Media

Americans in the 1950s faced the challenge of negotiating the new medium's place in the home and in American culture in general. Using the American Protestant experience of the introduction of television, Rosenthal illustrates the importance of the interplay between a new medium and its users. more...

Price: $69.95

This wide-ranging book illuminates the importance of the Western in American history. It explores the interconnections between the Western in both literature and film and the United States in the 20th century. Structured chronologically, the book traces the evolution of the Western as a uniquely American form. The author argues that America’s frontier past was quickly transformed into a set of symbols and myths, an American meta-narrative that came to underpin much of the ‘American century’. He details how and why this process occurred, the form and function of Western myths and symbols, the evolution of this mythology, and its subversions and reconstructions throughout 20th-century American history. The book engages with the full range of historical, literary and cinematic perspectives and texts, from the founding Western histories of Theodore Roosevelt and Frederick Jackson Turner to the New Western history of Patricia Nelson Limerick and Richard White. more...

Price: $119.40

Classic radio ad campaigns from the last fifty years, and how they used humor to win over audiences, And Now a Few Laughs from Our Sponsor offers an in-depth look at some of the most successful and entertaining radio ads from the last half century, presented by advertising veteran Larry Oakner. Extensive interviews with account executives, clients, producers, and actors offer a unique perspective on the development of humorous radio advertising over the years and what it takes to create a memorable and effective campaign. more...

Price: $29.95

In this book, Sean Martin considers the whole of Tarkovsky’s oeuvre, from the classic student film The Steamroller and the Violin, across the full-length films, to the later stage works and Tarkovsky’s writings, paintings and photographs. Martin also seeks to demystify Tarkovsky as a ‘difficult’ director, whilst also celebrating his radical aesthetic of long takes and tracking shots, which Tarkovsky was to dub ‘imprinted’ or ‘sculpted’ time, and to make a case for Tarkovsky’s position not just as an important filmmaker, but also as an artist who speaks directly about the most important spiritual issues of our time. more...

Price: $9.99

Animation covers everything from Tex Avery’s split-second slapstick and The Simpsons’ knowing digs at pop culture, to Hayao Miyasaki’s strong-willed heroines and Yuri Norstein’s delicately rendered folktales. Often dismissed by the uninitiated as ‘kid’s stuff’, any detailed look at animation reveals a technically complex, sophisticated and endlessly inventive medium. Intended both as a guide and an introduction to this fascinating field, the Pocket Essential Animation examines and celebrates this genre in its many forms. It explores the careers, techniques and key films of many of the major animators. It begins with pioneers such as Winsor McCay, the Fleischer brothers and Walt Disney when the ‘House of Mouse’ was only a twinkle in his eye. Then brings you right up to date with Nick Park’s claymation and the slick CGI comedies of John Lasseter’s Pixar studio. In between, it takes in the innovations of Norman McLaren, the sexual obsessions of Bob Godfrey and the agit-prop surrealism of Jan Švankmajer. Kid’s stuff, indeed. more...

Price: $7.99