Oxford University Press

Published in 1913, this harrowing, autobiographical 'A to Z' of drinking shattered London's reputation as a clean-living adventurer and massively successful author of such books as  White Fang and     The Call of the Wild....

Biographies are one of the most popular and best-selling of the literary genres. Why do people like them? What does a biography do and how does it work? This Very Short Introduction examines different types of biographies, why certain people and historical events arouse so much interest, and how they are compared with history and fiction....

Forensic science, with its connections to crime and detective work, is a subject        of wide fascination. This Very Short Introduction looks at the nature of forensic        science, how forensic scientists work, the different techniques involved, and the        broader legal issues it raises....

An introduction to the history of Western astronomy from prehistoric times to the origins of astrophysics in the mid nineteenth century. Emphasis is given to such topics as the merging of Babylonian and Greek astronomy in later Antiquity, Kepler's conversion of astronomy into a branch of dynamics, and the first explorations of the universe of...

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A review of the headlines of the past decade seems to show that disasters are        often part of capitalist systems: the high-tech bubble, the Enron fraud, the Madoff        Ponzi scheme, the great housing bubble, massive lay-offs, and a widening income gap.          Disenchantment with the market economy has reached the point that many even...