Books: What to Know
History Without the Footnotes
The plot, the people, the point and the ending — then the Boovie film, where there is one.
Popular History
More Popular Stories
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The Philippine Islands
Magellan arrives, the Dutch attack, and the Emperor of Japan sends a literal shipment of lepers to the Spanish governor.
John F.R.G.S. Foreman · collection
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The Philippines a Century Hence
A colonial power clings to a fading era while the future organizes elsewhere.
José Rizal · ideas
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Complete Prose Works
The man who sang America's songs records its hospital wards, its silver mines, and the specific way its larks sing.
Walt Whitman · ideas
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Pharmacographia
A rigorous 19th-century catalog tracking the world's healing plants from their mountain origins to the shelves of British and Indian pharmacies.
Friedrich A. Flückiger · science
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The Jewish State
A journalist pitches a sovereign nation as a real estate and labor venture.
Theodor Herzl · biography
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Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay
To end the cycle of bloodshed, nations must form a voluntary federation and treat foreign visitors with basic hospitality.
Immanuel Kant · ideas
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Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England
A monk chronicles how a Roman outpost became a Christian kingdom through holy missions, royal baptisms, and the occasional miracle.
the Venerable Saint Bede · religious
In the library
The Ghost-dance religion and the Sioux outbreak of 1890
James Mooney · science
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All quiet on the Western Front
A generation of men survives shells only to be destroyed by the war.
Erich Maria Remarque · novel
Story guides
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A farewell to arms
An American ambulance officer falls for a nurse while the world falls apart.
Ernest Hemingway · novel
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Lysistrata
The men won't stop fighting, so the women stop everything else. War loses its supply line.
Aristophanes · play
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The Iliad
A king steals a hero’s girl, a hero sulks in his tent, and Troy pays the price in blood.
Homer · myth
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The Clouds
A bankrupt farmer hopes to talk his way out of debt, but learns bad arguments instead.
Aristophanes · Play
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King Richard II
A King believes he is God's deputy until his cousin brings a real army.
William Shakespeare · play
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Politics: A Treatise on Government
A philosopher lists how cities fall, how they thrive, and why citizens shouldn't sing the wrong songs.
Aristotle · Expository philosophy
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The Dance of Death
A skeletal cup-bearer pours a final drink for the King while the Rich Man discovers his gold cannot bribe the grave.
Hans Holbein · poetry
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King Henry V
A young king leaves his wild past behind to invade France, manage a siege, and woo a princess.
William Shakespeare · play
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The Apology
Socrates faces his executioner, declares he has no desire for a long, senile life, and walks away.
Xenophon · Philosophy & Ethics
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King Richard III
One ambitious Duke calculates the math of murder to clear his path to the throne.
William Shakespeare · play
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The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War
A new soldier joins the army expecting glory. He gets mud, shells, and a sudden desire to run.
Stephen Crane · novel
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Julius Caesar
Senators fret over a crown, commit a public stabbing, and discover that killing a man is easier than killing his ghost.
William Shakespeare · play
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A History of Elizabethan Literature
A professor critiques an entire century of literature and finds the best things are everywhere.
George Saintsbury · history
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From Chaucer to Tennyson
Eight centuries of English writing distilled into eight ages, from medieval allegories to the rise of the Victorian novel.
Henry A. Beers · collection
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Cyropaedia: The Education of Cyrus
A prince turns a classroom of peers into a global superpower, one tactical decision at a time.
Xenophon · novel
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The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806
Two captains and a boat crew head west with trade beads, flannel shirts, and a very detailed diary habit.
Meriwether Lewis · collection
The library
15,618 history
In the library
‘Abdu'l-Bahá in London
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá · ideas
In the library
'Hello, soldier!'
Edward Dyson · poetry
In the library
'Neath Verdun, August-October, 1914
Maurice Genevoix · history
In the library
'Return Loads' to Increase Transport Resources by Avoiding Waste of Empty Vehicle Running.
