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Excerpt: Welcome to the sixth volume of Best of Four. That?s right, we have been in business long enough to publish six volumes of the best student writing published in English 4 classes each fall, on the Hazleton Campus of Commonwealth College. Last year, and continuing this year, we?ve also been publishing work from students at other Commonwealth College locations. In the coming year, we will be making some major changes....

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Contents Transition Time: High School to College Alaina Watts ....................................................................................... 4 An Objective View of Cheerleading Erica Chinetski .......................................................................................... 5 She?s Come Undone Jill Giosa ............................................................................................................................ 7 Decisions for the Futrue Joseph M. Schifano ...................................................................................................... 8 Rewards Beyond Products Kari Barnett............................................................................................................ 10 The American Alex Groysman ........................................................................................................................... 11 The Glorious Five Days Alexandrea Satar ........................................................................................................ 12 Go Sharks! Beth Olexa .................................................................................

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The book chronicles and vilifies its targets in three parts: National Delusions, Peculiar Follies, and Philosophical Delusions. The subjects of Mackay's debunking include alchemy, beards (influence of politics and religion on), witch-hunts, crusades and duels. Present day writers on economics, such as Andrew Tobias, laud the three chapters on economic bubbles. (summary from wikipedia)...

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History, Essay/Short nonfiction

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One of the first novel-length pieces of nautical fiction, MR. MIDSHIPMAN EASY (1836) is a funny and easygoing account of the adventures of Jack Easy, a son of privilege who joins the Royal Navy. The work begins as a satire on Jack’s attachment to “the rights of man” that may try the listener’s patience. But despair not, for the story soon settles down as the philosophical midshipman begins his many triumphs over bullies, foul weather, and various damned foreigners of murderous intent. Caveat audiens: This novel employs racial/ethnic epithets and religious stereotypes, as well as taking a rather sunny view of supply-side economics. In short, there's something here to offend almost everyone. Frederick Marryat (1792-1848) entered the Royal Navy as a 14-year-old midshipman. He resigned his commission at the rank of captain after 24 years of service to devote his time to writing. (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)...

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Historical Fiction, Sea stories

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H. G. Wells's proposal for social reform was the formation of a world state, a concept that would increasingly preoccupy him throughout the remainder of his life. One of his most ambitious early attempts at portraying a world state was A Modern Utopia (1905). A Modern Utopia was intended as a hybrid between fiction and 'philosophical discussion'. Like most utopists, he has indicated a series of modifications which in his opinion would increase the aggregate of human happiness. Basically, Wells' idea of a perfect world would be if everyone were able to live a happy life. This book is written with an intimate knowledge of former ideal commonwealths and is a conscious attempt to describe a utopia that is not utopian....

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Politics, Economics/Political Economy, Fiction

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Excerpt: William Makepeace Thackeray was born at Calcutta, July 18, 1811, the only child of Richmond and Anne Thackeray. He received the main part of his education at the Charterhouse, as we know to our profit. Thence he passed to Cambridge, remaining there from February 1829 to sometime in 1830. To judge by quotations and allusions, his favourite of the classics was Horace, the chosen of the eighteenth century, and generally the voice of its philosophy in a prosperous country. His voyage from India gave him sight of Napoleon on the rocky island. In his young manhood he made his bow reverentially to Goethe of Weimar; which did not check his hand from setting its mark on the sickliness of Werther....

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Contents MISCELLANEOUS PROSE............................................................................................................ 4 INTRODUCTION TO W. M. THACKERAY?S ?THE FOUR GEORGES?............................... 4 A PAUSE IN THE STRIFE?1886 .................................................................................................. 6 LESLIE STEPHEN?1904 ............................................................................................................. 13 CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE SEAT OF WAR IN ITALY ............................................... 14...

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In this work, Kropotkin points out what he considers to be the fallacies of the economic systems of feudalism and capitalism, and how he believes they create poverty and scarcity while promoting privilege. He goes on to propose a more decentralised economic system based on mutual aid and voluntary cooperation, asserting that the tendencies for this kind of organisation already exist, both in evolution and in human society....

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Science, Politics, Philosophy

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David Hume is one of the great philosophers of the Western intellectual tradition. His philosophical writings earned him lasting fame and renown; his historical writing earned his bread and butter. His The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688, published between 1754 and 1764, was immensely popular and Hume wrote that the copy-money given me by the booksellers much exceeded any thing formerly known in England; I was become not only independent, but opulent. The six volume work has had numerous editions and is still in print today. David Hume and Thomas Babington Macaulay have frequently been compared as the premier English historians but we don't have to choose because Macaulay begins where Hume leaves off. (Summary by Richard Carpenter)...

