Tag: Film and Television Studies

Michael Haneke – 23 March 1942

For Michael Haneke’s birthday, we have put together some of our relevent titles looking at the film director.

We have also collected some some Film Studies series, and Open Access Film and Television Studies for further browsing. For more content, you can also check out our website by Subject: Film and Television Studies here, or browse by Area, such as Europe, here.

Michael Haneke’s Cinema

The Ethic of the Image

Catherine Wheatley

“Wheatley provides excellent close readings of a number of films and crucial film scenes. The book as a whole could be used in conjunction with a film course on Haneke, or its various chapters would lend themselves to discussions in graduate and even undergraduate courses on contemporary European film…The writing style is clear and while it pursues a critical theoretical analysis, it remains free from jargon. “  ·  Monatshefte

Volume 7, Film Europa

SHORT-LISTED FOR BEST MOVING IMAGE BOOK BY THE AND/OR BOOK AWARDS; SHORT-LISTED FOR THE 2009 WILLY HAAS AWARD; NOMINATED SIGHT & SOUND MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE MONTH, SEPTEMBER 2009

Sensitive Subjects

The Political Aesthetics of Contemporary German and Austrian Cinema

Leila Mukhida

Through illuminating explorations of Michael Haneke, Valeska Grisebach, Andreas Dresen, and other filmmakers of the post-reunification era, Mukhida develops an analysis centered on film aesthetics and experience, showing how medium-specific devices like lighting, sound, and mise-en-scène can help to cultivate political sensitivity in spectators.

Volume 23, Film Europa

Read freely available introduction.

Existentialism and Contemporary Cinema

A Beauvoirian Perspective

Edited by Jean-Pierre Boulé and Ursula Tidd

This book is an attempt to redress this balance and reopen the dialogue between Beauvoir’s writings and film studies. The authors analyse a range of films, from directors including Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Lucille Hadzihalilovic, Sam Mendes, and Sally Potter, by drawing from Beauvoir’s key works such as The Second Sex (1949), The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) and Old Age (1970).

Read freely available introduction.

New Austrian Film

Edited by Robert von Dassanowsky and Oliver C. Speck

Out of a film culture originally starved of funds have emerged rich and eclectic works by film-makers that are now achieving the international recognition that they deserve: Barbara Albert, Michael Haneke, Ulrich Seidl, and Stefan Ruzowitzky, to give four examples. This comprehensive critical anthology, by leading scholars of Austrian film, is intended to introduce and make accessible this much under-represented phenomenon.

Read freely available introduction.

Existentialism and Contemporary Cinema

A Sartrean Perspective

Edited by Jean-Pierre Boulé and Enda MacCaffrey

At the heart of this volume is the assertion that Sartrean existentialism, most prominent in the 1940s, particularly in France, is still relevant as a way of interpreting the world today. […] In a scholarly yet accessible style, the contributors exploit the rich interplay between Sartre’s philosophy, plays and novels, and a number of contemporary films including No Country for Old Men, Lost in Translation and The Truman Show, with film-makers including the Dardenne brothers, Michael Haneke, and Mike Leigh.

Read freely available introduction.

Additional Recommendation: A Title on Austrian Film

Homemade Men in Postwar Austrian Cinema

Nationhood, Genre and Masculinity

Maria Fritsche

“An extraordinary work, in Postwar Austrian Cinema adds to its lucid presentation of the social and aesthetic dynamics of Austrian national cinema after 1945 a welcome number of superb readings of better and lesser-known films. The period is unlikely to be served by a more thoughtful and attentive analysis any time soon.” • Austrian History Yearbook

Volume 15, Film Europa

Film Book Series

Browse Film Europa

“This is a series which, in a very short period of time, has had a huge impact on the field.”  ·  Monatshefte

German cinema is normally seen as a distinct form, but this series emphasizes connections, influences, and exchanges of German cinema across national borders, as well as its links with other media and art forms. Individual titles present traditional historical research (archival work, industry studies) as well as new critical approaches in film and media studies (theories of the transnational), with a special emphasis on the continuities associated with popular traditions and local perspectives.

Volume 29
Volume 28
Volume 27
Volume 26

Browse Visual And Media Cultures Of The Cold War And Beyond

Published by Berghahn Books and the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

This interdisciplinary series focuses on a range of visual and media cultures in and beyond the Cold War period (1945-1991) in both social and transnational contexts. It explores ways in which film and other media, their creators and audiences, and industries and states participated in, were shaped by and, in turn, shaped cultural relations during the Cold War. Beyond 1991, this series also welcomes interdisciplinary explorations of the legacies of the Cold War and its ongoing cultural impact in a global context.

