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This version of the book is done as a Dramatic Reading with various people speaking each characters part. When the King of Barodia receives a pair of seven-league boots as a birthday present, his habit of flying over the King of Euralia's castle during breakfast provokes a series of incidents which escalate into war. While the King of Euralia is away, his daughter Hyacinth tries to rule in his stead and counter the machiavellian ambitions of the king's favourite, the Countess Belvane. Ostensibly a typical fairytale, it tells the story of the war between the kingdoms of Euralia and Barodia and the political shenanigans which take place in Euralia in the king's absence. The book introduces us to a princess who is far from helpless; a prince who, whilst handsome, is also pompous and vain; an enchantment which is almost entirely humorous; a villain who is not entirely villainous and receives no real comeuppance; a good king who isn't always good; an evil king who isn't always evil, and so on. The result is a book which children may not enjoy as much as adults. The book was written by Milne partly for his wife, upon whom the character of...

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Humor, Fairy tales, Fantasy

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A first-hand account of the 1913-1919 campaign of American suffragettes, detailing their treatment at the hands of the courts, and the true conditions of their incarceration. (Summary by Sarah Jennings)...

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Memoirs, History, Politics

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This is a concise yet thorough explanation of what might happen to our world in the aftermath of a nuclear war. The myriad of potential effects will be global and wide-spread. (Summary by Allyson Hester)...

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Politics, Essay/Short nonfiction, Science

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This satire on the U.S.A.'s myth of being the Home of the Oppressed, where all men are free and equal, is unrelenting in its pursuit of justice through exposure. It draws a scathingly shameful portrait of how Chinese immigrants were treated in 19th century San Francisco. (Introduction by John Greenman)...

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Historical Fiction, Epistolary fiction, History, Politics, Satire

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The Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe, is an English Protestant account of the persecutions of Protestants, many of whom had died for their beliefs within the decade immediately preceding its first publication. It was first published by John Day, in 1563. Lavishly illustrated with many woodcuts, it was the largest publishing project undertaken in Britain up to that time. Commonly known as, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, the work's full title begins with Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church. There were many subsequent editions, by Day, and by other editors down through the years. Foxe's original work was enormous (the second edition filling two heavy folio volumes with a total of 2,300 pages, estimated to be twice as long as Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This edition is much abridged from Foxe's original. This book was first published shortly after the death of Queen Mary. During Mary's reign, common people of Protestent Christian faith were publicly burned at the stake in an attempt to eliminate dissension from Catholic doctrines. Foxe's account of Mary's reign and its m...

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Religion, History

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Problems in American Democracy is a very detailed, specific explanation of some of the underlying and surface problems of a democracy system of government, particularly of the American form of democracy. Though lengthy, it is a great read for people who want to learn more about different types of government and the foundations of our own government in the United States of America. (Summary by Allyson Hester)...

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Politics

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A funny and touching account of the imaginative Mr. Polly who, bored and trapped in his conventional life, makes a U-turn –- and changes everything. H.G. Wells’ early life as the son of a semi-insolvent shopkeeper and as a draper’s apprentice fueled his novels of the lower middle class: The Wheels of Chance (1896), Kipps (1905), and The History of Mr. Polly (1910). These works evoke the desperation of apprentices, clerks, and small traders in their monotonous toil behind shop counters. And, like Mr. Polly, his protagonists make a break from their mundane lives with more or less success. H. G. Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific writer in history, general and science fiction, and politics. He was a lifelong socialist. (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)...

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Fiction

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The Mysterious Forces of Civilization (Persian: Risálih-i-Madaníyyih) is a work written before 1875 by ‘Abbás Effendí, known as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (the Servant of Bahá) (1844-1921). The Persian text was first lithographed in Bombay in 1882 and printed in Cairo in 1911. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was the eldest son and appointed successor of Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith. The original text of this work was written and published anonymously, and the first English translation (by Johanna Dawud) was published in London in 1910 and Chicago in 1918, under the title ‘Mysterious Forces of Civilization’ written by an Eminent Bahai Philosopher. This audiobook is based on the 1918 edition. Another translation was completed by Marzieh Gail and published in 1957, with an introduction by Horace Holley. The title was re-translated as “The Secret of Divine Civilization”. The book was widely known in its time as an attempt to improve the degraded condition of Persia (Iran). The author frequently references current issues that were being debated, such as whether to modernize and accept Western technology, or to reject Western culture and rely on technolog...

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Religion, Politics

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This collection comprises recordings of 17 historic speeches given to the UK House of Commons between 1628 and 1956. Readings are of speeches origninally given by parliamentarians including Oliver Cromwell, Edmund Burke, William Wilberforce, William Gladstone, Keir Hardie, Winston Churchill and Aneurin Bevan. (Summary by Carl Manchester)...

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History, Politics

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Violence in society and politics, whether in the form of war, terrorism, dictatorship, oppression, usurpation, or genocide, is widely recognized as a grave problem. The objective of this essay is to explore a different perspective on the nature of the problem of widespread violence in society and politics that suggests what will be required for its resolution. We need to analyze the conditions under which it will be possible to reduce drastically the reliance on military and other violent means of conflict. We need to examine why violence is so widely regarded as necessary for good causes as well as for bad ones, and how fundamental change away from that syndrome might be achieved. (Summary by Author)...

