VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS - CHECKLIST
Series Note:
Some of these books are concise introductions to topics you might later wish to pursue in greater depth: Modern India, say, or Shakespeare’s Tragedies. Others, like “Teeth,” contain pretty much everything the average layperson would ever want or need to know. All of them, however, take their Very Short commitment seriously. The length of each book is fixed at thirty-five thousand words, or roughly a hundred and twenty pages. (See Very Short Introduction No. 500, “Measurement.”) Never mind that the Roman Empire got some four thousand pages from Edward Gibbon, and that was just to chronicle its demise; here it gets the same space as Circadian Rhythms, Folk Music, and Fungi.
In a clever marketing move, the Very Short Introductions advertise their brevity visually. They are small and trim, as if Steve Jobs had designed them, with covers that feature five hundred and twenty-six variations on the theme of horizontal swaths of color, like knockoff Rothkos or the wrappers on high-end chocolate bars. In common with the latter, they make for an appealing purchase, impulse or otherwise. Looking at them, it strikes you that, if you had to hop a flight from D.C. to Cleveland, you could be well on your way to mastering the basics of Microeconomics or Medieval Britain by the time you arrived.
Source: "How to Be a Know-It-All" by Kathryn Schulz.
The New Yorker, 16 October 2017.
What you learn from the Very Short Introduction series.
Title/Author
Accounting
Christopher Nobes
Advertising
Winston Fletcher
African American Religion
Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
African History
John Parker, Richard Rathbone
African Religions
Jacob K. Olupona
Agnosticism
Robin Le Poidevin
Alexander the Great
Hugh Bowden
Algebra
Peter M. Higgins
American History
Paul S. Boyer
American Immigration
David A. Gerber
American Indian Literature
Sean Teuton
American Legal History
G. Edward White
American Political History
Donald Critchlow
American Political Parties and Elections
L. Sandy Maisel
American Politics
Richard M. Valelly
American Slavery
Heather Andrea Williams
American Women's History
Susan Ware
Anaesthesia
Aidan O'Donnell
Anarchism
Colin Ward
Ancient Assyria
Karen Radner
Ancient Egypt
Ian Shaw
Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture
Christina Riggs
Ancient Greece
Paul Cartledge
Ancient Philosophy
Julia Annas
Ancient Warfare
Harry Sidebottom
Angels
David Albert Jones
Anglicanism
Mark Chapman
Animal Rights
Animal Rights
David DeGrazia
Antisemitism
Steven Beller
Antisemitism
Second Edition
Steven Beller
Anxiety
Daniel Freeman, Jason Freeman
Archaeology
Second Edition
Paul Bahn
Architecture
Andrew Ballantyne
Aristocracy
William Doyle
Aristotle
Jonathan Barnes
Art History
Dana Arnold
Art Theory
Cynthia Freeland
Astrobiology
David C. Catling
Atheism
Julian Baggini
Augustine
Henry Chadwick
Australia
Kenneth Morgan
Autism
Uta Frith
Bacteria
Sebastian G.B. Amyes
Banking
John O. S. Wilson, John Goddard
Barthes
Jonathan Culler
Beauty
Roger Scruton
Bestsellers
John Sutherland
Biblical Archaeology
Eric H Cline
Biography
Hermione Lee
Black Holes
Katherine Blundell
Borders
Alexander C. Diener, Joshua Hagen
British Politics
Second Edition
Tony Wright
