This introduction presents Martin Luther as historians now see him. Instead of singling him out as a modern hero, the book emphasizes the context in which Luther worked, the colleagues who supported him, and the opponents who adamantly opposed his agenda for change. Scott H. Hendrix explains the religious reformation and Luther's importance, without ignoring the political and cultural forces that led the reformation down paths Luther could neither foresee nor influence. This Very Short Introduction pays tribute to Luther's genius, but also recognizes the self-righteous attitude that alienated contemporaries, offering a unique explanation for that behaviour.

Aristocracies or nobilities dominated the social, economic, and institutional history of all European counties until only a few generations ago. The relics of their power, in traditions and behaviour, in architecture and the arts, are still all around us. This short introduction shows how ideas of aristocracy originated in ancient times, were transformed in the middle ages, and have only fallen apart over the last two centuries. The myths in which aristocracies have always sought to shroud themselves are stripped away, but the true sources of their enduring power are also revealed. Their outlook and behaviour affected the rest of society in innumerable and sometimes surprising ways, but perhaps most surprising was the way in which a centuries-old aristocratic hegemony crumbled away over the last two hundred years. In this Very Short Introduction William Doyle considers why this happend and what remains today.

After decades of conservative dominance, the election of Barack Obama may signal the beginning of a new progressive era. But what exactly is progressivism? What role has it played in the political, social, and economic history of America? This very timely Very Short Introduction offers an engaging overview of progressivism in America-its origins, guiding principles, major leaders and major accomplishments. A many-sided reform movement that lasted from the late 1890s until the early 1920s, progressivism emerged as a response to the excesses of the Gilded Age, an era that plunged working Americans into poverty while a new class of ostentatious millionaires built huge mansions and flaunted their wealth. As capitalism ran unchecked and more and more economic power was concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, a sense of social crisis was pervasive. Progressive national leaders like William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Robert M. La Follette, and Woodrow Wilson, as well as muckraking journalists like Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell, and social workers like Jane Addams and Lillian Wald answered the growing call for change. They fought for worker's compensation, child labor laws, minimum wage and maximum hours legislation; they enacted anti-trust laws, improved living conditions in urban slums, instituted the graduated income tax, won women the right to vote, and laid the groundwork for Roosevelt's New Deal. Nugent shows that the progressives-with the glaring exception of race relations-shared a common conviction that society should be fair to all its members and that governments had a responsibility to see that fairness prevailed. Offering a succinct history of the broad reform movement that upset a stagnant conservative orthodoxy, this Very Short Introduction reveals many parallels, even lessons, highly appropriate to our own time.

Taking a thematic approach to the use of Excel spreadsheets in introductory business data analysis, this text has been designed to explain the overall nature of what is to be achieved and also instruction in how it is to be done. The learning approach is highly interactive and enables students to develop an understanding of the power of Excel in allowing both analysis of business data sets and in the flexible preparation of graphs, charts and tables for inclusion in reports and essays. The text is supported by an online resource centre with self marking exercises that can be used by instructors for formative and summative assessment, and a series of PowerPoint files containing all of the illustrated worksheets and figures.

A four-level teenage course combining exciting new material with all the features that made the original Hotline so popular. — The unique loopback structure ensures constant revision and a realistic pace to the syllabus. A new photocopiable end-of-unit test for each unit consolidates the revision process. The grammar-based syllabus presents new structures using a problem-solving approach. This encourages students to think about how the language works and creates the basis for a deeper understanding of the structures. A new, comprehensive 'Grammar reference' section provides reinforcement. — It encourages students to develop learning strategies and take more control of their own learning. A new 'Learning to learn' feature begins each unit, sharpening the focus on learner development. — An engaging photostory about a group of British teenagers (Victoria Road) presents modern English in a lively and motivating way that invites cross-cultural comparisons. — Reading and listening topics have a balance of cross-curricular themes and teenage interest. — From Elementary level, guided writing sections are introduced to develop writing skills. — There is greater emphasis on pronunciation work, with expanded pronunciation activities and reading texts recorded on cassette to give useful pronunciation models. — Project work provides opportunities for students to practise all four skills and to apply English to their own personal worlds in motivating, creative ways. New 'Project workshops' provide more support for projects. — It is designed to be equally effective in mixed-ability classes with many activities, including interaction and project work, which allow students to work at their own pace and gain a satisfying sense of achievement. — It can be started at beginner level with New Hotline Starter or at false-beginner level with New Hotline Elementary where students have already studied some English and have a basic vocabulary.

