The year is 1838. The scene is the dense Honduran forest along the Copán River. Two men, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, are about to rediscover Mayan civilization. Their guide, slashing through the rampant growth with his machete, leads them to a structure with steps up the side, shaped like a pyramid. Next they see a stone column, fourteen feet high, sculptured on the front with a portrait of a man, “solemn, stern and well fitted to excite terror,” covered on the sides with hieroglyphics, and with workmanship “equal to the finest monuments of the Egyptians...

'Peter Kropotkin was a Russian anarcho-communist and scientist. This is his autobiography, and he writes not only about his own life, but also about 19th century Russian society and politics. He was born into the nobility and had a military education, but he gradually abandoned the values of his social class and became an anti-authoritarian socialist, opposed to both the rule of the Tsars and to the seizing of power by the authoritarian Bolsheviks. He was also interested in literature, biology, economics and geographical exploration. This first volume of his memoirs covers his childhood, his education, and the time he spent in Siberia. '. (Introduction by Elin, )

The Legends of Genesis is the English translation of the introduction to Gunkel’s massive commentary, Genesis. Gunkel uses form critical analysis on the text of Genesis to determine the various genres of the biblical legends and their significance to the authors. Gunkel also uses form criticism to uncover buried clues as to the constituent sources of the text. Gunkel offers his hypothesis to explain how the various sources came to be combined and redacted, and how the text later came to be attributed to Moses.

37 short pieces perfect for newer recorders. These one page Stories of (mostly) Wonderful Deeds were written for Little Folk to teach them about famous incidents in their history. Bonnie Prince Charlie, Nelson and Hardy, Bruce and the Spider, David Livingston, Canute, Sir Philip Sydney, and Elizabeth and Raleigh are just some of the well known people and incidents covered in short stories.

Pierre Loti [Julien Viaud] (1850-1923) was a French naval officer and novelist. The present book is one of his few works of non-fiction, a small collection of letters and diary entries that describe his views and experiences in the wars and military operations in which he participated. Besides World War I, he also sheds light upon his views and involvement in the preparations for the Turkish Revolution of 1923, for which until today a famous hill and popular café in Istanbul are named after him.

The recollections of a British infantryman who served in the British army during the Napoleonic Wars.

Wells considered this book one of his most important, a natural follow-up to such works as his Man of the Year Million and The Time Machine. His goal was to get people to think and act in new ways. The book starts with a look at how humans get along socially and how they carry out their business ventures. It then discusses how these elements influence others, such as politics, the world of work, and education. H. G. tried to make clear how the current social order was disintegrating without preparing another to take its place. He then traced the roots of democracy, which in its present state he saw as unworkable. Instead, he proposed a new republic. He also critiqued modern warfare.

Volume VI of a series containing anecdotes and stories, some well-known, others less so, of particular countries. This fifth volume covers the history of France from the Hun invasion of Europe in the 5th century up to the Prussian War, describing history for children and young adults in an exciting and novel manner. (Introduction by Kalynda)

The History of the Standard Oil Company is a book written by journalist Ida Tarbell in 1904. It was an exposé of the Standard Oil Company, run at that time by oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, the richest figure in America's history. Originally serialized in 19 parts in McClure's magazine, the book was a seminal example of muckraking, and inspired many other journalists to write about trusts, large businesses that (in the absence of strong antitrust law in the 19th century) attempted to gain monopolies in various industries. The History of the Standard Oil Company was credited with hastening the breakup of Standard Oil, which came about in 1911.

National Geographic Magazine Volume 1 Number 1 published in 1889. Topics of articles are:Announcement by the National Geographic SocietyIntroductory Address by the PresidentGeographic Methods in Geologic InvestigationClassification of Geographic Forms by GenesisThe Great Storm of March 11 to 14, 1888The Great Storm off the Atlantic Coast of the United States, March 11th to 14th, 1888The Survey of the CoastThe Survey and Map of Massachusetts

Doom Castle is the story of young Count Victor's journey to Scotland after the Jacobite Rebellion, searching for a traitor to the Jacobite cause as well as a mysterious man under the name of "Drimdarroch", whom he swore revenge. After a perilious journey, Count Victor arrives at Doom Castle as a guest of the enigmatic Baron of Doom, his two strange servitors and his beautiful daughter... (Summary by Carolin)

An account of World War I and the experience of filming it by an early cinematographer (and, after the war, successful director) who was there.

