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Thinker's Library
The Thinker's Library was a series of 140 hardcover books published between 1929 and 1951 for the Rationalist Press Association by Watts & Co., London, a company founded by the brothers John and Charles Watts and then run by the latter's son Charles Albert Watts. The name was suggested by Archibald Robertson, a member of the company's board of directors, who took an active interest in setting up the series and was later to write several volumes himself. The Thinker’s Library was intended as a successor to the cheap paperback “Sixpenny Reprints” from the same publisher, the aim being to bring humanist, philosophical and scientific works to as wide an audience as possible. Unlike the previous series, the volumes in the Thinker’s Library were small hardbacks (6 ½ x 4 ¼ inches) bound in brown clothette, with grey dustjackets, priced at one shilling. The covers of the early editions featured title, author’s name and a brief description of the book between Doric columns, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rationalist Press Association
The Rationalist Association was a charity in the United Kingdom which published '' New Humanist'' magazine between 1885 and 2025. Since 2025, the Rationalist Press has been the publishing imprint of Humanists UK. The original Rationalist Press Association (RPA) was founded in 1885 by a group of freethinkers who were unhappy with the increasingly political and decreasingly intellectual tenor of the British secularist movement, which made its name publishing cheap reprints of classic literature – such as works by Charles Darwin and John Stuart Mill – through its Thinker's Library series, along with literature that was deemed too anti-religious to be handled by mainstream publishers and booksellers. In 2002, the RPA became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Rationalist Association, a charity established to continue its work. In 2025, the Rationalist Association merged with Humanists UK, which took over ownership of the RPA and publication of ''New Humanist''. As the R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernst Haeckel
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; ; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, natural history, naturalist, eugenics, eugenicist, Philosophy, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biology, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms and coined many terms in biology, including ''ecology'', ''phylum'', ''phylogeny'', ontogeny, and ''Protista.'' Haeckel promoted and popularised Charles Darwin's work in Germany and developed the debunked but influential recapitulation theory ("ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"), wrongly claiming that an individual organism's biological development, or ontogeny, parallels and summarizes its species' evolutionary development, or phylogeny, using incorrectly drawn images of human embryonic development. Whether they were intentionally falsified, or drawn poorly by accident is a matter of debate. The published artwork of Haeckel in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Thomas Buckle
Henry Thomas Buckle (24 November 1821 – 29 May 1862) was an English historian, the author of an unfinished ''History of Civilization'' and a strong amateur chess player. He is sometimes called "the Father of Scientific History". Early life and education Buckle, the son of Thomas Henry Buckle (1779–1840), a wealthy London merchant and shipowner, and his wife, Jane Middleton (d. 1859) of Yorkshire, was born at Lee, London (Kent County) on 24 November 1821. He had two sisters. His father died in January 1840. Education As a boy, Buckle's "delicate health" rendered him unsuited for the usual formal education or games of middle-class youth. However, he loved reading. That made him suitable to be "educated at home by his mother, to whom he was devoted until her death in 1859. She taught him to read the Bible, the ''One Thousand and One Nights, Arabian Nights'', ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', and Shakespeare. His father read theology and literature and occasionally recited Shakespear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonard Darwin
Leonard Darwin (15 January 1850 – 26 March 1943) was an English politician, economist and eugenicist. He was a son of the naturalist Charles Darwin, and also a mentor to Ronald Fisher, a statistician and evolutionary biologist. Biography Leonard Darwin was born in 1850 at Down House, Kent, into the wealthy Darwin–Wedgwood family. He was the fourth son and eighth child of the naturalist Charles Darwin and his wife Emma Wedgwood, and the last of Darwin's immediate offspring to die. He considered himself the least intelligent of their children – brothers Frank, George and Horace were all elected Fellows of the Royal Society. He was sent to Clapham School in 1862. Darwin joined the Royal Engineers in 1871. Between 1877 and 1882 he worked for the Intelligence Division of the Ministry of War. He went on several scientific expeditions, including those to observe the Transit of Venus in 1874 and 1882. In 1890, Darwin was promoted to the rank of major, but soon left the arm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Descent Of Man
''The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex'' is a book by English natural history, naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biological adaptation distinct from, yet interconnected with, natural selection. Darwin used the word "descent" to mean lineal descendant of ancestors. The book discusses many related issues, including evolutionary psychology, evolutionary ethics, evolutionary musicology, differences between human Race (classification of human beings), races, differences between sexes, the dominant role of women in mate choice, and the relevance of the evolutionary theory to society. Publication As Darwin wrote, he sent chapters to his daughter Darwin — Wedgwood family, Henrietta for editing to ensure that damaging inferences could not be drawn, and also took advice from his wife Emma Darwin, Emma. The zoological illustrator T. W. Wood, (who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', sometimes shortened to ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. The six volumes cover, from 98 to 1590, the peak of the Roman Empire, the history of early Christianity and its emergence as the Roman state religion, the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, the rise of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane and the fall of Byzantium, as well as discussions on the ruins of Ancient Rome. Volume I was published in 1776 and went through six printings. Volumes II and III were published in 1781; volumes IV, V, and VI in 1788–1789. The original volumes were published in quarto sections, a common publishing practice of the time. Conception and writing Gibbon's initial plan was to write a history "''of the decline and fall of the ''city'' of Rome''", and only later expanded his scope to the whole Roman Empire. Although he published other books, Gibbon devoted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English essayist, historian, and politician. