Showing results for "Popular Culture" in All Categories

Apology of Socrates by Plato. Plato's Apology is not a novel, but a Socratic dialogue recounting Socrates' defense speech at his trial in 399 BC, where he was charged with impiety and corrupting the youth. The title comes from the Greek apologia, meaning a speech in defense, not an admission of guilt, as Socrates defends his life's work of questioning Athenians and seeking truth, famously claiming his wisdom comes from knowing he knows nothing. It's a foundational text in philosophy, portraying Socrates as a "gadfly" challenging the status quo, and is one of four dialogues (with Euthyphro, ...

In the 10 lectures of Wolves and Werewolves in History and Popular Culture, author and teacher Shannon Scott will take you around the world to explore the many ways humans have created and shared stories of wolves, shape-shifting, and lycanthropy.

Humility: The Beauty of Holiness by Andrew Murray. A book on the all importance of humility, how Jesus was humble, and how we also can become humble. Murray wrote "Without humility, there can be no true abiding in God's presence or experience of His favor and the power of His spirit. Without it there can be no abiding faith or love or joy or strength."

The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan. Richard Hannay’s boredom is soon relieved when the resourceful engineer is caught up in a web of secret codes, spies, and murder on the eve of WWI. This exciting action-adventure story was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1939 classic film of the same name. John Buchan (1875-1940) was Governor General of Canada and a popular novelist. Although condemned by some for anti-Semitic dialog in The Thirty-Nine Steps, his character’s sentiments do not represent the view of the author who was identified in Hitler’s Sonderfahndungsliste (special ...

The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens. The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. The novel was left unfinished at the time of Dickens' death, and readers have often speculated what the ending might have been. The novel is named after Edwin Drood, but it mostly tells the story of his uncle, a Jekyll-and-Hyde-esque choirmaster named John Jasper, who is in love with his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud is Drood's fiancée, and has caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless, who comes from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) with his twin sister, Helena, ...

The Adventures of Sherlock by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A collection of twelve short stories featuring Conan Doyle's legendary detective, originally published as single stories in Strand Magazine and subsequently collected into a single volume. There is not always a crime committed nor a culprit to find, and when there is, Holmes does not invariably get his man. However, his extraordinary powers of deduction generally solve the mystery, often to the discomfiture of the official police force. Holmes is a man of many facets, and I do not share the common perception of Holmes as cold and ...

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820. It was based on a German folktale set in the Dutch culture of Post-Revolutionary War in New York State. With Irving's companion piece "Rip Van Winkle", it is among the earliest examples of American fiction still read today

The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton. This book needs a preliminary note that its scope be not misunderstood. The view suggested is historical rather than theological, and does not deal directly with a religious change which has been the chief event of my own life; and about which I am already writing a more purely controversial volume. It is impossible, I hope, for any Catholic to write any book on any subject, above all this subject, without showing that he is a Catholic; but this study is not specially concerned with the differences between a Catholic and a Protestant. Much of it is ...

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. If it is a truth universally acknowledged that a good-looking girl cannot fail of attracting a clever young man does it follow that the reverse is also true? If the man comes of a terrifyingly dysfunctional family and the girl in question likes to see spooks and horrors round every corner, yes. Morland by name, Lackland by nature, Catherine, not altogether addicted to the heroine role in general, finds this greatness thrust upon her in the (fortunately, principally financial) fantasies of her would-be inamorato's father, the General. When the General finds ...

The Salem Witchcraft, the Planchette Mystery, and Modern Spiritualism by Harriet Beecher Stowe; Samuel Robert Wells. The object in reprinting this most interesting review is simply to show the progress made in moral, intellectual, and physical science. The reader will go back with us to a time—not very remote—when nothing was known of Phrenology and Psychology; when men and women were persecuted, and even put to death, through the baldest ignorance and the most pitiable superstition. If we were to go back still farther, to the Holy Wars, we should find cities and nations drenched in ...

