Global sporting events involve the creation, management and mediation of cultural meanings for consumption by massive media audiences. The apotheosis of this cultural form is the Olympic Games. This challenging and provocative new book explores the Olympic spectacle, from the multi-media bidding process and the branding and imaging of the Games, to security, surveillance and control of the Olympic product across all of its levels.

The book argues that the process of commercialization, directed by the IOC itself, has enabled audiences to interpret its traditional objects in...

More than four hundred years after his death, Sir Francis Drake remains one of the legendary figures of history. His attacks on Spanish cities and ships transformed his private war into a struggle for survival between Protestant England and Catholic Spain. His exploits marked the emergence of England as a major maritime nation.

There have been numerous biographies of Nelson, but most fail to penetrate the mythology encrusting Britain's greatest naval hero. John Sugden has examined thousands of naval, military, diplomatic and personal documents. He has ruthlessly stripped away the legends and brilliantly reconstructed Nelson's private and public life.
"Nelson: A Dream of Glory" charts the period of Nelson's career most neglected by earlier writers -- from childhood to his debut as a public hero after the breathtaking victory against the Spanish fleet at Cape St Vincent, when he became an admiral and stood on the...