From June 2025, new books will be published under the Bloomsbury Academic imprint, and the Rowman & Littlefield, Applause, Lexington Books, and other associated imprint names will be retired. The exception to this is Backbeat, which will continue, and partnership publishing.
We believe that the Bloomsbury and Rowman & Littlefield programmes are stronger together, and remain committed to delivering the same high quality non-fiction content.
This guide introduces a range of top consumer titles publishing January to December 2025 from Rowman & Littlefield and Applause (to May 2025) and rebranded titles (from June), alongside Backbeat.
WEBSITE & DISTRIBUTION MOVE
Distribution of Rowman & Littlefield titles moves from Ingram Publisher Services UK (IPSUK) to Hachette UK Distribution on 1st October 2025. This follows the wider Bloomsbury move from MDL to Hachette in April 2025.
New titles publishing under Bloomsbury Academic (from June 2025) will go straight to Hachette and be distributed from there.
Last orders to IPSUK no later than 30th September 2025
First orders to Hachette UK Distribution from 1st October 2025
Do you have any questions about the distribution move? Please contact the Bloomsbury academic sales team at AcademicSalesUK@bloomsbury.com
From June 2025, visitors to www.rowman.com and www.rowmaninternational.com will be redirected to www.bloomsbury.com. Outside the US, books will be available to purchase on www.bloomsbury.com from October 2025.
Jimmy
The Secret Life of James Dean
By Jason Colavito
Although he died at a heartbreakingly young age and appeared in only a handful of movies, James Dean revolutionized American manhood. As a celebrity and icon, he melded vulnerability with determination, sensitivity with strength, in a way that offered a bracing and— for some—threatening new vision of masculinity. His massive influence and the fascination he has always inspired are inseparable from his identity as a queer man whose complex sexuality shattered the norms of midcentury American society. (When asked whether he was a homosexual, he reportedly said, “I’m certainly not going through life with one hand tied behind my back.”)
Today, even though it is widely accepted that Dean was gay or bisexual, the story of his life and personal character continue to be colored by the prejudices of an earlier era and the work of often unscrupulous biographers and journalists. Drawing on exhaustive new research (including more than four hundred previously secret pages of Dean’s personal and business records), Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean is a revelatory reassessment of the man and his legacy. Free from sensationalism—but unafraid to confront the difficult facts of Dean’s life—it deploys modern insights into sexual diversity to transform our understanding of James Dean’s story, and the stories of boys and men like him.
A fresh and long-overdue reassessment of James Dean, examining his life and legacy as a queer man.
Rights exclusions: Translation, Audio, Film/TV
Imprint: Applause
January 2025
320 Pages
36 Illustrations
Hardback with dust jacket
978 1 4930 8565 1
$29.95 / £25.00
eBook
978 1 4930 8566 8
$28.50 / £19.99
Performing Arts • Film
Social Science • LGBT Studies / General
Jason Colavito is a writer whose work has appeared in publications such as Esquire and The New Republic. He has been interviewed widely in media that include the BBC, The New York Times, Closer, and many others. He is the author of several critically acclaimed nonfiction titles, including The Legends of the Pyramids: Myths and Misconceptions about Ancient Egypt, The Mound Builder Myth: Fake History and the Hunt for a “Lost White Race”, and The Cult of Alien Gods: H.P. Lovecraft and Extraterrestrial Pop Culture. Jason lives in upstate New York, US.
A “bombshell book”.
The Daily Mail
Audrey Hepburn A Life of Beautiful Uncertainty
By Tom Santopietro
Commentaries by Jeffrey Banks
Academy Award-winning actress, fashion icon, ethereal beauty, wife, mother, World War II resistance activist, UNICEF champion— Audrey Hepburn transcended her era and became a global idol whose appeal continues to soar in the twenty-first century.
Packed with beautiful photographs of the star at her most captivating and supplemented with incisive fashion commentary from award-winning designer Jeffrey Banks, Audrey Hepburn: A Beautiful Uncertainty is a one-of-a-kind exploration of Audrey’s glamorous image and remarkable life. Always leading with her heart, Hepburn is shown here fully captured in all her complexity: an often self-doubting but brilliant and genuinely kind woman whose style and activism changed the world.
Tom Santopietro is the author of nine previous books, including The Sound of Music Story, The Importance of Being Barbra, Sinatra in Hollywood, The Godfather Effect, Why To Kill A Mockingbird Matters, the New York Times Editor’s Choice Considering Doris Day, and, most recently, The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic. Over the past thirty years, he has managed three dozen Broadway shows.
This is the definitive tribute to the glamor and character of a beloved icon, including rarely published details, photographs and stories about the lasting impact of Audrey Hepburn’s remarkable life.
Imprint: Applause
May 2025
448 Pages
68 Illustrations
Hardback
978 1 4930 6808 1
$45.00 / £35.00
eBook
978 1 4930 6809 8
$43.50 / £35.00
Biography & Autobiography • Entertainment & Performing Arts
The Devil’s Drug
The Global Emergence of Crystal Meth
By Teun Voeten
Methamphetamine, commonly referred to as crystal meth, is one of the most addictive drugs in the world. Heavy users will destroy themselves in a few months. Originally it was given by the Nazis to their troops to fight the Blitzkrieg. Now it has conquered the whole world and is used at sex parties in Amsterdam and Antwerp, by former hippies in Prague, by the underclass in the slums of Harare, Cape Town, and Peshawar, by truck drivers in Thailand, and workers in the sweatshops in Bangladesh. The largest production centers are in Mexico and Myanmar. But in recent years one lab after another has been found in the border region of Belgium and the Netherlands.
