Society's attitudes to rhetoric are often very negative. Here, Richard Toye provides an engaging, historically informed introduction to rhetoric, from Ancient Greece to the present day. Wide-ranging in its scope, this Very Short Introduction is the essential starting point for understanding the art of persuasion.

Thomas Paine was the first international revolutionary. His Common Sense was the most widely read pamphlet of the American Revolution, while his Rights of Man sent out a clarion call for revolution throughout the world. This collection brings together Paine's most powerful political writings in the first fully annotated edition of these works.

A study of magic in western Europe in the early Middle Ages. It is a scholarly and challenging book which makes a major contribution to the study of the Christianization of Europe. 'both significant and provocative ... a big, beautifully written and wonderfully learned book.' Times Higher Education Supplement.

The story of the Easter Rising from the perspective of those who made it, focusing on the experiences of rank-and-file revolutionaries and exploiting a unique and recently released collection of over 1,700 eye-witness statements.

Risk is everywhere - from genetically modified crops, dams, and stem-cell therapy to heartbreak, online predators, inflation, and robbery. This Very Short Introduction examines what science has learned about how people deal with risks, what we can learn through decision theory, and how we can evaluate risk in our own lives.

This Very Short Introduction is a celebration of rivers in all their diversity. Nick Middleton covers a wide and eclectic range of river-based themes, from physical geography to mythology, to industrial history and literary criticism. Worshipped and revered, respected and feared, rivers reflect both the natural and social history of our planet.

This peerless edition of Chaucer's complete works is the fruit of many years' study and is widely regarded as the standard text. Edited and annotated to a high standard, and with a new foreword by Christopher Cannon, the Riverside Chaucer is now the indispensable edition for students and readers of Chaucer.