Books published by Manchester University Press

This book traces the convergence between anarchism, as an anti-authoritarian, anti-statist political doctrine, and eugenics, the science of 'race improvement' in five countries between 1890 and 1940. -- .

A shocking glimpse into the mind of a medieval witch hunter. In 1487, the zealous Dominican inquisitor Heinrich Kramer wrote a treatise that would have a remarkable influence on European history. Blaming women for his own lust, and frustrated by official complacency before what he saw as a monstrous spiritual menace, Kramer penned a practical guide to aid law officers in the identification and prosecution of witches. Fusing theology, lurid anecdotes and advice for those engaged in combating sorcery, The Malleus Maleficarum transports the reader into the dark heart of medieval belief - where fear where fear and the supernatural converged in a gripping struggle for understanding and control. The book led to the burning of numerous heretics and 'witches' and had a lasting impact on the popular image of witchcraft.

An intimate history of the pornographic publisher behind some of the greatest works of the twentieth-century avant-garde. From the 1930s to the 1970s, in New York and in Paris, daring publishers and writers were producing banned pornographic literature. The authors of the books were young, impecunious writers, poets and artists. Most of them wrote to survive, but some relished the freedom to experiment that anonymity provided - men writing as women, women writing as men - and some, such as Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller, went on to become influential figures in modernist literature. Dirty books tells the stories of these writers and their remarkable publishers: Jack Kahane of Obelisk Press and his son Maurice Girodias of Olympia Press, whose catalogue and repertoire anticipated that of the more famous US publisher Grove Press. It offers a humorous and vivid snapshot of a fascinating moment in pornographic and literary history, uncovering a hidden, earlier history of the sexual revolution, when the profits made from erotica helped launch the careers of literary cult figures.

A poignant and deeply researched history of gay oppression in the USSR. In 1934, Joseph Stalin enacted sodomy laws, unleashing a wave of brutal detentions of homosexual men in large Soviet cities. Red closet recounts the compelling stories of people whose lives were affected by those laws, including a naïve Scottish journalist who dared to write to Stalin in an attempt to save his lover from prosecution and a homosexual theatre student who came to Moscow in pursuit of a career amid Stalin's harsh repressions and mass arrests. We also meet a fearless doctor in Siberia who provided medical treatment for gay men at his own peril and a much-loved Soviet singer who hid his homosexuality from the secret police. Each story helps paint the hitherto unknown picture of how Soviet oppression of gay people originated and was perpetuated from Stalin's rule until the demise of the USSR. This book comes at a time when homophobia is again rearing its ugly head under Putin's rule.

The macabre tale of an eighteenth-century woman immortalised in folklore as the 'Manchester Mummy'. In 1835, the Manchester Natural History Society opened the doors of its museum. Taking pride of place in its collection were three mummies: one was Egyptian, one was Peruvian and one was a woman from Cheetham Hill. This is the first time the true story of Hannah Beswick, the so-called 'Manchester Mummy', has been told. Over the years, explanations for the Manchester Mummy have ranged from the chilling - Hannah's fear of being buried alive - to the downright bizarre - the legend of her buried gold - but the truth is more complex. Exploring this fascinating episode from museum history, Unburied sheds light on the Victorian turn to the macabre and changing attitudes to the display of human remains. It debunks the legends and asks what Hannah Beswick can tell us about death and dying, mummies and museums.

A moving exploration of the life and work of the celebrated American writer, blending biography and memoir with literary criticism. Since James Baldwin's death in 1987, his writing - including The Fire Next Time, one of the manifestoes of the Civil Rights Movement, and Giovanni's Room, a pioneering work of gay fiction - has only grown in relevance. Douglas Field was introduced to Baldwin's essays and novels by his father, who witnessed the writer's debate with William F. Buckley at Cambridge University in 1965. In Walking in the dark, he embarks on a journey to unravel his life-long fascination and to understand why Baldwin continues to enthral us decades after his death. Tracing Baldwin's footsteps in France, the US and Switzerland, and digging into archives, Field paints an intimate portrait of the writer's life and influence. At the same time, he offers a poignant account of coming to terms with his father's Alzheimer's disease. Interweaving Baldwin's writings on family, illness, memory and place, Walking in the dark is an eloquent testament to the enduring power of great literature to illuminate our paths.

