The Rise and Fall of Free Speech in America was D.W. Griffith's first response to the attacks made on The Birth of a Nation. In it he played on the 'intolerance' of those who would not permit him freedom of speech in his films. This view on intolerance led directly to the creation of the film of the same name.

From Dictatorship to Democracy, A Conceptual Framework for Liberation is a book-length essay on the generic problem of how to destroy a dictatorship and to prevent the rise of a new one. The book was written in 1993 by Gene Sharp (b. 1928), a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts. The book has been published in many countries worldwide and translated into more than 30 languages. Editions in many languages are also published by the Albert Einstein Institution of Boston, Massachusetts...

A biographical encomium delivered on the occasion of Roosevelt's death. Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt, Jr. (1858 – 1919) was an American author, naturalist, explorer, historian, and politician who served as the 26th President of the United States. He was a leader of the Republican Party (the "GOP") and founder of the Progressive Party. He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

Born in Manchester in 1893, Harold Laski was a leading figure in the left-wing of British socialism in the first half of the 20th century. An executive member of the Fabian Society and member of the Socialist League faction of the Labour Party, he was party chairman in 1945-6. As a professor at the London School of Economics he influenced a number of prominent politicians of the post-war years, including leaders of the independence movements of Asia and Africa, and Ralph Milliband, father of the current Labour Party leader, Ed Milliband...

The War of Anti-Christ with the Church and Christian Civilization is a book written in 1885 by an Irishman, George F. Dillon, DD. It was republished by Fr. Denis Fahey in 1950 as Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked as the Secret Power Behind Communism. The central theme of the book alleges that atheistic Illuminism, through the infrastructure of Grand Orient freemasonry, driven by the ideology of the philosophies laid the foundations for a large scale, ongoing war against Christendom in general and Catholic Church in particular...

After having written and released an initial draft of this proclamation in September of 1862, minor changes were made and Lincoln signed it on January 1st, 1863. It declared free the slaves in 10 states not then under Union control, with exemptions specified for areas already under Union control in two states. Lincoln spent the next 100 days preparing the army and the nation for emancipation, while Democrats rallied their voters in the 1862 off-year elections by warning of the threat freed slaves posed to northern whites...

In 1880, the New York Times reported a curious story from St. Albans, Vermont, about a mysterious figure, an attorney and Democratic operative named A. P. Hinman. Hinman privately told local Democratic leaders that he had been hired by the Democratic National Committee to obtain evidence that Vice-President-elect Chester A. Arthur was not qualified to hold the office of Vice President, but rather that Arthur was a Canadian-born alien. President Garfield was assassinated in 1881 and Arthur became twenty first President of the United States, and a pretty good one by all accounts...

"The study here presented embodies the findings of an investigation into the recent [1919-1920] deportations of persons deemed to be unlawfully in the country. . . Its purpose is to call public attention to practices that are inconsistent with the American tradition of justice and fair-play."

This is the third LibriVox collection of speeches given in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The collection comprises recordings of 10 historic speeches given to the UK House of Commons between 1601 and 1960. Readings are of speeches originally given by Queens Elizabeth I and Victoria, and by parliamentarians Edmund Burke, Herbert Asquith, Winston Churchill, Barbara Castle, Margaret Thatcher and Michael Foot.

François-Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743-1803) rose to fame in 1791 during the Haitian struggle for independence. In this revolt, he led thousands of slaves on the island of Hispañola to fight against the colonial European powers of France, Spain and England. The former slaves ultimately established the independent state of Haiti and expelled the Europeans. L’Ouverture eventually became the governor and Commander-In-Chief of Haiti before recognizing and submitting to French rule in 1801...

From Dictatorship to Democracy, A Conceptual Framework for Liberation is a book-length essay on the generic problem of how to destroy a dictatorship and to prevent the rise of a new one. The book was written in 1993 by Gene Sharp (b. 1928), a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts. The book has been published in many countries worldwide and translated into more than 30 languages. Editions in many languages are also published by the Albert Einstein Institution of Boston, Massachusetts...

