Decode the secrets and uncover the origins and meanings of over 2,000 signs and symbols, from ancient hieroglyphs to modern-day logos. Why is a heart pierced by an arrow a classic symbol of love? What are the ancient roots of fertility symbols? Why are scales a symbol of justice? Delve into the meaning of each symbol and investigate how they have been interpreted in myth, religion, folklore, and art over time, with authoritative text from experts in the field and striking line drawings and photography that emphasize the visual strength and beauty of signs. Divided into six thematic sections - the cosmos, the natural world, human life, myths and religions, society and culture, and symbol systems - this guide to the secret language of signs and symbols is a must-have for those who want to understand the world around them.

You see it everywhere: on bumper stickers, tee shirts, lapel pins, in shop windows, and in front of nearly every school or government building. Yet while the American flag is ubiquitous, as a symbol it is both heavily freighted and misunderstood.

Now an acclaimed European professor of American history brings a fresh perspective to the American flag, exploring its political, social, and cultural significance across the broad swath of its history. Mining a rich vein of materials from history, literature, music, and popular culture, Arnaldo Testi analyzes the symbolic importance of the flag to the national consciousness of this "nation of immigrants" and sees in it the very contradictions that make up our history: secularism and sacredness, freedom and empire, inclusiveness and aggressive self-confidence.

Using sources as diverse as Walt Whitman and Jimi Hendrix, and events as divergent as the American Revolution, the moon landing, and the terrorist attacks of September 11th, Testi reveals the central importance of the flag to the creation of our nation, the evolution of our national character, and the spread of American culture and power across the globe, while illustrating the varied and often conflicting meanings different Americans ascribe to it.

Whether you worship the flag or revile it, respect it or ignore it, Capture the Flag offers the reader a colorful and compelling exploration of the sway it holds on the American imagination.

Protestors across the world use aesthetics in order to communicate their ideas and ensure their voices are heard. This book looks at protest aesthetics, which we consider to be the visual and performative elements of protest, such as images, symbols, graffiti, art, as well as the choreography of protest actions in public spaces. Through the use of social media, protestors have been able to create an alternative space for people to engage with politics that is more inclusive and participatory than traditional politics. This volume focuses on the role of visual culture in a highly mediated environment and draws on case studies from Europe, Thailand, South Africa, USA, Argentina, and the Middle East in order to demonstrate how protestors use aesthetics to communicate their demands and ideas. It examines how digital media is harnessed by protestors and argues that all protest aesthetics are performative and communicative.

Explore the fascinating world of flags! Find intriguing stories and factoids on the design of country, province, state and special flags. Read how these flags are used as heraldic symbols, cultural and national emblems, and how designs and meanings have evolved. The perfect guide to vexillology for anyone interested in the origin, history, and symbolism of flags. Inside this flag book, you'll find: - Highly detailed full-colour flag illustrations for each main entry - Comprehensive text explaining the significant elements of their design, colours, symbols, and insignia. - Beautifully illustrated introductory spreads that trace the history of banners, standards, and flags and explain the terms used to describe them - Sections on signal flags and flag protocol, as well as a concise glossary of terms - A flag identification guide and alphabetical flag directory to enable easy navigation A wonderful gift for flag enthusiasts! This guide to flags helps you identify flags and understand their symbolism. Learn about how flag designs have evolved over centuries and decades and how to identify flags by their distinguishing features. This educational guide to flags details more than 400 examples and covers everything from geography, communications, politics, sport, history, and art. Find out what makes the US stars and stripes so unique and the ancient medieval cantons of Switzerland noteworthy. Detailed notes and annotation reveal the origins, design development, and significance of colours, symbols, crests, and coats of arms and the reasons for recent changes to the flags.

