Introducing Aesthetics: A Graphic Guide

Christoper Kul-Want & Piero

What is beauty, and what is truth? And what does aesthetics have to do with either? Introducing Aesthetics is a lively and engaging tour through this vital field of inquiry, encompassing thinkers from Plato to the Postmodernists.

Introducting Anthropology: A Graphic Guide

Merryl Wyn Davies & Piero

Anthropology originated as the study of ‘primitive’ cultures – a now very loaded term. With the fall of Empire, anthropology became suspect and was torn by dissent from within. Did anthropology serve as a ‘handmaiden to colonialism’?

Introducing Buddha: A Graphic Guide

Jane Hope & Borin Van Loon

Introducing Buddha describes the life and teachings of the Buddha, but it also shows that enlightenment is a matter of experiencing the truth individually, and by inspiration which is passed from teacher to student.

Introducing Capitalism: A Graphic Guide

Dan Cryan, Sharron Shatil & Piero

The history, philosophy and politics of one of the biggest, most successful but most controversial ideas ever. Few ideas have had as much impact on our everyday lives as capitalism. Introducing Capitalism is the essential companion

Introducing Chaos: A Graphic Guide

Ziauddin Sardar & Iwona Abrams

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 and examines the roots of chaos in modern maths and physics.

Introducting Chomsky: A Graphic Guide

John Maher & Judy Groves

Chomsky is controversial and yet hugely influential, both in his pioneering work in linguistics and in his unrelenting critique of international power and his commitment to freedom and justice.

Introducing Consciousness: A Graphic Guide

David Papineau & Howard Selina

From the history of the philosophical relationship between mind and matter, via scientific attempts to explain consciousness in terms of neural mechanisms, cerebral computation and quantum mechanics, this is the perfect introduction to a subject widely viewed as the last frontier of science.

Introducing Continental Philosophy: A Graphic Guide

Christoper Kul-Want & Piero

Covering the great philosophers of the modern and postmodern eras – from Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida and Deleuze right up to Agamben and Žižek - Christopher Kul-Want and Piero brilliantly elucidate some of the most thrilling and powerful ideas ever to have been discussed.

Introducing Critical Theory: A Graphic Guide

Stuart Sim & Borin Van Loon

What might a ‘theory of everything’ look like? Is science an ideology? Who were Adorno, Horkheimer or the Frankfurt School? Stuart Sim and Borin Van Loon’s incisive graphic guide provides a route through the tangled jungle of competing ideas.

Introducing Cultural Studies: A Graphic Guide

Ziauddin Sardar & Borin Van Loon

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.

Introducing Derrida: A Graphic Guide

Jeff Collins & Bill Mayblin

Taking the reader on an intellectual adventure likely to disturb some of the most comfortable habits of thought, Introducing Derrida is a witty, concise and intelligent confrontation with this colossus of modern philosophy.

Introducing Economics: A Graphic Guide

David Orrell & Borin Van Loon

Introducing Economics traces the history of the subject from the ancient Greeks to the present day. David Orrell and Borin Van Loon bring the contributions of great economists such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman.

Introducing Epigenetics: A Graphic Guide

Cath Ennis & Oliver Pugh

Epigenetics is the most exciting field in biology today, developing our understanding of how and why we inherit certain traits, develop diseases and age, and evolve as a species.

Introducing Ethics: A Graphic Guide

Dave Robinson & Chris Garratt

Introducing Ethics traces the arguments of great moral philosophers including Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes and Kant, and explores what more modern thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Richard Rorty have brought to the debates.

Introducing Existentialism: A Graphic Guide

Richard Appignanesi & Oscar Zarate

Anguish, despair, absurdity, nothingness. Is that what Existentialism is really about? Tracing its history from Kierkegaard, Husserl and Nietzsche to the legacy of Nazism and the Cold War, this dazzling tour of Existentialism is told through brilliant illustrations from Oscar Zarate

Introducing Feminism: A Graphic Guide

Cathia Jenainati & Judy Groves

Is biology destiny? Why is the personal political? Is pornography anti-feminist? Surveying the major developments that have affected women’s lives from the 17th century to the present day, this book is an invaluable reference for anyone seeking the story of how feminism reconfigured the world for women and men alike.

