''Very Short Introductions'' (''VSI'') is a

book series A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their pub ...

published by the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

(OUP). The books are concise introductions to particular subjects, intended for a general audience but written by experts. Most are under 200 pages long. While authors may present personal viewpoints, the books are meant to be "balanced and complete" as well as thought provoking. The series began in 1995, and by April 2018 there were 607 titles, published or announced. The books have been commercially successful, and have been published in more than 25 languages. Institutions can subscribe to an online service to allow their users to read the books. Most of the books have been written specifically for the series, but around 60 were recycled from earlier OUP publications: several had been in OUP's ''

Past Masters ''Past Masters'' is a two-disc compilation album set by the English rock band the Beatles. It was originally released as two separate volumes on 7 March 1988, as part of the first issue of the band's catalogue on compact disc. The set compiles ...

'' series, and numbers 17–24 used chapters from ''The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain'' (1984).

List of books in the series

Boxed sets

Six boxed sets, each with a different theme, were released in 2006. Five books from the series on the given theme were included, plus the series' promotional volume ''A Very Short Introduction to Everything''. * The Ballot Box ** Politics (008) ** Capitalism (108) ** Democracy (075) ** Socialism (126) ** Fascism (077) * The Brain Box ** Evolution (100) ** Consciousness (121) ** Intelligence (039) ** Cosmology (051) ** Quantum Theory (069) * The Thought Box ** Hegel (049) ** Marx (028) ** Nietzsche (034) ** Schopenhauer (062) ** Kierkegaard (058) * The Basics Box ** Philosophy (055) ** Mathematics (066) ** History (016) ** Politics (008) ** Psychology (006) * The Boom Box ** Ancient Warfare (117) ** Cold War (087) ** Crusades (140) ** French Revolution (054) ** Spanish Civil War (123) * The Picture Box ** Art History (102) ** Renaissance Art (129) ** Modern Art (120) ** Architecture (072) ** Design (136)

Design

The body text is set in

Miller A miller is a person who operates a Gristmill, mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Mill (grinding), Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surname ...

in some books, and others are set in OUP Argo; the front page title (and other book titles within the book) is set in

Lithos Lithos is a glyphic sans-serif typeface designed by Carol Twombly in 1989 for Adobe Systems. Lithos is inspired by the unadorned, geometric letterforms of the engravings found on Ancient Greek public buildings. The typeface consists of only cap ...

; the

sans-serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...

used for headings and in other places is OUP Argo.

Notes

References

External links