A considered investigation of a long-standing army base's impact on the British countryside. What is it like to live next door to a British Army base? Beyond the barracks provides an eye-opening account of the sprawling military presence on Salisbury Plain, drawing on a wide range of voices from both sides of the divide. Targeted for expansion under government plans to reorganise the UK's global defence estate, the Salisbury 'super garrison' offers a unique opportunity to explore the impact of the military footprint in a particular place. But this is no ordinary environment: as well as being the world-famous site of Stonehenge, the grasslands of Salisbury Plain are home to rare plants and wildlife. How does the army take responsibility for conserving this unique landscape as it trains young men and women to use lethal weapons? Are its claims that its presence is a positive for the environment anything more than propaganda? Beyond the barracks investigates these questions against the backdrop of a historic landscape inscribed with the legacy of perpetual war.

A rich and revealing examination of the legendary pop duo Soft Cell. Soft Cell are not your average pop band. Marc Almond and Dave Ball may be best known for the string of hits they released in 1981, but the powerful first phase of their collaboration embraced a staggering array of sounds, influences and innovations that would change the face of music to come. In Bedsit land, Patrick Clarke plunges into the archives and interviews more than sixty contributors, including the band members themselves, to follow Soft Cell through the many strange and sprawling worlds that shaped their extraordinary career. They lead him from the faded camp glamour of the British seaside to the dizzying thrills of the New York club scene. From transgressive student performance art to the sleaze and squalor of pre-gentrified Soho. From the glitz of British showbiz to the drug-addled chaos of post-Franco Spain.

A daring investigation that explores how women are targeted and recruited by the far right. As the far right has gained popularity and acceptance around the world, its ranks have swelled with an unlikely category of members: women. Women play significant roles in far-right movements, acting as propagandists, prizes to be won and mother-warriors of the nation. But up to now their activities have been largely overlooked. In Pink-pilled, Lois Shearing provides a cutting-edge account of how the far right has used the internet to recruit women, while shedding light on what life is like for women within these movements, including their experiences of misogyny and violence. Understanding how and why women join movements that explicitly aim to restrict their autonomy is essential if we want to fight back. Pink-pilled offers key insights for countering women's radicalisation and building communities resistant to far-right thought.

A bold, new history of British Jewish life since the Second World War. Historian Gavin Schaffer wrestles Jewish history away from the question of what others have thought about Jews, focusing instead on the experiences of Jewish people themselves. Exploring the complexities of inclusion and exclusion, he shines a light on groups that have been marginalised within Jewish history and culture, such as queer Jews, Jews married to non-Jews, Israel-critical Jews and even Messianic Jews, while offering a fresh look at Jewish activism, Jewish religiosity and Zionism. Weaving these stories together, Schaffer argues that there are good reasons to consider Jewish Britons as a unitary whole, even as debates rage about who is entitled to call themselves a Jew. Challenging the idea that British Jewish life is in terminal decline. An unorthodox history demonstrates that Jewish Britain is thriving and that Jewishness is deeply embedded in the country's history and culture.

A compelling account of the project to transform post-war Manchester, revealing the clash between utopian vision and compromised reality. Urban renewal in Britain was thrilling in its vision, yet partial and incomplete in its implementation. For the first time, this deep study of a renewal city reveals the complex networks of actors behind physical change and stagnation in post-war Britain. Using the nested scales of region, city and case-study sites, the book explores the relationships between Whitehall legislation, its interpretation by local government planning officers and the on-the-ground impact through urban architectural projects. Each chapter highlights the connections between policy goals, global narratives and the design and construction of cities. The Cold War, decolonialisation, rising consumerism and the oil crisis all feature in a richly illustrated account of architecture and planning in post-war Manchester.