This two volume work is the autobiography of Lord Cochrane, a naval captain of the Napoleonic period. His adventures are seminal to the development of naval fiction as a genre. Marryat sailed with Cochrane, while later writers borrowed incidents from this biography for their fictions. Most notable among these is Patrick O'Brian, three of whose novels have clear parallels to incidents in the life of Cochrane. This first volume covers Cochrane's earlier life, during which he is most active militarily. (Introduction by Timothy Ferguson)

An in-depth view and early history of the Mohawk Valley in upper New York state, covering the time period of 1609-1780. This historical piece covers that part of the Mohawk Valley between Schenectady and Rome, NY.The narrator hopes that the listener understands that a best effort has been made in pronunciation of many names within this work; particularly those of the Mohawks, Iriquois, Huron, and Mohicans; as well as the French and Dutch.

A handbook of Egyptian archaeology, issued by the British Museum, considered suitable for British tourists travelling to Egypt in the 19th Century. (Introduction by Timothy Ferguson)

William Wells Brown was born a slave, near Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Elizabeth, was a slave; his father was a white man who never acknowledged his paternity. Brown escaped slavery at about the age of 20. For many years he worked as a steam boatman and as a conductor for the Underground Railroad in Buffalo, New York. In 1843, he became a lecturer for the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society, and was a contemporary of Frederick Douglass.Brown went to Europe in 1849 to encourage British support for the anti-slavery movement in the United States...

This nonfiction collection of sketches, by "members of the New York press," takes the reader on a tour of 1866 New York City after dark, with stops along the way to vividly depict scenes ranging from the splendid to the squalid - but focusing largely on the latter!

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the premier movers in the original women’s rights movement, along with Susan B. Anthony, her best friend for over 50 years. While Elizabeth initially stayed home with her husband and many babies and wrote the speeches, Susan went on the road to bring the message of the women’s rights movement to an often hostile public. When black men were given the vote in 1870, Susan and Elizabeth led the women’s rights establishment of the time to withhold support for a bill that would extend to black men the rights still denied for women of all colors...

Recollections of Life in Ohio is the autobiography of William Cooper Howells (1807-1894), father of the American novelist William Dean Howells. The Howells were Welsh woolen mill owners. William Cooper's father brought the family to America in 1808--at a time when Great Britain actually forbid skilled workmen from emigrating, thus putting the father's practical knowledge of mill machinery in great demand. Small scale industries--paper and woolen mills, flour mills, and distilleries were sprouting apace with farms in the newly opened lands of Ohio, where the Howells settled in 1813...

Written by the former skeptic, poet, and scholar, Thomas Cooper, The Bridge of History Over the Gulf of Time admirably sets forth a winsome defense of Christianity. Written as the substance of fourteen years of lectures, at the request of his hearers, Cooper leads his reader across the bridge of history, through the centuries, tracing Christianity. At last, he addresses "Leben Jesu" by Dr. David Friedrich Strauss, discusses the historicity of the four Gospels, and offers some concluding evidences for the truth of Christianity. (Introduction by tzieger)

Peter Kropotkin was a Russian anarcho-communist and scientist. This is his autobiography, and he writes not only about his own life, but also about 19th century Russian society and politics. He was born into the nobility and had a military education, but he gradually abandoned the values of his social class and became an anti-authoritarian socialist, opposed to both the rule of the Tsars and to the seizing of power by the authoritarian Bolsheviks. He was also interested in literature, biology, economics and geographical exploration. This second and last volume of his memoirs covers his time in St Petersburg, his time in prison, and his journeys in Western Europe. (

Νόμοι (Laws) is Plato's final dialogue written after his attempt to advise the tyrant Dionysius II of Syracuse. The dialogue takes place between: an Athenian Stranger (Socrates? A god in human form?); the quiet Lacedaemonian Megillus; and the Cretan Cleinias. The Stranger asks whether humans live to be more effective at waging war or if there is something more important a legislator should seek to achieve. During their pilgrimage Cleinias discloses his role in the establishment of a new colony...

Ambassador Morgenthau’s memoirs of his years in the service of the United States in Constantinople, (today Istanbul), are an important primary historical resource for the study of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian Genocide. During this genocide, approximately 1,500,000 Armenians living in Anatolia were murdered in an attempt to rid Turkey of its non-Turkish populations. Mr. Morgenthau left Turkey a frustrated man, having done all that he was able through diplomatic circles to halt the murders, to no avail...

This book is a collection of Theodore Roosevelt’s published commentaries and public addresses on the general theme of the requirements for individual and collective success in the personal, civic, political, and social arenas. (Introduction by Bob Neufeld)

These stories have come to me from many sources—some from my own experience, others from settlement workers, still others from the records of organized charity, that are never dry, as some think, but alive with vital human interest and with the faithful striving to help the brother so that it counts. They have this in common, that they are true. For good reasons, names and places are changed, but they all happened as told here. I could not have invented them had I tried; I should not have tried if I could...

