Manchester University Press blog

Snails, skins and the 'weird world' of old Welsh medicine

2012-01-26T11:54:00.003Z

Skin of dead puppies, oils made of swallows and juice of snails may not be what the doctor ordered for modern day illnesses.

But a Swansea University historian has discovered they were just some of the weird and unbelievable remedies that were commonly used for ailments in Wales in the 17th and 18th Centuries.

Alun Withey, the author of Manchester University Press's Physick and the Family, explains to BBC Wales that rather than the big disease epidemics of the time, some of the worst illnesses faced in Wales were those which have become easily treatable today.

"A lot of people suffered from the common cold, which could kill you back then, and stomach upsets - things that now we could treat with antibiotics," said Dr Withey, who has compiled his research in a new book, Physick and the Family.

For the full BBC article, fllow this link.

Call for papers

2012-01-24T10:23:00.003Z

Ethnographic Horizons in Times of Turbulence

The 7th Annual Joint University of Liverpool Management School and Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences.
In association with the Journal of Organizational Ethnography and the Journal Ethnography
Ethnographic Horizons in Times of Turbulence.

University of Liverpool Management School, Liverpool, UK
29th – 31st August 2012

Conference Chairs
Dr. Manuela Nocker, University of Essex Business School(Email mnocker@essex.ac.uk)
Dr. Geoff Pearson, University of Liverpool Management School(Email: pearsong@liv.ac.uk)

Organising Committee
Dr. Matthew Brannan, Keele University Institute for Public Policy and ManagementDr. Jason Ferdinand, University of Liverpool Management SchoolDr. Manuela Nocker, University of Essex Business SchoolDr. Geoff Pearson, University of Liverpool Management SchoolDr. Mike Rowe, University of Liverpool Management SchoolDr. Frank Worthington, University of Liverpool Management School

Key Note Speakers
Dr Simon Down, Newcastle University Business School, UK
Professor Karen Ho, Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota
Professor Gideon Kunda, Department of Labour Studies, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Professor John Weeks, IMD Business School, Lausanne, CH

Call for papers

Author to contribute to new BBC series

2012-01-20T15:24:00.003Z

Martin Johnes, author of Wales since 1939 will be a contributor to the exciting new BBC series, The Story of Wales, which hits screens from the 27th February.

2012-01-19T11:14:00.008Z

Shoppers brush up on grammar

From handwriting analysis to grammar lessons, it's all going on at Selfridges London, who launched their Words Words Words initiative last week.

From 12th January to the 1st March, Selfridges London will transform the UltraLounge on their Lower Ground floor into a library. The new 'interactive space' will become the epicentre of the Words Words Words theme, offering shoppers the opportunity to learn calligraphy, analyse their own handwriting, and listen to storytellers, amongst many other activities.

A full list of events can be found on the Selfridges website.

2012-01-17T14:58:00.006Z

If you are interested in attending this event, please email Isabelle Merillet before the 20th January.

Devolution in the UK

2012-01-16T11:23:00.005Z

NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK

The hardback edition of Devolution in the UK sold extremely well when it was published in early 2009. It received high praise from many academics and students from the field of politics,

'An important and necessary book on a vital topic. James Mitchell's expertise and original research produce an authoritative analysis, and one which questions assumed inevitabilities in the UK's past, present and future.'
Richard English, Professor of Politics, Queen's University, Belfast

The paperback edition has just landed on our desk, making the title more affordable for the average student (RRP £15.99).

Use the link to Amazon (top right) to order your copy today!

Launch overview

2012-01-16T10:59:00.015Z

MUP and the editors of The Hidden Alternative celebrated the start of the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives last week by launching the book at two simulations events in London and Manchester.

London A large audience joined Stephen Yeo and many of the book’s contributors in Waterstones Gower Street, to discuss the future of the Co-operative.

Manchester The Eighth Day provided a perfect venue for the Manchester launch. Robin Murray captivated guests with his lively discussion of his favourite chapters in The Hidden Alternative. Guests had the opportunity to meet the contributors and discuss future ventures to celebrate the International Year of Co-operatives.

2012 International Year of Co-operatives

2012-01-10T09:38:00.007Z

The United Nations has designed 2012 the International Year of Co-operatives. Over 1.4 million co-operatives from across the globe will be coming together to promote effective and sustainable ways of doing business.

Co-operatives across the world will celebrate the start of the International Year of Co-operatives on January 12th. Co-operatives UK will be kicking off the year with many different events, including an online panel with The Guardian, with key figures from the co-operative sector.

Manchester University Press are planning their own celebrations to mark the publication of The Hidden Alternative. Two simultaneous launches will take place on the 12th January. An event at Waterstone's Gower Street in London, will be opened by the eminent co-operative scholar Professor Stephen Yeo. Economist and co-operative expert Robin Murray will open the event in Manchester.

The Hidden Alternative demonstrate that co-operation offers a real and much needed alternative for the organisation of human economic and social affairs, one that should establish its place at the forefront of public and academic discussion and policy making.

The book includes chapters on education, fair trade, politics and governance, planning and sustainability and on how co-operatives have coped with the global economic crisis.
If you would like to attend one of the launch events, please contact rebecca@co-op.ac.uk to confirm places are still available on the guest list.

2012-01-09T09:40:00.004Z

BOOK GIVEAWAY: Bertrand Tavernier
Subtitledonline.com is running a competition to win a copy of the brand new Bertrand Tavernier, the latest title to be released in the French Film Director's series.

Test your knowledge of the renowed Bertrand Tavernier.

2011-12-13T13:10:00.002Z

'Witch's cottage' unearthed near Pendle Hill, Lancashire

Engineers have said they were "stunned" to unearth a 17th Century cottage, complete with a cat skeleton, during a construction project in Lancashire. To read the full BBC News article follow this link.

For more information about the Lancashire witches, or to buy The Lancashire witches, histories and stories, follow this link.

2011-12-13T09:34:00.003Z

Launch!

Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy and the Victorian feminist movement: The biography of an insurgent woman by Maureen Wright is to be launched by Blackwell bookshop in Portsmouth. The launch, to be held at 3pm on Wednesday 14th December, will feature an appearance and a Q&A session from the the author and the book will be discounted to all those who attend. For further details please contact Blackwell in Portsmouth.

Ford Madox Brown

2011-11-30T11:13:00.003Z

Manchester Art Gallery is currently staging the first major exhibition of Ford Madox Brown’s work since 1964. The show, which brings together 140 works from public and private collections, will run until 3rd June 2012.

The artist received even more coverage on last nights The One Show, when Phil Tufnell visited the Ford Madox Brown murals.

The art of Ford Madox Brown is distributed on behalf of Penn State University Press by Manchester University Press in the UK.

Hot off the press!

2011-11-16T10:10:00.008Z

The much awaited The transformation of European football? is now available

The book examines the transformation of European football in recent years, by focusing on the impact of Europe in general and the EU in particular on the way that the game has evolved in a broad cross section of European states.

(By the way, for a special reader discount, visit Football Economy.com and follow the instructions on how to take advantage of this one off offer)

MUP @ Frankfurt

2011-10-25T15:16:00.012+01:00

This year's Frankfurt bookfair was extremely busy for MUP. We were out and about meeting new contacts and building relationships with many colleagues from across the world.

The 19th French Film Festival

2011-10-19T15:34:00.007+01:00

The 19th French Film Festival (9 November – 7 December) presents an unparalleled selection of le cinéma français in leading cinemas around the country, including London Ciné Lumière, Edinburgh Filmhouse, Glasgow GFT, Manchester Cornerhouse, Warwick Arts Centre and Aberdeen Belmont Picturehouse.

There are a wealth of genres to suit all tastes and impressive performances from an array of established stellar names and emerging talents.

If you appreciate French cinema, take a closer look at the list of events taking place throughout the French Film Festival.

Gower Street Lecture Series and Amnesty International present The Oxford Amnesty Lecture on Religion and Rights

2011-10-10T15:00:00.004+01:00

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED
Ticket holders should contact Waterstone's Gower Street (tel. 020 7636 1577) for a full refund.

The lecture, which will be held on 24th October at 7pm, will feature eminent speakers from the renowned Oxford Amnesty Lectures on Religion and Human Rights.

Watestone's Gower Street are organising a series of lectures in October and November, kicking off with ARAB SPRING: Tariq Ali in Conversation with Ted HonderichTed Honderich, Tariq Ali on 17th October.

Both lectures will take place in the Darwin Lecture Theatre, UCL, Darwin Building, Malet Place, WC1E 7JG. Tickets available in-store or online.

Abandoning Historical Conflict? wins the prestigious Brian Farrell book prize

2011-10-06T09:59:00.003+01:00

The Political Studies Association of Ireland has just announced Abandoning Historical Conflict? by Peter Shirlow, Jon Tonge, James McAuley and Catherine McGlyn, is this years winner of The Brian Farrell book prize for the best book on politics by a member of the Political Studies Association of Ireland.

Previous winners include The Irish Voter: The Nature of Electoral, Competition in the Republic of Ireland by Michael Marsh, Richard Sinnott, John Garry and Fiachra Kennedy, Irish Freedom: The History of Nationalism in Ireland by Richard English and The Lost Revolution: The Story of The Official IRA and The Workers’ Party by Brian Hanley and Scott Millar.

The Wanderers and critical realism in nineteenth century Russian painting

2011-10-03T16:14:00.002+01:00

New exhibition at Stockholm's National Museum opens to rave reviews.

David Jackson, author of The Wanderers and critical realism in nineteenth century Russian painting, has assisted with planning the exhibition.

If you're planning a trip to Stockholm, be sure to drop into the National Museum. The exhibition is open until 22nd January 2012, so you have plenty of time.

Special discount for MUP title

2011-09-14T16:30:00.003+01:00

A money saving hint!

Crimes against humanity by Norman Geras is discounted by a special 50% to all readers of the authors blog, normblog.

The First Biennial Society for Romanian Studies Book Prize

2011-09-07T14:42:00.003+01:00

Tom Gallagher has won The First Biennial Society for Romanian Studies Book Prize for Romania and the European Union.

The prize will be awarded at the Annual Convention of the ASEEES (Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, formerly AAASS) in Washington, DC, which will take place on November 17-20th.

