Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The myths surrounding Sparta are as old as the city itself. Even in antiquity, Sparta was a unique society, and considered an enigma. The Spartans who fought for freedom against the Persians called themselves 'equals' or peers, but their equality was reliant on the ruthless exploitation of the indigenous population known as helots. The Spartans' often bizarre rules and practices have the capacity to horrify as much they do to fascinate us today. Athenian writers were intrigued and appalled in equal measure by a society where weak or disabled babies were said to have been examined carefully by state officials before being dumped off the edge of a cliff. Even today their lurid stories have shaped our image of Sparta; a society in which cowards were forced to shave off half their beards, to dress differently from their peers, and who were ultimately shunned to the extent that suicide seemed preferable. The legend of Sparta was even perpetuated by later Spartans, who ran a thriving tourist industry that exaggerated the famed brutality of their ancestors. This Very Short Introduction separates myth from reality to reveal the best—and the worst—of the Spartans. Andrew Bayliss explores key aspects of Spartan society, including their civic structure, their day-to-day lifestyle, and traditions such as the krypteia, a brutal rite of passage where teenagers were sent into the countryside and ordered to eliminate the biggest and most dangerous helots. Alongside this, Bayliss also sheds light on the many admirable qualities of ancient Sparta, such as their state-run education system, or the fact that this society was almost unparalleled in the pre-modern world for the rights given to Spartan women. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
The oath was an institution of fundamental importance across a wide range of social interactions throughout the ancient Greek world, making a crucial contribution to social stability and harmony; yet there has been no comprehensive, dedicated scholarly study of the subject for over a century. This volume of a two-volume study explores how oaths functioned in the working of the Greek city-state (polis) and in relations between different states as well as between Greeks and non-Greeks.
The oath was an institution of fundamental importance across a wide range of social interactions throughout the ancient Greek world, making a crucial contribution to social stability and harmony; yet there has been no comprehensive, dedicated scholarly study of the subject for over a century. This volume of a two-volume study explores how oaths functioned in the working of the Greek city-state (polis) and in relations between different states as well as between Greeks and non-Greeks.
Is there life after the presidency? That is the question with which Andrew Johnson wrestled after his return to Tennessee in March 1869 until his death in the summer of 1875. He answered that question with a resounding "yes" and revitalized his political ambitions. For his six post-presidential years, Johnson relentlessly pursued a vindication of earlier setbacks and embarrassments. He had hardly arrived back in Greenville before he began mapping his strategy to recapture public acclaim. Johnson eschewed the opportunity to compete for the governor's chair and opted instead to set his sights on the prospects of going back to the nation's capital, preferably as a U. S. senator. Johnson engaged in three separate campaigns, one in 1869, one in 1872, and the final one is 1874-75. In the first, he sought election to the U. S. Senate. At the very last minute the tide went against him in the legislature, and Johnson thereby lost a wonderful opportunity to return to Washington only a few months after the end of his presidency. In 1872, Tennessee stipulated that its new congressional seat would be an at-large one. This suited Johnson, who favored a statewide, rather than a district, race. When he could not secure the formal nomination of the state's Democratic part, he boldly declared himself an independent candidate. Although he knew full well that his actual chances of election over either a Republican or a Democratic rival were slim, Johnson stayed in the fray. Confederates exerted one the Democratic party, and he succeeded. The Republican contender emerged victorious, much as Johnson had calculated, and therefore in a somewhat perverse this strengthened Johnson's political clout for another day. The day came in 1874, when he launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate. Johnson labored mightily throughout the state in this cause: by the time the legislature convened, he was the major contender for the post. But Democratic party successes in the gubernatorial and legislative elections had encouraged a number of other hopefuls. Eventually, the legislature staged fifty-five ballots before Johnson carried the day in late January 1875. As fate would have it, President Grant summoned a special session if the U. S. Senate to meet in March, enabling Johnson to claim his seat well ahead of the normal schedule. The ex-president strode confidently into the Senate chamber, the scene of his impeachment embarrassment in 1868, and took the oath of office. Many well-wishers, as well as old foes, greeted the battle-scarred political veteran whose vindication had been achieved at last. After lingering in Washington after the close of the Senate session, Johnson returned to Tennessee, where he lived out the short remainder of his days. With the exception of serious financial reverses and a nearly fatal battle with cholera in 1873, Johnson's sole focus had been his political rehabilitation. Considering his return to the Senate, albeit brief, the argument could be made that he succeeded. But, considering the verdict of most historians, it remains debatable whether he achieved his aims. The Editor: Paul H. Bergeron is professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The company that became GKN was forged in the first fires of the Industrial Revolution. And through the two-and-a-half centuries of its remarkable life, GKN has proved a master of Industrial Evolution. From a single blast furnace fuelling a tiny iron works on a remote Welsh hillside, GKN was built by a group of men – and one woman – into a world leader. Not just once or twice, but many times, it has changed shape and direction to hold its place at the forefront of the engineering industry. When iron gave birth to the worldwide railway boom in the early 1800s, GKN was there. It was among the first to seize the opportunities created when steel superseded iron in the 1860s. After the First World War, GKN moved into the 20th century’s greatest new industry – automotive. Late in the century, when aerospace began to be transformed by the use of new materials, GKN was at the leading edge. Geographically too, the company has evolved. As the balance of economic growth has shifted, from Britain in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to America, continental Western Europe and Japan in the 20th and on to the emerging powers of Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe in the 21st century, the group has moved with it and frequently ahead of it. Today, the businesses that comprise GKN reach from the US to the eastern shores of Japan, from northern China and India to South Africa, Latin America and Australia. GKN is a truly global corporate citizen. This is its remarkable story.