Introducing Foucault: A Graphic Guide

Chris Horrocks & Zoran Jevtic

Chris Horrocks and Zoran Jevtic’s graphic guide explores Foucault’s debt to philosophers such as Nietzsche, Kant, Sartre and Heidegger, his cult status in 1970s America, his curious support of the Iranian Revolution, his spat with Jean Baudrillard and much more.

Introducing Fractals: A Graphic Guide

Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon, WIll Rood & Ralph Edney

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 fractal ourselves.

Introducing Heidegger: A Graphic Guide

Jeff Collins & Howard Selina

Introducing Heidegger provides an accessible introduction to his notoriously abstruse thinking, mapping out its historical contexts and exploring its resonances in ecology, theology, art, architecture, literature and other fields. Prepare to be dazzled, surprised and thrilled by this tour through the work of the man widely acclaimed as the 20th century’s most original – if also most challenging – thinker.

Introducing Hinduism: A Graphic Guide

Vinay Lal & Borin Van Loon

Introducing Hinduism offers a guide to the key philosophical, literary, mythological and cultural traditions of this extraordinarily diverse faith, giving equal consideration to texts and everyday practices. it untangles the complexities of Hinduism’s gods and goddesses, its caste system and its views on sex, everyday life and asceticism.

Introducing Infinity: A Graphic Guide

Brian Clegg & Oliver Pugh

Brian Clegg and Oliver Pugh’s brilliant graphic tour of infinity features a cast of characters ranging from Archimedes and Pythagoras to al-Khwarizmi, Fibonacci, Galileo, Newton, Leibniz, Cantor, Venn, Gödel and Mandelbrot, and shows how infinity has challenged the finest minds of science and mathematics. Prepare to enter a world of paradox.

Introducing Islam: A Graphic Guide

Ziauddin Sardar & Zafar Abbas Malik

Introducing Islam recounts the history of Islam from the birth of Prophet Muhammad in the 6th century to its status as a global culture and political force today. Charting the achievements of Muslim civilization, it explains the nature and message of the Qur’an, outlines the basic features of Islamic law, and assesses the impact of colonialism on Muslim societies.

Introducing Jung: A Graphic Guide

Maggie Hyde, Michael McGuinness & Oliver Pugh

In this new edition, deftly illustrated by Michael McGuiness and Oliver Pugh, Maggie Hyde explores Jung’s continuing legacy. She brilliantly explains the theories that underpin Jung’s work, delves into the controversies that led him to break away from Freud and describes the near-psychotic breakdown, from which he emerged with radical new insights into the nature of the unconscious mind.

Introducing Kant: A Graphic Guide

Christoper Kul-Want & Andrzej Klimowski

One of the first properly modern thinkers, Kant’s work is marked by a scepticism towards religion and transcendental ideas. In this succinct, witty guide Kant emerges as a diehard rationalist, yet also a Romantic who believed in the primacy of emotion and feeling.

Introducing Lacan: A Graphic Guide

Darian Leader & Judy Groves

A leading Lacanian analyst and author, Darian Leader guides the reader through Lacan’s early studies of paranoia to his subsequent analytical innovations – his addition of structural linguistics to Freudianism and his new ideas on the infant ‘mirror phase’, the construction of identity and the dynamics of the psyche.

Introducing Linguistics: A Graphic Guide

R.L. Trask & Bill Mayblin

Language both sets us apart from our fellow creatures and identifies us as uniquely human. R.L. Trask and Bill Mayblin’s book is a thrilling introduction to the most important concepts in the study of language, explaining too some of the most recent, dramatic and fascinating advances.

Introducing Logic: A Graphic Guide

Dan Cryan, Sharron Shatil & Bill Mayblin

The next sentence is false. The last sentence is true. Where’s the logic in that? From ‘fuzzy’ logic to the liar paradox, this book features ideas from thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle, through to some of the 20th century’s brightest minds: Alan Turing, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell and many more.

