"Our intimate connection with the world, skin protects us while advertising our health, our identity, and our individuality. This synthetic overview, written with a poetic touch and taking many intriguing side excursions, is a guidebook to the pliable covering that makes us who we are. This book celebrates the evolution of three unique attributes of human skin: its naked sweatiness, its distinctive sepia rainbow of colors, and its remarkable range of decorations. Author Jablonski begins with a look at skin's structure and functions and then tours its three-hundred-million-year evolution, delving into such topics as the importance of touch and how the skin reflects and affects emotions. She examines the modern human obsession with age-related changes in skin, especially wrinkles, then turns to skin as a canvas for self-expression, exploring our use of cosmetics, body paint, tattooing, and scarification"--Publisher's description.

We expose it, cover it, paint it, tattoo it, scar it, and pierce it. Our intimate connection with the world, skin protects us while advertising our health, our identity, and our individuality. This dazzling synthetic overview is a complete guidebook to the pliable covering that makes us who we are. Skin: A Natural History celebrates the evolution of three unique attributes of human skin: its naked sweatiness, its distinctive sepia rainbow of colors, and its remarkable range of decorations. Jablonski places the rich cultural canvas of skin within its broader biological context for the first time, and the result is a tremendously engaging look at us.

Shows the evolution of three unique attributes of human skin: its naked sweatiness, its distinctive sepia rainbow of colors, and its remarkable range of decorations. This work examines the modern human obsession with age-related changes in skin, especially wrinkles. It explores our use of cosmetics, body paint, tattooing, and scarification.

It is the largest and perhaps the most important organ of our body—it covers our fragile inner parts, defines our social identities, and channels our sensory experiences. And yet we rarely give a thought. With The Book of Skin, Steven Connor aims to change all that, offering an intriguing cultural history of skin. Connor first examines physical issues such as leprosy, skin pigmentation, cancer, blushing, and attenuations of erotic touch. He also explains why specific colors symbolize certain emotions, such as green for envy or yellow for cowardice, as well as why skin is the focus of destructive rage in many people’s violent fantasies. The Book of Skin then probes into how skin has been such a powerfully symbolic terrain in photography, religious iconography, cinema, and literature. From the Turin shroud to Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man to plastic surgery, The Book of Skin expertly examines the role of skin in Western culture. A compelling read that penetrates well beyond skin-deep, The Book of Skin validates James Joyce’s declaration that “modern man has an epidermis rather than a soul.” “Richly conceived and elaborately thought out. No flicker of meaning has escaped Connor’s ferocious, all-seeing eye.”—Guardian

On bookshelves around the world, surrounded by ordinary books bound in paper and leather, rest other volumes of a distinctly strange and grisly sort: those bound in human skin. Would you know one if you held it in your hand? In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom seeks out the historic and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy—the practice of binding books in this most intimate covering. Dozens of such books live on in the world’s most famous libraries and museums. Dark Archives exhumes their origins and brings to life the doctors, murderers, and indigents whose lives are sewn together in this disquieting collection. Along the way, Rosenbloom tells the story of how her team of scientists, curators, and librarians test rumored anthropodermic books, untangling the myths around their creation and reckoning with the ethics of their custodianship. A librarian and journalist, Rosenbloom is a member of The Order of the Good Death and a cofounder of their Death Salon, a community that encourages conversations, scholarship, and art about mortality and mourning. In Dark Archives—captivating and macabre in all the right ways—she has crafted a narrative that is equal parts detective work, academic intrigue, history, and medical curiosity: a book as rare and thrilling as its subject.

In The Skin, Curzio Malaparte extends the great fresco of European society he began in Kaputt. There the scene was Eastern Europe, here it is Italy during the years from 1943 to 1945; instead of Germans, the invaders are the American armed forces. In all the literature that derives from the Second World War, there is no other book that so brilliantly or so woundingly presents triumphant American innocence against the background of the European experience of destruction and moral collapse.

A complete textbook of dermatologic science and practice focusing on the care of patients with moderately to heavily pigmented skin A Doody's Core Title for 2011! "The well-organized book is replete with clinical images and addresses the unique medical, surgical, and cosmetic dermatology issues that occur in skin of color. Important cultural considerations in providing optimal care to patients with skin of color are discussed. 4 Stars (Excellent)"--Mayo Clinic Proceedings "...provides readers with the first comprehensive reference for this subspecialty, ranging from the historic and cultural to the clinical and basic science components....More than 600 full-color photographs of preoperative and postoperative photographs foster the visual recognition of dermatologic diagnostics, and the text proves an excellent diagnostic reference for clinicians presented with puzzling dermatologic lesions. Dermatology for Skin of Color will be a critical and invaluable addition to the clinical reference library of any culturally competent physician."--JAMA "Excellent color clinical photographs on high quality glossy white paper make this book a pleasure to peruse....I would recommend this book to anyone caring for a multiracial mix of patients. It also serves as a good standalone general dermatology textbook. It is definitely one of the superior books currently available covering dermatology issues in patients of color. 3 Stars."--Doody's Review Service Dermatology for Skin of Color is a comprehensive reference thoroughly detailing every aspect of dermatologic science as it applies to skin of color - from the development of the skin to the biology of hair and nails. All commonly encountered dermatologic problems of Africans, Asians, Native American, and other peoples are covered as are other diseases with significant skin manifestations. For each problem/disorder discussed, the authors offer detailed, specialized advice on diagnosis and treatment methods. Both medical and surgical treatment options are discussed as is cosmetic dermatology. In addition, folk remedies and over-the-counter treatments specifically targeting this population are also covered. Features 600 superb full-color pre and post operative photographs that can also be used for patient education Clinical pearls impart the wisdom of experience of international experts Easy-to-use, standardized presentation describes each condition and procedure Comprehensive coverage that includes: Pediatric dermatology; Medical, surgical, and cosmetic treatment options; ;The differences between skin of color and Caucasian skin as well as the differences between ethnic groups with skin of color ;Important basic science information on the structure and function of skin of color