Check out some of our Open Access Film and Television Studies titles. Browse more here.

Andrzej Wajda (6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016)

Polish Cinema

For Andrzej Wajda’s birthday, we have put together some of our titles looking at the Polish film director, as well as some titles on Eastern European cinema, down below.

For more content, you can browse our website by Subject: Film and Television Studies here, or browse by Area: Central/Eastern Europe here.

Open Access

From Self-fulfilment to Survival of the Fittest

Work in European Cinema from the 1960s to the Present

Ewa Mazierska

Contrary to the assumption that Western and Eastern European economies and cinemas were very different from each other, they actually had much in common. After the Second World War both the East and the West adopted a mixed system, containing elements of both socialism and capitalism, and from the 1980s on the whole of Europe, albeit at an uneven speed, followed the neoliberal agenda. This book examines how the economic systems of the East and West impacted labor by focusing on the representation of work in European cinema. Using a Marxist perspective, it compares the situation of workers in Western and Eastern Europe as represented in both auteurist and popular films, including those of Andrzej Wajda.

Read freely available introduction, and more with open access.

Polish Cinema

A History

Marek Haltof

First published in 2002, Marek Haltof’s seminal volume was the first comprehensive English-language study of Polish cinema, providing a much-needed survey of one of Europe’s most distinguished—yet unjustly neglected—film cultures. Since then, seismic changes have reshaped Polish society, European politics, and the global film industry. This thoroughly revised and updated edition takes stock of these dramatic shifts to provide an essential account of Polish cinema from the nineteenth century to today, covering such renowned figures as Kieślowski, Skolimowski, and Wajda along with vastly expanded coverage of documentaries, animation, and television, all set against the backdrop of an ever-more transnational film culture.

Read freely available introduction.

Polish Film and the Holocaust

Politics and Memory

Marek Haltof

During World War II Poland lost more than six million people, including about three million Polish Jews who perished in the ghettos and extermination camps built by Nazi Germany in occupied Polish territories. This book is the first to address the representation of the Holocaust in Polish film and does so through a detailed treatment of several films, which the author frames in relation to the political, ideological, and cultural contexts of the times in which they were created. Following the chronological development of Polish Holocaust films, the book begins with two early classics: Wanda Jakubowska’s The Last Stage (1948) and Aleksander Ford’s Border Street (1949), and next explores the Polish School period, represented by Andrzej Wajda’s A Generation (1955) and Andrzej Munk’s The Passenger (1963). Between 1965 and 1980 there was an “organized silence” regarding sensitive Polish-Jewish relations resulting in only a few relevant films until the return of democracy in 1989 when an increasing number were made, among them Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Decalogue 8 (1988), Andrzej Wajda’s Korczak (1990), Jan Jakub Kolski’s Keep Away from the Window (2000), and Roman Polański’s The Pianist (2002). An important contribution to film studies, this book has wider relevance in addressing the issue of Poland’s national memory.

Read freely available introduction.

Andrzej Wajda

History, Politics & Nostalgia In Polish Cinema

Janina Falkowska

“Falkowska’s comprehensive survey of Wajda’s artistic evolution is a worthwhile addition to the growing critical literature on this exceptional filmmaker. In practical terms, the monographs is also useable as a textbook and…can serve as a point of departure for the continuing discourse von Andrzej Wajda and his films.”  ·  Slavic and East European Journal

The Political Films of Andrzej Wajda

Dialogism in Man of Marble, Man of Iron, and Danton

Janina Falkowska

Andrzej Wajda is considered one of Poland’s – many would say the world’s – greatest film directors. During the thirty-five years of his activity in film, theatre or television, his work, whether strong or weak, always arouses strong emotions and provokes intense debates in the media. His films deal with historical and political issues concerning Polish character and the nature of political power. Controversial, painful, stimulating and cinematically beautiful, they never fail to fully engage the spectator. This is particularly true for his major political films, which form the basis of the study. Applying Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism, the author shows how a creative interaction between the image on the screen and the viewer is established through Wajda‘s films. At the same time, she offers a detailed analysis of the historical events leading up to the collapse of the Socialist system in Poland.

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Journals

International Men’s Day

19 November 2024

November 19th is International Men’s Day, which recognises “worldwide the positive value men bring to the world, their families and communities […] highlight[ing] positive role models and raise awareness of men’s well-being”. The official theme for 2024 is “Positive Male Role Models”. This information has been taking from the official site. You can read more on International Men’s Day from their website here.

