Mike North's true loves are boxing and photography. But, a Missourian in Los Angeles, he has only managed to live his dreams through being an amateur boxing official and a wedding photographer. Then he meets David, the skilled journalist and retired British midshipman, and together they navigate the hard-hitting, complex, and exciting world of boxing in its heyday. AT THE APRON: A NIGHT AT THE FIGHTS brings us right up to ringside to witness the thrilling, true-tolife experiences of photographers, journalists, promoters, judges, and fighters both at and away from the apron.

"AT THE APRON "explores the boxing world, capturing the lively and action-packed decades in which boxing was the premier combat sport. Mike North, writer, photographer, and amateur boxing official, introduces us to an incredible cast of characters who chose the boxing life-and the arenas where their lifeblood was spent-and invite us to share in their stories, their knowledge, and their passion.

Offering an introduction to the world's seas as a platform for global exchange and connection, Michael North offers an impressive world history of the seas over more than 3,000 years. Exploring the challenges and dangers of the oceans that humans have struggled with for centuries, he also shows the possibilities and opportunities they have provided from antiquity to the modern day. Written to demonstrate the global connectivity of the seas, but also to highlight regional maritime power during different eras, A World History of the Seas takes sailors, merchants and migrants as the protagonists of these histories and explores how their experiences and perceptions of the seas were consolidated through trade and cultural exchange. Bringing together the various maritime historiographies of the world and underlining their unity, this book shows how the ocean has been a vital and natural space of globalization. Carrying goods, creating alliances, linking continents and conveying culture, the history of the ocean played a central role in creating our modern globalized world.

The reinvention of art-history during the 1980s has provided a serious challenge to the earlier formalist and connoisseurial approaches to the discipline, in ways which can only help economic and social historians in the current drive to study past societies in terms of what they consumed, produced, perceived and imagined. This group of essays focuses on three main issues: the demand for art, including the range of art objects purchased by various social groups; the conditions of artistic creativity and communication between different production centres and artistic millieux; and the emergence of art markets which served to link the first two phenomena. The work draws on new research by art historians and economic and social historians from Europe and the United States, and covers the period from the late Middle Ages to the early nineteenth century.

A thorough understanding of stereochemistry is essential for the comprehension of almost all aspects of modern organic chemistry. It is also of great significance in many biochemical and medicinal disciplines, since the stereoisomers of a compound can have dramatically different biological properties. This text explains how the different properties of stereoisomers of a compound arise, and what processes can be used to prepare and analyze stereoisomerically pure compounds. It also presents prominent coverage of the stereochemistry of inorganic and organometallic compounds, which is likely to increase in importance, as these compounds are used as symmetric catalysts in asymmetric synthesis. Modern stereochemical terminology is used throughout, although reference is also made to older terms which are still widely used. A set of problems at the end of each chapter aims to further the reader's understanding of how the content can be applied. The book is designed mainly as a textbook for undergraduate students and as a reference source for more advanced levels, but is also intended for academic and professional organic chemists.

Later medieval Europe saw a great deal of change and expansion of different kinds. This geographically broad textbook explores these events in a series of core chapters on the different countries, covering the Holy Roman Empire, East-Central Europe, Scandinavia and Russia. It looks not only at political history but also at economy, society and culture, including art, architecture, literature and music. North demonstrates that Europe did not consist of a core and periphery, but of different regions that had divergent developments, and makes sense of these various patterns of historical change. A review of current research debates also introduces readers to the most up to date discussions in the field. This volume provides an excellent, clear and comprehensive survey for students, while also throwing light on these societies from unexpected angles. It offers fresh perspectives on western Europe, comparing English with Scottish and Irish development, looking at the French monarchy in a social context, and incorporating Portugal into the discussion of the Iberian Peninsula. -- .

