The concept of the Very Short Introduction series has intrigued me for some time. You can go to your local bookstore, pick up a volume, and quickly relearn what you once knew but had forgotten about important subjects. Or you can find a volume on something you should know about but never found time to study. Imust admit that I have long thought of these books as sophisticated crib notes, written by scholars who understand what is important about a subject and can distill complex information in an accessible format
