Was this list compiled 100 years ago? Surely there must now be better introductions to evolution, philosophy, economics, politics, physics etc. than these original texts.

Well, it's a list of free e-books. 100 years is approximately how long it takes for a work of literature to fall into the public domain.

I've read only 1 of those (out of 500+ books I've read). Oh well, I guess I'm not intelligent.

It's a list of books you should read, not a list of books you should have already read, so you've still got time to qualify. :-)

Thats a sad list. Provocative, political, vapid, with empty moralizing tacked for the sake of symmetry not substance.

Another depressing display of the intellectual poverty of pop science.