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Engineered to Sell: European Émigrés and the Making of Consumer Capitalism
by Jan L. LogemannThe mid-twentieth-century marketing world influenced nearly every aspect of American culture—music, literature, politics, economics, consumerism, race relations, gender, and more. In Engineered to Sell, Jan L. Logemann traces the transnational careers of consumer engineers in advertising, market research, and commercial design who transformed capitalism from the 1930s through the 1960s. He argues that the history of marketing consumer goods is not a story of American exceptionalism. Instead, the careers of immigrants point to the limits of the “Americanization” paradigm. Logemann explains the rise of a dynamic world of goods and examines how and why consumer engineering was shaped by transatlantic exchanges. From Austrian psychologists and little-known social scientists to the illustrious Bauhaus artists, the emigrés at the center of this story illustrate the vibrant cultural and commercial connections between metropolitan centers: Vienna and New York; Paris and Chicago; Berlin and San Francisco. By focusing on the transnational lives of emigré consumer researchers, marketers, and designers, Engineered to Sell details the processes of cultural translation and adaptation that mark both the midcentury transformation of American marketing and the subsequent European shift to “American” consumer capitalism.
Engineering Digitised Borders: Designing and Managing the Visa Information System
by Georgios GlouftsiosThis book focuses on the Visa Information System (VIS): a large-scale data infrastructure interconnecting a multiplicity of state authorities that enact border security and migration management in the European Union. The VIS is embedded within a setting of pan-European IT systems that filter international mobility, identify threatening elements, hamper the travels of poor, racialized, and alienated subjects, while at the same time facilitate the circulation of those expected to generate financial and other kinds of capital. The book examines the engineering of the VIS by analyzing how it was designed before its deployment in the field of border security, and how it is maintained to ensure continuous and secure operation. It illustrates how engineering processes that render the VIS functional are not just technoscientific, but inherently political, as they (re)configure and maintain the power to govern international mobility by digital means.
Engineering Earth: The Impacts of Megaengineering Projects
by Stanley D. BrunnThis is the first book to examine the actual impact of physical and social engineering projects in more than fifty countries from a multidisciplinary perspective. The book brings together an international team of nearly two hundred authors from over two dozen different countries and more than a dozen different social, environmental, and engineering sciences. Together they document and illustrate with case studies, maps and photographs the scale and impacts of many megaprojects and the importance of studying these projects in historical, contemporary and postmodern perspectives. This pioneering book will stimulate interest in examining a variety of both social and physical engineering projects at local, regional, and global scales and from disciplinary and trans-disciplinary perspectives.
Engineering Ethics: Contemporary and Enduring Debates
by Deborah G. JohnsonAn engaging, accessible survey of the ethical issues faced by engineers, designed for students The first engineering ethics textbook to use debates as the framework for presenting engineering ethics topics, this engaging, accessible survey explores the most difficult and controversial issues that engineers face in daily practice. Written by a leading scholar in the field of engineering and computer ethics, Deborah Johnson approaches engineering ethics with three premises: that engineering is both a technical and a social endeavor; that engineers don&’t just build things, they build society; and that engineering is an inherently ethical enterprise.
Engineering Ethics: Peace, Justice, and the Earth (Synthesis Lectures on Engineers, Technology, & Society)
by George D. CatalanoIn the original two editions of Engineering Ethics: Peace, Justice, and the Earth, a response of the engineering profession to the challenges of security, poverty and underdevelopment, environmental sustainability, and native cultures was described. Ethical codes, which govern the behavior of engineers, were examined from a historical perspective linking the prevailing codes to models of the natural world. A new ethical code based on a recently introduced model of Nature as an integral community was provided and discussed. Applications of the new code were described using a case study approach. The proposed third edition will build on the foundational material included in the previous two editions. Over the course of the last decade new and profoundly challenging ethical issues (synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, climate change and the sixth extinction) have arisen in the engineering profession. The notion of an integral community has been more fully developed. The proposed book will include an exploration of these issues as well as provide the reader with a better understanding of the historical development of ethical reasoning and consider future possibilities. Implications of the innovative ideas in ethics and design on engineering education are also considered.
