reaktion books london (Over 3,700 results)

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Mother's Milk or Blue Ruin, Dutch Courage or Cuckold's Comfort - the fanciful nicknames that gin has acquired only hint at its colourful story. The story begins with the aromatic juniper berry originally used by the Dutch to flavour the whisky-like genever. The drink then made its way to Britain, where cheap imitations laced with turpentine and other caustic fillers made it the drink of choice for poor eighteenth-century Londoners. Eventually replaced by the sweetened Old Tom style and then by London Dry, gin was introduced to the wider world by means of the British Empire, and during the Jazz Age became a mainstay of a new drinking culture: the cocktail. Today classic cocktails like the Gimlet and the Negroni are embraced by drinkers who enjoy a new breed of modern gins, and gin has reclaimed pride of place in the world of mixology. Gin: A Global History will attract both cocktail aficionados and lovers of food history as it chronicles gin's evolution from cheap liquor to modern alcoholic marvel. 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. 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 title includes essays by Elisabeth Bronfen, Crosbie Smith, Ludmilla Jordanova, Louis James, Michael Fried, Michael Grant, Jasia Reichardt, Robert Olorenshaw and Jean-Louis Schefer. Some of the most significant currents in modern intellectual and cultural history pass by way of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). By choosing in her book as a guiding theme the idea of the scientist who creates a monster, she both revives for the Romantic period the traditional link between scientific experiment and natural magic, and makes her own contribution to the debate on the difference between 'creation' and 'production' that was flourishing among the natural scientists of her time. Frankenstein thus signals a remarkable integration of the broad issues of contemporary science and culture within the form of a popular fiction. In this way, it stands at the head of a productive tendency which is marked, over the coming century, by related works like Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and H. G. Wells' "The Island of Doctor Moreau". Common to all these works is a fascination with the ethics of creation, and the phenomenon of monstrosity, which provokes interesting questions about the place of the monster in Western visual 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. Cricket is defined by the characters who have played it, watched it, reported it, ruled upon it, ruined it and rejoiced in it. Humorous and deeply affectionate, Cricketing Lives tells the story of the world's greatest and most incomprehensible game through those who have shaped it, from the rustic contests of eighteenth-century England to the spectacle of the Indian Premier League. It's about W. G. Grace and his eye to his wallet; the invincible Viv Richards; and Sarah Taylor, 'the best wicketkeeper in the world . . . male or female'. Paying homage, too, to the game's great writers, Richard H. Thomas steers a course through the despair of war, tactical controversies and internecine politics, to reveal how cricket has always stormed back to warm our hearts as nothing else can. 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. 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, c;i e;sinister c;/i e;, 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 lifespans. 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. c;i e;The Puzzle of Left-handedness c;/i e; 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.

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

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This title includes essays by Tim Benton, Gillian Naylor, Penny Sparke, Wendy Kaplan, Clive Wainwright, Martin Gaughan, Guy Julier, Mimi Wilms, Julian Holder and Paul Greenhalgh. Ten new and important essays on design cover Modernism's fortunes in Germany, Italy, Sweden, Britain, Spain, Belgium and the USA; they range in subject matter from world fairs and everyday domestic objects to American West coast architecture and French and Italian furniture. 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: 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.

