Audio Books

Simple Sabotage Field Manual

United States Office of Strategic Services
Formed during World War II, the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS), was organized for special operations and intelligence gatheringand analysis. Included in its mission was the implementation of, and training of foreign forces in, propaganda, espionage, subversion, and sabotage. After the war, OSS functions were transferred to the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

This "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" was used by OSS agents in training "citizen-saboteurs" in methods for inciting and executing simple sabotage to thwart industry and other vital functions in Axis-occupied areas.

Idea of a University

John Henry Newman
John Henry Newman (1801-90) was an Anglican clergyman and Oxford academic whose study of early Christianity led him to convert to the Catholic Church in 1845. At that time Catholics were banned from attending the ancient British universities. The issue was particularly acute in Ireland with its majority Catholic population, so the British government decided to found some non-denominational colleges there which would admit all but which also were not allowed to have Catholic theology faculties in them. The pope of that time, Pius IX, urged the Irish bishops instead to found a Catholic university. Newman, as the leading intellectual Catholic convert, was appointed its founding Rector. He gave a series of public lectures, arguing the case for a Catholic university (such as existed elsewhere in Europe) and also that a university should include theology among its subjects. He also argued for academic education in its own right, against the 'utilitarians' who said that all education should just be practical and immediately 'useful'. Newman later added some other articles on educational topics, such as the relation between science and religion. The resulting book, 'The Idea of a University', became a classic of educational philosophy which is still referenced in debates about the nature and purpose of education today.

Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook

Montessori, Maria
This is the authoritative book written by Montessori to describe her methods. It gives an overview of the Montessori Method as developed for 3 to 6 year olds. It is a short work, intended as a manual for teachers and parents, detailing the materials used as well as her philosophy in developing them. "As a result of the widespread interest that has been taken in my method of child education, certain books have been issued, which may appear to the general reader to be authoritative expositions of the Montessori system. I wish to state definitely that the present work, the English translation of which has been authorized and approved by me, is the only authentic manual of the Montessori method ..." M. Montessori in the Preface

Mind And Its Education

George Herbert Betts
"We are to study the mind and its education; but how? It is easy to understand how we may investigate the great world of material things about us; for we can see it, touch it, weigh it, or measure it. But how are we to discover the nature of the mind, or come to know the processes by which consciousness works? For mind is intangible; we cannot see it, feel it, taste it, or handle it. Mind belongs not to the realm of matter which is known to the senses, but to the realm of spirit, which the senses can never grasp. And yet the mind can be known and studied as truly and as scientifically as can the world of matter." This book of over a hundred years is full of useful and practical information. The author's elegant use of referencing poetry and literature in forming mental images as a way of educating our creative minds makes for a most pleasurable read.

English Synonyms and Antonyms

Fernald, James Champlin
English Synonyms and Antonyms is basically a vocabulary builder that students might use as they prepare for entrance or exit exams. Each entry gives a list of synonyms, followed by a paragraph that briefly explains or exemplifies the subtle distinctions between the listed words. The entries sometimes close with a few words on the prepositions that follow selected synonyms, but more often with a list of antonyms.
By "synonyms" we usually understand words that coincide or nearly coincide in some part of their meaning, and may hence within certain limits be used interchangeably, while outside of those limits they may differ very greatly in meaning and use. It is the office of a work on synonyms to point out these correspondences and differences, that language may have the flexibility that comes from freedom of selection within the common limits, with the perspicuity and precision that result from exact choice of the fittest words to express each shade of meaning outside of the common limits.

First Fifty Digits of Pi

Hemphill, Scott
56 flavors of Pi proudly produced by Volunteers to celebrate Pi Day, 2008. (3/14) Don't worry, you don't have to listen to an infinite string of numbers: each reader presents just the first 50 digits in styles of their own choosing.
In light of the spirit of this occasion (and the might of our spirited community), this LibriVox offering makes a gentle exception to the policy of faithfully presenting just the text. This is the real Pi, but served up with a side of sillies -- it's Pi a la volunteer.

Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence

Alice Dunbar Nelson
It seems eminently fitting and proper in this year, the fiftieth anniversary of the Proclamation of Emancipation that the Negro should give pause and look around him at the things which he has done, those which he might have done, and those which he intends to do. We pause, just at the beginning of another half century, taking stock of past achievements, present conditions, future possibilities. (Preface)

In Time Of Emergency: A Citizen's Handbook On Nuclear Attack, Natural Disasters

US Office of Civil Defense
A major emergency affecting a large number of people may occur anytime and anywhere. It may be a peacetime disaster such as a flood, tornado, fire, hurricane, blizzard or earthquake. It could be an enemy nuclear attack on the United States. In any type of general disaster, lives can be saved if people are prepared for the emergency, and know what actions to take when it occurs.

