The American South is a distinctive place with a dramatic history, and has significance beyond its regional context in the twenty first century. The American A Very Short ...
With the world desperate to find energy sources that do not emit carbon gases--a desire compounded by the sky-rocketing cost of fossil fuels--nuclear power is back on the ...
When Europeans first arrived in North America, between five and eight million indigenous people were already living there. But how did they come to be here? What were thei...
Late antiquity saw the barbarian invasions overrun the western Roman empire and Persian and Arab armies end Roman rule over the eastern and southern coasts of the Mediterr...
In this Very Short Introduction, Peter Hainsworth and David Robey examine Italian literature from the Middle Ages to the present day, looking at themes and issues which ha...
Iran has rarely been out of the headlines. Yet media interest and extensive coverage has tended to hinder rather than help our understanding of Iran as an idea, an identit...
People of faith often argue that without God, there can be no morality. Indeed, without religion, our lives are left without meaning and are likely to degenerate into mora...
The heritage of literature in the French language is rich, varied, extensive in time and space, and appealing both to its immediate public--readers of French--and also to ...
German literature in all genres and from all historical periods has exerted an enormous influence on the history of western thought. From Martin Luther, Frederick Schiller...
Incisive, elegant, and full of the excitement of doing philosophy, Julia Annas' Short Introduction boldly steps outside of the conventional chronological ways of organizin...
A renowned critic, biographer, and Shakespeare scholar, Jonathan Bate provides in this Very Short Introduction a lively and engaging overview of the literature that Jorge ...
A great deal of the world's history is the history of empires. Indeed it could be said that all history is colonial history, if one takes a broad enough definition and goe...
If now in decline since the tumultuous events of 1989, communism was without doubt the great political movement of the twentieth century--at its peak, more than a third of...
Greek and Roman warfare was unlike that of any other culture before or since. The key difference is often held to be that the Greeks and Romans practiced a "Western Way of...
Against the backdrop of unprecedented concern for the future of health care, this "Very Short Introduction" surveys the history of medicine from classical times, through t...
Egyptian myths articulated the core values of one of the longest lasting civilizations in history, and myths of deities such as Isis and Osiris influenced contemporary cul...
Assyria was one of the most influential kingdoms of the Ancient Near East. In this Very Short Introduction, Karen Radner sketches the history of Assyria from city state to...
Americans have come from every corner of the globe, and they have been brought together by a variety of historical processes--conquest, colonialism, the slave trade, terri...
Alexander the Great became king of Macedon in 336 BC, when he was only 20 years old, and died at the age of 32, twelve years later. During his reign he conquered the Achae...
Essential reading for anyone interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this Very Short Introduction looks at Africa's past and reflects on th...