In the spirit of this day, we have compiled some of our titles looking at men’s studies right below, but you can also browse our website by Subject: Gender Studies and Sexuality here for more.

Following that, we have put together a small collection of some of our open access titles looking at men’s studies. You can browse our full collection of Open Access Gender Studies here, all entirely free to read, as well as in other subjects.

Further down, we have also listed some relevant journals.

At the bottom of this blog, we have attached four recent and relevant external author materials, including a BBC article, a Telegraph article, an author podcast interview, and a university interview with editors.

Click here to expand text for the details.

We have also attached six of our previous Berghahn Blog Materials that are tied to Men’s Studies.

Click here to expand text for more details.

Lastly, we want to highlight our ongoing sale, which some of the titles in this blog are included in.

Click here to expand text for more details.

In 2024, Berghahn Books is celebrating 30 years as a family-run press, and we want to thank you for your support! To celebrate, we are offering 30% off our top 30 all-time bestsellers in each of our biggest subjects. As well as 30% off our frontlist titles from January to June of 2024! Use code BERGHAHN30 for 30% off, available in all formats until December 31st, 2024.

Please click here to browse our full selection of titles on sale now!

Featured Books in Gender Studies looking at Men’s Studies

This title is currently on sale! enter code BERGHAHN30 in the cart for 30% off!

Intimate Histories

African Americans and Germany since 1933

Nadja Klopprogge

Intimate Histories focuses on intimate relations as sites of shared pasts connecting African American and German history in the years between 1933 and 1990. By tracing topics that include anti-miscegenation laws, forced sterilization, casual sexual encounters, marriage, and friendships, Intimate Histories broadens our understanding of African American–German relations during the so-called “century of extremes.”

Volume 12, Explorations in Culture and International History

Read freely available introduction here.

Fixing Motorcycles in Post-Repair Societies

Technology, Aesthetics and Gender

Gabriel Jderu

“The book draws attention to an overlooked area of mobility studies—repair and maintenance. It inventively demonstrates the social and political dimensions of technology and is especially attentive to gender distinctions and differences.” • Suzanne Ferriss, Nova Southeastern University

Volume 3, Politics of Repair

Read freely available introduction here.

Ӧmie Sex Affiliation

A Papuan Nature

Marta Rohatynskyj

The practice of affiliating the female child with the mother and the male child with the father was considered a rare and inexplicable practice in Papua New Guinean ethnography at the time the original data was collected some forty years ago. Marta Rohatynskyj undertakes a shift in her analytical concepts of kinship studies to reveal the deep-seated disjuncture between female and male that this practice represents. The author argues that this practice is associated with a totemic/animistic ontology and has currency in a particular type of Melanesian society.

Volume 14, ASAO Studies in Pacific Anthropology

Read freely available introduction here.

Gender, Power, and Non-Governance

Is Female to Male as NGO Is to State?

Edited by Andria D. Timmer and Elizabeth Wirtz

“Focusing on the gendered nature of NGO-state relationships it offers a wide spectrum of case studies covering all regions of the world. Diversity is an important asset of the volume: diversity of countries-from different regions, of different sizes, from different type of states (weak or strong), but also diversity of types of NGOs analyzed, diversity of topics proposed.” • Laura Grünberg, University of Bucharest

Read freely available introduction here.

The Precarity of Masculinity

Football, Pentecostalism, and Transnational Aspirations in Cameroon

Uroš Kovač

“The author has not only written one of the few anthropological accounts exploring the relations between neoliberalism, Pentecostalism, masculinity, and the commercialization of professional sports, but also refutes too easily made assumptions about a crisis of masculinity affecting societies on the African continent and elsewhere.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Read freely available introduction here.

Medieval Intersections

Gender and Status in Europe in the Middle Ages

Edited by Katherine Weikert and Elena Woodacre

“This is a stimulating collection overall that contains a number of well-written contributions inviting any reader to ask more questions. The book convincingly shows what paying attention to the construction of gendered identities can bring to our understanding of medieval societies, their texts, and objects.” • H-Soz-Kult

Read freely available introduction here.

How is a Man Supposed to be a Man?

Male Childlessness – a Life Course Disrupted

Robin A. Hadley

“a groundbreaking book shining the light on men and their experiences, how men may feel when they don’t end up having children for one reason or another e.g. not meeting the right person, infertility.” • Guild of Health Writers

Volume 48, Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives

Read freely available introduction here.

