London's Soho district underwent a spectacular transformation between the late Victorian era and the end of the Second World War: its fin-de-siecle buildings and dark streets infamous for sex, crime, political disloyalty, and ethnic diversity became...

Hollywood's famous sign, constructed of massive white block letters set into a steep hillside, is an emblem of the movie capital it looms over and an international symbol of glamour and star power. To so many who see its image, the sign represents th...

The flood of information brought to us by advancing technology is often accompanied by a distressing sense of 'information overload', yet this experience is not unique to modern times. In fact, says Ann Blair in this intriguing book, the invention of...

From the school yards of the South Bronx to the tops of the Billboard charts, rap has emerged as one of the most influential cultural forces of our time. In "The Anthology of Rap", editors Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois demonstrate that rap is also a...

Since his first appearance in "Action Comics" Number One, published in late spring of 1938, Superman has represented the essence of American heroism. "Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in...

What induced the British to adopt foreign coffee-drinking customs in the seventeenth century? Why did an entirely new social institution, the coffeehouse, emerge as the primary place for consumption of this new drink? In this lively book, Brian Cowan...

A nation's standards of private cleanliness reveal much about its ideals of civilization, fears of disease, and expectations for public life, says Kathleen Brown in this unusual cultural history. Starting with the shake-up of European practices that...

Covering an exhaustive range of information about the five boroughs, the first edition of "The Encyclopedia of New York City" was a success by every measure, earning worldwide acclaim and several awards for reference excellence, and selling out its f...

From nineteenth-century paintings of fires raging through New York City to scenes of Manhattan engulfed by a gigantic wave in the 1998 movie "Deep Impact", images of the city's end have been prolific and diverse. Why have Americans repeatedly imagine...

It is easy to forget in our own day of cheap paperbacks and mega-bookstores that until very recently books were luxury items. Those who could not afford to buy had to borrow, share, obtain secondhand, inherit, or listen to others reading. This book e...