15.8: Suggested Free Online Books
- Page ID
- 80155
Nonfiction classics
These classics are all in the public domain, available through Project Gutenberg. The list includes a few works by women and people of color. Though some may seem too antiquated or difficult to assign in full, consider choosing an excerpt as short as a paragraph for a summary, response, and/or rhetorical analysis exercise.
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The Republic by Plato, especially "Allegory of the Cave," Book VII, 514 a, 2 to 517 a, 7
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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Douglass
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On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
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The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa
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The Oxford Book of American Essays, edited by Brander Matthews
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Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic by Henri Bergson
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A Librarian's Open Shelf: Essays on Various Subjects edited by Arthur E. Bostwick
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U.S. PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURAL ADDRESSES Assembled by James Linden
This list was developed by Anna Mills and edited by Kimberly Braasch. Please email info@howargumentswork.org if you have additional suggestions.