Buddhism
Second Edition
Damien Keown
Buddhist Ethics
Damien Keown
Byzantium
Peter Sarris
Cancer
Nick James
Capitalism
Second Edition
James Fulcher
Capitalism
James Fulcher
Catholicism
Gerald O'Collins
Causation
Stephen Mumford, Rani Lill Anjum
Chaos
Leonard Smith
Chemistry
Peter Atkins
Child Psychology
Usha Goswami
Children's Literature
Kimberley Reynolds
Chinese Literature
Sabina Knight
Choice Theory
Michael Allingham
Christian Art
Beth Williamson
Christian Ethics
D. Stephen Long
Christianity
Second Edition
Linda Woodhead
Citizenship
Richard Bellamy
Civil Engineering
David Muir Wood
Classical Literature
William Allan
Classical Mythology
Helen Morales
Classics
Mary Beard, John Henderson
Clausewitz
Michael Howard
Climate Change
Third Edition
Mark Maslin
Climate
Mark Maslin
Colonial America
Alan Taylor
Colonial Latin American Literature
Rolena Adorno
Comedy
Matthew Bevis
Communism
Leslie Holmes
Complexity
John H. Holland
Confucianism
Daniel K. Gardner
Conscience
Paul Strohm
Consciousness
Susan Blackmore
Contemporary Art
Julian Stallabrass
Contemporary Fiction
Robert Eaglestone
Continental Philosophy
Simon Critchley
Coral Reefs
Charles Sheppard
Corporate Social Responsibility
Jeremy Moon
Corruption
Leslie Holmes
Cosmology
Peter Coles
Crime Fiction
Richard Bradford
Criminal Justice
Julian V. Roberts
Critical Theory
Stephen Eric Bronner
Cryptography
Fred Piper, Sean Murphy
Dada and Surrealism
David Hopkins
Dante
Peter Hainsworth, David Robey
Darwin
Jonathan Howard
Democracy
Bernard Crick
Derrida
Simon Glendinning
Descartes
Tom Sorell
Deserts
Nick Middleton
Design
John Heskett
Developmental Biology
Lewis Wolpert
Diaspora
Kevin Kenny
Dictionaries
Lynda Mugglestone
Dinosaurs
David Norman
Diplomacy
Joseph M. Siracusa
Documentary Film
Patricia Aufderheide
Dreaming
J. Allan Hobson
Drugs
Leslie Iversen
Druids
Barry Cunliffe
Early Music
Thomas Forrest Kelly
Economics
Partha Dasgupta
Education
Gary Thomas
Egyptian Myth
Geraldine Pinch
Eighteenth-Century Britain
Paul Langford
Emotion
Dylan Evans
Empire
Stephen Howe
Engels
Terrell Carver
Engineering
David Blockley
English Literature
Jonathan Bate
Enlightenment
John Robertson
Entrepreneurship
Paul Westhead, Mike Wright
Environmental Economics
Stephen Smith
Environmental Politics
Andrew Dobson
Epicureanism
Catherine Wilson
Epidemiology
Rodolfo Saracci
Ethics
Simon Blackburn
Ethnomusicology
Timothy Rice
Evolution
Brian Charlesworth, Deborah Charlesworth
Existentialism
Thomas Flynn
Exploration
Stewart A. Weaver
Family Law
Jonathan Herring
Fascism
Second Edition
Kevin Passmore
Fashion
Rebecca Arnold
Feminism
Margaret Walters
Film Music
Kathryn Kalinak
Film
Michael Wood
Folk Music
Mark Slobin
Food
John Krebs
Forensic Psychology
David Canter
Forensic Science
Jim Fraser
Forests
Jaboury Ghazoul
Fossils
Keith Thomson
Foucault
Gary Gutting
Fractals
Kenneth Falconer
Free Speech
Nigel Warburton
Free Will
Thomas Pink
French Literature
John D. Lyons
Freud
Anthony Storr
Fundamentalism
Malise Ruthven
Fungi
Nicholas P. Money
Galaxies
John Gribbin
Galileo
Stillman Drake
Game Theory
Ken Binmore
Gandhi
Bhikhu Parekh
Genes
Jonathan Slack
Genius
Andrew Robinson
Geography
John A. Matthews, David T. Herbert
Geopolitics
Second Edition
Klaus Dodds
German Literature
Nicholas Boyle
German Philosophy
