November 20, 2020 Historical account of history repeating itself Livy’s Early History of Rome offers a great overview of Roman history from the founding story of Romulus straight through to the end of…
October 29, 2020 Political phosopher figures out how to keep his stuff The Social Contract is Rousseau’s attempt to resolve the question of how one might submit to the will of the state while remaining a free…
October 15, 2020 Old fool mistaken for genius by western civilization I was surprised to discover that Aristotle was an idiot. I curated my list hoping to stock it with the good stuff, and I…
October 12, 2020 Grouchy old coot tells you how to live your life I spent the better part of six months reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I think it took so long because every time I picked it…
October 8, 2020 Leading stoic surprisingly not the life of the party Marcus Aurelius repeats himself. He doesn’t use the same words, but he circles the same handful of ideas over and over. His Meditations contains twelve books,…
October 1, 2020 You had unlimited power and you chose to do what? Suetonius was gossipy old fuck. Over the course of The Twelve Caesars, he labors over the worst behaviors of some of the most morally…