This audiobook is a collection of Mark Twain's anti-imperialist writings (newspaper articles, interviews, speeches, letters, essays and pamphlets).

'The story of The Log-Cabin Lady is one of the annals of America. It is a moving record of the conquest of self-consciousness and fear through mastery of manners and customs. It has been written by one who has not sacrificed the strength and honesty of her pioneer girlhood, but who added to these qualities that graciousness and charm which have given her distinction on two continents.'(from the introduction)

Published in 1899, The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line is a collection of narratives that addresses the impact of Jim Crow laws on African Americans and white Americans of the South. Many of Chesnutt's characters are of mixed-race ancestry which sets them apart for a specific yet degrading kind of treatment from blacks and whites. These stories examine particularly how life in the South was informed through a legacy of slavery and Reconstruction—how members of the “old dominion” desperately struggled to breath life into the corpse of an antebellum caste system that no longer defined the path and direction in which this country was headed...

Mary Pengilly was taken to a Lunatic Asylum by her sons where she kept a diary, which this book is taken from. Mary records the harsh conditions and treatments received at the hands of the nurses during her stay. Once Mary is released she takes it upon herself to make the authorities aware of the situation at the Provincial Lunatic Asylum.

The full title of this book is Immortality and the Unseen World - A Study in Old Testament Religion. Oesterley describes the beliefs that pre-Christian Hebrews and Semites held regarding the afterlife and the immortal nature of humans. The nature, form and evolution of these beliefs are derived from the Tanakh (Old Testament), comparisons with the beliefs and mythologies of neighboring cultures, and archeological finds. To develop a full study, additional beliefs of these people are also considered, including the beliefs of the constituent parts of humans; demonology, angelology, shades and the Satan; the home of the dead, ancestor worship, necromancy, and burial customs...

François-Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743-1803) rose to fame in 1791 during the Haitian struggle for independence. In this revolt, he led thousands of slaves on the island of Hispañola to fight against the colonial European powers of France, Spain and England. The former slaves ultimately established the independent state of Haiti and expelled the Europeans. L’Ouverture eventually became the governor and Commander-In-Chief of Haiti before recognizing and submitting to French rule in 1801...

This is the story of Miriam, an orphan Christian woman living in Rome in the first century. She falls in love with a Roman officer, but knows that her Jewish childhood playmate loves her too and will do anything in order to get her love in return.

In this volume are presented examples of men who shed lustre upon ordinary pursuits, either by the superior manner in which they exercised them or by the noble use they made of the leisure which success in them usually gives. Such men are the nobility of republics.Most of these chapters were published originally in "The Ledger" of New York, and a few of them in "The Youths' Companion" of Boston, the largest two circulations in the country. I have occasionally had reason to think that they were of some service to young readers, and I may add that they represent more labor and research than would be naturally supposed from their brevity...

This is a collection of essays, verbal sketches, and stories by Washington Irving. Irving lived at the Alhambra Palace while writing some of the material for his book. In 1828, Washington Irving traveled from Madrid, where he had been staying, to Granada, Spain. At first sight, he described it as "a most picturesque and beautiful city, situated in one of the loveliest landscapes that I have ever seen." He immediately asked the then-governor of the historic Alhambra Palace as well as the archbishop of Granada for access to the palace, which was granted because of Irving's celebrity status...

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)

The county of Lancashire in the north-west of England is best known as the engine room of the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution. Steering clear of the industrial districts, F. A. Bruton takes the reader on an engaging tour of the county's beauty spots and lesser known landscapes. Taking the view that the charm of a district is nothing without its historical associations, Bruton packs his account with historical detail and literary references to, among others, Leland, Wordsworth, Ruskin, Arnold, and Mrs. Carlyle. (Introduction by Phil Benson)

In the autumn of 1913 John Reed was sent to Mexico by the Metropolitan Magazine to report the Mexican Revolution. He shared the perils of Pancho Villa's army for four months, present with Villa's Constitutional Army when it defeated Federal forces at Torreón, opening the way for its advance on Mexico City. Reed's time with the Villistas resulted in a series of outstanding magazine articles that brought Jack a national reputation as a war correspondent. Reed deeply sympathized with the plight of the peons and vehemently opposed American intervention, which came shortly after he left...

