Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

Elements of Geology is one in a Series of First Books of Natural History Prepared for the Use of Schools and Colleges. This succinct little textbook from 1846 presents an introduction to geology. The information, albeit not current, is still interesting and of use as a general overview of the subject as well as interesting look into the period. Please note that some of the information has changed considerably since this time. The author was a surgeon in the U.S. Navy and president of the Academy of Natural Sciences. - Summary by Amy Gramour

The Events of 1848, Especially in Relation to Great Britain" by Richard Monckton Milnes is a historical work that delves into the tumultuous events of the year 1848, with a particular focus on their impact on Great Britain. Published in 1849, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the revolutionary wave that swept across Europe during that pivotal year.Milnes examines how the spirit of revolution, driven by demands for political reform, economic change, and social justice, spread throughout Europe and triggered uprisings and protests. In Great Britain, while there were no widespread ...

The mutiny on the Bounty occurred aboard a British Royal Navy ship on 28 April 1789. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against the commanding officer, William Bligh.On 4 April 1789, after five months in Tahiti, the Bounty set sail with its breadfruit cargo. On 28 April 1789, some 1,300 miles west of Tahiti, near Tonga, mutiny broke out. From all accounts, Fletcher Christian and several of his followers entered Bligh's cabin, which he always left unlocked, awakened him, and pushed him on deck wearing only his nightshirt, where he was guarded by Christian holding a bayonet. When Bligh ...

The author, who fought as a private in the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War, describes the Confederate soldier’s daily struggles with hunger, illness, fear, and the perils of combat; as well as his pride of service, love of comrades, and courage in the face of overwhelming odds (summary by D. Leeson).

Edward Chatterton, a prolific British author of maritime adventures, presents fascinating stories of pirates and their exploits from earliest times through the 19th century. Chapters include the history of piracy in Tudor and Elizabethan times and stories of legendary pirates such as Black Beard, Henry Morgan, and Captain Kidd. - Summary by Larry Wilson

Louise Michel était une anarchiste française très active dans la Commune de Paris de 1871. Son livre "La Commune" écrit en 1898 raconte ce qui s'y passa durant cette période. (Résumé par Enko) Louise Michel was a french anarchist very active during the Paris Commune of 1871. Her book "La Commune" written in 1898 describes what happened in that event. (Summary by Enko)

David "Davy" Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was a celebrated 19th century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet “King of the Wild Frontier.” He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives, served in the Texas Revolution, and died at the Battle of the Alamo. This narrative attempts faithfully to record the influences under which David Crockett was reared and the incidents of his wild and wondrous life. It begins with his ancestors' immigration to the American wilderness, his ...

"England Since Waterloo" by Sir John Arthur Ransome Marriott (1859-1945) was first published in 1913 and went through many editions. The author taught history at Worcester College, Oxford for thirty-six years and served as a Conservative member of Parliament for fifteen. "England Since Waterloo" begins with the defeat of Napoleon who, Marriott writes, was impotent "to assail English power at sea, foiled in his attempt to ruin her commerce...overwhelmed under Russian snows, and finally conquered by the genius of Wellington." He portrays the people and the events of nineteenth century Britain, ...

Twenty-three stories of the history of early Oregon plus an appendix: A Brief Summary Of The History Of The Old Oregon Country From Original Sources. OLD OREGON was a mighty sweep of country, and a most romantic one. From the northern border of Mexican California to near Sitka in Russian America it stretched, nearly eight hundred miles. Eastward it stretched over a country of mighty mountain … until the limits of the Oregon country, at the crest of the main range of the Rockies…. The romance ever lingers…. I have given four years of devoted study to Oregon history, three of them among ...

"International disputes that end in war are not generally questions of absolute right and wrong. They may quite as well be questions of opposing rights. But, when there are rights on both sides; it is usually found that the side which takes the initiative is moved by its national desires as well as by its claims of right.This could hardly be better exemplified than by the vexed questions which brought about the War of 1812."This volume of the Chronicles of Canada series explains both the causes of the War of 1812 and the campaigns of the war from a primarily Canadian viewpoint, a perspective ...

