This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. Army Life in a Black Regiment is a riveting and empathetic account of the lessons learned from an encounter between a New England intellectual and nearly a thousand newly freed slaves. In the fall of 1862, Thomas Wentworth Higginson was asked to take command of the 1st Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers, and he immediately understood the significance of the experiment...

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. Charles Dickens was greeted by a frenzied crowd of Yankees when he arrived on the shores of America in January 1842. A vocal social critic, Dickens was curious about life in the new nation and eager to find the promise of democracy fulfilled in a place that was unfettered by English Toryism and the antiquated customs of the old order. His whirlwind five-month tour...

Lassiter, a black-clad gunslinger who appears in a small frontier town in a remote corner of Utah just in time to thwart the matrimonial designs of a Mormon elder upon an unwilling bride, the young and beautiful rancher Jane Withersteen. Lassiter does not appear by chance, but is on his own quest, which ends with the discovery of a hidden secret on Jane's ranch.

The Devil's Dictionary (1906) is a work of satire by Ambrose Bierce. Although he is commonly remembered for his chilling short stories on the experiences of Civil War soldiers, Bierce was recognized in his day as a leading journalist and humorist who spent decades ruffling feathers and drawing laughter with his witty opinion columns, poems, and definitions. Toward the end of his career, he decided to compile these satirical definitions into a book,...

When the day of Lord Saito Gonji's birthday arrives, Gonji celebrates with dread, knowing that in a week, he will be married. Sent away in his youth for samurai training, and then to higher education, Gonji is very connected to his studies. After his intelligence is proven, his professors even tell Gonji that he would do great things for Japan one day. However, since he is the youngest son in his family, Gonji is expected to marry-a social expectation...

"Headstrong and naive, the young Italian aristocrat Fabrizio del Dongo is determined to defy his ultra-conservative father and go to fight for Napoleon. He stumbles on the battle of Waterloo, ill-prepared, yet filled with enthusiasm for war and glory. Following Napoleon's defeat, Fabrizio returns secretly to Italy, to pursue a series of amorous adventures under the protection of his aunt and her ministerial lover at the ducal court in Parma." "This...

In 1917 young Edward Estlin Cummings went to France as a volunteer with a Red Cross ambulance unit on the western front. But his free-spirited, insubordinate ways soon got him tagged as a possible enemy of La Patrie, and he was summarily tossed into a French concentration camp at La Ferte-Mace in Normandy. Under the vilest conditions, Cummings found fulfillment of his ever elusive quest for freedom. The Enormous Room, his account of his four-month...

Originally written only for his personal consumption, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations has become a key text in the understanding of Roman Stoic philosophy. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with notes by Martin Hammond and an introduction by Diskin Clay. Written in Greek by an intellectual Roman emperor without any intention of publication, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a wide range of fascinating spiritual reflections and exercises...

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. In Ancient Greek Historians, eminent British scholar J. B. Bury sets out to trace the genesis and development of the historical literature of the Greeks. The work is arranged chronologically, with several chapters addressing the legend-based writing of early Greek historiography before discussing the more scientific approach to history writing taken by major figures...

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's thesis that children are naturally good at birth violated the traditional Christian doctrine of origin sin. His argument that education should arise from children's natural instincts and impulses rather than trying to civilize and socialize them challenged traditional schooling. Rousseau's defenders see him as a pioneering thinker whose revolutionary...