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Politics

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Philip Dru: Administrator: a Story of Tomorrow, 1920-1935 is a futuristic political novel published anonymously in 1912 by Edward Mandell House, an American diplomat, politician and presidential foreign policy advisor. His book's hero leads the democratic western U.S. in a civil war against the plutocratic East, and becomes the dictator of America. Dru as dictator imposes a series of reforms that resemble the Bull Moose platform of 1912 and then vanishes....

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Fiction, Politics

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This novella is the final story in Joyce's collection Dubliners. It describes a Christmas party given by Kate and Julia Morkan, two elderly Dublin ladies, that is attended by their nephew, Gabriel Conroy, and his wife. While the party is festive, full of dancing, drinking, and eating, it is also pervaded by political, religious, and sexual tensions, as well as memories of loss. When Gabriel and his wife go home at the end of the night, she reveals a long-kept secret that leads to an epiphany. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)....

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Short stories

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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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“The genius of Indian social life lies in living together separately.” Humayun Kabir (at the inaugural of IIT Madras, 1959). This essay seeks to highlight segregation as the keynote of traditional Indian life and caste as the key to the evolution of segregation. Caste in India could, over the centuries, unfold a truly pluralist polity, though each caste in itself was quite monolithic. The coexistence without coalescence of numerous castes could facilitate a polycentric social order in which power was diffused in the local communities. ...

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“Contraries of belief and diversities of religion…are in fact part of the scheme of Providence; for as a painter gives beauty to a picture by a variety of colours, or as a gardener embellishes his garden with flowers of every hue, so God has appointed to every tribe its own faith, and every sect its own religion that man might glorify him in diverse modes, all having the same end and being equally acceptable in his spirit.” [Statement made by the learned Brahmin pundits and recorded by the Rev. C.T.E. Rhenius in the ‘Preface to the Code of Hindu Laws’ commissioned by Warren Hastings] “The genius of Indian social life lies in living together separately.” Humayun Kabir (at the inaugural of IIT Madras, 1959). ...

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Foreword Summary I. The Methodological Bug II. Indian Unipluralism: Introductory III. Hinduism and Buddhist Protestantism IV. The Impersonal Individual V. Hindutva: A Theological Figment VI. Nature of Caste Pluralism VII. Royal Government and Caste Plurarchy Afterword Notes...

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"Hard cases, it is said, make bad law. But they can also make good novels, and William McGrane has done so with a gripping tale of the seamy side of law practice; replete with ethical crises and missteps; heartless firm politics; and the brutal, fragile road to success. The story may make you uncomfortable because the fiction is only a disguise for reality, a reality many of us have faced. But, fiction or fact, Mr. McGrane’s crisply written, insightful and unyielding novel holds you until its conclusion—and even then it stays with you." Jerome Shestack, Esq., former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Past President of the American Bar Association, and 2006 winner of the American Bar Association Medal. "Wonderful book. I tried to persuade my wife, Kim, that some of the Bad Law stories were fictional, but she didn't believe me." Richard Plumridge, Esq., former senior partner at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, LLP. "William McGrane takes us on a disturbing ride through the underbelly of big-city law practice, along with a cast of characters much too close for comfort to the real thing." ...

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Narcissistic and psychopathic leaders come in all shapes and degrees of virulence. Learn to recognize them in various settings (the workplace, religion, politics) and to cope with the toxic fallout of their "leadership"....

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The antecedents and aftermath of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the role of the United States in international affairs.

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Involution & Evolution is an anti-war novel focussing on Alfred Freeman, a World War One conscientious objector whose character is based on Jesus and Buddha. It stabs away at the hypocrisy at the centre of modern religion and politics, in a uniquely rhythmic and colourful manner....

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Nursultan Nazarbayev, in full Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev, Nazarbayev also spelled Nazarbaev (born July 6, 1940, Kazakhstan, U.S.S.R.), president of Kazakhstan (from 1990), a reformist who sought regional autonomy for his Central Asian republic. Nazarbayev was the son of Kazakh peasants. He graduated from a technical school in Dneprodzerzhinsk (now Dniprodzerzhynsk, Ukraine) in 1960, from a technical school of the Karaganda (now Qaraghandy) Metallurgical Combine in Kazakhstan (1967), and from the Higher Party School in Moscow (1976). He worked as a steelworker and engineer at the Karaganda plant off and on from 1960 to 1977. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1962 and rose through the ranks, becoming a full member of the Kazakhstan Politburo in 1979, chairman of the Kazakh Council of Ministers (1984–89), first secretary of the Kazakhstan party (1989–91), and full member of the CPSU Politburo (1990–91). In 1990 the Supreme Soviet of Kazakhstan elected Nazarbayev president of the republic....

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Today I decided to write a book, a concise part about my cooperation with The White House and The Central Intelligence Agency and many years of cooperation with Human Rights Watch (HRW) and IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies); a few political leaders of England, France, agents of NSA (The National Security Agency of the United States, who didn’t let me to submit any top secret information, before.) and CIA agents and Mossad and Shin Bet (Shabak) and USSS (The United States Secret Service) and Microsoft communicated with me about what am I started to write now? My life is full of espionage and political memories. When I started my political activities and when I started to fight for freedom of people, I was only 14, one of the teenager Iranian boys. I got tortured extremely hard. All around the hell, staying in Russia where your bones would sense it’s very cold weather, inside of it’s deep underground city where you ask your self “How is it possible for some satellites with their warheads to track me here?”. During travel to Philippines with it’s girls inside of the bars and clubs. In middle east, ...