Very Short Introductions

Very Short Introductions (VSI) is a book series published by the Oxford University Press (OUP). The books are concise introductions to particular subjects, intended for a general audience but written by experts. Most are under 200 pages long. While authors may present personal viewpoints, the books are meant to be "balanced and complete" as well as thought provoking.[1]

The series began in 1995, and by April 2018 there were 607 titles, published or announced.[2][3] The books have been commercially successful,[4] and have been published in more than 25 languages.[5] Institutions can subscribe to an online service to allow their users to read the books.[6]

Most of the books have been written specifically for the series, but around 60 were recycled from earlier OUP publications: several had been in OUP's Past Masters series, and numbers 17–24 used chapters from The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain (1984).

List of books in the series

#	Topic	Author(s)	UK print publication date	Original publication	Category
001	Classics	Mary Beard, John Henderson	24 February 2000	1995
002	Music	Nicholas Cook	24 February 2000	1998
003	Buddhism	Damien Keown	24 February 2000 28 February 2013 (2nd ed.)	1996	religion
004	Literary Theory	Jonathan Culler	24 February 2000 28 July 2011 (2nd ed.)	1997
005	Hinduism	Kim Knott	24 February 2000 1 May 2016 (2nd ed.)	1998	religion
006	Psychology	Gillian Butler, Freda McManus	24 February 2000 23 January 2014 (2nd ed.)	1998
007	Islam	Malise Ruthven	24 February 2000 26 January 2012 (2nd ed.)	1997	religion
008	Politics	Kenneth Minogue	24 February 2000	1995
009	Theology	David F. Ford	24 February 2000 24 October 2013 (2nd ed.)	1999	religion
010	Archaeology	Paul Bahn (illustrator: Bill Tidy)	24 February 2000 30 August 2012 (updated edition)	1996
011	Judaism	Norman Solomon	24 February 2000 28 August 2014 (2nd ed.)	1996	religion
012	Sociology	Steve Bruce	24 February 2000 27 September 2018 (2nd ed.)	1999
013	The Koran	Michael Cook	24 February 2000		religion
014	The Bible	John Riches	24 February 2000		religion
015	Social and Cultural Anthropology	John Monaghan, Peter Just	24 February 2000
016	History	John Arnold	24 February 2000
017	Roman Britain	Peter Salway	10 August 2000 1 August 2015 (2nd ed.)	Chapter from The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, 1984
018	The Anglo-Saxon Age	John Blair	10 August 2000	Chapter from The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, 1984
019	Medieval Britain	John Gillingham, Ralph A. Griffiths	10 August 2000	Chapters from The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, 1984
020	The Tudors	John Guy	10 August 2000 29 August 2013 (2nd ed.)	Chapter from The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, 1984
021	Stuart Britain	John Morrill	10 August 2000	Chapter from The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, 1984
022	Eighteenth-Century Britain	Paul Langford	10 August 2000	Chapter from The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, 1984
023	Nineteenth-Century Britain	Christopher Harvie, H. C. G. Matthew	10 August 2000	Chapters from The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, 1984
024	Twentieth-Century Britain	Kenneth O. Morgan	10 August 2000	Chapter from The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, 1984
025	Heidegger	Michael Inwood	12 October 2000 24 January 2019 (2nd ed.)	Past Masters series, 1997	philosophy
026	Ancient Philosophy	Julia Annas	12 October 2000		philosophy
027	Socrates	C. C. W. Taylor	12 October 2000 22 August 2019 (2nd ed.)	Past Masters series, 1998	philosophy
028	Marx	Peter Singer	12 October 2000 22 March 2018 (2nd ed.)	Past Masters series, 1980
029	Logic	Graham Priest	12 October 2000 26 October 2017 (2nd ed.)
030	Descartes	Tom Sorell	12 October 2000	Past Masters series, 1987	philosophy
031	Machiavelli	Quentin Skinner	12 October 2000 25 July 2019 (2nd ed.)	Past Masters series, 1981	philosophy
032	Aristotle	Jonathan Barnes	12 October 2000	Past Masters series, 1982	philosophy
033	Hume	A. J. Ayer	12 October 2000	Past Masters series, 1980	philosophy
034	Nietzsche	Michael Tanner	19 October 2000	Past Masters series, 1987	philosophy
035	Darwin	Jonathan Howard	22 February 2001	Past Masters series, 1982
036	The European Union	John Pinder, Simon Usherwood	22 February 2001 13 December 2007 (2nd ed.) 25 July 2013 (3rd ed.) 25 January 2018 (4th ed.)
037	Gandhi	Bhikhu Parekh	22 February 2001	Past Masters series, 1997
038	Augustine	Henry Chadwick	22 February 2001	Past Masters series, 1986	philosophy
039	Intelligence	Ian J. Deary	22 February 2001
040	Jung	Anthony Stevens	22 February 2001	Past Masters series, 1994	psychology
041	Buddha	Michael Carrithers	22 February 2001	Past Masters series, 1983	religion
042	Paul	E. P. Sanders	22 February 2001	Past Masters series, 1991	religion
043	Continental Philosophy	Simon Critchley	22 February 2001		philosophy
044	Galileo	Stillman Drake	22 February 2001	Past Masters series, 1980
045	Freud	Anthony Storr	22 February 2001	Past Masters series, 1989	psychology
046	Wittgenstein	A. C. Grayling	22 February 2001	Past Masters series, 1988	philosophy
047	Indian Philosophy	Sue Hamilton	22 February 2001	Non-VSI, 2000	philosophy
048	Rousseau	Robert Wokler	23 August 2001	Past Masters series, 1995	philosophy
049	Hegel	Peter Singer	23 August 2001	Past Masters series, 1983	philosophy
050	Kant	Roger Scruton	23 August 2001	Past Masters series, 1982	philosophy
051	Cosmology	Peter Coles	23 August 2001
052	Drugs	Leslie Iversen	23 August 2001 23 June 2016 (2nd ed.)
