Prostitution will be studied in these pages from the standpoint of the practical experience of European countries. An effort will be made to ascertain its forms and extent, the sources from which it is recruited, the conditions that either cause or conduce to it, the procedure of different communities in dealing with it and with the conditions responsible for it, the measures which have been employed by way of combat or control, and the results which have been thus obtained. Material will ...

A short, provocative book about why "useless" science often leads to humanity's greatest technological breakthroughsA forty-year tightening of funding for scientific research has meant that resources are increasingly directed toward applied or practical outcomes, with the intent of creating products of immediate value. In such a scenario, it makes sense to focus on the most identifiable and urgent problems, right? Actually, it doesn't. In his classic essay "The Use...

Originally published in 1930. Flexiner’s Universities was the big book on higher education when it was first published in 1930 and continued to be such until the appearance of Robert Maynard Hutchins’ The Higher Learning in America in 1936. Universities continues to be one of the great books in the field more than sixty years later・but for quite different reasons now than then.

In "De re militari," Vegetius offers a comprehensive examination of military strategy and tactics, presenting a detailed guide for Roman military practices that resonates through the ages. Written in a clear and systematic style, the treatise emphasizes the importance of discipline, training, and the moral character of soldiers. Vegetius deftly amalgamates historical examples with poignant insights, reflecting the military climate of late antiquity, when the Roman Empire faced increasing e...

Plutarch´s "Parallel Lives" (AKA Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans) is a collection of biographies about great men and leaders from Greece and Rome.The book is structured in pairs of biographies including Themistocles v. Camillus, Pyrrhus v. Marius, Alexander v. Caesar, and Phocion v. Cato the Younger. Plutarch compares the lives of leaders from both the Greeks and the Romans to show how similar they were. He hoped that the comparisons would lead to mutual respect betwee...

This file includes 11 books: Medieval Hebrew (featuring The Midrash and medieval collections of Jewish biblical lore and legend), Hebraic Literature (translations from the Talmud, Midrashim, and KabbalaTales and Maxims from the Midrash by Samuel Rapaport, The Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirke Abot), Kitab al Khazari by Judah Hallevi, the Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, Philo-Judaeus of alexandria by Norman Bentwich, The guide for the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides, The Ethics by B...

Mommsen's history of the Roman Republic in five volumes. These volumes cover from the founding of Rome up to the disintegration of the First Triumvirate (Caesar, Pompey, Crassus). The author cites dates in the Roman style, AUC, from the founding of the city in 753 BC. A table at the end shows modern-day equivalents. According to Wikipedia, Mommsen is "generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century." This work complements Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".

In "The Histories," Herodotus, often referred to as the 'Father of History,' offers a groundbreaking narrative that meticulously chronicles the Greco-Persian Wars while exploring the cultural, political, and social landscapes of the ancient world. Written in an engaging prose style, the text is characterized by its rich descriptions and an interweaving of historical facts with mythological elements, allowing readers to gain a multifaceted understanding of the past. Herodotus employs a crit...

"The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" traces Western civilization (as well as the Islamic and Mongolian conquests) from the height of the Roman Empire to the fall of Byzantium in the fifteenth century.The six volumes cover the history, from 98 to 1590, of the Roman Empire, the history of early Christianity and then of the Roman State Church, and the history of Europe, and discusses the decline of the Roman Empire among other things.Gibbon offers an explana...

ALEXANDER the Great died when he was quite young. He was but thirty-two years of age when he ended his career, and as he was about twenty when he commenced it, it was only for a period of twelve years that he was actually engaged in performing the work of his life. Napoleon was nearly three times as long on the great field of human action. Notwithstanding the briefness of Alexander's career, he ran through, during that short period, a very brilliant series of exploits, which were so bold, ...

The want of an interesting work on Greek and Roman mythology, suitable for the requirements of both boys and girls, has long been recognized by the principals of our advanced schools. The study of the classics themselves, even where the attainments of the pupil have rendered this feasible, has not been found altogether successful in giving to the student a clear and succinct idea of the religious beliefs of the ancients, and it has been suggested that a work which would so deal with the su...

The Germania (Latin: De Origine et situ Germanorum, lit. The Origin and Situation of the Germans), written by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus around 98, is an ethnographic work on the Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire.This work survived only in one single manuscript that was found in Hersfeld Abbey, Holy Roman Empire and brought to Italy in 1455 where Enea Silvio Piccolomini, the later Pope Pius II, first examined and analyzed it, whereby he sparked interest among German humanists such as C...