Aristocracy A Very Short Introduction

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Aristocracy: A Very Short Introduction

Author : William Doyle
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2010-11-25
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780191500633

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Aristocracy: A Very Short Introduction by William Doyle Pdf

Aristocracies or nobilities dominated the social, economic, and institutional history of all European counties until only a few generations ago. The relics of their power, in traditions and behaviour, in architecture and the arts, are still all around us. This short introduction shows how ideas of aristocracy originated in ancient times, were transformed in the middle ages, and have only fallen apart over the last two centuries. The myths in which aristocracies have always sought to shroud themselves are stripped away, but the true sources of their enduring power are also revealed. Their outlook and behaviour affected the rest of society in innumerable and sometimes surprising ways, but perhaps most surprising was the way in which a centuries-old aristocratic hegemony crumbled away over the last two hundred years. In this Very Short Introduction William Doyle considers why this happend and what remains today. 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.

Aristocracy: A Very Short Introduction

Author : William Doyle
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 138 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2010-11-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199206780

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Aristocracy: A Very Short Introduction by William Doyle Pdf

This engaging introduction shows how ideas of aristocracy originated in ancient times, were transformed in the middle ages, and have only fallen apart over the last two centuries.

Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction

Author : Allen C. Guelzo
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2009-02-05
Category : History
ISBN : 0199743746

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Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction by Allen C. Guelzo Pdf

Beneath the surface of the apparently untutored and deceptively frank Abraham Lincoln ran private tunnels of self-taught study, a restless philosophical curiosity, and a profound grasp of the fundamentals of democracy. Now, in Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction, the award-winning Lincoln authority Allen C. Guelzo offers a penetrating look into the mind of one of our greatest presidents. If Lincoln was famous for reading aloud from joke books, Guelzo shows that he also plunged deeply into the mainstream of nineteenth-century liberal democratic thought. Guelzo takes us on a wide-ranging exploration of problems that confronted Lincoln and liberal democracy--equality, opportunity, the rule of law, slavery, freedom, peace, and his legacy. The book sets these problems and Lincoln's responses against the larger world of American and trans-Atlantic liberal democracy in the 19th century, comparing Lincoln not just to Andrew Jackson or John Calhoun, but to British thinkers such as Richard Cobden, Jeremy Bentham, and John Bright, and to French observers Alexis de Tocqueville and François Guizot. The Lincoln we meet here is an Enlightenment figure who struggled to create a common ground between a people focused on individual rights and a society eager to establish a certain moral, philosophical, and intellectual bedrock. Lincoln insisted that liberal democracy had a higher purpose, which was the realization of a morally right political order. But how to interject that sense of moral order into a system that values personal self-satisfaction--"the pursuit of happiness"--remains a fundamental dilemma even today. Abraham Lincoln was a man who, according to his friend and biographer William Henry Herndon, "lived in the mind." Guelzo paints a marvelous portrait of this Lincoln--Lincoln the man of ideas--providing new insights into one of the giants of American history. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Montaigne: A Very Short Introduction

Author : William M. Hamlin
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2020-10-01
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9780190848798

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Montaigne: A Very Short Introduction by William M. Hamlin Pdf

The French author Michel de Montaigne is widely regarded as the founder and greatest practitioner of the personal essay. A member of the minor aristocracy, he worked as a judicial investigator, served as mayor of Bordeaux, and sought to bring stability to his war-torn country during the latter half of the sixteenth century. He is best known today, however, as the author of the Essays, a vast collection of meditations on topics ranging from love and sexuality to freedom, learning, doubt, self-scrutiny, and peace of mind. One of the most original books ever to emerge from Europe, Montaigne's masterpiece has been continuously and powerfully influential among writers and philosophers from its first appearance down to the present day. His extraordinary curiosity and discernment, combined with his ability to mix thoughtful judgment with revealing anecdote, make him one of the most readable of all writers. In Montaigne: A Very Short Introduction, William M. Hamlin provides an overview of Montaigne's life, thought, and writing, situating the Essays within the arc of Montaigne's lived experience and focusing on themes of particular interest for contemporary readers. Designed for a broad audience, this introduction will appeal to first-time students of Montaigne as well as to seasoned experts and admirers. Well-informed and lucidly written, Hamlin's book offers an ideal point of entry into the life and work of the world's first and most extraordinary essayist.

The Very Short Introductions Blog Book

Author : Oxford University Press
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2014-09-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780191056246

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The Very Short Introductions Blog Book by Oxford University Press Pdf

In this free Very Short Introductions Blog Book we’ve gathered 30 of our VSI authors’ very best blog posts on topics including history, politics, science, and more. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into the passion, insight, and great writing that characterizes these authors and the Very Short Introductions series.

