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Posterior Analytics is the fourth of Aristotle's six texts on logic which are collectively known as the Organon (Instrument). Posterior Analytics deals with demonstration, definition, and scientific knowledge. Demonstration is distinguished as a syllogism productive of scientific knowledge, while Definition is marked as the statement of a thing's nature, a statement of the meaning of the name, or of an equivalent nominal formula. (Introduction Adapted from Wikipedia)...

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Classics (antiquity), Philosophy

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A collection of articles from Good Housekeeping magazine, The Good Housekeeping Marriage Book focuses on the subject of marriage. With instructions and advice from courtship to raising children, this collection aims to assist those with questions and concerns surrounding marriage and the ensuing relationship. Published in 1938. (Summary by Robin Cotter)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Advice, Instruction

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“Languages”, Sir Arthur Cotton writes, “are usually learnt as if it took a long time to learn the grammar &c., but that to speak with a good pronunciation and expression, and freely, and to catch the words from a speaker by the ear were easily and quickly acquired, but this is exactly contrary to fact.” Cotton’s “Vocal system” differs from the traditional grammatical method of learning languages in that it emphasises the development of correct pronunciation and the gradual acquisition of correct expressions and vocabulary. This is achieved through listening and repeating words and phrases uttered by a teacher. In the case of this audiobook, the teacher is the reader himself. The Arabic Primer contains only the simplest and most basic Arabic words. It allows the student to gain a foundational knowledge of the sounds and expressions of the Arabic language. Having mastered this work, the student can continue to develop his or her knowledge of Arabic through more advanced textbooks. (Summary by Nicholas Bridgewater)...

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Languages, Instruction

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The Mirror of the Sea (collection of autobiographical essays first published in various magazines 1904-6 ), 1906 (Summary from Wikipedia)

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Sea stories, Biography

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These characters have been chosen from various countries and from varied professions, that the youth who read this book may see that poverty is no barrier to success. It usually develops ambition, and nerves people to action. Life at best has much of struggle, and we need to be cheered and stimulated by the careers of those who have overcome obstacles. If Lincoln and Garfield, both farmer-boys, could come to the Presidency, then there is a chance for other farmer-boys. If Ezra Cornell, a mechanic, could become the president of great telegraph companies, and leave millions to a university, then other mechanics can come to fame. If Sir Titus Salt, working and sorting wool in a factory at nineteen, could build one of the model towns of the world for his thousands of workingmen, then there is encouragement and inspiration for other toilers in factories. These lives show that without WORK and WILL no great things are achieved. I have selected several characters because they were the centres of important historical epochs. With Garibaldi is necessarily told the story of Italian unity; with Garrison and Greeley, the fall of slavery; and wi...

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Biography, History

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This book deals mainly with some aspects of what may be termed the psychical life of the inhabitants of the Madras Presidency, and the Native States of Travancore and Cochin.(Summary by Edgar Thurston)...

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Myths/Legends, Psychology, Philosophy

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Another fine history book for children! Published in 1917, Marshall's book of stories from the history of the United States begins with accounts of exploration and settlement, and ends with the presidency of Woodrow Wilson.This is Part 3: Stories of New England, from chapter 22 (The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers) to chapter 34 (The Witches of Salem). Read along and view the original illustrations at mainlesson.com.The recording of Part 1 of this book can be found at /this-country-of-ours-part-1-by-he-marshall/ /this-country-of-ours-part-1-by-he-marshall/ The recording of Part 2 of this book can be found at /this-country-of-ours-part-2-by-h-e-marshall/ /this-country-of-ours-part-2-by-h-e-marshall/ (Summary by Kara)...

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Children, Short stories, History, Teen/Young adult

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The author, who fought as a private in the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War, describes the Confederate soldier’s daily struggles with hunger, illness, fear, and the perils of combat; as well as his pride of service, love of comrades, and courage in the face of overwhelming odds (summary by D. Leeson)....

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Memoirs, History, War stories

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Bob Brown, after living thirty years in as many foreign lands and enjoying countless national cheeses at the source, returned to New York and summed them all up in this book. Born in Chicago, he was graduated from Oak Park High School and entered the University of Wisconsin at the exact moment when a number of imported Swiss professors in this great dairy state began teaching their students how to hole an Emmentaler. After majoring in beer and free lunch from Milwaukee to Munich, Bob celebrated the end of Prohibition with a book called Let There Be Beer! and then decided to write another about Beer's best friend, Cheese. But first he collaborated with his mother Cora and wife Rose on The Wine Cookbook, still in print after nearly twenty-five years. This first manual on the subject in America paced a baker's dozen food-and-drink books, including: America Cooks, 10,000 Snacks, Fish and Seafood and The South American Cookbook. (Summary from the book jacket)...

