Bestsellers: A Very Short Introduction ‘John Sutherland gives the bestseller the attention it deserves, and addresses both the British and American contexts. His treatment of this very large subject, in this very short introduction, is as entertaining as it is erudite, and as complete as it is compact.’ John Unsworth University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: AFRICAN HISTORY BARTHES Jonathan Culler John Parker and Richard Rathbone BESTSELLERS John Sutherland AMERICAN POLITICAL THE BIBLE John Riches PARTIES AND ELECTIONS THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea L. Sandy Maisel BRITISH POLITICS THE AMERICAN Anthony Wright PRESIDENCY Charles O. Jones BUDDHA Michael Carrithers ANARCHISM Colin Ward BUDDHISM Damien Keown ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw BUDDHIST ETHICS ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Damien Keown Julia Annas CAPITALISM James Fulcher ANCIENT WARFARE THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe Harry Sidebottom CHAOS Leonard Smith ANGLICANISM Mark Chapman CHOICE THEORY THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE Michael Allingham John Blair CHRISTIAN ART ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Beth Williamson ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead ARCHITECTURE CLASSICS Mary Beard and Andrew Ballantyne John Henderson ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY ART HISTORY Dana Arnold Helen Morales ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard THE HISTORY OF THE COLD WAR ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin Robert McMahon ATHEISM Julian Baggini CONSCIOUSNESS AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick Susan Blackmore CONTEMPORARY ART FASCISM Kevin Passmore Julian Stallabrass FEMINISM Margaret Walters CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY THE FIRST WORLD WAR Simon Critchley Michael Howard COSMOLOGY Peter Coles FOSSILS Keith Thomson THE CRUSADES FOUCAULT Gary Gutting Christopher Tyerman THE FRENCH REVOLUTION CRYPTOGRAPHY William Doyle Fred Piper and Sean Murphy FREE WILL Thomas Pink DADA AND SURREALISM FREUD Anthony Storr David Hopkins FUNDAMENTALISM DARWIN Jonathan Howard Malise Ruthven THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS GALILEO Stillman Drake Timothy Lim GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick GLOBAL CATASTROPHES DESCARTES Tom Sorell Bill McGuire DESIGN John Heskett GLOBALIZATION DINOSAURS David Norman Manfred Steger DOCUMENTARY FILM GLOBAL WARMING Patricia Aufderheide Mark Maslin DREAMING J. Allan Hobson THE GREAT DEPRESSION DRUGS Leslie Iversen AND THE NEW DEAL THE EARTH Martin Redfern Eric Rauchway ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta HABERMAS EGYPTIAN MYTH James Gordon Finlayson Geraldine Pinch HEGEL Peter Singer EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood BRITAIN Paul Langford HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball HINDUISM Kim Knott EMOTION Dylan Evans HISTORY John H. Arnold EMPIRE Stephen Howe HOBBES Richard Tuck ENGELS Terrell Carver HUMAN EVOLUTION ETHICS Simon Blackburn Bernard Wood THE EUROPEAN UNION HUMAN RIGHTS John Pinder Andrew Clapham EVOLUTION HUME A. J. Ayer Brian and Deborah Charlesworth IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden EXISTENTIALISM INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Thomas Flynn Sue Hamilton INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary NINETEENTH-CENTURY INTERNATIONAL BRITAIN MIGRATION Khalid Koser Christopher Harvie INTERNATIONAL and H. C. G. Matthew RELATIONS Paul Wilkinson NORTHERN IRELAND ISLAM Malise Ruthven Marc Mulholland JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close JUDAISM Norman Solomon PAUL E. P. Sanders JUNG Anthony Stevens PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig KABBALAH Joseph Dan PHILOSOPHY OF LAW KAFKA Ritchie Robertson Raymond Wacks KANT Roger Scruton PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner Samir Okasha THE KORAN Michael Cook PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews PLATO Julia Annas LITERARY THEORY POLITICS Kenneth Minogue Jonathan Culler POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY LOCKE John Dunn David Miller LOGIC Graham Priest POSTCOLONIALISM MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner Robert Young THE MARQUIS DE SADE POSTMODERNISM John Phillips Christopher Butler MARX Peter Singer POSTSTRUCTURALISM MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers Catherine Belsey MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope PREHISTORY Chris Gosden MEDIEVAL BRITAIN PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY John Gillingham and Catherine Osborne Ralph A. Griffiths PSYCHOLOGY MODERN ART David Cottington Gillian Butler and Freda McManus MODERN IRELAND PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns Senia Pašeta QUANTUM THEORY MOLECULES Philip Ball John Polkinghorne MUSIC Nicholas Cook RACISM Ali Rattansi MYTH Robert A. Segal THE RENAISSANCE NATIONALISM Steven Grosby Jerry Brotton THE NEW TESTAMENT AS RENAISSANCE ART LITERATURE Kyle Keefer Geraldine A. Johnson NEWTON Robert Iliffe ROMAN BRITAIN NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner Peter Salway THE ROMAN EMPIRE SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor Christopher Kelly THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler Helen Graham RUSSELL A. C. Grayling SPINOZA Roger Scruton RUSSIAN LITERATURE STUART BRITAIN John Morrill Catriona Kelly TERRORISM Charles Townshend THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION THEOLOGY David F. Ford S. A. Smith THE HISTORY OF TIME SCHIZOPHRENIA Leofranc Holford-Strevens Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone TRAGEDY Adrian Poole SCHOPENHAUER THE TUDORS John Guy Christopher Janaway TWENTIETH-CENTURY SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt THE VIKINGS Julian Richards SOCIAL AND CULTURAL WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling ANTHROPOLOGY WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman John Monaghan and Peter Just THE WORLD TRADE SOCIALISM Michael Newman ORGANIZATION SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce Amrita Narlikar Available Soon: ANTISEMITISM Steven Beller GERMAN LITERATURE THE EUROPEAN UNION Nicholas Boyle (NEW EDITION) John Pinder HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside and Simon Usherwood MEMORY Jonathan Foster EXPRESSIONISM MODERN CHINA Katerina Reed-Tsocha Rana Mitter GAME THEORY Ken Binmore QUAKERISM Pink Dandelion GEOGRAPHY John Matthews and SCIENCE AND RELIGION David Herbert Thomas Dixon GEOPOLITICS Klaus Dodds SEXUALITY Véronique Mottier For more information visit our website www.oup.co.uk/general/vsi/ This page intentionally left blank John Sutherland Bestsellers A Very Short Introduction 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York  John Sutherland 2007 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as a Very Short Introduction 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 978–0–19–921489–1 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire Contents List of illustrations xiii 1 Defi nitions 1 2 The modern scene 23 3 Fields and lists 32 4 The American bestseller 44 5 The British bestseller 81 6 The future of the bestseller: is there one? 109 Further reading 114 Index 117