Against the backdrop of unprecedented concern for the future of health care, this Very Short Introduction surveys the history of medicine from classical times to the present. Focussing on the key turning points in the history of Western medicine, such as the advent of hospitals and the rise of experimental medicine, Bill Bynum offers insights into medicine's past, while at the...(展开全部)

Mathematics is a fundamental human activity that can be practised and understood in a multitude of ways; indeed, mathematical ideas themselves are far from being fixed, but are adapted and changed by their passage across periods and cultures. In this Very Short Introduction, Jacqueline Stedall explores the rich historical and cultural diversity of mathematical endeavour from th...(展开全部)

Astronomy, perhaps the first of the sciences, was already well developed by the time of Christ. Seventeen centuries later, after Newton showed that the movements of the planets could be explained in terms of gravitation, it became the paradigm for the mathematical sciences. In the nineteenth century the analysis of star-light allowed astrophysicists to determine both the chemic...(展开全部)

- Each chapter describes a major step in the history of life - the breakthroughs that made new forms of life possible - Explores the origins of sex, the first multicellular creatures, explains how hard skeletons evolved, why animals moved to land, and how the first forests were born - Presents a completely up-to-date picture of the earliest origins of life, exploring new concep...(展开全部)

There are many stories we can tell about the past, and we are not, perhaps, as free as we might imagine in our choice of which stories to tell, or where those stories end. John Arnold's Very Short Introduction is a stimulating essay about how we study and understand history. The book begins by inviting us to think about various questions provoked by our investigation of histo...(展开全部)

This brief history of America will span the earliest migrations to the present, reflecting Paul S. Boyer's interests in social, intellectual, and cultural history, including popular culture and religion. It will reflect his personal view of American history, in which a sense of paradox and irony loom large. While noting positive achievements--political, economic, social, and cu...(展开全部)

Insightful, informed, and at times controversial in its conclusions, A Short History of Medicine offers an exceptional introduction to the major and many minor facets of its subject. In this lively, learned, and wholly engrossing volume, F. González-Crussi presents a brief yet authoritative five-hundred-year history of the science, the philosophy, and the controversies of mo...(展开全部)

弗兰克·冈萨雷斯-克鲁希（Frank Gonzalez-Crussi） 墨西哥裔医学专家、科普作家，美国西北大学病理学荣誉退休教授。1936年他出生在墨西哥城的一家小药铺中。从加拿大女王大学医学院毕业后，他移居美国，历任印第安纳大学、西北大学病理学教授。他曾以英语、西班牙语创作大量有关解剖、外科手术、产科相关的科普著作，《走进一颗心：探索身体内部的奥秘》曾于2014年获德国默克文学奖。部分作品也被BBC等机构改编为纪录片、戏剧等。

- Introduces in a clear and concise way the most important basic findings and procedures of evolutionary biology - Looks at the evidence for evolution, eg the fossil record, the distribution of species, the similarities and differences between organisms - A section at the end looks at the seemingly difficult problems for the theory of evolution - Explains adaptation and natural...(展开全部)

Exploring the cultural and institutional dimensions of Christianity, and tracing its course over two millennia, Linda Woodhead provides a fresh, lively, and candid portrait of Christianity's past and present. Addressing topics including the competition for power between different forms of Christianity, the churches' use of power, and its struggles with modernity, this new editi...(展开全部)