Written in Greek, without any intention of publication, by the only Roman emperor who was also a philosopher, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) offer a remarkable series of challenging spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the emperor struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. Ranging from doubt and despair to conviction and exaltation, they cover such diverse topics as the nature of moral virtue, human rationality, divine providence, and Marcu...

The Federalist Papers are a collection of eighty-five articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in favor of ratifying the United States Constitution. First appearing in 1787 as a series of letters to New York newspapers, this collective body of work is widely considered to be among the most important historical collections of all time. Although the authors of The Federalist Papers foremost intended to influence the vote in favor of ratifying the Constit...

Zarathustra" is my brother's most personal work; it is the history of his most individual experiences, of his friendships, ideals, raptures, bitterest disappointments and sorrows. Above it all, however, there soars, transfiguring it, the image of his greatest hopes and remotest aims. My brother had the figure of Zarathustra in his mind from his very earliest youth: he once told me that even as a child he had dreamt of him. At different periods in his life, he would call this haunter of his...

In 1831 French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville came to the United States to investigate its prison system. America was then a nation of 13 million people populating 24 states, with a largely unsettled territorial claim stretching westward to the Pacific. Seriously distracted from his original mission, the 25-year-old Tocqueville ended up writing about America's people, culture, history, geography, politics, legal system, and economy in ways so insightful and prophetic that today historian...

He that is to govern a whole nation, must read in himself, not this, or that particular man; but mankind.Leviathan Audiobook by Thomas Hobbs is both a magnificent literary achievement and the greatest work of political philosophy in the English language. Permanently challenging, it has found new applications and new refutations in every generation. Hobbes argues that human beings are first and foremost concerned with their own individual desires and fears. He shows that a conflict ...

A definitive collection of new and selected stories by a master of the form“Comparisons might be drawn to writers ranging from Jorge Luis Borges and Haruki Murakami to Margaret Atwood and J. D. Salinger. All of Lethem’s stories are enlivened by his wit and provocative wordplay.” —Chicago TribuneThis dazzling, genre-defying collection from Jonathan Lethem features seven major stories published since his last collect...

The Birth of Tragedy stands alongside Aristotle’s Poetics as essential works for all who seek to understand poetry and its relationship to human life. In this, his first book, Nietzsche developed a way of thinking about the arts that unites the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus as the central symbol of human existence. Although tragedy serves as the focus of this work, music, visual art, dance, and the other arts can also be viewed using Nietzsche’s analysis and integration of the Apollonian ...

From the best-selling author of These Truths, a work that examines the dilemma of nationalism and the erosion of liberalism in the twenty-first century.At a time of much despair over the future of liberal democracy, Harvard historian Jill Lepore makes a stirring case for the nation in This America. Since the end of the Cold War, Lepore writes, American historians have largely retreated from the idea of "the nation," in part because postmodernism h...

The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche is an influential philosophical work which explores the metaphysical implications of Atheism and moral nihilism. Nietzsche's exploration of the potential implications of atheism leads him to conclude that, without the traditional basis provided by God, morality becomes an arbitrary set of conventions derived from human opinion. This approach undermines the Judeo-Christian conception of morality as divinely ordained and encourages readers to consider al...

**Instant New York Times bestsellerA political manifesto for our present moment—part history lesson, part call to save the Republic"Brilliant, galvanizing, and inspirational. A road map to help us find our way out of the darkness." —Mary L. Trump**We’re in this together.For the past several years, Joyce Vance has signed off posts on her chart-topping Substack, "Civil Discourse", with these four words. In that time, she has guided readers th...

Horne Fisher is extremely well connected. The plans of prime ministers, foreign ambassadors, and chancellors are matters of table conversation - usually because these people are dining with him. And when a man so well connected is also a brilliant detective, all sinister motives and plots systematically unfold.Whether it is a case of police corruption, or a war with Sweden, Horne Fisher can always solve it. But Horne Fisher is also a philosopher, and not a policeman, and the murder...

In these two devastatingly funny essays, Tom Wolfe examines political stances, social styles, "black rage," and "white guilt" in our status-minded world.In "These Radical Chic Evenings," Wolfe focuses primarily on one symbolic event: a gathering of the politically correct at Leonard Bernstein's duplex apartment on Park Avenue to meet spokesmen of the Black Panther Party. He re-creates the incongruous scene and its astonishing repercussions with high fidelity.And in "Mau-Mau...