Researcher Teun Voeten traveled the world for two years to investigate all sides of the diabolic drug. He explored the bizarre history and pharmacological effects, he talked to homeless addicts in Tijuana and Los Angeles, cartels in Mexico, international drug experts in Bangkok and Kabul. He met with the original crystal meth cooks in Prague, participants of gay orgies in Amsterdam, speed dealers in Holland and the world-famous underground chemist, Uncle Fester, in Wisconsin. Voeten also spoke to numerous authorities, judges, and social workers who are trying to stop the meth epidemic.
With thorough investigative journalism, daring fieldwork, and colorful atmospheric sketches, Voeten draws a very detailed and disturbing picture the rapid international rise of crystal meth.
Rights exclusions: Translation
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield
February 2025
322 Pages
16 Illustrations
Hardback
978 1 5381 9861 2
$34.00 / £25.00
eBook
978 1 5381 9862 9
$32.00 / £25.00
True Crime • General
Teun Voeten studied philosophy and cultural anthropology in the Netherlands. He learnt photography by working as an assistant at commercial photographers. Since 1990, he has covered the conflicts in Israel, Rwanda, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, Lebanon, DR Congo, Sudan, Libya, and Ukraine for publications such as Vanity Fair, National Geographic, and Newsweek
In the 1990s, Voeten lived five months with an underground community of crack-addicted homeless and wrote the book Tunnel People. It appeared in Amsterdam in 1996 and in an updated U.S. version in 2010 at PM press. In his book How de Body? Hope and Horror in Sierra Leone (2000 Dutch edition, 2003 U.S. edition, St Martin’s Press) he describes the violent civil war in that country that nearly cost his live. In 2012, he published the photo book Narco Estado: Drug Violence in Mexico. Together with film maker Maaike Engels, he made documentaries on the Calais migrant camp in France and a short film on Mexican sicarios.
In 2018, he obtained his PhD with a thesis on the Mexican drug war. His totally rewritten study appeared in 2020 as a Small Wars Journal book titled Mexican Drug Violence: Hybrid Warfare, Predatory Capitalism, and the Logic of Cruelty. Recently, Voeten researched drug related crime for the city of Antwerp which resulted in his book Drugs: Antwerpen in de greep van de Nederlandse syndicaten (Pelckmans, Antwerpen, 2020) In 2021, he investigated the world of crystal meth and its global emergence. In 2022, he published ‘Drug van de Duivel. De Wereldwijde Opkomst van Crystal Meth.’
Teun Voeten still works as a reporter and social researcher. He gives guest lectures at top universities world-wide and appears frequently on international talk shows. For his expertise on drugs, warfare, and organized crime, he is often consulted by city and national governments and prestigious think tanks.
The Wire
A Cultural History
By Ben Lamb
In the two decades since The Wire first aired, the show has continued to grow in cultural relevance as America has seen domestic terrorism increase, race relations become ever tenser, and political populism become increasingly sectarian.
In The Wire: A Cultural History, Ben Lamb explores how the twenty-first century’s greatest television show changed international perceptions of American policing, drug laws, and race relations, and instigated our obsessive streaming of television series. Filled with behindthe-scenes anecdotes and critical insights, everyone from die-hard fans to casual viewers will learn something new about how The Wire has impacted social movements, the city of Baltimore itself, and our modern television landscape.
Ben Lamb is an expert on British television police series. He has contributed to knowledge in the fields of popular criminology and also applied criminological, sociological, and cultural theory to international crime drama both for academic study and for a general readership. Lamb is a corresponding editor for Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies and the author of You’re Nicked: Investigating British Television Police Series
A critical and insightful exploration of arguably the greatest television show of the twenty-first century.
Rights exclusions: Film/TV
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield
February 2025
246 Pages
16 Illustrations
Part of The Cultural History of Television series
Hardback
978 1 5381 8120 1
$38.00 / £30.00
eBook
978 1 5381 8121 8
$36.00 / £30.00
Performing Arts • Television / Genres / Drama
Doctor Who A Cultural History
By Graham Gibson
From its first airing in the immediate wake of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Doctor Who has been a fascinating portal through which viewers observe changing times and standards.
In Doctor Who: A Cultural History, Graham Gibson highlights the incredible impact of the long-running sci-fi series Doctor Who on television by guiding readers through the show’s history and evolution to remain a fixture of popular culture for over six decades. Investigating a range of topics from religion and politics to gender and technology and even the very nature of good and evil, Gibson demonstrates how the show reflects our society, sometimes showing a powerful prescience, sometimes not. A fun and informative look at one of science fiction’s most enduring shows, Doctor Who: A Cultural History is perfectly balanced for avid fans who want to better understand the history and societal impact of their favorite show while reliving the Doctor’s best moments throughout time and space.
Graham Gibson is a lifelong science fiction fan. He is a published playwright and a sought-after screenwriter and journalist whose reviews and opinion pieces have appeared in various online blogs and news sites. He lives in Edinburgh, U.K., with his partner and two sons.
A nostalgic journey through sixty years of the cult-favorite television series Doctor Who and its cultural impact.
