Showing titles in 19th Century

Arriving at the port of New York in 1882, a 27-year-old Oscar Wilde quipped he had "nothing to declare but my genius." But as this sparkling narrative reveals, Wilde was, rarely for him, underselling himself. A chronicle of his sensational eleven-month speaking tour of America, Declaring His Genius offers an indelible portrait of both Oscar Wilde and the Gilded Age. Neither Wilde nor America would ever be the same.

The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring - and until now, untold - story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work.

The Shrigley Abduction is a compelling narrative, a story of deception and the lure of 'high society', with a strong Byronic character at its heart. Wakefield was sentenced to three years in Newgate, an experience which profoundly affected him. Upon his release he founded the New Zealand Company and became principally responsible for the colonisation of that country, where he is now a prominent figure. Ellen, on the other hand, died in childbirth at the age of 19.

From the acclaimed biographer of explorers Magellan, Columbus, and Francis Drake comes a unique exploration of life and influence of Jules Verne, the novelist whose mind spun the greatest adventures ever told and whose daring and prescient imagination sparked a lasting transformation of modern society and technology, inspiring everyone from J.R.R. Tolkien to Kurt Vonnegut to Jeff Bezos.

The modern history of Africa was, until very recently, written on behalf of the indigenous races by the white man, who had forcefully entered the continent during a particularly hubristic and dynamic phase of European history.

From the prize-winning and bestselling biographer of Shelley and Coleridge, and author of the landmark, critically acclaimed The Age of Wonder, this is a book about the new science and scepticism of the 19th century; about ideas of geology and deep time, the vast beauty and the terror looming before all those who saw deeper into the stars and studied the new cosmology.

At one point, the Japanese Empire was one of the largest the world had ever seen, governing almost 20 percent of the total population of the Earth. One of the most striking features of this empire was the rapidity with which it grew. In 1870, Japan was a largely agrarian nation with a culture and society based on feudal values.

When Union and Confederate forces met at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, each side was confident of victory. The Northern and Southern Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis each hoped for a triumph that would bring a swift and decisive end to the Civil War that split the United States into two warring nations. Union General Irvin McDowell was the first of a succession of commanders who failed to deliver victories for the North. The South could boast of the military brilliance of General Thomas Jackson.

The contemporary lore surrounding the 1879 Alford-White affray--that occurred in Tarrant County, Texas--has celebrated George H. White as a forgotten Fort Worth peace officer killed in the line of duty by horse thieves and desperados. This sensationalized narrative, based on the yellow journalism of the day, has been glamorized in books, has been written about in magazine articles, and has been honored on national and local memorials. Nevertheless, 20 years of research has revealed a different insight.

On a battlefield so littered with dead bodies that General Ulysses S. Grant said it would have been possible to walk across it in any direction without a foot touching the ground, the Union Army notched a brutal but significant victory against the Confederate Army. The two-day battle, with the highest number of casualties recorded in the fighting up to that time, dashed the hopes of a short war. Still, few could have grasped that this battle was only the beginning of a national campaign of slaughter that would see so many Yankee and Rebel deaths.

Este breve manual de Historia pretende acercar al lector al estudio del establecimiento del Estado liberal en España, y su desenvolvimiento durante el siglo XIX, para luego entrar en el problema fundamental que se plantearía en el nuevo siglo en relación con la transformación de ese Estado liberal en uno democrático. Precisamente, el fracaso en este proceso, debido a un conjunto de factores, conducirá a la gran tragedia española de la Guerra Civil.

"Breve historia de las Guerras Carlistas" presenta cómo se originó este capítulo de la historia contemporánea de España y que estalló con el inicio de la llamada "cuestión sucesoria" al final del reinado de Fernando VII que, sin sucesor masculino directo o más cercano, que era el Infante don Carlos María Isidro de Borbón y Borbón, hermano mayor del monarca y que inició la llamada Dinastía Carlista, bajo la denominación de Carlos V.

En este penetrante y documentado ensayo histórico se exploran los últimos momentos de Maximiliano como emperador de México, rastreando el proceso que lo llevó al paredón de fusilamiento. Bajo la mirada crítica de José Manuel Villalpando, esta obra profundiza y analiza el juicio que definió el futuro de México. Más allá de la simple condena a Maximiliano por traidor e intervencionista, este estudio llena el vacío que prevaleció durante años acerca del total desconocimiento del juicio, incluso para los tiempos rebeldes y confusos en que sucedió.

Join narrator Charles King in this fantastic guide to one of the most important periods in European history, as he talks us through more than 100 amazing facts about the Napoleonic Wars. With individual chapters covering subjects such as an overview of the conflict, military commanders and notable figures, weaponry used and developed during the time and many more, this is a perfect audiobook to add to any military historian’s collection.

When Ned Kelly and his band of young tearaways ambushed and killed three brave policemen in a remote mountain camp in 1878, they sparked the biggest and most expensive manhunt Australia had seen. The desperate search would end when Kelly and his gang, wearing suits of armour, tried to derail a train before waging their final bloody gun battle with police in the small Victorian town of Glenrowan.

Rebel Bulldog tells the story of Preston Davidson, a Northerner who fought for the Confederacy, and his family who lived in Indiana and Virginia. It is a story that examines antebellum religion, education, reform, and politics, and how they affected the identity of not just one young man, but of a nation caught up in a civil war. Furthermore, it discusses how a native-born Hoosier reached the decision to fight for the South, and the postwar life of a proud Rebel who tried to remake his life in a very different state and nation than the ones he had left in 1860.

Y en a marre ! Marre de ces équipes de la hargne, de la rogne et de la grogne contre Napoléon ! Le coup de gueule d'un historien en colère. Exaspéré par les polémiques qui surgissent à tout bout de champ sur Napoléon, relatives particulièrement à l'esclavage, au patriarcat, à sa dictature ou aux guerres que l'empereur a menées, Thierry Lentz y répond dans cet essai argumenté, au ton vif et personnel.

"Wie Europas Länder sich erfanden" - der Satz liest sich komisch, oder? Warum sollten sich Länder denn erfinden müssen? Es gibt sie doch einfach... Eben nicht! Genau das ist der Mythos, dem ich mit diesem Hörbuch die Klauen ziehen will. Die europäischen Länder von heute sind nämlich weder alt noch natürlich. Sie sind ein Produkt des Nationalismus im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Davor waren Staaten nichts anderes als die mehr oder weniger zufälligen Besitzungen irgendwelcher Adeliger.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to “Too Much for Human Endurance” and learn about the George Spangler farm hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg.

Although he is unquestionably one of the most studied leaders of the 19th century, Simón Bolívar remains today as enigmatic as he was two centuries ago, when his vision and presence largely inspired the overthrow of the Spanish Empire in the New World.