Audio Books

History of the Comstock Silver Lode and Mines

Dan DeQuille
This is a brief account of the Comstock Lode silver mines, and description of the geographic features of the state of Nevada including the railroads. Silver not only defined Nevada, but influenced the opening of the American West as far as San Francisco. Dan De Quille (pseudonym for William Wright) wrote extensively on the history of mining in the area of Nevada, and published the larger work “The Big Bonanza” assisted by Mark Twain, both of whom were part of the Sagebrush School of writers.

Workers - An Experiment in Reality: The West

Walter A. Wyckoff
A young scholar, recently graduated from Princeton College, travels across the United States as a member of the working class, taking any job he could find, enduring hardships and struggling to make a living. He travelled mainly on foot, designing for himself a social experiment on experiencing different class and culture structures and the reality of working conditions at the end of the 19th century. This volume continues the story that began in the first volume (The Workers - An Experiment in Reality -The East), and spans the region from Illinois to California

Indians in Wisconsin's History

John M. Douglass
Pre-European arrival history of Wisconsin's Native American tribes, with discussions of their way of life, crafts, clothing, shelter, hunting, fishing and farming. Their activity and battles during French, British and U.S. rule of the territory. Extermination and forced removal of tribes to agencies and reservations. Numbers of survivors from original tribes and plight of those remaining in the 20th century. Popular Science Handbook No. 6, published by the Milwaukee Public Museum in 1954.Summary by Verla Viera

Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80, Part 2

Archibald Forbes
This Part 2 of "The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80" discusses the 1878-80 war, which was one of the major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between the United Kingdom and Russia, and also marked one of the worst setbacks inflicted on British power in the region after the consolidation of British Raj by the East India Company.

Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80, Part 1

Archibald Forbes
The First Anglo–Afghan War was fought between British India and Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842. It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between the United Kingdom and Russia, and also marked one of the worst setbacks inflicted on British power in the region after the consolidation of British Raj by the East India Company.

Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria

William Westgarth
Son of John Westgarth, surveyor-general of customs for Scotland, was born at Edinburgh, in June 1815. He was educated at the high schools at Leith and Edinburgh, and at Dr Bruce's school at Newcastle-on-Tyne. He then entered the office of G. Young and Company of Leith, who were engaged in the Australian trade, and realizing the possibilities of the new land, decided to emigrate to Australia. He arrived in Melbourne, then a town of three or four thousand inhabitants, in December 1840.

When the new colony was constituted Westgarth headed the poll for Melbourne at the election for the legislative council. He had had many activities during the previous 10 years.

He revisited Australia in 1888 and was everywhere welcomed. When the Melbourne international exhibition was opened he walked in the procession through the avenue of nations alongside Mr Francis Henty, then the sole survivor of the brotherhood who founded Victoria. As a result of his visit two volumes appeared Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria, in 1888, and Half a Century of Australasian Progress, in 1889. Returning to Great Britain Westgarth died suddenly at Edinburgh on 28 October 1889. He married in 1853 and left a widow and two daughters.

Chronicles of Canada Volume 32 - The Railway Builders: A Chronicle of Overland Highways

Oscar D. Skelton
When the pace of railroad construction slackened in 1914, Canada had achieved a remarkable position in the railway world. Only five other countries—the United States, Russia, Germany, India, and, by a small margin, France—possessed a greater mileage; and, relatively to population, none came anywhere near her. This is the story of how Canada became a country stitched together by rail.

Jim Crow Car; Or, Denouncement of Injustice Meted Out to the Black Race

John Clay Coleman
"My opposition to injustice, imposition, discrimination and prejudice, which have for many years existed against the colored people of the South, has led to this little book. In many parts of America the press has been furnished with “matter” for defending the colored people, through the medium of “Coleman’s Illustrated Lectures.” By request of my many auditors, some of whom being leading elements of the Northern States and Canada, this volume is published. Many persons interested in the welfare of the negro, have sought a more elaborate book on the Southern horrors. Therefore, the manner in which the colored people are treated, and the laws devised against them from time to time, are the chief subjects." (Rev. J.C. Coleman)

Quoting extensively from Henry McNeal Turner and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, as well as his own experiences traveling in the South and on segregated American railroad lines, the Reverend John Clay Coleman published this book on the state of the Jim Crow era in the American South, examining the US Supreme Court decision declaring the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional, the horrors of lynching (and his own experience raising a guard of black citizens of Decatur, IL, to protect the life of a man jailed there), and the degradation of segregation. (TheodenHumphrey)

