Armenia and Her People or, The Story of Armenia by an Armenian

Filian, George H., 1853-Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2
Word count
571K words
Chapters
58

Tags

English Originals World History Human GeographyDiaspora NarrativePatriotismMemory of HardshipDocumentary NarrativeArmeniaExotic CultureEthnographyNational Identity

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Armenia and Her People; or, The Story of Armenia by an Armenian by George H. FilianAuthor: Filian, George H., 1853-,Language: English, Class: DS: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Asia, Release Date: Apr 13, 2019

Editor's review

This is a late nineteenth-century national narrative of Armenia written in English by an Armenian, George H. Filian, one of the earlier works in which an Armenian author systematically told the English-speaking world about Armenia's history and situation. Its value lies not in the latest research conclusions but in offering a first-person national account bearing the marks of its era: readers can see how Armenians of the time understood their own historical origins, religious faith, local life and external pressures, and can feel the urgency of a diaspora intellectual speaking for his nation. The prose is largely narrative and argumentative, with high information density; it is suitable as an introductory historical source on the Armenian question, especially when read against later scholarship. Read it as a historical text, distinguishing the author's period stance from today's scholarly consensus; for readers interested in the Caucasus, national identity and the modern Eastern Question, it offers an original perspective with emotional warmth.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and introduction first to grasp the author's overall framework before the details
  2. Read alongside modern general histories of Armenia, noting differences of era
  3. Take brief notes on names and places as you go to connect them later
  4. Mark argumentative passages separately as an exercise in source analysis

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58

FAQ

Is this book a contemporary scholarly work? No. It is a national narrative written in English by an Armenian author in the late nineteenth century, with a clear period stance and argumentative tone; it is better read as a historical document than cited as the latest research.
How difficult is the English, and what background is needed? It is nineteenth-century English argumentative prose, with long sentences and fairly formal vocabulary, though it does not pile up technical terms. Readers with university-level English who are willing to look up words can get through it; an annotated edition or a dictionary makes it smoother.
Why read this rather than a modern general history? A modern general history offers newer and more balanced conclusions, while this book offers the narrative perspective and emotional stance of Armenians of the time. Reading the two together reveals how the same history is told differently in different eras.

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About the author

Filian, George H., 1853- Author

George H. Filian (1853– ) is an author about whose life very little is publicly known; no reliable record confirms his nationality, education, or professional career. What can be established is that he wrote, in English, a single book on Armenia, Armenia and Her People or, The Story of Armenia by an Armenian. The title indicates that the work presents the history and story of Armenia and its people from an Armenian perspective, giving it a distinct character of national self-narration. The phrase "by an Armenian" retained in the attribution suggests that the author's identity was tied to the Armenian community, lending the book the quality of an insider's account. Because public information is limited, a full assessment of his style and influence is difficult, but the book may serve as a reference text for understanding Armenian historical narratives in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.