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Recognition in the Age of Social Media
The desire to be recognized is a basic human trait. In contemporary society, social media platforms play a key role in defining how processes of recognition take shape. To post, to like, or to comment have become daily practices of expressing individual recognition. On the one hand, social media platforms make it easier for individuals to be visible and to be recognized; on the other hand, they control the structure of these dynamics.
This timely and original book reflects on processes of recognition on social media platforms. Revisiting traditional discussions on recognition theory, Bruno Campanella investigates how the field of media and communication has used the concept and poses new questions raised by the omnipresence of social media. He argues that existing work does not fully explore the impact of platforms on contemporary processes of recognition. Individuals must learn new skills to make themselves visible online, but how to achieve this changes as a consequence of the role played by platforms: what is seen depends on decisions taken by their algorithms, which impacts how individuals and social groups are valued in society.
Recognition in the Age of Social Media is a key contribution to the field, and a must-read for students and scholars of media and communication, sociology, and politics.
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£15.20 -
Social Media in an English Village: (Or how to keep people at just the right distance) (Why We Post)
Daniel Miller spent 18 months undertaking an ethnographic study with the residents of an English village, tracking their use of the different social media platforms. Following his study, he argues that a focus on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram does little to explain what we post on social media. Instead, the key to understanding how people in an English village use social media is to appreciate just how ‘English’ their usage has become. He introduces the ‘Goldilocks Strategy’: how villagers use social media to calibrate precise levels of interaction ensuring that each relationship is neither too cold nor too hot, but ‘just right’.
He explores the consequences of social media for groups ranging from schoolchildren through to the patients of a hospice, and he compares these connections to more traditional forms of association such as the church and the neighbourhood. Above all, Miller finds an extraordinary clash between new social media that bridges the private and the public domains, and an English sensibility that is all about keeping these two domains separate.
Praise for Social Media in an English Village
‘The book has definitely lived up to my expectations and changed the way I think about social media. … a truly illuminating and recommendable [reading] experience.’
New Horizons in English Studies‘This fine study is located in anthropology, and there
will therefore be some jarring interpretations for scholars in internet,
media, communication and cultural studies. This disciplinary dissonance
is productive and potent. The concept of “polymedia” proposed
throughout the book will hold a currency far beyond this monograph and
series. This concept describes how a network of social media platforms
is used to build a communication system. Further, the key and
under-recognised change in social media in the past five years – the
intensification of visuality in social media through Instagram and
Snapchat – is handled well. Miller also captures the social function of
mobile phone cameras: “Taking a photograph has become rather like
holding a drink – a key mode by which everyone acknowledges how much fun
they are having.” …Delicately textured case studies entwine around
this local study, such as the use of social media for people with
terminal illnesses and resident in hospices. Patients can continue
conversations with family and friends, particularly with the use of a
webcam to offer (digital) face to (digital) face support. Miller’s rich
research unearths how the local use of digital media reveals
opportunities, strategies and challenges for guarding and freeing the
spaces between public and private communication.’
Times Higher Education‘This thought-provoking publication will appeal to both the curious layperson and media scholars, no doubt igniting introspection about our own use of social media.’
LSE Review of Books‘Based on rich ethnographic data, the book offers vivid examples of the ground-breaking discoveries made in digital anthropology in the past two decades. Miller – a recognised pioneer in this field of study – is profoundly concerned not only with the change that social media have brought to people’s lives but also the change that people make through and with social media. By situating social media in the practices and socialities of people in a particular locality, this highly readable book achieves both empirical and theoretical depth and offers a valuable piece of social science literature for students and scholars interested in social media as ways of attaining ever new possibilities of human experience and social life.’
Social AnthropologyRead more
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(Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender and Aspirational Labor in the Social Media Economy
An illuminating investigation into a class of enterprising women aspiring to “make it” in the social media economy but often finding only unpaid workProfound transformations in our digital society have brought many enterprising women to social media platforms―from blogs to YouTube to Instagram―in hopes of channeling their talents into fulfilling careers. In this eye-opening book, Brooke Erin Duffy draws much-needed attention to the gap between the handful who find lucrative careers and the rest, whose “passion projects” amount to free work for corporate brands.
Drawing on interviews and fieldwork, Duffy offers fascinating insights into the work and lives of fashion bloggers, beauty vloggers, and designers. She connects the activities of these women to larger shifts in unpaid and gendered labor, offering a lens through which to understand, anticipate, and critique broader transformations in the creative economy. At a moment when social media offer the rousing assurance that anyone can “make it”―and stand out among freelancers, temps, and gig workers―Duffy asks us all to consider the stakes of not getting paid to do what you love.Read more
£16.10£17.10 -
A Social History of the Media
The first three editions of this bestselling book have established A Social History of the Media as a classic, providing a masterful overview of communication media and of the social and cultural contexts within which they emerged and evolved over time.This fourth edition has been revised and updated throughout to reflect the latest developments in the field. Additionally, an expanded introduction explores the wide range of secondary literature and theory that inform the study of media history today, and a new eighth chapter surveys the revolutionary media developments of the twenty-first century, including in particular the rise of social and participatory media and the penetration of these technologies into every sphere of social and private life.
Avoiding technological determinism and rejecting assumptions of straightforward evolutionary progress, this book brings out the rich and varied histories of communication media. In an age of fast-paced media developments, a thorough understanding of media history is more important than ever, and this text will continue to be the first choice for students and scholars across the world.
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£18.00 -
I’m Rich, You’re Poor: How to Give Social Media a Reality Check
The world is full of books about how to be rich. This is not one of them.
Today, many of us are feeling the pinch – and being bombarded with portrayals of social media ‘perfection’ is making that pinch feel more like a punch.
We may know that social media – with all its billionaires and beauty queens – is just a highlight reel. So why is it still making most of us feel so low?
