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'Queer: A Graphic History Could Totally Change the Way You Think About Sex and Gender' ViceActivist-academic Meg-John Barker and cartoonist Jules Scheele illuminate the histories of queer thought and LGBTQ+ action in this groundbreaking non-fiction graphic novel.From identity politics and gender roles to privilege and exclusion, Queer explores how we came to view sex, gender and sexuality in the ways that we do; how these ideas get tangled up with our culture and our understanding of biology, psychology and sexology; and how these views have been disputed and challenged.Along the way we look at key landmarks which shift our perspective of what's 'normal' - Alfred Kinsey's view of sexuality as a spectrum, Judith Butler's view of gendered behaviour as a performance, the play Wicked, or moments in Casino Royale when we're invited to view James Bond with the kind of desiring gaze usually directed at female bodies in mainstream media. Presented in a brilliantly engaging and witty style, this is a unique portrait of the universe of queer thinking.

An exciting new exploration of gender from the creators of the groundbreaking Queer: A Graphic History

Jacques Lacan is now regarded as a major psychoanalytical theorist alongside Freud and Jung, although recognition has been delayed by fierce arguments over his ideas. Written by a leading Lacanian analyst, "e;Introducing Lacan"e; guides the reader through his innovations, including his work on paranoia, his addition of structural linguistics to Freudianism and his ideas on the infant 'mirror phase'. It also traces Lacan's influence in postmodern critical thinking on art, literature, philosophy and feminism. This is the ideal introduction for anyone intrigued by Lacan's ideas but discouraged by the complexity of his writings.

Fractals are the geometry of the natural world. They're about the broken, wrinkled, wiggly world- the uneven shapes of nature, unlike the idealised forms of Euclidean geometry. We see fractals everywhere; indeed, we are fractals ourselves.Fractal geometry is an extension of classical geometry which can make precise models of physical structures, from ferns to galaxies. It can describe the shape of a cloud as precisely as an architect can describe a house.Introducing Fractals traces the historical development of this mathematical discipline, explores its descriptive powers in the natural world, and then looks at the applications and the implications of the discoveries it has made.As John Archibald Wheeler,protg of Niels Bohr, friend of Albert Einstein and mentor of Richard Feynman has said, 'No one will be considered scientifically literate tomorrow, who is not familiar with fractals.'

What is time? The 5th-century philosopher St Augustine famously said that he knew what time was, so long as no one asked him. Is time a fourth dimension similar to space or does it flow in some sense? And if it flows, does it make sense to say how fast? Does the future exist? Is time travel possible? Why does time seem to pass in only one direction?These questions and others are among the deepest and most subtle that one can ask, but "e;Introducing Time"e; presents them - many for the first time - in an easily accessible, lucid and engaging manner, wittily illustrated by Ralph Edney.

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.Introducing 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 also examines the roots of chaos in modern maths and physics, and explores the relationship between chaos and complexity, the unifying theory which suggests that all complex systems evolve from a few simple rules.This is an accessible introduction to an astonishing and controversial theory.

Based on practical, clinically proven, and tried-and-tested approaches, Introducing Family Psychology - A Practical Guide looks at fifteen major problems that are typically encountered by families. Introducing Family Psychology - A Practical Guide provides workable solutions based on experiences that cross cultural boundaries. This Practical Guide is a valuable resource to help child carers - from single parents to grandparents - deal with the difficulties that can arise when bringing up a child.

Explains what the sciences have to say about planning and action, language, memory, attention, emotions and vision. This book traces the historical development of ideas about the brain and its function from antiquity to the age of neuro-imaging.

A brand new science title in the renowned graphic novel-style of the Introducing Graphic Guide series.

An essential, illustrated primer on what makes society tick .

Illustrated guide to the crucial Italian philosopher and author of The Prince. 'Machiavellian' is a popular byword for treachery and opportunism. Machiavelli's classic book on statecraft, The Prince, published over 400 years ago, remains controversial to this day because of its electrifying frankness as a practical guide to power. Is it a how-to manual for dictators, a cynical philosophy of 'the end justifies the means', or a more complex and subtle analysis of successful government? Machiavelli was a loyal servant of the Florentine republic. His opposition to Medici despotism led him to torture on the rack and exile, and yet he chose as his model for the Prince the most notorious tyrant, Cesare Borgia. Introducing Machiavelli traces the colourful life of this paradoxical realist whose clear-sighted patriotism made him the first truly modern political scientist. Machiavelli is seen as central to the postmodern debate on Civil Society. This book brings the creative turbulence of Renaissance Italy to life, and presents a compelling portrait of a key figure of European political history.