053	Russian Literature	Catriona Kelly	23 August 2001
054	The French Revolution	William Doyle	23 August 2001 28 November 2019 (2nd ed.)
055	Philosophy	Edward Craig	21 February 2002	Non-VSI, 2002	philosophy
056	Barthes	Jonathan Culler	21 February 2002	Modern Masters series, Fontana Press, 1983	philosophy
057	Animal Rights	David DeGrazia	21 February 2002
058	Kierkegaard	Patrick Gardiner	21 February 2002	Past Masters series, 1988	philosophy
059	Russell	A. C. Grayling	21 February 2002	Past Masters series, 1996	philosophy
060	Shakespeare[n 1]	Germaine Greer	21 February 2002	Past Masters series, 1986
	William Shakespeare[n 1]	Stanley Wells	23 April 2015
061	Clausewitz	Michael Howard	21 February 2002	Past Masters series, 1983
062	Schopenhauer	Christopher Janaway	21 February 2002	Past Masters series, 1994	philosophy
063	The Russian Revolution	S. A. Smith	21 February 2002
064	Hobbes	Richard Tuck	30 May 2002	Past Masters series, 1989	philosophy
065	World Music	Philip V. Bohlman	30 May 2002 January 2020 (2nd ed.)
066	Mathematics	Timothy Gowers	22 August 2002		mathematics
067	Philosophy of Science	Samir Okasha	30 May 2002 28 July 2016 (2nd ed.)
068	Cryptography	Fred Piper, Sean Murphy	30 May 2002		mathematics
069	Quantum Theory	John Polkinghorne	30 May 2002		physics
070	Spinoza	Roger Scruton	30 May 2002	Past Masters series, 1986	philosophy
071	Choice Theory	Michael Allingham	22 August 2002
072	Architecture	Andrew Ballantyne	22 August 2002
073	Poststructuralism	Catherine Belsey	22 August 2002
074	Postmodernism	Christopher Butler	10 October 2002
075	Democracy	Bernard Crick	10 October 2002
076	Empire	Stephen Howe	22 August 2002
077	Fascism	Kevin Passmore	22 August 2002 29 May 2014 (2nd ed.)
078	Terrorism	Charles Townshend	10 October 2002 8 September 2011 (2nd ed.) 24 May 2018 (3rd ed.)
079	Plato	Julia Annas	13 February 2003		philosophy
080	Ethics	Simon Blackburn	8 May 2003	Being Good: An Introduction to Ethics, 2001 rev. 2003
081	Emotion	Dylan Evans	13 February 2003 26 September 2019 (2nd ed.)	Emotion: The Science of Sentiment, 2001
082	Northern Ireland	Marc Mulholland	23 January 2003	The Longest War: Northern Ireland's Troubled History, 2002
083	Art Theory	Cynthia Freeland	13 February 2003	But Is It Art?: An Introduction to Art Theory, 2001
084	Locke	John Dunn	8 May 2003	Past Masters series, 1984	philosophy
085	Modern Ireland	Senia Paseta	27 March 2003
086	Globalization	Manfred Steger	27 March 2003 22 January 2009 (2nd ed.) 4 April 2013 (3rd ed.) 27 April 2017 (4th ed.) 28 May 2020 (5th ed.)
087	The Cold War	Robert J. McMahon	27 March 2003
088	The History of Astronomy	Michael Hoskin	8 May 2003
089	Schizophrenia	Chris Frith, Eve C. Johnstone	22 May 2003
090	The Earth	Martin Redfern	26 June 2003
091	Engels	Terrell Carver	22 May 2003	Past Masters series, 1981	philosophy
092	British Politics	Tony Wright	22 May 2003 30 May 2013 (2nd ed.)
093	Linguistics	P. H. Matthews	24 April 2003
094	The Celts	Barry Cunliffe	26 June 2003
095	Ideology	Michael Freeden	26 June 2003
096	Prehistory	Chris Gosden	26 June 2003 28 June 2018 (2nd ed.)
097	Political Philosophy	David Miller	26 June 2003
098	Postcolonialism	Robert J.C. Young	26 June 2003
099	Atheism	Julian Baggini	26 June 2003		religion
100	Evolution	Brian Charlesworth, Deborah Charlesworth	26 June 2003 6 July 2017 (2nd ed.)
101	Molecules	Philip Ball	27 November 2003	Stories of the Invisible: A Guided Tour of Molecules, 2001	chemistry
102	Art History	Dana Arnold	22 January 2004
103	Presocratic Philosophy	Catherine Osborne	22 April 2004		philosophy
104	The Elements	Philip Ball	8 April 2004	The Ingredients: A Guided Tour of the Elements, 2002	chemistry
105	Dada and Surrealism	David Hopkins	8 April 2004
106	Egyptian Myth	Geraldine Pinch	22 April 2004
107	Christian Art	Beth Williamson	24 June 2004
108	Capitalism	James Fulcher	13 May 2004 1 August 2015 (2nd ed.)
109	Particle Physics	Frank Close	13 May 2004		physics
110	Free Will	Thomas Pink	24 June 2004
111	Myth	Robert A. Segal	8 July 2004 1 September 2015 (2nd ed.)
112	Ancient Egypt	Ian Shaw	22 July 2004
113	Hieroglyphs	Penelope Wilson	12 August 2004	Sacred Signs: Hieroglyphs in Ancient Egypt, 2003
114	Medical Ethics	Tony Hope	23 September 2004 22 November 2018 (2nd ed.)
115	Kafka	Ritchie Robertson	28 October 2004
116	Anarchism	Colin Ward	21 October 2004
117	Ancient Warfare	Harry Sidebottom	25 November 2004
118	Global Warming	Mark Maslin	25 November 2004 27 November 2008 (2nd ed.) 23 October 2014 (3rd ed.)	In the 3rd edition the title has changed to Climate Change
119	Christianity	Linda Woodhead	25 November 2004 4 September 2014 (2nd ed.)		religion
120	Modern Art	David Cottington	24 February 2005
121	Consciousness	Susan Blackmore	24 March 2005 14 September 2017 (2nd ed.)
122	Foucault	Gary Gutting	24 March 2005 26 September 2019 (2nd ed.)		philosophy
123	The Spanish Civil War	Helen Graham	24 March 2005
124	The Marquis de Sade	John Phillips	28 July 2005		philosophy
125	Habermas	Gordon Finlayson	26 May 2005		philosophy
126	Socialism	Michael Newman	28 July 2005
127	Dreaming	J. Allan Hobson	21 April 2005	Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep, 2002
128	Dinosaurs	David Norman	28 July 2005 28 December 2017 (2nd ed.)
129	Renaissance Art	Geraldine A. Johnson	21 April 2005
130	Buddhist Ethics	Damien Keown	23 June 2005		religion
131	Tragedy	Adrian Poole	11 August 2005
132	Sikhism	Eleanor Nesbitt	22 September 2005 28 April 2016 (2nd ed.)		religion
133	The History of Time	Leofranc Holford-Strevens	11 August 2005
134	Nationalism	Steven Grosby	8 September 2005
