Short URL for this page:
bit.ly/WPTHomeX


[image ALT: Much of my site will be useless to you if you've got the images turned off!]
queries and e‑mail 
[image ALT: Cliccare qui per leggere la stessa pagina in Italiano.]
Italiano

[Link to a series of help pages]
Help
[image ALT: A blank space] 
[image ALT: WHAT'S NEW?]
Public service message, first posted here on 24 Feb 22: A Ukrainian historical researcher who has contributed to this site has advised me that The Ukrainian Red Cross Society is accepting donations from abroad in relief of civilian populations in Ukraine and persons displaced due to the Russian war against that country, and has set up a page for those wishing to donate. (And yes, I've donated a bit myself, about $350 thru Oct 2023.)

[image ALT: A square version of a heraldic coat of arms with a cross on a plain field.]

Welcome to Bill Thayer's Web Site

where you will find mostly history:


[image ALT: an apparently abstract pattern of three V's stacked one above the other — both arms of each V end in a trefoil, and the apex of the V, at the bottom, is a small round button; superimposed on this design, three narrow parallel lines extending diagonally from the upper right to the lower left. It is a fairly close rendering of the device on the sleeve of the uniform of a First-Class cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point; and is used on this site to indicate the American and Military History section of the site.]

An American History site, which has slowly turned into one of the larger ones on the Web. Started as my small wartime contribution after September 11 when like many other Americans I found myself drawn to the history of my own country, its principal subsites now include American Naval History (27 complete books currently onsite), American Railroad History, and American Catholic History, several books on West Point (plus over 3400 entries from Cullum's Register). In addition, large sections on Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, and North Carolina are joined by books and articles on the history of a number of other States, Freeman's monumental 4‑volume biography of Robert E. Lee, a book on Washington's presidency and one on Wilson's, a contemporaneous account of the Baltimore Riot of 1812, a book on the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, the log kept by the Spanish commander at the siege of Pensacola in 1781, the journal of a Mormon pioneer, journal articles on a variety of subjects, and many other items. More is on its way.

[ 9/1/24: 6200 webpages
(including 90 complete books)
— 38,425 pages of print, 1698 photos,
307 maps and plans, 572 other illustrations ]

Onsite link

My History of the Americas section is of course hardly an appendage to United States history, but the other way 'round; still, I'm a North American, so we can expect the broader part of the site to be smaller. Right now, Bourne's Spain in America, Galdames' History of Chile, and a large section on the History of Brazil, including a full-length book on the subject in addition to a number of journal articles; W. S. Robertson's Life of Miranda and Guillermo Sherwell's Antonio José de Sucre; and a section on the History of Canada.

[ 12/21/17: 173 webpages
(including 7 complete books)
— 2712 pages of print, 64 photos,
16 maps, 20 other illustrations ]

Onsite link

Readings in European History collects material on Italian, Ukrainian, British, French, and Dutch history. If most of the books here focus on specific topics, the section on Ukraine includes a comprehensive history of the country, and the Italian history section is home to Thomas Hodgkin's 8‑volume Italy and Her Invaders.

[ 9/23/24: 792 webpages
(including 32 complete books)
— 12,928 pages of print, 417 photos,
151 maps and plans, 231 other illustrations ]

Onsite link

Readings in Asian History is my orientation page to a few very disparate resources: Vahan Kurkjian's History of Armenia, Deane Dickason's Wondrous Angkor, E. D. Sokol's The Revolt of 1916 in Russian Central Asia, and some smaller items.

[ 9/14/24: 79 webpages
(including 3 complete books)
— 869 pages of print, 80 photos,
12 maps and plans, 62 other illustrations ]

Onsite link

World War II Resources cuts across what has already been listed above to collect accounts of various aspects of the war. For now, the Blitzkrieg in France, a British disinformation operation, the naval war (mostly in the Pacific), the Mulberry ports that made the Normandy landings possible, the career of General Giraud and the North African landings, British commando raids in Europe and Africa.

[ 4/8/22: 11 books and a bit of other material:
3168 pages of print; 254 photos or images, 34 maps ]

Onsite link

Readings in Catholic History mostly cuts across what has already been listed above under American history — biographies of James Cardinal Gibbons, pioneer priest Charles Nerinckx, Corean War hero Fr. Emil Kapaun, and a history of the Trappist abbey of New Melleray — but is also starting to include material from European Catholic history.

[ 9/26/24: 6 books and a bit of other material:
1655 pages of print in 118 webpages; 82 illustrations ]

Onsite link

Readings in Jewish History includes a biography of the Rambam (Maimonides), a famous contemporary account of the 17c pogroms in what is now Ukraine, and some journal articles:

[ 12/28/22: 2 books and some other material:
362 pages of print in 37 webpages; 6 illustrations ]


[image ALT: The head of the famous sculpture known as the Capitoline Wolf.]