Persuasion by Jane Austen. Eight years ago, Anne Elliot fell in love with a poor but ambitious young naval officer, Frederick Wentworth. The Elliots were dissatisfied with Anne's choice, feeling he was not distinguished enough for their family, and her older friend and mentor, Lady Russell, acting in place of Anne's deceased mother, persuaded her to break off the match. Now 27 and considered a spinster, Anne re-encounters her former fiance, now a captain, as he courts her spirited young neighbour, Louisa Musgrove. The self-interested machinations of Anne's older sister Elizabeth, of ...

The Third Wave makes startling sense of the violent changes now battering our world. Its sweeping synthesis casts fresh light on our new forms of marriage and family, on today's dramatic changes in business and economics. It explains the role of cults, the new definitions of work, play, love, and success. It points toward new forms of 21st-century democracy.

The stuff of conspiracy theories makes for great, entertaining stories in movies, books, and television. And there is no shortage of subjects: from who really killed JFK to the truth behind 9/11. And then, there are subjects from alien invasions to the Moon landing was simulated - theories that are truly out of this world, which according to some, is flat. Many of these crazy concepts have jumped off the pages or screens to become so pervasive in our culture that thousands - even millions - subscribe to them as reality.

In this eye-opening six-part series, Dr. Franziska Kohlt looks at the concept of dreams through the lens of the stories that feature them. You’ll visit the enchanted slumbering land of Sleeping Beauty and the dark and mysterious realm of The Sandman. You’ll explore the ironic dreaming devices of Slaughterhouse-Five; the trippy, fantastical world of Alice in Wonderland; and many more on the quest to deconstruct the symbolism and intent of the dreams that are part of the narrative—or even, in some cases, that are characters in the narrative.

Greenmantle by John Buchan. Greenmantle is the second of five Richard Hannay novels by John Buchan, first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. It is one of two Hannay novels set during the First World War, the other being Mr Standfast (1919); Hannay's first and best-known adventure, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), is set in the period immediately before the war started. - Hannay is called in to investigate rumours of an uprising in the Muslim world, and undertakes a perilous journey through enemy territory to meet up with his friend Sandy in Constantinople. Once there, he and his ...

What I Believe by Bertrand Russell. Provides a brief indication of the beliefs of philosopher Bertrand Russell, focusing on his hopes for the future. The topics included are: nature and man, the good life, moral rules, individual and social salvation, and science and happiness.

George Sand by Bertha Thomas. "Famous Women: George Sand" by Bertha Thomas is a historical account written in the late 19th century. The book explores the life and accomplishments of George Sand, a prominent 19th-century French writer known for her distinct literary voice and unconventional lifestyle. It aims to provide a concise overview of Sand's multifaceted life, emphasizing her literary career and personal experiences, shedding light on her as an extraordinary figure in the realm of women's history. The opening of the text sets the stage for George Sand's life, revealing her noble ...

Athena Aktipis of Arizona State University is a self-professed apocalypse enthusiast, and as the host of the podcast Zombified, she knows the undead inside and out. With Zombified: Real-World Lessons from Fictional Apocalypses, she’s compiled her research and insights into a fascinating Audible Original that will have you thinking deeper about all those shambling, brain-hungry corpses in pop culture—not to mention our everyday lives. Drawing on years of research on zombies and zombification, these six lessons offer a fun way to explore and understand the many forces that influence us.

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Mind Wide Open comes a groundbreaking assessment of popular culture as it's never been considered before: through the lens of intelligence.Forget everything youâ€ve ever read about the age of dumbed-down, instant-gratification culture. In...

America’s relationship with alcohol is a fraught and inconsistent one. While many other nations and cultures have stable attitudes toward drinking, the American perspective on alcohol has been volatile, vacillating wildly from the gallon-a-day beer rations on the Mayflower to nationwide prohibition and back again. Why are Americans so ambivalent about alcohol? What can we learn about the past and the American character through these extreme fluctuations between alcoholism and sobriety across the centuries?