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This book is an early history of the Starved Rock Area in Northern Illinois. In the pre-Columbian era, the Starved Rock area was home to Native Americans, particularly the Kaskaskia who lived in the Grand Village of the Illinois across the river. Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans recorded as exploring the region, and by 1683, the French had established Fort St. Louis on a large sandstone butte overlooking the river. According to a native legend, a group of Illinois Confederation (Illini) pursued by the Ottawa and Potawatomi fled to the butte in the late 18th century. The Ottawa and Potawatomi besieged the butte until all of the Illini had starved, and the butte became known as Starved Rock. The butte area was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1960. (Introduction by Wikipedia and Veronica Jenkins)...

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History

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David Hume is one of the great philosophers of the Western intellectual tradition. His philosophical writings earned him lasting fame and renown; his historical writing earned his bread and butter. His The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688, published between 1754 and 1764, was immensely popular and Hume wrote that the copy-money given me by the booksellers much exceeded any thing formerly known in England; I was become not only independent, but opulent. The six volume work has had numerous editions and is still in print today. David Hume and Thomas Babington Macaulay have frequently been compared as the premier English historians but we don't have to choose because Macaulay begins where Hume leaves off. (Summary by Richard Carpenter)...

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History

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Macht oder ökonomisches Gesetz? by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851 - 1914) Language: Deutsch (German) Böhm-Bawerk, Mitbegründer der Österreichischen Schule der Nationalökonomie, erörtert, ob ökonomische Gesetze auch für den Staat gelten. (Zusammenfassung von redaer) Böhm-Bawerk, Macht oder ökonomisches Gesetz? Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung, Bd. XXIII (S.205–271)...

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Economics/Political Economy

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Thomas D'Arcy McGee was an Irish refugee and a father of the Canadian confederation. His work on Irish history is comprehensive, encompassing twelve books; book 3 begins with the fortune of the family of Brian Boru and continues through the rise of the O'Conors to the political, economic, and religious condition of the island prior to the English invasion. (Summary by Sibella Denton)...

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History

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The only fire for the whole house was the kitchen stove, with a fire box about eighteen inches long and eight inches wide and deep,- scant space for three or four small sticks, around which in hard zero weather all the family of ten shivered, and beneath which in the morning we found our socks and coarse, soggy boots frozen solid. Thus, with perceptive eye for detail, the American naturalist, John Muir, describes life on a pioneer Wisconsin farm in the 1850's. Muir was only eleven years old when his father uprooted the family from a relatively comfortable life in Dunbar, Scotland, to settle in the backwoods of North America. The elder Muir was a religious fundamentalist. What his father taught, John Muir writes, was grim self denial, in season and out of season, to mortify the flesh, keep our bodies in subjection to Bible laws, and mercilessly punish ourselves for every fault, imagined or committed. Muir's father believed that the Bible was the only book human beings could possibly require, while John secretly read every volume of poetry and literature he could get his hands on. With no formal schooling after leaving Scotland, John ...

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Memoirs

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Kenyan Luo (also known as Dholuo) belongs to the Luo grouping within the Western Nilotic grouping of the Nilo-Saharan language family. It is spoken by the Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania, numbering about 3 million, who occupy parts of the eastern shore of Lake Victoria and areas south of there. It is used for broadcasts on KBC (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, formerly the Voice of Kenya) and Radio Ramogi. Dholuo is closely related to Lango, Acholi and Dhopadhola of Uganda. It is not to be confused with the fellow Western Nilotic language Luwo (spoken in Sudan); in addition, both of the aforementioned languages Lango and Acholi have the alternative names Lwo or Lwoo. A Handbook of the Kavirondo Language, published in Nairobi in 1920 by Some Fathers of St. Joseph's Society, is one of the earliest written accounts of the Dholuo language. The authors wrote: The language treated in this Grammar is spoken by a tribe inhabiting a great part of Kavirondo. On the north they border on the Mumias people and on the south on the Kisii. It is beyond our scope here to give a history of their settlement in the country round about Victoria Nyanza. ...

