This is the definitive survey of the English language - in all its forms. Crystal writes accessibly about the structure of the language, the uses of English throughout the world and finally he gives a brief history of English. The book has been fully revised and there is a fascinating new chapter on 'The effect of technology' on the English language.

'Illuminating guided tour of our common treasure by one of its most lucid and sensible professionals' The Times 'A splendid blend of erudition a...

With a new foreword by Tim Ferriss • "Vagabonding easily remains in my top-10 list of life-changing books. Why? Because one incredible trip, especially a long-term trip, can change your life forever. And Vagabonding teaches you how to travel (and think), not just for one trip, but for the rest of your life."-Tim Ferriss, from the foreword

There's nothing like vagabonding: taking time off from your normal life-from six weeks to four months to two years-to discover and experience the...

In the mid 1920s Lukacs wrote a sustained and passionate response to Stalin's onslaught on his earlier seminal work History and Class Consciousness. Unpublished at the time, Lukacs himself thought that the text had been destroyed. However, a group of researchers recently found the manuscript gathering dust in the newly opened archives of the CPSU in Moscow.

Now for the first time, this fascinating, polemical and intense text is available in English. It is a crucial part of a hidden intellectu...

Over the past century, Israel has been transformed from an agricultural colony, to a welfare-warfare state, to a globally integrated 'market economy' characterised by great income disparities. What lies behind this transformation? In order to understand capitalist development, we need to break the artificial separation between 'economics' and 'politics', and think of accumulation itself as 'capitalisation of power'. Applying this concept to Israel, they reveal the big picture.

Diverse process...

A young woman's struggle to save her family and her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village. In 1666, plague swept through London, driving the King and his court to Oxford, and Samuel Pepys to Greenwich, in an attempt to escape contagion. The north of England remained untouched until, in a small community of leadminers and hill farmers, a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital. The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that t...

This highly original and sophisticated look at architecture helps us to understand the cultural significance of the buildings that surround us. It avoids the traditional style-spotting approach in favour of giving an idea of what it is about buildings that moves us, and what it is that makes them important artistically and culturally. The book begins by looking at how architecture acquires meaning through tradition, and concludes with the exoticism of the recentavant garde.

Illustrations of p...

A selection of source readings on history, society, politics, education, philosophy, and religion in the Land of the Rising Sun. This work includes: readings on early and medieval Shinto and on the tea ceremony, readings on state Buddhism and Chinese political thought influential in Japan, and sections on women's education.

Drawing on writing research, the book takes into account recent developments such as the increasing diversity of the student body, the use of the Internet, electronic tuition and issues surrounding globalisation.