Bøger i Very Short Introductions serien

An essay about how we study and understand history, this book begins by inviting us to think about various questions provoked by our investigation of history. It explores the ways these questions have been answered in the past. It also introduces the concepts of causation, interpretation, and periodization, through examples of how historians work.

Explores the significance of the Koran both in the modern world and in traditional Muslim culture. This book provides an account of the Koran as codex, as scripture, as liturgy, and as the embodiment of truth, and examines its means of formation and dissemination. It also discusses issues of interpretation for certain key verses.

Famous throughout history for their doomed stand at Thermopylae, and immortalised by contemporary Athenian writers who viewed them as the exotic other, the Spartans, and their brutality and bravery, both fascinate and appal us. Andrew Bayliss reveals the best and the worst of this harsh society, separating myth from reality.

Covering Geoffrey Chaucer's life and work, David Wallace considers the influence and enduring appeal of his body of writing, explores the wide ranging geography and iconic characters in his stories, and discusses how Chaucer's own experiences contributed to his literature.

Nazi concentration camps are by no means the only examples of these 'extreme institutions'; Dan Stone sets out the fuller story, from the Boer War to Bosnia. He shows how different regimes have used concentration camps at times of crisis to control populations that appeared threatening, and examines their role in consciousness and identity.

The Iliad and the Odyssey are the cornerstones of Western literature, inspiring artists, writers, philosophers, musicians, playwrights, and film-makers throughout history. Barbara Graziosi introduces Homer's key works and discusses the main literary, historical, and archaeological issues at the heart of Homeric studies.

In this Very Short Introduction Linda Woodhead explores the cultural and institutional dimensions of Christianity and its course over two millennia, including its geographical spread and struggles with modernity. This new edition is a candid portrait of Christianity's past and present, and its importance in the twenty-first century.

Viruses are everywhere, and as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, cannot be ignored. From their discovery to the unravelling of their intricate structures, this Very Short Introduction provides a rounded and concise account of the nature of viruses, how they attack their hosts, and the efforts to control them.

A vast system of prisons, camps, and exile settlements, the Gulag was one of the defining attributes of the Stalinist Soviet Union and one of the most heinous examples of mass incarceration in the twentieth century. It combined a standard prison system with the goal of isolating and punishing alleged enemies of the Soviet regime. More than 25 million people passed through the Gulag from its creation in 1930 to its dismantling in the 1950s.By presenting both the everyday experiences of ordinary prisoners and the overall political and economic background of the system, The Gulag: A Very Short Introduction offers a succinct and comprehensive study of the Gulag and its legacy in the former USSR.

From 1789 in France to 2011 in Cairo, revolutions have shaken the world. In their pursuit of social justice, revolutionaries have taken on the assembled might of monarchies, empires, and dictatorships. They have often, though not always, sparked cataclysmic violence, and have at times won miraculous victories, though at other times suffered devastating defeat. This Very Short Introduction illuminates the revolutionaries, their strategies, their successes and failures, and the ways in which revolutions continue to dominate world events and the popular imagination. Starting with the city-states of ancient Greece and Rome, Jack Goldstone traces the development of revolutions through the Renaissance and Reformation, the Enlightenment and liberal constitutional revolutions such as in America, and their opposite--the communist revolutions of the 20th century. He shows how revolutions overturned dictators in Nicaragua and Iran and brought the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and examines the new wave of non-violent "e;color"e; revolutions-the Philippines' Yellow Revolution, Ukraine's Orange Revolution--and the Arab Uprisings of 2011-12 that rocked the Middle East. Goldstone also sheds light on the major theories of revolution, exploring the causes of revolutionary waves, the role of revolutionary leaders, the strategies and processes of revolutionary change, and the intersection between revolutions and shifting patterns of global power. Finally, the author examines the reasons for diverse revolutionary outcomes, from democracy to civil war and authoritarian rule, and the likely future of revolution in years to come. About the Series:Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.

