Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. "Not one of us actually thinks for himself, or in any orderly and scientific manner. The pressure of environment, of mass ideas, of the socialized intelligence... is too enormous to be withstood." The individual and society were central to several vol. 080 reads: The Genealogy of Etiquette; A Lounge on the Lawn; Alexander Pushkin; Princess Zizianoff; The Hanseatic League; and The Limits of Atheism. Science and the inventive mind were covered in "On the Science of Experiments; Coffey's Science of Logic; Medicine and It's Subjects; How a Fast Train is Run; and The Telephone...

"There has always been a tendency on the part of men of brains to look with contempt on women's work in the arts." Screenwriter and novelist Anita Loos' acerbic opinion is part of "Women in Film Speak Their Minds .” Ida Tarbell's "Women as Inventors" showcases female accomplishment. Vol. 081 contains commentary on a variety of human concerns: fame ; scandal ; religion ; education ; entrepreneurship ; patriotism ; and books . Technical ingenuity is highlighted in "Pompeian Surgical Instruments" and "Submarines...

"Is sin a necessary stage in the development of humanity, or a yawning chasm in the very structure of the universe?” Theologian J. Gresham Machen's exploration of "eternal ideas" is joined, in vol. 082, by readings in philosophy and psychology by Immanuel Kant, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Johnson. Insights from forestry, geography, astronomy, and zoology expand the view . Human resiliency, inventiveness and heroism are exemplified in A Heroine of the Black Hole; The Great Yorkshire Llama; The Terry Touch Alphabet; The Man O'War's 'Er 'Usband'; and a biography of pioneering physician Elizabeth Blackwell...

“Oh, mother, I would like to know everything.” “You can never know everything, my child, but you can learn many things from books.” According to children's book author James Baldwin , book reading was the key to success in life . Several vol. 083 selections tackle the thorny questions of how to foster open-mindedness, creativity, and compassion in the child and adult: : How Five Notable Women Were Educated; Winter Talk; and the Fantastic Imagination). Even Rural Free Mail delivery, new in 1900, is seen as effecting a “social revolution...

Ghosts everywhere, and of any colour," was the promise of Spectropia, a book of "surprising spectral illusions" published in 1863. Optical illusions were among the twenty vol. 084 topics, chosen by their readers, which were concerned with science, technology, and medicine, including the societal implications of decision making in these fields: . This Troubled World, a 1938 essay by Eleanor Roosevelt, is joined by others with a sociological focus: ; A Letter to a Hindu: The Subjection of India ; and Not Revolution, but Evolution)...

"A regard for decency, even at the cost of success, is but the regard for one's own dignity" was novelist Joseph Conrad's take on fame, a quote from the preface to his autobiography A Personal Record . Other lives chosen by readers to examine in vol. 085 include the Borgias; the Cynocephali; Hermann von Helmholtz; Edgar Allan Poe; John Burroughs; a pre-Revolutionary War magnate named Browne, who built a mansion on the ridge of a hill; women as a social class; and an 1821 rabies victim named Thomas, who exhibited hydrophobia...

"The democracy of the future will sicken of a chronic and mortal boredom," was Aldous Huxley's prophecy for the United States in 1923. You won't be bored listening to these 20 recordings, selected by their readers, with topics ranging from Leacock's humorous Manual of Education to Unamuno's Tragic Sense of Life. There's an artist's diary ; an after-dinner speech ; reflections on Beauty by John Burroughs; Willa Cather and Christopher Morley on writing; and Leibniz on the Origin of Things. Political topics include the Power of Third Parties; the House of Commons; the 1904 South Dakota Land Lottery; and an NAACP anti-lynching poster...

"Certitude is not the test of certainty." This pithy phrase is from Jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr's essay on Natural Law, one of twenty nonfiction pieces chosen by their readers for inclusion in volume 087. Selections from Pascal, Josiah Royce, and C.S. Peirce also delve philosophical themes. Builders, warriors, artists, and activists, the many faces of mankind, are illuminated in selections on Ferdinand De Lesseps, Stanislaus Koniecpolski, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, Frederic Edwin Church, the 14th century citizens of Liège, who vanquished Sir Radus' castle, and Simon Pokagon's The Red Man's Rebuke...

This collection is a mix of poems from several authors, all of which talk about health and disease from both the patient and the doctor's perspectives. - Summary by Maryam Arabi

"With opinions, possession is more than nine points of the law. It is next to impossible to dislodge them." Woodrow Wilson's Study of Administration examines public opinion's role in politics. It is one of 20 nonfiction readings chosen by the readers. Other faceted topics in volume 088 include culinary taste the existence of the supernatural ; slavery ; peace and war and culture . Rounding out the volume are a survey of Martinique, and a medical treatise on the Organs of the Human Voice.

