In "The Color Line: A Brief in Behalf of the Unborn," William Benjamin Smith adeptly explores the complex intersections of race and society through a critical lens of sociology and ethics. Written in the early 20th century, Smith's work employs a rigorous analytical style that combines empirical research with poignant moral arguments, marking it as an important contribution to racial discourse. The book scrutinizes the impact of societal prejudices on future generations, arguing that the c...

A finely honed abridgement of Emerson's principal essays with an introduction that clarifies the essence of Emerson's ideas and establishes their relevance to our own troubled era. This is the first truly accessible edition of Emerson's work, revealing him to be one of America's wisest teachers.

A new, wide-ranging selection of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s most influential writings, this edition captures the essence of American Transcendentalism and illustrates the breadth of one of America’s greatest philosophers and poets.The writings featured here show Emerson as a protester against social conformity, a lover of nature, an activist for the rights of women and slaves, and a poet of great sensitivity. As explored in this volume, Emersonian thought is a unique blend of belief in ...

"It is only when we forget our learning that we begin to know," Thoreau wrote. Ideas about education permeate Thoreau's writing. Uncommon Learning brings those ideas together in a single volume for the first time.

From one of America's foremost historians, Inventing America compares Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence with the final, accepted version, thereby challenging many long-cherished assumptions about both the man and the document. Although Jefferson has long been idealized as a champion of individual rights, Wills argues that in fact his vision was one in which interdependence, not self-interest, lay at the foundation of society."No one has o...

An Inquiry Into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want With Increase of Wealth...the RemedyHenry George believed that "(t)he people must think because the people alone can act." This classic bestseller in political economy launched a worldwide movement with a unique strategy to abolish privilege and poverty.Many economists and politicians foster the illusion that great fortunes and poverty stem from the presence or absence of individual skill and risk-t...

A classic collection of critical essays, poems, and letters from one of the greatest minds of nineteenth-century America.

There is a widespread opinion that all study of the mode of oratory is unmanly, and leads to the substitution of artifice and adornment for simplicity and power. "Let a man have something important to say," it is argued, "and he need not waste his time in trying to find how to say it." So general is this sentiment, that a ministerial acquaintance of the writer's was recently very careful to conceal from his congregation the fact that he was taking a series of lessons in elocution, lest his...

This work has been recognized as the most influential work of his time. A key part of the book has been devoted to what is now known as the law of the people of the Malthus thorn. This theory suggested that rising population rates would contribute to a growing supply of work that would inevitably reduce wages. In essence, Malthus feared that the continued growth of the population would lend themselves to poverty and famine.

This is a collection of essays that covers various subjects. Besides critically analyzing the works of great literary figures, Whitman also expresses his views on attitudes of people, various political issues as well as political figures. Thought-provoking!

American traditions, begotten of religious rebellion, small self-sustaining communities, isolated conditions, and hard pioneer life, grew during the colonization period of one hundred and seventy years from the settling of Jamestown to the outburst of the Revolution. This was in fact the great constitution making epoch, the period of charters guaranteeing more or less of liberty, the general tendency of which is well described by Wm. Penn in speaking of the charter for Pennsylvania: “I wan...

At the close of the war for the Union about five millions of negroes were added to the citizenship of the United States. By the census of 1890 this number had become over seven and a half millions. I use the word negro because the descriptive term black or colored is not determinative. There are many varieties of negroes among the African tribes, but all of them agree in certain physiological if not psychological characteristics, which separate them from all other races of mankind; whereas th...