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.

In the summer of 1804, the eagle was chosen as the symbol of the French Army by Napoleon himself. The Emperor's sculptor, Chaudet, made the original model, and from this were cast bronze copies in the workshop of Thomire, which would be proudly borne into battle by many a French regiment. This fascinating work by Terence Wise explores in depth the flags, colours and guidons of the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), concentrating on France and her allies, and covering every faction from Baden to Wurzburg. This book is a must for anyone interested in this fascinating topic.

In Hindi 'pukka' means genuine, authentic, complete. Design in India is not only determined by the aesthetic appeal of the object, but also by the significance of the object in the everyday life of its users. In some instances, the age-old practices established by ancient Indian wisdom determine the design of an object, such as the datun (neem tree twig) recommended for oral care or agarbatti (incense) used to heal and protect. On the other hand, the lota (a kind of metal pot) has been a part of everyday Indian life for centuries and its design remains unchanged even today. Pukka Indian, or Purely Indian, brings together 100 objects that are the most coveted symbols representing Indian culture and design. This illustrated book celebrates the diversity, versatility, vibrancy, and colours of design icons - ranging from kulhad to the kolhapuri chappal, Nano to the Nehru jacket, and auto rickshaw meter to the Ambassador - that set them apart in a country as multifarious as India. Each of these 100 profiles reveals the intrinsic Indian nature of every object, and how each has influenced design, culture and, in turn, every Indian.

Once only a sign, technologies have helped to transform brands into symbols that we constantly encounter in our natural and mediated environments. Moreover, the branding of culture marks a commercialization of society. Almost everywhere we look, a brand name or logo appears. By combining a scholarly approach with case studies and examples, this text bridges the worlds of communication and business by providing a single vocabulary in which to discuss branding. It brings these ideas together into a coherent framework to enable discussions on the topic to occur in a variety of disciplines. A number of perspectives are also provided, including brands as signs and symbols, brand personality, history, communication, cognitive factors, loyalty, personal branding, community, and social issues. Providing a comprehensive overview of the branding process - from the creation of brands to analysis of their messages - readers will begin to understand the communicative impact of branding.

What they mean and how we use them. It offers a fascinating visual examination of how signs and symbols developed as a means of communication throughout history in art, religion, psychology, literature and everyday life. It shows how signs weave a continuous fabric of communication throughout our cultures, and how modern systems still depend on ancient symbols. It contains a visual directory of more than 1000 icons, graphic motifs, ideograms and symbols, together with 170 stunning photographs and fine art paintings. Throughout history hundreds of icons and symbols have been developed, interpreted and reproduced; from cave paintings to computer iconography and advertising. This book brings together these variant themes and shows the iconographical and symbolic strands that connect them all, whether it is the universal circle, the hammer and sickle, or the cross that goes far beyond being a symbol of Christianity. The book includes a directory of over 1,000 signs and symbols, from alchemical symbols to the Adinkra signs of Ghana, demonstrating the extraordinary breadth of subject matter and concepts that can be expressed with such simplicity.

'The Art and Ideology of the Trade Union Emblem, 1850-1925' is a groundbreaking book that considers trade union emblems and banners as art objects in their own right. It studies their commissioning, their designers and the social conditions and gender relations that they knowingly or unwittingly reveal.

With an eye for the illogical and a flair for the irreverent, journalist Mark Lane aims his sharp wit at one of the most intriguing duties of the Florida legislature-signing state symbols into law. In Roaring Reptiles, Bountiful Citrus, and Neon Pies, he spotlights nineteen things that have been proposed and/or appointed to officially define Florida. Lane guides readers through the often-comic historical events that led to the selection of Florida's official fruit, tree, gem, bird, song, and other items ranging from the well known to the obscure, packing in personal stories and laugh-out-loud moments along the way. Did you know the state slogan was almost "the alligator state"? Or that a mailbox in the shape of the state marine mammal can tell you a lot about a person? Readers will also discover that the bill proposing the state soil caused a crisis in the Senate and that the state play-written in the peculiar genre of symphonic outdoor drama-puts a heroic spin on the grisly European conquest of St. Augustine. "Full of the kind of unnecessary commentary that might cause trouble," as Lane describes it, this book is also written with affection toward the wide diversity of lives and experiences that make up the state he calls home. He shows that deciding the things that represent us at any given moment is far trickier than it appears. Especially in Florida, a state aptly symbolized by "a lot of contradictions baked into a Key lime pie.

Le Livre des symboles allie essais originaux et incisifs sur des symboles particuliers a des images representatives provenant de tous les horizons et de toutes les epoques de l'histoire. Les textes tres accessibles s'associent de facon originale a pres de 800 magnifiques images en couleurs pour transmettre les dimensions voilees du sens. Chacun de ces quelque 350 essais examine les origines psychiques d'un symbole donne et la maniere dont il evoque les processus et dynamiques psychiques. Les racines etymologiques, les jeux d'opposition, le paradoxe et l'ombre, les differentes manieres dont les diverses cultures ont fait naitre une image symbolique: tous ces facteurs sont pris en compte. Rediges par des auteurs specialises dans les domaines de la psychologie, de la religion, de l'art, de la litterature et de la mythologie comparee, les essais entrent en resonance de maniere a refleter les correspondances inattendues de la psyche. Il n'existe pas de definitions immuables, qui auraient tendance a ecraser les symboles; un symbole encore essentiel demeure partiellement inconnu, attire notre attention et s'offre sous de nouvelles manifestations et de nouveaux sens au cours du temps. Plutot que de proposer de simples categories, Le Livre des symboles met en lumiere la maniere dont on passe de l'experience visuelle d'une image symbolique dans l'art, la religion, la vie ou les reves, a l'experience directe de ses resonances personnelles et psychologiques. Le Livre des symboles etablit de nouvelles references pour l'exploration consciencieuse des symboles et de leurs significations et interessera une grande diversite de lecteurs: artistes, designers, reveurs et interpreteurs de reves, psychotherapeutes, autodidactes, amateurs de jeux videos, lecteurs de BD, chercheurs en religion et en spiritualite, ecrivains, etudiants et tous ceux qui s'interessent au pouvoir des images archetypales.