"The Vale of Cedars; Or, The Martyr" by Grace Aguilar is a novel set in the 19th century that explores themes of faith, identity, and religious persecution. The story revolves around the lives of two young Jewish women, Eva and Amina, who find themselves entangled in a web of secrets, betrayal, and the challenges of their religious heritage. Eva, raised as a Christian, discovers her true Jewish…
This book presents a detailed account of the East India Company's 1623 trial of their English counterparts at Amboyna, an Indonesian island. The trial resulted in the execution of several English officials and sparked a diplomatic crisis between England and the Dutch Republic. The author provides an in-depth examination of the historical context leading up to the trial, including the East India…
As free use is made in the following story of the names of personages who played important parts in and during the last Tartar Conquest of China, the Author believes that a slight sketch of that turbulent epoch may not be uninteresting to his readers. Twenty-two dynasties have given some two hundred and forty Emperors to the Celestial Kingdom; of these, two were Tartars, who obtained the thr…
James Fenimore Cooper is chiefly known to posterity as the author of The Last of the Mohicans, focussing on the friendship between a Native American chief and a white hunter. Cooper himself acknowledged that it was his 'Leatherstocking Tales' which were the most likely to endure of his work; yet this estimate understates Cooper s significance as the most prolific and internationally-read Americ…
The phenomenon of commitment is a cornerstone of human social life. Commitments make individuals’ behavior predictable, thereby facilitating the planning and coordination of joint actions involving multiple agents. Moreover, commitments make people willing to rely upon each other, and thereby contribute to sustaining characteristically human social institutions such as jobs, money, government…