Distributed Presses

Another round of good reviews has poured in for Kasia Boddy's Boxing: A Cultural History. First up is a short but positive review in the June 19th issue of The Economist. The reviewer notes that "[Boddy] provides much merriment along the way as she explores the ways professional fighters excite the imagination of writers, artists and intellectuals."

Right behind it was a praise-filled review in the June 20th issue of The Times of London. The Times reviewer declared

The merit of Kasia Boddy's meticulously researched and deeply intelligent examination of boxing through the ages is that it refuses to take the pop historian's route of lazy simplification. The political and moral ambiguity of the fights that have played such a seminal role in shaping human consciousness are chronicled in all their rich and equivocal detail. . . . Her volume is one of the most intelligent sporting books of recent times.

The June 23rd review in the Australian paper The Age was a little more lukewarm, but the reviewer notes

Kasia Boddy is no faint-heart. She appears to have tracked down every last reference to boxing in prose, poetry, painting, sculpture, film and video. . . . As Boddy shows at scholarly length, in American books and plays and paintings and films, boxing came to carry a heavy symbolic freight. The gloves and the ring stood for pride and courage, sacrifice and nobility, salvation and redemption. They also stood for corruption, greed, betrayal, pain and death. No other sport - indeed, perhaps no other human activity - has been so fraught with meaning.

Read the full review in The Economist
Read the complete Times review
Read the full review in The Age
Learn more about Boxing: A Cultural History, newly published by Reaktion Books

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Posted to Books for the News | History | Reaktion | Reviews

Panikos Panayi's Spicing Up Britain: The Multicultural History of British Food was reviewed in the June 1st issue of the Washington Times. Reviewer Martin Rubin gives the book a good review, concluding

Wearing his twin hats of foodie and social historian, Panikos Panayi can appall as well as engender salivation on his tour d'horizon of the multicultural history of British food. His book demonstrates convincingly that whether drawing on its former colonial and imperial possessions (including the United States, with its ever- popular hamburger and other fast foods) or on its European neighbors, the openness of British society has truly enriched its diet and produced its present-day variegated cuisine.

Read the full review in the Washington Times
Learn more about Spicing Up Britain: The Multicultural History of British Food, newly published by Reaktion Books

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Posted to Reaktion | Reviews

Kasia Boddy's newly published Boxing: A Cultural History received several good reviews from the other side of the Atlantic over the last couple weeks:

The Sunday Telegraph enthusiastically praised Boxing in its May 25th issue, noting:

If one author deserves real praise for stamina, it is Kasia Boddy. The research she has put into this book, combined with her awesome understanding of Western culture, is staggering. She can write with authority about everything from classical Rome to the Dada movement of the 1920s, from the work of George Bernard Shaw to Samuel Pepys' diary. . . . Her book is a magnificent achievement.

The New Statesman also had high praise for the book, saying:

Boddy's book is a superb work of scholarship, spanning ancient Greece to Mike Tyson. Its reproduced lithographs and colour plates make the book, in its way, a handsome work of art in itself. . . . Boddy referees this heavyweight 15-rounder with elegance, aplomb and rigour.

The Daily Telegraph wasn't quite as enamored with Boxing in its June 5th issue, but overall, the reviewer called the book "compendious, and thoroughly fascinating" and declared it was "an excellent, well-written and beautifully illustrated book."

Read the full Sunday Telegraph review
Read the entire New Statesman review
Read the complete Daily Telegraph review
Learn more about Boxing: A Cultural History, newly published by Reaktion Books

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Kasia Boddy's Boxing: A Cultural History continues its successful start with a short but laudatory review in the June issue of The Atlantic Monthly. The reviewer praises Boddy's work, saying:

"Boddy intelligently takes up—via art, literature, film, and the media—the many issues that have historically veined the sport: 'nationality, class, race, ethnicity, religion, politics, and different versions of masculinity,' plus dialectics like 'brawn versus brains, boastfulness versus modesty, youth versus experience.' Her reach is considerable, but so is her grasp. The result is a sweeping critical history and a perfect power-to-weight ratio."

