Matilda was a daughter, wife, and mother. But she was also empress, heir to the English crown – the first woman ever to hold the position – and an able military general. This new biography explores Matilda's achievements as military and political le...

London is now a global financial and multicultural hub in which over three hundred languages are spoken. But the history of London has always been a history of immigration. Panikos Panayi explores the rich and vibrant story of London– from its found...

Odissi holds iconic status as one of the eight classical dance forms recognized and promoted by the Indian government. This book traces the dance's transformation from its historical role as a regional artistic practice to its modern incarnation as t...

Richard Siken's "Crush", selected as the 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize, is a powerful collection of poems driven by obsession and love. Siken writes with ferocity, and his reader hurtles unstoppably with him. His poetry is confessional,...

Christophe Guilluy, a French geographer, makes the case that France has become an "American society" – one that is both increasingly multicultural and increasingly unequal. The divide between the global economy's winners and losers in today's France...

Taking care of our women and children builds not just a generation but the nation itself, writes the Indian film star Shabana Azmi in her introduction to this unique volume. We neglect mothers at our own peril, at the peril of society. If we are to l...

In "Men without Maps", John Ibson uncovers the experiences of men after World War II who had same-sex desires but few affirmative models of how to build identities and relationships. Though heterosexual men had plenty of cultural maps – provided by n...

Not for sale in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic! Every five years from 1955 to 1985, mass Czechoslovak gymnastic demonstrations and sporting parades called Spartakiads were held to mark the 1945 liberation of Czechoslovakia. Featuring hu...

For the first time, "The Mystic and the Lyric" brings together the classic work of four women poets from Kashmir who have shaped its literary imagination: Lalded, Habba Khatun, Arnimal, and Rupa Bhavani. These women inhabit not just the collective me...

Gentrification is transforming cities, small and large, across the country. Though it's easy to bemoan the diminished social diversity and transformation of commercial strips that often signify a gentrifying neighborhood, determining who actually ben...