9

popular culture Martin Scorsese’s America elliS CaShMore Staffordshire University For over four decades, Martin Scorsese has been the chronicler of an obsessive society, where material possessions and physical comfort are valued, where the pursuit of individual improvement is rewarded and where male prerogative is respected and preserved. Scorsese has often described his fi lms as sociology and he has a point: his storytelling condenses complex information into comprehensible narratives about society. In this sense, he has been a guide through a dark world of nineteenth century crypto-fascism to a fetishistic twentieth century in which goods, fame, money and power are held to have magical power. Cashmore’s book discloses how, collectively, Scorsese’s fi lms present an image of America. It’s an image assembled from the perspectives of obsessive people, whether burnedout paramedics, compulsive entrepreneurs, tortured lovers, or celebrity-fi xated comedians. It’s collected from pool halls, taxicabs, boxing rings and jazz clubs. It’s an image that’s specifi c, yet ubiquitous. It is Martin Scorsese’s America.. series: america through the lens 210 x 148mm / 200 pages / October 2009 US / November 2009 UK 978-0-7456-4522-3 hb £45.00, $59.95 978-0-7456-4523-0 pb £14.99, $19.95

Spielberg’s America freDeriCK WaSSer CUNY-Brooklyn In the 1980s, new developments in fi lm, television and other arts saw an emphasis on personal excitement, with political confl ict largely being sidestepped. A primary manifestation of this movement is the Hollywood blockbuster and a central fi gure in its creation was Steven Spielberg, whose early fi lmmaking became synonymous with the Sunbelt aesthetic which valued visceral kicks and basic emotions over the ambiguities of history. Spielberg’s big budget fi lms have refl ected American society as it embraced marketplace values that have increasingly polarized its politics. Lately, however, Spielberg’s fi lms have become increasingly historical and thus more political, revealing his belief in both big time moviemaking and liberal democracy. Frederick Wasser’s fresh and provocative take on Spielberg in the context of the sociopolitical landscape of the United States reveals the challenges and contradictions of a remarkable career and the times it both refl ects and refracts and refracts. series: america through the lens 229 x 152 mm / 200 pages / December 2009 US / January 2010 UK 978-0-7456-4082-2 £50.00, $59.95 978-0-7456-4083-9 £14.99, $19.95

Bob Dylan lee MarShall University of Bristol ‘One of the most enlightening of the 115 titles currently weighing down my groaning Zim bookshelf ... accessible and stylishly written.’ Dylan Daily ‘A rich, highly readable cultural history of popular music from the early 1960s to the present, read through and around Dylan’s remarkable public career.’ Times higher education Supplement ‘Marshall has an excellent grasp of what rock music has meant within popular culture and how it has changed over time, and gives in this book the clearest explanation I have ever come across of rock’s (and therefore Dylan’s) place within post-modernism. Moreover, he really knows his Dylan.’ isis 210 x 140mm / 320 pages / 2007 978-0-7456-3641-2 hb £55.00, $69.95 978-0-7456-3642-9 pb £14.99, $22.95

Bob Marley JaSon ToYnBee Open University ‘The number of issues that Jason covers is quite remarkable and the bibliography highlights the excellent research.’ The Socialist ‘A smart and engaging example of what a popular music biography should look like.’ Timothy Taylor, University of California, los angeles ‘A tour-de-force of applied cultural theory and in itself confi rmation of Bob Marley’s continuing inspirational power!’ Simon frith, edinburgh University 210 x 140mm / 272 pages / 2007 978-0-7456-3088-5 hb £55.00, $69.95 978-0-7456-3089-2 pb £14.99, $22.95

The Evolution of Film JaneT harBorD Goldmiths College ‘Harbord’s is a major new voice in fi lm studies, harking back to the classical fi lm theory of Bazin, Kracauer and Epstein, and echoing forward into the twenty-fi rst century.’ Sean Cubitt, University of Melbourne 216 x 138mm / 208 pages / 2007 978-0-7456-3473-9 hb £50.00 $59.95 978-0-7456-3476-0 pb £14.99 $22.95
globalization and culture

Understanding Cultural Globalization PaUl hoPPer University of Brighton ‘Immensely well suited to undergraduate readership in Britain.’ Sociological review ‘Hopper provides an accessible and informed introduction to cultural globalization and the critical debates surrounding it.’ european Journal of Communication Understanding Cultural Globalization is a comprehensive and highly accessible introduction to the critical debates surrounding cultural globalization. Paul Hopper leads the reader through the varied issues associated with globalization and culture, including deterritorialization, cosmopolitanism, cultural hybridization and homogenization as well as claims that aspects of globalization are provoking cultural resistance.

undergraduate readership in Britain.’

229 x 152mm / 240 pages / 2007 978-0-7456-3557-6 hb £55.00, $69.95 978-0-7456-3558-3 pb £15.99, $24.95

The Myth of Media Globalization Kai hafeZ University of Erfurt Translated by Alex Skinner ‘A comprehensive analysis that nicely summarizes and integrates existing research ... I would not hesitate to assign the book in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses.’ British Journal of Sociology ‘A well-argued, much-needed intervention that pleads for better scholarship to illuminate the “necessary myth” of globalization ... translated into very readable English by Alex Skinner.’ global Media and Communication Rather than heralding globalization or warning of its dangers, as in many other books, Kai Hafez analyses the degree to which media globalization is really taking place. The inherent danger is that a central paradigm of the social sciences, rather than bearing scholarly substance, will turn out to be a myth and even a sometimes dangerously ideological tool.

Global Culture Industry The Mediation of Things SCoTT laSh anD Celia lUrY Both of Goldsmiths, University of London’ ‘A fascinating set of accounts of the changing role and meaning of selected “cultural objects”.’ area ‘Their empirical work is thorough and detailed, with each chapter providing a rich description of the history, life, and geography of the cultural object in question.’ British Journal of Sociology ‘By tracing the lives of a series of cultural objects, Lash and Lury analyse with great insight how, in our age of globalization, culture comes to play an ever more central and intense role in economic production.’ Michael hardt, co-author of Empire and Multitude In the fi rst half of the twentieth century, Theodor Adorno wrote about the ‘culture industry’. For Adorno not just the products of factory labour, but culture itself were increasingly becoming commodities. Now, in what they call the ‘global culture industry’, Scott Lash and Celia Lury argue that Adorno’s worst nightmares have come true. Their brilliant new book tells the compelling story of how material objects such as watches and sportswear have become powerful cultural symbols, and how the production of symbols, in the form of globally recognized brands, has now become a central goal of capitalism.

Both of Goldsmiths, University of London’

229 x 152 mm / 248 pages / 2007 978-0-7456-2482-2 hb £60.00, $69.95 978-0-7456-2483-9 pb £17.99, $26.95

Globalization: Key Thinkers anDreW JoneS Birkbeck College, University of London This book guides the reader through the key arguments of leading thinkers in the contemporary globalization debate, explaining their positions and evaluating their critical reception. Eleven thematic chapters focus on one or two key thinkers covering every aspect of the globalization debate including the theoretical arguments of Anthony Giddens and Manuel Castells, to the positive arguments of Thomas Friedman and Martin Wolf and the reforming ideas of Joseph Stiglitz. The book ends with a concluding chapter that examines how thinking about globalization is likely to develop in future.

229 x 152mm / 232 pages / 2007 978-0-7456-3908-6 hb £50.00, $69.95 978-0-7456-3909-3 pb £14.99, $24.95

229 x 152mm / 224 pages / October 2009 UK / November 2009 US 978-0-7456-4321-2 £50.00, $64.95 978-0-7456-4322-9 £15.99, $24.95

10

1