Read the full Atlantic Monthly review
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Posted to History | Reaktion | Reviews

Kasia Boddy's newly published Boxing: A Cultural History has hit the ground running with a review by none other than Joyce Carol Oates in the latest issue of The New York Review of Books. In her relatively positive review, Oates notes:

At nearly five hundred densely packed pages, Boddy's investigation into 'the intricate conceptual and iconographic constructions' that surround boxing has the heft of a work twice its length—the equivalent, in book form, of the old-style championship boxing matches that ran as long as thirty rounds, often in the broiling sun. . . . . Boxing: A Cultural History would seem to include everything that has ever been written, depicted, or in any way recorded about boxing no matter how obscure, whimsical, or trivial; a treasure trove for boxing historians and aficionados that might evoke vertigo in less committed readers. . . .

As Kasia Boddy's masterwork of bricolage sweeps on, there comes to be something wonderfully Joycean—oceanic, indefatigable, slightly deranged—in the very quantity of data she has amassed. . . . To read Boddy's book is to confront dozens—hundreds?—of inspired mini-essays.

Read Joyce Carol Oates' entire New York of Review of Books review
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Gwendolyn Wright, author of the recently published USA: Modern Architectures in History, was interviewed by School Library Journal about her work on PBS's History Detectives. The video of the interview can be viewed on the School Library Journal website.

Watch the School Library Journal interview of Gwendolyn Wright
Learn more about Gwendolyn Wright's USA: Modern Architectures in History

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Posted to Art and Architecture | Books for the News | Reaktion

Motorcycle authors Suzanne Ferriss and Steven Alford were recently interviewed by Adrian Blake on BlogTalkRadio's "Ride!". Listen to their interview as they talk about their book and modern motorcycling culture.

Listen to the authors' interview on BlogTalkRadio's "Ride!"

Learn more about Motorcycle

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Posted to Books for the News | Cultural Studies | Reaktion

Eluned Summers-Bremner, author of the newly published Insomnia: A Cultural History, was recently interviewed in Macleans Magazine about the book. An excerpt from the interview:

Q: Your book questions current assumptions about sleep. For instance, as a dominant sleep model, is the eight-hour stretch relatively new?

A: It is specific to us, and it hasn't got such a very long history. A couple of centuries. Before that, there were lots of different ways of doing sleep.

Q: So how were ancient sleeping rituals different?

A: It made a big difference whether there was moonlight or not because early cultures had no real source of lighting other than the hearth or the fire. In ancient Athens, religious ceremonies were held by moonlight. With us, we really tend to separate day and night, and we regard sleep as supportive of our daytime activity.

Q: Didn't they see sleep as a way to rejuvenate for the next day's work like we do?

A: Sleep had a mystical quality. Quite often, it was seen as a time when divine messages might arrive. It was interpreted as a time when things happen that the gods intended, that were out of your control, so dreams were seen as being prophetic.

Read the full Macleans Magazine interview with Eluned Summers-Bremner
Learn more about Insomnia: A Cultural History

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This weekend, Wisconsin Public Radio's "To the Best of Our Knowledge" will be re-airing their interview with Lars Svendsen, author of A Philosophy of Boredom and, most recently, Fashion: A Philosophy.

The interview can be heard online and you can check to see if "To the Best of Our Knowledge" is carried on your local NPR station on the list here.

Listen to Lars Svendsen on "To the Best of Our Knowledge"
Learn more about A Philosophy of Boredom and Fashion: A Philosophy

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Posted to Books for the News | Philosophy | Reaktion

Eluned Summers-Bremner's Insomnia, newly published by Reaktion Books, was both reviewed and excerpted last Friday in the Wall Street Journal. The reviewer noted, "Her account of literary usages of insomnia, from Gilgamesh to Garcia Márquez, is a rich one, sufficient to make the case that insomnia is a recurrent theme in Western culture."

