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Adrian Wilkinson reviews the historical development of human resource management, showing how the changes in political, legal, and macroeconomic spheres have shaped how human resources are managed. Considering HRM in a global world, he considers how it is adapting to a very different work landscape.

Elizabeth Bishop has been described as the 'best-loved' poet in English of the second half of the twentieth century. This book explores the published poems at the core of her remarkable canon of verse, along with her letters and other writings, and draws out key themes of the environment, balance, and ideas of love and loss.

Famous for her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley was also infamous in her own time for breaking social and literary conventions, and taking a political and philosophical stance advocating for the rights of women. Charlotte Gordon explores the context and key themes in the life and work of this courageous, complicated, and accomplished woman.

John Stuart Mill (1806-73) is widely regarded as the leading liberal philosopher, economist, and political theorist of nineteenth century Britain. This book offers a brief survey of his life and ideas, highlighting the philosophical context for his work, exploring the key themes in his writings, and analysing their lasting influence.

CBT is a form of psychological therapy with a range of approaches that share a common underpinning model of the importance of cognition and behaviour in alleviating psychological distress. This book gives an overview of what CBT is, what it does, when it can be used, and the ways in which the field can adapt to meet future challenges.

Violence is part and parcel of both human history and nature. It is the one thing that all cultures and societies share in common. This book considers violence in the modern world, examining the ideas underpinning it, and the cultural context for violence over the last two centuries. It also asks if we are becoming more or less violent.

This book provides a fresh modern introduction to geometry, an ancient branch of mathematics with important applications. It takes readers from Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries, to curved spaces, and the geometry of space-time inside a black hole, and outlines the role geometry plays in the broader context of science and art.

This book explains the philosophical and historical concepts that shape current debates about science and religion. It also considers some of the themes and issues that have become more prominent in the past decade, such as science denial, climate change and environmentalism, and religion and public health - including responses to Covid-19.

Fluid mechanics is an important branch of physics concerned with the way in which fluids, such as liquids and gases, behave when in motion and at rest. Starting from the fundamental underlying physical principles, Eric Lauga highlights the role of fluid motion in both the natural and industrial world, and considers future applications.

Technology does not stand apart from music, influencing it from the outside--it is a part of music, integral to every aspect of musical activity and musical life.

Proposes a new way of listening to Beethoven by understanding his music as an expression of his entire self, not just the iconic scowl Despite the ups and downs of his personal life and professional career - even in the face of deafness - Beethoven remained remarkably consistent in his most basic convictions about his art. This inner consistency, writes the music historian Mark Evan Bonds, provides the key to understanding the composer''s life and works. Beethoven approached music as he approached life, weighing whatever occupied him from a variety of perspectives: a melodic idea, a musical genre, a word or phrase, a friend, alover, a patron, money, politics, religion. His ability to unlock so many possibilities from each helps explain the emotional breadth and richness of his output as a whole, from the heaven-storming Ninth Symphony to the eccentric Eighth, and from the arcane Great Fugue to the crowd-pleasingWellington''s Victory. Beethoven''s works, Bonds argues, are a series of variations on his life. The iconic scowl so familiar from later images of the composer is but one of many attitudes he could assume and project through his music. The supposedly characteristic furrowed brow and frown, moreover, came only after his time. Discarding tired myths about the composer, Bonds proposes a new way of listening to Beethoven by hearing his music as an expression of his entire self, not just hisscowling self.

Famous throughout history for their doomed stand at Thermopylae, and immortalised by contemporary Athenian writers who viewed them as the exotic other, the Spartans, and their brutality and bravery, both fascinate and appal us. Andrew Bayliss reveals the best and the worst of this harsh society, separating myth from reality.

Adorno was a German philosopher, and social and cultural theorist whose work is seen as increasingly relevant to understanding the pathologies of contemporary society. This book considers his life and work, from the philosophical tradition he worked from to his explorations of reason and social theory, and critical assessments of modern culture.

This book gives an overview of the main kinds of employment rights and labour laws found in many countries. It evaluates some of the assumptions underpinning contemporary attitudes to such rights and laws in order to measure whether they are warranted. It also considers economic, political, and social justifications for employment rights and laws.

This Very Short Introduction explores the nature of bacteria, their origin, evolution, and relationship to the environment to demonstrate the fundamental role they play in our existence. This new edition examines the symbiotic relationship between the human body and bacteria, including their role in disease, wellness, and evolutionary development.

With a full scope of financial services, ranging from banking and capital markets to insurance and microfinance, Islamic finance has now become the most prominent form of faith-based finance in the world. This book sheds light on its core principles and practices, and considers its performance and potential compared with conventional finance.

This Very Short Introduction discusses the central events, machines, and people that feature in established accounts of the history of computing. It then recontextualises them, critically examining received perceptions and providing a fresh look at the nature and development of the modern electronic computer.

Negotiation is essential for peace and international relations, but also for economically efficient trades and bargains in business, and for problem solving skills in workplaces, families and interpersonal interactions. Menkel-Meadow illustrates different models, approaches, and styles of negotiation, which are both conceptual and behavioral.

This book traces the key arguments that have led poststructuralists to challenge traditional theories of language and culture. It draws on examples from across our culture to explain how poststructuralism explores the relationship between human beings, the world, and the practice of making and reproducing meanings.

An exploration of the life and political essays of 20th century philosopher, Hannah Arendt. Dana Villa analyses Arendt's pathbreaking studies on totalitarianism, power, evil, and political theory.

This Very Short Introduction explores the backstory, event, and reception of the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, in light of the wider history of the Catholic Church and places it in the exciting and tumultuous context of the 1960s.

In this Very Short Introduction to the gene Jonathan Slack explores the discovery, nature, and role of genes in evolution and development. Looking at how genes are understood as a concept, the nature of genetic variation, and how their mutation can lead to disease, this is an ideal guide for anyone curious about what genes are and how they work.

Unlocking the secrets of the Universe involves the critical application of the laws of physics to the observations. This Very Short Introduction describes how we are turning observations into knowledge and how theory, in turn, is inspiring new observations.

This second edition of Borders: A Very Short Introduction challenges the perception of borders as passive lines on a map, revealing them instead to be integral forces in the economic, social, political, and environmental processes that shape our lives.

Law touches every aspect of our daily lives, and yet the main concepts, terms, and processes of the legal system remain obscure to many. This Very Short Introduction, in its third edition, provides a lucid, accessible guide to modern legal systems, considering a number of social and political events that have had an impact on the law.