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The Brothers Orville (1871 - 1948) and Wilbur (1867 – 1912) Wright made the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air flight, on 17th December 1903. They were not the first to build and fly aircraft, but they invented the controls that were necessary for a pilot to steer the aircraft, which made fixed wing powered flight possible. The Early History of the Airplane consists of three short essays about the beginnings of human flight. The second essay retells the first flight: This flight lasted only 12 seconds, but it was nevertheless the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight, had sailed forward without reduction of speed and had finally landed at a point as high as that from which it started. (Introduction by Availle)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, History, Short stories

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Simply put, this is a book of 9 short vignettes each of which describes a different scenario which demonstrates the age old adage: 'where there's a will, there's a way'. (Summary by Roger Melin)...

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Advice, Essay/Short nonfiction, History, Teen/Young adult, Short stories

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The Twelve Caesars is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire. The work was written in 121 during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, while Suetonius was Hadrian's personal secretary. On the Life of the Caesars concentrates on the acts and personalities of the Julio-Claudians and their immediate successors. Together with Tacitus' Annals, this work is a major source for the historical details in Robert Graves' novels I Claudius and Claudius the God. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline.)...

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History, Biography

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Canadian journalist William Jarvis' gently fictionalized work recounts many of the countless fascinating tales of the Klondike Gold Rush in Canada's Yukon. (Introduction by Cathy Barratt)...

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Historical Fiction, History

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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 7 subtitled “Unionized Crowns of England and Ireland”, addresses the Tudor period, particularly the actions of Woolsey and Henry VIII, before the Reformation, in 1541. (Summary by Sibella Denton)...

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History

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Antiquities of the Jews was a work published by the important Jewish historian Flavius Josephus about the year 93 or 94. Antiquities of the Jews is a history of the Jewish people, written in Greek for Josephus' gentile patrons. Beginning with the creation of Adam and Eve, it follows the events of the historical books of the Hebrew Bible, but sometimes omits or adds information. Volume 3 contains Books 11-15; it begins with the return of the Babylonian exiles under Cyrus, king of Persia and ends with King Herod rebuilding the temple (c. 559 BC - 20 BC)....

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Ancient Texts, History

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Louisbourg was no mere isolated stronghold which could be lost or won without affecting the wider issues of oversea dominion. On the contrary, it was a necessary link in the chain of waterside posts which connected France with America by way of the Atlantic, the St Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi. But since the chain itself and all its other links, and even the peculiar relation of Louisbourg to the Acadians and the Conquest, have been fully described elsewhere in the Chronicles of Canada, the present volume only tries to tell the purely individual tale. (Summary from Book preface)...

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History

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Xenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was a pupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans, and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him land and property in Scillus, where he lived for many years before having to move once more, to settle in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C. Anabasis is a Greek work which meane journey from the coast to the center of a country. This is Xenophon's account of his march to Persia with a troop of Greek mercenaries to aid Cyrus, who enlisted Greek help to try and take the throne from his brother Artaxerxes, and the ensuing return of the Greeks, in which Xenophon played a leading role. This occurred between 401 B.C. and March 399 B.C. H. G. Dakyns lived from (1838 - 1911). (Summary from Gutenberg version of text.)...

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History, Memoirs, Travel, Adventure

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A compilation of chronicles of the numerous impostors and impostures of kings, queens, and rulers. (Summary by Carmen H)

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Biography, History

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A satirical look at early biblical events from the point of view of someone who was there to witness most of them: the oldest man in recorded history. (Introduction by Matthew Reece)...

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Fiction, Satire

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A history of woman's role in science through the ages and the many contributions she has made. (summary by Guero)

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Science, History

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In this autobiographic novel, an aging man reflects on his past. We are witness to the relationships he has along the way, his mistakes, and finally- in the most unexpected and honorable way- the sudden developement of his belief in god. (Summary by Stav Nisser)...

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History, Biography

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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 4 begins with the first Norman invasion of the island and continues to the end of the 13th century. (Summary by Sibella Denton)...

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History

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It was a cloudy November day in 1863 when thousands gathered to hear renowned orator Edward Everett dedicate a national cemetary at the site of a pivotal battle early in July of that year. Also present to deliver a few appropriate remarks was the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln spoke but 278 words; Everett later wrote to the President, I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes. Though there are surviving transcripts of Everett's lengthly speech, it is Lincoln's words which have come to be known as The Gettysburg Address (Summary by Chip)...

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History

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EVERY age, every race, has its leaders and heroes. There were over sixty distinct tribes of Indians on this continent, each of which boasted its notable men. The names and deeds of some of these men will live in American history, yet in the true sense they are unknown, because misunderstood. I should like to present some of the greatest chiefs of modern times in the light of the native character and ideals, believing that the American people will gladly do them tardy justice. (Summary from the text)...

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Biography, History

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On 16th August 1819 around 60,000 people gathered at St. Peter’s Fields, Manchester, to rally for parliamentary reform. Shortly after the meeting began, a troop of Hussars and local yeomanry rode into the crowd, wielding clubs, swords and sabres, leaving 18 dead and more than 700 severely injured. In the following years, the Peterloo Massacre was the subject of several trials and inquiries. It now counts as one of the most significant events in the history of the British labour movement. Francis Archibald Bruton’s account of the day’s events, published for its centenary and based on a detailed exami nation of contemporary accounts, is both dispassionate and moving.(Introduction by Phil Benson)...

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History

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A short, humorous biography of famous people from 5000 BC to 1914. -- S. McGaughey From the Introduction, The editor begs leave to inform the public that only persons who can produce proper evidence of their demise will be admitted to Who Was Who. Press Agent notices or complimentary comments are absolutely excluded, and those offering to pay for the insertion of names will be prosecuted. As persons become eligible they will be included without solicitation, while the pages will be expurgated of others should good luck warrant....

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Humor, Biography, History

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History

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The Lives of the Queens of England is a multi-volumed work attributed to Agnes Strickland, though it was mostly researched and written by her sister Elizabeth. These volumes give biographies of the queens of England from the Norman Conquest in 1066. Although by today's standards, it is not seen as a very scholarly work, the Stricklands used many sources that had not been used before. Volume three includes the biographies of Isabella of Valois, Joanna of Navarre, Katherine of Valois, Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Woodville and Anne of Warwick. (Introduction by Ann Boulais)...

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History, Biography

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Amelia B. Edwards wrote this historical, egyptological, and cultural study in in 1877, and it became an immediate best-seller, reprinted in 1888 at home in England and abroad. She travelled throughout Egypt at a time when most women didn't leave home. One of the pioneering Egyptologists of the age, she established the Edwards Chair of Egyptology, occupied first by the great Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie. This book is in a sense a seminal work, known to have influenced the modern writings of Elizabeth Peters in her Amelia Peabody Emerson murder-mystery series. (Summary by Sibella Denton)...

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History, Travel