Download or read book Armchair Nation written by Joe Moran and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2013-08-22 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: But what does your furniture point at?' asks the character Joey in the sitcom Friends on hearing an acquaintance has no TV. It's a good question: since its beginnings during WW2, television has assumed a central role in our houses and our lives, just as satellite dishes and aerials have become features of urban skylines. Television (or 'the idiot's lantern', depending on your feelings about it) has created controversy, brought coronations and World Cups into living rooms, allowed us access to 24hr news and media and provided a thousand conversation starters. As shows come and go in popularity, the history of television shows us how our society has changed. Armchair Nation reveals the fascinating, lyrical and sometimes surprising history of telly, from the first demonstration of television by John Logie Baird (in Selfridges) to the fear and excitement that greeted its arrival in households (some viewers worried it might control their thoughts), the controversies of Mary Whitehouse's 'Clean Up TV' campaign and what JG Ballard thought about Big Brother. Via trips down memory lane with Morecambe and Wise, Richard Dimbleby, David Frost, Blue Peter and Coronation Street, you can flick between fascinating nuggets from the strange side of TV: what happened after a chimpanzee called 'Fred J. Muggs' interrupted American footage of the Queen's wedding, and why aliens might be tuning in to The Benny Hill Show.
Download or read book Untamed written by Will Harlan and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiring biography of the adventuresome naturalist Carol Ruckdeschel and her crusade to save her island home from environmental disaster. In a “moving homage . . . that artfully articulates the ferocities of nature and humanity,” biographer Will Harlan captures the larger-than-life story of biologist, naturalist, and ecological activist Carol Ruckdeschel, known to many as the wildest woman in America. She wrestles alligators, eats roadkill, rides horses bareback, and lives in a ramshackle cabin that she built by hand in an island wilderness. A combination of Henry David Thoreau and Jane Goodall, Carol is a self-taught scientist who has become a tireless defender of sea turtles on Cumberland Island, a national park off the coast of Georgia (Kirkus Reviews). Cumberland, the country’s largest and most biologically diverse barrier island, is celebrated for its windswept dunes and feral horses. Steel magnate Thomas Carnegie once owned much of the island, and in recent years, Carnegie heirs and the National Park Service have clashed with Carol over the island’s future. What happens when a dirt-poor naturalist with only a high school diploma becomes an outspoken advocate on a celebrated but divisive island? Untamed is the story of an American original who fights for what she believes in, no matter the cost, “an environmental classic that belongs on the shelf alongside Carson, Leopold, Muir, and Thoreau” (Thomas Rain Crowe, author of Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods). “Vivid. . . . Ms. Ruckdeschel’s biography, and the way this wandering soul came to settle for so many decades on Cumberland Island, is big enough on its own, but Mr. Harlan hints at bigger questions.” —The Wall Street Journal “Wild country produces wild people, who sometimes are just what’s needed to keep that wild cycle going. This is a memorable portrait.” —Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature “Deliciously engrossing. . . . Readers are in for a wild ride.” —The Citizen-Times
Download or read book The Armchair Diplomat on Europe written by Melissa Rossi and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2005-08-04 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It happens all the time: you're watching the Champion's League, pondering Robert Kilroy Silk's unnatural glow, reading the latest newspaper debate about EU bendy banana laws, and thinking: what's really going on in Europe? Does anyone actually know what they're talking about? And where are Riga and Vilnius anyway? You needn't worry any more. With this armchair guide you'll discover the strange and fascinating world that calls itself Europe - without ever having to leave your own home. There are insights into culture (how to join the Finns beating themselves with birch twigs in the sauna); the lowdown on the people that matter (porn stars turned politicians in Italy); fascinating facts and explanations of historical rifts (and you thought the relationship between Britain and France was bad). You'll find out how to talk like Berlusconi, unravel the workings of the EU and guide yourself from the Baltics to Belgium, Portugal to Poland. The Armchair Diplomat: Europe offers the basics of euro-education for very little pain. Perfect for slackers with a passion for travel.
Download or read book Armchair Warriors written by Joel Robert Davidson and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The book makes use of hundreds of letters from average Americans to explore a previously unexamined aspect of popular participation in America's rise to global dominance. These letters provide a unique window into the minds of patriotic citizens grappling with issues ranging from grand strategy to the deadly imperatives of individual combat.".
