Joyce for Beginners

Introducing Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein has somehow captured the popular imagination as the modern Socrates, the fascinating and attractive master of enigmatic logic. But what did Wittgenstein really say?

Freud for Beginners

The Beginner Books -- "Their cartoon format and irreverent wit make difficult ideas accessible and entertaining." -- NewsdayEverything you need to know about neurosis, libido, ego, and id -- but somehow it slipped your mind.Freud for Beginners is a perfec

Introducing Genetics

Genetics is the newest of all sciences - nothing useful was known about inheritance until just over a century ago. Now genetics is exploding, and before long we will have the complete code, written in three thousand million letters of DNA, of what makes a

Sartre for Beginners

Jean-Paul Sartre was once described as being the most famous Frenchman of the twentieth century, after President Charles de Gaulle! Certainly from 1945 until his death in 1980. Sartre was the most famous and prolific writer in France, and one of line best

Introducing Islam

Islam is one of the world's great monotheistic religions. Islamic culture, spanning 1,500 years, has produced some of the finest achievements of humanity. Yet the religion followed by a fifth of humankind, including millions from diverse ethnic background

Introducing Critical Theory

'Introducing Critical Theory' provides a route through the tangled jungle of competing theories. It puts into context recent developments by situating them within the longer-term tradition of critical analysis - back to the rise of Marxism.

Introducing Postmodernism

Here is the new expanded edition of the international bestseller Introducing Postmodernism. Has the 21st century resolved the question of postmodernism or are we more than ever ensnared in its perplexities? Postmodernism seemed to promise an end to the gr

Introducing Existentialism

Richard Appignanesi goes on a personal quest of Existentialism in its original state. He begins with Camus' question of suicide: 'Must life have a meaning to be lived?' Is absurdity at the heart of Existentialism? Or is Sartre right: is Existentialism 'th

Introducing Lacan

This series is renowned for its ingenious combination of graphic illustration and intelligent, precise text by leading academics on some of the most challenging subjects around. This text on Lacan is one of a number of titles that is being relaunched with