Best of
History

1931

Endurance


Frank A. Worsley - 1931
    "What the ice gets," replied Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition's unflappable leader, "the ice keeps." It did not, however, get the ship's twenty-five crew members, all of whom survived an eight-hundred-mile voyage across sea, land, and ice to South Georgia, the nearest inhabited island. First published in 1931, Endurance tells the full story of that doomed 1914-16 expedition and incredible rescue, as well as relating Worsley's further adventures fighting U-boats in the Great War, sailing the equally treacherous waters of the Arctic, and making one final (and successful) assault on the South Pole with Shackleton. It is a tale of unrelenting high adventure and a tribute to one of the most inspiring and courageous leaders of men in the history of exploration.

Living My Life


Emma Goldman - 1931
    This abridged version of her two-volume autobiography takes her from her birthplace in czarist Russia to the socialist enclaves of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Against a dramatic backdrop of political argument, show trials, imprisonment, and tempestuous romances, Goldman chronicles the epoch that she helped shape: the reform movements of the Progressive Era, the early years of and later disillusionment with Lenin’s Bolshevik experiment, and more. Sounding a call still heard today, Living My Life is a riveting account of political ferment and ideological turbulence.First time in Penguin ClassicsCondensed to half the length of Goldman's original work, this edition is accessible to those interested in the activist and her extraordinary era

History of the Russian Revolution


Leon Trotsky - 1931
    Eight months later the Bolsheviks stood at the helm. They were little known to anybody when the year began, and their leaders were still under indictment for state treason when they came to power. You will not find another such sharp turn in history especially if you remember that it involves a nation of 150 million people. It is clear that the events of 1917, whatever you think of them, deserve study.”—Leon Trotsky, from History of the Russian RevolutionRegarded by many as among the most powerful works of history ever written, this book offers an unparalleled account of one of the most pivotal and hotly debated events in world history. This book reveals, from the perspective of one of its central actors, the Russian Revolution’s profoundly democratic, emancipatory character.Originally published in three parts, Trotsky’s masterpiece is collected here in a single volume. It serves as the most vital and inspiring record of the Russian Revolution to date.“[T]he greatest history of an event that I know.”—C. L. R. James“In Trotsky all passions were aroused, but his thought remained calm and his vision clear.... His involvement in the struggle, far from blurring his sight, sharpens it.... The History is his crowning work, both in scale and power and as the fullest expression of his ideas on revolution. As an account of a revolution, given by one of its chief actors, it stands unique in world literature.”—Isaac Deutscher

Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer


Wooden Leg - 1931
    Stories about the Battle of Little Bighorn are therefore often more myth than truth. In 1922, Thomas B. Marquis decided to uncover the true story of Custer’s Last Stand by speaking to someone who had actually fought against him. For hour after hour Marquis spoke to Wooden Leg and pieced together the narrative of the battle. Yet, Marquis’ studies cover much more than the final demise of Custer. Through his interviews with Wooden Leg, who was a young man at the time of Little Bighorn, he was able to uncover fascinating details about the everyday life of Cheyenne Indians and their practices. Their hunting practices, their conflicts with the Crows, how they were given names, their religion, their marriage customs, and other details of their way of life are all covered. As the relations between American soldiers and Native Americans grew more tense Wooden Leg and his Cheyenne people were drawn into conflict. Wooden Leg provides a fascinating account of how the Native American tribes were drawn together in a loose alliance to repel the oppression to which they had been subjected. Though the Native Americans won the battle, they certainly did not win the war. Wooden Leg’s account of the years after Little Bighorn demonstrates how many Native Americans struggled with life on the reservations and how they longed to be on the plains once again. Wooden Leg’s memoirs interpreted by Thomas B. Marquis give a fascinating insight into Native American life in the late-nineteenth century. “[A] deeply interesting story.” The New York Times After entering a reservation Wooden Leg worked as a scout, messenger and sentry. He was part of the 1913 delegation sent to Washington to speak about the Cheyenne tribe. Later he became a judge on the reservation and died in 1940.