Abner Doubleday began the Civil War as a Union officer and aimed the first cannon shot in response to the bombardment opened on Ft. Sumter in 1861. Two years later, after a series of battles (including Antietam, where he was wounded), Doubleday took over a division in the Army of the Potomac's 1st Corps.These are his memoirs of service in two of the War's great campaigns. At Chancellorsville, a very promising start made by General Hooker against Lee's Confederate forces fell to a defeat when, in Doubleday's estimation, normal and prudent precautions against surprise in the heavily-wooded ...

Here we meet all sorts of characters and situations in California’s early history: gunmen, outlaws, lynch mobs, raging storms, mining camps, lost clergymen, freed slaves, Northern sympathizers, Southern sympathizers, soldiers…. Oscar Penn Fitzgerald was a Methodist clergyman, journalist and educator. He served as California Superintendent of Public Instruction (1867–1871). His California Sketches were published in two series (1879 and 1881) and a consolidated volume (1895). This reading is based on the consolidated volume (Sections 1-48) with the addition of the sketches from the first ...

Tecumseh was a leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy that opposed the United States during the War of 1812. He became a folk hero remembered by many Canadians for his defense of their country. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia)

En 100 petites vignettes, l'historien Gustave Ducoudray (1838-1906) nous raconte l'histoire mouvementée de la France du 19e siècle, des années marquées par de nombreuses guerres en Europe, Afrique, Asie et Amérique, commençant par la Restauration de 1815 qui voyait le retour de la monarchie et se terminant avec le Traité de Francfort en 1871, qui mettait fin à la guerre franco-prussienne.100 small vignettes about the history of France 1815 - 1871. - Summary by Sonia

Herbert Allen Giles (1845-1935) spent several years as a diplomat in China and in 1897 was appointed Cambridge University’s second professor of Chinese. His published works cover Chinese language and literature, history and philosophy.This series of lectures, published as “China and the Chinese”, was given at Columbia University in 1902, to mark the establishment of a Chinese professorship there. The lectures were not intended for the specialist, more to urge a wider and more systematic study of China and its culture, and to encourage new students into the field.While many of the ...

A sketch of the second regiment of Connecticut volunteer heavy artillery, originally the Nineteenth Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil War.

This recording comprises two narratives. One is by Cora Mitchel who in 1861 was a girl in her mid-teens. Her Unionist family escaped the Confederacy from their home in south Georgia to Rhode Island. This is her story written about 1916. The second narrative is by Charlotte St. Julien Ravenel of South Carolina, a contemporary journal written in the closing months of the civil war in 1865. - Summary by David Wales

One of the earliest histories of the Cossacks to appear in English, with an emphasis on the exploits of famous Cossack leaders and Cossack struggles for political autonomy. Originally published in 1919.From the Foreword: "It is the proudest boast of the Cossacks of today -- as of their forbears of the Ukraine -- that they have never been classed as serfs nor for a moment lost their freeman's instinct for the principles of liberty. While the peasants of North Russia were bowed in shameful submission to the Great Princes of Moscow and later to the 'dark forces' of the Tsar's court and the ...

Some of the states who rebelled against the Federal Government in the American Civil War issued statements by nascent governing bodies explaining why they were attempting to leave. Here are the statements, published in 1860 and 1861, of South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Mississippi, and Georgia. - Summary by David Wales

This 1911 history of the public health revolution that transformed New York City in the nineteenth century is also about every city and town of the world and the sanitary challenges that each encountered. Stephen Smith (1823-1922) was an American surgeon and a pioneer in public health. “The story of a great life-saving social revolution, the mightiest in the nineteenth century and one of the most momentous in the history of civilization, is told here for the first time. It is told from the standpoint of the transformation of the City of New York, by a chief actor in the event.” Chapter ...