This handbook, "In Time of Emergency" (1968), contains basic general information on both nuclear attack and major natural disasters. This general guidance supplements the specific instructions issued by local governments. Since special conditions may exist in some communities, the local instructions may be slightly different from this general guidance. In those cases, the local instructions should be followed.

Reason Why

Robert Kemp Philp
This collection of useful information on "Common Things" is put in the interesting form of "Why and Because," and comprehends a familiar explanation of many subjects which occupy a large space in the philosophy of Nature, relating to air, animals, atmosphere, caloric, chemistry, ventilation, materia medica, meteorology, acoustics, electricity, light, zoölogy, etc.

Introduction to the History of Science

Walter Libby
A highly accessible introductory history of the development of scientific thought, method, and application from the first practical concepts of time and space (Babylonia, Egypt) to the development of the first successful heavier-than-air flying machine (Langley) and the discovery of radioactivity (Curie).

English Literature: Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World

William J. Long
This book, which presents the whole splendid history of English literature from Anglo-Saxon times to the close of the Victorian Era, has three specific aims. The first is to create or to encourage in every student the desire to read the best books, and to know literature itself rather than what has been written about literature. The second is to interpret literature both personally and historically, that is, to show how a great book generally reflects not only the author's life and thought but also the spirit of the age and the ideals of the nation's history. The third aim is to show, by a study of each successive period, how our literature has steadily developed from its first simple songs and stories to its present complexity in prose and poetry. (From the Preface by William J. Long)

Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book IV

John Locke
This is the fourth book of John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding. His book deals with knowledge and probability. He asks how far knowledge can go, if there are universal propositions, what are judgment and probability and deals with faith, reason and enthusiasm.

Robert's Rules of Order

Henry M. Robert
Originally written in 1876 by Major Henry M. Robert of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Robert's Rules of Order is the most widely used authority in the United States today for "parliamentary law, based...upon the rules and practice of Congress" for "organizing and conducting the business of societies, conventions, and other deliberative assemblies."

Tangled Tale

Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll is best known for 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'. It is less widely known that he worked as a lecturer for mathematics at Christ Church college, Oxford for 27 years. 'A tangled tale' merges his two talents as storyteller and mathematician. It consists of 10 short humorous stories which present one or more mathematical problems. The 10 'knots' as they are called, were first published in 'The Monthly Packet' magazine between April 1880 and March 1885, where readers were invited to solve the problems, and the solution was discussed in a later issue.

Enquire Within Upon Everything

Robert Kemp Philp
Enquire Within Upon Everything was a book of how to do things in domestic life It was first published in 1856 by Houlston and Sons of Paternoster Square in London. Robert Kemp Philp. It was then continuously reprinted in many new and updated editions as additional information and articles were added. The book was created with the intention of providing encyclopedic information on topics as diverse as etiquette, parlour games, cake recipes, laundry tips, holiday preparation and first aid.

Decoration of Houses

Ogden Codman, Jr.
The Decoration of Houses, a manual of interior design written by Edith Wharton with architect Ogden Codman, was first published in 1897. In the book, the authors denounced Victorian-style interior decoration and interior design, especially those rooms that were decorated with heavy window curtains, Victorian bric-a-brac and overstuffed furniture. They argued that such rooms emphasized upholstery at the expense of proper space planning and architectural design and were, therefore, uncomfortable and rarely used. Wharton and Codman advocated the creation of houses with rooms decorated with strong architectural wall and ceiling treatments, accentuated by well-suited furniture, rooms based on simple, classical design principles such as symmetry and proportion and a sense of architectural balance. The Decoration of Houses is considered a seminal work and its success led to the emergence of professional decorators working in the manner advocated by its authors.

Wings and the Child

Nesbit, E. (Edith)
"When this book first came to my mind it came as a history and theory of the building of Magic Cities on tables, with bricks and toys and little things such as a child may find and use. But as I kept the thought by me it grew and changed, as thoughts will do, until at last it took shape as an attempt to contribute something, however small and unworthy, to the science of building a magic city in the soul of a child, a city built of all things pure and fine and beautiful." -- E. Nesbit
"This lovely book describes the practicalities of building cities (or forts, secret bases and fairytale palaces) out of household odds-and-ends. It also goes much further to speak of the importance of developing a child's imagination and other aspects of Education beyond simple instruction. Nesbit may not have realised how multicultural her own Britain was, let alone ours now, or that the wider world might be interested in this book, so please forgive some rather dated phrasing in places." -- Cori Samuel

Art of Bookbinding

Joseph W. Zaehnsdorf
This handbook explains the art of bookbinding and simultaneously reminds us what a complex technology is to make books! Zaehnsdorf, bookbinder and son of a bookbinder, made this second edition of his book to enlighten amateurs and tradesmen alike. The whole process of binding a book and the required equipment are carefully explained to the reader.

