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”Why do you choose such a title as The Valley of Vision for your book” said my friend; “do you mean that one can see farther from the valley than from the mountain-top?” This question set me thinking, as every honest question ought to do. Here is the result of my thoughts, which you will take for what it is worth, if you care to read the book. The mountain-top is the place of outlook over the earth and the sea. But it is in the valley of suffering, endurance, and self-sacrifice that the deepest visions of the meaning of life come to us. I take the outcome of this Twentieth Century War as a victory over the mad illusion of world-domination which the Germans saw from the peak of their military power in 1914. The united force of the Allies has grown, through valley-visions of right and justice and human kindness, into an irresistible might before which the German “will to power” has gone down in ruin. (From the Preface)...

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Formed during World War II, the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS), was organized for special operations and intelligence gathering and analysis. Included in its mission was the implementation of, and training of foreign forces in, propaganda, espionage, subversion, and sabotage. After the war, OSS functions were transferred to the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This Simple Sabotage Field Manual was used by OSS agents in training citizen-saboteurs in methods for inciting and executing simple sabotage to thwart industry and other vital functions in Axis-occupied areas. (Summary by James Christopher)...

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My Life in the South is the vivid and touching autobiography of African-American former slave, Jacob Stroyer. It recounts experiences from his early childhood on the planation up to his involvement in Confederacy's war effort and eventually his experience of becoming a free man....

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Memoirs

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Moncure Daniel Conway was an American abolitionist, Unitarian, clergyman and author. This first volume of his autobiography covers roughly the years of his birth through the end of the US Civil War. (Summary by JoeD)...

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Biography

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A brief record of the fighting on the Eastern front in the great war by a participant in that great conflict (Summary by FNH)

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War stories

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This is a collection of a series of journalistic articles written during his travels throughout WWI era Europe that Churchill -- the American author, not the famed British statesman -- published in 1917; the book version came out in 1918. The writing is sharp, straightforward, and rarely sentimental, with loads of local color and occasional humor. (Summary by BellonaTimes)...

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Travel

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A brief history of The Great War (World War I) designed for students in grades seven and eight. Special emphasis on European history leading up to the war, reasons and events leading to America's eventual entering the war, and possible ramifications of the war for future generations. (Summary by James Christopher)...

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History

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This book is one of the earliest studies of Philippine history by an American scholar. In preparation for this book, the author conducted ethnological studies of indiginous island tribes after the American war in the Philippines. Since this book was intended for the Philippine reader, the author nicely places the history of the Islands into the broader context of European and American history. (Summary by JoeD)...

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History

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This chapter traces the history of the Glorious Revolution in Scotland, including the reaction of the country's religious parties, the installment of William and Mary, and the campaigns of the Highland Army. (Summary by Leon Mire)...

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History

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A lively, interesting and important collection of 17th century love-letters written by an English lady, against the background of the Civil War and the Restoration [summary by hefyd] After refusing a long string of suitors put forth by her family, including her cousin Thomas Osborne, Henry Cromwell (son of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell) and Sir Justinian Isham, in 1655 Dorothy Osborne married Sir William Temple, a man with whom she had carried on a lengthy clandestine courtship that was largely epistolary in nature. It is for her letters to Temple, which were witty, progressive and socially illuminating, that Osborne is remembered. Only Osborne's side of the correspondence survived and comprises a collection of seventy-seven letters held in the British Library. (Summary from Wikipedia) Note: This reading contains all the letters in the correspondence but leaves out the editorial comments....

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Memoirs

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Samuel “Sam” Rush Watkins (June 26, 1839 – July 20, 1901) was a noted Confederate soldier during the American Civil War. He is known today for his memoir Company Aytch: Or, a Side Show of the Big Show , often heralded as one of the best primary sources about the common soldier's Civil War experience....Sam’s writing style is quite engaging and skillfully captures the pride, misery, glory, and horror experienced by the common foot soldier. Watkins is often featured and quoted in Ken Burns’ 1990 documentary titled The Civil War ....