Cinemas of Boyhood

Masculinity, Sexuality, Nationality

Edited by Timothy Shary

“The organizational scheme is laudable—Shary includes essays on individual films, auteurs, decades, and national cinemas. Future works on boyhood in cinema could build on any of these organizational categories to contribute to this nascent field…Highly Recommended.” • Choice

Read freely available introduction here.

Modernity and the Unmaking of Men

Violeta Schubert

“This book contains a wealth of ethnographic detail on kinship, marriage, and masculinity in rural Macedonia in the post-Socialist period.  With her focus on “the village scape,” Schubert adds fresh insights to understandings of modernity and the state.” • Deborah Reed-Danahay, University of Buffalo

Volume 1, New Anthropologies of Europe: Perspectives and Provocations

Read freely available introduction here.

Men Under Fire

Motivation, Morale, and Masculinity among Czech Soldiers in the Great War, 1914–1918

Jiří Hutečka

“Hutečka accomplished his goal of using gender to illuminate Czech soldiers’ motivation. He deserves praise for writing an effective and useful book that should be read by students and historians of gender and war.” • Journal of Military History

Volume 26, Austrian and Habsburg Studies

Read freely available introduction here.

Being a Sperm Donor

Masculinity, Sexuality, and Biosociality in Denmark

Sebastian Mohr

“An important, original contribution to the anthropology of reproduction. Mohr does an excellent job of presenting multiple, fascinating perspectives on this subject. The ethnographic material is superb and his framing of it is appropriate and convincing.” • Linda Layne, University of Cambridge

Volume 40, Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives

Read freely available introduction here.

Reconceiving Muslim Men

Love and Marriage, Family and Care in Precarious Times

Edited by Marcia C. Inhorn and Nefissa Naguib

“This volume is an important correction to various types of literature, from within anthropology as well as from other disciplinary fields… it will become a significant contribution to the field of masculinity in general and to Muslim men in particular.” • Leif Manger, University of Bergen

Volume 38, Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives

Read freely available introduction here.

Edited by Marcia C. Inhorn and Nefissa Naguib

Open Access Books in Gender Studies looking at Men’s Studies

Here are some of our relevent open access titles. Browse our full collection of Open Access Gender Studies here, all entirely free to read.

From Our Blog: Author interviews, author articles, excerpts…

AUTHOR ARTICLE
Pamela Moss and Michael J. Prince
Open Access

“Gaining insight into the effects of various configurations of power and knowledge, including future analyses of moral injury, toxic masculinity, structural racism, and political extremism, can open up more space to address the restrictions imposed on the burned-out soldiers’ minds, bodies, and souls.”

AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Theodoros Rakopoulos
Open Access

“The continuity here reflects kinship, clanship, genealogy, and ideologies of masculinity that cannot be underestimated. “

AUTHOR ARTICLE
Clothes, Men, Instagram – suits you sir
by Joshua M. Bluteau

“[F]rom the bespoke tailor’s shops of London’s Savile Row through to the social media platform Instagram, and casts an anthropological lens on men, their clothes, social media use, and notions of individuality.”

AUTHOR ARTICLE
Myths around Men
by Dr Robin A Hadley

“There are many myths around men, manhood and masculinity when it comes to both age and reproduction.”

BOOK EXCERPT
Does the Man Make the Motorcycle or the Motorcycle the Man? by Sasha Disko

“[I]n the discourse of motorcycling as a whole, proper masculinity was rhetorically disassociated from conspicuous consumption. The act of masculine consumption was concealed behind the twin pillars of modern manliness: production and possession”

BERGHAHN ARTICLE
A place for sexually variant and gender non-conforming America

“[F]eaturing titles edited by Katherine Crawford-Lackey and Megan E. Springate that emphasize the history and preservation of two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer settings in the United States.”

Berghahn Journals

JOURNAL OF BODIES, SEXUALITIES, AND MASCULINITIES

Editors:
Jonathan A. Allan, Brandon University, Canada
Chris Haywood, Newcastle University, UK 
Frank G. Karioris, University of Pittsburgh, USA

JBSM is a new peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal that brings together critical studies of men and masculinities and sexuality studies. Its remit is to bring these two fields together to better understand the complexities of masculinities and sexualities, and especially the way they intersect with one another.