Andrew Bowie
Global Catastrophes
Second Edition
Bill McGuire
Global Economic History
Robert C. Allen
Globalization
Third Edition
Manfred Steger
God
John Bowker
Goethe
Ritchie Robertson
Governance
Mark Bevir
Habermas
James Gordon Finlayson
Happiness
Daniel M. Haybron
Hegel
Peter Singer
Heidegger
Michael Inwood
Hermeneutics
Jens Zimmermann
Herodotus
Jennifer T. Roberts
Hieroglyphs
Penelope Wilson
Hinduism
Second Edition
Kim Knott
Hinduism
Kim Knott
History
John Arnold
HIV/AIDS
Alan Whiteside OBE
Hobbes
Richard Tuck
Hollywood
Peter Decherney
Hormones
Martin Luck
Human Anatomy
Leslie Klenerman
Human Evolution
Bernard Wood
Human Rights
Andrew Clapham
Human Rights
Second Edition
Andrew Clapham
Humanism
Stephen Law
Hume
Alfred Ayer
Humour
Noël Carroll
Ideology
Michael Freeden
Indian Philosophy
Sue Hamilton
Infectious Disease
Marta Wayne, Benjamin Bolker
Information
Luciano Floridi
Innovation
Mark Dodgson, David Gann
Intelligence
Ian J. Deary
International Law
Vaughan Lowe
International Migration
Khalid Koser
International Relations
Paul Wilkinson
International Security
Christopher S. Browning
Iran
Ali Ansari
Islam
Second Edition
Malise Ruthven
Islamic History
Adam J. Silverstein
Italian Literature
Peter Hainsworth, David Robey
Jesus
Richard Bauckham
Journalism
Second Edition
Ian Hargreaves
Judaism
Second Edition
Norman Solomon
Jung
Anthony Stevens
Kabbalah
Joseph Dan
Kafka
Ritchie Robertson
Kant
Roger Scruton
Keynes
Robert Skidelsky
Kierkegaard
Patrick Gardiner
Knowledge
Jennifer Nagel
Landscape Architecture
Ian Thompson
Landscapes and Geomorphology
Andrew Goudie, Heather Viles
Languages
Stephen Anderson
Late Antiquity
Gillian Clark
Law
Second Edition
Raymond Wacks
Law
Raymond Wacks
Leadership
Keith Grint
Liberalism
Michael Freeden
Light
Ian A. Walmsley
Lincoln
Allen C. Guelzo
Linguistics
P. H. Matthews
Literary Theory
Second Edition
Jonathan Culler
Locke
John Dunn
Logic
Graham Priest
Love
Ronald de Sousa
Machiavelli
Quentin Skinner
Madness
Andrew Scull
Magic
Owen Davies
Magna Carta
Nicholas Vincent
Magnetism
Stephen J. Blundell
Malthus
Donald Winch
Management
John Hendry
Mao
Delia Davin
Marine Biology
Philip V. Mladenov
Martin Luther
Scott H. Hendrix
Martyrdom
Jolyon Mitchell
Marx
Peter Singer
Materials
Christopher Hall
Mathematics
Timothy Gowers
Medical Ethics
Tony Hope
Medical Law
Charles Foster
Medieval Britain
John Gillingham, Ralph A. Griffiths
Medieval Literature
Elaine Treharne
Medieval Philosophy
John Marenbon
Memory
Jonathan K. Foster
Metaphysics
Stephen Mumford
Michael Faraday
Frank A.J.L James
Microbiology
Nicholas P. Money
Microeconomics
Avinash Dixit
Microscopy
Terence Allen
Minerals
David Vaughan
Modern Art
David Cottington
Modern China
Rana Mitter
Modern China
Second Edition
Rana Mitter
Modern Drama
Kirsten Shepherd-Barr
Modern France
Vanessa Schwartz
Modern Ireland
Senia Paseta
Modern Japan
Christopher Goto-Jones
Modern Latin American Literature
Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria
Modern War
Richard English
Modernism
Christopher Butler
Molecules
Philip Ball
Moons
David Rothery
Mormonism
Richard Lyman Bushman
Mountains
Martin F. Price
Muhammad
Jonathan A.C. Brown
Multiculturalism
Ali Rattansi
Music
Nicholas Cook
Myth
Second Edition
Robert Segal
Nationalism
Steven Grosby
Nelson Mandela