Michael Ondaatje publishers new title

2011-08-30T09:35:00.005+01:00

Novelist and poet Michael Ondaatje, whose work is reviewed in our Contemporary World Writers series, has just published his new title, The Cat's Table (Jonathan Cape, £16.99).

An interview with Michael Ondaatje was published in this weekends Observer magazine. Well worth a read!

Want to know the secret to academic publishing success?

2011-08-26T10:56:00.002+01:00

How do you market your manuscript or transform your thesis into a book?

The Guardian gather together some leading players in the fields of publishing and academia to provide a few answers on their Higher Education Network blog.

Well worth a read if you're trying to break through into academia!

NEW textbook

2011-08-24T16:41:00.005+01:00

Mathematics for economists, third edition will be released shortly

How can the book help you?

Cue and Cut author talks about his experiences writing his latest title

2011-08-12T14:36:00.009+01:00

By Roger Singleton-Turner

I did not set out to be writer – and that is not how I see myself, really, but everything has a consequence.

Cue and Cut is my fourth and longest book about television production. It’s been a long time in development. It began with a conversation at the University of Sunderland with Trevor Hearing (now at Bournemouth University). That was in 2005.

The work there followed some HE teaching in Middlesbrough, which came after three successive years on BBC training courses run for, and in association with, the University of Leeds. This work was a result of teaching aspiring directors at BBC Elstree in 1986-7. That job was itself a result of directing single and multi-camera children’s programmes from 1974 (Jackanory, Jackanory Playhouse and other dramas including Grange Hill). After the stint in Training, I carried on directing at the BBC until 1998, finishing with three series of The Demon Headmaster, and then moving on to work for Carlton and Granada – the freelance projects alternated with the teaching.

By the time I started directing Jackanory, I had already spent a lot of time working on various series in Children’s Programmes as an Assistant Floor Manager. In fact, uniquely, so far as I know, my last week working on the floor as an AFM coincided with my first week working in the Gallery as a Director. I ran up and down the stairs a lot.

The BBC took me on in the first place (in 1966 – a time of expansion) because I had gained a lot of stage experience as a Medical Student. For a doctor, it was entirely the wrong kind of theatre, so I had given up Medicine. Working in television had been an aim since childhood – particularly since watching David Attenborough on Zoo Quest. More consequences.

BBC Television Training commissioned the first two books, Continuity Notes and Television and Children. The third book, Children Acting on Television, was commissioned by A. and C. Black. They had approached my then boss, who found he did not have time to write the book. He suggested me because of the first two BBC books. Consequences, yet again.

What I hope for Cue and Cut is, firstly, that it will work with practical classes, backing up practical experience and suggesting solutions to challenges. It should, secondly, be a source of basic information and methodology for using multi-camera systems, which are used in some form on around two-thirds of Britain’s most popular television programmes. Finally, I have put in a certain amount of history, an indication in part, of how things got to where we are today and, in part, an indication that the way we do things now is not the only approach! There is enough guidance, I hope, for newcomers to multi-camera techniques to start working in this form, but enough flexibility for readers to soar beyond these basics.

I’ll be interested to hear how users find the book works for them. (comments can be sent to the MUP blog).

LSE blog

2011-08-09T16:38:00.003+01:00

This week we're following The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) blog.

It's extremely active at the moment, with some interesting commentaries on the recent riots.

Plus they've just posted a good review of Equality and the British Left.

The IRA 1956-69, Rethinking the Republic

2011-08-08T11:21:00.008+01:00

RADIO INTERVIEW
Matt Treacy, author of The IRA 1956-69 recently took part in a most interesting debate on Near FM.

The wide-ranging and detailed discussion focused on the period from the ill-fated Border Campaign of the 50’s through to the outbreak of The Troubles (or the Ulster Civil War as Michael refers to it).

LISTEN NOW

NEW ISSUE, THE IRISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

2011-07-25T16:29:00.004+01:00

Volume 19, Issue 1 available now

Subscribers will receive their copies shortly.

Not a subscriber?
Find out how to become one!

Contents list for Volume 19, Issue 1
The challenges facing contemporary social theory
Piet Strydom
We do not live in an age of cosmopolitanism but an age of cosmopolitanisation: the ‘global other’ is in our midst
Ulrich Beck
Power and oppression from the perspective of the sociology of
engagements: a comparison with Bourdieu’s and Dewey’s critical
approaches to practical activities
Laurent Thévenot
Varieties of critique in sociological theory and their methodological implications for social research
Gerard Delanty
Theodicy sociologised: suffering smart in the twenty-first century
Steve Fuller
Gossip, conversation and group size: language as a bonding
mechanism
Bernard Conein
The new welfare-warfare state: challenges to the sociological
imagination
Marinus Ossewaarde
Social theory and the critique of capitalism in a communication society
Patrick O’Mahony
Towards a cognitive sociology for our time: Habermas and Honneth or language and recognition…and beyond
Piet Strydom

London Review of Books - one blog worth checking out

2011-07-21T09:52:00.005+01:00

This week we've been reading the LRB blog.

With a wide selction of articles, from a very timely peice on The police and the Tabloids, to Tariq Ali's Homage to Sangakkara, it's well worth taking a look,

www.lrb.co.uk/blog

Curiouser and Curiouser: The Films of Alain Resnais

2011-07-19T10:21:00.007+01:00

The BFI are celebrating one of France's most enigmatic and intriguing directors with a series of screenings and special events, starting today until the 4th August.

A full list of events can be found on the BFI website

Or, why not learn more about the enigmatic director in this illuminating introduction to his work,

Alain Resnais
By Emma Wilson

This title traces the evolving patterns of Resnais's filmmaking, and its changing reflections on mortality, guilt, chance and human doubt.

Emma Wilson offers a highly personal and detailed engagement with individual images and scenes in Resnais's films

NOW IN PAPERBACK

The Peeps - New review

2011-07-18T10:55:00.002+01:00

A new review of The Peeps has been posted on The Shrieking Violet blog,

http://theshriekingviolets.blogspot.com/2011/07/ancoats-peeps-dan-dubowitz-and-presence.html

LAUNCH!

2011-07-06T09:37:00.007+01:00

Moving stories launch

WATERSTONE'S BRIGHTON will be hosting the UK launch of Alistair Thomson's Moving Stories on Tuesday, 12 July 2011, 7:30PM - 9:00PM

Join us in celebrating the launch of Alistair Thomson's fascinating new book in conjunction with the University of Brighton and their exciting event on Memory, Narrative and Histories.

Read Alistair Thomson's recent article for The Conversation. Further details of the event are here or call: 01273 206 017

Take a walk on the wildside

2011-06-27T10:22:00.003+01:00

The Peeps is a brand new book of photographs, interviews and commentary recording the origins, recent past and current regeneration of the Ancoats area of Manchester.

To celebrate the launch, international artist Dan Dubowitz and guest guides will lead a series of free walks around Ancoats – ‘A walk on the wildside’. These will discover the new award winning spaces and explore how artworks have been part of transforming the area.

A selection of Dubowitz’s internationally acclaimed photography from wastelands taken around the world between 2000 and 2010 will also be exhibited at The Ice Plant, Ancoats from 1–3 July, between 10am and 8pm (closes at 6pm on Sunday).

The walks take place as follows:

* Friday 1 July: 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm
* Saturday 2 July: 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm
* Sunday 3 July: 10am, 1pm, 4pm

Meet at the Queen Victoria statue in Piccadilly Gardens. The walks last about an hour and are 1.5 miles long.

Launch of Richard Wainwright, the Liberals and Liberal Democrats: Unfinished Business

2011-06-27T09:18:00.005+01:00

By Dr Matt Cole

On Wednesday 15 June, the Richard Wainwright Liberals and Liberal Democrats was launched at a meeting in the Jubilee Room at the Houses of Parliament where he was joined by forty Lords, MPs, political activists and commentators for a discussion on the topic ‘Where now for radical Liberalism?’ The meeting was addressed by political figures from across parties and generations, including longest-serving Lib Dem MP Sir Alan Beith and Lisa Nandy, the 31-year-old Labour MP for Wigan.

Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Simon Hughes described the book as “compulsory reading for the next generation of Liberal Democrat leaders” and the meeting was chaired by noted QC and author Baroness Helena Kennedy. Other contributors included former Liberal Leader Lord David Steel and Lord Greaves of Pendle, and amongst those present were Newsnight’s Michael Crick, BBC Parliament’s Mark D’Arcy, and representatives from think-tanks including the IPPR, Centre Forum, Unlock Democracy and the Joseph Rowntree Trust.

Dr Cole addressed a second launch meeting on Monday 20 June at the National Liberal Club in Whitehall, where a fifty-strong gathering of the Liberal Democrat History Group heard from Dr Cole, Lord Dholakia, Lady Floella Benjamin and Lady Clare Tyler.

Daniel Finkelstein writing in The Times (23 June 2011) described Richard Wainwright, the Liberals and Liberal Democrats as “engrossing” and “fascinating”, saying “reading Cole’s book, I found Wainwright’s life admirable and moving.”

War Correspondent exhibition opens

2011-06-21T10:14:00.009+01:00

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM NORTH
28th May to 2nd January 2012

A new exhibition revealing the people behind the news has recently opened at the Imperial War museum North.

See the bullet that deflected into Kate Adie’s leg in Lebanon, a burqa worn by John Simpson to secretly enter Afghanistan in 2001, the typewriter Michael Nicholson used to write his reports from Vietnam and one of Martin Bell’s trademark white suits, plus many more fascinating objects.

If this has pricked up your ears, why not take a look at Pockets of resistance, the most detailed, sophisticated and theoretically grounded analysis of wartime media coverage written to date.

NEW TITLE

Another title focusing of the reporting of war and conflict, The Politics of War Reporting (Nov 2011), will challenge the assumptions that reporters and their audiences alike have about the way the journalistic trade operates and how it sees the world.

Did you spot us at the Manchester Book market this weekend?

2011-06-20T12:34:00.003+01:00

We were selling a hugh selection of favorites from the MUP back catalogue at the Book market in Manchester this weekend.

Thanks to everyone in Manchester who came to check out our stand.

See you next year!

Author Paul Phillips visits Manchester

2011-06-20T12:19:00.011+01:00

Rhode Island based author Paul Phillips was in Manchester last week, and treated visitors at The International Anthony Burgess Foundation to a rare insight into the music and literature of Anthony Burgess.

