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1928

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Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. A Guide for Foreigners by Roland Boer

Manifesto of the Communist Party, and Principles of Communism by Karl Marx

The Collapse of the Soviet Union by International Communist Sem...

The East is Still Red - Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century by Carlos Martínez

Market Socialisms - Transition Periods

13 books — 1 voter

Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. Bryce

Darkness and the Devil Behind Me by Persia Walker

Adult Historical Fiction Set In the 1920's By African-Americans

16 books — 10 voters

Still She Wished for Company by Margaret Irwin

Children's Time Travel Fiction of the 1920s

1 book — 1 voter

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Best Books of the Decade: 1920s

764 books — 1,132 voters

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco

Best Children's Books of the 1920s

147 books — 37 voters

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

Children's Fantasy of the 1920s

20 books — 13 voters

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Get Ready! Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2026

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“ One thus gets an impression that civilization is something which was imposed on a resisting majority by a minority which understood how to obtain possession of the means to power and coercion. It is, of course, natural to assume that these difficulties are not inherent in the nature or civilization itself but are determined by the imperfections of the cultural forms which have so far been developed. And in fact it is not difficult to indicate those defects. While mankind has made continual advan ...more ”
― Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion

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“ Religion has clearly performed great services for human civilization. It has contributed much towards the taming of the asocial instincts. But not enough. It has ruled human society for many thousands of years and has had time to show what it can achieve. If it had succeeded in making the majority of mankind happy, in comforting them, in reconciling them to life and in making them into vehicles of civilization, no one would dream of attempting to alter the existing conditions. But what do we see Religion has clearly performed great services for human civilization. It has contributed much towards the taming of the asocial instincts. But not enough. It has ruled human society for many thousands of years and has had time to show what it can achieve. If it had succeeded in making the majority of mankind happy, in comforting them, in reconciling them to life and in making them into vehicles of civilization, no one would dream of attempting to alter the existing conditions. But what do we see instead? We see that an appallingly large number of people are dissatisfied with civilization and unhappy in it, and feel it as a yoke which must be shaken off; and that these people either do everything in their power to change that civilization, or else go so far in their hostility to it that they will have nothing to do with civilization or with a restriction of instinct. At this point it will be objected against us that this state of affairs is due to the very fact that religion has lost a part of its influence over human masses precisely because of the deplorable effect of the advances of science. We will note this admission and the reason given for it, and we shall make use of it later for our own purposes; but the objection itself has no force. It is doubtful whether men were in general happier at a time when religious doctrines held unrestricted sway; more moral they certainly were not. They have always known how to externalize the precepts of religion and thus to nullify their intentions. The priests, whose duty it was to ensure obedience to religion, met them half-way in this. God's kindness must lay a restraining hand on His justice. One sinned, and then one made a sacrifice or did penance and then one was free to sin once more. Russian introspectiveness has reached the pitch of concluding that sin is indispensable for the enjoyment of all the blessings of divine grace, so that, at bottom, sin is pleasing to God. It is no secret that the priests could only keep the masses submissive to religion by making such large concessions as these to the instinctual nature of man. Thus it was agreed: God alone is strong and good, man is weak and sinful. In every age immorality has found no less support in religion than morality has. If the achievements of religion in respect to man’s happiness, susceptibility to culture and moral control are no better than this, the question cannot but arise whether we are not overrating its necessity for mankind, and whether we do wisely in basing our cultural demands upon it. ...more ”
― Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion

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