Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World
By Alana Podolsky
On 3 May 1913, Raja Harishchandra, the first Indian feature-length film, premiered. Since then, India’s film industry, mostly known as Bollywood but operating outside of Bollywood’s Mumbai base as well, has become the world’s most prolific film industry — 1325 films were produced in 2008.
By Tom Burns
National Mental Health week in May this year will see the launch of the eagerly anticipated DSM-5. This is the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual which defines all psychiatric diagnoses and is often referred to as ‘the psychiatrists’ bible’. How can something so dry and dull sounding as a classificatory manual generate such fevered excitement? Indeed how did the DSM compete for space in a short book such as the VSI to Psychiatry?
With the announcement of the death of Bob Edwards at the age of 87, on April 10th 2013, a field of medicine and science has lost its grandfather. What is more, for more than five million children worldwide the man whose life’s work made their conception possible is no more. In every generation there are scientists whose discoveries and innovations make a difference but only a small number become household names. As one half of ‘Steptoe and Edwards’ Bob Edwards achieved that elevation in the popular imagination.
By Vincent Curcio
When you hear the name “Henry Ford” do you feel a certain shiver inside? Does a sober look come over your face as you mumble, “Well, he was a terrible anti-Semite”? You aren’t wrong of course, as many books and articles have documented through the years. In fact, that reaction probably places you in the majority. Of course, you know about the Model T and the assembly line too.
In anticipation of Heart Failure Awareness Day, we’re running a series of blog posts on this dangerous disease. To kick us off today, we chatted with Professors Theresa MacDonagh, past Chair of the British Society for Heart Failure, and Andrew Clark, Chair-elect, about the diagnosis of heart failure and the importance and benefit of adequate treatment.
By Matthew Worley
According to the Daily Mail, Oi! records were ‘evil’. According to the Socialist Worker, Oi! was a conduit for Nazism. According to the NME, Oi! was a means to inject ‘violent-racist-sexist-fascist’ attitudes into popular music. The year is 1981, and on 3 July the Harmbrough Tavern is set ablaze in the London borough of Southall.
By Sinéad Donnelly
A palliative medicine physician colleague of mine asked an audience of physicians where they would like to die: at home, hospice or hospital? Sitting in the audience I can only remember the number in favour of the third option. One person – and that was me.
By Anatoly Liberman
Some time ago I read Sidney P. Moss’s 1984 book Charles Dickens’ Quarrel with America. Those who remember Martin Cuzzlewit and the last chapter of American Notes must have a good idea of the “quarrel.” However, this post is, naturally, not on the book or on Dickens’s nice statement: “I have to go to America—on my way to the Devil” (this statement is used as an epigraph to Moss’s work).
By Christopher Wogan
In Trade Mark Law: a Practical Anatomy, Jeremy Phillips’ classic analysis of trademarks, Jeremy notes that how a trademark functions depends on “(i) how the trade mark owner uses it and (ii) how the purchaser views it.” The purpose of the trademark system is not only for those who own trademarks and their competitors, but also for those consumers who may or may not choose to use goods and services provided by the trade mark owner.
By Matthew Flinders
Justin Welby recently used his first Easter sermon as Archbishop of Canterbury to warn of the dangers of investing too much faith in frail and fallible human leaders, be they politicians or priests. Blind belief in the power of any single individual to bring about true change in any sphere, he argued, was simplistic and wrong, and led inevitably to disillusionment and disappointment.
What is the relationship between a Mediterranean diet and the risk of hyperuricemia in the elderly? Dr. Salas-Salvado joins us to discuss his most recent research in the The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.
By Daphne Hampson
The fifth of May 2013 marks the bicentenary of the birth of the Danish philosopher, theologian, and man of literature Søren Kierkegaard. He will be celebrated in Copenhagen and around the world. What estimate should we form of him today?
By Ron Rodman
The death of Annette Funicello this month set off a wave of nostalgia among baby boomers who remember her as the star of the “Mouseketeers” of the original Mickey Mouse Club (MMC). MMC was the brainchild of Walt Disney, studio founder, entertainer, and entrepreneur, originally as a means of promoting the then new Disneyland, which opened in Anaheim, California on 17 July 1955.
By Muti Gulati
It is perhaps natural human tendency to think that the big events that occur during our lifetimes — particularly if they involve us personally — are both unique and will change the course of history. Reality though is that most of us aren’t particularly good at predicting what future historians will consider important.
By John Randolph Fuller
From April 1888 to February 1891, history’s most infamous cold case emerged when a series of 11 murders ripped through London’s working-class Whitechapel district. All of the murdered were women, and most were prostitutes. Whitechapel was one of the poorest areas in London and by the 1880s some of England’s grimiest industries, such as tanneries and breweries, had become established there.
By Alex Edmans, Vivian W. Fang, and Emanuel Zur
Short-term stock traders — such as hedge funds — have come under fire for pursuing their own profits rather than the long-run health of companies they invest in. The recent financial crisis added fuel to flames, but they had started burning several decades earlier. In the 1980s, many commentators argued that Japan’s economic success resulted from shareholders taking long-term stakes and thus having incentives to improve their firms’ long-run health.