A four-level teenage course combining exciting new material with all the features that made the original Hotline so popular. — The unique loopback structure ensures constant revision and a realistic pace to the syllabus. A new photocopiable end-of-unit test for each unit consolidates the revision process. The grammar-based syllabus presents new structures using a problem-solving approach. This encourages students to think about how the language works and creates the basis for a deeper understanding of the structures. A new, comprehensive 'Grammar reference' section provides reinforcement. — It encourages students to develop learning strategies and take more control of their own learning. A new 'Learning to learn' feature begins each unit, sharpening the focus on learner development. — An engaging photostory about a group of British teenagers (Victoria Road) presents modern English in a lively and motivating way that invites cross-cultural comparisons. — Reading and listening topics have a balance of cross-curricular themes and teenage interest. — From Elementary level, guided writing sections are introduced to develop writing skills. — There is greater emphasis on pronunciation work, with expanded pronunciation activities and reading texts recorded on cassette to give useful pronunciation models. — Project work provides opportunities for students to practise all four skills and to apply English to their own personal worlds in motivating, creative ways. New 'Project workshops' provide more support for projects. — It is designed to be equally effective in mixed-ability classes with many activities, including interaction and project work, which allow students to work at their own pace and gain a satisfying sense of achievement. — It can be started at beginner level with New Hotline Starter or at false-beginner level with New Hotline Elementary where students have already studied some English and have a basic vocabulary.

The course that gets students talking. Every level of English File builds confidence and keeps motivation high with lively, achievable lessons, using humour and imagination to encourage students to communicate and enjoy learning English. • Vocabulary Banks: easy-access vocabulary sections help students to remember words and phrases. • Illustrated pronunciation system. • The best Teacher's Books there are, with more than 60 photocopiable activities per level.

Lifelines is a three-level general English course at elementary, pre-intermediate, and intermediate level. It has been designed to offer flexibility within a clear and easy-to-use format. Lifelines Pre-intermediate is divided into 14 main units, and each unit has an Extension section. Key features: — A clear, comprehensive, yet manageable language syllabus. — A discovery approach to the presentation of language. — Motivating texts from a variety of authentic sources. — Strong skills development with an emphasis on functional English. — Systematic vocabulary work recycled within the unit. — A pronunciation syllabus introducing sounds, stress and intonation. — Optional Extension sections at the end of each unit. The Student's Book also contains a detailed Grammar Reference section, a Reflecting on Learning section, tapescripts, a wordlist, and an IPA chart and irregular verb table. It is accompanied by two Class Cassettes. The Teacher's Book contains an overview of each unit, clear teaching notes with extra ideas, an answer key, tapescripts, supplementary photocopiable activities and progress tests. The Workbook has with key and without key versions. It contains further practice of the language and vocabulary presented in the Student's Book, an independent writing syllabus and Grammar Check revision sections.

A modern, speaking-centred general English course that helps students use language naturally. Students at Elementary level and above have gaps in their language knowledge and performance which inhibit their progress. The natural English syllabus is based on research into these language gaps and the course brings together current ideas in a stylish, principled, and easy-to-teach set of materials. — Natural English is a syllabus strand which enables students to integrate frequent, natural language into their language framework. — Students learn to use real language naturally, through thinking and rehearsal time, confidence-building practice, and task-centred speaking. — The listening syllabus teaches students how to listen. A slot-in listening booklet features the tapescripts plus decoding and pronunciation exercises. — Teacher's Book lesson plans, a product of the authors' teacher training expertise, talk teachers through the course materials. — Teacher's Book chapters cover teaching principles, techniques, and ideas, plus a selected bibliography. — Humour engages and motivates through cartoons, and the listening and reading material.

An innovative three-level writing course for young learners. — A full-colour, highly-illustrated writing course which teaches young learners to develop the skills and strategies involved in the writing process. — Practice activities encourage accuracy and creativity. — As their confidence increases, learners progress from the production of sentences to paragraphs through more challenging text types. — Self-assessment tasks in the 'Review Your Writing' sections and a Student Record Sheet encourage students to review their work and to think about how they can improve their writing. — Can be integrated with any course for young learners because the syllabus is based on the sequencing and grading of structures found in most leading coursebooks.

«The Hound of the Baskervilles» is the tale of an ancient curse suddenly given a terrifying modern application. The grey towers of Baskerville Hall and the wild open country of Dartmoor hold many secrets for Holmes and Watson to unravel. The detective is contemptuous of supernatural manifestations, but the reader will remain perpetually haunted by the hound from the moor. The editor of this volume, W.W. Robson, was Emeritus David Masson Professor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh and author of «Modern English Literature». The general editor of the Oxford Sherlock Holmes, Owen Dudley Edwards, is Reader in History at the University of Edinburgh and author or «The Quest for Sherlock Holmes: A Biographical Study of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle».»