Introducing Marxism: A Graphic Guide

Rupert Woodfin & Oscar Zarate

Was Marx himself a ‘Marxist’? What is ‘dialectical materialism’ or the ‘superstructure’? Did Lenin and Stalin betray Marx and his ideas? Introducing Marxism provides a fundamental account of Marx’s original philosophy, its roots in 19th-century European thinkers like Hegel, and his radical economic and social criticism of capitalism.

Introducing Mathematics: A Graphic Guide

Ziauddin Sardar, Jerry Ravetz & Borin can Loon

What is mathematics, and why is it such a mystery to so many people? Introducing Mathematics traces the story of mathematics from the ancient world to modern times, describing the great discoveries and providing an accessible introduction to such topics as number systems, geometry and algebra, calculus, the theory of the infinite, statistical reasoning and chaos theory.

Introducing Media Studies: A Graphic Guide

Ziauddin Sardar & Borin Van Loon

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.

Introducing Melanie Klein: A Graphic Guide

Robert Hinshelwood, Susan Robinson & Oscar Zarate

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.

Introducing Modernism: A Graphic Guide

Chris Rodrigues & Chris Garratt

Archived since Modernism: A Graphic Guide

This graphic tour through 20th-century culture interprets modernism as a set of responses to the phenomenon of modernity itself – the political and social upheavals presented by industrialisation and the rise of consumer capitalism (and the command economies of socialism) ; mass democracy, mass literacy, the rise of mass media and the relentless advance of science and technology.

Introducing Nietzsche: A Graphic Guide

Laurence Gane & Piero

Is God dead? Is morality just a ‘useful mistake’? Can science explain anything? Introducing Nietzsche, brilliantly illustrated by Piero, explores this firebrand philosopher and shows in his work not only a fearless critique of vanity, religion, nationalism and even philosophy itself, but a startlingly accurate diagnosis of the ills of the 21st-century world.

Introducing Philosophy: A Graphic Guide

Dave Robinson & Judy Groves

Written by Dave Robinson and illustrated by Judy Groves, Introducing Philosophy is a comprehensive and enjoyable graphic guide to philosophical thinking. It examines and explains the key arguments and ideas of all the significant philosophers of the Western world from Heraclitus to Derrida.

Introducing Plato: A Graphic Guide

Dave Robinson & Judy Groves

Plato is the most widely studied, and probably the greatest, philosopher of all time. Introducing Plato explains all of Plato’s key ideas, especially the very odd ‘theory of Forms’, and concludes by revealing how Plato has stimulated the work of modern thinkers such as Karl Popper and Jacques Derrida.

Introducing Political Philosophy: A Graphic Guide

Dave Robinson & Judy Groves

What is society? Why should citizens obey the law? Is democracy the best form of government? Introducing Political Philosophy explains the central concepts of political thinking through history and presents the major political theorists from Plato to Foucault – and the contexts in which their ideas attracted disciples, controversy and sometimes revolution.

Introducing Postmodernism: A Graphic Guide

Richard Appignanesi & Chris Garratt

What connects Marilyn Monroe, Disney World, The Satanic Verses and cyberspace? Answer: postmodernism. 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 100 years.

Introducing Psychoanalysis: A Graphic Guide

Ivan Ward & Oscar Zarate

Psychoanalysis is a key part of understanding our emotional lives, and its inventor Sigmund Freud is still an iconic figure. Yet little is generally known about different theories of psychoanalysis. Introducing Psychoanalysis redresses this balance. Ivan Ward and Oscar Zarate bring this notoriously opaque subject alive, outlining what psychoanalysts do and the theory behind it.

Introducing Psychology: A Graphic Guide

Nigel C. Benson

What is psychology? When did it begin? Where did it come from? How does psychology compare with psychiatry and psychotherapy? Is it scientific? Introducing Psychology answers all these intriguing questions and more, explaining what the subject has been in the past and what it is now.

