Books Should Be Free
Loyal Books
Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads
Search by: Title, Author or Keyword

History Books

Results per page: 30 | 60 | 100
  • <
  • Page 3 of 21 
  • >
Book type:
Sort by:
View by:

By: Amice MacDonell

Book cover Saxon and Norman

Edward the Confessor is very weak and will die soon. But with no son to succeed him, who will gain the throne? The common folk and loyal Saxon barons in England want Harold, while the Norman barons and the people in Normandy, France want Duke William. They claim Edward gave William the throne. Who is right? Will Britain be Normanized? - Summary by Esther ben Simonides Cast List King Edward the Confessor: Beth ThomasHarold, Earl of Wessex: Adele de PignerollesGyrth, brother to Harold; Cecilia, daughter...

Book cover Robin Hood (Dramatic Reading)

One May Day, Robin Hood and his Merry Men sit in Sherwood Forest, waiting for a traveller to share their dinner. Enter a distraught Knight with his fair daughter Marian, who owe money to the Sheriff of Nottingham, and have not the means by which to pay it. Meanwhile the greedy Sheriff is visited by the Baron of the Black Castle, who plots to silence the famous outlaw once and for all! This version of the Robin Hood legend was written, and now recorded, as a play, entertaining for children and adults alike...

By: Anatole France (1844-1924)

Book cover Gods are Athirst

The Gods Are Athirst (French: Les dieux ont soif, also translated as The Gods Are Thirsty or The Gods Will Have Blood) is a 1912 novel by Anatole France. The story follows the young Parisian painter Évariste Gamelin, who rises speedily from his humble beginnings to a member of the Revolutionary Tribunal in the second and third year of the French Revolution. In brilliant prose, Anatole France describes how Évariste's idealism turns into fanaticism, and he allows more and more heads to roll and blood to flow, placing himself and those he loves into ever greater danger.

By: Andre Norton (1912-2005)

Book cover Rebel Spurs

In 1866, only men uprooted by war had reason to ride into Tubacca, Arizona, a nondescript town as shattered and anonymous as the veterans drifting through it. So when Drew Rennie, newly discharged from Forrest’s Confederate scouts, arrived leading everything he owned behind him—his thoroughbred stud Shiloh, a mare about to foal, and a mule—he knew his business would not be questioned. To anyone in Tubacca there could be only one extraordinary thing about Drew, and that he could not reveal: his name, Rennie...

Book cover Ride Proud, Rebel!

Drew Rennie, served as a cavalry scout in Confederate general John Hunt Morgan's command. He had left home in 1862 after a final break with his harsh grandfather, who despised him since his birth because of his mother's runaway marriage to a Texan. During the final year of conflict Drew has the additional responsibility of looking out for his headstrong fifteen-year-old cousin Boyd, who has run away from home to join Morgan's command and has a lot to learn in the school of hard knocks the army provides. The story follows the two of them and a new friend, Anson Kirby, through campaigns in Kentucky, Tennessee and later on deeper into the South, first with Morgan and later under Forrest.

By: Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)

Book cover Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie

This autobiography of Andrew Carnegie is a very well written and interesting history of one of the most wealthy men in the United states. He was born in Scotland in 1835 and emigrated to America in 1848. Among his many accomplishments and philanthropic works, he was an author, having written, besides this autobiography, Triumphant Democracy (1886; rev. ed. 1893), The Gospel of Wealth, a collection of essays (1900), The Empire of Business (1902), and Problems of To-day (1908)]. Although this autobiography was written in 1919, it was published posthumously in 1920.

Book cover Triumphant Democracy

Subtitled "Fifty Years' March of the Republic," this is steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie's love letter to America, first published in 1886, an impassioned celebration of the American success story, and a call for other nations to follow in America's footsteps. Through simple, direct discussions of the nature of the American character and her jobs and education, religion, industry, art and literature, foreign affairs, and more, Carnegie sets out a case for a brand of conservative democracy for the world to emulate...