Civil War Flags of Tennessee provides information on all known Confederate and Union flags of the state and showcases the Civil War flag collection of the Tennessee State Museum. This volume is organized into three parts. Part 1 includes interpretive essays by scholars such as Greg Biggs, Robert B. Bradley, Howard Michael Madaus, and Fonda Ghiardi Thomsen that address how flags were used in the Civil War, their general history, their makers, and preservation issues, among other themes. Part 2 is a catalogue of Tennessee Confederate flags. Part 3 is a catalogue of Tennessee Union flags. The catalogues present a collection of some 200 identified, extant Civil War flags and another 300 flags that are known through secondary and archival sources, all of which are exhaustively documented. Appendices follow the two catalogue sections and include detailed information on several Confederate and Union flags associated with the states of Mississippi, North Carolina, and Indiana that are also contained in the Tennessee State Museum collection. Complete with nearly 300 color Illustrations and meticulous notes on textiles and preservation efforts, this volume is much more than an encyclopedic log of Tennessee-related Civil War flags. Stephen Cox and his team also weave the history behind the flags throughout the catalogues, including the stories of the women who stitched them, the regiments that bore them, and the soldiers and bearers who served under them and carried them. Civil War Flags of Tennessee is an eloquent hybrid between guidebook and chronicle, and the scholar, the Civil War enthusiast, and the general reader will all enjoy what can be found in its pages. Unprecedented in its variety and depth, Cox's work fills an important historiographical void within the greater context of the American Civil War. This text demonstrates the importance of Tennessee state heritage and the value of public history, reminding readers that each generation has the honor and responsibility of learning from and preserving the history that has shaped us all-and in doing so, honoring the lives of the soldiers and civilians who sacrificed and persevered.

The symmetrical, exuberant heart is everywhere: it gives shape to candy, pendants, the frothy milk on top of a cappuccino, and much else. How can we explain the ubiquity of what might be the most recognizable symbol in the world? In The Amorous Heart, Marilyn Yalom tracks the heart metaphor and heart iconography across two thousand years, through Christian theology, pagan love poetry, medieval painting, Shakespearean drama, Enlightenment science, and into the present. She argues that the symbol reveals a tension between love as romantic and sexual on the one hand, and as religious and spiritual on the other. Ultimately, the heart symbol is a guide to the astonishing variety of human affections, from the erotic to the chaste and from the unrequited to the conjugal.

Modernist aesthetics in architecture, art, and product design are familiar to many. In soaring glass structures or minimalist canvases, we recognize a time of vast technological advance which affirmed the power of human beings to reshape their environment and to break, radically, from the conventions or constraints of the past. Less well-known, but no less fascinating, is the distillation of modernism in graphic design. This unprecedented TASCHEN publication, authored by Jens Muller, brings together approximately 6,000 trademarks, focused on the period 1940-1980, to examine how modernist attitudes and imperatives gave birth to corporate identity. Ranging from media outfits to retail giants, airlines to art galleries, the sweeping survey is organized into three design-orientated chapters: Geometric, Effect, and Typographic. Each chapter is then sub-divided into form and style led sections such as alphabet, overlay, dots and squares. Alongside the comprehensive catalog, the book features an introduction from Jens Muller on the history of logos, and an essay by R. Roger Remington on modernism and graphic design. Eight designer profiles and eight instructive case studies are also included, with a detailed look at the life and work of such luminaries as Paul Rand, Yusaku Kamekura, and Anton Stankowski, and at such significant projects as Fiat, The Daiei Inc., and the Mexico Olympic Games of 1968. An unrivaled resource for graphic designers, advertisers, and branding specialists, Logo Modernism is equally fascinating to anyone interested in social, cultural, and corporate history, and in the sheer persuasive power of image and form.

A treasure hunt for the hidden meaning of the symbols that appear on America's beloved national flag. "The best book on the American flag's origins. . . No one knows the ins and outs of the origins of the flag of the United States as well as Henry Moeller does. . . Highly recommended." --Marc Leepson, author of Flag: An American Biography With gorgeous four-color reproductions of an amazing array of art from diverse cultures and eras, Inventing the American Flag explores the symbolism of the flag and investigates why the founding fathers chose the images they did to represent the new nation. Art history sleuth Henry W. Moeller brings a breath of fresh air to our appreciation of the flag, blowing away the cobwebs left by antiquarians fixated on dusty records and Masonic conspiracies. Inventing the American Flag weaves together exotic and colorful strands of history to offer a new understanding of the forces that contributed to the flag flown by America's revolutionaries. Henry W. Moeller's forty-year journey into the history of the symbols on America's early flags took him to libraries, museums, and private collections around the world. The deeper he dug, the further back in time he went. He pored over explorers' maps, medieval manuscripts, astronomers' charts, and ancient myths. Gradually, he was able to piece together the remarkable, constantly surprising, and often inspiring story of how, beginning in classical times, the stars and stripes acquired new meanings and were put to new uses until, at the birth of our nation, they became the symbols of that nation itself.