Free summaries
History - Modern (1750+)
275 public-domain history - modern (1750+) books, summarised. Page 1 of 6.
Simple Sabotage Field Manual
United States. Office of Strategic Services
A tiny, ordinary act—a misplaced file, a dulled tool, a pedantic question—can be more effective than an explosion. This manual reveals how the smallest frictions can grind a massive, organized machine to a halt.
The War in the Air
Raleigh, Walter Alexander, Sir
The history of human flight moved from the realm of idle dreams to the machinery of global conflict in the span of a single generation, changing the nature of warfare forever.
India, Its Life and Thought
John P. (John Peter) Jones
The deepest gulfs are not found between nations, but in the silent, hidden places where two distinct worlds of human thought stand back-to-back, refusing to acknowledge the other’s sky.
The Jewish State
Theodor Herzl
A clear-eyed blueprint for a new national reality, this work argues that the Jewish question is not a social or religious concern, but an international political one that demands a sovereign territory of its own.
Impressions of a War Correspondent
George Lynch
The smoke of battle clears to reveal not glory, but the haunting, human cost of modern warfare. Witness the machinery of empire as it breaks the minds and bodies of those caught in its relentless, grinding gears.
World's War Events, Vol. II
Unknown
A detailed chronicle of World War I’s pivotal battles, political shifts, and human experiences, revealing the war’s vast scope and complexity through firsthand accounts and official reports.
Devil-Worship in France
Arthur Edward Waite
Sensationalist allegations of devil-worship in high-grade Freemasonry collapse under meticulous historical scrutiny, exposing a vast web of literary fraud, anti-Masonic paranoia, and fabricated occult exposes in nineteenth-century Paris.
The 28th: A Record of War Service in the Australian Imperial Force, 1915-19, Vol. I: Egypt, Gallipoli, Lemnos Island, Sinai Peninsula
Herbert Brayley Collett
From the quiet pine-scented clearing of Blackboy Hill to the wind-swept ravines of Anzac Cove, this dryly detailed unit history documents how a single Australian infantry battalion was hastily assembled, trained, and tested in the furnace of the First World War.
Life and sport in China: Second Edition
Oliver George Ready
This collection of vignettes offers an intimate, firsthand look at the daily routines, social customs, and colonial lifestyle of a European resident in China at the turn of the 20th century. It captures a vanished world of treaty-port society, river travel, and sporting tradition.
Forty-Five Years of Digitizing Ebooks: Project Gutenberg's Practices
Gregory B. Newby
A foundational history of digital literature, this account details how decades of volunteer effort transformed the printed word into a freely accessible, global archive.
With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back
Edward P. Lowry
The British Empire marches across the veldt, caught between the idealism of a chaplain and the grim, grinding realities of a colonial war. This chronicle documents the persistence of faith amidst the debris of conflict.
The Foundations of the Origin of Species: Two Essays written in 1842 and 1844
Charles Darwin
These early sketches capture the birth of a revolutionary scientific vision, revealing a mind meticulously assembling the argument for natural selection long before it was unveiled to the world.
The peace negotiations between the governments of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, and the representatives of the British government, which terminated in the peace concluded at Vereeniging on the 31st May, 1902
J. D. (John Daniel) Kestell
This account documents the final, agonizing deliberations of the Boer leadership as they faced the collapse of their Republics and the necessity of signing a peace treaty to end the South African War.
Socialism: Positive and Negative
Robert Rives La Monte
Socialism is a historical and economic force, not merely a political preference, and its inevitable victory rests upon the scientific understanding of the class struggle.
Evolution in Modern Thought
Unknown
The scientific upheaval of the nineteenth century remains a defining chapter in human history, forever changing how we perceive our origins, our ethics, and our place in the natural order.
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Edward J. Ruppelt
The skies hold mysteries, but most have terrestrial answers. This authoritative account peels back the curtain on the military’s decades-long investigation into unidentified flying objects, balancing official skepticism against the stubborn persistence of the unknown.
Pan-Islam
G. Wyman (George Wyman) Bury
The colonial administrator and observer offers an unvarnished, firsthand look at the tensions between Islamic identity and Western influence in the twilight of the Ottoman Empire. This bracingly direct account dissects the mechanics of power, propaganda, and faith in the Middle East.
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
Charles Darwin
A monumental investigation into human origins and animal behavior reveals how the subtle choices of mates drive the machinery of physical and mental evolution.
A Hundred Years by Post: A Jubilee Retrospect
James Wilson Hyde
A century of postal transformation reveals how a nation once fractured by isolated roads and expensive, corrupt communication bound itself together into a modern, interconnected democracy.
The Story of a Dark Plot
A.L.O.C.
A devoted Canadian station agent is brutally attacked for his temperance activism, setting off a bitter regional feud that exposes systemic corruption and corporate complicity.
Modern Spiritualism
Uriah Smith
This examination of nineteenth-century Spiritualism positions the movement not as a series of parlor tricks, but as a perilous, prophesied deception threatening the foundations of Christian faith.
History of Modern Philosophy: From Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time
Richard Falckenberg
This history of modern thought maps the intellectual evolution of the Western world from the late Renaissance to the end of the nineteenth century. It provides a structured, objective account of how humanity’s understanding of existence, reason, and morality has shifted over four hundred years.
The U-boat hunters
James B. (James Brendan) Connolly
This observational chronicle captures the gritty, mechanical, and human realities of American naval warfare during the First World War, focusing on the men who hunted U-boats in the Atlantic.
Readings on Fascism and National Socialism: Selected by members of the department of philosophy, University of Colorado
Various
Totalitarian doctrines build their power not merely through force, but by demanding that the individual submit entirely to an all-encompassing state and a biologically defined collective.