By: Andrew Jackson

Robert O'Hara Burke by Andrew Jackson Robert O'Hara Burke

A non-fictional account of Burke and Wills’s 1860 expedition to cross the Australian continent from south to north and then return. Containing many excerpts from the diaries and accounts of the explorers, this book was published the year after the expedition met its disastrous end.(description written by trioptimum)

By: Andrew Lang

A Short History of Scotland by Andrew Lang A Short History of Scotland

A Short History of Scotland is a consise introduction to the history of Scotland from Roman times to the last Jacobite rebellion, written by the author of a much longer Scottish history.

Custom and Myth by Andrew Lang Custom and Myth

CUSTOM AND MYTHINTRODUCTION.Though some of the essays in this volume have appeared in various serials, the majority of them were written expressly for their present purpose, and they are now arranged in a designed order. During some years of study of Greek, Indian, and savage mythologies, I have become more and more impressed with a sense of the inadequacy of the prevalent method of comparative mythology. That method is based on the belief that myths are the result of a disease of language, as the pearl is the result of a disease of the oyster...

By: Anges Strickland, Elisabeth Strickland (1796-1874)

The Lives of the Queens of England by Anges Strickland, Elisabeth Strickland The Lives of the Queens of England

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 one includes the biographies of Matilda of Flanders, Matilda of Scotland, Adelicia of Louvaine, Matilda of Boulogne and Eleanora of Aquitaine.(Introduction by Ann Boulais)

By: Anne MacLanahan Grenfell (1885-1938)

Le Petit Nord by Anne MacLanahan Grenfell Le Petit Nord

A collection of letters from Anne (MacLanahan) Grenfell, future wife of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, regarding her year of missionary service at the orphanage in St. Anthony, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

By: Annie Denton Cridge (1825-1875)

Book cover Man's Rights; or, How Would You Like It?: Comprising Dreams

"Man's Rights; or, How Would You Like It?: Comprising Dreams" is the first known feminist utopian novel written by a woman. The text features nine dreams experienced by a first-person female narrator. In the first seven dreams, she visits the planet Mars, finding a society where traditional sex roles and stereotypes are reversed. The narrator witnesses the oppression of the men on Mars and their struggle for equality. In the last two dreams, the narrator visits a future United States ruled by a woman president.

By: Annie F. Johnston (1863-1931)

The Little Colonel by Annie F. Johnston The Little Colonel

The scene of this story is laid in Kentucky. Its heroine is a small girl, who is known as the Little Colonel, on account of her fancied resemblance to an old-school Southern gentleman, whose fine estate and old family are famous in the region. (Introduction taken from original book.)

Book cover Joel, a Boy of Galilee

Joel, a crippled boy, cannot play with the children and has nothing to care about. Rabbi Phineas helps him to find something he can do and tells him the reason that he is so kind is because of a boy from his hometown of Nazareth. Soon stories are going about everywhere of miracles, and some people think that the Messiah has come. Then someone tells Joel he should ask for his back to be healed. Will Joel be able to find the miracle worker?

By: Annie L. Burton (c. 1858-)

Book cover Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days

This is a short and simple, yet poignant autobiography of Annie Burton, who recounts her early carefree childhood as a slave on a southern plantation while the Civil War raged around her, and after the Emancipation Proclamation, how her life changed as she struggled to maintain herself and family, manage her finances, and develop as a free person of color. The last half of the narrative relies heavily upon speeches, poems, and hymns written by others that stirred Annie's religious passions and increased her pride in her heritage, including a very powerful speech by Dr...

By: Annonymous

The Log-Cabin Lady by Annonymous The Log-Cabin Lady

'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)

By: Anonymous

True Stories of Wonderful Deeds by Anonymous True Stories of Wonderful Deeds

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.

Doctrina Christiana by Anonymous Doctrina Christiana

DOCTRINA CHRISTIANAThe first book printed in the Philippines has been the object of a hunt which has extended from Manila to Berlin, and from Italy to Chile, for four hundred and fifty years. The patient research of scholars, the scraps of evidence found in books and archives, the amazingly accurate hypotheses of bibliographers who have sifted the material so painstakingly gathered together, combine to make its history a bookish detective story par excellence. It is easy when a prisoner has been...