Rights exclusions: Audio, Film/TV
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield
May 2025
224 Pages
18 Illustrations
Part of The Cultural History of Television series
Hardback
978 1 5381 9240 5
$36.00 / £30.00
eBook
978 1 5381 9241 2
$34.00 / £25.00
Performing Arts • Television / History & Criticism
You Can’t Kill the Boogeyman
The Ongoing Halloween Saga – 13 Movies and Counting
By Wayne Byrne
You Can’t Kill the Boogeyman: The Ongoing Halloween Saga - 13 Movies and Counting is a cultural and critical examination of the legendary Halloween film franchise, considering the style, themes, and development of the series within temporal and industrial contexts. Through candid conversations with author Wayne Byrne, a variety of directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, composers, and actors from across the Halloween films offer exclusive insights into their careers, their unique aesthetic approaches, and their experiences of working on one of the most celebrated horror franchises within the history of American Cinema.
Wayne Byrne is an Irish author and film historian. His books include Welcome to Elm Street: Inside the Film and Television Nightmares, Walter Hill: The Cinema of a Hollywood Maverick, and Hired Guns: Portraits of Women in Alternative Music, amongst others. He has written on film, music, and literature for a variety of publications such as Hot Press Magazine, The Irish Times, Film Ireland, Books Ireland, and The Dark Side.
A full oral history of the Halloween franchise and legacy.
Rights exclusions: Audio, Film/TV
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
June 2025
269 Pages
20 Illustrations
Hardback
978 1 4930 7978 0
$31.50 / £25.00
eBook
978 1 4930 7979 7
$31.50 / £25.00
Performing Arts • Film / History & Criticism
The Untold Story of Scott Hoying, Pentatonix Star
My Son’s Journey to Find Harmony in Music and Life
By Connie Hoying, foreword by Scott Hoying
In this biography, Connie Hoying mixes personal experiences about raising her son Scott with an account of his life—from Scott’s childhood in Texas and coming out in high school to meteoric rise to fame with Pentatonix and, finally, married life. Connie shares what influenced him as a kid and the ways she fostered a creative environment. She candidly recounts Scott’s coming out process in high school, including her initial mistakes and concerns along the way but also her journey to understanding and allyship.
Along with a foreword by Scott, the book includes a QR code to an original, previously unreleased song “Pray” which covers themes related to Scott’s coming out story.
Connie Hoying is a retired physical therapist and mother of three children: Lindsay, Lauren, and Scott. By sharing her experiences and contributions to her son’s growth, Connie is a resource for parents who want to guide their children toward successfully pursuing their passions. She and her husband Rick live in Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
More than just a close-up look at Scott Hoying’s life and the meteoric rise of Pentatonix, Connie Hoying tells a heartfelt story of perseverance, dedication to music, LGBTQ+ acceptance, and supportive parenting.
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
July 2025
224 Pages
50 Illustrations
Hardback with dust jacket
979 8 8818 0493 0
$26.95 / £19.99
eBook
979 8 8818 0494 7
$25.50 / £19.99
Biography & Autobiography • Music
The Triumph of Economic Freedom
Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism
By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux
Since the Industrial Revolution, capitalism has unleashed unimaginable opportunity and prosperity. However, at key points, economic disruption has led to a greater role for government to protect against capitalism’s excesses. Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux argue that government interference and policies pose the most significant threat to economic freedom. Setting up each chapter on the five periods of American history with a “just the facts” approach that defies partisanship, the authors provide a compelling and highly readable powerful reassessment that will challenge open-minded readers to rethink the conventional wisdom and the policies that spring from them.
Phil Gramm served in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate. He taught Economics at Texas A&M University and has published numerous articles and books including The Myth of American Inequality, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2022 and winner of the 2024 Hayek Book Prize. Donald J. Boudreaux is an American economist, author, professor, and co-director of the Program on the American Economy and Globalization at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, U.S.
How capitalism shaped our age and government regulation threatens its success.
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
July 2025
280 Pages
14 Illustrations
Hardback
979 8 8818 0836 5
$29.95 / £25.00
eBook
979 8 8818 0837 2
$27.50 / £19.99
Political Science • Public Policy / Economic Policy
Generation Tarantino
The Last Wave of Young Turks in Hollywood
By Andrew J. Rausch
In iconic films like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino personified the spirit of ’90s filmmaking, boldly forging his own opportunities rather than waiting for the movie industry to come knocking on his door. Breaking free from the blockbuster bloat of the 1980s, “Generation Tarantino” in some ways recalled the era of an earlier wave of pioneers like Scorsese, Spielberg, Coppola, Altman, and De Palma, but they were uniquely of their time, capturing the attitude of young adults in the 1990s: breaking the rules, setting new standards, mixing tones and genres in a way that no one had before.
Generation Tarantino is an examination of the films, careers, and artistic styles of the most significant filmmakers to emerge during the 1990s. With interviews from filmmakers, screenwriters, camera operators, producers, and actors, this is a book about a generation of directors who raised the artistic bar and changed cinema forever.
Andrew J. Rausch is a film journalist, celebrity interviewer, and the author of many books about cinema and popular culture. He is also an editor at Diabolique, a regular contributor to Shock Cinema, and writes a column for Screem.
Who were the young maverick filmmakers allowed entry into Hollywood in the 1990s following Quentin Tarantino?
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic September 2025
256 Pages
20 Illustrations
Hardback
978 1 4930 7980 3
$34.95 / £30.00
eBook
978 1 4930 7981 0
$33.00 / £25.00
Performing Arts • Film / History & Criticism
Plunder and Survival
Stories of Theft, Loss, Recovery, and Migration of Nazi Uprooted Art
By Suzanne Loebl and Abigail Wilentz
Plunder and Survival offers many complex and riveting stories of uprooted art and a recurring cast of memorable characters— from Nazis of sinister, vicious intent, to figures who were colorful, courageous, and deeply committed to the safety and celebration of the art.
