Excerpt from Ancient, Medieval and Modern History

Ploetz, Carl, 1819-1881Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8
Word count
1.2M words
Chapters
117

Tags

English Originals World History Outline of World HistoryHuman GeographyHistorical SketchHistorical ReappraisalRise and FallHistorical MaterialAcademic StudyChronological SurveyPopular NarrativeEclectic Reading

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.Auszug aus der Alten, Mittleren und Neueren Geschichte by Carl PloetzAuthor: Ploetz, Carl, 1819-1881,Language: German, Class: D: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere, Release Date: Nov 8, 2013

Editor's review

This is a German historical outline edited by Karl Ploetz, covering ancient, medieval, and modern history, a typical nineteenth-century German popular history reader. Its value lies not in novel historical interpretation but in compressing long history into a searchable framework through a highly concise outline format, suitable as an introductory map of German historical terminology and periodization concepts. The entry-based narrative makes it easy to quickly locate figures, events, and dates, and readers can sense the editor's overall grasp of the historical thread. Because it was compiled early, some expressions carry the limitations of their time, and readers should treat it as a historical framework rather than definitive conclusions. The electronic edition is published by Project Gutenberg, convenient for searching and excerpting. It is suitable for German learners and history students as a supplementary reference tool, and also for general readers interested in European historical periodization to browse at leisure. It is not recommended as the sole basis for writing papers.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. First read the table of contents and period headings to establish the ancient, medieval, and modern framework before entering the entries.
  2. Make notes comparing personal and place names with the German original as you go, combining language learning with remembering historical facts.
  3. Use it as an index, cross-checking specific events and dates with modern general history works.
  4. Mark expressions that clearly carry the biases of their time, and reflect on the historiographical context after reading.

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
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92
  93. 93
  94. 94
  95. 95
  96. 96
  97. 97
  98. 98
  99. 99
  100. 100
  101. 101
  102. 102
  103. 103
  104. 104
  105. 105
  106. 106
  107. 107
  108. 108
  109. 109
  110. 110
  111. 111
  112. 112
  113. 113
  114. 114
  115. 115
  116. 116
  117. 117

FAQ

Is this book suitable for German readers with zero foundation? Not very suitable for complete beginners. The main text is in German and presented in outline entries without sentence-by-sentence explanation. With basic grammar and common vocabulary, a dictionary can help you grasp the general meaning; otherwise, it is better to start with a bilingual or Chinese general history introduction and then return to use it as a German historical framework.
Is the historical narrative in the book still reliable today? As a nineteenth-century outline reader, it still has reference value for dates, figures, and event frameworks, but its historical viewpoint, periodization emphasis, and some evaluations carry clear limitations of their time. It is best treated as a search map; specific conclusions should be read in comparison with modern general history works, and it should not be used alone as an academic citation basis.
How is the electronic edition best used? The Project Gutenberg edition is a plain-text e-book, suitable for keyword searching, excerpting entries, and printing in sections. It can be read by period, or used as a reference tool rather than read from beginning to end, which better leverages the search advantages of the outline format.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Ploetz, Carl, 1819-1881 Author · German · 1819–1881

Carl Ploetz (1819–1881) was a German educator known for compiling historical reference works. His representative surviving work, Auszug aus der Alten, Mittleren und Neueren Geschichte (An Outline of Ancient, Medieval and Modern History), presents the historical course from antiquity through the Middle Ages to modern times in an outline form, reflecting a concise, systematic and easy-to-consult style suited to the practical needs of teaching and self-study. Public information about his life, educational background and specific positions is limited, and the library holds only one of his works, so his personal career cannot be described in detail. The available material shows that he devoted sustained attention to organizing and popularizing historical knowledge, and his reference-style writing is representative of similar works, offering readers a convenient way to grasp the historical framework quickly.