I recently scanned three books on early US history (PDFs are inside)
I got permission from the publisher before scanning them.
* This book discusses the origins of the American economy up to 1800: click.
* This book is meant to be an introduction to the American Revolution: click.
* This book is an overview of US history from the earliest colonies to a few years after the Revolutionary War: click.
There's also another book, which I didn't scan but which is from the same publishing house, providing an outline history of the Americas (north and south) from the pre-colonial period up to the end of the 1940s: click.
babylonsister
(171,056 posts)I think it won't happen. How about a synopsis?
enlightenment
(8,830 posts)Historiography isn't static, so it would be helpful to know a bit about your goals in sharing these rather dated texts.
Mrdie
(115 posts)I figure any books that help people learn about US history are worth scanning. Considering that Republicans have books with titles like Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans and A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror, books which present a much more truthful account should always be readily available.
Another reason is because the books I scanned are in a sense "positive" histories, pointing out the progressive significance of the American Revolution, whereas books like Howard Zinn's justly famous A People's History of the United States are focused more on myth-busting. A big part of right-wing historiography is in pretending that the American Revolution was a "conservative revolution," and erecting a Chinese Wall between it and the French Revolution (and many other revolutions.) This to me is more insidious than the easily-debunked claim that the Founding Fathers were religious fundamentalists who fought to keep prayer in schools or something.
Certainly if one wants to buy more modern accounts, The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood is obligatory.
enlightenment
(8,830 posts)though it sounds like you're comfortable with the content. I hope you're in no hurry; I'm working on revising my fall courses at the moment.
And I agree, Gordon Wood has done some very interesting work.
Mrdie
(115 posts)That'd be fine, there's no rush.
enlightenment
(8,830 posts)Just a few comments . . . maybe even a pithy one.
bananas
(27,509 posts)Sounds like good stuff, I was going to suggest you upload them to archive.org, then realized you already did (for the first three books).
These links will let people browse the books without downloading them:
https://archive.org/details/AmericanCapitalism16071800
https://archive.org/details/TheFirstAmericanRevolution
https://archive.org/details/TheStruggleForAmericanFreedom
dem in texas
(2,674 posts)One was 1776. I think this was the name, I passed it on for someone else to read, but the book explained what was happening in the major areas of the US in 1776, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Virginia, the Carolinas, so you could see the different outlooks each region had about the British. A good read.
Another book I liked was about England during the same time period and under the reign of King George and bad decisions he and his ministers made that caused them to loose the colonies. The US colonies were cash cows for England and their foolish decisions led to the American revolution and their loss of the colonies. That book, too, was a good read.
Just finished reading a book about the Irish Potato Famine. A real eye-opener and what the British government did then so reflects the thoughts and attitudes of conservatives today; spend the minimum on government programs, keep taxes low on the rich, let the free markets rule and don't give any help to the poor (they don't deserve it). And look what happened in the 1840's in Ireland, over two million people died of starvation.
Mrdie
(115 posts)The one "about England during the same time period and under the reign of King George and bad decisions he and his ministers made that caused them to loose the colonies." I'd be interested.
As an aside, the publishers also gave me permission to scan a book of theirs from 1943 which covers the period 1789-1824. I'll eventually buy it and put it up online. How many would be interested in it?