Modern (19th C)
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”Tell It All”: The Story of a Life’s Experience in Mormonism
Fanny relates the experiences of a 19th century missionary as she and her young husband proselytize throughout Europe in search of converts to the new Mormon faith. Her religious zeal is sorely tested upon receipt of news from America revealing that their religion has adopted the practice of polygamy as the means to exaltation. The couple is summoned to Utah only to find themselves firmly ensconced in Brigham Young’s inner circle and called upon to practice plural marriage or risk a fall from family, friends, and faith. – Summary by Spiffycat
A Book of Sibyls: Mrs. Barbauld, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Opie, Miss Austen
This book is a biography of four woman authors whose names were well known by readers at the time of its publication (1883) : Anna Barbaud, Maria Edgeworth, Amelia Opie, and Jane Austen. Though most of us today are only familiar with the writings of Austen, all four of these women are well worth taking the time to get to know. The author, Anne Thackeray Ritchie, was the eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray. – Summary by Ciufi Galeazzi
Abraham Lincoln: A History (Volume 1)
This is the biography of Abraham Lincoln, written by two of his private secretaries. (Summary by ashleighjane)
Afloat on the Ohio
Afloat on the Ohio, An Historical Pilgrimage, of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, From Redstone to Cairo. There were four of us pilgrims?my Wife, our Boy of ten and a half years, the Doctor, and I. My object in going?the others went for the outing?was to gather “local color” for work in Western history. The Ohio River was an important factor in the development of the West. I wished to know the great waterway intimately in its various phases,?to see with my own eyes what the borderers saw; in imagination, to redress the pioneer stage, and repeople it. ( From the Preface )
An American Vendetta: A Story of Barbarism in the United States
The phrase “The Hatfields and McCoys” conjures up images of feudal warfare and Appalachian backwardness even to this day. This is a sensationalized account of the feud between the Hatfields and McCoys along the mountainous border of Kentucky and West Virginia in the late 1800s. At the height of the feud in 1888, yellow journalist T. C. Crawford interviewed Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield in person at his headquarters in West Virginia. Crawford’s stories were serialized in a New York newspaper and later published in book form. The accounts of the Hatfields and McCoys led to the still-common, unfair stereotype of the ignorant, backward, trigger-happy mountaineer. While the violence in the Wild West was romanticized, the violence in the Appalachians was vilified and exaggerated. The resulting sentiment was that the mountain folk needed civilizing, which the railroad and coal mining capitalists were eager to provide . . . in exchange for their land, autonomy, and generally happy way of life. (Summary by TriciaG) NOTE: There are two chapters named “Chapter III” and no Chapter V in this book. The two chapter 3s have been labeled as Chapter IIIa and IIIb.
Bismarck and the Origin of the German Empire
Despite its brevity, this Little Blue Book #142 by the Oxford historian, Sir F.M. Powicke, provides a valuable overview of the political history of Germany from medieval to modern times, culminating in the career of Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), the Prussian Junker who masterminded the unification of Germany and served as its first Chancellor. – Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.
Famous Adventures And Prison Escapes Of The Civil War
Seven narratives published in the late nineteenth century and assembled in this 1913 collection. – Summary by david wales
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. (Summary by Phil)
The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80, Part 2
This Part 2 of “The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80” discusses the 1878-80 war, which was one of the 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. – Summary by Lynette Caulkins and Phil Griffith
The American Postal Service, Second Edition
The history of the postal service in the United States goes back to the colonial period, but was established more formally with the issuing of postage stamps and regular delivery. Through small vignettes, this history is traced with attention to some of the more obscure, but fascinating aspects of the postal service and related topics, as well as the major aspects of the service. – Summary by Larry Wilson
The Book of Buried Treasure
Described by the author as: BEING A TRUE HISTORY OF THE GOLD, JEWELS, AND PLATE OF PIRATES, GALLEONS, ETC., WHICH ARE SOUGHT FOR TO THIS DAY. Ralph Delahaye Paine (August 28, 1871 ? April 29, 1925) was an American journalist and author popular in the early 20th century. Paine’s book tells of pirates, heroes, scoundrels, and treasure seekers creating, stealing, seeking, and sometimes finding great wealth. It also tells of treasures yet undiscovered (as of 1911, but perhaps to this day). It remains the stuff of dreams for countless kids growing up, and those of us who never grew up. – Summary by Tony Posante
The Cossacks: Their History and Country
One of the earliest histories of the Cossacks to appear in English, with an emphasis on the exploits of famous Cossack leaders and Cossack struggles for political autonomy. Originally published in 1919. From the Foreword: “It is the proudest boast of the Cossacks of today — as of their forbears of the Ukraine — that they have never been classed as serfs nor for a moment lost their freeman’s instinct for the principles of liberty. While the peasants of North Russia were bowed in shameful submission to the Great Princes of Moscow and later to the ‘dark forces’ of the Tsar’s court and the Baltic-German officialdom of the capital on the Neva, the history of the Cossack inhabitants of the southern steppes was (as we shall later see) a long epic of heroic resistance to the encroachments of autocracy.” – Summary by Kazbek
The County Regiment
A sketch of the second regiment of Connecticut volunteer heavy artillery, originally the Nineteenth Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil War.
The Cruise of the Alerte – In Search of Treasure
The book describes a voyage undertaken in 1889 by an English barrister Edward Frederick Knight to the South Seas. This delightful story takes the reader on a voyage to the forbidding desert island of Trindade, where it is rumored that immense treasure lies buried. Though the heroes of this treasure-hunt do not have to contend with malicious people, they have their share of adventures. Almost inaccessible desert island, changing weather, hideous land crabs and heavy digging in the mud are enough challenges for the brave adventurers. (Kristine Bekere)
The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate
The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American settlers caught up in the “westering fever” of the 1840s. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846?1847, some of the emigrants resorted to cannibalism. Although this aspect of the tragedy has become synonymous with the Donner Party in the popular imagination, it actually was a minor part of the episode. The author was about 4 at the time. The first part of the book accounts the tragic journey and rescue attempts; the last half are reminiscences of the child orphan, passed from family to family while growing up. (Summary from Wikipedia & Tricia G)
The Famous Missions of California
Naturalist William Henry Hudson was born in Argentina of immigrant parents from England, and later settled there. He published books on ornithology and novels, and other books of far ranging interest. This is a short overview, which he calls a sketch, of the California Missions starting with the first travels of Father Junipero Serra to their time of declining influence. Summary by Larry Wilson.
Two American Slavery Documents
This recording contains two original documents. 1) Life of James Mars, a Slave Born and Sold in Connecticut, by James Mars (1869). James Mars was born in Connecticut in 1790 and spent the better part of his youth a slave working for various owners?once fleeing to the woods with his family to avoid being relocated to the South. At age twenty-five he became a free man and moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where he became a leader in the local African American community. His memoir is one of the more famous accounts of slave life in early New England. 2) Facts for the People of the Free States, by American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, published about 1846. This is Liberty Tract No. 2, published in New York. It contains, as one might expect, facts and arguments against the institution of slavery in the United States Of America of that period. – Summary by David Wales