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.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. How did our ancestors die? Whereas in our own day the subject of death is usually avoided, in pre-Industrial England the rituals and processes of death were present and immediate. People not only surrounded themselves with memento mori, they also sought to keep alive memories of those who had gone before. This continual confrontation with death was enhanced by a rich culture of visual artefacts. In "The Art of Death", Nigel Llewellyn explores the meanings behind an astonishing range of these artefacts, and describes the attitudes and practices which lay behind their production and use. Illustrated and explained in this book are an array of little-known objects and images such as death's head spoons, jewels and swords, mourning-rings and fans, wax effigies, church monuments, Dance of Death prints, funeral invitations and ephemera, as well as works by well-known artists, including Holbein, Hogarth and Blake. 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. From its beginnings in the seventeenth 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 surprising reinterpretation of the Baroque, Robert Harbison offers new readings that stress its eccentric and tumultuous forms, in which a destablized 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 nineteenth and twentieth centuries, proposing provocative analyses of pastiches or imitations (in Der Rosenkavalier and the work of Aubrey Beardsley) or resemblances (deliberate or not) in Czech Cubism and Frank Gehry's architecture." Reflections on Baroque" demonstrates that the Baroque impulse lives on in the twenty-first century imagination. 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. Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most admired and controversial figures of the twentieth century, and he remains so today. In this book leading Gandhi scholar Douglas Allen presents a new, challenging approach to understanding Gandhi's life and the contexts within which he lived and shaped history, and how his philosophy and practices can be reformulated in ways that are most significant today. Mahatma Gandhi explores the historical and cultural significance of Gandhi's extraordinary life and analyses his continuing relevance in addressing key issues of truth, ethics, violence and non-violence, war and peace, equality and freedom, different forms of exploitation and oppression, religion and religious conflict and dialogue, and environmental crises. Douglas Allen provides an urgently needed new perspective on Gandhi, which allows us to rethink our basic values and priorities. By understanding Gandhi's life and message, he creates a new paradigm for evaluating truth, non-violence, peace and morality, and offers new criteria for assessing our modern approach to standards of living, development, evolutionary progress, happiness and meaningful human existence. Mahatma Gandhi will appeal to general readers and those interested in philosophy, religion, political science, history and peace studies. 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 his celebrated manifesto, "Aircraft" (1935), the architect Le Corbusier presented more than 100 photographs celebrating aeroplanes either in imperious flight or elegantly at rest. Dwelling on the artfully abstracted shapes of noses, wings, and tails, he declared : "Ponder a moment on the truth of these objects! Clearness of function!". In "Aircraft" David Pascoe follows this lead and offers a startling new account of the form of the aeroplane, an object that, in the course of a hundred years, has developed from a flimsy contraption of wood, wire and canvas into a machine compounded of exotic materials whose wings can touch the edges of space. Tracing the aeroplane through the 20th century, he considers the subject from a number of perspectives: as an inspiration for artists, architects and politicians; as a miracle of engineering; as a product of industrialized culture; as a device of military ambition; and, finally, in its clearness of function, as an instance of sublime technology. "Aircraft" offers not just an account of aeronautical design, documenting, in particular, the forms of earlier flying machines and the dependence of later projects upon them, but also provides a cultural history of an object whose very shape contains the dreams and nightmares of the modern age. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Photos & drawings throughout (illustrator). First Edition. ISBN: 1861890494 First Edition. Photos & drawings throughout New in Near Fine DJ. Blue cloth binding ISBN: 1861890494 New in Near Fine DJ. Blue cloth binding.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Few animals are as closely associated with humans as bears. From the Greek legend of "Callisto" to "Winnie-the-Pooh", bears have throughout history been a rich source of imagery, myth, story and legend. "Bear" begins 25 million years ago with 'dawn bear', the small dog-sized ancestor of all bears. Tracing the evolution of the bear family, the author discusses extinct types, such as the cave bear and the giant short-faced bear, as well as describing in detail the eight species that exist today. Several of these species are now facing extinction, and the book considers the impact of current human behaviour on bears and their environments. "Bear" explores the bear-human relationship and how human perceptions of bears have changed over time. Drawing from cultures around the world, it discusses the various legends and myths, including the ceremonies and taboos that surround hunting, killing and eating bears. It also looks at representations of bears in contemporary culture: as the subjects of stories, songs, cartoons and films; as exhibits in pits, circuses and zoos; and also as toys. The book concludes by considering the precarious future of the bear, threatened as it is by loss of habitats, disease, pollution, global warming and poaching for the medicinal trade. "Bear" will appeal to all those interested in the past, present and future of these extraordinary creatures. 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. Dogs are perhaps our most popular pets, and certainly one of the best-loved of all animals. They are not only humanity's best friend, they are also its oldest: burial sites dating back 12,000 years indicate that dogs moved alongside prehistoric people before, during and after both species settled the world. The story of the canine has been fundamentally entwined with that of humanity since the earliest times, and this ancient and fascinating story is told in Susan McHugh's "Dog". This book unravels the debate about whether dogs are descended from wolves, and moves on to deal with canines in mythology, religion and health, dog cults in ancient and medieval civilizations as disparate as Alaska, Greece, Peru and Persia, and traces correspondences between the histories of dogs in the Far East, Europe, Africa and the Americas. "Dog" also examines the relatively recent phenomenon of dog breeding and the invention of species, as well as the canine's role in science fact and fiction; from Laika, the first astronaut, and Pavlov's famous conditioned dogs, through to science fiction novels and cult films such as "A Boy and his Dog". Susan McHugh shows how dogs today contribute to human lives in a huge number of ways, not only as pets and guide dogs but also as sources of food in Asia, entertainment workers, and scientific and religious objects. "Dog" reveals how we have shaped these animals over the millennia, and in turn, how dogs have shaped 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.