Read the full Wall Street Journal review
Read the Wall Street Journal's excerpt of Insomnia: A Cultural History
Learn more about Insomnia: A Cultural History

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Gwendolyn Wright will be discussing her newly published book USA: Modern Architectures in History on Tuesday, February 26th at Book Culture, 536 W. 112th Street, New York City. Reinhold Martin from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation will introduce Professor Wright and join her in the discussion.

More information on the event can be found here and here.

Learn more about Gwendolyn Wright's appearance at Book Culture

Learn more about Gwendolyn Wright's USA: Modern Architectures in History

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Writers from New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg will be speaking on Thursday, January 31st at 6:30 p.m. at The Cooper Union's Wollman Auditorium, 51 Astor Place, 8th Street between Third and Fourth avenues.

Marshall Berman, Margaret Morton, Joseph Anastasio, and Kevin Walsh will engagingly discuss the state of New York City yesterday and today. Their presentations will feature images and colorful anecdotes, and will be followed by a question and answer period.

Learn more about the New York Calling event at the Cooper Union

Learn more about New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg

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Michael Chandler and Rohan Gunaratna's recently published Countering Terrorism: Can We Meet the Threat of Global Violence? received a glowing review in the January issue of CHOICE:

"A thorough analytical work with the potential to transform thinking about the present strategies on the war against terror, this book should be required reading for White House, Pentagon and State Department officials responsible for counterterrorist operations. Highly recommended."

Other recent praise for Countering Terrorism:
"Chandler and Gunaratna say Western liberals still woefully underestimate the scale of the threat. They are right. The seeds of our destruction are within ourselves."—The Mail on Sunday

"[Chandler and Gunaratna] have written one of the more sharp-eyed books on counter-terrorism. It's a pithy analysis of recent international politics and raises some tough questions."—Professional Security Magazine

"Essential reading for anyone with an interest in counter terrorism."—Military Books Review

Learn more about Countering Terrorism: Can We Meet the Threat of Global Violence?

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Stephen Eisenman's The Abu Ghraib Effect was reviewed last week on the Art Blog By Bob blog. It was also reviewed last month in CAA Reviews:

Continue reading "Book Review: The Abu Ghraib Effect" »

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New York Calling editors Marshall Berman and Brian Berger spoke on December 7th at Book Culture bookstore in New York's Morningside Heights neighborhood, near Columbia University. The store recently posted a Q&A with the two authors on Book Culture's website. A excerpt from the feature:

Continue reading "Author event: New York Calling" »

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John Harvey's Photography and Spirit was glowingly reviewed on GhostVillage.com this week. Reviewer Lee Prosser praises the book saying

This is a journey through the surreal, an active and in-depth examination of the numerous myths and cultural history surrounding spirit photography. The photographs cover the period from 1860 through the present, and reveal enduring artifacts of cultural history. The book is also a telling statement about the various meanings of death in Western culture. . . . Literate, well-written, and highly entertaining are the three words to best describe this book by John Harvey. Highly recommended!

Read the full GhostVillage.com review

Learn more about Photography and Spirit

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On December 7th at 7:00 p.m., New York Calling editors Marshall Berman and Brian Berger will be reading at Book Culture bookstore, 536 West 112th Street, New York. In anticipation of the event, New York Calling co-editor Brian Berger was interviewed by the prominent online city magazine Gothamist about the book. An excerpt from the interview:

Continue reading "Book Event and Book in the News: New York Calling" »

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Posted to Author Events | Books for the News | Reaktion

The November 28th New York Calling reading at the Fresh Meadows Barnes & Noble store in Queens, New York was highlighted on About.com's Guide to Queens, NY. About.com writer John Roleke notes,

The book has raised a few eyebrows as some of the writers look back wistfully at the 1970s as a high-water mark for culture and life in NYC. Huh? Doesn't sound right to you? Or maybe it does as the increasing gentrification of the city creeps up on you.