Plague, piracy and payments to members of Parliament! The town of Bristol, England in the Sixteenth Century was a fascinating place, and John Latimer's book is a comprehensive guide to this period, describing royal visits from both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, as well as detailing contemporary pastimes such as wrestling competitions, bear-baiting and traveling players. He explains the sanitary arrangements, dreadful postal service and the difficulty of moving from the status of town to "City" among many other interesting topics.It is made up of papers originally published in the Bristol Mercury in 1902-3 and is read by Bristolian, Elaine Webb.Summary by Cori Samuel and Elaine Webb

This biography is actually a series of essays by prominent personalities of the time that shed light on John Stuart Mill's life and areas of endeavor. Those areas include his experiences in India House, his moral character, certain botanical explorations, how effective he was as a critic, studies in morals and the law, and discoveries concerning political economy. They also explore ideas concerning his influence on institutions of higher learning, accomplishments as a politician, and fame as a philosopher.

Read in English, this is a pivotal document in the history of Zionism and the State of Israel. Herzl designed this work to elevate the discussion of "the Jewish Question" so it would "no longer take the form of violent abuse or sentimental vindication but of a debate, practical, large, earnest, and political." While few of Herzl's proposals were actually carried out, the importance of A JEWISH STATE was in the groundswell of support for a Jewish homeland engendered by its solutions to the practical problems of establishing a new state...

A history of France from Ancient Gaul up until 1880, written in short easy to comprehend chapters aimed at teaching English children.

The year is 1838. The scene is the dense Honduran forest along the Copán River. Two men, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, are about to rediscover Mayan civilization. Their guide, slashing through the rampant growth with his machete, leads them to a stone column, fourteen feet high, sculptured on the front with a portrait of a man, “solemn, stern and well fitted to excite terror,” covered on the sides with hieroglyphics, and with workmanship “equal to the finest monuments of the Egyptians...

By Zorra, in the following sketches, is meant a little district in Oxford county, Ontario, some ten miles square, composed of part of East and part of West Zorra, and containing a population of about fourteen hundred. It was settled about the year 1830, chiefly by Highlanders from Sutherlandshire, Scotland.Within the last forty years there have gone from this district over one hundred young men who have made their mark in the world. With most of these it has been the writer's good fortune to be personally and intimately acquainted; and companionship with some of them has been to him a pleasure and a benefit...

This book is an early history of the Starved Rock Area in Northern Illinois. In the pre-Columbian era, the Starved Rock area was home to Native Americans, particularly the Kaskaskia who lived in the Grand Village of the Illinois across the river. Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans recorded as exploring the region, and by 1683, the French had established Fort St. Louis on a large sandstone butte overlooking the river. According to a native legend, a group of Illinois Confederation (Illini) pursued by the Ottawa and Potawatomi fled to the butte in the late 18th century...

Mr. Desjardins was driven to write this work to refute statements uttered by the nationalist Henri Bourassa, which the former feared painted all Quebecers with the same unpatriotic brush in respect to their contribution to the Great War.

The Inquiry into the Role and Oversight of Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan, which reported in September 2010, was precipitated by events in August 2008, when US forces bombed the Afghan village of Azizabad. This gave rise to a public dispute between the US Government and the United Nations about the level of fatalities caused by the attack and about whether those killed had been civilians or Taliban-linked insurgents. Allegations soon emerged that the attack had been based on false information deliberately fed to the US military by Afghan employees of ArmorGroup, a private security contractor, and that these employees were engaged in murder and anti-coalition activities...

Knowing the Egyptian as I know him, I cannot but think that he is greatly misunderstood, even by those who are sincerely anxious to befriend him. His faults and his failings are to be found at large in almost any of the scores of books that have of late years been written about him and his country; but, though not a few have given him credit for some of his more salient good points, yet none that I have seen have shown any just appreciation of him as he really is. (From the Preface)

Dulcibel is a young, pretty and kind-hearted fictional character charged with Witchcraft during the infamous Salem Witch trials. During this time there is a group of "afflicted girls" who accuse Dulcibel and many others of Witchcraft, and during their trials show "undoubtable" proof that these people really are Witches. Will Master Raymond, Dulcibel's lover, be able to to secure Dulcibel's release from jail? Or will Dulcibel's fate be the gallows like so many other accused Witches of her time?

The full title of this book is Bible Defense of Slavery; and Origin, Fortunes, and History of the Negro Race, by Rev. Josiah Priest, A. M. 5th edition. This is a compilation of pro-slavery literature and propaganda that went through numerous editions in the Southern United States before the Civil War. It contains the highly influential book, Slavery, as it Relates to the Negro, or African Race, by Rev Josiah Priest, which was originally published in 1843. This compilation also includes many essays and favorable reviews of Rev Priest’s book from contemporary magazines and newspapers, and written endorsements from national politicians...