Education: A Very Short Introduction

Author : Gary Thomas
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2021-09-23
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780192602886

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Education: A Very Short Introduction by Gary Thomas Pdf

Since the early Egyptians human beings have formalised the business of learning, setting up a designated environment of some form to pass knowledge and learning on to groups of students. In this second edition of his Very Short Introduction, Gary Thomas explores how and why education has evolved as it has, examining the ways in which it has responded over the centuries to various influences in politics, philosophy, and the social sciences. Focussing on education today, he considers especially the controversies over progressive versus formal teaching, and also examines education worldwide, assessing the accelerating trend on both sides of the Atlantic of the move to charter, academy, and 'free' schools. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated moves to online learning in schools and universities, and in this new edition Thomas looks again at curriculums and what shape they should take in a rapidly changing world. He asks why action on race, gender and social inequality has borne so little fruit thus far, questioning the oft-made claim of education to be a force for social mobility, and offering an analysis on how education may develop over the coming century. Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring 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.

British Politics: A Very Short Introduction

Author : Anthony Wright,Tony Wright
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 153 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2013-05-30
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780199661107

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British Politics: A Very Short Introduction by Anthony Wright,Tony Wright Pdf

An interpretative essay on the British political system looks at the key characteristics and ideas of the British tradition, explores what makes British politics distinctive, and considers how the system continues to evolve.

Nineteenth-Century Britain: A Very Short Introduction

Author : Christopher Harvie,Colin Matthew,Henry Colin Gray Matthew
Publisher : Oxford Paperbacks
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2000-08-10
Category : History
ISBN : 9780192853981

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Nineteenth-Century Britain: A Very Short Introduction by Christopher Harvie,Colin Matthew,Henry Colin Gray Matthew Pdf

First published as part of the best-selling The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, Christopher Harvie and Colin Matthew's Very Short Introduction to Nineteenth-Century Britain is a sharp but subtle account of remarkable economic and social change and an even more remarkable political stability. Britain in 1789 was overwhelmingly rural, agrarian, multilingual, and almost half Celtic. By 1914, when it faced its greatest test since the defeat of Napoleon, it was largely urban and English. Christopher Harvie and Colin Matthew show the forces behind Britain's rise to its imperial zenith, and the continuing tensions within the nations and classes of the 'union state'. 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 Ghetto: A Very Short Introduction

Author : Bryan Cheyette
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 168 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2020-08-27
Category : History
ISBN : 9780192538000

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The Ghetto: A Very Short Introduction by Bryan Cheyette Pdf

For three hundred years the ghetto defined Jewish culture in the late medieval and early modern period in Western Europe. In the nineteenth-century it was a free-floating concept which travelled to Eastern Europe and the United States. Eastern European “ghettos”, which enabled genocide, were crudely rehabilitated by the Nazis during World War Two as if they were part of a benign medieval tradition. In the United States, the word ghetto was routinely applied to endemic black ghettoization which has lasted from 1920 until the present. Outside of America “the ghetto” has been universalized as the incarnation of class difference, or colonialism, or apartheid, and has been applied to segregated cities and countries throughout the world. In this Very Short Introduction Bryan Cheyette unpicks the extraordinarily complex layers of contrasting meanings that have accrued over five hundred years to ghettos, considering their different settings across the globe. He considers core questions of why and when urban, racial, and colonial ghettos have appeared, and who they contain. Exploring their various identities, he shows how different ghettos interrelate, or are contrasted, across time and space, or even in the same place. 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.

Tocqueville: A Very Short Introduction

Author : Harvey C. Mansfield
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 136 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2010-07-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0199746311

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Tocqueville: A Very Short Introduction by Harvey C. Mansfield Pdf