Read the full About.com Guide to Queens, NY posting

Learn more about New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg

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Posted to Reaktion

Rohan Gunaratna and Michael Chandler's Countering Terrorism: Can We Meet the Threat of Global Violence? was recently reviewed in the journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. The reviewer notes,

The authors reserve their harshest criticism on the failure of the United Nations to provide the necessary leadership for the global War on Terror. They decry the failure to carry out the comprehensive and collaborative response after 11 September 2001 and the failure to fulfill the initial expectations of improved international cooperation. . . .

Their urgent warning of the failures thus far, and the need for urgent redress given that these very failures are contributing to an obvious worsening of the threat of global terrorism, are messages that governments and policymakers need to hear. In sum, this is therefore a timely and valuable book, and as Loretta Napoleoni has said on the back cover in her endorsement, 'required reading for Number 10 and the White House.'

Learn more about Countering Terrorism: Can We Meet the Threat of Global Violence?

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Posted to Politics and Current Events | Reaktion | Reviews

Faith and Sword author Alan Jamieson incisively argues in his November 14th Globe and Mail editorial that the U. S. military's "surge" strategy in Iraq is not working as well as the recent drop in casualties may suggest. In "Timeout for the Grim Reaper?", Jamieson contends that the various religious and political factions in Iraq are still very much alive and well, and rather than being defeated, they may be only pausing before resuming their fight against the American occupying forces:

Continue reading "Commentary: Alan Jamieson" »

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Posted to Books for the News | Commentary | History | Reaktion

Gwendolyn Wright was interviewed last week about her forthcoming book USA: Modern Architectures in History on the interview program "The Alcove with Mark Molaro." The full webcast of the interview can be viewed here.

The Alcove with Mark Molaro
Learn more about Gwendolyn Wright's USA: Modern Architectures in History

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Architectural Record recently published a lengthy feature on Gwendolyn Wright's October 25th lecture at the Museum of Modern Art's "Women in Modernism" colloquium. An excerpt from the article:

If you didn't know better, you might think that the history of women practicing architecture and design began with women's lib during the 1960s. Earlier figures including Lilly Reich or Catherine Bauer are virtually unknown despite their central role in high-profile projects: Reich co-designed the famous Barcelona chair, usually attributed solely to Mies van der Rohe, and Bauer was as an early hero of social housing who co-authored the Housing Act of 1937, establishing public housing in the U.S.

Who better to help uncover these forgotten stories than Gwendolyn Wright, a host on the popular PBS series History Detectives and professor of architecture at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. . . .

Wright outlined certain myths that have perpetuated incomplete versions of history, offering as an example the idea that many 20th century arbiters overvalued an ideal type of architect who was hyper-rational, uncompromisingly idealistic, and invariably male. As a result, important figures falling outside that standard were either unnoticed or, if they did achieve recognition, soon forgotten. For example, even with today's booming interest in sustainability it's a rather obscure fact that architect Eleanor Raymond, who worked in Boston for more than 50 years, and chemist Dr. Maria Telkes, from M.I.T., built what was arguably the first solar-powered house, the Dover Sun House, in 1948. Wright challenged the audience to resist "myths that are clearer and more convenient than real history."

Read the full Architectural Record article
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The lively New York Calling discussion panel last night at the City University of New York, sponsored by the Gotham Center for New York City History, was featured on the New York Times's City Room blog. Reporter Sewell Chan recounted the panelists' provocative arguments for the state of New York City yesterday and today:

Continue reading "Books in the News: New York Calling" »

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Posted to Author Events | Books for the News | Reaktion

New York Calling was reviewed in the November 4th New York Times by Sam Roberts in his "Reading New York" column. Sam Roberts notes,

Many of the 28 contributors to New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg seesaw between lionizing the lunacy that characterized the city during those years—some of us euphemistically described the mood as "vibrant"—and dismissing the latest incarnation of New York as antiseptic. What results is uneven, though often revealing and almost always poignant.

The book, which is tellingly illustrated with black-and-white photographs, is divided into sections on the city's public spaces, its public institutions and people's personal pursuits. The contributors focus more on what has changed over three decades, generally devoting greater attention to what has been lost—I can still admire Keith Haring without being nostalgic for subway cars smothered in graffiti—than to what has been gained.