Starting with the astonishing lone-wolf terrorist attacks in Oslo and Utøyain July 2011 and the extraordinary mutation in security thinking that happened in its aftermath, this book develops an innovative theory of terrorism as the enchantment of danger.

'Karelse delivers a cracking Black Feminist call to decolonise "Wellbeing" with her forensic exposé of the dark side of the White Mindfulness industry and its colonial co-option of Eastern teachings for Western gain.'>'Disrupting White Mindfulness offers a generous and critical lens of exploration, helping to free the ancient practice of mindfulness from systems of dominance, restoring the practice back to its original project of liberation for all who seek it.'>Mindfulness is now everywhere in the West. Over the last four decades, the movement has exploded in the US and UK, and is now found everywhere from boardrooms and bedrooms to schools, prisons and hospitals. Yet popular mindfulness is infused in whiteness and late capitalism. This book reveals how its easy fit in Western society replicates existing social norms and dominant narratives: an essentially White Mindfulness reflects racialised institutional profiles and a largely White, middle-class audience. Taking a critical look at this lucrative industry, Disrupting White Mindfulness explores the influences of neoliberalism and postracialism, and the invisible force of whiteness that marginalises and excludes People of the Global Majority from meaningful leadership and decision-making. Engaging with decolonising initiatives rooted in embodied justice, Disrupting White Mindfulness offers a path and an invitation for a radically transformed mindfulness, one which moves away from whiteness to embrace solutions built on difference and on indigenous, queer, and global South perspectives.

The first biography of a cricketing great, exploring his achievements as a player, manager and political activist. Clyde Walcott was one of the most important cricketers of all time. As a batsman he was part of the legendary 'three Ws' with Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell that helped give West Indies cricket a new identity distinct from its colonial past. After test cricket he became a prominent administrator and advocate of Black consciousness, managing the great West Indies teams that dominated the sport in the 1980s. A vocal supporter of using cricket to apply pressure to the South African apartheid regime, in 1992 he became chairman of the International Cricket Council - the first Black man in that influential role. Shining a light on Walcott's largely ignored part in effecting change through the vehicle of cricket, this book also shows how he contributed to dramatic social transformation in Guyana as cricket and social organiser for the country's sugar estates from 1954 to 1970, bringing about improvements in the living conditions and self-esteem of plantation workers while promoting the emergence of several world-class cricketers from a previously neglected corner of the Caribbean.

Featuring a foreword from Andrew McMillan An alternative celebration of LGBTQ history in Britain, offering tales of queer life from four cities. When it comes to queer British history, London has stolen the limelight. But what about the millions of queer lives lived elsewhere? In Queer beyond London, two leading LGBTQ historians take you on a journey through four English cites from the sixties to the noughties, exploring the northern post-industrial heartlands and taking in the salty air of the seaside cities of the south. Covering the bohemian, artsy world of Brighton, the semi-hidden queer life of military Plymouth, the lesbian activism of Leeds and the cutting-edge dance and drag scenes of Manchester, they show how local people, places and politics shaped LGBTQ life in each city, forging vibrant and distinctive queer cultures of their own. Using pioneering community histories from each place, and including the voices of queer people who have made their lives there, the book tells the local stories at the heart of our national history.

A hundred years after the tragic 1924 British Everest expedition, this collection explores the wider social and cultural history of the mountain. Mount Everest looms large in the popular imagination. Since the deaths of mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine in 1924, histories of the mountain have overwhelmingly focused on the mythologies of western male adventure and conquest. But there are many more stories waiting to be told. Other Everests brings together new voices and perspectives on the historical and cultural significance of Everest in the modern world. The book shines a light on the overlooked role of local people and high-altitude workers, while also revealing the significant contributions women have made to climbing the mountain and writing its history. It explores the depiction of Everest in a range of media and investigates how the forces of nationalism and commercialism have shaped many different 'Everests'. After years of exploitation, Indigenous people are now reclaiming Mount Everest in the twenty-first century. Other Everests re-examines the past and present of the world's highest peak, presenting an exciting vision of what Everest might become in the future.

