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Phoebe Yates Pember served as a matron in the Confederate Chimborazo military hospital in Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, overseeing a dietary kitchen serving meals to 300 or more wounded soldiers daily. Reminiscences of a Southern Hospital is her vivid recounting of hospital life and of her tribulations (and personal growth) as a female administrator. To follow her from day one, when she is greeted with “ill-repressed disgust” that “one of them had come,” and she, herself, “could only understand that the position was one which dove-tailed the offices of housekeeper and cook” to the day when she as exerts control over the hospital’s “medicinal whiskey barrel” is to watch a woman find herself. Besides describing “daily scenes of pathos,” Pember gives a horrifying account of the prisoner exchange of November 1864 (“living and dead . . . not distinguishable”), and also of the evacuation and burning of Richmond in 1865. Her memoirs were serialized in Cosmopolite magazine in 1866, then reprinted in book form in 1879 under the title A Southern Woman’s Story. Pember was honored by the US Postal Service with a stamp in 1995. (Summ...

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Memoirs, History, War stories

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The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the first work of history in Western literature. Written about 440 BC, the Histories tell the story of the war between the Persian Empire and the Greek city-states in the 5th century BC. Herodotus traveled extensively around the ancient world, conducting interviews and collecting stories for his book. The rise of the Persian Empire is chronicled, and the causes for the conflict with Greece. Herodotus treats the conflict as an ideological one, frequently contrasting the absolute power of the Persian king with the democratic government of the Greeks. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia.)...

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History

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The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the first work of history in Western literature. Written about 440 BC, the Histories tell the story of the war between the Persian Empire and the Greek city-states in the 5th century BC. Herodotus traveled extensively around the ancient world, conducting interviews and collecting stories for his book. The rise of the Persian Empire is chronicled, and the causes for the conflict with Greece. Herodotus treats the conflict as an ideological one, frequently contrasting the absolute power of the Persian king with the democratic government of the Greeks. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia.)...

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History

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The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the first work of history in Western literature. Written about 440 BC, the Histories tell the story of the war between the Persian Empire and the Greek city-states in the 5th century BC. Herodotus traveled extensively around the ancient world, conducting interviews and collecting stories for his book. The rise of the Persian Empire is chronicled, and the causes for the conflict with Greece. Herodotus treats the conflict as an ideological one, frequently contrasting the absolute power of the Persian king with the democratic government of the Greeks. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia.)...

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History

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The newspapers of Hawaii form a unique role in the history of Hawaii and of American journalism. In a period of 165 years, from 1834, when American Protestant missionaries introduced the Hawaiian language Lama Hawaii (Hawaiian Luminary), to the present, newspapers have spanned the history of Hawaii from its status as an independent nation, a republic, and a U. S. territory, to its position as a state. By newspapers, I mean publications that have titles and mastheads, and appear serially, generally on newsprint, unbound, and without covers. Size and style have varied dramatically over two centuries from single sheets to 100 pages plus. Some papers were issued once or twice; others from their first appearance are still in print today. Some were conceived as newsletters or magazines, and then became newspapers. By reverse, others started as newspapers and changed their format. But all are recognizable by format and topical subject matter. Between 1834 and 2000, approximately 1,250 separately titled papers have appeared in print. This is an estimate because, for example, in the case of no holdings having been found for some p...

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There are several ways to classify newspapers. In Shaping History: The Role of Newspapers in Hawaii (University of Hawaii Press, 1996), I placed newspapers within four major categories: establishment, opposition (or alternative), official, and independent. Establishment papers represent the mainstream or dominant power. Alternative or opposition publications voice anti-establishment or countervailing views. Official papers, the third type, are sponsored by government agencies. Independent journals, the rarest form, are unallied to any special interest. The present work calls for a different organization. There are three main sections. Section I organizes the newspapers alphabetically by the title's first noun: for example, Aha Elele, Ka (The Convention), or Facho, O (The Torch), or Honolulu Advertiser, The. There are two exceptions. One is those Hawaiian language papers commonly referred to by the article preceding the noun, as in Ka Leo O Ka Lahui (The Voice of the Nation), or Na Pahu Kane (Sounding Drums). The other, for the same reason, is the Filipino language papers, as in Ti Silaw (The Light) and Ang Bantay (The Gu...

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Introduction -- 1 -- Alphabetical Listing and Annotations of Newspapers by Title -- 5 -- Categories of Newspapers -- 111 -- African American -- 111 -- Alternative -- 111 -- Chinese -- 112 -- Church -- 112 -- Cultural -- 113 -- Establishment -- 113 -- Filipino -- 116 -- Government -- 117 -- Hawaiian -- 117 -- Hispanic -- 119 -- Independent -- 119 -- Indonesian -- 119 -- Japanese -- 119 -- Jewish -- 121 -- Korean -- 121 -- Labor -- 121 -- Micronesian -- 122 -- Military -- 122 -- Plantation -- 123 -- Portuguese -- 124 -- Prison -- 124 -- Samoan -- 124 -- School -- 124 -- Sports -- 124 -- Tongan -- 125 -- Tourist -- 125 -- Unclassified -- 125 -- Underground -- 125 -- Vietnamese -- 125 -- Newspapers in Print by Years 1834–2000 -- 127 --...

