My Life and Work - The Original Classic Edition

This edition features
• illustrations
• a linked Table of Contents, linked Footnotes, and linked Index

CONTENTS
Parents and Childhood 
II.  Dunfermline and America 
III.  Pittsburgh and Work 
IV.  Colonel Anderson and Books 
V.  The Telegraph Office 
VI.  Railroad Service 
VII.  Superintendent of the Pennsylvania 
VIII.  Civil War Period 
IX.  Bridge-Building 
X.  The Iron Works 
XI.  New York as Headquarters 
XII.  Business Negotiations 
XIII.  The Age of Steel 
XIV.  Partners, Books, and Travel 
XV.  Coaching Trip and Marriage 
XVI.  Mills and the Men 
XVII.  The Homestead Strike 
XVIII.  Problems of Labor 
XIX.  The "Gospel of Wealth" 
XX.  Educational and Pension Funds 
XXI.  The Peace Palace and Pittencrieff 
XXII.  Matthew Arnold and Others 
XXIII.  British Political Leaders 
XXIV.  Gladstone and Morley 
XXV.  Herbert Spencer and His Disciple 
XXVI.  Blaine and Harrison 
XXVII.  Washington Diplomacy 
XXVIII.  Hay and McKinley 
XXIX.  Meeting the German Emperor 
   Bibliography 
   Index

Francis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.- Wikipedia

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise attributed to Sun Tzu (also referred to as "Sun Wu" and "Sunzi"), a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician, and it was believed to have been compiled during the late Spring and Autumn period or early Warring States period. The text is composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare. It is commonly known to be the definitive work on military strategy and tactics of its time. It has been the most famous and influential of China's Seven Military Classics, and: "for the last two thousand years it remained the most important military treatise in Asia, where even the common people knew it by name." It has had an influence on Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, legal strategy and beyond.

Why, then, is The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire timeless? The author wasnt a post-modernist man trapped in an Enlightenment body; Gibbon had no conception of social history or archeology, his 18th century idea that climate affects morality is long out of date, and his analyses of the Middle East are hampered by his reliance on second-hand sources. But in 200 years no one has seriously challenged the framework Gibbon used to explain the fall of the empire. In fact, contemporary histories of Rome still owe a great deal to him.

Why? One reason is his careful use of documents. Decline and Fall relies mostly on writers like Ammianus and Sidonius, who tried to be impartial. Another is Gibbons almost superhuman objectivity; while individual characters are berated for this and that, the author is usually sympathetic to human foibles, and always tells his tales with as much complexity as the sources will allow. Which is one reason the works alleged hostility to Christianity is overstated; Gibbon said the religion played a role (not the role) in the fall of Rome, and even praises the new faith for breaking the violence of the fall, and mollify(ing) the ferocious temper of the conquerors. Theres one stumble, and thats the section on the various heresies and religious controversies of the 300s. Duty required Gibbon to analyze the niggling and sometimes incomprehensible arguments over Christs nature (and he confessed he didnt understand the passions behind them), but the historian gets bogged down in theological jargon and never makes it clear what role those heresies played in the fall until the end of Volume III. By then youve forgotten the details.

Thats a small scratch in the masterpiece. In two centuries no one has challenged his famous conclusion: The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. Today we have more details, but the trajectory Gibbon plotted has never been recalculated.

Decline and Fall is also a great read, and one of the best narratives in the English language. War, idealism, corruption, droll asides and the clash of civilizations fly along a brisk stream of prose. Its a big book, but the work moves faster than books a tenth its size.

Today, the science of management is big business, with leading gurus and consultants raking in billions of dollars each year. It's hard to believe that little more than a century ago, the concept of management as a separate discipline didn't even exist. Mechanical engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor almost single-handedly pioneered the field with the publication of this classic text. Managers or those in technical or industrial fields will find this to be fascinating reading.

THE GREATEST AMERICAN PRESIDENT: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
(Worldwide Bestseller)

by Theodore "Teddy" ROOSEVELT
[Winner of the Nobel Prize]

Kobo Edition eBook

(Part I of the Best Presidents Series incl. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln)

EXCERPT

"Having been a sickly boy, with no natural bodily prowess, and having lived much at home, I was at first quite unable to hold my own when thrown into contact with other boys of rougher antecedents. I was nervous and timid. Yet from reading of the people I admired--ranging from the soldiers of Valley Forge, and Morgan's riflemen, to the heroes of my favorite stories--and from hearing of the feats performed by my Southern forefathers and kinsfolk, and from knowing my father, I felt a great admiration for men who were fearless and who could hold their own in the world, and I had a great desire to be like them. Until I was nearly fourteen I let this desire take no more definite shape than day-dreams. Then an incident happened that did me real good. Having an attack of asthma, I was sent off by myself to Moosehead Lake. On the stage-coach ride thither I encountered a couple of other boys who were about my own age, but very much more competent and also much more mischievous. I have no doubt they were good-hearted boys, but they were boys! They found that I was a foreordained and predestined victim, and industriously proceeded to make life miserable for me. The worst feature was that when I finally tried to fight them I discovered that either one singly could not only handle me with easy contempt, but handle me so as not to hurt me much and yet to prevent my doing any damage whatever in return.

