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Chaos: A Graphic Guide
If a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, does it cause a tornado in Texas?
Chaos theory attempts to answer such baffling questions. The discovery of randomness in apparently predictable physical systems has evolved into a science that declares the universe to be far more unpredictable than we have ever imagined.
IIntroducing Chaos explains how chaos makes its presence felt in events from the fluctuation of animal populations to the ups and downs of the stock market. It examines the roots of chaos in modern maths and physics, and explores the relationship between chaos and complexity, the unifying theory which suggests...
Islam: A Graphic Guide
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 backgrounds in the US and Europe, is largely seen in the West in terms of fundamentalism, bigotry and violence, a perception reinforced by the terrorist atrocities in New York and Washington in 2001 and subsequent outrages. But the real message of Islam is very far indeed from this picture, making it perhaps the least understood religion in the world. This informative guide recounts the...
Postmodernism: A Graphic Guide
What connects Marilyn Monroe, Disney World, The Satanic Verses and cyberspace?
Answer: postmodernism.
But what exactly is postmodernism?
This graphic guide explains clearly the maddeningly enigmatic concept that has been used to define the world's cultural condition over the last three decades.
Introducing Postmodernism tracks the idea back to its roots by taking a tour of some of the most extreme and exhilarating events, people and thought of the last hundred years: in art-constructivism, conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol; in politics and history – McCarthy's...
Cultural Studies: A Graphic Guide
Cultural studies is a discipline that claims not to be a discipline – a radical critical approach for understanding racial, national, social and gender identities.
Introducing Cultural Studies provides an incisive tour through the minefield of this complex subject, charting its origins in Britain and its migration to the USA, Canada, France, Australia and South Asia, examining the ideas of its leading exponents and providing a flavour of its use around the world. Covering the ground from Gramsci to Raymond Williams, postcolonial discourse to the politics of diaspora, feminism to queer theory, technoculture and the media to...
Media Studies: A Graphic Guide
The media is ubiquitous. Every day we watch hours of TV, listen to the radio, surf the web, read newspapers and magazines, go to the cinema or watch DVDs. The media in these forms and more exercise enormous influence and power over all of us.
Introducing Media Studies explores the complex relationship between the media, ideology, knowledge and power. It provides a scintillating tour of media history and presents a coherent view of the media industry, media theory and methods in media research. It explains how ‘the audience’ is constructed and how it in turn interprets the content and meaning of media representation....