DT These highly successful revision guides have been brought right up-to-date for the new A Level specifications introduced in September 2000.DT Oxford Revision Guides are highly effective for both individual revision and classroom summary work. The unique visual format makes the key concepts and processes, and the links between them, easier to memorize.DT Students will save valuable revision time by using these notes instead of condensing their own.DT In fact, many students are choosing to buy their own copies so that they can colour code or highlight them as they might do with their own revision notes.
Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The myths surrounding Sparta are as old as the city itself. Even in antiquity, Sparta was a unique society, and considered an enigma. The Spartans who fought for freedom against the Persians called themselves 'equals' or peers, but their equality was reliant on the ruthless exploitation of the indigenous population known as helots. The Spartans' often bizarre rules and practices have the capacity to horrify as much they do to fascinate us today. Athenian writers were intrigued and appalled in equal measure by a society where weak or disabled babies were said to have been examined carefully by state officials before being dumped off the edge of a cliff. Even today their lurid stories have shaped our image of Sparta; a society in which cowards were forced to shave off half their beards, to dress differently from their peers, and who were ultimately shunned to the extent that suicide seemed preferable. The legend of Sparta was even perpetuated by later Spartans, who ran a thriving tourist industry that exaggerated the famed brutality of their ancestors. This Very Short Introduction separates myth from reality to reveal the best—and the worst—of the Spartans. Andrew Bayliss explores key aspects of Spartan society, including their civic structure, their day-to-day lifestyle, and traditions such as the krypteia, a brutal rite of passage where teenagers were sent into the countryside and ordered to eliminate the biggest and most dangerous helots. Alongside this, Bayliss also sheds light on the many admirable qualities of ancient Sparta, such as their state-run education system, or the fact that this society was almost unparalleled in the pre-modern world for the rights given to Spartan women. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
A comprehensive update to this preeminent and accessible text, this fifth edition of a bestseller was developed as a response to man's attempts to climb unaided to higher altitudes and to spend more time in these conditions for both work and recreation. It describes the ever-expanding challenges that doctors face in dealing with the changes in huma
From one of our foremost naval historians, the compelling story of the doomed Arctic voyage of the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, commanded by Captain Sir John Franklin. Andrew Lambert, a leading authority on naval history, reexamines the life of Sir John Franklin and his final, doomed Arctic voyage. Franklin was a man of his time, fascinated, even obsessed with, the need to explore the world; he had already mapped nearly two-thirds of the northern coastline of North America when he undertook his third Arctic voyage in 1845, at the age of fifty-nine. His two ships were fitted with the latest equipment; steam engines enabled them to navigate the pack ice, and he and his crew had a three-year supply of preserved and tinned food and more than one thousand books. Despite these preparations, the voyage ended in catastrophe: the ships became imprisoned in the ice, and the men were wracked by disease and ultimately wiped out by hypothermia, scurvy, and cannibalism. Franklin's mission was ostensibly to find the elusive North West Passage, a viable sea route between Europe and Asia reputed to lie north of the American continent. Lambert shows for the first time that there were other scientific goals for the voyage and that the disaster can only be understood by reconsidering the original objectives of the mission. Franklin, commonly dismissed as a bumbling fool, emerges as a more important and impressive figure, in fact, a hero of navigational science.
Ideal for residents, interns, and medical students, The Washington Manual® of Pediatrics provides concise rapid-access information to be used while on call, in a critical care setting, in the emergency unit, and in subspecialty outpatient clinics. Organized by organ system, the book outlines established approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of common inpatient pediatric problems. It includes ample tables, algorithms, and evidence-based references, plus full-color dermatology and infectious disease sections, a formulary, and pocket cards for quick reference. A companion Website will offer the fully searchable text, quarterly drug updates, and an image bank of dermatology and infectious disease photos. The Washington Manual® is a registered mark belonging to Washington University in St. Louis to which international legal protection applies. The mark is used in this publication by LWW under license from Washington University.
