Photography: A Very Short Introduction - Steven Edwards

Photographs are an integral part of our daily lives, from sensationalist images in tabloid papers, to personal family snapshots, to the art photogr...

Why do we need sleep? What is sleep? What happens when we don't get enough? This Very Short Introduction addresses the biological and psychological...

Antisemitism, as hatred of Jews and Judaism, has been a central problem of Western civilization for millennia, and its history continues to invite ...

Projects: A Very Short Introduction - Andrew Davies

Sport: A Very Short Introduction - Mike Cronin

Sociolinguistics deals with the social life of language, language in its sociocultural context. It is a branch of linguistics that looks less at th...

Dynasty: A Very Short Introduction - Jeroen Duindam

Fractals: A Very Short Introduction - Kenneth Falconer

Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction - Jennifer Nagel

Throughout history, humanity has borne witness to the political and moral challenges that arise when people place national identity above allegianc...

Was love invented by European poets in the Middle Ages or is it part of human nature? Will winning the lottery really make you happy? Is it possibl...

This book brings together the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, and weaves in case-studies, anecdotes, and even literature and philos...

This Very Short Introduction draws on the best scientific research to offer a highly accessible explanation of what anxiety is, why it is such a no...

In this Very Short Introduction, Dan Haybron considers the true nature of happiness. By examining what it is, assessing its importance in our lives...

Madness profoundly disturbs our common sense assumptions; threatens the social order, both symbolically and practically; creates almost unbearable ...

Racism: A Very Short Introduction incorporates the latest research to demystify the subject of racism and explore its history, science, and culture...

Galaxies are the building blocks of the Universe: standing like islands in space, each is made up of many hundreds of millions of stars in which th...

Defining 'magic' is a maddening task. Over the last century numerous philosophers, anthropologists, historians, and theologians have attempted to p...

This Very Short Introduction offers a clear statement on what is currently known about autism and Asperger syndrome. Explaining the vast array of d...

This book is a simple, non-technical introduction to cosmology, explaining what it is and what cosmologists do. Peter Coles discusses the history o...

In this Very Short Introduction to Gandhi's life and thought, Bhikhu Parekh outlines both Gandhi's major philosophical insights and the limitations...

Every atom of our bodies has been part of a star. Our very own star, the Sun, is crucial to the development and sustainability of life on Earth. Th...

This book introduces fashion's myriad influences and manifestations. Fashion is explored as a creative force, a business, and a means of communicat...

Making good decisions under conditions of uncertainty - which is the norm - requires a sound appreciation of the way random chance works. As analys...

Game theory has seen spectacular successes in evolutionary biology and economics, and is beginning to revolutionize other disciplines from psycholo...

Getting away from the presentation of ancient philosophy as a succession of Great Thinkers, the book gives readers a sense of the freshness and liv...

This Very Short Introduction offers a wide-ranging look at the myriad indigenous religious traditions on the African continent. Drawing on archeolo...

For complex cultural and historical reasons, ethics has not received as much attention in traditional Buddhist thought as it has in the West, and p...

This Very Short Introduction provides a lucid, accessible, and engaging overview of the subject of film music. Beginning with an analysis of the mu...

In forensic science, a criminal case can often hinge on a piece of evidence such as a hair, a blood trace, half a footprint, or a tyre mark. High p...

Do animals have moral rights? If so, what does this mean? What sorts of mental lives do animals have, and how should we understand welfare? By pres...

Every day we seem to make and act upon all kinds of free choices - some of them trivial, and some so consequential that they may change the course ...

In this fascinating book, Michael O'Shea provides a non-technical introduction to the main issues and findings in current brain research, and gives...

his Very Short Introduction tells the story of Chinese literature from antiquity to the present, focusing on the key role literary culture played i...

We make choices all the time - about trivial matters, about how to spend our money, about how to spend our time, about what to do with our lives. A...

These are the questions that the field of developmental biology seeks to answer. It is an area that is closely linked to genetics, evolution, and m...

Lie detection, offender profiling, jury selection, insanity in the law, predicting the risk of re-offending , the minds of serial killers and many ...

Beginning with an overview of the central issues of documentary filmmaking—its definitions and purposes, its forms and founders—Aufderheide focuses...

Negotiation is essential for peace and international relations, but also for economically efficient trades and bargains in business, and for proble...

The European Union: A Very Short Introduction - Simon Usherwood, John Pinder

Despite important advances, clinical applications of stem cells are still in their infancy. Most real stem cell therapy today is some form of bone ...

Elizabeth Bishop has been described as the 'best-loved' poet in English of the second half of the twentieth century. This book explores the publish...

James Joyce was one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. This book explores his novels and short stories, and analyses the lit...

Publisher: Oxford University Press IncAuthor(s): Sarah M. S. (Professor of History, Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University) PearsallIllustr...

This book gives an overview of the main kinds of employment rights and labour laws found in many countries. It evaluates some of the assumptions un...

Famous for her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley was also infamous in her own time for breaking social and literary conventions, and taking a politi...

Pippa Virdee considers the history of Pakistan, created as a new nation state in 1947, placing it in the context of the region's four-thousand-year...

Peter Just and John Monaghan begin by discussing anthropologys most important contributions to modern thought: its investigation of culture as a di...

DescriptionA pop-culture presentation of the Integral Approach from visionary genius Ken Wilber, designed as an easy introduction to his work. What...

Rocks, more than anything else, underpin our lives. They make up the solid structure of the Earth and of other rocky planets, and are present at th...