Abolitionism: A Very Short Introduction
Richard S. Newman
The abolitionist movement launched the global human rights struggle in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, redefining the meaning of equality throughout the Atlantic world. In the ...
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The Abrahamic Religions: A Very Short Introduction
Charles L. Cohen
Connected by their mutual—if differentiated—veneration of the One God proclaimed by Abraham, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam compose a family of related traditions. The Abrahamic ...
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Aerial Warfare: A Very Short Introduction
Frank Ledwidge
Aerial warfare has dominated war-making for over 100 years, and despite regular announcements of its demise, it shows no sign of becoming obsolete. Aerial Warfare: A Very Short Introduction ...
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Aesthetics: A Very Short Introduction
Bence Nanay
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that explores the nature of art, beauty, and taste. It doesn’t just consider traditional artistic experiences such as artworks in a museum or an opera ...
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African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction
Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction explores the history and circumstances of African American religion through three examples: conjure, African American ...
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African History: A Very Short Introduction
John Parker and Richard Rathbone
African History: A Very Short Introduction looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented by examining the unity and diversity of ...
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African Religions: A Very Short Introduction
Jacob K. Olupona
African Religions: A Very Short Introduction offers a wide-ranging look at the myriad indigenous religious traditions on the African continent, drawing on archeological ...
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Agnosticism: A Very Short Introduction
Robin Le Poidevin
Agnosticism: A Very Short Introduction asks if there is more to agnosticism than merely the absence of belief. What is agnosticism? Who were the first to call themselves ...
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Albert Camus: A Very Short Introduction
Oliver Gloag
Albert Camus is one of the best known philosophers of the twentieth century, as well as a widely read novelist. Active in the first half of the twentieth century, his views contributed to ...
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Alexander the Great: A Very Short Introduction
Hugh Bowden
Alexander the Great: A Very Short Introduction demonstrates the profound influence the legends of Alexander's life have had on our historical understanding of him by focusing ...
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American Business History: A Very Short Introduction
Walter A. Friedman
American Business History: A Very Short Introduction looks at the rise of the American economy from its colonial and frontier beginnings. What made the United States an ...
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American Cultural History: A Very Short Introduction
Eric Avila
American Cultural History: A Very Short Introduction provides a chronological look at American culture—the values, attitudes, beliefs, and myths of a particular society and the ...
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American Foreign Relations: A Very Short Introduction
Andrew Preston
For better or worse, be it militarily, politically, economically, technologically, or culturally, Americans have had a profound impact on the wider world beyond them. American Foreign ...
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American History: A Very Short Introduction
Paul S. Boyer
American History: A Very Short Introduction spans the earliest migrations to the present looking at the United States's failures to live up to its oft-stated ideals. The ...
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American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edn)
David A. Gerber
American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction traces three massive waves of immigration from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, and analyzes the nature of immigration ...
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American Military History: A Very Short Introduction
Joseph T. Glatthaar
American Military History: A Very Short Introduction outlines the forces shaping the American military for the past 400 years. Since the colonial period, the United States has ...
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American Naval History: A Very Short Introduction
Craig L. Symonds
American Naval History: A Very Short Introduction charts the history of the United States Navy from its birth during the American Revolution, through its emergence as a global ...
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The American Revolution: A Very Short Introduction
Robert J. Allison
Between 1760 and 1800, the American people cast off British rule to create a new nation and a radically new form of government based on the idea that people have the right to govern ...
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American Slavery: A Very Short Introduction
Heather Andrea Williams
American Slavery: A Very Short Introduction traces the development of American slavery, from the Portuguese capture of Africans in the 1400s until its abolition following the ...
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The American South: A Very Short Introduction
Charles Reagan Wilson
The American South: A Very Short Introduction explores the American South, a distinctive place with a dramatic history. It is a cultural crossroads, where Western Europe met ...
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The American West: A Very Short Introduction
Stephen Aron
The American West: A Very Short Introduction tracks “the West” from the building of the Cahokia Mounds around 900 ad, through early encounters with Europeans, to the Newlands ...
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American Women's History: A Very Short Introduction
Susan Ware
What does U.S. history look like with women at the center of the story? From Pocahantas to military women serving in the Iraq war, American Women's History: A Very Short Introduction ...
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Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short introduction
Michael Beaney
Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction introduces some of the key ideas of the founders of analytic philosophy—Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore, Ludwig ...
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Ancient Assyria: A Very Short Introduction
Karen Radner
Assyria was one of the most influential kingdoms of the Ancient Near East. Ancient Assyria: A Very Short Introduction sketches the history of Assyria from city state to empire, from the ...
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Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edn)
Ian Shaw
Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction explores the history and culture of pharaonic Egypt, including ideas about Egyptian kingship, religion, ethics, customs, and writing ...
