The Basics
About the Book Series
The Basics is a highly successful series of accessible guidebooks which provide an overview of the fundamental principles of a subject area in a jargon-free and undaunting format.
Intended for students approaching a subject for the first time, the books both introduce the essentials of a subject and provide an ideal springboard for further study. With over 50 titles spanning subjects from Artificial Intelligence to Women’s Studies, The Basics are an ideal starting point for students seeking to understand a subject area.
Each text comes with recommendations for further study and gradually introduces the complexities and nuances within a subject.
Mad Studies: The Basics
1st Edition
By Merrick Daniel Pilling
May 21, 2025
Mad Studies: The Basics provides an introductory account of a field that emerged from, and must remain grounded within, community knowledge, activism, and the perspectives of those who have experienced madness and mental health systems. It is a concise text that introduces the field through an ...
Quakerism: The Basics
2nd Edition
By Margery Post Abbott, Carl Abbott
May 21, 2025
Quakerism: The Basics introduces a vibrant twenty-first-century religion, tracing the evolution of the Religious Society of Friends from its origins in seventeenth-century England to a worldwide religion, balancing discussion of Quaker history, evolving beliefs and practices, and contemporary ...
Propaganda: The Basics
1st Edition
By Nathan Crick
May 19, 2025
This concise and accessible guide makes clear the ubiquity of propaganda so that readers can understand its function in all layers of society, for both good or for ill, and ultimately use it to make their own voice heard. Propaganda often appears as a paradoxical art: modern society is awash in ...
Ethnography: The Basics
1st Edition
By Susan Wardell
May 16, 2025
Ethnography: The Basics introduces a broad and beginner audience to ethnography as a research methodology with diverse applications. By using everyday language and developing a warm and inclusive tone, the book provides an accessible entry point to the topic. It offers a picture of the practice of ...
Bayesian Statistics: The Basics
1st Edition
By Thomas J. Faulkenberry
April 29, 2025
Bayesian Statistics: The Basics provides a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to Bayesian statistics, specifically tailored for any researcher with an interest in statistical methods. It covers the theoretical foundations of Bayesian inference, contrasting it with classical statistical ...
Fat Studies: The Basics
1st Edition
By May Friedman
April 23, 2025
Fat Studies: The Basics introduces the reading of fat bodies and the ways that Fat Studies, as a field, has responded to waves of ideas about fat people, their lives, and choices. Part civil rights discourse and part academic discipline, Fat Studies is a dynamic project that involves contradiction ...
Projection Design: The Basics
1st Edition
By Davin E. Gaddy
April 08, 2025
Projection Design: The Basics explores the concepts of visual elements in live entertainment. It provides a conversational view of the fundamentals of projection design, from production meetings and the elements of visual design to the equipment necessary to make it all happen. This text examines ...
Science Communication: The Basics
1st Edition
By Massimiano Bucchi, Brian Trench
April 02, 2025
Science Communication: The Basics is an accessible yet critical introduction to science communication, which is viewed as the social conversation around science. It addresses why science communication matters, examines the evolution of theories and practices and explains concepts, myths, ...
Waste: The Basics
1st Edition
By Myra J. Hird
March 18, 2025
Waste: The Basics answers the questions: why are we facing a global waste crisis, and how can we effectively solve it? The book identifies the most common types of waste, its major producers, how we manage waste locally, regionally and globally, and why this management is leading to more waste. ...
Anthropology of Reproduction: The Basics
1st Edition
By Sallie Han, Cecília Tomori
February 28, 2025
Anthropology of Reproduction: The Basics is a clear and accessible guide to topics in reproduction from the perspective of anthropology, emphasizing the central importance of reproduction in human sociocultural and biological experience. It examines why reproduction matters so much to human beings ...
Positive Health: The Basics
1st Edition
By Jolanta Burke, Pádraic J. Dunne, Elaine Byrne, Ciaran A. O’Boyle
February 19, 2025
This introductory book offers a clear guide to the new field of Positive Health which incorporates a shift towards perceiving body and mind as an integrated system. The book combines Lifestyle Medicine research and practice, such as healthy eating, good sleep hygiene, and physical activity, with ...
Phenomenology: The Basics
2nd Edition
By Dan Zahavi
February 07, 2025
Phenomenology: The Basics is a concise and engaging introduction to one of the important philosophical movements of the twentieth century and to a subject that continues to grow and diversify. Yet it is also a challenging subject, the elements of which can be hard to grasp. This lucid book ...