How do you keep up in the age of information when there's so much to know and so little time? Concise and authoritative, meticulously researched, lucidly written and accessible, this invaluable resource is sure to become a standard reference book for years to come. The Dictionary of Important Ideas and Thinkers is a practical book of knowledge offering analysis, interpretation and penetrating insight into the key concepts, the most influential minds, and the major intellectual movements in history. Now you can get to the bottom of the big bang theory; find out where Freud's ideas were coming from, and where Einstein's may ultimately take us; demystify surrealism and structuralism, dialectic and deconstruction, communism and capitalism. With hundreds of entries, drawn from a wife range of fields - including religion, philosophy, psychology, economics, politics, history, art, literature and science - The Dictionary of Important Ideas and Thinkers enables you to turn immediately to the term in question for a comprehensive description of its history, meaning, and context.* Hundreds of entries, alphabetically arranged, with key words and concepts highlighted and cross-referenced