This book provides an in-depth description and analysis of monetary policy in Europe and the United States. Unusually for a volume in the field, it focuses on actual monetary policy — targets, institutions, strategies, and instruments — but traditional and contemporary theoretical approaches to monetary policy form the basis for each chapter. Concentrating specifically on the European Central Bank, Monetary Policy offers one of the first comprehensive guides to understanding the targets, strategy, and instruments of the ECB. In the past, many books have presented mere descriptions of the institutional framework without providing a theoretical framework, while others have dealt mainly with theoretical aspects, thus neglecting the policy implications of their analysis. By combining a theoretical with a policy-oriented approach, Peter Bofinger succeeds in closing this gap in the monetary policy literature. As a result, his book will appeal to a broad readership, including investment bankers and other professional investors, central bankers, and scholars working in the field.

Common Indian Wild Flowers is a superbly illustrated field guide to the indigenous flora of the Indian plains and peninsula. The book contains 240 photographs of common Indian wild flowers with explanatory notes on the size, habit, habitat, distribution and other interesting features. The species have been arranged in taxonomic sequence, and common names in English and regional names have also been given. There are separate sections on the topography, climate and vegetation of India, on how to identify and photograph wild flowers and on conservation issues related to them. The book will be useful to naturalists, both amateur and professional. English common names and regional names are indexed to enable the reader to identify the species in its typical wild habitat. Scientific names have also been indexed. A bibliography and a glossary completes this field guide to wild flowers.

This is a two-level package for young learners that starts with listening and speaking but can move on to reading and writing as soon as your class is ready.

For years Paula and her father have dreamed and talked about trying to find the lost city of Atahualpa. And now, without warning, Paula is taken out of school and finds her dream come true. Together with her parents and Finn, the photographer, she travels to South America to begin the journey. But as they descend towards the jungle Paula senses that all is not quite as it should be. Why is her father so moody and impatient? And why does he insist that the expedition is being shadowed by sinister enemies? Paula realizes that her loyalty to her father is not enough — she must discover for herself what the truth is about the journey she is making.

Whan Janis Finch storms out of a family row, it starts a chain of events which transforms her whole life. For it's in the motorway cafe, minutes later, that she meets the unknown rock band, Kelp, who talk her into coming to their gig that night. Janis goes along for the ride and finds herself increasingly provoked by Christie, Kelp's arrogant lead singer. He pushes her into singing with them, and winds her up into a fever of rage, awe, and attraction. So when Chrisite asks her to join the band, Janis feels powerless to refuse — and her life explodes.

The coming of the railway is the most spectacular and exciting thing Jem has ever seen. But not everyone is so enthusiastic. People don't like change, and they certainly don't like the rough gangs of navvies hanging around. But for Jem and his sister, Kate, there's nothing they can do — they're caught up in the middle of the hatred and uneasiness that is surrounding the village. Can they dissolve the tension before it erupts into violence?

Providing a foundation in the structure of the language by gradually building students' understanding of the basic grammar, vocabulary, and functions of English.

Builds on the firm foundation laid in American Headway 1.

Kant is arguably the most influential modern philosopher, but also one of the most difficult. Roger Scruton tackles his exceptionally complex subject with a strong hand, exploring the background to Kant's work and showing why the Critique of Pure Reason has proved so enduring. 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.

Simon Critchley's Very Short Introduction shows that Continental philosophy encompasses a distinct set of philosophical traditions and practices, with a compelling range of problems all too often ignored by the analytic tradition. He discusses the ideas and approaches of philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Habermas, Foucault, and Derrida, and introduces key concepts such as existentialism, nihilism, and phenomenology by explaining their place in the Continental tradition.

Hume is one of the greatest of all British philosophers, and even in his own lifetime was celebrated as one of the pivotal figures of the Enlightenment. A central theme of his philosophy is the conviction that questions traditionally thought of as completely independent of the scientific realmDSquestions about the mind, about morality, and about God, for exampleDSare actually best explained using the experimental methods characteristic of the natural sciences. Hume's 'naturalist' approach to a wide variety of philosophical topics resulted in highly original theories about perception, self-identity, causation, morality, politics, and religion, all of which are discussed in this stimulating introduction by A. J. Ayer, himself one of the twentieth century's most important philosophers. Ayer also gives an account of Hume's fascinating life and character, and includes generous quotations from Hume's lucid and often witty writings.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) had a remarkably short working life, and his output was small, yet his contributions to philosophy and science have endured to the present day. He is perhaps best known for his statement Cogito, ergo sum. By a mixture of 'intuition' and 'deduction' Descartes derived from the 'cogito' principle first the existence of a material world. But Descartes did not intend the metaphysics to stand apart from his scientific work, which included important investigations into physics, mathematics, psychology, and optics. In this book Tom Sorrell shows that Descartes was, above all, an advocate and practitioner of a new mathematical approach to physics, and that he developed his metaphysics to support his programme in the sciences.

