About BC Books Online
BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
Enlarge Cover
list price: $21.95
edition:Paperback
category: Social Science
published: Oct 2001
ISBN:9781551521077
publisher:
Arsenal Pulp Press
Description
As seen in Time Magazine, Esquire, and The New Yorker!
Every man has the capacity to grow facial hair, but the decision to do so has always come with layers of meaning. Facial hair has traditionally marked a passage into manhood, but its various manifestations have been determined by class, religious belief, historical precedent, and occupational status. Beards have at one time or another come to represent wisdom, goodness, sorcery, diabolism, psychological depth, and revolution; they have been purchased, elaborately trimmed, adorned, and dyed, and deracinated as a form of torture. To this day, the act of displaying facial hair is still regarded as a form of ultimate cool.
With wit and insight, One Thousand Beards explores the historical meaning of beards, moustaches, sideburns, and other forms of facial hair, from Freud's psychoanalytic interpretation, to a wild trip through history, to a rogue's gallery of famous bearded or moustached men, including Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Stalin, Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean, and Yosemite Sam.
Now in its third printing
Editorial Reviews
While Peterkin has fun with witty quips from poets, playrights, philosophers, and theologians through the centuries, he is also quite serious and instructive. . .
-ForeWord
— ForeWord
Jam-packed with beard-related sidebar quotations and facts and figures, One Thousand Beards is a trivia-lover's delight, and an essential reference for anyone giving a barber-college valedictory address.
-Fast Forward
— Fast Forward
An entertaining and informative combination of a history, a documentary, an appreciation and a catalog.
-Publishers Weekly
— Publishers Weekly
Touching on both the history and the psychological interpretations of this seemingly minor cultural cue, Peterkin analyzes the ever-changing shaving practices of celebrities, criminals, and carnival performers.
-Quill & Quire
— Quill & Quire
Peterkin carves a witty, thought-provoking read from his bewhiskered subject matter.
-Resonance
— Resonance
Full of fascinating detail, the book has an accessible tone suited to its subject.
-The Globe & Mail
— Globe & Mail
This is the kind of information that can only make life happier, funnier, and a little bit more full. It not only freshly stocked my cache of trivia, but it opened my mind to the wealth of stories I can find in all of the places I would have never thought to look.
-Worn Fashion Journal (www.wornjournal.com)
— Worn Fashion Journal
[This] is an entertaining book for those who boast facial hair and those who don't.
-Vancouver Sun
— Vancouver Sun
Peterkin entertainingly follows many a revealing strand. . .
-Toronto Star
— Toronto Star
