Description Details
Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels schrieben ihr Manifest im Dezember 1847, als Leitfaden fuer die grundsaetzlichen Prinzipien und Praktiken des Kommunismus. Das Manifest sagte ausserdem den Untergang des Kapitalistismus’ voraus. (Zusammenfassung von Gesine)...

Excerpt Details
Politics

Description Details
In chapter 11 William and Mary have been crowned and settle down to the task of ruling England. An endless succession of British noblemen jockey for position and all feel frustration at Williams’ preference for his own countrymen in positions of resonsibility in the British government and armed forces....

Excerpt Details
History

Description Details
A collection of fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches, news items and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics, philosophy, nature and religion. Included in this collection are...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction

Description Details
A collection of fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches, news items and reports included in these collections are independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics, philosophy, nature, religion, etc....

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction

Description Details
Charles Austin Beard was the most influential American historian of the early 20th century. He published hundreds of monographs, textbooks and interpretive studies in both history and political science. He graduated from DePauw University in 1898, where he met and eventually married Mary Ritter Beard, one of the founders of the first greek-letter society for women, Kappa Alpha Theta. Many of his books were written in collaboration with his wife, whose own interests lay in feminism and the labor union movement (Woman as a Force in History, 1946). In 1921, Charles and Mary Beard published their History of the United States. A contemporaneous review stated: The authors… assume enough maturity in high school students to justify a topical rather than a chronological treatment. They have dealt with movements, have sketched large backgrounds, have traced causes, and have discussed the interrelation of social and economic forces and politics. All this has been directed to the large purpose of helping the student to understand American today in all its national characteristics and as part of world civilization as well…The literary style is e...

Excerpt Details
History

Description Details
A collection of fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass humor, history, politics, science medicine, nature, finance, cooking, film and religion. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction

Description Details
A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The selections included in this collection were independently chosen by the readers, and the topics encompass history, science, humor, travel, philosophy, nature, slavery, the U. S. Civil War, and politics. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction

Description Details
The Republic is a Socratic dialogue by Plato, written in approximately 380 BC. It is one of the most influential works of philosophy and political theory, and arguably Plato's best known work. In it, Socrates and various other Athenians and foreigners discuss the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man by constructing an imaginary city ruled by philosopher-kings. The dialogue also discusses the nature of the philosopher, Plato's Theory of Forms, the conflict between philosophy and poetry, and the immortality of the soul. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Excerpt Details
Philosophy

Description Details
The National Gambling Impact Study Commission was given the task of conducting a comprehensive legal and factual study on the social and economic implications of gambling in the United States. This report presents the principal findings of that work and recommendations for action. (Summary from the Introduction, modified by Sam Stinson)...

Excerpt Details
Politics

Description Details
A collection of sixteen short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics, medicine, nature and religion. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction

Description Details
A collection of fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches, news items and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics, philosophy, nature and religion. Included in this collection are...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction

Description Details
J.B. Bury wrote his History of Greece before World War I, but it was such a good overview of classical Greek history that the third edition was still being used as a college textbook in the late 1960's. In the newer editions, a co-author rewrote the material dealing with the early centuries where there have been new archeological developments, but the later chapters and Bury's framework were retained essentially unchanged. Bury writes in a lucid, easily understood style that entertains as it educates. The book covers artistic and literary development, as well as politics and war, and its field of view includes western Asia Minor, the Agean archipelago, and Greater Greece (Sicily and Southern Italy). (Summary by Karen Merline)...

Excerpt Details
History

Description Details
A collection of sixteen short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, articles, speeches and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass a diverse range of subject matter including history, science, nature, feminism, humor, religion and politics. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction

Description Details
Charles Beard was the most influential American historian of the early 20th century. He published hundreds of monographs, textbooks and interpretive studies in both history and political science. He graduated from DePauw University in 1898, where he met and eventually married Mary Ritter Beard, one of the founders of the first greek-letter society for women, Kappa Alpha Theta. Many of his books were written in collaboration with his wife, whose own interests lay in feminism and the labor union movement. In 1921, Charles and Mary Beard published their textbook: History of the United States. A contemporaneous review stated: The authors… assume enough maturity in…students to justify a topical rather than a chronological treatment. They have dealt with movements, have sketched large backgrounds, have traced causes, and have discussed the interrelation of social and economic forces and politics. All this has been directed to the large purpose of helping the student to understand American today in all its national characteristics and as part of world civilization as well..The literary style is exceptionally clear and crisp, and the whole ...

