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Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Humanitarian crises are a central problem of modern history and contemporary international relations. According to United Nations estimates, 300 million people required humanitarian assistance and protection in 2024 alone, due to displacement, armed conflict, food insecurity, disasters, and the consequences of climate change. The international humanitarian system, in turn, plays a powerful role in 21st century global affairs. Since the 1990s, the aid sector has ballooned in size and influence. It is now a multi-billion-dollar industry, employing hundreds of thousands of people globally. In a clear, accessible, and concise narrative, Humanitarianism: A Very Short Introduction explains how and why this situation came to be. In this book, historian Julia F. Irwin traces the events and trends that defined modern humanitarianism, from the eighteenth century up to the present day. It describes the origins of international humanitarian action, the development of major humanitarian organizations and movements, the evolution of international humanitarian law, and the expansion of the international humanitarian sector. It examines organized efforts to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity amid major conflicts, disasters, refugee crises, and other humanitarian emergencies. At the same time, Irwin shows how beliefs about race, gender, religion, and nationality have historically influenced humanitarian sentiments and actions. Attuned to the distinctions between wartime, postwar, and non-conflict situations, Irwin assesses criticisms waged against humanitarian actions and debates over the legitimacy of humanitarian interventions. This Very Short Introduction also teases out the complex relationship between humanitarianism, human rights, and international development. Finally, this book surveys diverse and competing humanitarian traditions throughout the world, placing humanitarian ideals and practices in a global context. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

A unique look at emophilia--the tendency to fall in love fast, easily, and often--and the profound impact it has on our lives and the lives of those around us. Why do some people fall in love in an instant--again and again--while others take months or even year? cross cultures, the concept of "love at first sight" has captivated us across recorded history. We all seem to know at least one hopeless romantic who falls quickly and easily, and while it's easy to dismiss this, only recently have we begun to study it from a psychological standpoint. In this book, social and personality psychologist Daniel N. Jones explores the fascinating science behind the tendency to fall in love fast, easily, and often. This groundbreaking book introduces emophilia--a powerful but often overlooked personality trait that influences how we connect, commit, and sometimes crash in our romantic lives. It draws upon cutting-edge research to explore topics like why some people are wired for whirlwind romances, risks behind what is known as "emotional promiscuity"--including infidelity and toxic partners--and impacts on emotional wellbeing. With its fresh lens on love, intimacy, and the psychology of connection, this insightful, provocative, and deeply human book, offers a refined understanding of people who fall in love quickly and deeply--and sometimes out of love just as fast.

This is the first full-length biography of Sulpicia, the earliest extant female author of classical Latin poetry. Unmentioned by her contemporaries, Sulpicia belonged to the pinnacle of the Roman aristocracy and wrote openly about her life and love affair in the same literary forms as Ovid, Propertius, and Tibullus. This study investigates Sulpicia''s family background, the societal expectations for a woman of her aristocratic rank, and the literary ferment that swept Rome in her day and to which she contributed.In Sulpicia: Life, Love, and Literature in Ancient Rome, Alison Keith takes the discovery of Sulpicia''s poetry as a point of departure, before turning to in-depth exploration of her aristocratic family background and her literary achievement in the heyday of Latin love poetry. She also probes the difficulty many male critics have had in believing that an aristocratic Roman woman could write poetry about love and sex.

One of the fundamental assumptions regarding the modern state is that it must have the capacity to defend itself from external enemies. Yet, there are twenty-one countries today-one ninth of the United Nations' membership-that do not maintain standing armies. What historical contexts, geographical endowments or socio-economic conditions allow or even encourage a state to go without an army? When does a country decide not to have an army, and under what circumstances is the issue even discussed? What kind of security provisions or guarantees, if any, do countries that consider demilitarization seek prior to making such a decision? And what are the disadvantages and benefits of not fielding a standing army? Zoltan Barany addresses all of these questions and more with three core arguments. First, he shows that the question of whether to create a new army or disband an extant force tends to arise at critical historical junctures for a nation. This may follow a civil war, a military coup, or an economic collapse. Second, virtually all of the states that do not maintain standing armies enjoy formal or informal security arrangements that provide explicit guarantees or implicit assurances that sovereignty will be safeguarded. Third, demilitarized states are more democratic and generally better off - and often far better off - in terms of political stability and nearly every measurable variable of socio-economic well-being than similar countries that maintain standing armies. States without Armies sheds new and counterintuitive light on the role of force in the international state system.