Written by the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus or Theologico-Political Treatise was one of the most controversial texts of the early modern period. It was a preemptive defense of Spinoza's later work, Ethics, published posthumously in 1677, for which he anticipated harsh criticism. In the treatise, Spinoza put forth his most systematic critique of Judaism, and all organized religion in general. Spinoza argued that theology and philosophy must be kept separate, particularly in the reading of scripture...

Originally entitled A frutefull pleasaunt, and wittie worke of the beste state of publique weale, & of the newe yle, called Utopia: written in Latine, by ... Syr Thomas More knyght, and translated into Englishe by Raphe Robynson ...The first book tells of the traveller Raphael Hythloday, to whom More is introduced in Antwerp. The second book consists of Hythloday's description of the island and people of Utopia, their customs, laws, religions, economy, language and relations with other nations. Hythloday...

This essay, written in 1795, puts forth a plan for a lasting peace between nations and peoples. Kant puts forth necessary means to any peace, and argues that nations can be brought into federation with one another without loss of sovereignty. In one translation, telling of the historical impact of this essay, this federation is called a “league of nations.” The supplements and appendices are of considerable interest on their own. The supplements contain an argument regarding the use which nature makes of war, and the way in which nature, in the end, impels us towards peace...

The book is not a discussion of measures or of programs. It is an attempt to express the new spirit of our politics and to set forth, in large terms which may stick in the imagination, what it is that must be done if we are to restore our politics to their full spiritual vigor again, and our national life, whether in trade, in industry, or in what concerns us only as families and individuals, to its purity, its self-respect, and its pristine strength and freedom. (From the Preface)

Hero or assassin? Victim or criminal? Marie Sukloff fits no easy category. A young peasant woman who became a political radical and activist, Sukloff carried out an assassination plot against a Russian governor known for murderous pogroms and rampages against the Jews of his province. This mesmerizing autobiographical account tells the story of Sukloff's peasant childhood, radicalization, direct action, exile to Siberia, and escape. She tells her story with a colorful verve, sincerity, intensity, and simplicity that makes it almost impossible to put down, raising questions of political philosophy and responsibility that challenge the complacency of every reader.

De Cive ("On the citizen") is one of Thomas Hobbes's major works. "The book was published originally in Latin from Paris in 1642, followed by two further Latin editions in 1647 from Amsterdam. The English translation of the work made its first appearance four years later (London 1651) under the title 'Philosophicall rudiments concerning government and society'." It anticipates themes of the better-known Leviathan. The famous phrase bellum omnium contra omnes ("war of all against all") appeared first in De Cive. DPLs for this project were phaedo and craigdav1

Supporters of political democracy, human rights, and social justice have good reasons to be alarmed about coups d'état. These abrupt seizures of the state apparatus have occurred with great frequency in recent decades. Coups have overthrown established constitutional democratic systems of government, halted movements toward greater democracy, and have imposed brutal and oppressive regimes. Coups d'état are one of the main ways in which new dictatorships are established. Coups may also precipitate civil wars and international crises...

Olive Schreiner was a South African writer born in 1855 to missionary parents in the Eastern Cape. She is credited with being the first Internationally famous South African Novelist. She was an extraordinary person and was one of the earliest campaigners for women's rights, including the right to equal pay for equal work, saying: "The fact that for equal work equally well performed by a man and by a woman it is ordained that the woman on the ground of her sex alone shall receive a less recompense is the nearest approach to a willful and unqualified "wrong" in the whole relation of woman to society today"...

