History via Google

SkinWalker

SkinWalker

Archaeology / Anthropology
Moderator
I thought I'd start a thread about Google's History resources found in Google Books (click the link to go to the start page).

Basically, Google Books is organized with full-view and limited-view books. I happened upon The History of the United States Vol IV, The Federalists and the Republicans 1789-1815, by Edward Channing and published in 1917 in New York by the Macmillan Company (link to the book here).

Here's an excerpt:
FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW

In 1789, a new era dawned on mankind. The inauguration of Washington as first President of the United States (April 30) set a limit to the social and administrative system of colonial times and began a new national republican organization that was to reach fulfillment after three-quarters of a century of striving. On May 5, 1789, the States General met at Versailles and proceeded to the democratization of France and of Europe. Civil convulsions and wars followed. Their influence extended westwardly across the Atlantic and affected society, politics, commerce, and finance in America. In England, the industrial revolution was vigorously proceeding. The High cost of the raw material hampered the extension of the factory system; but the cultivation of the short staple cotton in South Carolina and Georgia cut in two the price of the fibre, made possible the development of the textile industry in England and in America, and, in consequence, fastened negro servitude on the southern United States. The application of steam to transportation by water and by land in the first half of the new century changed the whole face of civilization by making practicable what had before been impossible. The new conditions of living led to changed manners of thinking --to the liberalization of the mind, to scientific evolution, to the breaking down of religious barriers, to a radical alteration in the ethical outlook, and to the creation of a new literature.
Click to expand...

Anyway, I started reading the book online and found it compelling. The writing style of 1917 isn't so different from today and I've yet to run across anything that looks historically amiss, though my knowledge of United States History isn't as keen as I would like it to be.

Its always said that history books are being constantly revised. I wonder: what revisions would I expect to find between Channing's work and a modern history text? I'll have to dig out my college text book that covers the period and compare, but are their any that others see.

Also, are their other books of note that others have found in the Google Books site that they might like to share. I'm inclined to make this a sticky if it gets a decent enough response.
 
i have just visited this site and found it well worth the visit. I have been learning about the US civil war for some time now and this site as given me a lot of different sources to study. Thanks for the link.
 
Skin Walker I frequent googleBooks. But the specific book you've given a link to is wonderful. The way they recite history is great, compared to the unbias all-encompassing style of today.
 
Another title you guys might find interesting is Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and The Swordhttp://books.google.com/books?id=R7...ig=ACfU3U3oy-V6a-KbeApN7HZbNBnGei3Xdg#PPP1,M1.

Benedict was an anthropologist who trained under Franz Boas and was a sometimes lover of Margaret Meade in the 1920s-1940s. She wrote Chrysanthemum in 1946 after conducting a study on Japan for the U.S. government in 1944. Obviously she couldn't actually go to Japan since we were at war with them, so she wrote the ethnography in an experimental style which involved pouring over documents, recordings and films as well as interviewing interned and imprisoned (POWs) Japanese.

The result is an ethnography that is very easy to read (particularly for ethnographies) which depicts the humanity of a culture that was perceived as monsters.

It's an ethnography that is still widely read today and still hotly debated.
 
I visited first Andrew Jackson's farewell address (thanks to post by Dr. Malbuse) http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/jackson/jack~1.htm

When it was written only paper currency, printed by banks, circulated (and was abused)

I then visited the OP's site trying to learn more about how the power to print money became the exclusive right of the Federal government, but did not quickly discover how that happened. (Surely it was strongly resisted by the banks.)

Can anyone give link to discussion of how the Federal government became the exclusive abuser of paper money?

Jackson's concerns that abuse of paper money seem more true today than ever.
 
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