 |
 | |
| Author | Various |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Published | 1995–present |
| Media type | Print (paperback), e-book |
| No. of books | 700+ (List of books) |
| OCLC | 911799103 |
| Website | www |
Very Short Introductions (VSI) is a book series published by the Oxford University Press (OUP). The books are concise introductions to particular subjects, intended for a general audience but written by experts. Most are under 200-pages long. While authors may present personal viewpoints, the books are meant to be "balanced and complete" as well as thought provoking.[1]
The series began in 1995, and by June 2025 there were over 750 titles published or announced.[2][3] The books have been commercially successful,[4] and have been published in more than 25 languages.[5] Institutions can subscribe to an online service to allow their users to read the books.[6]
Most of the books have been written specifically for the series, but around 60 were recycled from earlier OUP publications: several had been in OUP's Past Masters series,[7] and numbers 17–24 used chapters from The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain (1984).
Each book of the series is numbered on its spine. These numbers broadly, but not exactly, correspond with the publication dates. Two books have been removed from the series: #60, "Shakespeare" by Germaine Greer was replaced by "William Shakespeare" by Stanley Wells; and #116, "Anarchism" by Colin Ward was replaced by "Anarchism" by Alex Prichard.
Writing in the New Yorker in 2017, Kathryn Schulz praised the diversity of topics covered but noted significant gaps in coverage, including an absence of women and people of colour in its 54 biographies and "a British bias in the choice of subjects".[7] Schulz also described the quality of the books as variable, favourably comparing the books written about Teeth, Deserts and Robotics against those written on Mountains, Home and Archaeology.[7]
In the Fortnightly Review, Michelene Wandor said that the series "successfully bridged the gap between academic and trade publishing" and reviewed six volumes.[8]
Six boxed sets, each with a different theme, were released in 2006. Five books from the series on the given theme were included, plus the series' promotional volume A Very Short Introduction to Everything.