Introducing Psychotherapy: A Graphic Guide

Nigel Benson & Borin van Loon

What exactly is psychotherapy?Introducing Psychotherapy is an invaluable tool for anyone seeking help for themselves or someone else, and provides essential information on theory and practice for those considering training as a counsellor, therapist or any other welfare-based role.

Introducing Quantum Theory: A Graphic Guide

J.P. McEvoy & Oscar Zarate

Introducing Quantum Theory is a step-by-step tour, tackling the puzzle of the wave-particle duality, along with the two famous questions raised against Bohr’s ‘Copenhagen Interpretation’ – the ‘dead and alive cat’ and the EPR paradox, both of which remain unresolved even now.

Introducing Relativity: A Graphic Guide

Bruce Bassett & Ralph Edney

What did Einstein mean by e=mc2? how is a black hole formed? What use is a fourth dimension? This Graphic Guide to relativity plots a thrilling, visually accessible course through Einstein’s astounding vision of gravity as the curvature of space-time, to the contributions of scientists from newton to hawking and then to the breathtakingly beautiful field equations.

Introducing Romanticism: A Graphic Guide

Duncan Heath & Judy Boreham

Philosophy, art, literature, music and politics were all transformed in the turbulent period between the French Revolution of 1789 and the Communist Manifesto of 1848. This was the age of the ‘Romantic revolution’, when modern attitudes to political and artistic freedom were born.

Introducing Semiotics: A Graphic Guide

Paul Cobley & Litz Jansz

Introducing Semiotics outlines the development of sign study from its precursors in the ancient world, via classical scholars like St Augustine and William of Ockham to Charles Sanders Peirce – whose writings laid the foundations of 21st-century semiotics – and beyond to semioticians such as Jakobson, Sebeok and Umberto Eco.

Introducing Shakespeare: A Graphic Guide

Nick Groom & Piero

Nick Groom and Piero explore how Shakespeare became so famous and influential, and why he is still widely considered the greatest writer ever. They investigate how the Bard has been worshipped at different times and in different places, used and abused to cultural and political ends, and the roots of the intense controversies which have surrounded his work.

Introducing Slavoj Zizek: A Graphic Guide

Christopher Kul-Want & Piero

Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek inspires dramatic headlines. But what does he really think? Charting his meteoric rise in popularity, Christopher Kul-Want and Piero explore Žižek’s timely analyses of today’s global crises concerning ecology, mounting poverty, war, civil unrest and revolution.

Introducing Sociology: A Graphic Guide

John Nagle & Piero

What is society? How does it work, and what does it mean to be a part of society? In the series’ inimitable comic-book style, Introducing Sociology traces the origins of sociology from industrialization, revolution and the Enlightenment through to globalization, neoliberalism and the fear of nationalism – introducing you to key thinkers, movements and concepts along the way.

Introducing Statistics: A Graphic Guide

Eileen Magnello & Borin van Loon

From the medicine we take to the cars we drive, the clothes we wear and even the beer we drink, statistics have given shape to the world we inhabit. Introducing Statistics is an enjoyable, surprise-filled tour through a subject that is both fascinating, and crucial to understanding our world.

Introducing Stephen Hawking: A Graphic Guide

J.P. McEvoy & Oscar Zarate

Stephen Hawking is the world-famous physicist with a cameo in The Simpsons on his CV, but outside his academic field his work is little understood. To the public he is a tragic figure – a brilliant scientist and author of the 9-million-copy-selling A Brief History of Time, and yet confined to a wheelchair and almost completely paralysed.

Introducing Time: A Graphic Guide

Craig Callender & Ralph Edney

What is time? The 5th-century philosopher St Augustine famously said that he knew what time was, so long as no one asked him Introducing Time tackles this question and dares to go where Augustine would not. it traces the history of time from Augustine to the flowing time of Newton.

Introducing Wittgenstein: A Graphic Guide

John Heaton & Judy Groves

Ludwig Wittgenstein has captured the popular imagination as the modern socrates, the master of enigmatic logic, a fascinating and attractive icon of modernism. But what did he really think?