Paper. Condition: Fine in Trade Paperback. Illustrated Throughout (illustrator). 1st Paperback Edition. fine softcover; a solid copy; ---------- SATISFACTION GUARANTEED --------- FAST, COURTEOUS SERVICE ------ 2 copies Size: 6 x 9".

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. "Cat" traces the relationship between humans and the cat from its original domestication in ancient Egypt c. 2000 BC, where it enjoyed high status, through its centuries as a mere utilitarian rodent catcher, its gradual acceptance as a charming and amiable pet, and its present status as a companion on a par with the dog. "Cats" spread from Egypt, reaching Britain by the fourth century BC and Japan by about the seventh. They were immediately appreciated in Japan, but in the West they were regarded as harmless and necessary at best, and, at worst, as convenient targets for abuse. Finally, in late-seventeenth-century France, an aristocratic coterie began to make much of their pet cats. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, people of all classes came to appreciate cats as companions, and now there are more pet cats than pet dogs in both the UK and the USA. Long before people valued cats as companions, however, they recognized something special about them. Cats' ease of negotiation in the dark, their silent movements, their self-detachment even as they live in our homes, their refusal to defer to humans, seem to indicate strange, even supernatural powers. At first these attributes seemed sinister, but for later cat lovers they add to the animals' fascination. They have inspired writers from Poe to Lewis Carroll to imaginative creations. But cats can also be the embodiment of a happy home and good friends, whether they sustain a lonely old woman like Hall's Fraulein Schwartz or chat pleasantly with an old man in Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. The peculiar fascination of the cat, indeed, is the diversity of images it projects sweet and ferocious, affectionate and independent, elegant and earthy, cosily domestic and eerie. This book will appeal to the enormous number of people who like and are interested in cats. Unlike many other cat books, it offers substantial and accurate information about the history of cats and their presentation in literature and art. 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. Vaccines have helped mankind to tackle the dire threat of infectious disease for more than a hundred years. They have become key tools of public health and scientists are charged with developing them as quickly as possible to combat the emergence of new diseases such as Zika, SARS and Ebola. But why are growing numbers of parents all over the world now questioning the wisdom of having their children vaccinated? Why have public-sector vaccine producers been sold off? And can we trust the multinational corporations that increasingly dominate vaccine development and production? In this controversial new book, Stuart Blume argues that the processes of globalization and people's unsatisfied healthcare needs are eroding faith in the institutions producing and providing vaccines. He tells the history of immunization practices, from the work of early pioneers such as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch to the establishment of the World Health Organization and the introduction of genetic engineering. Immunization exposes the limits of public health authorities while suggesting how they can restore our confidence.Public health experts and all those considering vaccinations should read this timely history. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

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.

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

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. "Consuming Bodies" explores the themes of sex and consumerism in contemporary Japanese art and how they connect with the wider historical, social and political conditions in Japanese culture. Essays by writers, historians, curators and artists, plus diary extracts of a sex worker, engage with a range of artistic practices, including performance, digital media, painting, sculpture and installation. Together the contributors examine the contradictions and ambivalences embedded in the Japanese experience of modernity, and the effects of commodification on the individual and the nation state. Sex and consumerism in art are inextricably linked to issues of power, gender, class and race, and move beyond the gallery into private and public realms, where the complex relationships surrounding sexuality and commerce are directly encountered in both the fast-changing marketplace and in the dominant ideologies within Japanese society. With over 150 intriguing illustrations, "Consuming Bodies" provides a wide-ranging perspective on an under-researched area of contemporary Japanese art practice and the critical issues it uncovers. 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. It is probably not surprising to learn that the modern craze for running is not new: our species has been running since we were able to stand upright. What may be surprising, however, are the many ways and reasons we have performed this painful, exhausting and yet exhilarating activity down the ages. In this original, humorous and almost improbable world history, Thor Gotaas brings us many unusual and curious stories showing the remarkable diversity of running, from earliest times to the immense popularity of running today at athletics meetings, world championships and Olympic games. Amongst the myriad characters the author describes are King Shulgi of Mesopotamia, who four millennia ago boasted about his ability to maintain high speeds while running long distances, and once claimed to have run from Nippur to Ur, a distance of not less than 160 kilometres. In ancient Egypt the pharaoh had to run to prove his vitality and to hold on to power; Norwegian Vikings exercised by running races against animals; and, then there are the little-known naked runs, whore runs, endurance tests at bars, backward runs, monk runs, snowshoe runs, the Incas' ingenious infrastructure of professional runners and the running culture of Native Americans. In this unique book, Gotaas has written a world history that will come as a revelation to everyone who reads it. It will appeal to all who wish to know more about why the ancients shared our love, and hatred, of this physically demanding yet spiritually rewarding pastime. 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. Fast food is the most pervasive culinary trend of our time. It is an industry that has changed the way the world eats, as the model works virtually everywhere. At its heart are large multinational chains, running an estimated one million outlets in virtually every corner of the world, serving hundreds of millions of people every day. It provides access to reasonably tasty food with speed, economy and convenience, and appeals to customers of practically every nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, class, financial status and culinary tradition on earth.Fast Food: A Global Perspective explores why this industry has been so successful, and at the same time examines its many negative effects. Fast food has harmed the environment, undermined the health of customers, degraded the diets of children, and underpaid its workers. Indirectly, through its suppliers, it has supported factory farming and condoned dangerous working conditions from field to processing plant. The fast-food industry has undercut indigenous food purveyors, contributed to the loss of local and regional diversity and promoted culinary homogenization around the world.Critics have published scathing exposes, supported boycotts, engaged in demonstrations, and lobbied political leaders in an attempt to force the fast-food corporations to reduce the harm they cause - usually to little effect. Fast Food: A Global Perspective examines the industry's options and those of its customers, and asks what society as a whole can and should do to ameliorate the major problems generated by fast food. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Hardback. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Thus. A near fine copy of the book and the jacket that looks about new with no markings and hard to notice wear. 207 pages. Illustrated through-out, some in full-color. 8vo - over 7¾" - 10" Tall.