Book cover Santa Claus, Kriss Kringle or St. NIcholas

volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Santa Claus, Kriss Kringle or St. NIcholas by Anomymous. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for December 16, 2018. ------ This poem was published in booklet form with illustrations in 1897. - Summary by David Lawrence

Book cover St. Clair's Defeat 1791

St. Clair's defeat was a battle fought between the United States and the Western Confederacy of Native Americans on November 4, 1791, during the Northwest Indian War. Out of a US force of roughly 1000 men and officers, only 24 escaped unharmed. It has been cited as the most decisive defeat in the history of the American military and its largest defeat ever by Native Americans. This pamphlet is a compilation of three articles published in 1847, 1851 and 1864.

Book cover Shri Dnyaneshwar - A Sketch Of His Life And Teachings

An overview of the life of Shri Dnyaneshwar and his devoted family. Dnyaneshwar was a 13th-century Indian poet and yogin. He commentated the Bhagavad Gita in a timeless manner while in his teens, and wrote an original book of verse. He was an inspirational speaker with many followers. - Summary by Czandra

By: Anonymous, attributed to Kathleen Luard (c.1872)

Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front 1914-1915 by Anonymous, attributed to Kathleen Luard Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front 1914-1915

The title is, I think, self explanatory. The nurse in question went out to France at the beginning of the war and remained there until May 1915 after the second battle of Ypres when she went back to a Base Hospital and the diary ceases. Although written in diary form, it is clearly taken from letters home and gives a vivid if sometimes distressing picture of the state of the casualties occasioned during that period. After a time at the General Hospital in Le Havre she became one of the three or four sisters working on the ambulance trains which fetched the wounded from the Clearing Hospitals close to the front line and took them back to the General Hospitals in Boulogne, Rouen and Le Havre.

By: Anthony Trollope (1815-1882)

The Life of Cicero by Anthony Trollope The Life of Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) was an orator, statesman, philosopher and prolific correspondent, who rose as a ‘new man’ in Rome in the turbulent last years of its republican government. Anthony Trollope, best known as a novelist, admired Cicero greatly and wrote this biography late in life in order to argue his virtues against authors who had granted him literary greatness but questioned his strength as a politician and as a man. He takes a personal approach, affording us an insight into his own mind and times as well as those of his subject...

Book cover Clergymen Of The Church Of England

This 1866 book was published in a time of great change in the Church of England. Trollope began as a High Church adherent and then worked his way to a Broad Church stance, a theological liberalism . This book deals with a crisis of faith and a crisis of structural form in the Victorian Church of England. It possesses all the interesting attributes of the novelist’s style. Note on the final chapter: John William Colenso was a British mathematician, theologian, Biblical scholar and social activist, who was the first Church of England Bishop of Natal. His progressive views on biblical criticism and treatment of African natives were controversial. - Summary by David Wales

By: Anthony Weldon (1583-1648)

Book cover Court and Character of King James whereunto Is Now Added the Court of King Charles: Continued unto the Beginning of These Unhappy Times: with Some Observations upon Him Instead of a Character

Gossipy exposés of shenanigans at the heart of government are nothing new. The author, Sir Anthony Weldon , was a courtier of years of experience and standing; his account of court intrigues around the Stuart Kings James I and Charles I was written seemingly in the tense period leading up to the English Civil War in the 1640s, and for a private readership . This text, known as the source for the summing up of James I as "the wisest fool in Christendom", gives us an insider's partisan, at times...

By: Archibald Forbes (1838-1900)

The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80, Part 1 by Archibald Forbes The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80, Part 1

The First Anglo–Afghan War was fought between British India and Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842. It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between the United Kingdom and Russia, and also marked one of the worst setbacks inflicted on British power in the region after the consolidation of British Raj by the East India Company.

