Random Non-fiction Podcasts

The writer is as earnest in recommending ladies who belong to the higher class of settlers to cultivate all the mental resources of a superior education, as she is to induce them to discard all irrational and artificial wants and mere useless pursuits. She would willingly direct their attention to the natural history and botany of this new country, in which they will find a never-failing source of amusement and instruction, at once enlightening and elevating the mind, and serving to fill up the void left by the absence of those lighter feminine accomplishments, the practice of which are necessarily superseded by imperative domestic duties. To the person who is capable of looking abroad into the beauties of nature, and adoring the Creator through his glorious works, are opened stores of unmixed pleasure, which will not permit her to be dull or unhappy in the loneliest part of our Western Wilderness. The writer of these pages speaks from experience, and would be pleased to find that the simple sources from which she has herself drawn pleasure, have cheered the solitude of future female sojourners in the backwoods of Canada.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Biography, Catharine Parr Traill, ebooks, free audio books, History, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Memoirs, Non-fiction, The Backwoods of Canada

The Articles of Confederation: On November 15th, 1777 The Articles of Confederation became the first constitution of the United States, though not yet ratified by the thirteen original colonies. Ratification of the Articles took place almost three and a half years later on March 1st, 1781. The purpose of the articles was to create a confederation of sovereign states with a weak central government; thus allowing state governments to wield most of the power. It wasn’t long before the need for a stronger federal government was realized which led to the Articles being replaced by the United States Constitution. The Articles of Confederation is the common term for The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The U.S. Constitution: The United States Constitution is the legal backbone of the United States of America and comprises the basic laws of the United States Federal Government. Delegates from twelve of the thirteen original colonies put the Constitution’s frame work together in May 1787 in Philadelphia. The Constitution defines the three branches of government and their jurisdictions; they are the Executive Branch (President/Vice President), Legislative Branch (Congress comprised of the Senate & House of Representatives), and the Judicial Branch (the Supreme Court). The need for three branches of government was to create a separation of powers so that not one person or group has full responsibilities, but that they’re spread out and each branch must refer to the other by a means of checks and balances. The Declaration of Independence: The Declaration of Independence is a document that is the epitome of freedom and liberty. It was drafted by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 as a list of grievances against the King of England, George III. The Declaration expresses the conviction of Americans in a philosophy of self-evident truths of what individual liberty and freedom should be. The Declaration was the beginning to separation from England and the catalyst for a birth of a nation. The Gettysburg Address: The Gettysburg Address is considered one of the greatest and most quoted speeches of a President throughout American history. President Abraham Lincoln gave his address on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19th, 1863. It was a few months after the battle at Gettysburg was over, the purpose of Lincoln being there was to consecrate a cemetery to the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. It is believed that Lincoln’s main goal of this opportunity was to fight for the United States as a united country and to express the equality of all under the law. (Summaries by Aldark)

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, Essay/Short nonfiction, fiction, free audio books, History, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, U.S. Historical Documents, various

The Penguin Podcast is a fortnightly interview series where we speak to authors about what drives them: from where, how and why they write, to their inspirations, aspirations, and even the struggles they’ve faced along the way. Listen for lively conversations and plenty of book recommendations.

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Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: Books, creativity, fiction, Literature, Non-fiction, novels, Reading, writing

The strands woven together in Gustave Flaubert’s famous, path breaking 1856 novel Madame Bovary include a provincial town in Normandy, France, a shy young doctor with an indifferent career and a lovely young woman who lives in a fantasy world based on the innumerable romantic novels she reads. Of course there is also the story of a dull marriage punctuated by passionate, adulterous love affairs. First published in serial form in a Parisian magazine and deemed to be the “perfect” novel, Flaubert’s debut was received by both readers and critics with acclaim and admiration. However, its bold theme, path breaking ideas of women’s rights and the condemnation of middleclass morality led to its being legally attacked by the Church and the government. This was in spite of the fact that the magazine’s editors had already done their own censoring of “offending passages.” Flaubert himself was shocked and the resulting very public trial in 1857 added to the book’s notoriety. The charges were dismissed and the book was seen by the judges as promoting morality and strengthening of family values instead. However, it remained controversial and was banned time and again by various upholders of “morality” till as recently as 1954. Madame Bovary marks a watershed in the development of the novel form. Flaubert’s revolutionary techniques like the use of “style indirect libre” where the environment itself responds to a person’s emotions, his use of realism and objectivity were all radically new literary devices. In the almost linear, simple plot, Charles Bovary is a truly “ordinary” man. A country doctor who marries a wife chosen by his mother, he then meets and falls in love with the beautiful, young Emma Roualt when he visits her father’s farm on a call. His wife, a much older woman, is jealous, but she soon dies. Charles and Emma marry and move to a larger town where Emma swiftly becomes disillusioned with her husband, their financial situation and social position, though she has attained motherhood by now. She embarks on a series of love affairs to satisfy her hankering after fame and fortune. Each of these affairs brings about her moral and psychological degradation, while she simultaneously plunges herself and her family into financial ruin. What follows is a vivid depiction of life and the human condition. For the discerning and sensitive reader, Flaubert’s brilliant portrait of the tragically flawed Emma Bovary, with her shallow, provincial preoccupations, her craving for love and money and the meaninglessness of bourgeois life in the countryside make this one of the finest works of literature.

