Ebook Catalog

Voltaire; Samuel Johnson

Two satirical philosophical tales bound together — Voltaire's demolition of naive optimism and Johnson's meditation on the pursuit of happiness.

Thomas Hobbes

Hobbes's foundational work of social contract theory, arguing that only a sovereign authority can save mankind from the war of all against all.

John Locke

Locke's writings on natural rights, government by consent, and the limits of political authority — a direct wellspring of Enlightenment liberalism.

Plato

A dedicated edition of the four dialogues covering Socrates' trial and death, with the Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau's political philosophy on the social contract, general will, and legitimate authority in a free society.

John Milton

Milton's collected poetry, including Paradise Lost, on fall, free will, and providence.

John Trenchard

An early Enlightenment tract dissecting the psychological and social origins of superstition and priestcraft.

Edward Gibbon

Gibbon's landmark history tracing Rome's collapse across a thousand years — a benchmark of historical prose and analysis.

Niccolò Machiavelli

A collected edition of Machiavelli's political and diplomatic writings, spanning history, statecraft, and the mechanics of power.

Plato

Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo — Plato's account of Socrates' trial, imprisonment, and final hours, and his defense of the examined life.

Francis Bacon

Bacon's terse, aphoristic essays on statecraft, ambition, truth, and human nature — the foundational English essay collection, first published 1625.

Montesquieu

Montesquieu's comparative study of governments and laws, and the origin of the separation-of-powers doctrine that shaped constitutional government.