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Instruction, Languages

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The published dictionary was a huge book: with pages nearly 1½ feet tall and 20 inches wide, it contained 42,773 words; it also sold for the huge price of £4/10s. ($400?). It would be years before Johnson's Dictionary, as it came to be known, would ever turn a profit; authors' royalities being unknown at that time, Johnson, once his contract to deliver the book was fulfilled, received no further monies connected to the book. Johnson, once again a freelance writer, albeit now a famous one, faced a grim hand-to-mouth existence; however, in July 1762 the twenty-four year old King George III granted Johnson an annual pension of £300. While not making Johnson rich, it allowed him a modest yet comfortable independence for the remaining thirty years of his life. (Summary from Wikipedia)....

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History, Languages

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Following the Equator (American English title) or More Tramps Abroad (English title) is a non-fiction travelogue published by American author Mark Twain in 1897. Twain was practically bankrupt in 1894 due to a failed investment into a revolutionary typesetting machine. In an attempt to extricate himself from debt of $100,000 (equivalent of about $2 million in 2005) he undertook a tour of the British Empire in 1895, a route chosen to provide numerous opportunities for lectures in the English language. In Following the Equator, an account of that travel published in 1897, the author unmasks and criticizes racism, imperialism and missionary zeal in observations woven into the narrative with classical Twain wit. Of particular interest, historically, are Twain's references to Cecil Rhodes in Australia and South Africa, the in-depth description of Thugs and Thuggee in India and the Boer War period and diamonds in South Africa. (Summary by Wikipedia and John Greenman)...

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Travel, Humor

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Early in the summer of 1860, I had an attack of gold fever. In Chicago, the conditions for such a malady were all favorable. Since the panic of 1857 there had been three years of general depression, money was scarce, there was little activity in business, the outlook was discouraging, and I, like hundreds of others, felt blue. Thus Chalkley J. Hambleton begins his pithy and engrossing tale of participation in the Pike's Peak gold rush. Four men in partnership hauled 24 tons of mining equipment by ox cart across the Great Plains from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Denver, Colorado. Hambleton vividly recounts their encounters with buffalo herds, Indians, andthe returning army of disappointed gold seekers. Setting up camp near Mountain City, Colorado, Hambleton watched one man wash several nice nuggets of shining gold from the dirt and gravel, only to learn afterwards that these same nuggets had been washed out several times before, whenever a 'tenderfoot' would come along, who it was thought might want to buy a rich claim. Two years later, tired and disgusted with the whole business, Hambleton returned to Chicago, where he arrived a wiser i...

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Biography, Memoirs, Westerns

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Ab urbe condita, is a monumental history of ancient Rome written in the Latin language by Titus Livius, an ancient Roman historian. The work covers the time from the stories of Aeneas, the earliest legendary period from before the city's founding in c. 753 BC, to Livy's own times in the reign of the emperor, Augustus. The last year covered by Livy is 745 AUC, or 9 BC, the death of Drusus. About 25% of the work survives. Livy's History of Rome was in demand from the publication of the first packet. Livy became so famous that a man from Cadiz travelled to Rome just to see him, and once he had seen, returned home. The popularity of the work continued through the entire classical period. A number of Roman authors used Livy, including Aurelius Victor, Cassiodorus, Eutropius, Festus, Florus, Granius Licinianus and Orosius. Livy wrote during the reign of Augustus, who came to power after a civil war with generals and consuls claiming to be defending the Roman Republic. Livy's enthusiasm for the republic is evident from the first pentade of his work, and yet the Julio-Claudian family were as much fans of Livy as anyone. Livy must have been ...

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Ancient Texts, Classics (antiquity), History

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“This volume is primarily intended to supply a working and practical knowledge of the Persian language, for the benefit of those who have not the time or the inclination to master the grammar, and yet require to use the spoken tongue for purposes of business or pleasure. With this object in view it supplies many vocabularies of words carefully selected to suit the needs of those holding communication with Persia and the Persians, classified according to subject, and a large number of colloquial phrases and sentences of a practical character, similarly classified… This work thus forms a useful and valuable handbook of Persian for tourists and travellers, commercial men, naval and military officers, students and others. We may add that the Persian language is very sweet, and compared with other languages it is easy to master. It has a complete literature of its own. It is not spoken in Persia alone, but in Afghanistan and many parts of India, and is the official language of some of the courts of that country. It is also used in Turkish Arabia (Baghdad), and by educated people in Russian Turkestan.” (Summary from the Preface, by Shaykh...