INTRODUCING guide to the cult author, semiologist and analyzer of advertising, Roland Barthes. Roland Barthes is best known as a semiologist, a student of the science of signs. This sees human beings primarily as communicating animals, and looks at the way they use language, clothes, gestures, hair styles, visual images, shapes and colour to convey to one another their tastes, their emotions, their ideal self-image and the values of their society. Introducing Barthes brilliantly elucidates Barthes' application of these ideas to literature, popular culture, clothes and fashion, and explains why his thinking in this area made him a key figure in the structuralist movement of the 1960s. It goes on to describe how his later insistence on pleasure, the delights of sexual non-conformity, and the freedom of the reader to interpret literary texts in the light of ideologies such as existentialism, Marxism and Freudianism, as well as structuralism itself, continues to make him one of the most dynamic and challenging of modern writers. This is the perfect companion volume to Introducing Semiotics.

"e;Introducing Consciousness"e; provides a comprehensive guide to the current state of consciousness studies. It starts with the history of the philosophical relation between mind and matter, and proceeds to scientific attempts to explain consciousness in terms of neural mechanisms, cerebral computation and quantum mechanics. Along the way, readers will be introduced to zombies and Chinese Rooms, ghosts in machines and Schrodinger's cat.

Modernism is usually thought of as a shock wave of innovations hitting art, architecture, music, cinema and literature - the work of Picasso, Joyce, Schoenberg, movements like Futurism and Dada, the architecture of Le Corbusier, T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland and the avant-garde theatre of Bertolt Brecht or Samuel Beckett. But what really defines modernism? Why did it begin and how long did it last? Is Modernism over now? Chris Rodriguez and Chris Garratt's brilliant graphic guide is a brilliant exploration of the last century's most thrilling artistic work - and what it's really all about.

"e;Introducing Semiotics"e; outlines the development of sign study from its classical precursors to contemporary post-structuralism. Through Paul Cobley's incisive text and Litza Jansz's brilliant illustrations, it identifies the key semioticians and their work and explains the simple concepts behind difficult terms. For anybody who wishes to know why signs are crucial to human existence and how we can begin to study systems of signification, this book is the place to start.

Anthropology originated as the study of 'primitive' cultures. But the notion of 'primitive' exposes presumptions of 'civilized' superiority and the right of the West to speak for 'less evolved' others. With the fall of Empire, anthropology became suspect and was torn by dissension from within. Did anthropology serve as a 'handmaiden to colonialism'? Is it a 'science' created by racism to prove racism? Can it aid communication between cultures, or does it reinforce our differences? "e;Introducing Anthropology"e; is a fascinating account of an uncertain human science seeking to transcend its unsavoury history. It traces the evolution of anthropology from its genesis in Ancient Greece to its varied forms in contemporary times. Anthropology's key concepts and methods are explained, and we are presented with such big-name anthropologists as Franz Boas, Bronislaw Malinowski, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Margaret Mead and Claude Levi-Strauss. The new varieties of self-critical and postmodern anthropologies are examined, and the leading question - of the impact of anthropology on non-Western cultures - is given centre-stage. "e;Introducing Anthropology"e; is lucid in its arguments, its good humour supported by apt and witty illustrations. This book offers a highly accessible invitation into anthropology.

"e;Introducing Genetics"e; takes readers on a journey through this new science to the discovery of DNA and the heart of the human gene map. In everyday life, many of us increasingly have to make moral decisions where genetics plays a part. This book gives us the information to do so.

INTRODUCING guide to the pioneering child psychoanalyst. Born in Vienna in 1882, Melanie Klein became a pioneer in child psychoanalysis and developed several ground-breaking concepts about the nature and crucial importance of the early stages of infantile development. Although she was a devoted Freudian, many of her ideas were seen within the psychoanalytic movement as highly controversial, and this led to heated conflicts, particularly with Freud's daughter, Anna. Introducing Melanie Klein brilliantly explains Klein's ideas, and shows the importance of her startling discoveries which raised such opposition at the time and are only now being recognized for their explanatory power. Her concepts of the depressive position and the paranoid-schizoid position are now in common usage and her work has to be taken seriously by psychoanalysts the world over. She is also now important in many academic fields within the human sciences.