Suzanne Loebl is the author of fourteen books, most recently America’s Medicis: The Rockefellers and Their Astonishing Cultural Legacy. She was born into an art-collecting family in Germany and escaped the Nazis as a teenager by hiding in Belgium. Her other books include America’s Art Museums: A Traveler’s Guide to Great Collections Large and Small and a memoir on her experience during World War II, At the Mercy of Strangers: Growing Up on the Edge of the Holocaust. In 2012, Loebl received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. She lives in the U.S. and splits her time between New York and Maine.
Abigail Wilentz has developed books on art, design, photography, fashion, lifestyle, and other topics as an editor. She has written several books commissioned by publishers and directed a custom publishing line for the luxury fashion brand Brioni. She lives in New York City, U.S., with her husband.
The riveting stories of art uprooted during World War II and recovered through the efforts of a host of dedicated champions.
the Mass Poisoning of America and the Cartel Behind It
By Jake Braun
When the U.S. passed the grim milestone of nearly 100,000 Americans dead from fentanyl-related causes in 2021, President Joe Biden directed the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to develop a counter-fentanyl strategy. In the process, the Biden administration came to understand the remarkable transformation of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico into the Western Hemisphere leader for illicit migration and fentanyl spiked fake pharmaceuticals.
Early in 2023, the administration executed the most sweeping operations against Sinaloa leadership and fentanyl infrastructure in history. The sting did not solve the fentanyl problem. However, the vast power of the U.S. government is now marshalled against the Sinaloa Cartel and Chinese chemical companies. Author Jake Braun concludes with thoughts about where we need to go from here to further address the fentanyl crisis.
National security and cybersecurity expert Jake Braun served as a senior White House official in the Biden administration. He was Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Homeland Security where he established and oversaw the department’s counterfentanyl strategy.
The dramatic story of the U.S. efforts to
combat the fentanyl crisis as Mexican cartels went through their most radical transformation in fifty years.
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
September 2025
240 Pages
Hardback
979 8 8818 0847 1
$28.00 / £19.99
eBook
979 8 8818 0848 8
$26.50 / £19.99
Political Science • General
Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash
Cover coming soon
Beyond Borders Escaping
North Korea
By Dan Chung, foreword by Mike Kim
Over the past 20 years, 33,000 North Korean refugees have escaped to South Korea, though their plight in South Korea is largely unknown. What happens to the North Korean mind after they land in South Korea and the effects of a lifetime of hardship?
Dan Chung tells the stories of the North Korean refugees whose lives have been transformed by his Christian organization Crossing Borders since its foundation in 2003. Within South Korea, North Koreans find themselves in a land of plenty but can’t seem to move on. For many, they are not in danger for the first time in decades but cannot turn off the traumatic memories from their lives in North Korea and the peril they faced in China during their escape. Initially created to aid refugees in escaping the North, Crossing Borders has expanded its work to work with newly resettled refugees within South Korea and beyond.
Dan Chung is the co-founder of the Christian organization Crossing Borders and its current Executive Director. Dan is one of the foremost experts on the North Korean refugee crisis, with relationships with both organizations and scholars researching the ongoing developments of the Korean peninsula.
Provides an inside close-up look at the lives of North Korean refugees in South Korea.
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
October 2025
256 Pages
13 Illustrations
Hardback
978 1 5381 9172 9
$27.95 / £19.99
eBook
978 1 5381 9173 6
$26.50 / £19.99
Political Science • World / Asian Religion • Christian Living / General
Photo by Micha Brändli on Unsplash
Cover coming soon
Matching Minds with Sondheim
The Puzzles and Games of the Broadway Legend
By Barry Joseph
By near-universal consensus, Stephen Sondheim was the greatest musical theater composer of his generation. A less wellknown avenue for his brilliant creativity was his lifelong fascination with designing and constructing intricate puzzles and games.
Matching Minds with Sondheim is a journey into this rich but largely unmapped aspect of the composer’s creative life. Gaming expert and theatre fan Barry Joseph draws from over eighty years of Sondheim’s activities, collecting his rare and neverpublicly-seen puzzles and game designs, scores of original interviews with the celebrity friends who played them, deep dives into Sondheim-related archives from around the U.S., and analysis from both puzzle designers and theater professionals from around the world.
Barry Joseph is the co-founder of the Games for Change Festival, a 20-year-old, multi-day event attended annually by over 2,000 people across the education, non-profit, gaming, and public policy fields. As an early developer of afterschool game design youth programming, Barry has been a national leader in both games-based learning and games for social impact, producing dozens of curriculums and games.
A one-of-a-kind look at Stephen Sondheim’s lifelong obsession with games and puzzles of all kinds.
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
November 2025
280 Pages
70 Illustrations
Hardback with dust jacket
978 1 4930 8583 5
$34.95 / £30.00
eBook
978 1 4930 8584 2
$33.00 / £25.00
Performing Arts • Theater / Broadway & Musical Revue
Artificial Ethics
Human Values for Today’s Tech World
By Shannon E. French
The emergence of technologies like AI, machine learning, and bio-enhancement have created a battleground for what it means to be human and what our world would look like based on algorithm rather than on a moral compass.
In Artificial Ethics, Shannon E. French uncovers the struggle to preserve individual identity and humanity in the development and application of these new technologies. Cutting through the hype, French draws on cutting-edge research to explore what some of these new technologies mean for our ethical lives. In doing so, she provides a guide for navigating the risks and opportunities of our high-tech era without sacrificing the qualities that make us responsible moral human beings.
