Biogeography relates the evolution of the Earth's biota to major episodes in the Earth's history such as climatic changes and plate tectonic events. Furthermore, biogeographic patterns have played a prominent role in the development of the theory of evolution. Thus biogeography has the potential to make important contributions to the field of geobiology.Paleobiogeography emphasizes how analytical techniques from phylogenetic biogeography can be applied to the study of patte...

For many centuries, Aristotle's Physics was the essential starting point for anyone who wished to study the natural sciences. Aristotle deals with many abstract ideas in this book, examining the phenomenon of being, space, motion, matter, time, infinity, magnitude, and more. This book is basically an explanation on how the universe works--as Aristotle understood it. It's not so much a straight forward philosophical text as it is a sort of compendium of problems that philosophers have spent...

"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Dutchmen, imbibes their liquor and falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains.

Common Sense is a pamphlet advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine marshaled moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for egalitarian government. It was published anonymously on January 10, 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution, and became an immediate sensation.It was sold and distributed widely and read aloud at taverns...

Originally published in 1889, The Blue Fairy Book was the first of 12 volumes of fairy tales from around the world, collected by renowned folklorist Andrew Lang. For more than a century it has been the book that introduces young readers to timeless fairy tales that include "Hansel and Gretel," "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," "Beauty and the Beast," "The Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots," "The Forty Thieves," and "Snow-White and Rose-Red."

Lewis’ scathing satire of middle-class America, Babbitt explores the social pressures of conformity and materialism. It tells the story of George Babbitt, a middle-aged family man who becomes disillusioned with both conformity and his belated attempts at rebellion. Set in the fictional Midwestern town of Zenith, Babbitt offers a powerful critique of the American Dream and all it entails.

The Call of the Wild is a novel by Jack London, first published in 1903. This thrilling adventure story is set in the Klondike Gold Rush of Alaska and the Yukon Territory, in the late 1890s. Dog sledding was the mode of transportation and strong sled dogs were in high demand. The novel’s main character, Buck, is half St. Bernard and half Scotch Shepherd dog. Raised as a domesticated dog on a ranch in southern California, Buck is stolen from his home and sold into the brutal existe...

An afternoon of a cold winter’s day, when the sun shone forth with chilly brightness, after a long storm, two children asked leave of their mother to run out and play in the new-fallen snow. The elder child was a little girl, whom, because she was of a tender and modest disposition, and was thought to be very beautiful, her parents, and other people who were familiar with her, used to call Violet. But her brother was known by the style and title of Peony, on account of the ruddiness of his...

Henry Ossian Flipper was one of the nineteenth-century West’s most remarkable individuals. The first African American graduate of West Point, he served four years in the West as a cavalry officer but was court-martialed and dismissed from the service in 1882. He spent the rest of his long life attempting to clear his name.Flipper’s record of accomplishment was significant for any individual in any time, and for a nineteenth-century black American it was phenomenal. As historian Qui...

The Blithedale Romance is Nathaniel Hawthorne's third major romance. Its setting is a utopian farming commune based on Brook Farm, of which Hawthorne was a founding member and where he lived in 1841. The novel dramatizes the conflict between the commune's ideals and the members' private desires and romantic rivalries.

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens. It was first published by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. Carol tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation resulting from a supernatural visit by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim.The book was written and published in early Victorian era Britai...

Beyond the City is a novel by the Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.