Vividly illustrated with photographs that capture the paradox of an ancient culture remaking itself into a dynamic consumer society, Dragon Rising is a wonderfully written, well-rounded, wide-ranging portrait of China's problems and prospects.

Writing in The New York Review of Books, Michael Massing declared, “Not since Foreign Affairs magazine published Samuel Huntington’s ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’ in 1993 has an academic essay detonated with such force.” The publication of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is certain to widen the debate and to be one of the most talked-about books of the year.

A towering work of history examining the world's most pressing problem—the growing gulf between rich and poor. For the last six hundred years, the world's wealthiest countries have been mostly European. Late in our century, the balance has begun to shift toward Asia, where countries such as Japan have grown at astounding rates. Why have these dominant nations been blessed, and why are so many others still mired in poverty?... The key to relieving much of the world's poverty lies in understanding the lessons history has to teach us—lessons uniquely imparted in this groundbreaking book.

What Freakonomics does for understanding the economy, The J Curve does for better understanding how nations behave. The J curve is a visual tool that allows us to see at a glance why some crucial countries are in crisis and unstable while others are prosperous and politically solid. In this imaginative, playful, and practical guide, Ian Bremmer, an expert on the politics of international business, turns conventional wisdom on its head. He reveals how the United States can begin more successfully to act in its own interests... Bremmer's tour of the nations of the world—our friends, our foes, and others in between—shows us how to see the world fresh, get rid of shopworn attitudes, and discover a new and useful way of thinking.

Written by an international team of scholars, the Companion offers a wealth of biographical and historical information that illuminates Eliot's work. There are entries on all her novels (including plot synopses), stories, and important essays, plus coverage of poetry and translations, letters and journals, and notebooks and manuscripts. A long entry surveys her life, and shorter entries discuss her family, friends, and acquaintances, the places she lived and the countries she visited, and the writers, thinkers, artists, and composers whose work she knew.

How do we read a novel?—this is the question which lies behind a new collection of essays on the Victorian novel written by members of the English Board of Studies at the University of Kent. It is a question which leads into a consideration of what happens to our critical judgements in the process of reading, as we turn the pages over and begin to build the detail into form. The Victorian novel provides a particularly rich source for this kind of interest. We are made to think about what it is like to read a long novel, a novel which is illustrated, a novel published in a serial form. And through the distinctive voice and the prodigious story-telling that characterize nineteenth-century fiction, we are made more than usually aware of the effects of melodrama and suspense, of death as an abiding presence.

A Reader's Guide to the Nineteenth-Century English Novel lends perspective to the best-loved novels of Dickens, Hardy, Austen, Brontë, Thackeray, Eliot, and Trollope. Equipped with a knowledge of such nuances as the difference between a vicar and a rector, or whether the untitled gentleman or the impoverished baronet makes the more prestigious dinner guest, the American reader is truly able to enjoy the humor, irony, and pathos offered by the Victorian novel.

The first edition of Garner's Modern American Usage established Bryan Garner as "an American equivalent of Fowler" (Library Journal). With more than 23,500 copies sold, this witty, accessible, and engaging book has become the new classic reference work praised by professional copyeditors as well as the general public looking for clear advice on how to write more effectively.

This engaging and beautiful book includes the complete Academy Award-winning script and Thompson's own diaries detailing the production of the film, reviewed by Stanley Kauffmann in The New Republic as "vivid, funny, and gamy." 88 photos including 36 in color.

From the conjectured identity of the Dark Lady of the Sonnets to misprints in the First Folio, from Shakespeare's favorite figures of speech to the staging of Othello in South Africa, The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare offers the most comprehensive coverage available on all aspects of Shakespeare's life and works.

The Making of Pride and Prejudice reveals in compelling detail how Jane Austen's classic novel is transformed into a stunning television drama. Filmed on location in Wiltshire and Derbyshire, Pride and Prejudice, with its lavish sets and distinguished cast, was scripted by award-winning dramatist Andrew Davies, who also adapted Middlemarch for BBC TV. Chronicling eighteen months of work—from the original concept to the first broadcast—The Making of Pride and Prejudice brings vividly to life the challenges and triumphs involved in every stage of production of this sumptuous television series.

The screenplay to the critically acclaimed film which New York Newsday called one of the funniest, most enchanting, most romantic, and best written tales ever spun from the vast legend of Shakespeare. Marc Norman and renowned dramatist, Tom Stoppard have created the best screenplay of the year according to the Golden Globes and the New York Film Critics Circle.

Love Actually is the highly awaited new screenplay and directorial debut from phenomenally popular screenwriter Richard Curtis. Weaving together the stories of ten couples, the movie is as real as our own lives, and as funny, wise, and poignant as only Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) could create.

Attempts to persuade us—to believe something, to do something, to buy something—are everywhere. How can we learn to think critically about such attempts and to distinguish those that actually provide us with good reasons for being persuaded? Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide is a much-needed guide to argument analysis and a clear introduction to thinking clearly and rationally for oneself. Through precise and accessible discussion this book equips students with the essential skills required to tell a good argument from a bad one.

Offering an innovative approach to critical thinking, Good Reasoning Matters! identifies the essential structure of good arguments in a variety of contexts and also provides guidelines to help students construct their own effective arguments. In addition to examining the most common features of faulty reasoning—slanting, bias, propaganda, vagueness, ambiguity, and a common failure to consider opposing points of view—the book introduces a variety of argument schemes and rhetorical techniques. This edition adds material on visual arguments and more exercises.