Islam features widely in the news, often in its most militant versions, but few people in the non-Muslim world really understand the nature of Islam. Malise Ruthven's Very Short Introduction contains essential insights into issues such as why Islam has such major divisions between movements such as the Shi'ites, the Sunnis, and the Wahhabis, and the central importance of the Shar'ia (Islamic law) in Islamic life. It also offers fresh perspectives on contemporary questions: Why is the greatest 'Jihad' (holy war) now against the enemies of Islam, rather than the struggle against evil? Can women find fulfilment in Islamic societies? How must Islam adapt as it confronts the modern world? In this new edition, Ruthven brings the text up-to-date by reflecting upon some of the most significant changes in the Muslim world in recent years; from the emergence of al-Qaeda and the attacks on New York and Washington on 9/11 and the ensuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. Ruthven includes new material surrounding the concept of a globalized Islam, bringing into question the effects of economic globalization, the effect of international events in Middle Eastern countries, the issues surrounding Islam and democracy, and the reception and perception of Islam in the West.

Perhaps nowhere else has literature been as conscious a collective endeavor as in China, and China's survival over three thousand years may owe more to its literary traditions than to its political history. This Very Short Introduction tells the story of Chinese literature from antiquity to the present, focusing on the key role literary culture played in supporting social and political concerns. Embracing traditional Chinese understandings of literature as encompassing history and philosophy as well as poetry and poetics, storytelling, drama, and the novel, Sabina Knight discusses the philosophical foundations of literary culture as well as literature's power to address historical trauma and cultivate moral and sensual passions. From ancient historical records through the modernization and globalization of Chinese literature, Knight draws on lively examples to underscore the close relationship between ethics and aesthetics, as well as the diversity of Chinese thought. Knight also illuminates the role of elite patronage; the ways literature has served the interests of specific groups; and questions of canonization, language, nationalism, and cross-cultural understanding. The book includes Chinese characters for names, titles, and key terms.

Making good decisions under conditions of uncertainty — which is the norm — requires a sound appreciation of the way random chance works. As analysis and modelling of most aspects of the world, and all measurement, are necessarily imprecise and involve uncertainties of varying degrees, the understanding and management of probabilities is central to much work in the sciences and economics. In this Very Short Introduction, John Haigh introduces the ideas of probability and different philosophical approaches to probability, and gives a brief account of the history of development of probability theory, from Galileo and Pascal to Bayes, Laplace, Poisson, and Markov. He describes the basic probability distributions, and goes on to discuss a wide range of applications in science, economics, and a variety of other contexts such as games and betting. He concludes with an intriguing discussion of coincidences and some curious paradoxes.

- Is objectivity possible? — Can there be objectivity in matters of morals, or tastes? — What would a truly objective account of the world be like? — Is everything subjective, or relative? — Are moral judgments objective or culturally relative? Objectivity is both an essential and elusive philosophical concept. An account is generally considered to be objective if it attempts to capture the nature of the object studied without judgement of a conscious entity or subject. Objectivity stands in contrast to subjectivity: an objective account is impartial, one which could ideally be accepted by any subject, because it does not draw on any assumptions, prejudices, or values of particular subjects. Stephen Gaukroger shows that it is far from clear that we can resolve moral or aesthetic disputes in this way and it has often been argued that such an approach is not always appropriate for disciplines that deal with human, rather than natural, phenomena. Moreover, even in those cases where we seek to be objective, it may be difficult to judge what a truly objective account would look like, and whether it is achievable. This Very Short Introduction demonstrates that there are a number of common misunderstandings about what objectivity is, and explores the theoretical and practical problems of objectivity by assessing the basic questions raised by it. As well as considering the core philosophical issues, Gaukroger also deals with the way in which particular understandings of objectivity impinge on social research, science, and art.