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History

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Excerpt: Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill.

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Contents PREFACE........................................................................................................4 ESSAY I: Of the Laws of Interchange between Nations; and the Distribution of the Gains of Commerce among the Countries of the Commercial World ........................................................................................................5 ESSAY II: Of the Influence of Consumption on Production ......................39 ESSAY III: On the Words Productive and Unproductive ............................60 ESSAY IV: On Profits, and Interest .............................................................71 ESSAY V: On the Definition of Political Economy; and on the Method of Investigation Proper to It...........................................................................93...

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Marx's tract which lays out the tenets of Communism ( Summary by Mark )

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Economics/Political Economy

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An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist Adam Smith, published on March 9, 1776 during the Scottish Enlightenment. It is a clearly written account of political economy at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and is widely considered to be the first modern work in the field of economics. (from Wikipedia)...

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Economics/Political Economy

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Orignally written as a series of newspaper articles in 1847, Wage-Labour and Capital was intended to give an overview of Marx’s central threories regarding the economic relationships between workers and capitalists. These theories outlined include the Marxian form of the Labour Theory of Value, which distinguishes “labour” from “labour-power”, and the Theory of Concentration of Capital, which states that capitalism tends towards the creation of monopolies and the disenfranchisement of the middle and working classes. These theories were later elaborated in Volume 1 of Capital, published in 1867. This edition of Wage-Labour and Capital, published in 1891, was edited and translated by Friedrich Engels, and remains one of the most widely read of Marx’s works. (Description by Carl Manchester)....

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Economics/Political Economy, Politics

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Anthem is a dystopic science fiction story taking place at some unspecified future date. Mankind has entered another dark age as a result of what Rand saw as the weaknesses of socialistic thinking and economics. Technological advancement is now carefully planned (when it is allowed to occur, if at all) and the concept of individuality has been eliminated (for example, the word I has disappeared from the language). As is common in her work, Rand draws a clear distinction between the socialist/communal values of equality and brotherhood and the productive/capitalist values of achievement and individuality. The story also parallels Stalinist Russia, which was currently going on at the time as the story was published. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Science fiction, Philosophy

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Excerpt: Johnny Tarleton, an ordinary young business man of thirty or less, is taking his weekly Friday to Tuesday in the house of his father, John Tarleton, who has made a great deal of money out of Tarleton?s Underwear. The house is in Surrey, on the slope of Hindhead; and Johnny, reclining, novel in hand, in a swinging chair with a little awning above it, is enshrined in a spacious half hemisphere of glass which forms a pavilion commanding the garden, and, beyond it, a barren but lovely landscape of hill profile with fir trees, commons of bracken and gorse, and wonderful cloud pictures....

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A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The selections included in this collection were independently chosen by the readers, and the topics encompass history, science, cooking, economics, education, humor, philosophy, nature and religion. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction

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Excerpt: To the People of the State of New York: After an unequivocal experience of the inefficacy of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the union, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force....

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Contents FEDERALIST. No. 1................................................................................................................................................................... 6 FEDERALIST No. 2 ................................................................................................................................................................... 9 FEDERALIST No. 3 ................................................................................................................................................................. 13 FEDERALIST No. 4 ................................................................................................................................................................. 16 FEDERALIST No. 5 ................................................................................................................................................................. 20 FEDERALIST No. 6 ................................................................................................................................................................. 23 FEDERALIST. No. 7.................................

Description Details
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist Adam Smith, published on March 9, 1776 during the Scottish Enlightenment. It is a clearly written account of political economy at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and is widely considered to be the first modern work in the field of economics....

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Economics/Political Economy

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A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The selections included in this collection were independently chosen by the readers, and the topics encompass history, science, cooking, economics, education, humor, philosophy, nature and religion. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction

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Excerpt: Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped, we have heard, and what honor the athelings won! Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes, from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore, awing the earls. Since erst he lay friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him: for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve, till before him the folk, both far and near, who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate, gave him gifts: a good king he!...

Description Details
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist Adam Smith, published on March 9, 1776 during the Scottish Enlightenment. It is a clearly written account of political economy at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and is widely considered to be the first modern work in the field of economics. (from Wikipedia)...

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Economics/Political Economy

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John Ruskin (1819 – 1900) is best known for his work as an art critic and social critic, but is remembered as an author, poet and artist as well. Unto This Last is an important work of political economic though that influenced Gandhi, among others. (Hugh McGuire/Wikipedia)...

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Philosophy, Politics, Economics/Political Economy