Published by the Allies' most respected historians on the eve of World War I, this book served as a backgrounder on one of Europe's key trouble spots. Still a superb overview of a region which remains unsettled to this day.
The book discusses the history of the major Balkan nationalities. It describes the differing conditions experienced under Ottoman and Habsburg rule, but the main emphasis is on the national movements, their successes and failures to 1900, and the place of events in the Balkans in the international relations of the day. This masterfully crafted eBook faithfully preserves the 1916 revised second edition.

The object of this work is to show how the States of Europe have gained the form and character which they possess at the present moment. The outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1792, terminating a period which now appears far removed from us, and setting in motion forces which have in our own day produced a united Germany and a united Italy, forms the natural starting-point of a history of the present century.

Born in 60 A.D., Suetonius served for several years as secretary to the Roman emperor Hadrian. His years in the palaces and halls of imperial government served him well when he set out to write this oftentimes eye-popping, tell-all account of the doings of the first 12 emperors, from Julius to Domitian, who make the good fellas of Mafia renown seem tame by comparison. From Suetonius we learn that Augustus was afraid of lightning and thunder and carried a piece of seal skin as protection against them; that Caligula slept with his mother and his sister; and that Nero outlawed mimes in Rome--which may mean that he wasn't such a bad man after all. Suetonius doesn't hesitate to say when he's reporting gossip that he has not personally verified, but what gossip it is!

Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish-born English historian and essayist, was a leading figure in the Victorian era. Carlyle's collected works (1974) comprises 30 volumes.
The French Revolution was written in dramatic language bringing the history of the revolution alive in a way that few historians have ever done.
Carlyle had to rewrite the book after he had sent the manuscript to John Stuart Mill, whose maid burned it - the only copy - for waste paper. Mill offered the author £200 compensation, he eventually accepted £100. The French Revolution was published when he was 42.
The French Revolution manifested the fundamental beliefs of Carlyle's own era just as the Trojan wars manifested the beliefs of the Greeks. Yet this subject was problematical because the revolution did more to destroy antiquated beliefs than to bring new beliefs to life; the only belief his society retained was the belief in unbelief that prevented him from authoring the new mythus promised in Sartor Resartus.
Carlyle did not write The French Revolution as a factual chronology of political events but as a sequence of symbolic episodes through which the narrator, and the reader, discover the meaning of their own era. For this purpose, he shaped a unique historical narrator who speaks in the first person and present tense, represents the voices of the historical actors, and interprets symbols in order to create a double narrative, both epic and mock epic, of the revolution.

On Wednesday, the 30th of May, 1431, Joan of Arc, aged approximately nineteen, was burned at the stake in the Old Market of the city of Rouen. This act of martyrdom culminated an astounding and meteoric career, extinguishing a life utterly without parallel in the annals of history.
Joan was born in the Lorraine village of Domrémy, most likely in the year 1412. Even as a young girl her piety was renowned in the region. She herself recounted how, at about the age of 13, she began to hear “Voices” from God telling her of her mission, which was to deliver her country from the English, and to crown the Dauphin as king of France. By the age of about 17, her feelings had become so strong that she spurned her family’s wishes and rejected the marriage that had been arranged for her. Instead, she bent every effort to get to the nearby town of Vaucouleurs, with the intention of convincing the local governor to arrange passage for her to meet with the Dauphin.

Mariano Azuela, the first of the "novelists of the Revolution," was born in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Mexico, in 1873. He studied medicine in Guadalajara and returned to Lagos in 1909, where he began the practice of his profession. He began his writing career early; in 1896 he published Impressions of a Student in a weekly of Mexico City. This was followed by numerous sketches and short stories, and in 1911 by his first novel, Andres Perez, maderista.
Like most of the young Liberals, he supported Francisco I. Madero's uprising, which overthrew the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz, and in 1911 was made Director of Education of the State of Jalisco. After Madero's assassination, he joined the army of Pancho Villa as doctor, and his knowledge of the Revolution was acquired at firsthand. When the counterrevolutionary forces of Victoriano Huerta were temporarily triumphant, he emigrated to El Paso, Texas, where in 1915 he wrote The Underdogs (Los de abajo), which did not receive general recognition until 1924, when it was hailed as the novel of the Revolution.
But Azuela was fundamentally a moralist, and his disappointment with the Revolution soon began to manifest itself. He had fought for a better Mexico; but he saw that while the Revolution had corrected certain injustices, it had given rise to others equally deplorable. When he saw the self-servers and the unprincipled turning his hopes for the redemption of the underprivileged of his country into a ladder to serve their own ends, his disillusionment was deep and often bitter. His later novels are marred at times by a savage sarcasm
During his later years, and until his death in 1952, he lived in Mexico City writing and practicing his profession among the poor.

