reaktion books london (Over 3,100 results)

softcover. Condition: Fine copy. reprint. 8vo, 240 pp.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First Edition First Printing. 8vo. 296 pages, indexed. Hardcover with a blue and black dust jacket. Light wear to the jacket. A sound copy and clean within.

Hardback. Condition: As new. dj. book.

Hardback. Condition: As new. 304 pp. dj. book.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 256 pp. Objekt. book.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Left-handedness seems to be no big deal. Many of us are left-handed and those of us who aren't don't tend to give left-handedness much thought. Yet throughout history left-handers have been associated with clumsiness, untrustworthiness and insincerity. The Latin word for left, sinister, is redolent of all kinds of ominous connotations. Rik Smits uncovers why history has been so unkind to our left-handed forebears. Through an array of historical anecdotes, strange superstitions and old wives' tales, Smits explains why left-handedness continues to be associated with maladies of all kinds, including mental retardation, alcoholism, asthma, hay fever, diabetes, insomnia, suicidal urges, criminality and shorter life spans. But apart from folklore and myth, the notions of left and right have a real and deep influence on the way we experience the world. These influences show up everywhere, from engineering and architecture to music, painting, photography, film and comics. This book shows how, contrary to what many might think, left-handers can write just as well as the rest of us, and explores how and why we came to prefer one hand over the other and how left- and right-handedness are represented in the brain. The greatest puzzle is why in every country one in ten people favours the left hand. It is a mystery as yet largely unsolved, whose solution may very well lie in the secrets of twinning. "The Puzzle of Left-handedness" is an enlightening and entertaining odyssey through the enigmas and paradoxes, theories and experiments surrounding the left-handed among us. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First Edition. Hard cover 8vo. Fine book in like DJ, now in clear protective cover. 159pp inc. References, Bibliography, Index. 192 p. Book.

Hardbound. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Octavo in dust jacket, 176 pp., b/w photos and drawings, references, select bibliography, index.

Softbound. Condition: Very Good. First English language edition. Octavo, glossy paper covers with flaps, 340 pp., b/w and color illustrations throughout, notes, index Translated from the German by Helen Atkins. A very high quality introduction to the history and topography of Tel Aviv.

Softcover. Condition: Very Good. Small 8vo 7½" - 8" tall; 216 pages.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. A very good copy of the first UK hard cover edition in a like (not price-clipped) dust-jacket. The text is wholly unmarked, pristine, and the binding and jacket are bright and fresh in appearance, with a small intact tear of the jacket at the top of the front spine seam. No remainder strikes. A sharp copy.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Ants are legion: at present there are 11,006 species of ant known; they live everywhere in the world except the polar icecaps; and, the combined weight of the ant population has been estimated to make up half the mass of all insects alive today. When we encounter them outdoors, ants fascinate us; discovered in our kitchen cupboards, they elicit horror and disgust. Charlotte Sleigh's "Ant" elucidates the cultural reasons behind our varied reactions to these extraordinary insects, and considers the variety of responses that humans have expressed at different times and in different places to their intricate, miniature societies. Ants have figured as fantasy miniature armies, as models of good behaviour, as infiltrating communists and as creatures on the borderline between the realms of the organic and the machine: in 1977 British Telecom hired ant experts to help solve problems with their massive information network. This is the first book to examine ants in these and many other such guises, and in so doing opens up broader issues about the history of science and humans' relations with the natural world. It will be of interest to anyone who likes natural history or cultural studies, or who has ever rushed out and bought a can of Raid[trademark]. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Beijing and Jakarta, Tehran and Tokyo, Istanbul and Los Angeles are among the more than 60 large cities at risk from an earthquake. And although Europe's cities are comparatively less vulnerable, over the last 300 years devastating shocks have hit Athens, Bucharest, Lisbon, Madrid, Rome and elsewhere. This book describes major earthquakes and their effects on societies around the world, as well as the ways in which cultures have mythologized earthquakes through religion, the arts and popular culture. Despite advances in science and engineering, and improved disaster preparedness, earthquakes continue to cause immense loss of life and damage. The 2010 Haiti earthquake took almost a quarter of a million lives, and no one will ever forget the catastrophic tsunami unleashed in 2011 by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the east coast of Japan - a crisis described by Japan's prime minister as the most disastrous national event since the atomic bomb strikes of 1945. Written by a highly experienced science writer, biographer and journalist, Earthquake will appeal as much to general readers of popular science and art as it will to experts in many fields. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Language has always been central to the meaning and exploitation of photographic images. However, the various types and 'styles' of language associated with different photographic genres have been largely overlooked. This book considers the nature of photography, examining the language used in titles, captions and commentaries, particularly as they relate to documentary photography, photojournalism and fashion photography. "The Spoken Image" addresses the question of how the photograph communicates its message, with or without the aid of language. The book looks at the work of film-makers such as Antonioni and Greenaway to contrast filmic methods of narration with those of photography. Scott concludes that photography has arrived at a level of communicative sophistication equal to that of modern textual narratives, in conjunction with which it often works. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. In the glorious, boozy party after the First World War, a new being burst defiantly onto the world stage: the 'flapper'. Young, impetuous and flirtatious, she was an alluring, controversial figure, celebrated in movies, fiction, plays and the pages of fashion magazines. But, as this book argues, she didn't appear out of nowhere. This spirited history presents a fresh look at the reality of young women's experiences in America and Britain from the 1890s to the 1920s, when the 'modern' girl emerged. Lost Girls is a story of youth derided and fetishized; of ageing viscerally feared. It is a story of a culture beset by anxiety about adolescent girls. And it is a story of young women trying to shape their own identity amidst contradictory theories of adolescence and sexuality, the politics of suffrage, and the popular fiction, theatre, cinema and dance hall crazes of the time. Linda Simon shows us how the modern girl bravely created a culture, a look and a future of her own. Lost Girls is an illuminating history of the iconic flapper as she evolved from a problem to a temptation, and finally, in the 1920s and beyond, to an aspiration. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Softcover. Condition: Fine. 8vo.