Comedian Shabaz Ali wants to help you see the funny side of social media again. Because while it looks nice to live up in an ivory tower, this book reminds us that it is much more fun to be part of the baying mob that surrounds it.
This laugh-out-loud deep-dive into social media’s ridiculously rich, will help you love your own penny-pinched, rough-around-the-edges, extraordinarily ordinary life.
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£5.70 -
Social Media Marketing Specialist Coloring Book. Funny Unique Snarky Adult Coloring Book of Creative Supportive Quotes for Advertising Agency Coworker … Idea for Appreciation….
Are you looking for a gift which is perfect for Marketer or Advertiser? Want to relax from the stress of a marketing job?
Packed with stunning, high-quality illustrations, this unique marketer coloring book features detailed images with a wide range of motivational, humorous comments and sayings about sales and customer service.
It is designed to provide hours of coloring enjoyment, as well as help you practice mindfulness and relieve anxiety. It features relatable and hilarious phrases which all marketing coworker will agree with! Phrases include:
- My accountant asked me “What’s your net pay?” So I said, “About 2 cents per click.
- I made a joke about organic reach on Facebook… nobody got it.
- Advertising Manager Definition: someone who does precision guesswork based on unreliable data provided by those of questionable knowledge.
It is a perfect gift for coworkers and managers to thank them for their dedication and endless patience. And it also helps sparkle your creativity and experience the benefits of mindfulness.
In this book, you will find:
- All pictures are printed on high-quality paper
- You can use pencil, pen, or marker without the worry of bleed-through
- Single-sided coloring pages to prevent bleed-through and allow you to easily remove and frame your favorites
- A combination of simple and intricate designs to accommodate every skill level
- And hours upon hours of coloring enjoyment and meditative relaxation
- A great gift for Birthdays, Christmas or other Festivals. Give your friend a present that will surprise them
This book makes a fantastic funny gift idea for a marketer or advertising agent. So if you have a family member or friend who works in a marketing company, they will be sure to love this adult coloring book!
Buy now and start coloring today!
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£6.50 -
The Social Organism: A Radical Understanding of Social Media to Transform Your Business and Life
“A must-read for business leaders and anyone who wants to understand all the implications of a social world.” — Bob Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney CompanyFrom tech visionaries Oliver Luckett and Michael J. Casey, a groundbreaking, must-read theory of social media — how it works, how it’s changing human life, and how we can master it for good and for profit.
In barely a decade, social media has positioned itself at the center of twenty-first century life. The combined power of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Vine have helped topple dictators and turned anonymous teenagers into celebrities overnight. In the social media age, ideas spread and morph through shared hashtags, photos, and videos, and the most compelling and emotive ones can transform public opinion in mere days and weeks, even attitudes and priorities that had persisted for decades.
How did this happen? The scope and pace of these changes have left traditional businesses — and their old-guard marketing gatekeepers — bewildered. We simply do not comprehend social media’s form, function, and possibilities. It’s time we did.
In The Social Organism, Luckett and Casey offer a revolutionary theory: social networks — to an astonishing degree–mimic the rules and functions of biological life. In sharing and replicating packets of information known as memes, the world’s social media users are facilitating an evolutionary process just like the transfer of genetic information in living things. Memes are the basic building blocks of our culture, our social DNA. To master social media — and to make online content that impacts the world — you must start with the Social Organism.
With the scope and ambition of The Second Machine Age and James Gleick’s The Information, The Social Organism is an indispensable guide for business leaders, marketing professionals, and anyone serious about understanding our digital world — a guide not just to social media, but to human life today and where it is headed next.
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£3.40£21.00 -
Social Media: A Critical Introduction
Never look at social media the same way again.Social media are an integral part of contemporary society. From news and politics to language and everyday life, they have changed the way we communicate, use information and understand the world. So we have to ask critical questions about social media. We have to dig deeper into issues of ownership, power, class and (in)justice.
This book equips you with a critical understanding of the complexities and contradictions at the heart of social media’s relationship with society. The revised and expanded
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£27.50£30.40Social Media: A Critical Introduction
£27.50£30.40 -
Influenced: The Impact of Social Media on Our Perception
Unpacks and pulls the curtain back on what happens to our brains and our behaviors each time we addictively engage social media and the influencers we encounter there.
Individuals seeking to widen their tribes of friends, fans, and followers have an abundance of resources for building their digital footprints and social media popularity. All of this seems well and good from the perspective of revenue, exposure, and perhaps ego-building, but what is the impact of this on the human brain and our behavior? Is anyone paying attention to the lurking side effects of the social media influencer revolution?
As “Dr. Brian” Boxer Wachler―one of the world’s most esteemed authorities on human perception―reveals in Influenced: The Impact of Social Media on Our Perception, we are oblivious to the mental evolution that is already in process. Science is proving that our addictive reliance upon social media and its influencers is having a demonstrable impact on how we think, feel, and perceive everything around us― and even how we react to stimuli. One might think that a “Like” is nothing more than a split-second tap on a device. However, brain scans tell a different story. Our brains literally light up with every buzz, ding, alert, and ring in anticipation of how our network is responding to us. As we tap away at our devices, we anxiously seek the approval of others―often people we don’t know.
Influenced unpacks what happens to our brains and our behaviors each time we click “Like”; follow an influencer; consume a video; share or reshare an article; post or repost a photograph; write a comment; pile on a trend;; just scroll for new content; and why do we keep coming back for more. Dr. Boxer Wachler includes his own social and medical findings and highlights them with interviews with top influencers, the latest studies, and pop-culture anecdotes.
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£18.70£20.90 -
Social Warming: How Social Media Polarises Us All
‘Witty, rigorous, and as urgent as a fire alarm’ Dorian Lynskey
‘Cooly prosecutorial’ Guardian
Nobody meant for this to happen.
Facebook didn’t mean to facilitate a genocide.
Twitter didn’t want to be used to harass women.