The image of a job captures our imagination from an early age, usually prompted by the question What do you want to be when you grow up? Work — paid, unpaid, voluntary, or obligatory — is woven into the fabric of all human societies. For many of us, it becomes part of our identity. For others it is a tedious necessity. Living is problematic without paid work, and for many it is catastrophic. Steve Fineman tells the fascinating story of work — how we strive for security, reward, and often, meaning. Looking at how we classify work; the cultural and social factors that influence the way we work; the ethics of certain types of work; and the factors that will affect the future of work, from globalization to technology, this Very Short Introduction considers work as a concept and as a practical experience, drawing upon ideas from psychology, sociology, management, and social history.

And low, stole o'er the stillness the heartbeats of sleep In Chapelizod, a suburb of Dublin, an innkeeper and his family are sleeping. Around them and their dreams there swirls a vortex of world history, of ambition and failure, desire and transgression, pride and shame, rivalry and conflict, gossip and mystery. This is a book that reinvents the novel and plays fantastic games with the language to tell the story of one man's fall and resurrection; in the intimate drama of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker and his wife Anna Livia, the character of Ireland itself takes form. Joyce called time and the river and the mountains the real heroes of his book, and its organic structure and extraordinary musicality embody his vision. It is both an outrageous epic and a wildly inventive comedy that rewards its readers with never-ending layers of meaning. In the introduction to this newly set edition, which faithfully maintains the original page layout, Finn Fordham guides the reader through the novel's complexity, and suggests a range of ways into the book.

«Female characters assumed increasing prominence in the narratives of nineteenth — and early twentieth-century opera. And for contemporary audiences, many of these characters — and the celebrated women who played them — still define opera at its finest and most searingly affective, even if storylines leave them swooning and faded by the end of the drama. The presence and representation of women in opera has been addressed in a range of recent studies that offer valuable insights into the operatic stage as cultural space, focusing a critical lens at the text and the position and signification of female characters. Moving that lens onto the historical, The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century sheds light on the singers who created and inhabited these roles, the flesh-and-blood women who embodied these fabled «doomed women» onstage before an audience. Editors Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss lead a cast of renowned contributors in an impressive display of current approaches to the lives, careers, and performances of female opera singers. Essential theoretical perspectives reflect several broad themes woven through the volume-cultures of celebrity surrounding the female singer; the emergence of the quasi-mythical figure of the diva; explorations of the intricate and sundry arts associated with the prima donna, and with her representation in other media; and the diversity and complexity of contemporary responses to her. The prima donna influenced compositional practices, determined musical and dramatic interpretation, and affected management decisions about the running of the opera house, content of the season, and employment of other artists — a clear demonstration that her position as «first woman» extended well beyond the boards of the operatic stage itself. The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century is an important addition to the collections of students and researchers in opera studies, nineteenth-century music, performance and gender/sexuality studies, and cultural studies, as well as to the shelves of opera singers and enthusiasts.»

For most lawyers, effective client counseling is neither intuitive nor easy. Lawyers tend to avoid or delay communicating bad news out of a fear of client backlash, or because they feel torn between the obligation to clearly inform clients about weaknesses in legal positions and fear of damaging the client relationship. There is a perception that honest advice from a lawyer can make a client doubt the allegiance and zeal brought to a particular legal matter. Client Science helps lawyers to effectively communicate with their clients, particularly when delivering bad news or other legal realities. Author, Marjorie Corman Aaron, explains the applicable social sciences and translates insights from these fields into plain language to help improve a lawyer's ordering, timing, phrasing, and type of explanation, as well as style adjustments for the lawyer's voice, gesture, and body position. Ultimately, she demonstrates how the proverbial well-informed client--meaning a client who fully understands and appreciates the lawyer's information and advice — can also be a satisfied client who trusts the lawyer's competence and loyalty.