No one has ever described American democracy with more accurate insight or more profoundly than Alexis de Tocqueville. After meeting with Americans on extensive travels in the United States, and intense study of documents and authorities, he authored the landmark Democracy in America, publishing its two volumes in 1835 and 1840. Ever since, this book has been the best source for every serious attempt to understand America and democracy itself. Yet Tocqueville himself remains a mystery behind the elegance of his style. Now one of our leading authorities on Tocqueville explains him in this splendid new entry in Oxford's acclaimed Very Short Introduction series. Harvey Mansfield addresses his subject as a thinker, clearly and incisively exploring Tocqueville's writings--not only his masterpiece, but also his secret Recollections, intended for posterity alone, and his unfinished work on his native France, The Old Regime and the Revolution. Tocqueville was a liberal, Mansfield writes, but not of the usual sort. The many elements of his life found expression in his thought: his aristocratic ancestry, his ventures in politics, his voyages abroad, his hopes and fears for America, and his disappointment with France. All his writings show a passion for political liberty and insistence on human greatness. Perhaps most important, he saw liberty not in theories, but in the practice of self-government in America. Ever an opponent of abstraction, he offered an analysis that forces us to consider what we actually do in our politics--suggesting that theory itself may be an enemy of freedom. And that, Mansfield writes, makes him a vitally important thinker for today. Translator of an authoritative edition of Democracy in America, Harvey Mansfield here offers the fruit of decades of research and reflection in a clear, insightful, and marvelously compact introduction.

Byzantium: A Very Short Introduction

Author : Peter Sarris
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2015-07-23
Category : History
ISBN : 9780191017636

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Byzantium: A Very Short Introduction by Peter Sarris Pdf

After surviving the fifth century fall of the Western European Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire flourished as one of the most powerful economic, cultural, and military forces in Europe for a thousand years. In this Very Short Introduction Peter Sarris introduces the reader to the unique fusion of Roman political culture, Greek intellectual tradition and Christian faith that took place in the imperial capital of Byzantium under the emperor Constantine and his heirs. Using examples from Byzantine architecture, art and literature, Sarris shows how their legacy was re-worked and re-invented in the centuries ahead, in the face of external challenges and threats. Charting the impact of warfare with the Persian and Islamic worlds to the east, Sarris explores the creativity of Byzantine statecraft and strategy, as well as the empire's repeated (but ultimately forlorn) attempts to enlist aid from the Christian powers of Western Europe to ensure its survival. 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.

Rousseau: A Very Short Introduction

Author : Robert Wokler
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2001-08-23
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780192801982

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Rousseau: A Very Short Introduction by Robert Wokler Pdf

In this study of Rousseau's life and works, across a range of disciplines, Robert Wokler shows how his thinking and writing were all inspired by an ideal of mankind's self-realization in a condition of unfettered freedom.

The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction

Author : William Doyle
Publisher : Oxford Paperbacks
Page : 152 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2001-08-23
Category : History
ISBN : 9780192853967

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The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction by William Doyle Pdf

Beginning with a discussion of familiar images of the French Revolution, this work looks at how the ancien régime became ancien as well as examining cases in which achievement failed to match ambition.

Eighteenth-Century Britain: A Very Short Introduction

Author : Paul Langford
Publisher : Oxford Paperbacks
Page : 129 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2000-08-10
Category : History
ISBN : 0192853996

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Eighteenth-Century Britain: A Very Short Introduction by Paul Langford Pdf

Part of The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, this book spans from the aftermath of the Revolution of 1688 to Pitt the Younger's defeat at attempted parliamentary reform.

Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction

Author : Allen C. Guelzo
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2009-02-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199709960

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Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction by Allen C. Guelzo Pdf

Beneath the surface of the apparently untutored and deceptively frank Abraham Lincoln ran private tunnels of self-taught study, a restless philosophical curiosity, and a profound grasp of the fundamentals of democracy. Now, in Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction, the award-winning Lincoln authority Allen C. Guelzo offers a penetrating look into the mind of one of our greatest presidents. If Lincoln was famous for reading aloud from joke books, Guelzo shows that he also plunged deeply into the mainstream of nineteenth-century liberal democratic thought. Guelzo takes us on a wide-ranging exploration of problems that confronted Lincoln and liberal democracy--equality, opportunity, the rule of law, slavery, freedom, peace, and his legacy. The book sets these problems and Lincoln's responses against the larger world of American and trans-Atlantic liberal democracy in the 19th century, comparing Lincoln not just to Andrew Jackson or John Calhoun, but to British thinkers such as Richard Cobden, Jeremy Bentham, and John Bright, and to French observers Alexis de Tocqueville and François Guizot. The Lincoln we meet here is an Enlightenment figure who struggled to create a common ground between a people focused on individual rights and a society eager to establish a certain moral, philosophical, and intellectual bedrock. Lincoln insisted that liberal democracy had a higher purpose, which was the realization of a morally right political order. But how to interject that sense of moral order into a system that values personal self-satisfaction--"the pursuit of happiness"--remains a fundamental dilemma even today. Abraham Lincoln was a man who, according to his friend and biographer William Henry Herndon, "lived in the mind." Guelzo paints a marvelous portrait of this Lincoln--Lincoln the man of ideas--providing new insights into one of the giants of American history. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.