A definitive biography that sheds light on the life and times of one of the Civil War's most important generals. William Tecumseh Sherman, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Seminole War, became one of the best-known generals in the Civil War. His March to the Sea, which resulted in a devastated swath of the South from Atlanta to Savannah, cemented his place in history as the pioneer of total war. In The Scourge of War, preeminent military historian Brian Holden Reid offers a deeply researched life and times account of Sherman. By examining his childhood and education, his business ventures in California, his antebellum leadership of a military college in Louisiana, and numerous career false starts, Holden Reid shows how unlikely his exceptional Civil War career would seem. He also demonstrates how crucial his family was to his professional path, particularly his wife's intervention during the war. He analyzes Sherman's development as a battlefield commander and especially his crucial friendships with Henry W. Halleck and Ulysses S. Grant. In doing so, he details how Sherman overcame both his weaknesses as a leader and severe depression to mature as a military strategist. Central chapters narrate closely Sherman's battlefield career and the gradual lifting of his pessimism that the Union would be defeated. After the war, Sherman became a popular figure in the North and the founder of the school for officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, known as the "intellectual center of the army." Holden Reid argues that Sherman was not hostile to the South throughout his life and only in later years gained a reputation as a villain who practiced barbaric destruction, particularly as the neo-Confederate Lost Cause grew and he published one of the first personal accounts of the war.

The phenomenon of silencing has taken on new salience in the wake of #metoo and controversies around free speech. Using tools from the social philosophy of language, Mary Kate McGowan's On Silencing explains, in an accessible way, what silencing is and why it is important. Understanding silencing as a failure of communication, McGowan shows how communication can fail in one of three ways: one can be prevented from speaking, a speaker can be misunderstood, and a speaker can be understood but not affect the world as one should (such as when orders are not followed, refusals are not respected, and assertions are not believed). McGowan also explains how silencing is more likely to happen when we are trying to communicate across difference, and she provides concrete suggestions for what we can do--both as speakers and as hearers--to avoid contributing to harmful forms of silencing. In addition to explaining a pervasive social phenomenon in an accessible way, On Silencing makes novel contributions to current academic debates about silencing.

Recent events have thrust Belarus into the international spotlight, but for years after declaring independence in1991, Belarus remained a little-known republic in the West, despite its important geostrategic position between Poland and Russia, and as a conduit for Russian energy supplies to central Europe. In the late Soviet period, it was best known as a victim of the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl, which covered its territory in dangerous radionuclides of cesium, strontium, and iodine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022; the unprecedented mass demonstrations after President Alexander Lukashenka declared himself the victor in his 2020 presidential race against challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and the ensuing mass repression, imprisonment, and torture of civilians thrust the country into international attention. This book probes the deep background to these tumultuous events even long before the collapse of the Soviet Union and Lukashenka''s merciless dictatorship. Belarus: What Everyone Needs to Know® explains Belarus to outsiders, tracing its development, history, and formation of a modern identity. Marples and Laputska look at its place in contemporary Europe and its relations with Russia, Ukraine, China, and other states; and argue that the image of Belarus as a Soviet theme park or offshoot of Putin''s Russian World are far-fetched and misguided.

