100 Years of Magazine Covers

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.