Books published by Manchester University Press

Hard sell explores advertising in Britain in the 1950s and 60s through extensive new archival research in Britain and America, combining the study of business practices with analysis of television and press advertisements. -- .

Drawing on research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, this book provides the first detailed study of how young people in Britain use popular culture to shape and express their political views and values. -- .

This book looks at imperial heroes from behind the legends of a dozen major colonial figures on both sides of the Channel, revisiting the familiar stories from a radically new angle. It demonstrates how their reputations were made over several decades, and depicts the milieus and individuals who supported, and benefited from, these heroic stories. -- .

This book discusses how and why American modernist writers turned to Ireland at various stages during their careers. By placing events such as the Celtic Revival and the Easter Rising at the centre of the discussion, it shows how Irishness became a cultural determinant in the work of American modernists. -- .

This book examines same-sex unions policy (SSU) developments in eighteen western democracies and seeks to explain why the overwhelming majority of these countries has implemented a national law to recognise gay and lesbian couples since 1989. -- .

This book brings together five French directors who have established themselves as among the most exciting working today: Bruno Dumont, Robert Guediguian, Laurent Cantet, Abdellatif Kechiche, and Claire Denis. It explores their unique strategies of representation and framing that reflect a profound investment in the geophysical world. -- .

Discusses uses of photography in the context of art practice, and relates them to wider cultural debates. Focusing on conceptual and political projects between 1970 and the turn of the century, it draws parallels between issues discussed in theory and those displayed visually in practice. -- .

British Films of the 1970s offers highly detailed and insightful critical analysis of a range of individual films of the period. This analysis draws upon an innovative range of critical methodologies which place the film texts within a rich variety of historical contexts. -- .

The first complete study of one of Britain's leading television writers, Jimmy McGovern. With chapters covering series such as Brookside, Cracker, The Street and Accused, the book also analyses a key period in the history of television drama. -- .

Calculating compassion examines the origins of British relief work in late-nineteenth-century wars on the continent and the fringes of Empire. The author draws on new archival research to reveal the preoccupations of nineteenth-century relief workers, and the legacies for relief work today. -- .

Provides an original and challenging perspective on the history of chocolate, questioning the romantic images of the commodity offered in marketing campaigns. It weaves together a variety of previously unexamined sources including oral histories of women workers, advertising material from the Rowntree and Cadbury companies and archival material. -- .

This is a study of change and continuity in the iconographics of art and the representations of artists during the sixteenth century in Western European traditions, especially Italy and the Netherlands. -- .

The first book written on Alan Bennett's work for television, including his plays, series, documentaries and biographical pieces. -- .

A comprehensive, original and accessible account of all aspects of Jean Cocteau's work in the cinema. The first major study in English for over forty years. Casts new light on Cocteau's most celebrated films as well as the lesser known ones. -- .

A wide-ranging and interdisciplinary study of the impact of the European Reformation on the architecture, arrangement and appearance of places of worship. -- .

This is the first biography of the last major unknown figure in European history. The Duke of Lerma was the first and greatest of the royal favourites of the European seventeenth century. He was the greatest art patron of his generation and the greatest lay builder in Spanish history. This study is profoundly well researched and fluently written. -- .

This book offers a new account of the British Empire's greatest failure and its most disturbing legacy. Using a wide range of published and archival sources, this study of racial discourse from 1870 to 1914 argues that race, then as now, was a contested territory within the metropolitan culture. -- .

Situates Jean Genet's theatre within the wider social, spatial and political contexts of France in the 1950s and 1960s. This book argues that his theory and practice of political theatre have more in common with the affirmative ideas of thinkers such as Henri Lefebvre, Jacques Ranciere and Alain Badiou.

In an age of sleaze, scandal and corruption associated with financial crisis and economic downturn across the globe, citizens want more transparency and accountability in politics. This pioneering book, available for the first time in paperback, examines a principal means by which this can be achieved: the regulation of lobbyists. -- .

An incisive, witty and comprehensive textbook that looks at the many genres of comedy from silent film onwards. Covering film, televison and radio it is not only up-to-date but also provides full historical context. It focuses on all of the key issues studied on university courses. -- .

This, the first modern critical study of a lyricist, humorist and social protest poet who was a household name throughout the Victorian period, explores the relationship between Thomas Hood's playfulness, his liberal politics, and contemporary cultural debate about labour and recreation, literary materiality and urban consumption. -- .

This book outlines and evaluates the political thought of the Conservative Party through a detailed examination of its principal thinkers from Harold Macmillan to the present. -- .

Examines the musical side of Anthony Burgess, an astonishingly prolific and talented composer, revealing how his lifelong involvement in music is an essential key toward understanding his life and work.

Montage is an informed and highly original study in the styles and histories of film editing. Drawing on a wide range of directors and films, the book demonstrates the fundamental importance of montage aesthetics to the art of cinema and the practice of film criticism. -- .

Examines the rise of the British empire and the various debates among historians of imperialism over the past two hundred years. It discusses why the empire is so attractive to historians, why there is so much debate and controversy surrounding the subject. -- .

Public issue television is a major contribution to understanding the relationship between television, politics and society. By tracing the history of the high-profile series World in Action across four decades it charts the interwoven processes of media practice and social change in a manner unrivalled in its depth and detail. -- .

Thinking through original empirical research, this book explores the relations between girls' bodies and images from a Deleuzian perspective. Holding in suspension models of cause-and-effect and of subject(ivity)/object(ivity) it asks, what do images make possible for the becoming of bodies? -- .

A fully contextualized, critical biography of William Hesketh Lever, 1st Lord Leverhulme (1851-1925), the founder of the Lever Brothers' Sunlight Soap empire. Intended for a broad academic, student and popular readership. -- .