Oxford University Press

A Very Short IntroductionCynthia Freeland explains why innovation and controversy are valued in the arts, weaving together philosophy, art theory, and many engrossing examples. She discusses blood, beauty, culture, money, sex, web sites, and research on the brain's role in perceiving art. This clear, lively book will engage the public, introductory...

This dictionary comes to the aid of both the general reader and the student or teacher, offering straightforward and immediate A-Z access to 1,000 grammatical terms and their meanings. It contains currently accepted grammatical terms used in English as well as traditional names, many controversial new coinages, and items from the study of other...

What is 'nothing'? What remains when you take all the matter away? Can empty space        - a void - exist? This Very Short Introduction explores the science and the history        of the elusive void: from Aristotle who insisted that the vacuum was impossible, via        the theories of Newton and Einstein, to our very latest discoveries and why...

Literary history has conventionally viewed Milton as the last real practitioner of the epic in English verse. Herbert Tucker's spirited book shows that the British tradition of epic poetry was unbroken from the French Revolution to World War I....

How did life begin? What really was 'snowball earth'? Why did the dinosaurs go extinct? Are we all descended from 'African Eve'? Will humans be responsible for the next major extinction? All of these questions are addressed in this fascinating book.This book presents a comprehensive and well-illustrated guide to the story of life, from the origin...

This book is a concise and thorough introduction to the concepts and applications of thermodynamics and kinetics, suitable for a 1-2 semester course for upper-level undergraduates or first year graduate students in a materials-science-oriented discipline. It can also be used as a self-study guide, containing computer-based self-tests and...