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History - American — page 19
1,154 public-domain history - american books, summarised. Page 19 of 25.

A Letter from Major Robert Carmichael-Smyth to His Friend, the Author of 'The Clockmaker'
Robert Carmichael-Smyth
A visionary 1849 proposal outlines how a transcontinental railway across British North America could unite an empire, transform global commerce, and solve pressing domestic crises.

On the Indian Trail: Stories of Missionary Work among Cree and Salteaux Indians
Egerton Ryerson Young
A missionary travels through the northern wilderness, discovering that kindness, shared hardship, and simple literacy can transform isolated communities.

Proclaim Liberty!
Gilbert Seldes
A clear-eyed call to civic action written during the dark opening months of World War II, this manifesto urges Americans to draw military strategy and wartime resolve directly from their nation's foundational democratic promises.

The American Missionary
Various
Through financial records, field dispatches, and missionary accounts, a nineteenth-century organization reveals the expansive, gritty work of educating and evangelizing post-Civil War America.

The Battle of Allatoona, October 5th, 1864
William Ludlow
A remote mountain pass holds the line for an entire army. When a Confederate division moves to destroy a vital Union supply depot, a desperate seven-hour siege decides the fate of General Sherman's campaign.

The Building of Castello de San Marcos: National Park Service Interpretive Series, History No. 1
Albert C. Manucy
A pirate attack forces Spain to construct an imperishable stone fortress on the Florida coast to safeguard its colonial empire.

The Mystery of the Pinckney Draught
Charles C. Nott
A forgotten delegate leaves behind a draft of the Constitution that disappears into history, only to reappear decades later and ignite an intense debate over who truly shaped the American republic.

Down the Mother Lode
Vivia Hemphill
A rough-hewn window into the Sierra foothills, where gold fever yields to human grit, absurd humor, and the quiet dignity of a vanishing frontier.

First impressions of the New World on two travellers from the Old, in the autumn of 1858
Isabella Strange Trotter
A British family's autumn journey across mid-nineteenth-century North America unfolds through warm, sharp-eyed letters that capture a rapidly modernizing continent with generous curiosity and quiet wit.

History of the World War, Volume 1 (of 7)
March, Francis A., Jr.
The First World War is captured here through a contemporary lens of patriotic resolve, detailing the mobilization of nations and the eventual, decisive turn toward Allied victory.

Military Roads of the Mississippi Basin
Archer Butler Hulbert
Across marshlands and dense forests, early military expeditions forged the roads that carved the United States into the Northwest Territory.

The American Missionary
Various
Faithful service in wartime and the peaceful work of education offer the ultimate proof of equal citizenship.

The Romance of the Ranchos
E. Palmer (Edmund Palmer) Conner
Beneath the modern asphalt of Los Angeles lies a forgotten geography of vast Spanish land grants, where fortune shifted with a single drought, a bad mortgage, or a glass of wine.

The United States in the Light of Prophecy
Uriah Smith
Prophetic scripture points directly to the American republic, uncovering how rapid national expansion and emerging spiritual corruptions align with apocalyptic visions of the final world power.

Buchanan's Journal of Man, December 1887: Volume 1, Number 11
Unknown
This collection serves as a portal into the intellectual ferment of the late nineteenth century, blending rigorous scientific inquiry with the speculative fringe of human potential. It captures the transition from traditional authority to an era of experimental discovery.

Continental Monthly , Vol. 6, No. 1, July, 1864: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
This mid-nineteenth-century periodical serves as a vital historical lens, capturing the intellectual, political, and cultural anxieties of a nation fractured by the American Civil War.

General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great Britain
Samuel Peters
This provocative, polemical history offers a deeply personal and sharply critical account of Connecticut’s origins and its descent into what the author terms a colonial rebellion against the British Crown.

History of the United States of America, Volume 9 (of 9)
Henry Adams
The young American republic emerges from the crucible of the War of 1812, finding its footing as a nation forged by conflict, economic upheaval, and the slow, uncertain maturation of a distinct national character.

The New South: A Chronicle of Social and Industrial Evolution
Holland Thompson
A region shattered by war rebuilt itself not by abandoning its past, but by reshaping its old traditions to fit a new industrial and social reality.

The Pinos Altos Story
Dorothy Watson
Pinos Altos sits on the Continental Divide, a high-altitude settlement born of gold fever and forged in the crucible of frontier survival. This account captures the town’s transformation from a rough mining camp into a community shaped by the endurance of its people.

Woodside, the North End of Newark, N.J.: Its History, Legends and Ghost Stories Gathered from the Records and the Older Inhabitants Now Living
C. G. (Charles Gilbert) Hine
This local history serves as both a repository of New Jersey lore and a heartfelt portrait of a community emerging from the quietude of farm life into the bustle of suburban development.

Newark's Last Fifteen Years, 1904-1919. The Story in Outline
Newark Public Library
Newark’s growth from a local manufacturing hub into a modern, industrial city is chronicled through the rapid civic and societal transitions that defined its landscape during the pivotal early twentieth century.

The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments: Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts
Henry M. (Henry Mason) Brooks
A chilling, meticulously gathered archive of the physical and social penalties—from the stocks to the gallows—that defined early New England life.

The South-West, by a Yankee. In Two Volumes. Volume 2
J. H. (Joseph Holt) Ingraham
A curious observer from the North wanders through the burgeoning landscapes of the Mississippi, recording the vibrant, often unsettling contradictions of the American frontier during the height of the cotton era.

With Americans of Past and Present Days
J. J. (Jean Jules) Jusserand
The shared history of two nations unfolds through the lives of those who forged their independence and the enduring spirit of friendship that linked them across the Atlantic.

Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 17, No. 100, April, 1876
Various
This volume offers a vibrant, kaleidoscopic snapshot of 1876, capturing the late Victorian imagination through a blend of technical reporting, travel narrative, and serialized fiction. It serves as a fascinating time capsule of a world obsessed with progress, propriety, and the exploration of distant cultures.

Frying Pan Farm
Elizabeth Brown Pryor
A portrait of a vanishing American landscape, this chronicle traces the transformation of Virginia’s rural heartland from a self-sufficient farming community into a modern suburban memory.

Landmarks of Charleston: Including Description of an Incomparable Stroll
Thomas Petigru Lesesne
This guide invites visitors to trace the evolution of Charleston from a colonial British outpost to a modern city, mapping its storied architecture, historic gardens, and enduring landmarks.

Report on the Condition of the South
Carl Schurz
This official government report captures the volatile, uncertain moment when the American South grappled with the immediate aftermath of the Civil War and the collapse of slavery. It serves as a primary, unvarnished window into the profound social and political friction of early Reconstruction.

The City That Was: A Requiem of Old San Francisco
Will Irwin
The old, legendary San Francisco, once a vibrant, pleasure-loving gateway to the Pacific, vanished in the fires of 1906, leaving behind only memories of a city that can never be replicated.

The Spaniards in Florida: Comprising the Notable Settlement of the Huguenots in 1564, and the History and Antiquities of St. Augustine, Founded A.D. 1565
George R. (George Rainsford) Fairbanks
HOOK This historical account chronicles the brutal birth of the oldest European settlement in the United States, charting its transformation from a contested colonial outpost into a uniquely enduring piece of the American landscape.

Two Years in Oregon
Wallis Nash
This observant account captures the rugged transition of the Pacific Northwest in the late 1870s, offering a clear-eyed portrait of a frontier state finding its footing between wilderness and modern commerce.

Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons
John McElroy
This haunting, firsthand chronicle of survival within the Confederacy’s most notorious military prisons offers a harrowing look at the human cost of the American Civil War. It stands as both a memoir and a searing indictment of a system designed to starve and break its captives.

Census Statistics of the Negro: A Paper
Walter F. (Walter Francis) Willcox
Statistics reveal the complex, evolving realities of African American life at the turn of the twentieth century, moving beyond anecdotes to examine demographic trends following the upheaval of the Civil War.

The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 3, March, 1864: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
This collection captures the urgent, intellectual pulse of the American Civil War in 1864, serving as both a political manifesto and a vibrant survey of the era’s literary, social, and spiritual concerns.

The Jesuit Missions
Thomas Guthrie Marquis
The Jesuit Missions chronicles the rigorous, often fatal, efforts of seventeenth-century missionaries to establish Christianity within the vast, untamed wilderness of New France. It stands as a testament to the endurance of faith under extreme physical and psychological duress.

Beneficiary Features of American Trade Unions
James Boyd Kennedy
A foundational study of how American trade unions evolved from simple labor collectives into complex social safety nets through the development of mutual insurance and benefit programs.

Crusaders of New France: A Chronicle of the Fleur-de-Lis in the Wilderness
William Bennett Munro
New France once stood as the center of a grand Bourbon vision, a wilderness empire that stretched from the icy Gulf of St. Lawrence to the warm, distant waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Once Upon a Time in Connecticut
Caroline Clifford Newton
From the hidden charter of a young colony to the quiet sacrifice of a patriot spy, these stories capture the rugged, independent spirit that defined early Connecticut history.

The postal service of the United States in connection with the local history of Buffalo
Nathan Kelsey Hall
The transformation of a wilderness outpost into a bustling commercial center unfolds through the lens of a developing mail system. This account tracks the vital threads of communication that bound a frontier settlement to the wider world.

Achenwall's Observations on North America
Gottfried Achenwall
A candid, mid-18th-century portrait of the British colonies in North America, distilled through the keen observations of a German scholar listening to the insights of Benjamin Franklin.

Songs and Ballads of the Southern People: 1861-1865
Unknown
These verses preserve the raw, defiant heartbeat of a lost cause, capturing the fervor, grief, and ideological resolve of a people caught in the crucible of a fractured nation.

The American Missionary
Various
The American missionary movement of the late nineteenth century sought to transform global societies through faith, education, and social reform. This collection of reports preserves the earnest, industrious, and often paternalistic spirit of that era’s outreach efforts.

The Jefferson-Lemen Compact: The Relations of Thomas Jefferson and James Lemen in the Exclusion of Slavery from Illinois and Northern Territory with Related Documents 1781-1818
Willard C. (Willard Carey) MacNaul
A secret anti-slavery pact between Thomas Jefferson and a pioneer, James Lemen, allegedly shaped the future of the American Northwest. This historical investigation reconstructs the clandestine mission that redirected the fate of Illinois.

History of Company E of the Sixth Minnesota Regiment of Volunteer Infantry
A. J. (Alfred James) Hill
This is a rigorous, granular account of a single infantry company’s three-year experience, documenting the raw reality of the American Civil War and the concurrent conflicts on the Minnesota frontier.

Out To Win: The Story of America in France
Coningsby Dawson
This account documents the arrival of American forces and humanitarian relief in World War I France, serving as a passionate plea for lasting Anglo-American unity in the face of global conflict.

The pioneer West
Unknown
Westward the course of empire takes its way; a fifth act shall close the drama with the day. Time’s noblest offspring is the last.

Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women
Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand) Sabin
This collection of biographies chronicles the lives and struggles of Native American leaders as they faced the expansion of the United States, offering a perspective centered on their defense of ancestral lands and autonomy.