Free summaries
History - American — page 13
1,672 public-domain history - american books, summarised. Page 13 of 35.
The Galaxy, January, 1877: Vol. 23, No. 1
Various
This January 1877 issue of The Galaxy offers a panoramic view of American intellectual life, blending political retrospective, literary critique, and the gentle observations of a nineteenth-century man of letters. It serves as a time capsule, capturing the restless, inquisitive spirit of the Gilded Age.
The Winning of the West, Volume 4: Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807
Theodore Roosevelt
The struggle for the American West is rarely a polite march of progress; it is a desperate, bloody scramble for survival, sovereignty, and land. This account captures the violent birth of the frontier, where the future of a young nation hinged on the tenacity of settlers and the ambitions of empires.
The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination (Vol. 3 of 3)
Cotton Mather
A dark chapter in colonial history unfolds, revealing how local paranoia and spectral accusations spiraled into a devastating legal tragedy. Through primary records, the narrative exposes the fragile boundary between communal order and mass hysteria.
Pioneer Life among the Loyalists in Upper Canada
Walter Stevens Herrington
The first pioneers of Ontario built a new civilization from the forest floor up, trading the comforts of an old world for the rigors and self-reliance of the Canadian wilderness.
The Story of the American Legion: The Birth of the Legion
George Seay Wheat
The American Legion began not as a top-down mandate, but as a widespread, spontaneous consensus among returning veterans who felt a duty to safeguard the nation they had fought to protect.
A history of Canada, 1763-1812
Lucas, Charles Prestwood, Sir
The transformation of Canada from a newly conquered French territory into a cornerstone of the British Empire unfolds through the crucible of revolution and the difficult birth of colonial governance.
A History of the Comstock Silver Lode & Mines: Nevada and the Great Basin Region
Dan De Quille
In the rugged heart of the Great Basin, a sudden strike of silver transformed a desolate mountain slope into a frenzied epicenter of global wealth and engineering ambition.
Fifty Notable Years: Views of the Ministry of Christian Universalism During the Last Half-Century
John G. (John Greenleaf) Adams
This historical chronicle captures fifty years of a burgeoning American religious movement, honoring the courageous ministers who championed the message of universal salvation against a backdrop of theological opposition and national upheaval.
History of the United States, Volume 3
Elisha Benjamin Andrews
This expansive history chronicles the maturation of the American republic, detailing the high-stakes political maneuvers and industrial shifts that defined the nation between the War of 1812 and the onset of the Civil War.
Jefferson and His Colleagues: A Chronicle of the Virginia Dynasty
Allen Johnson
The early American republic balances on the tightrope of global conflict, where Jefferson’s vision of agrarian simplicity struggles against the harsh realities of empire, expansion, and internal division.
The American Nation: A History
Edward Potts Cheyney
The roots of an entire continent lie deep within the soil of a shifting, turbulent Europe. This comprehensive survey traces the origins of the American nation back to the old world’s trade, faith, and governance.
The Path of Empire: A Chronicle of the United States as a World Power
Carl Russell Fish
The United States transitions from an isolated republic to a global power, navigating complex colonial rivalries and its own internal growth at the turn of the twentieth century.
Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors: Tales of 1812
James Barnes
These stories capture the grit of the War of 1812, documenting the perilous lives of sailors who faced both the fury of the sea and the brutality of naval conflict.
Bundling
Henry Reed Stiles
A practice once whispered about with scandalized fascination, this historical study examines the origins, social functions, and slow dissolution of a peculiar, bed-bound courtship ritual.
The Negro at Work in New York City: A Study in Economic Progress
George Edmund Haynes
New York’s early twentieth-century promise and its severe economic barriers are laid bare through the lived realities of Black laborers and business owners.
The Numerical Strength of the Confederate Army: An examination of the argument of the Hon. Charles Francis Adams and others
Randolph H. (Randolph Harrison) McKim
A veteran soldier disputes the historical consensus regarding the size of the Confederate Army, arguing that Northern analysts have significantly overestimated the number of men who served the Southern cause.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVI., December, 1880
Various
This collection offers a mosaic of nineteenth-century life, capturing the expansive, inquisitive spirit of an era transitioning from frontier myths to modern institutional concerns. It serves as a time capsule of Victorian intellectual appetite and literary variety.
The American Postal Service: History of the Postal Service from the Earliest Times
Louis Melius
This chronicle details the evolution of the American postal system from its colonial origins to the administrative expansion of the early twentieth century. It serves as both a historical record and a contemporary status report on a vital government institution.
Aliens or Americans?
Howard B. (Howard Benjamin) Grose
The gates of a young nation stand open to a tide of humanity, raising urgent questions about how a country balances its ideals of liberty against the practical pressures of rapid social transformation.
History of the United States, Volume 4
Elisha Benjamin Andrews
The American Republic emerges from the fire of Civil War to forge a singular national identity, grappling with the complexities of industrial growth, political reconstruction, and its burgeoning status as a global power.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 47, September, 1861: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
This periodical captures a singular moment in history, balancing the intellectual fervor of nineteenth-century literary criticism with the encroaching, urgent realities of the American Civil War.
The Battle of Gettysburg: The Country, the Contestants, the Results
W. C. (William Clayton) Storrick
This guide provides a foundational look at the Battle of Gettysburg, balancing tactical military history with the personal experiences of soldiers and the long-term preservation of the battlefield.