YouTube never planned to radicalise young men.
But with billions of users, these platforms need only tweak their algorithms to generate more ‘engagement’. In so doing, they bring unrest to previously settled communities and erode our relationships.
Social warming has happened gradually – as a by-product of our preposterously convenient digital existence. But the gradual deterioration of our attitudes and behaviour on- and offline – this vicious cycle of anger and outrage – is real. And it can be corrected. Here’s how.
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£9.60£10.40 -
2023 Social Media Content Planner: Consistently Better Content
2023 Social Media Content Planner: Consistently Better ContentSave time and produce consistently better social media content with the 2023 Social Media Content Planner. Spend as little time as possible getting the best possible results.
Take the headache out of Social Media content creation, week in and week out. What’s included:
- 2023 social media trends and how this will impact your social media posts and ads
- Social media content planning workbook. Complete this to gain clarity on your marketing messages
- How to establish social media content pillars with 95 ideas (including suggested post descriptions and ideas of what images/videos to use)
- 400+ prompts for social media posts (at least one for every day of 2023!)
- Tips on writing social media post descriptions
- Guidelines on running social media paid ads
- A week to view diary including bank holidays from Ireland, UK & US
- Resource web page with €240/£210/$247 worth of helpful tools including a Social Media Content Planning Calendar Template, a Building Your Bio Blueprint & an invitation to a live Social Media Masterclass in February 2023 (with playback).
Our testimonials say it all…
This is like an encyclopedia of tips and knowledge. Little things like profile and cover pics sizes, “national day of”…for every month to add some fun to your posts. A full diary for the year as well. So much knowledge at your fingertips when you own this planner. (Sinead, Social Media Freelancer)
This book does exactly what it says, it is a brilliant guide to help navigate and plan out social media campaigns. 5 stars from me. (J Forde, Transformation Coach).
This is not just a book it’s a tool that you use daily to succeed in your Social media strategy! (A Mallett, Entrepreneur)
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£9.50 -
SEO For 2023: Search Engine Optimization Made Easy
2023 Updated Edition and teaches you SEO Plain English.
Includes coverage of the new Google Seach Console, Google Analylics 4
Buy the Workbook Used at Stanford Continuing Studies to Teach Search Engine Optimization- Learn quickly how to optimize your website.
- Learn back-end and on page tactics to build a website search engines love.
- Master link building.
- Learn what you need to master off site to make your website stand out on search engines.
- Watch Videos – view step-by-step companion VIDEOS that SHOW you how to do SEO.
- Includes how to incorporate PPC in to you website, anaytics, AdWords, and AdCenter.
- Learn what not to do and how to get reinstated with Google if you are band or have bad backlinks.
- Learn SEO design tactics the “Pros” use and learn from the foremost SEO pro!
- Learn how to analyse performance and change your website to fix issue.
- This book also includes two chapters on digital marketing to help give you the edge in social media and standing out on the web.
SEO of 2023 is for Search Engine Optimization Beginners and SEO Expert.
- Sean Odom has written 14 books on SEO since 2008 and sold over 11 million copies.
- The author runs WebSEOPros.com and has help from several employees who worked for Google and other search engines and have made tools dedicated to determining search engine algorithm changes and search engine results in realtime.
- Easy to undertand and follow steps in each chapter. It takes you from beginner to advanced and give you notes, tips and warnings throughout each chapter.
- Got questions? Sean loves to answer them. His email address is in every book.
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£10.20 -
Effective SEO and Content Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for Maximizing Free Web Traffic
Get beyond the basics and see how modern-day users are reimaging the SEO process
SEO is often underutilized and overlooked across the marketing realm today. SEO is not merely trying to improve your website ranking on Google, but it can spark and optimize ideas. Above all it can help improve the amount of free traffic coming to your web properties. This book provides you with a comprehensive approach to make sure marketing spend is utilized as effectively as possible and deliver the best ROI for your brand and business.
Maximizing your organic (free) traffic channels should be a top priority and this book will provide you with insight on how to do that. From working with social media influencers to steering creative ideas and campaigns, modern day SEO requires a full-service perspective of marketing and its processes.
- General education on SEO and organic content marking
- Understanding which search engines to focus on
- How SEO and content can solve business problems
- Building a new brand through SEO and content
- Identifying who your true competitors are
- Which Analytics reports you should be regularly monitoring
- How to establish research channels that can inform your business initiatives
- Building personas and audience purchase journeys
- Prioritizing locations, demographics and countries
- What needs to be in place to maximize free traffic levels to your brands assets
- Understanding all the key tasks and attributes for an effective content program
- Data-Driven Content: Detailed instruction on how to use data to inform content responses, ideas and asset types
- Understanding different content asset types from standard items like articles to highly advanced assets like films, podcasts, white papers and other assets
- Calculating ROI for SEO and Content initiatives
- Small business marketing via content and SEO and having the right small business mindset for success
- Website and content design considerations (accessibility, principles of marketing)
- Optimizing for the future and looking at other search venues
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- Amazon Optimization
- YouTube Optimization
- App Store Optimization (ASO)
- Podcast Optimization
- Optimizing Blogs and other off-site content
- Prepping and optimizing for the newest technologies, including voice search, artificial intelligence, and content discovery vehicles
- How to build an optimization path and programs that drive results and manage risks
In addition to learning the most effective processes to structure your SEO, you will have access to bonus materials that accompany this book which will include worksheets, checklists, creative brief examples, quizzes, and best interview questions when hiring an SEO specialist. Modern-day marketers, business owners, and brand managers, this book is for you!
