On the Necessity of Gardening tells the story of the garden as a rich source of inspiration. Over the centuries, artists, writers, poets and thinkers have each described, depicted and designed the garden in different ways. In medieval art, the garden was a reflection of paradise, a place of harmony and fertility, shielded from worldly problems. In the eighteenth century this image tilted: the garden became a symbol of worldly power and politics. The Anthropocene, the era in which man complete...

A beloved introductory physics textbook, now including exercises and an answer key, explains the concepts essential for thorough scientific understanding In this concise book, R. Shankar, a well-known physicist and contagiously enthusiastic educator, explains the essential concepts of Newtonian mechanics, special relativity, waves, fluids, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics. Now in an expanded edition—complete with problem sets and answers for course use or self-study—this work p...

Small, smart, essential – an accessible introduction to the Pop Art movement, offering a new perspective on canonical works and highlighting its international reach.

Small, smart, essential – an easy-to-read, straightforward and entertaining introduction to art history via fifty pivotal moments from antiquity to the 21st century.

‘Splendid … a tour de force … Its lucid prose, evocative illustrations and handsome production make it a joy to read and savour’ Times Higher Education

An essential guide to the multifarious and increasingly connected world of global art from 1900 to today.

From the 40000-years-old painted caves at Lascaux and the medieval cloth trade to the synthetic chemistry of modern times, colour making has been central to our lives. This book surveys the history of dyes and pigments, the invention of new colours, and the industries that fuelled them.

* 'Great art has dreadful manners...' Simon Schama observes at the start of his epic exploration of the power, and whole point, of art. 'The hushed reverence of the gallery can fool you into believing masterpieces are polite things, visions that soothe, charm and beguile, but actually they are thugs. Merciless and wily, the greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure and then proceed in short order to re-arrange your sense of reality...' * With the same disarming force,...