Elleke Boehmer
Neoliberalism
Manfred B. Steger, Ravi K. Roy
Networks
Guido Caldarelli, Michele Catanzaro
Newton
Rob Iliffe
Nietzsche
Michael Tanner
Nineteenth-Century Britain
Christopher Harvie, Colin Matthew
North American Indians
Theda Perdue, Michael D. Green
Northern Ireland
Marc Mulholland
Nothing
Frank Close
Nuclear Physics
Frank Close
Nuclear Power
Maxwell Irvine
Nuclear Weapons
Second Edition
Joseph M. Siracusa
Numbers
Peter M. Higgins
Nutrition
David Bender
Objectivity
Stephen Gaukroger
Organizations
Mary Jo Hatch
Paganism
Owen Davies
Particle Physics
Frank Close
Paul
E. P. Sanders
Peace
Oliver P. Richmond
Pentecostalism
William K. Kay
Philosophy in the Islamic World
Peter Adamson
Philosophy of Law
Second Edition
Raymond Wacks
Philosophy of Science
Samir Okasha
Philosophy
Edward Craig
Photography
Steve Edwards
Physical Chemistry
Peter Atkins
Pilgrimage
Ian Reader
Plague
Paul Slack
Planets
David A. Rothery
Plants
Timothy Walker
Plate Tectonics
Peter Molnar
Plato
Julia Annas
Political Philosophy
David Miller
Politics
Kenneth Minogue
Postcolonialism
Robert J. C. Young
Postmodernism
Christopher Butler
Poststructuralism
Catherine Belsey
Prehistory
Chris Gosden
Presocratic Philosophy
Catherine Osborne
Privacy
Second Edition
Raymond Wacks
Probability
John Haigh
Progressivism
Walter Nugent
Protestantism
Mark A. Noll
Psychiatry
Tom Burns
Psychoanalysis
Daniel Pick
Psychology
Second Edition
Gillian Butler, Freda McManus
Psychotherapy
Tom Burns, Eva Burns-Lundgren
Puritanism
Francis J Bremer
Quantum Theory
John Polkinghorne
Racism
Ali Rattansi
Radioactivity
Claudio Tuniz
Rastafari
Ennis B. Edmonds
Reality
Jan Westerhoff
Relativity
Russell Stannard
Religion in America
Timothy Beal
Renaissance Art
Geraldine A Johnson
Revolutions
Jack A. Goldstone
Rhetoric
Richard Toye
Risk
Baruch Fischhoff, John Kadvany
Ritual
Barry Stephenson
Rivers
Nick Middleton
Robotics
Alan Winfield
Roman Britain
Peter Salway
Roman Britain
Second Edition
Peter Salway
Romanticism
Michael Ferber
Rousseau
Robert Wokler
Russell
Russell
A. C. Grayling
Russian History
Geoffrey Hosking
Russian Literature
Catriona Kelly
Schizophrenia
Chris Frith, Eve C. Johnstone
Schopenhauer
Christopher Janaway
Science and Religion
Thomas Dixon
Science Fiction
David Seed
Scotland
Rab Houston
Sexuality
Veronique Mottier
Sikhism
Eleanor Nesbitt
Slang
Jonathon Green
Sleep
Steven W. Lockley, Russell G. Foster
Social and Cultural Anthropology
John Monaghan, Peter Just
Social Psychology
Richard J. Crisp
Social Work
Sally Holland, Jonathan Scourfield
Socialism
Michael Newman
Sociolinguistics
John Edwards
Sociology
Steve Bruce
Socrates
Christopher Taylor
Sound
Mike Goldsmith
Spanish Literature
Jo Labanyi
Spinoza
Roger Scruton
Spirituality
Philip Sheldrake
Sport
Mike Cronin
Stars
Andrew King
Statistics
David J. Hand
Stem Cells
Jonathan Slack
Structural Engineering
David Blockley
Stuart Britain
John Morrill
Superconductivity
Stephen J. Blundell
Symmetry
Ian Stewart
Taxation
Stephen Smith
Teeth
Peter S. Ungar
Terrorism
Second Edition
Charles Townshend
The American Presidency
Charles O. Jones
The American Revolution
Robert J. Allison
The American West
Stephen Aron
The Ancient Near East
Amanda H. Podany
The Anglo-Saxon Age
John Blair
The Animal Kingdom
Peter Holland
The Antarctic
Klaus Dodds