The first history of one of London's most extraordinary streets. Running along the Thames's northern shore and spanning three-quarters of a mile from Trafalgar Square to Temple Bar, the Strand has been a witness to London's growth and change from the earliest years of the city's existence. In The Strand: A biography, Geoff Browell and Eileen Chanin uncover the deep history of this remarkable street. Tracing its origins in the Roman era, they reveal how it grew in importance as authority shifted from church to aristocracy, then to commerce, media and law. Over time, everything that mattered converged on the Strand: tradition and ceremony clashed with rebellion and destitution. By 1910, the street was known as the 'centre of the world'. Drawing on remarkable archival discoveries, Browell and Chanin present the most complete and compelling history of the Strand ever written. Filled with surprising, untold stories, The Strand: A biography is a must-read for lovers of one of the world's greatest cities.

A cutting-edge exploration of how Marx's ideas have been adopted and adapted by revolutionary thinkers in the Global South. For much of the twentieth century, the ideas of Karl Marx not only inspired resistance to colonial rule but also provided the backbone of other movements for social justice around the world. But today the legacy of Marxism is contested, with some seeing it as Eurocentric and irrelevant to the wider global struggle. In Global Marxism, Simin Fadaee argues that Marxism remains a living tradition and the cornerstone of revolutionary theory and practice in the global South. She explores the lives, ideas and legacies of a group of revolutionaries who played an exceptional role in contributing to counter-hegemonic change. Figures such as Mao Zedong, Kwame Nkrumah, Ali Shariati and Subcomandante Marcos did not simply accept the version of Marxism that was given to them - they adapted it to local conditions and contexts. In doing this they demonstrated that Marxism is not a rigid set of propositions but an evolving force whose transformative potential remains enormous. This global Marxism has much to teach us in the never-ending task of grasping the changing historical conditions of capitalism and the complex world in which we live.

The revised and updated edition of this popular title shines a light on the precarious situation of art workers today. Culture keeps you fit and healthy. Culture brings communities together. Culture improves your education. This is the message endlessly repeated by the government and arts organisations. But as this ground-breaking book explains, we need to be cautious about culture. Culture is bad for you presents an unflinching portrait of the cultural landscape in the UK today. It reveals how women, people of colour and those from working class backgrounds are systematically excluded, despite the claims of cultural institutions and businesses. Updated to provide a report on the situation after COVID, this edition reveals that despite grand promises from those at the top, exclusion and precarity remain the norm. While inequalities of workforce and audience remain unaddressed, the positive contribution culture makes to society can never be fully realised. This book offers a powerful call to transform cultural and creative industries.

A fascinating book exploring the early modern authors who helped to shape Shakespeare's beloved plays. Shakespeare's plays have influenced generations of writers, but who were the early modern playwrights who influenced him? Shakespeare's borrowed feathers offers a fresh look at William Shakespeare and the community of playwrights that shaped his work. This compelling book argues that we need to see early modern drama as a communal enterprise, with playwrights borrowing from and adapting one another's work. From John Lyly's wit to the collaborative genius of John Fletcher, to Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's borrowed feathers offers fresh insights into Shakespeare's artistic development and shows us new ways of looking at the masterpieces that have enchanted audiences for centuries.

