Cosimo Classics

A notorious bit of historical esoterica, this 1845 handbook for travelers heading westward from the civilized United States for the freedom of the wild, unsettled frontier is remembered today mainly...

Bridging the first forays into human psychology with our modern perception of the discipline, Alexander Bain's writings are profoundly importantly texts in appreciating how we've come to understand...

One of the greatest entrepreneurs in American history here shares his sensible, sage outlook on the economic affairs of the nation as a whole as it existed at the turn of the 20th century. This...

Driven to action by the dreariness of their lives in London, two not-quite friends, in the hopes of finding renewal, plan to rent a medieval Italian castle for a month. They are joined by two other...

One of the great thinkers of the early 20th century, American economist and sociologist THORSTEIN BUNDE VEBLEN (1857-1929) is best remembered for coining the phrase "conspicuous consumption." But he...

Chronicling the past is much easier than chronicling the present, which was exactly Walter Bagehot's project when writing The English Constitution, first published in 1873. His ambitious undertaking...

Chronicling the past is much easier than chronicling the present, which was exactly Walter Bagehot's project when writing The English Constitution, first published in 1873. His ambitious undertaking...

The first play published by an African-American, this comic 1858 melodrama about two slaves who secretly marry explores the racial tensions between North and South in the years just before the Civil...

The first play published by an African-American, this comic 1858 melodrama about two slaves who secretly marry explores the racial tensions between North and South in the years just before the Civil...

German philosopher and anthropologist LUDWIG ANDREAS VON FEUERBACH (1804-1872) was a powerful influence on Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Feuerbach's atheism is reflected in their socialist...

In The Essence of Christianity-this is the classic 1853 translation of the 1841 German original-Feuerbach discusses the "true or anthropological" root of religion, exploring how everything from the...

Every investigation into the causes of the phenomena both of mind and matter was strictly forbidden, because the study of logic and metaphysics was regarded as injurious to devotional life. -from The...

It is not surprising that you mistook me for one of those who, in the pride of modern science, have only ridicule, or, at best, indifference, for every thought of a beyond. All about us, indeed, we...

There is no discipline more austere than that imposed by the worship of Eros, for it involves not only the ordeal of pain, but the more perilous ordeal of pleasure. -from "Androgyne" One of the most...

"Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men." - Confucius The Ethics of Confucius presents everyone with the opportunity to understand the true nature of the Confucian concept...

"Mr. Chesterton has a quite unusual power of seeing the obvious, and it is quite true that many learned men seem to have lost that power." -The Times Literary Supplement (1925) The Everlasting Man...

"Mr. Chesterton has a quite unusual power of seeing the obvious, and it is quite true that many learned men seem to have lost that power." -The Times Literary Supplement (1925) The Everlasting Man...

The foremost teller of scary stories in his day and a profound influence on both the novelists and filmmakers of the 20th century, Anglo-Irish author JOSEPH THOMAS SHERIDAN LE FANU (1814-1873) has,...

When in the year 1509 a handsome youth of eighteen came to the throne, the hopes of England ran high. His intelligence, his frank, genial manners, his sympathy with the "new learning," won all...

The accession of a Protestant King was hailed with delirious joy by the Huguenots, and with corresponding rage by Catholic France. The one looked forward to redressing of wrongs and avenging of...

[I]f New England and Pennsylvania and Ohio had been favorable to the growth of cotton and rice and tobacco, if the northern States had gradually become enmeshed and entangled in slavery, familiarized...

Originally published in 1897, The Evolution of the Idea of God is a study of humans' belief in God from primitive tribal religions to what Allen considered the more advanced Christian view. The main...

When roughly classed, the myths and legends generally show two points of departure for migrations of the human race, as these were rendered in the stellar and solar mythology. One is from the summit...

[T]he history of England ought to end with something that might be called a moral. Some large conclusion ought to arise out of it; it ought to exhibit the general tendency of English affairs in such...

Before I was born, [my aunt] had gone such lengths in the way of flirting with a recruiting officer, that her reputation was a little singed. She afterwards made advances to the curate of the parish....

Etienne Gerard is a hero of the French army, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars, and a vain and boastful teller of tales that star himself and his exploits. This collection of satiric short stories,...

"He who admits that the structure and habits of all animals have been gradually evolved, will look at the whole subject of Expression in a new and interesting light." - Charles Darwin, The...

"He who admits that the structure and habits of all animals have been gradually evolved, will look at the whole subject of Expression in a new and interesting light." - Charles Darwin, The...

Trying to call every market turn? Tempted to act on impulse rather than fact when investing your money? A major mistake made by most investors and traders today is to try to call every market turn -...

When the unexpected happened, and the British were beaten by the Americans, van Goens, who as we have mentioned before considered himself half an Englishman, was very angry, and his anger directed...