Oxford University Press

'...behind them all was New York, looking at Karl with the hundred thousand windows of its skyscrapers' Entering New York harbour, the young immigrant Karl Rossmann sees the Statue of Liberty, 'her arm with the sword stretched upward'. This forbidding introduction sets the tone for Kafka's narrative about an innocent European astray in an...

The image of a job captures our imagination from an early age, usually prompted by the question 'What do you want to be when you grow up?'. Work - paid, unpaid, voluntary, or obligatory - is woven into the fabric of all human societies. For many of us, it becomes part of our identity. For others it is a tedious necessity. Living is problematic...

'I have become whore through goodwill and libertine through virtue.' Orphaned and penniless at the age of twelve, the beautiful and devout Justine embarks upon her remarkable odyssey. Her steadfast faith and naive trust in trust in everyone she meets destine her from the outset for sexual exploitation and martyrdom. The unending catalogue of...

'I have heard men say, that seeing is believing; but I should say that feeling is believing.' Anna Sewell's famous 'Autobiography of a Horse, published in 1877, is one of the bestselling novels in English. It was written not for children, but to expose and prevent cruelty to horses, and is a classic of Victorian literature that continues to...

The rise and fall of the Roman Republic occupies a special place in the history of Western civilization. From humble beginnings on the seven hills beside the Tiber, the city of Rome grew to dominate the ancient Mediterranean. Led by her senatorial aristocracy, Republican armies defeated Carthage and the successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great,...

The word 'governance' is ubiquitous. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund make loans conditional on 'good governance'. Climate change and avian flu appear as issues of 'global governance'. The European Union issues a White Paper on 'Governance'. The U.S. Forest Service calls for 'collaborative governance'. What accounts for the...