Excerpt Details
History

Description Details
Charles Beard was the most influential American historian of the early 20th century. He published hundreds of monographs, textbooks and interpretive studies in both history and political science. He graduated from DePauw University in 1898, where he met and eventually married Mary Ritter Beard, one of the founders of the first greek-letter society for women, Kappa Alpha Theta. Many of his books were written in collaboration with his wife, whose own interests lay in feminism and the labor union movement. In 1921, Charles and Mary Beard published their textbook: History of the United States. A contemporaneous review stated: The authors… assume enough maturity in…students to justify a topical rather than a chronological treatment. They have dealt with movements, have sketched large backgrounds, have traced causes, and have discussed the interrelation of social and economic forces and politics. All this has been directed to the large purpose of helping the student to understand American today in all its national characteristics and as part of world civilization as well...The literary style is exceptionally clear and crisp, and the whole...

Excerpt Details
History

Description Details
Charles Beard was the most influential American historian of the early 20th century. He published hundreds of monographs, textbooks and interpretive studies in both history and political science. He graduated from DePauw University in 1898, where he met and eventually married Mary Ritter Beard, one of the founders of the first greek-letter society for women, Kappa Alpha Theta. Many of his books were written in collaboration with his wife, whose own interests lay in feminism and the labor union movement.In 1921, Charles and Mary Beard published their textbook: History of the United States. A contemporaneous review stated: The authors… assume enough maturity in…students to justify a topical rather than a chronological treatment. They have dealt with movements, have sketched large backgrounds, have traced causes, and have discussed the interrelation of social and economic forces and politics. All this has been directed to the large purpose of helping the student to understand American today in all its national characteristics and as part of world civilization as well..The literary style is exceptionally clear and crisp, and the whole a...

Excerpt Details
History

Description Details
This collection comprises recordings of seven historic speeches given to the UK House of Lords between 1641 and 1945. Readings are of speeches origninally given by the 1st Earl of Strafford (Thomas Wentworth), the 1st Earl of Chatham (William Pitt the Elder), the 6th Baron Byron (the poet Lord Byron), the 1st Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley), the 3rd Earl of Lucan (George Lord Bingham) and the 3rd Earl Russell (the philosopher Bertrand Russell). (Summary by Carl Manchester)...

Excerpt Details
History, Politics

Description Details
The first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women met in New York City in May, 1837. Members at the Convention came from all walks of life and included such prominent women as Mary Parker, Lucretia Mott, the Grimke sisters, and Lydia Maria Child. One outcome of this important event was a statement of the organization’s role in the abolitionist movement as expressed in AN ADDRESS TO FREE COLORED AMERICANS, which begins: “The sympathy we feel for our oppressed fellow-citizens who are enslaved in these United States, has called us together, to devise by mutual conference the best means for bringing our guilty country to a sense of her transgressions; and to implore the God of the oppressed to guide and bless our labors on behalf of our countrymen in chains. This significant event was a precursor to the growing women’s rights movement of the time and to greater female involvement in other political reform movements. (Summary by lubee930)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction, History, Politics

Description Details
This is the second collection of speeches given in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The collection comprises recordings of 14 historic speeches given to the UK House of Commons between 1766 and 1956. Readings are of speeches origninally given by parliamentarians including William Pitt the Elder, John Stuart Mill, Dadabhai Naoroji, Lady Astor, Stanley Baldwin, Clement Attlee, Aneurin Bevan and Tony Benn. (Summary by Carl Manchester)...

Excerpt Details
History, Politics

Description Details
Ein klassicher Text des deutschen Liberalismus (Summary by redaer)

Excerpt Details
Philosophy, Politics

Description Details
9/11 Commission Report, formally titled Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, is the official report of the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks. It was prepared by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (informally sometimes known as the 9/11 Commission or the Kean/Zelikow Commission) at the request of the President of the United States and Congress. The commission convened on November 26, 2002 (441 days after the attack) and their final report was issued on July 22, 2004...

Excerpt Details
History, Politics

Description Details
A collection of ten short essays or other short nonfiction works in the public domain read by volunteers.

