Essays & Short Works
- Philosophical Travelogues
- Essays on Society and Culture
- Essays for Personal Growth
- Explorations in Science and Thought
- Explorations in Psychology
- Political Essays and Reflections
- Political Essays and Manifestos
- Philosophical Essays on Existence
The Theory of the Leisure Class
Originally published by the Norwegian-American economist Thorstein Veblen while he was a professor at the University of Chicago in 1898, the…
The Essays of Francis Bacon
Voltaire was an atheist. Diderot was Enlightened. But trite titles seldom encompass completely the beliefs of any individual. And this one f…
George Bernard Shaw
Chesterton and Shaw were famous friends and enjoyed their arguments and discussions. Although rarely in agreement, they both maintained good…
A Room of One’s Own
This feminist essay argues for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy. First…
The Devil's Dictionary
The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce is a sharp and witty exploration of language and human nature, presented in the form of a satirical…
Radioactive Substances
Marie Curie, born in Warsaw in 1867, was a Polish-French physicist and chemist famous for her work on radioactivity. She was a pioneer in th…
The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles
The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles invites listeners to explore the haunting beauty and stark realities of the Galápagos Islands throu…
The Treaty with China
"A good candidate for 'the most under-appreciated work by Mark Twain' would be 'The Treaty With China,' which he published in the New Y…
Èmile
Emile, or On Education or Émile, or Treatise on Education (French: Émile, ou De l’éducation) was published in 1762 in F…
The Mountains of California
The Mountains of California invites listeners to explore the breathtaking landscapes and natural wonders of California through the eyes of r…
The Negro Problem
This is a collection of essays, edited by Booker T. Washington, representative of what historians have characterized as "racial uplift …
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
The book chronicles and vilifies its targets in three parts: "National Delusions", "Peculiar Follies", and "Philoso…
Opticks
The famous physicist Sir Isaac Newton lectured on optics from 1670 - 1672. He worked on refraction of light into colored beams using prisms …
The Prophet
The prophet Al Mustafa, before leaving the city where he has been living twelve years, stops to address the people. They call out for his wo…
Essays in Radical Empiricism
Essays in Radical Empiricism presents a thought-provoking exploration of the nature of experience and reality through the lens of William Ja…
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
These twenty-eight lectures to laymen are elementary and almost conversational. Freud sets forth with a frankness almost startling the diffi…
Literary Taste
Arnold Bennett describes a method for enjoying literature, and suggests the contents of a comprehensive library. Chapters 1-10 and 14 descri…
Capital and Interest
Frédéric Bastiat was an early 19th century French economist/statesman whose common sense essays tried to battle the rise of so…
Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln
A few of Lincoln's most famous speeches and the Lincoln-Douglas debate make for historic reading. (summary by David O)
The World As Will and Idea
In this work, Schopenhauer explains his fundamental idea that at the root of the reality we see around us is a Will that eternally, insatiab…