International Conference Held at Washington for the Purpose of Fixing a Prime Meridian and a Universal Day. October, 1884.: Protocols of the Proceedings
D.C.) International Meridian Conference (1884 : Washington
When forty-one delegates from twenty-five nations gathered in Washington in the autumn of 1884, they set out to tame the world’s clocks and charts by agreeing upon a single, universal starting point for human time and navigation.
The Mysteries of Free Masonry: Containing All the Degrees of the Order Conferred in a Master's Lodge
William Morgan
A meticulously detailed transcript of secret rites exposes the hidden architecture, oaths, and symbolic machinery of nineteenth-century American fraternal lodges.
Norman Ten Hundred
A. Stanley (Arthur Stanley) Blicq
A small island sends its sons to war, and an eyewitness records the exact cost of their devotion.
Science and the modern world
Alfred North Whitehead
An intellectual journey through Western thought reveals how mechanistic science built the modern world, where its key philosophical assumptions broke down, and why a new vision of reality must take its place.
History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom
Andrew Dickson White
A dogmatic ice barrier holds back the rising flood of human knowledge, but dedicated thinkers labor steadily to dissolve it and clear the path for truth.
Triumphs and Wonders of the 19th Century: The True Mirror of a Phenomenal Era: A volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous achievements which distinguish an hundred years of material, intellectual, social and moral progress
James P. (James Penny) Boyd
Humanity reaches a pinnacle of material, social, and moral power by the close of an unprecedented hundred years.
The War in the East: Japan, China, and Corea
Trumbull White
A modern industrial power strikes an ancient empire across the Korean peninsula, altering the balance of Asian power forever.
China Revolutionized
John Stuart Thomson
A comprehensive exploration of China's revolutionary transformation, its societal structures, and its global interactions in the early 20th century.
The Idea of Progress: An Inquiry into Its Origin and Growth
J. B. (John Bagnell) Bury
The modern belief that humanity is perpetually improving is a relatively recent invention, not an eternal truth. This history examines how that optimistic conviction displaced older religious worldviews to become the guiding star of Western civilization.
Q-Ships and Their Story
E. Keble (Edward Keble) Chatterton
These "mystery ships" disguised as humble merchant vessels hunted German submarines during the First World War, turning the tables on attackers through sheer nerve and hidden firepower.
Sketches in Crude-oil: Some accidents and incidents of the petroleum development in all parts of the globe
John J. (John James) McLaurin
Before the first commercial gushers transformed western Pennsylvania, crude oil was merely an annoying scum that ruined salt-wells, turned rivers iridescent, and burned in local lamps. This expansive 1898 chronicle traces the wild, erratic history of petroleum from ancient fire-worship to the dawn of global…
Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremburg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, Volume 03
Various
A legal record documents the systematic assembly of evidence detailing how a modern state turned aggressive war and state-sponsored murder into routine bureaucratic policy.
The Fight for the Republic in China
B. L. (Bertram Lenox) Putnam Weale
A fledgling Asian republic collapses into dictatorship when an ambitious military ruler trades democratic constitutionalism for monarchical tyranny, inviting foreign encroachment and internal revolt.
The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy
Lothrop Stoddard
An urgent warning sounds against the decline of global white hegemony and the swift, inevitable rise of non-white populations across the globe.
Proposed Roads to Freedom
Bertrand Russell
The modern struggle for a just society remains a work in progress, shaped by the tension between individual liberty and collective authority. This inquiry explores how we might transcend the cruel chaos of our current world.
Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters
Unknown
The world’s most magnificent ship met an iceberg on her maiden voyage, leaving behind a legacy of mourning, heroism, and a transformed understanding of maritime safety.
The art of music, Vol. 03 (of 14)
Unknown
This volume functions as a comprehensive survey of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century musical evolution, tracing the shift from romanticism to the diverse, nationalistic, and experimental movements that defined the modern era. It examines how composers across Europe and Russia navigated the legacy of…
Ritual of the Order of the Eastern Star
Order of the Eastern Star. General Grand Chapter
This text serves as the official, codified guide for the conduct and structure of a fraternal organization designed for both men and women. It details the standardized procedures for chapter meetings, initiations, and memorial services.
China's Revolution, 1911-1912: A Historical and Political Record of the Civil War
Edwin John Dingle
An eyewitness report captures the bloody fall of the Qing Dynasty and the chaotic birth of the Chinese Republic.
Religion and Science from Galileo to Bergson
J. C. (John Charlton) Hardwick
When scientific discovery breaks the old universe apart, the human spirit persistently rebuilds a home within the ruins.
Reflections on War and Death
Sigmund Freud
Human nature exposes its unyielding primitive roots when global violence shattering civilized ideals forces a total reckoning with illusion and mortality.
Military schools and courses of instruction in the science and art of war,: in France, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Sardinia, England, and the United States. Drawn from recent official reports and documents. Revised Edition
Unknown
Nationhood depends on whether an army relies on unstudied brute force or systematically cultivates technical intellect, professional discipline, and scientific mastery across every rank.
Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume I
Various
Chilling transcript evidence exposes the systemic medical atrocities and state-sanctioned human experimentation carried out in German concentration camps during the Second World War.
A Handbook of the Boer War: With General Map of South Africa and 18 Sketch Maps and Plans
Unknown
This analytical overview functions as a practical guide for students of the South African War. It distills complex military maneuvers into a coherent, accessible account of a conflict defined by shifting tactics, logistical challenges, and the heavy toll of colonial ambition.