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. Now in B-format paperback, this book describes ten women over the past three hundred years who have found walking essential to their sense of themselves, as people and as writers. Wanderers traces their footsteps, from eighteenth-century parsons daughter Elizabeth Carter who desired nothing more than to be taken for a vagabond in the wilds of southern England to modern walker-writers such as Nan Shepherd and Cheryl Strayed. For each, walking was integral, whether it was rambling for miles across the Highlands, like Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt, or pacing novels into being, as Virginia Woolf did around Bloomsbury. Offering a beguiling view of the history of walking, Wanderers guides us through the different ways of seeing of being articulated by these ten pathfinding women. 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. New York City in the 1970s was the setting for Taxi Driver, Annie Hall, and Saturday Night Fever, the nightmare playground for Son of Sam and The Warriors, the proving grounds for graffiti, punk, hip-hop, and all manner of other public spectacle. Musicians, artists and writers could subsist even in Manhattan, while immigrants from the world over were reinventing the city in their own image. Others, fed up with crime, filth and frustration, simply split. Fast-forward three decades and today New York can appear a glamorous metropolis, with real estate prices soaring higher than its skyscrapers. But is this fresh-scrubbed, affluent city really an improvement on its grittier and more affordable predecessor? Taking us back to the streets where eccentricity and anomie were pervasive, "New York Calling" unlocks life in the unpolished Apple, where, it seemed, anything could happen. All five boroughs the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island comprising hundreds of neighborhoods and the interlaced worlds of politics, crime, drugs, sex, and mischief, are explored with a love of the city unclouded by romance yet undimmed by cynicism. Acclaimed historian Marshall Berman and journalist Brian Berger gather here a stellar group of writers and photographers who combine their energies to weave a rich tale of struggle, excitement and wonder. John Strausbaugh explains how Uptown has taken over Downtown, as Tom Robbins examines the mayors and would-be mayors who have presided over the transformation. Margaret Morton chronicles the homeless, while Robert Atkins offers a personal view of the city's gay culture and the devastating impact of aids. Anthony Haden-Guest and John Yau offer insiders' views of the New York art world, while Brandon Stosuy and Allen Lowe recount their discoveries of the local rock and jazz scenes. Armond White and Leonard Greene approach African-American culture and civil rights from perspectives often marginalized in so-called polite conversation. Daily life in New York has its dramatic moments too. Luc Sante gives us glimpses of a city perpetually on the grift, Jean Thilmany and Philip Dray share secrets of Gotham's ethnic enclaves, Richard Meltzer walks, Jim Knipfel rides the subways, and Robert Sietsema criss-crosses the city, indefatigably tasting everything from giant Nigerian tree snails to Fujianese turtles. It's a long way from old Brooklyn to the new Times Square. But "New York Calling" reminds us of what has changed and what's been lost along the way. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.