Author Topic: 'Harvard Education' booklist w/ links to free versions.  (Read 2911 times)

SmileAllDay

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'Harvard Education' booklist w/ links to free versions.
« on: February 11, 2019, 12:51:21 PM »
In 1909 the then-president of Harvard put together a reading list of 51 books that he said gave a 'Harvard education'. It spans topics from science to politics, and from religion to literature. Here's a link to the free versions of them all! (PDF, MOBI, ePub, and Full Online Text)

http://www.harvardclassics365.com/p/free.html

P.S. The topic of 'equality' probably didn't feature prominently in the 1909 Harvard Education going by the fact that this list features male authors only, but I'm sure you can cherry-pick the books you find appealing.

availablelight

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Re: 'Harvard Education' booklist w/ links to free versions.
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2019, 03:08:39 PM »
Great stuff.

The one caveat I have with some public domain books is that older translations are often quite wordy and stilted to the modern eye.

For instance, having read both a translation of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations that I got from Project Gutenberg and a more modern one translated by Gregory Hays (readily available on Amazon), I think paying for the Hays translation was worth it.

Morning Glory

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Re: 'Harvard Education' booklist w/ links to free versions.
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2019, 04:46:34 PM »
Thank you for the list, I am posting to bookmark it. I started out studying classics but switched to nursing for the job prospects. I would love to work my way through the "great books".

RetiredAt63

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Re: 'Harvard Education' booklist w/ links to free versions.
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2019, 04:50:04 PM »
The science side was pretty light.

I have actually read 3 on the list.

Freedomin5

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Re: 'Harvard Education' booklist w/ links to free versions.
« Reply #4 on: February 14, 2019, 05:13:02 PM »
Thanks for posting! I’ve read about 20% of the books on the list. Going to work my way through the rest of them.

Auldtriangle8

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Re: 'Harvard Education' booklist w/ links to free versions.
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2019, 01:51:47 PM »
Thanks for sending, this looks great!

I like that they have them listed as "Volumes", though when looking at the actual number of books it's much more than 51 (122 books and 60 lectures, though Don Quixote is only part 1 lol. Can you tell my work is slow this Friday afternoon?) though the shorter books in a volume make up a normal length book so it's a wash.

Still, if a non-Harvard education has taught me anything it's to be annoyingly pedantic on an internet forum lol.


SmileAllDay

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Re: 'Harvard Education' booklist w/ links to free versions.
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2019, 02:12:11 PM »
@Auldtriangle8 What better way to wind down on a Friday?! :)

Are you Irish btw? (Based on your user name)

RetiredAt63

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Re: 'Harvard Education' booklist w/ links to free versions.
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2019, 02:28:26 PM »

I guess you get a good star, @RetiredAt63

Well, we read She Stoops to Conquer in High School, and come to think of it we also read part of Chaucer.  I have read both the Darwin Books.  So well, basically illiterate by those standards. And re-looking, my grandparents had an old (i.e. not cleaned up for kids) volume of 1001 nights that I read (I am sure I wasn't supposed to, it was rather graphic).

Of course Volume 38 is basically the start of modern human biology and medicine.

And volume 51 tucks in a bit of natural science - i.e. biology, geology, geography.

Auldtriangle8

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Re: 'Harvard Education' booklist w/ links to free versions.
« Reply #8 on: February 15, 2019, 02:40:56 PM »
@Auldtriangle8 What better way to wind down on a Friday?! :)

Are you Irish btw? (Based on your user name)

Friday afternoon on the MMM forums, nothing better :-)

My ancestor came to the USA from Ireland in the 1700s and my wife is half Irish so we like to embrace the culture while acknowledging that we're both mutts (me much more so than her).

Hearing the "auld triangle" song being sung live by Damien Dempsey and Glen Hansard (separate occasions) are both highlights for us, hence the username. Though the Luke Kelly version is always classic too.

SpeedReader

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Re: 'Harvard Education' booklist w/ links to free versions.
« Reply #9 on: March 11, 2019, 11:05:14 PM »
Thanks for the list!  I was pleasantly surprised to recognize some of the books.  :-)