2,145 words

Nazi book burnings and the suppression of German Jewish intellectualism

Long before the Nazis burned the books of German Jewish poet, essayist, and literary critic Heinrich Heine, he wrote, "Where one burns books, one burns humanity."[footnoteRef:1] The phrase is remarkably incisive.

~11 min read

View paper →

1,370 words

Swift's satirical rhetoric in A Modest Proposal and pseudo-scientific argumentation

Jonathan Swift's satirical work A Modest Proposal is particularly successful at lambasting careless attitudes towards the poor because Swift's proposal that poor children be sold as food for the upper classes is rendered in the language of pseudo-scientific argument and economics.

~7 min read

View paper →

925 words

Freud's theory of civilization and personal desire sacrifice

Freud's Civilization and its Discontents is the father of psychoanalysis' most broadly philosophical work. Over the course of Freud's extended essay, he asks why human beings agree to give up some of their liberties in the service of civilization.

~5 min read

View paper →

825 words

William Zinsser and Mary Sherry on educational success and failure

In The Right to Fail, William Zinsser makes the argument that the word "dropout" has exclusively negative connotations that may not be entirely deserved.

~5 min read

View paper →

1,782 words

John Stuart Mill's harm principle and individual liberty

In what is perhaps his most famous work, the book-length essay on Liberty, nineteenth-century English philosopher John Stuart Mill attempts to define both the extent of human liberty and the ways in which society can ensure its survival.

~9 min read

View paper →

479 words

Religious identity and individual positions on abortion

Person's Religious Identity Shape Their View on Abortion? Abortion is one of the most passionately argued debates in America, and both sides of the argument have strong political lobbies, and strong social support.

~3 min read

View paper →

1,703 words

Language manipulation in Swift's "A Modest Proposal" and Orwell's political critique

Language is more than words. Language is a tool that can be used in a variety of ways to achieve a variety of purposes. In his essay, "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell focuses on the function of language, emphasizing that it is a tool by which we can wield much power.

~9 min read

View paper →

926 words

The Patriot Act's threat to library privacy and reading freedom

Shoulder? So who is reading over your shoulder? Who is this person who wants to know what you are reading? The very title of this essay sounds like an admonition. The reader is being warned about some unknown or unsuspected danger. The reader is quickly trapped because the title is catchy enough.

~5 min read

View paper →

310 words

Stanley Fish on interpretive communities and constructed meaning

Stanley Fish blurs the distinction between subject and object, between subjectivity and objectivity, in his essay "How to Recognize a Poem When You See One." Using an anecdote from his classroom, Fish notes that when students expect to be reading poetry, they begin to infer meaning and structure…

~2 min read

View paper →

619 words

Racism and social stratification of African Americans and Native Americans

Racism affecting Native and African-American in the U.S. The topic that was chosen for this essay is minority groups that have failed to make broad gains in the United States stratification system.

~4 min read

View paper →