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£26.30£33.20 -
The Choice Factory: 25 behavioural biases that influence what we buy
Voted #1 in the BBH World Cup of Advertising Books, 2018Winner of the Sales and Marketing Category at the 2019 Business Book Awards
If you’re in the business of influencing decisions, you need to understand what drives them. The Choice Factory is an essential read for anyone who wants to learn. Taking us through a typical day of decisions, from trivial food choices to life-changing career moves, The Choice Factory explores how our behaviour is shaped by psychological shortcuts. The focus throughout is the marketing potential of knowing what makes us tick. Shotton draws not only on academia, but also on analysis of ad campaigns and his own original research, supporting his discussion with insights from some of the smartest thinkers in advertising.
The Choice Factory is an entertaining and highly-accessible read, with 25 short chapters, each addressing a cognitive bias and outlining easy ways to apply it to your own business challenges. Dip in or read cover to cover and you ll be full of new ideas, ready to crack any brief.Read more
£10.60£14.20 -
The One-Page Content Marketing Blueprint: Step by Step Guide to Launch a Winning Content Marketing Strategy in 90 Days or Less and Double Your Inbound Traffic, Leads, and Sales
Martin Lindstrom calls the One-Page Marketing Blueprint “One page of gold! This book offers a simple and valuable one-page blueprint that essentially guides you on how to create a targeted content marketing strategy to achieve long-term success.” — NY Times best-selling author of Buyology, Time magazine influential 100 honoree.Imagine being given a map when you first did content marketing.
Imagine knowing a clear path that shows you how to get from Point A (no results) to Point B (more traffic, more qualified leads, more sales).
Imagine having a guide that teaches you how to focus on the 20% of the things that produce 80% of the results.
Imagine no more.
Every marketer knows that “Content is King.” However, with a single Google search, you get a ton of information on how to plan, create, and publish content. It’s easy to get lost and overwhelmed. Most of the time, the information you find is complicated and it’s very rare that you find information on how the different content marketing pieces fit and work together.
Content marketing SIMPLIFIED — this is the crux of this book!
The “One-Page Content Marketing Blueprint” is a map to help you see where each piece of the content marketing puzzle fits and how the different elements work together. The one-page blueprint shows the interdependencies among these content marketing tactics and how they contribute to achieving content marketing success.It’s a map. If you ever feel lost while going through this book, you can always go back to the one-page blueprint and instantly regain a sense of where you are.
What awaits you in this book?
- The one-page content marketing blueprint that gives you the bigger picture of how the entire content marketing discipline works
- The “Content Marketing Success Roadmap” showing you what to expect at each stage of the journey
- 19 chapters of actionable and simplified content marketing strategies and tactics that will start giving you results in 90 days
- Free templates and tools you can use to jumpstart your renewed content marketing campaigns
- Actionable next steps and metrics to track at the end of each chapter so you know exactly what to do and what to measure to indicate progress
TAKE ACTION!
This is what this book will inspire you to do. With a clear understanding of where you are and where you need to go, and what you should do to get the most out of content marketing, there’s really no room anymore for overwhelm, frustration, and hesitation. Just room for you to take action.Find out why marketing experts agree: “The One-Page Content Marketing Blueprint simplifies a complex process so that any company, of any size, in any industry can develop an action-oriented plan that delivers results.” — Joe Pulizzi, Founder of CMI and author of Epic Content Marketing
Get the content marketing resources you need: “A well-crafted, well-researched, and insightful book. Content Marketing is challenging, this book equips you with the right tools to drive success.” — Jonah Berger, NY Times best-selling author of Contagious
So…
If you’ve been an outsider looking in, watching your competitors get results from their content marketing efforts while you get left behind, wondering what it is that you’re doing wrong…If you’ve been wasting resources and time creating content that goes to waste…
If you’ve been feeling that you’re doing content marketing in a dark cave, scrambling around and not really sure if you’ll see the light in the end…
The One-Page Content Marketing Blueprint is for you. Read the book today and change your content marketing destiny forever.
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£11.00 -
Marketing Communications: A Brand Narrative Approach
Marketing Communications: A Brand Narrative Approach is a mainstream, student-driven text which gives prominence to the driving force of all Marketing Communications: the imperative of Branding. The book aims to engage students in an entertaining, informative way, setting the conceptual mechanics of Marketing Communications in a contemporary, dynamic context. It includes key current trends such as:- Brand narrative approach – Cases such as Dove, Harley-Davidson, Nike and World of War Craft feature real-life, salient examples which are engaging for students and reflect the growth of co-authored brand ‘stories’ to help build and maintain brands by customer engagement through meaningful dialogues.
- Media neutral/multi-media approach – This text has a sound exploration of online and offline synergy combining one-message delivery and multi-media exposures, through examples of companies and political campaigns using ‘non-traditional’ media to reach groups not locking into ‘normal channels’.
This brand new text features an impressive mixture of real-life brand case studies underpinned with recent academic research and market place dynamics. The format is structured into three sections covering analysis, planning and implementation and control of Marketing Communications. Using full colour examples of brands, and student-friendly diagrams, the book acknowledges that the modern student learns visually as well as through text.
***COMPANION WEBSITE – www.marketing-comms.com ***
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£45.50£53.20Marketing Communications: A Brand Narrative Approach
£45.50£53.20 -
The Smart Branding Book: How to build a profitable and resilient brand (Concise Advice)
Most businesses today can readily access the required technology and talent to match competitors’ innovations and ideas quickly, making products and services similar to one another. In the modern business environment, companies instead need to build brands that consumers recognize and trust if they’re looking for sustainable, profitable growth.
This book presents in a concise fashion the latest thinking and methods for successful branding. Clear and accessible, it contains real-life examples from business, practical frameworks, and inspiring illustrations. It explains what branding really is, why a brand is so critical to success in business, and how to maximize the growth of your current and future products/services through branding.
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£6.60£9.50 -
Ogilvy on Advertising
David Ogilvy is well known and respected as the most successful adman of all time. His bestselling book, Ogilvy on Advertising, gives valuable advice to young hopefuls and veterans of the industry wanting to improve their success rate
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£9.00£14.20Ogilvy on Advertising
£9.00£14.20 -
Made to Stick: Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck
Why does fake news stick while the truth goes missing?
