Free summaries
History - American — page 8
436 public-domain history - american books, summarised. Page 8 of 10.
The Colonies, 1492-1750
Reuben Gold Thwaites
A concise survey of the American colonies, this work traces the foundational influences and early political development of the region from the first European contacts through the mid-eighteenth century.
The World's Greatest Books
Unknown
This expansive collection offers a panoramic view of human history, distilling complex eras into accessible narratives that trace the rise and fall of civilizations. It serves as a monumental survey of the forces that have shaped the modern world.
Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park
James Willard Schultz
This collection of oral traditions and personal reflections captures the spirit of a landscape before it became a park, preserving the voices of those who knew its canyons as a living home.
An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans
Lydia Maria Child
This profound critique of American slavery demands that the reader confront the nation's most uncomfortable contradiction. It serves as an urgent, reasoned call for immediate emancipation and the recognition of human equality.
Angels of the Battlefield: A History of the Labors of the Catholic Sisterhoods in the Late Civil War
George Barton
These pages reclaim a neglected chapter of history, documenting the quiet, tireless service of Catholic nuns who tended the wounded on both sides of the American Civil War’s most harrowing battlefields.
Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918: Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2
Various
The Great War rages across the battlefields of Europe, capturing a pivotal moment when the tide of conflict rests on the balance of logistics, international diplomacy, and the raw endurance of those in the trenches. This chronicle provides a contemporary window into a world-shaping struggle, documenting the…
Army and Navy Uniforms and Insignia: How to Know Rank, Corps and Service in the Military and Naval Forces of the United States and Foreign Countries
Dion Williams
This volume provides a comprehensive, technical guide to the standardized appearance of the armed forces during the First World War. It serves as an essential reference for identifying the specific ranks, branches, and services of military personnel.
Bradford's history of the Plymouth settlement, 1608-1650: Rendered into modern English by Harold Paget
William Bradford
Driven by an uncompromising vision of religious purity, a small band of exiles leaves everything behind to forge a precarious, isolated life in the unforgiving wilderness of the New World.
History of the United States, Volume 2
Elisha Benjamin Andrews
The French and Indian War sowed the seeds of American independence, transforming a colonial debt crisis into a revolution that birthed a new nation. This account chronicles the difficult transition from colonial dependency to a sovereign, expanding republic.
Reminiscences of Pioneer Days in St. Paul: A Collection of Articles Written for and Published in the Daily Pioneer Press
Frank Moore
These gathered articles offer an intimate, granular history of a frontier town’s evolution, capturing the rough-hewn pulse of nineteenth-century St. Paul through the eyes of one who grew up within its newspaper offices.
The American Indian in the United States, Period 1850-1914: ... The Present Condition of the American Indian
Warren K. (Warren King) Moorehead
This work serves as a stark, investigative record of the systemic neglect and corruption facing Native American communities in the early twentieth century. It functions both as a historical indictment and a call for urgent reform.
The government class book: Designed for the instruction of youth in the principles of constitutional government and the rights and duties of citizens
Andrew W. (Andrew White) Young
This handbook serves as a foundational guide for young citizens, demystifying the complex machinery of American government and the essential legal rights that define a free people. It acts as both a civics textbook and a practical manual for the responsibilities inherent in self-governance.
War Poetry of the South
Unknown
The cause is lost, but the song remains, capturing a singular moment when a people poured their identity into the furnace of war. It is a haunting archive of a world that vanished in the smoke of 1865.
Quaint and Historic Forts of North America
John Martin Hammond
This survey of North American fortifications traces the military history of the continent through the crumbling stone and earthen ruins of its most significant outposts. It offers a measured look at the rise and fall of colonial power across a vast, evolving landscape.
America, Volume 5 (of 6)
Joel Cook
This survey of New England and the Canadian coast traces the historical and geographic development of a region defined by its rugged shores, industrial ambition, and colonial origins.
