Academic Fall 2026 Key Titles

BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC

KEY TITLES

FALL 2026

September 3, 2026

Hardcover • 240 Pages • 6 x 9 9798216391999

US $27.00 • CAN $39.50 Bloomsbury Academic

Stealing Elections, American Style

David Walbert

Stealing Elections, American Style tells the captivating history of voter suppression and outright stolen elections in the United States from the country’s founding to the battle over voting rights today.

Nearly everyone has an opinion about election integrity and voting, but very few have more than an inkling of the truth about American elections. From stuffed ballot boxes to rigged elections, one of the country's premiere voting rights attorneys, David Walbert, brings unique clarity to these issues by combining fascinating stories about some of the country's most outlandish stolen elections with a clear explanation of how elections are frequently rigged in advance of a single vote being cast. Drawing from his experience litigating election cases, arguing before the Supreme Court, and teaching constitutional law, Walbert explains how Supreme Court decisions since the 1800s have often been the cause of voting inequality. Readers will gain a deep understanding of the voting issues of todaygerrymandering, voter suppression, fraud, voter ID requirements, and voter purges, among others-and what the future portends. They will also learn how we got into the morass we're in and how the future can be better.

David F. Walbert is Senior Counsel at the law firm Parks, Chesin & Walbert in Atlanta, Georgia He has handled voting cases at every level from trial to arguing landmark cases in the United States Supreme Court throughout his 45 year career. While Walbert has taught constitutional law and voting rights courses, his insights and provocative comments on Supreme Court decisions are not just the opinions of a constitutional law scholar. They are based on decades of real-world experience with legislators, governors, the Justice Department, and voting advocates, as well as with judges on every level, including the Supreme Court.

August 20, 2026

Hardcover • 232 Pages • 6¼ x 9¼

9781350597921

US $27.00 • CAN $39.50

Bloomsbury Business

AI at Work

How to build a full stack organization

James Poulter

As fears of agentic obsolescence abound, organizations are struggling to implement AI in ways that enhance rather than replace human work. This unique book introduces a full-stack approach that balances technological capability with human values, ethics and practical applications.

AI at Work provides a framework that moves beyond scattered AI experiments toward a coherent strategy that will run throughout your entire company. Rather than focusing on technical capabilities or dystopian warnings, it utilizes a full-stack approach to harness AI's benefits while preserving what matters most – a firm’s people, its values and its unique organizational identity.

The global AI market is projected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2030, with organizations across sectors racing to implement AI solutions. However, whilst 83% of executives report that AI is a top priority for their organization, only 23% have a comprehensive implementation strategy.

This book fills a critical gap between theoretical AI books and technical implementation guides by offering:

·A practical framework applicable across industries;

·Equal emphasis on technological capability, ethical considerations and real-world applications;

·A human-centred approach that addresses concerns about AI replacing workers; and ·Case studies and examples from diverse sectors.

James "JP" Poulter is a leading AI strategist, keynote speaker, and founder of ThreePoint Labs, an AI transformation consultancy helping organizations navigate the shift to intelligent working with clarity, ethics and purpose. Former CEO of Vixen Labs – a voice AI company he founded and sold to House 337 in 2023 – and previously Head of Emerging Platforms at The LEGO Group, JP brings rare depth across both start-up and enterprise scale. He has advised organizations including Amazon, Verizon, Bosch and Universal Music, delivered more than 250 keynotes worldwide, and is a committed advocate for ethical AI implementation, serving on the board of Christian Aid. AI at Work is his first book.

December 10, 2026

Hardcover • 224 Pages • 6 x 9

9780815749967

US $32 00 • CAN $46 95 Brookings Institution Press

Claiming the Cosmos Who Owns the Final Frontier?

Darrell M. West

In the new Space Race, with multiple countries and competing interests deciding who gets to claim victory over the cosmos, it's time to analyze the legal, policy, and regulatory aspects of space endeavors, define the role of private corporations in exploration, and determine how to handle space tourism, mining, and settlements

The expansion of space exploration raises both fundamental and existential questions for humanity How should scientific advancement take place? What would the discovery of life elsewhere mean for our connected society, geopolitics, and religion? Who decides how these discoveries are funded? Darrell M West uses a decision-making framework based on collegial governance and expert consultations to shape an international space policy guided by key principles of transparency, collaboration, sustainability, human safety, public oversight, shared infrastructure investment, global cooperation, knowledge-building, demilitarization, and pan-nationalism

Darrell M West is the Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC and co-editor of the Brookings TechTank blog and podcast

September 17, 2026

Hardcover • 256 Pages • 6 x 9 15 bw photos

9798216448648

US $32 00 • CAN $46 95 Bloomsbury Academic

The Girl Who Would Be Marilyn Monroe

An Intimate Portrait of the Young Norma Jeane

Tony Castro

A thoughtful glimpse into the childhood of Norma Jeane Mortenson and how it shaped her into the iconic Marilyn Monroe for the 100th anniversary of her birth

At the fragile intersection of myth and memory stands a girl often eclipsed by the legend she became The Girl Who Would Be Marilyn Monroe dares to strip away the satin, the spotlight, the studio-invented shine, to reveal the tender child beneath: a girl marked not by fame but by longing Longing for love, for safety, for the kind of permanence the world never offered her This is not simply another biography It is a resurrection A candlelit portrait drawn from decades of first-hand research and rare interviews with those who knew her not only Marilyn the icon, but Norma Jeane the girl

Tony Castro draws on intimate conversations with famed entertainment writer James Bacon and Marilyn’s close friends, such as Frank Sinatra, actresses Susan Strasberg and Mamie Van Doren, actor and The Misfits co-star Eli Wallach, ex-husband Joe DiMaggio, and child star-turned-Hollywood raconteur Skip E Lowe They offer unparalleled access into Marilyn’s earliest, most hidden self These are stories shared not as interviews but as confidences shaped by the trust of friendship And herein lies the soul of this work: a new and intimate rendering of the Marilyn we rarely allow ourselves to see Through these private recollections, we hear her voice not the whispery affectation of the screen siren, but the real girl’s voice, unvarnished, aching, often uncertain What emerges is not the blonde bombshell, but the child whispering to a mirror, trying on hope like a costume This is, at last, the story of Norma Jeane

Tony Castro is the author of nine critically acclaimed books, including Mickey Mantle: America’s Prodigal Son, DiMag & Mick: Sibling Rivals, Yankee Blood Brothers, and Mantle: The Best There Ever Was A seasoned political reporter and cultural historian, his bylines have appeared in the Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, and the Texas Observer, where he covered everything from presidential campaigns to sports He lives in Los Angeles

September 3, 2026

Hardcover • 240 Pages • 5½ x 8½ 9798216382478

US $34.00 • CAN $49.95

Bloomsbury Academic

The Mess That Made Them

How History's Greatest Artists Failed, Floundered, and Made Something Brilliant Anyway

Ryan T. Pozzi

What if the artists we call “geniuses” weren’t born extraordinary at all—but simply refused to stop creating when life made it nearly impossible? Ryan Pozzi invites readers to step closer, past the legends and into the real lives behind the masterpieces.

Pozzi argues that the creators we’ve mythologized didn’t succeed because of destiny or innate brilliance. They were shaped by rejection, fear, persecution, illness, grief, and the relentless pressure to keep going when the world told them to stop. Caravaggio on the run, Mary Shelley writing through devastating loss, Shostakovich composing under surveillance, Yayoi Kusama surviving erasure, Tchaikovsky rebuilding after collapse—their work endures not because they were divine, but because they were human.

Drawing from years spent working with writers and performers, Pozzi writes with clarity and compassion about what a creative life truly requires: not perfection, but persistence and passion. Across six recurring creative pressures—refusal, containment, survival, exile, darkness, and reinvention—the narrative traces the emotional cost of making anything that lasts and offers a more grounded understanding of what artists actually fight through: comparison, doubt, burnout, and the long, uncertain road toward meaning.

Whether you are a working creative, an arts-adjacent professional, or someone trying to build something in a world that doesn’t always make space for you, this book offers an affirming, honest reminder: if you’ve ever felt too late, too flawed, or too far behind to begin, remember that what makes someone unforgettable isn’t just what they created—it’s what they survived to create it.

Ryan T. Pozzi is a writer and historian. He is the founder of the Nebraska Writers Collective and the Apollon Art Space in Omaha, and previously built arts programs and performed across the Midwest. His work has appeared in Across the Margin, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Villain Era, Northern New England Review, Ponder Review, Cursed Morsels, Osmosis Press, The Word’s Faire, In Parentheses, Wingless Dreamer, and Paragraph Planet. He is a member of Biographers International Organization, Historical Writers of America, and the Nebraska Writers Guild.

October 15, 2026

Hardcover • 208 Pages • 8½ x 11¼ 253 color images

9798765142875

US $40.00 • CAN $58.50 Backbeat

The Lost Studios Reconstructing the Great American Recording Spaces

Richard Adlam

The definitive guide to the lost, lamented titans of American recordings studios.

Record Plant. Stax. The Automatt. Caribou Ranch. These and other legendary American recording studios are no longer standing, but their legacies and distinctive sounds live on in countless stories and classic recordings, from Billy Joel to Captain Beefheart, David Bowie to the Pointer Sisters.

Now, for the first time, comprehensive technical details, gear lists, dimensions, and more can be found in The Lost Spaces, architect-turned-producer Richard Adlam's unprecedented guide to the most significant lost studios in the United States. From Atlantic Studios to Universal, Adlam provides painstaking, meticulously reconstructed diagrams and spec sheets accompanied by historical photos, anecdotes, and lists of the key albums and performers recorded in each space. Whether you're an engineer, musician, designer, or allaround music geek, this is a one-of-a-kind resource preserving an essential slice of popmusic history.

Richard Adlam, A.K.A. "Fiasco," has worked on album projects from Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles, Dua Lipa, Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift, One Direction, Kanye West, Bruno Mars, Iggy Azalea, and many others, including five Grammy-winning and fifteen Grammy-nominated records. His company Replay Heaven specializes in carefully constructed "soundalikes" for use in studio recordings, club and hip-hop samples, and advertisements. He is from Essex, UK.

September 17, 2026

The Perfect Birth Myth Pushing

Back Against a Broken Industry

Avital Norman Nathman and Deborah Wage

In a nation where more than 3.5 million births occur each year, the experience of giving birth reveals who is valued, who is heard, and who is left behind.

The Perfect Birth Myth offers a sweeping, deeply human exploration of childbirth in the United States, the country with the most highly resourced and costliest maternal healthcare in the world, yet the highest rate of maternal mortality among developed countries. Drawing on decades of experience in maternal health, midwifery, and journalism, Avital Norman Nathman and Deborah Wage weave historical analysis, policy insight, personal narratives, and data from approximately 3,000 people who’ve given birth to examine the forces shaping American birth culture. From the pursuit of the “perfect birth” and the commercialization of care to the racial and psychological inequities embedded in the system, they reveal how medicalization, racism, and profit-driven policies have eroded autonomy, safety, and dignity in childbirth.

Both exposé and call to action, The Perfect Birth Myth reframes birth as an act of justice, community, and self-determination. Readers will emerge with an understanding that instead of pushing for perfection, we should be pushing for equity, respect, and shared humanity.

Avital Norman Nathman (she/her) is a writer, editor, and storyteller who has spent nearly 20 years using words to challenge norms and amplify underrepresented voices. Her work— infused with a sharp feminist lens—explores motherhood, maternal health, gender, and reproductive rights, appearing in The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Rolling Stone, Cosmopolitan, VICE, and beyond. She previously edited The Good Mother Myth: Redefining Motherhood to Fit Reality

Deborah Wage (she/her) is a nurse practitioner, nurse midwife, and researcher whose career focused on reshaping how healthcare could better serve women and families, improving outcomes in the process. She founded one of Nashville, Tennessee’s first independent midwifery practices and went on to join the faculty of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine as an assistant professor.

October 1, 2026

Hardcover • 272 Pages • 5½ x 8½ 9781538188361

US $32.00 • CAN $46.95 Bloomsbury Academic

The Spirit in the Sky

The Power of Music In Our Search for Graceland

Jeff Crosby

Short bios of seventeen iconic musicians–from Dylan to Van Morrison to Tracy Chapman–showing how popular music influences the search for spirituality and helps reveal the transcendent.

Drawing on more than five decades of attentive listening, Jeff Crosby explores how popular music has functioned as a form of “general revelation”—a way listeners encounter questions of God, purpose, justice, suffering, and hope beyond formal religious institutions. Through these engaging artist portraits, he examines how musicians across pop, rock, soul, folk, and R&B have articulated spiritual longing, wrestled with faith and doubt, and offered listeners imaginative resources for navigating their own interior lives. Equal parts memoir, popular music criticism, and spiritual inquiry, the book invites readers to practice “deep listening” as a formative discipline. Each chapter concludes with curated playlists and recommended records that extend the conversation beyond the page.

The artists range from globally celebrated figures, including Paul Simon, George Harrison, Marvin Gaye, Pink Floyd, Mavis Staples and the Staple Singers, to influential but less widely recognized voices such as Judee Sill, Mickey Newbury, Laura Nyro, Brooks Williams, and Chris Rea. Each chapter blends cultural history, lyrical interpretation, and personal reflection, showing how these artists’ work emerged from particular social, political, and religious contexts while continuing to speak powerfully to contemporary listeners. Crosby's deeply moving reflections suggest that soulful, attentive listening to music, whatever the genre, can open paths toward greater clarity, compassion, and grace.

Jeff Crosby is president and CEO of ECPA, the trade association of Christian publishing, and has spent four decades in the world of words as a bookseller, publisher, and author. His writing has appeared in numerous magazines and journals including Books & Culture, Bookstore Journal, and Publishers Weekly. He is the author of several books, including World of Words: A Spirituality of Reading (2025) and The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts (2023). He lives in Chicagoland, USA.

October 1, 2026

Paperback • 240 Pages • 6 x 9 9798216388081

US $29.95 • CAN $43.95 Bloomsbury Academic

Encounters Dialogue, Antisemitism, and the Israeli–Palestinian Divide

Benjamin E. Sax

Illuminates the history and complexities at the heart of the world's most contentious and fraught region--and why genuine interreligious dialogue is the only hope for peace.

Based on his extensive experience working with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities throughout the world, and distilling complex issues into understandable language, Sax invites readers into the perilous but essential space between identity and encounter, where deep listening helps dissolve hostile boundaries. Is it antisemitic to call Israel a Zionist state? What is the true meaning of "from the river to the sea?" This book explains how to understand, and respond to, these challenging questions.

Drawing from scriptural interpretation, philosophical reflection, and his in-the-trenches teaching experiences, Sax argues that dialogue is not a luxury for calmer times but a moral imperative precisely amid war, hatred, and fear. He shows how dialogue demands humility, vulnerability, and the capacity to sit with conflicting truths—like the two creation stories in Genesis—without seeking resolution through erasure. Dialogue, for Sax, is not an attempt to win arguments or reduce difference but a shared search for understanding that honors the dignity of every religious and political other.

Sax reveals the philosophical underpinnings of dialogue through lucid explanations of three key figures: Jewish philosophers Martin Buber and Franz Rosenweig and Sunni Muslim theologian and jurist Muhammad al-Ghazali. He then offers concrete practices for fostering interreligious relationships in classrooms, congregations, and public forums, proposing that empathy, risk, and critical self-reflection must anchor these efforts.

Rejecting both naïve idealism and hardened cynicism, Encounters is a courageous, hopeful appeal to listen, to learn, and to risk—especially when dialogue feels impossible. It is a vital resource for educators, clergy, activists, and all people of good seeking progress on the world's most enduing conflict.

Benjamin E. Sax is Head of Scholarship and the Jewish Scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, Maryland. Previously he was director of the Malcolm and Diane Rosenberg Program in Judaic Studies and the founding faculty principal at the West Ambler Johnston Residential College at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. He has lectured in Oxford, Rome, Heidelberg, Jerusalem and beyond. He is the author of Winged Words: Benjamin, Rosenzweig, and the Life of Quotation (2023).

October 15, 2026

Hardcover • 288 Pages • 6¼ x 9¼

30 bw illus

9781350578098

US $32.95 • CAN $48.50 Methuen Drama

Power and Greed Monopolies, Mergers, and Cartels on the American Stage

Spencer Weber Waller

Since the second half of the 19th century, live entertainment in the United States has been governed by monopolies and powerful business cartels who together through power and greed controlled who could produce, book, and present live performance and legitimate theatre, affecting audiences in New York City and across North America.

Far from being a historical problem, it took the botched rollout of the 2023 Taylor Swift Eras tour via Live Nation/Ticketmaster for people and Congress to question this established history, and more importantly, ask what could be done to change it via stronger enforcement of the antitrust laws to help prevent high prices and poor service suffered by concert-goers who buy their tickets online.

But how did we get to this point? This is the story of the real battle for Broadway, where the men who controlled the business determined not only who produced for the theatrical and vaudeville stage but also what they produced, who would perform, where the show would play, how much the audience would pay, and how those profits would be divided. Discover how it took the law nearly sixty years to catch up to the illegal anticompetitive strategies of the Barons of the Gilded Age and their successors and why this story matters today.

Including 18 images, many of which are exclusives from the Shubert Archives, Power and Greed unpacks the shady world of the Syndicate, the Shuberts, the Vaudeville Combine, and their modern-day successors. Combining archival research, lively discussion and historical narrative this is a perfect read for theatre and entertainment fans, history enthusiasts and students of anti-trust law that shows us how market competition and competition law can shape, but never eliminate, the worst impulses of those in power and those who seek power over what we see in live entertainment.

