Showing titles in 19th Century

Ask google Who discovered gold in Australia? and you'll promptly get 'Edward Hammond Hargraves'. Hargraves has for decades (and decades) received the fame, fortune and adulation from all corners of the country, but did he earn it? This is the story of an oversized layabout who received years of accolades and free lunches, despite lumbering from one embarrassment to another, and of those who spent decades trying to expose him and seek their share of the glory.

James McPherson calls the election of 1860 "undeniably the most important—and pivotal—in all of American history." The nation was not merely divided over the issue of slavery; the opposing camps were at each other's throats. The moment John Brown and his men attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in the fall of 1859 the compromises that had stitched the country together for decades unraveled. The presidential election was therefore about more than who the next president would be. It was about how soon war would follow his inauguration.

Named One of the Best True Crime Books of the Year by The New York Times A “spellbinding, thriller-like” (Shelf Awareness) history of early cinema and the invention of motion pictures centered on the mysterious, forgotten man behind it—detailing his life, work, disappearance, and legacy...

*Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography* *Winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award* *Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography* A “captivating” (The Washington Post) work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half...

The untold story of the nineteenth-century novelist who outearned Jane Austen and wove provocative theories into her fiction—changing economics forever “Smialek, with the analytical rigor and narrative drive that made her one of the finest economics journalists of her generation, has rescued...

One of NPR's "Books We Love" New York Times Book Review's "The Best True Crime of 2022" "Rich in historical perspective and graced by novelistic touches, grips the reader from first to last.”—Wall Street Journal A suspense filled tale of murder on the American frontier—shedding new light...

The modern history of Africa was, until very recently, written on behalf of the indigenous races by the white man, who had forcefully entered the continent during a particularly hubristic and dynamic phase of European history.

People love mysteries, which is a good thing since history is so replete with them. This is especially true among seafaring people, and of all the mysteries of the deep, few rise to the level of the Mary Celeste. In many ways, it is a story more suited for an episode of The X-Files than it is for any history book. There is the unlucky ship that began her sailing career under a cloud of bad fortune and accident.

Steam's Indian Summer is a window into the great watershed period in Britain's railways; the change from steam haulage to diesel and electric traction. Highlights include the last years of the named expresses like 'Bristolian', plus visits to far-flung but legendary and unique corners of the national network, like the Cromford & High Peak Railway.

Though it may be hard to believe today, the Eiffel Tower was initially met with derision by many Frenchmen, some of whom compared it to the Tower of Babel and complained that the “useless and monstrous” structure would obscure treasures such as Notre Dame. In response to such criticisms, Eiffel himself pointed out, “Can one think that because we are engineers, beauty does not preoccupy us or that we do not try to build beautiful, as well as solid and long lasting structures? Aren't the genuine functions of strength always in keeping with unwritten conditions of harmony?

The incredible story of a flood of near-Biblical proportions - its destruction, its heroes and victims, and how it shaped America’s natural-disaster policies for the next century. The storm began March 23, 1913, with a series of tornadoes that killed 150 people and injured 400. Then the freezing rains started and the flooding began. It was the nation’s most widespread flood ever - more than 700 people died, hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed, and millions were left homeless.

July 1863 was a momentous month in the Civil War. News of Gettysburg and Vicksburg electrified the North and devastated the South. Sandwiched geographically between those victories and lost in the heady tumult of events was news that William S. Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland had driven Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee entirely out of Middle Tennessee. The brilliant campaign nearly cleared the state of Rebels and changed the calculus of the Civil War in the Western Theater. Despite its decisive significance, few people even today know of these events.  

From an acclaimed historian, a new history of American slavery and American capitalism, told through the setting where both developed. Over the last few decades, our understanding of slavery has been transformed by the work of many talented scholars. We have learned a great deal about the...

The Johnson-Gilmor Raid, a gripping tale of desperation and high stakes during the American Civil War, unveils the doomed attempt to free Confederate prisoners of war, shedding light on the intricacies of wartime strategies and the relentless pursuit of liberty.

The Communist Manifesto: Before It Was Famous brings together, for the first time in one volume, three complete historical versions of the text that shaped debates on labor, industry, and social change across the 19th and 20th centuries. This edition is designed not for ideological arguments, but for listeners who want to understand how the Manifesto actually developed—linguistically, politically, and historically—from its first appearance in 1848 to its later English interpretations.

Few Civil War generals attracted as much debate and controversy as Pierre Gustav Toutant Beauregard. He combined brilliance and charisma with arrogance and histrionics. He was a Catholic Creole in a society dominated by white Protestants, which made him appear exotic next to the likes of Albert Sidney Johnston and Robert E. Lee. He was reviled by Jefferson Davis and mocked by Mary Chesnut in her diary.

This gripping narrative dissects the modern Illuminati Conspiracy, tracing how a forgotten European intellectual movement morphed into the ultimate boogeyman of the 21st century. Explore the theories connecting the "all-seeing eye" on the dollar bill, Hollywood elites, and world governments in a plot for a "New World Order." Get ready to question everything you think you know.

On March 29, 1863, 12-year-old Frederick Grant, the eldest son of Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, arrived at his father’s headquarters at Young’s Point, Louisiana. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee was preparing to move against Vicksburg, Mississippi, and young Fred had no intention of missing out on the adventure. His incredible journey would consume more than three months and would not end until shortly after the surrender of the Confederate bastion on the Fourth of July. Posterity is the beneficiary of the younger Grant’s brief memoir on the subject, which Albert A.

Like it or not, 26 January in Australia has become a significant day of both celebration and mourning. Most countries, if not all, have a national day. The reasons to celebrate a national day include independence from a colonial power, the signing of a treaty, or an act by a monarch, political leader or patron saint. Australia is the only country whose national day celebrates the colonisation of an already occupied territory. Controversially, it continues to do this despite most of its citizens both acknowledging this and the devastating impact upon its original inhabitants.

Like it or not, 26 January in Australia has become a significant day of both celebration and mourning. Most countries, if not all, have a national day. The reasons to celebrate a national day include independence from a colonial power, the signing of a treaty, or an act by a monarch, political leader or patron saint. Australia is the only country whose national day celebrates the colonisation of an already occupied territory. Controversially, it continues to do this despite most of its citizens both acknowledging this and the devastating impact upon its original inhabitants.