Very Short Introductions

The essays in this book - all of them published here for the first time - provide a long-overdue critical discussion of Jürgen Habermas’s cascade of ideas. These are topped off by a freshet of original Habermas: in the final essay, he replies to the criticism developed in the preceding contributions and to other recent assessments of his work, provides an important clarification of his earlier views, and reveals the direction of his current thought.Each essay probes a particular theme in Habermas’s work, and each presents both an exposition and a critique. Among the subjects covered are Habermas’s theory of knowledge-constitutive interests, his account of language and truth, his "overcoming" of hermeneutics, the concept of universal pragmatics, the orientation of his thought relative to the Marxist tradition, and his project of analyzing the crisis tendencies of capitalism within the context of evolutionary theory.The contributors are philosophers and social theorists of international standing, most of them affiliated with German, English, and American universities. They are Agnes Heller, Rudiger Bubner, Thomas McCarthy, Henning Ottmann, Mary Hesse, Steven Lukes, Anthony Giddens, Michael Schmid, Andrew Arato, and the editors. The editors have also contributed a substantial introduction outlining the central contours of Habermas’s work and summarizing the main arguments of the essays.John B. Thompson is a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and David Held is Lecturer in Politics, University of York. (Source: [PhilPapers](

"The processes in a single living cell are akin to that of a city teeming with molecular inhabitants that move, communicate, cooperate, and compete. In this Very Short Introduction, previously published as Stories of the Invisible. Philip Ball explores the role of the molecule in and around us - how, for example, a single fertilized egg can grow into a multicelled Mozart, what makes a spider's silk insoluble in the morning dew, and how this molecular dynamism is being captured in the laboratory, promising to reinvent chemistry as the central creative science of the century."--Jacket.

This title chronicles the trends and traditions of modern Latin American literature, arguing that Latin American literature developed as a continent-wide phenomenon, not just an assemblage of national literatures, in moments of political crisis.

This introduction to linguistic methodology and theory acquaints students with the analytical study of language and the ways in which linguists think and approach their material. Reader-friendly and highly accessible, the book assumes no previous background in linguistics. Linguistics is unique among texts today in that it brings the reader face-to-face with current cutting-edge theories. It covers in depth the five core areas of theoretical linguistics - phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics - and adds brief discussions of conversation interaction and historical/comparative linguistics where appropriate. Throughout the book, readers are asked to consider various hypotheses and to use them to account for a range of data. Accordingly, problem sets are included at the end of each chapter. While the data in these problems are drawn from multiple languages, all chapters contain problem sets on at least English, a Romance language, Japanese, and American Sign Language.

Politics: Who Gets What, When, How is the classic analysis of power and manipulation by ruling elites and counter-elites. The themes that occur throughout this essay have become the guideposts for most modern research in techniques of propaganda and political organization. "It is unquestionably one of the most influential treatments of politics published in this century." David B. Truman, Professor of Public Law and Government, Columbia University "This book is a landmark of modern political science." Daniel Lerner, Professor of Sociology, Mass. Institute of Technology "For over three decades the students of politics have had their intellectual horizons constantly broadened by Harold Lasswell. There is probably no man in American political science who has brought to bear as many new approaches to the analysis of political behavior as he has. There is perhaps no better way to get the essence of Lasswell's thought than in his book, Politics: Who Gets What, When, How." Seymour Martin Lipset, Department of Sociology, University of California at Berkeley

From Gregorian chant to Bach's Brandenburg Concerti, the music of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods is both beautiful and intriguing, expanding our horizons as it nourishes our souls. In this Very Short Introduction, Thomas Forrest Kelly provides not only a compact overview of the music itself, but also a lively look at the many attempts over the last two centuries to revive it. Kelly shows that the early-music revival has long been grounded in the idea of spontaneity, of excitement, and of recapturing experiences otherwise lost to us--either the rediscovery of little-known repertories or the recovery of lost performing styles, with the conviction that, with the right performance, the music will come to life anew. Blending musical and social history, he shows how the Early Music movement in the 1960s took on political overtones, fueled by a rebellion against received wisdom and enforced conformity. Kelly also discusses ongoing debates about authenticity, the desirability of period instruments, and the relationship of mainstream opera companies and symphony orchestras to music that they often ignore, or play in modern fashion [Publisher description].