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, InspiringAsians have migrated to North America for centuries, in search of opportunities and conveyed by increasingly dense, international circuits of trade, labor markets, and family networks. Drawn by the riches promised by the relatively undeveloped, but not unpopulated, New World, Asians joined a diverse array of immigrants arriving in capacities such as merchants, farmers, fishermen, soldiers, missionaries, artists and artisans, industrial and agricultural laborers, technicians and scientists, journalists, sailors, diplomats, tourists, bankers, students, and entrepreneurs of every stripe. They contributed significantly to the massive transformation of the United States into the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, particularly on the west coast and Hawaii. Unlike their European counterparts, however, Asians challenged American conceptions of racial homogeneity and national culture which produced legislative and institutional efforts to segregate them through immigration laws, restrictions on citizenship, and limits on employment, property ownership, access to public services, and civil rights. Only with World War II, the Cold War, and the Civil Rights era''s remaking of racial ideologies and forging of a more egalitarian, multiethnic democracy Asian Americans have gained ground and acceptance, albeit in the still stereotyped category of "model minorities."Asian American History: A Very Short Introduction provides a narrative interpretation of key themes that emerge in the history of Asian migrations to North America. Clearly written and elegantly argued, this book complements typical American history narratives by highlighting how Asian immigration has shaped the evolution of ideological and legal interpretations of America as a "nation of immigrants."ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

As the First World War came to a chaotic end, Europeans feared that a wave of crime and anarchy would sweep across their continent. The upheavals of the war and of the subsequent violent breakup of the Habsburg, German, and Ottoman empires magnified longstanding fears that an increasingly interconnected world offered the enterprising and unscrupulous new opportunities to break the law and evade capture. New kinds of international criminals and criminal enterprises demanded novel forms of international cooperation. Thus was born the International Criminal Police Commission, known today as Interpol. In the 1920s and 1930s, Interpol''s police officials and the lawyers who collaborated with them created lasting programs to combat counterfeiting, sex and drug trafficking, terrorism, and human smuggling, and other forms of international crime, which they labelled "a scourge of humanity." Drawing on press reports, police files, and criminal records in numerous languages and across multiple countries, David Petruccelli explores the origins of Interpol and the role Central and Eastern European actors played in developing criminal policing and law during the interwar period to bring stability to their region and reshape international institutions and norms. He shows how legal experts replaced a liberal focus on individual rights with an emphasis on a collective of international societies and of police officers who looked to the international sphere as a space for eluding the constraints of the rule of law at home. In doing so, their initiatives posed an alternative to the imperial and liberal internationalist programs pursued by many Western Europeans and Americans and laid the groundwork for more radical forms of persecution during the Second World War. While bringing to life the stories of individuals involved in shady activities across borders, A Scourge of Humanity explores the vigorous policing and harsh criminal laws established by Interpol to combat their crimes and highlights illiberal forms of internationalism that have left a lasting mark on our world.

From time immemorial, the Japanese people have worshipped Kami--spirits that inhabit or represent a particular place, or embody natural forces like the wind, rivers, and mountains. Whenever a new settlement was founded a shrine would be erected for the spirits of that place to honor them and ensure their protection. It was believed that Kami could be found everywhere, that no place in Japan was outside their dominion. Shinto encompasses the doctrines, institutions, ritual, and communal life based on Kami worship. The ideal of Shinto, central to this study, is a construct in which a monarch rules through rituals for the Kami, a priestly order assists the sovereign by coordinating rituals, and the people who fulfill their obligations to the collective are in turn blessed by the Kami. Center and periphery join together in untroubled harmony through this theatre of state. Helen Hardacre offers for the first time in any language a sweeping, comprehensive history of Shinto, which is practiced by some 80% of the Japanese people. The basic building blocks of this vast and varied tradition, she shows, include the related concepts of imperial rule and ritual, the claim that rituals for the Kami are public in character, and the assertion that this complex web of ideas and institutions devoted to the Kami embodies Japan''s "indigenous" tradition. This study addresses the story of the emergence and development of these elements and the debates that surround them to this day. Because Shinto is centered on the Kami, it might be assumed that it is a religion, but Hardacre resists that assumption, instead questioning the character of the tradition at each stage of its history. She analyzes and deconstructs the rhetoric of Shinto as a defining feature of Japan''s racial identity, inextricably woven into the fabric of Japanese life. This definitive study represents a first, momentous step towards a more developed understanding of Shinto.