Last year Paul published the highly acclaimed Clockwork Counterpoint, the first major study of the music and literature of Anthony Burgess.

Thank you to Paul for a very entertaining evening.

Moving stories author on ABC Radio

2011-06-08T11:56:00.007+01:00

Alistair Thomson (Moving stories, Ten Pound Poms) has appeared on Australian national radio ABC. Follow this link to access the interview.

LAUNCH

2011-05-16T10:24:00.004+01:00

Redefining social justice
By Valerie Bryson and Pamela Fisher

By Valerie Bryson
The editors and contributors to Redefining social justice gathered at the University of Huddersfield last week to launch their brand new book.

The launch was part of a seminar series organised by the Centre for Research in the Social Sciences at the University of Huddersfield. The audience was drawn from staff and postgraduate students, and they joined in a very lively round-table discussion.

The event enabled us to engage in inter-disciplinary conversation and up-date our findings - so after I had outlined the book's key findings and themes, we discussed in particular changes in Labour's electoral strategy (Tim Heppell), its policies on disability (Chris Gifford), and changes in NHS (Ruth Deery) and legal aid (Pete Sanderson) since the election. I found particularly interesting (as it was unfamiliar to me) the ongoing research by Lesley Jeffries into political language - she is involved in an ongoing research project documenting how this is changing - and has found that 'choice' was a word that increasingly appeared in political manifestos during the 1990s and early 2000s - but had practically disappeared by 2010.
Conversation continued informally over lunch.

More information about Redefining social justice can be found on our website.

From left to right: Chris Gifford, Lesley Jeffries, Peter Sanderson, me, Tim Heppell and Ruth Deery. Unfortunately Pamela Fisher was unable to attend due to illness.

Conference round-up

2011-04-28T15:21:00.003+01:00

April 2011

We're in the middle of a busy conference season here at MUP. Our titles have been displayed at a number of different conferences this month, including the AHH (Association of Art Historians) and PSA (Political Studies Association).

The Rethinking Art's Histories series was launched at the AAH bookfair reception. Screen/Space, the latest title in the series was showcased to the delegates, while author Tamara Trodd gave an enlightening speech.

The PSA, one of the busiest politics conferences we visit, was also a resounding success. A huge number of our titles were on display, including the brand new The Conservative party and the extreme right 1945-1975, by Mark Pitchford. The conference also provided a perfect opportunity to catch up with many of our authors, and to discuss a number of exciting new projects (watch this space!).

This week you can visit us at BISA, which is being held not far from our offices in Manchester. We've already seen some very lively sessions, and had a chance to make contact with some very interesting delegates from across the globe. As usual, a wide selection of our titles are on display, and are available to purchase at the very generous conference discounts. So, do visit our stand if you're attending BISA this week.

Next month begins with The Sociological Association of Ireland (SAI) Annual Conference in Cork. We're particularly looking forward to this event as the Irish Journal of Sociology, which MUP now publish in conjunction with the SAI, will be launched during the conference. Issue 19 (1) will be published shortly, but delegates at the conference have the opportunity to get their hands on sample copies of the first two issues published by MUP.

If you're visiting the SAI annual conference, do stop by our stand to say hello!

2011-04-26T12:14:00.003+01:00

Workshop on Gabriel Guarino’s Representing the king's splendour: Communication and reception of symbolic forms of power in Viceregal Naples.

This year has seen the publication of two new books on early modern Naples: John
Marino’s Becoming Neapolitan: Citizen culture in Baroque Naples and Gabriel Guarino’s Representing the king's splendour: Communication and reception of symbolic forms of power in Viceregal Naples (Manchester, 2011). Both of these books explore the dynamics of urban life in one of the most densely populated and vibrant cities in Europe in the early modern period.

The workshop proposes to discuss these two new works with their authors alongside new research on the varieties of citizen culture, contestation over urban space, civic symbols, and municipal power in Naples and comparative reflections on other cities in Italy and Spain. Speakers also include James Amelang, Peter Burke, Stephen Cummins, and Lorenza Gianfrancesco.

To register, please contact Melissa Calaresu (mtc12@cam.ac.uk).

New Labour and the European Union

2011-04-19T16:54:00.008+01:00

BOOK LAUNCH

By Oliver Daddow

The official launch of New Labour and the European Union was hosted by the Federal Trust in London on 7 April 2011. It was held in Mary Sumner House, off Tufton Street in Westminster, conveniently – given the subject matter – not far from Parliament, Downing Street and Whitehall. Around 50 people were in attendance, including academics, diplomats, business people, journalists, former New Labour advisers and members of think-tanks. MUP’s Tony Mason kindly came along to man the book stall, and the day proceeded very smoothly thanks to the hard work of everyone at the Federal Trust.

The launch involved three presentations followed by forty five minutes’ worth of questions and discussion, with a wine reception. In the first presentation Oliver Daddow outlined the central arguments in the book: that New Labour failed to convert the British people to the idea of a European future; that the Blair and Brown governments were operating in a largely hostile and Eurosceptical media and public opinion context after 1997; but that they could, nonetheless, have done a lot more through their information campaign on Europe to shift public opinion. This was yet another ‘missed opportunity’ for British European policy.
Following this outline of the book as a whole, the audience was treated to two commentaries on the book from invited commentators. The second speaker was Sir Stephen Wall, former UK Representative to the EU and Blair’s European adviser; the third speaker was Rt Hon Lord Radice, another to have worked closely with the government on European issues. Both gave insider recollections of key policy decisions and challenges from the time and, in the main, supported the crux of the book- that Blair and Brown did not live up to their early promise to construct a ‘pro-European’ consensus about the EU in Britain.

The commentaries and questions that followed centred on five principle issues:
First, was this a loss of nerve or a failure of leadership? A profound irony was noted, that New Labour inserted the word ‘lead’ and ‘leadership’ into almost every foreign policy speech, but on difficult issues such as the Europe question the government seemed incapable of demonstrating any sustained or convincing leadership at all.

Second, the influence of the Eurosceptical press was well covered, notably the influence of Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper outlets. New Labour was stuck from the beginning in many ways because Murdoch supported Blair as leader but was equally hostile to the EU; meanwhile, the British public might have liked New Labour more than the Conservatives, but it was more appreciative of ‘Old Britain’. Neither Blair nor Brown had the ability or, as time progressed, the willingness, to alter these perceptions by uprooting established traditions of thinking about the nation’s role in the world.
Third, what place did referenda have in uprooting New Labour’s early intentions for its European policy, and what kind of referendum might have succeeded in putting the Europe issue to rest? Pledging a referendum but never holding one demonstrated a failure of leadership, and opened the way for a concerted referendum campaign on the part of the sceptical press, which exacerbated the government’s hesitancy to hold one- on the single currency or the Lisbon Treaty.

Fourth, Brown’s period at the Treasury effectively saw him wrest control over European policy from Blair very early on, via the announcement of the Treasury’s ‘five tests’ on euro membership in October 1997. This was, it seems, another example of Blair not demonstrating the level of far-sighted leadership required to keep momentum behind the ‘pro’ campaign, whatever the odd speech he made to the contrary. High hopes for the launch of the Britain in Europe in 1999 were just as quickly dashed, while the tests were used to delay having to make a firm decision on the single currency.
Finally, many participants remarked on the use British politicians make of ‘Europe’ as a political football. It is an issue that provides many examples of parties positioning themselves for best gain at the polls (Europe as a modernizing strategy for the Labour Party after the debacle of the 1980s, for example). Examples of ‘Europe’ being the principled pursuit of politicians are far fewer. By contrast, Europe has tended to be used by British foreign policy decision-makers as a prop to some rather dated global ambitions. In this regard, Blair, Brown and New Labour echoed tendencies going back as far as Churchill and before.

We learn from this book, and the vibrant launch discussions, that if Blair and Brown had not promised such a radical departure from previous practices perhaps we might not be so critical of the government’s European policy. But New Labour did make such promises, so it is well worth looking to the pre-Iraq New Labour as a way of holding former ministers to account for this sadly familiar European policy outcome.

AAH 2011

2011-03-31T14:13:00.003+01:00

STARTS TODAY

The AAH 2011 conference kicks off today at The University of Warwick. As well as displaying a huge range of Art History titles, we'll also be launching Screen/Space, the latest title in the Rethinking Art's histories conference.

Visit our stand, and take advantage of some very generous conference discounts!

The Revels Plays to feature in the forthcoming season of Lewis, on ITV1

2011-03-28T10:02:00.003+01:00

MUP's Revels Student Editions hit primetime ITV

The fifth series of hit drama Lewis has returned to ITV1 with Inspector Lewis and his partner Hathaway investigating more murders against the backdrop of the city of Oxford.

On 10th April, The White Devil by John Webster featured in an episode entitled 'Wild Justice' with a premise of Elizabethan and Jacobean revenge tragedy. Follow this link for more information on The Revels Student Editions to buy the book and to watch the episode.

New Labour and the European Union

2011-03-17T14:01:00.004Z

BOOK LAUNCH

New Labour and the European Union
Dr Oliver Daddow

7th April 2011, The Federal Trust

Mary Sumner House,
24 Tufton Street,
London
SW1P 3RB

Please email bethan.hirst@manchester.ac.uk if you would like to attend this launch event.

Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World

2011-03-17T13:55:00.003Z

NEW ISSUE NOW ONLINE

Volume 1 Issue 4 is now available to browse completely free of charge.

Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World is MUP's first open access journal. It's an international, multidisciplinary journal aimed at academics, undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and practitioners in the field.

MUST-SEE EXHIBITION FOR 2011

2011-03-15T10:52:00.003Z

Joan Miró
TATE MODERN
14 April – 11 September 2011

For the first time in over 50 years, the work of iconic artist Joan Miró (1893–1983) will be exhibited in the UK. The Tate Modern is providing a rare opportunity to enjoy over 150 paintings, drawings, sculptures by one of the leading artists of the early twentieth century.

Those interested in the work of Joan Miró should check out Fixed Ecstasy, by Charles Palermo. The book focuses on Miró's work and enterprises in the 1920s, and analyses some of the most important works of his career.

2011-03-04T16:31:00.002Z

LAUNCH!

A history of British sports medicine by Vanessa Heggie Monday 14th March , 4.30 - 6.00pm The Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge 50% OFF THE RRP FOR ALL LAUNCH ATTENDEES!

