Contents:
Barbara Bender, Adam Briggs and Paul Cobley, Tony Bennett, Cheryl Buckley, David Docherty, Mo Dodson, Peter Fuller, Gordon Fyfe, Nicholas Garnham, Daniel Miller, Stella Newton, Jerry Palmer, Roger Scruton, Sebastion Timpanaro, Raymond Williams

Humor and comedy are an integral part of our lives, inviting us to take pleasure at any moment. In "Taking Humour Seriously," Jerry Palmer argues that humor must be taken seriously--as well as in it's "native state"--or else we fail to understand a fundamental dimension of our aesthetic and social culture.
Palmer's book unravels the many-faceted nature of humor--as part of our personalities, our cognitive and emotional processes, and as subject to the social rules which govern our behavior on different occasions. It is an essential element of literary and visual narrative, subject to moral and aesthetic judgement and used as a rhetorical instrument. "Taking Humour Seriously" contends that only when these separate elements are analyzed can we approach an understanding of humor.
The book examines the role of humor and comedy in different societies, and the methods of study used--from Freud to anthropology, from literary criticism to biology. It finally examines those things which prevent enjoyment of humour, and explores the values of comedic enjoyment.

"Potboilers" looks at the many forms of popular narrative - in print, film and TV. It considers the ways in they have been analyzed in literary criticism, sociology, communications, and in media and cultural studies. The book introduces and summarizes two decades of debate about mass-produced fictions and their position within popular culture. It assesses the methods that have been used in these debates, focusing both on narrative analysis and the communications process. It explores generic conventions, the role of commercial strategies, and the nature of the audience with reference to crime fiction, soap opera, romance and TV sitcoms. Distinctions between "high" and "low" culture have relegated many popular forms to the trash-can of "great" literature. This book takes stock of the methods and concepts used to analyze popular culture and argues for a non-elitist approach to the study of literature, film and television. This book should be of interest to students and teachers of media studies, communication studies, cultural studies and literature.

"Potboilers" looks at the many forms of popular narrative - in print, film and TV. It considers the ways in they have been analyzed in literary criticism, sociology, communications, and in media and cultural studies. The book introduces and summarizes two decades of debate about mass-produced fictions and their position within popular culture. It assesses the methods that have been used in these debates, focusing both on narrative analysis and the communications process. It explores generic conventions, the role of commercial strategies, and the nature of the audience with reference to crime fiction, soap opera, romance and TV sitcoms. Distinctions between "high" and "low" culture have relegated many popular forms to the trash-can of "great" literature. This book takes stock of the methods and concepts used to analyze popular culture and argues for a non-elitist approach to the study of literature, film and television. This book should be of interest to students and teachers of media studies, communication studies, cultural studies and literature.

Nurse Memoirs from the Great War in Britain, France, and Germany examines an understudied corpus of memoirs in English, French, and German stemming from the unprecedented involvement of women in the war effort. Jerry Palmer considers the memoirs in relationship to public opinion, collective memory and other women's writing about the war. Through close-readings of the memoirs and their contexts, the book identifies themes present in the texts and considers the nurse memoir as rhetoric-examining to what extent the texts are promoting or countering arguments in the public sphere about their involvement or more widely about women's position in society. Palmer explores the multiple contexts related to the nurse memoirs, including public response to volunteer wartime nursing, the organisation of the military health services of the three nations and their conduct in the war, and changes in the post-war organization of public health services and the professionalization of nursing.

This book analyses soldiers' memoirs from the Great War of 1914-18 from Britain, France and Germany. It considers both the authors' composition of the memoirs and the public response to them. It provides contextual analysis through a survey of the different types of contemporary writing about the Great War, through an analysis of changes in the language used to describe combat, and through an analysis of those people whose accounts of the war were either excluded or marginalised. It also considers the international response to the most successful of the texts. The purpose of the analysis is to show how soldiers' memoirs contributed to the collective memory of the war and how they influenced public opinion about the war. These texts are both autobiographical and historical and their relationship to the fields of autobiography and historical writing is also considered, as well as to the distinction between fact and fiction.

Design and Aesthetics: A Reader is a comprehensive student reader on design history and aesthetic theory. It includes contributions from many of the writers whose work has been foundational to these two fields, including classic articles by Raymond Williams and Roger Scruton, and newer articles which provide an overview of current concerns and debates. The role of design in the world today has aroused much controversy. The first half of this book deals with the main arguments which have emerged from contemporary analysis of its role in the communication process. Essays focus on the question of absolute aesthetic standards versus cultural relativism, and the role of objects in cultural and social life. The second part turns to particular areas of design history, ranging from architecture and pottery to the history of dress. These two main sectors are prefaced by contextualising introductions by Jerry Palmer and Mo Dodson.

