Books: What to Know
The Idea Without the 400-Page Headache
The plot, the people, the point and the ending — then the Boovie film, where there is one.
Popular Philosophy & Ideas
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The Apology
Socrates faces his executioner, declares he has no desire for a long, senile life, and walks away.
Xenophon · ideas
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Creative Evolution
Human intelligence was built to handle rocks and tools, making it ironically ill-equipped to understand the fluid reality of living.
Henri Bergson · ideas
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The Love Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft to Gilbert Imlay
A radical feminist pioneer survives the French Revolution only to be undone by a businessman’s vanishing act and cold letters.
Mary Wollstonecraft · ideas
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Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience
A man moves to the woods to simplify life and accidentally accounts for every penny of it.
Henry David Thoreau · ideas
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The Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn; With Notes
A king wages war against his greatest enemy, Absence, using jewelry, venison, and very specific complaints about his headaches.
King of England Henry VIII · ideas
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The Souls of Black Folk
Two worlds exist in one nation, separated by an unasked question.
W. E. B. Du Bois · ideas
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Second Treatise of Government
Every human owns themselves. If a ruler forgets this, the people are officially allowed to fire them.
John Locke · ideas
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Beyond Good and Evil
The author insists that your morality is a prejudice and your ego is a convenient fiction.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche · ideas
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Washington Confidential
A guide to the bookies, 'untouchable' diplomats, and secret syndicate bosses running the swamp in the mid-century Truman era.
Jack Lait · travel
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Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812
The most powerful man in Europe conquers empires by day and begs his wife for more frequent letters by night.
Emperor of the French Napoleon I · ideas
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A Pickle for the Knowing Ones
A self-appointed Lord writes a book with zero punctuation and absolute certainty.
Timothy Dexter · biography
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The lesser Key of Solomon, Goetia, the book of evil spirits
A guide to seventy-two demons, their specific office hours, and the nine-foot circle required to survive meeting them.
L. W. De Laurence · ideas
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Life of St. Francis of Assisi
A merchant's son trades his silk for a coarse tunic, irritating the clergy and starting a revolution of radical poverty.
Paul Sabatier · religious
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The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci
A Renaissance master catalogs everything from the anatomy of an arm to the physics of why the sky is blue.
da Vinci Leonardo · ideas
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The origin and development of the moral ideas
A professor sifts through global folk-lore and homicide laws to find why humans feel moral outrage and how they codify it.
Edward Westermarck · collection
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De Profundis
A man loses his freedom and name, only to decide that suffering is just a long, singular moment.
Oscar Wilde · ideas
In the library
Ecce Homo
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche · biography
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On Liberty
A philosopher draws a line in the sand: society can only stop you if you are hurting someone else.
John Stuart Mill · ideas
In the library
Selected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre
Voltairine De Cleyre · collection
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Autobiography of a Yogi
A seeker hunts for Himalayan masters, endures a university degree, and exports ancient breathing techniques to twentieth-century America.
Paramahansa Yogananda · biography
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The Problems of Philosophy
You think the table is there, but you have no proof. Let's see what else remains.
Bertrand Russell · ideas
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The Critique of Pure Reason
A thinker argues that space, time, and causality are not external truths but the built-in software of human perception.
Immanuel Kant · ideas
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Biographia Literaria
The author tries to define poetry, accidentally spends half the book arguing with his best friend.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge · ideas
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As a man thinketh
Your brain is a garden and your thoughts are the seeds. Watch for weeds.
James Allen · ideas
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Anarchism and Other Essays
The status quo is a machine; this collection suggests you check the oil or walk away.
Emma Goldman · collection
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On War
A general explains how to ruin an enemy’s day using nothing but math and ego.
Carl von Clausewitz · dialogue
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The Genealogy of Morals
A philosopher investigates the violent origins of conscience and why humans would rather will nothingness than not will at all.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche · ideas
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Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil
An observer of the human drama analyzes the invention of whiteness, the neglect of Africa, and the daily weight of segregation.
W. E. B. Du Bois · ideas
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The Anatomy of Melancholy
One man attempts to map every possible way to be sad, including bad cabbage, falling stars, and unrequited love.
Robert Burton · collection
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The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau
A man tries to explain himself to history, but history keeps interrupting with its own agenda.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau · biography
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Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education
A school is a miniature community, but most are just waiting rooms for adulthood.
John Dewey · ideas
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Utilitarianism
How to judge if an action is good: calculate the pleasure and see who suffers.
