Cultural studies Books

We all know about jandals, jaffas and hokey pokey ice cream, but how many of us also remember the underarm bowling incident, the Topp Twins, Telethon and Thingee's eye popping out on TV? This is Kiwiana and pop culture for the younger generation, those who grew up with at least one channel of TV (an...

The inside story of Facebook, told with the full, exclusive cooperation of founder Mark Zuckerberg and the company’s other leaders. In August, 2008, Facebook signed up its 100 millionth user. Eight months later its 200 millionth user signed up. Today it is over 350 million users. This pheno...

Crikey Dick is an illustrated collection of Kiwiana, documenting the stories behind the objects, events and people that have defined and distinguished the popular culture of New Zealand. The book comprises of individual entries of household names, along with an introductory overview - 'What is Kiwia...

What happens when advances in technology allow many things to be produced for more or less nothing- And what happens when those things are then made available to the consumer for free- In his groundbreaking new book, The Long Tail author Chris Anderson considers a brave new world where the ol...

In the rest of the world they say that if you can remember the sixties you weren't really there - but what was it like in New Zealand? For us the decade began with conservative prosperity - the establishment knew best and most Kiwis knew their place. Doors were left unlocked in postwar 'golden weat...

 Visionary game designer Jane McGonigal reveals how we can harness the power of games to solve real-world problems and boost global happiness. More than 174 million Americans are gamers, and the average young person in the United States will spend ten thousand hours gaming by the age of twe...

"The Big Payback" takes us from the first $15 made by a "rapping DJ" in 1970s New York to the recent multi-million-dollar sales of the Phat Farm and Roc-a-Wear clothing companies in 2004 and 2007. On this four-decade-long journey from the studios where the first rap records were ...

New from the best selling author of WHYKICKAMOOCOW and RETURN TO WHYKICKAMOOCOW. Were Ches and Dale real people? Is a Swanndri named after a waterproof water bird? Why not Lemon & Thames? Does Speights really stand for Superb P*** Enjoyed In Great Hotels Throughout Southland? And what's so o...

The West Coast of the South Island holds a special place in the mythology of New Zealand culture. It is the last frontier, the 'wild west' of New Zealand - and the coasters are larger-than-life characters. The authors have both spent significant parts of their working lives on the Coast and know the...

A light-hearted roundup of robots in popular culture, fiction, films, TV, animation and toys. From the earliest robots through to the 21st Century's cutting-edge automatons, Simon Furman highlights the influential, the radical and the downright weird: from Robby to Gigolo Joe, from Asimov to Dou...

This text presents an account of human development that looks at both the differences and similarities among cultures. Beyond demonstrating that "culture matters," Rogoff focuses on how culture matters in human development - what patterns help make sense of the cultural aspects of human development?...

A challenge to the whole basis of thinking on the subject of classical civilization. The author argues that it has its roots in Afroasiatic cultures, and that these influences have been systematically ignored, suppressed or denied since the 18th century.

James May's Toy Stories is much more than just a TV tie-in. Inspired by James's exploits, the book covers both the stories behind a number of classic toys and the adventures in summer 2009 as James and his helpers, children and adults of all ages, build and recreate a range of toys in a series of To...

In his bestselling book 1421:The Year China Discovered the World, Gavin Menzies revealed that it was the Chinese that discovered America, not Columbus. Now he presents further astonishing evidence that it was also Chinese advances in science, art, and technology that formed the basis of the European...

'Relationships between and among people need to be managed and guarded by some rules'. Professor Hirini Moko Mead's comprehensive survey of tikanga Maori (Maori custom) is the most substantial of its kind every published. Ranging over topics from the everyday to the esoteric, it provides a breadth o...

What Britain refined, America defined. Assembled by two key figures at the heart of the movement and told through the voices o musicians, artists, iconoclastic reporters and entrepreneurial groupies, PLEASE KILL ME is the full decadent story of the American punk scene, through the early years of And...

Every day around the world millions of people enter virtual worlds through video games. These games are now the fastest-growing form of entertainment - and being played by people of all ages. International communities are coming together to play, have fun and share ideas - without ever meeting. How ...

Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi has a lifestyle most guidettes dream about. But can she help it if she was born to love fake tans and juiceheads? In this must-have guide to being a guidette, America's favorite pint-sized princess shares her secrets for ROCKING it, Jersey-style. Your mission, should you choo...

"[This book] contains contributions by a handful of my favorite writers, so even though I haven't yet got a galley-glimpse of the finished product, I can just about guarantee it's going to be a good one...should you make your way chronologically through its list, probably will indeed just about...

Remember Richard Till's fabulous range of nostalgic tea towels in his popular Kiwi Kitchen TV series? This attractive gift book celebrates the time when cities, provincial centres, women's organisations and food producers throughout the country all designed their own tea towels to brighten up kitche...