The Civil Rights Movement was among the most important historical developments of the twentieth century and one of the most remarkable mass movements in American history. Not only did it decisively change the legal and political status of African Americans, but it prefigured as well the moral premises and methods of struggle for other historically oppressed groups seeking equal standing in American society. And, yet, despite a vague, sometimes begrudging recognition of its immense import, more often than not the movement has been misrepresented and misunderstood. For many, a singular moment, frozen in time at the Lincoln Memorial, sums up much of what Americans and the world know about that remarkable decade of struggle. In The Civil Rights Movement: A Very Short Introduction, Thomas C. Holt provides an informed and nuanced understanding of the origins, character, and objectives of the mid-twentieth-century freedom struggle, privileging the aspirations and initiatives of the ordinary, grassroots people who made it. Holt conveys a sense of these developments as a social movement, one that shaped its participants even as they shaped it. He emphasizes the conditions of possibility that enabled the heroic initiatives of the common folk over those of their more celebrated leaders. This groundbreaking book reinserts the critical concept of "movement" back into our image and understanding of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Hebrew Bible, or Christian Old Testament, contains some of the finest literature that we have. This biblical literature has a place not only in the synagogue or the church but also among the classics of world literature. The stories of Jacob and David, for instance, present the earliest surviving examples of literary characters whose development the reader follows over the length of a lifetime. Elsewhere, as in the books of Esther or Ruth, readers find a snapshot of a particular, fraught moment that will define the character. The Hebrew Bible also provides quite a few high points of lyric poetry, from the praise and lament of the Psalms to the double entendres in the love of poetry of the Song of Songs. In short, the Bible can be celebrated not only as religious literature but, quite simply, as literature. This book offers a thorough and lively introduction to the Bible''s two primary literary modes, narrative and poetry, foregrounding the nuances of plot, character, metaphor, structure and design, and intertextual allusions. Tod Linafelt thus gives readers the tools to fully experience and appreciate the Hebrew Bible''s literary achievement.

This brief history of America will span the earliest migrations to the present, reflecting Paul S. Boyer''s interests in social, intellectual, and cultural history, including popular culture and religion. It will reflect his personal view of American history, in which a sense of paradox and irony loom large. While noting positive achievements--political, economic, social, and cultural--he will also discuss the United States''s failures to live up to its oft-stated ideals; although America has figured in the world''s imagination (and its own self-image) as a "land of opportunity" offering "liberty and justice for all," the reality has often fallen short.For example, the establishment of the North American colonies had very different meanings for colonists from the British Isles and Europe, for Native peoples, and for enslaved Africans brought against their will. The late nineteenth century saw not only impressive industrial expansion and the creation of vast fortunes but also appalling conditions in urban-immigrant slums and a degraded, exploited labor force. The twentieth-century emergence of a suburban society of consumer abundance meant a better life for many and laid the groundwork for impressive cultural creativity, yet left behind crime-ridden inner cities and spawned a stultifying mass culture. The immigrants who have renewed and revitalized the nation have also stirred hostility and resentment. While American popular culture has demonstrated global appeal, the projection of U.S. military power abroad, from the Philippines early in the twentieth century to Iraq early in the twenty-first, has sometimes failed in its purpose and damaged the nation''s international standing. Although this book will not be a muckraking exposé or anachronistic moral tract, neither will it be a celebratory panegyric or a bland recital of facts. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