"From vocalists you may learn much, but do not believe all that they say." Robert Schumann's Advice to Young Musicians is replete with good counsel. How, what, and from whom we learn is thematic to many of these 20 nonfiction selections, chosen by their readers. We learn from the lives of valorous persons ; from literature ; from journalists, activists, and the opinionated , and from nature . Summary by Sue Anderson

In his autobiographical essay "The Intellectuals and the Boston Mob," Booker T. Washington wrote: "It is not argument, nor criticism, nor hatred, but work in constructive effort, that gets hold of men and binds them together in a way to make them rally to the support of a common cause." Individual and group dynamics are at the core of most of the reader-chosen nonfiction pieces in Vol. 090. (Rugby School; Questions of Divorce; The Sage of Vienna, Popular Folk Poetry, The Use and Abuse of Church Bells, Superstition and Crime, Social Control, The Importance of Marking Historic Spots, The Pirates Who's Who, Catherine Tegahkouita, the Iroquois Mission of Sault St...

"Pneumatic tubes, instead of store wagons, will deliver packages and bundles." Store purchases by tube was one of John Watkins Jr's predictions for What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years, written in 1900. Man and womankind's achievements, and their failures, are central to many of the reader chosen nonfiction pieces in vol. 091 . Broadening the gaze are selections on science, poetry, myth, art, and imaginative writing . Summary by Sue Anderson

Calling men the "Bawling Brotherhood," Sarah Grand penned a lively essay on The New Aspect of the Woman Question in 1894. Stenography and the Typewriter, and Home Hints were other women centric selections from the 20 reader-chosen nonfiction pieces in volume 092. Social and political history figured in many readings: The Birthplace of American Independence ; Roman Remains in Great Britain; the Spanish American War; Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade ; State of the Union Address ; Disunion Sentiment ; and Monument to General Sheridan...

This recording comprises two narratives. One is by Cora Mitchel who in 1861 was a girl in her mid-teens. Her Unionist family escaped the Confederacy from their home in south Georgia to Rhode Island. This is her story written about 1916. The second narrative is by Charlotte St. Julien Ravenel of South Carolina, a contemporary journal written in the closing months of the civil war in 1865. - Summary by David Wales

"Flirting is more serious than talking nonsense and not so serious as making love" was journalist Eliza Lynn Linton's take on relations between the sexes in 1883. Other reader-chosen nonfiction selections in volume 093 see women as witches , as cooks , as medical pioneers , and as waffling adolescents . Political, religious, and cultural conflict are illustrated in questions regarding slavery in the Virginia colony, the Papal Bulls of 1493, the battle of Grampian Hills, a biography of Giordano Bruno, and a white soldier's impressions of a Zuni Indian dance...

The Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers, that is, the philosopher-scientists who lived before or contemporaneously to Socrates, were the first men in the Western world to establish a line of inquiry regarding the natural phenomena that rejected the traditional religious explanations and searched for rational explanations. Even though they do not form a school of thought, they can be considered the fathers of philosophy and many other sciences as we have them now. None of their works is extant, so, in this collection, we present the textual fragments, when existing, of ten Pre-Socratic philosopher-scientists, and quotations and testimonials about them left by later authors...

According to the author of the Preface, "Mr. Lester is also zealous to bring about a better relation and a better understanding between the white and black races. His denunciation against mob violence is bitter, but pleads for just treatment and a fair deal in court and equal protection from the authorities of the law."

A $10,000 prize lures Tom into competing at a local aviation meet at Eagle Park. Tom is determined to build the fastest plane around, but his plans mysteriously disappear, which means Tom must redesign his new airplane from the beginning.

In the heat of the failed 1905 revolution in Russia, Lenin here contrasts the precision of the Bolshevik political program and tactics with various inconsistent and servile factions within the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party.

Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912) was, according to Emma Goldman, “the most gifted and brilliant anarchist woman America ever produced.” Today she is not widely known as a consequence of her short life. De Cleyre was especially influenced by Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft and Clarence Darrow. After the hanging of the Haymarket protesters in 1887, she became an anarchist. “Till then I believed in the essential justice of the American law of trial by jury,” she wrote in an autobiographical essay, “After that I never could”...

Voltairine de Cleyre (November 17, 1866 – June 20, 1912) was an American anarchist. She was skilled in many subjects and wrote essays, poems, letters, sketches, stories and speeches. These are her selected Haymarket speeches.

Voltairine de Cleyre (November 17, 1866 – June 20, 1912) was an American anarchist. She was skilled in many subjects and wrote essays, poems, letters, sketches, stories and speeches. These are her selected letters, sketches and stories.

This is a moving and deeply felt biography of abolitionist John Brown, which defends its subject against the popular notion of him as a delusional fanatic. The author, W.E.B. DuBois, was a renowned author, scholar, sociologist, socialist, and civil rights activist, and one of the founders of the N.A.A.C.P.. - Summary by Ciufi Galeazzi