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Cookery, Advice, Instruction

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This investigation of Bacon the scholar and man of letters begins with a look at the early days ang progresses to his relationships with Queen Elizabeth and James I. It includes accounts of his positions as solicitor general, attorney-general, and chancellor. The book concludes with Bacon's failure, his overall philosophy, and summaries of his writings. ( Summary by Bill Boerst )...

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Biography, Economics/Political Economy, History, Literature, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Science

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From the Preface of The Speaking Voice: principles of training simplified and condensed : This book offers a method of voice training which is the result of a deliberate effort to simplify and condense, for general use, the principles which are fundamental to all recognized systems of vocal instruction. It contains practical directions accompanied by simple and fundamental exercises, first for the freeing of the voice and then for developing it when free. Parts I and II of the book comprise advice on vocal production and techniques, while some chapters in Part III provide detailed guidance on the vocal interpretation of various literary genres, including the essay, various types of poetry, short stories, dramatic monologues and plays. Some chapters comprise mainly examples for practice, and include complete poems and stories. The reader has endeavoured to follow the author's instructions, but makes no guarantee as to her success, especially in the poetic realm....

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Advice, Instruction, Poetry, Short stories

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Colonel William Crosbie Hunter was a businessman and self-help writer who was moderately popular in the early 20th century. His books set forth his personal philosophy on health, happiness, human relations, and success in the business world. Pep, billed as A book of how's not why's for physical and mental efficiency, was published in 1914 and went through several editions. (Introduction by Pleonic)...

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Instruction, Philosophy

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The Art of Controversy (or The Art of Being Right ) ( Die Kunst, Recht zu Behalten ) is a short treatise written in 1831 by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in which he presents thirty-eight methods of gaining an unfair advantage in a debate and thereby being right even if you are wrong. Schopenhauer champions the virtue of dialectical argument, in his view wrongly neglected by philosophers in favour of logic, and goes on to discuss the distinction between our conscious intellectual powers and our will. The text is a favourite of debaters including the philosophers AC Grayling and Mary Warnock, and the Mayor of London Boris Johnson. (Summary by Carl Manchester)...

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Philosophy, Instruction

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East by West: a Journey in the Recess is an account of British journalist Henry Lucy's travels across America and on to the Far East during the parliamentary recess in 1883. Lucy was one of the most influential journalists of his day and, as Toby M.P., a noted humorist in Punch magazine. His acute powers of observation and light touch make this a most engaging book. It is a fascinating insight into the Englishman's travels abroad within two decades of the American Civil War and the end of Japanese isolationism. This is the first of two volumes covering his journey with his wife. This first volume includes his travels in America and in Japan, including the Atlantic and Pacific crossings by steamer. Volume II, which I hope to record later, continues his experiences in Japan and India, returning home via Aden and the Suez Canal. (Introduction by Ruth Golding)...

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Travel, Memoirs, History

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Weather Explained: Fog, clouds, rain, haze, thunder, cyclones, dew point and how to count dust motes are just a few of the 35 topics covered in short, easy to read and understand chapters in this book published in 1905. (Summary by phil chenevert)...

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Instruction, Science

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George Hamilton was the surgeon assigned to the frigate Pandora. The British Admiralty ordered the ship to the Pacific to arrest the Bounty mutineers and bring them back to England for trial. The commander, Captain Edward Edwards, also was ordered to chart the passage between Australia and New Guinea. While Edwards managed to arrest the mutineers still on Tahiti, he sank the Pandora on a reef near Australia. Hamilton tells this story and also the story of the crew's fate after the Pandora sank. (Summary by Roy Schreiber)...

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History, Sea stories

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The Book of Daniel is a book in the Hebrew Bible. The book tells of how Daniel, a Judean exile at the court of Nebuchadnezzar II (605 to 562 BC), the ruler of Babylon, becomes a high government official and delivers various visions. The earliest manuscripts discovered, like the traditional Jewish version, are written partly in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic, and consist of a series of six third-person narratives (chapters one to six) followed by four apocalyptic visions in the first person (chapters seven to twelve). The narratives take the form of court tales which focus on tests of religious fidelity involving Daniel and his friends (chapters one, three and six), and Daniel's interpretation of royal dreams and visions (chapters two, four and five). In the second part of the book, Daniel recounts his own reception of dreams, visions and angelic interpretations....

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History, Religion

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Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964) was a leading American socialist and feminist. Her book Sabotage, the conscious withdrawal of the workers' industrial efficiency was written to explain the utility and legality of sabotage. (Summary by Enko)...