The Apocryphal Gospels
Paul Foster
The Avant Garde
David Cottington
The Aztecs
David Carrasco
The Beats
David Sterritt
The Bible
John Riches
The Blues
Elijah Wald
The Body
Chris Shilling
The Book of Mormon
Terryl L. Givens
The Brain
Michael O'Shea
The British Constitution
Martin Loughlin
The British Empire
Ashley Jackson
The Buddha
Michael Carrithers
The Cell
Terence Allen, Graham Cowling
The Celts
Barry Cunliffe
The Cold War
Robert J. McMahon
The Common Law
Joshua Getzler
The Computer
Darrel Ince
The Conquistadors
Matthew Restall, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
The Crusades
Christopher Tyerman
The Cultural Revolution
Richard Curt Kraus
The Dead Sea Scrolls
Timothy Lim
The Devil
Darren Oldridge
The Earth
Martin Redfern
The Elements
Philip Ball
The Etruscans
Christopher Smith
The European Union
Third Edition
John Pinder, Simon Usherwood
The Eye
Michael F. Land
The First World War
Michael Howard
The French Revolution
William Doyle
The Gothic
Nick Groom
The Great Depression and New Deal
Eric Rauchway
The History of Astronomy
Michael Hoskin
The History of Chemistry
William H. Brock
The History of Life
Michael J. Benton
The History of Mathematics
Jacqueline Stedall
The History of Medicine
William Bynum
The History of Time
Leofranc Holford-Strevens
The Ice Age
Jamie Woodward
The Koran
Michael Cook
The Laws of Thermodynamics
Peter Atkins
The Marquis de Sade
John Phillips
The Meaning of Life
Terry Eagleton
The Mexican Revolution
Alan Knight
The Middle Ages
Miri Rubin
The Mongols
Morris Rossabi
The Napoleonic Wars
Mike Rapport
The New Testament As Literature
Kyle Keefer
The New Testament
Luke Timothy Johnson
The Norman Conquest
George Garnett
The Old Testament as Literature
Tod Linafelt
The Old Testament
Michael D. Coogan
The Orchestra
D. Kern Holoman
The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
Martin Bunton
The Periodic Table
Eric R. Scerri
The Quakers
Pink Dandelion
The Reagan Revolution
Gil Troy
The Reformation
Peter Marshall
The Renaissance
Jerry Brotton
The Roman Empire
Christopher Kelly
The Roman Republic
David M. Gwynn
The Russian Revolution
S. A. Smith
The Scientific Revolution
Lawrence M. Principe
The Silk Road
James A. Millward
The Soviet Union
Stephen Lovell
The Spanish Civil War
Helen Graham
The Trojan War
Eric H. Cline
The Tudors
Second Edition
John Guy
The U.S. Congress
Donald Ritchie
The U.S. Supreme Court
Linda Greenhouse
The United Nations
Second Edition
Jussi M. Hanhimdki
The Vikings
Julian D. Richards
The World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization
Amrita Narlikar
Theatre
Marvin Carlson
Theology
Second Edition
David Ford
Thomas Aquinas
Fergus Kerr
Thought
Tim Bayne
Tibetan Buddhism
Matthew T. Kapstein
Tocqueville
Harvey Mansfield
Tragedy
Adrian Poole
Trust
Katherine Hawley
Twentieth-Century Britain
Kenneth O. Morgan
Utopianism
Lyman Tower Sargent
Viruses
Dorothy H. Crawford
Voltaire
Nicholas Cronk
Water
John Finney
William Shakespeare
Stanley Wells
Witchcraft
Malcolm Gaskill
Wittgenstein
A. C. Grayling
Work
Stephen Fineman
World Music
Philip V. Bohlman
World War II
Gerhard L. Weinberg
Writing and Script
Andrew Robinson
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Author: David Paul Wagner
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