Books by James Morrison

An examination of the disturbing rise of 'scrounger-phobia' in the media and society at large, and how this has fuelled popular hostility towards benefit claimants.

This book argues that Britain is gripped by an endemic and ongoing panic about the position of children in society - which frames them as, alternately, victims and threats. It argues the press is a key player in promoting this discourse, which is rooted in a wide-scale breakdown in social trust.

Despite overwhelming acclaim for his work, director Terrence Malick remains an under-examined figure of an era of filmmaking that also produced such notables as Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese. His films Badlands and Days of Heaven remain benchmarks of American cinema, while his recent The Thin Red Line returned him to the pantheon of American directors. In this new study, the authors examine each of his films in detail, drawing on extensive archival research to construct a portrait of his working methods as a director as well as the thematic, aesthetic, and cultural components of his work. This book provides a comprehensive and penetrating study as well as an informative and adventurous work of film criticism.

Tracing the filmmaker Roman Polanski's remarkably diverse career from its beginnings to the present, this book provides commentary on the major films in their historical, cultural, social, and artistic contexts.

A fascinating essay acquaints students with Homeric values and another examines the Odyssey as literature, offering expert discussion of the work's structure and poetic features and situating it in the oral tradition it exemplifies.