The Body Books

New and Published Books

1. Reflecting on Cosmetic Surgery

   Body image, Shame and Narcissism

   By Jane Northrop

   Cosmetic surgery represents an extreme form of modern grooming. It is the fastest growing medical specialty, yet misconceptions abound about those who undertake it and their reasons for doing so. With a grounded approach, engaging 30 women through in-depth interview, this study explores how they...

   Published April 15th 2012 by Routledge
2. Why We Take Drugs

   Seeking Excess and Communion in the Modern World

   By Tom Yardley

   In older cultures, the use of intoxicant drugs was integrated into the rhythms of social existence and bounded by rituals and taboos that ensured their dangerous forces were contained and channelled. In modern western societies, by contrast, the state and the institutions of society have washed...

   Published March 28th 2012 by Routledge
3. Routledge Handbook of Body Studies

   Edited by Bryan Turner

   Series: Routledge International Handbooks

   In the last three decades, the human body has gained increasing prominence in contemporary political debates, and it has become a central topic of modern social sciences and humanities. Modern technologies – such as organ transplants, stem-cell research, nanotechnology, cosmetic surgery and...

   Published March 21st 2012 by Routledge
4. Emergent Writing Methodologies in Feminist Studies

   Edited by Mona Livholts

   Series: Routledge Advances in Feminist Studies and Intersectionality

   Contemporary challenges for seeking new knowledge in feminist studies are intimately intertwined with methodological renewal that promotes justice and equality in changing global contexts. Written by some of the leading scholars in their fields, this edited collection focuses on the emergence of...

   Published December 21st 2011 by Routledge
5. Ultimate Fighting and Embodiment

   Violence, Gender and Mixed Martial Arts

   By Dale C. Spencer

   Series: Routledge Research in Sport, Culture and Society

   Mixed martial arts (MMA) is an emergent sport where competitors in a ring or cage utilize strikes (punches, kicks, elbows and knees) as well as submission techniques to defeat opponents. This book explores the carnal experience of fighting through a sensory ethnography of MMA, and how it...

   Published November 14th 2011 by Routledge
6. ‘Manufactured’ Masculinity

   Making Imperial Manliness, Morality and Militarism

   By J. A. Mangan

   Series: Sport in the Global Society - Historical perspectives

   'Manufactured' Masculinity should be considered essential reading for scholars in the humanities and social sciences at every level and in all parts of the academic world. It weaves together brilliantly the elements of the 'manufacture' of masculinity in the period world-famous 'public' school...

   Published October 26th 2011 by Routledge
7. Depression

   Integrating Science, Culture, and Humanities

   By Bradley Lewis

   Series: The Routledge Series Integrating Science and Culture

   We live in an era of depression, a condition that causes extensive suffering for individuals and families and saps our collective productivity. Yet there remains considerable confusion about how to understand depression. Depression: Integrating Science, Culture, and Humanities looks at the varied...

   Published October 6th 2011 by Routledge
8. The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture

   A Sociology of the Senses

   By Phillip Vannini, Dennis Waskul, Simon Gottschalk

   Series: Contemporary Sociological Perspectives

   The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture is the definitive guide to the sociological and anthropological study of the senses. Vannini, Waskul, and Gottschalk provide a comprehensive map of the social and cultural significance of the senses that is woven in a thorough analytical review of classical,...

   Published August 7th 2011 by Routledge
9. Critical Readings in Bodybuilding

   Edited by Adam Locks, Niall Richardson

   Series: Routledge Research in Sport, Culture and Society

   In recent years the ‘body’ has become one of the most popular areas of study in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Bodybuilding, in particular, continues to be of interest to scholars of gender, media, film, cultural studies and sociology. However, there is surprisingly little scholarship...

   Published July 26th 2011 by Routledge
10. Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires

    the History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians

    By Richard Sugg

    Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires charts in vivid detail the largely forgotten history of European corpse medicine, when kings, ladies, gentlemen, priests and scientists prescribed, swallowed or wore human blood, flesh, bone, fat, brains and skin against epilepsy, bruising, wounds, sores, plague,...

    Published June 26th 2011 by Routledge