It is now more than a century since Einstein's theories of Special and General Relativity began to revolutionise our view of the universe. Beginning near the speed of light and proceeding to explorations of space-time and curved spaces, "e;Introducing Relativity"e; plots a visually accessible course through the thought experiments that have given shape to contemporary physics. Scientists from Newton to Hawking add their unique contributions to this story, as we encounter Einstein's astounding vision of gravity as the curvature of space-time and arrive at the breathtakingly beautiful field equations. Einstein's legacy is reviewed in the most advanced frontiers of physics today - black holes, gravitational waves, the accelerating universe and string theory. This is a superlative, fascinating graphic account of Einstein's strange world and how his legacy has been built upon since.

An INTRODUCING PRACTICAL GUIDE to the therapy designed to help people have better, fuller and richer lives - as well as work far more effectively. By focusing on how we communicate - the words we use as well as non-verbal communication such as body language - NLP seeks to change our mental habits into those of more successful people. Whether you're a salesperson needing to close more deals, a teacher who would like to get through to your pupils more quickly, or someone who needs to negotiate between parties - this INTRODUCING PRACTICAL GUIDE is for you.

Our knowledge comes primarily from experience - what our senses tell us. But is experience really what it seems? The experimental breakthroughs in 17th-century science of Kepler, Galileo and Newton informed the great British empiricist tradition, which accepts a 'common-sense' view of the world - and yet concludes that all we can ever know are 'ideas'. Dave Robinson, with the aid of Bill Mayblin's brilliant illustrations, outlines the arguments of Locke, Berkeley, Hume, J.S. Mill, Bertrand Russell and the last British empiricist, A.J. Ayer. They also explore criticisms of empiricism in the work of Kant, Wittgenstein, Karl Popper and others, providing a unique overview of this compelling area of philosophy.

This is a superlative graphic guide described as 'warm, witty and wise' by Jonathan Ree to an enigmatic master of twentieth-century philosophy.

This book was written to introduce you, the reader, to an amazing God who loves you enough to send His Son, Jesus, to die for you! In these pages, you can learn about who Jesus is, where He came from, what He did, what He taught, and why it matters to each of us.By the way, no experience with God, a church, or the Bible is necessary. All you need is an open mind, a willingness to read the story, and then you can decide for yourself what to do with Jesus.Sound interesting? Then let me introduce you to my Friend, Jesus!

'An ideal introduction [to Stephen Hawking]' - Independent'Astonishingly comprehensive - clearer than Hawking himself' - FocusStephen Hawking was a world-famous physicist with a cameo in The Simpsons on his CV, but outside of his academic field his work was little understood. To the public he was a tragic figure - a brilliant scientist and author of the 9 million-copy-selling A Brief History of Time, and yet spent the majority of his life confined to a wheelchair and almost completely paralysed.Hawking's major contribution to science was to integrate the two great theories of 20th-century physics: Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.J.P. McEvoy and Oscar Zarate's brilliant graphic guide explores Hawking's life, the evolution of his work from his days as a student, and his breathtaking discoveries about where these fundamental laws break down or overlap, such as on the edge of a Black Hole or at the origin of the Universe itself.

The people, ideals and events that have shaped a nation - in comic book form

"e;Introducing Aristotle"e; guides the reader through an explosion of theories, from the establishment of systematic logic to the earliest rules of science. Aristotle's authority extended beyond his own lifetime to influence fundamentally Islamic philosophy and medieval scholasticism. For fifteen centuries, he remained the paradigm of knowledge itself. But can Aristotelian realism still be used to underpin our conception of the world today?

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 'the least scandalous, most technically austere' of all teachings? This brilliant Graphic Guide explores Existentialism in a unique comic book-style.

How did the mind evolve? How does the human mind differ from the minds of our ancestors, and from the minds of our nearest relatives, the apes? What are the universal features of the human mind, and why are they designed the way they are? If our minds are built by selfish genes, why are we so cooperative? Can the differences between male and female psychology be explained in evolutionary terms? These questions are at the centre of a rapidly growing research programme called evolutionary psychology.

INTRODUCING guide to the father of existentialism and one of 20th century philosophy's most famous characters. Jean-Paul Sartre was once described as being, next to Charles de Gaulle, the most famous Frenchman of the 20th century. Between the ending of the Second World War in 1945 and his death in 1980, Sartre was certainly the most famous French writer, as well as one of the best-known living philosophers. Introducing Sartre explains the basic ideas inspiring his world view, and pays particular attention to his idea of freedom. It also places his thinking on literature in the context of the 20th century debate on its nature and function. It examines his ideas on Marxism, his enthusiasm for the student rebellion of 1968, and his support for movements of national liberation in the Third World. The book also provides a succinct account of his life, and especially of the impact which his unusual childhood had on his attitude towards French society.