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its polemical Criticism of religion, criticism of organized religion. Early life: 1737–1752 Edward Gibbon was born in 1737, the son of Edward Gibbon (died 1770), Edward and Judith Gibbon, at Lime Grove in the town of Putney, Surrey. He had five brothers and one sister, all of whom died in infancy. His grandfather, also named Edward, had lost his assets as a result of the South Sea Company, South Sea bubble stock-market collapse in 1720 but eventually regained much of his wealth. Gibbon's father thus inherited a substantial estate. His paternal grandmother, Catherine Acton, was granddaughter of Sir Walter Acton, 2nd Baronet. Gibbon described himself as "a puny child, neg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Origin Of Species
''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'')The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''. In the 1872 sixth edition, "On" was omitted, so the full title is ''The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.'' This edition is usually known as ''The Origin of Species.'' The 6th is Darwin's final edition; there were minor modifications in the text of certain subsequent issues. See Freeman, R. B. In Van Wyhe, John, ed. ''Darwin Online: On the Origin of Species'', 2002. is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin that is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. It was published on 24 November 1859. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Darwin
Sir Francis Darwin (16 August 1848 – 19 September 1925) was a British botanist. He was the third son of the naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin. Biography Francis Darwin was born at Down House, Downe, Kent in 1848. He was the third son and seventh child of Charles Darwin and his wife Emma Wedgwood. He was educated at Clapham Grammar School. He then went to Trinity College, Cambridge, initially studying mathematics, then changing to natural sciences, graduating in 1870. He then went to study medicine at St George's Medical School, London, earning an MB in 1875, but did not practice medicine. Darwin was married three times and widowed twice. First, he married Amy Richenda Ruck in 1874, but she died in 1876 four days after the birth of their son Bernard Darwin, who was later to become a golf writer. In September 1883, he married Ellen Wordsworth Crofts (1856–1903) and they had a daughter Frances Crofts Darwin (1886–1960), a poet who married the poet Francis Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Autobiography Of Charles Darwin
''The Autobiography of Charles Darwin'' is an autobiography by the English naturalist Charles Darwin. Darwin wrote the text, which he entitled ''Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character'', for his family. He states that he started writing it on about May 28, 1876 and had finished it by August 3. The text was published in 1887 (five years after Darwin's death) by John Murray as part of ''The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter''. The text printed in ''Life and Letters'' was edited by Darwin's son Francis Darwin, who removed several passages about Darwin's critical views of God and Christianity. The omitted passages were later restored by Darwin's granddaughter Nora Barlow in a 1958 edition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the publication of ''The Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Race ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Short History Of The World (Wells Book)
''A Short History of the World'' is an account of human history by English author H. G. Wells. It was first published in 1922 by Cassell & Company (London) and The Macmillan Company (New York). The book was preceded by Wells's fuller 1919 work '' The Outline of History'', and was intended "to meet the needs of the busy general reader, too driven to study the maps and time charts of that ''Outline'' in detail, who wishes to refresh and repair his faded or fragmentary conceptions of the great adventure of mankind." The first edition had around 400 pages, with about 200 illustrations, including 21 maps. Later editions were published with updated accounts of world events. It was published in Penguin Books in 1936, and republished under Penguin Classics in 2006. The book summarises the scientific knowledge of the time regarding the history of Earth and life. It starts with its origins, goes on to explain the development of the Earth and life on Earth, reaching primitive thought an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
On Liberty
''On Liberty'' is an essay published in 1859 by the English philosopher John Stuart Mill. It applied Mill's ethical system of utilitarianism to society and state. Mill suggested standards for the relationship between authority and liberty. He emphasized the importance of individuality, which he considered a prerequisite to the higher pleasures—the ''summum bonum'' of utilitarianism. Furthermore, Mill asserted that democratic ideals may result in the ''tyranny of the majority''. Among the standards proposed are Mill's three basic liberties of individuals, his three legitimate objections to government intervention, and his two maxims regarding the relationship of the individual to society. ''On Liberty'' was a greatly influential and well-received work. Some classical liberals and libertarians have criticized it for its apparent discontinuity with ''Utilitarianism'', and vagueness in defining the arena within which individuals can contest government infringements on their p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
