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Pre-order. Available Nov 26 2026
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Description

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

Our ability to make a fist is what distinguishes humans from every other species, including primates. The fist has played a crucial role in the birth of language and appears in nearly every form of nonverbal communication. We use our fist to protest oppression, give pleasure, knock on doors, give daps, and (inaccurately) measure our heart. Yet the fist is also a sign of someone on the edge.

This book asks what happens when we lean over the edge of what a fist can do and symbolize. Fist uses historical moments and artifacts, interviews, and personal narratives to explore the fist's ambiguous and divisive nature. From boxing matches, the Black Power salute, Obama's fist bumps, and fisting, the last sexual taboo, nelle mills uncovers what flexing our knuckles says, not just about us, but the world in which we live.

Accessibility Information

Additional accessibility information

  • EPUB 3.0
  • Conforms with the requirements of EPUB Accessibility Spec v1.1
  • WCAG level AA
  • WCAG v2.2 compliant
  • accessibility@bloomsbury.com

Hazards

The publication contains no hazards

Support for non-visual reading

  • No accessibility features offered by the reading system, device or reading software are disabled or otherwise unusable with the product
  • Has alternative text descriptions for images

Visual adjustments

Appearance of the text and page layout can be modified according to the capabilities of the reading system (font family and size, spaces, as well as color of background and text)

Navigation

  • Page list to go to pages from the print source version
  • Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation
  • All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order
  • Content is enhanced with ARIA roles to optimize organization and facilitate navigation
  • Purposes of all links are made clear

Rich content

Language tagging provided

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Clench
2. Speak
3. Salute
4. Point
5. Control
Epilogue

Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published Nov 26 2026
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Pages 160
ISBN 9781501376641
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Series Object Lessons
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

nelle mills

nelle mills is a freelance writer and playwright b…

ONLINE RESOURCES

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