Popular Culture category: 4839 books
All the Pieces Matter
The Inside Story of The Wire®
Language: English
Release Date: February 13, 2018
The definitive oral history of the iconic and beloved TV show The Wire, as told by the actors, writers, directors, and others involved in its creation.
Since its final episode aired in 2008, HBO's acclaimed crime drama The Wire has only become more popular and influential. The issues it tackled,...
Dirty! Dirty! Dirty!
Of Playboys, Pigs, and Penthouse Paupers-An American Tale of Sex and Wonder
Language: English
Release Date: November 1, 2011
A wild and uncompromising history of four infamous magazines and the outlaws behind them, Dirty! Dirty! Dirty! is the first book to rip the sheet off of the sleazy myth-making machine of Hugh Hefner and Playboy, and reveal the doomed history of Hefner’s arch rival, Penthouse founder Bob Guccione,...
Brilliance and Fire
A Biography of Diamonds
Language: English
Release Date: June 7, 2016
From the author of Women from the Ankle Down comes a lively cultural biography of diamonds, which explores our society’s obsession with the world’s most brilliant gemstone and the real-world characters who make them shine.
“A diamond is forever.” Who among us doesn’t recognize this...
The Rise and Fall of Australia
How a great nation lost its way
Language: English
Release Date: July 1, 2014
A forensic look at the Lucky Country, from the inside and outside.
Never before has Australia enjoyed such economic, commercial, diplomatic and cultural clout. Its recession-proof economy is the envy of the world. It's the planet's great lifestyle superpower. Its artistic exports win unprecedented...
The Lustron Home
The History of a Postwar Prefabricated Housing Experiment
Language: English
Release Date: August 1, 2015
Advertised as “a new standard for living,” the Lustron Home was introduced in 1948 in response to the urgent need for housing for veterans returning from World War II and their rapidly growing families. These enameled steel, prefabricated houses became very popular, and were heavily promoted from...
Blood, Class and Empire
The Enduring Anglo-American Relationship
Language: English
Release Date: April 24, 2009
Since the end of the Cold War so-called experts have been predicting the eclipse of America's "special relationship" with Britain. But as events have shown, especially in the wake of 9/11, the political and cultural ties between America and Britain have grown stronger. Blood, Class and Empire...
Feminist Ryan Gosling
Feminist Theory (as Imagined) from Your Favorite Sensitive Movie Dude
Language: English
Release Date: August 14, 2012
Based on the popular blog of the same name, Feminist Ryan Gosling pairs swoon-worthy photos of the sensitive, steamy actor with feminist theories to the delight of women (and more than a few of their mothers) everywhere.
What started as a silly way for blogger Danielle Henderson and her classmates...
Hiding in the Light
On Images and Things
Language: English
Release Date: September 2, 2003
Dick Hebdige looks at the creation and consumption of objects and images as diverse as fashion and documentary photographs, 1950's streamlined cars, Italian motor scooters, 1980's 'style manuals', Biff cartoons, the Band Aid campaign, Pop Art and promotional music videos. He assesses their broad cultural significance and charts their impact on contemporary popular tastes.
Of Comics and Men
A Cultural History of American Comic Books
Language: English
Release Date: July 24, 2013
Originally published in France and long sought in English translation, Jean-Paul Gabilliet's Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books documents the rise and development of the American comic book industry from the 1930s to the present. The book intertwines aesthetic issues and...
Fries!
An Illustrated Guide to the World's Favorite Food
Language: English
Release Date: April 26, 2016
Imagine a plate of crisp, golden, salted fries, and you'll know why this is the world's favorite food. Who better to write the consummate cultural history and user's guide of the fry than Blake Lingle, whose fries were recently voted the best in America by U.S. News & World Report? In this lighthearted...
The Old, Weird America
The World of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes
Language: English
Release Date: April 26, 2011
A Special Edition with a New Introduction and an Updated Discography
This is Greil Marcus's acclaimed book on the secret music made by Bob Dylan and the Band in 1967, which introduced a phrase that has become part of the culture: "the old, weird America." It is this country that the...
Sexplosion
From Andy Warhol to A Clockwork Orange-- How a Generation of Pop Rebels Broke All the Taboos
Language: English
Release Date: February 4, 2014
After the sexual revolution came the sexual explosion
The six years between 1968 and 1973 saw more sexual taboos challenged than ever before. Film, literature, and theater simultaneously broke through barriers previously unimagined, giving birth to what we still consider to be the height of...
Christ to Coke
How Image Becomes Icon
Language: English
Release Date: October 13, 2011
Image, branding, and logos are obsessions of our age. Iconic images dominate the media. Christ to Coke is the first book to look at all the main types of visual icons. It does so via eleven supreme and mega-famous examples, both historical and contemporary, to see how they arose and how they continue...
by John Lane
Language: English
Release Date: November 1, 2016
Language: English
Release Date: November 1, 2016
In this book, John Lane calls us to awaken to the possibilities of a culture that recognizes the importance of beauty, and to acknowledge that we are only fully human in contact with the beautiful. Once, people were instinctively tuned to the beautiful. In those distant days before the advent of the...