Free summaries
History — page 2
111 public-domain history books, summarised. Page 2 of 3.
The loyal mountaineers of Tennessee
Thomas William Humes
Isolated by geography and ideology, the Unionist residents of East Tennessee faced a brutal internal war while maintaining a defiant, clandestine loyalty to the United States throughout the American Civil War.
The Mercantile Marine
E. Keble (Edward Keble) Chatterton
To understand the story of the sea is to recognize that the strength of a nation rests not on its warships, but on the enduring enterprise of its merchant sailors. This history traces the evolution of the Mercantile Marine from ancient Mediterranean trade to the dawn of the modern liner.
A brief history of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Punjab Regiment : formerly: 76th Punjabis
Anonymous
Raised during the eighteen-century struggle for the Indian peninsula, a single regiment marches across a century and a half of imperial expansion, desert warfare, and catastrophic siege, bound together by discipline and shared endurance.
Helmet and spear
Alfred John Church
HOOK A survey of the ancient world’s defining military struggles, tracing the rise and eventual decline of empires through the collision of Greece, Rome, Carthage, and the barbarian tribes.
Carranza and Mexico
Carlo de Fornaro
Venustiano Carranza emerges here as a determined, statesmanlike architect of the Mexican Revolution, organizing a fractured nation to dismantle a brutal military dictatorship. This account serves as both a historical record and a rallying cry for democratic reform.
Lectures on ancient ethnography and geography, volume 2 (of 2)
Barthold Georg Niebuhr
This rigorous exploration reconstructs the physical and human landscape of the ancient world, meticulously tracing the origins of tribes and the strategic geography that shaped the rise and fall of great civilizations.
Annals of the great strikes in the United States
J. A. (Joseph A.) Dacus
This historical record chronicles the nationwide eruption of the 1877 railroad strikes, providing a detailed, ground-level account of a pivotal moment when American labor sought to challenge the economic status quo. It serves as both a primary report and an early analysis of the systemic tensions between capital…
Constance Trescot
S. Weir (Silas Weir) Mitchell
A woman’s singular obsession with the man who killed her husband unravels her life and those closest to her in the aftermath of the American Civil War.
The dark year of Dundee
Deborah Alcock
The shadow of the plague and the fires of religious persecution converge in this tale of 16th-century Scotland. It follows the lives of ordinary people caught in the tumultuous transition of the Reformation.
Under the Southern Cross
Deborah Alcock
A young man of noble Inca blood and a Spanish friar navigate the wreckage of history, seeking justice and redemption under the shadow of the Inquisition. Their journey spans the rugged Andes and the cruel realities of sixteenth-century colonial rule.
Literary studies, volume 2 (of 2)
Walter Bagehot
Great critics teach us not what to think about books, but how to look at the human minds that made them.
Knickerbocker's history of New York, vol. 1 (of 2)
Washington Irving
An absurd, sweeping chronicle of cosmic origins and colonial missteps transforms the founding of New Amsterdam into a grand satirical epic of human vanity.
The caliph's design
Wyndham Lewis
The Caliph’s Design is a bracing, pugnacious manifesto on the purpose of art. It argues that modern painters have retreated from the responsibility of shaping the visual world, choosing instead to hide behind dilettantism and cleverness.
A picture of Stirling
Robert Chambers
Perched high on a rocky eminence above the river Forth, a grand Scottish fortress shapes the destiny of the burgh below.
A daughter of strife
Jane Helen Findlater
Set against the shadowed streets of eighteenth-century London, an old betrayal weaves its bitter legacy through two generations of star-crossed lovers.
On England, and other addresses
Baldwin, Stanley Baldwin, Earl
These addresses capture a transformative moment in British leadership, offering a rare, intimate look at the philosophical and moral burdens carried by a Prime Minister navigating the volatile landscape of the early twentieth century.
An overland journey, from New York to San Francisco in the summer of 1859
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley journeys across the expanding American continent in the summer of 1859, recording the raw realities of the western overland trail from New York to San Francisco.
Country rambles in England
J. L. (John Leonard) Knapp
Quiet observations of English flora and fauna reveal the intricate design and hidden economy of the natural world through the eyes of a reflective rural traveller.
Theophano
Frederic Harrison
Amidst the marble splendor and blood-soaked intrigue of the tenth-century Byzantine court, a beautiful empress manipulates the fate of empires to secure her own survival. This is a sweeping portrait of power, piety, and betrayal.
Soldiers unmasked
William Addleman Ganoe
The soldier is a figure often misunderstood, yet the history of his service reveals a record of building, protection, and life-saving that remains largely unknown to the American public.
The dynasty of Theodosius, or, eighty years' struggle with the barbarians
Thomas Hodgkin
Eighty turbulent years of crumbling imperial power, desperate migration, and fierce clashes unfold as Rome confronts the rising tide of barbarian tribes across Europe and North Africa.
The last Punic war, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Alexander Meyrick Broadley
An opportunistic border dispute becomes the pretext for an aggressive European invasion, extinguishing twelve centuries of North African independence. Through a web of tortuous diplomacy and military force, an ancient regency falls to colonial ambition.
The friar of Wittenberg
William Stearns Davis
A young Italian nobleman finds his cynical life upended when he travels to Germany and falls under the sway of a rebellious friar. The path to redemption leads through danger, political intrigue, and the search for true faith.
Craft-guilds of the thirteenth century in Paris
Fred B. (Fred Benjamin) Millett
The intricate regulations of thirteenth-century Parisian craft-gilds reveal a surprisingly rigid, yet deeply communal, world of medieval industry. This study dissects the professional lives of the artisans who shaped a city’s commerce.