By: Archibald Gracie (1858-1912)

Book cover Truth about the Titanic

Colonel Archibald Gracie was the first survivor of the sinking of the Titanic to die, and this first-hand account was published posthumously. He attempts to dispel some of the rumors surrounding the tragic event and gives his personal observations and an account of his survival clinging to the hull of an overturned collapsible lifeboat after helping many others to escape safely. A large portion of the book is given to personal accounts of other survivors from both the American and British boards of inquiry, boat by boat. - Summary by Larry Wilson

By: Archibald Grimké (1849-1930)

Book cover William Lloyd Garrison, the Abolitionist

"THE author of this volume desires . . . to say . . . that it is his earnest hope that this record of a hero may be an aid to brave and true living in the Republic, so that the problems knocking at its door for solution may find the heads, the hands, and the hearts equal to the performance of the duties imposed by them upon the men and women of this generation. William Lloyd Garrison was brave and true. Bravery and truth were the secret of his marvelous career and achievements. May his countrymen and countrywomen imitate his example and be brave and true, not alone in emergent moments, but in everyday things as well."

By: Archibald MacMechan (1862-1933)

Book cover Chronicles of Canada Volume 27 - The Winning of Popular Government: A Chronicle of the Union of 1841

In the 1830's, Canada was a ideologically divided country. Political upheaval and even riots occurred over Canada's future. Would it remain a subsidiary of England? Would it form its own republic, or even merge with the United States? This work tells of how some of Canada's founding fathers crossed the bridge between past and future.

By: Aristophanes (446BC - 385BC)

Lysistrata by Aristophanes Lysistrata

Lysistrata read by the Classics Drama Company at DePaul. The Classics Drama Company at DePaul is a new gathering of Thespians and Classicists dedicated to performing and understanding ancient literature. If you live in Chicago and attend DePaul University, we welcome new additions to our group. Contact Dr. Kirk Shellko (kshellko@depaul.edu), if interested.First performed in classical Athens c. 411 B.C.E., Aristophanes’ Lysistrata is the original battle of the sexes. One woman, Lysistrata, brings together the women of all Greece, exhorting them to withhold sexual contact from all men in order that they negotiate a treaty...

By: Arthur Graeme West (1891-1917)

The Diary of a Dead Officer by Arthur Graeme West The Diary of a Dead Officer

Published posthumously in 1919, this collection of diary entries presents a scathing picture of army life and is said to be one of the most vivid accounts of daily life in the trenches. It chronicles West's increasing disillusion with war and his move toward pacifist and atheist beliefs. The final part consists of his powerful war poems, including God, How I Hate You, You Young Cheerful Men, and Night Patrol. West was killed by a sniper in 1917. In view of some of his poems, one wonders if death was not unwelcome. (Introduction adapted from Wikipedia by Ruth Golding)

By: Arthur Hassall (1853-1930)

Book cover Making of the British Empire (A.D. 1714-1832)

At its height, the British Empire was the largest in history. This short volume traces its development through the long 18th century, from 1714 to the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Founded on the prosperity of Sir Robert Walpole's ministry , the Empire emerged from the Indian conquests of that gifted military amateur, Lord Clive, and was extended under the leadership of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, who drove the English to victory in the Seven Years' War . Surmounting the loss of the American colonies and twenty years of conflict with France, by the first quarter of the 19th century, the British navy, master of the oceans, presided over an Empire upon which the sun never set.

By: Arthur Henry Johnson (1845-1927)

Book cover Normans in Europe

This short history of the Normans in Europe opens with the invasions of the Vikings, who came from Scandinavian villages among rugged rocks and deep fiords. Johnson recounts how their myths of strife and woe, of the frost giants and of the crafty Loki, expressed their twin ideals of resourcefulness and war. These restless bands ravaged England, Germany, and France, penetrating the continents in their shallow-draft, half-decked ships. He writes that wherever they went they showed "themselves great warriors, founders, organizers, and administrators...