Spencer Weber Waller is deeply involved in the Broadway and touring theatre industry, having represented actors, playwrights, marketing professionals, and theatre companies. He was co-producer of the 2024 Broadway revival of The Who’s Tommy and has invested in Broadway shows and global touring productions Professor Waller also is an internationally recognized expert in antitrust and consumer protection law. He is widely published in law and related subjects and frequently interviewed in the press.

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 416 Pages • 6 x 9 30 b&w figures

9798216277545

US $36.00 • CAN $52.95 Bloomsbury Academic

Guns Are Not Enough Foreign Aid in the National Interest

Andrew S. Natsios

American foreign aid can be a powerful tool to both to improve lives of people in the developing world, strengthen US allies, and advance the United States’ national interest, but it is limited by statutory constraints, bureaucracy, congressional micro-management, and competing visions of what it can and should accomplish. This book explores these limitations – and what can be done about them - through a close analysis of the five “clashes of development”.

The clash of theory and practice discusses the major theories of development, and the influence these have had on the design of aid programs. The clash of development and diplomacy examines the dangers of coopting development programs for purely diplomatic goals. The clash of the counter-bureaucracy describes how quantitative performance indicators and compliance systems have come to dominate USAID at the expense of good development practice. The clash of development and politics shows the dangers of letting domestic agendas drive development decisions, of congressional oversight, and the clash of development and defense demonstrates how using development programs particularly in war zones where the US military is fighting to achieve tactical outcomes leads to programs that are at best ineffective, often fail and are unsustainable. The book is rounded out with chapters discussing how these clashes impact key aspects of implementing development programs, including aid allocation decisions, the selection partner organizations, the management of programs in the field, and risk management. The book concludes with a chapter on what can be done to improve American foreign aid and a focus on why foreign aid is so important when many detractors proclaim “America first.”

Andrew S. Natsios has served as a state representative in Massachusetts, chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party, and head of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority responsible for turning around the cost overrun scandal of Boston's "Big Dig" project. He headed the U.S. Agency for International Development during the George W. Bush administration, served as special coordinator of Somalia relief, and was vice president of the humanitarian organization World Vision,. He is currently Director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs in the George H. W. Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 256 Pages • 6¼ x 9¼ 9781350642980

US $27 00 • CAN $39 50 Bloomsbury Academic

Thinking with Machines Margaret Masterman and the Discovery of AI

Peter de Bolla

Sixty-five years ago a small group of maverick thinkers gathered in a converted Buddhist museum on the outskirts of Cambridge, convinced that language held the key to unlocking artificial intelligence. Their leader was the extraordinary and eccentric Margaret Masterman – religious devotee, linguist, logician, philosopher, self-made computer scientist, and forgotten prophet of AI.

With the discovery of an archive that had remained unopened for nearly forty years, Peter de Bolla has pieced together the remarkable story of Masterman’s creation and direction of the Cambridge Language Research Unit (CLRU) Working on the fringes of the university, dismissed as an amateur and constrained by structural sexism, Margaret Masterman, who took dictation from Wittgenstein, led the CLRU to the discovery of AI as they worked at an extraordinary pace to crack the problem of machine translation. Taking Turing’s theoretical proposal of an ‘electronic brain’ and running furiously with it, she and her colleagues built the first machine that could think - a machine capable of engaging with human minds, and even, in Masterman’s prophesised future, of doing philosophy alongside them

Her audacious claim that a machine could generate meaning, not merely manipulate symbols made – and still makes – her both a prophetic voice and a heretic Blending biography, intellectual history, the drama of scientific revolution, and the exhilarating discovery of the most powerful technology of the twenty-first century, AI, this book reveals how Masterman and her collaborators – from philosophers, linguists and botanists to quantum theorists – came to formulate a theory of language and mind that we are only now beginning to see in action in the large language models that shape our world today

Peter de Bolla is Professor of Cultural History and Aesthetics at the University of Cambridge, UK Between 2014–2018 he was Director of the Cambridge Concept Lab He is the author of numerous academic works ranging from Wordsworth to American History, the sublime to human rights He was a founding editor of Granta magazine and has written regularly for Granta, The LRB and other literary periodicals and magazines

September 17, 2026

Hardback • 176 Pages

9781350612938

The Love of Analog Meditations on

Value

Darren Hudson Hick

Vinyl records. Board games. Paperback books. Film. A philosopher dives into the analog world to show what it offers us and what it says about our values.

Packed with first-person anecdotes, hand-drawn illustrations, and extensive scholarship, Darren Hudson Hick takes us through the pleasure of board games and jigsaw puzzles and inside the values of materiality, care, and agency. Hick moves from pinball machines and first editions to meditative cleaning and pottery to introduce us to key ideas in value theory, everyday aesthetics, virtue theory, and care ethics, alongside findings from psychology, anthropology, and sociology.

What accounts for the resurgence of analog media? Why are we buying all this stuff? Hick approaches these questions from a pragmatist perspective—a view that demands drawing on personal experience to better understand the values that pervade our daily lives. The result is a lively and informed exploration of material culture that tells us a surprising amount about ourselves and how we live.

Whenever we set up a board game, dust a record, load a roll of film, or sit down with a coloring book, we get to think about what we value. The Love of Analog is a study in what's important to us. It's a celebration of being human.

Darren Hudson Hick is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Furman University, South Carolina, USA. He is the author of The Love of Analog: Meditations on Value (2026), Introducing Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art (2023), Artistic License: The Philosophical Problems of Copyright & Appropriation (2017), coeditor of The Aesthetics and Ethics of Copying (Bloomsbury, 2016), and General Editor of the digital collection, Bloomsbury Contemporary Aesthetics.

October 29, 2026

Paperback • 128 Pages • 5¼ x 7¾

9781350648449

US $12.95 • CAN $18.95

Žižek's Essays Bloomsbury Academic

Signs from the Future

Slavoj Žižek

The old liberal world order is dying and yet new realities are consistently stillborn.

We are, as Slavoj Žižek argues in this arresting new book, stuck in time with only the 'morbid phenomena' of Gramsci's chilling words for company: 'the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid phenomena appears'. These phenomena - chaotic economic wars, new forms of Fascism, techno-feudalism, a return to colonial land grabs, planetary destruction and sanctioned genocides - overwhelm us at every turn. What can we do, in such a desperate climate, to stem the flow of despair?

We might look to the great triumphs, successes and lessons of the past to guide our pathsifting the annals of history for insights which could disrupt our disastrous trajectory. And yet, this historical knowledge doesn't seem to meaningfully disturb the ruinous repetitions we see throughout human history. What might happen if we look to the future? Could it be that the realm of fortune tellers, star gazers and conspiracists is more predictable, knowable even, than we've allowed ourselves to think? Can we not read the 'morbid phenomena' that abound as concrete predictors of what is to come? From Gaza to Iran, Ukraine to the streets of Minneapolis and Venezuela to Sudan, are we not given such signs - a series of unfathomable and brutal events that, without decisive action now, will remain our future?

In Signs from the Future, Žižek's self-coined 'materialist prophesying' provides the tools to read worlds that have not yet been born but make their presence reverberate in the present nonetheless. He asks us to address our lives as 'signs from the future', intimations that warn us but also prompt us - to action, resistance, reparation and the fragile possibility of hope.

Slavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, a Lacanian psychoanalyst, and a Communist. He is Visiting Professor at the New York University, USA, and Senior Researcher at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is author of Quantum History (Bloomsbury 2025) and Against Progress ( Bloomsbury, 2024)

October 15, 2026

Paperback - with flaps • 112 Pages • 5¼ x 7¾ 9781350618626

US $14 95 • CAN $21 95 Bloomsbury Academic

Antigone

The 10th Anniversary Edition

Slavoj Žižek

Slavoj Žižek revists his radical interpretation of Antigone 10 years on, elaborating on the original work in daring and surprising ways This updated text includes an additional essay reflecting on how this play speaks to our contemporary moment more powerfully than ever, as well as a Žižekian version of Sophocles' work

Antigone is universally celebrated as the ultimate figure of ethical resistance to the state power which oversteps its legitimate scope and as the defender of simple human dignity But is she really so innocent and pure? What if there is a dark side to her? What if Creon, the representative of state power, also has a valuable point to make? And what if both Antigone and Creon are part of a problem that only a popular intervention can confront?

Žižek's rewriting of this classic play confronts these issues in a practical way: not by theorizing about them, but by imagining an Antigone in which, at a crucial moment, the action takes a different turn, an Antigone along the lines of Run, Lola, Run or of Brecht's learning plays A brilliantly funny, moving and political piece for those who are interested in reading and watching Antigone in an entirely new way

Slavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, a Lacanian psychoanalyst, and a Communist He is international director at the Birkbeck Institute for Humanities, University of London, UK, Visiting Professor at the New York University, USA, and Senior Researcher at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

September 3, 2026

Hardcover • 368 Pages • 6 x 9

9798216394297

US $35 00

• CAN $51 50 Bloomsbury Academic

Fighting for the American Dream From

Blue-Collar Kid to Maverick Economist, The Battle to Defend Working Families

Charles J. Whalen

Explores the decades-long erosion of the American Dream from the author ’s perspective: a working-class kid who became a celebrated economist dedicated to advancing the interests of struggling workers, while also caught in the same currents of job insecurity and downward mobility as the people he aimed to defend

Worker insecurity, increasing inequality, and downward mobility in our current era contrast sharply with expanding prosperity and opportunity in the first three decades after World War II What happened? And what can we do to revitalize the American Dream, reduce worker precarity, and foster broadly shared prosperity?

In this historical account of a protracted and expanding national crisis, intertwined with a personal story about growing up in a work-obsessed family and pursuing a career devoted to addressing that crisis, Charles J Whalen grapples with the social forces that sever the link between hard work and employment success He exposes the obstacles that mar the path of many people seeking job opportunities and traces the fading of the American Dream, ultimately encouraging readers to take a fresh look at the current economic situation and championing a more constructive set of public policies to shape the future

Charles J Whalen is a research fellow at The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, University at Buffalo His career spans four decades, including work at the Congressional Budget Office, BusinessWeek, and Cornell University Whalen’s eight academic books include Reforming Capitalism for the Common Good (Edward Elgar, 2022).

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 224 Pages • 5½ x 8½ 9798216386650

US $32.00 • CAN $46.95 Bloomsbury Academic

Don't Get Sued, Get Smart A Small Business Pocket Guide to Avoiding Employment Law Landmines

Diane Faulkner

Small-business owners don’t know what they don’t know about employment law. And that’s a problem. The majority of businesses in the United States are small businesses; they make up 99.3 percent of all firms, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Of those, 36 to 53 percent are sued each year because they unknowingly violate employment law.

HR compliance and employment law expert Diane Faulkner has witnessed many glaring mistakes by well-meaning small-business owners. She has seen how simple things like providing comp time rather than paying overtime or telling employees they can’t talk about their wages can get an owner sued, not only by individuals, but by local, state, and federal government agencies. It’s sad and oh-so-avoidable. In this handy guide, as a small business owner, you will learn where you can risk running afoul of the most commonly broken laws and how easily – and even innocently – this often happens. Then, learn what each law actually says and what your responsibilities are so you can avoid the legal landmines that lie ahead.

Diane Faulkner has 42 years’ experience in HR compliance, including the Florida Department of Labor and National Association’s HR Council. She earned the prestigious Master Generalist designation from the Society of Human Resource Management (the world’s largest HR organization) in 1996 and the Human Resource Certification Institute’s (formerly part of SHRM) prestigious Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) designation with a perfect score in 1999. For the past 25 years, she has advised employers on employment law compliance and led in-person seminars through her consulting business Human Resources, Made Easy. She frequently writes for publications such as Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and LegalZoom.

October 1, 2026

Hardcover • 192 Pages • 6¼ x 9¼ 9798216452409

US $35 00 • CAN $51 50 Bloomsbury Academic

Raising AI How Artificial Intelligence Is Shaping Us—and How

We Shape It Chirag Shah

Most AI books either promise utopia or warn of apocalypse This one does neither

We are living through the most consequential technology deployment in human history, yet most of the people making decisions about AI from judges using it in courtrooms to HR executives screening job candidates don't actually understand how it works or what could go wrong AI systems embed the biases, assumptions, and blind spots of their creators, then amplify them at scale across society

Chirag Shah has spent his career building intelligent systems and the last decade explaining them to the people who actually use them In this book, he challenges us and himself to think deeper about how AI learns and why that matters for how we build and use these systems

Through vivid encounters with HAL, the Terminator, and TARS, Shah shows how science fiction has shaped our expectations of AI for better and worse Using parenting as a metaphor from strict boundaries to guided autonomy to eventual partnership he offers three principles for developing AI responsibly as it evolves from narrow tools toward general intelligence

Blending science fiction, personal narrative, and frontline experience with decision-makers, Shah delivers something rare: an AI book that educates without lecturing, acknowledges uncertainty without despair, and offers a practical framework for developing AI as it matures

Whether you're building these systems, deploying them, interacting with them, or simply living with their consequences, Raising AI is essential reading

Chirag Shah is Professor of Information and Computer Science at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he founded the InfoSeeking Lab and co-founded the Center for Responsibility in AI Systems & Experiences (RAISE) His research focuses on building intelligent systems that are transparent, fair, and accountable

September 3, 2026

Hardcover • 336 Pages • 6 x 9 11 b/w illus 9798216201144

US $28.00 • CAN $40.95 Bloomsbury Academic

Everyday Bias

Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives

Howard J. Ross and Jake Ross

To be human is to be biased, especially with today’s technologies and politics reinforcing our unconscious reactions.

Most people do not see themselves as biased towards people different from themselves, yet disparities and dangerous prejudices still run rampant. Why is that? And is there anything we can do about it?

Building on the transformational lessons of the bestselling Everyday Bias, Howard J. Ross and Jake Ross reveal how bias is built into our increasingly digital lives and how we must fight against the epidemic of isolation and loneliness tearing apart our sense of connection and belonging.

New chapters explore structures of power that create micro-inequities and microadvantages, the digital attention economy’s promotion of isolation and destruction of trust through misinformation, and the embedded prejudices being promoted by artificial intelligence.

Learning to see bias and disengage from it, Howard and Jake show us how to break destructive cognitive patterns to create healthier, more conscious relationships and organizations, both in our personal and professional lives.

Howard J. Ross is the author of Reinventing Diversity and Our Search for Belonging. His work has been published by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Forbes, and he regularly consults with Fortune 500 companies. He resides just west of Washington, DC

Jake Ross is a specialist in interpersonal psychology with a background in the exploration of belonging and well-being. His consulting firm, Belong Together, advises organizations, startups, and individuals on creating cultures of belonging in the workplace. He lives in San Francisco, California

September 17, 2026

Paperback • 208 Pages • 5¼ x 7¾

9781399428361

US $14.95 • CAN $19.99 Bloomsbury Business

A Talent for Giving Creating a more generous society that benefits everyone

John Studzinski

New in Paperback

“A guide for how all of us can make a difference in the lives of others.” Michael Bloomberg

“Made me really think about what it means to give, to care, to be generous.” Sir Grayson Perry

Reclaim your individual impact with ‘entrepreneurial giving’.

It's time to democratize generosity and impact so YOU can make a difference. Philanthropy isn’t just about wealth - it’s about creativity, passion, and using your unique talents to contribute to what you believe in. Visionary investor and humanitarian John Studzinski challenges the traditional notion that philanthropy is reserved for the ultra-rich, revealing how anyone, regardless of financial means, can become a force for change.

This groundbreaking book introduces entrepreneurial giving - a hands-on approach to philanthropy that harnesses skills, expertise, and resources. Through thought-provoking insights, A Talent for Giving offers a powerful new roadmap for impact. More than a guide, this book is a call to action. Whether you're an executive, an artist, a teacher, or an activist, your talents have the power to transform lives. The future of giving isn’t about writing cheques - it’s about reimagining what’s possible. And it all starts with you.

John Studzinski, CBE is an American-British investment banker and philanthropist. Since September 2018, he has been Managing Director and Vice Chairman of the global investment management firm PIMCO. In his philanthropic activities, he consistently emphasizes the importance of human dignity and the role in philanthropy of mentoring and active networks. In 2008, he was awarded a CBE for his Services to the Arts and Charity, and his philanthropy has been recognized with awards from Pope John Paul II, the Prince of Wales (2014) and the Beacon Prize.

September 3, 2026

Hardcover • 248 Pages • 5½ x 8½ 9798216370666

US $34.00 • CAN $49.95 Bloomsbury Academic

Myth-Made Machines

The Stories Behind Artificial Intelligence

Dave Bradley and Kelly Vero

A fascinating exploration of how our understanding of artificial intelligence has evolved across centuries as depicted through the stories and media we create.

Humans have always dreamed of creating intelligent life. From the earliest legends of Talos to the droids of Star Wars, artificial beings stalk our culture. Today, we routinely interact with computers and AI is a buzzword that dominates headlines and raises record-breaking Silicon Valley investment. As the power and influence of machines continue to grow, it is time to examine our relationship with computers and machine life based on 3,000 years of stories.

Myth-Made Machines: The Stories Behind Artificial Intelligence explores humanity’s complex relationship with artificial intelligence through the lens of our cultural imagination. From ancient myths of automata to today’s disruptive technologies, this book traces AI’s evolution in our collective consciousness. The narrative weaves through centuries of literature, film, and philosophical thought, examining what people believe about the machines that will assist—or perhaps replace—them. Organized historically, it explores how Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, and contemporary works like The Matrix and Black Mirror have shaped our hopes and fears about machine intelligence, even as we embrace the likes of ChatGPT in the workplace.

Dave Bradley and Kelly Vero highlight how science fiction has reflected and influenced realworld AI development and how our cultural depictions align with current technological trends—or diverge from them. As we stand on the brink of an AI revolution, the authors critically examine our past through the lens of prose, poetry, philosophy, and film and invite readers to contemplate the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead. Blending cultural analysis, literary criticism, and technological insight, Myth-Made Machines is a fascinating read for anyone curious about the interplay between technology and culture.

