Ebooks de historia, página 19 de 2318

As early as 1920, US Army General Billy Mitchell began sounding alarm bells about an inevitable Japanese invasion from sea-based aircraft. Through the press and in person he lobbied naval brass about Americas woefully unprepared defensive air power but his talk of dogfights over the Pacific with superior planes was laughed at and dismissed by all. Mitchells vision of a US Air Arm would have meant massive, costly upgrades to the nations dated flying machines owned by private firms holding patents on aircraft machinery. Old guard soldiers, like John J. Pershing, dismissed as delusional ravings Mitchells belief that a battleship could be destroyed by a bomber. Mitchells outspoken press conferences about an airplane trust supported by corrupt government officials led to his court-martial for insubordination in 1925. He died in 1936, a man ahead of his times and hated for it.

Compiled and Edited by Charles W. Eliot in 1909, the Harvard Classics is a 51-volume Anthology of classic literature from throughout the history of western civilization. The set is sometimes called "Eliots Five-Foot Shelf."This e-book includes all 51 volumes PLUS the Harvard Classic Shelf of Fiction, the equivalent of over 30,000 printed pages in one e-book!

"Hospital Sketches" is a fictionalised account of Louisa May Alcotts experiences nursing during the Civil War and presented in a collection of letters. The book garnered Alcotts first critical recognition for her observations and humour.Tribulation Periwinkle, looking for something to do, follow the suggestion of her brother, Tom, and decided to become a nurse for the Union Army. However, her difficulties begin before she even gets to the hospital. She describes the inconveniences of travel on her way to Washington, D.C. Once Nurse Periwinkle arrives at the Hurly-Burly Hotel, a temporary hospital, she has to learn how to nurse.

"The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" is a blueprint for the prototypical American, chronicling Benjamin Franklins life as a printer, diplomat, statesman, patriot, scientist, inventor, and writer. Published posthumously in various forms over several years, first in French and then in English, Franklins autobiography is a literary achievement worthy of the epic U.S. founding father. Franklin originally intended the document of his life and works to be for the sole use and enjoyment of his son, William. Hence, Franklin wrote his autobiography in the form of an extended letter to his son. While recording the events of his life, he adds instructions for good living which makes this work Americas first How to Succeed book.

"Letters on England" is a collection of letters created by Voltaire after his three-year exile to England (1726-9) following imprisonment in the Bastille for his satirical writings. Voltaire wrote this series of letters offering the French public a panoramic view of English culture. He was full of enthusiasm and freedom - as opposed to the tyrannical feudal society of his homeland. "Letters on England" discusses English religious sects, politics, scientists and writers with great admiration, yet the clever Voltaire also flattered his French readers with humorous references to the old-fashioned clothes and speech of the Quakers and to antics in the House of Commons. At first banned in France, this intriguing and often comic account of a culture viewed through foreign eyes was to prove highly influential in shaping French attitudes to England.

"The Diary of a Nobody" is the fictitious record of fifteen months in the life of Charles Pooter, his family, friends and small circle of acquaintances. It first appeared serialised in Punch magazine and it was published in book form in 1892, entertaining readers ever since. "The Diary of a Nobody" might be regarded as the first blog; being a record of the simplicities and humiliations in the life of this mundane, but upright, city clerk, who had an incontestable faith that a record of his daily life was worth preserving for posterity.Set in about 1891 in Holloway, which was then a typical suburb of the impecuniously respectable kind, the authors contrive a record of the manners, customs and experiences of the late Victorian era. The bare record of facts, simply recorded, manages to be humorous rather than dull, no doubt because of the usual occupations of the authors who were comedians and entertainers.

"..."As We Are and As We May Be" (by Sir Walter Besant) is the exposition of a practical philanthropists creed, and of his hopes for the progress of his fellow-countrymen. Some of these hopes may never be realised; some he had the great happiness to see bear fruit. And for the realisation of all he spared no pains. The personal service of humanity, that in these pages he urges repeatedly on others, he was himself ever the first to give." (Book FOREWORD)Sir Walter Besant (born August 14, 1836, Portsmouth, Hampshire, Englanddied June 9, 1901, London) was a novelist, philanthropist and historian. William Henry Besant was his brother, and another brother, Frank, was the husband of Annie Besant.His works helped set in motion movements to aid the poor.

