This Oxford University Press series focuses on topics in the news and current events, as well as books about countries. They are introductory overviews, written by academics and other scholars.
Sample topics include: Climate Change, Pandemics, The Gun Debate, Campus Politics, The News Media, and Inequality. The volumes on countries include books on China in the 21st Century, Sudan, South Sudan, and Darfur, Iran, Turkey, and Burma/Myanmar.
Each volume is structured differently, to be able to focus on the topic at hand, but most have sections related to the economic impact of the issue and policy implications.
This series is similar to the Oxford Very Short Introduction (VSI) series, but whereas the VSI focuses on academic disciplines or topics, this series focuses more on hot-button issues and topics currently in the news.
Although we have books in the What Everyone Needs to Know series in several libraries, we have a standing order for the series at the Shapiro Undergraduate Library, so we will automatically get the books as they are published. You can find a list of all of the volumes in our collection here.