Living My Life, Vol. 2


Emma Goldman - 1931
    I would tear your heart out and feed it to my dog.” This was one of the less obscene messages received by Emma Goldman (1869-1940), while in jail on suspicion of complicity in the assassination of McKinley. The most notorious woman of her day, she was bitterly hated by millions and equally revered by millions.The strong feelings she aroused are understandable. She was an alien, a practicing anarchist, a labor agitator, a pacifist in World War 1, an advocate of political violence, a feminist, a proponent of free love and birth control, a communist, a street-fighter for justice — all of which she did with strong intellect and boundless passion. Today, of course, many of the issues that she fought over are just as vital as they were then.Emma Goldman came from Russia at the age of 17. After an encounter with the sweatshop and an unfortunate marriage, she plunged into the bewildering intellectual and activist chaos that attended American social evolution around the turn of the twentieth century. She knew practically everyone of importance in radical circles. She dominated many areas of the radical movement, lecturing, writing, haranguing, and publishing to awaken the world to her ideas. After World War I she was deported to Russia, where she soon discovered that anarchists were no better liked than in America, despite Lenin’s first gesture of welcome. She escaped with her life but never was allowed to return to the United States.Emma Goldman was a devastatingly honest woman, who spared herself as little as she spared anyone else. From her account the reader can gain insight into a curious personality type of recurrent interest: a woman who devoted her life to eliminating suffering, yet could make a bomb or assist in staging an assassination. Equally interesting are her comments on other radicals of the period, such as Kropotkin, Berkman, Mooney, Lenin, Trotsky, Haywood, Most, the Haymarket martyrs, and many others. Her autobiography, written with vigor, ranks among the finest in the English language.

Desert Encounter


Knud Holmboe - 1931
    Driving through the Sahara in a battered Chevrolet, having converted to Islam and with a knowledge of Arabic, he leaves the beaten track to discover communities and landscapes shrouded in mystery for centuries. Brushes with magicians, cave-dwellers and Sufi mystics, however, prove less astonishing than the cruelties inflicted on the local populations by Mussolini's generals.

The World Crisis, 1911-1918


Winston S. Churchill - 1931
    In this classic account, he dramatically details how the tides of despair and triumph flowed and ebbed as the political and military leaders of the time navigated the dangerous currents of world conflict.Churchill vividly recounts the major campaigns that shaped the war: the furious attacks of the Marne, the naval maneuvers off Jutland, Verdun's “soul-stirring frenzy,” and the surprising victory of Chemins des Dames. Here, too, he re-creates the dawn of modern warfare: the buzz of airplanes overhead, trench combat, artillery thunder, and the threat of chemical warfare. In Churchill's inimitable voice we hear how “the war to end all wars” instead gave birth to every war that would follow, including the current war in Iraq. Written with unprecedented flair and knowledge of the events, The World Crisis remains the single greatest history of World War I, essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the twentieth century.

A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Journeys Across America


Laura Ingalls Wilder - 1931
    She had traveled by wagon, by train, and by car; alone, with her husband, and with her daughter. She had watched the times, seasons, and people change over six decades of traveling. But one thing remained the same: Laura always kept a pencil and paper with her to jot down notes about her experiences.For the first time ever, writings from three of Laura's most memorable trips have been collected in one special omnibus edition featuring historical black-and-white photographs. On the Way Home recounts her 1894 move with Rose and Almanzo from South Dakota to their new homestead in Mansfield, Missouri. West From Home consists of letters from Laura to Almanzo as she traveled to California in 1915 to visit Rose. And previously unpublished materials from Laura and Almanzo's car trip in 1931 now tell the story of their first journey back to DeSmet, the town where Laura grew up, where she met Almanzo, and where they fell in love. Laura's candid sense of humor and keen eye for observation shine through in this wonderful collection of writings about the many places Laura Ingalls Wilder called home.

Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea


Teffi - 1931
    She accepted the invitation eagerly, though she had every intention of returning home. As it happened, her trip ended four years later in Paris, where she would spend the rest of her life in exile. None of this was foreseeable when she arrived in German-occupied Kiev to discover a hotbed of artistic energy and experimentation. When Kiev fell several months later to Ukrainian nationalists, Teffi fled south to Odessa, then on to the port of Novorossiysk, from which she embarked at last for Constantinople. Danger and death threaten throughout Memories, even as the book displays the brilliant style, keen eye, comic gift, and deep feeling that have made Teffi one of the most beloved of twentieth-century Russian writers.

The Pilgrim Church


Edmund Hamer Broadbent - 1931
    Who are the Waldensians? The Lollards? The Stundists? The Anabaptists? These were names given by to those who claimed only the name of Christ, and who were prepared to suffer for His cause rather than submit to those man-made traditions that they believed contradicted the Word of God.

