“A vivid, engaging exploration of Cuban politics, culture and economic life.”—America“Considerably deeper than much of the work on the subject. It takes on the challenge of describing what’s in a blac
Artists are everywhere, from celebrities showing at MoMA to locals hoping for a spot on a café wall. They are photographed at gallery openings in New York and Los Angeles, hustle in fast-gentrifying c
Across Asia, consumer culture is increasingly shaping everyday life, with neoliberal economic and social policies increasingly adopted by governments who see their citizens as individualised, sovereig
In the past seven centuries Dante has become world renowned, with his works translated into multiple languages and read by people of all ages and cultural backgrounds. This volume brings together interdisciplinary essays by leading, international scholars to provide a comprehensive account of the historical, cultural and intellectual context in which Dante lived and worked: from the economic, social and political scene to the feel of daily life; from education and religion to the administration of justice; from medicine to philosophy and science; from classical antiquity to popular culture; and from the dramatic transformation of urban spaces to the explosion of visual arts and music. This book, while locating Dante in relation to each of these topics, offers readers a clear and reliable idea of what life was like for Dante as an outstanding poet and intellectual in the Italy of the late Middle Ages.
Increasingly, economists realize that a deeper understanding of culture can improve their insights into the most important questions in economics. The Austrian school of political economy, which has always taken economics to be a science of meaning, and therefore, a science of culture, offers a unique approach to the study of culture in economic life. We consider three important differences between these Austrian and non-Austrian approaches: the Austrian focus on culture as meaning rather than culture as norms, beliefs, or attitudes; the Austrian emphasis on culture as an interpretative lens rather than as a tool or form of capital; and the Austrian insistence that cultural analysis be a qualitative exercise rather than a quantitative one. We also examine Geertz's description of culture, Gadamer's approach to hermeneutics, and Weber's interpretative sociology, demonstrating their connections to the Austrian approach and offering examples of what Austrian cultural economics can look lik
How does the literature and culture of early Victorian Britain look different if viewed from below? Exploring the interplay between canonical social problem novels and the journalism and fiction appearing in the periodical press associated with working-class protest movements, Gregory Vargo challenges long-held assumptions about the cultural separation between the 'two nations' of rich and poor in the Victorian era. The flourishing radical press was home to daring literary experiments that embraced themes including empire and economic inequality, helping to shape mainstream literature. Reconstructing social and institutional networks that connected middle-class writers to the world of working-class politics, this book reveals for the first time acknowledged and unacknowledged debts to the radical canon in the work of such authors as Charles Dickens, Thomas Carlyle, Harriet Martineau and Elizabeth Gaskell. What emerges is a new vision of Victorian social life, in which fierce debates an
There is growing interest in Israel's political system from all parts of the world. This Handbook provides a unique comprehensive presentation of political life in Israel from the formative pre-state period to the present. The themes covered include: political heritage and the unresolved issues that have been left to fester; the institutional framework (the Knesset, government, judiciary, presidency, the state comptroller and commissions of inquiry); citizens' political participation (elections, political parties, civil society and the media); the four issues that have bedevilled Israeli democracy since its establishment (security, state and religion, the status of Israel's Arab citizens and economic inequities with concomitant social gaps); and the contours of the political culture and its impact on Israel's democracy. The authors skilfully integrate detailed basic data with an analysis of structures and processes, making the Handbook accessible to both experts and those with a genera
This sixth edition of a well-established introduction to life in the United States covers everything from US politics, society and culture, to the country’s history, economy and place on the world stage. With extensive use of empirical data and illustrative material, Contemporary United States offers readers critical commentary on key political developments and allows them to place this within a wider historical and cultural context. This new edition offers coverage of all of the latest domestic and international developments, including: -The continuing divide between rich and poor, addressing social, legal, economic, and political inequality -The domestic and international ramifications of the Covid-19-induced recession -The rise of China, the return of Putin and the complexity of problems in North Korea, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan -The #MeToo and the Black Lives Matter movements -The Biden administration to date. Contemporary United States takes a broad, balanced approach - c
Fashioning Spain is a cultural history of Spanish fashion in the 20th and 21st centuries, a period of significant social, political, and economic upheaval. As Spain moved from dictatorship to democracy and, most recently, to the digital age, fashion has experienced seismic shifts. The chapters in this collection reveal how women empowered themselves through fashion choices, detail Balenciaga’s international stardom, present female photographers challenging gender roles under Franco’s rule, and uncover the politicization of the mantilla. In the visual culture of Spanish fashion, tradition and modernity coexist and compete, reflecting society’s changing affects.Using a range of case studies and approaches, this collection explores fashion in films, comics from la Movida , Rosalía’s music videos, and both brick-and-mortar and virtual museums. It demonstrates that fashion is ripe with historical meaning, and offers unique insights into the many facets of Spanish cultural life.
Nearly a millennium before the Inca forged a pan-Andean empire in the South American Andes, Tiwanaku emerged as a major center of political, economic, and religious life on the mountainous southern shores of Lake Titicaca. Tiwanaku influenced vast regions of the Andes and became one of the most important and enduring civilizations of the pre-Columbian Americas. Yet for centuries, the nature and antiquity of Tiwanaku remained a great mystery. Only over the past couple of decades has archaeological research begun to explore in depth the fascinating character of Tiwanaku culture and the way of life of its people. Ancient Tiwanaku synthesizes a wealth of past and current research on this fascinating high-altitude civilization. In the first major synthesis on the subject in nearly fifteen years, John Wayne Janusek explores Tiwanaku civilization in its geographical and cultural setting, tracing its long rise to power, vast geopolitical influences, and violent collapse.
