Teach Yourself is currently an imprint of

Hodder Education Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Ki ...

and formerly a series published by the English Universities Press (a subsidiary company of

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette. History Early history The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publishe ...

) that specializes in self-instruction books. The series, which began in 1938, is most famous for its language education books, but its titles in mathematics (including

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...

and

calculus Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematics, mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizati ...

) are also best sellers, and over its long history the series has covered a great many other subjects as well.Publishinghistory.com: ''Teach Yourself''
/ref> "A Concise Guide to Teach Yourself", compiled by A R Taylor, was published in 1958 and listed all the titles up until then.

Overview

The ''Teach Yourself'' books were published from 1938 until 1966 under the imprint English Universities Press, owned by Hodder & Stoughton. Leonard Cutts (1904-1992) was overall editor from the start, and he remained the editor until 1964. Most titles published during the Second World War were aimed at helping the British nation survive as well as improving knowledge in the subjects that would advance the war effort. ''Teach Yourself to Fly'' by

Nigel Tangye Nigel Trevithick Tangye (24 April 1909 – 2 June 1988) was a British airman, novelist, journalist and the writer of various books about Cornwall. He worked for MI5, and later claimed to have been an MI5 agent during the Spanish Civil War. ...

was published on the eve of the Second World War. It was immediately recommended by the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of Stat ...

to prospective

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

pilots. ''Teach Yourself Radio Communication'' and ''Teach Yourself Air Navigation'' were added to the list in 1941. There was a big demand for these books, especially as supplies were constrained by wartime paper shortages. In June 1941 ''The Times'' reported that "sailors, soldiers and airmen have helped to bring the figures of ''Teach Yourself Mathematics'' (by John Davidson, 1938) and ''Teach Yourself Trigonometry'' (by Percival Abbott, 1940) to nearly 50,000 apiece". Barely two months later the number had risen to 80,000 each. By the 50th anniversary in 1988 some 40 million copies of the ''Teach Yourself'' series had been sold, with the books generating a turnover of over £1 million.Mackaskill, Hilary. "Goodbye, Teach Yourself Sex... hello, Origami", in ''The Guardian'', 13 June 1988, p 25. Nigel Cumberland with Marwan Abedin, CEO of Dubai Healthcare City

Nigel Cumberland with Marwan Abedin, CEO of Dubai Healthcare City

Like many similar series, ''Teach Yourself'' has always used a common design for all of its books. Most older titles are covered with a distinctive yellow and blue, (formerly black), dust jacket, but over the years the publisher has changed the cover design several times, using an all-blue paperback format during the 1980s, a larger photographic or painted front cover with a black stripe containing the title in the 1990s, and recently adopting a yellow rounded rectangle with a black border as their primary logo in the 21st century.

The Original Series (19381966)

The earliest (EUP) volumes in the series were published in 1938 priced at two shillings and sixpence. The first five books to be published were adaptations from earlier works, but subsequently all were newly commissioned. The original numbering scheme reached to over 700. Notable early titles included: * ''Teach Yourself About the Greeks'' by J. C. Stobart, was abridged from his full length work ''The Glory that was Greece'' (1911). * ''Teach Yourself Amateur Acting'' by John Bourne, said to have been read by

Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...

at the start of his career. * ''Teach Yourself Arabic'', first published in 1943, was written by

Arthur Stanley Tritton Arthur Stanley Tritton (25 February 18818 November 1973) was a British Arabist. He wrote a number of books on Islam and its history, and from 1938 to 1946 was Professor of Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Life Tritton was bor ...

. Tritton wrote a number of books on Islam and its history, and from 1938 to 1946 was Professor of Arabic at the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ...

. * ''Teach Yourself Astronomy'' was written by the noted British astronomer

David Stanley Evans David Stanley Evans (28 January 1916 – 14 November 2004) was a British astronomer, noted for his use of lunar occultations to measure stellar angular diameters during the 1950s. Early life and education Evans was born in Cardiff, Wales on 28 Ja ...

in 1957. At the time he was Chief Assistant at the Royal Observatory Cape of Good Hope. * ''Teach Yourself Biology'' was written in 1940 by the pioneering woman physician Mary Elizabeth Phillips (with Lucy Ellen Cox). * ''Teach Yourself Colloquial Arabic'', first published in 1962, was written by

Terence Frederick Mitchell Terence Frederick Mitchell (3 May 1919 – 1 January 2007), commonly known as T. F. Mitchell, was a British linguist and Professor of Linguistics and Phonetics at the University of Leeds. Biography Mitchell was born in Devon and educated at ...

, a British linguist at the University of Leeds. * ''Teach Yourself Embroidery'', one of the earliest titles in 1938, was written by Mary Thomas (1889-1948), who was editor of ''The Needlewoman'' in the 1920s and 1930s. * ''Teach Yourself Irish'', first published in 1961, was written by the Celtic scholars

Myles Dillon Myles Patrick Dillon (11 April 1900 – 18 June 1972) was an Irish scholar whose primary interests were comparative philology, Celtic studies, and Sanskrit. Life Myles Dillon was born in Dublin; he was one of six children of John Dillon and h ...

and Donncha Ó Cróinín. * ''Teach Yourself to Think'', published in 1938, was written by R. W. Jepson, headmaster of the

Mercers' School The Mercers' School was an independent school in the City of London, England, with a history going back at least to 1542, and perhaps much further. It was operated by the Worshipful Company of Mercers and was closed in 1959. History After the di ...