Eighteenth-century Europe witnessed a commercialization of culture as it became less courtly and more urban. The marketing of culture became separate from the production of culture. New cultural entrepreneurs entered the stage: the impresario, the publisher, the book seller, the art dealer, the auction house, and the reading society served as middlemen between producers and consumers of culture, and constituted at the same time the beginning of a cultural service sector. Cultural consumption also played a substantial role in creating social identity. One could demonstrate social status by attending an auction, watching a play, or listening to a concert. Moreover, and eventually more significant, one could demonstrate connoisseurship and taste, which became important indicators of social standing. The centres of cultural exchange and consumption were initially the great cities of Europe. In the course of the eighteenth century, however, cultural consumption penetrated much deeper, for example into the numerous residential and university towns in Germany, where a growing number of functional elites and burghers met in coffee houses and reading societies, attended the theatre and opera, and performed orchestral and chamber music together. Journals, novels and letters were also crucial in forming consumer culture in provincial Germany: as the German states were remote from the cultural life of England and France, the material reality of London and Paris often passed as a literary construction to Germany. It is against this background, and stimulated by the research of John Brewer on England, that the book systematically explores this field for the first time in regard to the Continent, and especially to eighteenth-century Germany. Michael North focuses, chapter by chapter, on the new forms of entertainment (concerts, theatre, opera, reading societies, travelling) on the one hand and on the new material culture (fashion, gardens, country houses, furniture) on the other. At the centre of the discussion is the reception of English culture on the Continent, and the competition between English and French fashions in the homes of German elites and burghers attracts special attention. The book closes with an investigation of the role of cultural consumption for identity formation, demonstrating the integration of Germany into a European cultural identity during the eighteenth century.

A thorough understanding of stereochemistry is essential for the comprehension of almost all aspects of modern organic chemistry. It is also of great significance in many biochemical and medicinal disciplines, since the stereoisomers of a compound can have dramatically different biological properties. This text explains how the different properties of stereoisomers of a compound arise, and what processes can be used to prepare and analyze stereoisomerically pure compounds. It also presents prominent coverage of the stereochemistry of inorganic and organometallic compounds, which is likely to increase in importance, as these compounds are used as symmetric catalysts in asymmetric synthesis. Modern stereochemical terminology is used throughout, although reference is also made to older terms which are still widely used. A set of problems at the end of each chapter aims to further the reader's understanding of how the content can be applied. The book is designed mainly as a textbook for undergraduate students andas a reference source for more advanced levels, but is also intended for academic and professional organic chemists.

Specialist Periodical Reports provide systematic and detailed review coverage in major areas of chemical research. Compiled by teams of leading authorities in the relevant specialist fields, the series creates a unique service for the active research chemist with regular critical in-depth accounts of progress in particular areas of chemistry. Historically, The Royal Society of Chemistry and its predecessor, The Chemical Society, have published reports of developments in chemistry since the end of the 19th century. By 1967 however, the sheer volume of chemistry published had become so great that it was decided to split the research into specialist areas, and the series Specialist Periodical Reports was born. Current subject areas covered are Amino Acids, Peptides and Proteins. Carbohydrate Chemistry, Catalysis, Electron Spin Resonance, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Organometallic Chemistry. Organophosphorus Chemistry, Photochemistry and Spectroscopic Properties of Inorganic and Organometallic Compounds. From time to time, the series has altered according to the fluctuating degrees of activity in the various fields, but these volumes remain a superb reference point for researchers.

Specialist Periodical Reports provide systematic and detailed review coverage of progress in the major areas of chemical research. Written by experts in their specialist fields the series creates a unique service for the active research chemist, supplying regular critical in-depth accounts of progress in particular areas of chemistry. For over 90 years The Royal Society of Chemistry and its predecessor, the Chemical Society, have been publishing reports charting developments in chemistry, which originally took the form of Annual Reports. However, by 1967 the whole spectrum of chemistry could no longer be contained within one volume and the series Specialist Periodical Reports was born. The Annual Reports themselves still existed but were divided into two, and subsequently three, volumes covering Inorganic, Organic, and Physical Chemistry. For more general coverage of the highlights in chemistry they remain a 'must'. Since that time the SPR series has altered according to the fluctuating degree of activity in various fields of chemistry. Some titles have remained unchanged, while others have altered their emphasis along with their titles; some have been combined under a new name whereas others have had to be discontinued. The current list of Specialist Periodical Reports can be seen on the inside flap of this volume.

