U.S. Foreign Policy provides the most comprehensive overview of America's role in international politics. Expert contributors focus in turn on the historical background, institutions, regional relations, and contemporary issues that are key to its foreign policy-making.

Utilitarianism is one of the most important and influential secular philosophies of modern times, and has drawn considerable debate and controversy. This Very Short Introduction considers its origins, its relevance to modern moral challenges, and the arguments and discussions around utilitarian approaches.

There are many debates about utopia - What constitutes a utopia? Are utopias benign or dangerous? The idea of utopia has become commonplace in social and political thought, both negatively and positively. This Very Short Introduction explores utopianism, its history, and its role in modern debates.

Set during the Napoleonic wars, Vanity Fair follows Becky Sharp as she cuts a swathe through Regency society. War, money, and national identity are the themes of Thackeray's great satirical novel, as it exposes a world on the make. In Becky, Thackeray created one of the most memorable female characters in Victorian fiction.

Drawing on psychology, philosophy, and literature, William James's classic survey of religious belief gathers testimony from a huge range of diverse sources to construct a defence of the individual religious experience. It speaks powerfully to the modern debate on atheism and faith, in the most critically up-to-date edition available.

A captivating hybrid of Gothic, oriental, and satiric fiction, Vathek documents the fall of Vathek, whose obsessive quest for knowledge, pleasure and power leads to his eventual damnation. An extraordinary fantasy, the novel has influenced writers from Byron to Lovecraft. This new edition combines a definitive text with new introduction and notes.

The true story of Allied nursing in the First World War, offering a compelling account of nurses' wartime experiences and a clear appraisal of their work and its contribution to the Allied cause.