Category: History

American Exceptionalism: A New History of an Old Idea by Ian Tyrrell
Requirements: .ePUB reader, 1.3 MB
Overview: The idea that the United States is unlike every other country in world history is a surprisingly resilient one. Throughout his distinguished career, Ian Tyrrell has been one of the most influential historians of the idea of American exceptionalism, but he has never written a book focused solely on it until now. The notion that American identity might be exceptional emerged, Tyrrell shows, from the belief that the nascent early republic was not simply a postcolonial state but a genuinely new experiment in an imperialist world dominated by Britain. Prior to the Civil War, American exceptionalism fostered declarations of cultural, economic, and spatial independence. As the country grew in population and size, becoming a major player in the global order, its exceptionalist beliefs came more and more into focus-and into question. Over time, a political divide emerged: those who believed that America’s exceptionalism was the basis of its virtue and those who saw America as either a long way from perfect or actually fully unexceptional, and thus subject to universal demands for justice.

Tyrrell masterfully articulates the many forces that made American exceptionalism such a divisive and definitional concept. Today, he notes, the demands that people acknowledge America’s exceptionalism have grown ever more strident, even as the material and moral evidence for that exceptionalism-to the extent that there ever was any-has withered away.
Genre: Non-Fiction > History

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The French Debate: Constitution and Revolution, 1795–1800 (War, Culture and Society, 1750 –1850) by Marcus Ackroyd
Requirements: .PDF reader, 4.3 MB
Overview: This book explores the creation and career of the French Constitution of 1795, operative from the start of the Directory until Napoleon’s takeover in 1799. It explores the composition, history and replacement of the French Revolution’s third Constitution through a focus on the speeches and writings of four sets of political voices discernible in late 1790s France. The four main chapters present these voices as Thermidorians, Conservatives, Republicans and Brumairiens. They reveal the intensity and breadth of the debates generated by the permanent tension between the Constitution and the many ongoing conflicts of the Revolution. Set within and beyond the government and the two legislative chambers, the debates feature numerous conflicts central to the French Revolution including the composition and functions of the public powers, the legitimacy of exceptional laws, the regulation of the press and freedom of religion. This sustained focus on the relationship between the political nation and the Constitution provides a fresh reading of the political culture of the Directory.
Genre: Non-Fiction > History

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Lucretius III: A History of Motion by Thomas Nail
Requirements: .PDF reader, 34.9 MB
Overview: For Lucretius, history means something surprisingly different than we ordinarily think. Instead of thinking of history in terms of time, Lucretius interprets it in terms of motion. The implications of this shift are enormous. It means time does not go on forever – the world was born and will die. These are strange and radical ways of thinking about history way ahead of their time. They prefigure, and even exceed in certain ways, the insights of thermodynamics and quantum physics.

In this final volume of his trilogy on De Rerum Natura, Thomas Nail argues that Lucretius has a brilliant theory of history that was well ahead of its time and that we can benefit from today. This is especially true in the present time of crisis and pandemics due in part to global climate change. Nail shows that it’s not too late to change our understanding of history and overcome our current crises. The time is ripe to reconsider the materiality and movement of history. The time is ripe to re-read one of the first and most radical theorists of history. We still have a lot to learn about history and there is no better guidebook than De Rerum Natura.
Genre: Non-Fiction > History

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Did Marco Polo Go to China? by Frances Wood
Requirements: .ePUB reader, 2.8 MB
Overview: We all know that Marco Polo went to China, served Ghengis Khan for many years, and returned to Italy with the recipes for pasta and ice cream. But Frances Wood, head of the Chinese Department at the British Library, argues that Marco Polo not only never went to China, he probably never even made it past the Black Sea, where his family conducted business as merchants.

Marco Polo’s travels from Venice to the exotic and distant East, and his epic book describing his extraordinary adventures, A Description of the World, ranks among the most famous and influential books ever published. In this fascinating piece of historical detection, marking the 700th anniversary of Polo’s journey, Frances Wood questions whether Marco Polo ever reached the country he so vividly described. Why, in his romantic and seemingly detailed account, is there no mention of such fundamentals of Chinese life as tea, foot-binding, or even the Great Wall? Did he really bring back pasta and ice cream to Italy? And why, given China’s extensive and even obsessive record-keeping, is there no mention of Marco Polo anywhere in the archives?

Sure to spark controversy, Did Marco Polo Go to China? tries to solve these and other inconsistencies by carefully examining the Polo family history, Marco Polo’s activities as a merchant, the preparation of his book, and the imperial Chinese records. The result is a lucid and readable look at medieval European and Chinese history, and the characters and events that shaped this extraordinary and enduring myth.
Genre: Non-Fiction > History

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The Origins of Wizards, Witches and Fairies by Simon Webb
Requirements: .ePUB reader, 2.9 MB
Overview: This book tells the fascinating story of the origin of our ideas about wizards, witches and fairies. We all have a clear mental image of the pointed hats worn by such individuals, which are based upon actual headgear dating back 3,000 years to the Bronze Age. Carefully sifting through old legends, archaeological evidence and modern research in genetics, Simon Webb shows us how our notions about fairies and elves, together with human workers of magic, have evolved over the centuries.

This exploration of folklore, backed by the latest scientific findings, will present readers with the image of a lost world; the one used as the archetype for fantasy adventures from The Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones. In the process, the real nature of wizards will be revealed and their connection with the earliest European cultures thoroughly documented.

After reading this book, nobody will ever be able to view Gandalf the wizard in the same light and even old fairy tales such as Beauty and the Beast will take on a richer and deeper meaning. In short, our perception of wizards, witches and fairies will be altered forever.
Genre: Non-Fiction > History

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