Shannon E. French is a leading ethicist affiliated with academic, government, and military institutions across the world. Her best-selling book Code of the Warrior was developed during her service at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, U.S. French has contributed to the public debate on ethical issues through articles or interviews in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Toronto Globe and Mail, and many others. She has appeared on NPR, BBC radio, CBS radio, C-SPAN, and elsewhere.
A plea for a tech-enhanced future that doesn’t lose sight of human values—a future that embraces technology without being erased by it.
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
November 2025
220 Pages
Hardback
978 1 5381 9660 1
$32.00 / £25.00
eBook
978 1 5381 9662 5
$30.00 / £25.00
Social Science • Technology Studies
Photo by Lukas on Unsplash
Cover coming soon
Morphinomenal
How the Power Rangers Took Over the World
By Joshua Moore
In Morphinomenal, journalist and lifelong Power Rangers fan Joshua Moore will deliver readers a deeply researched narrative history of Power Rangers – from its inception to the present day – and offer comprehensive retellings and analysis of milestone moments for the brand and show, as well as insights into its stillthriving toy line and an adult fandom that yearns for its favorite spandex-wearing superheroes to share a bigger piece of the spotlight with the likes of Batman and Wonder Woman. Moore will tell this story through a combination of original interviews and existing news coverage, academic research and recorded audio and video appearances by cast and crew members from throughout the show’s 30-year run.
Joshua Moore has been a fan of Power Rangers since it began airing in 1993. Over the last decade he has written on a wide range of subjects for the Herald-Leader. In addition to regular appearances on local and regional sports radio shows, Moore has been a featured guest on podcasts dedicated to Power Rangers, Pixar films and Pokémon. He now is a marketer, freelancer writer and broadcaster, and runs Ranger Reader, a Substack about Power Rangers.
The unlikely story of how Power Rangers went from a children’s TV oddity to a billion-dollar multimedia empire.
Rights exclusions: Film/TV
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
June 2025
256 Pages 22 Illustrations
Trade paperback original
978 1 4930 8161 5
$24.95 / £18.99
eBook 978 1 4930 8162 2
$23.50 / £17.99
Performing Arts • Television / General
Shakespeare’s World
Seeing the Plays through Elizabethan Eyes
By Josh Lubarr and Rebecca Goodheart, foreword by Tina Packer
Just as audiences 400 years from now will need guidance to understand concepts like “the American dream” or “wokeness,” so does an understanding of the Elizabethan worldview and rhetoric illuminate Shakespeare’s plays in new and surprising ways for us.
Josh Lubarr has been acting, directing, and researching Shakespeare for decades and has worked on productions of over a dozen of Shakespeare plays. His acting training includes work at Shakespeare & Company.
Rebecca Goodheart is the Executive Artistic Director at Elm Shakespeare Company in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., and has directed most of Shakespeare’s plays. An authority on the use of Shakespeare’s rhetoric in performance, she has presented her research at national conferences and theatrical workshops. She has been a teacher at Shakespeare & Company for many years.
Dennis Krausnick (1942–2018) was a founding member of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, U.S. For 25 years, he was its Director of Training, working with thousands of actors.
A fascinating and readable distillation of the Elizabethan worldview for anyone looking to understand and engage with Shakespeare’s writing in a practical, personal, and active way.
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
November 2025
269 Pages
75 Illustrations
Trade paperback original
978 1 4930 9132 4
$26.95 / £19.99
eBook 978 1 4930 9133 1
$25.50 / £19.99
Performing Arts • Theater / History & Criticism
Photo by
Taha on Unsplash
Cover coming soon
AI for the Rest of Us
By Sairam Sundaresan
In our era of transformation, AI is poised to affect nearly every facet of our lives, from how we work to how we play, create, and even think. In AI for the Rest of Us, Sairam Sundaresan offers readers the tools to navigate and understand the AI world, whether they are discussing it with colleagues for a project, considering it for a business venture, or simply pondering its implications on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Moving along a roadmap that starts with the basics and builds up to more advanced insights, Sundaresan starts with a history of AI and concepts such as machine learning, deep learning and neural networks before exploring areas of AI application like natural nanguage processing, computer vision, and recommender systems, and lastly providing input for readers to plan their own AI projects and what it takes to make them successful.
Sairam Sundaresan is a machine learning scientist with over 13 years of experience in the tech industry. He currently oversees advanced AI projects at Intel Labs. His work on deep learning algorithm research and development has earned him several patents. He also created Gradient Ascent, a fast-growing newsletter that demystifies AI for non-technical audiences, which was featured on wired.com.
An informative, accessible, and entertaining guide to help lay readers understand what AI is, how we can use it to be more efficient, and future-proof ourselves for the job market.
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
November 2025
184 Pages
50 Illustrations
979 8 8818 0795 5
$24.95 / £18.99 eBook
979 8 8818 0796 2
$22.50 / £16.99
Computers • Intelligence (AI) & Semantics
Photo by Andy Kelly on
Unsplash
Cover coming soon
Paperbacks & New Editions
Palestine 1936
The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict
By Oren Kessler
2024 Winner of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature
In spring 1936, the Holy Land erupted in a rebellion that targeted both the local Jewish community and the British Mandate authorities that for two decades had midwifed the Zionist project. The Great Arab Revolt would last three years, cost thousands of lives—Jewish, British, and Arab—and cast the trajectory for the Middle East conflict ever since. Yet incredibly, no history of this seminal, formative first “Intifada” has ever been published for a general audience.
This is the story of two national movements and the first sustained confrontation between them. The rebellion was Arab, but the Zionist counterrebellion—the Jews’ military, economic, and psychological transformation—is a vital, overlooked element in the chronicle of how Palestine became Israel.