This memoir about growing up along the Klamath River in Northern California details the travails of life in a community with waning economic prospects and a vanishing culture. The work discusses the u
War was a complex, vital component of Iroquois culture that was at times an almost daily part of life. While economic competition and rivalry for trade were important factors in Iroquois warfare, the
A pioneering global trend forecaster predicts how the collision of tribalism, climate change, and new technologies will shape the culture and commerce of the next two decades―a must-read guide for business leaders, entrepreneurs and anyone looking for an edge in our chaotic timesTwenty years ago, people around the world prepared for the Y2K computer glitch that would supposedly bring the global economy to its knees. Rather than overnight disruption, humankind instead slipped gradually into two decades of economic and ecological turmoil, extremism, and divisiveness, all set against the backdrop of a newly global and digital civilization. So what’s in store for the next two decades? In this acutely observed guide, renowned trendspotter Marian Salzman, whose past predictions came uncannily close to reality in the '90s and the '00s, unpacks the course of human life from the bumpy turn of the millennium through the pandemic era, when chaos and “together apart” seemed to become the new norma
This sixth edition of a well-established introduction to life in the United States covers everything from US politics, society and culture, to the country’s history, economy and place on the world stage. With extensive use of empirical data and illustrative material, Contemporary United States offers readers critical commentary on key political developments and allows them to place this within a wider historical and cultural context. This new edition offers coverage of all of the latest domestic and international developments, including: -The continuing divide between rich and poor, addressing social, legal, economic, and political inequality -The domestic and international ramifications of the Covid-19-induced recession -The rise of China, the return of Putin and the complexity of problems in North Korea, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan -The #MeToo and the Black Lives Matter movements -The Biden administration to date. Contemporary United States takes a broad, balanced approach - c
An unforgettable debut novel about family secrets, falling apart, and coming together.Dublin 1996. Joan Egan lives an enviable life. She and her husband, Martin, and daughter, Carmel, are thriving in Dublin at the dawn of an economic boom. But everything changes when Joan receives a letter from Emma, the daughter who she and Martin gave up for adoption thirty years before, asking for a life-or-death favor. While Joan grapples with the guilt over giving up her baby long ago, she must confront her present as the cracks in her marriage become impossible to ignore and simmering tension with Carmel boils over. Meanwhile, Carmel and Emma must come to terms with the perceived sins of their mother, to imagine a future for their family before it is too late. Spanning the nineties and the sixties, with Dublin as its backdrop, The Making of Her is the tender and page-turning story of marriage, motherhood, a culture that would not allow a woman to find true happiness―and her journey to finally
The volume explores 1930s African American writing to examine Black life, culture, and politics to document the ways Black artists and everyday people managed the Great Depression's economic impact on the creative and the social. Essays engage iconic figures such as Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Dorothy West, and Richard Wright as well as understudied writers such as Arna Bontemps and Marita Bonner, Henry Lee Moon, and Roi Ottley. This book demonstrates the significance of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and Black literary circles in the absence of white patronage. By featuring novels, poetry, short fiction, and drama alongside guidebooks, photographs, and print culture, African American Literature in Transition 1930-1940 provides evidence of the literary culture created by Black writers and readers during a period of economic precarity, expanded activism for social justice, and urgent internati
Using primary sources, Joshua Holo uncovers the day-to-day workings of the Byzantine-Jewish economy in the middle Byzantine period. Built on a web of exchange systems both exclusive to the Jewish community and integrated in society at large, this economy forces a revision of Jewish history in the region. Paradoxically, the two distinct economic orientations, inward and outward, simultaneously advanced both the integration of the Jews into the larger Byzantine economy and their segregation as a self-contained body economic. Dr Holo finds that the Jews routinely leveraged their internal, even exclusive, systems of law and culture to break into - occasionally to dominate - Byzantine markets. In doing so, they challenge our concept of Diaspora life as a balance between the two competing impulses of integration and segregation. The success of this enterprise, furthermore, qualifies the prevailing claim of Jewish economic decline during the Commercial Revolution.
The eighth and final volume of The Cambridge History of Judaism covers the period from roughly 1815–2000. Exploring the breadth and depth of Jewish societies and their manifold engagements with aspects of the modern world, it offers overviews of modern Jewish history, as well as more focused essays on political, social, economic, intellectual and cultural developments. The first part presents a series of interlocking surveys that address the history of diverse areas of Jewish settlement. The second part is organized around the emancipation. Here, chapter themes are grouped around the challenges posed by and to this elemental feature of Jewish life in the modern period. The third part adopts a thematic approach organized around the category 'culture', with the goal of casting a wide net in terms of perspectives, concepts and topics. The final part then focuses on the twentieth century, offering readers a sense of the dynamic nature of Judaism and Jewish identities and affiliations.
In the past seven centuries Dante has become world renowned, with his works translated into multiple languages and read by people of all ages and cultural backgrounds. This volume brings together interdisciplinary essays by leading, international scholars to provide a comprehensive account of the historical, cultural and intellectual context in which Dante lived and worked: from the economic, social and political scene to the feel of daily life; from education and religion to the administration of justice; from medicine to philosophy and science; from classical antiquity to popular culture; and from the dramatic transformation of urban spaces to the explosion of visual arts and music. This book, while locating Dante in relation to each of these topics, offers readers a clear and reliable idea of what life was like for Dante as an outstanding poet and intellectual in the Italy of the late Middle Ages.