In North America, the Indigenous literature we know today reaches back thousands of years to when the continent''s original inhabitants first circled fires and shared tales of emergence and creation, journey and quest, heroism and trickery. Sean Teuton tells the story of Indigenous literature, from the time when oral narrative inspired the first Indigenous writers in English, through later writers'' appropriation of genres to serve the creative and political needs of the times. In this lucid narrative he leads readers into the Indigenous worlds from which the literatures grows, where views about land and society and the role of humanity in the cosmos continue to enliven western understanding. In setting Indigenous literature in historical moments he elucidates its various purposes, from its ancient role in bringing rain or healing the body, to its later service in resisting European invasion and colonization, into its current place as a world literature that confronts dominance while it celebrates imagination and the resilience of Indigenous lives.Along the way readers encounter the diversity of Indigenous peoples who, owing to their differing lands, livelihoods, and customs, evolved literatures adapted to a nation''s specific needs. While, in the nineteenth century, public lecture and journalism fortified eastern Indigenous writers against removal west, nearly a century later autobiography enabled western Indigenous authors to tell their side of the winning of the west. Throughout he treats Indigenous literature with such complexity. He describes the single-handed invention of a written Indigenous language, the first Indigenous language newspaper, and the literary occupation of Alcatraz Island. Returning to contemporary poetry, drama, and novel by authors such as D''Arcy McNickle, Leslie Silko, Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, Craig Womack, Teuton demonstrates that, like Indigenous people, Indigenous literature survives because it adapts, honoring the past yet reaching for the future.ABOUT THE SERIES:The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Today, images of cartels, security agents donning face coverings, graphs depicting egregious murder rates, and military guards at US border crossings influence the world''s perception of Mexico. Mexico''s so-called drug war, as generally conceived by journalists and academics, was the product of recent cartel turf wars, the end of the PRI''s single party rule in 2000, and enhanced US border security measures post-9/11. These explanations are compelling, but they overlook state actions beginning in the 1970s that set the foundation for drug violence over the longer term.In Policing on Drugs, Aileen Teague chronicles a largely ignored but critical prehistory of intensified bilateral antidrug efforts by exploring their origins and inherent contradictions in Mexico. Beginning in the 1960s, US leaders externalized their aggressive domestic drug control practices by forcing junior partners such as Mexico into adopting their policies. Leaders on both sides of the border situated counternarcotics within a larger paradigm of militarized policing, which increased the power and influence of the military and aggressive counternarcotics in both countries. However, different security imperatives motivated US and Mexican agents, complicating enforcement in Mexico. Between 1969 and 2000, Mexico''s embrace of America''s punitive antidrug policies strengthened the coercive capacities of the Mexican state, exacerbated crime, and were so ineffective in an era of open trade blocs that they hastened the expansion of the drug trade.Drawing on such sources as records from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the US State Department, interviews with key officials, accounts from Mexican journalists, and rarely seen Mexican intelligence reports, Teague relates the war on drugs as a transnational story with deep historical roots in US and Mexican conceptions of policing and security. The negative impacts of US-led counternarcotics policies in Mexico can be attributed to the complex relationship between the United States'' and Mexico''s shared approach to the drug war--with critical implications for present-day relations.

For much of the Crescent City''s history, days began with the cries of roaming street vendors and the percussive thwack of butchers'' meat cleavers echoing out from the municipal markets. Generations of New Orleanians--Black and white, enslaved and free, men and women, wealthy and working class--gathered in public to feed the city. In Nourishing Networks, historian Ashley Rose Young illuminates the central role of food in shaping the vibrant culture of New Orleans. While the city''s dynamic culinary scene fostered bonds between some communities, under the surface, groups viciously vied for control over who bought and sold food and where they could do it. Young traces the intricate systems of food vendors and their customers, and how those relationships were affected by race, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. She shows how vendors and customers alike exercised considerable influence over the city''s food economy and the laws that regulated it by negotiating prices, shaping taste preferences, liaising with government officials, and even openly defying ordinances they felt were unfair. The power each group gained and lost determined the success of their businesses, the well-being of their families, and their ability to shape food retail and local laws to meet their needs.Nourishing Networks vividly depicts a city that throughout its history has struggled to feed its population safely and affordably, and in documenting those challenges, it offers lessons for building a better food future.