. * ''Teach Yourself Turkish'', first published in 1953, was written by

Geoffrey Lewis Geoffrey Lewis may refer to: * Geoffrey Lewis (actor) (1935–2015), American character actor * Geoffrey Lewis (scholar) (1920–2008), British professor of Turkish * Geoffrey Lewis (philatelist), Australian philatelist * Geoffrey W. Lewis (died ...

, the first professor of the Turkish language at the University of Oxford. Subjects covered in the series ranged from the vocational (''Teach Yourself Banking'' by John Burgess Parker) to practical home help (''Teach Yourself Bringing up Children'', ''Teach Yourself Dressmaking'', ''Teach Yourself Gas in the House'', ''The Teach Yourself Letter Writer''), to hobbyist (''Teach Yourself Bee-Keeping'', ''Teach Yourself Etching''), and language learning (with Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek and Hindustani among the earliest titles). The books even stretched to highly technical subjects (''Teach Yourself Chemistry'', ''Teach Yourself Atomic Physics'') and to the arts ( ''Teach Yourself to Compose Music''). One of the most extreme was ''Teach Yourself Jet Engines and Rocket Propulsion'' by Patrick Joseph McMahon, published in 1964. ''A Concise Guide to Teach Yourself'' was published in 1958, listing all the titles then available, although the official numbering only began in 1949, so the books published before them were assigned numbers posthumously.

Current Series (1966)

Books in the ''Teach Yourself'' series have been published since 1966 by Hodder & Stoughton, who shifted the format of the books to trade paperbacks in 1973. For 2010, the books had a total redesign, and were printed in colour for the first time. Today they are available around the English-speaking world and cover numerous subjects, from language education to computers, games, and other crafts and hobbies. The company now specialises in self-instruction courses through books, audio and multimedia, with a particular emphasis on languages.

Teach Yourself Languages Series

The ''Teach Yourself Languages'' range is available in over 65 languages and is available at four different levels. The ''Teach Yourself Languages'' range grade the four levels used against the

Common European Framework of Reference for Languages The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, abbreviated in English as CEFR or CEF or CEFRL, is a guideline used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages across Europe and, increasing ...

(CEFR). In their 2012 range, Teach Yourself introduced a feature called ''Discovery Method''. After each conversation has been practised, the Discovery Method provides further explanation through focusing on usage and practice rather than the focus on rules found in the traditional inductive method. ''Get Talking'' and ''Get Started'' Series: The first two strands, ''Get Talking'' (audio course) and ''Get Started'', are aimed at absolute beginners and those who have not learnt a language since school. ''Get Talking'' is an all-audio course designed to get teach basic speaking in a short period. ''Get Started In'' is a more comprehensive course tackling all four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking). * Arabic * Brazilian Portuguese * Cantonese * Danish * Dutch * French * German * Greek * Gujarati * Hindi * Hungarian * Italian * Japanese * Korean * Latin * Latin American Spanish * Mandarin Chinese * Modern Hebrew * Norwegian * Polish * Portuguese * Russian * Spanish * Swedish * Thai * Turkish * Vietnamese ''Complete...'' Series: The third strand is the ''Complete'' course, which is again aimed at absolute beginners, but is longer and covers a greater range of material. The ''Complete'' range offers the broadest range of products in the ''Teach Yourself Languages'' series as it covers all 65 languages available from ''Teach Yourself''. The ''Complete'' range includes many of the language volumes earlier included in the ''Teach Yourself'' series before the ''Complete'' language sub-series was devised. * Afrikaans * Arabic * Babylonian * Bengali * Brazilian Portuguese * Bulgarian * Cantonese * Catalan * Croatian * Czech * Danish * Dutch * English as a Foreign Language * Esperanto * Estonian * Tagalog * French * Scottish Gaelic * German * Greek * Hindi * Hungarian * Icelandic * Indonesian * Irish * Italian * Japanese * Korean * Latin American Spanish * Latvian * Lithuanian * Malay * Mandarin Chinese * Modern Hebrew * Modern Persian * Nepali * Norwegian * Panjabi * Polish * Portuguese * Romanian * Russian * Serbian * Spanish * Spoken Arabic of the Gulf * Swahili * Swedish * Thai * Turkish * Ukrainian * Urdu * Vietnamese * Welsh * Xhosa * Zulu ''Enjoy...'' Series: ''Enjoy'' is the fourth level, introducing further vocabulary and grammar. This series was formerly marketed as the "Perfect your..." series. * German * Italian * Norwegian * Spanish * French * Esperanto

All That Matters

The ''All That Matters'' series is a series of short introductions to various subjects, intended to allow readers to "quickly discover all that matters about" their subjects. , its titles include: * Ancient Egypt * Animal Rights * Archaeology * Astronomy * Atheism * Autism Spectrum Disorder * Bioethics * Buddhism * Classical World * Cyber Crime & Warfare * Darwin * Democracy * Emotion * Energy * Euthanasia * Existentialism * Free Speech * Future Cities * Future * God * History of Medicine * Intelligence * International Relations * Judaism * Love * Mathematics * Modern China * Modern Japan * Modern Korea * Muhammad * Philosophy * Plato * Political Philosophy * Risk * Sexuality * Shakespeare's Comedies * Shakespeare's Tragedies * Space Exploration * Stress * Sustainability * Terrorism * The Renaissance * The Romans * Water

References

External links

Official websiteCollecting Old Teach Yourself Books
- older dustjackets in numbered sequence with background details

{{Authority control 1938 establishments in England Hodder & Stoughton books Publishing companies established in 1938 Publishing companies of the United Kingdom Self-help books