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Very short introductions volume 490
Language
English
Description
"Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a man of extraordinary intellectual creativity who lived an exceptionally rich and varied intellectual life in troubled times. More than anything else, he was a man who wanted to improve the life of his fellow human beings through the advancement of all the sciences and the establishment of a stable and just political order. In this Very Short Introduction Maria Rosa Antognazza outlines the central features...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 515
Language
English
Description
The Habsburgs are the most famous dynasty in continental Europe. From the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries, they ruled much of Central Europe, and for two centuries were also rulers of Spain. Through the Spanish connection, they acquired lands around the Mediterranean and a chunk of the New World, spreading eastwards to include the Philippines. Reaching from South-East Asia to what is now Ukraine, the Habsburg Empire was truly global. In this...
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Series
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English
Description
"Abraham Lincoln was a fatalist who promoted freedom; he was a classical liberal who couched liberalism's greatest deed - emancipation of the slaves - in the unliberal language of divine providence; he was a religious doubter who became a national icon bordering on religion; and he was a rights-oriented liberal who appealed to natural law when confronting slavery"--Provided by publisher.
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 33
Language
English
Description
"David Hume, philosopher, historian, economist, librarian, and essayist, was one of the great figures of the European Enlightenment. Unlike some of his famous contemporaries, however, he was not dogmatically committed to idealised conceptions of reason, liberty, and progress. Instead, Hume was a sceptic whose arguments questioned the reach and authority of human rationality, and who put the rivalrous passions of commercial life at the centre of his...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 218
Language
English
Description
"They called it the Reagan revolution," Ronald Reagan noted in his Farewell Address. "Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense."
Nearly two decades after that 1989 speech, debate continues to rage over just how revolutionary those Reagan years were. The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction identifies and tackles some of the controversies and historical...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 36
Language
English
Description
The European Union (EU) stands out as a fascinatingly unique political organization. On the one hand, it has shown the potential for developing deep and wide-ranging cooperation between member states, going far beyond that found anywhere else in the world. On the other, it is currently in the throes of a phase of profound uncertainty about its viability and future.
Showing how and why the EU has developed from 1950 to the present day, this Very Short...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 578
Language
English
Description
"From early slave rebels to radical reformers of the Civil War era and beyond, the struggle to end slavery was a diverse, dynamic, and ramifying social movement. In this succinct narrative, Richard S. Newman examines the key people, themes, and ideas that animated abolitionism in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries in the United States and internationally. Filled with portraits of key abolitionists - including Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 143
Language
English
Description
Since their discovery in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have become an icon in popular culture that transcends their status as ancient Jewish manuscripts. Everyone has heard of the Scrolls, but amidst the conspiracies, the politics, and the sensational claims, it can be difficult to separate the myths from the reality. In this Very Short introductions, Timothy Lim discusses the cultural significance of the finds, and the religious, political and legal...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 396
Language
English
Description
"This short introduction to American slavery begins with the Portuguese capture of Africans in the 1400s and, drawing upon the scholarship of numerous historians as well as the analysis of primary documents, explores the development of slavery in the American colonies and later, the United States of America. It analyzes early legislation in Virginia that differentiated Indians and Africans from Europeans and began the process of stratifying society...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 155
Language
English
Description
From the Publisher: Fundamentalism is seen as the major threat to world peace today, a conclusion impossible to ignore since the events in New York on September 11, 2001. But what does "fundamentalism" really mean? Since it was coined by American Protestant evangelicals in the 1920s, the use of the term "fundamentalist" has expanded to include a diverse range of radical conservatives and ideological purists, not all religious. Fundamentalism could...
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Very short introductions volume 216
Language
English
Description
The Norman Conquest in 1066 was one of the most profound turning points in English history, dramatically transforming a disparate collection of small nations into a powerful European state. But what actually happened? How was the invasion viewed by those who witnessed it? And how has its legacy been seen by generations since? In this Very Short Introduction, George Garnett--an expert on the Norman Conquest and its aftermath--reveals how dramatically...
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English
Description
With startling speed, Spanish conquistadors invaded hundreds of Native American kingdoms, took over the mighty empires of the Aztecs and Incas, and initiated an unprecedented redistribution of the world's resources and balance of power. They changed the course of history, but the myth they established was even stranger than their real achievements. This Very Short Introduction deploys the latest scholarship to shatter and replace the traditional narrative....
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Series
Language
English
Description
"Roland Barthes (1915-80) was an 'incomparable enlivener of the literary mind' whose lifelong fascination was with 'the way people make their world intelligible'. He has a multifaceted claim to fame: to some he is the structuralist who outlined a 'science of literature', and the most prominent promoter of semiology; to others he stands not for science but pleasure, espousing literature which gives the reader a creative role." "He called for 'the death...
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English
Description
The Civil Rights Movement was one of the most remarkable mass movements in American history. Not only did it decisively change the legal and political status of African Americans, it prefigured the moral premises and methods of struggle for other historically oppressed groups seeking equal standing in American society. Thomas C. Holt provides an informed and nuanced understanding of the origins, character, and objectives of the mid-twentieth-century...
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Very short introductions volume 227
Language
English
Description
"What is innovation? How important is innovation in business? How can we use it to succeed? In the last 150 years our world has been transformed - largely due to innovation. Our parents were born into a world where television had yet to be invented, and there was no penicillin or frozen food. Our great grandparents began life in a world with no light bulbs, cars, telephones, or airplanes." "This Very Short Introduction looks at what innovation is...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 204
Language
English
Description
From the Publisher: Superconductivity-the flow of electric current without resistance in certain materials as temperatures near absolute zero-is one of the greatest discoveries of 20th century physics, but it can seem impenetrable to those who lack a solid scientific background. Outlining the fascinating history of how superconductivity was discovered, and the race to understand its many mysterious and counter-intuitive phenomena, Stephen Blundell...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 36
Language
English
Description
The European Union (EU) stands out as a fascinatingly unique political organisation. On the one hand, it has shown the potential for developing deep and wide-ranging cooperation between member states, going far beyond that found anywhere else in the world. On the other, it is currently in the throes of a phase of profound uncertainty about its viability and future. Showing how and why the EU has developed from 1950 to the present day, this Very Short...
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