This is a posthumous collection of essays by Randolph Bourne. Many originally appeared in the journal "The Seven Arts," before the controversial end to its run. Also included is the unfinished manuscript of "The State," the book Bourne worked on until his tragic death in December, 1918, at the hands of the Spanish flu pandemic. In the words of the book's editor, poet James Oppenheim, "We have nothing else like this book in America. It is the only living record of the suppressed minority, and is, as so often the case, the prophecy of that minority's final triumph." - Summary by Ben Adams

This is an account of Nellie Bly's travels through Mexico in 1885. The book was originally a series of individual articles that she submitted to the Pittsburgh Dispatch newspaper for publication. In them she described the conditions of the people and the political system she found in Mexico. Her narratives focused mostly on the impoverished and disadvantaged in a country whose government was extremely corrupt. Bly was perhaps what we now term a feminist, striving for the empowerment and independence of women...

The Charter of the United Nations signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945 is the constituent treaty of the United Nations. It is as well one of the constitutional texts of the International Court of Justice which was brought into being by the Charter. This recording contains: UN Charter Statute of the International Criminal Court Millennium Declarations

The Constitution is the charter of government and the supreme law of the United States of America. It was signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 17, 1787. The first 10 amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified together in 1791. Amendments 11 through 27 were ratified separately from 1795 through 1992.

Constance Lytton worked along Emmeline Pankhurst for the cause of women's suffrage in England. Upset that she was getting preferential treatment by the authorities, she assumed a pseudonym so that her titled status wouldn't be obvious. This book chronicles her involvement in the suffrage movement, including her arrest and subsequent incarceration at Holloway Prison, a place notorious for the poor treatment of the women in their charge. - Summary by KHand

A History of the politics surrounding The Union of Norway with Sweden, from 1814-1905, from the Norwegian perspective - Summary by Ærik Bjørnsson

Étienne de La Boétie was the closest friend of Michel de Montaigne and the subject of the latter's famous essay "On Friendship." Here, however, he tackles a different, more impersonal relationship: that of ruler and ruled. The argument in this work is encapsulated in this quote: "A people enslaves itself, cuts its own throat, when, having a choice between being vassals and being free men, it deserts its liberties and takes on the yoke, gives consent to its own misery, or, rather, apparently welcomes it...

The word technocracy refers to a system of government by technical experts such as scientists, technologists, and engineers. William Henry Smyth is often thought to have invented the term in 1919, although it had in fact been used earlier.

Henry Cabot Lodge was a popular American Senator from Massachusetts. He did not only make a name for himself as a politician, but also as an essayist, combining his personal experience as Senator with a study of the philosophical and historical background of this profession. The essays in this volume concern the American model of democracy in particular. Published in 1915, the essays contained herein also reflect the rapid changes brought about by World War I, which will interest a wide readership. - Summary by Carolin

This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities based on its investigation of the Watergate break-in and coverup, illegal and improper campaign practices and financing, and other wrongdoing during the Presidential campaign of 1972. The committee's mandate from the Senate, which was passed by a unanimous vote, was to make a "complete" investigation and study "of the extent ... to which illegal, improper, or unethical activities"...

This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities based on its investigation of the Watergate break-in and coverup, illegal and improper campaign practices and financing, and other wrongdoing during the Presidential campaign of 1972. The committee's mandate from the Senate, which was passed by a unanimous vote, was to make a "complete" investigation and study "of the extent ... to which illegal, improper, or unethical activities"...

This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities based on its investigation of the Watergate break-in and coverup, illegal and improper campaign practices and financing, and other wrongdoing during the Presidential campaign of 1972. The committee's mandate from the Senate, which was passed by a unanimous vote, was to make a "complete" investigation and study "of the extent ... to which illegal, improper, or unethical activities"...

In 1906, William Jennings Bryan, himself a famous American orator, and Francis Whiting Halsey published a series of the most famous orations of all time. They are ordered by both geographic area and time period, ranging from Ancient Greece to their contemporary United States. The third, fourth, and fifth volumes of this collection concern British speakers. The speeches contained in this third volume are ordered chronologically. We begin in the year 710 AD with a speech on the Saints, and end this volume in 1777 with the realisation of the impossibility of regaining control over the American colonies. - Summary by Carolin