United States. Council of National Defense. Highways Transport Committee · history
In the library
'Three Score Years and Ten'
Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark Van Cleve · biography
In the library
'Trusty and well beloved'
E. W. Hornung · biography
In the library
'Up the Country': Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India
Emily Eden · travel
In the library
"'Tis Sixty Years Since"
Charles Francis Adams · ideas
In the library
"1683-1920"
Frederick Franklin Schrader · history
In the library
"1812"
Vasilïĭ Vasilʹevich Vereshchagin · history
In the library
"95% perfect"
Everett Uberto Crosby · history
In the library
"Abe" Lincoln's Anecdotes and Stories
R. D. Wordsworth · biography
In the library
"America for Americans!"
John Philip Newman · ideas
In the library
"And they thought we wouldn't fight"
Floyd Phillips Gibbons · history
In the library
"Back from hell"
Samuel Cranston Benson · biography
In the library
"Barbarous Soviet Russia"
Isaac McBride · travel
In the library
"Bear ye one another's burdens." A Plain Sermon on the Lancashire Distress
James Galloway Cowan · ideas
In the library
"Bethink Yourselves!"
Leo graf Tolstoy · ideas
In the library
"Billy" Sunday, the Man and His Message
William T. Ellis · biography
In the library
"Boots and Saddles"; Or, Life in Dakota with General Custer
Elizabeth Bacon Custer · biography
In the library
"Broke," The Man Without the Dime
Edwin A. Brown · history
In the library
"Brother Bosch", an Airman's Escape from Germany
Gerald Featherstone Knight · biography
In the library
"Buffalo Bill" from Prairie to Palace: An Authentic History of the Wild West
John M. -1917 Burke · biography
In the library
"Co. Aytch," Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment
Samuel R. Watkins · biography
In the library
"Colony,"--or "Free State"? "Dependence,"--or "Just Connection"? "Empire,"--or "Union"?
Alpheus Henry Snow · ideas
In the library
"Contemptible", by "Casualty"
novel
In the library
"Crumps", The Plain Story of a Canadian Who Went
Louis Keene · biography
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"De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries
A Roman general conquers Gaul, crosses the Rubicon, and defeats his rivals while writing himself into history in the third person.
Julius Caesar · history
In the library
"Downright Fighting": The Story of Cowpens
Thomas J. Fleming · history
In the library
"Evacuation Day", 1783, Its Many Stirring Events
James Riker · history
In the library
"Father Clark," or The Pioneer Preacher
John Mason Peck · biography
In the library
"Green Balls" : The Adventures of a Night-Bomber
Paul Bewsher · biography
In the library
"Hear Ye the Rod, and Who Hath Appointed It"
James Galloway Cowan · ideas
In the library
"Holding the line"
Harold Baldwin · biography
In the library
"Honest Abe": A Study in Integrity Based on the Early Life of Abraham Lincoln
Alonzo Rothschild · biography
In the library
"How Can I Help to Abolish Slavery?" or, Counsels to the Newly Converted
Maria Weston Chapman · ideas
In the library
"I was there" with the Yanks on the western front, 1917-1919
Cyrus Leroy Baldridge · poetry
In the library
"Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers"
Charles Francis Adams · ideas
In the library
"Lest We Forget": Chicago's Awful Theater Horror
Marshall Everett · history
In the library
"Let Us Have Peace"
Logan H. Roots · biography
In the library
"Lexington": A Pageant-Drama of the American Freedom
Sidney Coe Howard · play
In the library
"Monsieur Henri": A Foot-Note to French History
Louise Imogen Guiney · biography
In the library
"Morgan's Men," a Narrative of Personal Experiences
Henry Lane Stone · biography
In the library
"My beloved poilus"
Agnes Warner · biography
In the library
"My country, 'tis of thee!"
Willis Fletcher Johnson · history
In the library
"Nothing Between"
Edward Hoare · ideas
In the library
"Old Put" the patriot
Frederick A. Ober · biography
In the library
"Over the Top," by an American Soldier Who Went
Arthur Guy Empey · reference