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The Iliad by Homer is an epic of poem over 15,000 lines that recounts the conflict between Agamemnon, the man of power, and Achilles, the genius of war, over a period of several weeks. Their contretemps is set within the larger tale of the ten year Trojan War, and is told in flashbacks and flash-forwards; by the end the poem has told a more or less complete story of the war. No television min-series has anything on this epic poem. The story is utterly human and has resonated down the centuries. There’s the ugly man of power, selfish, greedy, entitled and obsessed. There’s the young, beautiful star, burdened with greatness and by the false power of a man without merit. The authentic versus the phony - the same old story. The Iliad was composed sometime between 760 and 710 B.C., and together with The Odyssey is considered the first great work of western literature. “Composed” is the correct word because The Iliad was passed down by oral tradition. The teacher recited it, the students repeated it and memorized it – all of it. There’s a story, apocryphal or not, that around 700 B.C., a virtual riot broke out when some upstart in the Academy proposed to write it all down, because the older, wiser men believed transcription would destroy the Greek facility for memorization, not to mention the silencing of the sound of the poetry itself. This reading returns this epic to the manner of presentation in force at the time. (Summary by Michael Hogan)

Grimm's Fairy Tales is a collection of German fairy tales first published by brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812 under the title Children's and Household Tales. The collection appeared at a time when the Romantic movement of the early 19th century revived an interest in traditional folk stories. At the same time native folklore was seen as an important part of an emerging German national identity as the political system changed from a group of 200 principalities to a single state some sixty years later. At first the collection was thought to be unsuitable for children due to subject matter and the level of scholarly detail. Changes were made through the years with each edition to remove sexual references; violence, however, was seldom reduced and sometime increased. The collection grew from 86 stories in the first edition to a total of 211 tales in the seventh edition, which appeared in 1857. A smaller edition of 50 titles for child readers called Kleine Ausgabe was released in 1825 and went through ten editions from 1825 to 1858. The work of the brothers inspired others to do similar work in their own cultures in Russia, England, Norway, and elsewhere. The tales have been translated into over 100 languages and have inspired numerous film, television, and theatrical treatments. This collection includes 63 of the best known tales, including classics such as "The Frog Prince", "Rapunzel", "Hansel and Gretel", "Tom Thumb", "Rumplestiltskin", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Snow White".

In 1854 John Stuart Mill began a short essay on the relationship of authority and liberty. Five years later he published On Liberty, a treatise that remains one of the most articulate and influential works on the subject. The central idea is that an individual should be free to pursue his own interests so long as the resulting action does not harm the interests of others. He defines three basic liberties: freedom of thought, emotion and expression; freedom to pursue one’s tastes, however vulgar or immoral; and freedom to associate with others. He proposes three reasons to justify resistance to government actions: if private agents can perform an action better than government; if the action benefits the agents even when the government is qualified; and, if the action adds to the power of government so that it becomes over-reaching or creates dependency in its subjects. The last chapter defines two maxims: “first, that the individual is not accountable to society for his actions, in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself”, and “that for such actions as are prejudicial to the interests of others, the individual is accountable, and may be subjected either to social or to legal punishment, if society is of opinion that the one or the other is requisite for its protection”. The book was immensely popular when published and continues to appeal due to its lucid analysis, accessible prose and compelling model of society. To this day a copy of the book is held by the president of the British Liberal Party as a symbol of office.

No other book so powerfully illuminates the African experience. Driven by ambition, Okonkwo works tirelessly to gain prosperity and prestige in his village. But he is harsh as well as diligent. As he sees the traditions of his people eroded by white missionaries and government officials, he lashes out in anger. "Things Fall Apart traces the growing friction between village leaders and Europeans determined to save the heathen souls of Africa. Its hero, a noble man who is driven by destructive forces, speaks a universal language.

The image is popular and general: A young man sits under an apple tree. An apple falls, strikes him and sets him on a course to receive those epiphanies, eureka moments, in which he deduces how the physical world works. The young man was Isaac Newton and the consequent laws are known as Newtonian physics. Move ahead two hundred years and the second image, though less well known, is of another young man with unruly hair, sitting on a hillside in Germany not far from the patent office where he worked. There Albert Einstein received his own epiphany, followed by several eureka moments, from which he deduced those laws of physics, now termed the Theory of Relativity, a theory that superseded Newton’s 200 year old theories of mechanics, and, in no small part, ushered in the Modern Era. The Theory of Relativity, is actually comprised of two theories: special relativity and general relativity. The concepts introduced in these two theories are three-fold: (1) The measurement of certain quantities is dependent upon the speed of the observer; (2) Space and time (“spacetime”) should be considered in relation to one another; and (3) The speed of light is, nonetheless, an absolute constant, invariant and the same for all observers. In any construct that allows for the relative nature of relationships, the observer must seek out the sole constant on which all relationships depend for their accurate expression. Einstein found it in the speed of light, and from that constant looked anew at the behavior of the smallest elements of matter (Special Relativity, 1905), as well as the projected behavior of an infinite cosmos (General Relativity, 1916). (Summary by Michael Hogan)

Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos is a masterpiece of 18th century literature. An epistolary novel consisting of four volumes of letters written by and to the various characters, it was viewed as scandalous when it was first published in 1782 for its frank and pitiless exploration of seduction, revenge and malice. The story centers on the rivalry of two aristocrats, Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont, who use seduction to manipulate and humiliate others. Merteuil seeks to corrupt the virtuous young Cecile de Volanges, while Valmont has his sights on seducing the married Mme de Tourvel. Spite and revenge drive each to pursue the object of the other’s desire, the rivalry escalates to war, and the two duel to settle the score. One dies, and damage, guilt and suffering inhabits the lives of the survivors. Les Liaisons dangereuses is thought by some to have been a depiction of the perversions of the decadent French aristocracy just prior to the French Revolution, and it easy to imagine in hindsight the revolution being inspired by the damnable behavior of the amoral libertines. There is another perspective, however, that sees the book as a morality tale of sorts that shows how the wages of sin give rise to dishonor, disfigurement and death, and it is worth noting that the book was widely distributed and enjoyed by the conservative nobles of the Ancien Regime in spite of its scandalous reputation.

After his retirement from the Marine Corps in the early 1930's, General Smedley D. Butler embarked on a national lecture tour, where he gave his speech about how commercial interests benefit from war. The speech was well received and he wrote an expanded version of it, which was published as War Is A Racket. The work was published by Reader's Digest as a condensed book supplement, which added to its popularity. The book consists of five chapters. The first chapter cites telling statistics: 21,000 people became millionaires and billionaires during the war; 4 million men served; the growth of national debt by a factor of 25 from 1898 to 1918. The second chapter details the level of profits made by many major U.S. corporations made in the years preceding World War I and compares them to the significantly greater profits made from and during the war. The third chapter lays bare the ways in which the costs are borne by the public, with particular focus on humiliating deductions from the pay of soldiers. Chapter four sets forth three simple methods to limit wars: insist that everyone in the war economy earn the same income as that of the soldiers; conduct a vote to decide whether or not to go to war and limit the voters to those who would serve; limit appropriations and activities to strictly defensive measures. The final chapter shows the futility of arms limitations negotiations and makes it plain that only total disarmament will break the back of the beast.