Audubon's Western Journal: 1849-1850

John Woodhouse Audubon
John Woodhouse Audubon (1812-1862), son of the famous painter John James Audubon and an artist in his own right, joined Col. Henry Webb's California Company expedition in 1849. From New Orleans the expedition sailed to the Rio Grande; it headed west overland through northern Mexico and through Arizona to San Diego, California. Cholera and outlaws decimated the group. Many of them turned back, including the leader. Audubon assumed command of those remaining and they pushed on to California, although he was forced to abandon his paints and canvases in the desert…. Throughout the whole of this long journey Mr. Audubon took notes of scenes and occurrences by the way. In his descriptions he exhibits the keen observation of the naturalist and the trained eye of the artist. The result is a remarkable picture of social conditions in Mexico, of birds and trees, of sky and mountains and the changing face of nature, of the barrenness of the desert and the difficulties of the journey, of the ruined missions of California, of methods of mining, and of the chaos of races and babel of tongues in the gold fields. It was manifestly impossible to keep a daily journal, and the entries were made from time to time as opportunity occurred. Considering the circumstances under which they were taken, the notes are remarkable for their accuracy. Because it was not edited by Audubon, the text (and this recording) ends abruptly.

South American Republics, Part II

Thomas Cleland Dawson
This history begins when Pizarro and Almagro, Valdivia and Benalcazar, led their desperadoes across the Isthmus to the conquest, massacre, and enslavement of the prosperous and civilised millions who inhabited the Pacific coast of South America. It ends with the United States opening a way through that same Isthmus for the ships, the trade, the capital of all the world; with American engineers laying railroad iron on the imperial highway of the Incas; with British bondholders forgiving stricken Peru's national debt; with their debtor bravely facing the fact of bankruptcy, and turning over to them all its railways. (from the Preface, available in the source text together with the bibliography and numerous pictures)

Story of the First Trans-Continental Railroad

William Francis Bailey
Story of the planning, construction, and early operating of the Trans-continental railroad. There is coverage of the early proposals that began as early as the late 1700's to follow the best route to the Pacific Ocean. 1819 saw proposals for steam propelled carriages to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In the early 1800's interest gained for creating a railroad connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Costs, construction, and operation are covered along with details on the Kansas Pacific Railway, the Denver Pacific Railroad, and the Central Pacific Railroad.

City That Was

Stephen Smith
This 1911 history of the public health revolution that transformed New York City in the nineteenth century is also about every city and town of the world and the sanitary challenges that each encountered. Stephen Smith (1823-1922) was an American surgeon and a pioneer in public health. “The story of a great life-saving social revolution, the mightiest in the nineteenth century and one of the most momentous in the history of civilization, is told here for the first time. It is told from the standpoint of the transformation of the City of New York, by a chief actor in the event.” Chapter four, New York The Unclean, is the heart of this work. ( Publisher's Note and David Wales)

Book of Sibyls: Mrs. Barbauld, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Opie, Miss Austen

Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie
This book is a biography of four woman authors whose names were well known by readers at the time of its publication (1883) : Anna Barbaud, Maria Edgeworth, Amelia Opie, and Jane Austen. Though most of us today are only familiar with the writings of Austen, all four of these women are well worth taking the time to get to know. The author, Anne Thackeray Ritchie, was the eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray.

Emancipation of South America

Bartolomé Mitre
THREE great names stand forth conspicuous in the annals of America, those of Washington, Bolívar, San Martin. Of Washington, the great leader of the Democracy of the North; of Bolívar and of San Martin, who were the emancipators of the southern half of the continent. The story of the life-work of the latter of these two is the Argument of this book.

The scene of action passes on a vast theatre, a territory extending for more than fifty degrees of latitude, from Cape Horn to the Tropic of Cancer, and occupies twenty years of strife. The starting-point of this history is the Argentine revolution; it follows the course of this revolution as it spreads over the continent, and its object is to explain the laws which governed the establishment of a family of new Republics, and the fundamental principles from which they sprang. (from the Historical Introduction).

The author of the book went on to become the President of Argentina, serving from 1862 to 1868. Summary by Piotr Nater

History of the Four Georges, and of William IV, Volume 4

Justin McCarthy
In Volume IV of this series on the Hanoverian kings, Justin McCarthy and his son, Justin Huntly McCarthy, both Liberal Irish MPs., bring on the stage that bulky, big-spender, George IV, his bumbling brother, William IV, the impulsive Liberal loose cannon, Lord Brougham, George Canning, true author of the Monroe Doctrine, and Earl Grey and Lord John Russell and their struggle to pass the great Parliamentary Reform Bill of 1832.

Jeffersonians, 1801-1829

Richard B. Morris
In this short (58 page) work, Morris and Woodress present a selection of fascinating source materials to survey key events which occurred during the presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams. As the authors state in their preface, "The early part of the last century was an exciting time to live in America. The signers of the Declaration of Independence and the framers of the Constitution, mostly old men by now, saw that their experiment in republican government had turned out to be a success. The nation was flourishing in these years like a healthy adolescent. There were growing pains, to be sure, but no one doubted now that the youngster would reach manhood. The question was: What is he going to be like?"

