“Explorers and Travellers” is a collection of short biographies of some of America’s intrepid explorers. Adolphus W. Greely writes brief but very complete histories of men who risked life and fortune to discover more of our world. A thoroughly enjoyable work if you enjoy exploration and adventure.

The Arctic has always been a fascinating area for us. This is true today just as much as in Adolphus Greely's time. In 1912, Greely published this volume of notable Arctic explorations and the explorers. The modern reader can follow a very readable account of the successes and failures of these early explorers comfortably from the armchair, and learn a lot of history in the processes. - Summary by Carolin

The Counter-Reformation, also called the Catholic Reformation, and remembered for its infamous Inquisition, was the period of Catholic resurgence which was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. Adolphus Ward writes, that it was "a movement pursuing two objects...the regeneration of the Church of Rome, and the recovery of the losses inflicted upon her by the early successes of Protestantism...The onset of the combat is marked by the formal establishment of the Jesuit Order as a militant...

Researchers in the United States have performed thousands of human radiation experiments to determine the effects of atomic radiation and radioactive contamination on the human body. Most of these tests were performed, funded, or supervised by the United States military, Atomic Energy Commission, or various other U.S. federal government agencies. The experiments included a wide array of studies, involving things like feeding radioactive food to mentally disabled children, deliberately releasing radioactive chemicals over U...

Aemilia Lanyer's 1611 poem is far more than a retelling of The Passion. It comprises a spirited defense of Eve (and, by extension, all women), elegant praises for her female patrons, a catalogue of virtuous women of the ancient world, and closes with the first "country house" poem written by a woman in English.

The Oresteia is a trilogy by Aeschylus, one of the foremost playwrights of ancient Greece. It encompasses three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Furies. It tells the tragic tale of the House of Atreus, whose inhabitants have been cursed and are doomed to play out their bloody, vengeful destinies. At the beginning of the first part, the Trojan War has ended and the Greek general, Agamemnon, is returning victorious to his wife Clytemnestra. Yet she finds it difficult to forgive his sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia, who was killed to ensure the Greek fleet fair winds in their voyage to Troy...

In this, the only extant tragedy from Aeschylus' trilogy about the House of Oedipus, Thebes is under siege from Polynices, a former prince of Thebes. After King Oedipus left his city and cursed the princes, Polynices and his brother, Eteocles, decided to rule alternately, switching at the end of every year. However, at the end of his year as king, Eteocles refused to turn power over to his brother and exiled him, fulfilling his father's curse that the two brothers could not rule peacefully. In the action of the play, Polynices and a group of Argive soldiers are attacking Thebes so that he can take his place as ruler...

As children, our first experience of the magic of talking animals, the conflict between good and evil, the battle of wits between the cunning and the innocent most probably came from Aesop's Fables. These delightful, pithy and brief narratives are simple, easy to understand and convey their message in a memorable and charming fashion. Aesop's Fables by Aesop consists of about 600 tales, some well-loved and familiar, others less known but just as entertaining and educative and help us map the perimeters of our moral universe...

THE AESOP FOR CHILDRENTHE WOLF AND THE KIDThere was once a little Kid whose growing horns made him think he was a grown-up Billy Goat and able to take care of himself. So one evening when the flock started home from the pasture and his mother called, the Kid paid no heed and kept right on nibbling the tender grass. A little later when he lifted his head, the flock was gone. He was all alone. The sun was sinking. Long shadows came creeping over the ground. A chilly little wind came creeping with them making scary noises in the grass...

The origins of these fables are perhaps lost in obscurity, but they are so closely identified with the Greek writer Aesop, that we may regard them as such. Most of these tales involve interactions among animals, and to each is appended a moral. This edition was edited and illustrated by Thomas Bewick a well-known British engraver and illustrator. The book begins with an excellent introduction - Larry Wilson

Eminent British botanist Agnes Arber provides an authoritative history of printed Herbals -- books widely used in early modern Europe to catalogue the uses of different kinds of plants. While Herbals often reflected pre-scientific and magical beliefs about the properties of plants, Arber's work reveals that they were also critical to the early development of botany and medicine as empirical sciences. A classic in the history of science. - Summary by Josh Leach

This, volume 22 of the Chronicles of Canada series, describes the exploration of the Canadian Pacific coast, British Columbia, and Alaska. It includes accounts of Bering, Cook, Vancouver, Mackenzie, Fraser, and Thompson.

Between the California and Yukon/Klondike gold rushes was the Cariboo Gold Rush in what would become northern British Columbia. The first discovery was made in 1859, but the rush didn't get underway in earnest until 1861. This short work documents the story of this lesser-known era and how it directly affected the development of British Columbia.

CANADA, THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTHBy Agnes C. LautPREFACETo re-create the shadowy figures of the heroic past, to clothe the dead once more in flesh and blood, to set the puppets of the play in life's great dramas again upon the stage of action,--frankly, this may not be formal history, but it is what makes the past most real to the present day. Pictures of men and women, of moving throngs and heroic episodes, stick faster in the mind than lists of governors and arguments on treaties. Such pictures may not be history, but they breathe life into the skeletons of the past...

Canada's past is more dramatic than any romance ever penned. . . . All that has been attempted here is such a story of the romance and adventure in Canada's nation building as will give the casual reader knowledge of the country's past, and how that past led along a trail of great heroism to the destiny of a Northern Empire. This volume is in no sense formal history. There will be found in it no such lists of governors with dates appended, of treaties with articles running to the fours and eights and tens, of battles grouped with dates, as have made Canadian history a nightmare to children...