By: Arthur Poyser

Book cover Tower Of London

Description. History. “… those who read this book and have no opportunity of visiting the Tower expect that the characters in the moving drama of its history shall have some semblance of life as they walk across the stage…. My wish has been to persuade those who come to visit the Tower that there is a great deal to be seen in its immediate vicinity… A noble and historic building like the Tower resembles a venerable tree whose roots have spread into the soil in all directions, during the uncounted years of its existence, far beyond the position of its stem.” - Summary by Book Preface and David Wales

By: Arthur Ransome (1884-1967)

Book cover Russia in 1919

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: On August 27, 1914, in London, I made this note in a memorandum book: "Met Arthur Ransome at_____'s; discussed a book on the Russian's relation to the war in the light of psychological background--folklore." The book was not written but the idea that instinctively came to him pervades his every utterance on things Russian. The versatile man who commands more than respect as the biographer of Poe and Wilde; as the (translator of and commentator on Remy de Gourmont; as a folklorist, has shown himself to be consecrated to the truth...

By: Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Book cover Basis Of Morality

In 1837, the Danish Royal Society of Sciences offered a prize to any essayist who could satisfactorily answer the question, "Is the fountain and basis of Morals to be sought for in an idea of morality which lies directly in the consciousness , and in the analysis of the other leading ethical conceptions which arise from it? Or is it to be found in some other source of knowledge?" The Basis of Morality is the essay submitted in 1840 by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. In it, he first mercilessly...

By: Arthur William Knapp (1880-1939)

Cocoa and Chocolate: Their History from Plantation to Consumer by Arthur William Knapp Cocoa and Chocolate: Their History from Plantation to Consumer

As that heavenly bit of chocolate melts in our mouths, we give little thought as to where it came from, the arduous work that went in to its creation, and the complex process of its maturation from a bean to the delicacy we all enjoy. This “little book” details everything you have ever wanted to know (and some things you never knew you wanted to know) about cocoa and chocolate from how the trees are planted and sustained to which countries produce the most cacao beans. Do cacao beans from various...

By: Arthur Young (1741-1820)

Book cover Travels in France During the Years 1787, 1788, 1789

Arthur Young, an English agriculturist, set out to write a travelogue on the state of agriculture in France and found himself in the midst of the French Revolution. His report on life in the capital and in the countryside in the years 1787, 1788, and 1789, replete with droll traveler's mishaps, becomes an eyewitness account of a society on the brink of catastrophe. From the court scene at Versailles to backroads villages comes this astonishing record of unfolding events, conspiracy theories about the queen, jubilation, and mass hysteria.

By: Asser, Bishop of Sherborne

Life of Alfred the Great by Asser, Bishop of Sherborne Life of Alfred the Great

A life of King Alfred of England originally composed in Latin, possibly sometime around 888 A.D. by the Monk and Bishop Asser, although some scholars contend that the work was actually composed much later by an unknown hand.

By: Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

Book cover General View of Positivism

Auguste Comte was from France and published this book in French in 1844. He made a very great impact on the sciences and claims to have “discovered the principal laws of Sociology." Comte says Reason has become habituated to revolt but that doesn’t mean it will always retain its revolutionary character. He discusses Science, the trade-unions, Proletariat workers, Communists, Capitalists, Republicans, the role of woman in society, the elevation of Social Feeling over Self-love, and the Catholic Church in this book...

By: Austin Bishop

Book cover Tom of the Raiders

Young Adult historical fiction of a young man joining the Union Army and taking part in the Great Locomotive Chase.

By: Austin Craig

Lineage, Life and Labors of Jose Rizal by Austin Craig Lineage, Life and Labors of Jose Rizal

LINEAGE LIFE AND LABORS of JOSE RIZAL PHILIPPINE PATRIOTBY AUSTIN CRAIGINTRODUCTION In writing a biography, the author, if he be discriminating, selects, with great care, the salient features of the life story of the one whom he deems worthy of being portrayed as a person possessed of preeminent qualities that make for a character and greatness. Indeed to write biography at all, one should have that nice sense of proportion that makes him instinctively seize upon only those points that do advance his theme...