Paperback. Condition: As new. 224 pp. Earth. book.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 184 pp. Tightly bound. Spine not compromised. Text is free of markings. Owner's name / blind stamp front end paper.This is a paperback copy with French flaps. This copy is smyth sewn. Smyth sewing is a method of bookbinding where groups of folded pages (referred to as signatures) are stitched together using binder thread. Each folded signature is sewn together individually with multiple stitches and then joined with other signatures to create the complete book block. This is the traditional and best method of bookbinding.

Paperback. Condition: As new. 208 pp. Animal. book.

Paperback. Condition: As new. 192 pp. Animal. book.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. From oolong to sencha to chai, tea is one of the worlds most popular beverages. Perhaps that is because it is a uniquely adaptable drink, consumed in many different varieties and ways by cultures across the globe and in many different settings, from the intricate traditions of the Japanese tea ceremony to the elegant tea-rooms of Britain to iced tea drunk on the verandas of the American Deep South. In Tea food historian Helen Saberi explores this rich and fascinating history. Saberi looks at the economic and social uses of tea, such as its use as a currency during the Tang dynasty; its role in American independence at the Boston Tea Party; afternoon tea drunk by the British in India; and the 1913 creation of a tea dance or The Dansant that combined tea with tango. Saberi also explores where and how tea is grown around the world and how customs and traditions surrounding the beverage have evolved from its legendary origins to its present-day popularity. Featuring vivid images as well as recipes from around the world, Tea is a refreshing and stimulating treat. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. From its beginnings in the 17th century, the Baroque embraced the whole of Catholic Europe and infiltrated Protestant England, Orthodox Russia and even Muslim Turkey. Architecture, paintings, poetry, music, natural science, and new forms of piety all have their places on the Baroque map. In this work, Robert Harbison offers new readings that stress its eccentric and tumultuous forms, in which a destabilized sense of reality is often projected onto the viewer. This strange, subjectively inclined world is manifested in such bizarre phenomena as the small stuccoed universes of Giacomo Serpotta, the Sacred Mounts of Piedmont and the grimacing heads of F.X. Messerschmidt. Harbison explores the Baroque's metamorphoses into later styles, particularly the Rococo, and, in an unexpected twist, pursues the Baroque idea into the 19th and 20th centuries, proposing provocative analyses of pastiches or imitations or resemblances in Czech cubism and Frank Gehry's architecture. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The controversial artist Malcolm Morley is the subject of this illustrated text, the first title in "Itineraries", a series featuring contemporary artists, and edited by Lynne Cooke and Michael Newman. Born and trained in Britain but resident in America since 1958, Morley is best known as an exponent of Superrealism, a heightened, photorealistic style. This represents only one aspect of Morley's career, however; as his technique became increasingly free in the 1970s, he began to introduce "found" objects into his work. In the 1980s, he increasingly used watercolours made while travelling as the basis for oil paintings. Basides travel, many of Morley's pictures derive from childhood memories or depict imagined disaster scenarios. His work is represented in collections throughout the US including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, and is known in the UK as the first winner of the Turner prize. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. From the milk we drink in the morning to the leather shoes we slip on for the day, to the steak we savour at dinner, our daily lives are thoroughly bound up with the cow. Yet there is a far more complex story behind this seemingly benign creature, which Hannah Velten explores here, plumbing the rich trove of myth, fact and legend surrounding the cow, bull and ox. From the plowing field to the rodeo to the temple, Velten tracks the constantly changing social relationship between men and cattle, beginning with the domestication of aurochs around 9000 BC. From there, "Cow" launches into a fascinating story of religious fanaticism, scientific exploits and the revolutionary economic transformations engendered by the trade of the numerous products derived from the cow and bull. Velten explores in engaging detail how despite the creature's prominence at two ends of a wide spectrum Hinduism venerates the cow as one of the most sacred members of the animal kingdom, while beef is a prized staple of the Western diet the animal is essentially viewed today as a objectified commodity more than as a living creature. Thought-provoking and informative, "Cow" restores this oft-overlooked herbivore to the nobility it richly deserves. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. In contemporary society, the cult of celebrity is inescapable. Anyone can be turned into a celebrity, and anything can be made into a celebrity event. Celebrity has become a part of everyday life, a common reference point. But how have people like Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Bill Clinton or Princess Diana impressed themselves so powerfully on the public mind? Do they have unique qualities, or have their images been constructed by the media? And what of the dark side of celebrity why is the hunger to be in the public eye so great that people are prepared to go to any lengths to achieve it, as numerous mass murderers and serial killers have done. Chris Rojek brings together celebrated figures from the arts, sports, politics and other public spheres, from O.J. Simpson and Marilyn Monroe to Hitler and David Bowie, and touches on many movements and fads, including punk, rock-and-roll and fashion. Rojek analyzes the difference between ascribed celebrity, which derives from bloodline, and achieved celebrity, which follows on from personal achievement - the difference between Princess Margaret and, say, Woody Allen. He also shows how there is no parallel in history to today's ubiquitous 'living' form of celebrity, powered by newspapers, PR departments, magazines and electronic mass media. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Traditionally, museums have concerned themselves with foremost with conservation and classification. But what is conserved, and why? How is it classified? And who does this benefit? Are exhibitions really designed with the visitor in mind? And what qualities of experience are being offered? These are just some of the pressing questions which the authors - museum professionals, historians and critics - raise in this volume. Art collections, museums of childhood, science and photography, theme parks and time machines, and the Great Exhibitions are among the diverse subjects discussed. As a collection of critical views of museum history, theory and practice, The New Museology is of interest not only to those in the museum profession, but to all those concerned with society's attitude to its own history and culture. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Although rarely seen in the wild, the otter is admired for its playful character and graceful aquatic agility, which were established in the popular imagination through books and films such as Tarka the Otter and Ring of Bright Water. This, however, is just a small part of their story - throughout history the otter has also been widely hunted for its fur and to prevent it from killing fish. In Otter, Daniel Allen reveals how the animal's identity has been shaped by human interactions. Otters, while feared by some communities, were hunted to near extinction by others - killed for their valuable pelts in the north Pacific and chased with hounds for sport in Britain. In contrast, some Native Americans revered the otter and fishermen in parts of Asia trained otters to assist them. Sadly, all thirteen species of otter are now considered threatened, and their survival is by no means certain. This wide-ranging book includes anecdotes from folklore, sports and popular literature, as well as exploring the movement against otter hunting and the ongoing efforts towards the otter's conservation. Otter is a lively book that offers a new way of thinking about this much-loved but endangered animal. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Is Britain really perceived as a nation of poorly dressed, roast-beef-eating, snaggle-toothed xenophobes? Or do the British perhaps all live in stately homes, and lead supercilious, emotionally repressed, tea-drinking lives? In "Brit-Myth", well-known social and cultural commentator Chris Rojek probes these and other myths, conceptions and misconceptions of Britishness, looking not only at how Britons see themselves, but also at how the British are seen overseas. Moving easily between high and popular culture, from the myths of King Arthur and Albion to national opinion polls on Great and Evil Britons'; and from "Big Brother" to films such as "The Patriot" and "Austin Powers" to international surveys of British national characteristics, Chris Rojek delineates the current state of Britishness in an age of multi-culturalism, multi-ethnicity and globalization. Offering an antidote to both dry scholarly meditations on British identity, and nationalist rants in favour of the British, this book opens up a way of being British that transcends racism, highlights the importance of individualism and non-conformity to the British national character, and defends the proposition that the British are distinctive among nations. Full of thought-provoking insights and engaging anecdotes, "Brit-Myth" will entertain both Anglophiles and Anglophobes as well as those who want to learn more about the land under the Union Jack. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This work vividly describes the intervention of the tramp as a social type in the United States between 1869 and 1939. Tim Cresswell considers the ways in which the figure of the tramp was imagined, written and spoken about, and how by World War II it was being reclassified, renamed and rendered invisible. The book calls into question the common assumption that mobility played a central role in the production of American identity. The author describes the "tramp scare" of the late 19th century in terms of the major factors that influenced the tramp's existence: the political and economic climate, the technology of the railroad and the after-effects of the Civil War. He goes on to explore various stereotypes associated with tramps, an example being the prevalent assumption that tramps were male and were a threat to women in domestic environments, while contemporary accounts exist of female tramps who took to the road disguised as men. Finally, he looks at the work of a number of prominent American photographers, among them Dorothea Lange, whose sympathetic portrayals signalled a change in attitude towards this often-despised group. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This work provides an account of the mapping of the United States from its colonial origins to 1900. Many of the significant maps and mapmakers are discussed in a chronological narrative that begins with the first European mappings of the New Netherlands (New York State, Massachusetts and Connecticut) in the early 17th century and concludes with the Rand McNally atlases of the 1890s. Maps tell us a great deal about the transformation of America's national identity. Having undertaken extensive research in map collections and with rare archival material in the US and overseas, geographer John Rennie Short provides a description of how maps have both embodied and reflected power, conflict and territorial expansion throughout American history. His illustrated text focuses on maps of colonial claims, surveys of the American West, and national atlases, paying particular attention to how and why certain groups - Native Americans, for example - were included on or excluded from maps. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.