Engineering Happiness
by Manel Baucells Rakesh SarinManel Baucells and Rakesh Sarin have been conducting ground-breaking research on happiness for more than a decade, and in this book they distill their provocative findings into a lively, accessible guide for a wide audience of readers. Integrating their own research with the latest thinking in the behavioral and social sciences--including management science, psychology, and economics--they offer a new approach to the puzzle of happiness. Woven throughout with wisdom from the world's religions and literatures, Engineering Happiness has something to offer everyone--regardless of background, profession, or aspiration--who wants to better understand, control, and attain a more joyful life. * Shows how a few major principles can explain how happiness works and why it is so elusive * Demonstrates how the essence of attaining happiness is choice * Explores how to avoid happiness traps * Tells how to recognize happiness triggers in everyday life
Engineering Project Management: A Hands-On Guide for Successful Engineering Projects
by Neil G. SiegelAn engineering-focused approach to project management techniques and strategies Engineering projects are vital for modern society and global human survival, but many engineering projects fail, in large part due to poor and/or ineffective management. These failures have led to a desire to identify those techniques and mindsets that can lead consistently to successful engineering projects. The first edition of this book, Engineering Project Management, has served as the essential overview to engineering-based project management methods, tools, processes, and mind-sets. Offering a practical, step-by-step guide to applying project management techniques in engineering settings, it draws upon active learning approaches and the author’s extensive experience to create a thorough and cutting-edge guide. This second edition is now updated to reflect transformative recent developments in both technology and project management, and remains an indispensable tool for project managers and engineers alike. Readers of this second edition of Engineering Project Management will also find: Updated coverage of the social aspects of project management, along with other soft skills, throughout the volume Detailed discussion of topics including project life-cycle, identification and management of stakeholders, cost estimation, schedule estimation, monitoring of your project, engineering economics, engineering ethics, and many more A structure that aligns perfectly with a single-semester course, alternating lectures with facilitated lab sessions Engineering Project Management is ideal for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and instructors in courses in Engineering Project Management, as well as professional engineers and early career practitioners who need to brush up on their project management skills.
Engineering Society
by Benjamin Ziemann Dirk Schumann Richard F. Wetzell Kerstin BrückwehExplaining crime by reference to abnormalities of the brain is just one example of how the human and social sciences have influenced the approach to social problems in Western societies since 1880. Focusing on applications such as penal policy, therapy, and marketing, this volume examines how these sciences have become embedded in society.
Engineering a Life: A Memoir
by Krishan K. BediIncluded on BookBub&’s "The Most Exciting Memoirs Coming Out in 2018&” list Krishan Bedi came to the United States in December of 1961 at the tender age of twenty. He had only $300 in his pocket, and he had made it out of his small village in India on sheer faith, determined to get education in the US. For him, there was no option but to succeed—so he began his new life in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he had to adapt to the culture shock not only of being in the US but a Punjabi man in the South in the 1960s. Engineering a Life is an examination of Bedi&’s life, and how he has handled the plethora of curve balls thrown his way with determination, humor, and an unwavering faith that everything would work out. This is a book about values and faith and the importance of friendship, family, and hard work. It&’s a story about achieving the American Dream, proving that no matter how thoroughly you map out your life&’s journey, no matter how many blueprints you draw up, when you veer off the course you&’ve plotted—as we all do, somehow, in the end—you end up where you&’re supposed to be.
Engineering the Human
by Monika S. Schmid Carla Sieburgh Bert Jaap Koops J.P.M. Jansen Annemiek Nelis Christoph H. LüthyThe volume is collection of articles treating the topic of human improvement/enhancement from a variety of perspectives - philosophical, literary, medical, genetic, sociological, legal etc. The chapters in this volume treat not only those aspects that most immediately come to mind when one thinks of 'human enhancement', such as genetic engineering, cloning, artificial implants and artificial intelligence etc. Somewhat less obvious aspects include evolutionary perspectives in connection with the prolongation of the human lifespan, plastic surgery since its beginnings, and questions such as whether the distinction between 'natural' and 'artificial' can really be drawn at all and how it has been conceived across the ages, or what the legal implications are of recent developments and techniques. Many papers make links to the representation of these developments in popular culture, from Jules Verne through Aldous Huxley to the movie Gattaca, address the hopes and fears that come with them as well as the question how realistic these are. While all chapters are written by scientists at the international top of their respective fields, all are accessible to a non-specialist audience and eminently readable. We believe that they represent a state-of-the art overview of questions that are of interest to a large audience. The book thus targets a non-specialist audience with an interest in philosophical, sociological, scientific and legal issues involved in both traditional and recent matters concerning the desire of mankind to improve itself, the human body, the human mind and the human condition. It is unique in that it brings together all these aspects within a coherent and cohesive collection.