By: B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols

Searchlights on Health by B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols Searchlights on Health

SEARCHLIGHTS ON HEALTH. THE SCIENCE OF EUGENICSBy PROF. B.G. JEFFERIS, M.D., PH. D. KNOWLEDGE IS SAFETY. 1. The old maxim, that Knowledge is power, is a true one, but there is still a greater truth: KNOWLEDGE IS SAFETY. Safety amid physical ills that beset mankind, and safety amid the moral pitfalls that surround so many young people, is the great crying demand of the age. 2. CRITICISM.--This work, though plain and to some extent startling, is chaste, practical and to the point, and will be a boon and a blessing to thousands who consult its pages...

By: B. H. Roberts (1857-1933)

Book cover Mormon Battalion, Its History and Achievements

A history of the Longest March of Military in History. The Mormon Battalion was the only religious unit in United States military history in federal service, recruited solely from one religious body and having a religious title as the unit designation. In 1847, as the Mormons were in Iowa heading West, after being driven out of their homes in Nauvoo, Illinois, the U.S. Army requested 500 volunteers to assist in the Mexican-American War effort. From July 1847 to July 1848 the battalion made a grueling march of nearly 2,100 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego, California...

By: Baroness Emmuska Orczy (1865-1947)

El Dorado by Baroness Emmuska Orczy El Dorado

If you've read and loved the exciting classic The Scarlet Pimpernel then you'd probably be delighted to follow the further adventures of the dashing Sir Percy Blakeney. El Dorado by Baronness “Emmuska” Orczy depicts the intrepid swordsman and escape artist in the role of savior of the French royal family. Published in 1913, El Dorado was the fourth in the Pimpernel series of eleven books, numerous short stories and other related writings about her famous British adventurer. However, Orczy did not always follow a strict chronological sequence while publishing the novels and hence, there is plenty of overlap between the time frames of the stories...

The Elusive Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy The Elusive Pimpernel

First Published in 1908, The Elusive Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy is the 4th book in the classic adventure series about the Scarlet Pimpernel.

By: Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566)

Book cover Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies

A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (Spanish: Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias) is an account written by the Spanish Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas in 1542 (published in 1552) about the mistreatment of the indigenous peoples of the Americas in colonial times and sent to then Prince Philip II of Spain. One of the stated purposes for writing the account is his fear of Spain coming under divine punishment and his concern for the souls of the Native Peoples...

By: Basil Joseph Mathews (1879-1951)

Paul the Dauntless by Basil Joseph Mathews Paul the Dauntless

“We shall in this book try to go in the footsteps of Paul. It will not be all easy traveling for any of us, to journey with this daring explorer of the Unseen; there is some steep hill-climbing, some scrambling over boulders, long flat tramps over the plain, and dangerous sea-journeys for anyone who will attempt really to follow the life of this man whose eager brain was ever ‘Voyaging on strange seas of thought/Alone!’ But, if you will … trudge by him till you really know him, you will have found for yourself one of the great companions of the world.” (From the Introduction)

By: Beatrice A. Lees (1858-1940)

Book cover Central Period of the Middle Age 918-1273

Beatrice Lees writes that the history of the period of the Middle Ages from 918 to 1273 is that of "a heroic period, the age of feudalism and monasticism, of chivalry and the Crusades." The era opened "with gloomy prospects for Western Christendom. On every side danger threatened" from the Vikings, the Saracens, and the Magyars. But better things lie in store in this little volume as the Capetian dynasty is founded in France, the Holy Roman Empire becomes the political center of Europe under Frederick Barbarossa, the Papacy attains its greatest influence under Innocent III, and Frederick II, called "stupor mundi," the wonder of the world, rules the cosmopolitan Kingdom of the Two Sicilies...

By: Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Inventor, author, printer, scientist, politician, diplomat—all these terms do not even begin to fully describe the amazing and multitalented, Benjamin Franklin who was of course also one of the Founding Fathers of America. At the age of 75, in 1771 he began work on what he called his Memoirs. He was still working on it when he died in 1790 and it was published posthumously, entitled An Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. The book had a complicated and controversial publication history. Strangely enough, the first volume only was first published in French, in Paris in 1791...