135	The World Trade Organization	Amrita Narlikar	8 September 2005
136	Design	John Heskett	23 June 2005	Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday Life, 2002
137	The Vikings	Julian D. Richards	8 September 2005
138	Fossils	Keith Thomson	13 October 2005
139	Journalism	Ian Hargreaves	15 September 2005 28 August 2014 (2nd ed.)	Journalism: Truth or Dare?, 2003
140	The Crusades	Christopher Tyerman	13 October 2005	Fighting for Christendom: Holy War and the Crusades, 2004	religion
141	Feminism	Margaret Walters	27 October 2005
142	Human Evolution	Bernard Wood	3 November 2005 27 June 2019 (2nd ed.)
143	The Dead Sea Scrolls	Timothy Lim	24 November 2005 23 March 2017 (2nd ed.)		religion
144	The Brain	Michael O'Shea	8 December 2005		biology
145	Global Catastrophes	Bill McGuire	26 January 2006 28 August 2014 (2nd ed.)	A Guide to the End of the World: Everything You Never Wanted to Know, 2002
146	Contemporary Art	Julian Stallabrass	23 March 2006 January 2020 (2nd ed.)	Art Incorporated: The Story of Contemporary Art, 2004
147	Philosophy of Law	Raymond Wacks	18 May 2006 27 February 2014 (2nd ed.)
148	The Renaissance	Jerry Brotton	27 April 2006	The Renaissance Bazaar: From the Silk Road to Michelangelo, 2002
149	Anglicanism	Mark Chapman	22 June 2006		religion
150	The Roman Empire	Christopher Kelly	24 August 2006
151	Photography	Steven Edwards	24 August 2006
152	Psychiatry	Tom Burns	21 September 2006 25 October 2018 (2nd ed.)		psychology
153	Existentialism	Thomas Flynn	12 October 2006		philosophy
154	The First World War	Michael Howard	25 January 2007	Non-VSI, 2002
155	Fundamentalism	Malise Ruthven	25 January 2007	Fundamentalism: The Search for Meaning, 2004
156	Economics	Partha Dasgupta	22 February 2007
157	International Migration	Khalid Koser	22 February 2007 23 June 2016 (2nd ed.)
158	Newton	Rob Iliffe	25 January 2007
159	Chaos	Lenny Smith	22 February 2007
160	African History	John Parker, Richard Rathbone	22 March 2007
161	Racism	Ali Rattansi	22 March 2007
162	Kabbalah	Joseph Dan	30 August 2007	Non-VSI, 2006	religion
163	Human Rights	Andrew Clapham	28 June 2007 1 February 2016 (2nd ed.)
164	International Relations	Paul Wilkinson	26 July 2007
165	The American Presidency	Charles O. Jones	11 October 2007 23 June 2016 (2nd ed.)
166	The Great Depression and The New Deal	Eric Rauchway	24 April 2008
167	Classical Mythology	Helen Morales	23 August 2007		religion
168	The New Testament as Literature	Kyle Keefer	27 November 2008		religion
169	American Political Parties and Elections	L. Sandy Maisel	27 September 2007 23 June 2016 (2nd ed.)
170	Bestsellers	John Sutherland	25 October 2007
171	Geopolitics	Klaus Dodds	25 October 2007 26 June 2014 (2nd ed.) 25 July 2019 (3rd ed.)
172	Antisemitism	Steven Beller	22 November 2007 1 December 2015 (2nd ed.)
173	Game Theory	Ken Binmore	25 October 2007
174	HIV/AIDS	Alan Whiteside	24 January 2008 24 November 2016 (2nd ed.)
175	Documentary Film	Patricia Aufderheide	24 January 2008
176	Modern China	Rana Mitter	28 February 2008 1 April 2016 (2nd ed.)
177	The Quakers	Pink Dandelion	28 February 2008		religion
178	German Literature	Nicholas Boyle	28 February 2008
179	Nuclear Weapons	Joseph M. Siracusa	20 March 2008 23 April 2015 (2nd ed.)
180	Law	Raymond Wacks	27 March 2008 1 February 2016 (2nd ed.)
181	The Old Testament	Michael Coogan	22 May 2008		religion
182	Galaxies	John Gribbin	27 March 2008
183	Mormonism	Richard Bushman	26 June 2008		religion
184	Religion in America	Timothy Beal	25 September 2008		religion
185	Geography	John A. Matthews, David T. Herbert	22 May 2008
186	The Meaning of Life	Terry Eagleton	24 April 2008	Non-VSI, 2007	philosophy
187	Sexuality	Veronique Mottier	24 April 2008
188	Nelson Mandela	Elleke Boehmer	17 July 2008
189	Science and Religion	Thomas Dixon	24 July 2008
190	Relativity	Russell Stannard	24 July 2008		physics
191	The History of Medicine	William Bynum	31 July 2008
192	Citizenship	Richard Bellamy	25 September 2008
193	The History of Life	Michael J. Benton	27 November 2008
194	Memory	Jonathan K. Foster	6 November 2008
195	Autism	Uta Frith	23 October 2008
196	Statistics	David J. Hand	23 October 2008		mathematics
197	Scotland	Rab Houston	27 November 2008
198	Catholicism	Gerald O'Collins	27 November 2008 25 May 2017 (2nd ed.)		religion
199	The United Nations	Jussi M. Hanhimäki	30 October 2008 2 June 2015 (2nd ed.)
200	Free Speech	Nigel Warburton	26 February 2009
201	The Apocryphal Gospels	Paul Foster	26 February 2009		religion
202	Modern Japan	Christopher Goto-Jones	23 April 2009
203	Lincoln	Allen C. Guelzo	26 February 2009
204	Superconductivity	Stephen J. Blundell	28 May 2009		physics
205	Nothing	Frank Close	25 June 2009	The Void, 2007
206	Biography	Hermione Lee	9 July 2009
207	The Soviet Union	Stephen Lovell	23 July 2009
208	Writing and Script	Andrew Robinson	27 August 2009
209	Communism	Leslie Holmes	27 August 2009
210	Fashion	Rebecca Arnold	22 October 2009
211	Forensic Science	Jim Fraser	25 February 2010
212	Puritanism	Francis J. Bremer	24 September 2009		religion
213	The Reformation	Peter Marshall	22 October 2009		religion
214	Thomas Aquinas	Fergus Kerr	5 November 2009		religion
215	Deserts	Nick Middleton	26 November 2009
216	The Norman Conquest	George Garnett	26 November 2009
217	Biblical Archaeology	Eric H. Cline	26 November 2009
218	The Reagan Revolution	Gil Troy	3 December 2009
219	The Book of Mormon	Terryl Givens	21 January 2010		religion
220	Islamic History	Adam J. Silverstein	21 January 2010
221	Privacy	Raymond Wacks	21 January 2010 26 March 2015 (2nd ed.)
222	Neoliberalism	Manfred Steger, Ravi K. Roy	21 January 2010
