Free summaries
History - American — page 21
1,672 public-domain history - american books, summarised. Page 21 of 35.
History of the Discovery of the Northwest by John Nicolet in 1634: With a Sketch of his Life
Consul Willshire Butterfield
Long before English colonists crossed the Appalachian Mountains, a single Frenchman paddled into the vast heartland of North America, seeking a shortcut to China and striking the first European bargains with the nations of the upper Great Lakes.
History of the missions of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions to the oriental churches, Volume I
Rufus Anderson
In the nineteenth century, American idealists crossed the Atlantic not to conquer territory, but to reshape the ancient Christian worlds of the Mediterranean and the Levant.
In old Narragansett
Alice Morse Earle
A rich tapestry of colonial tradition, folk beliefs, and regional eccentricities brings a vanished coastal New England world vividly back to life.
The Life Savers: A story of the United States life-saving service
James Otis
A young boy and his terrier wash ashore in a violent gale, finding an unexpected home among the rugged surfmen of the United States Life-Saving Service.
The Present State of Virginia
Hugh Jones
A first-hand survey of eighteenth-century colonial life outlines the geography, social order, and economic potential of North America's oldest English settlement while laying out a blueprint for its future institutional development.
The Voyage of The First Hessian Army from Portsmouth to New York, 1776
Albert Pfister
A grueling, hundred-day ocean crossing transforms thousands of Hessian mercenaries into a weary, battered fleet arriving on the brink of the American Revolution.
Fort Concho: Its Why and Wherefore
James N. (James Noble) Gregory
The history of Fort Concho reveals the strategic struggle to tame the Texas frontier, serving as a vital link between the early days of westward migration and the final settlement of the Southern Plains.
Troublous Times in Canada: A History of the Fenian Raids of 1866 and 1870
John A. (John Alexander) MacDonald
The Fenian Raids were a series of armed incursions into Canada by Irish-American militants seeking to strike a blow against the British Empire, but they ultimately served to forge a deeper sense of Canadian national identity.
Vermont riflemen in the war for the union, 1861 to 1865
William Y. W. (William Young Warren) Ripley
The riflemen of Vermont find themselves caught in a crucible of fire, trading their lives for the unity of a fractured nation across the blood-soaked fields of the American South.
Anti-Semitism in the United States
Lee J. (Lee Joseph) Levinger
Prejudice is not an aberration, but a predictable symptom of group behavior. By analyzing the psychological and social mechanics of intolerance, we can understand why the Jew remains a perennial target of American anxiety.
People of Destiny: Americans as I saw them at Home and Abroad
Philip Gibbs
The United States emerges as a young, dynamic giant, caught in the transition between its traditional, self-contained isolation and a new, heavy destiny as a global power in the wake of the Great War.
The Burning of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
B. S. (Benjamin Shroder) Schneck
A Pennsylvania town is reduced to ash and rubble in a single day, leaving thousands homeless and forcing a community to confront the brutal realities of a war brought directly to their doorsteps.
The New England Magazine Volume 1, No. 6, June, 1886, Bay State Monthly Volume 4, No. 6, June, 1886
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant time capsule, capturing the intellectual and cultural preoccupations of New England during the late nineteenth century through a blend of historical reflection, political discourse, and literary analysis.
The Pilgrims of New England: A Tale of the Early American Settlers
Webb, J. B., Mrs. (Annie)
This historical novel chronicles the trials of a pioneer family in New Plymouth, tracing their survival in the wilderness and the complex, often fraught, interactions between early settlers and the indigenous tribes of North America.
Wessagusset and Weymouth
Charles Francis Adams
A sharp-eyed historical investigation, this work strips away romantic myth to reveal the harsh, often brutal realities of early life in one of Massachusetts’ oldest settlements.
White House gossip
Edna M. (Edna Mary) Colman
The corridors of the executive mansion hold secrets that shift the course of history, weaving personal lives into the fabric of American power.