Studies of the uses of literacy for the exercise of political and economic power, in Latin Christendom and the wider world. This pioneering collection of studies is concerned with the way in which increasing literacy interacted with the desire of thirteenth-century rulers to keep fuller records of their government's activities, and the manner in whichthis literacy could be used to safeguard or increase authority. In Europe the keeping of archives became an increasingly normal part of everyday administrative routines, and much has survived, owing to the prolonged preference forparchment rather than paper; in the Eastern civilisations material is more scarce. Papers discuss pragmatic literacy and record keeping in both West and East, through the medium of both literary and official texts. Thelate Professor RICHARD BRITNELL taught in the Department of History at the University of Durham. Contributors: RICHARD BRITNELL, THOMAS BEHRMANN, MANUEL RIU, OLIVER GUYOTJEANNIN, GERARD SIVERY, MANFRED GROTEN, MICHAELNORTH, MICHAEL PRESTWICH, PAUL HARVEY, GEOFFREY MARTIN, GEOFFREY BARROW, ROBERT SWANSON, NICHOLAS OIKONOMIDES, ELIZABETH ZACHARIADOU, I.H. SIDDIQUI, TIMOTHY BROOK, YOSHIYASU KAWANE

The politics of Yeats, Eliot and Pound have long been a source of discomfort and difficulty for literary critics and cultural historians. In The Political Aesthetic of Yeats, Eliot and Pound, Michael North offers a subtle reading of these issues by linking aesthetic modernism with an attempt in all these writers to resolve basic contradictions in modern liberalism. The many contradictions of modernism, which is seen as inwardly personal yet impersonal, subjective and yet beholden to tradition, fragmented and yet whole, mark the reappearance in art of these political contradictions. Though Yeats, Eliot and Pound certainly attempted to resolve in art problems that could not be resolved in actuality, their very attempt resulted in a politicised aesthetic, one that confessed their inability to do so. Yet this aesthetic retained an element of critical power, precisely because it could not cover up the political contradictions that concerned it; the poetry remains a valid criticism of the status quo and even in its failure suggests the beginnings of an alternative.

The European expansion to Asia was driven by the desire for spices and Asian luxury products. Its results, however, exceeded the mere exchange of commodities and precious metals. The meeting of Asia and Europe signaled not only the beginnings of a global market but also a change in taste and lifestyle that influences our lives even today. Manifold kinds of cultural transfers evolved within a market framework that was not just confined to intercontinental and intra-Asiatic trade. In Europe and Asia markets for specific cultural products emerged and the transfers of objects affected domestic arts and craft production. Traditionally, relations between Europe and Asia have been studied in a hegemonic perspective, with Europe as the dominant political and economic centre. Even with respect to cultural exchange, the model of diffusion regarded Europe as the centre, and Asia the recipient, whereby Asian objects in Europe became exotica in the Kunst- und Wunderkammern. Conceptions of Europe and Asia as two monolithic regions emerged in this context. However, with the current process of globalization these constructions and the underlying models of cultural exchange have come under scrutiny. For this reason, the book focuses on cultural exchange between different European and Asian civilizations, whereby the reciprocal complexities of cultural transfers are at the centre of observation. By investigating art markets, workshops and collections in Europe and Asia the contributors exemplify the varieties of cultural exchange. The book examines the changing roles of Asian objects in European material culture and collections and puts a special emphasis on the reception of European visual arts in colonial settlements in Asia as well as in different Asian societies.

The reinvention of art-history during the 1980s has provided a serious challenge to the earlier formalist and connoisseurial approaches to the discipline, in ways which can only help economic and social historians in the current drive to study past societies in terms of what they consumed, produced, perceived and imagined. This group of essays focuses on three main issues: the demand for art, including the range of art objects purchased by various social groups; the conditions of artistic creativity and communication between different production centres and artistic millieux; and the emergence of art markets which served to link the first two phenomena. The work draws on new research by art historians and economic and social historians from Europe and the United States, and covers the period from the late Middle Ages to the early nineteenth century.