Based on extensive archival research on three continents and in three languages, Palestine 1936 is the origin story of the world’s most intractable conflict. In Oren Kessler’s engaging, journalistic voice, it reveals world-changing events through extraordinary individuals on all sides: their loves and their hatreds, their deepest fears and profoundest hopes.
A profoundly human, even-handed narrative of the origins of the Middle East conflict.
Rights exclusions: Translation
Rights sold: Audio
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield
March 2025
336 Pages
20 Illustrations
Trade paperback
978 1 5381 9370 9
$19.99 / £14.99
Previously published in hardback (2023)
978 1 5381 4880 8
$26.95 / £19.99
eBook
978 1 5381 4881 5
$25.50 / £19.99
History • Middle East / Israel & Palestine
Oren Kessler is a journalist and political analyst based in Tel Aviv, Israel. He has served as deputy director for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, U.S., Middle East research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society in London, U.K., Arab affairs correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, and an editor and translator at Haaretz English edition.
Raised in Rochester, New York, U.S., and Tel Aviv, he holds a BA in history from the University of Toronto and an MA in diplomacy and conflict studies from Reichman University (IDC Herzliya).
Kessler’s work has appeared in media outlets such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and Politico Palestine 1936, his first book, was named winner of the 2024 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and among the ten best books of 2023 by the Wall Street Journal.
Visit his website www.orenkessler.com
Praise for Palestine 1936:
The struggle between Jews and Arabs for the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is a modern war fought with ancient maps. When did the conflict assume its current parameters?... In ‘Palestine 1936,’ the Tel Aviv-based political analyst Oren Kessler argues that the crucial moment was an overlooked episode a decade before Israel’s birth. He makes a convincing case..... [Kessler] is the first to tell this story from all three sides (British, Arab, Jewish) and use sources in all three languages (English, Arabic, Hebrew). He has done an exceptional job and opened new vistas on troubles past and present.
— The Wall Street Journal
King Kong
The History of a Movie Icon, Revised Edition
By Ray Morton
The 2005 book King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson covered the six King Kong movies that had been produced at the time, providing in-depth chapters chronicling the conception, production, release, and legacy of each film. Since the book’s publication, Peter Jackson’s 2005 King Kong remake was released and two additional Kong films have been produced: 2017’s Kong: Skull Island and 2021’s Godzilla Vs. Kong. There has also been a major Broadway musical version of the story, two new animated series, and a number of novels, comic books, and graphic novels. There is also a new film on the way: Godzilla Vs. Kong 2, which is currently slated for release in 2025.
With so much new Kong material to cover, this expanded and updated version of the book is the most complete, thorough, and comprehensive history of the cinematic King Kong possible.
Ray Morton has written a number of produced sitcom scripts, has been a columnist for Script magazine, and works in Hollywood as a story consultant and script analyst. He is the author of multiple histories of popular films and instructional books such as A Quick Guide to Screenwriting and A Quick Guide to Television Writing
A full, comprehensive history of all things King Kong.
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
July 2025
480 Pages
50 Illustrations
Trade paperback original
978 1 4930 7637 6
$35.00 / £30.00
eBook
978 1 4930 7638 3
$33.50 / £25.00
Performing Arts • Film / History & Criticism
Have Yourself a Movie
Little Christmas Second Edition
By Alonso Duralde
Don’t waste another second of your valuable holiday time on another boring Christmas movie. Film critic Alonso Duralde highlights the best—and worst— movies of the Yuletide season with this fun and informative film guide.
Whether you’re looking for the classics, family favorites, holiday horror, Christmasthemed crime epics, or the most wonderfully awful cinematic lumps of coal, Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas will point you in the right direction. Whether your idea of a holiday classic is White Christmas, Die Hard, or Gremlins, you’ll find the right film for you, as well as an exhaustively entertaining breakdown of the various screen Scrooges.
This fully revised and updated edition includes all Christmas movies of note to have been released in the 15 years since the first edition was published, gems omitted from the first edition, and new “featurettes” sprinkled throughout the text that zoom in on key performers and films in the pantheon of Christmas films.
Alonso Duralde is the author of 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men. He has made frequent appearances on national media including CNN, PBS, TCM, ABC, and FilmStruck, as well as in numerous documentaries.
A fully revised and updated version of the classic guide to Christmas movies, publishing on the 15th anniversary of the first edition.
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
November 2025
240 Pages
10 Illustrations
1 4930 8744 0
/ £18.99
1 4930 8745 7
/ £17.99
Performing Arts • Film / General
Photo by Josh Sorensen on Unsplash
Cover coming soon
Backbeat
Books known for their depth, spirit and authority, for passionate music lovers
Founded in 1991, Backbeat offers everything passionate fans and musicians might need—from biographies and memoirs, critical examinations, and histories to authoritative volumes on musical instruments and instruction. With its diverse range of titles covering all areas of popular music and beyond, Backbeat complements Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series of short books focusing on individual albums.
Backlist highlights
See the Beatles
The Revolutionary Visuals of John, Paul, George, and Ringo
By David Bianculli
For all the deserved praise that has been heaped on the music of Beatles, their visual output has never been fully appreciated as a whole. Nonetheless, as this beautifully illustrated book shows, the band’s four members, individually and collectively, were arguably just as experimental and influential in visual media as in the recording studio. Decades before MTV, they were pioneers of the prototypical music video, and they produced or inspired a great number of original movies and shows.
