War and Technology: A Very Short Introduction - Alex Roland

A compact history of 300, 000 years of military technology. Shows that technology is the primary driver of changes in warfare, and reveals the mode...

This book provides an overview of the history of religion and war, and a framework for analysing it. Ranging from ancient history to modern day con...

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...

In this Very Short Introduction, Christopher Hall shows how material science combines physics, chemistry, and biology with engineering to understan...

Agriculture, one of the oldest human occupations, is practised all over the world, using techniques ranging from the profoundly traditional to the ...

DescriptionEnergy is vital for a good standard of living, and much of the world's population does not have enough. Affordable and adequate sources ...

Fire has shaped the Earth's landscape and vegetation for the past 400 million years. This book explores the history of wildfire, and how humans hav...

DescriptionWhat is innovation? How is innovation used in business? How can we use it to succeed? Innovation, the ways ideas are made valuable, play...

Climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge facing humanity. This book describes the substantial evidence for climate change and considers its...

Vividly written and based on up-to-date scholarship, this title provides an interpretive overview of the international history of the Cold War.Illu...

More than one hundred and fifty years after the Civil War began, its hold on the American imagination has not abated. This Very Short Introduction ...

DescriptionWe live in a society which is increasingly interconnected, in which communication between individuals is mostly mediated via some electr...

Amid the many catastrophes of the twentieth century, the Spanish Civil War continues to exert a particular fascination among history buffs and the ...

The enormous loss of life and physical destruction caused by the First World War led people to hope that there would never be another such catastro...

The languages of the world can be seen and heard in cities and towns, forests and isolated settlements, as well as on the internet and in internati...

Fractals: A Very Short Introduction - Kenneth Falconer

This book is a clear and informative introduction to cryptography and data protection--subjects of considerable social and political importance. It...

This Very Short Introduction discusses the central events, machines, and people that feature in established accounts of the history of computing. I...

Sport: A Very Short Introduction - Mike Cronin

Dynasty: A Very Short Introduction - Jeroen Duindam

In 1607, Powhatan teenager Pocahontas first encountered English settlers when John Smith was brought to her village as a captive. In 1920, the rati...

Projects: A Very Short Introduction - Andrew Davies

Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction - Jennifer Nagel

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...