Historic Waterways, Six Hundred Miles of Canoeing down the Rock, Fox and Wisconsin Rivers.This volume is the record of six hundred miles of canoeing experiences on historic waterways in Wisconsin and Illinois during the summer of 1887. There has been no attempt at exaggeration, to color its homely incidents, or to picture charms where none exist. It is intended to be a simple, truthful narrative of what was seen and done upon a series of novel outings through the heart of the Northwest. If it may induce others to undertake similar excursions, and thus increase the little navy of healthy and self-satisfied canoeists, the object of the publication will have been attained.

Prince Demetrius of Gallitzin (1770-1840), or "Father Smith," as he was known on the eighteenth century American frontier, was one of the glories of early Catholicism in America. Though a prince by birth, Demetrius discreetly concealed the glory of his earlier life that he might better lead his adopted spiritual children to the glory of eternal life. For more than four decades, he humbly provided for the spiritual needs of courageous pioneers scattered throughout the Allegheny Mountains of central Pennsylvania...

This is a bilingual project. The first part, in Hebrew, is the story "Injustice" by Yosef Haim Brenner, written following the conquest of Palestine by the British troops during WWI. The story takes place on the Turkish side of the dividing line between the combating forces. An escaped British prisoner of war had taken shelter among a group of Jewish workers, who, following a heated discussion, turned him over to the Turkish army. The second part of this project, in English, is a chapter in the book "The Escaping Club," written in 1922 by the same British prisoner of war, the aviator A. J. Evans, who gave his account of the same event.

In the 1880s William Morris, the artist and poet famously associated with the Arts and Crafts movement, left the Liberal Party and threw himself into the Socialist cause. He spoke all over the country, on street corners as well as in working men's clubs and lecture halls, and edited and wrote for the Socialist League's monthly newspaper. Signs of Change is a short collection of his talks and writings in this period, first published in 1888, covering such topics as what socialism and work should be, and how capitalism and waste developed.

Simply put, this is a book of 9 short vignettes each of which describes a different scenario which demonstrates the age old adage: 'where there's a will, there's a way'.

Elia Peattie was an outspoken journalist and social activist who gave her attention to such areas as orphanages, charity hospitals, the Wounded Knee massacre, capital punishment, and the like. The Precipice is partially based on the life of her close friend Katherine Ostrander, a social work pioneer, and tells of the evolution of Kate Barrington after her college years and with it the evolution of society as a whole and women in particular in pre-World War I America. Friendship, romance, betrayal, searchings of the soul, dreams, and shattered hopes -- all the stuff of life -- bring Kate to full realization of her true self. (Introduction by Mary Schneider)

Norie's series of piloting and sailing directions was something of a staple in the chart-room of 19th century British (and other) merchant vessels. The description of landmarks and ports, as well as the rules and regulations provide another viewpoint to an earlier age. Please note that these piloting directions are rather completely out of date. They are given here for purposes of historical interest only, and should not be used for navigation purposes.

A companion volume to F.A. Bruton's 'The Story of Peterloo', the full title of this short collection is 'Three Accounts of Peterloo by Eyewitnesses, Bishop Stanley, Lord Hylton, John Benjamin Smith with Bishop Stanley's Evidence at the Trial'. The three contemporary accounts, each with a short introduction by the editor, give different perspectives on the events of 16 August 1819, when a troop of Hussars accompanied by the local Yeomanry rode into a peaceful reform rally at St. Peter's Fields, Manchester, leaving 18 dead and more than 700 injured.

Set during the Tudor period of English history, When Knighthood Was in Flower tells the tribulations of Mary Tudor, a younger sister of Henry VIII of England who has fallen in love with a commoner. However, for political reasons, King Henry has arranged for her to wed King Louis XII of France and demands his sister put the House of Tudor first, threatening, "You will marry France and I will give you a wedding present – Charles Brandon's head!"

A collection in celebration of 2012 Year of Reading Australia. Readers chose fiction, non fiction and poetry - we only asked that the readings should have some sort of Australian hook. So they can be by an Australian author, or about Australia, or just have a prominent bit of Australianess in the plot. Failing that: even being performed by Australians will do! :D .

Lydia Maria Child, an American abolitionist, compiled this collection of short stories and poems by former slaves and noted activists as an inspiration to freed slaves. In her dedication to the freedmen, she urges those who can read to read these stories aloud to others to share the strength, courage and accomplishments of colored men and women. In that spirit, this recording aims to gives that voice a permanent record. As in the original text, the names of the colored authors are marked with an "x".