Download or read book Armchair Sailor Collection written by Various and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-02-13 with total page 2883 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oxford World's Classics brings you a collection of the best voyages in literature. Take a journey of your own through the eyes of beloved literary characters in this set, which includes Gullivers Travels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick, and Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Brummel. Catch-up on the classics you will remember for a lifetime. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Download or read book Christmas and the British A Modern History written by Martin Johnes and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-10-06 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern Christmas was made by the Victorians and rooted in their belief in commerce, family and religion. Their rituals and traditions persist to the present day but the festival has also been changed by growing affluence, shifting family structures, greater expectations of happiness and material comfort, technological developments and falling religious belief. Christmas became a battleground for arguments over consumerism, holiday entitlements, social obligations, communal behaviour and the influence of church, state and media. Even in private, it encouraged reflection on social change and the march of time. Amongst those unhappy at the state of the world or their own lives, Christmas could induce much cynicism and even loathing but for a quieter majority it was a happy time, a moment of a joy in a sometimes difficult world that made the festival more than just an integral feature of the calendar: Christmas was one of British culture's emotional high points. Moreover, it was also a testimony to the enduring importance of family, shared values and a common culture in the UK. Martin Johnes shows how Christmas and its traditions have been lived, adapted and thought about in Britain since 1914. Christmas and the British is about the festival's social, cultural and economic functions, and its often forgotten status as both the most unusual and important day of the year
Download or read book The SS Officer s Armchair written by Daniel Lee and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2021-06-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gripping account of one historian's hunt for answers as he delves into the surprising life of an ordinary Nazi officer. 'Totally exhilarating' Philippe Sands It began with an armchair. It began with the surprise discovery of a stash of personal documents covered in swastikas sewn into its cushion. The SS Officer's Armchair is the story of what happened next, as Daniel Lee follows the trail of cold calls, documents, coincidences and family secrets, to uncover the life of one Dr Robert Griesinger from Stuttgart. As Lee delves deeper, Griesinger emerges as at once an ordinary man with a family and ambitions, and an active participant in the Nazi machinery of terror whose choices continue to reverberate today. 'Gripping, it unfolds like a detective story as an obscured past emerges into the light' Hadley Freeman, author of House of Glass 'An absorbing work of historical detection... Riveting' Evening Standard
Download or read book Class Politics and the Decline of Deference in England 1968 2000 written by Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-23 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In late twentieth-century England, inequality was rocketing, yet some have suggested that the politics of class was declining in significance, while others argue that class identities lost little power. Neither interpretation is satisfactory: class remained important to 'ordinary' people's narratives about social change and their own identities throughout the period 1968-2000, but in changing ways. Using self-narratives drawn from a wide range of sources - the raw materials of sociological studies, transcripts from oral history projects, Mass Observation, and autobiography - the book examines class identities and narratives of social change between 1968 and 2000, showing that by the end of the period, class was often seen as an historical identity, related to background and heritage, and that many felt strict class boundaries had blurred quite profoundly since 1945. Class snobberies 'went underground', as many people from all backgrounds began to assert that what was important was authenticity, individuality, and ordinariness. In fact, Sutcliffe-Braithwaite argues that it is more useful to understand the cultural changes of these years through the lens of the decline of deference, which transformed people's attitudes towards class, and towards politics. The study also examines the claim that Thatcher and New Labour wrote class out of politics, arguing that this simple - and highly political - narrative misses important points. Thatcher was driven by political ideology and necessity to try to dismiss the importance of class, while the New Labour project was good at listening to voters - particularly swing voters in marginal seats - and echoing back what they were increasingly saying about the blurring of class lines and the importance of ordinariness. But this did not add up to an abandonment of a majoritarian project, as New Labour reoriented their political project to emphasize using the state to empower the individual.
Download or read book The Nation s Treasures written by H. Pringuer Benn and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Contemporary Britain written by John McCormick and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-02-09 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fallout from Brexit and Covid-19, ongoing political turmoil, economic decline and calls for a second Scottish independence referendum make for deeply uncertain times in contemporary Britain. What will the country look like in five years from now? Will it even exist in its present form? Introducing you to all aspects of British history, geography, society, politics, economy and culture, this book guides you through the country's enduring features and recent trends: -Growing racial, religious, national and cultural diversity -Demographic shifts, including the move from a welfare state to a stakeholder society -The altered balance of power among government institutions, as the UK adapts to life outside the EU -Shifts in economic policy, following the impact of Brexit, Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine -Changing voter attitudes, with questions raised about the balance between the major political parties -The impact of social media and alternative communications channels on media, culture and politics. With key data, further reading suggestions and case studies on topics such as attitudes towards the monarchy, regional inequalities and national cuisine, Contemporary Britain is the ideal introduction for students and interested general readers alike.
