Popular Culture History

In this book, Lee McIntyre argues that what distinguishes science from its rivals is what he calls "the scientific attitude" - caring about evidence and being willing to change theories on the basis of new evidence. The history of science is littered with theories that were scientific but turned out to be wrong; the scientific attitude reveals why even a failed theory can help us to understand what is special about science.

A collection of non-fiction essays about the counter-culture of the 1960s that dives deep into the issues that marked the era: female empowerment, increasing freedom around sexuality, vibrant subcultures, and the rise of psychedelic drugs. In this sprawling work, Wolfe profiles Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and compares him to Jay Gatsby, interviews one of the first women to get breast implants, and hangs out with freewheeling surfers (aka The Pump House Gang).

From coffee beans to extraordinary flavors. Being hundreds of years old, coffee has influenced civilizations and inspired many makers to discover new recipes for millions to enjoy. Yet what if there was a way to experience the best natural coffee flavors in the world by making them yourself? Why We Love Coffee is a visual collection of coffee facts and recipes that not only teach you how to recreate beloved coffee blends, but taste them like a professional coffee enthusiast.

The nineteenth century saw the American circus move from a reviled and rejected form of entertainment to the “Greatest Show on Earth.” Circus Life by Micah D. Childress looks at this transition from the perspective of the people who owned and worked in circuses and how they responded to the new incentives that rapid industrialization made possible.

Questo ragazzo deve tutto al suo nome diceva di lui Marco Antonio, che lo disprezzava, a torto sottovalutandolo. Però era vero, e Augusto ne era talmente consapevole da affrettarsi a promuovere, non appena gli fu possibile, la divinizzazione di Giulio Cesare, padre suo adottivo, come caposaldo del suo potere. Il capolavoro di Augusto è stato imporre l'immagine di sé come vero e coerente erede e continuatore dell'opera di Cesare, ormai divinizzato, mentre in realtà la trasformava, se non nel suo contrario, certo in altro.

We live our lives immersed in name-brand products. It's hard to drive down the street without seeing a plethora of chain restaurants, car dealerships, branded clothing; they're all around us. What most of us don't know is that the origins of many of the most well-known and beloved brands in the world are shrouded in controversy, drug use, and sometimes even addled with blatant racism. A Secret History of Brands cuts through the rumors and urban legends and paints a picture of the true dark history of famous brands.

As all aspects of our social and informational lives increasingly migrate online, the line between what is "real" and what is digitally fabricated grows ever thinne rand that fake content has undeniable real-world consequences. A History of Fake Things on the Internet takes the long view of how advances in technology brought us to the point where faked texts, images, and video content are nearly indistinguishable from what is authentic or true.

Sex. Drugs. Loud music. Wild costumes. Dazzling light shows. These words can all describe a great rock concert or a hot dance club, but they were also part and parcel of the ancient cultural phenomenon known as the "Mystery religions". In this book, author Christopher Knowles shows how the long-dead Mystery religions got a secular reincarnation when a new musical form called rock 'n' roll burst onto the scene.

How did powder and paint, once scorned as immoral, become indispensable to millions of respectable women? How did a "kitchen physic", as homemade cosmetics were once called, become a multibillion-dollar industry? And how did men finally take over that rarest of institutions, a woman's business? In Hope in a Jar, historian Kathy Peiss gives us the first full-scale social history of America's beauty culture.

When does a scientific discovery become accepted fact? Why have scientific facts become easy to deny? And what can we do about it? In The Workshop and the World, philosopher and science historian Robert P. Crease answers these questions by describing the origins of our scientific infrastructure - the “workshop” - and the role of 10 of the world’s greatest thinkers in shaping it. As today’s politicians and government officials increasingly accuse scientists of dishonesty, conspiracy, and even hoaxes, engaged citizens wonder how we got to this level of distrust....

