniel M. Grimley
Häftad, Engelska, 2025
128 kr
Skickas
Few composers have enjoyed such critical acclaim – or longevity – as Jean Sibelius, who died in 1957 aged 91. Always more than simply a Finnish national figure, an ‘apparition from the woods’ as he ironically described himself, Sibelius lived through many turbulent and tumultuous events, and his work is central to the story of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century music. Now in paperback, this book situates Sibelius within a rich interdisciplinary environment, paying attention to his relationship with architecture, literature, politics and the visual arts. Drawing on the latest developments in Sibelius research, it is an accessible and rewarding introduction for the general reader, and offers a fresh and provocative interpretation for those more familiar with his music.
Light on Darkness
The Untold Story of the Liturgy
AvCosima Clara Gillhammer
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
173 kr
Skickas
Light on Darkness: The Untold Story of the Liturgy offers a captivating journey through the history of religious rituals in Western Europe, showcasing the profound impact of Christian liturgy on art, literature, music and architecture. Through ten evocative stories, it explores medieval rituals and their cultural influence up to the present day, providing fresh insights into the enduring legacy of the liturgy as an expression of human emotion and religious experience. Accessible to all, this guide provides translations and explanations to uncover the hidden treasures of ancient rites and their lasting significance, appealing to those seeking a deeper understanding of Western liturgical traditions.
Old Age in Art
AvLarry Silver
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
237 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
Old Age in Art provides a comprehensive overview of old age in European art, and shows how aged individuals have been depicted from ancient Greece and Rome to the present century. It explores portraits, including self-portraits of artists in old age, and stories of older figures in religion, myth and history, focusing on the theme of wisdom versus folly. The book also discusses the concept of old age within the Ages of Humanity, especially during the Middle Ages and early modern periods. The final chapter examines how renowned artists like Michelangelo, Titian and Monet turned to experimental forms and new subjects in their later years, revealing a comparative ‘old age style’.
‘Our Little Gang’
The Lives of the Vorticists
AvJames King
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
337 kr
Skickas
The Vorticists, a rebellious cohort of young artists in early twentieth-century England, defied the conventions of the art world with their distinctive abstract creations. Despite the brevity of their existence, from 1911 to 1914, their startling innovations left an indelible mark on English art history. In this book James King explores the personalities and lives of these colourful individuals, capturing the tumultuous environment in which they thrived. The narrative presents biographies of the group’s members – ‘our little gang’, as Ezra Pound called them – highlighting personal conflicts and providing a concise, highly readable history of the movement. This book is ideal for art enthusiasts, historians and anyone intrigued by avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century.

Reaktion Books – serie

Philosophy of Hope

Fabulosa!

Medieval Scriptorium

Winter Dreams

Comics at the Movies

Yardbirds

Dinner in Rome

Medieval Scriptorium

English Soul

Chromophobia

Green Fuse

First Russian Revolution

Berghain Nights

Hayek vs Keynes

Trick or Treat

Outrageous!

Winters in the World

Tangled Paths

Zerox Machine

‘A Seditious and Sinister Tribe’

Plunder?

Wagner Group

Brunelleschi and the Moment of the Renaissance

Émile Zola

Hayek vs Keynes

Idea of Waste

Jean Sibelius

Light on Darkness

Old Age in Art

‘Our Little Gang’