Engineering the State: The Huai River and Reconstruction in Nationalist China, 1927–37 (East Asia: History, Politics, Sociology and Culture)
by David PietzFirst published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Engineers and the Making of the Francoist Regime
by Lino CamprubíIn this book, Lino Camprubí argues that science and technology were at the very center of the building of Franco's Spain. Previous histories of early Francoist science and technology have described scientists and engineers as working "under" Francoism, subject to censorship and bound by politically mandated research agendas. Camprubí offers a different perspective, considering instead scientists' and engineers' active roles in producing those political mandates. Many scientists and engineers had been exiled, imprisoned, or executed by the regime. Camprubí argues that those who remained made concrete the mission of "redemption" that Franco had invented for himself. This gave them the opportunity to become key actors -- and mid-level decision makers -- within the regime. Camprubí describes a series of projects across Spain undertaken by the civil engineers and agricultural scientists who placed themselves at the center of their country's forced modernization. These include a coal silo, built in 1953, viewed as an embodiment of Spain's industrialized landscape; links between laboratories, architects, and the national Catholic church (and between technology and authoritarian control); vertically organized rice production and research on genetics; river management and the contested meanings of self-sufficiency; and the circulation of construction standards by mobile laboratories as an engine for European integration. Separately, each chapter offers a fascinating microhistory that illustrates the coevolution of Francoist science, technology, and politics. Taken together, they reveal networks of people, institutions, knowledge, artifacts, and technological systems woven together to form a new state.
Engineers and the Making of the Francoist Regime (Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology)
by Lino CamprubiHow engineers and agricultural scientists became key actors in Franco's regime and Spain's forced modernization.In this book, Lino Camprubí argues that science and technology were at the very center of the building of Franco's Spain. Previous histories of early Francoist science and technology have described scientists and engineers as working “under” Francoism, subject to censorship and bound by politically mandated research agendas. Camprubí offers a different perspective, considering instead scientists' and engineers' active roles in producing those political mandates. Many scientists and engineers had been exiled, imprisoned, or executed by the regime. Camprubí argues that those who remained made concrete the mission of “redemption” that Franco had invented for himself. This gave them the opportunity to become key actors—and mid-level decision makers—within the regime.Camprubí describes a series of projects across Spain undertaken by the civil engineers and agricultural scientists who placed themselves at the center of their country's forced modernization. These include a coal silo, built in 1953, viewed as an embodiment of Spain's industrialized landscape; links between laboratories, architects, and the national Catholic church (and between technology and authoritarian control); vertically organized rice production and research on genetics; river management and the contested meanings of self-sufficiency; and the circulation of construction standards by mobile laboratories as an engine for European integration. Separately, each chapter offers a fascinating microhistory that illustrates the coevolution of Francoist science, technology, and politics. Taken together, they reveal networks of people, institutions, knowledge, artifacts, and technological systems woven together to form a new state.