The Baltic in the early modern period has been called a Nordic Mediterranean. In the studies collected here, Professor North is concerned to examine the ways in which this Baltic region became integrated in to the national division of labour and the emerging world economy. The volume opens with a new introductory essay, and the first section then focuses on the commodities exported to Western Eurpope - grain, timber, flax, hemp, and other raw materials. The following studies examine how this ever growing bulk trade stimulated a flow of money and payments in the opposite direction, and led to the formation of the manorial economy and the second serfdom in the grain producing countries of the Baltic hinterlands.

The conversion of CO2 to chemicals and consumables is a pioneering approach to utilize undesired CO2 emissions and simultaneously create new products out of sustainable feedstock. Volume 2 describes several routes to transform CO2 into various compounds by catalytic and electrochemical as well as photo- and plasma induced reactions. Both volumes are also included in a set ISBN 978-3-11-066549-9.

The conversion of CO2 to chemicals and consumables is a pioneering approach to utilize undesired CO2 emissions and simultaneously create new products out of sustainable feedstock. Volume 1 gives an introduction to CO2 chemistry, utilisation and sustainability and further discusses its capture and separation. Both volumes are also included in a set ISBN 978-3-11-066549-9.

The politics of Yeats, Eliot and Pound have long been a source of discomfort and difficulty for literary critics and cultural historians. In The Political Aesthetic of Yeats, Eliot and Pound, Michael North offers a subtle reading of these issues by linking aesthetic modernism with an attempt in all these writers to resolve basic contradictions in modern liberalism. The many contradictions of modernism, which is seen as inwardly personal yet impersonal, subjective and yet beholden to tradition, fragmented and yet whole, mark the reappearance in art of these political contradictions. Though Yeats, Eliot and Pound certainly attempted to resolve in art problems that could not be resolved in actuality, their very attempt resulted in a politicised aesthetic, one that confessed their inability to do so. Yet this aesthetic retained an element of critical power, precisely because it could not cover up the political contradictions that concerned it; the poetry remains a valid criticism of the status quo and even in its failure suggests the beginnings of an alternative.

If art and science have one thing in common, it's a hunger for the new-new ideas and innovations, new ways of seeing and depicting the world. But that desire for novelty carries with it a fundamental philosophical problem: If everything has to come from something, how can anything truly new emerge? Is novelty even possible? In Novelty, Michael North takes us on a dazzling tour of more than two millennia of thinking about the problem of the new, from the puzzles of the pre-Socratics all the way up to the art world of the 1960s and '70s. The terms of the debate, North shows, were established before Plato, and have changed very little since: novelty, philosophers argued, could only arise from either recurrence or recombination. The former, found in nature's cycles of renewal, and the latter, seen most clearly in the workings of language, between them have accounted for nearly all the ways in which novelty has been conceived in Western history, taking in reformation, renaissance, invention, revolution, and even evolution. As he pursues this idea through centuries and across disciplines, North exhibits astonishing range, drawing on figures as diverse as Charles Darwin and Robert Smithson, Thomas Kuhn and Ezra Pound, Norbert Wiener and Andy Warhol, all of whom offer different ways of grappling with the idea of originality. Novelty, North demonstrates, remains a central problem of contemporary science and literature-an ever-receding target that, in its complexity and evasiveness, continues to inspire and propel the modern. A heady, ambitious intellectual feast, Novelty is rich with insight, a masterpiece of perceptive synthesis.

Queer Natures, Queer Mythologies collects in two parts the scholarly work-both published and unpublished-that Sam See had completed as of his death in 2013. In Part I, in a thorough reading of Darwin, See argues that nature is constantly and aimlessly variable, and that nature itself might be considered queer. In Part II, See proposes that, understood as queer in this way, nature might be made the foundational myth for the building of queer communities. With essays by Scott Herring, Heather Love, and Wendy Moffat.