North America
Anthony Trollope
A traveler’s keen, observant eye captures the raw tension of a nation tearing itself apart, offering an unfiltered look at mid-nineteenth-century America. This is an intimate, honest chronicle of a country in crisis.
Arms and Armor of the Pilgrims, 1620-1692
Harold L. (Harold Leslie) Peterson
Survival in a harsh, unfamiliar wilderness forced the Pilgrims to rapidly evolve their military technology, discarding European tradition in favor of faster, lighter, and more practical weaponry.
The Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1740
Adelaide L. (Adelaide Lisetta) Fries
Though initially branded a failure, the Moravian colony in Georgia served as a vital crucible that fundamentally reshaped the religious landscape of both England and the American frontier.
The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign: Why It Exists, and How It May Be Extinguished
Henry Charles Carey
Prosperity, human dignity, and true freedom emerge only when a nation fosters local industry and internal trade, rather than forcing its laborers to compete in the race to the bottom of global markets.
Dutch and English on the Hudson: A Chronicle of Colonial New York
Maud Wilder Goodwin
This chronicle traces the evolution of New York from a Dutch fur-trading outpost to a pivotal British colonial province. It examines the shifting political, social, and economic forces that shaped the Hudson River valley.
Homestead
Arthur Gordon Burgoyne
The 1892 Homestead Strike was not merely a local labor dispute, but a violent collision between industrial might and the nascent power of organized labor. This account chronicles the battle, the legal aftermath, and the crushing of a union.
Project Trinity, 1945-1946
Carl R. Maag
This report reconstructs the technical and radiological reality of the first atomic detonation, documenting the experiences of the personnel who stood at the threshold of the nuclear age in the New Mexico desert.
The story of Kentucky
Rice S. Eubank
The story of Kentucky begins with the raw, untamed wilderness of the eighteenth century and follows the state’s evolution from a contested hunting ground to a sophisticated seat of American politics and industry.
Flagg's The Far West, 1836-1837, part 1
Edmund Flagg
An inquisitive traveler traverses the burgeoning frontier of the 1830s, documenting the raw beauty of the American prairies and the transient lives of those carving out new settlements in the vast Mississippi Valley.
Fighting for peace
Henry Van Dyke
Caught between the fading era of nineteenth-century diplomacy and the terrifying dawn of total war, a seasoned diplomat witnesses the collapse of European order. This memoir captures the transition from a hopeful observer to a staunch advocate for intervention against German aggression.
Our Greatest Battle (The Meuse-Argonne)
Frederick Palmer
Two million American soldiers march into the mud, wire, and machine-gun fire of the Western Front in 1918 to smash the German line.
A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention: For Proposing Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, Held at Washington, D.C., in February, A.D. 1861
L. E. (Lucius Eugene) Chittenden
Gathered in the shadow of impending civil war, a frantic gathering of statesmen makes one final, desperate attempt to rewrite the American Constitution and save the Republic from tearing itself apart.
The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States
John Moody
The American story is a tapestry woven of steel rails, tracing the transformation of a sprawling, loosely connected frontier into a unified industrial titan. This chronicle captures the audacity and ruthlessness required to span a continent.
The Children of the Poor
Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis
Desperate lives unfold in the shadowed, overcrowded tenement districts of late nineteenth-century Manhattan, where children struggle to survive amid extreme poverty and neglect.
Our Foreigners: A Chronicle of Americans in the Making
Samuel Peter Orth
A sweeping, three-century wave of human migration transformed a forested wilderness into a complex, multi-ethnic republic.
Record of Medals of Honor issued to the officers and enlisted men of the United States Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, 1862-1923
United States. Bureau of Naval Personnel
A comprehensive record of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard's Medal of Honor recipients from 1862 to 1923.
Waterways of Westward Expansion - The Ohio River and its Tributaries
Archer Butler Hulbert
An arterial history of the early American frontier, this study traces how a single great river shaped the conquest, settlement, and commerce of an expanding nation.
