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Public service message, 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.)

Welcome to Bill Thayer's Web Site

where you will find:

	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. A bare index to the books onsite — just the books, though more than 200 of them — is available here. [ 9/1/24: 6200 webpages (including 90 complete books) — 38,425 pages of print, 1698 photos, 307 maps and plans, 572 other illustrations ]
	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 ]
	The History of Ukraine is represented onsite by a good collection of authoritative books: from the earliest times thru World War II and into its postwar Soviet era. Three of the books, including a little life of Taras Shevchenko and a massive work on Ukrainian historiography, are by one of Ukraine's best-known historians. The others are by other Ukrainian historians, a noted American Slavic scholar, a United States congressional subcommittee, and a 17c Ukrainian rabbi. [ 3/8/23: 196 webpages, including 10 books — 2210 pages of print, 25 maps, 7 photos, 25 other illustrations ]
	Readings in British History is my orientation page to a large number of somewhat disparate resources: a section on Roman Britain (including four complete books) all of which is counted elsewhere; a general survey of Celtic Britain; a book on a little-known Stuart pretender; a large section on the British settlement of Tristan da Cunha; two books on aspects of Britain's World War II history; material on English cathedrals; links to specifically British items elsewhere on site, as in the history of Canada and of the United States. [ 12/11/20: 157 webpages (including 7 complete books) — 1680 pages of print, 15 maps and plans, 142 illustrations ]
	Readings in French History is a similar orientation page gathering Royal Memoirs on the French Revolution; Ernest John Knapton's 1963 biography of Empress Josephine; a section with several books on France at War (in the 20c); and finally a few excerpts from the Souvenirs of the Marquise de Créquy (1710?‑1803). Also, already counted elsewhere, several hundred more pages of material on the Norman history of Sicily, and French colonial and diplomatic ventures in the Americas. [ 6/17/21: 104 webpages (including 8 complete books) — 2371 pages of print, 11 photos, 6 maps, 15 other illustrations ]
	Readings in Dutch History collects journal articles on Dutch maritime power and the 1667 invasion of England; an additional 50 webpages, 1235 pages of print, fall primarily under the history of the United States and of Brazil. [ 2/13/14: 12 webpages — 223 pages of print, 2 maps, 18 photos ]
	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 ]
	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. [ 9/11/24: 6 books and a bit of other material: 1653 pages of print in 116 webpages; 81 illustrations ]
	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 ]
	LacusCurtius: a large site on Roman antiquity, including a photosampler of Roman and Etruscan cities and monuments (with a very large site on the city of Rome of course); the complete Latin texts of Pliny the Elder's Natural History, Quintus Curtius' Histories of Alexander the Great, the Saturnalia of Macrobius, and Censorinus' de Die Natali; Suetonius, the Historia Augusta, Vitruvius, Claudian, Frontinus, Velleius Paterculus, Celsus, and Cato's de Re Rustica in both Latin and English; complete English translations of Caesar, Plutarch's Lives, Polybius, Cassius Dio, Appian's Civil Wars, Dio Chrysostom, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Quintilian, and Oppian; several complete Greek texts in the original Greek; 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 lots more. A bare index to the books onsite — just the books, though more than 200 of them — is available here. 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 ]
	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.)
	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.
	Also, a few loose ends that will eventually be better organized; their subjects in roughly chronological order: Vahan Kurkjian's History of Armenia. 506 pages of print, 1 photo, 4 maps, 62 other images presented in 59 webpages Deane Dickason's Wondrous Angkor. 159 pages of print, 56 photos, 7 maps and plans presented in 12 webpages 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.
	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 ]

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.)
	11 Sep: Lituania (Moroni's Ecclesiastical Dictionary, 1855)

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

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Acknowledgments and Thanks

A page or image on this site is in the public domain ONLY
if its URL has a total of one *asterisk.
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See my copyright page for details and contact information.