NMC Library
Image from Google Jackets

Rainbows / Daniel MacCannell.

By: Series: Earth seriesPublisher: London, UK : Reaktion Books Ltd, 2018Copyright date: ©2018Description: 206 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781780239200
  • 1780239203
Other title:
  • Rainbows : nature and culture [Cover title]
Subject(s): LOC classification:
  • QC976.R2 M33 2018
Contents:
What rainbows are and how they work -- Rainbows in the history of scientific enquiry -- Rainbows and myth -- Rainbows in literature, poetry and music -- Rainbows in art and film -- Rainbows in politics and popular culture.
Summary: The rainbow is a compelling spectacle in nature--a rare, evanescent, and beautiful bridge between subjective experience and objective reality--and no less remarkable as a cultural phenomenon. A symbol of the Left since the German Peasants' War of the 1520s, it has been adopted by movements for gay rights, the environment, multiculturalism, and peace around the globe, and has inspired poets, artists, and writers including John Keats, Caspar David Friedrich, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this book, the first of its kind, Daniel MacCannell offers an enlightening and instructive guide to the rainbow's multicolored relationship with humanity.The scientific 'discovery' of the rainbow is a remarkable tale, taking in ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Persia, and Islamic Spain. But even as we've studied rainbows, adopted their image, and penned odes to them for millennia, rainbows have also been regarded as ominous or even dangerous in myth and religion. In the twentieth century, the rainbow emerged as kitsch, arcing from the musical film version of The Wizard of Oz to 1980s sitcoms and children's cartoons. Illustrated throughout in prismatic color, MacCannell's Rainbows explores the full spectrum of rainbows' nature and meaning, offering insight into what rainbows are and how they work, how we arrived at our current scientific understanding of the phenomenon, and how we have portrayed them in everything from myth to the arts, politics, and popular culture.
Holdings
Item type Current library Shelving location Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book NMC Library Stacks QC976.R2 M33 2018 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 33039001451672

Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-192) and index.

What rainbows are and how they work -- Rainbows in the history of scientific enquiry -- Rainbows and myth -- Rainbows in literature, poetry and music -- Rainbows in art and film -- Rainbows in politics and popular culture.

The rainbow is a compelling spectacle in nature--a rare, evanescent, and beautiful bridge between subjective experience and objective reality--and no less remarkable as a cultural phenomenon. A symbol of the Left since the German Peasants' War of the 1520s, it has been adopted by movements for gay rights, the environment, multiculturalism, and peace around the globe, and has inspired poets, artists, and writers including John Keats, Caspar David Friedrich, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this book, the first of its kind, Daniel MacCannell offers an enlightening and instructive guide to the rainbow's multicolored relationship with humanity.The scientific 'discovery' of the rainbow is a remarkable tale, taking in ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Persia, and Islamic Spain. But even as we've studied rainbows, adopted their image, and penned odes to them for millennia, rainbows have also been regarded as ominous or even dangerous in myth and religion. In the twentieth century, the rainbow emerged as kitsch, arcing from the musical film version of The Wizard of Oz to 1980s sitcoms and children's cartoons. Illustrated throughout in prismatic color, MacCannell's Rainbows explores the full spectrum of rainbows' nature and meaning, offering insight into what rainbows are and how they work, how we arrived at our current scientific understanding of the phenomenon, and how we have portrayed them in everything from myth to the arts, politics, and popular culture.

Powered by Koha