Product Description: Celebrity culture, health care, and travel attract attention in America’s media-saturated society. These worlds curiously intersect in the study of medical tourism. Although the US touts some of the finest and best-known medical facilities in the world, many jet-setting A-list celebrities, who can well afford the finest of health care, seek treatment far away from home, popularizing international sites, physicians, and procedures...read more

‘Presumed intimacy’ refers to a relationship that requires instant trust, confidence, disclosure and the recognition of vulnerability. Chris Rojek investigates the impact of relationships of ‘presumed intimacy’, where audiences form strong identifications with mediated others, whether they be celebrities, political personae or online friends. Arguing that the way the media are able to manage these relationships is a significant aspect of their power structure, the core of the book is an investigation into the complicity of the media in encouraging presumed intimacy and the cultural, social and political consequences arising from this. Beyond this, it examines how intimacy is performed as a masquerade in many social settings – the scripts we follow in social settings that try to manufacture a shortcut to intimacy.A compelling look into mediated relationships in the network society, Presumed Intimacy will be a key contribution to the critical analysis of society, media and culture.

Product Description: We follow celebrities on Twitter and Facebook, watch them on television, and read about them in supermarket checkout lines. Our relationship with celebrities has never been so immediate. Their personal trials are news headlines and water cooler talk...read more

Product Description: "Opposing Viewpoints is the leading source for libraries and classrooms in need of current-issue materials. The viewpoints are selected from a wide range of highly respected sources and publications"--

Product Description: In 2008, Katy Perry roared her way to singing stardom. Since then, she has become both a performing powerhouse and a business sensation. This is the story of how she achieved success both on and off the stage.

Product Description: Before Sigmund Freud made dreams the cornerstone of understanding an individual's inner life, Americans shared their dreams unabashedly with one another through letters, diaries, and casual conversation. In this innovative book, highly regarded historian Andrew Burstein goes back for the first time to discover what we can learn about the lives and emotions of Americans, from colonial times to the beginning of the modern age...read more

Product Description: History is about much more than dusty books, dreary dates, and long-forgotten battles. History is also about sex appeal! Historical Heartthrobs compiles photos and life stories of 50 of the sexiest men and women from history and asks the essential question: Would you really want to date them? Consider George Sand, for instance...read more

Product Description: Lady Gaga represents both the height of celebrity and a disruption of the norms surrounding the social position. This book charts the way the pop star manages the celebrity persona in her relationships with her fans, the development of her gender identity, her parodying of other celebrities, and her navigation of the legal and economic system that make up the music industry...read more

Product Description: "Ken Gross is one of the premiere auto writers in the United States. This is a terrific book... a great Father's Day gift and a great read." - Jay LenoCars and rock ‘n roll have always gone hand in hand. Whether it’s a garage band piling into some decrepit rig to get to the next gig or a killer guitar riff blasting from a Mustang, rock ‘n roll keeps us moving when we’re behind the wheel...read more

Product Description: Provides profiles of six famous people whose lives were cut short, discussing their backgrounds, careers, and tragic deaths.

Product Description: “The Style Mentors is a vibrant new take on fashion and style.”—Francisco Costa, Women’s Creative Director, Calvin Klein CollectionIn The Style Mentors, fashion authority Elyssa Dimant profiles more than 80 famous contemporary women with great style, offering fashion-conscious women role models for the here and now...read more