How can one think about the same thing twice without knowing that it's the same thing? How can one think about nothing at all (for example Pegasus, the mythical flying horse)? Is thinking about oneself special? One could mistake one's car for someone else's, but it seems one could not mistake one's own headache for someone else's. Why not? R. M. Sainsbury and Michael Tye provide an entirely new theory — called 'originalism' — which provides simple and natural solutions to these puzzles and more. Originalism's central thesis is that concepts, the constituents of thoughts, are to be individuated by their origin, rather than epistemically or semantically. The doctrine has further valuable consequences for the nature of thought, our knowledge of our own thoughts, the nature of experience, the epistemology of perception-based beliefs, and for arguments based on conceivability. Sainsbury and Tye argue that although thought is special, there is no special mystery attaching to the nature of thought. Their account of the mind considers it as part of nature, as opposed to something with supernatural powers — which means that human beings have more opportunities to make mistakes than many have liked to think.

There's a hidden science that affects every part of your life. You are fluent in its terminology of email, WiFi, social networking, and encryption. You use its results when you make a telephone call, access the Internet, use any factory-produced product, or travel in any modern car. The discipline is so new that some prefer to call it a branch of engineering or mathematics. But it is so powerful and world-changing that you would be hard-pressed to find a single human being on the planet unaffected by its achievements. The science of computers enables the supply and creation of power, food, water, medicine, transport, money, communication, entertainment, and most goods in shops. It has transformed societies with the Internet, the digitization of information, mobile phone networks and GPS technologies. Here, Peter J. Bentley explores how this young discipline grew from its theoretical conception by pioneers such as Turing, through its growth spurts in the Internet, its difficult adolescent stage where the promises of AI were never achieved and dot-com bubble burst, to its current stage as a (semi) mature field, now capable of remarkable achievements. Charting the successes and failures of computer science through the years, Bentley discusses what innovations may change our world in the future.

One of the most important religious sites in the world is largely hidden and rarely visited. It lies under the piazza in front of Milan's cathedral, and was uncovered by archaeologists only after World War II. It is part of the foundations of a fourth century cathedral from the time of Bishop Ambrose, the most powerful figure in the Christian West during Late Antiquity. To reach it, one must go inside the huge later cathedral and find a stairway by its western wall. After descending narrow stairs one reaches an eight-sided pool (piscine) that was used for total-immersion baptisms by Ambrose. There at dawn on Easter of 387, a cluster of people seeking baptism had gathered after an all-night vigil. Among those seeking baptism was Augustine, an African who had served as the imperial orator at the Milan court of the Emperor. Augustine would go back to his native Africa to become the bishop of Hippo and the most influential writer of the Christian West during the whole later course of the Middle Ages. Alongside him stood his son, his mother, his brother, and two of his pupils and academic colleagues. Nothing less than the future of the Western church was being formed in this cluster of talent and devotion. The Font of Life tells the story of this crucial event in the history of the Church. Beginning with the archaeology of Ambrose's Milan and the discovery of the baptistery, Garry Wills tells the story of the at times prickly relationship between Ambrose and Augustine and its importance for the future history of the Church, illuminating the scene of the baptism itself, along with the sources of its ritual, and introducing us to the company of the relatives and friends who greeted Augustine as he emerged from the pool. Appropriately, the book ends with a reflection on the later relationship between Augustine and Ambrose and the influence of the latter upon Augustine's later thought — which has been so seminal in the development of Christian thought ever since.

The Oxford Mini School German Dictionary is the perfect bilingual dictionary for pupils learning German. The two sides of the dictionary are clearly divided into German-English and English-German, with an essential verb table list in the centre with essential English translations for the different tenses. The headwords are carefully selected to suit beginners, and particular attention is given to computing, word-processing, and ICT terms. In line with curriculum requirements, there is a special section dedicated to vocabulary and phrases on German life and culture. The simple layout, the alphabet down the side of each page, and the clear print will help pupils navigate around the dictionary and take them straight to the translation they are looking for. This dictionary comes in a handy mini-size format with a new eco-friendly binding, perfect for school bags and for taking on holiday. For free downloadable fun activities in German, go online to the www.oxforddictinaries.com website.

