Böcker utgivna av Reaktion Books

Pig is a richly illustrated and compelling look at the natural and cultural history of the pig, and the long, complicated relationship between humans and these highly intelligent, sociable animals.

Donkey follows the story of this faithful, hard-working animal, which despite its critical role in human history, has often received little respect and explores the animal's variety of social, cultural, religious and symbolic meanings, especially its representations in Western art and literature.

Richard J. King takes us on a journey through the history, biology, cuisine and culture of lobsters, and their economic and environmental status worldwide. He also explores how the animal has inspired numerous artists, writers and thinkers including Aristotle, Dickens, Thoreau, Dali and Woody Allen.

In Ice Cream: A Global History, Laura B. Weiss takes us on a vibrant trip through the history of ice cream from ancient China to modern-day Tokyo in order to tell the lively story of how this delicious indulgence became a global sensation.

Since 1984, Chinese cinema has been the most dramatic new entry on the international film scene. This text looks at contemporary Chinese cinema as a visual art and illustrates the many ways it has been shaped by centuries of Chinese visual and cultural traditions. Among its many concerns are the role of female gender in Chinese cinema, the use of allegory, the strategies of filmmakers in comping with state censorship, the translation of Chinese novels into film, the continuing attachment of filmmakers to melodramatic form, and the cinematic critiques of Maoism and post-Maoist Chinese culture. Illustrated with Chinese paintings as well as scenes from such internationally acclaimed films as "e;Yellow Earth"e;, "e;Red Sorghum"e;, "e;Raise the Red Lantern"e; and "e;Farewell My Concubine"e;, Jerome Silbergeld reveals a cinematic form that is at once excitingly new and yet deeply embedded in traditional Chinese visual culture.

Marta Braun's new biography of Eadweard Muybridge traces the sensational events of Muybridge's life against his personal reinventions as artist, photographer, high-minded researcher and showman.

Offers a subtle, yet uncompromising analysis of the iconic photographs of torture from the prison at Abu Ghraib.

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) is an iconic figure of the Beat generation. In this revealing study Phil Baker investigates this cult writer's life and work, and his self-portrayal as an explorer of inner space, reporting back from the frontiers of experience.

Majestic, noble, brave lions, with their tawny coats and luminous eyes, have inspired countless stories, traditions and beliefs. Whether we are seduced by their beauty or drawn to danger, we want to be near them. This book draws on the scientific research, folklore, travel literature, and lion tamers' memoirs to guide readers on a cultural safari.

A distinct symbol of the desert and the Middle East, the camel was once unkindly described as half snake, half folding bedstead. But in the eyes of many the camel is a creature of great beauty. This book explores why the camel has fascinated so many cultures, including those in places where camels are not indigenous.

Outsider art is work produced outside the mainstream of modern art by self-taught visionaries, spiritualists, eccentrics, recluses, psychiatric patients, criminals and others beyond the perceived margins of society. This book sets out to challenge many of the received ideas in the field.

Beautifully illustrated with many captivating images of Paris design, dress, interiors, objects, art and media of the time, Ballets Russes Style is a much-needed account of how Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes influenced Parisian fashion, interior design, advertising and the decorative arts in the early twentieth century.

A comprehensive study of Iceland's social and historical development, from tiny fishing settlements to a global economic power. It is of interest to those studying this most enigmatic of islands, and also to those interested in cultural and social history as a whole.

A flavourful history of British food over the last 150 years, which shows how modern British cuisine is a product of the diversity of its society, in which people of differing ethnic groups readily sample and borrow from each other's food

Acknowledged as one of the major sculptors and avant-garde artists of the twentieth century, Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) also remained one of the most elusive. This book looks beyond the mythology of the artist to show us Constantin the Romanian student, as well as Brancusi the celebrated artist.

Portugal is a country that has sometimes been dismissed as small and relatively unimportant. This title demonstrates that the contrary is true, showing that Portugal has been crucial to the development of Europe and the modern world. It offers a fresh appraisal of Portuguese history and its role in the world.

The pie, to quote one Victorian writer, is 'a great human discovery which has universal estimation among all civilized eaters'. It is astonishing, given the widespread appeal of this humble dish, that the pie does not appear to have had a single book devoted to its complex but fascinating story; this book redresses a glaring omission from culinary history.

'This is an excellent book. It gives an almost complete overview of the main trends and views of what is generally called digital culture through the whole post-war period as well as a thorough exposition of the history of the computer and its predecessors and the origins of the modern division of labour.' - Journal of Visual Culture

In blood-soaked lore handed down the centuries, the vampire is a monster of endless fascination: from Bram Stoker's "Dracula" to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", this seductive lover of blood haunts popular culture and inhabits our darkest imaginings. This book tells the history of the vampire, and reveals why the vampire myth fascinates us.

Theme parks are a uniquely interactive and enduring form of entertainment that have influenced architecture, technology and culture in surprising ways for more than a century. Taking primitive amusements of pleasure gardens as its starting point, this book offers an investigation of the evolution of the theme park over the twentieth century.

This revised and expanded second edition of Timon Screech's definitive Sex and the Floating World offers a new assessment of the genre of erotic Japanese paintings and prints known as shunga.

Surveillance cameras. Airport security lines. We see manifestations of societal fears every day, and daily news reports on the latest household danger or raised terror threat level continually stoke our sense of impending doom. This book explores the underlying ideas and issues behind this powerful emotion.

The owls are not what they seem. From ancient Babylon to Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat and the grandiloquent, absent-minded Wol from Winnie the Pooh to David Lynch's Twin Peaks, owls have woven themselves into the fabric of human culture from earliest times. This book explores the natural and cultural history of owls.

Crumbled shells of mosques in Iraq, the fall of the World Trade Center towers on September 11: when architectural totems such as these are destroyed by conflicts and the ravages of war, more than mere buildings are at stake. The author highlights a range of wars and conflicts in which the destruction of architecture was pivotal.

Charting Hawksmoor's career and the decline of his reputation, Owen Hopkins offers fresh interpretations of many of his famous works - notably his three East End churches - and shows how over their history Hawksmoor's buildings have been ignored, abused, altered, recovered and celebrated.

Seal by Victoria Dickenson explores the natural and cultural history of an animal that has piqued and delighted human interest since ancient times, from their role in Roman spectacles to their frequent inhabitation of animal rescue centers today.

Aristotle characterized the elephant as the beast which passeth all others in wit and mind, and the animal has long figured in cultural artefacts, even on continents it has never inhabited. Part of the "Animal" series, this title describes the three remaining species - the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant, and the Asian Elephant.

The recent retirement of Fidel Castro turned the world's attention towards the island nation of Cuba and the question of what its future holds. Amid the talk and hypothesizing, it is worth taking a moment to consider how Cuba reached this point. The author provides this with his incisive history of Cuba since 1959.

Horror films revel in taking viewers into shadowy places where evil resides, whether it is a house, a graveyard or a dark forest. This title leads us inside these haunted spaces to explore them and the monstrous antagonists who dwell there.

Caspar David Friedrich (1774 1840), the greatest painter of the Romantic movement in Germany, was perhaps Europe's first truly modern artist. This title offers a comprehensive account of this most fascinating of nineteenth-century masters.