Current Issue: Volume 5, Issue 1: Viral Masculinities. Guest Edited by João Florêncio

BOYHOOD STUDIES
An Interdisciplinary Journal

Interim Editors: 
Jonathan A. Allan, Brandon University
Chris Haywood, Newcastle University

Boyhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal is a peer-reviewed journal providing a forum for the discussion of boyhood, young masculinities, and boys’ lives by exploring the full scale of intricacies, challenges, and legacies that inform male and masculine developments. Boyhood Studies is committed to a critical and international scope and solicits both articles and special issue proposals from a variety of research fields including, but not limited to, the social and psychological sciences, historical and cultural studies, philosophy, and social, legal, and health studies.

Current Issue: Volume 17, Issue 1: Global South Perspectives on Youth Masculinities. Guest Edited by Veena Mani and Shannon Philip

You might also be interested in these recent author materials…

BBC article including research from
‘How is a Man Supposed to be a Man?’, Hadley
Author podcast interview from author of
‘Children are Everywhere’, Dr Joshi
Interview with editors of ‘Girls in Global Development’,
Switzer, Bent, and Desai
Telegraph article by author Robin Hadley on
‘The crushing truth about being childless at 64’

In 2024, Berghahn Books is celebrating 30 years as a family-run press, and we want to thank you for your support! To celebrate, we are offering 30% off our top 30 all-time bestsellers in each of our biggest subjects. As well as 30% off our frontlist titles from January to June of 2024! Use code BERGHAHN30 for 30% off, available in all formats until December 31st, 2024.

Please click here to browse our full selection of titles on sale now!

German Unity Day

Commemorating German Reunification

German Unity Day is celebrated on October 3rd. Tag der Deutschen Einheit celebrates the 1990 reunification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic with ceremonial acts and the citizens’ festival Bürgerfest.

In the spirit of this day, we have compiled some of our German Studies titles below.

You can browse our books by area: Germany here.

Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary German Politics and Policy

Edited by Eric Langenbacher

Germany has undergone more change in the past two years than it has experienced in decades. In the fall of 2021, the Social Democratic Party unexpectedly surged to first place in the Bundestag elections, going on to lead a coalition of SPD, Greens, and Free Democrats that promised to “dare more progress” domestically. Then just two months after the new government was installed, Russia invaded Ukraine. The contributions in this volume investigate the altered state of German politics and predict the trajectory of Europe’s leading power in the transformed geopolitical environment.

Read freely available introduction.

Shaping Tomorrow’s World

A Twentieth-Century History of West German, Cold War, and Global Futures Studies

Elke Seefried

“This new book marks a milestone in the still young field that investigates the history of the future.” • Historische Zeitschrift

Read freely available introduction.

Intimate Histories

African Americans and Germany since 1933

Nadja Klopprogge

Intimate Histories focuses on intimate relations as sites of shared pasts connecting African American and German history in the years between 1933 and 1990. By tracing topics that include anti-miscegenation laws, forced sterilization, casual sexual encounters, marriage, and friendships, Intimate Histories broadens our understanding of African American–German relations during the so-called “century of extremes.”

Volume 12, Explorations in Culture and International History

Read freely available introduction.

Don’t Need No Thought Control

Western Culture in East Germany and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Gerd Horten

“Horten has written a fascinating, very readable, analytically sharp monograph, based on an impressive amount of primary and secondary sources… The average East German, not the few dissidents or the few fanatics on top, are the real heroes of his narrative.” • H-Soz-Kult

Read freely available introduction.

Children are Everywhere

Conspicuous Reproduction and Childlessness in Reunified Berlin

Meghana Joshi

“There are some unique and important discussions [in this book] that I have not seen elaborated elsewhere and certainly not brought together in one place.” • Heide Castañeda, University of South Florida

Volume 53, Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives

Read freely available introduction.

German Division as Shared Experience
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Postwar Everyday
Edited by Erica Carter, Jan Palmowski, and Katrin Schreiter

“All told, this volume successfully brings together its fascinating chapters into a powerful interdisciplinary analysis. German Division as Shared Experience is a significant achievement that will serve as a bedrock for future research on the ‘entanglement’ of the Cold War Germanies. The editors and contributors have produced a genuinely pathbreaking book.” • The Journal of Modern History

Read freely available introduction.

Friendship without Borders

Women’s Stories of Power, Politics, and Everyday Life across East and West Germany

Phil Leask

“Beginning and advanced students can learn much from this highly readable book. Its bottom-up view of postwar German history is revealing even to the expert. Its subtle and perceptive interpretations of attitudes about gender and womanhood, Heimat and the German past, politics and everyday life are enlightening. It provokes one to think about friendship, the psychology of groups, and ageing in new and refreshing ways. A most worthwhile read.” • German History

Read freely available introduction.

