Oxford University Press

A History of American Musical TheatreAfter six volumes on the musical's history, decade by decade from the 1920s through the 1970s, Ethan Mordden takes an entirely fresh look at the musical, from The Beggar's Opera to Wicked. Looking at the Star Comic, the Sweetheart Heroine, the war between musical comedy and operetta, the rise of the...

Fragile SuperpowerSusan L. Shirk opens up the black box of Chinese politics and finds that the real danger lies not in China's astonishing growth, but in the deep insecurity of its leaders. China's leaders face a troubling paradox: the more developed and prosperous the country becomes, the more insecure and threatened they feel. Shirk, a...

Southeast Asians and the Pilgrimage to MeccaThe pilgrimage to Mecca, or Hajj, has been a yearly phenomenon of great importance in Muslim lands for well over one thousand years. Each year, millions of pilgrims from throughout the Dar al-Islam, or Islamic world, stretching from Morocco east to Indonesia, make the trip to Mecca as one of the five...

The Birth of Tragedy (1872) is a book about the origins of Greek tragedy and its relevance to the German culture of its time. For Nietzsche, Greek tragedy is the expression of a culture which has achieved a powerful balance between insight into the chaos and suffering which underlies all existence and the discipline and clarity of rational...

What Other Christians Can Learn From the Latter-day SaintsIn Mormon Christianity Stephen H. Webb becomes the first respected non-Mormon theologian to explore in depth what traditional Christians can learn from the Latter-Day Saints. His book is unique in taking Mormon theology seriously and providing plausible and in some instances even persuasive...

Joe Heaney, Irish Song ManBright Star of the West examines the life, repertoire, and influence of Ireland's greatest sean-nos (old-style) singer, Joe Heaney (1919-1984). Best known for popularing this form of Gaelic a cappella folk song in the United States, authors Sean Williams and Lillis O Laoire reveal the ways in which Heaney's life...