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History - Other
462 public-domain history - other books, summarised. Page 1 of 10.

Famous Affinities of History: The Romance of Devotion. Vol 1-4, Complete
Lyndon Orr
The magnetic pull of the heart often defies the gravity of duty, leaving behind a trail of broken crowns, scorched reputations, and rewritten histories that haunt the collective memory of the world.

In the forbidden land
Arnold Henry Savage Landor
An explorer pushes deep into the mysterious heights of the Himalayas, where the cold is lethal, the terrain is vertical, and a bounty on his head turns his every step into a desperate flight for survival.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 26 of 55, 1636: Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century
Unknown
A hard-headed governor struggles to command a fractured colonial outpost, where the clash between royal authority, institutional pride, and religious fervor threatens the stability of a distant archipelago.

Southern Arabia
J. Theodore (James Theodore) Bent
The sun beats down on the forgotten ruins of an ancient civilization as two explorers push into the heart of the Arabian desert, charting paths through hostile territory and shifting sands.

Mexico and Its Religion: With Incidents of Travel in That Country During Parts of the Years 1851-52-53-54, and Historical Notices of Events Connected With Places Visited
Robert Anderson Wilson
The veil of history is often woven from the threads of convenience, and these pages serve as a sharp, corrective needle, piercing the myths that have long obscured the true face of a complex land.

Acadia
Frederic S. (Frederic Swartwout) Cozzens
This is the land that heroic hearts have sighed for, yet it remains a neglected, sun-drenched secret waiting for the traveler who dares to look beyond the map.

An African Adventure
Isaac Frederick Marcosson
Beyond the reach of a map, the heartbeat of a continent reveals itself not in the silence of the wild, but in the restless, grinding gears of industry and the ambition of men who view a wilderness as a balance sheet.

The Story of the Heavens
Robert S. (Robert Stawell) Ball
The vast cosmos unfolds through vivid descriptions of the sun, moon, planets, and stars, revealing their motions, mysteries, and the laws that govern them in a journey from Earth’s nearest neighbor to the farthest reaches of the heavens.

The History of Tasmania , Volume II
John West
A colonial society built upon forced penal servitude and the violent displacement of an indigenous population faces the moral, economic, and human consequences of its own imperial expansion.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898
Unknown
A vast mosaic of official decrees, monastic records, and eyewitness accounts traces how Spanish power and Catholic piety shaped life in the Philippine archipelago across four centuries.

A Book About Lawyers
John Cordy Jeaffreson
A social history of the English bar reveals that the legal profession was built on human drama, colorful eccentricities, and centuries of institutional tradition long before it became a dry exercise in technicalities.

The Hindu-Arabic Numerals
David Eugene Smith
How did a simple set of ten symbols become the universal language of global commerce, and why did it take a millennium for the world to adopt them?

Christmas: Its Origin and Associations: Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries
W. F. (William Francis) Dawson
This expansive chronicle traces nineteen centuries of Christmas, documenting how the festival evolved from early Christian observance into a cornerstone of global tradition, royal pageantry, and domestic life. It serves as an exhaustive historical ledger, gathering the scattered remnants of how the holiday was…

India's Problem, Krishna or Christ
John P. (John Peter) Jones
This comprehensive examination of the cultural and religious landscape of India at the turn of the 20th century serves as both a sociological study and a formal argument for the missionary enterprise. By contrasting the foundational tenets of Hinduism and Christianity, the author attempts to explain the obstacles…

The symbolism of Freemasonry
Albert Gallatin Mackey
This exploration of Masonic philosophy reveals the hidden language of ritual, arguing that the craft is not merely a social club, but a profound, enduring science of symbols.

History of Australia and New Zealand from 1606 to 1890
Alexander Sutherland
Australia and New Zealand emerged from distant maritime outposts into organized colonial societies through centuries of exploration, hardship, and growth. This chronicle traces that transformation, capturing the rugged spirit of pioneers and the complex evolution of their laws.

The history of magic
Éliphas Lévi
The shadows of the ancient world hold the secrets of the modern mind, revealing how the hidden arts have shaped the course of human history. Through a blend of philosophy and myth, this exploration traces the evolution of magic from the dawn of civilization to the revolutions of the nineteenth century.

The History of Sulu
Najeeb M. (Najeeb Mitry) Saleeby
The Sulu Archipelago, defined by its fierce sea currents and rich cultural history, emerges as a complex intersection of indigenous autonomy and colonial ambition. Through meticulous archival research, the narrative maps the rise of a powerful sultanate and its protracted, often tragic, struggle against Spanish…

Bushido, the Soul of Japan
Inazo Nitobe
Bushido, the Soul of Japan remains an essential guide to the Japanese character, illuminating the moral architecture of a nation through the lens of its historic knightly code. It invites readers to understand how feudal values continue to shape the contemporary Japanese soul.

The Common Law
Oliver Wendell Holmes
The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. This foundational work strips away the pretense that legal systems are merely sets of mathematical axioms, revealing them instead as the evolving product of human history.

Modern Persia
Mooshie G. Daniel
The land of the Medes and Persians stands revealed through the eyes of a native scholar, offering a rare, firsthand account of a nation bridging the ancient world and the modern era. This narrative serves as both a cultural atlas and a testament to a changing society.

The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
The story of humanity unfolds here as a single, continuous narrative, tracing life from the cooling of the earth to the aftermath of the Great War. It offers a sweeping vision of our species, unbound by the limitations of national borders.

Cattle and Cattle-breeders
William McCombie
A seasoned cattle breeder shares a lifetime of hard-won wisdom, detailing the practical realities of managing livestock and the evolution of the Scottish agricultural trade during the nineteenth century.