Diarist and naval administrator Samuel Pepys studied at Cambridge, rose rapidly in the naval service, and became secretary to the Admiralty in 1672. He lost his office and was imprisoned in the Tower of London because of his alleged complicity in the Popish Plot (1678-9), but was reappointed in 1684 and in that same year became president of the Royal Society. At the Revolution (1688) he was again removed from office. The celebrated diary, which ran from 1 January 1660 to 31 May 1669, the year his wife died and his eyesight failed him, is of interest both as the personal record (and confessions) of a man of abounding love of life, and for the vivid picture it gives of contemporary life, including naval administration and Court intrigue. The highlights are probably the restoration and coronation of Charles II (1660), the Great Plague (1665-6), the Great Fire of London (1666), and the arrival of the Dutch fleet (1665-7). It was written in Thomas Shelton's Shorthand, and not decoded until 1825.

The writings of Josephus - the first century Jewish historian - are indispensible to a proper understanding of Jewish thought, background and history up to and around the time of Christ.

The insight given into the Essene community, the destruction of Jerusalem and the interpretations and traditions of the Old Testament in first century Judaism is invaluable. The outlook of Josephus, a late first century Pharisee and historian, on Jesus and the New Testament documents is enlightening and provocative. As an original reference, The Works of Josephus is essential to a full understanding of the first century, the time of Christ and the New Testament.

Winner of the first John Newbery Medal, here is Hendrik van Loon's renowned classic, updated for the twenty-first century. First published in 1921, The Story of Mankind has charmed generations of readers of all ages with its warmth, simplicity, and wisdom. Beginning with the origins of human life and sweeping forward to illuminate all of history, Hendrik van Loon's incomparable prose enlivens the characters and events of every age. His unique ability to convey history as a fascinating tale of adventure has endeared the book to countless readers and has accorded it a unique place in publishing history. This new version, which retains van Loon's original illustrations, has been brought up to date by John Merriman, professor of history at Yale University. It incorporates the most important developments of the last two decades--including space exploration, the emergence of the developing countries, the Cold War, the Internet, and the astounding advances we have witnessed in medicine and science--and looks forward into the prospect of the twenty-first century. Over 500,000 copies sold; translated into eighteen languages, the #2 best-selling nonfiction book in 1921, the year it was first published.

The sacred wisdom of the priests of ancient Egypt and the experiences of the soul after death: one of the most important books in history. Includes full hieroglyphic text along with a transliteration of sounds, word-for-word translation; a separate smooth translation.
"Book of the Dead" is the title now commonly given to the great collection of funerary texts which the ancient Egyptian scribes composed for the benefit of the dead. These consist of spells and incantations, hymns and litanies, magical formulae and names, words of power and prayers, and they are found cut or painted on walls of pyramids and tombs, and painted on coffins and sarcophagi and rolls of papyri.

In this story, Mr. Henty gives the history of the first part of the Thirty Years' War. The issue had its importance, which has extended to the present day, as it established religious freedom in Germany. The army of the chivalrous King of Sweden was largely composed of Scotsmen, and among these was the hero of the story.
Henty's storytelling skills allegedly grew out of tales told after dinner to his own children. He wrote over 140 books, not counting short stories for magazines. His fiction typically revolved around a fictional boy (or boys) living in "troubled times". These ranged from Punic War to the more recent conflicts such as Napoleonic Wars or American Civil War. The protagonists were uniformly intelligent, courageous and devoted without reserve to their country or cause.