Dave Bradley has worked in the media for nearly 30 years as a magazine and online journalist, writer, editor, and event host and as a senior manager and consultant. He has written and edited newsstand publications including PC Format, Planet PC, Microsoft Windows: The Official Magazine, SFX, Total Film, Comic Heroes, and more, and has written and published for online publications, including GamesRadar+, Pocket Gamer, PC Games Insider, Crime Fiction Lover, and more. He lives in Bath, United Kingdom.

Kelly Vero has worked in video games and technology for 30 years, from programming to senior management, working on titles including Tomb Raider, Halo series, Transformers series, and Subway Surfers. Vero is an international keynote speaker and leading gamification and metaverse thought leader, regularly featured in tech lists and future lists such as Forbes’ 100 Women of the Future, an award-winning educator, and an awardnominated and bestselling author whose nonfiction works include Breaking Through Bytes: Women Shaping the Digital World, and From Pixels to Portals: How Video Games Made the Metaverse. She lives in Zurich, Switzerland.

September 3, 2026

Paperback • 176 Pages • 4¾ x 6½

18 bw illus

9781501383700

US $14 95 • CAN $21 95 Object Lessons Bloomsbury Academic

Concrete

Stephen Parnell

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things

Concrete has an image problem Portrayed as boring, cheap, and thoughtless, it is often considered synonymous with bad architecture For many, concrete is architecture gone wrong – dogmatic, ugly, and as miserably grey as English drizzle

Stephen Parnell’s Concrete is an apologia of concrete, second only to water as the world’s most consumed material From the personal, intimate scale of jewelry to the monumental scale of Brutalist architecture, Parnell explores the personality of concrete and how it is embedded and embodied in everyday and familiar objects He revels in concrete’s ambiguity and contradictory qualities, from its sensitivity to the tiniest imprint to its immense compressive strength in hydroelectric dams, and traces how concrete is both the ultimate unaesthetic material as well as the quintessential building block of modernity

Stephen Parnell is Senior Lecturer in Architecture at Newcastle University, UK, and Editorin-Chief of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Journal of Architecture He has written over 130 articles on architecture, has been a columnist for the Architects’ Journal and a contributing editor for the Architects’ Journal and Architectural Review He was runner-up in the International Building Press’s ‘Architecture Writer of the Year ’ award in 2011 and 2012

September 3, 2026

Paperback • 160 Pages • 4¾ x 6½ 9798765121863

US $14 95 • CAN $21 95 Object Lessons Bloomsbury Academic

Laboratory

Emily York

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things

The laboratory stands as a powerful symbol in the public imagination: it is place for bodily dissections and monstrous creations, technological innovation and corporate secrecy, governments working in the public interest or government out of bounds, scientists as geniuses and saviors and evildoers, learning spaces from the 9th grade biology lab to the San Francisco Exploratorium, and more But what actually happens in a laboratory, why does it have such fraught connections to our hopes and fears, and how does a laboratory relate to the ‘real world’?

Quintessentially associated with the scientific revolution, the laboratory came to be a space to study ‘facts’ as natural phenomena, isolated and separated from emotions and biases Yet the laboratory is also intertwined with the messy ambiguity of the world and embodies the power and privilege of resources, expertise, and innovation.

Laboratory examines the contemporary laboratory and its relation to a host of existential concerns about science, technology, and the environment

Emily York is an Associate Professor in the School of Integrated Sciences at James Madison University in Virginia, United States, where she teaches courses in holistic problem solving and in the social, ethical, and legal dimensions of science and technology She has served as an Associate Editor for Engaging Science, Technology, and Society Her work has appeared in NanoEthics, Configurations, Journal of Responsible Innovation, Engineering Studies, Journal of Integrated Global STEM, Teaching Ethics, and Science and Engineering Ethics

October 15, 2026

Paperback • 176 Pages • 5 x 7¾

32 color illus

9798216377719

US $14 95 • CAN $21 95

Marvel Age of Comics Bloomsbury Academic

Marvel Explodes From Bullpen to Big Business

Paul Levitz

Explore the Stories Behind the Legends

Starting in 1968 when three classic Marvel anthologies were split into separate titles for Iron Man, Captain America, Sub-Mariner, The Hulk, Doctor Strange, and Nick Fury Agent of S H I E L D , Marvel began an explosive arc of growth which culminated in becoming America’s largest comics publisher in 1972

Marvel Explodes tells the story year-by-year, exploring this decisive period from a creative standpoint – the expanded mythology, the new titles, and the writers and artists who would join to fuel the explosion – as well as a business one: the key transitions, including new distributor, owners, and opportunities

Illustrated with full-color art, Paul Levitz’s entry in the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS offers an eyewitness account of Marvel Comics in the years that established its greatness

Paul Levitz is a former President and Publisher of DC Comics and has written for many of DC's major comic books series, including Superman and Justice Society His story Legion: The Great Darkness Saga was voted one of the top 20 best comic stories of the last century by readers of The Buyers' Guide

November 12, 2026 Paperback • 160 Pages • 5 x 7¾ 25 color illustrations 9798765141755

US $14.95 • CAN $21.95 Marvel Age of Comics Bloomsbury Academic

Misty Knight

Iconic and Bionic

Angélique Roché

Explore the Stories Behind the Legends

In the mid-1970s, Misty Knight burst onto the pages of Marvel Comics. Before Storm, Shuri, or Riri, Misty opened the doors of comics as Marvel’s first Black woman super hero.

A detective and martial artist with a bionic arm that gives her heroic strength, Misty personified the uncurrent of independent Black media and the budding post-soul culture. First appearing 1975, she broke down stereotypes to become one of the backbone characters of the Marvel Universe.

Illustrated with full-color art, Angélique Roché’s entry in the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS takes a deep dive into the development of Misty Knight’s character and how she paved the way for future heroes.

Angélique Roché is a journalist, producer, author, and professional host from New Orleans, LA. She has been seen/heard on various outlets and platforms, including Harper’s Bazaar, NBC News, NBCBLK, MSNBC, AMC/BBC, SyfyWire, Disney, Marvel Studios, ESPN, and Paramount+. She has hosted and produced series such as Brave New Pod, Geeksplain, Roles Ranked, SyFy Wire Rewind, and New York Public Radio’s (WNYC) Very Biggest Questions. She is the co-author of My Super Hero is Black (2025) and her graphic novel Trinity City #1 (2023). She is currently the Harvard Divinity School’s Religion and Public Life Fellow for Arts and Pop Culture.

October 15, 2026

Paperback • 160 Pages • 5 x 7¾

69 color illustrations

9798765141694

US $14 95 • CAN $21 95 Marvel Age of Comics Bloomsbury Academic

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars

The Epic 1980s Saga

Tom K. Mason

Explore the Stories Behind the Legends

In 1984, Marvel’s Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter brought Marvel’s heroes and villains together for an epic battle that became the template for comic book crossovers and impacted Marvel’s storylines for decades, including major changes to the Spider-Man mythos and the introduction of a new villain

Within the 12-part storyline, characters who had never met before would find themselves thrown together to achieve a common goal They formed shaky alliances There were tremendous power struggles Teams within teams would form Relationships would be tested, and both heroes and villains would never be the same Neither would the Marvel Universe.

Illustrated with full-color art, Tom Mason’s entry in the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS takes a deep dive into how Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars became the modern comics industry’s first true blockbuster

Tom K. Mason is an

Emmy-winning television writer with credits as writer, story editor, or head writer on more than 600 episodes of children's entertainment As a cofounder of Malibu Comics, he edited more than 1,000 comics and wrote close to 100 of them He was a founding editor of Bravura, the comic book imprint created by Howard Chaykin, Walter Simonson, Jim Starlin, and others He recently wrote a Lilo & Stitch graphic novel, and currently co-writes the Captain Awesome books under the name “Stan Kirby ”

October 29, 2026

Hardback • 240 Pages

9781350542624

US $35.00 • CAN $51.50

The Arden Shakespeare

The Complete Life of William Shakespeare

Stratford, London and In Between

Paul Menzer

Shakespeare’s extraordinarily ordinary life condenses into a charming but brief biography in this arresting tale of love, loss and return.

Beginning with the early departure to the final homecoming, Paul Menzer considers the wonder of Shakespeare’s story with the little facts we have about his life to guide us through the language and characters which define Shakespeare.

Life events are glimpsed across Shakespeare’s wide-ranging output, be it personal quest and departure from a small town in The Taming of The Shew, the death of a father and the cruel loss of his own son in Hamlet, or retirement and old age in The Tempest’s figure of Prospero. Menzer honours the well-known stories without neglecting the mysteries of why Shakespeare left Stratford, who he ran with in London and why he put down his pen to come home to Anne and his family again, and again.

This edition is adapted from William Shakespeare: A Brief Life with an updated introduction, further connections between Shakespeare’s works and personal biography, new illustrations of Shakespeare’s journey between London and Stratford, cutting-edge scholarship and recent archival discoveries about Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway.

Paul Menzer is the Provost at Mary Baldwin University, USA, where he is a Professor of Shakespeare and Performance. He is the editor of Inside Shakespeare: Essays on the Blackfriars Stage (2006) and author of The Hamlets: Cues, Q’s, and Remembered Texts (2008), Anecdotal Shakespeare: a New Performance History (2015), Shakespeare in the Theatre: The American Shakespeare Center (2017), as well as editions of Romeo and Juliet (2017) and Doctor Faustus (2018).

August 20, 2026

Hardcover • 280 Pages • 5½ x 8½ 13 bw illus

9781350580008

US $27 00 • CAN $39 50 Bloomsbury Academic

Vonnegut’s War

The Making of Slaughterhouse-Five

Susan Farrell

Banned, burned, and censored, Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five is widely regarded as one of the greatest (and most controversial) novels of the twentieth century. Fusing vivid biography with popular history and close textual analysis, Vonnegut's War tells the fascinating story of the making of a modern classic and the writer that created it.

New archival discoveries and recently released oral histories give us the fullest account yet published of Vonnegut's real-life prisoner-of-war experiences at Stalag IV-B and Dresden, which heavily influenced Slaughterhouse-Five A recently discovered trove of letters introduces us to his first wife, Jane Cox Vonnegut, and her influence on his writing Along the way, we also encounter UFOs and aliens, grapple with the shadow cast by the Vietnam war, and unearth the stranger-than-fiction tale of David Irving’s The Destruction of Dresden, the historical reference behind Vonnegut's writing about the Dresden firebombing

This book sheds light on one of America’s most beloved writers and explores how cultural forces helped to shape a modern masterpiece of storytelling

Susan Farrell is a Professor of American Literature at the College of Charleston, USA Susan has published two previous books on Vonnegut, founded the International Kurt Vonnegut Society in 2008 and has served as an officer in the organization ever since

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 304 Pages • 6¼ x 9¼ 9798216397144

US $35 00 • CAN $51 50 Bloomsbury Libraries Unlimited

Book Bans, Disinformation, and Cultural Erasure

The Censorship Movement in Libraries, Schools, and Society

Paul T Jaeger

This book shows how today’s waves of book bans and disinformation campaigns intentionally drive the cultural erasure of marginalized communities and what we can do to stop them

Across schools, libraries, and museums in the United States and elsewhere the coordinated onslaught of efforts to remove books and roll back diversity initiatives are reshaping public life While both these methods of cultural control have been widely used for centuries, their nefarious role as part of a larger effort has been overlooked This book connects the dots between censorship, disinformation, and cultural erasure and explores the sturdiness of democracy in a period of enormous political upheaval

Blending research with real-world examples across time and place, it offers practical ways to push back on this alarming movement through advocacy strategies, direct actions, educational activities, research initiatives, and legal and policy changes

When we understand these threats as interconnected, we are better able to combat them This perspective empowers educators, cultural heritage professionals, and supporters of democratic institutions to defend the spaces where knowledge is shared and preserved

Paul T Jaeger, PhD, is a Professor and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the College of Information and Director of the Museum Scholarship and Material Culture graduate program at the University of Maryland, USA He is the Co-Chair of IDGS, co-Executive Editor of Including Disability, co-Editor of Library Quarterly, and Associate Director of the Maryland Initiative for Digital Accessibility He founded the Conference on Inclusion and Diversity in Library and Information Science

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 240 Pages • 6 x 9

9798216446248

US $35 00 • CAN $51 50 Bloomsbury Academic

Lincoln's Compass

The Declaration of Independence and the American Idea Joshua Claybourn

Through speeches, debates, and wartime leadership, Lincoln invoked the Declaration of Independence to end slavery, heal a fractured Union, and redefine the nation’s purpose

As we mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration's immortal words, Joshua Claybourn reflects on their enduring power through the eyes of one of its greatest leaders Drawing on Enlightenment philosophy, Judeo-Christian ethics, and the lived political culture of both the Revolutionary era and the antebellum frontier Claybourn traces how Lincoln came to view the Declaration’s assertion that “all men are created equal” as a timeless moral truth what he called his “ancient faith ”

Through vivid storytelling and close readings of Lincoln’s most important speeches from the Lyceum Address to the Peoria Speech Claybourn reveals how Lincoln used the Declaration to confront the moral crisis of slavery and to redefine the meaning of American freedom Rediscover the Declaration not as parchment under glass, but as a living challenge a golden ideal still waiting to be fully realized This book is a must-read for anyone who believes America’s founding ideals still matter and must be reclaimed

Joshua Claybourn is an American attorney, author, and historian considered one of the foremost living scholars on Abraham Lincoln's youth in Indiana He is the editor of Abraham Lincoln's Wilderness Years and Abe's Youth He is the President of the Abraham Lincoln Society and has written op-eds for Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

October 1, 2026

Hardcover • 272 Pages • 6¼ x 9¼

9781350522121

US $27 00 • CAN $39 50 Bloomsbury Academic

Mandela

The Aristocrat and the Revolution Xolela Mangcu

The first biography of Nelson Mandela written by an African scholar, this groundbreaking book offers a radically de-mythologized take on a global icon of anticolonial liberation struggles.

Leading sociologist Xolela Mangcu draws on original interviews and archival research – as well as on his own unique understanding of the complexities of Black South African culture – to offer an important corrective account of Mandela’s identity, character, and political career Mangcu not only sets the record straight about Mandela's Thembu, rather than Xhosa, heritage, but also uncovers a fundamental political pragmatism Mandela developed thanks to his family’s strategic alliances with colonialists and through his own Victorian-style education at leading British mission schools What emerges is a Mandela whose life story belongs less to the realm of hagiography and more to the realm of real-world struggle, with all the contradictions it entails

Xolela Mangcu is Professor of Sociology and History at The George Washington University, Washington, D C , and Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Center for Life Writing, Wolfson College, University of Oxford, UK He is author of Biko: A Life (I B Tauris, 2013)

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 352 Pages • 6¼ x 9¼

50 bw illus

9781350611252

US $35 00 • CAN $51 50 Bloomsbury Academic

The Invention of Asia A Continent of Eight Parts

Philip Bowring

Where did the concept of ‘Asia’ come from? Was this a term coined by the many communities that spanned this great continent, or was it a Western invention, imposed upon those lands and populations that were so ‘other ’ to themselves?

This book argues that ‘Asia’ is a European creation, and goes back in time to show how and when this term was invented Unknown to ‘Asians’ until the 19th century, it grouped together a vast area of diverse cultures and peoples who were simply identified as ‘the other ’ in a world dominated by Europe

Arguing that far from being fixed and separate, Bowring shows how peoples of Europe and Asia flowed fluidly back and forth across the land mass over millennia Arguing that this continent should therefore be viewed as a series of 8 sub-continents interconnected through religion, trade, cultures and war, he shows how each sub-continent has its own unique history, but were also part of wider human, commodity and knowledge networks

Challenging our prevailing ideas of regional and national divisions, The Invention of Asia traces some of the major interactions of these subcontinents over the past 5,000 years

From the great migrations of the central continent to the civilizations of Han China and the mighty Achaemenid and Hellenistic Empires, it shows how misleading the Europe-Asia division is, and why new terminology is needed to better reflect their geographical and cultural differences

Philip Bowring is a journalist based in Hong Kong and held the position of editor for the Far Eastern Economic Review between 1973 and 1992 He is the author of Empire of the Winds (Bloomsbury, 2018) and The Making of the Modern Philippines (Bloomsbury, 2022)

August 20, 2026

Hardcover with dust jacket • 224 Pages • 6 x 9

9781538100585

US $35 00 • CAN $51 50

American Ways Bloomsbury Academic

The United States and Mexico

Unequal Neighbors

Jürgen Buchenau

A lively, accessible introduction to the asymmetrical relationship between the United States and Mexico, one of the most formative international relationships in geopolitics today

The border between the US and Mexico is the world’s longest between a wealthy industrialized nation and a part of the Global South The economy, society, culture, and politics of the two nations have become inextricably linked

As the United States continues to assert its considerable geopolitical power, this book reminds us that this trend runs deep in the country's history, starting with its closest neighbors Buchenau explores US territorial expansion, the Mexican Revolution of 1910, disputes over agricultural and mineral wealth, and the migration of Mexican laborers. Despite that massive power imbalance, Buchenau shows us that Mexico's influence on the United States is just as significant as the inverse

Jürgen Buchenau is professor of history and Latin American studies at UNC Charlotte He is the author of numerous books, including The Last Caudillo: Alvaro Obregón and the Mexican Revolution, Mexican Mosaic: A Brief History of Mexico, and Plutarco Elías Calles and the Mexican Revolution

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 264 Pages • 6 x 9

15 BW Photos

9781538187050

US $38.00 • CAN $55.50 Bloomsbury Academic

The Birth of the State Police Coal Strikes, Politics, and the Creation of the Pennsylvania State Constabulary

Willard M. Oliver

On May 2, 1905, Pennsylvania Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker signed the bill that created the Pennsylvania State Police, America’s first modern state police agency. This action soon led to every other state in the nation, save Hawaii, adopting their own.

