This volume examines the role and representation of ‘race’ and ethnicity in the media with particular emphasis on the United States. It highlights contemporary work that focuses on changing meanings of racial and ethnic identity as they are represented in the media; television and film, digital and print media are under examination. Through fourteen innovative and interdisciplinary case studies written by a team of internationally based contributors, the volume identifies ways in which ethnic, racial, and national identities have been produced, reproduced, stereotyped, and contested. It showcases new emerging theoretical approaches in the field, and pays particular attention to the role of race, ethnicity, and national identity, along with communal and transnational allegiances, in the making of identities in the media. The topics of the chapters range from immigrant newspapers and gangster cinema to ethnic stand-up comedy and the use of ‘race’ in advertising.

We all have Nonconformist ancestors. In the mid-nineteenth century almost half of the English population were Nonconformists. And there were very few villages where there was not at least one Nonconformist chapel. Local and family historians need to be aware of the diversity of Nonconformity, and of the many sources which will enable them to trace the activities of Nonconformist forebears.Stuart Raymond's handbook provides an overview of those sources. He identifies the numerous websites, libraries and archives that local and family historians need to consult. These are described in detail, their strengths and weaknesses are pointed out, and the contribution currently made by the internet is highlighted.Most Nonconformist denominations are discussed not just the mainstream Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Quakers and Methodists, but also obscure sects such as the Muggletonians and Glasites, and even the two groups who regularly appear on our doorsteps today Jehovahs Witnesses and the Mormons.The religious activities of our Nonconformist ancestors tell us a great deal about them, and provide fascinating insights into their lives.

During 1867 Darwin intensified lines of research on human expression and sexual selection.

By the time that Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, the list of crimes liable to attract the death penalty had effectively been reduced to murder. Yet, despite this, the gallows remained a source of controversy in Victorian Britain and there was a growing unease in liberal quarters surrounding the question of capital punishment. Unease was expressed in various forms, including efforts at outright abolition. Focusing in part on the activities of the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment, James Gregory here examines abolitionist strategies, leaders and personnel. He locates the 'gallows question' in an imperial context and explores the ways in which debates about the gallows and abolition featured in literature, from poetry to 'novels of purpose' and popular romances of the underworld. He places the abolitionist movement within the wider Victorian worlds of philanthropy, religious orthodoxy and social morality in a study which will be essential reading for students and researchers of Victorian history.