Sport and science on the Sino-Mongolian frontier
Arthur de Carle Sowerby
The call of the unknown pulls a naturalist into the rugged wilderness of the Sino-Mongolian frontier, where the pursuit of rare specimens reveals a vanishing world of ancient landscapes and untamed life. This record of exploration captures the intersection of scientific curiosity, rigorous sport, and the changing…
Roman Catholic opposition to Papal Infallibility
W. J. (William John) Sparrow-Simpson
This work provides a sober, detailed examination of the intellectual and theological struggles faced by Roman Catholics who found the dogma of Papal Infallibility difficult to reconcile with historical evidence and traditional church governance.
The doomed city
John R. Carling
HOOK Amidst the brutal finality of the Roman siege of Jerusalem, a Roman officer finds his loyalties fractured by a forbidden love and an emerging, quiet faith.
A secret agent in Port Arthur
Wirt Gerrare
Witness the tense prelude and brutal reality of the Russo-Japanese War through the sharp, firsthand observations of a secret agent inside besieged Port Arthur.
Futility
William Alexander Gerhardie
An absurd, aimless war sweeps across a collapsing empire, but one hapless family is far too busy with its own exquisite, self-inflicted domestic entanglements to notice.
A lovers' tale
Maurice Hewlett
An obsessive Icelandic poet falls in love with a striking woman, yet repeatedly sabotages his own chances of marrying her because he prefers his idealized, poetic vision of desire to the reality of domestic life.
The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 4, December, 1900
Oregon Historical Society
This volume serves as a foundational record of the American migration to the Pacific Coast, preserving the firsthand accounts and historical analysis of those who braved the Oregon Trail. It captures the essential spirit of a movement that fundamentally expanded the reach of the American nation.
Literary studies, volume 1 (of 2)
Walter Bagehot
These essays offer a sharp, intellectual survey of nineteenth-century literary giants, grounding high art in the practical, often messy realities of human character and political life.
Lady Bell, volume 2 (of 3)
Sarah Tytler
A young widow finds herself navigating the social minefields of the eighteenth century, balancing the rigid expectations of her rank against the stirrings of an unexpected and unconventional love.
Lectures on ancient ethnography and geography, volume 1 (of 2)
Barthold Georg Niebuhr
The ancient world emerges as a living landscape, where the shifting borders of empires and the physical contours of the earth dictate the fortunes of the civilizations that rose and fell upon its soil.
![Cover of A history of the American people, Vol. 2 [of 5]](https://cdn.myebooksbuy.com/c/a-history-of-the-american-people-vol-2-of-5-woodrow-wilson.webp)
A history of the American people, Vol. 2 [of 5]
Woodrow Wilson
From quiet colonial beginnings through the gathering storm of revolution to the birth of a new nation, an empire of distinct settlements slowly finds its common voice and breaks free from the crown.
The red heart of Russia
Bessie Beatty
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was not merely a political shift; it was a seismic transformation of human consciousness. This account captures the raw, chaotic, and idealistic dawn of that new world.
The history of civilisation in Scotland, Vol 3 (of 4)
John Mackintosh
Absolute power collides with a fiercely independent public as a small nation resists royal overreach, endures decades of religious warfare, and eventually reorganizes its legal, economic, and cultural life.
With the Lost Legion in New Zealand
G. Hamilton-Browne
HOOK This memoir recounts the brutal, irregular warfare of New Zealand’s 19th-century frontier through the eyes of a cynical, hardened participant. It captures the grim reality of bush fighting and the strange camaraderie of an international band of outcasts.
Books in general
Squire, John Collings, Sir
A relaxed room full of old volumes becomes a mirror for human nature in all its vanity, humor, and unpredictable charm.
Gaston de Blondeville, vol. 1 of 4 : or the court of Henry III. keeping festival in Ardenne, a romance. St. Alban's abbey, a metrical tale
Ann Ward Radcliffe
An antiquarian mystery unfolds within a historical romance, where the discovery of an ancient manuscript reveals a long-buried crime haunting the court of King Henry III.
The history & traditions of the Moorfields Eye Hospital
E. Treacher (Edward Treacher) Collins
This chronicle traces the first century of the world’s first specialized eye hospital, documenting how a small dispensary blossomed into a global center for ophthalmological research and surgical advancement.
The second person singular, and other essays
Alice Meynell
These collected essays examine the enduring power of the written word, exploring how literature—from Shakespeare’s royal archetypes to the linguistic precision of modern poets—shapes our understanding of humanity.
Cape Cod
F. Mitchell
The most striking feature of the New England coast-line is Cape Cod. Standing far out, lonesome, into the ocean, it gives, from the map, the impression of a sand-bar.
The history of civilisation in Scotland, Vol 2 (of 4)
John Mackintosh
This volume chronicles the profound transformation of Scottish society during the sixteenth century, tracing the collapse of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the rise of a new, austere religious and intellectual order. It examines how fundamental shifts in belief—from the medieval world of demons and relics to the…
The early courts of Pennsylvania
William Henry Lloyd
The law is rarely a static monolith, but rather a reflection of the people who labor to build a society from the wilderness. This history traces the evolution of Pennsylvania’s legal identity, revealing how colonial necessity and democratic experimentation forged a unique American jurisprudence.
Anomalies of the English law
S. Beach (Samuel Beach) Chester
This collection exposes the bizarre, outdated, and often contradictory statutes that once defined the British legal landscape, challenging the wisdom of a system built on centuries of accumulated tradition.
The battle of Harlem Heights
Thomas Addis Emmet
This work serves as an impassioned, eyewitness-informed defense of historical accuracy, challenging the popular consensus regarding the precise location of the 1776 Battle of Harlem Heights.
The American novel to-day
Régis Michaud
This critical inquiry examines the American novel as a social mirror, diagnosing how Puritan traditions and modern industry have shaped the country’s search for an authentic cultural identity.