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  Offences Against One's Self:...

  Jeremy Bentham

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  Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He was a political radical and a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law. He is best known as an early advocate of utilitarianism and animal rights who influenced the development of liberalism. The essay Offences Against One's Self (c. 1785), argued for the liberalisation of laws prohibiting homosexuality. The essay remained unpublished during Bentham's lifetime for fear of offending public morality. It was finally published for the first time in 1931. (Wikipedia) This recording was catalogued on 28th July 2007, the 40th anniversary of the coming into force in the UK of the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which decriminalised male homosexuality for the first time (though with restrictions).

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  Louvre and the Hermitage The:...

  Editors Charles River

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  The very name of the Louvre conjures up scenes of art and elegance, and of long halls filled with beauty and people strolling through them whispering quietly among themselves about the glories they are witnessing. Even those who have never been to the Louvre know some of its most prized possessions, from ancient statues to Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”. As the world’s largest museum, the Louvre is unquestionably the cultural highpoint of Paris, a city that has long been considered the cultural center of Europe. 
  However, life is rarely as simple as one imagines, and the life of the Louvre is no different. While just about everyone is familiar with its history as an art museum, the Louvre’s history goes back over 800 years, and it used to have far different purposes, both as a medieval fortress and a palatial residence for French kings. The Louvre bore witness to mass murder during the French Revolution, and there have been countless accusations of theft and other questionable actions since its opening. 
  Catherine the Great came to power in the midst of the Enlightenment, which was flourishing in France and Britain, and she would rule as an Enlightened ruler. A known correspondent of Voltaire’s, Catherine sought to modernize Russia and turn it into a force in its own right, creating a rich and cultured court at the same time. Over the course of nearly 35 years in power, Catherine ushered in the Russian Enlightenment and presided over a period of time known as the Golden Age of the Russian Empire. 
  Moreover, Catherine had an unmatched passion for the arts, and she began a private art collection that would eventually evolve into galleries upon galleries of historical treasures shipped in from all over the world. This fabled museum was none other than the Hermitage, located in the heart of Saint Petersburg, a city founded by the imperial empire's very own Peter the Great.

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  The Graeco-Roman Era

  Pericles, Julius Caesar, ...

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  Five speeches from the legendary orators Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Cicero, and Pericles.431 BCE: Pericles’ Funeral Oration is a valedictory and eulogy for the great age of Athenian democracy. Reported by Thucydides, it was given at the first annual public funeral for casualties of the Peloponnesian War. That war ended twenty-seven years later with the democratic government of Athens overthrown by an oligarchy known as The Four Hundred. 324BCE: Two speeches by Alexander the Great, reported by the historian Arrian in his Anabasis. Both speeches are a direct address to his army on embarking on a new campaign. The first was given in Opis, Mesopotamia, when rallying his armies to start a new campaign into Persia. The army took heart, and successfully conquered the Persian Empire, adding it to Alexander’s many existing conquests. The second speech is given after the first campaign is over. This time Alexander is ready to move into the Indian subcontinent. After travelling across the known world, the entire army took the offer to quit fighting and go home. This leaves Alexander understandably upset, and produces history’s most finely worded example of saying “After all I’ve done for you! Well, you can all get stuffed then, you bunch of ingrates. I hope you choke.”In 63BCE, the Cataline Conspiracy shook Rome. It was a deep shock to the Roman system, and risked civil war. Included here are speeches by the Consul Cicero and the only extant speech of Julius Caesar.Cicero’s First Speech is a rabble-rousing, impassioned, and slightly unhinged attack upon Cataline and his associates. It speaks to the outrage of the body politic and the masses.Caesar’s speech is a jurisprudential appeal to create no new laws to punish these crimes. Caesar argues that the republic would be ultimately harmed if they were not punished only under existing laws, as people remember the punishment but not the crime.

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  A Rare Recording of W F Hooley...

  W. F. Hooley

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  William F. Hooley (April 16, 1861 - October 12, 1918) was a British-born American bass singer and pioneer recording artist who was popular as a solo singer, as a monologist, and as a member of several of the most successful vocal groups of the early twentieth century, including The Haydn Quartet and The American Quartet. In this recording, Hooley reads Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

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  Summary and Critique of the...

  Introbooks Team

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  Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a Lebanese born American literateur, scholar, essayist, trade-cum-risk analyst, statistician and so on. His multi-faceted talent and the ability to wander freely amongst diverse faculty of subjects have made him a force to reckon with in the gamut of global intellectual society. Most of Taleb's works are related to the dilemma of volatility, probability and uncertainty. 
  Nicholas Taleb was born in Amioun (Lebanon) in the year 1960. He is an author of international fame and has served as an academician in several universities and is currently positioned as a distinguished professor of Risk Engineering at the New York University (Tandon School of Engineering). 
  He has authored so many books to devour. The Black Swan, Antifragile, Skin in the Game, Fooled by Randomness, The Bed of Procrustes, Dynamic Hedging to name a few (combinedly called Incerto) are termed as Taleb’s most outstanding creations in the contemporary literary world. 
  Nassim Nicholas Taleb has had devoted a good 21 years as a risk-taker (quantitative trader) before becoming a wanderer and researcher in spheres of mathematics, philosophy and largely potential problems with chance and probability. Over and above being impressed as a trader, Taleb has also written over 50 academic articles in multiple subjects as a sequel to Incerto. The topics covered are from physics, philosophy, statistics, economics, ethics, quantitative finance and international affairs. The central idea in all these creations has centered on the notion of risk and probability with an undercurrent of randomness. 

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  The Weary Blues

  Langston Hughes

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  Inspired by the rhythm of Harlem nights, The Weary Blues is a landmark collection of poetry that captures the beauty, sorrow, and resilience of Black life in America. Blending jazz rhythms with vivid storytelling, these poems pulse with longing, pride, and the search for freedom — as powerful and relevant today as when they were first published.
  Langston Hughes was one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance. Known for his lyrical poetry and deep celebration of Black culture, he transformed American literature with works that spoke honestly about identity, injustice, music, and hope.

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