See the Beatles looks at all this and more: early filmed appearances in front of British royalty, televised press conferences, nude underground films, and starring roles or musical soundtracks for other films. The book examines iconic examples of Beatle-related imagery, including their album covers, savvy management of their photographic image, and even hand-drawn sketches.
David Bianculli has been a television critic since 1975, with articles published in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and others. Since 1987, he’s been the TV critic for NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He is a professor at Rowan University where he has founded the first Master’s program in television studies in the U.S. He lives in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, U.S.
An unprecedented fresh look at a band that taught us not only how to hear but also how to see.
Imprint: Backbeat
December 2025
256 Pages
Performing Arts • Film & Video / Biography
Photo by
Nick Fewings on Unsplash
Cover coming soon
Cranking Up Stevie Wonder
His Musical Legacy in 11 Songs
American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder is a trailblazer whose influence can be heard across modern R&B, soul, pop, jazz, and gospel. He’s also an inspiration to disabled artists throughout the world: after going blind as a child, he pursued music passionately and blossomed into one of the most important composers and performers in history. Still going strong after decades in the spotlight, he remains one of the best-selling musical artists of all time.
From “Superstition” to “So What the Fuss,” Cranking Up Stevie Wonder provides a whirlwind tour of 11 essential Stevie Wonder tracks. It covers every era of his output—early hits, genre experiments, latecareer highlights—exploring the irresistible alchemy that keeps Wonder’s music forever at our fingertips.
Arthur Lizie is a Professor of Communication at Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts, U.S. He is the series editor for Backbeat Books’ Goes to 11 series. His books include Prince FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the Purple Reign and Beck: Every Album, Every Song and the edited Prince and Neil Young volumes in the Interviews and Encounters book series.
This fun and informative book explores Stevie Wonder’s place in pop music history through eleven of his most important songs.
Since the release of her first album in 2006, Taylor Swift and her music has taken the world by storm, breaking countless records and changing the shape of music and songwriting worldwide. Her career has changed the scope of potential for musicians and curated a body of work vast enough to cross multiple genres.
From “Teardrops on My Guitar” to The Eras Tour, Cranking Up Taylor Swift provides a whirlwind tour of 11 essential Taylor Swift tracks. It covers every era of her output— early hits, genre experiments, late-career highlights—exploring the irresistible alchemy that makes Swift’s music something the world cannot shake off.
Phoebe E. Hughes is a lecturer in musicology in the music department at Binghamton University, New York, U.S. Her classes focus on Western Classical music, U.S. popular music, Taylor Swift, and music research methods. Her studies focus on the intersections of class, gender, race, and sexuality in 20th and 21st century United States popular music. She has a PhD in musicology from Ohio State University, and an interdisciplinary specialization certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies.
A whirlwind tour of 11 essential Taylor Swift tracks.
Rights exclusions: Film/TV
Imprint: Backbeat
June 2025
160 Pages
Part of the Goes to 11 series
Trade paperback original
978 1 4930 8472 2
$19.95 / £14.99
eBook
978 1 4930 8473 9
$15.50 / £11.99
Music • History & Criticism
Room 100
Sid, Nancy, and the Night Punk Rock Died
By Jesse P. Pollack
Room 100 chronicles the tragic story of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, punk rock’s very own Romeo and Juliet. Through a wealth of archival material, plus new and exclusive interviews from rock luminaries such as Television guitarist Richard Lloyd, iconic photographer Robert Bayley, and PUNK magazine co-creator John Holmstrom, critically acclaimed true-crime writer Jesse P. Pollack’s book is the first to be solely devoted to popular music’s darkest hour—the murder of Nancy Spungen. Did Sid kill the love of his life in a drug-induced stupor, or had Nancy been the victim of a robbery gone wrong? Was there a death pact? Did the police ignore crucial evidence? This comprehensive journalistic account will be the definitive book on one of rock ‘n roll’s most intriguing and enduring mysteries.
Jesse P. Pollack has served as a contributing writer for Weird NJ magazine since 2001. His first book, Death on the Devil’s Teeth, coauthored with Mark Moran, was nominated for a New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance Author Award. He lives in Fort Recovery, Ohio, U.S.
The gripping first account of one of the darkest days in pop music history: the murder of Nancy Spungen.
Rights exclusions: Film/TV
Imprint: Backbeat
June 2025
240 Pages
52 Illustrations
Trade paperback original
978 1 4930 5063 5
$26.95 / £19.99
eBook
978 1 4930 5064 2
$25.50 / £19.99
Music • History & Criticism
When Rock Met Hip-Hop
How Run-DMC, Aerosmith, Anthrax, The Beastie Boys, and More Crossed Cultural and Musical Boundaries
By Steven Blush
One of the most important events in modern music remains the late 80s crosscollision of rock and hip hop. Aerosmith/ Run DMC, Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique, Public Enemy and Anthrax, Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons, De La Soul and Third Bass, and the 318 hip hop records that sampled Billy Squier’s “The Big Beat” exemplify the era. Rap records sampled rock bands, elevating sampling into an art form, while influencing all other forms of popular music. In keeping with When Rock Met Disco and When Rock Met Reggae, this book relates the musical cross collision, and cultural fallout that changed music for the better, and remains an influence through today.
Steven Blush has written multiple books about rock and pop culture as well as about Billie Jean King’s rebel tennis league in Bustin’ Balls, currently in development for TV by Billie Jean and Hannah Storm. He also wrote and produced the theatrically released Sundance Film Festival-premiered doc film American Hardcore followed by an expanded second edition of the American Hardcore book, now available in four languages.