LacusCurtius: the narrow field of Graeco‑Roman antiquity occupies a disproportionately large chunk of the site (although gradually decreasing in favor of more relevant and less Eurocentric material). It includes a photosampler of Roman and Etruscan cities and monuments — with a very large site on the city of Rome of course; many complete Latin and Greek texts, usually in English translation as well; Rodolfo Lanciani's book Pagan and Christian Rome, Christian Hülsen's book on the Roman Forum, Bury's 2‑volume History of the Later Roman Empire, Bevan's House of Ptolemy, 4 books on Roman Britain, George Dennis's Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria; Platner and Ashby's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (nearly complete) and most of Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities; about 45% of Plutarch's Moralia; a quick sketch of a site for teaching yourself to read Latin inscriptions; some maps of the Roman Empire, and more.

In a different category, one pretty specialized item, but for some few people it should be very useful, and it's free for the downloading: Polytonic Greek Typinator Set — a timesaving utility for anyone inputting a lot of ancient Greek.

[ 5/12/23: 3916 webpages, 779 photos,
772 drawings & engravings, 120 plans, 139 maps ]


[image ALT: A large old church, in a field with parasol pines, built on several arches of a Roman bridge: it is the church of S. Giovanni de Butris in Umbria (central Italy).]

My Gazetteer of Italy — currently over 1600 mostly non-Roman pages of churches, frescoes, etc. — is my own favorite part of the site. Since 2003, I've mostly been adding to the Churches of Italy section, which currently (2/22/24) covers 712 churches in 401 pages and 1639 photos, as well as several dozen wayside shrines, with more photos of course; plus, quite separately, three entire books on the churches of Rome, covering about 900 of them, past and present, in great detail; and several books covering many of the churches of Umbria and of the city of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo. (The merest drop in a bucket, by the way: Italy's churches present and past must number at least 500,000.)


[image ALT: One side of a residential street, with its sidewalk, extending 200 meters to the background: lawns and barren trees, and low single-story and two-story houses with pitched roofs. It is a view of the 1700 block of West Arthur Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.]

The United States, my home, I know far less well than I do Italy: for one thing, they're a much larger country. My American Scrapbook for now — 1/21/10 — is mostly about Kentucky (in particular the little town of Jenkins), with a bit of Chicago.


[image ALT: blank space]

Also, a pair of loose ends that will eventually be better organized:

Some of the work of the 12th‑century Arab geographer Sharif al‑Idrisi: for now only the First, Second, and Third Climates (in French).

A few collected sundials.

[An onsite link]

About 16 months' worth of my diary. Nothing terribly titillating, really; but it's the laid-back section of this website (read: "easy to put online"), and the raw material for much of the Gazetteer. A bit of London, France, and Kentucky, and lots of Italy: Rome, Milan, Tuscany, Umbria and the Marche, large tracts of which I explored on foot, so that the diary includes details that could be useful if you're planning a trip or a bike tour. Illustrated with photos not usually found elsewhere onsite, cross-linked to Gazetteer pages and external sites, and partly indexed by place and topic.

In a similar vein, eight Letters from Colombia written in 1993.

[ 6/30/06: 330 pages, 741 photos ]

A bare index to the books onsite — just the books, though more than 200 of them — is available here.

The newest pages, put onsite in the last 10 days or so:

(Any numbered or lettered links are reported here just to help search engines pick up all the new pages quickly.)

[image ALT: A blank space]

26 Sep:

[image ALT: badge] Catholic History:

Dizionario di Erudizione Storico-Ecclesiastica:

Samogitia

[image ALT: A blank space]

23 Sep:

[image ALT: badge] Readings in European History (an orientation page)

[image ALT: A blank space]

21 Sep:

[image ALT: badge] Readings in Italian History (an orientation page)

[image ALT: A blank space]

15 Sep:

[image ALT: badge] Readings in Asian History (an orientation page)

[image ALT: A blank space]

For earlier new stuff, see the complete What's New page.

[image ALT: A blank space]

Ehm Google . . .

[image ALT: badge] Luigi Serra: Aquila (cioè, il suo libro sulla città di L'Aquila) si trova integralmente trascritto sul sito sin dal 2011, ma tredici anni dopo, non viene incluso da voi nei risultati di ricerca. Forse ce la caviamo stavolta?


[image ALT: Valid HTML 4.01.]

Site updated: 28 Sep 24

Accessibility