The Campaigns of the 124th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with Roster and Roll of Honor
G. W. (George W.) Lewis
A soldier's memory holds fast to the mud, the fire, and the fallen long after the battle lines fade into history.
A Brief History of the United States
Joel Dorman Steele
This classroom text organizes the complex sweep of American history into digestible, thematic epochs designed to make the past memorable for the student and the citizen alike.
Popery! As It Was and as It Is. Also, Auricular Confession
William Hogan
A former priest breaks his silence to warn a young republic of secret oaths, hidden rituals, and political subversion threatening its heritage.
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 1, January, 1864
Various
The United States, caught in the throes of the Civil War, speaks through this collection of political essays, historical sketches, and narrative fiction, capturing a nation at a precarious turning point.
The History of Louisville, from the Earliest Settlement till the Year 1852
Ben Casseday
Louisville, Kentucky, emerges from a raw frontier outpost into a bustling mid-19th-century commercial hub in this meticulous chronicle. It is a portrait of a city built by the river and sustained by its own growing ambition.
The Sea Rovers
Rufus Rockwell Wilson
A steady hand at the wheel guides this survey of maritime labor, where freezing salt spray, midnight mutinies, and solitary lightkeepers reveal the perilous machinery of the deep.
A History of Jefferson, Marion County, Texas, 1836-1936
McKay, Arch, Mrs.
A small Texas river port rises rapidly on trade, loses its waters to engineered progress, and slowly transforms its storied past into a lasting legacy.
Cape Gloucester: The Green Inferno
Bernard C. Nalty
A suffocating blanket of monsoon rain, thick jungle mud, and entrenched defenses turns a vital Pacific peninsula into a living nightmare for invading troops.
The American Missionary
Various
A window into late nineteenth-century American reform, this collection reveals how missionary labor, northern philanthropy, and local initiative intersected to build educational institutions across the South and West.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 38, December, 1860: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
An energetic mid-nineteenth-century intellectual repository captures a nation on the brink of profound transformation, blending historical revisionism, vivid fiction, and sharp cultural commentary into a rich tapestry.
America, Volume 1 (of 6)
Joel Cook
A traveler’s path across a vast nation is never merely geographical; it traces the layered memories, contested grounds, and quiet beauty of an expanding land.
An Account of the Battle of Chateauguay: Being a Lecture Delivered at Ormstown, March 8th, 1889
W. D. (William Douw) Lighthall
A handful of outnumbered, barefoot militia hide along a heavily wooded Canadian river, using felling axes, tactical ruses, and bugle calls to turn back an invading army.
Minnesota, the North Star State
William Watts Folwell
A frontier wilderness transforms through colonial rivalries, territorial scheming, and internal conflict into a resilient modern state.
Washington's Birthday
Unknown
A nation’s memory of its founding leader shifts over time from a stiff, mythic bronze statue into a living portrait of a passionate, human commander and statesman.
Wright Brothers National Memorial, North Carolina
Omega G. East
Driven by methodical curiosity rather than fortune, two bicycle mechanics from Ohio isolate themselves on a windswept barrier island to unravel the engineering secrets of human flight.
Formation of the Union, 1750-1829
Albert Bushnell Hart
America’s transition from fragmented, squabbling colonies into a self-governing power was neither immediate nor inevitable, but a prolonged, structured evolution.
The Brothers' War
John C. (John Calvin) Reed
Driven by unseen evolutionary forces, two distinct American civilizations clash in an inevitable conflict.
The French in the Heart of America
John H. (John Huston) Finley
The long-dead voices of forest explorers and itinerant priests echoing across the vast waterways of North America are summoned to reveal how the Gallic spirit permanently shaped the continent’s industrial heart.
Abraham Lincoln and the Union: A Chronicle of the Embattled North
Nathaniel W. (Nathaniel Wright) Stephenson
Northern political maneuvering and administrative endurance, rather than battlefield tactics, dictate the survival of the American Republic through its greatest trial.
By-Ways of War: The Story of the Filibusters
James Jeffrey Roche
Desperate men across the nineteenth century sought wealth and empire by private force, invading foreign nations to carve out personal realms before their lawless crusades collapsed in tragedy and blood.
The Champlain tercentenary
New York (State). Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission
Across a series of formal dedications and international banquets, two nations gather to honor a shared wilderness past, using the bronze features of Samuel de Champlain to anchor their modern diplomatic friendship.
The Landing of the Pilgrims
Henry Fisk Carlton
Trapped aboard the Mayflower off a wild coastline, forty weary English refugees use a corrupt captain’s sabotage to seize their own self-governance.
The Sable Cloud: A Southern Tale With Northern Comments (1861)
Nehemiah Adams
A pro-slavery treatise framed as an ideological debate between North and South, this work attempts to justify human bondage through Scripture, moral philosophy, and idealizations of Southern domestic life.
The Slavery Question
John Lawrence
An uncompromising moral assault on the institution of American chattel slavery, this treatise dissects the legal, scriptural, and ecclesiastical arguments used to sustain human bondage.
Government and Administration of the United States
Westel Woodbury Willoughby
A structured examination reveals how the mechanics of American democracy operate, tracing the evolution from loosely connected British colonies into a sovereign federal republic bound by Constitutional law.
The Conquest of Canada, Vol. 2
George Warburton
Greed and administrative corruption corrode the defenses of New France, leaving a fractured colony vulnerable to the relentless, disciplined advance of British imperial power along the American frontier.