Read the full New York Times review
NY1 News's "The New York Times Close Up"
Check out Brian Berger's official New York Calling blog
Learn more about New York Calling

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Posted to Reaktion | Reviews

Gwendolyn Wright's keynote lecture at the "Women and Modernism" colloquium at the Museum of Modern Art was featured in the October 31st New York Times column by architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff. Using the colloquium and Wright's comments as a launching point, Oursoussoff considers the reasons why females continue to be underpresented in the architecture profession:

Continue reading "Author in the News: Gwendolyn Wright and USA" »

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Posted to Art and Architecture | Author Events | Books for the News | Publicity | Reaktion

New York Calling received moderate praise in the October 27th issue of the Daily Telegraph, although the review tended to extol the virtues of London compared to the increasingly gentrified New York:

"Fascinating collection of essays . . . The essays often suggest that the real New York is to be found in Brooklyn or Queens, but prefer to focus on Manhattan, usually in tones of rueful melancholy or savage disgust. . . . The deregulated, liberatingly anonymous city to which generations of outsiders flocked in order to lose themselves is morphing into something altogether safer and tidier. It makes for comfortable living. But at what cost to New York's soul?"

Read the full Daily Telegraph review
Check out Brian Berger's official New York Calling blog
Learn more about New York Calling

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Staten Island has the lowest profile of the five New York boroughs, but from The Godfather to The Wu Tang Clan, it has cemented its place in New York character and history. New York Calling essayists will talk about the fascinating culture of the Island on Saturday, November 3 at 8:00 p.m. at the Everything Goes Book Cafe, 208 Bay Street, in the Tompkinsville neighborhood on Staten Island.

Staten Island native essayist Steve Maluk, Village Voice food critic Robert Sietsema, and photographer and New York Calling co-editor Brian Berger will lead a lively evening of words, photos, and discussion that's sure to interest everyone. The event has garnered local attention, including on Dan Icolari's Walking Is Transportation blog.

New York Calling event at Everything Goes Book Cafe
Check out more postings about Staten Island on Brian Berger's official New York Calling blog
Learn more about New York Calling

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Hannah Velten wrote an engaging editorial for the British publication Farmer's Weekly about the history of cows and cattle. An excerpt:

But it is only relatively recently that we have started to view the cow as an almost alien being. In our urban, media-led country, cows are either seen as cutesy animals (especially calves) or are seen in a negative light as environment killers (think "Cow farts destroy ozone"), disease-bearing nightmares (think "Mad Cows") or the pitiable wreckage of intensive farming (think "Poor Cows"). . . .

So it seems sad to think that the animal that played such a huge role in shaping civilisations has been reduced to a commercial milking machine, a sperm donor, a walking larder and a provider of leather. I'm hoping that Cow will reintroduce the public (and also farmers) to this remarkable animal, by recognising what cattle have contributed to our culture, and also to instill some respect for what cattle produce for us—they work so hard; I am just trying to repay my debt of gratitude.

Read the full editorial
Check out the author's blog
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Posted to Biology | Commentary | Reaktion

New York Calling essayists Luc Sante, Tim McLoughlin, and Brian Berger will be reading from their pieces on Wednesday, October 24th at 7:00 p.m. at Spoonbill & Sugartown, 218 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. An audience Q&A and book signing will follow the sure to be lively reading, which has already been previewed on several local Brooklyn blogs.

Spoonbill & Sugartown Books
Check out the author's official New York Calling blog
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Gwendolyn Wright will be speaking on Thursday, October 25th at 6:30 p.m. at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She will be giving the keynote address at the Women in Modernism—Making Places in Architecture colloquium, which is sponsored by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation.

Wright's address will be followed by a discussion panel featuring leading architectural scholars and practitioners Toshiko Mori, Sarah Herda, Karen Stein, and moderator Barry Bergdoll. Wright is author of the forthcoming USA: Modern Architectures in History.

