American History ebooks Library

 

 

Links to history sites I used in my research (a web page will open with the links listed).


History bored me until William Strauss and Neil Howe came along. 

History meant nothing to me, until these two men created the phenomenal books Generations and The Fourth Turning (to learn more about Strauss and Howe, please visit them at their main web site www.lifecourse.com. Also, you can visit my generations page to see more of their work.) Once I began delving into their work I became fascinated with American History. This page is dedicated to ebooks in American History.

ebooks are a researchers dream. They are searchable and can be annotated with ease. Take Adobe Acrobat for instance. (my personal favorite). I can load an ebook in adobe and while I'm reading I can highlight passages just like a regular book. The big difference being, when I'm done with the ebook, I can tell Adobe to create a report based on my highlights. Boom. In a few seconds I have all my notes in a consolidated report. I've literally saved hours and hours of productivity time. 

ebooks also provide a searching tool that is so vital in a researchers world; the ability to search text quickly. When I'm writing a paper or a book, I make statements that I usually want to back up with hard evidence. Sure, there's times I can remember which author I need to support my statement or which book the evidence is in. However, I can't remember exactly where it is in the book. The result is having to search manually through the book to look for the passage or the quote. Not my favorite task. I consider it a waste of time because I know that there's a better way. 

I want to spend my time writing and reading. Not searching for a quote. With ebooks, it's instantaneous. Plug in a few words that represent the evidence I'm looking for and click search. Boom. There it is. Furthermore, I can cut and paste it into my paper without having to type it. One of the many things a researcher worries about is misquoting someone. With the cut n paste feature, it's not possible to misquote anyone. And, again. it saves so much time. 

Lastly, ebooks are so cheap at the moment, it's ridiculous.  I just bought 3000 for $29.95. Many are free. What I want to convey to you is that this will not last. This is a cycle and the cycle will correct itself. Many new inventions are given away or sold very cheaply to get people to try them or, like most ebooks that are in the public domain there's no one that needs to collect royalties. Many people have tried this model on the internet since its inception, especially software makers. That model is: Give it away for free. In the case of software, that is changing. Many software writers have conformed to the standard of giving away a 'lite' version or stripped down version of their software. Then, they hope you'll buy the full version at later date.  No one knew that this would be the model back in the beginning of the Net. This model took years to manifest. The same model is manifesting in articles and papers on the net. Writers are giving you a piece of the article, then if you want to subscribe to the web site or pay a nominal fee for the rest of the article, you do. It's an upgrade.  

The same will happen to ebooks, except in a different way. 

Since the ebook itself is not proprietary, there are several things that will probably take place. 1) It won't be about the books, it'll be about the table of contents and the indexing. For example: Project Gutenberg  is a massive project. It's been in place since 1970. You can read about it at their web site. It's quite fascinating. But, what this project has enabled people to do is compile massive amounts of ebooks, burn them onto CD-ROM's and sell them. Earlier I said I bought 3000 books for 29.95. That was from this project. Someone collected them, burned them, and began selling them. Then it explodes exponentially. A business opportunity is born that anyone can do from their desk top. 

What hasn't been done to these CD-ROM's full of ebooks, is comprehensive organization. Something that can be used by researchers, teachers, business and everyday users. When you buy the CD-ROM it is organized with the Gutenberg index. Basically, you unzip the books and place them on your hard drive or just access them from the CD-ROM as needed. How do you access them though? How are you supposed to know what is what? Your given a searchable database. Put in the author or the book and search. The result is found and the title of the book has a corresponding number. Search again to find the number, because that's how all the books are stored:  by numbers, not authors or titles. This is useless. 

The true value will come from these databases when they are better organized. But that takes time. Lots and lots and lots of time. I'm currently organizing the 3000 books I bought. I'm doing 10 a day. I'll be done in three months. So, now you see what I mean about the time. The value is in having a concise, searchable and readable TOC and Index. 

I have found some people who are selling ebooks on CD-ROM's, on the Internet. They are usually categorized by subject. like, American History. They may have 400 or 100 or 800, titles. The ones worth buying are the ones that are already in a searchable easy to read format and there aren't many of them. Moreover, the interesting part is that the TOC and the Indexes are copyrighted! There's the value! 

The TOC on this page is copyrighted and here are the credits: 

The Table of Contents for this site includes the work of  "B&R Samizdat Express"  Please visit their online store. I can vouch for there products! They have a TOC! Very valuable. (Copyright © 2003 Richard Seltzer)

Like I said, this cheap pricing will not last. I encourage you to get them why the goings good. They will not be around 10-15 years from now at these prices. I really wonder if it will even take that long. 
 