2011-03-04T16:28:00.001Z

Launch event to coincide with the marking of twenty years since the formation of the Voluntary Action History Society (1991-2011)

An afternoon seminar on 18 April at LSE will include papers by Professor Bernard Harris (University of Southampton) and Associate Professor Melanie Oppenheimer (Beveridge and voluntary action in Britain and the wider British world).

For more information and to book a place please follow this link

2011-03-04T16:26:00.002Z

Launch event for In Strange Countries: Middle English Literature and its Afterlife

John Anderson taught medieval literature at the University of Manchester for nearly 40 years. This book, edited by David Matthews, pays tribute to his career and its diverse interests.

Please join us to celebrate John’s career and the publication of In Strange Countries.

Tuesday 8 March 2011, 6pm The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street, Manchester

Author interviewed in The Latin American Review of Books

2011-03-01T17:04:00.003Z

Nathanial Gardner, author of Querido Diego, te abraza Quiela by Elena Poniatowska has been interviewed in the new edition of The Latin American Review of Books.

A new website for 'More work! Less pay!'

2011-03-01T10:59:00.003Z

'More work! Less pay!' now has its own dedicated website. As well as providing vital information on the book, it's hoped the website will provide those interested in the Italian Left in the 1970s a much needed forum for discussion.

The BBC gets behind new release!

2011-02-23T14:54:00.003Z

The BBC have featured Antony Phillips' & Colin Phillips' An Historical Atlas of Staffordshire in the History section of their informative Stoke and Staffordshire website. To read the feature click here.

2011-02-18T11:04:00.005Z

LAUNCH EVENT
Catholic police officers in Northern Ireland

The University of Ulster Law School and the Irish Association are sponsoring the launch of Catholic police officers in Northern Ireland.

Speakers include Peter Sheridan, former Assistant Chief Constable and Chief Executive of Cooperation Ireland, Dr Mary O'Rawe from the Policing and Human Security Research Group, and the author Dr Mary Gethins.

The launch will take place at The University of Ulster on 10th March at 5.30pm. Anyone interested in attending the launch should email Alan Burnside at alanburnside1@yahoo.co.uk.

2011-02-08T09:56:00.003Z

The Voluntary Action History Society and LSE invite you to celebrate the launch of Beveridge and voluntary action in Britain and the wider British world
Edited by Melanie Oppenheimer and Nicholas Deakin

An afternoon seminar (3-5pm) will include a paper by Melanie Oppenheimer. An evening reception (5-7pm) will feature the book launch and short talks by Nicholas Deakin and Justin Davis Smith, Chief Executive of Volunteering England.

Monday 18 April 2011
London School of Economics

RSVP g.brewis@ioe.ac.uk Please indicate whether you wish to attend the afternoon or evening session or both. For more information www.vahs.org.uk

Are you attending The Production Show?

2011-02-07T11:23:00.002Z

15th - 17th Feb 2011
Earls Court 2, London

Then we think you'll also be interested in Cue & Cut, A practical approach to working in multi-camera studios. It’s full of useful information about kit, and how you would use it to create multi-camera content.

Written by a Roger Singleton-Turner, a multi-camera producer-director with years of drama and teaching experience, it presents both a way of handling studios and a source of information about how things have changed from the days of monochrome to HD tapeless modes – with some thoughts on 3D HDTV.

Find out more about the The Production Show

Find out more about Cue & Cut

Liverpool University to host launch of Pockets of resistance

2011-01-18T09:57:00.006Z

We're pleased to announce the launch of Pockets of resistance. The launch will be held at the Communicating War conference on the 28th January.

Organised by the Department of Communication & Media at Liverpool University, the one-day conference aims to bring together a range of academic researchers from the fields of media and communication, international relations, literary and visual culture to discuss the ways in which the causes and consequences of war are portrayed through diverse texts, artwork and media.

The official conference website explains how you can sign up for the conference.

Constitution Unit blog

2011-01-17T12:32:00.004Z

Author of The Northern Ireland Experience of Conflict and Agreement, Robin Wilson, talks about his new book on the Constitution Unit blog.

Read his latest blog post.

AS Byatt to attend MUP Launch!

2011-01-11T10:31:00.008Z

Book launch A S byatt: critical storytelling

Thursday 20 January 2011, 6-8pm

Main Foyer, 309 Regent Street, University of Westminster, London W1B 2UW

You are warmly invited to join Dame Antonia Byatt and the authors to celebrate the publication of this new monograph on A S Byatt's work.

This stimulating and comprehensive study of A S Byatt's work spans virtually her entire career and offers insightful readings of all of Byatt's works of fiction up to and including her Man-Booker-shortlisted novel The Children's Book. The authors combine a clear and accessible overview of Byatt's oeuvre to date with close critical analysis of all her major works. Uniquely, the book also points beyond the immediate context of Byatt's fiction by considering her critical writings and journalism alongside her novels and short stories.

To book your place, please visit westminster.ac.uk/criticalstorytelling

Launch event

2011-01-10T09:06:00.006Z

Material Relations: Domestic Interiors and Middle-Class Families in England, 1850-1910

by Jane Hamlett

The launch of Material Relations will be held on Wednesday January 12th 6-9pm at Royal Holloway University.

Anyone interested in attending the event should contact bethan.hirst@manchester.ac.uk.

2011-01-07T13:57:00.006Z

MeCCSA conference 2011
12-14 January 2011, The Lowry, Salford Quays

Attending the MeCCSA conference this year?

MUP will be present on all three days of the conference, with a huge range of front and backlist titles. It's the perfect opportunity to browse our books and take advantage of some exclusive conference discounts!

See you there

LAUNCH EVENT

2011-01-06T15:47:00.006Z

Mobilising classics
Reading radical writing in Ireland
Fiona Dukelow and Orla O'Donovan

The book will be launched on 24th January at the University College Cork by Michael D. Higgins.

The launch will also include a seminar by Bernadette McAliskey on Republicanism Revisited - Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man.

Anyone interested in attending the launch should contact bethan.hirst@manchester.ac.uk.

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of 2010

2011-01-06T10:36:00.007Z

Three of our titles have been awarded in the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles of 2010!

The Politics of Alcohol by James Nicholls

Fighting Like the Devil for the Sake of God by Mark Doyle

Cultures of Violence by Ivan Evans

PRESS RELEASE

2010-11-12T11:23:00.007Z

TOP of this weeks NME 'What we're reading and watching' list (pg41)

The first critical study devoted to iconic band The Smiths

Why pamper life’s complexities? Essays on The Smiths
Edited by Sean Campbell and Colin Coulter

In recent years, public and critical appreciation of The Smiths has been at its height, yet the most important British band after The Beatles have rarely been subject to sustained academic scrutiny. Why pamper life’s complexities? remedies this by bringing together diverse research disciplines to place the band in a series of enlightening social, cultural and political contexts.
The book discusses a range of very timely issues, from Thatcherism, Catholicism, class and sexuality to suicide, fandom, the city of Manchester, cultural iconography and the cult of Morrissey. The essays breach the boundaries of music history, rock biography and pop culture studies to give a groundbreaking critical analysis of the band.

Why pamper life’s complexities? will be launched on 26th November at Waterstones Deansgate. The event will provide fans with a unique opportunity to take part in a panel discussion chaired by Dave Haslam, legendary Manchester DJ (Haçienda) and author of Manchester, England (Sunday Times’ Pop Music Book of the Year). The panel discussion will be followed by a drinks reception and book signing.

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW
Tickets for the launch cost £3, and can be purchased online at www.wegottickets.com, or on the door. More details can be found on the Manchester University Press homepage (www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk), or by contacting Bethan Hirst on 0161 275 2310.

FRANKFURT 2010

2010-11-12T11:10:00.005Z

Thanks to all our friends and colleagues who made Frankfurt bookfair 2010 a very successful one for Manchester University Press.

See you next year Frankfurt!

Author event

2010-09-28T10:17:00.005+01:00

The editors of Black families in Britain as the site of struggle are organising a presentation event in support of the Northern Black Workers Network. It will be held at the University of Leeds Union on THURSDAY 28th OCTOBER between 4-7pm. The cultural event with include Seyi playing African drums and a discussion of the book front cover. Seyi will also display and talk about other pieces of his artworks. Local playwright and actor Joe Williams will do a piece about African/Caribbean families and book chapter author Dr Franklin Smith from Oxford and both editors will detail aspects of the book.

Frankfurt 2010

2010-09-14T11:34:00.006+01:00

Are you attending Frankfurt bookfair this year?

If so, come by our stand and say hello! We will be there throughout the whole of the fair, from 6th to the 10th October.

You'll find us at stand C921 Hall 8.

The Alan Walker Book Award

2010-09-13T11:23:00.006+01:00

The forthcoming Liszt's Chopin has been entered into the Alan Walker Book Award in the US. The award will be presented by Dr. Walker at the 2011 American Liszt Society Bicentennial at the University of Georgia early next year.

Liszt's Chopin, by Meirion Hughes, will be available in the UK next month. Pre-order your copy now, and get a special 10% bloggers discount by quoting OTH197 (available until 31/12/2010)

As usual, more information about Liszt's Chopin can be found on our website

Why pamper life's complexities? - Offical cover design released

2010-09-01T10:46:00.006+01:00

The cover of Why pamper life's complexities?, our new title on the Smiths, has been released today, and you are among the first to sneak a peek....

We're keen to hear your thoughts on the design. Why not leave us your comments at the bottom of this post?

The book will be launched towards the end of November at a super special launch event - details coming soon!

Follow this link for more details on the book, including a full contents list.

Do you know about our open access journal?

2010-08-31T10:37:00.005+01:00

Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World: A Review Journal is hosted on our website and can be read free of charge by anyone. The journal includes topical articles such as British Pakistani Muslim Women's Political Empowerment and Boundary Crossings and The Impact of Government Initiatives in Promoting Racial Equality in Higher Education.

It's easy to browse articles from the journal, follow this link and click on the title of the article you would like to read.

NEW Issue Three is now available

Richard Lester donates first draft of Beatles films

2010-08-26T12:12:00.009+01:00

Richard Lester has donated more than 60 boxes of letters, scripts, notes and photographs documenting his 40 year career, to the BFI National Archive. The donation includes the first drafts of the Beatles films A Hard Day's Night and Help!. Lester’s collection also includes letters from Audrey Hepburn, Charlton Heston, Raquel Welch and Spike Milligan.