The Merry Wives of Windsor was almost certainly required at short notice for a court occasion in 1597: Shakespeare threw into it all the creative energy that went into his Henry IV plays. Falstaff is here, with Pistol, Mistress Quickly, and Justice Shallow, in a spirited and warm-hearted 'citizen comedy'. Boisterous action is combined with situational irony and rich characterization. In his introduction T. W. Craik discusses the play's probable occasion (the Garter Feast of 1597 at court), its relationship to Shakespeare's English history plays and to other sources, its textual history (with particular reference to the widely diverging 1623 Folio and 1602 Quarto), and its original quality as drama. He assesses various interpretations of the play, topical, critical, and theatrical. In the commentary he pays particular attention to expounding the literal sense (he proposes some new readings) and evoking the stage business.

«The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym» is an archetypal American story of escape from home and family which traces a young man's rite of passage through a series of terrible brushes with death during a fateful sea voyage. But it also goes much deeper, as Pym encounters various interpretative dilemmas, at last leaving the reader with a broken-off ending that defies solution. Apart from its violence and mystery, the tale calls attention to the act of writing and to the problem of representing truth. Layer upon layer of elaborate hoaxes include its author's own role of posing as ghost-writer of the narrative; «Pym» — his only novel — has become the key text for our understanding of Poe. This edition offers eight short tales which are linked to «Pym» by their treatment of persistent themes — fantastic voyages, gigantic whirlpools, and premature burials — or by their ironic commentary on Poe's mystification of his readers.»

A comprehensive Business English course for learners with little or no experience of the business world. — The course assumes that students have a good basic knowledge of general English. It aims to teach students core business vocabulary, develop their professional communication skills, and introduce them to key business concepts. — It is aimed at learners with little or no experience of working in the world of business. Texts from the business world have been chosen for their interest and accessibility, and students are not asked to draw on their own work experience to complete tasks. — Each of the 15 units is topic-based. The scope of the topics is broad rather than specialized, including subjects such as company culture, the changing nature of work and the economy, international trade, marketing and advertising. — All four language skills are developed, with a focus on communicative practice. Each unit begins by introducing students to the core vocabulary relating to the theme of the unit. This is then reinforced through listening and reading texts drawn from authentic sources, information gap and discussion activities, role-plays, mini case studies and creative writing tasks. — A guided discovery approach to grammar leads students to a clearer understanding of the forms and underlying concepts of English. Each unit has a 'language study' section, linked to a more detailed Grammar guide at the back of the book. — Regular business concept boxes introduce or revise key concepts in business management, such as the terms of trade and financial indexes. Quotations from prominent business people provide the opportunity for additional discussion. — Creative writing tasks are included which follow the task types required in the BEC exam.

A series that prepares students for secondary school-leaving exams.

A brand-new edition of the best-selling course, maintaining the successful core content but updated and refreshed. Workbook — exercises to improve and extend accuracy and skills work — extra vocabulary exercises — available with or without key

This is the Elementary edition brought right up-to-date, with new topics and new features. The Workbook, Teacher's Book, Teacher's Resource Book, Audio CD and CD-ROM have all been revised.

Oxford Team! is an exciting new three-level English course for younger students by Norman Whitney. The key features of the Workbook are: • further practice of the communication points introduced in the Student's Book; • two pages of grammar practice in each unit; • further practice of the vocabulary presented in the Student's Book; • reading texts on a wide variety of up-to-date topics; • further practice in writing, including plenty of preparation; • Progress Check section at the end of every unit; • regular and thorough revision work after every four units, corresponding to the revision section in the Student's Book; • Wordlist with phonetic transcription to assist with pronunciation.

The dictionary that helps students write and speak natural-sounding English, now in a new edition with CD-ROM. Which words usually go together? This dictionary shows you the common word combinations (collocations) that are essential for natural-sounding British and American English. Completely revised and extended, the new edition has over 250,000 collocations and over 75,000 examples.

The first ever 4th edition from the world's most trusted course — New Headway Intermediate, completely rewritten and packed with new material. — 100% new grammar presentations. — 100% new listening material. — 100% new reading texts. — 'Spoken English' and 'Music of English' features — new to Intermediate. — More teacher support for mixed-ability classes.