"The Red Record" is a pamphlet compiled by Ida B. Wells-Barnett in 1892, which recounts the three eras of atrocity in the South of the United States and gives the excuses that the Whites gave for each of these three eras.The article details the struggles that Black people underwent after their Emancipation from 200 years of slavery. The central idea behind the research is to reveal the level of mistreatment and racism during this period and to reveal the reasons behind these injustices; the Whites viewed Blacks as inferior and were afraid that they would increase in number and thus dominate them. The article also details the lynching that occurred during this period without the due legal trials and procedures. White people simply took the law into their won hands, while the authorities condoned it. The author also states that during slavery, Black people were made to submit to the Whites and were treated in a cruelly, but were never lynched because the slaves body belonged to his master, hence by lynching the slave the master would be bringing a loss upon himself. Blacks would be lynched for any crimes; major or minor, proven or suspected. For instance, the Whites would lynch a man for wife-beating, insulting whites, self-defence and many other unrelated crimes.

William F. Buffalo Bill Cody (1846-1917) was a famous American Indian fighter, buffalo hunter and entertainer, known best for his Wild West circus-like shows. As a young man Cody served in in the Union army during the Civil War. His Wild West show toured the world between 1883-1906 and was a very popular form of entertainment. The show featured celebrities like Annie Oakley and Sioux chief Sitting Bull. Buffalo Bill Cody died in 1917.This is his story in his own words. Buffalo Bill was arguably, the most recognized man in the world when he penned this book. The first stories are of some of his adventures and the remaining ones are autobiographical. All of them have been proved to be historically accurate in all important aspects.

Plutarchs "Parallel Lives" (AKA Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans) is a collection of biographies about great men and leaders from Greece and Rome.The book is structured in pairs of biographies including Themistocles v. Camillus, Pyrrhus v. Marius, Alexander v. Caesar, and Phocion v. Cato the Younger. Plutarch compares the lives of leaders from both the Greeks and the Romans to show how similar they were. He hoped that the comparisons would lead to mutual respect between the two empires that were both influential at the time. As a result, most of the biographies are filled with moral teachings. "Parallel Lives" can still be used by anyone intending to run for public office today since the same ethical principles apply to modern leaders.

In "Mob Rule in New Orleans", Ida B. Wells-Barnett explores the varying discrepancies in the press about Robert Charless lynching and the violence leading up to his death in 1900.Collecting her information from two New Orleans newspapers, Wells-Barnett recounts in graphic detail the events of that particularly violent week in 1900 in New Orleans during which a mob "roamed the streets day and night, searching for colored men and women, whom they beat, shot and killed at will." She demonstrates how the medias characterization of Charles as a thief emerged as justification for the violence whites committed against him.A worse massacre was avoided, as stated by the author, because of "the determined stand for law and order taken by these great [newspapers] and the courageous action taken by the best citizens of New Orleans, who rallied to the support of the civic authorities." This account serves as chilling documentation of the mindless savagery of an anger- and hate-driven mob.Born into slavery in Mississippi in 1862, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, feminist, leader in the Civil Rights Movement, and one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

"My Life" is an amazing story of an amazing life, regardless of your thoughts on Leon Trotskys political views and stances. It is one of the most historically important autobiographies of the past century. Well worth reading and re-reading.This book is not an objective photograph of my life, Trotsky writes in his foreword to "My Life", but a component of it. In these pages I am continuing the struggle to which my whole life is devoted Recounting events, I analyse and appraise them; telling my story, I defend myself, and even more frequently attack.When he wrote these words in 1929, Trotsky was fifty years old. He had left his old name of Lev Bronstein behind twenty-seven years ago, and in that interval he had escaped from Siberia twice, been imprisoned a number of times by a number of governments, met Lenin, fallen out with Lenin, fallen back in with Lenin, led the Petrograd Soviet, founded the Red Army, won the Civil War, produced a vast quantity of journalism, theory and even literary criticism and finally, after years of struggle against the rising Stalinist faction, found himself stripped of all power and exiled from the USSR. Once Lenins friend and equal, he was now reviled. His views, integral to the formation of Bolshevik and then Soviet policy, no longer had any expression. His face was being excised from pictures, his words from pages. His allies were dead, exiled or surrendered. These are the circumstances in which he began to write his memoirs."My Life" is primarily a very carefully constructed testimony. Trotskys life and reputation were at stake. His story had to be watertight, explaining away his class origins (his parents were landowners), smoothing over his early conflicts with Lenin and ensuring that his religious and ethnic origins were not prominent. Every action had to be accounted for, every wrong step justified.

