Described by some as one of the greatest escape books published. The Escaping Club recounts Evans' escape to Switzerland from a supposedly "escape-proof" German prison camp during World War I. After repatriation and rejoining the war, Evans again finds himself captured, this time first by Arabs and then by Turks. He again manages to escape. A detailed look at the trials faced by Allied POWs during World War I.

A romantic and witty novel that has weathered time to remain one of America’s classic pieces. In the shadows of the great Gatsby is another brilliant novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book is evidence to Fitzgerald’s literal genius because it was written by the author in his twenties to mirror his experiences at the time. It paints a picture of what it was like to be a young man or woman in the 20th century and in the wake of the First World War. The book is set on a foundation of socialist principles...

This is a first hand account of the Armenian Genocide written by a Syrian who had been a Turkish official for three and a half years. His accounts tell of the worst of humanity, and also of the noblest. The noble include families who courageously support each other in the face of death, and Turks who refuse to follow orders to kill, knowing that they shall be executed themselves for their defiance.

The Fifth Queen trilogy is a series of connected historical novels by English novelist Ford Madox Ford. It consists of three novels, The Fifth Queen; And How She Came to Court (1906), Privy Seal (1907) and The Fifth Queen Crowned (1908), which present a highly fictionalized account of Katharine Howard's marriage to King Henry VIII.

Starting with a summary of the 1922 novel The Head of the House of Coombe, which followed the relationships between a group of pre-WWI English nobles and commoners, this sequel, called Robin, completes the story of Robin, Lord Coombe, Donal and Feather. (Introduction by Linda Andrus)

"There appeared from the bushes in front of me, and right in the path, two immense gray wolves . . . Rollo saw them and stopped instantly, giving deep sighs, preparing to snort, I knew . . . To give myself courage, I talked to the horse, slowly turning him around . . . when out of the bushes in front of us, there came a third wolf! The situation was not pleasant and without stopping to think, I said ‘Rollo, we must run him down - now do your best’ and taking a firm hold of the bridle, and bracing myself in the saddle, I struck the horse with my whip and gave an awful scream...

"The long war has brought hunger to Europe; some of her peoples stand constantly face to face with starvation. To meet all this great food need in Europe—and meeting it is an imperative military necessity—we must be very careful and economical in our food use here at home. We must eat less; we must waste nothing; we must equalize the distribution of what food we may retain for ourselves; we must prevent extortion and profiteering which make prices so high that the poor cannot buy the food they actually need; and we must try to produce more food...

This is a popular narrative history of the world's greatest war. Written frankly from the viewpoint of the United States and the Allies, it visualizes the bloodiest and most destructive conflict of all the ages from its remote causes to its glorious conclusion and beneficent results.Two ideals have been before us in the preparation of this necessary work. These are simplicity and thoroughness. It is of no avail to describe the greatest of human events if the description is so confused that the reader loses interest...

Gelett Burgess, an American writer, penned this gripping account of the profound change that war caused in a young Frenchman he knew. “Because he was my friend, because he was so lovable, because he suffered much, I want to try to tell the story of a boy who, in two months, became a man. I happened to see him first just before the war began, and not again until after he had been wounded; and the change in him was then so great that I could not rest until I had learned how it had been brought about.” – From War the Creator

"Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War" is an interesting read of the beginnings of air warfare in World War I. Anyone interested in early aviation and armament will find this a fascinating work. By William Tomcho.

On the gently rolling farm lands surrounding the little town of Gettysburg, Pa., was fought one of the great decisive battles of American history. For 3 days, from July 1 to 3, 1863, a gigantic struggle between 75,000 Confederates and 88,000 Union troops raged about the town and left 51,000 casualties in its wake. Heroic deeds were numerous on both sides, climaxed by the famed Confederate assault on July 3 which has become known throughout the world as Pickett’s Charge. The Union victory gained on these fields ended the last Confederate invasion of the North and marked the beginning of a gradual decline in Southern military power...

The American Civil War battle at Antietam, Maryland, on 17 September 1862, has been called the bloodiest day of that conflict. Confederate General Lee’s invasion of the North was repulsed, and when the fighting ended, the course of the Civil War had been greatly altered. This victory by the North moved President Abraham Lincoln to issue The Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in states then in rebellion against the Union. This 1960 publication is number 31 in the Historical Handbook series put out by the U...

One of the first novel-length pieces of nautical fiction, MR. MIDSHIPMAN EASY (1836) is a funny and easygoing account of the adventures of Jack Easy, a son of privilege who joins the Royal Navy. The work begins as a satire on Jack’s attachment to “the rights of man” that may try the listener’s patience. But despair not, for the story soon settles down as the philosophical midshipman begins his many triumphs over bullies, foul weather, and various damned foreigners of murderous intent.Caveat audiens: This novel employs racial/ethnic epithets and religious stereotypes, as well as taking a rather sunny view of supply-side economics...

Marryat was a midshipman under Captain Cochrane and this, his first naval adventure, is considered to be a highly autobiographical telling of his adventures with one of Britain's most famous and daring naval captains.

The History of the Thirty Years War is a five volume work, which followed his very successful History of the Revolt of the Netherlands. Written for a wider audience than Revolt, it is a vivid history, colored by Schiller’s own interest in the question of human freedom and his rationalist optimism. Volume 1 covers the background of the war, through the Battle of Prague in late 1620. (Introduction by Alan Winterrowd)

A brief record of the fighting on the Eastern front in the great war by a participant in that great and terrible conflict

A classic locked room mystery, in a not-so-classic setting. (Intro by Karen Savage)

“The subject of our policy on the North-West frontier of India is one of great importance, as affecting the general welfare of our Eastern Empire, and is specially interesting at the present time, when military operations on a considerable scale are being conducted against a combination of the independent tribes along the frontier. It must be understood that the present condition of affairs is no mere sudden outbreak on the part of our turbulent neighbours. Its causes lie far deeper, and are the consequences of events in bygone years”. (From the author’s Preface, 1897).