Download or read book Issues and Singularity in the British Media Volume 2 written by Renée Dickason and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Issues and Singularity in the British Media Volume 1 written by Renée Dickason and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Modernity Britain written by David Kynaston and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 881 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edition collects both volumes of Modernity Britain for the first time Following Austerity Britain and Family Britain, the third volume in David Kynaston's landmark social history of post-war Britain 'Triumphant ... A historian of peerless sensitivity and curiosity about the lives of individuals' Financial Times 'This superb history captures the birth pangs of modern Britain ... It is a part of Kynaston's huge achievement that such moments of insight and pleasure should accompany what has become a monumental history of our recent past' The Times ____________________ David Kynaston's history of post-war Britain has so far taken us from the radically reforming Labour governments of the late 1940s in Austerity Britain and through the growing prosperity of Family Britain's more placid 1950s. Now Modernity Britain 1957–62 sees the coming of a new Zeitgeist as Kynaston gets up close to a turbulent era in which the speed of social change accelerated. The late 1950s to early 1960s was an action-packed, often dramatic time in which the contours of modern Britain began to take shape. These were the 'never had it so good' years, when the Carry On film series got going, and films like Room at the Top and the first soaps like Coronation Street and Z Cars brought the working class to the centre of the national frame; when CND galvanised the progressive middle class; when 'youth' emerged as a cultural force; when the Notting Hill riots made race and immigration an inescapable reality; and when 'meritocracy' became the buzz word of the day. In this period, the traditional norms of morality were perceived as under serious threat (Lady Chatterley's Lover freely on sale after the famous case), and traditional working-class culture was changing (wakes weeks in decline, the end of the maximum wage for footballers). The greatest change, though, concerned urban redevelopment: city centres were being yanked into the age of the motor car, slum clearance was intensified, and the skyline became studded with brutalist high-rise blocks. Some of this transformation was necessary, but too much would destroy communities and leave a harsh, fateful legacy. This profoundly important story of the transformation of Britain as it arrived at the brink of a new world is brilliantly told through diaries, letters newspapers and a rich haul of other sources and published in one magnificent paperback volume for the first time.
Download or read book Now that s what I call a history of the 1980s written by Lucy Robinson and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now that’s what I call a history of the 1980s tells the story of eighties Britain through its popular culture. Charting era-defining moments from Lady Diana’s legs and the miners’ strike to Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage and Adam and the Ants, Lucy Robinson weaves together an alternative history to the one we think we know. This is not a history of big geopolitical disasters, or a nostalgic romp through discos, shoulder pads and yuppie culture. Instead, the book explores a mashing together of different genres and fan bases in order to make sense of our recent past and give new insights into the decade that defined both globalisation and excess. Packed with archival and cultural research but written with verve and spark, the book offers as much to general readers as to scholars of this period, presenting a distinctive and definitive contemporary history of 1980s Britain, from pop to politics, to cold war cultures, censorship and sexuality.
Download or read book The Complete Armchair Book of Baseball written by John Thorn and published by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. This book was released on 1997 with total page 856 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here are fascinating glimpses of the history of America's national pastime from an all-star lineup including Walt Whitman, E.L. Doctorow, John Updike, Philip Roth and Garrison Keillor. Revel in another ear through Walt Whitman's report of a rugged game played before the Civil War. Relive how Candy Cummings perfected the first curve ball, how baseball drew the color line in1 887, and how Bob Carroll uncovered Nate Colbert's hidden RBI record in 1972. All this and much, much more.
Download or read book Television Cities written by Charlotte Brunsdon and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-19 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Television Cities Charlotte Brunsdon traces television's representations of metropolitan spaces to show how they reflect the medium's history and evolution, thereby challenging the prevalent assumptions about television as quintessentially suburban. Brunsdon shows how the BBC's presentation of 1960s Paris in the detective series Maigret signals British culture's engagement with twentieth-century modernity and continental Europe, while various portrayals of London—ranging from Dickens adaptations to the 1950s nostalgia of Call the Midwife—demonstrate Britain's complicated transition from Victorian metropole to postcolonial social democracy. Finally, an analysis of The Wire’s acclaimed examination of Baltimore, marks the profound shifts in the ways television is now made and consumed. Illuminating the myriad factors that make television cities, Brunsdon complicates our understanding of how television shapes perceptions of urban spaces, both familiar and unknown.
Download or read book Performance and Professional Wrestling written by Broderick Chow and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-08-12 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Performance and Professional Wrestling is the first edited volume to consider professional wrestling explicitly from the vantage point of theatre and performance studies. Moving beyond simply noting its performative qualities or reading it via other performance genres, this collection of essays offers a complete critical reassessment of the popular sport. Topics such as the suspension of disbelief, simulation, silence and speech, physical culture, and the performance of pain within the squared circle are explored in relation to professional wrestling, with work by both scholars and practitioners grouped into seven short sections: Audience Circulation Lucha Gender Queerness Bodies Race A significant re-reading of wrestling as a performing art, Performance and Professional Wrestling makes essential reading for scholars and students intrigued by this uniquely theatrical sport.
