Lucky Strikes and a Three Martini Lunch: Thinking About Television's Mad Men explores the attributes of the AMC series that allow it to be such a popular and vital contribution to contemporary cultural discourse. Set in the 1960s in New York, the Emmy and Peabody-winning series Mad Men follows the competitive, seductive, and often times ruthless lives of the men and women of Madison Avenue's advertising agencies. Many alluring and captivating qualities constitute the Mad Men experience: the way it evokes nostalgia, even from those who did not live in the era being portrayed; its interrogations into identities, and how these interrogations of the past illuminate viewers' concepts of the present; and, the compelling (and often heartbreaking) relationships between characters who are trying to make their way in an ever-changing and increasingly complex world. It also includes: the titillation of the characters' discovery of the powers of mass mediated communication and its abilities to allow learning, information sharing, manipulation, and connection; and, of course, the striking differences in sex roles and sexuality in the workplace that simultaneously celebrates and challenges views of gendered progress in contemporary times. Twenty-six authors - most coming from academic posts but others from practitioner, administrator, or cultural critic positions-come together to explore these themes through eighteen engaging and thoughtful essays and an illuminating introduction, each unique to this collection and exploring a particular aspect of the series through a different academic lens.

Describes life in ancient Egypt, and looks at mummies, the pyramids, temples, family life, clothing, education, festivals, trade, and warfare

Product Description: This book provides a fresh scholarly perspective on how, over the centuries, Persian kings and noblemen protected and sponsored the religious and intellectual heritage of both Judea and Greece alongside that of Persia itself. The book makes available, for the first time, portraits of the life, upbringing, education, and works of generations of ardently Hellenophile Persian thinkers and scientists, and it demonstrates the pivotal influence they exerted on the works of the emerging European Renaissance and Enlightenment...read more

Product Description: This volume is dedicated to the memory of Charles E. Timberlake. The contributors include his former colleagues and students. The first section deals with "Civil Society in Russia and Eastern Europe." Alla Barabtarlo discusses unfinished research conducted by Charles Timberlake on the liberal activist Ivan Petrunkevich...read more

Product Description: This volume uniquely gathers scholarly articles dealing with very dissimilar and kaleidoscopic perspectives on India. It provides an informative overview of the country, which has wide-ranging influences reaching far from India itself, since it has criss-crossed connections with many countries around the world...read more

Product Description: This collection of articles devoted to Europe was born from the urgent need to present the specificity of European culture, both its unity and diversity, and at the same time create a stimulating dialogue about European culture and its complexities...read more

Product Description: Die Fragestellungen der Kulturwissenschaften beziehen sich auf interdisziplinäre Phänomene und Problemfelder. Im Prozess der Moderne stellt das 19. Jahrhundert so etwas wie das Zentrum und Versuchslabor für kulturelle Neukodierungen jenseits des Ancien Régime dar...read more

Product Description: One of the most important aspects of democracy has been the transition from colonialism. In Taiwan this discussion is typically framed in political discourse that focuses on theoretical issues. Becoming Taiwan departs from this well-traveled route to describe the cultural, historical and social origins of Taiwan's thriving democracy...read more

Product Description: In a context where cultural transformations have become a basic feature of modern life as people and nations are brought closer together, this book tackles transformations occurring within and across cultures of the English-speaking world in the fields of literature, painting, architecture, photography and films...read more

Product Description: Les Guides Belles Lettres des Civilisations proposent un voyage dans le temps et l''espace (Egypte, Grèce, Rome, Inde, Chine, Japon...) et s''adressent aux étudiants, aux curieux d''histoire et de civilisations, aux voyageurs.....read more

Product Description: Watch the past come to life in Eyewitness: Ancient Greece. From their myths and gods, to the first Olympics to the trial and execution of Socrates — explore the history, daily life, beliefs, and achievements of this amazing civilization, whose influence can still be seen today...read more