The 1930s, 40s and 50s were the heyday of the boxing film, attracting some of the biggest stars of the time - including Errol Flynn, James Cagney, Kirk Douglas and Paul Newman - and some of the best directors. Yet it is a genre that has received little critical attention apart from a few films singled out because they can be categorised as ‘film noir’. It would be easy to assume, therefore, that the typical boxing film of this period was a dark melodrama with the tragic and doomed figure o...

Alone in the Crowd discusses the identity of nineteenth-century Paris, one of the most widely imaged cities in the modern world, whose most enduring attribute is that of a city of spectacle - a city of the pleasure of looking and being looked at simultaneously. Did Haussmann’s re-figuring of the city, with its unrelenting straight boulevards, stirring vistas and uniform buildings, create a ‘mass produced’ image of Paris? If so, who benefited - and who lost out - in the construction of this...

This fascinating book explores the way that Sherlock Holmes has been appropriated by British businesses to advertise everything from carpets and tyres, to honey and whisky. Somerset Maugham believed that Holmes had survived so long in the public imagination because Arthur Conan Doyle had hammered the detective’s idiosyncracies into the minds of his readers with ‘the same pertinacity as the great advertisers use to proclaim the merits of their soap, beer or cigarettes’. Linking Holmes with ...

A company’s visual identity - as it appears in everything from business stationery and brochures, to product packaging and websites - is central to a company’s impact on the market. It’s the first impression a prospective customer gets: but for many businesses, design is seen as a ‘necessary evil’, best avoided, but if that’s not possible, then best done cheaply. This down-to-earth, succinct handbook will show you why you should choose your designer as carefully as you would choose a new, ...

Tino Balio, in his book The American Film Industry, said that the Production Code meant that American films could not deal with political or social issues ‘in an honest and truthful fashion’. This incisive essay tests out the legitimacy of Balio’s claims, using The Lost Weekend (directed by Billy Wilder, 1945) as an example of the Hollywood ‘problem film’. Rather than treating the film as being an entity with a single, unchanging meaning, it is put into its historical and social context, i...

In the 1930s, British film producers and critics championed the idea of ‘quality’ pictures - thoughtful, intelligent films that would project a particular and positive view of Britain. The result was to drive a wedge between ‘national’ cinema (which reflected middle-class values) and ‘popular’ cinema (which reflected the working-class values of the majority of cinema audiences). ‘Popular’ became a term of abuse, particularly directed at comedies, whose roots often lay in music-hall. A very...

Does Laura Mulvey’s theory, that only women can be the object of the erotic gaze in cinema, still hold true if films that lie beyond mainstream Hollywood are examined? Through close analysis of the 1937 French film Pépé-le-Moko, this paper examines those aspects of the filmmakers’ craft which influence the direction of the gaze - such as costume, cinematography/lighting, use of the body, and star persona. It demonstrates the way the film helped build on the Jean Gabin ‘myth’ through a feti...

This engaging and accessible reader takes a social problems approach to health and medicine, providing a broad and critical lens on contemporary health problems. Designed for courses on social problems and on medical sociology, the volume embraces two fundamental principles: that health and illness are at least partly socially produced, and that health care is not an unfettered good and often brings with it serious social problems. The volume is organized into six sections, addressing the ...

A Companion for Your Journey from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost"Let no one fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free."—St. John ChrysostomLent is a pilgrimage of the soul when Christians have always commemorated the death and resurrection of Jesus with a season of reflection. Through poems, essays, and devotional readings, A Radiant Resurrection invites you into the time of reflection from Ash Wednesday through Eastertide. Writt...

Human-Animal Interactions (HAI) are a primary welfare interest to both animal scientists and practitioners. In zoos and aquariums, the study of Animal-Visitor Interactions (AVI), including both the impact of visitors on animals (the visitor effect) and the impact of animals on visitors (the visitor experience), have become a focus for understanding HAIs in zoos. The study of HAIs in zoos has grown to consider a number of factors, including animal-staff interactions and bonds, modern exhibi...

Comprehensive review of key topics in root science, including root architecture, root growth regulators, root anatomy and nutrient acquisitionCoverage of root response to both biotic and abiotic variablesDiscusses the range of techniques to optimize root function, from phenotyping to identify desirable root traits and exploiting the genetics of root traits to the use of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM)

The first women archaeologists were Victorian era adventurers who felt most at home when farthest from it. Canvas tents were their domains, hot Middle Eastern deserts their gardens of inquiry and labor. Thanks to them, prevailing ideas about feminine nature - soft, nurturing, submissive - were upended. Ladies of the Field tells the story of seven remarkable women, each a pioneering archaeologist, each headstrong, smart, and courageous, who burst into what was then a very young sci...