The year 1968 retains its mythic hold on the imagination in America and around the world. Like the revolutionary years 1789, 1848, 1871, 1917, and 1989, it is recalled most of all as a year when revolution beckoned or threatened. On the 50th anniversary of that tumultuous year, cultural historians Robert Cottrell and Blaine T. Browne provide a well-informed, up-to-date synthesis of the events that rocked the world, emphasizing the revolutionary possibilities more fully than previous books.

Popular culture has taught us to picture the Old West as a land of men, whether it's the lone hero on horseback or crowds of card players in a rough-and-tumble saloon. But the taming of the frontier involved plenty of women, too - and this book tells their stories. At first, female pioneers were indeed rare - when the town of Denver was founded in 1859, there were only five women among a population of almost a thousand. But the adventurers arrived, slowly but surely.

In 1977 a group of scientists, artists and writers gathered in a house in Ithaca, New York to work on the most important mixtape ever conceived. It wasn’t from one person to another - it was from Earth to the cosmos. When NASA sent Voyagers 1 and 2 on a grand tour of the outer planets, they knew the ultimate fate of these plucky probes would be to drift forever in the unimaginable void of interstellar space.

Boomer tells the story of a generation born in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and whose members, the Baby Boomers, are now in their mid to late seventies. It is a generation that has experienced more technological, social, and cultural changes than any other in history.

Da sempre misuriamo il mondo. Per conoscerlo ed esplorarlo, per viverci, per interagire con i nostri simili. L'umanità misura per conoscere il passato, comprendere il presente, progettare il futuro. Ci sono voluti però millenni perché due rivoluzioni, quella scientifica iniziata con Galileo e quella francese, avviassero il percorso per rendere il sistema di misura condiviso e non più basato su deperibili artefatti umani, ma su elementi invariabili e universali della natura.

¿Qué habría sido de nuestra juventud sin el Walkman, Pokémon, Pac-Man, y el anime? ¿Qué sería de nuestros mensajes de texto sin emojis? ¿Y de las celebraciones con amigos sin karaoke? Todas estas innovaciones y más se las debemos a los japoneses. Matt Alt, especialista en Japón y colaborador para medios como The New Yorker, se dio a la tarea de revelar en este libro la historia detrás de las principales creaciones niponas que han conquistado el planeta.

Per gli antichi le Sirene erano mostri orripilanti, per metà uccelli e per metà donne. Eppure, esse avevano qualcosa che le rendeva irresistibili: la voce, suadente e ammaliatrice. Insieme ad altre figure mitologiche a loro affini come Circe, Calipso ed Elena, le Sirene sono in questo libro le protagoniste della prima tappa di un cammino che, partendo da Omero e a Omero ritornando, si concentra sull'Atene del V secolo, la città della democrazia e della parola.

Nel 1933 viene lanciato nei cinema USA "I tre porcellini" di Walt Disney. Questo piccolo avvenimento segna l'inizio della parabola della cultura mainstream promossa dai film delle majors hollywoodiane, raccolta e amplificata dalla radio e dalla tv. Questo tipo di cultura, basata su un'idea consolatoria dell'intrattenimento, fondata su una visione manichea del bene contro il male e sul must del lieto fine, prende forma allora e mette radici nell'immaginario collettivo dell'Occidente.

At once a requisite collector's guide and a pursuit of meaning within storytelling, The Essential Guide to Collecting Calvin and Hobbes also offers a critical appraisal of Bill Watterson, as well as a deep examination of the most obscure Calvin and Hobbes relic, the textbook Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes: "a miraculous artifact unlike any other collectible in the world."

Schwitzen im Proberaum einer Moskauer Rockband. Ehemalige Sowjetrepubliken, die Kabardino-Balkarien heißen. Ein Stripclub an der Wolga. Techno Clubs, in denen nichts zufällig passiert. Und das Krankenzimmer eines Moskauer Hospitals. Diane Hielscher diskutiert auf Kinderspielplätzen über die Postmoderne, tanzt mit Jugendlichen am schwarzen Meer, trinkt in dunklen Bars und fremden Wohnzimmern. Nebenbei erlernt sie die Feinheiten der russischen Vulgärsprache - während im Kaukasus gerade der Krieg ausbricht.