Categories: Arts

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Gustave Flaubert, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Madame Bovary, Non-fiction, romance, tragedy

Orthodoxy is a book that has become a classic of Christian apologetics. In the book’s preface Chesterton states the purpose is to “attempt an explanation, not of whether the Christian faith can be believed, but of how he personally has come to believe it.” In it, Chesterton presents an original view of the Christian religion. He sees it as the answer to natural human needs, the “answer to a riddle” in his own words, and not simply as an arbitrary truth received from somewhere outside the boundaries of human experience. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, free audio books, G. K. Chesterton, History, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, nature, Non-fiction, orthodoxy, Philosophy, religion

Chicago, May 4, 1886. In the Haymarket region of the city, a peaceful Labor Day demonstration suddenly turns into a riot. The police intervene to maintain peace, but they soon use violence to quell the mob and a bomb is thrown, resulting in death and injuries to scores of people. In the widely publicized trial that followed, eight anarchists were condemned to death or life imprisonment, convicted of conspiracy, though none of them had actually thrown the bomb. A young Russian immigrant, Emma Goldman, had arrived just the previous year in the United States. She was deeply affected by what came to be known as the Haymarket Affair. She took on various jobs, including that of a factory worker before becoming a writer and lecturer committed to anarchist philosophy. In the years to follow, she and her lover planned to assassinate a well known financier and industrialist. Though the victim survived, Goldman’s lover was sentenced to life imprisonment while she received a lesser sentence. However, she continued to spend time in and out of jail for various activities including distribution of literature regarding birth control, inducing people not to join the newly introduced military draft etc. She was deported back to Russia but found the regime there highly repressive and lived in Canada, England and France. She wrote passionately about issues that concerned humanity including prisons, religion, marriage, free love, the right of choice, capitalism, homosexuality, gender politics and militarism. Anarchism and Other Essays was first published by her own publishing house, Mother Earth. It opens with an introduction by Hippolyte Havel, a Czech anarchist who lived in Greenwich Village in New York. He was a great friend of the playwright, Eugene O’Neill, who based some of the characters in his plays on Havel. Havel provides a detailed biography of Emma Goldman and ends with a stirring call to emancipate humanity. Emma Goldman’s preface describes her own journey and motives. Twelve chapters delineate Goldman’s philosophy and ideas. They include thoughts on Minorities versus Majorities, Prisons: A Social Crime and Failure, The Hypocrisy of Puritanism, Marriage and Love, The Tragedy of Women’s Emancipation and several more. Living in an age marked by the rise of unbridled capitalism, self righteousness, imperialism and greed, in these essays she writes simply, passionately, earnestly and penetratingly about ideas and ideals and how individuals are constantly in conflict with society. Goldman wrote ceaselessly; her works include pamphlets, essays, books and tracts. As an interesting and radical viewpoint, Anarchism and Other Essays is a thought provoking read which was also strangely prophetic about the future of politics to come. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts

Tags: Anarchism and Other Essays, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, Emma Goldman, Essay/Short nonfiction, fiction, free audio books, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, Politics, science

Join David Maraniss, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, in conversation with his daughter, the writer Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff, as they illuminate the craft of non-fiction writing and explore their family’s deep commitment to the power of story and search for truth.

Categories: Arts, History, Society & Culture

Tags: America, andrew maraniss, Barack Obama, bill clinton, Biographies, Biography, david maraniss, detroit, genealogy, green bay packers, heroes, History, jim thorpe, journalism, leadership, mccarthyism, MLB, motown, newspapers, nfl, Non-fiction, OLYMPICS, Packers, Politics, President, presidents, Pulitzer, Pulitzer Prize, red scare, roberto clemente, sarah maraniss, sarah maraniss vander schaaff, SPorts, the washington post, Vietnam, vietnam war, vince lombardi, writing

This is a charming book on Art History for children (and everyone else). Each chapter focuses on a great painting, reproduced in color in the original text. The authors explain the story behind the paintings, as well as the life, times, and techniques of the artists.