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volunteers bring you 13 recordings of Longings for Home by Walt Whitman. This was the Weekly Poetry project for August 26, 2012. Born on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and – in addition to publishing his poetry – was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. He died at age 72 and his funeral became a public spectacle. ( Summary from Wikipedia )...

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Adventure, History, Memoirs, Nature, Poetry

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Major John Graham Gillam, British Supply Officer, wrote in his World War I Gallipoli Diary that when he sailed from England for the Dardanelles in March, 1915, he had visions of “trekking up the Gallipoli Peninsula with the Navy bombarding a way for us up the Straits and along the coast-line of the Sea of Marmora, until after a brief campaign we entered triumphantly Constantinople, there to meet the Russian Army, which would link up with ourselves to form part of a great chain encircling and throttling the Central Empires. . . We little appreciated the difficulties of the task,” he continues, in potent understatement. Gillam’s charge was shepherding supplies--food and munitions--from beach depots to the trenches for a brigade of 4000 men. Since it was his first experience with “real war,” he decided to keep a diary, which he did from the day he landed at Gallipoli (April 25, 1915) until he was evacuated at the end of the campaign in January 1916. He aptly states in the preface to the published version of his diary: “those who desire to survey the whole amazing Gallipoli campaign in perspective must look elsewhere than in these pages...

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History, War stories

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The Articles of Confederation: On November 15th, 1777 The Articles of Confederation became the first constitution of the United States, though not yet ratified by the thirteen original colonies. Ratification of the Articles took place almost three and a half years later on March 1st, 1781. The purpose of the articles was to create a confederation of sovereign states with a weak central government; thus allowing state governments to wield most of the power. It wasn’t long before the need for a stronger federal government was realized which led to the Articles being replaced by the United States Constitution. The Articles of Confederation is the common term for The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The U.S. Constitution: The United States Constitution is the legal backbone of the United States of America and comprises the basic laws of the United States Federal Government. Delegates from twelve of the thirteen original colonies put the Constitution’s frame work together in May 1787 in Philadelphia. The Constitution defines the three branches of government and their jurisdictions; they are the Executive Branch (President/V...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, History

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The Inquiry into the Role and Oversight of Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan, which reported in September 2010, was precipitated by events in August 2008, when US forces bombed the Afghan village of Azizabad. This gave rise to a public dispute between the US Government and the United Nations about the level of fatalities caused by the attack and about whether those killed had been civilians or Taliban-linked insurgents. Allegations soon emerged that the attack had been based on false information deliberately fed to the US military by Afghan employees of ArmorGroup, a private security contractor, and that these employees were engaged in murder and anti-coalition activities. A key local contact of ArmorGroup, who they dubbed Mr Pink, was subsequently convicted of espionage and sentenced to death, but was later freed....

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History, Politics

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On preservation of the Western rights, freedoms and quality of life in 21st century and beyond

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Systemic approach to life of the highly cultured people provides them with higher level of happiness simply because their lives are better organized, risks are covered, reserves are maintained, dangers avoided, contacts established and so on so forth. Culture is not something that comes only with DNA, but genetic pre-disposition towards culture exists without doubt. Otherwise there would be no examples of people raising themselves above the scum they were born in and reaching high levels of society. Understanding of the elements of high culture, its systemic approach to organizing one’s life, can be practiced by virtually everybody. One just needs to want to elevate themselves and work towards that goal, which may involve getting better training and education, moving to a different neighborhood, getting a different job, spending time on more important things rather than on leisure, quitting drinking and smoking, refusing drugs, taking care of health, concentrating on the upbringing of the children and helping them in their adult life, babysitting grand-children, watching over quality of food supply and keeping the family ...

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Table of Contents Introduction iii Table of Contents iv About this book ix Who should not read this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Who is this book for? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Response to our critics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x About the authors xiii I What do we want to preserve and why? 1 1 Foreword 3 2 Measuring the quality of life 5 2.1 Individual happiness and self-fulfillment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.2 Individual rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.3 Social harmony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3 Checks and balances 11 3.1 Acceptable personal risk and responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4 What is worth to fight for? 15 4.1 Security of the person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 4.2 Personal and societal wealth . . . . . . . . . . . . ....

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A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, government, military history, science, philosophy, sports, nature and religion. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

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History, Nature, Philosophy, Religion, War stories, Science, Politics

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After the American Civil War, John R. Lynch, who had been a slave in Mississippi, began his political career in 1869 by first becoming Justice of the Peace, and then Mississippi State Representative. He was only 26 when he was elected to the US Congress in 1873. There, he continued to be an activist, introducing many bills and arguing on their behalf. Perhaps his greatest effort was in the long debate supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to ban discrimination in public accommodations. In 1884 Lynch was the first African American nominated after a moving speech by Theodore Roosevelt to the position of Temporary Chairman of the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. During the Spanish-American War of 1898, he was appointed Treasury Auditor and then Paymaster under the Republicans. In 1901, he began serving with the Regular Army with tours of duty in the United States, Cuba, and the Philippines. Lynch retired from the Army in 1911, then married Cora Williams. They moved to Chicago, where he practiced law. He also became involved in real estate. After his death in Chicago 1939 at the age of 92, he was buried with milita...

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Economics/Political Economy, History, Memoirs, Politics