Free Books Online

I discovered a site called ReadPrint, which offers the full text of thousands of books online, all for free. It also includes biographical information about authors, though it is not clear to me who writes it or where it comes from. The site seems to focus on classic authors and important works, so it is probably aimed at undergraduates.

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information or for the accuracy of the reproduction of the texts, but a few minutes glancing at the Adam Smith page and its reproduction of The Wealth of Nations suggests it is solid.

(I notice, however, that the site does not have my books, so that's clearly a strike against it.)

He Said It: Schumpeter

"Queen Elizabeth owned silk stockings. The capitalist achievement does not typically consist in providing more silk stockings for queens but in bringing them within the reach of factory girls in return for steadily decreasing amounts of effort. [...] [T]he capitalist process, not by coincidence but by virtue of its mechanism, progressively raises the standard of life of the masses." --Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy(1942), pp. 67-8