History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest
Edward A. (Edward Austin) Johnson
Facing battlefield perils abroad while confronting severe prejudice at home, African American troops in 1898 fought with unmatched bravery to secure American victory in Cuba and claim their rightful place as equal citizens.
The American Missionary
Various
At the dawn of the twentieth century, a Protestant missionary periodical documents an expansive campaign of racial uplift, institutional growth, and educational outreach spanning from Arctic Alaska to newly annexed Puerto Rico.
The Oaths, Signs, Ceremonies and Objects of the Ku-Klux-Klan.: A Full Expose. By A Late Member
Anonymous
A shadowy network of violent partisans spreads through the post-Civil War South, bound by horrific oaths sworn over human skulls in the dead of night.
The Strange Story of Harper's Ferry, with Legends of the Surrounding Country
Joseph Barry
Where the Shenandoah meets the Potomac, national destiny, regional myth, and human eccentricities converge in a violent and unpredictable American history.
Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 03 (of 15), Spanish American
Charles Morris
A sweeping canvas of ambition and bloodshed, this historic survey spans three centuries of conquest, piratical raids, and revolutionary struggles across the vast landscapes of Spanish America.
Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States: Published During Its Discussion by the People 1787-1788
Unknown
In the tense months following the 1787 Constitutional Convention, American citizens took to the press in a fierce public debate over whether to ratify the nation's new blueprint for government.
The American Missionary
Various
A collection of reports, letters, and financial receipts reveals how Northern reformers and Southern Freedmen built schools, churches, and civic institutions during Reconstruction.
History of the United States of America, Volume 1 (of 9)
Henry Adams
A vast continent sits largely untamed, its sparse population divided by political squabbles, dense forests, and mountain barriers, yet driven by an quiet ambition to transform a sprawling wilderness into a unified modern empire.
The Journal of the Debates in the Convention which Framed the Constitution of the United States, May-September 1787. Volume 2
James Madison
Men arguing in a warm room in Philadelphia slowly hammer out the architecture of a new republic, line by line and vote by vote.
Bloody Beaches: The Marines at Peleliu
Gordon D. Gayle
Blasted by blistering heat and entrenched in coral caves, landing troops face a brutal Japanese shift from suicidal charges to deliberate, grueling attrition across a tiny Pacific island.
Glimpses of America: A Pictorial and Descriptive History of Our Country's Scenic Marvels
James W. (James William) Buel
The American landscape is a vast, untamed collection of wonders, from the glacial shores of the far northwest to the lush, reptilian depths of southern rivers. This sweeping visual and narrative survey captures the continent’s immense geographical diversity at the close of the nineteenth century.
Jukes-Edwards: A Study in Education and Heredity
Albert E. (Albert Edward) Winship
This study juxtaposes the ancestral lines of a celebrated theologian and an infamous criminal family to argue that heredity and purposeful training shape the trajectory of human lives.
America, Volume 4 (of 6)
Joel Cook
This travelogue serves as a comprehensive Victorian-era survey of the landscapes and historic sites spanning the northeastern United States and Canada. It functions as a scenic and historical guidebook for the curious nineteenth-century traveler.
The history of our Navy from its origin to the present day, 1775-1897, vol. 3 (of 4)
John Randolph Spears
The third volume of this comprehensive maritime chronicle charts the expansion of American naval power, shifting from the daring, individualistic exploits of the War of 1812 to the strategic maneuvers of the mid-19th century. Through focused case studies, it captures the transition of a young, fledgling force into…
A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River
Barlow Cumberland
This history traces the transformation of the Niagara River from a perilous frontier for wooden sailing ships into a sophisticated corridor of steam-powered travel and modern commercial industry.
Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Volume 02 (of 14), 1899
Mississippi Historical Society
This collection of scholarly papers preserves the formative historical, literary, and social landscape of late nineteenth-century Mississippi. It offers a rare window into how a generation sought to define its regional identity through the archives.