In an ever-growing field of study, this is a major contribution to one of the key areas in cultural studies and cultural theory - the spaces, practices and mythologies of our everyday culture. Drawing on the work of such continental theorists as Henri Lefebvre, Michel de Certeau, Marc Auge and Siegfried Kracauer, Joe Moran explores the concrete sites and routines of everyday life and how they are represented through political discourse, news media, material culture, photography, reality TV shows, CCTV and much more. Unique in his focus of the under-explored, banal aspects of everyday culture, including office life, commuting, traffic and mass housing, Moran re-evaluates conventional notions of everyday life in cultural studies, and shows that analysing such 'boring' phenomena can help make sense of cultural and social change. This book is interdisciplinary in its approach and covers many different areas including visual culture, cultural geography, material culture, and cultural history as well as the key areas of cultural studies and sociology. Students from all these subjects will find this clearly written and lively work an invaluable study resource.

In an ever-growing field of study, this is a major contribution to one of the key areas in cultural studies and cultural theory the spaces, practices and mythologies of our everyday culture.

Drawing on the work of such continental theorists as Henri Lefebvre, Michel de Certeau, Marc Auge and Siegfried Kracauer, Joe Moran explores the concrete sites and routines of everyday life and how they are represented through political discourse, news media, material culture, photography, reality TV shows, CCTV and much more.

Unique in his focus of the under-explored, banal aspects of everyday culture, including office life, commuting, traffic and mass housing, Moran re-evaluates conventional notions of everyday life in cultural studies, and shows that analysing such boring phenomena can help make sense of cultural and social change.

This book is interdisciplinary in its approach and covers many different areas including visual culture, cultural geography, material culture, and cultural history as well as the key areas of cultural studies and sociology.

Students from all these subjects will find this clearly written and lively work an invaluable study resource.

"Do you want to write clearer, livelier prose? This witty primer will help." -The New York Times Book Review An exploration of how the most ordinary words can be turned into verbal constellations of extraordinary grace through the art of building sentences The sentence is the common ground where every writer walks. A good sentence can be written (and read) by anyone if we simply give it the gift of our time, and it is as close as most of us will get to making something truly beautiful. Using minimal technical terms and sources ranging from the Bible and Shakespeare to George Orwell and Maggie Nelson, as well as scientific studies of what can best fire the reader's mind, author Joe Moran shows how we can all write in a way that is clear, compelling and alive. Whether dealing with finding the ideal word, building a sentence, or constructing a paragraph, First You Write a Sentence informs by light example: much richer than a style guide, it can be read not only for instruction but for pleasure and delight. And along the way, it shows how good writing can help us notice the world, make ourselves known to others, and live more meaningful lives. It's an elegant gem in praise of the English sentence.

Interdisciplinarity covers one of the most important changes in attitude and methodology in the history of the university.

Taking the study of English as its main example, this fully updated second edition examines the ways in which we have organized knowledge into disciplines, and are now reorganizing it into new configurations as existing structures come to seem restrictive. Joe Moran traces the history and use of the term a ~interdisciplinaritya (TM), tackling such vital topics as:

• the rise of the disciplines
• interdisciplinary English
• Literary and Cultural Studies
• 'theory' and the disciplines
• texts and histories
• literature and science, space and nature.

Including an updated further reading section and new concluding chapter, Interdisciplinarity is the ideal entry point into one of today's most heated critical debates.

Interdisciplinarity covers one of the most important changes in attitude and methodology in the history of the university.

Taking the study of English as its main example, this fully updated second edition examines the ways in which we have organized knowledge into disciplines, and are now reorganizing it into new configurations as existing structures come to seem restrictive. Joe Moran traces the history and use of the term a ~interdisciplinaritya (TM), tackling such vital topics as:

• the rise of the disciplines
• interdisciplinary English
• Literary and Cultural Studies
• 'theory' and the disciplines
• texts and histories
• literature and science, space and nature.

Including an updated further reading section and new concluding chapter, Interdisciplinarity is the ideal entry point into one of today's most heated critical debates.

But what does your furniture point at?' asks the character Joey in the sitcom Friends on hearing an acquaintance has no TV. It's a good question: since its beginnings during WW2, television has assumed a central role in our houses and our lives, just as satellite dishes and aerials have become features of urban skylines. Television (or 'the idiot's lantern', depending on your feelings about it) has created controversy, brought coronations and World Cups into living rooms, allowed us access to 24hr news and media and provided a thousand conversation starters. As shows come and go in popularity, the history of television shows us how our society has changed. Armchair Nation reveals the fascinating, lyrical and sometimes surprising history of telly, from the first demonstration of television by John Logie Baird (in Selfridges) to the fear and excitement that greeted its arrival in households (some viewers worried it might control their thoughts), the controversies of Mary Whitehouse's 'Clean Up TV' campaign and what JG Ballard thought about Big Brother. Via trips down memory lane with Morecambe and Wise, Richard Dimbleby, David Frost, Blue Peter and Coronation Street, you can flick between fascinating nuggets from the strange side of TV: what happened after a chimpanzee called 'Fred J. Muggs' interrupted American footage of the Queen's wedding, and why aliens might be tuning in to The Benny Hill Show.