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Politics, Advice

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Fishing with a Worm by Bliss Perry includes the poignant and philisophical observations of a fly fisherman lured by the worm. Bliss Perry was a professor of literature at Princeton and Harvard Universities and spent time in Vermont writing and fly fishing. (Summary written by Sadie, Betsie, and Wikipedia)...

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Philosophy, Essay/Short nonfiction

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How to live on 5 cents a day! How to survive financial ruin without losing your house! How to keep to a bare bones budget and still have money left over to buy books! Tough questions! They were tough questions even in the 1870’s, when Sarah Elizabeth Harper Monmouth penned her quirky memoir, the subtitle of which was “How a Lady, Having Lost a Sufficient Income from Government Bonds by Misplaced Confidence, Reduced to a Little Homestead Whose Entire Income is But $40.00 per Annum, Resolved to Hold It, Incurring no Debts and Live Within it. How She has Lived for Three Years and Still Lives on Half a Dime a Day.” Sarah Elizabeth (‘Lizzie‘) Monmouth, born in 1829, was a Civil War widow, living on a run-down small farm in New Hampshire, when her investments imploded. She awoke one morning to find herself poor--an old roof above her, “dearer than life,” but “not a dollar of money left.” For months she was “paralyzed with cold, clammy terror . . . stunned and knew not what to do.” Then her “mind stepped to the front with a bold standard displayed.” She said to herself “Understand, once for all, that I rule and make your plans accordingly....

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Advice, Memoirs

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Roosevelt's popular book Through the Brazilian Wilderness describes his expedition into the Brazilian jungle in 1913 as a member of the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition co-named after its leader, Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon. The book describes all of the scientific discovery, scenic tropical vistas and exotic flora, fauna and wild life experienced on the expedition. One goal of the expedition was to find the headwaters of the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt, and trace it north to the Madeira and thence to the Amazon River. It was later renamed Rio Roosevel. Roosevelt's crew consisted of his 24-year-old son Kermit, Colonel Cândido Rondon, a naturalist sent by the American Museum of Natural History named George K. Cherrie, Brazilian Lieutenant Joao Lyra, team physician Dr. José Antonio Cajazeira, and sixteen highly skilled paddlers (called camaradas in Portuguese). The initial expedition started on December 9, 1913, at the height of the rainy season. The trip down the River of Doubt started on February 27, 1914. During the trip down the river, Roosevelt contracted malaria and a serious infection resulting from a minor le...

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Adventure, History, Memoirs, Nature, Science

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Dies ist das erste Buch, in dem Alfred Wegener seine Theorie der Kontinentalverschiebung darlegt. Zeit seines Lebens wurde diese Theorie größtenteils abgelehnt, und geriet nach seinem Tod in Vergessenheit. Erst Jahrzehnte später wurden seine Ideen als wahr erkannt und auf verschiedene Arten nachgewiesen. Alfred Wegener war ein deutscher Meteorologe, Geo- und Polarwissenschaftler. Er starb auf seiner dritten Expedition nach Grönland. (Zusammenfassung von Availle)...

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Nature, Science

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This is a detailed and accurate account of the most awful marine disaster in history, constructed from the real facts as obtained from those on board who survived (gutenberg.org)....

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Sea stories, History

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Der Staatsvertrag betreffend die Wiederherstellung eines unabhängigen und demokratischen Österreich, wurde am 15. Mai 1955 in Wien im Schloss Belvedere von Vertretern der alliierten Besatzungsmächte USA, der Sowjetunion, Frankreichs und Großbritanniens sowie der österreichischen Regierung unterzeichnet und trat am 27. Juli 1955 offiziell in Kraft. Gegenstand des Vertrages war die Wiederherstellung der souveränen und demokratischen Republik Österreich nach der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft in Österreich (1938-1945), dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges und der darauf folgenden Besatzungszeit (1945-1955). (Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia)...

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History, Politics

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“Much has already been written of the visit of Abdul Baha, Abbas Effendi, to Europe,” writes Lady Blomfield in her Preface to Paris Talks, “During his stay at Paris at 4, Avenue de Comoens, he gave short “Talks” each morning to those who crowded, eager to hear His Teaching. These listeners were of many Nationalities and types of thought, learned and unlearned, members of various religious sects, Theosophists and Agnostics, Materialists and Spiritualists, etc., etc. Abdul Baha spoke in Persian, which was translated into French. Of these “Talks” my two daughters, my friend and I took notes. Many friends asked us to publish these notes in English, but we hesitated. At length when Abdul Baha himself asked us to do so we, of course, consented—in spite of our feeling that our pen is “too weak for such high message.”” Paris Talks is a book transcribed from talks given by `Abdu'l-Bahá, the son and successor of Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, while in Paris. It was originally published as “Talks by `Abdu'l-Bahá Given in Paris” in 1912. `Abdu'l-Bahá did not read and authenticate the transcripts of his talks in Paris, and thus th...