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Memoirs

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Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish captain in the French Army was court martialed in 1894 on a trumped up charge of treason and condemned to life imprisonment on Devil’s island, a penal colony off French Guiana. His prison diary, published as Five Years of My Life in 1901 is a heroic tale of survival against daunting odds: isolation, deprivation, torture . . Alfred left behind in Paris his wife Lucie, who, forbidden to join her husband in exile, struggled to protect their two children from the rampant anti-Semitism that swirled about them, while she begged her husband to hold onto life as she tried to clear his name. Excerpts from the letters that Alfred and Lucie wrote to each other, between Devil’s island and Paris, are included in Five Years. Their letters are one of the great love stories of all times. “I live only by feverish will from day to day,” Dreyfus wrote to Lucie on September 4, 1897. Imprisoned in a walled-in hut in brutal heat, for months chained to his bed at night so that he could not turn over, watched 24-hours a day by guards who were forbidden to speak to him, denied books to read or any means of exercising, and only at se...

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Memoirs

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Alcott in 1862 served as a nurse in Georgetown, D.C during the Civil War. She wrote home what she observed there. Those harrowing and sometimes humorous letters compiled make up Hospital Sketches. (Summary by Aaron Elliott)...

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Memoirs

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This chapter of Macaulay’s, History of England is concerned, for a large part, with insurrection against James II and his manoeuverings to suppress these. Argyle has been sheltering in Holland and returns to raise an army against James. Although brave and quick witted, he was no leader of men and the army became a confused rabble and were dispersed. Argyle was captured and died bravely. Monmouth had also been sheltering in Holland and he landed at Lyme and declared himself king on 20th June 1685. He was defeated at the battle of Sedgemoor and eventually caught and executed. Monmouth is a fine romantic and of course ultimately tragic figure. The chapter comes to an end with the Bloody Assizes and the very bloody Judge Jeffries. Summary by Jim Mowatt...

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History

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

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History

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Admiral George Dewey, United States Navy, is best remembered for his victory over the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War (1898). Written when Dewey was seventy-five years old and had served fifty-nine years in the navy, this book offers not only an excellent account of the famous naval battle in the Philippines, but also stories of the author’s many adventures during his long sea-going career, including some hair-raising experiences during the Civil War. (Summary by Delmar H. Dolbier)...

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Biography

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Mr. Desjardins was driven to write this work to refute statements uttered by the nationalist Henri Bourassa, which the former feared painted all Quebecers with the same unpatriotic brush in respect to their contribution to the Great War. (Summary by Cathy Barratt)...

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History

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The Wars of the Jews (or The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, or as it usually appears in modern English translations, The Jewish War - original title: Phlauiou Iôsêpou historia Ioudaïkou polemou pros Rhômaious bibliona) is a book written by the 1st century Jewish historian Josephus. It is a description of Jewish history from the capture of Jerusalem by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 164 BC to the fall and destruction of Jerusalem in the First Jewish-Roman War in AD 70. The book was written about 75, originally in Josephus's paternal tongue, probably Aramaic, though this version has not survived. It was later translated into Greek, probably under the supervision of Josephus himself. The sources of knowledge that we have of this war are: Josephus's account and from the Talmud (gittin 57b) and in midrash Eichah....

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History

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The First Anglo–Afghan War was fought between British India and Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842. It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between the United Kingdom and Russia, and also marked one of the worst setbacks inflicted on British power in the region after the consolidation of British Raj by the East India Company. (Summary by Phil)...

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History

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The subject of our policy on the North-West frontier of India is one of great importance, as affecting the general welfare of our Eastern Empire, and is specially interesting at the present time, when military operations on a considerable scale are being conducted against a combination of the independent tribes along the frontier. It must be understood that the present condition of affairs is no mere sudden outbreak on the part of our turbulent neighbours. Its causes lie far deeper, and are the consequences of events in bygone years. (From the author's Preface, 1897)....

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History