223	Progressivism	Walter Nugent	25 February 2010
224	Epidemiology	Rodolfo Saracci	25 February 2010
225	Information	Luciano Floridi	25 February 2010
226	The Laws of Thermodynamics	Peter Atkins	25 March 2010	Four Laws That Drive the Universe, 2007	physics
227	Innovation	Mark Dodgson, David Gann	25 March 2010 23 August 2018 (2nd ed.)
228	Witchcraft	Malcolm Gaskill	25 March 2010
229	The New Testament	Luke Timothy Johnson	22 April 2010		religion
230	French Literature	John D. Lyons	22 April 2010
231	Film Music	Kathryn Kalinak	27 May 2010
232	Druids	Barry Cunliffe	27 May 2010
233	German Philosophy	Andrew Bowie	27 May 2010		philosophy
234	Advertising	Winston Fletcher	24 June 2010
235	Forensic Psychology	David Canter	17 June 2010
236	Modernism	Christopher Butler	29 July 2010		philosophy
237	Leadership	Keith Grint	29 July 2010
238	Christian Ethics	D. Stephen Long	29 July 2010
239	Tocqueville	Harvey Mansfield	24 June 2010
240	Landscapes and Geomorphology	Andrew Goudie, Heather Viles	26 August 2010
241	Spanish Literature	Jo Labanyi	26 August 2010
242	Diplomacy	Joseph M. Siracusa	26 August 2010
243	North American Indians	Theda Perdue, Michael D. Green	26 August 2010
244	The U.S. Congress	Donald Ritchie	10 June 2010 22 September 2016 (2nd ed.)
245	Romanticism	Michael Ferber	23 September 2010
246	Utopianism	Lyman Tower Sargent	23 September 2010
247	The Blues	Elijah Wald	24 June 2010
248	Keynes	Robert Skidelsky	7 October 2010
249	English Literature	Jonathan Bate	7 October 2010
250	Agnosticism	Robin LePoidevin	28 October 2010
251	Aristocracy	William Doyle	25 November 2010
252	Martin Luther	Scott H. Hendrix	21 October 2010
253	Michael Faraday	Frank A.J.L. James	25 November 2010
254	Planets	David A. Rothery	25 November 2010
255	Pentecostalism	William K. Kay	27 January 2011		religion
256	Humanism	Stephen Law	27 January 2011
257	Folk Music	Mark Slobin	24 February 2011
258	Late Antiquity	Gillian Clark	24 February 2011
259	Genius	Andrew Robinson	24 February 2011
260	Numbers	Peter M. Higgins	24 February 2011		mathematics
261	Muhammad	Jonathan A.C. Brown	24 March 2011		religion
262	Beauty	Roger Scruton	24 March 2011	Non-VSI, 2009
263	Critical Theory	Stephen Eric Bronner	5 May 2011 26 October 2017 (2nd ed.)
264	Organizations	Mary Jo Hatch	24 March 2011
265	Early Music	Thomas Forrest Kelly	9 June 2011
266	The Scientific Revolution	Lawrence M. Principe	28 April 2011
267	Cancer	Nick James	26 May 2011
268	Nuclear Power	Maxwell Irvine	26 May 2011
269	Paganism	Owen Davies	26 May 2011		religion
270	Risk	Baruch Fischhoff, John Kadvany	26 May 2011
271	Science Fiction	David Seed	23 June 2011
272	Herodotus	Jennifer T. Roberts	23 June 2011
273	Conscience	Paul Strohm	23 June 2011
274	American Immigration	David A. Gerber	23 June 2011
275	Jesus	Richard Bauckham	28 July 2011		religion
276	Viruses	Dorothy H. Crawford	28 July 2011 22 March 2018
277	Protestantism	Mark A. Noll	25 August 2011		religion
278	Derrida	Simon Glendinning	25 August 2011		philosophy
279	Madness	Andrew T. Scull	25 August 2011
280	Developmental Biology	Lewis Wolpert	25 August 2011		biology
281	Dictionaries	Lynda Mugglestone	18 August 2011
282	Global Economic History	Robert C. Allen	15 September 2011
283	Multiculturalism	Ali Rattansi	22 September 2011
284	Environmental Economics	Stephen Smith	22 September 2011
285	The Cell	Terence Allen, Graham Cowling	29 September 2011		biology
286	Ancient Greece	Paul Cartledge	27 October 2011
287	Angels	David Albert Jones	27 October 2011
288	Children's Literature	Kimberley Reynolds	6 October 2011
289	The Periodic Table	Eric R. Scerri	27 October 2011 25 July 2019 (2nd ed.)	chemistry
290	Modern France	Vanessa R. Schwartz	27 October 2011
291	Reality	Jan Westerhoff	24 November 2011
292	The Computer	Darrel Ince	24 November 2011
293	The Animal Kingdom	Peter Holland	24 November 2011
294	Colonial Latin American Literature	Rolena Adorno	24 November 2011
295	Sleep	Steven W. Lockley, Russell G. Foster	22 March 2012
296	The Aztecs	David Carrasco	26 January 2012
297	The Cultural Revolution	Richard Curt Kraus	26 January 2012
298	Modern Latin American Literature	Roberto González Echevarría	26 January 2012
299	Magic	Owen Davies	26 January 2012
300	Film	Michael Wood	26 January 2012
301	The Conquistadors	Matthew Restall, Felipe Fernández-Armesto	23 February 2012
302	Chinese Literature	Sabina Knight	23 February 2012
303	Stem Cells	Jonathan Slack	23 February 2012		biology
304	Italian Literature	Peter Hainsworth, David Robey	23 February 2012
305	The History of Mathematics	Jacqueline Stedall	23 February 2012
306	The U.S. Supreme Court	Linda Greenhouse	22 March 2012
307	Plague	Paul Slack	22 March 2012
308	Russian History	Geoffrey Hosking	29 March 2012
309	Engineering	David Blockley	22 March 2012
310	Probability	John Haigh	26 April 2012		mathematics
311	Rivers	Nick Middleton	26 April 2012
312	Plants	Timothy Walker	26 April 2012
313	Anaesthesia	Aidan O'Donnell	26 April 2012
314	The Mongols	Morris Rossabi	26 April 2012
315	The Devil	Darren Oldridge	31 May 2012
316	Objectivity	Stephen Gaukroger	24 May 2012		philosophy
317	Magnetism	Stephen J. Blundell	28 June 2012		physics
318	Anxiety	Daniel Freeman, Jason Freeman	31 May 2012
319	Australia	Kenneth Morgan	31 May 2012
320	Languages	Stephen Anderson	28 June 2012
321	Magna Carta	Nicholas Vincent	28 June 2012
322	Stars	Andrew King	26 July 2012
323	The Antarctic	Klaus Dodds	26 July 2012
324	Radioactivity	Claudio Tuniz	26 July 2012
325	Trust	Katherine Hawley	23 August 2012
326	Metaphysics	Stephen Mumford	30 August 2012		philosophy
327	The Roman Republic	David M. Gwynn	30 August 2012