Engineers and the Two Taiwans: The Abnormal Club (Synthesis Lectures on Global Engineering)
by Gary Lee Downey Kuo-Hui Chang Bono Po-Jen ShihThe identity of Taiwan is a matter of intense local and international debate. This book shows how engineers helped produce two distinct visions of the land of Taiwan and its people, elevating the value of engineering as a career path in the process. The book describes how the technical work of engineers, which typically avoids partisan politics, can actually contribute to partisan differences and conflict. In most countries, the rise of engineering is about the emergence of a single dominant vision of the country. In Taiwan, two distinct visions of the land and its people emerged, owing to the presence of two distinct geographical identities—islanders and mainlanders. The distributed mode of production in the electronics industry proved to be transformative and created an “abnormal boys’ club” of engineers, as one group called themselves. Because the two communities were influenced by contrasting geographical identities, they felt as though they were working for different Taiwans. "What a book. Engineers and the Two Taiwans traces how engineers creatively crafted professional identities and pathways in the cracks of multiple, shifting empires – and in so doing helped create Taiwan as a thing-unto-itself. In showing how engineers shaped and were shaped by geopolitics and the birth of a new electronics industry, the book opens up fresh perspectives on longstanding questions about who engineers are, how they are trained, where they ought to work, and ultimately what engineering is for. These engineers did politics through their material commitments even as they avoided partisan politics." Jessica M. Smith, Editor-in-chief, Engineering Studies, Professor, Engineering, Design, and Society Department, Colorado School of Mines "This book explores Taiwan’s dynamic industrial evolution over the past century through the lens of different engineers’ social dynamics, identity, values, and compelling narratives. It offers insights into Taiwanese own perceptions in the electronics industry and prompts reflection on how countries navigate domestic and international technology policies and social progress. You will come to appreciate how engineers in Taiwan today bear continuing responsibilities to connect their technical work to its land and people, even when their own commitments differ from one another." Minn-Tsong Lin, Deputy Minister, National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan, Distinguished Professor, Department of Physics, National Taiwan University
Engineers in Germany: Social Situation, Mentalities and Politics 1890-1933
by Tobias SanderEngineers represent the (industrial) modern age like no other profession. In the German Empire and the Weimar Republic, however, the enormous numerical expansion of the profession was contrasted by comparatively unfavorable working conditions and incomes. This was particularly true of the graduate engineers, whose academization failed to meet industrial requirements. Can the völkisch, right-wing political radicalization of many technical experts on the eve of the 'Third Reich' actually be fully explained by these professional-social frictions?Data on the professional-social situation, consumption, leisure time and political behaviour of engineers in the higher and academic professions, which have been made available for the first time, already reveal the contours of late-modern, contemporary society in the period under consideration. This makes more complex explanatory approaches necessary and enables general insights into the dynamics of social crises.This study of (historical) professional, inequality, and political sociology is published in its third, fully revised edition.This book is a translation of an original German edition. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation.
Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony
by Rudolf MrazekBased on close reading of historical documents--poetry as much as statistics--and focused on the conceptualization of technology, this book is an unconventional evocation of late colonial Netherlands East Indies (today Indonesia). In considering technology and the ways that people use and think about things, Rudolf Mrázek invents an original way to talk about freedom, colonialism, nationalism, literature, revolution, and human nature.
Engineers of Jihad
by Diego Gambetta Steffen HertogThe violent actions of a few extremists can alter the course of history, yet there persists a yawning gap between the potential impact of these individuals and what we understand about them. In Engineers of Jihad, Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog uncover two unexpected facts, which they imaginatively leverage to narrow that gap: they find that a disproportionate share of Islamist radicals come from an engineering background, and that Islamist and right-wing extremism have more in common than either does with left-wing extremism, in which engineers are absent while social scientists and humanities students are prominent. Searching for an explanation, they tackle four general questions about extremism: Under which socioeconomic conditions do people join extremist groups? Does the profile of extremists reflect how they self-select into extremism or how groups recruit them? Does ideology matter in sorting who joins which group? Lastly, is there a mindset susceptible to certain types of extremism? Using rigorous methods and several new datasets, they explain the link between educational discipline and type of radicalism by looking at two key factors: the social mobility (or lack thereof) for engineers in the Muslim world, and a particular mindset seeking order and hierarchy that is found more frequently among engineers. Engineers' presence in some extremist groups and not others, the authors argue, is a proxy for individual traits that may account for the much larger question of selective recruitment to radical activism. Opening up markedly new perspectives on the motivations of political violence, Engineers of Jihad yields unexpected answers about the nature and emergence of extremism.
