Professionals & Academics

In this illuminating and entertaining biography David Knight draws upon Humphry Davy's poetry, notebooks and informal writings to introduce us to one of the first professional scientists. Davy is best remembered for his work on laughing gas, for the arc lamp, for isolating sodium and potassium, for ... More

This brief text assists students in understanding Hume's philosophy and thinking so that they can more fully engage in useful, intelligent class dialogue and improve their understanding of course content. Part of the "Wadsworth Philosophers Series," (which will eventually consist of approximately 10... More

Written by renowned Aristotle scholar Sir David Ross, this study has long been established as one of the foremost surveys of Aristotle's life, work and philosophy.With John L. Ackrill's introduction and updated bibliography, created for the sixth edition, the book continues to serve as a standard gu... More

Legendary for his exploits in war and in love, Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) comes into clear view in this captivating new biography. "The best modern biography of Britain's greatest admiral"--John Keegan, "Daily Telegraph." 76 illustrations, 58 in color.Legendary for his exploits in war and lo... More

"This is a masterly book which brings together the two major Bacons--the politician and the philosopher. . . .Impeccably researched, elegantly written, and comprehensive in scope, it is simply the best synthetic study of Bacon now available."--Donald Kelley, Rutgers UniversityFrancis Bacon (1561-162... More

Interlacing the life and work of Arendt, the seminal 20th century philosopher, Kristeva provides readers with an elegant, sophisticated biography replete with powerful psychoanalytic insight. 4 halftones.Twenty-five years after her death, we are still coming to terms with the controversial figure of... More

The first volume in the Lives of the Left series, Annie Cohen-Solal's Sartre is a remarkable achievement. "A sensation" upon its initial publication in France, as the New York Times reported, Sartre was subsequently translated into sixteen languages and went on to become an international bestseller,... More

"I realized I was willing to die for Java." -- KIM POLESE, MARIMBA "I was the opposite of a party animal. I had this thing where if I was signed up for a [college] class, I wouldn't go to the class, ever." -- BILL GATES, MICROSOFT "I don't know what made me decide that my life should always be abo... More

Sara Suleri Goodyear's "Meatless Days," recognized now as a classic of postcolonial literature, is a finely wrought memoir of her girlhood in Pakistan after the 1947 partition. Set around the women of her family, "Meatless Days" intertwines the violent history of Pakistan's independence with Suleri ... More

An aviation expert uncovers the brilliance behind the first successful flight of an engine-powered plane In the centennial year of the Wright Brothers' first successful flight, acclaimed aviation writer T. A. Heppenheimer reexamines what Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved. In First Flight, he debunk... More

Introducing Machiavelli traces the colorful life of this paradoxical Renaissance realist, whose clear-sighted patriotism made him the first truly modern political scientist, and who is now central to the postmodern debate on Civil Society.... More

The remarkable story of how two brothers--Edouard and Andre Michelin--turned the sleepy family rubber firm in the heart of rural France into one of the most innovative and successful tire makers in the world. Edouard, a landscape painter, displayed an engineering genius for tire making and product i... More

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was the first great English philosopher and one of the most important theorists of human nature and politics in the history of Western thought. This superlative introduction explains Hobbes's main doctrines and arguments, covering all of Hobbes's philosophy. A.P.Martinich b... More

Wall Street to Main Street: Charles Merrill and Middle-Class Investors focuses on the spectacularly successful career of financier Charles Merrill (1885-1956), the founder of Merrill Lynch & Co., the world's largest brokerage and investment firm. Merrill was the most innovative entrepreneur in the U... More

This brief text assists students in understanding Hegel's philosophy and thinking so they can more fully engage in useful, intelligent class dialogue and improve their understanding of course content. Part of the Wadsworth Notes Series, (which will eventually consist of approximately 100 titles, eac... More

This three-volume work constitutes a comprehensive scholarly edition of the correspondence of the English economist, Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), one of the leading figures in the development of economics and the founder of the Cambridge School of Economics. The edition fills a long-standing gap in ... More

"Reassessing Foucault" critically examines the implications of Foucault's work for a wide range of areas in the social and human sciences. Focusing on the social history of medicine, successive chapters deal with his historiographical, methodological and philosophical writings, his ideas about priso... More

Who are the greatest reporters in history? This unique book is the first to try and answer this question. Author David Randall searched nearly two centuries of newspapers and magazines, consulted editors and journalism experts worldwide, and the result is The Great Reporters---13 in-depth profiles o... More

In an era when science was perceived as a male domain, Mary Somerville (1780-1872) became both the leading woman scientist of her day and an integral part of the British scientific community. Her scientific writings contributed to one of the most important cultural projects of Victorian Britain: est... More