Books in the The Cultural Histories Series series

A thematic overview of how animals were seen and used in the period from1920 to the present day, covering symbolism, hunting, domestication, sports and entertainment, science, philosophy, and art.

To call something modern is to assert something fundamental about the social, cultural, economic and technical sophistication of that thing, over and against what has come before. A Cultural History of Theatre in the Modern Age provides an interdisciplinary overview of theatre and performance in their social and material contexts from the late 19th century through the early 2000s, emphasizing key developments and trends that both exemplify and trouble the various meanings of the term 'modern', and the identity of modernist theatre and performance. Highly illustrated with 40 images, the ten chapters each take a different theme as their focus: institutional frameworks; social functions; sexuality and gender; the environment of theatre; circulation; interpretations; communities of production; repertoire and genres; technologies of performance; and knowledge transmission.

A thematic overview of how sexuality was perceived in the period from 1920 to 2000, covering homosexuality, heterosexuality, sexual variations, prostitution, medicine, religion, erotica and popular belief.

A thematic overview of how sexuality was perceived in the period from 1820 to 1920, covering homosexuality, heterosexuality, sexual variations, prostitution, medicine, religion, erotica and popular belief.

A thematic overview of how sexuality was perceived in the period from 350 to 1450, covering homosexuality, heterosexuality, sexual variations, prostitution, medicine, religion, erotica and popular belief.

A thematic overview of how the human body was perceived in the period from 1650 to 1800, covering birth and death, health and disease, sex and eroticism, medicine, popular beliefs and the self.

A thematic overview of how the human body was perceived in the period from 500 to 1500, covering birth and death, health and disease, sex and eroticism, medicine, popular beliefs and the self.

A thematic overview of how the human body was perceived in the period from 750 BCE to 1000 CE, covering birth and death, health and disease, sex and eroticism, medicine, popular beliefs and the self.

A thematic overview of how animals were seen and used in the period from 1600 to 1800, covering symbolism, hunting, domestication, sports and entertainment, science, philosophy, and art.

A thematic overview of how animals were seen and used in the period from 1400 to 1600, covering symbolism, hunting, domestication, sports and entertainment, science, philosophy, and art.

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries form a very distinctive period in European food history. This was a time when enduring feudal constraints in some areas contrasted with widening geographical horizons and the emergence of a consumer society.While cereal based diets and small scale trade continued to be the mainstay of the general population, elite tastes shifted from Renaissance opulence toward the greater simplicity and elegance of dining à la française. At the same time, growing spatial mobility and urbanization boosted the demand for professional cooking and commercial catering. An unprecedented wealth of artistic, literary and medical discourses on food and drink allows fascinating insights into contemporary responses to these transformations.A Cultural History of Food in the Early Modern Age presents an overview of the period with essays on food production, food systems, food security, safety and crises, food and politics, eating out, professional cooking, kitchens and service work, family and domesticity, body and soul, representations of food, and developments in food production and consumption globally.

As much as the nineteenth and early twentieth century gardens and their designs were a product and representation of industrialisation and urbanisation, they were also motors of change. Gardens became an industry in and of themselves. They were both the last resting places of the dead and cultivated plots for surv ival. Gardens were therapeutic environments regarded as civilising, socialising and assimialting institutions, and they were designed and perceived as social landscapes and community playgrounds. Rich with symbolism, gardens were treated as the subject and the setting for literature and painting and were often considerd works of art in themselves. In a time of empire, when plants were drawn from across the globe, gardens also reflected territorial conquest and expansion and they fostered national, regional and local identities.A Cultural History of Gardens in the Age of Empire presents an overview of the period with essays on issues of design, types of gardens, planting, use and reception, issues of meaning, verbal and visual representation of gardens, and the relationship of gardens to the larger landscape.