History of the beef cattle industry in Illinois
Frank Webster Farley
The evolution of Illinois from a raw, marshy frontier into the nation’s premier engine for beef production is a story of grit, corn, and the relentless expansion of the American market.
The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 2, April 1909)
American National Red Cross
Dispatches from devastated landscapes and boardroom halls reveal a global architecture of mercy taking root at the turn of the twentieth century.
The magazine of history with notes and queries, Vol. II, No. 6, December 1905
Various
This collection of historical chronicles and primary documents offers a focused window into the early American experience, ranging from the tactical maneuvers of the Revolution to the quiet administrative details of colonial life.
The Truth About America
Edward Money
A seasoned traveler’s candid, often biting assessment of late 19th-century America, written to caution fellow Englishmen against the siren song of emigration agents and the deceptive promise of frontier prosperity.
Norman's New Orleans and Environs: Containing a Brief Historical Sketch of the Territory and State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time
Benjamin Moore Norman
A bustling Southern port city, caught in the transition between its colonial past and a future of American commercial expansion, comes to life through this detailed 1845 survey.
The crisis
Various
These pages document a foundational moment in American civil rights history, capturing the urgent, uncompromising voice of an organization determined to hold the nation accountable to its stated ideals of liberty and equality.
Battery E in France: 149th Field Artillery, Rainbow (42nd) Division
Frederic Richard Kilner
This account documents the service of an American artillery battery in the Great War, tracing the unit from its formation and training to the mud of the front and the eventual occupation of Germany.
![Cover of Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797 [Vol. 2 of 2]](https://cdn.myebooksbuy.com/c/travels-through-the-states-of-north-america-and-the-provinces-of-upper.webp)
Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797 [Vol. 2 of 2]
Isaac Weld
An observant traveler records the rugged transformation of the North American landscape at the close of the eighteenth century, capturing a world caught between colonial tradition and raw, expansionist ambition.
A Ten Years' War: An Account of the Battle with the Slum in New York
Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis
This account tracks the grueling, decade-long struggle to dismantle the physical and moral rot of New York City’s tenement districts at the turn of the twentieth century. It serves as a testament to the power of persistent, collective civic action against entrenched poverty.
"Downright Fighting": The Story of Cowpens
Thomas J. Fleming
The American Revolution finds its most decisive turn at a quiet cattle pasture in South Carolina, where a rugged, unorthodox commander outwits a brilliant but arrogant British officer in a masterclass of tactical warfare.
Pedal and Path: Across the Continent Awheel and Afoot
George B. (George Burton) Thayer
A veteran of the bicycle’s early years recounts a seven-month odyssey across a rapidly industrializing America, proving that a modest machine and a sturdy constitution could bridge the vast, rugged expanses of a continent.
Report of Governor's Representatives for California at Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition Commission
California. Alaska-Yukon-Pacific exposition commission
A meticulous chronicle of California’s deliberate and triumphant effort to define its own identity before a national audience at the 1909 Seattle World’s Fair.
The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 1, January 1909)
American National Red Cross
This archival record captures the nascent efforts of the American Red Cross at the turn of the 20th century, documenting its transition from a wartime relic into a permanent, organized engine for domestic disaster relief.
The Ohio River Trade, 1788-1830
Hazel Yearsley Shaw
The Ohio River served as the vital artery of early American expansion, transforming a vast, untamed wilderness into a bustling corridor of commerce and human migration. This study examines that rapid evolution from the late eighteenth century through 1830.
The United States of America, Part 1: 1783-1830
Edwin Erle Sparks
This history tracks the slow, often reluctant, transformation of the United States from a loose collection of sovereign entities into a unified, singular nation. It examines the tensions between local autonomy and central authority during the country’s first half-century.
A Summer in the Wilderness: embracing a canoe voyage up the Mississippi and around Lake Superior
Charles Lanman
A restless traveler seeks the soul of the American interior, navigating the Mississippi’s headwaters and the vast, untamed reaches of Lake Superior in a canoe.