By: Benjamin Harris (1781-1858)

The Recollections of Rifleman Harris by Benjamin Harris The Recollections of Rifleman Harris

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

By: Benvenuto Cellini ((1500-1571))

The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini by Benvenuto Cellini The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini

Cellini’s autobiographical memoirs, which he began writing in Florence in 1558, give a detailed account of his singular career, as well as his loves, hatreds, passions, and delights, written in an energetic, direct, and racy style. They show a great self-regard and self-assertion, sometimes running into extravagances which are impossible to credit. He even writes in a complacent way of how he contemplated his murders before carrying them out. He writes of his time in Paris: Parts of his tale recount...

By: Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657-1757)

Book cover Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds

This book is a popular science book written in the late 1600s. It is written as a series of conversations between a gallant philosopher and a countess, while walking in her garden and gazing at the stars. The philosopher explains the heliocentric model of the solar system and also muses on the possibility of extraterrestrial life. While it explains the heliocentric model, unlike other astronomy works of the time, it did not attract the attention of the Church.

By: Bertrand Russell

Book cover Proposed Roads to Freedom

Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (1872 – 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, political activist and Nobel laureate. He led the British “revolt against idealism” in the early 1900s and is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege and his protégé Ludwig Wittgenstein. In this book, written in 1918, he offers his assessment of three competing streams in the thought of the political left: Marxian socialism, anarchism and syndicalism.

Book cover Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays

This anthology collects a number of fascinating strands of Bertrand Russell's thought. "Mathematics and the Metaphysicians" details the impact of the 1900 World Congress of Philosophers on Russell's development and the hope that new methods in mathematics could be applied to the solution of ancient philosophical problems. Many of the subsequent essays show the evolution of this hope as Russell worked on the foundations of mathematics and applied the new methods to the reconstruction of physical objects on the basis of sense-data, and the redefinition of matter and cause.

Book cover Problems of Philosophy (version 2)

This 1912 book remains among the most widely-used and well-written introductions to philosophy in English. It was aimed to be an accessible introduction to philosophy for the average shopkeeper in England in 1912. Despite its accessibility It has engaged scholarly philosophical commentators on a range of issues raised in the work. Above all it conveys in easy and witty manner the philosophical frame of mind to those that have never encountered it before. It was almost immediately, and remains today, a classic. This recording is dedicated to Jill Evans, Esq.

Book cover On Propositions: What They Are and How They Mean

In this piece, Bertrand Russell offers an account of propositions. This essay has been widely regarded as a turning point in Russell's thought: fresh from his prison sentence, during which he read numerous works of psychology, he now rejects the existence of the unitary, lasting metaphysical subject and the act-object analysis of sensation. He here embraces the view advocated by American philosophers like William James, namely, neutral monism. This far-ranging essay includes a lengthy discussion of behaviorism and of the structure of facts, complete with an endorsement of negative facts and criticisms of attempts to avoid them. - Summary by Landon D. C. Elkind

Book cover Practice and Theory of Bolshevism

This book records Bertrand Russell's impressions of the new regime after a 1920 visit to Russia following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, including his meetings with Lenin, Trostky, and Gorky. It includes a chapter that was authored by Dora Black, educational theorist and feminist author, and Russell's spouse. This chapter was unfortunately removed in the second edition, which was issued after Dora and Bertrand divorced. This recording is dedicated to my darling wife, Jill. Happy Hanukkah and Happy 2020! - Summary by Landon D. C. Elkind

Book cover Philosophical Essays

Six out of seven essays appearing here were reprinted from other publications; indeed, this 1910 collection went out of print, so that two of the essays occurring here were reprinted in Russell's 1917 "Mysticism and Logic, and Other Essays". Nonetheless, this essay records Russell's thinking at a critical juncture, just before the publication of Volume I of the co-authored "Principia Mathematica" and just after the passing of the American pragmatist, William James. These essays record Russell's reactions...


Page 3 of 21   
Popular Genres
More Genres
Languages
Paid Books