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family, Society & Culture

Tags: Agnes Ethel Conway, art, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, free audio books, History, instruction, Kids, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, The Book of Art for Young People

This is Mill’s first work on economics. It foreshadows his Political Economy which was the standard Anglo-American Economics textbook of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mill’s economic theory moved from free market capitalism, to government intervention within the precepts of Utilitarianism, and finally to Socialism.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, Economics/Political Economy, Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy, free audio books, John Stuart Mill, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, Philosophy

Weather Explained: Fog, clouds, rain, haze, thunder, cyclones, dew point and how to count dust motes are just a few of the 35 topics covered in short, easy to read and understand chapters in this book published in 1905.

Categories: Arts, Education

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, free audio books, instruction, J.G. M'Pherson, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Meteorology; or Weather Explained, Non-fiction, science

Self? Help! is the podcast for anyone who’s thought: Who the hell am I? What in god’s name am I doing? And how did I get here of all places? And then to figure it all out, you turned to a book—because you’re that kind of person, and so is your host, Moth Storyteller and creator of Memory Motel, Terence Mickey. He doesn’t care from where you seek your guidance, whether it’s Leo Tolstoy or Dr. Seuss. He’s a firm believer that we cannot get enough help in this life and that books are, indeed, magic. In Season 1, listen in as Terence talks with New York Times best-selling authors Susan Cain, Paula McLain, Johann Hari, Sarah Knight, and Eli Finkel.

Categories: Arts, Education

Tags: addiction, author, Books, career, improvement, introvert, love, marriage, Non-fiction, nonfiction, personality test, Reading, self help, Self-Improvement, toxic relationships

Consolation of Philosophy (Latin: Consolatio Philosophiae) is a philosophical work by Boethius written in about the year 524 AD. It has been described as the single most important and influential work in the West in medieval and early Renaissance Christianity, and is also the last great work that can be called Classical. Consolation of Philosophy was written during Boethius’ one year imprisonment while awaiting trial, and eventual horrific execution, for the crime of treason by Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great. Boethius was at the very heights of power in Rome and was brought down by treachery. It was from this experience he was inspired to write a philosophical book from prison reflecting on how a lord’s favor could change so quickly and why friends would turn against him. It has been described as ‘by far the most interesting example of prison literature the world has ever seen.’ The Consolation of Philosophy stands, by its note of fatalism and its affinities with the Christian doctrine of humility, midway between the heathen philosophy of Seneca the Younger and the later Christian philosophy of consolation represented by Thomas Aquinas. – The book is heavily influenced by Plato and his dialogues (as was Boethius himself). More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, free audio books, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, Philosophy, The Consolation of Philosophy

com·e·dy /ˈkämədē/ noun, Professional entertainment consisting of jokes and satirical sketches, intended to make an audience laugh. Welcome Block Warriors…

Categories: Comedy, News, Society & Culture

Tags: art, Comedian, Comedy, Culture, electronics, ensemble, Entertainment, fiction, film, Funny, ghost, goofy, horror, inspiration, jokes, Movies, music, News, Non-fiction, not that serious, paranormal, Politics, satire, skits, Slasher, Smart, social media, SPorts, Stories, streams, street, tech, Technology, trends, tv, tv shows, UFO, weird, witty

The Imitation of Christ is widely considered one of the greatest manuals of devotion in Christianity. The life of Christ is presented as the highest study possible to a mortal, as Jesus’ teachings far excel all the teachings of the saints. The book gives counsel to read the scriptures, statements about the uses of adversity, advice for submission to authority, warnings against temptation and how to resist it, reflections about death and the judgment, meditations upon the oblation of Christ, and admonitions to flee the vanities of the world. A recording of a Dutch translation of this work is also available (Thomas a Kempis was Dutch but wrote in Latin of course). More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Religion & Spirituality

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, free audio books, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, religion, The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis

While describing his dining experiences throughout “Bohemian San Francisco,” Clarence Edwords paints an historic panorama of California cuisine with all its cosmopolitan influences. Best of all, he offers tantalizing recipes culled from conversations with the master chefs of 1914 in “The City by the Bay.”

