Lecture on Education: The Principles of Universal Public Education, Expressed by its Historic Founder by Horace Mann is a stirring testament to the ideals and convictions of the man often called the father of the American public school system. In this impassioned address, Mann lays out the philosophical and moral foundations of a truly democratic education — one designed not merely to instruct, but to elevate, unify, and ennoble the human spirit.D...

The Lives of the Popes Vol. I: The Popes Under the Lombard Rule covers the period from Pope Gregory I to Pope Leo III.

THE period of the history of the papacy, co-extensive with the duration of the Carolingian Empire (795-891), opens under very different external conditions to those which its preceding period (590-795) commenced. During the latter epoch the popes were the nominal subjects at least of the emperors at Constantinople, whose representatives were installed in the crumbling palace on the Palatine. Their election had to be confirmed by them, and their lives and liberties were dependent on their w...

Theories of Democracy builds on Robert Dahl's observation that there is no single theory of democracy; only theories. Beyond the broad commitment to rule by the majority, democracy involves a set of contentious debates concerning the proper function and scope of power, equality, freedom, justice, and interests. In this anthology, Ronald J. Terchek and Thomas C. Conte have brilliantly assembled the works of classical, modern, and contemporary commentators to illustrate the deep and diverse ...

WINNER OF THE SUSAN COLVER ROSENBERGER AWARDA foundational work of educational history, Horace Mann Bond’s study reveals how race, labor, and power shaped Black schooling in Alabama—and why those lessons still matter today.Originally published in 1939, Negro Education in Alabama: A Study in Cotton and Steel by Horace Mann Bond is a pioneering work of educational and social history. Drawing on extensive data and firsthand o...

Horace Mann is called The Father of the Common School and was one of the first progressive thinkers on education in the United States. His Annual Reports to the Massachusetts Board of Education, written between 1837 and 1848, are wide-ranging essays on topics, including philosophical arguments on the role of education in a democracy, curricular matters such as textbook choice and methods of reading instruction, and nitty-gritty details of classroom furnishings and buildings. Even in the mu...

Edited, abridged, and with a critical Foreword by Hans-Friedrich MuellerIntroduction by Daniel J. BoorstinIllustrations by Giovanni Battista PiranesiEdward Gibbon’s masterpiece, which narrates the history of the Roman Empire from the second century A.D. to its collapse in the west in the fifth century and in the east in the fifteenth century, is widely considered the greatest work of history ever written. This abridgm...

Few books before have explored the exploits, achievements, and notorious antics of ancient Rome's imperial dynasties in such readable detail. This title sets out to describe the lives of every man (and a few women) who aspired to the purple, from Augustus in 27 BC to Justinian I, who died in AD 565—arguably the end of Rome's classical period. Many are familiar with the descendants of Julius Caesar—Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero—but how many readers know about Maximinus Thrax, Claud...

The Christian Roman Empire and the Foundation of the Teutonic Kingdoms, by illustrious historian J.B. Bury, chronicles the 3rd through 7th centuries A.D.

Viscount James Bryce's The Holy Roman Empire is a fascinating history of the Empire.

All the stories about Princes and Princesses in this book are true stories out of old books of history. There are some children who make life difficult by saying, first that stories about fairies are true, and that they like fairies; and next that they do not like true stories about real people, who lived long ago. I am quite ready to grant that there really are such things as fairies, because, though I never saw a fairy, any more than I have seen the little animals which lecturers call mo...

A military history of the campaigns of Stilicho, the army general who became one of the most powerful men in the Western Roman Empire.Flavius Stilicho lived in one of the most turbulent periods in European history. The Western Empire was finally giving way under pressure from external threats, especially from Germanic tribes crossing the Rhine and Danube, as well as from seemingly ever-present internal revolts and rebellions.Ian Hughes explains how a Vandal (...