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Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture: A Very Short Introduction
Christina Riggs
What did Egyptian art and architecture mean to the people who first made and used it—and why has it had such an enduring appeal? Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture: A Very Short ...
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Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction
Paul Cartledge
Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction takes the polis as its starting point and uses the history of eleven major Greek cities to illuminate the most important and ...
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The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction
Amanda H. Podany
The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction describes a momentous time in human history and explains why the ancient Near East is known as the ‘cradle of civilization’. ...
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Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction
Julia Annas
Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction introduces ancient debates and focuses on important and revealing features of the subject providing a sense of its freshness and ...
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Ancient Warfare: A Very Short Introduction
Harry Sidebottom
Ancient Warfare: A Very Short Introduction examines all aspects of ancient warfare, from philosophy and strategy to the technical skills needed to fight. How did wars shape ...
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Angels: A Very Short Introduction
David Albert Jones
Angels: A Very Short Introduction outlines prominent stories and speculations about angels in Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and post-Christian spiritualties. What are angels? ...
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Anglicanism: A Very Short Introduction
Mark Chapman
Anglicanism: A Very Short Introduction highlights the diversity of contemporary Anglicanism by exploring its history, theology, and structures. Although originally united by ...
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The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction
John Blair
The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction covers the era from the emergence of the earliest English settlements around the year ad 450 to the Norman victory in 1066 ...
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Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction
David DeGrazia
Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction explores the implications for how we should treat animals in connection with our diet, zoos, and research. Most people are opposed to ...
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Antisemitism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edn)
Steven Beller
Antisemitism, as hatred of Jews and Judaism, has been a central problem of Western civilization for millennia. Antisemitism: A Very Short Introduction untangles the history of the ...
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The Apocryphal Gospels: A Very Short Introduction
Paul Foster
The Apocryphal Gospels: A Very Short Introduction explores their origins, discovery, and discusses how the various texts have been interpreted both by the Church and beyond. ...
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Thomas Aquinas: A Very Short Introduction
Fergus Kerr
Thomas Aquinas: A Very Short Introduction is an introduction to this early thirteenth century Italian Catholic priest's work. Placing Aquinas in an historical context, it ...
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Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edn)
Paul Bahn
Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction reflects on the enduring popularity of archaeology — a subject which encompasses the whole globe, and surveys 2.5 million years. ...
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Architecture: A Very Short Introduction
Andrew Ballantyne
Architecture: A Very Short Introduction provides a highly original and sophisticated look at architecture and helps us to understand the cultural significance of the buildings ...
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Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction
Jonathan Barnes
Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction argues that Aristotle’s influence on the intellectual history of the West is second to none. His various doctrines and beliefs were ...
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Art History: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edn)
Dana Arnold
Art history encompasses the study of the history and development of painting, sculpture, and the other visual arts. Art History: A Very Short Introduction considers the issues, debates, and ...
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Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction
Cynthia Freeland
In today's art world many strange, even shocking, things qualify as art. Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction discusses beauty, blood, culture, money, museums, sex, and politics, ...
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Asian American History: A Very Short Introduction
Madeline Y. Hsu
Asians have migrated to North America for centuries, in search of opportunities and conveyed by increasingly dense, international circuits of trade, labor markets, and family networks. ...
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Atheism: A Very Short Introduction
Julian Baggini
Atheism is often considered to be a negative, dark, and pessimistic belief that is characterized by a rejection of values and purpose and a fierce opposition to religion. Atheism: A Very ...
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Augustine: A Very Short Introduction
Henry Chadwick
Augustine: A Very Short Introduction traces the development of Augustine's thought, discussing his reaction to the thinkers before him, and themes such as freedom, creation, ...
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Autobiography: A Very Short Introduction
Laura Marcus
Throughout history, individuals have recorded their own lives and experiences. These personal writings provide an understanding of the ways in which lives have been lived, and the most ...
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The Avant Garde: A Very Short Introduction
David Cottington
The Avant Garde: A Very Short Introduction explores the concept of the ‘avant-garde’ and examines its wider context through the development of western modernity, capitalist ...
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The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction
David Carrasco
The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction employs the disciplines of history, religious studies, and anthropology as it illuminates the complexities of Aztec life. This VSI looks ...
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Babylonia: A Very Short Introduction
Trevor Bryce
Babylonia: A Very Short Introduction takes us on a journey of more than 2,000 years across the history and civilization of ancient Babylonia, from the emergence of its chief ...
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Barthes: A Very Short Introduction
Jonathan Culler
Roland Barthes: A Very Short Introduction elucidates the varied theoretical contributions of Roland Barthes, whose lifelong fascination was with the way people make their world ...
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