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Religion, Instruction, Philosophy

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Rufus Estes was born a slave in 1857 in Tennessee, and experienced first hand the turmoil of the Civil War. He began working in a Nashville restaurant at the age of 16, and in 1883 took up employment as a Pullman cook. In 1897, he was hired as principal chef for the private railway car of U.S. Steel magnates (the fin-de-siecle equivalent of today's Lear Jets for corporate travel). There he served succulent fare for the rich and famous at the turn of the 20th century. (Summary by Denny Sayers)...

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Cookery, Advice, Instruction

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The Book of Tea was written by Okakura Kakuzo in the early 20th century. It was first published in 1906, and has since been republished many times. - In the book, Kakuzo introduces the term Teaism and how Tea has affected nearly every aspect of Japanese culture, thought, and life. The book is noted to be accessibile to Western audiences because though Kakuzo was born and raised Japanese, he was trained from a young age to speak English; and would speak it all his life, becoming proficient at communicating his thoughts in the Western Mind. In his book he elucidates such topics as Zen and Taoism, but also the secular aspects of Tea and Japanese life. The book emphasises how Teaism taught the Japanese many things; most importantly, simplicity. Kakuzo argues that this tea-induced simplicity affected art and architecture, and he was a long-time student of the visual arts. He ends the book with a chapter on Tea Masters, and spends some time talking about Sen no Rikyu and his contribution to the Japanese Tea Ceremony. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Philosophy, History

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Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (publ. 1859) is a pivotal work in scientific literature and arguably the pivotal work in evolutionary biology. The book’s full title is On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. It introduced the theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It was controversial because it contradicted religious beliefs which underlay the then current theories of biology. Darwin’s book was the culmination of evidence he had accumulated on the voyage of the Beagle in the 1830s and added to through continuing investigations and experiments since his return. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Nature, Science

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This is the authoritative book written by Montessori to describe her methods. It gives an overview of the Montessori Method as developed for 3 to 6 year olds. It is a short work, intended as a manual for teachers and parents, detailing the materials used as well as her philosophy in developing them. As a result of the widespread interest that has been taken in my method of child education, certain books have been issued, which may appear to the general reader to be authoritative expositions of the Montessori system. I wish to state definitely that the present work, the English translation of which has been authorized and approved by me, is the only authentic manual of the Montessori method ... M. Montessori in the Preface ( Summary by Phil Chenevert )...

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Advice, Instruction, Children, Psychology

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Dole briefly sketches the history of life, and shows how it has a definite direction - toward the survival of the kind and gentle people. It's a challenging, and quite persuasive argument, and also a much needed one in light of the dog-eat-dog theories out there. Dole shows that in our evolving society, our traditional understanding of survival of the fittest needs to be updated. A book that was way ahead of its time, yet so suited to it. Some may argue that - since he was writing The Coming People before the first two world wars - that he was obviously wrong. However, his argument remains valid given current scientific evidence cited in such books as Evolution and Empathy, and The Age of Empathy, and it's noteworthy that he wrote another book after World War I (see, A Religion for the New Day, 1920, where he states that while society is still quite barbaric, he retains his powerful conviction that it is improving and improvable. ). Also, Dole points to the many flaws of his time (and ours too), and stresses the need to fix them in a peaceful, intelligent manner. Many of the issues he grappled with remain just as strong today, and h...

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Advice, Philosophy, Politics, Religion

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The Outline of Science was written specifically with the man-on-the-street in mind as the target audience. Covering scientific subjects ranging from astronomy to biology to elementary physics in clear, concise and easily understood prose, this popular science work is largely as relevant today as when first published in 1922. In this second volume (of four), we learn about microscopy, and the intricate workings of the human body and mind. The major part, however, is devoted to the Natural History of birds, mammals, and insects. (Summary adapted from the first volume by Availle.)...

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Nature, Psychology, Science

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A guide for Christians to walk a godly life. Covering various practical and spiritual topics.

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Religion, Philosophy

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Mommsen (1817-1903) erhielt für die Römische Geschichte 1902 den Nobelpreis für Literatur. Erstes Buch Bis zur Abschaffung des römischen Königtums This reading is in German....

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History, Literature, Politics

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This work describes and analyzes several cases of pathological behavior. The interest comes not only from the cases themselves, but also from the of-its-time analysis which is mired in what we now know to be wrong thinking about mental illness, sexuality, gender, and race. - written by Mary Schneider...

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Psychology, Philosophy