Engineers of Jihad: The Curious Connection between Violent Extremism and Education
by Diego Gambetta Steffen HertogThe violent actions of a few extremists can alter the course of history, yet there persists a yawning gap between the potential impact of these individuals and what we understand about them. In Engineers of Jihad, Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog uncover two unexpected facts, which they imaginatively leverage to narrow that gap: they find that a disproportionate share of Islamist radicals come from an engineering background, and that Islamist and right-wing extremism have more in common than either does with left-wing extremism, in which engineers are absent while social scientists and humanities students are prominent.Searching for an explanation, they tackle four general questions about extremism: Under which socioeconomic conditions do people join extremist groups? Does the profile of extremists reflect how they self-select into extremism or how groups recruit them? Does ideology matter in sorting who joins which group? Lastly, is there a mindset susceptible to certain types of extremism?Using rigorous methods and several new datasets, they explain the link between educational discipline and type of radicalism by looking at two key factors: the social mobility (or lack thereof) for engineers in the Muslim world, and a particular mindset seeking order and hierarchy that is found more frequently among engineers. Engineers' presence in some extremist groups and not others, the authors argue, is a proxy for individual traits that may account for the much larger question of selective recruitment to radical activism.Opening up markedly new perspectives on the motivations of political violence, Engineers of Jihad yields unexpected answers about the nature and emergence of extremism.
Engines Of Democracy: Politics And Policymaking In State Legislatures
by Alan RosenthalState legislators have often been in the shadow of their national counterparts, but they drive the processes of democracy. Rosenthal brings together a lifetime of research and experience on state legislative politics into one eminently readable volume, Building on earlier work with new data and recent interviews and observations, Both a complement and contrast to the policymaking process on Capitol Hill, Engines of Democracy proves that no one gives insight into state legislators and their work the way Alan Rosenthal can.
Engines of Anxiety: Academic Rankings, Reputation, and Accountability
by Michael Sauder Wendy Nelson EspelandStudents and the public routinely consult various published college rankings to assess the quality of colleges and universities and easily compare different schools. However, many institutions have responded to the rankings in ways that benefit neither the schools nor their students. In Engines of Anxiety, sociologists Wendy Espeland and Michael Sauder delve deep into the mechanisms of law school rankings, which have become a top priority within legal education. Based on a wealth of observational data and over 200 in-depth interviews with law students, university deans, and other administrators, they show how the scramble for high rankings has affected the missions and practices of many law schools. Engines of Anxiety tracks how rankings, such as those published annually by the U.S. News & World Report, permeate every aspect of legal education, beginning with the admissions process. The authors find that prospective law students not only rely heavily on such rankings to evaluate school quality, but also internalize rankings as expressions of their own abilities and flaws. For example, they often view rejections from “first-tier” schools as a sign of personal failure. The rankings also affect the decisions of admissions officers, who try to balance admitting diverse classes with preserving the school’s ranking, which is dependent on factors such as the median LSAT score of the entering class. Espeland and Sauder find that law schools face pressure to admit applicants with high test scores over lower-scoring candidates who possess other favorable credentials. Engines of Anxiety also reveals how rankings have influenced law schools’ career service departments. Because graduates’ job placements play a major role in the rankings, many institutions have shifted their career-services resources toward tracking placements, and away from counseling and network-building. In turn, law firms regularly use school rankings to recruit and screen job candidates, perpetuating a cycle in which highly ranked schools enjoy increasing prestige. As a result, the rankings create and reinforce a rigid hierarchy that penalizes lower-tier schools that do not conform to the restrictive standards used in the rankings. The authors show that as law schools compete to improve their rankings, their programs become more homogenized and less accessible to non-traditional students. The ranking system is considered a valuable resource for learning about more than 200 law schools. Yet, Engines of Anxiety shows that the drive to increase a school’s rankings has negative consequences for students, educators, and administrators and has implications for all educational programs that are quantified in similar ways.
