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Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 71
Language
English
Formats
Description
"We make choices all the time - about trivial matters as well as important ones that affect our lives and those of others. We also constantly judge the decisions that other people make as rational or irrational. But what kind of criteria are we applying when we say that a choice is rational and what guides our own choices, especially in cases where we do not have complete information about the outcomes? What strategies should be applied in making...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 74
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Postmodernism has been a buzzword in contemporary society for the last decade. But how can it be defined? In this Very Short Introduction Christopher Butler challenges and explores the key ideas of postmodernists, and their engagement with theory, literature, the visual arts, film, architecture, and music. He treats artists, intellectuals, critics, and social scientists as if they were all members of a loosely constituted and quarrelsome political...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 334
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Pub. Date
2012
Language
English
Description
In a miracle of concision, Paul S. Boyer provides a wide-ranging and authoritative history of America, capturing in a compact space the full story of our nation. Ranging from the earliest Native American settlers to the presidency of Barack Obama, this Very Short Introduction offers an illuminating account of politics, diplomacy, and war as well as the full spectrum of social, cultural, and scientific developments that shaped our country. Here is...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 306
Language
English
Formats
Description
For 30 years, the author, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist chronicled the activities of the U.S. Supreme Court and its justices as a correspondent for the New York Times. In this introduction, she draws on her knowledge of the court's history and of its written and unwritten rules to show how the Supreme Court really works. She offers an institutional biography of a place and its people, men and women who exercise great power but whose names and...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 3
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Since its origins in India over two thousand years ago, Buddhism has not only spread throughout Asia, but also around the world. In this new edition of the Very Short Introduction to Buddhism, Damien Keown looks at how the tradition began and how it evolved into its present-day form. Explaining its central teachings and practices as well as key topics such as karma and rebirth, meditation and ethics, Keown also includes updates related to the evolution...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The iconic images of Uncle Sam and Marilyn Monroe, or the "fireside chats" of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the oratory of Martin Luther King, Jr.: these are the words, images, and sounds that populate American cultural history. From the Boston Tea Party to the Dodgers, from the Blues to Andy Warhol, dime novels to Disneyland, the history of American culture tells us how previous generations of Americans have imagined themselves, their nation, and their...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
American politics seems to grow more contentious and complicated by the day, and whether American democracy works well is hotly debated. Amidst all this roiling partisan argument and confusing claims and counterclaims, there has never been a greater need for an impartial primer on the basics of the American political system. This Very Short Introduction gives listeners a concise, accessible, and sophisticated overview of the vital elements of American...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 575
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
The applications of Artificial Intelligence lie all around us: in our homes, schools and offices, in our cinemas, in art galleries and - not least - on the Internet. Its results have been invaluable to biologists, psychologists, and linguists in helping to understand the processes of memory, learning, and language from a fresh angle. As a concept, Artificial Intelligence has fuelled and sharpened the philosophical debates concerning the nature of...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Autobiography is one of the most popular of written forms. From Casanova to Benjamin Franklin to the Kardashians, individuals throughout history have recorded their own lives and experiences. These personal writings are central to the work of literary critics, philosophers, historians and psychologists, who have found in autobiographies from across the centuries not only an understanding of the ways in which lives have been lived, but the most fundamental...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
From colonial empire-building in the nineteenth century to the postcolonial culture wars of the twenty-first century, attempts at "comparison" have defined the international agenda of literature. But what is comparative literature? Ambitious readers looking to stretch themselves are usually intrigued by the concept, but uncertain of its implications. And rightly so, in many ways: even the professionals cannot agree on a single term, calling it comparative...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The history of decadent culture runs from ancient Rome to nineteenth-century Paris, Victorian London, fin de siècle Vienna, Weimar Berlin, and beyond. The decline of Rome provides the pattern for both aesthetic and social decadence, a pattern that artists and writers in the nineteenth century imitated, emulated, parodied, and otherwise manipulated for aesthetic gain. What begins as the moral condemnation of modernity in mid-nineteenth century France...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The English language is spoken by more than a billion people throughout the world. But where did English come from? And how has it evolved into the language used today? In this Very Short Introduction Simon Horobin investigates how we have arrived at the English we know today, and celebrates the way new speakers and new uses mean that it continues to adapt. Engaging with contemporary concerns about correctness, Horobin considers whether such changes...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
What is fascism? Is it revolutionary? Or is it reactionary? Can it be both? Fascism is notoriously hard to define. How do we make sense of an ideology that appeals to streetfighters and intellectuals alike? That is overtly macho in style, yet attracts many women? That calls for a return to tradition while maintaining a fascination with technology? And that preaches violence in the name of an ordered society? In the new edition of this Very Short Introduction,...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Freemasonry is one of the oldest and most widespread voluntary organisations in the world. Over the course of three centuries men (and women) have organized themselves socially and voluntarily under its name. With a strong sense of liberation, moral enlightenment, cosmopolitan openness and forward-looking philanthropy, freemasonry has attracted some of the sharpest minds in history and has created a strong platform for nascent civil societies across...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Genomics has transformed the biological sciences. From epidemiology and medicine to evolution and forensics, the ability to determine an organism's complete genetic makeup has changed the way science is done and the questions that can be asked of it. Its most celebrated achievement was the Human Genome Project, a technologically challenging endeavor that took thousands of scientists around the world thirteen years and over three billion U.S. dollars...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
In this Very Short Introduction Jan Zalasiewicz gives a brief introduction to the fascinating field of geology. Describing how the science developed from its early beginnings, he looks at some of the key discoveries that have transformed it, before delving into its various subfields, such as sedimentology, tectonics, and stratigraphy. Analyzing the geological foundations of the Earth, Zalasiewicz explains the interlocking studies of tectonics, geophysics,...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
In this Very Short Introduction, Warwick Vincent outlines the essential features of lake environments and their biology, offering an up-to-date view of lake ecosystems. Vincent traces the origins of lake science (limnology) from the seminal work of Francois Forel on Lake Geneva at the edge of the Swiss Alps, to modern approaches such as environmental sensors, satellite observations, stable isotope analysis, and DNA-based technologies which are used...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Populism is a central concept in the current media debates about politics and elections. However, like most political buzzwords, the term often floats from one meaning to another, and both social scientists and journalists use it to denote diverse phenomena. What is populism really? Who are the populist leaders? And what is the relationship between populism and democracy? This book answers these questions in a simple and persuasive way, offering a...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
No one wants to live in poverty. Few people would want others to do so. Yet, we find ourselves in a situation where millions of people worldwide live in poverty. According to the World Bank in 2010, 1.2 billion people lived below the extreme poverty line with an income of U.S. $1.25 or less a day and 2.4 billion lived on less than U.S. $2 a day. Why is that? What has been done about it in the past? And what is being done about it now? In this Very...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The rise and fall of the Roman Republic occupies a special place in the history of Western civilization. From humble beginnings on the seven hills beside the Tiber, the city of Rome grew to dominate the ancient Mediterranean. Led by her senatorial aristocracy, Republican armies defeated Carthage and the successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great, and brought the surrounding peoples to east and west into the Roman sphere. Yet the triumph of the Republic...
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