Peter Harvey (1) (1951–)

For an 'introduction' a quite comprehensive description of Buddhism's history and the tenets and practices of its various schools.

This book brings both scholarly accuracy and readability. An excellent introduction to the many and varied facets of Buddhism. It covers all the bases: the Southern, Eastern, and Northern varieties. I highly recommend this book for any prospective students of Buddhism.

An excellent introduction including more than the bare minimum. Harvey pays attention to important linguistic points which other introductions often skip over and explains the history and major philosophical elements of Buddhism well.

The more introductory books I read on Buddhism, the more I come to appreciate this one. It is very well written and makes a very complex subject matter easy to understand. If I had to choose just one introduction to Buddhism, this would be it.