Engines of Empire: Steamships and the Victorian Imagination
by Douglas BurgessIn 1859, the S.S. Great Eastern departed from England on her maiden voyage. She was a remarkable wonder of the nineteenth century: an iron city longer than Trafalgar Square, taller than Big Ben's tower, heavier than Westminster Cathedral. Her paddles were the size of Ferris wheels; her decks could hold four thousand passengers bound for America, or ten thousand troops bound for the Raj. Yet she ended her days as a floating carnival before being unceremoniously dismantled in 1889. Steamships like the Great Eastern occupied a singular place in the Victorian mind. Crossing oceans, ferrying tourists and troops alike, they became emblems of nationalism, modernity, and humankind's triumph over the cruel elements. Throughout the nineteenth century, the spectacle of a ship's launch was one of the most recognizable symbols of British social and technological progress. Yet this celebration of the power of the empire masked overconfidence and an almost religious veneration of technology. Equating steam with civilization had catastrophic consequences for subjugated peoples around the world. Engines of Empire tells the story of the complex relationship between Victorians and their wondrous steamships, following famous travelers like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Jules Verne as well as ordinary spectators, tourists, and imperial administrators as they cross oceans bound for the colonies. Rich with anecdotes and wry humor, it is a fascinating glimpse into a world where an empire felt powerful and anything seemed possible--if there was an engine behind it.
England 1175–1425 (Routledge Revivals)
by Edmund KingDuring the years 1175–1425, English society developed in many ways. First published in 1979, England 1175–1425 offers an ideal introduction to the period, presenting as it does a view of a whole society that is derived from a study of economic, social, political, and administrative history. It argues that the later Middle Ages in England saw the creation of a single, integrated society, with a national economy and a national political consciousness, and it shows how this integration came about.The foundations of a unified community are seen in chapters on settlement, on lordship and on the world of ideas, while the development of this community is seen in chapters on political and social themes. The author describes how parliament became the political focus of the nation and stresses the importance of warfare and war taxation in this development. Original features of the book are the integration into a general survey of work on medieval archaeology, and a chapter on ideas which uses a wide range of material to present a picture of the attitudes which governed men’s lives. The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 demonstrates especially clearly the argument that all classes of society shared similar ideas, and the episode is examined in detail.There is an emphasis throughout on quotations from original sources and these, together with the illustrative matter provide a clear picture of a society in a period of change.
England and its Aesthetes: Biography and Taste (Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture)
by David CarrierFirst Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
England in the Age of Austen
by Jeremy Black“This brisk, decorous, and incisive history . . . would have delighted its namesake as much as it will delight and instruct contemporary readers.” —Roger Kimball, Editor and publisher, The New CriterionDedicated fans of Jane Austen’s novels will delight in accompanying historian Jeremy Black through the drawing rooms, chapels, and battlefields of the time in which Austen lived and wrote. In this exceedingly readable and sweeping scan of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain, Black provides a historical context for a deeper appreciation of classic novels such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. While Austen’s novels bring to life complex characters living in intimate surroundings, England in the Age of Austen provides a fuller account of what the village, the church, and the family home would really have been like. In addition to seeing how Austen’s own reading helped her craft complex characters like Emma, Black also explores how recurring figures in the novels, such as George III or Fanny Burney, provide a focus for a historical discussion of the fiction in which they appear. Jane Austen’s world was the source of her works and the basis of her readership, and understanding that world gives fans new insights into her enduring literature.“Superb. . . . Essential reading for the Austen enthusiast.” —William Gibson, Oxford Brookes University“England in the Age of Austen recovers a world before the Victorians that brings one of our greatest authors into clearer focus.” —William Anthony Hay, Mississippi State University“An absolute ‘must’ for the legions of Jan Austen fans . . . an extraordinarily well written history, impressively detailed, and a seminal work of original scholarship.” —Midwest Book Review
England in the Age of Shakespeare
by Jeremy BlackHow did it feel to hear Macbeth’s witches chant of "double, double toil and trouble" at a time when magic and witchcraft were as real as anything science had to offer? How were justice and forgiveness understood by the audience who first watched King Lear; how were love and romance viewed by those who first saw Romeo and Juliet? In England in the Age of Shakespeare, Jeremy Black takes readers on a tour of life in the streets, homes, farms, churches, and palaces of the Bard’s era. Panning from play to audience and back again, Black shows how Shakespeare’s plays would have been experienced and interpreted by those who paid to see them. From the dangers of travel to the indignities of everyday life in teeming London, Black explores the jokes, political and economic references, and small asides that Shakespeare’s audiences would have recognized. These moments of recognition often reflected the audience’s own experiences of what it was to, as Hamlet says, "grunt and sweat under a weary life." Black’s clear and sweeping approach seeks to reclaim Shakespeare from the ivory tower and make the plays’ histories more accessible to the public for whom the plays were always intended.