Our success as a species is built on sociability, so shyness in humans should be an anomaly. But it's actually remarkably common - we all know what it's like to cringe in embarrassment, stand tongue-tied at the fringe of an unfamiliar group, or flush with humiliation if we suddenly become the unwelcome centre of attention. In Shrinking Violets, Joe Moran explores the hidden world of shyness, providing insights on everything from timidity in lemon sharks to the role of texting in Finnish love affairs. As he seeks answers to the questions that shyness poses - Why are we shy? Can we overcome it? Does it define us? - he uncovers the fascinating stories of the men and women who were 'of the violet persuasion', from Charles Darwin to Agatha Christie, and from Tove Jansson to Nick Drake. In their stories - often both heart-breaking and inspiring - and through the myriad ways scientists and thinkers have tried to explain and cure shyness, Moran finds a hopeful conclusion. To be shy, he decides, is not simply a burden - it is also a gift, a different way of seeing the world that can be both enriching and inspiring.

'There is an honesty and a clarity in Joe Moran's book If You Should Fail that normalises and softens the usual blows of life that enables us to accept and live with them rather than be diminished/wounded by them' Julia Samuel, author of Grief Works and This Too Shall Pass 'Joe Moran is the most perceptive and original observer of British life that we have' Matthew Engel Do you ever feel like a failure? Enter widely acclaimed observer of daily life Professor Joe Moran, not to tell you that everything will be all right in the end, but to reassure you that failure is an occupational hazard of being human. It's the small print in life's terms and conditions. Covering everything from examination dreams to fourth-placed Olympians, If You Should Fail is about how modern life, in a world of self-advertised success, makes us feel like failures, frauds and imposters. We need more narratives of failure, and to see that not every failure can be made into a success - and that's OK. As Moran shows, even the supremely gifted Leonardo da Vinci could be seen as a failure. Most artists, writers, sports stars and business people face failure. We all will, and can learn how to live with it. To echo Virginia Woolf, beauty "is only got by the failure to get it . . . by facing what must be humiliation - the things one can't do." Combining philosophy, psychology, history and literature, Moran's ultimately upbeat reflections on being human, and his critique of how we live now, offers comfort, hope - and solace.

'There is an honesty and a clarity in Joe Moran's book If You Should Fail that normalises and softens the usual blows of life that enables us to accept and live with them rather than be diminished/wounded by them' Julia Samuel, author of Grief Works and This Too Shall Pass 'Full of wise insight and honesty. Moran manages to be funny, erudite and kindly: a rare - and compelling - combination. This is the essential antidote to a culture obsessed with success. Read it' Madeleine Bunting Failure is the small print in life's terms and conditions. Covering everything from examination dreams to fourth-placed Olympians, If You Should Fail is about how modern life, in a world of self-advertised success, makes us feel like failures, frauds and imposters. Widely acclaimed observer of daily life Joe Moran is here not to tell you that everything will be all right in the end, but to reassure you that failure is an occupational hazard of being human. As Moran shows, even the supremely gifted Leonardo da Vinci could be seen as a failure. Most artists, writers, sports stars and business people face failure. We all will, and can learn how to live with it. To echo Virginia Woolf, beauty "is only got by the failure to get it . . . by facing what must be humiliation - the things one can't do." Combining philosophy, psychology, history and literature, Moran's ultimately upbeat reflections on being human, and his critique of how we live now, offers comfort, hope - and solace. For we need to see that not every failure can be made into a success - and that's OK.

These seven plays by Joe Moran, entitled "Not All for Love," (c) are about imagined American icons and ordinary folks in many walks of life -- mobsters, sex symbols, authors, athletes, "highly placed government sources," job seekers and recruiters, frustrated air travelers, talent agents, "ladies who lunch" (and their waiter), male and female ad execs scheming to run the show. They do what they do "Not All for Love." The plays have been presented by community theatres in paid public readings, workshops and contest series in Chicago, Los Angeles, Sarasota and Naples. Moran wrote the plays to entertain audiences with characters of his mind, stories to laugh and sigh about, to surprise, perhaps even amaze.

A STYLE GUIDE BY STEALTH - HOW ANYONE CAN WRITE WELL (AND FULLY ENJOY GOOD WRITING) 'Joe Moran is a wonderfully sharp writer, calm, precise and quietly comical' Craig Brown Advanced maths has no practical use, and is understood by few. A symphony can be enjoyed, but created only by a genius. Good writing, however, can be written (and read) by anyone if we give it the gift of our time. Enter universally praised historian Professor Joe Moran. From the Bible and Shakespeare to Orwell and Diana Athill, First You Write a Sentence.show us how the most ordinary words can be turned into verbal constellations, sharing: - The tools of the trade; from typewriters to texting and the impact this has on the craft - Writing and the senses; how to make the world visible and touchable - How to find the ideal word, build a sentence, and construct a paragraph Good writing can ignite the hearts and minds of readers, help us notice the world better and live more meaningful lives. And it's a power we all can wield. 'What a lovely thing this is: a book that delights in the sheer textural joy of good sentences . . . Any writer should read it' Bee Wilson 'Thoughtful, engaging, and lively . . . when you've read it, you realise you've changed your attitude to writing (and reading)' John Simpson, formerly Chief Editor of the OED and author of The Word Detective 'Moran is a past master at producing fine, accessible non-fiction' Helen Davies, Sunday Times