Why do disproved urban legends persist? How do you keep letting newspapers and clickbait sites lure you in with their headlines? And why do you remember complicated stories but not complicated facts?
Over ten years of study, Chip and Dan Heath have discovered how we latch on to information hooks. Packed full of case histories and incredible anecdotes, it shows:
– how an Australian scientist convinced the world he’d discovered the cause of stomach ulcers by drinking a glass filled with bacteria
– how a gifted sports reporter got people to watch a football match by showing them the outside of the stadium
– how pitches like ‘Jaws on a spaceship’ (Alien) and ‘Die Hard on a bus’ (Speed) convince movie execs to invest gigantic sums even when they know nothing else about the project
As entertaining as it is informative, this is a timely exploration of a fascinating human behaviour. At the same time, by demonstrating strategies like the ‘Velcro Theory of Memory’ and ‘curiosity gaps’, it offers superbly practical insights.
Made to Stick uses cutting-edge insight to help you ensure that what you say is understood, remembered and, most importantly, acted upon.
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£9.40 -
Muscle Boys: Gay Gym Culture
What was once a lifestyle for a small number of gay men in big cities has become a way of life for many, and the gay gym is now a culture on its own. Muscle Boys: Gay Gym Culture explores the evolution and current structure of this gay subculture that surfaced in San Francisco, West Hollywood, and New York during the 1970s.
Covering ancient Greek gymnasium culture, modern bodybuilding practices, and homoerotic muscle-bound media, Muscles Boys examines the origins of the male athletic ideal. A sociological investigation on masculinity, fitness, HIV, steroids, and sex in the locker room, Muscle Boys dissects the gay gym experience, and celebrates gay body culture and its role in modern gay life.
Author Erick Alvarez offers a candid study of the gay gym from his perspective as a physical trainer in the San Francisco Bay area, and from his interviews and online surveys of nearly 6,000 gay men. Muscle Boys: Gay Gym Culture is an enlightening read for anyone interested in gay body culture, and a valuable resource for academics working in GLBT studies, human sexuality, psychology, or athletics.
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£31.60Muscle Boys: Gay Gym Culture
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The Narrative Gym for Politics: Introducing the ABT Framework for Political Communication and Messaging
Introducing the ABT (And, But, Therefore) narrative framework; a simple three-word tool for political communications and messaging that cuts through the noise of today’s information-saturated society. It is powerful AND may seem obvious, BUT most of your opponents don’t know how to use it, THEREFORE … let us fill you in on this secret little communications weapon.Read more
£6.30 -
The Men’s Health Gym Bible (2nd edition): Includes Hundreds of Exercises for Weightlifting and Cardio
First published in 2006, The Men’s Health Gym Bible is the ultimate resource for the total gym experience, backed by the authority of Men’s Health. Authors Michael Mejia, M.S., C.S.C.S. and Myatt Murphy teach readers how to use various types of gym equipment for optimal strength and cardiovascular fitness. The book includes hundreds of exercises for strength and cardio equipment like free weights, stability balls, treadmills, stationary bikes and more. The new edition of the Men’s Health backlist title is revised with 30 percent new material including exercises and expert fitness advice for up-to-date equipment like TRX suspension training and kettle bells. It will also feature approximately 75 all-new black-and-white photographs (in addition to the more than 600 photos in the first edition) to demonstrate proper form and technique for every new exercise. How-to information on gym memberships, contracts and fitness classes will help any novice step into the gym for the first time. This book will appeal to anyone trying to get the most out of their fitness goals.Read more
£16.70£19.00 -
The Life Of A Gym Screw: Parkhurst to Longlartin and every gym I’ve worked in
A fascinating and gripping account of prison life from phil currie, retired physical education officer, with almost 30 years experience of working in high security prisons Parkhurst and Long Lartin.
It covers some of the most notorious, terrorist, armed robbers, hitmen and pure evil murderers in the prison system. Including first hand account of the most daring prison escapes ever also the stabbing of one of Britain’s most notorious prisoners.
A gripping read that reveals the truth behind the Long Lartin riots, it will have you crying tears of joy and sadness as Phil also talks you through his battles against cancer. Strap yourselves in for one hell of a rollercoaster ride.
Phil recently appeared on the “Anything Goes” podcast by James English and Yammy B TV. The interviews reaching number 2 in the most downloaded podcasts.
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£10.40 -
Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time
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‘A fascinating exploration that challenges our basic assumptions of what work means’ – Yuval Noah Harari
‘There is eminently underlinable stuff on most pages … Fascinating’ – The Times
‘One of those few books that will turn your customary ways of thinking upside down’ – Susan Cain
‘Illuminating’ – New Statesman
_______________A revolutionary new history of humankind through the prism of work, from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated present
The work we do brings us meaning, moulds our values, determines our social status and dictates how we spend most of our time. But this wasn’t always the case: for 95% of our species’ history, work held a radically different importance.
How, then, did work become the central organisational principle of our societies? How did it transform our bodies, our environments, our views on equality and our sense of time? And why, in a time of material abundance, are we working more than ever before?
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£10.70£12.30Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time
£10.70£12.30 -
Anthropology For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Study the science of all of us
Anthropology is the organized study of what makes humans human. It takes an objective step back to view homo sapiens as a species and ask questions like: Given our common characteristics, why aren’t all of us exactly the same? Why do people across the world have variable skin and hair color and so many inventive ways to say hello? And how can knowing the reasons behind our differences―as well as our similarities―teach us useful lessons for the future? The updated edition of Anthropology For Dummies gives you a panoramic view of the fascinating fieldwork and theory that seeks to answer these questions―and helps you view the human world through impartial, anthropological eyes.