After decades of bloodshed and violence centered on Pennsylvania’s coal mines and the late 19th century struggles between labor and capital, the state of Pennsylvania led the way with its adoption of a state constabulary. The issue became pressing not long after the end of America’s Civil War, as workers fought for the right to unionize. Strikes themselves often turned violent, and the coal mining industry soon looked to the state for protection. The initial response was to create the Coal and Iron Police, authorized by the state of Pennsylvania’s government and given state powers of arrest, the new police force was administratively controlled by the coal mining industry. This led to an extensive abuse of powers resulting in worsening relations between labor and capital.

President Theodore Roosevelt, breaking with tradition of federal non-interference in state matters, stepped in and mediated the dispute, resulting in a resolution that returned the coal miners to work and the creation of a state police agency, the first of its kind.

Willard M. Oliver is a professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. He is the author of 50 books including, The Birth of the FBI: Teddy Roosevelt, the Secret Service, and the Fight Over America’s Premier Law Enforcement Agency (2019), The Boston Police Strike of 1919: Politics, Riots, and the Fight for Unionization (2023), and The Birth of The State Police: Coal Strikes, Politics, and the Creation of the Pennsylvania State Constabulary. He resides with his wife in Huntsville, Texas.

October 15, 2026

Paperback • 280 Pages • 6¼ x 9¼ 38 colour illus 9781350545137

US $34 95 • CAN $51 50 Bloomsbury Visual Arts

The Art of Forgery, Revised and Expanded Edition

Master Forgers from the Renaissance to the Age

of AI

Noah Charney

What motivates an art forger? How easy are they to catch? And to what extent have AI and other technologies changed how we approach matters of authenticity, derivation and forgery?

In The Art of Forgery Noah Charney, celebrated art historian and the world’s foremost artcrime specialist, explores the stories behind the most famous art forgeries in the world Chronicling the adventures and misadventures of master forgers throughout history, the book examines how and why these artful tricksters – often ingenious, skilful, quirky and charming – succeeded in deceiving the art world and how they were eventually caught, through shrewd detective work, scientific examination or a good measure of luck

Illustrated in colour throughout, this new revised and expanded edition takes in recent developments in the realm of art and authenticity from NFTs (content, including artwork, in the form of digital files the ownership of which is written into the blockchain) to the rise of AI, with its ability to create, on command, unique new digital images of superlative quality, prompting questions about authorship, originality, and more

Noah Charney is the internationally bestselling author of more than 30 books, translated into 14 languages, including The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art (2017), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography, and Museum of Lost Art (2018), which was the finalist for the Digital Book World Award Noah is a professor of art history, teaching courses on art crime at Yale, The Smithsonian, and the National Gallery, UK

October 1, 2026

Hardcover • 224 Pages • 6 x 9 9798216448822

US $32 00 • CAN $46 95 Bloomsbury Academic

The Calculus of Liberty

How Much Government Do We Need to Be Free?

Lee Cronk

Offers a new conceptual framework to help readers engage in productive, civil dialogues about public policy, liberty, and the role of government in modern American society.

This book addresses the central question: How much government do we need to be free? This question has been at the core of the American policy-making process ever since the colonists fought for independence from Britain In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to have calm, rational conversations about the role of government Rather than trying to find common ground, politicians and political activists often use rhetoric that obfuscates rather than clarifies the issues of the day In order to have productive, civil dialogues about public policy, we need a new conceptual framework That’s what The Calculus of Liberty offers: a new way of thinking through and talking about the question of when, if, and how the government should grow or shrink

Lee Cronk is a distinguished professor of anthropology at Rutgers University, USA

October 15, 2026

Hardcover • 144 Pages • 6 x 9

9798216367987

US $29.00 • CAN $42.50 Bloomsbury Academic

So, You Think You Understand Politics Debunking

Nine Myths on American Politics

George C. Edwards III

In this book, George C. Edwards III dispels many popular misconceptions about American politics and public policy, challenging what many people hold to be self-evident. Edwards starts by outlining common, often prevailing understandings of crucial issues--such as who pays taxes, how much we spend on foreign aid, or how free speech actually is--then shows readers how these views are inaccurate and harmful. Appealing to the widespread fascination with debunking myths, this engaging book arms readers with important information on key issues in American political life that will last them a lifetime.

George C. Edwards III is University Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies at Texas A&M University. He has served as both the Winant Professor of American Government and the Olin Professor of American Government at University of Oxford, where he is currently distinguished fellow. He was also the founder and from 1991-2001 the director of The Center for Presidential Studies. A leading scholar of the presidency, he has written or edited 26 books on American politics and public policy making and more than 80 articles and book chapters.

August 20, 2026

Hardcover • 320 Pages • 6 x 9 15 b/w photos

9798216383994

US $32.95 • CAN $48.50 Bloomsbury Academic

After Ground Zero

Everyday Americans and the Unhealed Scars of 9/11

Mike Kelly

This first-hand reporting spanning from Ground Zero on the day of the 9/11 attacks through decades of trauma and healing offers a stark reminder of just how forcefully the events of September 11 and the war on terror have impacted the lives of countless Americans.

Mike Kelly was across the Hudson River when the two jets crashed into the World Trade Center’s twin towers in downtown Manhattan on September 11, 2001. His immediate goal was to get to the scene and gather some first-hand reporting to file on deadline. But this was just the first step of a decades-long journey through another kind of rubble, through the pain left behind and the unhealed scars of people’s lives in the wake of a terrorist attack.

After Ground Zero traces the lives of a diverse portrait of Americans forced to confront the pain and mystery of the terrorism that tore apart their lives beginning on that September morning. From Kelly’s on-the-ground reporting at Ground Zero to Iraq, the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Washington, D.C. and various spots in between, the book follows a line of survivors that range from first responders such as police, fire fighters, clergy, and construction workers, to soldiers deployed overseas, loved ones of those killed, and numerous others as they search for answers, policy changes, reparations and accountability, faith, and healing. Kelly’s up-close storytelling is a powerful reminder of just how impactful the 9/11 attacks were and the ripple effect they have had in the decades that followed.

Mike Kelly is a featured columnist of The Bergen Record in New Jersey, a podcast and documentary producer, and author of three critically acclaimed nonfiction books. Besides his newspaper, Kelly’s columns also appear in USA Today and across the USA Today Network of more than 200 newspapers and their web sites. He has written three non-fiction books: The Bus on Jaffa Road (Lyons Press, 2014), Color Lines: The Troubled Dreams of Racial Harmony in an American Town (Morrow, 1995), and Fresh Jersey: Stories from an Altered State, a collection of his columns (Camino, 2003).

September 3, 2026

Hardcover • 272 Pages • 6 x 9

9780815750000

US $30 00 • CAN $43 95 Bloomsbury Academic

This Africa Idea A

Memoir of Discovery, Diplomacy, and Opportunity

Witney W. Schneidman

In this riveting memoir, one of the country’s leading Africanists shares his story of five decades of work across the African continent at senior levels of government, business, and law

In 1971, months out of high school, Witney Schneidman found himself at a secondary school in Mbarara, Uganda listening on the radio as Idi Amin announced his takeover the country He soon understood that Africa was a continent of sweeping change colonialism was ending, independence was on the march, and liberation movements were fighting tall odds to end white rule in Southern Africa and he made the decision to dedicate his life to fostering strong ties between the United States and African nations Schneidman details the many risks and setbacks that stood between him and his dream of shaping U S policy toward Africa and contributing to progress on the continent He recalls the isolation of being the only American studying at a university in Tanzania at the height of the Cold War, travel across 30 African countries, and policy successes that formed the cornerstone of U S -Africa relations His inspiring story is a clarion call about the importance of engaging with the continent shaping the future of the world

Witney W. Schneidman is President of Schneidman & Associates International and a nonresident senior fellow with the Africa Growth Initiative in the Global Economy and Development program at The Brookings Institution

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 224 Pages • 6 x 9 16 B&W images 9798216376804

US $33.00 • CAN $48.50 Bloomsbury Academic

Putin's World War

Russia's Covert Operations to Destroy the West

Jessikka Aro

Russia is threatening the West with World War III, even though it has already been waging it for years. As its weapons, the Kremlin uses agents of chaos, a covert operation, fake priests spreading hate speech, hackers recruited from prison, and a public’s gullibility.

Jessikka Aro’s new book about the Kremlin’s global war presents the secret operations of Putin’s intelligence services in detail. The book takes the reader on a breath-taking journey from the lobby of the Helsinki Courts of Appeal to the controversial Bronze Soldier statue in Tallinn, from the media center run by the Russian military intelligence from Berlin to the Russian troll factory that operated in Ghana in West Africa.

At the heart of this book is the story of a Polish flight that crashed in Smolensk, Russia, in 2010, killing all onboard, including the Polish president and his wife, and many other highranking members of the Polish government, the details of which are obscured by a successful wave of Kremlin-launched information operations. At the time, there was no public awareness of Russia’s practice of information-psychological warfare, nor knowledge about special service operations abroad with the aim of gaining political influence. Anyone trying to address such phenomenon in 2010 would have been labeled as an alarmist and a conspiracy theorist. But in 2024, such activities are seen in a different light. Through Aro’s persistent investigations, readers will gain new understanding of Russia’s hybrid war, a series of relentless attacks to undermine the West.

Jessikka Aro is an award-winning reporter with Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, specializing in Russia, extremism, and information warfare.

October 1, 2026

Paperback • 192 Pages • 5 x 7¾

9798765123324

US $19 95 • CAN $29 50

Genre: A 33 1/3 Series

Bloomsbury Academic

Musique Concrète

Christian Kriticos

When musique concrète first hit the airwaves, listeners reached for their earplugs This strange genre didn’t sound like music at all! It ignored melody and meter It didn’t even use instruments. Instead, musique concrète took recorded sound as its raw material. That could be anything from trundling trains to clattering saucepans Using audio tape and phonograph records, composers manipulated these sounds, reassembling them into abstract works that felt like they came from an alien world

While this weird genre was never a popular hit, it opened up a whole new vocabulary of studio techniques, influencing everyone from Frank Zappa to The Who Its impact even spread as far as The Beatles, inspiring their eight-and-a-half-minute musique concrète extravaganza ‘Revolution 9’

In this book, author Christian Kriticos traces the beguiling history of musique concrète, from the 1940s into the 21st century, focusing on the eccentric characters who spearheaded the genre. He shows how these maverick composers anticipated techniques used in hip-hop, mashups, plunderphonics and ambient music In this way, he argues that the influence of musique concrète can still be heard everywhere, even if you’ve never stopped to listen for it

Christian Kriticos is a journalist and author based in London His music writing has been featured in many of the world’s biggest media outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, the BBC, and The i Paper He is also a frequent contributor to a diverse range of popular entertainment websites, from Stereogum to StarTrek com to Paste Magazine and The Los Angeles Review of Books

November 26, 2026

Hardcover • 304 Pages • 6 x 9

13 B/W Run-Ins

9798765188798

US $36 00 • CAN $52 95 Backbeat

Creed Taylor The Man Who Put Jazz on the Pop Charts

David Sutter

The life and career of a producer who sought to bring jazz to the masses

Creed Taylor was one of the most successful jazz producers of all time and one of the most controversial His career spanned five decades, in which he produced albums with legends such as John Coltrane, Ray Charles, George Benson, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Stan Getz, and Nina Simone In 1960, he famously founded Impulse! Records and signed John Coltrane, and in later years he produced at Verve Records where he introduced the US to Bossa Nova, producing "The Girl from Ipanema" and ultimately founded Creed Taylor Incorporated, which defined the sound of jazz during the 1970s One of the most sought-after jazz producers, he had a knack for enhancing an artist's commercial appeal without sacrificing their creativity Yet his approach did not win universal acclaim: having vastly expanded the audience for jazz, he also earned the scorn of genre purists who distrusted his commercial success

Written with the full cooperation of Taylor ’s estate, and based on years of interviews, this first biography of the man illuminates an era of dramatic change within jazz music From Taylor ’s childhood in Appalachia to his decades-long career at some of the genre’s most important labels, David Sutter ’s painstakingly researched book tells the full story of a man who did as much as anyone to broaden the audience for jazz

David Sutter has worked in publishing since 1980, and has contributed in various capacities to academic journals, popular magazines, newspapers, promotional materials, websites, textbooks, and trade books In 2014, he became the copy chief at Inc , the New York–based business magazine that focuses on entrepreneurs and independent, U Sbased companies. From 2017 until Creed Taylor ’s death in 2022, he worked with Taylor to prepare what was originally conceived as a co-written autobiography

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 288 Pages • 6 x 9 32 b/w photos; 131 b/w diagrams 9798216275497

US $28.00 • CAN $40.95 Bloomsbury Academic

The Beatles’ Touring Era

Inside the Fab Four’s Musical Artistry, Song by Song, 1962-1966

Kenneth Womack and Scott Freiman

World renowned Beatles experts provide groundbreaking insights into the Fab Four’s artistry, from Please Please Me to the incredible heights of Rubber Soul and Revolver.

Dive into the songwriting, musicianship, and production of some of the most influential popular music ever created. In this revelatory assessment of the band’s artistic development from 1962 to 1966, Kenneth Womack and Scott Freiman provide accessible, close readings of songs – based on cutting-edge Beatles research – and tackle hard-hitting questions: What were the song’s origins, and how was it written? How was the song transformed in the studio? What instruments were used and how did that impact the song’s arrangement?

Discover the lyrical and musical elements that give these songs their magic and the techniques used by producer George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Geoff Emerick that add that extra spark, bringing these songs to fruition. The unparalleled artistic journeys of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr as the Beatles are revealed here.

Kenneth Womack is one of the world’s foremost writers and thinkers about the Beatles and Professor of English and Popular Music at Monmouth University, USA. He is the author of Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans (2023), John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life (2020), Solid State: The Story of “Abbey Road” and the End of the Beatles (2019), and several other books on the Beatles. He serves as the music culture critic for Salon and has contributed to a host of print and web outlets, including Slate, Billboard, Time, Variety, USA Today, The Guardian, Smithsonian Magazine, The Independent, and NBC News

Scott Freiman is the composer, producer, and music tech entrepreneur behind the acclaimed PBS series Deconstructing the Beatles. Over the years, he has presented his lectures to sold-out audiences at theaters nationwide and has spoken at colleges, universities, and corporations, including Pixar, Google, and Facebook. He co-hosts the monthly Fab Four Master Class with fellow musicologist Kenneth Womack, with whom he leads annual Beatles-themed trips to Liverpool and London.

November 12, 2026

Paperback • 576 Pages • 7 x 10

69 b/w photos

9798216439912

US $37.95 • CAN $55.50 Bloomsbury Academic

The Authorized P-Funk Song Reference

Official Canon of Parliament-Funkadelic

Daniel Bedrosian

Best Discography in the 2024 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence

“Daniel Bedrosian has done a wonderful job of a seemingly impossible task of reconstructing this history – finding everybody who's been a part of, involved with, or in any way left their fingerprint on what has become the P-Funk.” – George Clinton

This revised paperback edition includes over 100 additional artists and groups –notable PFunk collaborations with a wide-ranging and, at times, surprising cast, including Boy George, Ginger Baker, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Rita Coolidge, Yoko Ono, Public Image Ltd, Afrika Bambaataa, and many more. It also includes P-Funk releases in recent years as well as important corrections to pre-existing entries.

George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic collective (P-Funk) stands as one of the most iconic and important groups in popular music history, with an impressively large discography, enormous number of members, and long history. This authorized reference, written by the longest-tenured keyboardist for P-Funk, provides the official P-Funk canon starting in 1956: every project, album, collaboration, song, details of personnel for songs, and tidbits about each act and select songs, as well as dozens of rare photos.

Song entries are organized under artist & group names and contain definitive listings of players for each song. Select entries shed light on the inner workings of the recording process, singles chartings, controversies, inside information about process, and more. The culmination of nearly 30 years of careful research, interviews, and access to exclusive archival material, this authorized volume demystifies one of the most unique and influential popular musical groups in history, from its inception as The Parliaments to the present day.

Danny Bedrosian is the keyboardist for George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic and author of The Authorized P-Funk Song Reference (Rowman & Littlefield 2023) and Make My Funk the P-Funk: Parliament-Funkadelic's Meteoric Rise in 1975 from Chocolate City to Mothership Connection (Bloomsbury Academic 2025). Playing with the band for over 20 years, he is the longest tenured keyboard player in the band’s history. In addition to P-Funk, he has worked or performed with many musical icons including Snoop Dogg, Chuck D and Flavor Flav, Ice Cube, Shavo Odadjian from System of A Down, Kendrick Lamar, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Erykah Badu, Queen Latifah, Mumford & Sons, RZA, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Sheila E, Wu-Tang Clan, and many more. He has appeared on The BET 25th Anniversary Special, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Carson Daly Show, I'm With Rolling Stone, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Monique Show, MTV in several nations, and many other shows.

October 1, 2026

Paperback • 144 Pages • 4¾ x 6½ 9798765132982

US $14.95 • CAN $21.95 33 1/3

Bloomsbury Academic

The Cure's Disintegration

Andi Harriman

This book begs the question: why should an album make you feel good?

In 1989, The Cure’s Robert Smith was going to turn thirty years old. His fears and anxieties of age—having not yet written his pinnacle album—caused Smith to embark on the band’s undoing with Disintegration. The result was an LP drenched in melancholy sublime, a beautiful decree of breaking down to build anew. From the fame and notoriety of The Cure after their hit, “Just Like Heaven,” to the departure of the only other consistent band member, Lol Tolhurst, it’s clear that the grisly spiral into the depths of pain is stamped throughout Disintegration

This book explores the depths of Smith’s masterpiece by way of the French Modernist Charles Baudelaire and his poem, “Spleen.” Much like Smith, Baudelaire took his temperament and softened the edges of sorrow, transforming it into a mass of supercharged emotion: a tenuous concoction of sin and sex, lust and monstrosity, selfhatred and fear… all cauterized by the malaise (and acceptance) of eternal melancholy.