It is often claimed that the French invented cinema. Dominating the production and distribution of cinema until World War 1, when they were supplanted by Hollywood, the French cinema industry encompassed all genres, from popular entertainment to avant-garde practice. The French invented the "auteur" and the "ciné-club"; they incubated criticism from the 1920s to our own day that is unrivalled; and they boast more film journals, fan magazines, TV shows, and festivals devoted to film than anywhere else. This Very Short Introduction opens up French cinema through focusing on some of its most notable works, using the lens of the New Wave decade (1958-1968) that changed cinema worldwide. Exploring the entire French cinematic oeuvre, Dudley Andrew teases out distinguishing themes, tendencies, and lineages, to bring what is most crucial about French Cinema into alignment. He discusses how style has shaped the look of female stars and film form alike, analysing the "made up" aesthetic of many films, and the paradoxical penchant for French cinema to cruelly unmask surface beauty in quests for authenticity. Discussing how French cinema as a whole pits strong-willed characters against auteurs with high-minded ideas of film art, funded by French cinema's close rapport to literature, painting, and music, Dudley considers how the New Wave emerged from these struggles, becoming an emblem of ambition for cinema that persists today. He goes on to show how the values promulgated by the New Wave directors brought the three decades that preceded it into focus, and explores the deep resonance of those values today, fifty years later. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
As people of the modern era were singularly prone to nervous disorders, the nervous system became a model for describing political and social organization. This volume untangles the mutual dependencies of scientific neurology and the cultural attitudes of the period 1800-1950, exploring how and why modernity was a fundamentally nervous state.
Of all the major Hollywood stars, Katharine Hepburn was the least conventional, conforming to none of the stereotypes of female superstardom. She was not an exotic outsider in Hollywood like Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich; nor was she a victim of the studios like Judy Garland or Marilyn Monroe; and she was certainly not a creature of the system like Joan Crawford and Lana Turner. Instead, she always appeared intelligent, willful and independent, able to develop her own persona within the confines of the studio system. Andrew Britton proposes a feminist reading of Hepburn's films, arguing that her persona raises problems about class, female sexuality, and women's oppression that strain to the limits the conventions of a cinema ultimately committed to the reassertion of bourgeois gender roles. Hepburn's work is also used to explore more general issues, such as the functioning of the star system. This is one of the very few analyses of American cinema to focus on a film star rather than a director or a genre and as such is essential reading for anyone interested in the movies. First published in the United Kingdom twenty years ago, this lavishly illustrated new edition features a foreword by the noted film critic Robin Wood.
Whether you are new to literature reviews or working with new types of data, this book takes the guesswork out of writing your literature review. From deciding how much literature to include to managing your data, assessing your sources, and writing results, it outlines a step-by-step process that works with any data. To help you choose best approach for your research, this book includes: · Worksheets and decision aids to help you plan and organise your literature review · Worked examples and case studies to show you what – and what not – to do in practice · Troubleshooting tips and answers to all your frequently asked questions · Online access to a literature review starter template, an exercise workbook, project diary template, and a source credibility checklist. The perfect project support for any social sciences student, this edition also includes a new chapter on analysing mixed methods research.
Building on best-selling texts over three decades, this thoroughly revised new edition is essential reading for both primary and secondary school teachers in training and in practice, supporting both initial school-based training and extended career-long professionalism. Considering a wide range of professionally relevant topics, Reflective Teaching in Schools presents key issues and research insights, suggests activities for classroom enquiry and offers guidance on key readings. Uniquely, two levels of support are offered: · practical, evidence-based guidance on key classroom issues – including relationships, behaviour, curriculum planning, teaching strategies and assessment processes; · routes to deeper forms of expertise, including evidence-informed 'principles' and 'concepts' to support in-depth understanding of teacher expertise. Andrew Pollard, former Director of the UK's Teaching and Learning Research Programme, led development of the book, with support from primary and secondary specialists from the University of Cambridge, UK. Reflective Teaching in Schools is part of a fully integrated set of resources for primary and secondary education. Readings for Reflective Teaching in Schools directly complements and extends the chapters in this book. Providing a compact and portable library, it is particularly helpful in school-based teacher education. The website, reflectiveteaching.co.uk, offers supplementary resources including reflective activities, research briefings, advice on further reading and additional chapters. It also features a glossary, links to useful websites, and a conceptual framework for deepening expertise. This book is one of the Reflective Teaching Series – inspiring education through innovation in early years, schools, further, higher and adult education.
Strathern's illuminating study of the inequalities amongst the Highland societies of Papua New Guinea is now reissued with a new preface. The five papers in this volume seek to set these inequalities into a context of long-term and recent social changes that aim to develop schemes of analysis which will permit discussion of the societies over extended periods of time.
