Lithuanian born anarchist Emma Goldman emigrated to the United States at the age of sixteen. She first became attracted to anarchism following the Haymarket affair of 1886, a massacre in which seven police officers and an unknown number of civilians were killed during a march of striking Chicago workers. Eight anarchists were subsequently tried for murder. In the early part of the 20th century Emma Goldman would become one the most ardent suppor ...
“Nothing more strangely indicates an enormous and silent evil of modern society than the extraordinary use which is made nowadays of the word ‘orthodox’. In former days the heretic was proud of not being a heretic. It was the kingdoms of the world and the police and the judges who were heretics. He was orthodox.” So begins “Heretics” by Gilbert K. Chesterton and his examination of the changing meanings of terms such as “orthodox” and “heretic” i ...
Brought together here in this volume is a classic collection of satirical works from Jonathan Swift, perhaps one of the greatest satirist in the English language. While Swift is probably best known for his novel “Gulliver’s Travels”, he was a brilliant satirist with a cutting wit and mastery of language. His skills with the pen, which made him both famous and feared by the powerful, can be seen in “A Modest Proposal”. Swift’s famous essay, origi ...
German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche was one the most controversial figures of the 19th century. His evocative writings on religion, morality, culture, philosophy, and science were often polemic attacks against the established views of his time. First published in 1872, “The Birth of Tragedy” is the author’s classic work on dramatic theory. It was the author’s first published work in which he exhibited his enthusiasm for the dramatic works of ...
First published in 1909, Gerturde Stein’s “Three Lives” is a series of novellas, three independent stories set in the fictional town of Bridgepoint. The first story, “The Good Anna”, relates the tale of Anna Federner, a servant in the household of Miss Mathilda, who clashes with four unreliable under servants, Lizzie, Molly, Katy, and Sallie. The second story, “Melanctha”, the longest of the three stories, tells the tale of a girl of mixed race ...
Bushido, which literally means “the way of warriors” is a code of conduct, based upon a set of honors and ideals associated with the samurai way of life, that has greatly influenced the culture and people of Japan. The origin of bushido likely dates to sometime between the 16th and 20th century in Japan, though some scholars argue that it may have been built upon much earlier traditions. Born from the Neo-Confucianism of the Edo period, bushido ...
Greek philosopher and scientist, Aristotle, lived in the 4th century B.C. and is thought of as one of the most important figures from classical antiquity. Aristotle was probably the most famous member of Plato’s Academy in Athens, whose writings would ultimately form the first comprehensive system of Western philosophy. His writings were not constrained to simply one field of inquiry but covered such various subjects as physics, biology, metaphy ...
American author, naturalist, and abolitionist, Henry David Thoreau was a principal figure of the 19th century movement of Transcendentalism. Central to the philosophy is a belief that people, who are inherently good, are corrupted by the organized institutions of society and that consequently the best community is one that is built upon on independence and self-reliance. This corrupting influence is discussed in one of Thoreau’s most famous essa ...
With the goal of describing man with complete frankness and using himself as his most frequent example, Michel de Montaigne first published his “Essays” in 1580. This collection of 107 chapters encompasses a wide variety of subjects, originally inspired by his study of Latin classics, and later by the lives of the leading figures of his time. Michel de Montaigne saw the most basic elements of man as variety and unpredictability, and this idea pe ...
