The Libraries recently added campus access to the Oxford University Press series, “Very Short Introductions.” These concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects combine facts, analysis, new insights, and enthusiasm to make bring you the essence of an event, person, theory, discipline, or place.
At under 150 pages, you can learn about Accounting, Adam Smith, or Addiction to Émile Zola or Zionism in an afternoon. Each introduction is written by an expert scholar such as Mary Beard, Peter Singer, Theda Purdue, and Barry Cunliffe and each volume includes suggestions for additional reading.
With more than 800 titles and growing, Oxford Very Short introductions cover an astonishing number of topics including The Meaning of Life by literary critic Terry Eagleton and Nothing by physicist Frank Close. Search OneSearch for your topic keywords combined with “very short introduction” to find them or browse the list of broad disciplines and subjects to discover titles that spark your curiosity. Recent additions include works on Bohemians, Ibn Sina, and the 6th edition of an introduction to Globalization.
No time even for a couple of hours of reading? Check out the where in less than 15 minutes you can get an overview of Assyria, British Cinema, Happiness, Marine Ecology and more than 60 other topics (well, okay, “Infinity” lasts a whole 17 minutes).
Learn something new, revisit a favorite topic, or find background for your class assignments in the Oxford Very Short Introductions.
