This title explores the emerging field of material culture and demonstrates that the study of artifacts can disclose important facts about past cultures. Eighteen essays describe how to "read" artifacts, how to "listen" to landscapes and locations, and how to apply methods and theories to historical inquiry to reconstruct and reinterpret the past.

Writing Material Culture History examines the methodologies currently used in the historical study of material culture. Touching on archaeology, art history, literary studies and anthropology, the book provides history students with a fundamental understanding of the relationship between artefacts and historical narratives. The role of museums, the impact of the digital age and...(展开全部)

Almost three tons of concrete are produced each year for every person on the planet; only water is consumed more per head of population. Now used almost universally in modern construction, concrete polarizes opinion: provoking intense loathing and even nausea in some, it is regarded by others with a messianic passion. Concrete and Culture breaks new ground by studying concrete'...(展开全部)

The spirit of adventure is at the heart of Jonathan Spence's widely acclaimed scholarship on the modern history of China. This vitality, fleshed out with deep research and attired in elegant style, has drawn countless readers to subjects otherwise approachable only by experts. Through eight books, from the story of the early eighteenth century Manchu bondservant Ts'ao Yin to hi...(展开全部)

Video games have been a central feature of the cultural landscape for over twenty years and now rival older media like movies, television, and music in popularity and cultural influence. Yet there have been relatively few attempts to understand the video game as an independent medium. Most such efforts focus on the earliest generation of text-based adventures ("Zork, " for exam...(展开全部)

Why do we acquire the things we do? Behind this apparently ingenuous question are several answers, some straightforward and others more interesting. To feed ourselves, might be the first response, for we can easily see that we expend much energy in the quest for food. Clothing and shelter as well would seem to constitute our basic needs. Yet we quickly see that even in the Gard...(展开全部)

The creation of the Frankfurt School of critical theory in the 1920s saw the birth of some of the most exciting and challenging writings of the twentieth century. It is out of this background that the great critic Theodor Adorno emerged. His finest essays are collected here, offering the reader unparalleled insights into Adorno's thoughts on culture. He argued that the culture ...(展开全部)

柯律格（Craig Clunas）1954年出生于英国苏格兰阿伯丁，现任英国牛津大学艺术史系讲座教授，曾任伦敦维多利亚与艾伯特博物馆（Victoria & Albert Museum）中国部资深研究员兼策展人15年，并自1994年起先后执教于萨塞克斯大学（University of Sussex）艺术史系及伦敦大学亚非学院（SOAS）。柯律格是当前从物质文化角度研究中国文明史的重要学者，自1991年起陆续出版《长物：早期现代中国的物质文化与社会状况》（Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China, 1991）、《丰饶之地：明代中国的园林文化》（Fruitful Sites: Garden Culture in Ming Dynasty Chin...(展开全部)

Japan was the only non-Western nation to industrialize before 1900 and its leap into the modern era has stimulated vigorous debates among historians and social scientists. In an innovative discussion that posits the importance of physical well-being as a key indicator of living standards, Susan B. Hanley considers daily life in the three centuries leading up to the modern era i...(展开全部)