Man Into Woman: The First Sex Change


Lili Elbe - 1931
    Einar Wegener was a leading artist in late 1920's Paris. One day his wife Grete asked him to dress as a woman to model for a portrait. It was a shattering event which began a struggle between his public male persona and emergent female self, Lili. Einar was forced into living a double life; enjoying a secret hedonist life as Lili, with Grete and a few trusted friends, whilst suffering in public as Einar, driven to despair and almost to suicide. Doctors, unable to understand his condition, dismissed him as hysterical. Lili eventually forced Einar to face the truth of his being - he was, in fact, a woman. This bizarre situation took an extraordinary turn when it was discovered that his body contained primitive female sex organs. There followed a series of dangerous experimental operations and a confrontation with the conventions of the age until Lili was eventually liberated from Einar - a freedom that carried the ultimate price. Now with a foreword written by a modern transsexual - the book has not been published in English for decades, and a sensation when it first appeared over seventy years ago - this new edition of Man into Woman, the birth, life and confessions of Lili Elbe, is a story of a marriage and of love and romance that paints a fascinating portrait of a 1930's European artistic community. Compiled fron Lili's own letters and manuscripts, and those of the people who adored her, Man into Woman is the Genesis of the Gender Revolution.

The World Crisis, Volume V: The Eastern Front


Winston S. Churchill - 1931
    It was originally the fifth volume of five.The final volume of Churchill's personal memoir of The Great War.

My Experiences in the World War


John Joseph Pershing - 1931
     By the May 1918 there were over one million American troops stationed in France and making their way to the frontlines under the leadership of General John J. Pershing. World War One had been a stalemate for the previous three years as both sides had become bogged down in trench warfare. The impact that the American Expeditionary Force made to the outcome of the First World War can never be underestimated. By the summer of 1918 American troops were providing the knockout blow in a series of fierce battles, such as at Château-Thierry, Belleau Wood, Saint-Mihiel and Argonne Forest. Although the American Expeditionary Forces had been inexperienced at 1917, by the end of the war Pershing had shaped it into a modern, efficient, and combat-tested army. Indeed, in the last of offensive of the war, known as the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Pershing commanded his men to break-out of the confines of trench warfare and succeeded in recovering over 200 square miles of French territory from the German army. Pershing’s brilliant account of this period My Experiences in the World War was a Pulitzer Prize Winner for History in 1932 and should be essential reading for anyone interested in the American involvement of the First World War. The first volume of the memoir covers the period from Pershing’s selection as commander of the A. E. F. through to the 1918 German Spring Offensive. The second volume follows on from this and covers all of the A. E. F.’s major engagements through until their victory parade in Paris in November 1918. These two volumes have been combined and sold as one book to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War One. John J. Pershing served as the commander of the American Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in World War One. He asserted that the American forces should not be incorporated into other Allied armies but would operate as a separate unit. He was the only American to be promoted in his own lifetime to General of the Armies rank, the highest possible rank in the United States Army. His book My Experiences in the World War was first publishing in New York in 1931. He passed away in 1948.

Dynamite: The Story of Class Violence In America, 1830-1930


Louis Adamic - 1931
    From the 1890s to the 1930s, hardly a year passed without a serious—and often deadly—clash between workers and management. Written in the 1930s, and with a new introduction by Mike Davis, Dynamite recounts a fascinating and largely forgotten history of class and labor struggle in America’s industrial beginnings.It is the story of brutal exploitation, massacres, and judicial murders of the workers. It is also the story of their response: when peaceful strikes yielded no results, workers fought back by any means necessary.Louis Adamic has written the classic story of labor conflict in America, detailing many episodes of labor violence, including the Molly Maguires, the Homestead Strike, Pullman Strike, Colorado Labor Wars, the Los Angeles Times bombing, as well as the case of Sacco and Vanzetti.

Histories IV-V/Annals I-III


Tacitus - 1931
    He became an orator, married in 77 a daughter of Julius Agricola before Agricola went to Britain, was quaestor in 81 or 82, a senator under the Flavian emperors, and a praetor in 88. After four years' absence he experienced the terrors of Emperor Domitian's last years and turned to historical writing. He was a consul in 97. Close friend of the younger Pliny, with him he successfully prosecuted Marius Priscus.Works: (i) "Life and Character of Agricola, " written in 97-98, specially interesting because of Agricola's career in Britain. (ii) "Germania" (98-99), an equally important description of the geography, anthropology, products, institutions, and social life and the tribes of the Germans as known to the Romans. (iii) "Dialogue on Oratory" ("Dialogus"), of unknown date; a lively conversation about the decline of oratory and education. (iv) "Histories" (probably issued in parts from 105 onwards), a great work originally consisting of at least twelve books covering the period 69-96 CE, but only Books I-IV and part of Book V survive, dealing in detail with the dramatic years 69-70. (v) "Annals, " Tacitus's other great work, originally covering the period 14-68 CE (Emperors Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius, Nero) and published between 115 and about 120. Of sixteen books at least, there survive Books I-IV (covering the years 14-28); a bit of Book V and all Book VI (31-37); part of Book XI (from 47); Books XII-XV and part of Book XVI (to 66).Tacitus is renowned for his development of a pregnant concise style, character study, and psychological analysis, and for the often terrible story which he brilliantly tells. As a historian of the early Roman empire he is paramount.The Loeb Classical Library edition of Tacitus is in five volumes.