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction, Politics, Religion, Philosophy, Science

Description Details
This collection comprises recordings of 17 historic speeches given to the UK House of Commons between 1628 and 1956. Readings are of speeches origninally given by parliamentarians including Oliver Cromwell, Edmund Burke, William Wilberforce, William Gladstone, Keir Hardie, Winston Churchill and Aneurin Bevan. (Summary by Carl Manchester)...

Excerpt Details
History, Politics

Description Details
A collection of ten short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics science and religion. Included in this collection are Martin Luther’s “Ninety-five Theses,” Jefferson Davis’ speech before the United States Senate in 1861 “On Withdrawing from the Union,” William E. Gladstone’s address delivered in the House of Commons in 1893 on “Irish Home Rule” and Wendell Phillips speech in 1837 in Fanuiel Hall in Boston regarding “The Murder of Lovejoy.” You will also find here an epistolary essay by François Marie Arouet de Voltaire “On Lord Bacon,” a letter from Samuel Clemens commenting on the inclusion of Jesus in the list of “One Hundred Greatest Men,” “On Applauding Preachers” by Saint John Chrysostom, an essay by Alice Meynell on “Solitude,” and the entry on Captain Edward Teach (aka Blackbeard) from “The Pirates Who’s Who” by Philip Gosse. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction, Biography, History, Politics, Science, Religion

Description Details
A collection of ten short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches, news items and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics, philosophy, nature and religion. Included in this collection are “The Emanicpation Proclamation” and Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln, “Prinicpal Doctrines” by Epicurus, “Fox and Hound” and the preface to “The Breath of Life” both by John Burroughs, “The Wentworth Letter” by Joseph Smith, and “The Rhythm of Life” by Alice Meynell. From the New York Times, April 10, 1817 is an account of the Canadian capture of Vimy Ridge, “Haig Strikes Near Arras” and from the September 1921 issue of Vanity Fair an article on “The Flapper - A New Type.” And for the those with more than a passing in the history of railways/roads, the “Report of the Railway Department of the Board of Trade” from February 1845 which impacted the ‘gauge wars’ of the mid-nineteenth century in England wraps up the list! (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction, History, Politics, Philosophy, Nature, Religion

Description Details
A collection of ten short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics, religion, science and humor. Included in this collection are the Oath of Hippocrates and The Funeral Oration of Pericles along with Patrick Henry's The Call to Arms, and Jack London's eyewitness account of the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. On the lighter side, we have Jerome K. Jerome's Should Women Be Beautiful, a short address by Mark Twain to The Author's Club in NYC, and the anonymous Miseries, a lighthearted lament on subjects such as the difficulties of eating a peach gracefully in public and finding a suitable length of twine when you need one. In this collection you will also find A Free Man's Worship by Bertram Russell, Obstacle-Cause from Sophisms of the Protectionists by Frédéric Bastiat, and an essay by T. H. Huxley on the science of palaeontology. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction, Humor, Science, Philosophy, Politics, History

Description Details
The Commentaries on the Laws of England are an influential 18th century treatise on the common law of England by Sir William Blackstone, originally published by the Clarendon Press at Oxford, 1765-1769.The Commentaries were long regarded as the leading work on the development of English law and played a role in the development of the American legal system. They were in fact the first methodical treatise on the common law suitable for a lay readership since at least the Middle Ages. The common law of England has relied on precedent more than statute and codifications and has been far less amenable than the civil law, developed from the Roman law, to the needs of a treatise. The Commentaries were influential largely because they were in fact readable, and because they met a need. The work is as much an apologia for the legal system of the time as it is an explanation; even when the law was obscure, Blackstone sought to make it seem rational, just, and inevitable that things should be how they were. (Summary from Wikipedia.)...

Excerpt Details
Philosophy, Politics

Description Details
A collection of eleven short nonfiction works in the public domain. The items included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, conservation, philosophy, politics, religion and cooking. Included in this collection are Thomas Jefferson's first Inaugural Address, Secession by Alexander H. Stephens, Of Truth and the preface to The New Organon, or True Directions Concerning the Interpretation of Nature by Francis Bacon, John Donne's last sermon delivered in March 1631, On Old Age by Cicero, a chapter from The Fight for Conservation by Gifford Pinchot, The Sacredness of Work by Thomas Carlyle and an essay On the Unjust Causes of War by Hugo Grotius. On the lighter side, try selections from Cocoa and Chocolate Recipes by Miss Parloa and a 1912 article from Scientific American on the amazing escapes of Harry Houdini. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction, Cookery, History, Philosophy, Nature, Religion, Politics

