Unravelling the thought of Alexander Kluge and Oskar Negt Collaborators for more than four decades, lawyer, author, filmmaker, and multimedia artist Alexander Kluge and social philosopher Oskar Negt are an exceptional duo in the history of Critical Theory precisely because their respective disciplines think so differently. Dark Matter argues that what makes their contributions to the Frankfurt School so remarkable is how they think together in spite of these differences. Kluge and Negt's "gravitational thinking" balances not only the abstractions of theory with the concreteness of the aesthetic, but also their allegiances to Frankfurt School mentors with their fascination for other German, French, and Anglo-American thinkers distinctly outside the Frankfurt tradition. At the core of all their adventures in gravitational thinking is a profound sense that the catastrophic conditions of modern life are not humankind's unalterable fate. In opposition to modernity's disastrous state of affairs, Kluge and Negt regard the huge mass of dark matter throughout the universe as the lodestar for thinking together with others, for dark matter is that absolute guarantee that happier alternatives to our calamitous world are possible. As illustrated throughout Langston's study, dark matter's promise--its critical orientation out of catastrophic modernity--finds its expression, above all, in Kluge's multimedia aesthetic.

From December 7, 1941, until the Battle of Midway in June 1942, the war with Japan was a losing one. It was to be the darkest period of the almost four-year war. During those days, no times were more trying than the final hours for the men trapped on Wake Island, Bataan, Corregidor, Hong Kong and Singapore. This book, outlining the bitter end to their ordeals, covers the crucial days and final hours that led to their surrender, a capitulation that would shock the free world.

Films about prehistoric animals range in quality from classics like The Lost World (1925), KingKong (1933), and One Million B.C. (1940), to duds like Reptilicus (1962). This book offers critiques and background information on the best and worst in this sub-genre, full cast and production credits for each, and a checklist of lesser films.

In ancient Greece, Sparta was unique in having a dual kingship two kings from different clans, the Agiads and the Eurypontids, reigning simultaneously. The institution was already well-developed by the 8th century BC, when Theopompos of the Eurypontid clan emerges as the first recorded Spartan king. At least fifty-seven men held office as Spartan king between Theopompos and the Agiad Kleomenes III who died in 222 BC. For almost all this period the Spartan kingship was primarily a military office, and thus the kings embody much of the military history of Sparta. Wherever Spartas main battles took place, there the kings were. Naturally, the character of the particular king would often determine the outcome of a battle or campaign. Leonidas I at Thermopylai was one example. At the other end of the scale the young and unwar-like Pleistoanax twice declined an encounter with the Athenians when sent against that city.John Carr offers a chronological account of the kings and their accomplishments (or lack thereof), from the founding Herakleidai clan to Kleomenes III and his successor, the dictator Nabis, and the Roman conquest in the middle of the 2nd century BC. The book is not intended to be a complete history of Sparta. It will be a human interest and war story, focusing attention on the kings personal qualities as well as their (or their generals) military accomplishments and, where applicable, their politics as well.

Theories of the domestic stemming from the 19th century have focused on the home as a refuge and place of repose for the family, a nurturing environment for children and a safe place for visitors. Under this conception, domestic space is positioned as nurturing and private, a refuge and place of retreat which gave rise to theories of 'home as haven'. While, arguably, some social conditions might suggest this is the case, Domesticity Under Siege exposes a different world, one in which the boundaries of nurturing domesticity collide with both outside and inside agents. Whether these agents are external military forces, psychological trauma or familial violence, they re-position meta-narratives of domesticity, not through identity politics or specialized subgroup experience, but relative to the actions of the world around an inhabited domain. That is, when home is constituted as a private realm, a place where individuals or groups can reside in 'safety and comfort', it is argued as a place in which the individual exercises control or power. However, there are many occasions when forces act upon the home and threaten aspects of safety and comfort, often through such things as ruination, violence, mortality, and infestation. Organised around four thematic sections, 'Microbes, Animals and Insects', 'Human Agents', Wars and Disasters as Agents' and 'Hauntings, Eeriness and the Uncanny', chapters provide a range of approaches to the home which challenge notions of 'haven' and reflect major causes that have played an important role in undermining the modern home. Examples and case studies explore the domestic screen, hoarding, hauntings, violence and imprisonment in the home, wartime interior art, the Hanover Merzbau and Wolfgang Staudte's 1946 film Die Mörder sind unter uns ('The Murderers are Among Us').

Since the advent of modernity, art has been associated with freedom, provocation and courage. In 1972, art was to unfold its potential as an emancipatory and creative force as part of the Gesamtkunstwerk of the XX. Olympic Games in Munich—according to the grand vision of its planners. The international avant-garde of the time, including Walter de Maria, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol and Dan Flavin, enthusiastically developed revolutionary concepts. Many of these remained in draft-form. After the tragic assassination of Israeli athletes, concepts such as the "Spielstraße" were canceled. This publication is the first to give an impression of the playful, participatory cultural programme of 1972. In the second part of the book, a multitude of voices from all over the world look to the future. International authors and artists use contemporary examples to convey the importance of the arts in shaping the democratic society of the future.