The American Black Chamber


Herbert O. Yardley - 1931
    Yardley was chief of the first peacetime cryptanalytic organization in the United States, the ancestor of today's National Security Agency. Funded by the U.S. Army and the Department of State and working out of New York, his small and highly secret unit succeeded in breaking the diplomatic codes of several nations, including Japan. The decrypts played a critical role in U.S. diplomacy. Despite its extraordinary successes, the Black Chamber, as it came to known, was disbanded in 1929. President Hoover's new Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson refused to continue its funding with the now-famous comment, Gentlemen do not read other people's mail. In 1931 a disappointed Yardley caused a sensation when he published this book and revealed to the world exactly what his agency had done with the secret and illegal cooperation of nearly the entire American cable industry. These revelations and Yardley's right to publish them set into motion a conflict that continues to this day: the right to freedom of expression versus national security. In addition to offering an expos� on post-World War I cryptology, the book is filled with exciting stories and personalities.

The Epic of America


James Truslow Adams - 1931
    A beautifully written story of America's historical heritage, by one of the country's greatest historians.

The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement


Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst - 1931
    In that year activist Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union, a militant organization dedicated to achieving women's suffrage. The union's motto, "Deeds not words," reflected its radical approach, consisting of stone-throwing, window-breaking, arson, and physical confrontation with authorities.The Suffragette, written by Emmeline Pankhurst's daughter, Sylvia, offers an insider's perspective on the union's growth and development as well as the motives and ideals that inspired its leaders and followers. She chronicles the protesters' tactics as well as the consequences of their actions: arrests, imprisonment, hunger strikes, and the mental and physical ordeals of forced feeding. Vintage photographs illustrate the demonstrations, courtroom trials, and other dramatic incidents from the history of the women's militant suffrage movement.

Sun Up: Tales of the Cow Camps


Will James - 1931
    This collection of 16 cowboy tales includes stories of cowboys growing up, learning the ropes, proving their mettle, and even falling in love.

Bedford Forrest: And His Critter Company


Andrew Lytle - 1931
    Southern Classics Series.

Christian Science in Germany


Frances Thurber Seal - 1931
    

War and the Bible


Nikolaj Velimirović - 1931
    

The Legacy of Islam


Thomas Walker Arnold - 1931
    It seeks to give an account of those elements in the culture of Europe which are derived from the Islamic world. Broadly speaking, the Legacies of Greece and Rome are the legacies of two homogeneous and original cultures,each emanating from a definite geographical centre. The Legacy of the Middle Ages is the legacy of an epoch in the development of western European civilization. The Legacy of Israel is 'the contribution that has come to the sum of human thought from Judaism and from the Jewish view of the world'. The Legacy of Islam is to be understood in a different sense from any of these. It is a provocative title, the meaning of which isonly fully explained by the book itself. The nearest parallel is the Legacy of Israel. But whereas it is from the religion of the Jews that the complexion of the Legacy of Israel is derived,in the Legacy of Islam we do not treat of the Legacy of the religion of Muhammad qua religion: the reader will learn from this book that there is little that is peculiarly Islamic in thecontributions which Occidental and Oriental Muslims have made to European culture. On the contrary, the legacy has proved least valuable where religion has exerted the strongestinfluence, as in Muslim Law. But Islam is the fundamental fact which made the Legacy possible. It was under the protection and patronage of the Islamic Empire that the arts and sciences which this book describes flourished...

The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account


Peter Pernin - 1931
    He published his account of the fire in 1874. The late William Converse Haygood served as editor of the Wisconsin Magazine of History from 1957 to 1975. He prepared this version of Father Pernin's account on the occasion of the Peshtigo Fire's centennial in 1971. Foreword writer Stephen J. Pyne is a professor at Arizona State University in Tempe and author of numerous books on wildland fire, including Fire in America.