Company G
A. R. (Albert Rowe) Barlow
The war is rarely remembered by the names of the generals, but rather by the mud on the boots, the letters from home, and the brothers who never came back from the field.
The Fort Dearborn Massacre: Written in 1814 by Lieutenant Linai T. Helm, One of the Survivors, with Letters and Narratives of Contemporary Interest
Linai T. (Linai Taliaferro) Helm
The harrowing account of a frontier military catastrophe, this volume records the final days of Fort Dearborn in 1812 and the subsequent survival of its inhabitants amidst a brutal conflict.
The Ku Klux Klan
Annie Cooper Burton
This volume serves as a primary-source document and defense of the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan, offering both a historical narrative and the organization’s original, secret governing constitution. It functions as an unabashed articulation of the Southern perspective on the Reconstruction era.
Tales of an Old Sea Port: A General Sketch of the History of Bristol, Rhode Island, Including, Incidentally, an Account of the Voyages of the Norsemen, So Far as They May Have Been Connected with Narragansett Bay: and Personal Narratives of Some Notable Voyages Accomplished by Sailors from the Mount Hope Lands
Wilfred Harold Munro
This historical account documents the adventurous spirit of Bristol, Rhode Island, tracing its evolution from colonial settlement to a hub of maritime daring and privateering. It captures the rugged, often ruthless, ambition that defined early American seafaring life.
The American Navy
French Ensor Chadwick
A nation born on the Atlantic seaboard learns early that sea power is not an luxury, but the baseline requirement of national survival.
The Popham Colony
William Frederick Poole
A fierce dispute over forgotten soil reveals how easily local pride can twist historical evidence.
The Unconstitutionality of Slavery
Lysander Spooner
A rigorous legal argument asserting that the United States Constitution never granted authority for human bondage, but rather established a framework that inherently protects the liberty of every person.
Calvert and Penn: Or the Growth of Civil and Religious Liberty in America, as Disclosed in the Planting of Maryland and Pennsylvania
Brantz Mayer
Through a study of colonial charters and religious exile, a historical address charts how two distinct American colonies transformed isolated sanctuaries of tolerance into lasting foundations of civil freedom.
Canada and the States
Watkin, E. W. (Edward William), Sir
A seasoned railway executive records the frantic, transformative decades of North American expansion, offering a rare window into the boardroom politics that stitched a vast, fractured continent into a unified Dominion.
The Americans in the Great War
Unknown
A meticulous, road-by-road record of destruction and sacrifice, this guide captures the exact physical reality of the Western Front just as the artillery fell silent.
The Cumberland Road
Archer Butler Hulbert
Connecting the Atlantic seaboard to the expanding Western frontier, a single highway transformed early nineteenth-century America from a collection of isolated states into a unified nation.
Perry's Saints
James Moses Nichols
A devoted Methodist minister leaves his pulpit to lead nine hundred recruits through four years of brutal coastal blockades, bloody assaults, and devastating attrition.
A History of Deerpark in Orange County, N. Y
Peter E. Gumaer
A small pocket of Dutch and French Huguenot refugees transforms a dense, mountainous river valley into a resilient border town, defending their homes through decades of isolated wilderness living and revolutionary warfare.
The Exhibition Drama: Comprising Drama, Comedy, and Farce, Together with Dramatic and Musical Entertainments
George M. (George Melville) Baker
An ambitious collection of dramatic entertainments offers amateur troupes a flexible, highly theatrical repertoire designed for nineteenth-century classrooms, community halls, and holiday stages.
The Fathers of New England: A Chronicle of the Puritan Commonwealths
Charles McLean Andrews
A handful of English Puritans cross a dangerous ocean to build a godly wilderness, only to spend the next century fighting each other, the native tribes, and the royal crown over how that holy experiment should run.
The Right of American Slavery
T. W. (True Worthy) Hoit
An urgent pro-slavery treatise from 1860 uses pseudo-philosophical logic to argue that human bondage is a benevolent, necessary force that preserves the American Republic from imminent collapse.