John Stuart Mill · ideas
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Nature
Stop reading in your room, look at the stars, and realize the entire universe is just a giant metaphor for your mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson · ideas
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The Tao Teh King, or the Tao and its Characteristics
The Tao is the origin of everything, but if you can name it, you have missed it.
Laozi · poetry
In the library
The Interpretation of Dreams
Sigmund Freud · ideas
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Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
A philosopher attempts to extract the pure logic of doing the right thing without any help from feelings or consequences.
Immanuel Kant · ideas
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The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature
A psychologist skips the Sunday service to study the internal combustion of the soul and the mechanics of sudden conversion.
William James · ideas
In the library
The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
William James · collection
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The Antichrist
A philosopher declares war on pity, calls for a calendar reset, and labels the New Testament the ultimate conspiracy against life.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche · ideas
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The Doré Bible Gallery
A visual tour of scripture, from the garden of Eden to the pale horse of Death, rendered in dramatic engraving.
Gustave Doré · religious
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The social contract & discourses
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. How did this happen?
Jean-Jacques Rousseau · ideas
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On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
The government is a wooden gun, so one man puts his conscience in his pocket and goes picking huckleberries.
Henry David Thoreau · ideas
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How We Think
A student encounters a cold breeze and tries to explain it. Reality ensues.
John Dewey · ideas
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Psychology of the Unconscious
A Zurich psychiatrist traces the hidden history of the human mind through a young woman's dreams and ancient fire-stealing myths.
C. G. Jung · ideas
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Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking
A philosopher suggests we stop debating abstract principles and start treating our ideas like tools that must earn their keep.
William James · ideas
In the library
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
Émile Durkheim · ideas
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Roman Stoicism
A guide to the philosophy that turned Roman aristocrats into saints and kept their world from spinning out of orbit.
Edward Vernon Arnold · ideas
In the library
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
François duc de La Rochefoucauld · ideas
Story guides
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The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism
A young philosopher argues the Greeks were only beautiful because they were profoundly miserable.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche · history
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The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
A grumpy Welsh squire leads his eccentric relatives across Britain while their new footman accidentally reveals his bare backside.
T. Smollett · novel
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"Everyman," with other interludes, including eight miracle plays
Before Netflix, medieval towns turned the Bible into local theater for the public to enjoy.
Ernest Rhys · collection
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The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
You arrive like water and leave like wind. Might as well order a drink first.
Omar Khayyam · poetry
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Cicero's Tusculan Disputations
A statesman and his friend debate whether virtue can actually outrun a really bad week.
Marcus Tullius Cicero · Expository Philosophy
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Politics: A Treatise on Government
A philosopher lists how cities fall, how they thrive, and why citizens shouldn't sing the wrong songs.
Aristotle · Expository philosophy
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The Republic of Plato
Socrates builds a city out of logic to find justice, then bans the poets and chains the citizens to shadows.
Plato · dialogue
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Critias
A philosopher describes a perfect prehistoric Athens and the wealthy island empire that collapsed after losing its divine spark.
Plato · dialogue
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The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
A catalog of Greek thinkers, covering their world-changing theories, their embarrassing habits, and the exact lists of every book they wrote.
Diogenes Laertius · biography
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Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
A courtier decodes the secrets of power, the anatomy of anger, and the hidden political manuals buried inside ancient Greek myths.
Francis Bacon · collection
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The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence.
A Scottish farmer writes his way from the stable to the salon, roasting hypocrites and apologizing to field mice along the way.
Robert Burns · poetry
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The Day of Doom; Or, a Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgement
The world ends, the Judge arrives, and the wicked try — and fail — to talk their way out of hellfire.
Michael Wigglesworth · poetry
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The Confessions of St. Augustine
A man seeks the divine while chasing every distraction in North Africa.
of Hippo Saint Augustine · Autobiographical philosophy
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The Authoress of the Odyssey
An amateur sleuth scans the Odyssey for clues that Homer was actually a woman.
Samuel Butler · ideas
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The Apology
Socrates faces his executioner, declares he has no desire for a long, senile life, and walks away.
Xenophon · Philosophy & Ethics
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Utopia
An traveler visits an island where gold is for chamber pots and war is unpopular.
Thomas Saint More · Philosophy
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The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read
One man leaves his city for a better one, ignoring the arrows fired at his back.
John Bunyan · religious
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Gorgias
Rhetoric is just a shortcut to popularity. Socrates prefers the hard truth, regardless of the consequences.