The Politics of Personal Information

Surveillance, Privacy, and Power in West Germany

Larry Frohman

“This is an important book crafted by a master of intellectual history. It will be widely consumed and discussed among German historians and a wide range of intellectuals interested in the origins of the modern surveillance state. Essential.” • Choice

Read freely available introduction.

Inside Party Headquarters

Organizational Culture and Practice of Rule in the Socialist Unity Party of Germany

Rüdiger Bergien

Everyday life in the East German Socialist Unity Party revolved heavily around maintaining the “party line” in all areas of society, whether through direct authority or corruption. Spanning a long period of the GDR’s history, from 1946 through 1989, Rüdiger Bergien presents the first study that examines the complexities of the central party’s communist apparatus. He focuses on their role as ideological watchdogs, as they fostered an underbelly and “inner life” for their employees to integrate the party’s pillars throughout East German society. Inside Party Headquarters reviews not only the party’s modes power and state interaction, but also the processes of negotiation and disputation preceding formal Politburo decisions, advancing the available detail and discourse surrounding this formative and volatile stretch of German history.

Read freely available introduction.

France and the German Question, 1945–1990

Edited by Frédéric Bozo and Christian Wenkel

“These impressively researched chapters persuasively demonstrate that France was a leader in addressing postwar concerns with West Germany. Furthermore, the authors argue that France sought a constructive relationship with West Germany as early as 1945. From the economic rebuilding of the 1950s through de Gaulle’s desire to transform the continent and negotiations with the Eastern bloc following Ostpolitik to Mitterand’s support for German reunification within a European framework, this collection makes clear that the fates of the two countries were often inextricably linked. Highly Recommended.” • Choice

Read freely available introduction.

The Guardians of Concepts

Political Languages of Conservatism in Britain and West Germany, 1945-1980

Martina Steber

Since 1945, what ‘conservative’ means has troubled intellectuals, politicians and parties in the United Kingdom and West Germany. In Britain conservatism was an accepted term of the political vocabulary, denoting a particular tradition of political thought and practice. In West Germany, by contrast, conservatism was a difficult concept for the young democracy to swallow. It carried a heavy antiliberal and antidemocratic burden and led people to question whether there was a place for conservatism within democratic culture after all.

The Guardians of Concepts scrutinizes the debates about conservatism in the UK and the Federal Republic of Germany from the late 1940s to the early 1980s. Informed by historical semantics, it conceives of conservatism as a flexible linguistic structure, and shows the importance of language for the self-understanding of many conservatives, who not by chance, have regarded themselves as the guardians of concepts. The intense national and transnational debates about the meaning of conservatism had far-reaching consequences and continue to influence politics today.

Volume 9, Studies in British and Imperial History

Read freely available introduction.

End Game

The 1989 Revolution in East Germany

Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk

“This story is so far little known and not a big topic of the German public. Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk closes our knowledge gaps in an impressive way” • Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Volume 26, Studies in German History

Read freely available introduction.

Open Access

Comrades in Arms

Military Masculinities in East German Culture

Tom Smith

“This book is important because it opens avenues of research into queerness in East Germany’s National People’s Army (NVA)… Smith’s book is commendable for breaking barriers in masculinity studies and offering a refreshing second look at the NVA… Highly Recommended. All readers.” • Choice

Read freely available introduction.

Gendering Post-1945 German History

Entanglements

Edited by Karen Hagemann, Donna Harsch, and Friederike Brühöfener

“This volume achieves a tremendous feat in its breadth, though its forte lies in its diverse contexts, uses, and understandings of gender—including its co-constituency with race and sexuality… This collection offers a much-needed re-narrativization of a divided Germany that centers gender, race, and sex in the shaping of citizenry during postwar nation-making.” • Feminist German Studies

Read freely available introduction.

Rethinking Social Movements after ’68

Selves and Solidarities in West Germany and Beyond

Edited by Belinda Davis, Friederike Brühöfener, and Stephen Milder

“A volume on social movements in the 1970s and 1980s is very welcome and timely. Now that there exists a solid corpus of monographs on the Long Sixties, serious research on the 1970s is slowly beginning to see the light of day – less so on the 1980s. Thus, Rethinking Social Movements after ’68 will begin to fill a growing need.” • Gerd-Rainer Horn, Sciences Po

Volume 31, Protest, Culture & Society

Read freely available introduction.