The result of a research project, this work, an attempt to report on what has actually been happening in our schools, answers such questions as: what difference have education reforms made to pupils' experience in schools? and how has recent education policy impacted on children today?
How can archaeologists interpret ancient art and images if they do not treat them as symbols or signifiers of identity? Traditional approaches to the archaeology of art have borrowed from the history of art and the anthropology of art by focusing on iconography, meaning, communication and identity. This puts the archaeology of art at a disadvantage as an understanding of iconography and meaning requires a detailed knowledge of historical or ethnographic context unavailable to many archaeologists. Rather than playing to archaeology’s weaknesses, the authors argue that an archaeology of art should instead play to archaeology’s strength: the material character of archaeological evidence. Using case studies - examining rock art, figurines, beadwork, murals, coffin decorations, sculpture and architecture from Europe, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and north Africa -the authors develop an understanding of the affective and effective nature of ancient art and imagery. An analysis of a series of material-based practices, from gesture and improvisation to miniaturisation and gigantism, assembly and disassembly and the use of distinctions in colour enable key concepts, such as style and meaning, to be re-imagined as affective practices. Recasting the archaeology of art as the study of affects offers a new prospectus for the study of ancient art and imagery.
Real-life, action-packed, personal stories of valor from the history of the RAF’s maritime arm during World War II. It took thirty minutes for one Coastal Command crew to sink two U-boats. The crew of Flying Officer Kenneth “Kayo” Moore in their 224 Squadron Liberator carried out this remarkable achievement on the evening of 7/8 June 1944. While patrolling the western end of the English Channel, Moore’s crew first dispatched U-629, followed just under thirty minutes later by U-373. The story of this remarkable engagement is just one of many recounted by the author in Heroes of Coastal Command. Established in 1936, Coastal Command was the RAF’s only maritime arm. Throughout the war, its crews worked tirelessly alongside the Royal Navy to keep Britain’s vital sea lanes open. Together, they fought and won the Battle of the Atlantic, with RAF aircraft destroying 212 German U-Boats and sinking a significant tonnage of enemy warships and merchant vessels. Often working alone and unsupported, undertaking long patrols out over opens seas, Coastal Command bred a special kind of airman. Alongside individuals such as Kenneth Moore, there were Allan Trigg, Kenneth Campbell and John Cruickshank, all of whom were awarded the Victoria Cross; Norman Jackson-Smith, a Blenheim pilot who flew in the Battle of Britain; Jack Davenport, who flew his Hampden to Russia; John Watson, the sole survivor of a Short Sunderland which was lost during a rescue mission; and Ken Gatward, who flew a unique daylight mission over Paris to drop a Tricolore on the Arc de Triomphe. Theirs are just some of the many exciting stories revealed by the author.
Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring T.W. Adorno (1903-69) was a German philosopher and social and cultural theorist. His work has come to be seen as increasingly relevant to understanding the pathologies of contemporary society evident in today's climate emergency, the financial crash, the reappearance of fascism in many countries, and the growing instability of the world order. This Very Short Introduction covers Adorno's work and life, explaining his key philosophical concepts and the philosophical background and historical context of Adorno's thinking. Andrew Bowie shows how Adorno's exploration of why human reason can have irrational consequences led him to rethink basic concepts like 'nature', 'history', and 'freedom', offering alternatives to many ways of thinking about these concepts in contemporary philosophy. The book also examines Adorno's social theory, as well as his highly critical assessments of jazz and modern culture, which he considered threatened by the effects of modern capitalism. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
NEW PAPERBACK EDITION ‘Salmon’s vivid use of recollections and dramatic quotes brings alive an unjustly forgotten conflict’ Time Out With even World War II now just on the edges of living memory, and with British forces now engaged in a lengthy, brutal and attritional old-fashioned war in Afghanistan, historical attention is starting to turn to the Korean War of the early 1950s. And remarkably, the most notorious and celebrated battle in that conflict, from a British point of view, has never previously been written about at length. Andrew Salmon’s book, which has garnered excellent reviews and sold out two hardback printings already, has filled that gap. This is the story of the Battle of the Imjin River, when the British 29th Infantry Brigade, and above all the “Glorious Glosters” of the Gloster Regiment, fought an epic last stand against the largest communist offensive of the war. It lasted three days, of bitter hand-to-hand combat. By the end of it one battalion of the Glosters – some 750 men – had been reduced to just 50 survivors. Andrew Salmon’s definitive history, which gained excellent reviews in hardback and sold very steadily, is very much in the Antony Beevor mould: accessible, pacy, narrative, and painting a moving and exciting picture through the extensive use of eyewitness accounts of veterans, of whom he has tracked down and interviewed dozens. Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based journalist who writes for The Times, The Washington Times, and Forbes magazine. He first became fascinated by the battle in 2001 when he met British veterans returning to the Imjin River to mark the 50th anniversary.
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