This web page is dedicated to ebooks about American History. 

Feel free to download them for free. All books are in Text format and can be read with any ebook reader or word processing software program.

This TOC is the work of Richard Seltzer (Copyright © 2003 Richard Seltzer)  "B&R Samizdat Express"   (Excellent work Richard!)

Please visit Richard's online store at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat. I can vouch for his products!

 

 

  Table of Contents

^{(Click icon to the left to return to the top of the Table of Contents)}

Colonial period

• Christopher Columbus by Mildred Stapley

• Christopher Columbus by Filson Young

• The Voyage of the Verazzano by Henry Murphy

• A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia by Thomas Hariot

• European Background of American History 1300-1600 by Edward Potts Cheyney

• The Mayflower Compact 1620 (short)

• Fundamental Orders of 1639 (short)

• The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair or True Stories form New England History 1620-1808 by Nathaniel Hawthorne

• The Mayflower and Her Log, July 15, 1620 - May 6, 1621, Chiefly from Original Sources, by Azel Ames

• Narrative of New Netherland ed. by J.F. Jameson

• Original Narratives of Early American History

• Pioneers of France in the New World by Francis Parkman

• Pioneers of the Old South by Mary Johnston

• First Thanksgiving Proclamation 1676 (short)

• The Conquest of the Old Southwest: The Romantic Story of the Early Pioneers into Virginia, The Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky 1740-1790, by Archibald Henderson

• A Half-Century of Conflict, volume 2, by Francis Parkman

• The Jesuits in North America in the 17th Century by Francis Parkman

• The Sotweed Factor by Ebenezer Cook (poem which was the source of the novel by John Barth, set mainly in colonial Maryland)
   

 

Revolution

• Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone by John Filson (short)

• Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

• Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay (2 of 3 volumes)

  • volume 1, 1778-1787

  • volume 2, 1787-1792

• The Emancipation of Massachusetts by Brooks Adams

• James Otis the Pre-Revolutionist by John Clark Ridpath

• The Life of Francis Marion by W. Gilmore Simms

• The Life of General Francis Marion by Mason Locke Weems

• Sketch of the Life of General Francis Marion by William Dobein James

• Speech on Conciliation with America by Edmund Burke

• Thomas Paine

  • The Age of Reason

  • The American Crisis

  • Common Sense

  • The Rights of Man

• Original Writings of Samuel Adams

  • Volume 2 of 4

  • Volume 3 of 4

  • Volume 4 of 4

• George Washington

  • The Life of George Washington, Volume 1, by Washington Irving 

Early Republic

• The American Republic by O.A. Brownson

• American Pioneers and Patriots: David Crockett: His Life and Adventures by John Abbott

• Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

  • Volume 1

  • Volume 2

• The Federalist Papers

• The Death of the Federalist Party by Richard Seltzer

• Formation of the Union 1750-1829 by Albert Hart

• Jefferson

  • Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson

  • Jefferson and His Colleagues, a Chronicle of the Virginia Dynasty by Allen Johnson

  • Thomas Jefferson by Edward S. Ellis

• The Life and Adventures of Major Roger Sherman Potter by Pheleg van Trusedale

• The Life of George Washington, Volume 1, by Washington Irving

• Log-Cabin Lady by anonymous

• John Marshall And The Constitution, A Chronicle Of The Supreme Court by Edward S. Corwin

• Minnesota and Dacotah: in letters descriptive of a tour through the northwest in the autumn of 1856 by C.C. Andrews

• On Nullification and the Force Bill, speech by John C. Calhoun, February 15, 1833 (short)

• On the Expunging Resolution, speech by Thomas Hart Benton, January 12, 1837 (short)

• On the Expunging Resolutions, speech by Henry Clay, January 16, 1837 (short)

• Orations by John Quincy Adams

• Rise of the New West, 1819-1829 by Frederick Jackson Turner

• On the Seminole War, speech by Henry Clay, January 19, 1819 (short)

• The Journals of Lewis and Clark

• The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman

• The Star-Spangeled Banner by John Carpenter (short)

• Webster's March 7 Speech and Secession (1850)

 

Civil War

• Lincoln

  • Abraham Lincoln by James Russell Lowell (short)

  • The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay

  • The Life of Stephen A. Douglas by William Gardner

  • Life of Abraham Lincoln by Henry Ketcham

  • Lincoln; An Account of His Personal Life, Especially of Its Springs of Action as Revealed and Deepened by the Ordeal of War by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson

  • Lincoln's Yarns and Stories: A Complete Collection of the Funny and Witty Anecdotes that made Abraham Lincoln Famous as America's Greatest Story Teller, With Introduction and Anecdotes By Colonel Alexander K. McClure

  • Our American Cousin, a drama, in 3 acts, by Tom Taylor. Abraham Lincoln was watching this play when he was assassinated, (Act III, halfway through Scene 2.)

