As Executive power expands, ICE detention numbers rise, and citizens debate if the United States is becoming authoritarian, The Iron Heel provides historical perspective.
The writings of The Anti-Imperialist League (1898) speak directly to our changing world order
Our fatal dependence on technology is the subject of a classic sci-fi story. It's a provocation for our AI moment.
A look back at our favorite 9 books profiled in 2025 and what we can glean about the year ahead.
Why Dickens’ Most Hated Book is His Most Essential for us in 2025
Read our upgraded Metropolis and you'll see why reality is creepier than fiction, until fiction becomes reality
Big Tech bosses are determined to find out. Read R.U.R. by Capek to understand why it's so consequential for humanity.
Tuesday Curation: If political headlines got you down, get thrilled by these still riveting stories, many more relevant than ever.
Orwell’s 1984 is trending again. The book you actually need to read is The Iron Heel, by Jack London. Here's why.
Tuesday Curation: 10 works that reflect the origins, growth, societal impacts and enduring legacy of two centuries of railways.
An excerpt from Part II, Chapter 1 wherein Oblomov is inspired to get out of bed, to start reading books again, and perhaps even to pay a compliment.
Tuesday Curation: Timeless fiction and nonfiction picks that predicted today’s platform monopolies, PR spin, and labor squeeze.
It's easy to blame social media, remote work isolation or the loss of "third places." Japan's most famous author says it's an essential feature of modernity.
Curated Tuesday: If you're looking for alternatives to the glut of dystopian stories, try these under-appreciated utopian fiction to ignite a positive vision for the future!
Is AI an existential threat to book reading, or only the most recent challenger? Read a 140-year old debate from Octave Uzanne to get some perspective.
What Norbert Wiener's first principles tell us about the human use of AI, and the AI use of humans
A Reading List of 10 classics in the Spirit of the First Labor Day, 1882 complete with book summaries and public domain links
Max Havelaar: Coffee, Colonialism & Fair-Trade’s Origin Story (1859).
A lucid, timely reading of von Harbou’s darker vision: elites in pleasure domes, workers in data mines, and a seductive Deepfake on the loose.
Special guest Mark Twain wrote "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" in 1901; Here he unpacks its enduring relevance in 2025.
A Square sees beyond his Flatland. Can you?
It's the eternal human tension, stillness vs. action, from 1859 to today
Oblomov, by Goncharov (Part 1, Chapter 1)
From Chap. 3 "Notes of a Trip to Kyoto" by Lafcadio Hearn, 1897
Amidst worship of online profiles & artificial status, a modern monk's journey is enlightening.