Offering an introduction to the world's seas as a platform for global exchange and connection, Michael North offers an impressive world history of the seas over more than 3,000 years. Exploring the challenges and dangers of the oceans that humans have struggled with for centuries, he also shows the possibilities and opportunities they have provided from antiquity to the modern day. Written to demonstrate the global connectivity of the seas, but also to highlight regional maritime power during different eras, A World History of the Seas takes sailors, merchants and migrants as the protagonists of these histories and explores how their experiences and perceptions of the seas were consolidated through trade and cultural exchange. Bringing together the various maritime historiographies of the world and underlining their unity, this book shows how the ocean has been a vital and natural space of globalization. Carrying goods, creating alliances, linking continents and conveying culture, the history of the ocean played a central role in creating our modern globalized world.

In this latest addition to Oxford's Modernist Literature & Culture series, renowned modernist scholar Michael North poses fundamental questions about the relationship between modernity and comic form in film, animation, the visual arts, and literature. Machine-Age Comedy vividly constructs a cultural history that spans the entire twentieth century, showing how changes wrought by industrialization have forever altered the comic mode. With keen analyses, North examines the work of a wide range of artists - including Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, Marcel Duchamp, Samuel Beckett, and David Foster Wallace - to show the creative and unconventional ways the routinization of industrial society has been explored in a broad array of cultural forms. Throughout, North argues that modern writers and artists found something inherently comic in new experiences of repetition associated with, enforced by, and made inevitable by the machine age. Ultimately, this rich, tightly focused study offers a new lens for understanding the devlopment of comedic structures during periods of massive social, political, and cultural change to reveal how the original promise of modern life can be extracted from its practical disappointment.

In this latest addition to Oxford's Modernist Literature & Culture series, renowned modernist scholar Michael North poses fundamental questions about the relationship between modernity and comic form in film, animation, the visual arts, and literature. Machine-Age Comedy vividly constructs a cultural history that spans the entire twentieth century, showing how changes wrought by industrialization have forever altered the comic mode. With keen analyses, North examines the work of a wide range of artists--including Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, Marcel Duchamp, Samuel Beckett, and David Foster Wallace--to show the creative and unconventional ways the routinization of industrial society has been explored in a broad array of cultural forms. Throughout, North argues that modern writers and artists found something inherently comic in new experiences of repetition associated with, enforced by, and made inevitable by the machine age. Ultimately, this rich, tightly focused study offers a new lens for understanding the devlopment of comedic structures during periods of massive social, political, and cultural change to reveal how the original promise of modern life can be extracted from its practical disappointment.

This engaging study returns to a truly remarkable year, the year in which both Ulysses and The Waste Land were published, in which The Great Gatsby was set, and during which the Fascisti took over in Italy, the Irish Free State was born, the Harlem Renaissance reached its peak, Charlie Chaplin's popularity crested, and King Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered. In short, the year which not only in hindsight became the primal scene of literary modernism but which served as the cradle for a host of major political and aesthetic transformations resonating around the globe.

In his previous study, the acclaimed Dialect of Modernism (OUP, 1994), Michael North looked at the racial and linguistic struggles over the English language which gave birth to the many strains of modernism. Here, he expands his vision to encompass the global stage, and tells the story of how books changed the future of the world as we know it in one unforgettable year.

This study returns to the year in which Ulysses and The Waste Land were published to replace those works among the other cultural productions of the year, in the hope of giving a new start to critical controversies about aesthetic modernism and modern culture. It makes the claim that relations between these are a good deal closer and more complex than recent criticism has been willing to allow, and it illustrates these relations in its mode of organization, in order to reconstruct the larger public world into which these works were introduced.

The Dialect of Modernism describes the crucial role of racial masquerade and linguistic imitation in the emergence of literary modernism. Revolting against the standard language, modernists reimagined themselves as racial aliens and mimicked the strategies of dialect speakers. At the same time, African-American writers struggled to free themselves from dialect as it had been rendered by white dialect writers.