Plato · Dialogue
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The Nicomachean ethics of Aristotle
A guide to the good life that assumes you are not a stone.
Aristotle · Philosophy treatise
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Cratylus
Are names nature’s own labels, or just a noise we decided meant something?
Plato · Dialogue
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Theaetetus
A snub-nosed philosopher helps a brilliant student try, and fail, to define knowledge before heading to his own trial.
Plato · dialogue
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The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come
A man leaves his family to find salvation, carrying a backpack that turns out to be his own sins.
John Bunyan · novel
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The Enchiridion
An ex-slave explains why your reputation, your property, and your body are none of your business.
Epictetus · ideas
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A Modest Proposal
A gentleman proposes that Ireland’s starving poor sell their year-old infants to the rich as a nutritious, high-end meat source.
Jonathan Swift · ideas
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Statesman
The Eleatic Stranger treats a city like a flock of sheep, and it gets surprisingly technical.
Plato · Dialogue
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Protagoras
A man wakes Socrates at dawn to meet a celebrity teacher. Socrates demands receipts.
Plato · dialogue
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Plutarch's Morals
A man who lived through the Roman Empire offers advice on how not to be a disaster.
Plutarch · Philosophy essays
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The Consolation of Philosophy
A man loses his career and his freedom. Philosophy shows up to explain why he shouldn't care.
Boethius · ideas
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The "Characters" of Jean de La Bruyère
A tax collector turned moralist sketches the 17th-century French court with enough sharp detail to make everyone recognize their neighbor.
Jean de La Bruyère · ideas
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In Praise of Folly
A personified Folly argues that life is a theater where everyone is wearing the wrong costume for the right reasons.
Desiderius Erasmus · ideas
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The Imitation of Christ
A monk argues that your biggest problem is yourself and offers a manual for vanishing into the Divine.
à Kempis Thomas · expository
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The Praise of Folly
Human existence requires a steady intake of delusion, bad decisions, and the occasional bribe to avoid total collapse.
Desiderius Erasmus · ideas
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Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None
A mountain-dwelling prophet descends to announce that God is dead and humans are merely a bridge to something better.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche · ideas
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The Analects of Confucius (from the Chinese Classics)
A teacher keeps talking, his students keep asking, and the local government keeps ignoring the advice.
Confucius · ideas
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The Memorabilia
A retired general lists every time his old teacher was actually a useful, law-abiding, and deeply pious citizen.
Xenophon · biography
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Alcibiades I
A wealthy youth tries to rule Athens, but Socrates won't let him leave the house without defining justice first.
Plato · dialogue
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On the Nature of Things
A Roman poet explains that since you are just a temporary collection of atoms, you can finally stop fearing death.
Titus Lucretius Carus · poetry
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Timaeus
A Pythagorean theorist explains how the Creator used geometry, fire, and a single soul to build the physical world.
Plato · dialogue
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Phaedo
A philosopher drinks hemlock, but not before checking the math on his own soul.
Plato · dialogue
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Symposium
Seven men agree to praise love at a dinner party; nobody stops talking until sunrise.
Plato · dialogue
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Meno
A man asks if virtue can be taught; he is immediately trapped in a logic maze.
Plato · Dialogue
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Apology
A man is on trial for his life and decides the best defense is to tell the jury they are wrong.
Plato · ideas
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Euthyphro
A man sues his father for murder; Socrates asks him to define piety. It goes poorly.
Plato · dialogue
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Seneca's Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency
The crowd says go one way; the Stoics suggest doing the exact opposite.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Philosophy
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Ion
A man claims he is a master of poetry. Socrates suggests he is just a magnet.
Plato · dialogue
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Minor Dialogues, Together With the Dialogue on Clemency
A Roman advisor writes to his friends about keeping calm when everything is actively falling apart.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · dialogue
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Phaedrus
Two men leave the city walls to critique a speech about romance and rhetoric.
Plato · Dialogue
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The Economist
Socrates teaches estate management, proving that keeping your pantry orderly is basically a military operation.
Xenophon · dialogue
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Laws
Three men walk to a cave and invent an entire government on the way.
Plato · dialogue
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Mosses from an old manse
A man wanders his garden, stares at his reflection, and finds ghosts in the furniture.
Nathaniel Hawthorne · collection
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Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy
A man tries to outrun his own marriage, but Ann Whitefield is a very persistent guardian.
Bernard Shaw · play
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The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare
An undercover detective infiltrates a cabal of anarchists, only to find the revolution is surprisingly bureaucratic.