And through Disintegration lies Robert Smith’s corpus—his spleen. It’s here that The Cure’s upheaval and Smith’s heroic martyrdom became the catalyst for his masterpiece.

Andi Harriman is a music journalist who writes mostly about all things Eighties-centric. She has written for Rolling Stone, Bandcamp Daily, LA Weekly, and Village Voice, among others. She is the author of Some Wear Leather, Some Wear Lace: A Worldwide Compendium of Postpunk and Goth in the 1980s (2014).

November 12, 2026

Paperback • 160 Pages • 4¾ x 6½ 9798765133163

US $14 95 • CAN $21 95 33 1/3 Bloomsbury Academic

Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads

Allison C Meier

Driving through the panhandle of Oklahoma a land so flat and seemingly empty that its name of No Man’s Land drifts through your thoughts as you look at the endless horizon it’s still easy to imagine the blight of the Dust Bowl. The dust has now long ago settled in Oklahoma, and the Woody Guthrie Center opened in 2013 in Tulsa, encouraging one of his biggest fans, Bob Dylan, to establish his own archives on the same block Yet Guthrie’s writings about the experience of being a migrant, the ruin of the land from our disregard for its care, and the struggle to support yourself under a government that undermines your survival, all remain radically relevant today

Considering the influence of Dust Bowl Ballads on what an album can be in terms of its storytelling and activism, this book explores the album in its contemporary context It draws on the author ’s first-hand visits to sites related to Guthrie and this album and includes interviews with people who have been creatively engaging with the legacy of this album, such as a graphic novelist who turned his Dust Bowl Ballads into a visual voyage about his life. While many people are familiar with his anthemic “This Land Is Your Land,” there is much more to explore in Guthrie’s musical impact, with the Dust Bowl Ballads album his first major commercial release being a touchpoint for his legacy

Allison C. Meier is a writer and researcher based in New York City, USA Her writing on visual culture, history, architecture has appeared in the New York Times, Curbed, Lapham’s Quarterly, CityLab, Narratively, Mental Floss, Smithsonian, New Inquiry, Slate, Urban Omnibus, Fine Books, Artsy, and others She moonlights as a cemetery tour guide at New York burial grounds and is a licensed New York City sightseeing guide Previously, she was a staff writer at Hyperallergic and a senior editor at Atlas Obscura She is the author of Grave (2023), part of Bloomsbury's Object Lessons series

September 17, 2026

Paperback • 152 Pages • 5 x 7¾

9798765126059

US $22 95

• CAN $33 95

33 1/3 Africa

Bloomsbury Academic

Paul Simon's Graceland

Kalvin Schmidt-Rimpler Dinh

Celebrated, controversial, and conspicuously eclectic, Paul Simon’s Graceland stands among the monumental albums of the 20th century This book explores how and why it made its mark, from the international collaborations that defined its musical character, to the inflamed political environment from which it emerged

Graceland incorporated some of South Africa’s most beloved popular music traditions, including ‘township jive’, kwela, and the intricate isicathamiya harmonies of Ladysmith Black Mambazo It also featured contributions from Central and West African musicians, alongside an array of North American styles – Chicano rock, country, synth-pop, Louisiana zydeco – and, of course, Simon’s characteristically abstract poetics

This book revisits Graceland as an important example of the global relevance of African music Released in 1986, amid an intensified period of anti-apartheid activism across world, the album had a unique relationship to South Africa: it drew attention to apartheid and Black African music while its popular significance was simultaneously propelled by the antiapartheid movement As a collaborative, cross-cultural project straddling the boundaries of a deeply unequal world – economically, politically, racially – Graceland invites reflection on the relationship between art and politics, both then and now

Kalvin Schmidt-Rimpler Dinh is a doctoral researcher in the Department of Art History and the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation at University College London, UK

November 12, 2026

Paperback • 176 Pages • 4¾ x 6½

9798765132593

US $14 95 • CAN $21 95

33 1/3

Bloomsbury Academic

Cher's Believe

Lior Phillips

Featuring interviews with some of her well-known fans, including Ru Paul and Sean Hayes, this is a celebration of the album where Cher challenged the ageist pop industry and re-solidified herself as a force to be reckoned with.

By 1998, Cher seemed fated to fade off into the pop sunset Her time of being half of pop music’s “It couple”, of releasing chart-topping singles, of having her own TV show, in starring in box office breaking movies, was coming to an end But then Believe and a new invention called auto-tune changed everything

Pop has always been a young person’s game, especially for women, and a new dawn of that obsessive youth was in full swing in the late ‘90s But Cher ’s return to inescapability at 52 years old making her the oldest woman to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 was a refusal to accept that model Full of fire, cutting edge choices, and a strong advocacy for one’s self, Believe was her giant musical middle finger to all those assumptions

The album confirmed her place as a pop icon, a queer icon, a feminist icon, and reminds us that everyone should believe they can be strong enough

Lior Phillips is a South African music and culture journalist originally from Cape Town, now based in Chicago, USA She writes about music, film, art, and more for international publications, including Dazed and Confused Magazine, The Grammys, Variety, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, The Quietus, NPR, The Guardian, The New York Times, and GQ South Africa In addition, she created, produced, and hosted This Must Be the Gig, a podcast dedicated to artists’ vital memories of their first gigs and passion for live music and performance She is the author of South African Popular Music (Bloomsbury 2023)

November 12, 2026

Paperback • 176 Pages • 4¾ x 6½ 9798765133286

US $14 95 • CAN $21 95 33 1/3 Bloomsbury Academic

Moss Icon's Lyburnum Wits End

Liberation Fly

Zak Fusciello

Moss Icon have been hailed as emo pioneers Their 1993 album Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly has garnered well deserved praise Rolling Stone named it one of the “40 Greatest Emo Albums of All Time,” and declared that the album “still sounds ahead of its time ” Pitchfork placed it on the “Highest Rated Post-Hardcore Albums of All Time” list and gave it “Best Reissue” accolades Zak Fusciello, fan-turned-Moss Icon drummer shares an insider/outsider's view of this enigmatic band including their history and development The book also features an in-depth analysis of the album’s lyrics through extensive interviews with band members and other musicians from the scene

Fusciello, a psychotherapist, explores the loss, grief and transformation that is at the heart of Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly’s lyrics From family members with severe mental illness to death, the lyrics of Lyburnum tell vocalist/lyricist Jonathan Vance’s story of processing trauma, overcoming loss and seeking sanctuary As the first book on Moss Icon, Fusciello's account helps fill in the gaps of post-punk music history

Zak Fusciello is a psychotherapist, drummer and writer living in Baltimore, Maryland He joined Moss Icon splinter band, Breathing Walker in 1990 and played with Moss Icon for reunion shows beginning in 2001

November 12, 2026

Paperback • 160 Pages • 4¾ x 6½ 9798765132852

US $14 95 • CAN $21 95

33 1/3

Bloomsbury Academic

Gorillaz' Plastic Beach Ihor Junyk

Gorillaz were, from the very beginning, as much conceptual art as they were a musical group A collaboration between Albarn and visual artist Jamie Hewlett, the project was conceived as a “virtual band” that could comment on the empty and manufactured nature of popular culture They quickly expanded into videos, books, and games which detailed a complex and surreal mythology and engaged with a variety of social and political issues But Plastic Beach took this to a new level

Damon Albarn's encounter with plastic pollution at Hallsands Beach inspired the album's meditations on the Anthropocene – an epoch marked by significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems The book positions Plastic Beach as a concept album that reflects on the Anthropocene, combining commentary on environmental degradation and consumer culture with attempts to imagine a future beyond the rapacity and destructiveness of this era

Ihor Junyk is Professor of Cultural Studies and English literature at Trent University in Canada. He is the author of Foreign Modernism: Cosmopolitanism, Identity, and Style in Paris (2013)

November 12, 2026

Paperback • 144 Pages • 4¾ x 6½

9798765132630

US $14 95 • CAN $21 95

33 1/3

Bloomsbury Academic

Whitney Houston's I'm Your Baby Tonight

Brandon Tensley

Using the sound and sentiment of Whitney Houston’s third album, I’m Your Baby Tonight, this book dives into the ways the singer defied white superstardom Released in 1990, the album was a turning point in Houston’s career Her first two albums, 1985’s Whitney Houston and 1987’s Whitney, skyrocketed her to international celebrity and secured her seven consecutive No 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 But they also brought allegations that Houston had sold out to the white mainstream As a result, her third album saw her tapping into what many people considered to be a Blacker sound: a nod to ’70s Black pop, an embrace of the ascendant rhythms of new jack swing

At a time when Houston’s presence is making a comeback in pop culture, this book investigates what the lyrics, looks (this was the height of the MTV era), and legacy of I’m Your Baby Tonight reveal about the racial expectation of being a palatable pop persona how, through this record, Houston tried, successfully but also devastatingly, to chart her own path against the currents of the white mainstream

Brandon Tensley is the inaugural national politics reporter at Capital B, a first-of-its-kind local-national nonprofit newsroom for Black audiences where he covers the impact of policy and political movements on Black people in America Previously, Brandon was a national political writer at CNN, where he covered the intersection of culture, identity, and politics and wrote Race Deconstructed, CNN’s newsletter about race and equality Brandon’s culture writing has been published in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Review of Books, among others He is based in Washington, D C

October 1, 2026

Paperback • 208 Pages • 4¾ x 6½ 9798765133477

US $14 95 • CAN $21 95

33 1/3 Bloomsbury Academic

Frank Ocean's Blonde Yousef Srour

By contextualizing the lyrics, reevaluating Ocean’s post-album release festival run, and presenting new information about the songs’ production, the book decodes the enigma that is Blonde.

Frank Ocean’s Blonde is a contemporary classic Sandwiched between Elvis Presley and the Sex Pistols at #79 on Rolling Stones’ 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, Blonde defined a generation in the almost nine years since its release

Yet, the album is still a mystery to so many Besides a handful of interviews, a hefty 360page zine titled Boys Don’t Cry, and Tumblr posts from around the time of the album’s release, Frank Ocean has distanced himself as much as possible from the album and the conversations involving it

It is one of the seminal works in the 2010s Afrofuturism revival, which this book highlights by pointing at the role of modern technology in society, including a dialogue about its misgivings and its ability to manipulate time, memory, and emotions It spotlights the summer leading up to the album, the album’s release, a track-by-track rundown illustrating the album’s narrative, along with a discussion about its lasting cultural impact

This is a man who headlined Coachella 2023 despite releasing only ten singles and no album in the eight years prior How did he manage to maintain such a prophetic status for all those years? The answer is simple: Blonde

Yousef Srour is a Bay Area-born, Los Angeles-based freelance writer and critic His work has appeared in the LA Review of Books, Pitchfork, Stereogum, the Vallejo Sun, Variety and more

November 11, 2026

Paperback • 144 Pages • 4¾ x 6½ 9798765133088

US $14.95 • CAN $21.95 33 1/3 Bloomsbury Academic

“Weird

Al” Yankovic's “Weird Al”

Yankovic in 3-D

Justin Remer

Novelty records have been chart-toppers as long as there have been charts. But novelty artists disappear quickly from the public’s memory. Accordion-toting parodist “Weird Al” Yankovic has defied the odds, lasting in showbiz for over forty years. In 1984, Yankovic released his second album, “Weird Al” Yankovic In 3-D, with a food-focused parody of Michael Jackson’s iconic “Beat It” as its centerpiece. At the time, it seemed inevitable he would be known forever as “The ‘Eat It’ Guy.”

However, the secret to Yankovic’s longevity is present on this breakthrough album. His deftness with wordplay may inspire laughter, but his attention to sonic detail makes both the parody songs and comic originals on In 3-D as pleasurable to hear (and re-hear) as any other well-made pop record. The rise of MTV offered Weird Al’s adeptness with audio mimicry a perfect visual analogue. The “Eat It” video is a modern classic thanks to how closely it reproduces the Jackson original but tweaks the details to highlight Yankovic’s absurd humor and charming dweebiness. In 3-D not only created the roadmap for Yankovic’s future, it also paved the way for musical-visual comedy acts like The Lonely Island and Flight of the Conchords.

Justin Remer is a writer, filmmaker, musician, and podcaster based in Los Angeles. He has produced over 50 music videos for artists in the New York antifolk scene, and started an independent record label, Weemayk Music. Justin’s music has appeared in a Troma film and in the CBS drama The Good Fight. He is a host on the Skylight Books podcast.

October 1, 2026

Hardcover • 256 Pages • 8½ x 11

599 color photographs

9781540026231

US $50.00 • CAN $73.50

Music Pro Guides

Bloomsbury Academic

The Great Book of Vintage Microphones

Sylvia Massy and Chris Johnson

Grammy Award-winning music producer Sylvia Massy provides a visual tour through the fascinating world of vintage microphones with hundreds of original, full-color photographs.

Based on one of the largest collections in the world, this book is for the appreciation of the art, technology, and history of microphones, looking at the first 100 years since the original invention – from the 1870s through the 1970s. Discover microphones used by major figures, including the one used by every US President since Lyndon B. Johnson, the epic microphone built for King George V, and the one used by Bruce Swedien for Michael Jackson’s hits.

Microphones are abundant in our modern world: dozens of different technologies, millions of different uses. Sylvia Massy and Chris Johnson expertly curate hundreds of microphones, from the rare and eccentric to well-known gamechangers, and provide interesting tidbits relating to their use, history, manufacture, design, and more. This visually stunning book traces the microphone through a history that includes the Great Depression, two World Wars, and the Cold War era.

Sylvia Massy has been producing, engineering, and mixing popular music for decades. Renowned for her work with Tool, System of a Down, Johnny Cash, and Prince, just to name a few, Massy has received dozens of gold and platinum records, including awards for her work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sevendust, and Tom Petty. A Grammy Awardwinner, she is also the author of Recording Unhinged: Creative and Unconventional Recording Techniques.

Chris Johnson is a prize-winning writer, recording studio owner, minister, and artist. He strives to live art as a 24/7 lifestyle. His stunning collection of vintage microphones includes historical pieces that date back to the 1870s. He is the co-author of Recording Unhinged: Creative and Unconventional Recording Techniques.

October 1, 2026

Hardcover • 296 Pages • 6 x 9

29 b/w images

9798216437611

US $35.00 • CAN $51.50 Bloomsbury Academic

Behind the Beehive

The Triumphs and Trials of Dusty Springfield Jerry Jamison

An incredible whirlwind of talent, transformation, and turmoil, the British pop icon’s life is detailed in this sensitive and heart-rending portrait.

For most of the early 1960s, Dusty Springfield was the most popular and best-selling female recording artist in Britain, becoming the first bonafide British star to follow the Beatles. In 1966, she was named as the top female singer in the world after a string of chart-topping hits including “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.” Even Elton John – who had her posters covering his wall as a teen – idolized her. With her signature peroxided platinum beehive hairdo and heavy black eyeliner, she became the poster girl of the swinging 60s.

But behind all of this, Dusty was struggling with severe mental illness, erratic public behavior, violent mood swings, multiple personalities, drug addiction, and the terror of being exposed as a lesbian. However, even in her darkest moments, Dusty’s star shined bright, remaining a force of charisma and humor. Follow the soaring highs and devastating lows of Dusty’s career in this sympathetic, narrative-style biography based on meticulous research, peer accounts, and contemporary perspectives.

Included is a foreword by Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits.

Jerry Jamison has been an award-winning advertising copywriter for more than 40 years, with more than 30 national writing commendations. During his career, he has authored more than two-dozen fiction novels, biographies, true crime books, and mysteries. He is also a lifelong music enthusiast and has been recognized as a specialist in the 1960’s British Invasion era.

December 10, 2026

Hardcover • 304 Pages • 6 x 9

39 b/w photos

9781538188514

US $32.00 • CAN $46.95 Bloomsbury Academic

Livin’ on the Edge

The Life and Times of Aerosmith’s Joe Perry

Joe Milliken

From the streets of Boston to global stardom, the journey of Aerosmith’s Joe Perry embodies determination, perseverance, and survival through 6 decades of rock music history.

Joe Milliken chronicles the guitar hero’s early life and meteoric rise to stardom, then Aerosmith’s collapse and comeback. He also explores Perry’s adventures as a solo artist, entrepreneur, and in projects including the Joe Perry Project and the Hollywood Vampires. Intertwining exclusive interviews with childhood friends, fellow musicians, and industry professionals, Livin’ on the Edge is the definitive portrait of an iconic rock star who remains the blues-drenched, rock ’n’ roll soul of Aerosmith.

Growing up in the suburbs of Boston, Joe Perry was obsessed with the guitar from an early age and set his sights on one goal: to become a professional musician. In 1969, he met future bandmates Steven Tyler and Tom Hamilton in Sunapee, and soon after, Brad Whitford and Joey Kramer joined to complete the classic Aerosmith lineup.

The band moved to Boston, endured two years of near-poverty, and on the day they signed a management deal, found themselves holding a promoter’s contract in one hand and an eviction notice in the other. What followed became one of rock’s most legendary rides: an explosion of fame and fortune, clashing egos, addiction, internal conflict, and breakup— followed by a triumphant comeback that led to Aerosmith’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and cemented their reputation as America’s greatest rock band.

Over the course of their career, Aerosmith have earned 12 multi-platinum, 18 platinum, and 25 gold records, totaling over 150 million units sold worldwide, along with 4 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award nomination, induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, an ASCAP Founders Award, a Tony Award, and numerous Billboard, Cashbox, People’s Choice, MTV, Boston, and American Music Awards.

