front cover of Game
Game
A Global History
Paula Young Lee
Reaktion Books, 2013
Antelope and porcupines in Africa. Feral cats and wild goats in Australia. Deer, pheasants, and rabbits in the United States and Europe. These are just a few of the world’s game animals, or creatures hunted for food. Game has been central to the development of humanity and forms a core part of cultures—and meat industries—from the Amazon to the Arctic. But despite the ubiquity of its consumption, it has never been the subject of a culinary overview. Paula Young Lee rectifies this oversight in Game, describing the fascinating history of a food so diverse it ranges from luxury good to staple of the poor.
 
Describing how animals from quail and oryx to dormice were once so avidly pursued that they became semi-domesticated, Lee traces the rise and fall in the prevalence of hunting some animals, as well as illustrating how dishes like bear paws, reindeer pâté, and lark pie have seen their popularity come and go. She provides insight into the politically charged arena of hunting laws and discusses the customs and difficulties in hunting game for food, while offering up fun facts—such as how venison was once so coveted that cookbooks gave instructions for disguising beef as a counterfeit. Featuring unusual recipes for many little-eaten animals and cuts of meat, Game will be gobbled up by readers alongside a steaming bowl of rabbit stew.
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Games People Played
A Global History of Sport
Wray Vamplew
Reaktion Books, 2023
Now in paperback, this first global history of sports offers all spectators and participants a reason to cheer—and to think.
 
Games People Played is, surprisingly, the first global history of sports. The book shows how sports have been practiced, experienced, and made meaningful by players and fans throughout history. It assesses how sports developed and diffused across the globe, as well as many other aspects, from emotion, discrimination, and conviviality; to politics, nationalism, and protest; and how economics has turned sports into a huge consumer industry. It shows how sports are sociable and health-giving, and also contribute to charity. However, it also examines their dark side: sports’ impact on the environment, the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and match-fixing. Covering everything from curling to baseball, boxing to motor racing, this book will appeal to anyone who plays, watches, and enjoys sports, and wants to know more about their history and global impact.
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front cover of Gin
Gin
A Global History
Lesley Jacobs Solmonson
Reaktion Books, 2012

Mother’s Milk, Mother’s Ruin, and Ladies’ Delight. Dutch Courage and Cuckold’s Comfort. These evocative nicknames for gin hint that it has a far livelier history than the simple and classic martini would lead you to believe. In this book, Lesley Jacobs Solmonson journeys into gin’s past, revealing that this spirit has played the role of both hero and villain throughout history.

Taking us back to gin’s origins as a medicine derived from the aromatic juniper berry, Solmonson describes how the Dutch recognized the berry’s alcoholic possibilities and distilled it into the whiskey-like genever. She then follows the drink to Britain, where cheap imitations laced with turpentine and other caustic fillers made it the drink of choice for poor eighteenth-century Londoners. Eventually replaced by the sweetened Old Tom style and later by London Dry gin, its popularity spread along with the British Empire. As people today once again embrace classic cocktails like the gimlet and the negroni, gin has reclaimed its place in the world of mixology. Featuring many enticing recipes, Gin is the perfect gift for cocktail aficionados and anyone who wants to know whether it should be shaken or stirred.
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front cover of Girlhood
Girlhood
A Global History
Helgren, Jennifer
Rutgers University Press, 2010
Girlhood, interdisciplinary and global in source, scope, and methodology, examines the centrality of girlhood in shaping women's lives. Scholars study how age and gender, along with a multitude of other identities, work together to influence the historical experience.

Spanning a broad time frame from 1750 to the present, essays illuminate the various continuities and differences in girls' lives across culture and region--girls on all continents except Antarctica are represented. Case studies and essays are arranged thematically to encourage comparisons between girls' experiences in diverse locales, and to assess how girls were affected by historical developments such as colonialism, political repression, war, modernization, shifts in labor markets, migrations, and the rise of consumer culture.
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front cover of The Global History of Black Girlhood
The Global History of Black Girlhood
Edited by Corinne T. Field and LaKisha Michelle Simmons
University of Illinois Press, 2022
The Global History of Black Girlhood boldly claims that Black girls are so important we should know their histories. Yet, how do we find the stories and materials we need to hear Black girls’ voices and understand their lives? Corinne T. Field and LaKisha Michelle Simmons edit a collection of writings that explores the many ways scholars, artists, and activists think and write about Black girls' pasts. The contributors engage in interdisciplinary conversations that consider what it means to be a girl; the meaning of Blackness when seen from the perspectives of girls in different times and places; and the ways Black girls have imagined themselves as part of a global African diaspora.

Thought-provoking and original, The Global History of Black Girlhood opens up new possibilities for understanding Black girls in the past while offering useful tools for present-day Black girls eager to explore the histories of those who came before them.

Contributors: Janaé E. Bonsu, Ruth Nicole Brown, Tara Bynum, Casidy Campbell, Katherine Capshaw, Bev Palesa Ditsie, Sarah Duff, Cynthia Greenlee, Claudrena Harold, Anasa Hicks, Lindsey Jones, Phindile Kunene, Denise Oliver-Velez, Jennifer Palmer, Vanessa Plumly, Shani Roper, SA Smythe, Nastassja Swift, Dara Walker, Najya Williams, and Nazera Wright

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