Public Philosophy

Horace Mann was the founder of the free public school movement in Massachusetts then America and, by inference, the whole world. This was his great mission, which he accomplished.

Jürgen Habermas Explained: Communicative Action, Public Sphere, Discourse Ethics, Modernity, Democracy, and the Struggle for Rational Society is a clear, engaging, and in-depth guide to one of the most important philosophers of the modern era. Designed for beginners and curious readers alike, this book breaks down Habermas’s complex ideas into accessible language while preserving the depth and power of his thinking. Whether you are a student of philosophy, political theory, sociology, or simply someone interested in how communication shapes our world, this book provides a comprehensive ...

An unimpeachable classic work in political philosophy, intellectual and cultural history, and economics, The Road to Serfdom has inspired and infuriated politicians, scholars, and the public for half a century. Originally published in 1944 - when Eleanor Roosevelt supported the efforts of Stalin, and Albert Einstein subscribed lock, stock, and barrel to the socialist program - The Road to Serfdom was seen as heretical for its passionate warning against the dangers of state control over the means of production.

Aubrey Clayton traces the history of how statistics went astray, beginning with the groundbreaking work of the 17th-century mathematician Jacob Bernoulli and winding through gambling, astronomy, and genetics. Clayton recounts the feuds among rival schools of statistics, exploring the surprisingly human problems that gave rise to the discipline and the all-too-human shortcomings that derailed it.

This program is read by the author. Do you want to change the course of your life? Do you want to be the best? The best manager, the best athlete, the best artist, the best speaker, the best parent? In There’s No Plan B for Your A-Game, former pro athlete, playwright, and acclaimed leadership...

Baltimore City Public Schools is one of America’s largest and most funded school systems. Yet, historically, it is among the lowest performing. In 2024, despite a $1.7 billion budget, just 10% of students tested proficient in math. Investigative journalist Chris Papst follows the money to uncover why students continue to fail within a school system that’s failing Baltimore. Failure Factory shines a critical light on America’s public education system by exposing what’s really happening inside classrooms and behind administrative doors.

From the award-winning author of The Entrepreneurial State and Mission Economy, an inspiring call to solve our deepest challenges—from inequality to climate change—by embracing a radical new approach to economics and the economy. Whether it’s the water crisis, widespread poverty, or the...

The transgender movement has hit breakneck speed. In the space of a year, it’s gone from something that most Americans had never heard of to a cause claiming the mantle of civil rights. But can a boy truly be “trapped” in a girl’s body? Can modern medicine really “reassign” sex? Is sex something “assigned” in the first place? What’s the loving response to a friend or child experiencing a gender-identity conflict? What should our law say on these issues? When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment provides thoughtful answers to all of these questions.

Pandora's Lab takes us from opium's heyday as the pain reliever of choice to recognition of opioids as a major cause of death in the United States; from the rise of trans fats as the golden ingredient for tastier, cheaper food to the heart disease epidemic that followed; and from the cries to ban DDT for the sake of the environment to an epidemic-level rise in world malaria.

The Sane Society is a continuation and extension of the brilliant psychiatric concepts Erich Fromm first formulated in Escape from Freedom; it is also, in many ways, an answer to Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents. Fromm examines man’s escape into over conformity and the danger of robotism in contemporary industrial society: Modern humanity has, he maintains, been alienated from the world of their own creation. Here Fromm offers a complete and systematic exploration of his “humanistic psychoanalysis.”

Minouche Shafik takes us through stages of life we all experience - raising children, getting educated, falling ill, working, growing old - and shows how a reordering of our societies is possible. Drawing on evidence and examples from around the world, she shows how every country can provide citizens with the basics to have a decent life and be able to contribute to society. But we owe each other more than this.

A call to save ourselves and our planet by targeting the root of our inaction: extreme shortsightedness.

Despite being immensely popular - and immensely lucrative - education is grossly overrated. In this explosive book, Bryan Caplan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skill but to certify their intelligence, work ethic, and conformity - in other words, to signal the qualities of a good employee.

Bloomsbury presents How to be a conservative by Roger Scruton, read by Kris Dyer. Roger Scruton’s How to be a Conservative presents the case for modern conservatism not in the terms of an elegy but rather as a practical example of how to live as a conservative despite the pressures to live...

Justice for the Greatest Number: Utilitarianism in Law explores one of the most influential and controversial philosophies ever applied to legal systems. From the groundbreaking theories of Jeremy Bentham to the refinements of John Stuart Mill, utilitarianism has shaped debates about justice, punishment, human rights, and public policy for more than two centuries. This book examines how the principle of maximizing happiness for the greatest number has transformed criminal law, civil law, constitutional interpretation, and modern policymaking, while also addressing the criticisms and ...

Henry David Thoreau is known as a naturalist, a philosopher, and a leading Transcendentalist. But he was also an ardent abolitionist and political activist. He was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, helping fugitive slaves escape to freedom. He was the first to speak out, loudly and...

At a time when Americans are debating the future of public education, Johann N. Neem tells the inspiring story of how and why Americans built a robust public school system in the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. It’s a story in which ordinary people in towns across the country worked together to form districts and build schoolhouses and reformers sought to expand tax support and give every child a liberal education. By the time of the Civil War, most northern states had made common schools free, and many southern states were heading in the same direction.

A collection of analytical and critical essays by various practicing solo trial attorneys with greater than twenty-five years of trial experience. The book is intended for the working public to explain the workings, nature, and theoretical basis of common law decision making from the perspective of those who practice in its trenches. The book critiques modern legal culture as a secular religion for modern Technological Society that is negating and replacing traditional concepts of Western religion. The book is sponsored by the Knights of Thermopylae Inn of Court.

This is the first comprehensive study of the history and evolution of American indecent exposure laws. The study informs a critical analysis of the role of courts as custos morum, or custodian of the morals. It contains a detailed constitutional analysis of legal management of morality. The laws are a cornerstone of government regulation of morals, with roots tracing back to seventeenth century English and American cases, laws, and regulations. The state interests protected by indecent exposure laws focus on deterring public behaviors contrary to prevailing moral order and protecting the ...

Named after Mahatma Gandhi's phrase for the schools of pre-colonial India, The Beautiful Tree recounts Tooley's journey from the largest shanty town in Africa to the hinterlands of Gansu, China. It introduces listeners to the families and teachers who taught him that the poor are not waiting for educational handouts. They are building their own schools and educating themselves.