This book is a simple, non-technical introduction to cosmology, explaining what it is and what cosmologists do. Peter Coles discusses the history of the subject, the development of the Big Bang theory, and more speculative modern issues like quantum cosmology, superstrings, and dark matter.

Gandhi (1869-1948) was one of the few men in history to fight simultaneously on moral, religious, political, social, economic, and cultural fronts. During his time as a lawyer in South Africa he developed his strategy of non-violence: the idea of opposing unjust laws by non-violent protest, which he made the basis of his successful struggle against British rule in India. In this Very Short Introduction to Gandhi's life and thought, Bhikhu Parekh outlines both Gandhi's major philosophical insights and the limitations of his thought. He looks at Gandhi's cosmocentric anthropology, his spiritual view of politics, his unique form of liberal communitarianism, and his theories of oppression, non-violent action, and active citizenship. He also considers how the success of Gandhi's principles was limited by his lack of coherent theories of evil, and of state and power, and how his hostility to modern civilization impeded his appreciation of its complexity. Gandhi's life and thought has had an enormous impact both within and outside India, and he continues to be widely revered, as one of the greatest moral and political leaders of the twentieth century.

The book gives a non-technical account of how drugs work in the body. The twentieth century saw a remarkable upsurge of research on drugs, with major advances in the treatment of bacterial and viral infections, heart disease, stomac ulcers, cancer, and metal illnesses. These, along with the introduction of the oral contraceptive, have altered all of our lives. There has also been an increase in the recreational use and abuse of drugs in the Western world. The book reviews both legal (alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine) and illegal drugs and disscusses current idea about why some are addictive, and whether drug laws need reform.

Though he was a prolific writer and an original thinker of vast erudition, Jung lacked a gift for clear exposition and his ideas are less widely appreciated than they deserve. In this concise introduction, Anthony Stevens explains clearly the basic concepts of Jungian psychology: the collective unconscious, complex, archetype, shadow, persona, anima, animus, and the individuation of the Self. He examines Jung's views on such disparate subjects as myth, religion, alchemy, sychronicity, and the psychology of gender differences, and he devotes separate chapters to the stages of life, Jung's theory of psychological types, the interpretation of dreams, the practice of Jungian analysis, and to the unjust allegation that Jung was a Nazi sympathizer. Finally, he argues that Jung's visionary powers and profound spirituality have helped many to find an alternative set of values to the arid materialism prevailing in Western society.

By his writings, the surviving bulk of which exceeds that of any other ancient author, Augustine came to influence not only his contemporaries but also the West since his time. This Very Short Introduction traces the development of Augustine's thought, discussing his reaction to the thinkers before him, and themes such as freedom, creation, and the trinity.

McTeague (1899) chronicles the demise of a San Francisco couple at the end of the nineteenth century. Inspired by an actual crime that was sensationalized in the San Francisco papers, it tells the story of charlatan dentist McTeague, his wife Trina, and their spiralling descent into moral corruption. Norris is often considered to be the American Zola, and this is one of the most purely naturalistic American novels of the nineteenth century. With its compelling portrayal of human nature at its most basic level, McTeague is a gripping and passionate tale of greed, degeneration and death. It is also one of the first major works of literature to set in California, and it provided the story for Erich von Stroheim's classic of the silent screen, Greed.

Jean Racine (1639-99) remains to this day the greatest of French poetic dramatists. Britannicus (1669), the first play in this volume, takes its themes from Roman history: the setting is bloody and treacherous court of the Emperor Nero. Phaedra (1677) dramatizes the Greek myth of Phaedra's doomed love for her stepson Hippolytus. Athaliah (1691), Racine's last and perhaps finest play, draws on the Old Testament story of Athaliah, Queen of Judah and worshipper of Baal, who is threatened and finally forced to concede victory to Joash, a son of the house of David and survivor of Athaliah's massacres. Racine's tragedies portray characters wrestling with ambition, treachery, religion, and love. In this translation, specially commissioned for The World's Classics series, C.H. Sisson has captured admirably the lucidity of Racine's language, both analytic and passionate, and the rhythm of his four-part Alexandrine, a combination that previous translators have consistently failed to achieve.