This introduction to the field of gender history offers a set of working definitions of gender as a descriptive category and as a category of historical analysis, tracing the emergence, usage, and applicability of these entwined subjects across a range of times and places in scholarship since the 1970s.Inevitably political, gender history has taken aim at the broader field of historical narrative by asking who counts as a historical subject and how paying attention to gender subverts reigning assumptions of what power, culture, economics, and identity have been in the past--and what they are today. Antoinette Burton explores how gender analysis has changed interpretations of the histories of slavery, capitalism, migration, and empire.

This book examines the career of the Roman poet Horace, one of the greatest writers in Roman literature. It introduces his poetry with illustrations from all his works, and contextualises his career in Greek and Roman literary tradition and within the tumultuous events of his life as civil war gave way to the reign of the first emperor Augustus.

Tom Burns explores the nature of psychiatry today, focusing on what it can and cannot do, and considering the main disorders it covers. Discussing the philosophical issues of psychiatry, he reveals psychiatry's past mistakes, before looking forward to the likely changes in its future practice with artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

The ancient Egyptians are an enduring source of fascination, from mummies and pyramids, to curses and rituals. In this second edition of his Very Short Introduction, Ian Shaw explores the history and culture of pharaonic Egypt, and examines the latest research on Ancient Egyptian ideas of death, kingship, religion, race, sex, and gender.

Marx is one of the most influential philosophers of all time, whose theories about society, economics, and politics have shaped and directed political and social thought for 150 years. In this new edition, Peter Singer discusses the legacy and impact of Marx's core theories, considering how they apply to twenty first century politics and society.

The nineteenth-century Romantic myth of Bohemia emerged to describe the new conditions faced by artists and writers, who after the previous system of aristocratic patronage collapsed were free to move around in search of success. Yet most real-life bohemians have scant interest in commercial gain and are not so itinerant after all. Tracing these contradictions in bohemian cultures and lifestyles from the early nineteenth century to the present, David Weir explores the myth of Bohemia as it developed in various forms of expression--novels, plays, operas, films--and in key cities, including Paris, Munich, and New York. Weir concludes with a discussion of the legacy of Bohemia today as something outworn and dying, an exhausted tradition that somehow continues.

Emotions are complex mental states that resist reduction. Intimate and private, yet gaining substance and significance from their social and cultural context, their history is plural. It occupies the intersection of history of ideas, of the body, of subjectivity, and social and cultural history. This book explores its many facets.

Many people would be able to agree on a list of things that fall under the umbrella of pseudoscience - astrology, phrenology, UFOlogy, creationism, and eugenics might come to mind. But defining what makes these fields "pseudo" and differentiates them from genuine science is a far more complex issue. Pseudoscience: A Very Short Introduction explores the philosophical and historical attempts to address this problem of demarcation. Michael D. Gordin guides readers along a bewildering array of marginalized doctrines, focusing on some of the central debates about what science is and is not, and how such controversies have shifted over the centuries. This Very Short Introduction provides a historical tour through various theories, providing readers with the tools to think deeply about scientific controversies both past and present.

Law touches every aspect of our daily lives, and yet the main concepts, terms, and processes of the legal system remain obscure to many. This Very Short Introduction, in its third edition, provides a lucid, accessible guide to modern legal systems, considering a number of social and political events that have had an impact on the law.

Richard Earl describes the nascent evolution of mathematical analysis, its development as a subject in its own right, and its wide-ranging applications in mathematics and science, modelling reality from acoustics to fluid dynamics, from biological systems to quantum theory.

This second edition of Borders: A Very Short Introduction challenges the perception of borders as passive lines on a map, revealing them instead to be integral forces in the economic, social, political, and environmental processes that shape our lives.

Unlocking the secrets of the Universe involves the critical application of the laws of physics to the observations. This Very Short Introduction describes how we are turning observations into knowledge and how theory, in turn, is inspiring new observations.

In this Very Short Introduction to the gene Jonathan Slack explores the discovery, nature, and role of genes in evolution and development. Looking at how genes are understood as a concept, the nature of genetic variation, and how their mutation can lead to disease, this is an ideal guide for anyone curious about what genes are and how they work.

This Very Short Introduction explores the backstory, event, and reception of the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, in light of the wider history of the Catholic Church and places it in the exciting and tumultuous context of the 1960s.