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.

During the Indian war with Tippoo Saib, 15 year old Dick Holland and his mother set out from England to find and rescue his father, shipwrecked 6 years earlier, and believed to be held prisoner by the 'Tiger of Mysore'.

The story begins in a grim feudal castle in Normandie. The times were troublous, and soon the king compelled Lady Margaret de Villeroy, with her children, to go to Paris as hostages. Guy Aylmer went with her.Paris was turbulent. Soon the guild of the butchers, adopting white hoods as their uniform, seized the city, and besieged the house where our hero and his charges lived. After desperate fighting, the white hoods were beaten and our hero and his charges escaped from the city, and from France. (Summary from the original back cover)

A tale of Victorian-style romance, maritime battles and even the penultimate Napoleanic battle - Waterloo. (Introduction by Mike Harris)

With the exception of the terrible retreat from Afghanistan, none of England's many little wars have been so fatal--in proportion to the number of those engaged--as our first expedition to Burma. It was undertaken without any due comprehension of the difficulties to be encountered, from the effects of climate and the deficiency of transport; the power, and still more the obstinacy and arrogance of the court of Ava were altogether underrated; and it was considered that our possession of her ports would assuredly bring the enemy, who had wantonly forced the struggle upon us, to submission...

There are few campaigns that, either in point of the immense scale upon which it was undertaken, the completeness of its failure, or the enormous loss of life entailed, appeal to the imagination in so great a degree as that of Napoleon against Russia. Fortunately, we have in the narratives of Sir Robert Wilson, British commissioner with the Russian army, and of Count Segur, who was upon Napoleon's staff, minute descriptions of the events as seen by eye-witnesses, and besides these the campaign has been treated fully by various military writers...

Among the great wars of history there are few, if any, instances of so long and successfully sustained a struggle, against enormous odds, as that of the Seven Years' War, maintained by Prussia--then a small and comparatively insignificant kingdom--against Russia, Austria, and France simultaneously, who were aided also by the forces of most of the minor principalities of Germany. The population of Prussia was not more than five millions, while that of the Allies considerably exceeded a hundred millions...

Typically, Henty's heroes are boys of pluck in troubled times, and this is no different. Detailed research is embellished with a vivid imagination, especially in this novel set in the Punic wars, about which knowledge is limited: "...certainly we had but a hazy idea as to the merits of the struggle and knew but little of its events, for the Latin and Greek authors, which serve as the ordinary textbooks in schools, do not treat of the Punic wars. That it was a struggle for empire at first, and latterly...

Vincent Wingfield is the son of a wealthy Virginian planter. When the country goes to war, he enlists in the cavalry, and sees action under the various generals commanding the army in and near Virginia. He has several private adventures as well, including a personal enemy, prison escape, rescue of a young lady, spying expedition, and recovery of a stolen slave. He rises in rank in the Confederate army, and after the war is over, he marries and returns home to manage his mother's plantation. Henty in this book gives an overview of the causes of the Civil War, and follows the battles and movements of the army in Virginia and the surrounding area...

The story of the war in which the power of the great Mahratta confederacy was broken ended in the firm establishment of the British Empire the Indian Peninsula. When the struggle began, the Mahrattas were masters of no small portion of India; their territory comprising the whole country between Bombay and Delhi, and stretching down from Rajputana to Allahabad; while in the south they were lords of the district of Cuttack, thereby separating Madras from Calcutta. The jealousies of the great Mahratta...

This is a tale of the son of a Scottish officer, who gets arrested for helping a Jacobite agent. Set during the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland in 1755, the boy escapes and makes it to France and shares some adventures with Prince Charlie.

"Angels of the Battlefield: A History of the Labors of the Catholic Sisterhoods in the Late Civil War" chronicles the compassionate services of these dedicated women during the bitter and bloody U.S. Civil War. These accounts also offer some important historical details, giving some important insights into the people and events of the war. This is the Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. - Summary by Larry Wilson

As a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps during the War of 1812 assigned to Marine Corps headquarters, English sailed to the Mediterranean, and was among the first citizens of the United States known to have visited Egypt. Shortly after arriving in Egypt he resigned his commission, converted to Islam and joined Isma'il Pasha in an expedition up the Nile River against Sennar in 1820, winning distinction as an officer of artillery. He published his Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar (London 1822) regarding his exploits. (Introduction adapted by obform from Wikipedia)

The title says it all. World War I narratives of German activities in Belgium after the German invasion of this neutral country. - Summary by david wales

George Cary Eggleston's Civil War memoir begins with a separate essay on the living conditions and political opinions of Virginia’s citizenry before secession. The body of the work contains vivid descriptions and accounts of the men and women of the South during the time of the Confederacy. Eggleston praises its war heroes, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jeb Stuart, but is highly critical of Jefferson Davis and of his government’s inefficiencies, red-tape, and favoritism. The book concludes with the war's end and a tribute to the character of the newly freed slaves...

An educated gentleman, Mr Manington has given an insight into the unusual experiences of an Englishman in the French Foreign Legion, such as no ordinary "mercenary" could have done. Most of the narrative deals with Tonquin, and the fighting there against the rebels in their forest fastnesses. Incidentally, in giving an account of his friendship for the native sergeant, Doy-Tho, the author has been able to impart to the pages of the book an Oriental atmosphere that we think will prove attractive to the reader. - Summary by Editors' Note

Being the full account of the capture and fifteen months’ imprisonment of Corporal Edwards, of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, and his final escape from Germany into Holland.