The famous writer and comedian shares his insights into the world of professional comedy and analyzes the different types of humor, showing how each can be developed by anyone
The marketing of sexual products and services in cyberspace has propelled the pornography debate into new and unchartered territory. Congressmen and anti-porn activists are lobbying just as hard today
With the passion of a true poet, Titus Lucretius Carus (ca. 99-55 B.C.E.) expounds the most coherent and eloquent system of materialism surviving from the ancient world. Developing the atomic theory
Discusses the widespread belief that the sinking of the Titanic was described before it happened, and presents the complete texts of Morgan Robinson's short novel, "Futility," about the sinking of a s
Explains the apparently baffling phenomenon that educated people in industrialized countries believe in more than the physical world, just like people in all other times and places. Traces the evoluti
Gathers essays by Seneca, Thomas Aquinas, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Joyce Carol Oates, Jack Kevorkian, and Thomas S. Szasz that deal with the history, nature, morality, and rationality of suicide
In The Descent of Man (1871, 1874) Charles Darwin (1809-1882) focused special attention on the origin and history of our own species, a subject he had avoided in his previous writings on evolution. He
As the co-formulator with Charles Darwin of the theory of biological evolution via natural selection, naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) argued that plant and animal species develop througho
In The Nature of the Gods the eminent Roman statesman and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.E.) analyzes the positions of the Stoic, Epicurean, and Academic schools on the existence and n
Gathers sixty-two of the author's essays on topics ranging from creationism, censorship, and the population explosion to the social consequences of technological progress and the possibility of contac
The course of Western philosophy has been profoundly altered by the philosophy of Hegel. The first of those who set about the transforming and revisioning of the world according to Hegel's dialectical
Preeminent American philosopher and educator John Dewey (1859-1952) rejected Hegelian idealism for the pragmatism of William James.In this collection of informal, highly readable essays, originally pu
This recollection of both the attempted extinction of the Jewish people and one woman's three-year ordeal in a Czechoslovakian concentration camp strengthens the link between the disastrous past and t
Preeminent American philosopher and educator John Dewey (1859-1952) rejected Hegelian idealism for the pragmatism of William James.In this collection of informal, highly readable essays, originally pu
A collection of writings on life after death by such philosophers as John Locke, Plato, Thomas Reid, Voltaire, H.H. Price, Tertullian, and Joseph Butler
There is no doubt something occurred in that remote desert outpost near Roswell, New Mexico: the question is what, and has our government been hiding the facts for half a century? Were alien bodies fo
Marat, a central character in one of history's most significant social transformations, has been alternately hailed as a heroic leader in the French Revolution and condemned as a bloodthirsty fanatic.
The author, a philosophy professor, placed an ad in five newspapers (between 1979-1981), and in several others in 1996. The ad announced his wish to interview participants in extramarital love affairs
From cross-dressing to altering one's sex by undergoing hormone therapy and radical surgery, 'gender blending' has reached new levels of popularity. "Gender Blending" is an up-to-date account of this
Cosby: The Life of a Comedy Legend, by Ronald L. Smith, a recognized writer on comedy and comedians, tracks Cosby's humble beginnings in the Philadelphia projects; explores the inspiration he drew fr
In this remarkable prose-poem, master storyteller Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849) builds on known scientific truths to propound a universe governed by the immutable laws of attraction and repulsion, i.e.
Attorney Kopel and criminologist Blackman collaborate to meticulously analyze what went wrong at Waco (and other situations in which the Federal government has been involved), offering detailed eviden
Describes experiments by the author testing the validity of well-known psychics, including Indian swamis and an Italian physical medium. Outlines techniques which can be used to fake psychic ability,
Examines the nature, extent, intensity, and import of exploitation and its relation to the issue of social justice. Noted scholars explore racial and gender exploitation and the way in which the envir
Argues against a Christian philosophical orientation, faith-based fideistic accounts, and the more traditional varieties of natural theology, and develops a naturalistic philosophical account that avo
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), author and pioneering feminist, answers Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France in this, her first stirring political pamphlet. In A Vindication on the
This book offers a brief but authoritative introduction to Faraday's life, thought, and influence. It is a more complex, contextualised portrait of Faraday. The text is simply but clearly written, and
Novelist and short story writer Kate Chopin (1851-1904) was the first American woman to deal with women's roles as wives and mothers. The Awakening (1899), her most famous novel, concerns a woman, di
At 9:02 A.M. on April 19, 1995, the serenity of America's heartland was destroyed when a massive explosion leveled one side of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and the reality o
What do we mean when we say we "know" something? What is this knowledge and how do we come by it? What exactly counts as an object of knowledge? And on what basis do we defend our claims to know again
A collection of medical insights examines the causes of ovarian cancer, steps to help prevent the disease, diagnostic tests, and treatment options and shares intimate thoughts on how the disease affec
Intelligent, educated people tend to be critical of the supernatural and the so-called revealed truths of religion. So it is hardly surprising to find a great number of skeptics and unbelievers among
Examines reports of ghosts from different periods of time--ancient Greece, the early Christian era, the Reformation, the Victorian age, and the twentieth century--and compares how elements of sighting
Rightist assaults on democracy have a long and malignant tradition in Germany. Recently, with the rise of neo-Nazi groups and the reemergence of xenophobia leading to attacks on immigrants, the proble
Before the introduction of antisepsis and inoculation, people commonly died due to unsanitary conditions in the home, or following surgery or childbirth. Between them, the great scientists Louis Paste