A History Shared and Divided

East and West Germany since the 1970s

Frank Bösch

“…the range and rigour make this handbook a useful point of entry for specialists and students alike interested in understanding the transformation of Germany in the last half century.” • European History Quarterly

Read freely available introduction.

The History of the Stasi

East Germany’s Secret Police, 1945-1990

Jens Gieseke

“Gieseke treats… many issues with careful and lucid analysis, confining himself to the known facts. He rejects the hyperbolic in favor of more mundane explanations. The truth is bad enough… Essential.” • Choice

Read freely available introduction.

The Path to the Berlin Wall

Critical Stages in the History of Divided Germany

Manfred Wilke

“…constitutes a superlative model of combining biography with the study of nationalism. The latter constitutes the most novel contribution of this well-researched, straightforward historical depiction of Kohl’s ideology and its impact upon the continuing development of German national identity… Recommended” · Choice

Berghahn Journals

GERMAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY

Editor: Jeffrey J. Anderson, Georgetown University

German Politics and Society is a joint publication of the BMW Center for German and European Studies (of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). These centers are represented by their directors on the journal’s Editorial Committee.

German Politics and Society is a peer-reviewed journal published and distributed by Berghahn Journals. It is the only American publication that explores issues in modern Germany from the combined perspectives of the social sciences, history, and cultural studies.

National Cinema Day UK

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This Saturday 31st of August, cinemas across the UK will be offering largely discounted tickets in celebration of National Cinema Day, sharing the experience and enjoyment of the big screen with audiences.

In the spirit of this day, we have compiled our latest titles in cinema studies below.

For more content, you can browse our Film & Television subject page here.

Paperback Available

Hotbeds of Licentiousness

The British Glamour Film and the Permissive Society

Benjamin Halligan

“Halligan thrives when exploring a text’s cultural contradictions and the cracks in the philosophies underpinning the work. However, the book’s greatest asset is in taking these films (which rarely appear in most histories of British cinema) seriously.” • Choice

Read Introduction

Science on Screen and Paper

Media Cultures and Knowledge Production in Cold War Europe

Edited by Mariana Ivanova and Juliane Scholz

“With a focus on global scientific culture during the Cold War, this anthology incisively demonstrates how scientific media were never simply transparent tools for research or pedagogy, but also crucial components within powerful geopolitical institutions.” • Benjamin Schultz-Figueroa, Seattle University.

Read Introduction

Documenting Socialism

East German Documentary Cinema

Edited by Seán Allan and Sebastian Heiduschke

More than 30 years after the collapse of the German Democratic Republic, its cinema continues to attract scholarly attention. Documenting Socialism moves beyond the traditionally analyzed feature film production and places East Germany’s documentary cinema at the center of history behind the Iron Curtain. Covering questions of gender, race and sexuality and the complexities of diversity under the political and cultural environments of socialism, the specialist contributions in this volume cohere into an introductory milestone on documentary film production in the GDR.

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Open Access

Migration, Dislocation and Movement on Screen

Edited by Ruxandra Trandafoiu

Contemporary screen industries such as film and television have become primary sites for visualizing borders, migration, maps, and travel as processes of separation and dislocation, but also connection. Migration, Dislocation and Movement on Screen pulls case studies in film and television industries from throughout Europe, North Africa, and Asia to interrogate the nature of movement via moving images. By combining theoretical, interdisciplinary engagements with empirical research, this volume offers a new way to look at screen media’s representations of our contemporary world’s transnational and cosmopolitan imaginaries.

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To be published October 2024

Kubrick’s Mitteleuropa

The Central European Imaginary in the Films of Stanley Kubrick

Edited by Nathan Abrams and Jeremi Szaniawski

“With some fascinating insights into an unusual topic new to Kubrick studies, this wide-ranging collection of essays firmly and persuasively situates Stanley Kubrick’s work in the art and culture of Central Europe.” • Robert Kolker, the University of Maryland, author of A Cinema of Loneliness, co-author of Kubrick: An Odyssey

Enchanted by Cinema

Wilhelm Thiele between Vienna, Berlin, and Hollywood

Edited by Jan-Christopher Horak and Andréas-Benjamin Seyfert

William Thiele is remembered today as the father of the sound film operetta with seminal classics such as Drei von der Tankstelle (1930). While often considered among the most accomplished directors of Late Weimar cinema, as an Austrian Jew he was vilified during the onset of the Nazi regime in 1933 and fled to the United States where he continued making films until the end of his career in 1960. Enchanted by Cinema closely examines the European musical film pioneer’s work and his cross-cultural perspective across forty years of filmography in Berlin and Hollywood to account for his popularity while discussing issues of ethnicity, exile, comedy, music, gender, and race.

