Summary

Herodotus is not only the father of the art and the science of historical writing but also one of the Western tradition’s most compelling storytellers. His Histories is regarded as one of the seminal works of history in Western literature. He wrote these accounts of the fifth-century-BC wars between the Greeks and Persians with a continuous awareness of the mythic and the wonderful, while laying bare the intricate human entanglements at their core. This volume is one of the first accounts of the rise of the Persian Empire and serves as a record of the ancient traditions and politics of the time.

In the instinctive empiricism that took him searching over much of the known world for information, in the care he took with sources and historical evidence, in his freedom from intolerance and prejudice, Herodotus virtually defined the rational, humane spirit that is the enduring legacy of Greek civilization.

Originally published in the fifth century BC

Review Quotes

“Herodotus gives more sheer pleasure than almost any other writer.”- New York Times Book Review

“Herodotus emerges in all his charm and complexity as a writer and the first historian in the Western tradition, perhaps unique in the way he has seen the interrelation of fact and fantasy…Herodotus crowds his fresco-like pages with all shades of humanity. Whether Herodotus’ view is ‘tragic,’ mythical, or merely common sense, it provided him with a moral salt with which the diversity of mankind could be savored.”- Christian Science Monitor

“Renowned in his own time for his humanity and wide-ranging curiosity, Herodotus shows an insatiable appetite for both useful information and a good yarn, and The History is a starting point for any student of the past.”- Amazon.com, editorial review

This course is not the same as NBI’s “Principles of Objectivist Psychology” and was recorded circa 1976. The audio quality has been enhanced, but unfortunately some residual problems are not resolvable.

Here are some of the highlights of this course:

• The need, the motivating power and the requirements of self-esteem. Its relation to sex, productive work and human relationships.
• The need to understand yourself and other people.
• The psychology of romantic love.
• The nature and source of emotion.
• Neurotic disorders: their meaning and cause.
• Principles of motivation.
• Emotional blocking.
• Disowning the self.
• Self-alienation and social alienation.
• Reason and emotion: A new interpretation.
• Self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-responsibility, self-assertion.
• Anxiety and depression.
• A critique of contemporary psychology: Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism, “Humanistic” Psychology.
• Biocentric Therapy: Its goals and techniques.
• Biocentric Therapy and the Objectivist Ethics.

Permission to offer this product has been given from Dr. Nathaniel Branden who holds the copyright. For further information regarding Dr. Branden, please visit his website: www.nathanielbranden.com/

Summary

Aristotle’s influence on modern culture has become more and more important in recent years. His contribution to the sum of all wisdom dominates all our philosophy and even provides direction for much of our science. And all effective debaters, whether they know it or not, employ Aristotle’s three basic principles of effective argument, which form the spine of rhetoric: “ethos,” the impact of the speaker’s character upon the audience; “pathos,” the arousing of the emotions; and “logos,” the advancement of pertinent arguments. In his discussion, Aristotle observes several aspects of epic poetry, lyric poetry, and comedy. He maintains that poetry has greater philosophical value because it deals with universals, while history states particular facts.

Originally written in the fourth century BC

Summary

First published as a pamphlet in June 1850, The Law is already well over 150 years old, and it will still be read when another century has passed.

America now faces the same situation France did in 1848 and the same socialist-communist plans and ideas adopted there are now sweeping America—the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe notwithstanding. Bastiat’s explanation of and arguments against socialism are as valid today as they were when written, and his ideas deserve serious consideration.

“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.”—Frédéric Bastiat

© 1950 by Dean Russell

Review Quotes

“Full of truths that are not merely relevant but are absolutely vital to our future.”—Dick Armey, former majority leader, US House of Representatives

“No work before or since has made such a compelling case for freedom. Bastiat’s message will influence students of liberty for years to come.”—Laissez Faire Books

Summary

Facets of Ayn Rand is based on forty-eight hours of interviews with Mary Ann and Charles Sures, longtime personal friends of Ayn Rand. Their recollections make vividly real the Ayn Rand they knew so well.

Here are many examples of not only Ayn Rand’s mind and intellectual generosity in action but also lesser-known aspects of this unique woman. The result is the experience of an actual larger-than-life person.

“The person in this book is the same person I myself knew for so long; reading these pages is almost like having Ayn Rand in the room again.” —Leonard Peikoff

© 2001 by Mary Ann Sures. Introduction © 2001 by Leonard Peikoff.

Review Quotes

“Mary Ann and Charles Sures were longtime personal friends of Ayn Rand—Mary Ann for twenty-eight years, Charles for almost twenty. Their recollections in this delightful memoir make vividly real the Ayn Rand they knew so well.”Leonard Peikoff

“Through the vivid recollections of the Sures, the reader learns what it was like to have Ayn Rand as a boss, a hostess, a client, a co-hobbyist, a mentor, and a close personal friend…In revealing Ayn Rand as she lived, day in and day out, Charles and Mary Ann have done loving justice to her memory.”Intellectual Activist “There is a lot of information to be found in the four hours of this audiobook…The audiobook does do justice to its title.”Audiobookstoday.com

“Susan O’Malley captures both Charles and Mary Ann’s voice fantastically. She reads each response with a passion that followers of Objectivism will relate to and admire. In addition, she properly places emphasis on certain passages, adding a compelling feature to this audiobook often found lacking in other biographies.”Audiobookcafe.com

Summary

This unforgettable story of the friendship between a farm boy and a gunman struggling to escape his dark past was made into a critically acclaimed movie in 1953 that became a classic standard for Westerns. Shane, a mysterious traveller and ex-gunfighter, enters into the life of Joe Starrett and his family and carves a place for himself in their hearts. Although he tries to leave his gunslinging past behind, revealing little about himself and refusing to even carry a gun, the family senses a quiet tension about him, like a slow-burning fuse. In the end, Shane decides to fight cattle baron Luke Fletcher and hired gun Stark Wilson in order to break the power of the cattlemen over the homesteaders and save Joe Starrett’s farm. The story is told through the eyes of young Bob Starrett, who regards Shane with an awe and reverence tempered by the boyishness of the Old West.

© 1949 by Jack Schaefer

Review Quote

“The stranger, Shane, dresses in brown, black, and leather and is so tough he carries no gun. He drinks from the trough after his horse finishes. A biblical silence follows him, and people lose their senses when he looks their way. He’s a man no bullet can kill. He’s part attack Doberman, part heroic champion. Shaneis a work of literature first and a western second.”

St. George Daily Spectrum

“Its pace is steady. Its tension is of the uncoiling spring variety. It’s as clean as a hound’s tooth.”

Saturday Review of Literature

“The author has created a tale which captivates the reader’s attention from beginning to end. His skill in depicting a character, a situation, or a mood, with a minimum of words, gives the story a tightly woven quality often lacking in present-day novels. The book almost demands completion in one sitting.”

Library Journal

“Narrative and literary superiority.”

Kirkus Reviews

“This gripping story is narrated by Grover Gardner…With an easy-to-listen-to deep voice, he gets the personalities of the characters and flavor of what life must have been like in the Old West.”

SoundCommentary.com