Keeping the jargon to a minimum, Anthropology For Dummies explores the four main subdivisions of the discipline, from the adventurous Indiana Jones territory of archaeology and the hands-on biological insights provided by our physical nature to the studious book-cracking brainwork of cultural and linguistic investigation. Along the way, you’ll journey deep into our prehistory where we begin to differentiate ourselves from our primate relatives―and then fast forward into the possibilities of centuries yet to come.
- Explore the history of anthropology and apply its methods
- Get a deep, scientific take on contemporary debates such as identity
- Excavate the human past through new fossil discoveries
- Peer into humanity’s future in space
Whether you’re studying anthropology for school or just want to know more about what makes us humans who we are, this is the perfect introduction to humanity’s past and present―and a clue to what we need to build a better future.
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£13.70£17.10Anthropology For Dummies, 2nd Edition
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Criminology For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Explore the world of crime and punishment
Police, forensics, and detective stories dominate our TV screens and bookshelves―from fictional portrayals such as Silence of the Lambs and Law and Order to lurid accounts of real-life super-criminals like Pablo Escobar and Al Capone. As well as being horribly fascinating, knowledge of what makes criminals tick is crucial to governments, who spend billions of dollars each year trying to keep their people safe. Criminology brings disciplines like psychology, biology, and economics together to help police and society solve crimes―and to prevent them before they even happen.
The new edition of Criminology For Dummies shines a light into the dark recesses of the criminal mind and goes behind-the-scenes with society’s response to crime, putting you right on the mean streets with cops and criminals alike. Along the way, you’ll learn everything a rookie needs to survive, including basic definitions of what a crime is and how it’s measured; common criminal motivations, thinking, and traits; elementary crime-solving techniques; the effects on and rights of victims; and more.
- Understand types of crime, from white-collar to organized to terror attacks
- Follow law-enforcement officials and agencies as they hunt the bad guys
- Meet key players in criminal justice and see how and why the guilty are punished
- Check out jobs in the field
Whether you plan to enter the criminal justice field or just want to know more about what turns some people to the dark side―and how the thin blue line fights back―this is your perfect guide to criminology basics.
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£16.40£22.80Criminology For Dummies, 2nd Edition
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Stoicism For Dummies
The philosophy that will help you become more resilient in the face of life’s challenges
Stoicism For Dummies will teach you the basic principles of stoic philosophy and show you how it can help you navigate the ups and downs of life. We all face challenges and setbacks, and, if we have the right mindset, we can sail through them with ease. This book offers a comprehensive look at Stoic philosophy, uncovering its strengths and attractions and shedding light on its limitations, both in the ancient world where it was developed, and in our world today. Learn how you can apply stoic principles for personal growth and better living, and how you can adapt this philosophical outlook to your unique circumstances. Written in terms anyone can understand, this friendly Dummies guide helps you understand stoicism, and also apply it in your life.
- Understand the basics of stoic philosophy, including virtues and practices
- Learn how to keep calm and carry on when life throws you curveballs
- Apply stoic principles to improve your relationships and quality of life
- Discover the history of stoicism and how its principles can apply to today’s world
This book is great for anyone who wants to learn more about stoicism and its benefits.
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£16.60£18.00Stoicism For Dummies
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Work-Life Balance For Dummies
A recent survey conducted by Universum Communication found that work-life balance is No.1 on the list of short-term career goals amongst professionals. But while work-life balance is an increasingly popular term, many of us are still unsure about how to achieve it, or lack the confidence to approach employers to negotiate flexible working hours.Work-Life Balance for Dummies will offer readers advice and simple strategies to achieve more balance whatever their situation.
Discover how to:
- Work out your priorities
- Put off procrastination and improve your time management
- Move your boss towards work-life balance
- Cast your net wider and change jobs and employers
- Plan a relocation
About the author
Jeni Mumford is the author of Life Coaching For Dummies. She is a personal life coach who works with both individuals and organisations on personal development. She runs holistic coaching events in the UK and Italy and is an accredited NLP practitioner.
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£12.70£15.20Work-Life Balance For Dummies
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British Politics For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Your updated and revised guide to British politicsSo, you want to be knowledgeable about British politics but don’t know where to start? You’ve come to the right place! British Politics For Dummies is your essential guide to understanding even the trickiest questions surrounding politics in the UK. In no time, you’ll have the confidence to discuss the ins and outs of past and present elections, political leaders, parties and ideologies.
Packed with understandable information on the origins, history and structure of the UK parliamentary system, British Politics For Dummies offers a fascinating glimpse into the rollercoaster world of politics. Explaining everything from key political ideologies and the spread of democracy to the current election process and the differences between political parties, this hands-on, friendly guide is an ideal companion to British politics and elections.
- Includes expanded coverage of coalition governments, devolution and independence efforts
- Provides updated information on UKIP and Britain’s place in Europe
- Serves as a helpful guide to elections and British political parties―electoral systems, voting behaviour and trends and the role of pressure groups and the media
- Offers a fascinating examination of British politics on the world stage
Whether you want to get to grips with British politics and government or build your knowledge beyond the basics, this updated edition of British Politics For Dummies is the place to start.
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£13.30£15.20British Politics For Dummies, 2nd Edition
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Labour’s Civil Wars: How infighting has kept the left from power (and what can be done about it)
Includes a new chapter on Starmer’s Labour Party and whether the unity of purpose and vision will last until a general election and thereafter.
The biblical adage that ‘if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand’ remains sound theological advice. It is also essential counsel for any political party that aspires to win elections. When a party is riven with division people do not know what it stands for.
Though both major parties have been subject to internal conflict over the years, it is the Labour Party which has been more given to damaging splits. The divide exposed by the Corbyn insurgency is only the most recent example in a century of destructive infighting. Indeed, it has often seemed as though Labour has been more adept at fighting itself than in defeating the Tory party.