328	Borders	Alexander C. Diener, Joshua Hagen	27 September 2012
329	The Gothic	Nick Groom	27 September 2012
330	Robotics	Alan Winfield	27 September 2012
331	Civil Engineering	David Muir Wood	27 September 2012
332	The Orchestra	D. Kern Holoman	25 October 2012
333	Governance	Mark Bevir	25 October 2012
334	American History	Paul S. Boyer	9 August 2012
335	Networks	Guido Caldarelli, Michele Catanzaro	25 October 2012
336	Spirituality	Philip Sheldrake	29 November 2012
337	Work	Stephen Fineman	29 November 2012
338	Martyrdom	Jolyon Mitchell	29 November 2012
339	Colonial America	Alan Taylor	29 November 2012
340	Rastafari	Ennis B. Edmonds	20 December 2012		religion
341	Comedy	Matthew Bevis	20 December 2012
342	The Avant-Garde	David Cottington	31 January 2013
343	Thought	Tim Bayne	31 January 2013
344	The Napoleonic Wars	Mike Rapport	31 January 2013
345	Medical Law	Charles Foster	28 February 2013
346	Rhetoric	Richard Toye	28 March 2013
347	Education	Gary Thomas	28 March 2013
348	Mao	Delia Davin	25 April 2013
349	The British Constitution	Martin Loughlin	25 April 2013
350	American Politics	Richard M. Valelly	28 March 2013
351	The Silk Road	James A. Millward	26 April 2013
352	Bacteria	Sebastian G. B. Amyes	30 May 2013
353	Symmetry	Ian Stewart	30 May 2013		mathematics
354	Marine Biology	Philip V. Mladenov	26 September 2013 1 May 2020 (2nd ed.)		biology
355	The British Empire	Ashley Jackson	30 May 2013
356	The Trojan War	Eric H. Cline	30 May 2013
357	Malthus	Donald Winch	27 June 2013
358	Climate	Mark Maslin	27 June 2013
359	The Palestinian–Israeli Conflict	Martin Bunton	29 August 2013
360	Happiness	Daniel M. Haybron	29 August 2013
361	Diaspora	Kevin Kenny	25 July 2013
362	Contemporary Fiction	Robert Eaglestone	25 July 2013
363	Modern War	Richard English	25 July 2013
364	The Beats	David Sterritt	25 July 2013
365	Sociolinguistics	John Edwards	25 July 2013
366	Food	John Krebs	26 September 2013
367	Fractals	Kenneth Falconer	26 September 2013		mathematics
368	Management	John Hendry	24 October 2013
369	International Security	Christopher S. Browning	24 October 2013
370	Astrobiology	David C. Catling	24 October 2013		biology
371	Causation	Stephen Mumford, Rani Lill Anjum	28 November 2013
372	Entrepreneurship	Paul Westhead, Mike Wright	28 November 2013
373	Tibetan Buddhism	Matthew T. Kapstein	24 October 2013
374	The Ancient Near East	Amanda H. Podany	26 December 2013
375	American Legal History	G. Edward White	28 November 2013
376	Ethnomusicology	Timothy Rice	23 January 2014
377	African Religions	Jacob K. Olupona	13 March 2014		religion
378	Humour	Noël Carroll	23 January 2014
379	Family Law	Jonathan Herring	27 February 2014
380	The Ice Age	Jamie Woodward	30 January 2014
381	Revolutions	Jack A. Goldstone	26 December 2013
382	Classical Literature	William Allan	27 March 2014
383	Accounting	Christopher Nobes	27 March 2014
384	Teeth	Peter S. Ungar	27 March 2014
385	Physical Chemistry	Peter Atkins	24 April 2014		chemistry
386	Microeconomics	Avinash Dixit	24 April 2014
387	Landscape Architecture	Ian Thompson	29 May 2014
388	The Eye	Michael F. Land	29 May 2014		biology
389	The Etruscans	Christopher Smith	29 May 2014
390	Nutrition	David Bender	26 June 2014
391	Coral Reefs	Charles Sheppard	26 June 2014
392	Complexity	John H. Holland	24 July 2014
393	Alexander the Great	Hugh Bowden	24 July 2014
394	Hormones	Martin Luck	24 July 2014
395	Confucianism	Daniel K. Gardner	26 June 2014		philosophy
396	American Slavery	Heather Andrea Williams	25 September 2014
397	African American Religion	Eddie S. Glaude Jr.	28 August 2014
398	God	John Bowker	25 September 2014
399	Genes	Jonathan Slack	25 September 2014		biology
400	Knowledge	Jennifer Nagel	25 September 2014
401	Structural Engineering	David Blockley	25 September 2014
402	Theatre	Marvin Carlson	23 October 2014
403	Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture	Christina Riggs	23 October 2014
404	The Middle Ages	Miri Rubin	23 October 2014
405	Materials	Christopher Hall	23 October 2014
406	Minerals	David Vaughan	23 October 2014
407	Peace	Oliver P. Richmond	27 November 2014
408	Iran	Ali Ansari	27 November 2014
409	World War II	Gerhard L. Weinberg	13 November 2014
410	Child Psychology	Usha Goswami	27 November 2014		psychology
411	Sport	Mike Cronin	27 November 2014
412	Exploration	Stewart A. Weaver	12 March 2015
413	Microbiology	Nicholas P. Money	4 December 2014		biology
414	Corporate Social Responsibility	Jeremy Moon	11 December 2014
415	Love	Ronald de Sousa	8 January 2015
416	Psychotherapy	Tom Burns (Author), Eva Burns-Lundgren (Editor)	22 January 2015		psychology
417	Chemistry	Peter Atkins	26 February 2015		chemistry
418	Human Anatomy	Leslie Klenerman	26 February 2015
419	The American West	Stephen Aron	11 December 2014
420	American Political History	Donald Critchlow	25 December 2014
421	Ritual	Barry Stephenson	22 January 2015
422	American Women's History	Susan Ware	22 January 2015
423	Dante	Peter Hainsworth, David Robey	26 February 2015
424	Ancient Assyria	Karen Radner	26 March 2015
425	Plate Tectonics	Peter Molnar	26 March 2015
426	Corruption	Leslie Holmes	23 April 2015
427	Pilgrimage	Ian Reader	23 April 2015
428	Taxation	Stephen Smith	23 April 2015
429	Crime Fiction	Richard Bradford	28 May 2015
430	Microscopy	Terence Allen	1 August 2015
431	Forests	Jaboury Ghazoul	1 August 2015
432	Social Work	Stanley Wells	1 August 2015
433	Infectious Disease	Benjamin Bolker and Marta Wayne	1 August 2015
434	Liberalism	Michael Freeden	1 August 2015
435	Psychoanalysis	Daniel Pick	1 November 2015		psychology
