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History Reference Center
Full-text articles to support research in history and genealogy and lesson plans to support student learning.
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 102
Language
English
Description
Art History: A Very Short Introduction considers the issues, debates, and artefacts that make up art history. It explores the emergence of social histories of art and, using a wide range of images, it discusses key aspects of the discipline including how we write about, present, read, and look at art, and the impact this has on our understanding of art history. This second edition includes a new chapter on global art histories, considering how the...
Author
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Very short introductions volume 63
Language
English
Description
This concise, accessible introduction provides an analytical narrative of the main events and developments in Soviet Russia between 1917 and 1936. It examines the impact of the revolution on society as whole-on different classes, ethnic groups, the army, men and women, youth. Its central concern is to understand how one structure of domination was replaced by another. The book registers the primacy of politics but situates political developments firmly...
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Series
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English
Description
"Starting with the origins of writing five thousand years ago, with cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, Andrew Robinson explains how these early forms of writing developed into hundreds of scripts including the Roman alphabet and the Chinese characters. He reveals how the modern writing system we take for granted - including airport signage and electronic text messaging - resemble ancient scripts much more closely than we think."--BOOK JACKET.
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 54
Language
English
Description
The French Revolution is a time of history made familiar from Dickens, Baroness Orczy, and Tolstoy, as well as the legends of let them eat cake, and tricolors. Beginning in 1789, this period of extreme political and social unrest saw the end of the French monarchy, the death of an extraordinary number of people beneath the guillotine's blade during the Terror, and the rise of Napoleon, as well as far reaching consequences still with us today, such...
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English
Description
Postmodernism has become the buzzword of contemporary society over the last decade. But how can it be defined? In this highly engaging introduction, the mysteries of this most elusive of concepts are unraveled, casting a critical light upon the way we live now, from the politicizing of museum culture to the cult of the politically correct. The key postmodernist ideas are explored and challenged, as they figure in the theory, philosophy, politics,...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 492
Language
English
Description
"The 2014 Ebola epidemic demonstrated the power of pandemics and their ability not only to destroy lives locally but also to capture the imagination and terrify the world. Christian W. McMillen provides a concise yet comprehensive account of pandemics throughout human history, illustrating how pandemic disease has shaped history and, at the same time, social behavior has influenced pandemic disease. Extremely interesting from a medical standpoint,...
Author
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Very short introductions volume 30
Language
English
Description
Descartes is perhaps best known for his statement, "Cogito, ergo sum," the cornerstone of his metaphysics. But he did not intend the metaphysics to stand apart from his scientific work, which included important investigations into physics, mathematics, and optics. In this book, Sorell shows that Descarates was, above all, an advocate and practitioner of the new mathematical approach to physics, and that he developed his philosophies to support his...
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English
Description
The era known as Reconstruction is one of the unhappiest times in American history. It succeeded in reuniting the nation politically after the Civil War but in little else. Among its chief failures was the inability to chart a progressive course for race relations after the abolition of slavery and rise of Jim Crow. Reconstruction also struggled to successfully manage the Southern resistance towards a Northern, free-labor pattern. But the failures...
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Very short introductions volume 28
Language
English
Description
Karl Marx's theories have shaped and directed political economic, and social thought for 150 years. Here the renowned philosopher Peter Singer describes Marx's life and early ideas before clearly and concisely identifying the central vision that unifies Marx's thought and enables us to grasp it as a whole. In this new edition. Singer explores whether Marx and his ideas remain relevant to politics and society today. Assessing Marx's impact and the...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 123
Language
English
Description
"Amid the many catastrophes of the twentieth century, the Spanish Civil War continues to exert a particular fascination among history buffs and the lay-reader alike. This Very Short Introduction integrates the political, social and cultural history of the Spanish Civil War. It sets out the domestic and international context of the war for a general readership. In addition to tracing the course of war, the book locates the war's origins in the cumulative...
Author
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Very short introductions volume 179
Language
English
Description
This Very Short Introduction looks at the science of nuclear weapons and how they differ from conventional weapons. Tracing the story of the nuclear bomb, Joseph Siracusa chronicles the race to acquire the H-bomb, a thermonuclear weapon with revolutionary implications; and the history of early arms control, nuclear deterrence, and non-proliferation. He also tracks the development of nuclear weapons from the origins of the Cold War in 1945 to the end...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 609
Language
English
Description
"For better or worse, be it militarily, diplomatically, politically, economically, or culturally, Americans have had a profound role in shaping the wider world beyond them. Unsurprisingly, most non-Americans have passionate views about the nature of U.S. foreign policy. America has been a savior to some, a curse to others-and both have good reason to feel that way. And yet, such views are often also based on a caricature of American actions and intentions....
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 148
Language
English
Description
"In this wide-ranging exploration of the Renaissance, Jerry Brotton shows the period as a time of unprecedented intellectual excitement, cultural experimentation, and interaction on a global scale, alongside a darker side of religion, intolerance, slavery, and massive inequality of wealth and status"--Publisher description.
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Series
Very short introductions volume 160
Language
English
Description
"Until recently, Africa was seen by the outside world as being without history, a continent left behind in the wider story of human progress. But our understanding of the African past is very different today. This Very Short Introduction examines the changing ways in which African history has been understood and represented by historians and by Africans themselves. Examples drawn from across the continent and from the African diaspora beyond are used...
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Very short introductions volume 27
Language
English
Description
"Christopher Taylor introduces the life and philosophy of Socrates, whose work has played a central role in shaping Western philosophical thinking for centuries. Examining what we can deduce about Socrates from the writings of his contemporaries (as he himself left none), Taylor traces the reception and influence of his thought to the modern day."--
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Very short introductions volume 689
Language
English
Description
"The region of the Indus Valley has a 4,000-year-old history, being the site of one of the earliest riverine civilizations in the world, while the modern nation of Pakistan as we know it was created as a postcolonial homeland for the Muslims of British India. This Very Short Introduction looks at Pakistan as one of the two nation-states of the Indian sub-continent that emerged in 1947. Pippa Virdee reaches into the ancient past to understand the complex...
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Language
English
Description
From the Plantation of Ulster in the seventeenth century to the entry into peace talks in the late twentieth century the Northern Irish people have been engaged in conflict-Catholic against Protestant, Republican against Unionist. Marc Mulholland explores the pivotal moments in Northern Irish history-the rise of republicanism in the 1800s, Home Rule and the civil rights movement, the growth of Sinn Fein and the provisional IRA, and of the opposition,...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 666
Language
English
Description
"The American South has a dramatic history that has made it a distinctive place on the world stage, one with continuing significance into the twenty-first century. Its early history illuminates the expansion of Europe into the New World, creating a colonial, plantation, slave society that made it different from other parts of the United States but fostered commonalities with other southern places that had similar colonial experiences. The Civil War...
Author
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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...