This book examines the history of Labour’s civil wars and the underlying causes of the party’s schisms, from the first split of 1931, engineered by Ramsay MacDonald, to the ongoing battle for the future between the incumbent Keir Starmer, and those who fundamentally altered the party’s course under its predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.
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War and Punishment: The Story of Russian Oppression and Ukrainian Resistance
‘History is made up of myths,’ writes the renowned Russian dissident journalist Mikhail Zygar. ‘Alas, our myths led us to the fascism of 2022. It is time to expose them.’ Drawing from his perilous career investigating the frontiers of the Russian empire, Zygar reveals how 350 years of propaganda, bad historical scholarship, folk tales and fantasy spurred his nation into war with Ukraine.
How did a German monk’s fear of the Ottoman Empire drive him to invent the fiction of a united Russian world? How did corny spy novels about a ‘Soviet James Bond’ inspire Vladimir Putin to join the KGB? How did Alexander Pushkin’s admiration for a poem by Lord Byron end with him slandering the legendary chief of the Cossacks? And how did Putin underestimate a rising TV comic named Volodymyr Zelensky, failing to see that his satire had become deadly serious, and that his country would be a joke no longer?
A noted expert on the Kremlin with unparalleled access to hundreds of players in the current conflict – from politicians to oligarchs, gangsters to comedians (not least Zelensky himself) – Zygar chronicles the power struggles from which today’s politics grew, and digs out the essential truths from behind layers of seductive legend. By surveying the strange, complex record of Russo-Ukrainian relations, War and Punishment reveals exactly how the largest nation on Earth lost its senses. A work of history can’t undo the past or transform the present, but sometimes it can shape the future.
In fact, that’s how the story begins.
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War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict
Russia’s brutal February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has attracted widespread condemnation across the West. Government and media circles present the conflict as a simple dichotomy between an evil empire and an innocent victim. In this concise, accessible and highly informative primer, Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies insist the picture is more complicated.
Yes, Russia’s aggression was reckless and, ultimately, indefensible. But the West’s reneging on promises to halt eastward expansion of NATO in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union played a major part in prompting Putin to act. So did the U.S. involvement in the 2014 Ukraine coup and Ukraine’s failure to implement the Minsk peace agreements. The result is a conflict that is increasingly difficult to resolve, one that could conceivably escalate into all-out war between the United States and Russia―the world’s two leading nuclear powers.
Skillfully bringing together the historical record and current analysis, War In Ukraine looks at the events leading up to the conflict, surveys the different parties involved, and weighs the risks of escalation and opportunities for peace. For anyone who wants to get beneath the heavily propagandized media coverage to an understanding of a war with consequences that could prove cataclysmic, reading this timely book will be an urgent necessity.
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£10.20£12.30War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict
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Russia’s War Against Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, giving rise to the deadliest conflict on European soil since the Second World War. How could this happen in twenty-first-century Europe? Why did Putin decide to escalate Russia’s war against Ukraine, a war which began with Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014?
In this timely book, Gwendolyn Sasse analyses the background to this war and examines the factors that led to Putin’s fateful decision. She retraces the history of Ukraine’s struggle for independence from Russia and shows how democratic developments in Ukraine had become a risk for Russia’s political system. She also shows that ambiguous Western policy towards Russia encouraged elites in the Kremlin to think that they had more room for action than they did. The result is a brilliant analysis of the background to the war, a concise account of the course of the war itself and a timely reflection on what its consequences will be – for Ukraine, for Russia and for the West.
An indispensable book for anyone who wants to understand the most dangerous conflict of our time.
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£9.80£12.30Russia’s War Against Ukraine
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The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West
Sunday Times’ Best History Books of 2017
Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History
Winner of the 2017 Caroline Bancroft History Prize
Shortlisted for the Military History Magazine Book of the Year Award
NOMINATED FOR THE 2017 PEN HESSELL-TILTMAN‘Extraordinary… Cozzens has stripped the myth from these stories, but he is such a superb writer that what remains is exquisite’ The Times
At the end of the Civil War, the American nation continued its expansion onto tribal lands, setting off a struggle that would last nearly three decades. Peter Cozzens chronicles the conflict from both sides in comprehensive and singularly intimate detail, bringing together a pageant of fascinating characters, including Custer, Sherman and Grant, as well as great native leaders such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and Red Cloud. This is the tale of how the West was won… and lost.
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War: How Conflict Shaped Us
New York Times 10 Best Books of 2020
Sunday Times best books for Autumn 2020
Guardian critics’ pick for Autumn 2020
Wall Street Journal notable book of 2020The time since the Second World War has been seen by some as the longest uninterrupted period of harmony in human history: the ‘long peace’, as Stephen Pinker called it. But despite this, there has been a military conflict ongoing every year since 1945. The same can be said for every century of recorded history. Is war, therefore, an essential part of being human?
In War, Professor Margaret MacMillan explores the deep links between society and war and the questions they raise. We learn when war began – whether among early homo sapiens or later, as we began to organise ourselves into tribes and settle in communities. We see the ways in which war reflects changing societies and how war has brought change – for better and worse.
Economies, science, technology, medicine, culture: all are instrumental in war and have been shaped by it – without conflict it we might not have had penicillin, female emancipation, radar or rockets. Throughout history, writers, artists, film-makers, playwrights, and composers have been inspired by war – whether to condemn, exalt or simply puzzle about it. If we are never to be rid of war, how should we think about it and what does that mean for peace?
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£8.70£9.50War: How Conflict Shaped Us
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Hitler and Stalin: The Tyrants and the Second World War
‘You have to read it’ Volodymyr Zelensky
‘Laurence Rees brilliantly combines powerful eye-witness testimony, vivid narrative and compelling analysis in this superb account’ Professor Sir Ian Kershaw, author of Hitler: Hubris and Hitler: Nemesis
‘In this fascinating study of two monsters, Rees is extraordinarily perceptive and original’ Antony Beevor
_____________________Two tyrants. Each responsible for the death of millions.
This compelling book on Hitler and Stalin – the culmination of thirty years’ work – examines the two leaders during the Second World War, when Germany and the Soviet Union fought the biggest and bloodiest war in history.
