Pamela Nagami
The Dawn of Mediaeval Europe: 476-918
This volume by the British historian J.H.B. Masterman (1867-1933) is a short survey of the first four centuries after the fall of Rome. The …
The Central Period of the Middle Age 918-1273
Beatrice Lees writes that the history of the period of the Middle Ages from 918 to 1273 is that of "a heroic period, the age of feudali…
The Story of Aristotle's Philosophy
This little Blue Book No. 39, by Will Durant, deals with Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.), a Macedonian pupil of Plato, who became the teacher of …
The End of the Middle Age: 1273-1453
Eleanor Constance Lodge, (1869-1936), was the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Letters from the University of Oxford. In this short sur…
Captain Cook
James Cook (1728-1779), British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy was the son of a farm laborer. Apprenticed …
England and the Hundred Years' War
This little book by the British military historian, Charles Oman, begins with the accession of the warrior king, Edward III, to the English …
History of Modern Philosophy
This book is a brief, but cogent discussion of Western philosophy-- from Francis Bacon and Giordano Bruno through Descartes, Spinoza, and Le…
Rome and Carthage: The Punic Wars
The Punic Wars (264-146 B.C.) were a series of conflicts between the rapidly expanding Roman Republic and the Phoenician Sea empire, Carthag…
Sir Francis Drake
In this short book, the British Naval historian, Julian Stafford Corbett, chronicles the adventurous career of Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596)…
The Life of Charlemagne
Charlemagne (Charles the Great) c. 742-814 was King of the Franks, conqueror of Lombard Italy, and on Christmas day 800, was crowned by Pope…
The Normans in European History
Wherever their ships took them, the Normans (Northman) were ruthless conquerors but gifted governors. These eight lectures, given in Boston …
Voltaire and the French Enlightenment
In this Little Blue Book Number 512, Will Durant describes François-Marie Arouet, the writer, historian, and philosopher known as Vol…
Guelphs and Ghibellines: A Short History of Mediaeval Italy from 1250-1409
The High Middle Ages in Italy, 1250-1409, were a time of incessant strife between rival city-states, some the Ghibelline allies of the Holy …
The Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between 1096 and 1272 to recover the Holy Land from Islamic rule. According to the Latin…
The Early Tudors: Henry VII and Henry VIII
Following the chaos of the Wars of the Roses, the reigns of Henry VII and VIII were autocratic and centralized to an unprecedented degree. T…
A History of the Middle Ages
This overview of the 9th through the 13th centuries in Europe and the Middle East begins with the empire of Charles the Great, which extende…
The Normans in Europe
This short history of the Normans in Europe opens with the invasions of the Vikings, who came from Scandinavian villages among rugged rocks …
Warwick the Kingmaker
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (1428-1471), wealthy and powerful peer of England, was one of the leaders of the Wars of the Roses (14…
Early Greek Philosophy
"Man is the measure of all things," said the early Greek philosopher, Protagoras of Abdera. It was in this spirit of humanistic se…
Early Rome, from the Foundation of the City to its Destruction by the Gauls
In this short scholarly work the German historian, Wilhelm Ihne, elucidates what is known or can be deduced about Rome's early history, from…