"I delivered twenty babies in the summer of 1977. I was hardly more than a baby myself, just turned twenty-four and starting my third year of medical school." So began Mark Sloan's three-decades-long exploration of the wonders and oddities of human childbirth. Pediatrician, husband, and father, the author has attended nearly 3,000 births since that long-ago summer, encountering everything from routine deliveries to tense labor-room dramas. In Birth Day Sloan draws on his personal and profe...

Consumption as a field of cultural studies overlaps with theories of postmodernism, the social construction of self, commodification in late capitalism, and the role of mass media in daily life. New forms of consumption such as those facilitated by cyberspace, themed environments, the commodification of sex, and the increasing role of leisure in society all play new and interesting roles in daily life that combine consumerism with the most contemporary social forms. This collection of essa...

A journalist " explores the way childbirth has changed, from pre-history to the present" in this "fascinating, funny and occasionally shocking" historical survey ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review).From midwives to the epidural and beyond, mother and former Boston Globe editor Tina Cassidy presents an intelligent, enlightening, and impeccably researched cultural history of how we handle the process of childbirth. W...

"Powerful and disturbing. No one who cares about the future of our public life can afford to ignore this book."—Jackson LearsA powerful sequel to Benjamin R. Barber's best-selling Jihad vs. McWorld, Consumed offers a vivid portrait of an overproducing global economy that targets children as consumers in a market where there are never enough shoppers and where the primary goal is no longer to manufacture goods but needs. To explain how and why this has come about, Barber br...

In your busy, day-to-day life, sometimes you need to stop and take a breath to clear your head and maintain a sense of calm and well-being. In this New Harbinger Self-Help Essential, you will learn breathing techniques to help increase awareness of yourself and your inner experience, release tension, relax your body and mind, and reduce or eliminate symptoms of stress. The mindful breathing and mindfulness relaxation techniques outlined in this Essential will help you fin...

Taking a sociological approach to the study of mass media, Mediated Society explores how the media affects individuals and society. Within this unique framework, the authors analyze media and mass communication as a social rather than as a technological construct while addressing issues such as democracy, citizenship, class, gender, and cultural diversity. Drawing attention to the way in which media frames everyday experiences and events, the text examines media and communication in urban, na...

"A must-read for expectant or multitasking mothers of multiples by an academic pediatrician and mother of twins, Twins 101 provides practical tips and wise words in a readable style that fits into the fast pace of these mothers’ lives."—Theodore Sectish, MD, associate professor of pediatrics, Harvard Medical School; program director, Children’s Hospital BostonDr. Le-Bucklin's new parenting book is the first by a pediatrician who is also a mother of ...

Why do Internet, financial service, and beer commercials dominate Super Bowl advertising? How do political ceremonies establish authority? Why does repetition characterize anthems and ritual speech? Why were circular forms favored for public festivals during the French Revolution? This book answers these questions using a single concept: common knowledge.Game theory shows that in order to coordinate its actions, a group of people must form "common knowledge." Each person wants to p...

The Consumer Society Reader features a range of key works on the nature and evolution of consumer society. Included here is much-discussed work by leading critics such as Jean Baudrillard, Susan Bordo, Dick Hebdige, bell hooks, and Janice Radway. Also included is a full range of classics, such as Frankfurt School writers Adorno and Horkheimer on the Culture Industry; Thorstein Veblen's oft-cited writings on "conspicuous consumption"; Betty Friedan on the housewife's central role i...

A concise and practical guide to fifty essential stretches featuring instructions, illustrations, and information on the benefits of each stretch.Stretching is one of the most effective ways to enhance your overall fitness. It can help you maintain flexibility, prevent injury, release tension, and reduce stress. With fifty stretches for your neck, upper body, back, and legs, Stretch: Reference to Go provides an easy way to incorporate stretching into your d...

"[An] engrossing survey of the history of childbirth." —Stephen Lowman, Washington PostMaking and having babies—what it takes to get pregnant, stay pregnant, and deliver—have mystified women and men throughout human history. The insatiably curious Randi Hutter Epstein journeys through history, fads, and fables, and to the fringe of science. Here is an entertaining must-read—an enlightening celebration of human life.

Exploring a number of trends in our popular culture, Andrew Potter argues that our pursuit of the authentic is fraught with irony and self-defeat.Thought provoking and revelatory, The Authenticity Hoax exposes how the search for the "true" and "real" is rooted in a society obsessed with individual elitists suckered into believing that their lifestyles are the only genuine ones in a fake world. Manipulated by the inescapable consumerism and sound bi...