A smart, incisive toolkit for understanding how the framing of information influences the way we see the world. In today's chaotic media landscape, working out who and what to believe is a daunting task. Lies and misinformation are only part of the problem - often the way a story is presented has just as much effect on us as what the story is. In Framing, sociologist Mikael Klintman offers a cutting-edge toolkit for exposing and analysing the rhetoric that saturates our everyday lives. Combining insights from the social sciences, economics and evolutionary biology, he lays out a four-part approach to understanding how information is 'framed' for us, built around the key elements of texture, temperature, position and size. Demonstrating this approach through an array of real-world examples, from climate change denial to the subtle messaging of caviar ads, Klintman reveals how canny communicators mislead us without relying on overt deception. At the same time, he probes the deeper evolutionary and cultural roots of our susceptibility to frames.

"Men in Political Theory" builds on feminist re-readings of the traditional canon of male writers in political philosophy by turning the "gender lens" on to the representation of men in widely studied texts. It explains the distinction between "man" as an apparently de-gendered "individual" or "citizen" and "man" as an overtly gendered being in human society. The ten chapters on Plato, Aristotle, Jesus, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx and Engels show the operation of the "gender lens" in different ways, depending on how each philosopher deploys concepts of men and masculinity to pose and solve classic problems.

The Swiss Reformation was a seminal event of the 16th century and the source of a distinctive Protestant culture whose influence spread across Europe from Transylvania to Scotland. This book provides the first comprehensive study of the subject in any language. The author argues that the movement must be understood in terms of the historical evolution of the Swiss Confederation, its unique and fluid structures, the legacy of the mercenary trade, the distinctive character of Swiss theology, the powerful influence of Renaissance humanism, and, the roles played by the dominant figures, Huldrych Zwingli and Heinrich Bullinger.

Refugee crises are one of the gravest problems facing the modern world. This book explores the paradox of why countries such as Britain pride themselves on their past treatment of refugees yet are suspicious and hostile towards asylum seekers trying to gain entry. It explores the contemporary treatment and representation of refugees ranging from the Huguenots in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries through to the many groups that have gained entry more recently. Was the treatment of refugees such as Jews escaping Tsarist and later Nazi persecution as welcoming as politicians and others now make out? Why have some groups been remembered positively, whilst others have been forgotten? Remembering refugees plays particular attention to how historians and those in the heritage industry have dealt with the refugee presence. By adopting an original and critical framework, it asks why a variety of academic disciplines, as well as politicians, the media and the general public, have difficulty with refugees. A richly textured book that utilizes a huge range of sources from parliamentary debates through to novels, films and autobiographical writing, it argues that the current panic about refugees and asylum seekers says more about the moral failings of contemporary society than it does about those fleeing persecution.

This book examines the response of American society to the My Lai massacreand its ambiguous place in American national memory. The author argues thatthe massacre revelations left many Americans untroubled. It was only whenthe soldiers most immediately responsible came to be tried that oppositionto the conflict grew, for these prosecutions were regarded by supporters ofthe war as evidence that the national leaders no longer had the will to dowhat was necessary to win.

Andrew Davies is the creator of the British TV programs" Pride and Prejudice, Othello, " and "The Way We Live Now." Although best known for his adaptations of the work of writers such as Jane Austen and George Eliot, he has written numerous original drama series, single plays, films, stage plays and books. This volume offers a critical appraisal of Davies's work, and assesses his contribution to British television.

This book offers readings of Barker's innovations in narrative form, her revisionist perspectives on history, class and gender, and her preoccupation with themes of trauma, haunting and terror. It also analyzes the reasons for her success and significance as a novelist. The chapters draw on contemporary theories of critical realism, gender and social identities, memory and narrative, in order to outline the debates with which Barker's work has consistently engaged.

This is the most comprehensive study to date of Amy Tan's work, offering close readings of her texts in the context of broader debates about the representation of identity, history and reality. In contrast with Tan's own American-born narrator, and mainstream critics, Bella Adams looks beyond the stereotypes which appear in Tan's books, and explores the ways in which Chinese immigrants and their American relatives struggle to understand each other's "best qualities" via the Chinese tradition of the "talk story." She emphasizes Tan's American narrators' process of becoming Chinese and discovering "real China," and the significance of the ironic staging of these moments.