All four movies from the action film series directed by George Miller. 'Mad Max' (1979), set sometime after an apocalyptic war, depicts a world in which the police have their hands full fighting roving motorcycle gangs. When the wife and child of cop Max (Mel Gibson) are murdered by one of the gangs, he sets out to get revenge. In 'Mad Max 2' (1981), following the road-side slaughter of his family, ex-cop Max roams the post-apocalyptic landscape alone. Reluctantly taking a pit-stop at a desert-set fortress, Max is gradually persuaded to help protect the people inside it and the commodity that makes it a prime target for marauding gangs - fuel. In 'Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome' (1985) Max, arriving in Bartertown in search of some stolen property, has to fight a duel in the Thunderdome arena. He is exiled to the desert by Bartertown's ruler, Auntie (Tina Turner), where he is rescued by a community of feral children. In 'Mad Max: Fury Road' (2015) Max (Tom Hardy) has been captured by a gang, led by the tyrannical Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). In order to escape Max teams up with Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a woman who wants to travel across the desert and find her way back home. But, after liberating five female captives from Joe's clutches, she too must escape from the crazy gang leader and his henchmen. Can they make it across the desert in one piece?

Longest serving Home Secretary until Theresa May, his tenure covering the Ripper murders, Fenian violence and social unrest, Matthews is notable as the first Catholic member of the Cabinet during a time of continued prejudice, yet this enigmatic character has been largely ignored or written off. Roger Ward challenges hostile judgements and examines Matthews' life and career in the context of turbulent times. A successful barrister, he entered the world of nineteenth century politics as MP for an Irish constituency, before becoming the sole Conservative MP in Chamberlain-controlled Birmingham. Championed by Lord Randolph Churchill, he found himself unexpectedly propelled into Salisbury's government of 1886-92, but lost his protector and was left to face a hostile press and Commons. Despite being born into solid Herefordshire gentry, Matthews grew up in Ceylon and was educated in Paris, multi-lingual, cosmopolitan and ill at ease in the brute ranks of the Tory party. Lone Catholic in Cabinet, lone Conservative in Birmingham, with no political coterie, he was an outsider on the inside. Raised to the peerage in 1895, he dedicated his life to Catholic causes. On his death he left instructions to burn his private papers, leaving tantalisingly few traces of a fascinating career.

Charles Sanders Peirce is one of the most original voices in American philosophy. His scientific career and his goal of proving scientific logic provide rich material for philosophical development. Peirce was also a life-long Christian and member of the Episcopal Church. Roger Ward traces the impact of Peirce's religion and Christianity on the development of Peirce's philosophy. Peirce's religious framework is a key to his development of pragmatism and normative science in terms of knowledge and moral transformation. Peirce's argument for the reality of God is a culmination of both his religious devotion and his life-long philosophical development.