French Rural History: An Essay on its Basic Characteristics


Marc Bloch - 1931
    As he told me on more than one occasion, he had every intention of bringing out another edition. In Marc Bloch's own mind this was not simply a matter of reissuing the original text. He knew, none better, that time stops for no historian, that every good piece of historical writing needs to be rewritten after twenty years: otherwise the writer has failed in his objective, failed to goad others into testing his foundations and improving on his rasher hypotheses by subjecting them to greater precision. Marc Bloch was not given time to refashion his great book as he would have wished. One wonders whether he would in fact ever have brought himself to do it. I have the impression that the prospect of this somewhat dreary and certainly difficult task (however one may try to avoid it, revision of an earlier work is always hampered by the original design, which offers few easy loopholes for escape) held less appeal than the excitement of conceiving and executing an entirely new book. However this may be, our friend has carried this secret, with so many others, to his grave. The fact remains that one of our historical classics, now more than twenty years old, is due for republication and is here presented to the reader.

Bible History: A Textbook of the Old and New Testaments for Catholic Schools


George Johnson - 1931
    We give this book five stars. Impr. 558 pgs, 165 Illus. 23 Maps, PB

The French Revolution and the Reign of Terror


Nesta H. Webster - 1931
    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Imperial Theme - Wilson Knight


G. Wilson Knight - 1931
    Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Gun Notches: A Saga of Frontier Lawman Thomas H. Rynnig as Told to Al Cohn and Joe Chisholm


Thomas Harbo Rynning - 1931
    Rynning came in conflict.Cpt. Rynning was without a doubt one of the most colorful and exciting personalities of the American West. His life-story, as told to Al Cohn and Joe Chisholm, is as fascinating a tale as ever came out of the Frontier era; an era in which run-of-the-mill heroes stood little chance. He was a cowboy, an Indian fighter, an officer in the Roosevelt Rough Riders, penitentiary warden and captain of the Arizona Rangers.

European Alliances and Alignments, 1871-1890


William L. Langer - 1931
    The author takes full account of the influence of strategic considerations, of imperialistic pressure, and of literary movements as expressed in nationalist and racial doctrines, He pays particular attention throughout to the movements of public opinion, and assesses the importance of this elusive power in the formulation of foreign policy.Professor Langer has been able to deal with his great subject in something approaching a definitive manner. He has made full use of the various collections of documentary material, including the recently published French documents, as well as the innumerable secondary studies and the monographic researches of English, French, German, Italian, and Russian scholars. Our knowledge of this whole period has been revolutionized by the publications of the last decade, which have rendered most of the older books practically worthless. The bibliographical notes, appended to the various chapters, taken together, form the only comprehensive critical survey of the literature of the subject available in any language.All in all, this is a contribution of the first importance and one of which American scholarship may well be proud.

Irish Monasticism: Origins and Early Development


John Ryan - 1931
    This book examines the position of Irish monasticism in relation to that found in Europe and the Orient from the fifth to the seventh century AD.

The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp


Stuart N. Lake - 1931
    

The Black Worker


Sterling D. Spero - 1931
    

Old Bowery Days: The Chronicles of a Famous Street


Alvin F. Harlow - 1931
    

Waters Flowing Eastward: The War Against The Kingship Of Christ


L. Fry - 1931
    Authoress, Fry was married to one of the aristocrats of Czarist Russia and she suffered harrowing experiences in the days of the Boishevist Revolution. This first hand knowledge of Communism in action has given authority to her writings. For many years she was associated with the work of the late French priest Monseigneur Jouln, helping him in his research into the atheistic and Judeo-Bolshevist plot against Christianity.

Source Records of the Great War V1: Causes


Charles Francis Horne - 1931
    This volume includes a certificate noting that it is registered in the name of my grandfather and his brothers, and it holds a certificate with my great-grandfather's military record of service to that time.

A Smaller Classical Dictionary


Edward Henry Blakeney - 1931
    But a considerable amount of revision has been made; few of the longer articles appear exactly in the form in which they originally appeared; and a great deal of new matter has been introduced in order to bring the work up to date, as far as was consistent with the Publisher's plan of including in Everyman's Library a short and concise companion to the classics. Armed with this book, the average reader will have little difficulty in understanding classical allusions as they appear, not only in standard English writers, but also in the the periodical literature of our time.

The Making of Man: An Outline of Anthropology


Victor Francis Calverton - 1931