"At last, the book I have been waiting for: the story of modern American architecture deeply contextualized in the history of the last century and a half. Wright is that rare scholar who understands how intricately the built environment is laced into larger historical trends. This is a wonderful book for all who care about architecture and the long history of modern work, housing, and public life in the United States."
—Lizabeth Cohen, professor of history, Harvard University, and author of A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America

Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation Women in Modernism colloquium at the Museum of Modern Art
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Newly published this month is The Other Venice, a lyrical collection of nonfiction essays written by prolific essayist Predrag Matvejević and translated by Russell Valentino. Matvejević plumbs the depths of Venice's canals and peers into its narrow alleys, reimagining this ancient city through the people, places, and ideas that flourished within its confines. Whether the trattoria and taverns that line the canals, the culinary history of regional bread and breadmaking, or the excavation of islands and ships from swampy lagoons, The Other Venice infuses the city with the mystery and intrigue of ancient traditions and treasured secrets. An intimate and compelling travel memoir, The Other Venice sweeps us into an unfamiliar cityscape where the mysteries of the Old World mingle with modern life.

Read The Other Venice press release.

Learn more about The Other Venice.

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Posted to Literature | Press Releases | Publicity | Reaktion

Partha Mitter will give a lecture on Sunday, October 21 at 2:00 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His talk will be drawn from his newly published book The Triumph of Modernism: India's Artists and the Avant-garde 1922–47. A book signing will follow the lecture.

National Gallery of Art Lectures
Learn more about Partha Mitter's The Triumph of Modernism

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New York Calling essayists Tom Robbins, Margaret Morton, and Brian Berger will be reading this Friday, October 19th at 7:00pm at Bluestocking Books, 172 Allen Street in New York City.

Time Out New York recently praised the book saying, "With Rudy running for President and Hilly Kristal dead, the timing couldn't be better for New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg. This fascinating, enlightening and sometimes irritating collection of essays pokes through the rubble of the past three decades and asks: What is the Apple without its worms—without its grifters, goombahs, B-boys, bohos and bums?"

Read the Time Out New York review
Check out the New York Calling author blog
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Professor Partha Mitter will be giving a talk entitled "Early Indian Photography and the Complex Legacy of the Mughal Era" this Thursday, October 18th at 6:00p.m. in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art at Harvard University. Admission is free.

Mitter is the author of the newly published The Triumph of Modernism: India's Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1922-47.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art lecture series
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As the editors and contributors of New York Calling tour New York this fall, Brian Berger answers a few questions for us about the book:

What was your goal in putting together this anthology?

To sometimes outline, sometimes detail the full range of history and culture in New York City from 1977 or so to the present. It could not, of course, be fully done, but we began with the idea it was crucial to try. That means that New York City is a given number of boroughs and untold numbers of ethnicities, cultures, and subcultures, all of which are potentially of interest.

Continue reading "A Q&A with New York Calling co-editor Brian Berger" »

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Posted to Books for the News | Commentary | Reaktion

Byron Coley and Thurston Moore reviewed New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg in the most recent issue of Arthur Magazine. Nestled in amongst the album reviews of Coley and Moore's "Bull Tongue" section, we find:

. . . New York Calling is a really great anthology. Everybody we talk to who remembers New York before it became a fucking Disney subsidiary moans about the current lack of soul on Gotham's streets. . . .

New York Calling collects essays by a swell bunch of writers—from Jim Knipfel to Richard Meltzer to Tom Robbins to Robert Sietsema—all of whom memorialize things and people and places that seem to have been lost forever. It's a wonderful read. . . .

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Posted to Cultural Studies | History | Press Releases | Reaktion

Jason Warshof of the Financial Times recently gave a glowing review to New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg edited by Marshall Berman and Brian Berger.

Warshof calls New York Calling ". . . a mind-opening collection of 28 essays," that offers, ". . . a near-unforgettable impression of an era."

Read the Review

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Posted to Cultural Studies | Reaktion | Reviews