Books on the Web

There are a stunning number of whole books available on the web. Much of it is older stuff that’s in the public domain. Don’t let that stop you. Some great books were written before the current generation of copyright-holders. Some is more recent material that authors or copyright-holders have effectively put into the public domain. Here’s a starting point, and, if you look, you can find much more:

• The On-line Books Page has links to over 20, 000 books available, searchable by author, title and subject.

 

• Vices are Not Crimes. This is one you’re not likely to turn up in a random search. It was written by a 19th-century lawyer named Lysander Spooner. It’s one of the clearest and most succinct things ever written about "victimless crime" laws.

 

• Of course, if you actually want to get hold of a copy of something in print, you’re going to have to part with some money. If you’d like to part with as little as possible, check out one of these: Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble

 

• Does censorship bother you? Should some books or movies, media or ideas be banned or controlled? Are some ideas too dangerous, some art or literature too offensive to be allowed in a civilized society or in an educational curriculum? Or are the book-banners and book-burners just afraid you’ll think for yourself? Check out Rush’s Witch Hunt. Also, take a look at Freeing Jefferson’s Slaves, a short story by Greg Swann.

Where do you find the stuff you need for your papers - the references, the tools, the raw materials to shape into your finished product? Check these out:

• A good place to start is a dictionary. Merriam-Webster is available on the web. Another wonderful tool available on the web, invaluable for its etymologies and histories of word-usage, is the Oxford English Dictionary Online. And, to enrich your vocabulary, don’t forget to use Roget's Thesaurus as well.

 

• For more depth, Encyclopedia Brittanica can help.

 

• You can get lots of full-text materials and resources, from newspapers, court decisions and so forth from Lexis-Nexis.

 

• For matters specifically philosophical, two web-based encyclopedias of philosophy under construction, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy both have useful material written by specialists. Also, don’t forget the other links to philosophical material on the web.

 

• Last, but far from least, there is a book that is both cheap and priceless for improving your writing style. You can pick up a copy for a few bucks and it will serve you better than any dozen other sources you care to name. It’s something to own, to read, to treasure, to keep by your side when you’re writing. It's Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. If you can’t bear to part with the money, or if you want to test it before you do, you can find the first edition, written just by Strunk, on the web.