The third instalment in the “When Rock Met” trilogy.
Imprint: Backbeat July 2025
256 Pages 20 Illustrations
Biography & Autobiography • Music
REVOLUTION
Prince, the Band, and the Era
By James Campion
Revolution is a detailed exploration into the era of Prince’s most prolific and groundbreaking music made with considerable inspiration and performed by a unique cadre of musicians he gathered and relentlessly drove to be the sonic, visual, and ideological reflection of his evolving vision. Although being the most self-contained, versatile, and prolific artist of his era, Prince reveled in the band, a multi-racial, intergender unit that acted as both family and loyal acolytes that embodied his ethos, expressed his pathos, and lifted him to rarified heights of pop dominance. This is the story of the genre-shifting, multi-media, trailblazing Prince & the Revolution from their humble inception to their precipitous rise in celebrated hit singles, albums, films, and tours to their controversial and shocking demise.
James Campion is a syndicated columnist and contributing editor for the pop culture magazine, the Aquarian Weekly. He is also the co-host of the popular music podcast Underwater Sunshine with Counting Crows front-man, Adam Duritz. The two host an annual music festival in NYC by the same name. Campion is the author of Shout It Out Loud: The Story of KISS’s Destroyer and the Making of an American Icon and Accidentally Like a Martyr: The Tortured Art of Warren Zevon
The guide to all things Prince, spanning the entirety of his career and legacy.
Imprint: Backbeat
April 2025
224 Pages 19 Illustrations
Photo by DJ Johnson on Unsplash
Cover coming soon
Magnum Opus
The Unbelievable 15 Year Saga of Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy
By James Greene Jr.
By 1993, Guns N’ Roses had hit every benchmark possible for a rock n’ roll band. The most captivating part of the Guns N’ Roses story was just beginning, however. A 15-year saga was about to unfold over the creation of the group’s sixth studio album, a perverse and jaw-dropping tale that would come to involve not only a small nation of diverse musical talent but also several figures from the world of professional sports, a multinational soda company, the estate of Martin Luther King Jr., and the FBI. In the end, cultural critics couldn’t agree if the resulting work was unprecedented genius or a crime of mediocrity.
Magnum Opus recounts in engaging depth and detail the long and often ludicrous road to Guns N’ Roses’s sixth studio album, Chinese Democracy, and assembles all the outrageous facts from as many direct sources as possible and places them in a thrilling narrative spanning our millennia.
James Greene Jr. is a freelance writer and author of three books, Brave Punk World: The International Rock Underground From Alerta Roja to Z-Off, This Music Leaves Stains: The Complete Story of The Misfits, and A Convenient Parallel Dimension: How Ghostbusters Slimed Us Forever. Rock n’ roll die-hards can finally separate the truth about Chinese Democracy from the lies.
Imprint: Backbeat
October 2025
288 Pages 16 Illustrations
Biography & Autobiography • Music
by
Photo
Patrick Pahlke on Unsplash
Cover coming soon
Don’t Blow Your Mind
Garage Rock from the Sonics to the White Stripes and Beyond
By Peter Aaron
The original garage rock sound first flourished in the mid-1960s when the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and other British Invasion acts inspired a wide-reaching wave of teenagers and twenty-somethings to scrounge up guitars and gear and emulate their hitmaking heroes—often with far rawer results.
Don’t Blow Your Mind plunges its paws deep into the primordial pit of garage rock’s past while focusing its menacing, sunglassesafter-dark eyes on the vibrant music’s present and future. Drawing on extensive research that includes dozens of interviews with key members of original 1960s garage bands and their 1970s–2000s descendants and other authorities on the music, Peter Aaron provides a pulsating portrait of this electric D.I.Y. folk music of our time. With many profiles of key bands, essential albums, related topics, and personalities he weaves together the greater garage rock narrative.
Peter Aaron is the author of If You Like the Ramones and The Band FAQ and the co-author of Richie Ramone’s autobiography I Know Better Now. In the 1980s, he promoted early concerts by Nirvana, the Flaming Lips, and others. He lives in the Hudson Valley, U.S.
A pulsating portrait of garage rock from its origins to today and what might lie beyond.
Imprint: Backbeat
November 2025
352 Pages
40 Illustrations
Music • History & Criticism
Photo by
Elesban
Landero
Berriozábal on Unsplash
Cover coming soon
Moving in Stereo
The Life of Ric Ocasek, the Driving Force of The Cars
By Peter Aaron
The sound of New Wave pop music and the early days of MTV were defined by the work of a handful of iconic musicians, and few stood taller in that era than Ric Ocasek, frontman and primary songwriter for The Cars.
The band charted 13 Top 40 singles in the U.S. from 1978 to 1987 and the music video for their 1984 song “You Might Think” won the first-ever MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year for its ground-breaking use of computer graphics. Ocasek wrote or co-wrote all the band’s music, and later lent his extraordinary talent as a producer to bands like Weezer, No Doubt, Guided by Voices, and Bad Brains. In 2018, The Cars were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which marked the final live performance of the group before Ocasek’s death the following year.
Moving in Stereo serves as an in-depth guide to Ocasek’s life and catalog as a musician and uphold him as one of the most essential voices in pop music during the MTV era.
Peter Aaron is the author of If You
Like the Ramones and The Band FAQ and the co-author of Richie Ramone’s autobiography I Know Better Now. In the 1980s, he promoted early concerts by Nirvana, the Flaming Lips, and others. He lives in the Hudson Valley, U.S.
An in-depth guide to Ocasek’s life and a catalog of one of the most essential voices in pop music during the MTV era.