G. K. Chesterton · novel
The library
9,386 philosophy & ideas
In the library
‘Abdu'l-Bahá in London
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá · ideas
In the library
‘Abdu'l-Bahá's Tablet to Dr. Forel
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá · ideas
In the library
'He Giveth His Beloved Sleep'
Elizabeth Barrett Browning · poetry
In the library
'Jesus Himself'
Andrew Murray · ideas
In the library
'Of Genius', in The Occasional Paper, and Preface to The Creation
Aaron Hill · ideas
In the library
'Oh, Well, You Know How Women Are!'
Irvin S. Cobb · ideas
In the library
'Trusty and well beloved'
E. W. Hornung · biography
In the library
'Up the Country': Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India
Emily Eden · travel
In the library
"'Tis Sixty Years Since"
Charles Francis Adams · ideas
In the library
"A Most Unholy Trade," Being Letters on the Drama by Henry James
Henry James · play
In the library
"About My Father's Business": Work Amidst the Sick, the Sad, and the Sorrowing
Thomas Archer · ideas
In the library
"America for Americans!"
John Philip Newman · ideas
In the library
"Bear ye one another's burdens." A Plain Sermon on the Lancashire Distress
James Galloway Cowan · ideas
In the library
"Beautiful Thoughts"
Henry Drummond · ideas
In the library
"Bethink Yourselves!"
Leo graf Tolstoy · ideas
In the library
"Billy" Sunday, the Man and His Message
William T. Ellis · biography
In the library
"Born of the Spirit;" or, Gems from the Book of Life
Zenas Osborne · biography
In the library
"Colony,"--or "Free State"? "Dependence,"--or "Just Connection"? "Empire,"--or "Union"?
Alpheus Henry Snow · ideas
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"Everyman," with other interludes, including eight miracle plays
Before Netflix, medieval towns turned the Bible into local theater for the public to enjoy.
Ernest Rhys · collection
In the library
"Granny's Chapters" (on scriptural subjects)
Mary Lady Ross · ideas
In the library
"He was buried." A Sermon for Easter Even
Thomas Macgill · ideas
In the library
"Hear Ye the Rod, and Who Hath Appointed It"
James Galloway Cowan · ideas
In the library
"How Can I Help to Abolish Slavery?" or, Counsels to the Newly Converted
Maria Weston Chapman · ideas
In the library
"I Believe" and other essays
Guy Thorne · ideas
In the library
"I'm Greatly Concerned About Your Soul."
M. A. C. · ideas
In the library
"Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers"
Charles Francis Adams · ideas
In the library
"Impromptu"; or, How to Think on Your Feet
Grenville Kleiser · manual
In the library
"In the twinkling of an eye"
Sydney Watson · novel
In the library
"Jesus Says So"
biography
In the library
"Let Us Have Peace"
Logan H. Roots · biography
In the library
"Light Ho, Sir!"
Frank Thomas Bullen · novel
In the library
"Mormon" Doctrine Plain and Simple; Or, Leaves from the Tree of Life
Charles W. Penrose · ideas
In the library
"My Visit to Tolstoy": Five Discourses
Joseph Krauskopf · biography
In the library
"Nothing Between"
Edward Hoare · ideas
In the library
"Out of the East": Reveries and Studies in New Japan
Lafcadio Hearn · myth
In the library
"Pennsylvania Dutch," and other essays
Phebe Earle Gibbons · science
In the library
"Swingin round the cirkle"
David Ross Locke · ideas
In the library
"The Greatest Failure in All History"
John Spargo · ideas
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"The Kingdom of God Is Within You"
The state demands you kill for it; God demands you do not. Pick one.
Leo graf Tolstoy · ideas
In the library
"The Numbering of the People"
George Allen · ideas
In the library
"The story of my life"
Egerton Ryerson · biography
In the library
"The System," As Uncovered by the San Francisco Graft Prosecution
Franklin Hichborn · ideas
In the library
"They're a multitoode" and other stories
F. C. Stephenson · short story
In the library
"Thirty Years In Hell" Or, "From Darkness to Light"
Bernard Fresenborg · biography
In the library
"White man bery unsartin": "Nigger haint got no friends, no how"; the blackest chapter in the history of the Republican Party; the men who robbed and combined to rob the freedmen of their hard earnings.
F. Colburn Adams · ideas
In the library
1900; or, The last President
Ingersoll Lockwood · novel
In the library
1995 United States Congressional Address Book
United States · reference
In the library
88 Favourite Carols and Hymns for Christmas
poetry