Arizona's Yesterday

John Cady
Arizona's Yesterday Being the Narrative of John H. Cady, Pioneer. Written by John Henry Cady and revised and rewritten in 1915 by noted Playwright and Journalist Basil Woon. Cady was born in Ohio, served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and eventually settled in Arizona Territory. Cady's story is one of adventure, determination, a pioneering spirit, and an entrepreneurial drive. Arizona's Yesterday is a glimpse of an Arizona not so much filled with gunfighters and warriors, but of an Arizona on the cusp of Statehood and the modern era.

Builders of United Italy

Rupert S. Holland
Holland 's provides us with an engaging history of the Unification ("Risorgimento") of Italy by exploring the lives of some of its most important figures: Alfieri, Manzoni, Gioberti, Manin, Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel.

Short History of Pittsburgh

Samuel Harden Church
Samuel H. Church presents a brief history of the city of Pittsburgh, split into three domains: historical, industrial, and intellectual. His goal is to demonstrate to the reader that Pittsburgh is a noteworthy city, ready for your consideration.

Narratives of Colored Americans

Abigail Mott
Abigail Mott was a Quaker and abolitionist from New York who, along with fellow Quaker M. S. Wood, has compiled a provocative collection of stories of “Colored Americans.” They range from well-known figures such as Phillis Wheatley and Sojourner Truth to the common men and women who give poignant insights of their life. Selections consist of short anecdotes, essays, stories, letters and poetry. Many have strong religious and spiritual themes.

Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women

Elizabeth Blackwell
A fascinating account of the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. She writes of her struggles in being accepted to a medical school (at one point she is advised to disguise herself as a male). She details her experiences while in the process of obtaining her degree, and her work both with patients and administratively, helping to found medical schools and hospitals for women

Woman and the Republic

Helen Johnson
First published in 1897, the book is considered to be the best summary of the arguments against woman suffrage. It allows readers to understand better why opposing views towards women's suffrage were prevalent even among women themselves then.

Chronicles of Canada Volume 27 - The Winning of Popular Government: A Chronicle of the Union of 1841

Archibald MacMechan
In the 1830's, Canada was a ideologically divided country. Political upheaval and even riots occurred over Canada's future. Would it remain a subsidiary of England? Would it form its own republic, or even merge with the United States? This work tells of how some of Canada's founding fathers crossed the bridge between past and future. --Summary by TriciaG

Richmond National Battlefield Park, Virginia

Joseph P. Cullen
Richmond, Virginia, was the capital of The Confederacy during the American Civil War, 1861-1865. It was the focus of two military campaigns by Northern armies, one in the summer of 1862 (the Peninsula Campaign) and the second in 1864-1865. When the city was conquered and destroyed in early April, 1865, , it was only a few days later that General Lee surrendered to General Grant and the Civil War was over. Published in 1961, this is National Park Service Historical Handbook 33. The text contains many informative maps and interesting photographs.

Great Testimony against Scientific Cruelty

Stephen Coleridge
Vivisection is a pejorative term used by opponents of the practice of performing operations on live animals for the purpose of physiological or pathological research. While opposition to the use of living animals for experimentation is most often associated with PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, founded in 1980], opposition to use of live animals in physiology research dates back several centuries. Animal experimentation was particularly decried before the development of anesthesia. This book briefly describes the personal histories of twelve prominent critics of live experimentation in 19th century England.

Armenian Crisis in Turkey

Frederick Davis Greene
Frederick Greene shows in this book that the case of the subject races in the Ottoman Empire is desperate, that there is no hope of reform from within, and that relief vimust therefore come through the interference of the powers of Europe. Their action depends largely on the support of the public. “Public opinion,” therefore, “must be brought to bear upon this case,” as Mr. Gladstone said in the House of Commons six years ago. Since then there has been added a new chapter of horrors, and the demand for decisive action in the name of our common humanity has become more urgent. The facts furnished by this book ought to arouse such public opinion as will justify and compel prompt and efficient action on the part of the Powers.
The United States need not depart from its long-established foreign policy, but is bound to protect its own honor and the lives and property of its citizens. (From the preface)

Chronicles of Canada Volume 14 - The War With the United States: A Chronicle of 1812

William Wood
"International disputes that end in war are not generally questions of absolute right and wrong. They may quite as well be questions of opposing rights. But, when there are rights on both sides; it is usually found that the side which takes the initiative is moved by its national desires as well as by its claims of right.

This could hardly be better exemplified than by the vexed questions which brought about the War of 1812."

This volume of the Chronicles of Canada series explains both the causes of the War of 1812 and the campaigns of the war from a primarily Canadian viewpoint, a perspective that is very often missed in writings on this Americo-British conflict. (By Sibella)

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