Description Details
A collection of fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches, news items and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics, philosophy, science and religion. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction, History, Philosophy, Politics, Science, Religion

Description Details
A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics, military history, humor, philosophy, nature and religion. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction, History, Religion, Philosophy, Nature, War stories, Politics

Description Details
The Inquiry into the Role and Oversight of Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan, which reported in September 2010, was precipitated by events in August 2008, when US forces bombed the Afghan village of Azizabad. This gave rise to a public dispute between the US Government and the United Nations about the level of fatalities caused by the attack and about whether those killed had been civilians or Taliban-linked insurgents. Allegations soon emerged that the attack had been based on false information deliberately fed to the US military by Afghan employees of ArmorGroup, a private security contractor, and that these employees were engaged in murder and anti-coalition activities. A key local contact of ArmorGroup, who they dubbed Mr Pink, was subsequently convicted of espionage and sentenced to death, but was later freed....

Excerpt Details
History, Politics

Description Details
The original document is in Latin so this can only be a fairly rough approximation of the actual content. The text used is the first version in the Gutenberg collection. - Magna Carta is the most significant early influence on the long historical process that has led to the rule of constitutional law today. Magna Carta was originally created because of disagreements between the Pope, King John and his English barons over the rights of the King. Magna Carta required the king to renounce certain rights and respect certain legal procedures and to accept that the will of the king could be bound by law. (Summary by Jim Mowatt/Wikipedia)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction, History

Description Details
Francis Key Howard recounts in this book his life as a political prisoner of the United States. He points out that he was held captive at the same location where his grandfather was inspired to write the national anthem about the land of the free, which makes a very stunning contrast. The sufferings that were imposed on him by the Union forces had the effect of solidifying his determination to resist unjust governmental dictates. (Introduction by Katie Riley)...

Excerpt Details
History, Memoirs, Politics, War stories

Description Details
“(T)he past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are.” Published originally as “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” this is not so much a work of sober political analysis; rather it can be summed up as a rhapsodic manifesto on behalf of the Individual. Socialism having deployed technology to liberate the whole of humanity from soul-destroying labour, the State obligingly withers away to allow the free development of a joyful, anarchic hedonism... “Is this Utopian? A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing.” Far from abandoning the epigram in favour of the slogan, Wilde wittily assails several of his favourite targets: the misguided purveyors of philanthropy; life-denying ascetics of various kinds; the army of the half-educated who constitute themselves the enemies of Art - and those venal popular journalists who cater to them... “Behind the barricade there may be much that is noble and heroic. But what is there behind the leading-article but prejudice, stupidity, ca...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction, Economics/Political Economy, Politics

Description Details
A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, government, military history, science, philosophy, sports, nature and religion. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

Excerpt Details
History, Nature, Philosophy, Religion, War stories, Science, Politics

Description Details
In the 1880s William Morris, the artist and poet famously associated with the Arts and Crafts movement, left the Liberal Party and threw himself into the Socialist cause. He spoke all over the country, on street corners as well as in working men's clubs and lecture halls, and edited and wrote for the Socialist League's monthly newspaper. Signs of Change is a short collection of his talks and writings in this period, first published in 1888, covering such topics as what socialism and work should be, and how capitalism and waste developed. (Summary by Deborah Brabyn)...

Excerpt Details
Economics/Political Economy, History, Politics

Description Details
After the American Civil War, John R. Lynch, who had been a slave in Mississippi, began his political career in 1869 by first becoming Justice of the Peace, and then Mississippi State Representative. He was only 26 when he was elected to the US Congress in 1873. There, he continued to be an activist, introducing many bills and arguing on their behalf. Perhaps his greatest effort was in the long debate supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to ban discrimination in public accommodations. In 1884 Lynch was the first African American nominated after a moving speech by Theodore Roosevelt to the position of Temporary Chairman of the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. During the Spanish-American War of 1898, he was appointed Treasury Auditor and then Paymaster under the Republicans. In 1901, he began serving with the Regular Army with tours of duty in the United States, Cuba, and the Philippines. Lynch retired from the Army in 1911, then married Cora Williams. They moved to Chicago, where he practiced law. He also became involved in real estate. After his death in Chicago 1939 at the age of 92, he was buried with milita...

Excerpt Details
Economics/Political Economy, History, Memoirs, Politics