Very Short Introductions

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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. The series began in 1995, and by December 2025 there were over 800 titles published or announced. The books have been commercially successful, and have been published in more than 25 languages. Institutions can subscribe to an online service to allow their users to read the books. 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, 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. The cover art for the series was originally the work of Philip Atkins, who painted over 300 of the publication's abstract covers. After his death in 2008, artist Joanna Usherwood became the credited cover artist, painting over 200 additional works.