Love is a dominant theme in Western popular culture. It has become central to the meaning of everyday life, propagated through the media and the market. Being in love has become idealised. With the demise of institutional religion in the West, romantic love has become the dominant form of inner-worldly salvation. In Foucault's terms, it has become a key component in the 'arts of existence' and the care of self.

In this highly accessible introduction to love of all kinds, Tom Inglis gives a clear, concise picture of how love shapes, and is shaped by, society. How is romantic...

Global Ireland offers a concise synthesis of globalization's dramatic impact on Ireland. In the past fifteen years, Ireland has transformed from a sleepy and depressed European backwater to the 'emerald tiger', a country with a booming economy based on knowledge and high-tech industries. Not long ago it was one of the poorest and most traditional countries in Europe, yet now it is one of the wealthiest and most cosmopolitan. Using a number of case studies of Ireland's transition, Tom Inglis explains what this means for traditional Irish culture and society, and offers an incisive...