"The Elements is a stunning visual history of how the chemical elements were discovered. By piecing together the Periodic Table, science writer Philip Ball explores not only how we came to understand what everything is made of but also how chemistry developed into a modern science. He groups the elements into chronological eras of discovery, covering three millennia from the first known to the last named. As he moves deliberately from classical antiquity to the age of atomic bombs and particle accelerators, Ball highlights images and stories from around the world and sheds needed light on those who struggled for their ideas to gain inclusion. By featuring some elements that aren't true elements but were thought to be, such as phlogiston and caloric, Elements makes bold choices in order to tell the full history of this important science. To order the book's sequence into eras of element discovery, separate short sections for each element or groups of related elements are gathered into larger parts. Short interludes (or feature spreads) are interspersed that convey important intellectual milestones in how we think about the elements"--

Ludwig Wittgenstein was an extraordinary original philosopher, whose influence on twentieth-century thinking goes well beyond philosophy itself. In this book, which aims to make Wittgenstein's thought accessible to the non-specialist, A. C. Grayling explains the nature and impact of Wittgenstein's views. He describes both his early and later philosophy, the differences and connections between them, and gives a fresh assessment of Wittgenstein's continuing influence on contemporary thought.

"Starting with the origins of writing five thousand years ago, with cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, Andrew Robinson explains how these early forms of writing developed into hundreds of scripts including the Roman alphabet and the Chinese characters. He reveals how the modern writing system we take for granted - including airport signage and electronic text messaging - resemble ancient scripts much more closely than we think."--Jacket.

Beginning with a guide to what matter is and what it is made of this book discusses everything from quarks and electrons to exotic matter and antimatter. The author concludes by speculating as to the number of dimensions that might be in the universe, and what the next 50 years of research might uncover.

"Over the last generation, historians have broadened our understanding of colonial America by examining the interplay of Europe, Africa, and the Americans through the flow of goods, people, plants, animals, capital, and ideas. Alan Taylor presents an engaging overview of this new scholarship, showing that American colonization derived from a global expansion of European exploration and commerce that began in the fifteenth century. The English had to share the stage with French, Spanish, Dutch, and Russians, each of whom created alternative Americas. Taylor also focuses on slavery as central to the economy, culture, and political thought of the colonists and on the importance of native peoples to the colonial story. This book describes an intermingling of cultures and of microbes, plants, and animals from different continents that was unparalleled in global history."--BOOK JACKET.

Covering the emergence of the earliest English settlements to the Norman victory at Hastings in 1066, this is a brief introduction to the political, social, religious and cultural history of Anglo-Saxon England.

An introduction to the music style blues. Historical overview, with outlooks at jazz and country&western.

"The only complete edition in English of Baruch Spinoza's works, this volume features Samuel Shirley's preeminent translations, distinguished at once by the lucidity and fluency with which they convey the flavor and meaning of Spinoza's original texts.". "Michael L. Morgan provides a general introduction that places Spinoza in Western philosophy and culture and sketches the philosophical, scientific, religious, moral, and political dimensions of Spinoza's thought. Morgan's brief introductions to each work give a succinct historical, biographical, and philosophical overview. A chronology and index are included."--BOOK JACKET.

"Years ago, Jane Weatherby had a torrid affair with John Pomfret, the husband of her best friend. Divorces ensued. World War II happened. Prewar partying gave way to postwar austerity, and Jane and John's now-grown children, Philip and Mary, both as serious and sober as their parents were not, seem earnestly bent on marriage, which John and Jane consider a mistake. The two old lovers conspire against the two young lovers, and nothing turns out quite as expected"--Page 4 of cover.