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A non-fictional account of Burke and Wills's 1860 expedition to cross the Australian continent from south to north and then return. Containing many excerpts from the diaries and accounts of the explorers, this book was published the year after the expedition met its disastrous end. More information at Wikipedia: Burke and Wills Expedition. (description written by trioptimum)

Lost in the wilderness of The Yellowstone for over a month, nearly dying of starvation and wild animal attack, despairing of ever finding his way out. Here are six relatively unknown early pieces about the U.S.A.’s first national park. The first is a U.S. Geological booklet about initial exploration and Congress’s institution of the park. The next two are articles from Scribner’s Monthly, 1871, a very popular magazine of the time, describing the park’s features (vol 2 #1 pp 1-17 and vol 2 #2 pp 113-128) . The fourth piece is a narrative by the leader of the exploratory expedition ...

The Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition was the famous survey that took place in 1913-14 to follow the path of the Rio da Dúvida ("River of Doubt") in the Amazon basin. The expedition was jointly led by Theodore Roosevelt, the former President of the United States, and Colonel Cândido Rondon, the Brazilian military engineer known for his explorations of the Western Amazon Basin and his lifelong support of Brazilian indigenous populations. Almost from the start, the expedition was fraught with problems: diseases left the explorers in a constant state of sickness; the canoes were ...

A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The selections included in this collection were independently chosen by the readers, and the topics encompass history, war, farming, slavery, education, philosophy, and nature. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)

The Charge Of The Light Brigade (1854) is a famous poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It is about, among other things, the valor of soldiers and the tragic loss of life in futile war engagements. The war is the Crimean War (1853-1856) which Russia lost against a coalition of France, United Kingdom, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. The battle is Balaclava, 25 October, 1854. The Light Brigade (United Kingdom) comprises cavalry officers and soldiers, mounted on smaller unarmored light fast horses and armed with sword and lance. Mobile and speedy, they were primarily intended for skirmishes and ...

A collection of ten short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics, religion, science and humor. Included in this collection are the "Oath of Hippocrates" and "The Funeral Oration of Pericles" along with Patrick Henry's "The Call to Arms," and Jack London's eyewitness account of the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. On the lighter side, we have Jerome K. Jerome's "Should Women Be Beautiful," a short address by Mark Twain to The ...

A collection of fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches, news items and reports included in these collections are independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics, philosophy, nature, religion, etc.

A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The selections included in this collection were independently chosen by the readers, and the topics encompass history, science, humor, travel, philosophy, nature, slavery, the U. S. Civil War, and politics. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)

Sixteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include Science and Exploration--a tribute to Egyptologist Amelia Edwards, and discourses on gravitation and relativity by Georges-Louis Le Sage and Ralph Sampson; Sociology and Society--Julio Guerrero on the Mexican character, reflections on life from Kierkegaard's Diapsalmata, Immanuel Kant on religious education, the fate of romance in the King of Siam's harem, nickelodeons, and the tragic results of an 1851 fire on small businesses in New York's Bowery; Nature--how weeds spread, animal ...

A collection of sixteen short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics, medicine, nature and religion. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)

The Plain Speaker: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things is a posthumous collection of essays by William Hazlitt, organized by his grandson, William Carew Hazlitt. The book contains some of Hazlitt's more famous essays that couldn't be found in book format. (Summary by Leni)

A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The selections included in this collection were independently chosen by the readers, and the topics encompass history, slavery, science, education, humor, philosophy, nature and baseball. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)

Fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include the Faust Legend, Stephen Crane, Sundials and the Statue of Liberty. (Summary by Sue Anderson)

“We must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, ‘Abolition of the wage system’” The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies," is an international labor union that was founded in 1905. The philosophy and tactics of the IWW are described as "revolutionary industrial unionism," with ties to both socialist and anarchist labor movements. The IWW promotes the concept of "One Big Union," and contends that all workers should be united as a social class to supplant capitalism and wage labor with industrial democracy. Vincent St. John (...

This is a collection of short (15 minute or less readings) fiction or non-fiction works in English suitable for a coffee break at work or a short commuter ride. The theme for this collection is Hodge Podge: humor, romance, science, long poems, biography, inspirational -- you name it, as long as it's public domain and between 3 and 15 minutes long.(Summary by BellonaTimes)

In this celebration of diversity, learn about the myriad histories and cultures behind our volunteers. (summary by Eric Ray)

A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The selections included in this collection were independently chosen by the readers, and the topics encompass history, science, literature, sports, education, humor, philosophy, nature and religion. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)

The Malay Archipelago is a classical Victorian work combining natural history, biogeography and ethnology while describing Wallace's travels in that region during the 1850s and early 1860s. Wallace contributed to the description of natural selection as a process in the evolution of species, along with Charles Darwin. (Summary by Gail Timmerman-Vaughan)

This book, with the subtitle "Across the Continent of South America" describes the scientific expedition of 1867 to the equatorial Andes and the Amazon. The route was from Guayaquil to Quito, over the Cordillera, through the forest to Napo, and, finally, on the Rio Napo to Pebas on the Maranon. Besides this record, the expedition - under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institute - collected samples of rocks and plants, and numerous specimen of animals. The scientists also compiled a vocabulary of local languages and produced a new map of equatorial America. James Orton (1830 - 1877) was ...

Gertrude Bell's Syria: The Desert and the Sown describes her travels in the Levant (also called Greater Syria) during the first years of the 20th century. In this vivid and painstakingly documented narrative, Bell recounts her visits to Damascus, Jerusalem, Beirut, Antioch and Alexandretta, as well as the time she spent in the deserts of the region. Fluent in Arabic and several other languages, Bell brings to her account a level of insight beyond the reach of an average travel writer. She would later go on to play a highly influential role in the politics of the Middle East, drawing on the ...