Anyone who has been welcomed on to a marae in New Zealand, will understand that whaikorero - oratory - is at the heart of Maori culture. Whaikorero: The World of Maori Oratory is the first introduction to this fundamental Maori art to be widely published. It is based on broad research as well as or...

Following the success of What's Happening to Our Girls? , this book will investigate a wide range of the challenges boys and young men face as they grow up in the early 21st century. These include things such as increasing pressure on young boys to buy into consumerist culture, their exposure to vio...

Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg - an awkward maths prodigy and a painfully shy computer genius - were never going to fit in at elite, polished Harvard. Yet that all changed when master-hacker Mark crashed the university's entire computer system by creating a rateable database of female students....

What could one man find if he embarked on a journey through fantasy world after fantasy world? In an enthralling blend of travelogue, pop culture analysis, and memoir, forty-year-old former D&D addict Ethan Gilsdorf crisscrosses America, the world, and other worlds—from Boston to New Zeal...

First the crisis, now The Reckoning - but funny. The authors of Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shit?, the bestselling satire of the credit and consumerism culture that wondered when it would all go wrong, now wonder why the people picking up the pieces are rushing headlong to get back to business as...

A lot can be told about a country from its cuisine, and New Zealand is no exception. From traditional Maori cuisine, to immigrant influences to modern Kiwi tucker, this small but chocka book gives you the A to Z on New Zealand food. It contains not only the food Kiwis love (or have loved in the past...

Why are some words rude and others aren't? Why can launching into expletives be so shocking - and sometimes so amusing? In this hilarious extract from his bestselling The Stuff of Thought Steven Pinker takes us on a fascinating journey through the world of profanities, to show us why we swear, how ...

This text provides a richly evocative exploration of Russia, its culture and people. Vast in scale and woven though with extraordinary stories and characters, it ranges from the splendour of 18th-century St Petersburg to the power of Stalinist propaganda, from folk art to the magic rituals of Asiati...

Kiwiana is a name that identifies quirky objects and images that have endured changing fads and trends to become our icons, stored in the memories of generations of New Zealanders and recalled with amusement and affection. This book from the authors of the very first Kiwiana Book, New Zealand, New Z...

This classic text on Maori culture collects indigenous New Zealand songs recorded over a period of 40 years by a respected Maori leader and distinguished scholar. The essence of Maori culture and its musical tradition is exhibited in the original song texts, translations, audio CDs, and notes from c...

This book takes a dramatically original approach to the history of humanity, using objects which previous civilisations have left behind them, often accidentally, as prisms through which we can explore past worlds and the lives of the men and women who lived in them. The book's range is enormous. It...

This beautiful art book features Shigenori Soejima's best work from the various Persona games, including other projects such as "Stella Deus" and "Momoiro Taisen Pairon", and an exclusive interview with the artist himself.

In "Extra Lives," acclaimed writer and life-long video game enthusiast Tom Bissell takes the reader on an insightful and entertaining tour of the art and meaning of video games. In just a few decades, video games have grown increasingly complex and sophisticated, and the companies that produce them ...

Publishing alongside the world premiere of Christopher Nolan's third Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises", Will Brooker's new book explores Batman's twenty-first century incarnations. Brooker's close analysis of "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" offers a rigorous, accessible account of the comple...

This is an authorized visual history of one of the biggest bands in hard rock by photographer Ross Halfin, who has documented them from 1978 through to today.Author BiographyPhotographer Ross Halfin began his career working for Sounds magazine in the 1970s, shooting various artists on the punk scene...

 Everyone Loves You When You're Dead is a hilarious and revealing collection of celebrity interviews by Neil Strauss, the bestselling author of The Game and The Dirt. Strauss has been a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine and the New York Times, giving him access to a wide variety of major cel...

'He's been part of the Coldplay family since day one, we love him.' COLDPLAY Longtime Coldplay roadie Matt has taken almost every step with the band over a decade of world tours and 40 million (and counting) record sales. In this, his first book, he reveals what life is like behind the scenes at t...

'I simply wanted to know - for myself and my family - what meat is. Where does it come from? How is it produced? What are the economic, social and environmental effects? Are there animals that it is straightforwardly right to eat? Are there situations in which not eating animals is wrong? If this be...

 Eating Animals is a uniquely passionate, powerful and provocative exploration of what we eat, and why, by the bestselling author of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. ‘This story didn’t begin as a book. I simply wanted to know – ...

Why do we talk as if we're rational, but act as if we're not? Why are some people such control freaks? What is the true role of religion? Why do we seek change, yet resist it? Why do we want more of the things that have already failed to satisfy us? Why are we so passionate about sport? Why do we ne...