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Languages, Instruction

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One of the beneficial results of the Great War has been the teaching of thrift to the American housewife. For patriotic reasons and for reasons of economy, more attention has been bestowed upon the preparing and cooking of food that is to be at once palatable, nourishing and economical. In the Italian cuisine we find in the highest degree these three qualities. That it is palatable, all those who have partaken of food in an Italian trattoria or at the home of an Italian family can testify, that it is healthy the splendid manhood and womanhood of Italy is a proof more than sufficient. And who could deny, knowing the thriftiness of the Italian race, that it is economical? It has therefore been thought that a book of practical recipes of the Italian cuisine could be offered to the American public with hope of success. It is not a pretentious book, and the recipes have been made as clear and simple as possible. Some of the dishes described are not peculiar to Italy. All, however, are representative of the Cucina Casalinga of the peninsular Kingdom, which is not the least product of a lovable and simple people, among whom the art of livi...

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Cookery, Advice, Instruction

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This is Volume 1 of William Mann’s “Esperanto Self-Taught with Phonetic Pronunciation”. It is part of a series of Self-Taught books written by various authors that include vocabularies of common words, elementary grammars and conversational phrases. The present volume contains thirty-seven vocabularies of common Esperanto words. If you want to learn Esperanto words or improve your Esperanto vocabulary, this volume may be of use to you. Mann writes, in the preface, that his work “supplies very full and comprehensive vocabularies of the words required by the tourist or traveller, visitor or resident abroad, health or pleasure seeker, and professional or business man, together with a large number of conversational sentences of a typical and practical character. The words and phrases are classified according to subject, and the phonetic pronunciation of every word is added in accordance with Marlborough's simple and popular system of phonetics. With the aid of this book anyone may undertake a trip to a foreign land, even if he know nothing of the language of the country he is going to, and, if he will put himself beforehand in communica...

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Languages, Instruction

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Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, commonly called Leviathan, is a book written in 1651 by Thomas Hobbes. It is titled after the biblical Leviathan. The book concerns the structure of society (as represented figuratively by the frontispiece, showing the state giant made up of individuals), as is evidenced by the full title. In the book, Thomas Hobbes argues for a social contract and rule by a sovereign. Influenced by the English Civil War, Hobbes wrote that chaos or civil war - situations identified with a state of nature and the famous motto Bellum omnium contra omnes (the war of all against all) - could only be averted by strong central government. He thus denied any right of rebellion toward the social contract. However, Hobbes did discuss the possible dissolution of the State. Since the social contract was made to institute a state that would provide for the peace and defense of the people, the contract would become void as soon as the government no longer protected its citizens. By virtue of this fact, man would automatically return to the state of nature until a new contract...

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Philosophy, Politics

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Read in English, this is a pivotal document in the history of Zionism and the State of Israel. Herzl designed this work to elevate the discussion of the Jewish Question so it would no longer take the form of violent abuse or sentimental vindication but of a debate, practical, large, earnest, and political. While few of Herzl's proposals were actually carried out, the importance of A JEWISH STATE was in the groundswell of support for a Jewish homeland engendered by its solutions to the practical problems of establishing a new state. In the words of a contemporary, [Herzl] made it seem possible. Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl (1860-1904) was a Hungarian writer, political economist, and Jewish activist. (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)...

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Economics/Political Economy, History, Religion

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This investigation of Bacon the scholar and man of letters begins with a look at the early days ang progresses to his relationships with Queen Elizabeth and James I. It includes accounts of his positions as solicitor general, attorney-general, and chancellor. The book concludes with Bacon's failure, his overall philosophy, and summaries of his writings. ( Summary by Bill Boerst )...

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Biography, Economics/Political Economy, History, Literature, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Science

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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