The experience taught me what probably no amount of good advice could have taught me. I made up my mind that I must try to learn so that I would not again be put in such a helpless position; and having become quickly and bitterly conscious that I did not have the natural prowess to hold my own, I decided that I would try to supply its place by training. Accordingly, with my father's hearty approval, I started to learn to box. I was a painfully slow and awkward pupil, and certainly worked two or three years before I made any perceptible improvement whatever. My first boxing-master was John Long, an ex-prize-fighter. I can see his rooms now, with colored pictures of the fights between Tom Hyer and Yankee Sullivan, and Heenan and Sayers, and other great events in the annals of the squared circle. On one occasion, to excite interest among his patrons, he held a series of "championship" matches for the different weights, the prizes being, at least in my own class, pewter mugs of a value, I should suppose, approximating fifty cents. Neither he nor I had any idea that I could do anything, but I was entered in the lightweight contest, in which it happened that I was pitted in succession against a couple of reedy striplings who were even worse than I was. Equally to their surprise and to my own, and to John Long's, I won, and the pewter mug became one of my most prized possessions. I kept it, and alluded to it, and I fear bragged about it, for a number of years, and I only wish I knew where it was now. Years later I read an account of a little man who once in a fifth-rate handicap race won a worthless pewter medal and joyed in it ever after. Well, as soon as I read that story I felt that that little man and I were brothers.

This was, as far as I remember, the only one of my exceedingly rare athletic triumphs which would be worth relating. I did a good deal of boxing and wrestling in Harvard, but never attained to the first rank in either, even at my own weight. Once, in the big contests in the Gym, I got either into the finals or semi-finals, I forget which; but aside from this the chief part I played was to act as trial horse for some friend or classmate who did have a chance of distinguishing himself in the championship contests."

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD
CHAPTER I
BOYHOOD AND YOUTH
CHAPTER II
THE VIGOR OF LIFE
CHAPTER III
PRACTICAL POLITICS
CHAPTER IV
IN COWBOY LAND
CHAPTER V
APPLIED IDEALISM
CHAPTER VI
THE NEW YORK POLICE
CHAPTER VII
THE WAR OF AMERICA THE UNREADY
CHAPTER VIII
THE NEW YORK GOVERNORSHIP
CHAPTER IX
OUTDOORS AND INDOORS
CHAPTER X
THE PRESIDENCY; MAKING AN OLD PARTY PROGRESSIVE
CHAPTER XI
THE NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE NATION
CHAPTER XII
THE BIG STICK AND THE SQUARE DEAL
CHAPTER XIII
SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL JUSTICE
CHAPTER XIV
THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND THE PANAMA CANAL
CHAPTER XV
THE PEACE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
APPENDIX A
THE TRUSTS, THE PEOPLE, AND THE SQUARE DEAL
APPENDIX B
THE CONTROL OF CORPORATIONS AND "THE NEW FREEDOM"
APPENDIX C
THE BLAINE CAMPAIGN

ABOUT THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was the 26th President of the United States (1901–1909). He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, leadership of the Progressive Movement, and his "cowboy" image and robust masculinity. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party of 1912. Before becoming President, he held offices at the municipal, state, and federal level of government. Roosevelt's achievements as a naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, and soldier are as much a part of his fame as any office he held as a politician.

Born into a wealthy family, Roosevelt was a sickly child who suffered from asthma and stayed at home studying natural history. To compensate for his physical weakness, he embraced a strenuous life. Home-schooled, he became an eager student of nature. He attended Harvard, where he boxed and developed an interest in naval affairs. In 1881, one year out of Harvard, he was elected to the New York State Assembly as its youngest member. Roosevelt's first historical book, The Naval War of 1812 (1882), established his professional reputation as a serious historian. After a few years of living in the Badlands, Roosevelt returned to New York City and gained fame fighting police corruption. The Spanish–American War broke out while Roosevelt was, effectively, running the Department of the Navy. He promptly resigned and led a small regiment in Cuba known as the Rough Riders, earning a nomination for the Medal of Honor, which was received posthumously on his behalf on January 16, 2001. After the war, he returned to New York and was elected Governor in a close-fought election. Within two years, he was elected Vice President of the United States.

In 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated; and Roosevelt became President at the age of 42, taking office at the youngest age of any other U.S. president in history.  Roosevelt attempted to move the Republican Party toward Progressivism, including trust busting and increased regulation of businesses. Roosevelt coined the phrase "Square Deal" to describe his domestic agenda, emphasizing that the average citizen would get a fair share under his policies. As an outdoorsman and naturalist, he promoted the conservation movement.