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher

Charles Babbage
Some men write their lives to save themselves from ennui, careless of the amount they inflict on their readers. Others write their personal history, lest some kind friend should survive them, and, in showing off his own talent, unwittingly show them up. Others, again, write their own life from a different motive—from fear that the vampires of literature might make it their prey. I have frequently had applications to write my life, both from my countrymen and from foreigners. Some caterers for the public offered to pay me for it. Others required that I should pay them for its insertion; others offered to insert it without charge. One proposed to give me a quarter of a column gratis, and as many additional lines of eloge as I chose to write and pay for at ten-pence per line. To many of these I sent a list of my works, with the remark that they formed the best life of an author; but nobody cared to insert them. I have no desire to write my own biography, as long as I have strength and means to do better work. The remarkable circumstances attending those Calculating Machines, on which I have spent so large a portion of my life, make me wish to place on record some account of their past history. As, however, such a work would be utterly uninteresting to the greater part of my countrymen, I thought it might be rendered less unpalatable by relating some of my experience amongst various classes of society, widely differing from each other, in which I have occasionally mixed. This volume does not aspire to the name of an autobiography. It relates a variety of isolated circumstances in which I have taken part—some of them arranged in the order of time, and others grouped together in separate chapters, from similarity of subject. The selection has been made in some cases from the importance of the matter. In others, from the celebrity of the persons concerned ; whilst several of them furnish interesting illustrations of human character.

Spontaneous Activity in Education

Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori saw that children gained a sense of satisfaction through doing work of their own choosing, and that the role of the adult was to allow this natural ability of the child to flourish through careful design of the environment, and the development of freedom within a positive structure. Through examples of her observations Montessori details the reasoning behind her methods. This book is translated from its original in Italian.

Dialogue Concerning Oratory, or the Causes of Corrupt Eloquence, A

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius
The scene of the Dialogus de Oratoribus, as this work is commonly known, is laid in the sixth year of Vespasian, 75 a.D. The commentators are much divided in their opinions about the real author; his work they all agree is a masterpiece in the kind; written with taste and judgement; entertaining, profound, and elegant. It is normally considered to have been written by Tacitus, even though some ascribe it to Quintilian. The main subject is the decadence of oratory, for which the cause is said to be the decline of the education, both in the family and in the school, of the future orator. In a certain way, it can be considered a miniature art of rhetoric.

Our Knowledge Box

George Blackie
This practical guide to solving all sorts of problems includes secrets and discoveries covering the Liquor Trade, Druggists' Aids, Manufacturing Hints, Toiletries and Perfumeries, Hunting and Trapping, the Fine Arts and Sciences, Farming Techniques, Confectioners' Hints, and Valuable Miscellaneous Recipes for the Household and Every Day Requirements.

Prospective Mother

J. Morris Slemons
A Handbook for Women During Pregnancy. This book, written for women who have no special knowledge of medicine, aims to answer the questions which occur to them in the course of pregnancy. Directions for safeguarding their health have been given in detail, and emphasis has been placed upon such measures as may serve to prevent serious complications.

Miscellanea Curiosa, Vol 1

Edmond Halley
"The Royal Society is a Fellowship of many of the world's most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence." (from its Mission Statement). As scientists have explored the world around them, observed and tried to explain natural phenomena, they have been invited to present papers to the Royal Society. Edmond Halley (of Halley's Comet fame) was an eminent member of the society and gathered together some of the most interesting papers of his day. Today, we may see errors in the logic or calculations, based on current knowledge, but these papers are unedited and as presented at the time and show how scientific knowledge was expanding in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries

How to Tell Stories to Children

Bryant, Sara Cone
Sarah Cone Bryant was an educator and storyteller who wrote several books on the importance of oral storytelling to children, and stories to tell children. This volume expounds on her theories and practices of telling stories to children, and provides several examples. Her conversational writing style makes this work as relevant for parents and teachers as it was 90 years ago.

Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche: Volume 3

Friedrich Nietzsche
Volume 3 of the complete works contains several short critical introductory essays, five lectures under the heading "On the Future of our Educational Institutions," and finally an essay by the author entitled "Homer and Classical Philology." As always, Nietzsche believes in the importance of classical thought.

In the School Room

John S. Hart
In the first place, teaching is not simply telling. A class may be told a thing twenty times over, and yet not know it. Talking to a class is not necessarily teaching. I have known many teachers who were brimful of information, and were good talkers, and who discoursed to their classes with ready utterance a large part of the time allotted to instruction; yet an examination of their classes showed little advancement in knowledge.

Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women

Elizabeth Blackwell
A fascinating account of the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. She writes of her struggles in being accepted to a medical school (at one point she is advised to disguise herself as a male). She details her experiences while in the process of obtaining her degree, and her work both with patients and administratively, helping to found medical schools and hospitals for women

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