Palliative care is now an integral part of the undergraduate medical curriculum. Medical education across the board is adopting a case-based approach. This book uses a series of cases to illustrate critical points in palliative medicine. The case-studies have been carefully chosen to reflect real life clinical practice. The contributors illustrate, through the case studies, the desired skills, attitudes, and knowledge required in this field of medicine. Since publication of the second edition, many approaches to palliative care have been further refined and developed. Ongoing research has led to the improved use of existing medications, and the development of several new treatments. More is known about the psychosocial existential distress experienced by patients and their families resulting in an improved understanding by health care providers of how best to approach and assist those affected by advanced illness, and more is known about methadone and other medications with emerging uses. The third edition of this highly popular book continues to offer a panoramic view of palliative care. It introduces a number of new topics including Neurological Disorders, The Last Days, and Palliative Sedation.

This book is at once an edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets and a guide to how to read these exquisite and complex poems, and is designed both for readers new to the poems and for those who are familiar with the Sonnets but are ready to engage with them afresh. It is the only current edition which provides an original-spelling text of the poems: that is, it prints the poems as they appeared in the first edition, Shake-speares Sonnets (1609), preserving the spelling, punctuation, italics, and capitalization of the original, with only minor interventions where that edition manifestly needs correction. The advantages (and occasional hazards) of reading an original-spelling text are explained, and detailed help is provided in order to assist readers who may be unfamiliar with the conventions of early-modern spelling and punctuation. The introduction focuses on how we might read the poetry, discussing the sonnet form, the tradition within which Shakespeare was writing, and the ways in which readers might explore the richly suggestive language which he used. The forms of sexuality evoked in the Sonnets are fully charted, both in the introduction and the notes, but readers are steered away from biographical speculation. The annotation which accompanies the text of the poems provides detailed and carefully-targeted glosses which set out the likely meanings of the words in order to help the reader construct their own understanding of the poem. The text is followed by appendices on Shakespeare's rhetoric and complex words which will enable the modern reader to appreciate the intricate verbal play of the poetry.

The Oxford Mini School Dictionary is the best quick reference tool for students ten years plus, ideal for primary school leavers who are about to start secondary school. Packed with information, it includes thousands of up-to-date words and phrases, with simple definitions and carefully-levelled context. It is powered by the Oxford Children's Corpus, a unique electronic database of millions of words of writing for children. The clear and accessible design in two-colour, the alphabet down the side of every page, and specially highlighted information on spelling, usage, and word histories, makes finding the word you are looking for quick and easy. A special supplement on tricky words, confusable words, overused words, synonyms and idioms, gives pupils all the reading and writing support they need. The Oxford Mini School Dictionary is compact enough to fit into any pocket, now with an eco-friendly cover, and is perfect to use at home and at school.

Skills for Business Studies is a companion to Business Result for students studying Business Studies and related degree courses.

This is the eighth edition of Sir Ian Brownlie's classic distillation of public international law. Serving as a single volume introduction to the field as a whole, the book seeks to present international law as a system that is based on, and helps structure, relations among states and other entities at the international level. It aims to identify the constituent elements of that system in a clear and accessible fashion. This eighth edition, fully updated by James Crawford, Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge, continues to provide the balance, clarity and expertise expected from this classic text. Completely updated to take account of the many areas of expansion and development in international law which have occurred since earlier editions, all chapters have been reviewed and brought up to date. The eighth edition features a new introduction and the chapters on environmental law, immunities, responsibility, use of force and high seas freedoms have been substantially rewritten. It remains an important textbook for students, undergraduate and graduate, treating core issues from a lawyer's perspective. It is also a vade mecum for practitioners desiring a solid footing on which to make further enquiries.

I see Troy in flames years from now — because Paris brings disaster to us, Queen Hecuba says about her son. Paris's father, King Priam, wants to kills him. But Paris lives, and later loves Helen — King Menelaus's queen — from Greece. When Paris brings Helen to Troy, war begins between the Trojans and Greeks. What happens when Paris's brother Hector and the Greek fighter Achilles meet in battle? Who wins the war, and how? Read Troy and find the answers.