Joe Milliken is a freelance writer, music journalist, and the author of Let’s Go! Benjamin Orr and The Cars (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018). Spanning 25 years, Joe’s writing has appeared on the National Recording Registry website at the Library of Congress, the New England Music Hall of Fame website, and in various regional and national magazines and newspapers. Originally from Boston, Milliken is a lifelong fan of rock, jazz and blues, and a passionate vinyl record collector

August 6, 2026

Hardcover • 232 Pages • 6 x 9 10 bw photos

9781538191910

US $36.00 • CAN $52.95 Bloomsbury Academic

Breaking into Song Television Musicals from Glee to Crazy ExGirlfriend

Erin Giannini

Charts the evolution of musicals on television from song-based shows to the notorious musical episode

The musical genre has a fraught history on US television, remembered too frequently for spectacular failures than stellar performances. While the first written-for-TV musical aired in 1944, prime-time musical performances on US television were often airings of Broadway shows, made-for-tv adaptations, and occasionally original pieces or the popular variety shows of the 1950s. It was only a matter of time before someone attempted to create a musical series.

Breaking into Song traces the history of the musical on television, from its variety show and adaptational beginnings to the rash of single episode and full-on musical series of the 2000s. While the shows come and go, music has been a vital part of US television for decades, even before the debut of MTV. Erin Giannini dives into the many musical series from Cop Rock to Glee and episodes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Community and more, while also highlighting the myriad ways music has been used in television, from launching stars such as John Travolta, to synergy in teen programs, and even as characterization and emotional underscoring in dramas.

Beginning with Hull High debuting on NBC and Cop Rock on ABC, musicals made their way to television and never looked back. These shows paved the way for today’s popular series such as Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist and the subversive Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. And while musical-focused series remain a small subset, the late 1990s to the present day have made it so numerous prime-time series across genres incorporate at least a single musical episode into their run. This is a must-read for fans of musicals and television alike, interested in this fascinating subset of pop culture.

Erin Giannini, PhD, has served as an editor and contributor at PopMatters and has published and presented work on television series such as Supernatural, Dollhouse, iZombie, and Angel. She is the author of Community: Going Back to School with Television's Best Sitcom (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025), Supernatural: A History of Television’s Unearthly Roadtrip (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) and Joss Whedon Versus the Corporation: Big Business Critiqued in the Films and Television Programs (2017). She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 240 Pages • 6¼ x 9¼ 9781350534957

US $27.00 • CAN $39.50 Methuen Drama

Deafiant

My Journey in Theatre Jenny Sealey

Jenny Sealey has spent her career to date championing the work of Deaf and Disabled artists and the importance of having their stories on our stages and screens. Now, she shares her own experience as a Deaf theatre-maker and advocate in a highly personal book.

In this book, she discusses running disabled-led Graeae theatre company for the past 30 years. She reveals her passionate and long-standing commitment to inclusivity and equality within the arts and how she and Graeae have made strides in the area, including the creative integration of sign language, captioning and audio description in performance.

Irreverent, frank and profound, Sealey is an inspiring spokesperson for disabled artists' rights, the importance of theatre within our cultural ecosystem and the power of performance to find connections and make positive change in the world.

The stories she shares in this book of growing up in a family where she suffered abuse and shame amongst her peers and teachers for her deafness are not easy to read, but they're crucial in understanding the unjust struggles that have accompanied Sealey on her remarkable journey.

Jenny Sealey OBE has been Graeae’s Artistic Director since 1997. She has pioneered a new theatrical language entitled ‘aesthetics of artistic access’, embedding BSL (British Sign Language) and English, pre-recorded BSL, creative captioning and in-ear/live audio description into the heart of all productions. She co-directed the London 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony alongside Bradley Hemmings and has won the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award and appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. She is an honorary fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Middlesex University, University of Kent, Nottingham Trent University and Rose Bruford College. She received an MBE in 2009 for her contributions to disability arts and an OBE in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours.

September 3, 2026 Paperback • 104 Pages

Whistle Down the Wind

Josephine Botting

Based on Mary Hayley Bell’s 1958 novel, Bryan Forbes’ Whistle Down the Wind (1961) tells the unsettling story of three siblings who find a stranger hiding in their family barn. Mistaking him for Jesus, they slowly discover he is in fact an escaped murderer Josephine Botting’s study places this remarkable film within the landscape of the British industry in the early 1960s and examines Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall’s deft adaptation of the source material.

Drawing on archival research and new interviews with cast and crew, Botting reassesses the creative contribution of director Forbes while bringing overdue attention to the women whose contributions have often been overlooked, including continuity supervisor Penny Daniels and production secretary Ann Skinner. Forbes’ direction of the cast, which included both amateur and professional actors, is one of the film’s most compelling features, and the children’s performances in particular, against the backdrop of an unwelcoming Lancashire landscape shot in stark black and white, make for a moving and captivating tale. Botting explores how the cinematography, editing, musical score by Malcolm Arnold and use of sound all contribute to the creation of an emotionally powerful narrative, yet one that avoids the sentimentality or ‘cuteness’ that child-centred films can fall victim to.

She also follows the film’s legacy, including its influence on films such as Ken Loach’s Kes (1969), The Railway Children (1970) and El Espiritu de la Colmena (Víctor Erice, 1973) that also capture the cruelty of both the adult and the natural world through the eyes of children.

Josephine Botting is curator, 20th century fiction, at the BFI National Archive. She has a general interest in British cinema, particularly the representation and participation of women. She has a degree and research MA in film and completed a PhD thesis in 2017 that was published by Edinburgh University Press in April 2023 as Adrian Brunel and British Cinema of the 1920s. Outside the BFI, she talks and writes about various filmrelated topics and contributes to extras on Blu-ray releases.

September 3, 2026 Paperback • 104 Pages 9781805750543 US $17.95

The Stepford Wives

Paul Moody

The Stepford Wives (1975) has left an indelible mark on popular culture, with its chilling portrayal of suburban women transformed into obedient, robotic housewives. The film was a biting satire of enforced gender roles, societal expectations and the dangers of conformity, resonating with the feminist movement of the 1970s. Its themes of control and the loss of individuality continue to speak to contemporary audiences, making The Stepford Wives a timeless and provocative text.

Paul Moody’s book delves into the film's rich cultural and social significance, examining it as a unique text within feminist film history. The book situates The Stepford Wives within the socio-political context of the 1970s and the rise of second-wave feminism, exploring the film's influence on subsequent horror films, particularly in its portrayal of gendered fears and the commodification of women’s bodies.

Drawing on previously unseen archival documents about the film’s production, the book demonstrates how The Stepford Wives has become a cultural touchstone for discussions of gender, power, and the anxieties of suburbia—issues that continue to reverberate in contemporary society in the wake of the #MeToo movement and performative online portrayals of the ‘tradwife’.

Paul Moody is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at Brunel University with expertise in British cinema history, Hollywood, and digital media. His books include EMI Films and the Limits of British Cinema and an upcoming monograph on Hollywood's ties to U.S. diplomacy. He has written for the BFI’s Screenonline and the magazine Televisual

September 3, 2026

Paperback • 112 Pages

9781839029592

US $17.95 • CAN $26.50

BFI Film Classics

Soleil Ô

Noah Tsika

Med Hondo’s debut feature, Soleil Ô (1970), follows an unnamed African immigrant as he travels to Paris in search of work and a better life. Instead, he faces unemployment, exploitation and a deep sense of isolation from French society. Told through a nonlinear structure and blending surrealist and satirical elements, the film is a searing critique of racism and the broader legacies of colonialism.

Noah Tsika’s study situates Soleil Ô within its historical and political contexts, as well as within Hondo’s broader career and lifelong commitment to anti-colonial principles. He considers the film’s depiction of the modern exilic experience as a cinematic response to anti-immigrant rhetoric and nativist sentiment in France. Tsika also traces the film’s lengthy five-year production, examining Hondo’s guerrilla film-making tactics through which he staged scripted scenes on the teeming streets of Paris and captured the immediate reactions of perplexed passers-by.

In doing so, Tsika suggests that by using the devices of documentary to tell a fictional story, and the devices of fiction to document a precise, seismic moment in world history, Soleil Ô daringly extends the techniques of film-makers such as Paulin Soumanou Vieyra and Ousmane Sembene into narrative, thematic and political terrain not previously encountered in African cinemas.

Noah Tsika is Professor of Film and Media Studies at Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, USA. His books include Nollywood Stars: Media and Migration in West Africa and the Diaspora (2015), Traumatic Imprints: Cinema, Military Psychiatry, and the Aftermath of War (2018), Screening the Police: Film and Law Enforcement in the United States (2021), Cinematic Independence: Constructing the Big Screen in Nigeria (2022) and African Media in an Age of Extraction: Nollywood Geographies (2025). He has published widely on the representational, infrastructural and corporate relationships between Hollywood and Nollywood.

September 3, 2026

Paperback • 112 Pages

9781805750383

US $17.95 • CAN $26.50 BFI Film Classics

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Barry Keith Grant

With its narrative of emotionless alien duplicates replacing ordinary people, Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) was the first post-war horror film to locate the monstrous in the everyday, marking it as a pivotal moment in American horror film history four years before Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Barry Keith Grant’s compelling study traces the film’s journey from ‘B’ movie thriller to an acknowledged classic of American cinema. Grant unpacks the film’s engagement with key issues in post-war US society, including the Cold War, McCarthyism and changing gender relations.

He also examines the film’s fraught production history, the contributions of its key collaborators, and the three remakes it inspired. Grant shows how Invasion of the Body Snatchers endures through its central metaphor of replacement, as flexible and resonant as those of the vampire or zombie.

In an afterword to this new edition, Grant addresses contemporary anxieties around AI and human ‘replacement’, discussing recent films such as Companion (2025), The Creator (2023) and Ex Machina (2014).

Barry Keith Grant is Professor of Film Studies and Popular Culture at Brock University, Canada. He is the author of 100 American Horror Films (2022) and 100 Science Fiction Films (2013), and co-author of 100 Documentary Films (2009) in the BFI Screen Guides series.

November 12, 2026

Paperback • 104 Pages

9781805750826

US $17.95 • CAN $26.50 BFI Film Classics

Mulholland Drive

Justus Nieland

David Lynch's 2001 psychological thriller, Mulholland Drive, follows aspiring actress Betty Elms (Naomi Watts) as she arrives in Hollywood, only to cross paths with the mysterious Rita (Laura Harring), a woman with amnesia hiding in her aunt's apartment. Praised for its surreal atmosphere and dream logic, the film earned Lynch the Prix de la mise-en-scène (Best Director) award at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, and has since been ranked no. 8 on the latest Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll.

Reflecting on Lynch's recent demise and the catastrophic Los Angeles wildfires, Justus Nieland explores the many strange atmospheres and unnatural environments of Mulholland Drive, considering the film's preoccupation with L.A., not only as its setting but also its subject. He analyses the film’s emotional volatility, its noir sensibility, and Lynch’s modernist approach to feeling, memory, and identity. He also examines the film's tragic sapphic love story and its provocative portrayal of queer eroticism.

Tracing its lasting influence on filmmakers like Ari Aster, Jordan Peele, Céline Sciamma and Julia Ducournau, Nieland reveals how Mulholland Drive's unrelenting ambiguity has only engendered further fascination and countless interpretations. He unravels how the film, widely considered Lynch's masterpiece, though born in an analog postwar world of paint and plastic, canvas and celluloid, now enjoys an eternal digital afterlife amongst fans.

Justus Nieland is Professor of English and Film Studies and Chairperson of the Department of English at Michigan State University, USA. His most recent book, Happiness by Design: Modernism and Media in the Eames Era (2020) was shortlisted for the 2021 Modernist Studies Association Book Prize. He is also author of David Lynch (2012) and co-author (with Jen Fay) of Film Noir: Hard-Boiled Modernity and the Cultures of Globalization (2009).

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 240 Pages • 6 x 9 10 bw photos

9798216202349

US $38.00 • CAN $55.50 The Cultural History of Television Bloomsbury Academic

Suits A Cultural History

Richard L. Schur

Fifteen years after the show’s debut, take a look back at the pop culture phenomenon Suits and its place in the pantheon of famous legal dramas.

The television show Suits (2011-2019) has succeeded wildly. Reaching multiple generations of viewers, the show has become one of the most binged shows on Netflix long after its initial broadcast on USA Network in the 2010s. Drawing on the history of the television lawyer, workplace dramas, and postmodern comedies, the show explores the moral compromises facing professionals in the high stakes world of corporate litigation. Characters struggle with office politics, feeling like imposters, and finding family and community while working long hours. They also clash with their clients and opposing counsel who frequently engage in morally dubious behavior and who are willing to do whatever it takes to win their cases.

Suits: A Cultural History provides an in-depth look at the show. This book reveals how the show re-configures televisions tropes and provides insight into cultural attitudes about lawyers and the law, social status and ambition, and the increasing demands of work. The show illustrates the hope and optimism of the Obama years and hints at the simmering undercurrents of political polarization of the Trump era. The television show possesses a deeply held sense of morality even as it skeptical about the choices lawyers face and how the legal process works. The book ultimately concludes that Suits is not simply a television show about rich, attractive lawyers involved in sometimes outlandish cases but a window into the viewers’ desires for family, community, and justice. The show’s popularity as bingeworthy television also offers insight into how television production and viewing is changing.

Richard L. Schur, PhD, is a professor at Drury University, where he has served as the Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Center, Founding Director of the Law & Society Program, and the Director of the Honors Program. He is the author of Parodies of Ownership and co-editor of African American Culture and Legal Discourse. Schur has also written essays for The Chronicle of Higher Education and the Springfield News Leader. He enjoys spending time with his family in the Ozarks.

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 240 Pages • 6 x 9 12 bw photos

9798216388784

US $32.00 • CAN $46.95 Bloomsbury Academic

All About Anne Baxter

The Official Biography of a Hollywood Icon Lona Bailey

An authorized look at the life and career of Hollywood icon and Academy-Award Winning actress Anne Baxter.

Anne Baxter’s life was a vibrant tapestry of remarkable talent, personal resilience, and enduring legacy still relevant today even 40 years after her death. Born into a family of extraordinary creativity as the granddaughter of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Anne was destined to make her own enduring mark on the world.

Her journey into the spotlight began at just 13 years old. By the 1940s and 50s, she had become one of Hollywood’s most versatile actresses, delivering iconic performances in films like Guest in the House (1944), Yellow Sky (1948), The Razor’s Edge (1946), All About Eve (1950) and The Ten Commandments (1954). She also appeared in hit television series such as Batman, Ironside, Columbo, and Hotel. Alongside her career, she had three marriages, raised three daughters, and endured periods as a single working mother while juggling the demands of Hollywood. Her life swayed from heartbreak such as her miscarriage in the Australian bush to highs such as her triumphant return to Broadway in the 1970s to star in Applause, the musical adaptation of All About Eve

All About Anne Baxter is the first authorized biography of Anne Baxter, enriched by insights and exclusive interviews with her daughters, friends, and colleagues. It paints an intimate portrait of a woman who mastered her craft, defied expectations, and left a timeless mark on the entertainment world. Lona Bailey explores her entire journey, providing a deeper and more comprehensive portrait of her as an artist, a mother, and a woman navigating fame, family, and the evolving entertainment industry. Anne’s story is sure to inspire a new generation of readers to appreciate her artistry and the barriers she broke for women in entertainment.

Lona Bailey, PhD, is an award-winning Golden Age of Hollywood researcher and author of Uncredited: The Life and Career of Actress Virginia Gregg, Voice of Villainy: The Betty Lou Gerson Story, Mrs. Radio: The Cathy Lewis Story, Some Small Nobility: The Biography of Joan Banks Lovejoy, and Wicked Witch of the West: The Enduring Legacy of a Feminist Icon. Bailey has been featured in outlets like The Wolfe Den Show, Film Daily, and The Los Angeles Tribune. She resides in her home state, Tennessee.

September 3, 2026

Paperback • 200 Pages • 5½ x 8½ 10 b&w images

9798216381273

US $29.95 • CAN $43.95 Bloomsbury Academic

Searching for Tara

The Goddess Who Became a Buddha

James William Coleman

Explores the meaning and power of the Buddhist goddess Tara as a fully awakened being whose feminine wisdom speaks directly to the crises of modern life. Beginning with a life-altering visionary experience during a medical crisis, sociologist ad Buddhist practitioner James William Coleman embarks on a wide-ranging inquiry into Tara’s origins, symbolism, and enduring relevance. Drawing on archaeology, comparative mythology, sociology, depth psychology, and Buddhist philosophy, the book reveals how Tara emerged from ancient goddess traditions to become one of Buddhism’s most radical figures: a Buddha who embodies compassion, wisdom, immediacy, and engagement with the suffering world.

Coleman situates Tara at the intersection of three defining movements of our time: the growing embrace of meditation and contemplative practice, the reassertion of the feminine in spiritual and cultural life, and the mounting environmental and social crises produced by ego-driven modernity. Rather than treating Tara as a distant deity, he presents her as a living expression of awakened consciousness—one that invites practitioners to embody wisdom, courage, and care in daily life.

Structured in three movements, the book first explores Tara’s historical and sociological roots, then places her within the world’s great goddess traditions, and finally examines her psychological and spiritual significance as an archetype of transformation. The concluding chapters turn decisively toward practice, offering accessible guidance for cultivating a Tara meditation that integrates insight, compassion, and ecological responsibility.

Combining personal narrative with scholarly rigor, this fresh reading of Buddhism offers readers not only a deeper understanding of Tara’s place in religious history, but a practical spiritual path for meeting the personal, social, and planetary challenges of our time.