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Cinematically Transmitted Disease

Eugenics and Film in Weimar and Nazi Germany

Barbara Hales

Propaganda played an essential role in influencing the attitudes and policies of German National Socialism on racial purity and euthanasia, but little has been said on the impact of medical hygiene films. Cinematically Transmitted Disease explores these films for the first time, from their inception during the Weimar era and throughout the years to come. In this innovative volume, author Barbara Hales demonstrates how medical films as well as feature films were circulated among the German people to embed and enforce notions of scientific legitimacy for racial superiority and genetically spread “incurable” diseases, creating and maintaining an instrumental fear of degradation in the German national population.

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Edges of Noir

Extreme Filmmaking in the 1960s

Michael Mirabile

Edges of Noir challenges the notion that noir film nearly vanished after 1958 until its subsequent “neo-noir” revival between 1973 and 1981. The 1960s, regardless of critical neglect, include some of the most provocative films of the post-World War II decades. Often formally disruptive and experimental, films including Shock Corridor (1963), Mirage (1965), The 3rd Voice (1960), and Point Blank (1967) evoke controversial issues of the era, deriving dynamic influences amongst exploitation cinema, sensationalistic American B movies, and the European New Wave movement. Whether the focus is on nuclear destruction, mind control, or surveillance, late noir films, above all else, vividly portray the collective fears from the time.

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Stories between Tears and Laughter

Popular Czech Cinema and Film Critics

Richard Vojvoda

While histories of Czech cinema often highlight the quality of Czechoslovak New Wave films made in the 1960s, post-socialist Czech cinema receives little attention. Through a methodology of historical reception, Stories between Tears and Laughter explores how attitudes towards post-socialist Czech cinema have shifted but still viewed it as popular cinema. By analysing publicity materials, reviews and articles, Richard Vojvoda offers a new perspective on the notions of cultural value and quality that have been shaping the history of post-socialist Czech cinema.

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Cinema and the Environment in Eastern Europe

From Communism to Capitalism

Edited by Masha Shpolberg and Lukas Brasiskis

“This collection provides a comprehensive analysis of Eastern European film culture and ecocinema, integrating them expertly to provide a deep historical and geocultural analysis of variations in ecocinematic representations and the ways these film cultures have been engaging with environmental matters. The contextualization of existing scholarship with the particularities of Eastern European political and cultural history is exciting and innovative.” • Pietari Kaapa, University of Warwick

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The Cinematic Language of Theo Angelopoulos

Vrasidas Karalis

“This illuminating book offers a powerful synthesizing account of the films of Theo Angelopoulos by framing them within a biographical context. By positioning Angelopoulos’ work within an array of philosophical, cinematic, and art-historical contexts, the author brings us closer to Angelopoulos’ existential, political, philosophical and aesthetic quests.” • Lydia Papadimitriou, Liverpool John Moores University

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For more content, you can browse our Film & Television subject page here.

Berghahn Journals

PROJECTIONS
The Journal for Movies and Mind

Editor: Ted Nannicelli, University of Queensland

Current Issue: Volume 18, Issue 1 (Mar 2024): Special Issue: Cognition, Stigma, and Inclusivity. Guest Editors: Wyatt Moss-Wellington, Margrethe Bruun Vaage, and Catalin Brylla

SCREEN BODIES
The Journal of Embodiment, Media Arts, and Technology

Editor: Andrew Ball, Emerson College

Current Issue: Volume 9, Issue 1 (June 2024)

Jean-Paul Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980)

Jean-Paul Sartre was a key figure in French philosophy and Marxism in the twentieth century. A a playwright, philosopher, novelist, political activist, and more, his work was very influential. As such, he has featured in several books from Berghahn over the years and has a journal dedicated to his ideas.

See below to explore the some of the various works he has featured in over the years.

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Spring Paperbacks!

Unique studies at budget-friendly prices, these March and April paperbacks are great for adoptions and reading lists. If you want to evaluate their usefulness on a course you teach, please request a digital examination copy: just click through and look for the green ‘Request a review or examination copy’ button. Open Access titles are, of course, freely available to download any time.

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Remembering the Holocaust

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold

In recognition of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we would like to present a list of new and recent Holocaust and Genocide Studies titles, as well as free access to related journal articles.

Continue reading “Remembering the Holocaust” →