Short Nonfiction Collection

English · 4h 40m

This reader-selected collection of short nonfiction ranges across history, politics, science, and everyday life. Its pieces include accounts of the Spanish Armada and the Nobile flight, reflections on cities beneath the sea, and a look at Baghdad and Hormuz.

Other selections turn to social customs and public life, from “Going to See a Man Hanged” and “The Man and His Newspaper” to a letter addressed to American workingmen and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1942 State of the Union address. The collection also takes in horticulture, chess openings, reading and eyesight, and an account of actor Marie Dressler.

With subjects spanning different eras and interests, the volume offers a varied sampler rather than a single sustained argument or narrative. A 1928 seed-catalog description of a new squash variety is among its more unusual entries.