Showing results by narrator "Joel Allen" in All Categories

On the Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin is a work of scientific literature considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. The book introduced the theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection, backed by a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. The evidence was gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and the author’s subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation.

The Miraculous Prophecies, Predictions, and Strange Visions of Sundry Eminent Men is an old English book which explores various mysteries, and the visions and predictions of seers like Nostradamus.

Ostensibly a quickfire quiz, The Guessing Game is really a show that pushes facts aside in favour of flights of fancy and rewards the funniest, luckiest and most bizarre guesses. The premise is simple: host Clive Anderson fires off a series of difficult and implausible questions, and awards points to the panellists for their outlandish answers. Included here are all 12 episodes of the witty, whimsical and wildly speculative show.

Nelson Appleton Miles (1839 - 1925) was an American military general. From 1895 to 1903, he served as the last commanding general of the United States Army before the office was abolished. The 1911 autobiography of General Miles is titled Serving the Republic, and chronicles his career as a soldier. He participated in many of the battles of the Civil War as a volunteer and afterwards took part as a commander in most of the Indian campaigns on the Western plains. His final service was in the Spanish-American War. 

"Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour In Company and Conversation" is the title of a list known as a school writing exercise of George Washington, who became the first president of the United States. Most of the rules have been traced to a French etiquette manual written in 1595, titled "Bienséance de la conversation entre les hommes". As a handwriting exercise circa 1745, Washington copied Francis Hawkins' translation which was published in England around 1640.

Mary Jemison (1743-1833) was a Scots-Irish colonial frontierswoman in Pennsylvania and New York, who was kidnapped as a youth and adopted into a Seneca family. During the Seven Years War (1758), at the age of 15, Jemison was taken from her western Pennsylvania home by a Shawnee and French raiding party and sold to two Seneca sisters who adopted her. She assimilated to their culture, survived two husbands and had eight children. In her old age, Jemison told her story to the minister James E. Seaver, who published it in 1824 as "Narrative of the Life of Mrs Mary Jemison".

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women is a fantasy novel by the Scottish author George MacDonald, first published in 1858. It is the story of a young man, Anodos, who enters a dreamlike realm where he experiences breathtaking adventures, while encountering a host of entities like tree spirits, gnomes, monsters, and giants as well as his own shadow. All the time, he searches for his ideal of female beauty, in the form of the "Marble Lady". After having been killed in Fairy Land, Anodos wakes up on Earth, retaining the memory of his adventures in the realm of dreams.

This work contains sections in which the author chronologically recounts individual legal cases involving witchcraft, citing about three instances in each section. He examines the reasonable explanations for the supernatural accusations, as well as the cultural us context that explains the fervor with which many of the supposed witches were persecuted.

This work is a survey of primary sources for the history of the witch persecutions. The collection attributes the root of the phenomena to clerical abuse and mass insanity. The audio also provides insight into the cascading paranoia which characterizes witch hunts in general.

Kenneth Mackenzie, also known as the Brahan Seer or the Coinneach Odhar, was a legendary Scottish clairvoyant. His birth date is traditionally assigned to the early 17th century. The Brahan Seer is often compared to Nostradamus. 

Grahame’s classic is a charming satirical tale of a young shepherd boy discovering a dragon on the Downs. Besides the literature loving dragon, it has a reasonable St George and tolerant townspeople. The brilliant conversations stand out for their arresting wit. 

Charles A Ward (1846 - 1908) was one of the best known scholars of Nostradamus. He clearly believed in the accuracy of the predictions, and he employs an impressive arsenal of linguistic and historical erudition to make his case.