Read more about this story.

MUP published a full analysis of Richard Lester’s career earlier this year. Indelibly associated with the Beatles, the ‘swinging sixties’ and his joyous sex comedy The Knack, Lester has tended to be categorised as a modish director whose heyday passed when that decade’s optimism slid into disillusionment and violence. This book presents an alternative view of his work.

Find out more about Richard Lester

Peggy Seeger announces UK tour dates

2010-08-26T09:34:00.003+01:00

Peggy Seeger will be touring the UK later this year, playing in various venues across the country. Last year Peggy helped us launch the revised edition of Journeyman, Ewan MacColl's vivid and entertaining autobiography, at a large memorial concert at Peel Hall in Salford. She also kindly contributed a new introduction for the title.

More details about Ewan MacColl's popular autobiography are available on our website.

Visit Peggy's website to find out more details about her UK tour.

Dictionary of British politics

2010-08-19T15:36:00.005+01:00

REVIEW

The brand new Dictionary of British politics, by Bill Jones has been reviewed on the Liverpool Hope University website.

Read what they have to say

Order an inspection copy

Read more about the title

2010-07-30T14:17:00.002+01:00

Summer 2010, Artisans of the body in early modern Italy is NEW IN PAPERBACK!

'A phenomenally detailed picture of the lives of barbers andsurgeons, based not on the prescriptive regulations of guildsor colleges, but on the careers, work and family relationshipsof the individuals involved . . . . Cavallo's work provides a splendid modelfor further research.'

Katharine Park, Department of the History of Science, Harvard University

To read the full review please follow http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/hkp076

More reviews for this title can be found here....

Histoire sociale/Social history review (Volume 42, Number 84, November, on p. 490) by E. Cohen http://www.utpjournals.com/hssh/hssh.html

For Jacobson Schutte's review in Renaissance Quarterly (63:1, Spring 2010, pp. 239-40) http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/rq/2010/63/1

Fellow MUP author, Evelyn Welch, reviews Artisans of the body in History Workshop journal http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/history_workshop_journal/v068/68.welch.html

Rebecca Messbarger writes for The American Historical Review http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/ahr.114.4.1184?journalC

Lifting the lid on British shipbuilding

2010-07-21T16:02:00.008+01:00

Newly released The tide of democracy is a detailed account of British shipbuilding between 1870 and 1950. The title includes highly original detailed studies of the impact of new machinery on skills, the significance of rank-and-file movements within trade unions, and the role of craft unions in the early Labour Party.

Anyone interested in shipyard workers, or simply enthusiasts in Modern British Social and Economic History should visit a new exhibtion at Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent. A series of paintings by artist Stanley Spencer, commissioned to record the World War II effort, have gone on display for the first time since a full-scale restoration.

Check out details of the exhibition.

2010-07-14T10:10:00.007+01:00

BOOK LAUNCH

Collaboration and interdisciplinarity in the Republic of Letters
Essays in honour of Richard G. Maber
Edited by Paul Scott

This collection of fifteen essays by distinguished scholars covers aspects of interdisciplinarity and collaboration within the Republic of Letters. The essays include historical, theological, and literary topics and all focus on different means of communication of individuals between other intellectuals, with the past, and through the arts.

The book will be launched on 19th July at the Thirteenth International Conference for 17c Studies, to be held at Durham castle between 19th and 22nd July.

Those interested in attending the launch should contact bethan.hirst@manchester.ac.uk or guy.taylor@manchester.ac.uk.

Trace the history of the politics of alcohol

2010-07-14T09:53:00.004+01:00

James Nicholls, author of The Politics of Alcohol will be appearing on a new BBC series to be broadcast on Radio Four next week.

Britain on the Bottle: Alcohol and the State sees Mark Whitaker investigating the history of the politics of alcohol.

More information about the series can be found at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t1q76

War on terror, The Oxford Amnesty Lectures

2010-01-20T15:22:00.007Z

By Chris Miller

Disasters represent opportunities for governments. The way in which they react can reinforce their appeal with the electorate or alienate voters forever because deep emotions are stirred. A major terrorist outrage such as 9/11 constituted precisely such an opportunity and my immediate sense in its aftermath was that the feelings of outrage it inspired were liable to be exploited. This premonition was more than borne out, as we know. Those in the US administration who were already pressing for an assault on Saddam Hussein took their opportunity immediately. The need to close Afghanistan to terrorist training camps presented a more difficult challenge, which has not been solved. Under the pressure of public feeling measures were taken in the name of security that appealed to the general tendency of governments to enhance their own powers. Undoing the powers that Western and other governments then bestowed on themselves will be a long and patient task for human-rights campaigners—undertaken for the most part without the same sense of public urgency. The danger constituted by terrorism is, nevertheless, one of the least significant faced by the citizen of a Western democracy. In terms of reducing mortality, greater enforcement of speed-limits would probably have been more effective than the `War on Terror’. It is argued, of course, that we cannot know this; that attempted outrages were prevented of which we know nothing. But the effects of the ‘War on Terror’ can surely be described as a disaster in themselves. When the US criticizes human rights abuses in other countries, it is now seen to be entirely hypocritical, since the content of its own past critiques was used to establish the preferred destinations of those illegally rendered to torture during the Bush years (with the alleged complicity of other Western nations). Though the US in South and Central America and the UK in its colonial wars and in Ireland had clearly been active or instrumental in torture before then, it seemed that torture was at least off the official menu before 9/11. No longer. Powers that were awarded to the police in the UK in order to deal with terrorist groups are now used against non-violent protesters. The view already preached by Osama Bin Laden that the US and UK and other Western countries intended an assault on Islam has been reinforced and with it the view that violence is a legitimate recourse for Muslims opposed to the killing of fellow-Muslims in the ‘War on Terror’.

The considerations that motivate the declaration of such a ‘war’ are of course multifarious. And in the West there is a genuine perplexity concerning Islamist violence. I sense that the great public-relations victory scored by Israel over its Arab neighbours is coming to an end in Europe but how many, even now, are familiar with the history of Israel’s accumulation of territory? In America, Israel retains its dominance of public opinion on the Middle East.

For me, the organisation of a lecture series on the ‘War on Terror’ and the editing and writing involved in turning those lectures into a book constituted a quest for clarification of many of these issues economic, legal, historical, and ethical. We put our questions to specialists and received a wide variety of opinions, with some of which I was in fundamental disagreement. (Needless to say these pieces appear in full and they undoubtedly represent important strands of opinion.) By the end of that process, I was beginning to feel moderately well informed. The judgements made above are those at which I have arrived. If I say that many of my suspicions were confirmed in the course of the process, I am no doubt open to the accusation of having sought the evidence required to confirm my prejudices. I have little to say about this other than to suggest reading the Oxford Amnesty Lectures 2006: “War on Terror”. Every bit of it seems to me as pertinent as at the time of writing.

Find out more about the newly published War on Terror, editied by Chris Miller

Lois S. Bibbings and 'Telling tales about men' on Ireland's 4FM McGurk show

2010-01-13T11:52:00.003Z

On 7th January Lois S. Bibbings appeared on Ireland's 4FM McGurk Show and discussed Telling Tales about men with Derek Davis.

Bibbings's book provides an intriguing account of how conscientious objectors to compulsory military service — who opposed the war because of religious, moral and political belief — were viewed and treated in England during WWI .

You can listen to the 4FM McGurk Show interview here (12:09, MP3, 4.2MB).

Black Bartholomew's day wins award

2010-01-13T11:16:00.006Z

David J. Appleby's Black Bartholomew's day has been awarded the Richard L. Greaves Award by the International John Bunyan Society. The Richard L. Greaves Award is an award that is presented triennially to an outstanding book on the history, literature, thought, practices, and legacy of English Protestantism to 1700. The award is not limited to studies of Bunyan, and can be conferred on authors who are not members of the IJBS.

This is only the second time the award has been given, the first recipient being Isabel Hofmeyr of Princeton University.

Although the book has but one mention of Bunyan, the committee agreed that the book's contribution to dissenting studies was 'exceptional'.

To find out more about the International John Bunyan Society follow this link: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~dgay/Bunyan.htm

Artisans of the body in early modern Italy reviewed by Katharine Park

2009-12-02T11:22:00.009Z

Summer 2010, Artisans of the body in early modern Italy is NEW IN PAPERBACK!

'A phenomenally detailed picture of the lives of barbers andsurgeons, based not on the prescriptive regulations of guildsor colleges, but on the careers, work and family relationshipsof the individuals involved . . . . Cavallo's work provides a splendid modelfor further research.'

Katharine Park, Department of the History of Science, Harvard University

To read the full review please follow http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/hkp076

More reviews for this title can be found here....

Histoire sociale/Social history review (Volume 42, Number 84, November, on p. 490) by E. Cohen http://www.utpjournals.com/hssh/hssh.html

For Jacobson Schutte's review in Renaissance Quarterly (63:1, Spring 2010, pp. 239-40) http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/rq/2010/63/1

For the Medical History review by Patrick Wallis, London School of Economics & Political Science follow http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2706060/

Fellow MUP author, Evelyn Welch, reviews Artisans of the body in History Workshop journal http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/history_workshop_journal/v068/68.welch.html

Rebecca Messbarger writes for The American Historical Review http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/ahr.114.4.1184?journalC

Ewan MacColl memorial concert reviewed

2009-11-06T13:49:00.002Z

By Edward Hirst

Ewan MacColl’s position in the pantheon of folk legends alongside such leading figures as Albert Lloyd, is never likely to be disputed. For many of the leading figures in the folk revival during the early 1960’s and beyond, MacColl firmly held the reigns as they charged through the political and social tempests of the ensuing decades. MacColl’s career spans a period during which most other musical genres were relapsing into the commercial celebrity cultures we now take for granted: his enduring achievement was his struggle to retain the idiom of the people – their essential passions, dilemnas and language – at the generative nucleus of the British folk song.
And yet, whilst we might talk endlessly about MacColl’ s importance in the folk scene, we should not forget that the flowering of his later career was grounded in the humble origins of an everyday working-class Salford up-brining.