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Bohemian San Francisco, Clarence Edwords, Cookery, ebooks, free audio books, History, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction

The nineteenth century was marked by intense colonization by countries like Britain, France, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands. Initially, the pioneering efforts were made by men who battled unfamiliar terrain to create territories that they marked out as their own, while their wives, mothers, sisters and daughters kept the home and hearth in their native land. However, with travel becoming more common and family life assuming more importance, the women too began to travel to the four corners of the earth. There are many accounts by Victorian women of their travels to the colonies and these are valuable insights into the social history and fabric of the colonies. Many of these accounts were however, quite superficial and concentrated more on the scenery and landscape—two of the most important things that interested women of the period. A Lady’s Life on a Farm in Manitoba by Mrs. Cecil Hall was published in 1884. The book consists of a series of letters written by the author to her family in England and as she says in the preface, were never meant to be published. However, she later felt they provide useful tips for those intending to make the journey and settle in a far off land. Her brother had migrated to Manitoba in 1881. In 1882, Mrs. Hall and her sister traveled to Canada via New York and Chicago. En route, the letters describe their meeting with President Chester Allen, the newly appointed head of state who took over as President after the assassination of President James Garfield. In Chicago, the letters describe a city that’s limping back to normalcy after the Great Chicago Fire. Their journey by train across the vast plains of Canada, their arrival on the farm managed by her brother and two others who have purchased 13,000 acres and their experiences in the New World are chronicled in these letters. The sisters spend three months on the farm where they soon roll up their sleeves and pitch in, abandoning their fine lady’s ways! Cooking, cleaning, helping on the land, ruining their soft hands and learning a different way of life are well described. The ladies then move to Colorado, where they visit friends who are here to try their luck in gold mining. The book closes with a letter from their brother who updates them on the progress he and his friends have made on the Manitoba farm. As an account of the difficult and hostile conditions that pioneers faced in America and Canada, A Lady’s Life… is indeed an interesting and valuable work that modern day readers will certainly enjoy.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: A Lady's Life on a Farm in Manitoba, audio books, audiobook, Biography, ebooks, free audio books, History, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Mrs. Cecil Hall, Non-fiction, travel

Written in 1903, just sixty years after the word ‘hypnotism’ was coined, this book explores the contemporary understanding of the nature, uses and dangers of the technique. Hypnotism has been practiced for many centuries, but it was in the mid-to-late nineteenth century that it became a particularly fashionable way to explore the human mind. Although understanding of the subject has evolved considerably over subsequent years, this book remains a fascinating insight into a technique once thought to be at the forefront of medical science.

Categories: Arts, Education

Tags: A. Alpheus, audio books, audiobook, Complete Hypnotism, ebooks, free audio books, instruction, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Mesmerism, Mind-Reading and Spiritualism, Non-fiction, Psychology

The introduction to Hegel’s lectures on the philosophy of world history is often used to introduce students to Hegel’s philosophy, in part because Hegel’s sometimes difficult style is muted in the lectures, and he discourses on accessible themes such as world events in order to explain his philosophy. Much of the work is spent defining and characterizing Geist or spirit. Geist is similar to the culture of people, and is constantly reworking itself to keep up with the changes of society, while at the same time working to produce those changes through what Hegel called the “cunning of reason”. Another important theme of the text is the focus on world history, rather than regional or state history. The obscure writings of Jakob Böhme had a strong effect on Hegel. Böhme had written that the Fall of Man was a necessary stage in the evolution of the universe. This evolution was, itself, the result of God’s desire for complete self-awareness. Hegel was fascinated by the works of Spinoza, Kant, Rousseau, and Goethe, and by the French Revolution. Modern philosophy, culture, and society seemed to Hegel fraught with contradictions and tensions, such as those between the subject and object of knowledge, mind and nature, self and Other, freedom and authority, knowledge and faith, the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Hegel’s main philosophical project was to take these contradictions and tensions and interpret them as part of a comprehensive, evolving, rational unity that, in different contexts, he called “the absolute idea” or “absolute knowledge”. According to Hegel, the main characteristic of this unity was that it evolved through and manifested itself in contradiction and negation. Contradiction and negation have a dynamic quality that at every point in each domain of reality—consciousness, history, philosophy, art, nature, society—leads to further development until a rational unity is reached that preserves the contradictions as phases and sub-parts through an up-lifting (Aufhebung) into a higher unity. This whole is mental because it is mind that can comprehend all of these phases and sub-parts as steps in its own process of comprehension. It is rational because the same, underlying, logical, developmental order underlies every domain of reality and is ultimately the order of self-conscious rational thought, although only in the later stages of development does it come to full self-consciousness. The rational, self-conscious whole is not a thing or being that lies outside of other existing things or minds. Rather, it comes to completion only in the philosophical comprehension of individual existing human minds who, through their own understanding, bring this developmental process to an understanding of itself. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, free audio books, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, History, Introduction to The Philosophy of History, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, Philosophy