Public records, in various forms, have accompanied humanity since ancient times. Initially, their keeping was mainly related to the need to record facts about property rights. With time, however, a...
Did you know that the ultramarine that shimmers at the centre of Vermeer’s Milkmaid connects that masterpiece with 6th-century Zoroastrian paintings found on the walls of cave temples in Bami...
The book offers a comprehensive overview of changes in Chinese society in the last seventy years, since the formation of the People’s Republic of China. Within its pages, several authors focu...
Credited with creating some of the most luxurious and spectacular haute couture pieces of all time, Christian Dior became a fashion icon overnight in 1947 with the launch of his ‘New Look&rsq...
The most captivating and intriguing 19th-century murders from around the world are re-examined in this disquieting volume, which takes readers on a perilous journey around the world’s most be...
Photography: The Whole Story leads you through the world’s most iconic photographs – those images that have become key reference points in our conception of ourselves and the world arou...
Humanity has always been struck by pestilence and pandemics, from the plagues of ancient Egypt to the pox that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages, to Covid-19. People living through the crises have ...
The aesthetic of our contemporary environment, including everything from housing developments to furniture and websites, is partly the result of a school of art and design founded in Germany in 191...
The advent of railways played an instrumental part in Britain’s economic and social revolution in the 19th century, with technical advances that were the envy of the world. From the beginning...
What is worse than Nero? What is better than Nero’s Baths?’ – so wrote the poet Martial in the first century AD, demonstrating the power that buildings have on public consciousnes...
Bauhaus Goes West is the story of cultural and artistic exchange between Germany and the West over a period of seventy years. It presents a view of the influential Bauhaus school in relation to the...
A concise, accessible, and up- to-date overview of the arts of Africa from prehistoric times to the present day.This indispensable introductory guide explores the art of the African con...
The complex phenomenon of colour has received detailed attention from the perspectives of physics, chemistry, physiology, psychology, linguistics and philosophy. However, the people who work most c...
Exploring the origins, designs and themes of over one hundred pictures from different periods and places, Susan Woodford artfully expands our appreciation of pictures. Woodford’s riveting pro...
Surrealism was launched as a literary and artistic movement by French poet André Breton in 1924, and by the time of his death in 1966 had become one of the most popular art movements of the ...
This sequel to Olivier Dupon's bestselling The New Artisans - the book that began it all - showcases 60 new makers whose creations will inspire and delight. The book is divided into two sections fo...
Body art is the most intimate art form, linking the self, the senses, and the social and political. Today, in almost any major city worldwide, you will encounter tattoos, piercings, henna painting ...
Retro Cameras is a stylish, design-led guide to classic and retro cameras aimed at those who want to discover the world of analogue photography. It includes more than 100 camera models, from the ea...
GamesMaster: The Oral History charts the highs and lows of Channel 4’s iconic and anarchic UK videogames entertainment show. First broadcast in 1992 amid a brash youth television takeover, th...
Robert Cave examines 100 extraordinary projects, theories and experiments that have been conducted in the name of science. Some, including various nuclear tests, have attracted controversy and host...