History Books

CHAPTER I Within the brief period of three years following the outbreak of the great war in Europe, more than four hundred thousand negroes suddenly moved north. In extent this movement is without parallel in American history, for it swept on thousands of the blacks from remote regions of the South, depopulated entire communities, drew upon the negro inhabitants of practically every city of the South,... more...

I. THE PERIOD OF LEGEND The blending of fact and fancy which men call legend reached its fullest and richest expression in the golden age of Greece, and thus it is to Greek mythology that one must turn for the best form of any legend which foreshadows history. Yet the prevalence of legends regarding flight, existing in the records of practically every race, shows that this form of transit was a dream... more...

BRUMAIRE. THE OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH DIRECTORY. The eighteenth century went out with the French Directory, and the nineteenth came in with the Consulate. The coincidence of dates is not exact by a year and a month and twenty-one days. But history does not pay much attention to almanacs. In general our century arose with the French Consulate. The Consulate was the most conspicuous political fact of... more...

MCCXLIX. Alexander King of Scotland, wished much for possession of the Hebrides. He had often sent to Norway to redeem them with money, and he did so this summer. But when he could not purchase those territories of King Haco, he took other measures in hand, which were not princely. Collecting forces throughout all Scotland, he prepared for a voyage to the Hebrides, and determined to subdue those... more...

FOREWORD The struggle for the North Pole began nearly one hundred years before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock, being inaugurated (1527) by that king of many distinctions, Henry VIII of England. In 1588 John Davis rounded Cape Farewell, the southern end of Greenland, and followed the coast for eight hundred miles to Sanderson Hope. He discovered the strait which bears his name, and... more...

"Common Sense About the War" By George Bernard Shaw. "Let a European war break out—the war, perhaps, between the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente, which so many journalists and politicians in England and Germany contemplate with criminal levity. If the combatants prove to be equally balanced, it may, after the first battles, smoulder on for thirty years. What will be the population... more...

THE NEW PENELOPE. I may as well avow myself in the beginning of my story as that anomalous creature—a woman who loves her own sex, and naturally inclines to the study of their individual peculiarities and histories, in order to get at their collective qualities. If I were to lay before the reader all the good and bad I know about them by actual discovery, and all the mean, and heroic, attributes this... more...

Part One Exploration: The Ground Yields Many ThingsByJohn L. CotterSupervising Archeologist, Colonial National Historical Park“As in the arts and sciences the first invention is of more consequence than all the improvements afterward, so in kingdoms, the first foundation, or plantation, is of more noble dignity and merit than all that followeth.”—Lord BaconIn the summer of 1934 a group of... more...

Industrial Education for the Negro By BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, The necessity for the race's learning the difference between being worked and working. He would not confine the Negro to industrial life, but believes that the very best service which any one can render to what is called the "higher education" is to teach the present generation to work and save. This will create the wealth from... more...

CHAPTER I. GENERAL DUTIES OF OFFICERS IN RELATION TO ORDNANCE AND GUNNERY, AND TO MILITARY EQUIPMENTS AND EXERCISES. CAPTAIN. 1. THE CAPTAIN OR COMMANDING OFFICER will be careful to require that all the Ordnance Instructions are strictly enforced on board the vessel under his command; and although particular duties are assigned, and various instructions given to the other officers of the vessel, yet he... more...