I’m a sucker for a compendium of magazine covers, and although there are some classic magazines represented here, like Esquire and Nova, there are some rare or hardly seen magazines on show too, like Zig Zag and Lilliput.

You can never be completely comprehensive in a book with such a wide spectrum to take in. The earliest magazine appears to be from 1894, but those early examples are very much in the minority, with the real focus being on the 60s onwards. Perhaps those years generated the most visually arresting covers.

Exploring the “cultural shifts” over the last 100 years, the covers are split into five distinct chapters, such as “magazines and cultural change” and “magazines and celebrity” – there is no denying the research that has gone into the book. It is fascinating to see the rise of black topics emerging through Negro Digest in the late 60s through to Aspire magazine.

The design is bold – as you would expect from veteran publications designer Neville Brody – but it never takes away from th

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #447180 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 3.87 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Features

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Synopsis
If you pick up a copy of this week's "Heat" magazine in 30 years time, think how funny it will seem. Our obsession with B list celebrities' private lives, weight loss and reality TV shows, will become ridiculous in the light of tomorrow's trends. Magazines, as ephemeral snapshots of a moment in history, can tell us much about the way society and culture work. This collection of magazine covers draws upon archival material from the late nineteenth century to the present day, and from a broad international spectrum of publications. An emphasis on post war culture is supplemented by a fascinating record of earlier publications, providing an insight into the popular literature and culture of the last 100 years. Divided into themed chapters, the book will present fashion and women's magazines, such as "Vogue", "Cosmopolitan", and "Harper's Bazaar"; news publications - from the era-defining photo-journalism of "Life" and "Time", through "The Economist", to more contentious titles, such as "Paris Match"; and from music magazines from the mainstream - "Rolling Stone", the "NME" - to the underground punk publications of the 1970s, such as "Sniffing Glue" and "Oz".

Each chapter will be accompanied by an introductory text covering the history and context of each magazine type, with extended captions throughout. Individual covers are presented in terms of their importance to their historical and visual context; in addition, the book will explore the importance of titles and publishing houses, such as Conde Nast, as a whole, and their influence on culture.