Hitler’s charismatic leadership may contrast with Stalin’s regimented rule by fear; and his intransigence later in the war may contrast with Stalin’s change in behaviour in response to events. But as bestselling historian Laurence Rees shows, at a macro level, both were prepared to create undreamt-of suffering – in Hitler’s case, most infamously the Holocaust – in order to build the utopias they wanted.
Using previously unpublished, startling eyewitness testimony from soldiers, civilians and those who knew both men personally, Laurence Rees – probably the only person alive who has met Germans who worked for Hitler and Russians who worked for Stalin – challenges long-held popular misconceptions about two of the most important figures in history. This is a master work from one of our finest historians.
_____________________‘Coming from one of the world’s experts on the Second World War, this is an important and original – and devastating – account of Hitler and Stalin as dictators. A must read’ Professor Robert Service, author of Stalin: A Biography
‘Impressive . . . well paced and well informed with an eye for telling anecdotes and colourful character sketches . . . Rees’ decision to add personal stories to his narrative adds an important layer to our understanding of both the dictators themselves and their victims’ Robert Gerwarth, The Daily Telegraph
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The First World War
The definitive account of the Great War and a national bestseller from eminent military historian John Keegan
2018 marks the centenary of the First World War – the war that created the modern world. It destroyed a century of relative peace and prosperity and saw a continent at the height of its success descend into slaughter. It unleashed both the demons of the twentieth century – political hatred, military destruction and mass death – and the ideas which continue to shape our world today: modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, and radical ideas about economics and society.
By the end of the war, three great empires – the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian and the Ottoman – had collapsed. But as Keegan expertly shows, the devastation extended over the entirety over Europe and still profoundly informs the politics and culture of the continent today. Pertinent, authoritative and gripping, this panoramic account of WW1 is regarded as a world history classic.
‘The best and most approachable introduction to the war’ Guardian
‘Nobody describes a battle as Keegan does, vividly relating the unfolding events to the contours of the field of combat… This book is a kind of war memorial. As first-hand memory fades, The First World War honours the dead as only true history can’ Sunday Times
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£15.20£19.00The First World War
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The Russo-Ukrainian War: From the bestselling author of Chernobyl
CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND TELEGRAPH
Do you know what is at stake in Ukraine? Urgent, compelling reading from the author of Chernobyl on the defining conflict of our times
On 24 February 2022, Russia stunned the world by launching an invasion of Ukraine. In the midst of checking on the family and friends who were now on the front lines of Europe’s largest conflict since the outbreak of the Second World War, acclaimed Ukrainian-American historian Serhii Plokhy inevitably found himself attempting to understand the deeper causes of the invasion, analysing its course and contemplating the wider outcomes.
The Russo-Ukrainian War is the comprehensive history of a war that has burned since 2014, and that, with Russia’s attempt to seize Kyiv, exploded a geo-political order that had been cemented since the end of the Cold War. With an eye for the gripping detail on the ground, both in the halls of power and down in the trenches, as well as a keen sense of the grander sweep of history, Plokhy traces the origins and the evolution of the conflict, from the collapse of the Russian empire to the rise and fall of the USSR and on to the development in Ukraine of a democratic politics.
Based on decades of research and his unique insight into the region, he argues that Ukraine’s defiance of Russia, and the West’s demonstration of unity and strength, has presented a profound challenge to Putin’s Great Power ambition, and further polarized the world along a new axis. A riveting, enlightening account, this is present-minded history at its best.
BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER 2023: FINANCIAL TIMES * THE TIMES * SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE * TLS
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The Fighter of Auschwitz: The incredible true story of Leen Sanders who boxed to help others survive
**A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**‘He had the dream again last night… He taps the gloves of his unbeaten Polish opponent. There are rumours that the loser will be sent to the gas chamber.’
In 1943, the Dutch champion boxer, Leen Sanders, was sent to Auschwitz. His wife and children were put to death while he was sent ‘to the left’ with the others who were fit enough for labour. Recognised by an SS officer, he was earmarked for a ‘privileged’ post in the kitchens in exchange for weekly boxing matches for the entertainment of the Nazi guards. From there, he enacted his resistance to their limitless cruelty.
With great risk and danger to his own life, Leen stole, concealed and smuggled food and clothing from SS nursing units for years to alleviate the unbearable suffering of the prisoners in need. He also regularly supplied extra food to the Dutch women in Dr. Mengele’s experiment, Block 10. To his fellow Jews in the camp, he acted as a rescuer, leader and role model, defending them even on their bitter death march to Dachau towards the end of the war.
A story of astonishing resilience and compassion, The Fighter of Auschwitz is a testament to the endurance of humanity in the face of extraordinary evil.
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Reconstruction Updated Edition: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
From the “preeminent historian of Reconstruction” (New York Times Book Review), the prize-winning classic work on the post-Civil War period that shaped modern America.
Eric Foner’s “masterful treatment of one of the most complex periods of American history” (New Republic) redefined how the post-Civil War period was viewed.
Reconstruction chronicles the way in which Americans—black and white—responded to the unprecedented changes unleashed by the war and the end of slavery. It addresses the ways in which the emancipated slaves’ quest for economic autonomy and equal citizenship shaped the political agenda of Reconstruction; the remodeling of Southern society and the place of planters, merchants, and small farmers within it; the evolution of racial attitudes and patterns of race relations; and the emergence of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and committed, for a time, to the principle of equal rights for all Americans.
This “smart book of enormous strengths” (Boston Globe) remains the standard work on the wrenching post-Civil War period—an era whose legacy still reverberates in the United States today.
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