Witchcraft, astrology, divination and every kind of popular magic flourished in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the belief that a blessed amulet could prevent the assaults of the Devil to the use of the same charms to recover stolen goods. At the same time the Protestant Reformation attempted to take the magic out of religion, and scientists were developing new explanations of the universe. Keith Thomas's classic analysis of beliefs held on every level of Engli...

A wonderful collection of never-before-collected one-acts: “The peak of my virtuosity was in the one- act plays. Some of which are like firecrackers in a rope” (Tennessee Williams).Here are portraits of American life during the Great Depression and after, populated by a hopelessly hopeful chorus girl, a munitions manufacturer ensnared in a love triangle, a rural family that deals “justice” on its children, an overconfident mob dandy, a poor couple who quarrel to va...

How should we live? That question was no less urgent for English men and women who lived between the early sixteenth and late eighteenth centuries than for this book's readers. Keith Thomas's masterly exploration of the ways in which people sought to lead fulfilling lives in those centuries between the beginning of the Reformation and the heyday of the Enlightenment illuminates the central values of the period, while casting incidental light on some of the perennial problems of human exist...

What did it mean to be ‘civilized’ in Early Modern England?Keith Thomas's seminal studies Religion and the Decline of Magic, Man and the Natural World, and The Ends of Life, explored the beliefs, values and social practices of the years between 1500 and 1800. In Pursuit of Civility continues this quest by examining what the English people thought it meant to be `civilized' and how that condition differed from being `barbarous' or `savage' .Thomas ...

Keith Thomas’s earlier studies in the ethnography of early modern England, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Man and the Natural World, and The Ends of Life, were all attempts to explore beliefs, values, and social practices in the centuries from 1500 to 1800. In Pursuit of Civility continues this quest by examining what English people thought it meant to be “civilized” and how that condition differed from being “barbarous” or “savage.” Thomas shows that the upper ranks of society sought ...

'Man and the Natural World, an encyclopaedic study of man's relationship to animals and plants, is completely engrossing ... It explains everything - why we eat what we do, why we plant this and not that, why we keep pets, why we like some animals and not others, why we kill the things we kill and love the things we love ... It is often a funny book and one to read again and again' Paul Theroux, Sunday Times'The English historian Keith Thomas has revealed modes of...

'Man and the Natural World, an encyclopaedic study of man's relationship to animals and plants, is completely engrossing ... It explains everything - why we eat what we do, why we plant this and not that, why we keep pets, why we like some animals and not others, why we kill the things we kill and love the things we love ... It is often a funny book and one to read again and again' Paul Theroux, Sunday Times'The English historian Keith Thomas has revealed modes of...

Home brewing has become increasingly popular, as a way to both make your own unique beer and develop a valuable skill to be proud of. Home Brew – A Guide to Brewing Beer offers a complete overview, from the basics of kit brewing, through to a full-scale mash brew, covering various types of beer, such as ale, bitter, stout, lager, porters, wheat beers and IPA . Combining eighty years of collective knowledge in the brewing industry, this valuable resource describes each stage of production, ...

Masculinity at the Movies takes a deep dive into masculinity in film and how Hollywood movies continue to produce and promote masculine stereotypes that place boys and men in constraining identities and dysfunctional patterns of behaviour.From classic film stars to those of the present day, this textbook unpacks the development of the main male stereotypes in film – villains, heroes and oafs – and how movies can develop healthy new male representations. Alongside Hollywood...

‘Flak’ Houses were the rest homes set up in England during the Second World War by the American Red Cross to provide centers of rest and recuperation for combat-weary airmen. These were usually situated in large country houses where flyers were permitted to wear civilian clothes and partake in a variety of sporting and recreational activities. All told, some 87,000 men passed through the R&R system before it disbanded in 1945. Keith Thomas covers the history of more than 20 Flak Houses in ...

“The peak of my virtuosity was in the one-act plays—like firecrackers in a rope.” —Tennessee WilliamsThis new collection of fantastic, lesser-known one-acts contains some of Williams’s most potent, comical and disturbing short plays?Upper East Side ladies dine out during the apocalypse in Now the Cats With Jeweled Claws, while the poet Hart Crane is confronted by his mother at the bottom of the ocean in Steps Must Be Gentle. Five previously unpubl...

What did it mean to be ‘civilized’ in Early Modern England?Keith Thomas's seminal studies Religion and the Decline of Magic, Man and the Natural World, and The Ends of Life, explored the beliefs, values and social practices of the years between 1500 and 1800. In Pursuit of Civility continues this quest by examining what the English people thought it meant to be `civilized' and how that condition differed from being `barbarous' or `savage' .Thomas ...