James William Coleman has a PhD in the sociology of religion, and has published numerous books and articles including The New Buddhism and The Buddha’s Dream of Liberation. He has practiced Buddhism intensively in several traditions, and is a founding member of the White Heron Sangha in San Luis Obispo where he teaches and practices.

August 20, 2026

Hardcover • 224 Pages • 6 x 9 6 b&w images

9798881842529

US $34.00 • CAN $49.95 Bloomsbury Academic

Healing Sacred Wounds A Guide to Overcoming Religious and Spiritual Trauma

SC Nealy

Provides a clinically grounded, compassionate framework for understanding and healing religious and spiritual trauma. Written by an experienced therapist and trauma specialist, it offers readers practical tools to name their wounds, reclaim agency, and move toward wholeness—whether or not they choose to remain within a religious tradition.

Drawing on empirical research, therapeutic practice, and the author’s own lived experience, SC Nealy explains how harmful religious environments can produce trauma symptoms comparable to those associated with abuse, coercion, and complex PTSD. It clarifies what religious trauma is, how it manifests emotionally and physically, and why it has remained underrecognized despite its widespread impact. Particular attention is given to the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals, for whom religious harm is often compounded by rejection, shame, and identity-based violence.

Each chapter combines psychoeducation with guided reflection and self-directed exercises designed to support healing. Readers are invited to identify and validate traumatic experiences, challenge internalized blame and shame, establish healthy boundaries, and cultivate self-compassion. Nealy also addresses the complexities of witnessing or participating in harm, offering pathways for accountability, repair, and forgiveness without minimizing injury.

Rather than prescribing a single outcome, the book honors multiple paths forward. Some readers may choose to rebuild a faith identity on their own terms; others may step away from religion entirely. Both choices are treated as valid expressions of healing. Discussion questions support use by clinicians, support groups, and educational settings, while an accompanying online Toolbox for Survivors provides worksheets and additional resources.

Accessible, affirming, and grounded in years of clinical expertise, this guide offers a hopeful path for survivors and helps them move toward long-term psychological well-being.

SC Nealy, LPC, NCC, CCMHC, is a licensed mental health therapist and recognized expert on religious and spiritual trauma with over fifteen years of clinical experience in the Washington, DC area. They are the founding director of the LGBT Counseling Collaborative and have taught psychology at Marymount University, specializing in religious trauma, complex PTSD, and LGBTQ+ mental health. Nealy is also a bestselling novelist, with over 150,000 books sold under the pen name Sarah Robinson

October 1, 2026

Hardcover • 256 Pages • 6 x 9

9798881842505

US $32 00 • CAN $46 95 Bloomsbury Academic

Polarized Why American Jews are Divided and What to Do About it

Roberta Rosenthal Kwall

Offers a multi-disciplinary examination of the major divides within the American Jewish community prior to, and in the wake of, the Israel-Hamas war and lays out a blueprint for how American Jewry can develop a much-needed, vocal center capable of productive discourse despite areas of disagreement

Not only has polarization long been recognized as one of the most pressing problems facing the American Jewish community but, in fact, American Jews are among the most divided communities in the United States, a fracture that has deepened dramatically in the wake of the October 7th terrorist attacks against Israel and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war Drawing on insights from law, sociology, psychology, history, and Jewish tradition, Professor Roberta Kwall examines how these divisions developed, how they both reflect and differ from polarization in our broader society and, most importantly, how and why they pose an existential threat to American Jewish communal life In tracing the evolution of internal Jewish divides over religious practice, Israel, and antisemitism, she makes clear that different groups of Jews, like all people, are shaped by distinct moral priorities, fears, and understandings of political issues, and she shows how generation gaps and campus culture have intensified these conflicts

Fortunately, beyond diagnosing the divisions that plague the American Jewish community, Kwall offers a path forward for rebuilding a strong American Jewish center capable of sustaining disagreement without fragmentation Guided by Jewish teachings on speech, disagreement, and moral responsibility, she proposes a consensus platform that can promote communal dialogue, institutional planning, and educational initiatives by prioritizing respectful discourse over ideological victory

Roberta Rosenthal Kwall is the Raymond Niro Law Professor at DePaul University College of Law, and the author of Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World; The Myth of the Cultural Jew: Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition; The Soul of Creativity: Forging a Moral Rights Law for the United States; and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Law Her articles have appeared in The Free Press, the Chicago Tribune, and many Jewish outlets

September 3, 2026

Paperback • 192 Pages • 6 x 9 1 b&w image 9798216372585

US $29.95 • CAN $43.95 Bloomsbury Academic

Nature Spirituality and Environmental Crisis

Embracing a Sacred, Wounded Earth

Roger S. Gottlieb

For millennia, nature has provided spiritual experiences of wonder, gratitude, and peace. Now nature is being burned, poisoned, and rendered extinct. This book asks: Can nature still provide spiritual inspiration?

Drawing on decades of original work in environmental ethics, religious environmentalism, contemporary spirituality, and fiction, Roger S. Gottlieb explores how ecological crisis reshapes spiritual life. What we trusted would nourish us and our descendants forever is diminished and threatened. We seek a refuge from the cruelties and madness of human culture and find bird species disappearing and oceans filling with plastic. Gottlieb begins by clarifying what spirituality is and why nature has played a central role in it for religious believers and non-believers alike. He then examines the environmental crisis as a civilizational rupture that transforms hope, grief, meaning, and moral responsibility. Nature spirituality, he suggests, must adapt to ecological loss and vulnerability.

Difficult as it may be, we can nourish a spirituality in which grief coexists with gratitude, compassion with moral outrage, and acceptance with active solidarity and love for all of life. The book concludes with a fictional narrative illustrating how each of us might face overwhelming environmental realities with a transformed spiritual vision.

Roger S. Gottlieb, William B. Smith Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA, is the author or editor of twenty-one books on religion, environmental ethics, and spirituality, including This Sacred Earth and A Greener Faith. He has received multiple book awards and has written for both scholarly journals and venues such as Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Orion Afield, and Los Angeles Review of Books

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 256 Pages • 6 x 9

9798881800178

US $32.00

• CAN $46.95 Bloomsbury Academic

The Fourth Reformation Gender, Sexuality, and the Struggle for the Future of Faith

Katherine Kelaidis

Contends that contemporary conflicts over gender and sexuality are not peripheral disputes within religion but the central forces reshaping the future of faith itself. Framing these struggles as a Fourth Reformation, Kate Kelaidis shows how debates over women’s authority, LGBTQ+ inclusion, family norms, and bodily autonomy have become the primary sites where religious traditions fracture, realign, and redefine their moral authority.

Drawing on global case studies across Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other traditions, Kelaidis demonstrates how questions of gender and sexuality have replaced doctrine as the decisive boundary markers of religious belonging. She traces how modern religious movements—both progressive and reactionary—mobilize gender norms to assert legitimacy, consolidate power, and forge unexpected political alliances. In doing so, she explains why religious institutions increasingly function as engines of polarization rather than sources of shared moral meaning.

The book situates these developments within a longer historical arc, showing how earlier reformations, secularization, and the rise of liberal democracy displaced theological conflict in favor of ethical and social struggle. It argues that today’s gender-focused battles are not signs of religious decline alone, but evidence of religion’s adaptive reinvention under modern conditions. At the same time, it accounts for the accelerating rise of the “nones,” those without religious commitments, demonstrating how unresolved conflicts over gender and sexuality drive disaffiliation and reshape the religious marketplace.

Accessible yet analytically rigorous, this book offers scholars, students, and general readers a new framework for understanding why religion remains so politically volatile—and why its future will be decided less by belief than by whose bodies, identities, and relationships are deemed sacred.

Katherine Kelaidis, PhD, is Director of Research and Content at the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago. Research Fellow at the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge, UK, and Senior Editor at Religion Dispatches. A sought-after expert on the intersection of religion and politics, Kelaidis has appeared on various media outlets as a commentator, including NPR and the BBC. She has published articles and essays in The Atlantic, Conversation, Salon, and others, and is the author of Holy Russia? Holy War? (2022).

August 6, 2026

Hardcover • 208 Pages • 5½ x 8½ 3 b&w images

9798881808303

US $27 00 • CAN $39 50 Bloomsbury Academic

The Stoic Art of Recovery

The Roman Stoics as Spiritual Guides to TwelveStep Living

Michael Mascio

A Classicist and long-time member of Alcoholics Anonymous explores how Roman Stoicism can illuminate and strengthen the practices of 12-step recovery. Drawing on years of teaching ancient philosophy and more than a decade of lived sobriety, Michael Mascio offers a deeply informed, accessible account of why Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius speak powerfully to contemporary recovery Roman Stoicism, he argues, is fundamentally therapeutic a philosophy explicitly crafted to transform character, regulate emotion, and cultivate a resilient inner life Its pragmatic emphasis on habit-formation, disciplined self-examination, and psychological reframing aligns strikingly with the spiritual change the 12 steps demand.

For those alienated by the religious language of Alcoholics Anonymous, Stoicism provides an intellectually rigorous yet non-dogmatic conception of a higher power rooted in nature, rationality, and universal order This perspective enables atheists, agnostics, and spiritual seekers to engage meaningfully with recovery principles without the burden of inherited theology The book also highlights the digestible, contemplative style of Roman Stoic writings, making them ideal companions to daily recovery meditation practices

At a moment when Stoicism enjoys renewed cultural visibility from popular self-help adaptations to serious philosophical revivals this work offers the first sustained account of Stoicism as a resource for the recovering addict Each chapter pairs one major Stoic figure with a dimension of recovery life, guiding readers through emotional regulation, higherpower conceptions, daily living, role modeling, and the disciplined reshaping of the self Combining textual insight, lived experience, and practical guidance, the book invites people in recovery, clinicians, philosophers, and general seekers into a dialogue between two traditions devoted to inner freedom, clarity, and transformation

Michael Mascio, PhD, is a scholar of Roman Stoicism and a teacher of Latin, Greek, and literature at Main Line Classical Academy His research explores ancient moral psychology, philosophy as a way of life, and Stoicism’s relevance today With over a decade of continuous sobriety, he offers a rare blend of rigorous classical training and authentic engagement with recovery

October 1, 2026

Hardcover • 176 Pages • 6 x 9 11 b/w images

9798216375234

US $34.00 • CAN $49.95 Bloomsbury Academic

Awakening Wildness Reconnecting with Nature

Christy McConnell

and Ourselves

A personal narrative and guide for those who seek not just to walk in nature, but to be transformed by it.

When her father, Jack, first led her into the canyons of New Mexico, he was teaching Christy more than knots and footholds; he was offering an inheritance of wonder. Six weeks later, he was gone—killed in a climbing accident in Estes Park, Colorado. The lessons learned in that short time have echoed through Christy’s life as she sought to understand not only how to connect with nature as her father taught her, but also how to help others do the same. She has spent her life exploring what it means to live with an awakened, ecological heart.

Drawing on educational theory, philosophy, and lived experience, this book explores five pathways to deepen ecological experiences: aesthetic, where beauty awakens awe; adventure, where risk deepens relationship; flow, where immersion becomes transcendent; spiritual, where mystery offers new ways of knowing; and communal, where belonging expands to humans and beyond. Each chapter weaves a story with reflection—part field guide, part elegy, part invitation—to help readers cultivate their own relationship with wildness.

McConnell illuminates how encounters with nature can transform grief into gratitude, isolation into reciprocity, and fear into reverence. This book reminds us that wildness is not a place we visit, but a place we inhabit and that inhabits us.

Christy McConnell, PhD is an educator, scholar, writer, and ecologically-minded adventurer who has researched experience in education for two decades. A tenured professor at the University of Northern Colorado, McConnell has published dozens of research articles and two books exploring ecological and aesthetic experiences. She lives in Centennial, Colorado.

September 3, 2026

Hardcover • 280 Pages • 5½ x 8½ 1 b&w photo 9798216278832

US $32.00 • CAN $46.95 Bloomsbury Academic

Climate Anxiety and Spiritual Resilience

A Guide to Kinship, Justice, and Hope

Suzanne Crawford O'Brien

Religious and Indigenous practices that counter despair, cultivate courage, and sustain moral action in the fight for environmental justice. Climate change is an ecological and political crisis, but it is also a spiritual one. Fractured relationships with the natural systems that sustain us and frustration with leaders’ seeming inability to respond, has led many to grief, despair, burnout, and moral exhaustion. Indeed, current research on eco-anxiety and climate grief show that emotional overwhelm undermines collective action, even when solutions are known and available.

But there is a path forward, one found within religious and Indigenous traditions that have long cultivated practices for living with loss, sustaining hope, and acting ethically within fragile ecosystems. By bringing the psychology of climate grief into conversation with Indigenous and religious traditions, this book offers a framework for moving beyond paralysis toward resilient, justice-centered engagement. Each chapter draws on case studies from diverse Indigenous and religious traditions. challenging extractive worldviews, emphasizing relationality and interdependence, and grounding justice in care for land, community, and future generations. Together, they explore what it means to engage in inner activism: the work of moral courage, clarity, and presence that makes sustained ecological action possible. Practices of mindfulness, ritual, lament, storytelling, and community accountability are presented not as private coping strategies but as sources of collective resilience and ethical commitment. Emphasizing hope without denial and action without burnout, this book offers spiritual resources for transforming grief into courage, solidarity, and sustained engagement for ecological justice.

Suzanne Crawford O’Brien is professor of religion and culture at Pacific Lutheran University. She is the author of Religion and Culture in Native America (2020), Coming Full Circle: Spirituality and Wellness Among Native Communities in the Pacific Northwest (2014), and Religion and Healing in Native America (2008), as well as co-editor of American Indian Religious Traditions: An Encyclopedia (2005).

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 208 Pages • 6 x 9 8 bw illus

9798216270096

US $35 00 • CAN $51 50 Bloomsbury Academic

The Climate We've Made Making Sense of Humankind's Future on a Warming Planet

Jonathan J. Stickel

An exploration of the scientific, philosophical, and psychological perspectives that shape how we experience climate change.

Climate change poses a serious threat to humanity and Earth as we know it Scientists have been collecting direct evidence of this for more than 60 years, yet despite the best efforts of climate scientists, activists, and policymakers to effect change, global temperatures and the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere continue to increase If climate change is truly a crisis–and it is–then why are so many people unmotivated to prevent it?

The Climate We’ve Made seeks to make sense of this by investigating the disconnect between the climate disaster predicted by scientists and societies’ understanding of the need for action to mitigate global warming; how we are certain that climate change is happening and humans are the cause; the ethical obligations that humans today have for maintaining a livable Earth for future generations; why it is so hard for humans, individually and collectively, to take action on climate change; and more Stickel does this by dividing the book into three parts: science, philosophy, and psychology

Considering the potentially massive magnitude and scope of climate change, assuredly altering human life and the entire Earth in profound ways, it is worth taking a step back and looking at climate change with a broader lens Stickel does this by offering potential paths forward for saving the planet through direct insight into the effectiveness of climatemitigating technologies, the pace at which they are being deployed, and the attitudes of society, media, and policymakers to encourage collective change by all of Earth’s inhabitants

Jonathan J Stickel, PhD, is a consultant helping startup companies to develop and deploy sustainable chemical technologies He has 20+ years of national-lab, industrial, and academic experience leading and performing R&D for carbon capture, energy sustainability, biofuels, and biopharmaceuticals He has coauthored more than 40 journal articles that report on the results of these research programs and has given several invited presentations on climate change and renewable energy He resides in Denver, CO

September 17, 2026

Hardcover • 304 Pages • 6 x 9 9798216389439

US $35 00 • CAN $51 50 Bloomsbury Academic

The Complete Guide to Mexican Beverages

From Atole to Zambumbia

N. C. Stevens

A lively, authoritative history of Mexican beverages from cacao and pulque to beer, tequila, coffee, and soft drinks revealing how culture, migration, and innovation shaped what the world drinks today

For over five centuries, Mexico’s drinks have fascinated outsiders and nourished communities at home Early European observers encountered cacao, pulque, and atole beverages deeply embedded in Mesoamerican life, economy, and ritual Today, Mexico stands as a global powerhouse in beer and spirits, with its drinks consumed worldwide often without consumers realizing their origins

The Complete Guide to Mexican Beverages offers a sweeping, accessible account of this rich tradition N C Stevens traces how Indigenous knowledge and global influences from Spanish, Filipino, Chinese, German, French, and American cultures combined to shape Mexico’s diverse beverage landscape Along the way, surprising histories emerge: mezcal’s possible Filipino roots, German investment in Mexican coffee, and the transnational origins of iconic beers.

Blending cultural history with insights into ingredients, production, and technology, Stevens shows that every drink tells a story of botany, innovation, and tradition As global demand for Mexican beverages continues to grow, this book provides essential context for understanding their origins, evolution, and cultural significance.

N C Stevens is a journalist and writer specializing in food and beverage culture, with a focus on culinary traditions embedded into the fabric of community and culture Drawing on interdisciplinary research across history, anthropology, and gastronomy, Stevens explores how everyday consumables reflect deeper stories of migration, trade, and cultural identity The Complete Guide to Mexican Beverages brings together years of research into Mexico’s rich and evolving drinks landscape He lives in Boston, MA

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 240 Pages • 6 x 9 9798216367048

US $32.00 • CAN $46.95 Bloomsbury Academic

How to Handle Anything Four Improv Principles for Navigating Life's Curveballs

Mary Lemmer

Wouldn't it be great if we all had a user's manual for handling uncertainty? Well, now we do.

Drawing from her expertise as a sought-after creative consultant when it comes to improving leadership and teams, TED speaker and global consultant Mary Lemmer reveals how the principles of improv can be a powerful tool for transforming how we approach life's challenges. If we learn to handle ambiguity, we can handle anything.