A delightful trip from Boston through a dozen South Shore towns to Plymouth, stopping in each to explore a bit of the local history and 'modern' highlights. Written in 1920, it's a great journey through the past.

This is a charming book on Art History for children (and everyone else). Each chapter focuses on a great painting, reproduced in color in the original text. The authors explain the story behind the paintings, as well as the life, times, and techniques of the artists.

This is an immensely readable book explaining anything to do with air - the atmosphere, wind and clouds, and life. This 1896 explanation has since been overtaken by more specific scientific discoveries, but the general concepts certainly still hold true until today. Any beginner interested in meteorology will find this book a great place to start. - Summary by Carolin

After the Roman conquest, the Celtic Gauls adopted Roman culture and speech. The Germanic invasions ultimately transformed France into a Catholic feudal society. In this short history, Mary Duclaux traces the emergence of towns, the rise of the French monarchy, the calamitous Hundred Years' War and the Wars of Religion. We meet Joan of Arc, Charles VII, the gallant Henry IV, and the Sun King, Louis XIV, who drove France to the brink of bankruptcy. In the second half of the book Duclaux gives us the...

Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre , , was the sister of Francis I, King of France. She was highly-educated and was courted by the future Henry VIII of England. However, at the age of seventeen, she was married by royal decree to the untutored dolt, Charles IV of Alençon. After his death she wed Henry II of Navarre by whom she had a daughter and a son, who died in infancy. The author takes us with Margaret on her perilous journey over the Pyrenees to Spain to attempt to free her brother, Francis, held captive by the Holy Roman Emperor...

Emily Brontë is best known for her only novel, "Wuthering Heights." She was born in Yorkshire, northern England, where her father was an Anglican curate. When Brontë was three years old her mother died of cancer. At the age of six she joined her three sisters briefly at the Clergy Daughters' School, where privations and abuse contributed to the deaths of two of them. Her elder sister, Charlotte, immortalized this terrible place in "Jane Eyre." In 1846 Emily Brontë, under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, published a selection of her poetry...

A collection of sometimes biting, always clever commentaries on some of life's foibles -- as apt today as when Ms. Repplier wrote them in 1912. Though less know to modern readers, Repplier was in her prime ranked among the likes of Willa Cather. Note: Section 13 contains the word niggards. I put it in print here so that it will not be mistaken for a racial epithet when heard. (written by Mary Schneider)

With her usual wit and charm, Ms. Repplier recalls her days at Eden Hall, the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Torresdale, north of Philadelphia. She shares the highlights (and some of the low lights) of her time there. Perhaps this sharp eye, nurtured by her willfulness and independent spirit, was the reason she was not invited to return to Eden after her second year. Not only Catholics or boarding school alumnae will find this book entertaining; anyone who went to school or who looks back on their childhood will see their own experience somewhere in this memoir.

Agnes Repplier was a popular and highly regarded essayist of the late 19th and early 20th century, who was also well known on the lecture circuit. Her writings are witty, erudite, and engaging. The eight essays in this collection include an homage to her cat Aggripina and reflections on the beauty of words, as well as essays entitled "The Children's Poets," "The Praises of War," "Leisure," "Ennui," "Wit and Humor," and "Letters." - Summary by Ciufi Galeazzi

The Lives of the Queens of England is a multi-volumed work attributed to Agnes Strickland, though it was mostly researched and written by her sister Elisabeth. These volumes give biographies of the queens of England from the Norman Conquest in 1066. Although by today's standards, it is not seen as a very scholarly work, the Stricklands used many sources that had not been used before. Volume nine includes the biography of Mary Beatrice of Modena, through 1701.

The Lives of the Queens of England is a multi-volumed work attributed to Agnes Strickland, though it was mostly researched and written by her sister Elizabeth. These volumes give biographies of the queens of England from the Norman Conquest in 1066. Although by today's standards, it is not seen as a very scholarly work, the Stricklands used many sources that had not been used before.Volume three includes the biographies of Isabella of Valois, Joanna of Navarre, Katherine of Valois, Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Woodville and Anne of Warwick. (Introduction by Ann Boulais)

Fortress-walled Saint Catherine's monastery on the Sinai peninsula has been a pilgrimage site since its founding by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. According to tradition, the monastery sits at the base of the mountain where Moses received the Tablets of the Law. Set in rugged country, accessible in times past only by a many days journey by camel across barren desert, the monastery survived intact through the centuries, and, as a result, became a rich repository of religious history—told through its icons, mosaics, and the books and manuscripts in the monastery library...

The Story of Ahikar is a fictional work. It is a colorful story but considered to be a work containing great wisdom. The story of Ahikar is considered one of the earliest "international books". It can be found in a variety of geographical translations and has been circulated in the middle east and near east regions. - Summary by CJ Plogue

"As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." This thirst for an intimate relationship with God, claims A.W. Tozer, is not for a select few, but should be the experience of every follower of Christ. But, he asserts, it is all too rare when believers have become conditioned by tradition to accept standards of mediocrity, and the church struggles with formality and worldliness. Using examples from Scripture and from the lives of saints who lived with this thirst for God, Tozer sheds light on the path to a closer walk with God.