436	The American Revolution	Robert J. Allison	31 July 2015
437	Byzantium	Peter Sarris	1 October 2015
438	Nuclear Physics	Frank Close	1 October 2015		physics
439	Social Psychology	Richard J. Crisp	1 November 2015		psychology
440	Water	John Finney	1 November 2015
441	Criminal Justice	Julian V. Roberts	1 November 2015
442	Medieval Literature	Elaine Treharne	1 December 2015
443	The Enlightenment	John Robertson	1 December 2015
444	Mountains	Martin F. Price	1 December 2015
445	Philosophy in the Islamic World	Peter Adamson	1 November 2015		philosophy
446	Light	Ian A. Walmsley	1 December 2015		physics
447	Algebra	Peter M. Higgins	1 December 2015		mathematics
448	Hermeneutics	Jens Zimmermann	15 December 2015
449	International Law	Vaughan Lowe	1 February 2016
450	Moons	David Rothery	1 January 2016
451	Sound	Mike Goldsmith	10 February 2016		physics
452	Epicureanism	Catherine Wilson	1 February 2016
453	Black holes[7]	Katherine Blundell	1 February 2016		physics
454	The Body	Chris Shilling	1 March 2016
455	Fungi	Nicolas P. Money	1 April 2016
456	The History of Chemistry	William H. Brock	1 April 2016		chemistry
457	Environmental Politics	Andrew Dobson	1 March 2016
458	Modern Drama	Kirsten E. Shepherd-Barr	1 May 2016
459	The Mexican Revolution	Alan Knight	1 April 2016
460	The Founding Fathers	Richard B. Bernstein	14 December 2015
461	Hollywood	Peter Decherney	27 January 2016
462	Goethe	Ritchie Robertson	1 April 2016
463	Medieval Philosophy	John Marenbon	1 April 2016		philosophy
464	Earth System Science	Tim Lenton	25 February 2016
465	Slang	Jonathon Green	25 February 2016
466	Computer Science	Subrata Dasgupta	24 March 2016
467	Shakespeare's Comedies	Bart van Es	24 March 2016
468	The Welfare State	David Garland	24 March 2016
469	Crystallography	A. M. Glazer	24 March 2016		chemistry
470	Astrophysics	James Binney	24 March 2016		physics
471	The BRICS	Andrew F. Cooper	28 April 2016
472	Decolonization	Dane Kennedy	28 April 2016
473	Agriculture	Paul Brassley, Richard Soffe	28 April 2016
474	Combinatorics	Robin Wilson	28 April 2016		mathematics
475	Adolescence	Peter Smith	26 May 2016
476	Isotopes	Rob Ellam	19 May 2016
477	Savannas	Peter Furley	23 June 2016
478	The Hebrew Bible As Literature	Tod Linafelt	3 March 2016
479	The Harlem Renaissance	Cheryl A. Wall	25 August 2016
480	Babylonia	Trevor Bryce	22 September 2016
481	Learning	Mark Haselgrove	28 July 2016
482	Public Health	Virginia Berridge	28 July 2016
483	Indian Cinema	Ashish Rajadhyaska	28 July 2016
484	Public Administration	Stella Z. Theodoulou, Ravi K. Roy	25 August 2016
485	Molecular Biology	Aysha Divan, Janice Royds	25 August 2016		biology
486	Blood	Christopher Cooper	22 September 2016		biology
487	Copernicus	Owen Gingerich	11 August 2016
488	Military Justice	Eugene R. Fidell	27 October 2016
489	Cognitive Neuroscience	Richard Passingham	22 September 2016
490	Leibniz	Maria Rosa Antognazza	22 September 2016		philosophy
491	War and Technology	Alex Roland	27 October 2016
492	Pandemics	Christian W. McMillen	8 December 2016
493	Translation	Matthew Reynolds	27 October 2016
494	Modern Italy	Anna Cento Bull	27 October 2016
495	Eugenics	Philippa Levine	26 January 2017
496	Ageing	Nancy Pachana	24 November 2016
497	Asian American History	Madeline Y. Hsu	26 January 2017
498	Home	Michael Allen Fox	8 December 2016
499	Calvinism	Jon Balserak	8 December 2016		religion
500	Measurement	David J. Hand	6 October 2016
501	Telescopes	Geoffrey Cottrell	8 December 2016
502	Rocks	Jan Zalasiewicz	8 December 2016
503	Banking	John O. S. Wilson, John Goddard	8 December 2016
504	Depression	Mary Jane Tacchi, Jan Scott	26 January 2017
505	Behavioural Economics	Michelle Baddeley	26 January 2017
506	Weather	Storm Dunlop	26 January 2017
507	Zionism	Michael Stanislawski	8 December 2016		religion
508	Intellectual Property	Siva Vaidhyanathan	23 March 2017
509	The Industrial Revolution	Robert C. Allen	23 February 2017
510	Populism	Cas Mudde, Cristsbal Rovia Kalwasser	23 February 2017
511	Voltaire	Nicholas Cronk	23 February 2017		philosophy
512	Gravity	Timothy Clifton	23 February 2017		physics
513	Animal Behaviour	Tristram D. Wyatt	23 February 2017
514	Navigation	Jim Bennett	23 February 2017
515	The Habsburg Empire	Martyn Rady	23 March 2017
516	The Future	Jennifer Gidley	23 March 2017
517	Circadian Rhythms	Russell Foster, Leon Kreitzman	23 March 2017
518	The Atmosphere	Paul Palmer	23 March 2017
519	Infinity	Ian Stewart	23 March 2017
520	Organic Chemistry	Graham Patrick	23 March 2017		chemistry
521	Clinical Psychology	Susan Llewellyn, Katie Aafjes-van Doorn	27 April 2017		psychology
522	Shakespeare's Tragedies	Stanley Wells	27 April 2017
523	Military Strategy	Antulio Joseph Echevarria	23 February 2017
524	European Union Law	Anthony Arnull	25 May 2017
525	Multilingualism	John C. Maher	25 May 2017
526	Jewish History	David N. Myers	25 May 2017
527	Branding	Robert Jones	22 June 2017
528	Pain	Rob Boddice	27 July 2017
529	Oceans	Dorrik Stow	27 July 2017
530	Utilitarianism	Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, Peter Singer	27 July 2017
531	Freemasonry	Andreas Önnerfors	24 August 2017		religion
532	Heredity	John Waller	24 August 2017
533	Thinking and Reasoning	Jonathan Evans	28 September 2017
534	Shakespeare's Sonnets and Poems	Jonathan F. S. Post	28 September 2017
535	Mammals	T. S. Kemp	28 September 2017
536	Environmental Law	Elizabeth Fisher	26 October 2017
537	Projects	Andrew Davies	26 October 2017
538	Perception	Brian J. Rogers	26 October 2017
539	Big Data	Dawn E. Holmes	23 November 2017
540	Modern India	Craig Jeffrey	23 November 2017
541	Miracles	Yujin Nagasawa	23 November 2017		religion
