Author: Rebecca Arnold Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199547904 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 161
Book Description
Fashion is a global industry, and plays a role in our economic, political, cultural, and social lives. However, fashion is often denigrated as trivial and superficial, a sign of vanity and narcissism. This Very Short Introduction will give a clear understanding of how fashion has developed while addressing these divergent views.
Author: Dorothy H. Crawford Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0198811713 Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 177
Book Description
Viruses are big news. From pandemics such as HIV, swine flu, and SARS, we are constantly being bombarded with information about new lethal infections. In this Very Short Introduction, Dorothy Crawford demonstrates from their discovery and the unravelling of their intricate structures, how clever these entities really are.
Author: John Arnold Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks ISBN: 019285352X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 152
Book Description
Starting with an examination of how historians work, this "Very Short Introduction" aims to explore history in a general, pithy, and accessible manner, rather than to delve into specific periods.
Author: Nick Groom Publisher: OUP Oxford ISBN: 0191642398 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 184
Book Description
The Gothic is wildly diverse. It can refer to ecclesiastical architecture, supernatural fiction, cult horror films, and a distinctive style of rock music. It has influenced political theorists and social reformers, as well as Victorian home décor and contemporary fashion. Nick Groom shows how the Gothic has come to encompass so many meanings by telling the story of the Gothic from the ancient tribe who sacked Rome to the alternative subculture of the present day. This unique Very Short Introduction reveals that the Gothic has predominantly been a way of understanding and responding to the past. Time after time, the Gothic has been invoked in order to reveal what lies behind conventional history. It is a way of disclosing secrets, whether in the constitutional politics of seventeenth-century England or the racial politics of the United States. While contexts change, the Gothic perpetually regards the past with fascination, both yearning and horrified. It reminds us that neither societies nor individuals can escape the consequences of their actions. The anatomy of the Gothic is richly complex and perversely contradictory, and so the thirteen chapters here range deliberately widely. This is the first time that the entire story of the Gothic has been written as a continuous history: from the historians of late antiquity to the gardens of Georgian England, from the mediaeval cult of the macabre to German Expressionist cinema, from Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy to American consumer society, from folk ballads to vampires, from the past to the present. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Author: Christopher Breward Publisher: OUP Oxford ISBN: 0191587737 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 272
Book Description
This lively survey of 150 years of fashion covers everything from Haute Couture to the High Street, and developing fabric technology from silk to fleece. From Coco Chanel to Armani and Alexander McQueen, Breward explores fashion as a cultural phenomenon. Breward examines the glamorous world of Vogue and advertising, the relationship between fashion and film, and fashion as a business, and goes beyond the surface to consider our interaction with fashion. How have our ideas about hygiene and comfort influenced the direction of style? How does our dress create our identity and status? Details of dandies, flappers, and punks are contained within a clear overview of the period which will make you look at your clothes in a different light.
Author: Sebastian G. B. Amyes Publisher: OUP Oxford ISBN: 0191654086 Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 161
Book Description
Bacteria form a fundamental branch of life. They are the oldest forms of life as we know it, and they are still the most prolific living organisms. They inhabit every part of the Earth's surface, its ocean depths, and even terrains such as boiling hot springs. They are most familiar as agents of disease, but benign bacteria are critical to the recycling of elements and all ecology, as well as to human health. In this Very Short Introduction, Sebastian Amyes explores the nature of bacteria, their origin and evolution, bacteria in the environment, and bacteria and disease. In looking at our efforts to manage co-evolving bacteria, he also considers the challenges of resistance to antibiotics. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Author: Leslie L. Iversen Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0198745796 Category : Drug abuse Languages : en Pages : 145
Book Description
The twentieth century saw a remarkable upsurge of research on drugs, with major advances in the treatment of bacterial and viral infections, heart disease, stomach ulcers, cancer, and metal illnesses. These, along with the introduction of the oral contraceptive, have altered all of our lives. There has also been an increase in the recreational use and abuse of drugs in the Western world. This Very Short Introduction, in its second edition, gives a non-technical account of how drugs work in the body. Reviewing both legal (alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine) and illegal drugs, Les Iversen discusses why some are addictive, and whether drug laws need reform. ABOUT THE SERIES The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Author: Matthew Bevis Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199601712 Category : Humor Languages : en Pages : 169
Book Description
With a broad scope across the millennia, from high literature to popular culture, between page and stage and screen, this Very Short Introduction considers comedy not only as a literary genre, but also as a broader impulse at work in many other historical and contemporary forms of satire, parody, and play.
Author: Gary Thomas Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA ISBN: 0199643261 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 161
Book Description
From the schools of ancient times to the present day, Gary Thomas looks at how and why education evolved as it has. By exploring some of the big questions, he examines the ways in which schools work, considers the differences around the world, and concludes by considering the future of education worldwide.
Author: Philip V. Bohlman Publisher: OUP Oxford ISBN: 0191579459 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 239
Book Description
'World music' emerged as an invention of the West from encounters with other cultures. This book draws readers into a remarkable range of these historical encounters, in which music had the power to evoke the exotic and to give voice to the voiceless. In the course of the volume's eight chapters the reader witnesses music's involvement in the modern world, but also the individual moments and particular histories that are crucial to an understanding of music's diversity. World Music is wide-ranging in its geographical scope, yet individual chapters provide in-depth treatments of selected music cultures and regional music histories. The book frequently zooms in on repertoires and musicians - such as Bob Marley, Bartok, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - and attempts to account for world music's growing presence and popularity at the beginning of the twenty-first century. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Proudly powered by WordPress |
Theme: Rits Blog by Crimson Themes.
Author: Rebecca Arnold
Author: Dorothy H. Crawford
Author: John Arnold
Author: Nick Groom
Author: Christopher Breward
Author: Sebastian G. B. Amyes
Author: Leslie L. Iversen
Author: Matthew Bevis
Author: Gary Thomas
Author: Philip V. Bohlman