The latest instalments in this ambitious series exploring the Golden Age of Islam & the Mongols 392 pages 266 colour 11 maps Baumer Christoph ...

Cinema was the first & is arguably still the greatest of the industrialized art forms that came to dominate the cultural life of the twentieth century Today it continues to adapt & grow as new technologies & viewing platforms become available & remains an integral cultural & aesthetic entertainment experience for people the world over Cinema developed against the backdrop of the two world wars & over the years has seen smaller wars revolutions & profound social changes Its history reflects this changing landscape & more than any other art form developments in technology In this Very Short Introduction Nowell-Smith looks at the defining moments of the industry from silent to sound black & white to colour & considers its genres from intellectual art house to mass market entertainment ABOUT THE SERIES The Very Short Introduction 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 & enthusiasm to make interesting & challenging topics highly readable ...

A superb crossover title of enormous appeal to the vast selection of the population that enjoys classical music but would like ...

For an invention that has only been around for 200 years the simple bicycle has changed the world in many ways It democratised travel for the first time allowing ordinary people to travel at reasonable speed without need of a horse to commute further afield to work & to enjoy the benefits of the countryside It has challenged social conventions granting women a new-found freedom & it has played an important role in wartime whether used by British paratroopers or in Vietnamese supply lines Today despite the prevalence of the car the bicycle is as important as ever with more cycles appear on city streets each year Bikes come in all shapes & sizes & the history of cycling is on of innovation in design from Macmillan's first pedal-driven cycle to the eccentric Dursley Pedersen & from the 1960s iconic Moulton to the free-styling BMX the humble cycle continues to surprise & delight in equal measure Illustrated in full colour with a wide range of photographs The History of Cycling in Fifty bikes tells the story of the bicycle through 50 iconic machines starting with the first primitive wooden two-wheelers through to carbon-fibre super bikes & the designs of the future celebrating sporting achievements technological advances & world records along with way ...

A Visual History of Graphic Design
- A comprehensive look at hundreds of landmark projects industry leaders profiles & illustrated
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This hard hitting programme chronicles the history of heavy weight boxing one of the most dangerous exhilarating & often controversial sports To name a few Muhammad Ali Joe Frazer Rocky Marciano Floyd Patterson & Jack Dempsey are some of the big names & characters to have graced the spotlight in the ultimate physical contest Covering the origins of the sport & profiling the glorious careers & epic bouts including titanic clashes between Muhammad Ali & Cassius Clay Joe Frazer this DVD is jam packed with fighting footage An absolute must have for all boxing fans ...

Micheline Ishay recounts the dramatic struggle for human rights across the ages in a book that brilliantly synthesizes historical & intellectual developments from the Mesopotamian Codes of Hammurabi to today's era of globalization As she chronicles the clash of social movements ideas & armies that have played a part in this struggle Ishay illustrates how the history of human rights has evolved from one era to the next through texts cultural traditions & creative expression Writing with verve & extraordinary range she develops a framework for understanding contemporary issues from the debate over globalization to the intervention in Kosovo to the climate for human rights after September 11 2001 The only comprehensive history of human rights available this book will be essential reading for anyone concerned with humankind's quest for justice & dignity Ishay structures her chapters around six core questions that have shaped human rights debate & scholarship What are the origins of human rights? Why did the European vision of human rights triumph over those of other civilizations? Has socialism made a lasting contribution to the legacy of human rights? Are human rights universal or culturally bound? Must human rights be sacrificed to the demands of national security? & is globalization eroding or advancing human rights? As she explores these questions Ishay also incorporates notable documents
- writings speeches & political statements
- from activists writers & thinkers throughout history

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Ted Gioia's History of Jazz has been universally hailed as a classic-acclaimed by jazz critics & fans around the world Now Gioia brings his magnificent work completely up-to-date drawing on the latest research & revisiting virtually every aspect of the music past & present Gioia tells the story of jazz as it had never been told before in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players the breakthrough styles & the world in which it evolved Here are the giants of jazz & the great moments of jazz history-Jelly Roll Morton Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club cool jazz greats such as Gerry Mulligan Stan Getz & Lester Young Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie's advocacy of modern jazz in the 1940s Miles Davis's 1955 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival Ornette Coleman's experiments with atonality Pat Metheny's visionary extension of jazz-rock fusion the contemporary sounds of Wynton Marsalis & the post-modernists of the current day Gioia provides the reader with lively portraits of these & many other great musicians intertwined with vibrant commentary on the music they created He also evokes the many worlds of jazz taking the reader to the swamp lands of the Mississippi Delta the bawdy houses of New Orleans the rent parties of Harlem the speakeasies of Chicago during the Jazz Age the after hours spots of corrupt Kansas city the Cotton Club the Savoy & the other locales where the history of jazz was made & as he traces the spread of this protean form Gioia provides much insight into the social context in which the music was born ...

There are few stories more remarkable than the evolution of life on earth This Very Short Introduction presents a succinct guide to the key episodes in that story
- from the very origins of life four million years ago to the extraordinary diversity of species around the globe today Beginning with an explanation of the controversies surrounding the birth of life itself each following chapter tells of a major breakthrough that made new forms of life possible including sex & multicellularity hard skeletons & the move to land Along the way we witness the greatest mass extinction the first forests the rise of modern ecosystems & most recently conscious humans Introducing ideas from a range of scientific disciplines from evolutionary biology & earth history to geochemistry palaeontology & systematics Michael Benton explains how modern science pieces the evidence in this vast evolutionary puzzle together to build up an accessible & up-to-date picture of the key developments in the history of life on earth 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 & enthusiasm to make interesting & challenging topics highly readable
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Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006 & winner of the 2006 Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger The History of Love explores the lasting power of the written word & the lasting power of love Published as a Penguin Essential for the first time ' When I was born my mother named me after every girl in a book my father gave her called The History of Love ' Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness Believing she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating she sets out in search of its author Across New York an old man called Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer He spends his days dreaming of the love lost that sixty years ago in Poland inspired him to write a book & although he doesn't know it yet that book also survived crossing oceans & generations & changing lives ' Wonderfully affectingbrilliant touching & remarkably poised' Sunday Telegraph'A tender tribute to human valiance Who could be unmoved by a cast of characters whose daily battles are etched on out mind in such diamond-cut prose?' Independent on Sunday' Devastatingone of the most passionate vindications of the written word in recent fiction It takes one's breath away' Spectator ...