542	Analytic Philosophy	Michael Beaney	23 November 2017
543	The History of Cinema	Geoffrey Nowell-Smith	23 November 2017
544	The Immune System	Paul Klenerman	30 November 2017
545	Universities and Colleges	David Palfreyman, Paul Temple	28 December 2017
546	Monasticism	Stephen J. Davis	25 January 2018		religion
547	Lakes	Warwick F. Vincent	25 January 2018
548	The Hellenistic Age	Peter Thonemann	22 February 2018
549	The History of Physics	J. L. Heilbron	25 January 2018		physics
550	Fairy Tale	Marina Warner	22 February 2018
551	The English Language	Simon Horobin	25 January 2018
552	Philosophy of Religion	Tim Bayne	22 February 2018		religion
553	Organized Crime	Georgios A. Antonopoulos, Georgios Papanicolaou	22 February 2018
554	Veterinary Science	James Yeates	22 February 2018
555	Applied Mathematics	Alain Goriely	22 February 2018		mathematics
556	Comparative Literature	Ben Hutchinson	22 March 2018
557	Development	Ian Goldin	22 March 2018
558	Anthropocene	Erle C. Ellis	22 March 2018
559	Genomics	John M. Archibald	22 March 2018
560	Geophysics	William Lowrie	22 March 2018		physics
561	Native American Literature	Sean Teuton	19 January 2018
562	Southeast Asia	James R. Rush	24 May 2018
563	Criminology	Tim Newburn	26 April 2018
564	American Naval History	Craig L. Symonds	24 May 2018
565	Demography	Sarah Harper	24 May 2018
566	The U.S. Constitution	David J. Bodenhamer	8 June 2018
567	Decadence	David Weir	22 March 2018
568	Sexual Selection	Marlene Zuk, Leigh W Simmons	23 August 2018
569	The Holy Roman Empire	Joachim Whaley	26 July 2018
570	Stoicism	Brad Inwood	26 July 2018		philosophy
571	Poverty	Philip N. Jefferson	26 July 2018
572	Autobiography	Laura Marcus	26 July 2018
573	Synthetic Biology	Jamie A. Davies	26 July 2018		biology
574	Geology	Jan Zalasiewicz	26 July 2018
575	Artificial Intelligence	Margaret A. Boden	23 August 2018
576	The Book of Common Prayer	Brian Cummings	23 August 2018		religion
577	American Cultural History	Eric Avila	25 October 2018
578	Abolitionism	Richard S. Newman	6 September 2018
579	The Psychology of Music	Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis	27 December 2018
580	Saints	Simon Yarrow	20 September 2018		religion
581	African Politics	Ian Taylor	27 September 2018
582	Adam Smith	Christopher J. Berry	25 October 2018		philosophy
583	Glaciation	David J. A. Evans	25 October 2018
584	Typography	Paul Luna	22 November 2018
585	Environmental Ethics	Robin Attfield	13 December 2018
586	Napoleon	David A. Bell	22 November 2018
587	Modern Architecture	Adam Sharr	22 November 2018
588	Biometrics	Michael Fairhurst	20 November 2018
589	The History of Childhood	James Marten	25 October 2018
590	Waves	Mike Goldsmith	22 November 2018
591	C. S. Lewis	James Como	24 January 2019
592	Mathematical Finance	Mark H. A. Davis	24 January 2019
593	Identity	Florian Coulmas	28 February 2019
594	Charles Dickens	Jenny Hartley	28 February 2019
595	Garden History	Gordon Campbell	15 February 2019
596	Reptiles	Tom Kemp	24 January 2019
597	Film Noir	James Naremore	28 February 2019
598	Homer	Barbara Graziosi	28 March 2019	Homer, 2016
599	Matter	Geoff Cottrell	28 March 2019
600	Reading	Belinda Jack	18 April 2019
601	Concentration Camps	Dan Stone	28 March 2019	Concentration Camps: A Short History, 2017
602	Methodism	William J. Abraham	25 April 2019		religion
603	Dyslexia	Margaret J. Snowling	23 May 2019
604	Leo Tolstoy	Liza Knapp	24 May 2019
605	Extinction	Paul B. Wignall	27 June 2019
606	Physics	Sidney Perkowitz	25 July 2019		physics
607	The Treaty of Versailles	Michael S. Neiberg	25 April 2019
608	Synaesthesia	Julia Simner	27 June 2019
609	American Foreign Relations	Andrew Preston	25 July 2019
610	Secularism	Andrew Copson	11 July 2019	Secularism: Politics, Religion, and Freedom, 2017
611	Geoffrey Chaucer	David Wallace	22 August 2019	Geoffrey Chaucer: A New Introduction, 2017
612	Nazi Germany	Jane Caplan	25 July 2019
613	Scepticism	Duncan Pritchard	26 September 2019
614	Poetry	Bernard O'Donoghue	26 September 2019
615	Orthodox Christianity	A. Edward Siecienski	22 August 2019
616	Aesthetics	Bence Nanay	24 October 2019
617	Dynasty	Jeroen Duindam	24 October 2019
618	Psychopathy	Essi Viding	24 October 2019		psychology
619	Philosophy of Biology	Samir Okasha	28 November 2019		biology
620	Energy Systems	Nick Jenkins	28 November 2019
621	Tides	David George Bowers, Emyr Martyn Roberts	28 November 2019
622	Topology	Richard Earl	12 December 2019		mathematics
623	Superstition	Stuart Vyse	23 January 2020
624	Country music	Richard Carlin	23 January 2020
625	Korea	Michael J. Seth	23 January 2020
626	Trigonometry	Glen Van Brummelen	23 January 2020		mathematics
627	Niels Bohr	J. L. Heilbron	23 January 2020
628	Albert Camus	Oliver Cloag	27 February 2020
629	Federalism	Mark J. Rozell, Clyde Wilcox	26 December 2019
630	Aerial Warfare	Frank Ledwidge	26 March 2020
631	Renewable Energy	Nick Jelley	27 February 2020
633	The Abrahamic Religions	Charles L. Cohen	23 April 2020
634	Systems Biology	Eberhard O. Voit	26 March 2020
635	Reconstruction	Allen C. Guelzo	28 May 2020
636	Number Theory	Robin Wilson	28 May 2020
637	Smell	Matthew Cobb	28 May 2020
638	The Sun	Philip Judge	23 April 2020
639	Emile Zola	Brian Nelson	23 July 2020
640	Fire	Andrew C. Scott	25 June 2020
642	American Business History	Walter A. Friedman	23 July 2020
643	Dementia	Kathleen Taylor	23 July 2020
644	Canada	Donald Wright	23 July 2020
645	French Philosophy	Stephen Gaukroger, Knox Peden	23 July 2020
646	The Russian Economy	Richard Connolly	23 July 2020
647	Biogeography	Mark V. Lomolino	23 July 2020