It is apt, therefore, that to mark the 20th anniversary of his death, Manchester University Press have admirably braved the current economic tempest and published a new edited MacColl’s autobiography ‘Journeyman’ with a new introduction by Peggy Seeger, his partner, collaborator, and first-rate artist in her own right. Moreover, to celebrate the launch of ‘Journeyman’, a memorial concert was held in Salford’s Peel Hall, just yards from the Irwell river immortalised by MacColl in Trafford Road Ballad, and attended by some of the finest artists on the circuit, including John Faulkner, Bob Blair, Brian Pearson, John Faulkner, Jez Lowe, David Ferrard, Bob Fox, and the evergreen Seeger herself.
With a packed-out auditorium, and the presence of local brewery Boggart Hole, there was no doubt that this was going to be a memorable evening.

It was fitting that Jez Lowe featured in the concert. He might quite rightly be described as one of the most prolific folk singers around, and has a special connection to Ewan MacColl in his recent work for the 2006 Radio Ballads, which were written in the same style which MacColl himself invented. A powerful rendition of ‘Taking on Men’ based on accounts he heard from ship builders in Glasgow and Newcastle, was greeted with rapturous applause.

David Ferrard, a gifted young American singer who now lives in Edinburgh, reminded everyone that there is more to folk music than mere old tunes. His songs, like MacColl’s, ring with political significance. His protest against the activities of bankers over the last year, was well received by all! But his fine (almost eerily reminicient of MacColl himself) rendition of the Trafford Road Ballad, demonstrated the broad versatility of this young singer.

Finally, to the delight of all, Peggy Seeger took to the stage charming the audience with quips and jokes which nevertheless quickly dissolved into the beautifully haunting First Time Ever I Saw your Face, which MacColl wrote for Seeger.

Seeger displayed her musical talents by accompanying herself on four different instruments, rounding off with the old Scottish ballad Henry Martin, on the Banjo. Both MacColl and Seeger were instrumental in keeping alive many of the Scottish ballads for future generations, and it was fitting that Seeger should pay tribute to their exploits on this night.

No Ewan MacColl concert would be complete without the famous Manchester Rambler, and the audience were treated to a spectacular and nostalgaic chorus from all the performers.

Ewan MacColl was a stalwart of British folk music, a titanesque figure whose memory will inspire many future generations of folk musicians as they struggle on to keep the heart of British folk music beating.

2009-11-03T11:43:00.003Z

INVITATION
Amnesty International UK and Manchester University Press invite you to a panel discussion and drinks reception to mark the launch of

‘War on Terror’
The Oxford Amnesty Lectures
Edited by Chris Miller

Through dynamic and highly informed discussion, this Amnesty-hosted book launch will address key issues arising in today’s ‘War on Terror’. The book itself is drawn from the world-famous Oxford Amnesty Lectures and contains essays of substantial and abiding importance.
Conor Gearty, Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Professor of Human Rights at the London School of Economics, will speak on ‘The War on Terror in the Age of Obama’. Joanna Bourke, Professor of History at Birkbeck College, will focus on the use of sexual violence in the ‘War on Terror’. Author, commentator and former Guantánamo detainee Moazzam Begg will respond drawing on his experience as a campaigner and advocate for human rights.

Where

Amnesty International UK, The Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA

When

Thursday 26 November 2009
Time: 6.30pm for 7pm start
This event is free but booking is essential at
www.amnesty.org.uk/events

Thinking Allowed - Review by James Nicholls

2009-10-20T16:27:00.007+01:00

I was invited to appear on Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed this week to discuss my new book, The Politics of Alcohol. I was impressed by Laurie Taylor’s ability to squeeze a huge range of issues into a ten-minute interview, leaving time for some well-chosen music as well as an excerpt from the Shadow Home Secretary’s speech to the Conservative Party conference last week. While the book is broadly chronological, Taylor concentrated on overarching themes such as the idea of national drinking traditions, class, gender and the cultural symbolism of drinking practices. We were also able to discuss how history could inform the heated policy debates which surround alcohol at the moment – something which illustrated one of the central claims in The Politics of Alcohol: that the ‘drink question’ is very much alive today.

My book argues that debates about alcohol policy and culture not only evade simple resolution but persist in exposing gaps in otherwise coherent ideological claims about individual freedom, social responsibility and the regulation of markets. Although it was a brief discussion, I think we managed to get a sense of that idea across.

Listen to the interview on BBC iplayer (choose the programme dated 14/10/09)

WIN a free copy the brand new The James Bond phenomenon, second edition

2009-09-25T12:07:00.006+01:00

To celebrate the launch of The James Bond phenomenon, second edition, Manchester University Press is offering readers the chance to win a copy of the book.

Simply email the answer to the question below, to bethan.hirst@manchester.ac.uk. Don't forget to include your name and address. The lucky winner will be announced 6th November.

Question

The author of the young James Bond novels was in a band with his brothers. What was the band called?

Good luck!

Washington Society for the History of Medicine Annual Dinner and Meeting

2009-09-03T16:13:00.009+01:00

Washington Society for the History of Medicine Annual Dinner and Meeting will be held in the US on September 26th.

Jeffrey Reznick will present a talk entitled, John Galsworthy and Disabled Soldiers of the Great War, based on his forthcoming book for MUP.

Jeffrey S. Reznick, PhD is Director of the Institute for the Study of Occupation and Health of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation, an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Modern History of the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, a member of Birmingham’s Center for First World War Studies, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Check out the Jeffrey S. Reznick website.

Find out more about John Galsworthy and Disabled Soldiers of the Great War

Terry Gilliam season at the BFI

2009-08-26T11:42:00.005+01:00

As the world holds their breath for the next Terry Gilliam creation, the BFI is this week taking a peek into the career and personal imaginarium of one of the most lauded and provocative auteurs currently working in film.

The Terry Gilliam season, which kicks off today and lasts for the next five days, will include showings of the spectacular fairy tale The Brothers Grimm, and the celebrated Twelve Monkeys, amongst other famous films.

With great timing, MUP launched a new book examining the work of Terry Gilliam last week. The title provides a detailed analysis of all his major work from television’s Monty Python’s Flying Circus to the controversial film Tideland. Perfect for anyone studying Film, Cultural Studies, Media Studies and Literary Studies - and anyone who thinks of themselves as a Gilliam enthusiast too!

Find out more about Terry Gilliam

Memorial concert for Ewan MacColl

2009-08-17T09:22:00.014+01:00

The memorial concert for Ewan MacColl (25 January 1915 - 22 October 1989) looks set to be a landmark folk occasion, commemorating the life and work of one of the major architects of the English folk revival. But far more than a prolific songwriter, folk singer and teacher, he was the founder with Joan Littlewood here in Manchester of radical theatre, a playwright and actor, and a passionate supporter of radical causes.

The concert, which will be held at Peel Hall in Salford on 27th October, also celebrates the re-issue by Manchester University Press of Journeyman, Ewan MacColl's vivid and entertaining autobiography. This new version has been re-edited from his original manuscript, and includes a new introduction by Peggy Seeger, his partner for the last thirty years of his life. Copies of the book will be on sale for £10 during the concert (see below for more details).

Peggy Seeger is joined at the concert by folk singers old and new. Among those taught by Peggy and Ewan in their 'Critics Group' were Sandra Kerr, John Faulkner, Bob Blair and Brian Pearson, all variously singing, writing, acting and teaching. Sandra teaches on the influential Folk and Traditional Music degree course at Newcastle University, the best training ground for folk musicians today. John Faulkner, now artist in residence at the Galway City Museum, took part in Travelling People, last of the famous MacColl/Seeger Radio Ballad series, a form revisited by the BBC in 2006. Writing for and singing in this award-winning recent series were two of the most well-known folk singers today, Jez Lowe - perhaps the best modern songwriter in the folk idiom - and Bob Fox. The line-up is completed by David Ferrard, a young Scottish/American writer of songs of peace and protest.

Tickets cost £10, and go on sale on 14th September. Call the MUP office on 0161 275 2310 for all ticket enquiries. Copies of Journeyman, the new edition of Ewan MacColl's best-selling autobiography, will be on sale at the concert for just £10.

Read more about Journeyman.

New Open Access Journal

2009-08-12T14:53:00.003+01:00

Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World: A Review Journal is our first to be published as an open access journal.

The journal contributes to the academic debate into race relations. It is an international, multidisciplinary journal aimed at academics, undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and practitioners in the field. The journal will be published twice yearly and will include two peer reviewed academic essays, one research paper, one peer reviewed book review as well as 40 professionally produced short book reviews.

Open access content can be accessed here.

The Magdalen Laundries - Compartmentalizing abuse … forgotten voices.

2009-06-24T11:22:00.006+01:00

By James M. Smith

Today we have a guest post from James M. Smith, Associate Professor in the English Department and Irish Studies Program at Boston College, and author of Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and the nation's architecture of containment.

An Irish Times article and a long spot on the popular radio show Today with Pat Kenny have ensured widespread interest in this excellent book on the highly controversial subject matter of Ireland’s Magdalen laundries, which continues to resonate today with the recent Ryan commission report.

Link to Today with Pat Kenny interview: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/player_av.html?0,null,200,http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/209-rte-playback.smil

It is also the winner of the 2007 Donald Murphy Prize for a Distinguished First Book.

Click here to read more about this wonderful book.

In the meantime, James Smith writes:-

"Are you the man who wrote the Magdalen book?" A voice, hesitant and frail, asked from the other end of my office phone. "I just finished it. I read about ten pages a day." She called to share her story. She wanted someone to listen. She needed someone to understand.

Her mother died when she was seven. Initially, she and a younger sister were cared for within the extended family. The farm required her father's attention. At fourteen, he deposited her with the Good Shepherd nuns in New Ross. Her sister was sent to the congregation's Limerick convent.

The Good Shepherd Sisters managed industrial schools at both these locations. They also operated a reformatory school for girls in Limerick. But the two teenage sisters would live and work with the adult women in the Magdalen laundry. They remained enslaved, unpaid for their labor, for almost five years.

The Ryan Report evades this woman's experience of childhood abuse. She was disappeared directly into the Magdalen laundry. There was no judge. No "cruelty man." No committal order. She never was a ward of state. She was just dumped. Consequently, she exists in a legal limbo.

The Residential Institutions Redress Board ignores her experience of childhood abuse. The Dublin-based lawyers responded to her queries. She insisted she was a Magdalen and was never in the industrial school. They told her there was little they could do. The advocacy group "Justice_for_Magdalenes" helped petition the Redress Board on her behalf. Again, her case was not taken up. Her childhood abuse didn't fit the legal parameters.