  • Writings of Abraham Lincoln

    • Volume 1

    • Volume 2

    • Volume 3

    • Volume 4

    • Volume 5

    • Volume 6

    • Volume 7

• Andersonville: a Story of Rebel Military Prisons by John McElroy

  • Volume 1

  • Volume 2

  • Volume 3

  • Volume 4

• The Army of the Cumberland by Henry Cist

• The Campaign of Chancellorsville by Theodore Dodge

• Captains of the Civil War: a Chronicle of the Blue and the Gray by William Wood

• Memoirs of General William T. Sherman

  • Volume 1

  • Volume 2

• The Great Conspiracy, a History of the Civil War by John Logan

• Military Reminiscences of the Civil War by Jacob Cox

  • Volume 1

  • Volume 2

• The Contest in America (short) John Stuart Mill

• The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth by George Alfred Townsend

• On the Trail of Grant and Lee by Frederick Trevor Hill

• Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

  • Volume 1

  • Volume 2

• Personal Memoirs of Philip Henry Sheridan

  • Volume 1

  • Volume 2

• Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee by his son Captain Robert E. Lee

• Speeches of the Honorable Jefferson Davis 1858

After Civil War

• The Agrarian Crusade by Solon J. Buck

• America Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat by Wu Tingfang

• Editorials from the Hearst Newspapers by Arthur Brisbane

• The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

• Four Months in a Sneak-Box: a Boat Voyage Down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers 1874-75 by Nathaniel Bishop

• The Gatlings at Santiago by John Parker

• History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson by Edmund G. Ross

• History of the Donner Party by C.F. McGlashan

• How Members of Congress are Bribed. An Open Letter. A Protest and a Petition. From a Citizen of California to the United States Congress by Joseph H. Moore. (short)

• Letters to His Children by Theodore Roosevelt

• Memoir of the Proposed Territory of Arizona by Sylvester Mowry

• My Memories of 80 Years by Chauncey Depew

• Observations of a Retired Veteran by Henry Tinsley

• On Being Human (short) by Woodrow Wilson

• Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom by T. White

• Phineas T. Barnum by Joel Benton

• The Progressive Democracy of James M. Cox by Charles Morris

• The Sequel to Appomatox: a Chronicle of the Reunion of the States by Walter Lynwood Fleming

• Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Lester Pearson

• Theodore Roosevelt: an Intimate Biography by William Thayer

• Thiry-one Years on the Plains and in the Mountains by William F. Drannan

• When a Man Comes to Himself (short) by Woodrow Wilson

• Woman on the American Frontier by William Fowler

 

Native American

• Aboriginal America  by Jacob Abbott

• Algonquin Legends of New England by Charles Leland

• Autobiography of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak or Black Hawk by Black Hawk (re: Black Hawk War of 1832)

• Constitution of the Iroquois Nations (short)

• About the Iroquois Constitution (short)

• Indian Games, an historical research by Andrew Davis

• Introduction to the Mortuary Customs of North Americna Indians

• Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson

• Myths and Legends of the Sioux by Marie L. McLaughlin

• Old Indian Legends, by Zitkala-Sa

• The Problem of Ohio Mounds Cyrus Thomas

• Sequoyah (from Harper's New Monthly) (short)

• Treatise on the Six-Nation Indians by James Bovell MacKenzie

• Black History

  • Army Life of a Black Regiment by Thomas Higginson

  • The Black Experience in America by Norman Coombs

  • The Future of the Colored Race in America by William Aikman (written during the Civil War) (short)

  • Frederick Douglass

    • My Bondage and My Freedom

    • My Escape from Slavery (short)

    • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

    • Reconstruction

  • The Conservation of Races (short) by W.E.B. Du Bois

  • The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois 

   

Historical Documents (all short, except Inaugural Addresses, State of the Union Speeches, and Roosevelt's Fireside Chat, which are book-length)

