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The term 'idiot' is a damning put down, whether deployed on the playground or in the board room. People stigmatized as being 'intellectually disabled' today must confront variants of the fear and pity with which society has greeted them for centuries. In this ground-breaking new study Patrick McDonagh explores how artistic, scientific and sociological interpretations of idiocy work symbolically and ideologically in society. Drawing upon a broad spectrum of British, French and American resources including literary works (Wordsworth's The Idiot Boy, Dickens Barnaby Rudge, Conrad's The Secret Agent), pedagogical works (Itard's The Wild Boy of Aveyron, Sequin's Traitement moral, hygiene et education des idiots, and Howe's On the courses of Idiocy), medical and scientific papers (Philippe Pinel, Henry Maudsley, William Ireland, John Langdon Downs, Isaac Kerlin, Henry Goddard) and sociological writings (Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, Beames' The Rookeries of London, Dugdal's The Jukes), Idiocy: A Cultural History offers a rich study of the history and representation of mental disability

One of our bestselling and most respected cultural critics, Naomi Wolf, acclaimed author of The Beauty Myth and The End of America, brings us an astonishing work of cutting-edge science and cultural history that radically reframes how we understand the vagina-and, consequently, how we understand women. A "New Biography," Vagina is at once serious, provocative, and immensely entertaining-a radical and endlessly fascinating exploration of the gateway to female consciousness from a remarkable writer and thinker at the forefront of the new feminism.

"'Ugly as sin', 'ugly duckling', 'rear its ugly head'. The word 'ugly' is used freely, yet it is a loaded term: from the simply plain and unsightly to the repulsive and even offensive, definitions slide all over the place. Hovering around 'feared and dreaded', ugliness both repels and fascinates. But the concept of ugliness has a lineage that has long haunted our cultural imagination. Gretchen E. Henderson explores perceptions of ugliness through history, from ancient Roman feasts to medieval grotesque gargoyles, from Mary Shelley's monster cobbled from corpses to the Nazi Exhibition of Degenerate Art. Covering literature, art, music and even Uglydolls, Henderson reveals how ugliness has long posed a challenge to aesthetics and taste. Henderson digs into the muck of ugliness, moving beyond the traditional philosophic argument or mere opposition to beauty, and emerges with more than a selection of fascinating tidbits. Following ugly bodies and dismantling ugly senses across periods and continents, [this book] draws on a wealth of fields to cross cultures and times, delineating the changing map of ugliness as it charges the public imagination. Illustrated with a range of artefacts, this book offers a refreshing perspective that moves beyond the surface to ask what 'ugly' truly is, even as its meaning continues to shift"--

A Cultural History of Peace presents an authoritative survey from ancient times to the present. The set of six volumes covers a span of 2500 years, tracing how different cultures and societies have thought about, struggled for, developed and sustained peace in different ways and at different times.1. A Cultural History of Peace in Antiquity (500 BCE - 800 CE)2. A Cultural History of Peace in the Medieval Age (800 - 1450)3. A Cultural History of Peace in the Renaissance (1450 - 1648)4. A Cultural History of Peace in the Age of Enlightenment (1648 - 1815)5. A Cultural History of Peace in the Age of Empire (1815 - 1920)6. A Cultural History of Peace in the Modern Age (1920 - present)Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters:1. Definitions of Peace2. Human Nature, Peace and War3. Peace, War and Gender4. Peace, Pacifism and Religion5. Representations of Peace6. Peace as Integration7. Peace Movements8. Peace, Security and DeterrenceThis structure offers readers a broad overview of a period within each volume or the opportunity to follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter across volumes.Generously illustrated, the full six-volume set combines to present the most authoritative and comprehensive survey available on peace in history.The Cultural Histories SeriesA Cultural History of Peace is part of The Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available as hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a tangible reference for their shelves or as part of a fully-searchable digital library. The digital product is available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access via www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com.Individual volumes for academics and researchers interested in specific historical periods are also available in print or digitally via www.bloomsburycollections.com

Darkness divides and enlivens opinion. Some are afraid of the dark, or at least prefer to avoid it, and there are many who dislike what it appears to stand for. Others are drawn to this strange domain, delighting in its uncertainties, lured by all the associations of folklore and legend, by the call of the mysterious and of the unknown. The history of our attitudes toward darkness—toward what we cannot quite make out, in all its physical and metaphorical manifestations—challenges the very notion of a world that we can fully comprehend. In this book, Nina Edwards explores darkness as both a physical feature and cultural image, through themes of sight, blindness, consciousness, dreams, fear of the dark, night blindness, and the in-between states of dusk or fog, twilight and dawn, those points or periods of obscuration and clarification. Taking us across the ages, from the dungeons of Gothic novels to the concrete bunkers of Nordic Noir TV shows, Edwards interrogates the full sweep of humanity's attempts to harness and suppress the dark first through our ability to control fire and, later, illuminate the world with electricity. She explores how the idea of darkness pervades art, literature, religion, and our everyday language. Ultimately, Edwards reveals how darkness, whether a shifting concept or palpable physical presence, has fed our imaginations.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- 1. Sport Before High Culture -- 2. Sport Before the Greeks -- 3. Greece -- 4. Spread of the Taste -- 5. Sport in Pre-Industrial High Culture -- 6. Europe, 500-1750 -- 7. England: Land of Sport -- 8. Induced Sport -- 9. American Sport to the 1920s -- 10. The Modern Olympic Games -- 11. American Sport in Recent Times -- 12. The Olympic Games, 1936-1980 -- 13. Sport and Society in the Late Twentieth Century -- 14. Joyous Sport, Beautiful Sport -- Bibliographical Essays -- Index