Exploring some of the world's eeriest places, Abandoned Islands features American civil war forts, Europe's last leper colony and South Atlantic whaling stations, along with once grand mansions and colonial settlements and churches, and much more. Arranged geographically, the book takes us from New York's East River to islands off Alaska, from a French Napoleonic-era fort off the coast of Normandy to deserted villages on remote Scottish isles, from Venetian sanatoria to Croatian penal colonies, Japanese mining colonies to Sudanese deserted ports and abandoned atolls in the Indian Ocean. Leafing through these pages, the reasons for abandonment are revealed: climate change sealing off fresh water or river channels, shifting economic forces making life too hard, religious conflict, or wars disrupting daily life - or the absence of war rendering a military settlement unnecessary. With more than 180 outstanding colour photographs and fascinating captions, Abandoned Islands is a brilliant pictorial exploration of lost worlds.

A pictorial history of the world's most enigmatic city
From the first known photograph taken in Los Angeles to its most recent sweeping vistas, this photographic tribute to the City of Angels provides a fascinating journey through the city's cultural, political, industrial, and sociological history. It traces the city's development from the 1880s' real estate boom, through the early days of Hollywood and the urban sprawl of the late 20th century, right up to the present day. With over 500 images, L.A. is shown emerging from a desert wasteland to become a vast palm-studded urban metropolis.
Events that made world news-including two Olympics, Bobby Kennedy's assassination, and the Rodney King riots-reveal a city of many dimensions. The entertainment capital of the world, Hollywood, and its celebrities are showcased along with many other notable residents, personalities, architects, artists, and musicians. The city's pop cultural movements, its music, surfing, health food fads, gangs, and hot rods are included, as are its notorious crimes and criminals. This book depicts Los Angeles in all its glory and grit, via hundreds of freshly discovered images including those of Julius Shulman, Garry Winogrand, William Claxton and many other superb photographers, culled from major historical archives, museums, private collectors, and universities. These are given context and resonance through essays by renowned California historian Kevin Starr and Los Angeles literature expert David Ulin.

From one of the most influential thinkers of our time, an enlightening, essential account of how a fear of gender is fuelling reactionary politics around the world

Judith Butler, the ground-breaking philosopher whose work has redefined how we think about gender and sexuality, confronts the attacks on gender that have become central to right-wing movements today. Global networks have formed ‘anti-gender ideology movements’ dedicated to circulating a fantasy that gender is a dangerous threat to families, local cultures, civilization – and even ‘man’ himself. Inflamed by the rhetoric of public figures, this movement has sought to abolish reproductive justice, undermine protections against violence, and strip trans and queer people of their rights.

But what, exactly, is so disturbing about gender? In this vital, courageous book, Butler carefully examines how ‘gender’ has become a phantasm for emerging authoritarian regimes, fascist formations and transexclusionary feminists, and the concrete ways in which this phantasm works. Operating in tandem with deceptive accounts of critical race theory and xenophobic panics about migration, the anti-gender movement demonizes struggles for equality and leaves millions of people vulnerable to subjugation.

An essential intervention into one of the most fraught issues of our moment, Who's Afraid of Gender? is a galvanizing call to make a broad coalition with all those who struggle for equality and fight injustice. Imagining new possibilities for freedom and solidarity, Butler offers us an essentially hopeful work that is both timely and timeless.

Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. It began in 1811 as a small but ambitious fur trading venture of New York entrepreneur John Jacob Astor and his Pacific Fur Company. The town has seen the development of commerce and trade ebb and flow like the tide throughout its history. Bounded on three sides by water and much of it originally built over the river, Astoria is a town that is deeply rooted in maritime history and traditions. This proud community of 10,000 is ready to share its heritage with the rest of the world.

This 800 page publication is intended to assist persons in obtaining maximum value from a first or subsequent visit to Scotland. The guide is replete with multiple colour photographs and covers a wide range of specialist topics including activities, architecture, art & crafts, castles, tour itineraries, events & culture, family history, famous persons, filming locations, gardens, geology, history, islands, lochs, nature, 38 popular locations, Scottish Borders region, food, steam trains, textiles and whisky distilleries.

Louth Rediscovered is a photography book with the most concise collection of Louth heritage sites. County Louth is known for being the smallest county in Ireland, but did you know that it also has the largest number of heritage sites per capita outside of Dublin? Join landscape photographer Mark Duffy on a journey of rediscovery and explore some of the best locations to visit in County Louth. See Louth like you've never done before, through the eyes of a landscape photographer. Mark visits everything from stunning vistas across the Cooley Mountains to church ruins, castle ruins and even some living castles. Whether you're from Louth or looking for somewhere new to visit, Louth Rediscovered will guide you to the best locations but also show you some of the best times to visit these stunning places. Take a journey of rediscovery and Rediscover Louth.

This is a book that takes the reader on a detailed tour of many of the shores of Britain and Ireland and explains the reasons for their remarkably different scenery. Why, for example, do the rocky coastlines of Western Scotland and Ireland contrast so markedly with the sandy beaches of East Anglia? It describes how the complex coastline of North Wales evolved over some seven million years and also traces the ways in which the human impact has changed all our coastlines from prehistoric times to the present day. Crumbling cliffs, stark headlands, coral beaches, shingle spits, sand dunes and salt marshes - all are here, as are stories of Gaelic speakers, fisherman's tales, saints and shipwrecks. One of the book's most distinctive features tells how the author took part in one of the National Trust's most successful initiatives, termed Enterprise Neptune; how it was conceived and how it has led to the acquisition of more than 775 miles of shoreline to be conserved for the nation in perpetuity. The book also explores how famous artists, writers, poets and composers have been inspired by coastal scenery to produce some of their most important works. And what does the future hold? What changes can we expect along our shores? The concluding chapters examine the escalating threats resulting from increasing human occupation and development and from the impact of climate change. They outline some of the ways in which the National Trust is responding to these challenges and how it is planning to manage our coastal environment for many years to come.