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  Quintessence of Ibsenism

  George Bernard Shaw

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  George Bernard Shaw, a playwright with a few bones to pick of his own, undertakes a surgical analysis of the social philosophies underlying the work of Henrik Ibsen. Focusing his analysis on Ibsen's challenge to the conventional "ideals" which both Ibsen and Shaw consider the greatest evils in human society, Shaw summarizes and exposits sixteen of Ibsen's plays, seizing the opportunity to elucidate some of the principles dearest to himself. Some of the most striking passages reveal Shaw's radical feminist perspectives, some of which resonate as if a half-century ahead of their time. A fascinating revelation of the minds of two great and revolutionary writers (it's not always obvious whose voice is exactly whose), this always-timely book exposes hypocrisies still poisoning Society in the twenty-first century. - Summary by Expatriate

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  Twenty Years at Hull House

  Jane Addams

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  Jane Addams was the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In a long, complex career, she was a pioneer settlement worker and founder of Hull-House in Chicago, public philosopher (the first American woman in that role), author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace. She was the most prominent woman of the Progressive Era and helped turn the nation to issues of concern to mothers, such as the needs of children, public health and world peace. She emphasized that women have a special responsibility to clean up their communities and make them better places to live, arguing they needed the vote to be effective. Addams became a role model for middle-class women who volunteered to uplift their communities. This recording of her memoir Twenty Years at Hull-House commemorates the 100th anniversary of its publication, the 150th anniversary of Addams' birth, and was released on December 10th, the anniversary of Addams receiving her Nobel Prize. (Summary by Wikipedia and Elizabeth Klett)

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  Theodor Fontane: A short...

  5 Minutes, 5 Minute Biographies,...

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  Theodor Fontane, German poet and novelist: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

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  Principles of Economics The...

  ALFRED MARSHALL

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  Principles of Economics was a leading economics textbook of Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), first published in 1890. Marshall began writing the book in 1881, and he spent much of the next decade at work on it.His plan for the work gradually extended to a two-volume compilation on the whole of economic thought; the first volume was published in 1890 to worldwide acclaim that established him as one of the leading economists of his time. It brought the ideas of supply and demand, of marginal utility and of the costs of production into a coherent whole, and became the dominant economic textbook in England for a long period. The second volume, which was to address foreign trade, money, trade fluctuations, taxation, and collectivism, was never published at all. (Summary from Wikipedia)This reading is based on the eighth edition, published in 1920.

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  Mary Barton: A Tale of...

  Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

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  Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life  was Mrs Gaskell's first full-length novel. It was published anonymously in that tumultuous year of political change, 1848 - only a few months after the Communist Manifesto co-authored by her fellow Manchester-resident, Friedrich Engels. Engels's experience as agent in his father's cotton-spinning factory motivated him to write "The Condition of the Working Class in England", a classic account of the sufferings of the poor under the factory-system. 
  Elizabeth Gaskell's own personal contact with the plight of the poor cotton workers of Lancashire also compelled her to a compassionate examination of their lives; but as a middle-class woman, married to a Unitarian minister, her approach to her subject took on a more emotionally complex significance; influenced by religious faith but also by more personal considerations. 
  In the brief preface to the novel, Mrs Gaskell hints at her initial impulse. The loss of a beloved child in infancy led her to seek a therapeutic outlet, but one which left her uncertain of her capacity to contextualize her public, writerly response to the tragedies occurring in the surrounding society of Manchester's poorest classes: "I know nothing of Political Economy, or the theories of trade..." She was, however, determined to portray, in novelistic form, the intimate connection between the private experience of her characters and the social forces of her time. The success of the novel led her to proclaim her authorship and move on to further works of fiction, which have secured her in our times a mounting reputation as one of the leading novelists of the mid-Victorian period. 
  Certainly the novel features numerous death-scenes, all conveyed with a depth of sympathy that contrasts with the queasy iambics with which Dickens orchestrated the notorious demise of Little Nell. Mrs Gaskell was not, like Dickens, a London-based novelist observing the sufferings of the provincial poor with a journalistic detachment - as evidenced in his own admirable, Lancashire-based novel "Hard Times". Gaskell lived among the people whose attenuated lives she chronicled - and however hesitantly, as a début novelist, she rendered their experience in literary terms, her writing presents us with a true insight into the sufferings of individuals at a point in history when the mass of human beings fell casualty to the forms of economic progress following upon the Industrial Revolution. Most impressively she called into question the political and social cost of creating a resentful proletariat despairing of survival in (to quote Karl Marx) a "heartless world". 
  Our reader Tony Foster is a resident of Manchester and a near-neighbour of Mrs Gaskell (allowing for their separation in time). His superb narration renders the native speech of her characters with an authenticity which ideally conveys the spirit of this book. A truly moving experience awaits everyone who gives ear to this 'Tale of Manchester Life'.  
  Summary by Martin Geeson

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  Transformative Experience

  L.A. Paul

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  Transformative Experience by L.A. Paul challenges the foundations of how we make life's biggest decisions. From becoming a parent to changing careers—or even becoming a vampire in a thought experiment—some choices don’t just alter your circumstances; they change you. Paul introduces the concept of transformative experiences—decisions that are both epistemically transformative (you can’t know what they’re like until you live them) and personally transformative (they change your core values, preferences, or identity). 
   
  Traditional models of rational decision-making assume we can evaluate outcomes based on what we currently value. But what happens when the experience itself reshapes those values? If you can't imagine what the future will feel like, or if your future self values different things, how can you make a rational choice now? 
   
  Blending vivid examples, from parenthood to philosophical thought experiments, Paul explores the limits of foresight, the nature of self, and how we might embrace decision-making not as prediction—but as discovery. Transformative Experience is a groundbreaking work that forces us to rethink autonomy, authenticity, and the very meaning of rational choice.

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