Nurse Memoirs from the Great War in Britain, France, and Germany examines an understudied corpus of memoirs in English, French, and German stemming from the unprecedented involvement of women in the war effort. Jerry Palmer considers the memoirs in relationship to public opinion, collective memory and other women's writing about the war. Through close-readings of the memoirs and their contexts, the book identifies themes present in the texts and considers the nurse memoir as rhetoric-examining to what extent the texts are promoting or countering arguments in the public sphere about their involvement or more widely about women's position in society. Palmer explores the multiple contexts related to the nurse memoirs, including public response to volunteer wartime nursing, the organisation of the military health services of the three nations and their conduct in the war, and changes in the post-war organization of public health services and the professionalization of nursing.

This book analyses soldiers' memoirs from the Great War of 1914-18 from Britain, France and Germany. It considers both the authors' composition of the memoirs and the public response to them. It provides contextual analysis through a survey of the different types of contemporary writing about the Great War, through an analysis of changes in the language used to describe combat, and through an analysis of those people whose accounts of the war were either excluded or marginalised. It also considers the international response to the most successful of the texts. The purpose of the analysis is to show how soldiers' memoirs contributed to the collective memory of the war and how they influenced public opinion about the war. These texts are both autobiographical and historical and their relationship to the fields of autobiography and historical writing is also considered, as well as to the distinction between fact and fiction.

'Tumber and Palmer have provided an invaluable review of how journalists covered and reported the Iraq war and its aftermath. Their exhaustive research has resulted in an impressive analysis that makes this book essential reading' -

John Owen, Executive Producer of News Xchange and Visiting Professor of Journalism, City University

'This is a meticulously researched book that lays bare the way the war was reported. Decide for yourself whether the media 'embeds' - of whom I was one - were the world's eyes and ears inside the military, or merely the puppets of the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence in London' - Ben Brown, BBC

'Media at War offers insights into the ways in which media at war inevitably become participants in both the military and the political wars' - Professor Michael Gurevitch, University of Maryland

International media coverage of the war in Iraq provoked public scrutiny as well debate amongst journalists themselves.

Media at War offers a critical overview of the coverage in the context of other preceding wars, including the first Gulf War, and opens up the debate on the key questions that emerged during the crisis. For example,

- What did we actually gain from 'live, on the spot' reporting?

- Were journalists adequately trained and protected?

- How compromised were the so-called 'embedded' journalists?

Tumber and Palmer's analysis covers both the pre-war and post war phase, as well as public reaction to these events, and as such provides an invaluable framework for understanding how the media and news organisations operated during the Iraq Crisis.

Ground-breaking in its analysis of the relationship between journalists and sources, Spinning into Control is a useful and colorful introduction to the key issues of contemporary news reporting for students of media/communication and journalism. Fundamental to this relationship is the question of the values that determine which events are selected as "newsworthy" and which are neglected. The book provides a case study-based account of how information flows in news reporting.

'Tumber and Palmer have provided an invaluable review of how journalists covered and reported the Iraq war and its aftermath. Their exhaustive research has resulted in an impressive analysis that makes this book essential reading' -

John Owen, Executive Producer of News Xchange and Visiting Professor of Journalism, City University

'This is a meticulously researched book that lays bare the way the war was reported. Decide for yourself whether the media 'embeds' - of whom I was one - were the world's eyes and ears inside the military, or merely the puppets of the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence in London' - Ben Brown, BBC

'Media at War offers insights into the ways in which media at war inevitably become participants in both the military and the political wars' - Professor Michael Gurevitch, University of Maryland

International media coverage of the war in Iraq provoked public scrutiny as well debate amongst journalists themselves.

Media at War offers a critical overview of the coverage in the context of other preceding wars, including the first Gulf War, and opens up the debate on the key questions that emerged during the crisis. For example,

- What did we actually gain from 'live, on the spot' reporting?

- Were journalists adequately trained and protected?

- How compromised were the so-called 'embedded' journalists?

Tumber and Palmer's analysis covers both the pre-war and post war phase, as well as public reaction to these events, and as such provides an invaluable framework for understanding how the media and news organisations operated during the Iraq Crisis.

Ground-breaking in its analysis of the relationship between journalists and sources, Spinning into Control is a useful and colorful introduction to the key issues of contemporary news reporting for students of media/communication and journalism. Fundamental to this relationship is the question of the values that determine which events are selected as "newsworthy" and which are neglected. The book provides a case study-based account of how information flows in news reporting.