8. Scribes and materials
Andrew Robinson
in Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction
Writing is a universal skill, but it can also be an art form. Almost every literate society has a class of professional scribes who are also artists. In ancient Mesopotamia scribes were ...
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1. Questions about murder and history
John H. Arnold
in History: A Very Short Introduction
’Questions about murder and history’ provides an introduction to historiography. Historiography is the study of writing history. History is not simply ‘the past’, and is full of questions. ...
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7. The uses of history
Helen Graham
in The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction
History can be used as a weapon of propaganda. The post-Civil War regime manipulated a monolithic and partisan version of the war, referring to it not as a civil war but as a ‘crusade’ or ...
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6. Victory and defeat: the wars after the war
Helen Graham
in The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction
Victory in the Civil War for Franco marked the beginning of attempts to achieve economic mobilization in Spain without the accompanying political and cultural conditions that had been ...
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4. Decipherment and undeciphered scripts
Andrew Robinson
in Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction
In a technical sense, ‘decipher’ means different things to different scholars. At one end of the spectrum lies Egyptian script which is more or less completely decipherable with just a ...
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3. Disappearance of scripts
Andrew Robinson
in Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction
We know more about the death of scripts than we do about their birth. No single theory can encompass why scripts flourish or vanish. Many aspects influence the survival or disappearance of ...
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5. How writing systems work
Andrew Robinson
in Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction
‘How writing systems work’ looks at the history of the academic study of decipherment. Writing systems vary in complexity from European and American alphabetic signs, numerals, punctuation ...
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7. Chinese and Japanese writing
Andrew Robinson
in Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction
A study of the languages of China is vital if we are to understand the scripts of East Asia. Chinese is made up of eight regional languages, which are made up of many dialects. It is a myth ...
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1. Writing and its emergence
Andrew Robinson
in Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction
We do not need written communication to survive. However, in history, even the most complex society has developed a script or scripts. Writing is a defining marker of civilization. Writing ...
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9. Writing goes electronic
Andrew Robinson
in Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction
Electronic writing whether in English, Chinese, Japanese or German, uses the concepts of phoneticism, logography, rebus, and abbreviation, techniques used in ancient Mesopotamia. Computing ...
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1. Foundations: ethics, parables, and fish
Sabina Knight
in Chinese Literature: A Very Short Introduction
‘Foundations: ethics, parables, and fish’ explores ethical teachings in Chinese literature. The main theme of Chinese literature was the transience of human nature. Writing was seen as a ...
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3. Classical narrative: history, jottings, and tales of the strange
Sabina Knight
in Chinese Literature: A Very Short Introduction
‘Classical narrative: history, jottings, and tales of the strange’ reviews narrative forms in Chinese literature. Fictional elements were common in early narrative, and it was not until the ...
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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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1. The study of language
P. H. Matthews
in Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction
‘The study of language’ argues that studying language ‘scientifically’ is, in part, to refuse to accept uncritically the ways of thinking that, without any professional training, we all ...
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4. Forms, identities, and interpretations
Matthew Reynolds
in Translation: A Very Short Introduction
‘Forms, identities, and interpretation’ first looks at icons and how shapes and images are used in sign systems to create simple, international languages. It then considers the ...
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4. Paul and his Letters
Kyle Keefer (ed.)
in The New Testament As Literature: A Very Short Introduction
The majority of the books of the New Testament consist of letters. Out of twenty-seven books, at least twenty are correspondence, usually written to churches. Letter writing is an ancient ...
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2. Development and diffusion of writing
Andrew Robinson
in Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction
After writing had been ‘invented’ in Mesopotamia, or Egypt, it diffused across the world. Did it go eastwards to India, China, and Japan? Did it go westwards to Europe and Meso-America? Or ...
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6. Alphabets
Andrew Robinson
in Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction
Even more unknowable than the origins of writing are origins of the first alphabet. We accept that the alphabet reached the modern world via the ancient Greeks. We do not know how or when ...
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2. Oral literatures
Sean Teuton
in Native American Literature: A Very Short Introduction
Native Americans carefully trained their memories to record and transmit vast bodies of knowledge verbatim because, in an oral society, the known universe always stood only one generation ...
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4. Writing magic
Owen Davies
in Magic: A Very Short Introduction
‘Writing magic’ asks, Are words magical? Magic is mentioned in most of the world's sacred religious texts; universal access to these texts is relatively recent — historically, they could be ...
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