Free summaries
History - European — page 3
113 public-domain history - european books, summarised. Page 3 of 3.
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 10
Unknown
A vast, panoramic survey of Spanish and Portuguese history, this volume chronicles the rise, imperial expansion, and turbulent internal struggles of the Iberian nations from the Visigothic era to the turn of the twentieth century.
The Story of Brussels
Ernest Gilliat-Smith
Brussels is a city built upon layers of commerce, religious devotion, and the persistent, often violent, friction between the common craftsman and the ruling patrician class. This historical narrative traces the development of the city from a modest ninth-century ducal settlement into a sophisticated center of art…
The Assault: Germany Before the Outbreak and England in War-Time
Frederic William Wile
The professional observer of Europe’s descent into carnage offers a front-row seat to the collapse of diplomacy and the subsequent hardening of the British home front. This is an intimate, firsthand account of the transition from a decade of peace to the grim realities of total war.
The Two First Centuries of Florentine History: The Republic and Parties at the Time of Dante. Fourth Impression
Pasquale Villari
This historical study examines the origins of the Florentine Republic, tracing its evolution from a chaotic collection of warring feudal factions into a sophisticated merchant-led power. It offers a rigorous, scholarly look at how the early city navigated the influence of the Empire, the Papacy, and its own…
A Short History of the Great War
A. F. (Albert Frederick) Pollard
The Great War of 1914–1918 transformed the map of the world and the lives of millions. This narrative provides an immediate, firsthand account of the conflict’s progression, from the initial breach of peace to the final armistice.
Owen Glyndwr and the Last Struggle for Welsh Independence: With a Brief Sketch of Welsh History
A. G. (Arthur Granville) Bradley
Long after its medieval princes fell, a fiercely independent nation rallies around a charismatic nobleman who challenges the English crown and reshapes a country's national identity.
Account of the Russian Discoveries between Asia and America: To which are added, the conquest of Siberia, and the history of the transactions and commerce between Russia and China
William Coxe
This volume offers a meticulous survey of Russian maritime expansion into the Pacific and the establishment of overland trade with China, charting an era of ambitious discovery and frontier commerce. It acts as a comprehensive chronicle of the eighteenth-century Russian reach toward the North American coast.
The Swiss Republic
Boyd Winchester
This study serves as both a diplomatic chronicle and a comparative analysis of Swiss governance, offering a window into the oldest federal republic in the world. It provides a detailed, observant exploration of how a nation defined by diversity of language, religion, and geography has successfully maintained a…
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages
Henry Charles Lea
To govern the minds and souls of men, medieval Christendom forged a judicial engine that redefined law, heresy, and human conscience.
History of the Reign of Philip the Second King of Spain, Vol. 3: And Biographical & Critical Miscellanies
William Hickling Prescott
In the craggy folds of Andalusia, an entire people rises against the iron grip of Spanish intolerance, setting off a war that shakes an empire to its core.
The Russian Army and the Japanese War, Vol. 2 (of 2): Being Historical and Critical Comments on the Military Policy and Power of Russia and on the Campaign in the Far East
A. N. (Alekseĭ Nikolaevich) Kuropatkin
A commander who held the highest post in the field steps forward to account for a catastrophic military collapse, laying bare the structural rot and political folly that turned an empire’s army into a defeated force.
The Story of the Great War, Volume 1: Introductions
Unknown
Before the battlefields of the First World War stabilized into trench lines and artillery bombardment, a comprehensive chronicle captured the geopolitical rivalries, military doctrines, and failed dispatches that brought Europe to total ruin.
The French Revolution of 1789, as Viewed in the Light of Republican Institutions
John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
A bitter, desperate peasantry rises against centuries of feudal oppression, transforming a star-crossed bid for constitutional reform into a fiery, total reconstruction of European society. Written from an explicit American republican perspective, this account frames the uprising as an inevitable explosion against…
The Rise of the Dutch Republic
John Lothrop Motley
A bloody, desperate fight for religious and political liberty erupts when sixteenth-century Holland resists the murderous tyranny of imperial Spain.
And the Kaiser abdicates: The German Revolution November 1918-August 1919
S. Miles (Stephen Miles) Bouton
A nation built on unyielding state authority and obedience collapses under the weight of hunger, military defeat, and ideological division, giving birth to an unsteady democratic republic.
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898
Unknown
An intricate mosaic of seventeenth-century colonial record, this sixteenth volume captures the fragile Spanish foothold in the Philippine archipelago through raw, immediate accounts of trade, conflict, and administrative strain.
Catherine De Medici
Honoré de Balzac
A Florentine outsider navigates the deadly currents of the French Renaissance, balancing royal intrigue, religious insurrection, and the precarious survival of her dynasty.