This collection brings together the great works of the past in the public domain — the chronicles, biographies, memoirs, and primary sources that record human civilization across every age and nation. Browse a period or theme below.
American HistoryFrom the Founding Fathers to the Civil War era, primary sources and classic narratives on the American experiment.British HistoryMacaulay, Hume, and Gibbon's successors illuminate Britain from Magna Carta to the Victorian age.European HistoryFrom the French Revolution to Bismarck's Germany, Michelet, Carlyle, and their contemporaries survey the European continent.Ancient HistoryHerodotus, Thucydides, Livy, and Plutarch: the original voices of Greece and Rome, ready to read today.Medieval HistoryChronicles, crusades, and courtly life: Froissart, Joinville, and the historians of the Middle Ages.Early Modern HistoryReformation, Renaissance, and exploration: Machiavelli, Erasmus, and the historians of a world remade.Modern HistoryIndustrialization, empire, and the making of the contemporary world, from 1800 to the early twentieth century.Religious HistoryChurch councils, reformation polemics, and missionary memoirs: the history of faith across two millennia.Royalty & MonarchyTudor intrigues, Bourbon courts, and the long pageant of monarchy from Agnes Strickland to Lytton Strachey.Warfare & Military HistoryCaesar's Gallic Wars to Grant's memoirs: the commanders, campaigns, and chroniclers of military history.Schools & UniversitiesFrom Oxford's medieval origins to the rise of the American university, histories of learning and scholarship.History — OtherLocal histories, curiosities, and the fascinating margins of the historical record that don't fit neatly elsewhere.Archaeology & AnthropologySchliemann at Troy, Tylor on primitive culture, and the Victorian founders of archaeology and anthropology.