The recently published Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse tells a horrendous story. Irish society responds with anger, a sense of betrayal, and oft-stated disbelief. It seems intent on holding the religious congregations accountable. The government now accepts the report's major recommendations. The Dáil passed an all-party motion pledging to cherish all the children of the state equally.

But what about those victims and survivors of institutional abuse not addressed by the report? What about Ireland's Magdalen women and their families? Now is precisely the juncture that Irish society—state, Church, religious congregations, families, and local communities—should confront head-on the abuse of thousands of women in Ireland's Magdalen laundries.

The Magdalen laundries were excluded from the Residential Institutions Redress legislation. They were deemed private, charitable institutions. Women, the state asserted, voluntarily committed themselves seeking asylum. The four religious congregations involved in operating Ireland's laundries—the Good Shepherds, Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge, Mercy Sisters—all gave testimony before the Commission's confidential committee. But, they only addressed their management of industrial and reformatory schools.

Magdalen survivors were not invited to appear before the confidential committee. The Commission, of course, was charged with inquiring into child abuse. Magdalens were, in the main, women not children. And, age continues to inform the state's rationale for disqualifying survivors' claims for redress. So too, however, does the question of liability. Unlike the industrial and reformatory schools system, the government disclaims any function in licensing or inspecting the laundries. It purports never to have funded them directly.

But the state always relied on the availability of the Magdalen laundries to conceal “problem women.” It continually facilitated the transfer of women into the nuns’ care. It helped make possible a labor force through court referrals. It apportioned lucrative contracts for state institutional laundry (e.g., hospitals, military, etc.). After 1960, it provided the nuns with capitation grants for women on remand from the courts.

The state always ignored the flagrant disregard for the women’s civil and constitutional rights: false imprisonment; the absence of due process; exploitative and dangerous work practices; the denial of educational and human developmental resources; as well as emotional, physical and, in some cases, sexual abuse. The department of justice never regulated institutions routinely used by members of the judiciary to incarcerate Irish citizens.

Ireland’s Magdalen survivors are denied a distinct redress and reparations scheme despite the state’s culpability, complicity, and collusion in these abusive institutions. And no one in Ireland—not the religious congregations, not the Hierarchy, not the state—has apologized to the Magdalen communities.

The Residential Institutions Redress Act (2002) did include, but only as an afterthought, young girls illegally transferred from industrial and reformatory schools to Magdalen laundries. Many of these "preventative" cases, as they were called, rejoined society in their early twenties. Some have sought the redress they were entitled to. Others decided to remain in the sheltered environs of the convent all their lives. What about these women's lost childhoods? What about the abuse they suffered?

And what about the young children disappeared directly into Magdalen institutions, like the woman who picked up the phone to call me? What about her sister? What about the others? The Kennedy Report (1970) documents some "617 children … resident in 'Voluntary Homes which have not applied for approval.'" We are left to guess how many of this number lost their childhoods in Magdalen Laundries?

And what of the larger Magdalen community of adult women? Is their experience of physical and emotional abuse somehow less worthy of acknowledgment, redress, and reparation than that of children? Is contemporary Irish society comfortable with this compartmentalization of abuse?

In places like Drumcondra, Cork, and New Ross, laundries and industrial schools stood side by side. In Limerick, a system of underground tunnels ensured both populations could attend church and then return to their separate buildings without ever seeing each other. Indeed survivor testimony speaks to mothers and children separated by walls within the one convent complex without ever knowing of the other's whereabouts.

Is the abuse experienced by these woman and children somehow fundamentally different? Is it conceivable that nuns abused children and didn't abuse adult women in a different part of the same institution? Or, is contemporary Irish society suggesting that the Magdalen women somehow deserved the treatment they received?

The woman who called me is a survivor of institutional child abuse. She remains scarred by her childhood experience. Elderly and alone, she is angry about the past, afraid for the future. Irish society now demands accountability for child abuse at the state's industrial and reformatory schools. When will it do likewise for the abuse of girls and women in the nation's Magdalen laundries?

Recognition for Carers

2009-06-08T15:42:00.005+01:00

By John Costello

I am delighted that the Manchester University Press Friends and Family series is contributing to Carers week 2009 by launching the first book in the series Caring for someone with a long term illness by John Costello.

As we begin National Carers week, it is interesting to note the results of two recent surveys announced recently. The survey conducted by YouGov, questioned over 2,000 members of the public about their beliefs and attitudes towards carers. The results revealed that the public rank carers alongside the emergency services in terms of their contribution to society. Six out of seven people (86%) believe that carers make a valuable contribution, behind only nurses (91%) and firefighters (90%). The overwhelming majority also agree that carers’ benefits are far too low, with over three-quarters (76%) stating that the current level of Carers’ Allowance is unreasonable. But when asked to estimate the number of carers in the UK, 8 out of 10 were unable to pick the correct figure of 6 million, with almost three-quarters (71%) underestimating by over 4.5 million.

These results indicate that the work and the important role of carers often goes unnoticed. Caring for Someone with a long term illness (Costello 2009), sets out to explain what carers do for people often relatives, and the importance of knowing what services are available and what sources of support they can expect. The book is based on a practical approach and designed to help those carers who often experience frustration at not knowing the best way to do things. I am delighted to contribute towards helping those who do so much for others. I sincerely hope that carers week 2009, is successful in highlighting the needs of carers as well as acknowledging the importance of being a carer.

Find out more about Caring for Someone with a long term illness

Prizewinner: Destination Australia

2009-06-01T14:28:00.004+01:00

Eric Richards, author of Destination Australia, has won the
has won the Community Relations Commission Award at the 2009 NSW Premiers Literary Awards.

The awards were presented on Monday May 18 at the 2009 NSW Premiers Literary Awards.

The judges commended the book as a fascinating, detailed account of the many waves of nationalities whose arrival into Australia was central to a grand plan of immigration that has led us to our multicultural present.'

More information about the Community Relations Commission can be found here.

THES Book of the Week

2009-05-26T12:14:00.005+01:00

A wonderful biography of Evelyn Sharp by Angela John has been chosen as THES Book of the Week this week!

Here's what they said about it:-

'This compelling, poignant biography paints a sensitive portrait of a modest "new woman" of the 1890s, who eagerly embraced the expanding opportunities for a generation that would see momentous changes in the decades up to the mid-20th century. Well researched and clearly expressed, John's book deserves a wide readership.'
June Purvis, THES

Click here to read the full article...

Click here for more info on the book...

Buy the book from Amazon, Blackwell or NBN International.

Or Google search the ISBN (9780719080159) to bring up a huge number of places to buy from.

Reviews of Artisans of the body

2009-05-13T15:04:00.007+01:00

Sandra Cavallo, author of Artisans of the body in early modern Italy, has had some wonderful reviews of the book, both in the latest issue of Gender in History and at the enormous Reviews in History website.

Click here to go to our web page and learn a little more about it. It also has a sample chapter there which is completely free for you to read.

Reviews in History has this to say about the book:-

'The book is a meticulous study… and has the merit of interweaving several lines of inquiry into one coherent picture.'

Guido Giglioni, Warburg Institute

Gender in History says:-

'The wealth of the archival evidence, together with Cavallo's continuous attempts to make sense of a wide range of issues from the artisans' own point of view makes this an exceptionally valuable source, and a highly important contribution to the scholarship on the social, cultural and medical history of early modern Italy.'

Paula Hohti, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies

Judge for yourself - order the book online from Blackwell, Amazon or direct from our distributors, NBN International.

Sample chapters

2009-04-30T10:40:00.005+01:00

A lot of our titles have a sample chapter attached to them so you can get a great free preview of the book. Simply browse our catalogue and individual pages for titles will have a sample chapter that you can view as a pdf online.

Jukebox Britain, which has just been published with us, has the introduction up for you now. Simply click here to be taken to the webpage where you can read it for free.

We'll be showcasing titles with sample chapters available online on the blog from time to time. Meanwhile, keep checking titles that you're interested in at our website for free chapters.

A history of the Northern Ireland Labour Party - Book launch

2009-04-06T09:18:00.004+01:00

By Aaron Edwards

The launch of A History of the Northern Ireland Labour Party: Democratic Socialism and Sectarianism took place at Queen’s Bookshop in Belfast on Thursday 26th March to a packed audience of 80-100 people from across the divide in Northern Ireland. Apart from five prominent members of the NILP – Brian Garrett, Douglas McIldoon, Erskine Holmes, George Chambers and Sidney McDowell – several politicians from three present-day parties were also in attendance. The leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, Dawn Purvis MLA, was there, as was Brian Wilson, a former NILP member now Green Party MLA, and Conor Maskey, Sinn Fein Councillor for Belfast Oldpark. All three expressed their interest in the book’s attempt to rehabilitate and re-examine the historical record of the NILP and to challenge the orthodox narrative of the party’s political fortunes throughout the Twentieth Century.

Attendees from the unionist, loyalist, nationalist and republican communities, as well as many more from the leftist and socialist centre-ground, made it a special occasion indeed. Academics, journalists, and even the family of the towering NILP (and later SDLP) politician Paddy Devlin made an appearance, including his daughter, the critically-acclaimed Irish writer Anne Devlin, who turned up to show her support for the book.

Acknowledging the support of a host of people who helped out at critical junctures with the book, I moved on to say something about my study of the NILP. Researching a political party that, in the words of one former member, “died almost without a gasp” was a huge undertaking. Some of those I interviewed turned up on the night: sadly, others had since passed on. But the story of the NILP – their story - has universal relevance. It is a book about toil and struggle, political success and defeat, which, above all, records the contribution of those socialists and labourists who stood tall in working class areas as chaos and anarchy threatened the very fabric of their communities. As I made clear to those gathered on a blustery Belfast evening it was my personal and professional view that, had it not been for the NILP’s restraining influence, the conflict would have been much worse.

Last September I had cause to ponder the case of the NILP when I found myself in another, albeit very different, conflict zone. Gazing out at the city of Basra with the dry heat of the arid desert wafting off my face and the warm glow of controlled oil well flames reflecting off the night’s sky I pondered how ordinary people in this part of the world have themselves sought to restrain the excesses of ethnic conflict and political violence. The struggle of socially conscious and peace-loving people amidst the turmoil and upheaval of armed conflict is what continues to fascinate me in my own academic work.