• Revolution

  • Charlotte Town Resolves 1775

  • Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms 1775

  • Declaration of Independence 1776

  • Virginia Declaration of Rights 1776

  • Declaration and Resolves of First Continental Congress 1777

  • Paris Peace Treaty 1783

• Articles of Confederation

  • Annapolis Convention 1786

  • Articles of Confederation

  • Northwest Ordinance 1787

• Constitution

  • Letter Transmitting the Constitution 1787

  • Constitution 1787

  • Bill of Rights

  • Amendments to the Constitution

• Early Republic

  • Proclamation of Neutrality 1793

  • Treaty of Greenville 1795

  • Washington's Farewell Address 1796

  • The Monroe Doctrine 1823

• Civil War

  • The Emancipation Proclamation 1862

  • Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 1863

• After the Civil War

  • First Open Door Note 1899

• World War II

  • Atlantic Charter 1941

  • Cairo Conference 1943

  • Casablanca Conference 1943

  • Combat Chronology of US Army Air Forces

    • December 1942

    • January 1943

    • February 1943

    • March 1943

    • April 1943

  • Declaration of War on Germany 1941

  • Declaration of War on Japan 1941

  • Documents Relevant to France's Response to Germany's Invasion of Poland 1939

  • Documents Relevant to Germany's Invasion of Poland 1939

  • Documents Relevant to Great Britain's Response to Germany's Invasion of Poland 1939

  • Documents Relevant to the Alliance of German, Japan, and Italy

  • Documents Relevant to the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor 1941

  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Fireside Chats

  • Four Freedoms Speech, January 1941

  • German Surrender Documents 1945

  • Hemispheric Defense 1940

  • Japanese Surrender Documents 1945

  • Lend Lease Act 1941

  • Moscow Conference 1943

  • Neutrality Act of 1937

  • Neutrality Act of 1939

  • Soviet-Japanese Neutrality

  • Speech to Congress Regarding the Bombing of Pearl Harbor

  • Statement on North African Policy 1942

  • Yalta Conference 1945

• After World War II

  • U2 Incident 1960

• Viet Nam War

  • Statement of Viet Nam Veterans Against the War 1971

  • Tonkin Gulf Incident 1964

  • Two Letters to Ngo Dinh Diem 1954 1961

  • White Paper on Viet Nam 1965

• General

  • Inaugural Address of George W. Bush 2001

  • Inaugural Addresses of U.S. Presidents from Washington to Clinton 1789-1997 (book length)

  • State of the Union Speeches 1790-2002

Special Topics

• California

  • California 1849-1913 by L. H. Woolley

  • California's 1909 Legislature by Franklin Hichborn

  • California and Californians by David Starr Jordan (short)

  • California Romantic and Resourceful by John Davis

  • The Famous Missions of California by William Henry Hudson

  • Legends of San Francisco by George Caldwell

  • Starr King in California by William Simmonds

  • San Francisco

    • The City that Was: a Requiem of Old San Francisco by Will Irwin (short)

    • The March of Portola and hte Discovery of the Bay of San Francisco by Zoeth Eldredge

    • Palaces and Courts of the Exposition [in San Francisco] by Juliet James

    • San Francisco During the Eventful Days of April, 1906 by James Stetson (short)

    • A Sketch of the Causes, Operations, and Results of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856 (short) by Sephen Webb

    • Some Cities and San Francisco and Resurgam by Hubert Howe Bancroft (short)

    • The Vigilance Committee [of San Francisco] of '56 by James O'Meara

    • Vignettes of San Francisco by Almira Bailey

• Army Letters from an Officer's Wife by Frances Roe

• Civil Government for Common Schools (New York State) by Henry Northam

• Civil Government of Virginia by William Fox

• Community Civics and Rural Life by Arthur Dunn

• An Essay on the American Contribution to the Democratic Idea by Winston Churchill (American cousin of Sir Winston Churchill)

• Fires and Firemen by anonymous, from the Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art 1855

• Great Riots of New York 1712 to 1873 by J. T. Headley

• Hero Tales from American History by Henry Cabot Lodge and Theodore Roosevelt

• Myths and Legends of Our Own Land by Charles Skinner

• School History of North Carolina by John Moore

• The Old Merchant Marine, a Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors by Ralph Paine

• A Parody Outline of History, Wherein may be found a curiously irreverent treatment of American Historical Events, Imagining them as they would be narrated by American's most characteristic contemporary authors, by Donald Stewart

• The True Citizen: How to Become One by W.F. Markewick and W.A. Smith

 

General

• Canada and the States by E.W. Watking 

• A Brief History of the United States by Barnes and Company

• A Brief History of the United States by John Bach McMaster

• History of the United States from 1492-1910, Volume 1, by Julian Hawthorne

The collection and its indexes are under copyright. Please contact Richard Seltzer first if you are interested in making copies for commercial purposes. seltzer@samizdat.com

(Copyright © 2003 Richard Seltzer)