Biography Churchill, Winston S: My African Journey.v1, 16 Sep 2008

[mrmikel]

My African Journey is an autobiographical account of Churchill's trip to East Africa in the early 1900s. It recently became available on archive.org, from which this book is derived.

Published in 1909 it is out of copyright in the United States. It is probably still in copyright everywhere else because of Churchill's long life (died 1965.)

It is a pleasure to find this book available because nearly all copies for sale on the web command hundreds of dollars.

[WillAdams]

I've been reading Presidential (and other) biographies to my children (aged 13 and 8) and just finished FDR --- would this be suitable for reading to them? I'm wanting to slip in Winston Churchill (after I finish the WWII unit / battle / special topics histories we're doing now).

If not, does anyone have a specific bio of Churchill to suggest?

William

[mrmikel]

There is a series of books I have been reading on archive.org that are out of copyright that all start with Famous Men of. They include Rome, Middle Ages and Modern Times by Haaren. I think they did one on Greece, but I haven't found it yet.

They include a series of short biographies of various historical figures written to a child's level, but which I have found interesting as short vignettes of figures which I had forgotten or never had heard of. There are perhaps 20 per book, so you don't have to keep going on and on.

Hero Tales in American History which I have posted already is somewhat in the same vein although in more detail.

The Harren works are available as scanned PDFs, readable on a computer, but not easily in a Sony reader. However, I am currently working on the Middle Ages and Modern Times works and if you're interested I will post them or get them to you somehow. I have put the pictures back into Middle Ages and I don't recall how large this has made it, since there is an 8 meg upload limit on mobileread.com. I have the html version of Modern Times mostly fixed as of this morning, but still need to check it out a bit.

This Churchilll book, on the other hand is somewhat dated, though interesting to anyone following Churchill's life and career. It is definitely written for adults. Racial attitudes have changed over the last century and may raise issues you might not want to discuss until the proper time in your child's development. It is about a short journey Churchill made to Africa about a century ago. It expresses his views on African development and the attitudes of white settlers and details some of his hunting adventures.

[mrmikel]

I don't see any of the biographies by Martin Gilbert or Roy Jenkins listed as E-books. I like both of these authors. Churchill's world war 2 series is available as ebooks and not too expensively either.
(5 books) They are very interesting, but exceedingly detailed, especially from book 2 on, good bedtime reading in the sense that at some point you might fall asleep from all the detail.
One book that is well thought of is My Early Life: A Roving Commission by Churchill published about 1930 covering his life for the first 25 years. The older child might find it interesting, but the younger might find it a little long. It is not available as an e-book unless you go to the trouble of converting it yourself.

[WillAdams]

I'll look for the Gilbert and Jenkins biographies at the library then, and will add _My Early Life_ to my project list.

Already had Hero Tales in American History d/l'd and will definitely keep that in the reading queue.

Thanks!

William

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

I have put the pictures back into Middle Ages and I don't recall how large this has made it, since there is an 8 meg upload limit on mobileread.com.

The maximum file size you can upload is currently 15MB for all the major eBook formats.

[mrmikel]

Thanks Harry for letting me know. I looked at the upload size for the first file type by mistake! That puts some of the illustrated books I have worked on in upload range!

Mike

[mrmikel]

You might cruise around the Canadian Dept. of National Defense Military Heritage website:
http://www.cmhg.forces.gc.ca/cmh/en/default.asp
It has a lot of history and if you are located in the US, it is very interesting the see the Canadian perspective to the same events happening in the US. In the beginning they are intertwined. The Canadian site has a different perspective in showing how much in early Canadian History and early US history both Canada and the US were merely pawns of the powers in Europe.
Also see:
http://www.forces.gc.ca/dhh/collecti...me_e.asp?cat=7
with many pdfs on Canadian history, peacemaking, etc.

NASA also has a number of publications online as well at:
http://history.nasa.gov/series95.html

Many are downloadable PDF. I made a reader book out of the series on the Apollo program.

The New Zealand Etext Center
http://www.nzetc.org/
has many publications online including ones which would normally be in copyright. I would have posted them except the terms of use don't allow any but personal use. Again a different perspective especially during WWII.

The Royal Air Force (UK) also has a series of short pdfs with RAF history at:
http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/shorth...alairforce.cfm

The US Library of Congress has Country Studies for about 100 countries overseas including history at:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html
These are extremely detailed, and are written well.

You might also check out this web site if you are in the US:
http://www.overdrive.com/products/dlr/
This company provides audio book and video download service to libraries across the US. You have to be a patron of a library that uses the service to access it. Their collections include current fiction and non-fiction as well as history and autobiography. This site lists participating libraries. Other libraries in the US use other services which you can find by logging onto your local library's website. Even the Narnia series which is very much in copyright is downloadable for short term use through this service.

And finally check out archive.org for the old time radio listings. Archive has many books, too many of which are still in copyright, but in the US at least, the old time radio mp3s are by and large not in copyright. Included are news broadcasts during World War 2 as well as ordinary programs which can give some of the flavor of what it was like to live then as many people who lived then are now very old and have passed on.
Also available are dramatic presentations on the Lux Radio Theater and others.

[HarryT]

Unfortunately, unlike in the US, where government-producted material is, generally-speaking, in the public domain, in the UK and many former British possessions, it's protected by "Crown Copyright" which is eternal.

[mrmikel]

Understood about crown copyright...that is why I merely pointed to it instead of trying to convert it and upload it.....

That and the small fact that position of every line and object in the PDF is absolutely fixed and translates into the most hideous HTML on the face of the earth!

It can be downloaded and looked at in theSony Reader, but doesn't format well.

Fortunately for the Canadian Military Heritage stuff, it allows you to copy it so long as you don't do so commercially or represent that is an official publication.

I will upload it one of these days when I can shrink one of the 3 volumes to fit under 15 meg.

[Cookie Monster]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Unfortunately, unlike in the US, where government-producted material is, generally-speaking, in the public domain, in the UK and many former British possessions, it's protected by "Crown Copyright" which is eternal.

Crown copyright is 125 years for unpublished works and 50 for published ones. If an author assigns copyright to he crown its the usual British death + 70

[mrmikel]

In the UK, the crown copyright for some material is waived. This is a quote from the OPSI website:

Guidance - Waiver of Crown copyright

Issued: February 2008
Introduction

Some Crown copyright material is waived. This means that although Crown copyright is asserted no formal licence is required to re-use. The waiver applies to specific categories of material where it is in Government's interests to encourage unrestricted use.
What is covered?

The following categories of material are covered by the waiver:

1. Primary and secondary legislation
2. Explanatory Notes to legislation
3. Government press notices
4. Published papers of a scientific, technical or medical nature
5. Unpublished public records
6. Government forms
7. Government consultative documents
8. Government documents featured on official departmental websites except where expressly indicated on the website in question
9. Headline statistics
10. Text of ministerial speeches and articles
11. Typographical arrangement

Further details about the waiver of categories 6 - 11 are available in Chapter 5 of The Future Management of Crown Copyright (PDF - 203 kb).
What do I need to do?

You may re-use waiver material free of charge without requiring a formal licence provided that it is:

* acknowledged
* not used in a misleading way
* reproduced accurately and kept up to date