Concluding my remarks I echoed a point pressed home by my guest speaker on the night, Professor Graham Walker, author of A History of the Ulster Unionist Party: Protest, Pragmatism, Pessimism (MUP, 2004), who said that the NILP was a truly working class party made up of men and women who struggled to mobilise political support across the ethnic divide. For the first time, in one volume, it is explained how and why the NILP ultimately failed in its bid to transform the political culture of Northern Ireland along left-right lines vis-à-vis the more familiar party system that took hold since the outbreak of ‘the troubles’.

Pertinently, the unanimous mood of all of those former members in attendance for the launch seemed to be that this book would make a valid contribution to moving the trials and tribulations of the NILP from the margins to the mainstream of the historical record where they rightfully belong.

Upcoming conferences

2009-04-01T16:39:00.002+01:00

AAH Conference

We're at the AAH conference tomorrow; come and visit our stand and browse our titles. We'll be located in the Geoffrey Manton building, on the Manchester Metropolitan University campus.

Everything on the stand will be discounted - take this opportunity to get hold of titles at juicily reduced prices! We'll be there until Saturday.

SHS/EHS Conference

Friday and Saturday of this week, we'll also be here at the University of Warwick. Our book stand will be located in Warwick Arts Centre, at the heart of the campus. We'll have numerous discounted books on display and available to buy.

Then on Saturday evening starting at 6:30pm, we'll be launching The secret battle by Michael Roper in the Scarman building bar. Come and join us - the book will be available half price!

-----------------------------------

We'll be at many more conferences over the Summer - keep checking back here for updated news.

Meanwhile, here are some of the titles we've published recently, grouped by subject. Click on the title links to find out more about each book, including how to order.

POLITICS

Identities, discourses and experiences

The international dimension of the failed Algerian transition

Global justice networks

Full participation

IRISH INTEREST

Michael Logue and the Catholic Church in Ireland, 1879–1925

Women, marriage and property in wealthy landed families in Ireland, 1750–1850

The making of the Irish poor law, 1815-43

The 35th Association of Art Historians conference is coming to Manchester Metropolitan University!

2009-03-11T16:34:00.000Z

By Patricia Allmer, Conference Convener

Five hundred international scholars of art history and related disciplines will attend the conference, which runs from April 2 – April 4 2009.

Since 1974, the Association of Art Historians (AAH) has been the national organisation for professional art and design historians, researchers and students involved in education, galleries, museums and art-related publishing, or any other activity linked with art and design history. It supports, fosters and promotes the study of art.

I’m honoured to be the convener of the 2009 AAH conference – one of the most important annual arts events worldwide. It is hosted by MIRIAD, the Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design (http://www.miriad.mmu.ac.uk/), at MMU. We have chosen ‘Intersections’ as a thematic focus, as it characterises the AAH09 conference as constituting a wide range of collaborations, and reflects Manchester itself, a place of cultural diversity and intersections.

This annual conference is one of the rare chances for scholars to experience a thorough overview of new, cutting-edge research, and to be able to update on current publications by talking to representatives from twenty Anglophone leading publishers at the bookfair.

It is an opportunity to spend a couple of days fully focused on art – immersing oneself in three days of talks and events is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying sides of the AAH conference. It is also the one moment of the year where we can catch up on and spend some time with colleagues and friends, and also meet new people.

The AAH09 will be accompanied by a variety of exciting and stimulating events which will involve talks by leading scholars in dramatic Manchester settings. The opening keynote will be given by Professor Marsha Meskimmon (Loughborough University) and the closing keynote will be given by Professor Ernst van Alphen (Leiden University).

I’m particularly thrilled about the extent to which Manchester institutions and organisations are supporting the AAH09. The conference is a huge, communal effort between these institutions.

Manchester University Press are the sponsors of the opening keynote which will be held at Manchester’s breathtaking Town Hall. This will be followed by a Reception at Manchester Art Gallery where delegates will be free to roam the current exhibitions.

Delegates will be able to attend exclusive viewings of a number of exhibitions. The opening of the State Legacy exhibition of contemporary Chinese art, at MMU’s Holden Gallery and Cornerhouse, has been timed to coincide with the AAH09. A Reception will be held at Whitworth Art Gallery, which will include a viewing of the Subversive Spaces: Surrealism and Contemporary Art exhibition. Both events will be accompanied by curatorial talks.

The AAH09 is a particularly significant event for students in all art-related fields. It is an opportunity for students to join the dynamic AAH Student Members Committee (SMC), which organises a number of activities to help members get a head-start in the job market. The AAH conferences and the SMC are also the first stepping-stones for students for meeting future colleagues and friends in the fields of art.

We have therefore particularly focused aspects of the conference on students and employability and have organised, together with MMU’s Careers Services, an informal Careers Fair. This will allow students an opportunity to chat to and meet representatives from leading local institutions and arts-related institutions and organisations including MUP, the BBC, Arts about Manchester, Manchester City Council.

Under- and postgraduate students will be able to explore a wide range of different, arts-related jobs, ranging from publishing, print journalism, gallery work, volunteering and special collections to business start-up, community arts and public sector arts. The Careers Fair will enable students to experience a wide range of career opportunities in the arts.

I’m keenly awaiting the opening of the conference, the culmination of months of hard work. My co-organiser Cheryl Platt and I are looking forward to meeting all the delegates and hearing the fruits of their research.

If you’d like to attend AAH09, please visit:

http://www.aah.org.uk/conference/index.php

Booking deadline is 13 March 2009.

Let’s get to the dance already!

2009-02-24T09:58:00.000Z

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Celestino Deleyto

Never did the slums look so pretty, as if already perceived through the eyes of the protagonist after winning millions (of rupees) at the fictional TV quiz programme. Not only are all the children and teenagers gorgeous looking but the constantly imaginative camera work never allows us to think about the real living conditions of the Mumbai underworld, purportedly what the story is about. This is the quintessential feel-good movie: in one of the best touches, a couple of larger-than-life U.S. tourists give the protagonist a 100$ tip after their car has been wrecked by the boy’s friends. It is also a gorgeous-looking one: almost every shot is “spectacular”, employing expressive cinematography, from extreme close-ups of pretty faces to constant high- and low-angle shots, including frequent overhead shots, more canted shots than The Third Man, rhythmic editing, stop motion, graphic matches, wide angles, shallow focus close-ups with artistically fuzzy backgrounds and all the tricks of the visual trade, not to mention the lively “authentic” soundtrack. Even Jamal and Salim’s mother looks stunning in her green sari when she is clubbed to death by wild demonstrators at the beginning of the story, and nobody is very bothered when Jamal approaches the Bollywood star for an autograph covered in shit. It’s all fun, fun, fun. We get frequent glimpses of the dire living conditions of the children and those around them but we are never allowed to feel queasy about them, nor do we bother much about Jamal being tortured at the police station for no very clear reason. Having said this, Danny Boyle’s breathless storytelling, dazzling cinematography and careful narrative construction, based as it is on a very gimmicky flashback structure – each successive question Jamal gets at the quiz show takes him and us back to an important episode in his life (such luck at a quiz program was never seen before) –, make for a very uplifting movie with a very timely message in times of crisis: resilience, love and spiritual strength will eventually win the day. However, the most important message of Slumdog Millionaire is in the medium. On the surface comparable to the visual virtuosity of contemporary filmmakers like Wong Kar-wai, Alejandro González Iñárritu or Pedro Almodóvar, Boyle’s film mesmerizes us with its spectacular images but hides nothing underneath them, no secret meanings, no interpretation, please. For this reason the absolute best and most representative scene of the movie is the final credit sequence with the Bollywood-like dance at the railway station, where everybody joins in the celebration of the never-doubted and not particularly exciting final reunion of the young lovers. Here the film is probably being totally honest for the first time, assuaging our fears that there might have been some degree of social concern behind its stylistic pyrotechnics, and showing itself for what it is: a celebration of the affirmative potential of popular art and of the visual sophistication of contemporary cinema.

Celestino Deleyto's new book is available now...

The secret life of romantic comedy offers a fresh approach to one of the most popular Hollywood genres in recent years and analyses the cultural impact of generic conventions in the construction of issues of intimacy and sexuality.

The combination of theory and analysis will help upper level students and academics in Film Studies, Cultural Studies and Literary Theory put theory into practice.

For more info, visit our website www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk.

To order your copy, email orders@nbninternational.com

His vision, our culture

2009-02-19T16:52:00.000Z

Fans of William Holman Hunt are gearing up for the most high profile exhibition of his work in Canada to date.

The new show, Sin and Salvation: Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision, is currently showing at the newly reopened Art Gallery of Ontario until until May 10th. And it's already creating quite a buzz in art circles across the pond, as an article published this morning in the leading newspaper in Canada suggests.

A detailed account of William Holman Hunt's work can be found in Carol Jacboi's William Holman Hunt, Painter, Painting, Paint.

"A fascinating appraisal of Hunt's work which superbly describes the artist's work in its historical and biographical context. Jacobi's analysis casts a great deal of light on the prejudices of earlier critics, she also usefully, assesses the artist's originality in the light of recent scholarship on the cultural pillars of the nineteenth century The paintings reproduced here, in all their vivid frightfulness, suddenly seem all the more fascinating as a result of this captivating book."
Timothy Brittain-Catlin, The Tablet

NEW TITLE

2009-01-22T10:13:00.000Z

Three Renaissance usury plays

The Three Ladies of London, Englishmen for My Money, The Hog Hath Lost His Pearl

Edited by Lloyd Edward Kermode

This book provides for the first time modern-spelling, fully annotated editions of three important Elizabeth and Jacobean 'usury plays' - The Three Ladies of London, Englishmen for My Money, The Hog Hath Lost His Pearl. The edition includes an extensive scholarly introduction to the attitudes toward money-lending in early modern England, and to the authors, texts and historical contexts of this drama.

The plays included in this edition also represent examples of 'city plays' and 'alien plays', thus making them widely relevant to scholars and teachers in many areas of early modern studies. They are also gaining new appreciation in their own right.

As befits a volume in the Revels Plays Companions Library series, the edition is academically advanced to cater for specialised scholars. However, the introduction, editing and annotation remain accessible for undergraduates and theatregoers.

Please click on the title for more information, including details on how to order.