Mysticism and its results
John Delafield
The study of secrecy reveals a recurring pattern: organizations that shroud their inner workings in mystery often seek to consolidate political power, frequently at the expense of individual liberty.

The Problem of China
Bertrand Russell
Can an ancient, peaceful civilization survive its contact with aggressive Western industrialism and Japanese militarism without losing its soul?

The Everlasting Man
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
To view human history without its central religious crises is to see a map with all the mountains flattened into plains. Viewed from a sufficient distance, the story of mankind reveals a creature that is fundamentally unique, set apart by an unquenchable drive toward the divine.

Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 1 (of 3)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Thought unfolds as history; early philosophical systems are not mere errors, but necessary steps through which human reason gradually discovers its own inherent freedom.

The Illustrated Key to the Tarot: The Veil of Divination
L. W. (Lauron William) De Laurence
A deck of seventy-eight painted cards becomes a doorway to secret wisdom, stripping away centuries of romantic myth to reveal a profound system of spiritual instruction.

Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics: Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore of the Plant Kingdom
Richard Folkard
Across centuries and continents, human cultures have woven their deepest fears, sacred rituals, and romantic mythologies around the roots, bark, and blossoms of the natural world.

Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of India
James Tod
A monumental chronicle of the desert kingdoms of Northwestern India, this narrative weaves together bardic epics, sacred genealogies, and political history to document the ancestral chivalry, feudal codes, and tragic resistance of the Rajput clans against foreign conquerors.

A Short History of the World
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Life on Earth spans hundreds of millions of years, yet human civilization occupies only a tiny fraction of that vast tapestry. Unrolling history from primeval slime to global war reveals our shared, precarious human story.

Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 2, February 1886
Various
Faith, political freedom, and cultural survival converge to reveal how nineteenth-century Catholic communities sought to navigate and shape a rapidly changing world.

The Story of Mankind
Hendrik Willem Van Loon
A sweeping panorama of human experience lifts the reader high above the rush of daily life to watch civilizations rise, struggle, transform, and pass their hard-won knowledge along the generations.

A History of the Philippines
David P. Barrows
From ancient island migrations to American civil administration, this narrative traces the rich, complex evolution of an archipelago shaped by continuous global contact, deep-seated traditions, and relentless struggles for unity.

Peeps At Many Lands: Australia
Frank Fox
A land once left to centuries of quiet isolation now invites the adventurous, offering vast golden horizons, rugged mountain barriers, and the spirit of a resilient young nation built on raw resourcefulness.

Indian Story and Song, from North America
Alice C. (Alice Cunningham) Fletcher
This book acts as a bridge between two worlds, preserving the sacred, social, and personal melodies of North American tribes through the stories that give them meaning. It offers a rare, intimate look at the role of music as a fundamental thread in the fabric of daily and spiritual life.
![Cover of A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.]](https://cdn.myebooksbuy.com/c/a-history-of-china-3d-ed-rev-and-enl-wolfram-eberhard.webp)
A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.]
Wolfram Eberhard
Tracing the development of a civilization from its earliest prehistoric roots to the modern era, this comprehensive study examines the intersection of social structure, economic pressures, and political power. It treats history as a persistent conflict between agrarian stability and nomadic influence, framing the…

The International Monthly Magazine - Volume V - No II
Various
This collection serves as a mid-nineteenth-century cultural snapshot, gathering historical reflections, literary fiction, and scientific reportage into a single, cohesive volume of an influential periodical. It offers a portal into the intellectual preoccupations of 1852.

Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867: With a Preliminary Notice of the earlier Library founded in the Fourteenth Century
William Dunn Macray
A meticulously documented history of one of the world’s oldest institutions, this record chronicles three centuries of intellectual preservation, institutional struggle, and the quiet accumulation of human knowledge.

Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland: Collected Entirely from Oral Sources
John Gregorson Campbell
The supernatural world of the Scottish Highlands is not a distant myth, but a living, breathing reality where everyday life and the unseen are inextricably entwined.

History of New Brunswick
Peter Fisher
The resilient spirit of a wilderness colony emerges through this foundational account, documenting the displacement and eventual triumph of families who traded their former lives for a chance to thrive in a northern frontier.

History of the Philippine Islands
Antonio de Morga
A foundational chronicle of the early colonial Philippines, this work provides a rare, firsthand perspective on the archipelago’s encounter with the Spanish Empire, spanning the initial decades of the seventeenth century.

Norse mythology
Rasmus Björn Anderson
The ancient myths of the North serve as a profound mirror to the human condition, offering a vision of existence defined by both inexorable fate and the necessity of honorable action.

The Oera Linda Book, from a Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century
J. G. (Jan Gerhardus) Ottema
A sweeping, mythic history presents the early Frisians as the original standard-bearers of freedom, governed by wise matriarchs and guided by simple monotheism before being fractured by foreign corruptions, war, and internal betrayals.

Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official
Sleeman, W. H. (William Henry), Sir
A journey across nineteenth-century India becomes a canvas for observing human nature, administrative justice, and the deep cultural currents of a changing land.

The Law of Civilization and Decay: An Essay on History
Brooks Adams
A law of nature drives human societies through a predictable cycle, swinging from emotional, imaginative energy to cold, concentrated economic consolidation.

Historic Jamaica
Frank Cundall
A detailed survey of island architecture, tomb inscriptions, and parish archives reveals how Jamaica’s material remains preserve the memory of its Spanish roots, British conquest, and colonial society.

The Stamps of Canada
Bertram W. H. (Bertram William Henry) Poole
Behind every tiny slip of gummed paper lies a nations political evolution, technological growth, and bureaucratic drama.