Through four core principles, supported by research, examples, and actionable strategies, Mary offers a step-by-step guide to help build creative resilience, improve our ability to adapt and respond to life's inevitable curveballs with confidence, positivity, and creativity. By integrating these techniques, we will learn how to shift our mindset, increase our emotional flexibility, and create more opportunities in both our personal and professional lives. Learn how to apply the core principles of improvisation to real-life situations and gain the tools to navigate uncertainty, reduce anxiety, and improve your overall well-being.

Mary Lemmer is a creative entrepreneur, author, global speaker and consultant who helps leaders and teams navigate uncertainty and achieve success by combining improv comedy, business frameworks, and research-backed techniques. Through her unique approach, she's worked with some of the world's most dynamic companies, including Google, Pfizer, Lyft, TED, and KPMG, empowering them to innovate, solve critical challenges, and enhance performance.

A sought-after TED speaker, Mary has been invited to deliver workshops at multiple TED Women conferences, facilitate sessions at TED-Ed weekend events, and design experiences for TED's internal team. Her TED talk, "How Improv Can Improve Your Leadership and Life" highlights the core principles that form the foundation of her work.

October 1, 2026

Hardcover • 272 Pages • 5½ x 8½

3 bw images, 1 table, 21 textboxes, 21 sidebars

9798216392545

US $32 00 • CAN $46 95

Bloomsbury Academic

Base Camp Parenting

Worry Less to Help Your Kids More

Susan Bauerfeld

Learn how to break free from worry’s grip and raise more confident, resilient children who can cope with life’s many challenges

Are you a parent who worries a lot? If so, you are not alone Relentless worry is currently the norm While concern about important issues is certainly beneficial, worrying about them is not But, worrying can be a hard habit to break, even though it often causes added stress and anxiety in the home

In Base Camp Parenting: Worry Less to Help Your Kids More, Susan Bauerfeld and Chris Parrott give parents the tools necessary to shift away from worrying They discuss the adverse impact of parental worrying on “Base Camp”--the environment in which children are raised--and show how shifting attention away from worried thinking is crucial to overall health and well-being In addition, they provide parents with an easy-to-implement four-step process that leaves families calmer, more connected, and better prepared to handle situations as they arise By following this process, parents model how best to cope with the stress and anxiety of everyday life, leading their children to become more resilient, capable, and healthy

In a culture where worry is often worn like a badge of honor, Base Camp Parenting is a rallying cry for change, delivering a clear, compassionate roadmap for breaking the worry cycle and building a happier, healthier home

Susan Bauerfeld, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, IFS therapist, speaker, parent consultant/coach, and ADHD coach Since retiring from her private practice, her speaking centers around managing challenges related to anxiety, child raising, learning differences, and technology She lives in Stamford, Connecticut

Chris Parrott, CPsychol, is a British Psychological Society Chartered Counseling Psychologist and a board-certified coach In her private coaching practice, she specializes in working with emerging adults and parents She is co-author of Reach Before You Teach: Ignite Passion and Purpose in Your Classroom and Doing Therapy Briefly Chris resides in Bedford, NY.

October 1, 2026

Hardcover • 176 Pages • 6 x 9

13 b/w figures

9798765162446

US $36 00 • CAN $52 95 Bloomsbury Academic

Little Kids, Big Thinkers Everyday Math Play With Your Child

Sandra M. Linder

While we often think of mathematics as a “school age subject”, this interactive guide shows how you can encourage mathematical problem-solving in your child at a very young age through play and everyday interactions.

Children are big thinkers and can do pretty amazing things As you delve into the world of mathematical play, you will help your child not only explore skills like counting and comparing, measuring, and creating patterns, but also learn to ask questions, develop resilience and persistence when presented with challenges, and increase confidence through exploration and reflection

These early moments of play and discovery, side by side with you as their guide, lay the foundation for lifelong problem solving and reasoning abilities. You are not just supporting their mathematics development; you are setting the stage for your child to be a changemaker as they grow

Dr. Sandra M. Linder is a mom of three children and a Professor of Early Childhood Mathematics Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning and College of Education at Clemson University As a faculty member, she has published over 80 peerreviewed articles, book chapters, books, and national curriculum focused on early childhood education, mathematics education, and on working with families to incorporate mathematics for young children in home environments She is based in Clemson, South Carolina

September 3, 2026

Hardcover • 248 Pages • 6 x 9

13 bw photos

9798216201786

US $32 00 • CAN $46 95 Bloomsbury Academic

Changing the Playbook How Women Have Transformed Professional Football

Cash Lambert

The inspiring history of women in and around the NFL

Since the inception of the NFL in 1920, professional football has long been dominated by men But there is a rich history of women who have made profound impacts on the sport for decades whose stories have never been collectively told--until now

In Changing the Playbook: How Women Have Transformed Professional Football, the amazing stories of these football pioneers are finally revealed Featuring women such as NFL owner Virginia Halas-McCaskey, scout Connie Carberg, CEO Amy Trask, journalist Lesley Visser, NFL coaches Jen Welter, Jen King, and Callie Brownson, and many more, their lives and careers reveal unique backstories, historic achievements, and incredible impact These trailblazers faced many obstacles, misogyny, and hostility, but their persistence has led to a new generation of women joining the NFL ranks, forging a legacy that will not be forgotten

From the “no women in the locker room” policies of the past to female coaches, scouts, executives, media, and officials in the present, professional football has come a long way Inspired to tell these women’s stories for his own daughters, Cash Lambert poignantly shares the courageous and powerful history of women in the NFL, their growing influence on the sport, and how they are changing football for the better

Cash Lambert is the award-winning author of Surf Therapy: The Evidence-Based Science for Physical, Mental and Emotional Well-Being, which won the highly-acclaimed Surf Park Summit Democratization Award He is also the author of Waves of Healing: How Surfing Changes the Lives of Children with Autism His articles have been featured in ESPN Outdoors, the Outdoor Channel, Autism Parenting Magazine, Surfing Magazine, Patagonia, and many others He previously served as Gameday Media Relations Associate for the Miami Dolphins Cash lives in South Florida

September 3, 2026

Hardcover • 216 Pages • 6 x 9 15 bw photos

9798216371823

US $34 00 • CAN $49 95 Bloomsbury Academic

11 Hours on the Ledge Madness,

Mob Mentality, and the Media

Jerry Jamison

“Look at all those people down there, I can’t disappoint them It’s showtime!” he said before leaping dramatically to his death, much to the delight of a cheering crowd estimated at up to 100,000.

11 Hours on the Ledge is the stunning story of John William Warde, a privileged, wealthy, educated young man who inexplicably stepped out onto the 17th-floor ledge of the Hotel Gotham in midtown Manhattan in 1938 and subsequently captivated the entire nation for 11 thrilling hours

Presented in chapters that count down each of the eleven hours of the unfolding drama, the suspense builds exponentially as Warde is trying to literally be talked “off the edge” by pastors, priests, psychiatrists, reporters, evangelists, hookers, beat cops, the mayor of New York, the New York Police Commissioner, family members, and a few random hucksters, and interlopers

When all these efforts fail, the NYPD attempts a series of comic “rescues” in vain, but to the absolute delight and cheers of the growing crowd below Beginning innocently on a sweltering summer day, the drama builds in intensity with every passing hour until it reaches a peak of hysteria at the eleventh hour

Meticulously researched from thousands of newspaper accounts and magazine articles of the era, Jamison pieces together John Warde’s story, connecting this early 20th century event to contemporary issues such as mental illness, homosexuality, mob mentalities, media ethics, religion, and class wars.

Jerry Jamison has been an award-winning advertising copywriter for more than forty years, with more than thirty national writing commendations During his career he has authored more than two-dozen fiction novels, biographies, true crime books and mysteries such as Vanishing Act (2025), Behind the Beehive (2026), 11 Hours on the Ledge (2026), and Deadly Desserts (2026) Jamison currently lives with his wife in Chula Vista, California

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 264 Pages • 6 x 9 10 bw photos

9798216371953

US $36 00 • CAN $52 95 Bloomsbury Academic

New England’s Wickedest Killers

From the Witch of Windsor to the Boston Strangler

Don Stradley

This is a chronicle of 30 notorious New England murder cases spanning from the 1800s to 2000, from well-known cases that shocked the country to lesser-known cases that petrified the small towns they were committed in.

At one point in the 1970s there were so many murders in one small Connecticut county that a New York newspaper openly asked if this tiny area was perhaps the most violent county in the nation The irony was incredible, with bloody old New York, known well for its own homicides, looking at a tiny speck of New England with something like awe But if anyone ever kept track, they’d probably think New England was the home of depravity, with every small-town harboring at least one madman with murder on his mind

New England crime has been well covered when it comes to gangland stories, or highprofile murder trials, but less attention has been given to the more deviant killers, the wandering drifters, and maniacs who butchered their way into the headlines and, often, straight to the gallows or electric chair

From a quiet Connecticut farmer who one day picks up an axe and wreaks havoc on his village; a young Maine man who decides to kill his wife and mother-in-law because he was tired of being nagged; to a 13-year-old boy who stabbed a neighbor 58 times, each chapter is a brand-new horror show

Author, Don Stradley examines the killers, the trials, and the historical context of the crimes, the media’s reaction, the way mental health experts played an increasing part in trials, and the impact of such crimes on their respective communities.

Don Stradley is an award-winning journalist and author of several books including, Boston Tabloid (2022), The War (2021), A Fistful of Murder (2020), Slaughter in the Streets (2020), Berserk (2019) He has also written for various movie-streaming companies, including Fandor, The Film Detective, and Film Masters and has appeared on several true crime podcasts. Stradley lives on Boston’s North Shore.

September 3, 2026

Hardcover • 240 Pages • 6 x 9 9 color photos, plate section; 1 bw photo 9798216372189

US $36 00 • CAN $52 95 Bloomsbury Academic

Strip Club Heiress

The Jet Strip, My Father ’s Conviction, and the Murder of Mac McKenna

Laurel Woods

When Laurel entered her father ’s strip club at nine years old, she was dazzled by the kaleidoscope of lights, the shimmering silver of the disco ball

After an injury, Laurel’s father, Michael Woods left the California Highway Patrol and took up a new career in high profile adult entertainment, opening the Jet Strip Club and building a successful business with his partner Horace Joseph McKenna Jr (Big Mac) Their success came quickly, changing both of their lives

Twelve years, multiple club openings, and millions of dollars later, Mac is found shot to death in his limo outside his ranch and Michael is the prime suspect For ten years, the case goes unsolved, but Michael remained at the top of the list of suspects the whole time, eventually being arrested and convicted for the murder Leaving the strip club empire to Laurel to manage, while fighting for her fathers freedom

In this riveting memoir, Laurel Woods, shares raw memories from her childhood to adulthood exposing how her dad’s work and eventual imprisonment shaped her life in unexpected ways

The case has been the subject of countless documentaries and whodunnit splashes on blogs But no one knows the whole story until now

Laurel Woods has worked at Playboy, Lucasfilm and MTV Networks. She has been featured on KCRW's radio show Unfictional, as well as published in The Nervous Breakdown and Chicken Soup for the Soul She currently lives in Los Angeles

November 12, 2026

Hardcover • 248 Pages • 6 x 9 23 bw photos

9798216371915

US $34 00 • CAN $49 95 Bloomsbury Academic

Deadly Desserts

Grandmother, Pastor's Wife, Serial Killer

Jerry Jamison

Deadly Desserts is the incredible but true story of Nannie Doss the most prolific female serial killer in history Over a twenty-year period beginning in the 1930s, she murdered husbands, lovers, and family members throughout the country as well as countless other innocent individuals with rat poison baked into her delicious desserts

A Baptist pastor ’s wife and grandmother in a small rural town outside of Tulsa, she was the epitome of the gum-smacking “Granny Nannie” persona that she projected at the same time that her body count was growing Nannie led the choir, was a favorite of the children, and baked the most delectable treats Tenderly caring for the sick, watching over her family like a mother hen, while writing letters to the lonely, she was the dearest friend to all including six husbands until they aggravated her in some small way And then they got their just desserts. By the time she was discovered and convicted, sweet Nannie murdered more people than any female in history

This is an incredible tale that also reads like a page-turning novel, complete with dialogue and a series of mind-bending, unexpected twists It’s a story of suburban madness, sexual conquest, unfulfilled romantic fantasies, that were expressed throughout a quiet, undetected but unprecedented killing career Nannie’s incredible story crisscrosses the country, covers several eras and provides a fascinating glimpse into how her gender both protected her from discovery, but ultimately condemned her The story is meticulously researched and well-resourced with major newspaper reports of the time The author ’s approach includes multiple perspectives conversations among the key characters, narrative storytelling, and contemporary reports from journalists, court transcripts, psychiatrists, and detectives from the day. It is written to read as a head-shaking novel.

Jerry Jamison has been an award-winning advertising copywriter for more than forty years, with more than thirty national writing commendations During his career he has authored more than two-dozen fiction novels, biographies, true crime books and mysteries such as Vanishing Act (2025), Behind the Beehive (2026), 11 Hours on the Ledge (2026), and Deadly Desserts (2026) Jamison currently lives with his wife in Chula Vista, California

October 15, 2026

Hardcover • 192 Pages • 6 x 9

9798216372738

US $34 00 • CAN $49 95 Bloomsbury Academic

The Vet Will See You Now What Every Pet Owner Needs to Know (But Doesn't)

Barak Benaryeh

Kitchen Confidential meets All Creatures Great and Small

In this insider ’s scoop into the veterinary world, Dr Barak Benaryeh uses stories as a backdrop while delivering current veterinary information that every pet owner can use in the midst of a rapidly changing profession Through Dr Benaryeh’s irreverent, bitingly satirical, often humorous, and sometimes tragic stories, readers get to ride shotgun with a seasoned vet and hear a unique view of the veterinary profession, learning how to be better consumers Come behind the scenes of an examination room and find out what vets really think and what happens when you walk through the “Employees Only” door to the other side.

From bringing home a new pet to recognizing emergencies, choosing the right vet, treating cancer, and more, Dr Benaryeh’s advice covers a multitude of relevant experiences that every pet owner will inevitably face Some stories are outlandish and not the kind you would expect in your ordinary vet book They range from dead pets that aren’t dead, fake testicles, dog food mishaps, and other events that give meaning to the phrase: truth is stranger than fiction Dr Benaryeh also draws on his own vast experience with personal pets as the book moves through the life cycle of animals as well as his life as a veterinarian and pet owner Whether you’re seeking veterinary information or pure entertainment, this book will not disappoint

Barak Benaryeh is a practicing veterinarian in Austin, Texas, and the founding partner of Spicewood Springs Animal and Spicewood Springs Cat Hospitals. Barak graduated veterinary school at the University of California, Davis, and then completed an additional year of training in Small Animal Medicine, Surgery, and Emergency at the University of Pennsylvania He is board-certified in canine and feline practice and has been working in the veterinary profession for over thirty-five years, seeing dogs, cats, and the occasional monkey D Benaryeh speaks at conferences and is a regular contributor to veterinary journals

November 12, 2026

Paperback • 208 Pages • 5½ x 8½ 3 bw images, 4 tables, 1 sidebar, 8 textboxes 9798216201908

US $25 95 • CAN $37 95 Bloomsbury Academic

Our Periods, Ourselves

An Empowered Teen's Guide

Mathangi Subramanian

An inclusive guide to menstruation and what makes everyone’s experience unique

Despite what you might have been taught, periods do not happen in a vacuum While it’s important to know the facts of menstruation, it’s just as important to take a holistic, inclusive, and deeper look into the ways in which everything around us--from our genetics and culture to religion and society--influenceshow we each experience our periods

In Our Periods, Ourselves, Mathangi Subramanian covers how society shapes our monthly cycles just as much as science She discusses how neurodiversity, disability, gender, adoption status, and immigration status can impact our periods while offering healthy, concrete recommendations forcoping with these realities Subramanian additionally examines how important issues such asreproductive rights, culture and religion, capitalism, and climate change affect access to the information and resources menstruators need to manage their physical and mental health

Our Periods, Ourselves is an empowering resource for every body It provides the information, encouragement, and support menstruators need to make informed decisions about their periods, and reminds us that ourbodies and our identities are sources of power and strength

Mathangi Subramanian is an award winning neurodiverse South Asian American author and educator and the founder of Moon Rabbit Writing Studio Her novel A People’s History of Heaven was longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award Her middle grade book Dear Mrs Naidu won the South Asia book award A former Fulbright-Nehru Scholar, Senior Policy Analyst for the New York City Council, and Assistant Vice President at Sesame Workshop, Subramanian currently serves as the Director of Early Childhood Policy at the Colorado Children’s Campaign and a Commissioner of the Denver Public Library She resides in Denver, Colorado with her child, their pets, and way too many picture books

October 29, 2026

Paperback • 216 Pages • 5½ x 8½

7 bw illustrations, 18 sidebars

9798765153895

US $28 00 • CAN $40 95 Empowering You Rowman & Littlefield

Coping with Bullying Insights and Tips for Teenagers

Michelle Shreeve

Bullying has sadly skyrocketed in recent years, especially with the rise of social media It can be difficult for teenagers to know what to do or who to turn to in these situations

Coping with Bullying: Insights and Tips for Teenagers offers support and guidance for teenagers being bullied and for those who want to help Readers will learn:

- Positive coping methods

- How to report bullying and what to do if it doesn’t work

- Challenges bullied teens face

- How other teenagers have handled bullying and violence

- How to heal

With expert advice, useful resources, and teenage perspectives throughout, Coping with Bullying is an invaluable guide to help teenagers feel safe, supported, and in control

Michelle Shreeve is a freelance writer who has been published in newspapers, magazines, journals, and websites both locally and nationally She has a library, education, and writing background and is a certified grief coach Shreeve is the author of Coping with Parental Death: Insights and Tips for Teenagers and Coping with a Parent Who Overdrinks: Insights and Tips for Teenagers, both part of the Empowering You series