Boxed sets

Six boxed sets, each with a different theme, were released in 2006. Five books from the series on the given theme were included, plus the series' promotional volume A Very Short Introduction to Everything.

• The Ballot Box
  • Politics (008)
  • Capitalism (108)
  • Democracy (075)
  • Socialism (126)
  • Fascism (077)
• The Brain Box
  • Evolution (100)
  • Consciousness (121)
  • Intelligence (039)
  • Cosmology (051)
  • Quantum Theory (069)
• The Thought Box
  • Hegel (049)
  • Marx (028)
  • Nietzsche (034)
  • Schopenhauer (062)
  • Kierkegaard (058)
• The Basics Box
  • Philosophy (055)
  • Mathematics (066)
  • History (016)
  • Politics (008)
  • Psychology (006)
• The Boom Box
  • Ancient Warfare (117)
  • Cold War (087)
  • Crusades (140)
  • French Revolution (054)
  • Spanish Civil War (123)
• The Picture Box
  • Art History (102)
  • Renaissance Art (129)
  • Modern Art (120)
  • Architecture (072)
  • Design (136)

Design

The body text is set in Miller in some books, and others are set in OUP Argo; the front page title (and other book titles within the book) is set in Lithos; the sanserif used for headings and in other places is OUP Argo.

See also

• Que sais-je?, a similar series in French of introductory books written by experts, started in 1941. Some titles are translated in other languages.
• For Dummies, a similar series of introductory books.
• Rough Guides, whose non-travel books also cover culture and science.

Notes

1. Greer, Shakespeare: ISBN 978-0-19-280249-1. Wells, William Shakespeare: ISBN 978-0-19-871862-8.

References

1. "Very Short Introductions". Oxford University Press. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
2. "Very Short Introductions – General Series". Oxford University Press (UK). Retrieved 18 April 2018.
3. "Very Short Introductions". Oxford University Press.
4. "Languages: A Very Short Introduction". Oxford University Press (UK). Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
5. Glendinning, Simon (2011). Derrida: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. ii. ISBN 978-0-19-280345-0.
6. "Very Short Introductions". Oxford University Press (UK). Retrieved 16 February 2015.
7. Blundell, Katherine (2015). Black holes : A Very Short Introduction (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/actrade/9780199602667.001.0001. ISBN 9780199602667. OCLC 932859524.

External links

• Official site