What's better than diving into a new ebook? Knowing that you got it for free. Check out these fascinating history accounts that are free to download for the whole month.
Up from Slavery
Booker T. Washington’s classic memoir of enslavement, emancipation, and community advancement in the Reconstruction Era.
Born into slavery on a tobacco farm in nineteenth-century Virginia, Booker T. Washington became one of the most powerful intellectuals of the Reconstruction Era. As president of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, he advocated for the advancement of African Americans through education and entrepreneurship. In Up from Slavery, Washington speaks frankly and honestly about his enslavement and emancipation, struggle to receive an education, and life’s work as an educator.
In great detail, Washington describes establishing the Tuskegee Institute, from teaching its first classes in a hen house to building a prominent institution through community organization and a national fundraising campaign. He also addresses major issues of the era, such as the Jim Crow laws, Ku Klux Klan, and “false foundation” of Reconstruction policy.
Up From Slavery is based on biographical articles written for the Christian newspaper Outlook and includes the full text of Washington’s revolutionary Atlanta Exposition address. First published in 1901, this powerful autobiography remains a landmark of African American literature as well as an important firsthand account of post–Civil War American history.
De Profundis
Oscar Wilde’s autobiographical work on suffering, self-realization, and the artistic process
De Profundis (Latin for “from the depths”) is Oscar Wilde’s reconciliation from a life full of pleasure. In 1891 the author began an intimate relationship with the young aristocrat Lord Alfred Douglas, known to his friends as Bosie. This affair led to speculations about Wilde’s sexuality just as his career was reaching its apex. Ultimately, Bosie’s father, the powerful Marquess of Queensberry, accused Wilde of homosexuality. As this conduct was considered a “gross indecency” punishable by hard labor, this was a serious charge, and one that ultimately landed Wilde in prison.
It wasn’t until January of 1897 that Wilde began to write from his cell. De Profundis, a scathing indictment of his former lover, is the letter that Wilde wrote to Bosie from prison. In addition to detailing the wrongs visited on Wilde by Bosie and his family, De Profundis traces the spiritual growth that Wilde experiences in prison. Having lost everything he holds dear, Wilde transforms his hardship into art.
Autobiography of a Yogi
The spiritual journey of the man who introduced yoga to the West, and inspired practitioners from George Harrison to Steve Jobs.
The remarkable life story of Paramhansa Yogananda is the groundbreaking work that introduced millions of Westerners to the practices of meditation and Kriya Yoga. Yogananda tells of his childhood in Gorakhpur, India, with his Bengali family, and his quest to find a guru who could satiate his desire for wisdom. After becoming a monk, he began his teachings of Kriya Yoga. But when he accepted an invitation to speak at a religious congress in Boston in 1920, his knowledge found an entirely new audience, as he then traveled across America lecturing and finally establishing the Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles, where he was able to complete this classic work of spiritual expression.
Autobiography of a Yogi has been in print for over seventy years, sold over four million copies, and been translated into forty-six languages, spreading the wisdom of one of the most highly revered teachers of the Hindu religion and philosophy.
The Analects
A classic compendium of spiritual wisdom from ancient China’s greatest philosopher.
The Analects present the detailed code of morality, behavior, and belief espoused by Confucius. Stressing virtue, integrity, and respect within families and communities, Confucius explains how certain principles of living can apply to all aspects of society from education to political systems.
One of the most influential books in world history and a foundational text in the study of ethics, sociology, and philosophy, The Analects elucidates a path for an honorable and rewarding life.
More than two millennia after it was written, this collection of wisdom from ancient China’s best-known thinker is still admired and studied today.
Featured image: Leohoho / Unsplash