"The Golden Verses of Pythagoras" are a collection of moral exhortations comprising 71 lines written in dactylic hexameter.They present a brief glimpse into the mind and the worldview of Pythagoras and probably formed part of his instructions to his disciples."The Golden Verses of Pythagoras" embody what we know about his teachings today. Besides exhortations to live a moral, simple and contemplative life, these pithy aphorisms allow a glimpse of a bit of the Pythagorean schools deeper knowledge.

"The Education of Henry Adams", the most famous work of its author, was originally intended only for a small audience; after its posthumous publication in 1918, it promptly won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 1919, and it is still regarded as a masterpiece of American literature."The Education of Henry Adams" is a brilliant autobiography of this relevant American historian. A member of the Adams political family and descendant of two US presidents, Adams wrote the book in 1905 to reconcile himself to the turn of the century, which was shaping up to be vastly different from the life he knew as a child. The book also provides a pointed critique of educational philosophy and practice of the 19th century.

The rich without deprivation, the intolerant without reception, the programmatic without improvisation, the 5-star hotel tourist without a camping backpack, the chauvinist without identifying himself with what can mean feeling woman, the parent without going down in the infantile sensibility, the pragmatist who never dreams and will never dreams, for sure everyone has in common the good probability of having thwarted part of his existence.

In Patton and His Third Army, Brenton Wallace details the actions of General George S. Patton and the Third Army from its preparations in Britain, to its first engagements with the enemy, through to the major battles countering the German offensives, liberating Paris and breaking across the Moselle into the Nazi heartland to subdue Hitlers forces.

Americas Siberian Adventure 1918-1920 recounts the covert campaign by the US to stabilize a region plagued by an uprising of multiple conflicts following the end of World War 1. Author General William Graves was the man sent to Siberia to lead an expeditionary force deep into the frozen interior, where Graves and his hardy men had to contend with Russian warlords, the Red Army, a roving brigade of Czechoslovakian troops, the need to protect the Trans-Siberian Railway, extreme weather conditions, and the regular armies of the Japanese and British. The results of the expedition were mixed, but historians agree that the operation materially contributed to bringing peace to the region, the ultimate goal of this unusual but important mission.

During his lifetime, American educator Booker T. Washington (18561915) was a national leader for the betterment of African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South. He advocated for economic and industrial improvement of Blacks while accommodating Whites on voting rights and social equality. This approach, however, died with Washington, and its success prior to 1915 was largely due to Washingtons adept method of tailoring his speaking and writing to suit the race of his audience."Up from Slavery" tells the life story of Washington, from childhood through the height of his career. First published in 1901, "Up from Slavery" is written in the first person, supplemented with excerpts from letters and newspaper editorials about the authors work.

Francis Bacon had many accomplishments. He was a scientist, a philosopher, and a politician, and he was adept, too, at taking bribes; for this he had been imprisoned. It is, however, as a literary man that he is perhaps best remembered, a writer so competent with the pen that for decades there have been some persons willing to argue that Bacon wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare.The essay form is rare in the modern age, although there are some faint signs of its revival. As Bacon used it, the essay is a carefully fashioned statement, both informative and expressive, by which a person comments on life and manners, on nature and its puzzles."The Essays" first appeared, ten in number, in 1597 (by 1612, the number of essays had been increased to thirty-eight). They were immediately popular because they were brief, lively, humane, and well-written. Perhaps they were effective in contrast to the rambling, florid prose written by most writers of the time. A considerable part of their charm lay in their civilised tone. In these essays, Bacon reveals himself as an inquisitive but also an appreciative man with wit enough to interest others. The essays concern themselves with such universal concepts as truth, death, love, goodness, friendship, fortune, and praise. They cover such controversial matters as religion, atheism, custom and education, and usury, and they consider such intriguing matters as envy, cunning, innovations, suspicion, ambition, praise, vainglory, and the vicissitudes of things.

First published in 1906, "The Mirror of the Sea" was the first of Joseph Conrads two autobiographical memoirs.When Joseph Conrad was discharged from the clipper Torrens in London during the summer of 1893, his seafaring career was over. He had travelled the world by then, risen in rank from apprentice to captain, survived shipwreck and turbulent seas. But after nineteen years afloat he longed for the land, and wrote to his cousin of the uniform grey of my existence. Once ashore, however, vivid memories of his past life began to surface. While steam and internal combustion were changing maritime travel forever, Conrad started to reflect on the voyages he had made in the Golden Age of Sail. "The Mirror of the Sea" is a personal meditation on the sea and its meanings by one of the twentieth centurys most important novelists.