The great works of history — Herodotus on the Persian Wars, Gibbon on the fall of Rome, Tocqueville on American democracy, Thucydides on the Peloponnesian War — are all in the public domain and freely available to read online. So are hundreds of primary sources: diaries, letters, official records, and contemporary accounts of historical events. The Internet Archive hosts an enormous collection of free historical texts, from the ancient world to the early 20th century.
Ancient and Classical History
Herodotus wrote the first work of history in the Western tradition, around 440 BCE. His Histories, covering the Persian Wars and the world as the Greeks knew it, reads with more personality and curiosity than most modern journalism. Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War established the standard of analytical rigor that historians have tried to meet ever since. Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars, written in the third person as Caesar described his own military campaigns, is a masterpiece of self-promotion. All free. Browse free books →
Medieval and Early Modern History
Machiavelli's The Prince and The Discourses, Froissart's chronicles of the Hundred Years' War, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People — the medieval and Renaissance periods produced important historical texts that are freely available in translation. The period between Rome's fall and the modern era is often the least-read part of historical literature, but the sources are there for anyone who wants them.
American History
The Federalist Papers, the complete works of Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson's letters and notes, Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, Lincoln's collected writings, Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass — the primary sources of American history are among the most important public domain texts available. These aren't just historical documents; they're often extraordinary pieces of writing. Browse more free books →
Military History
Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Clausewitz's On War, accounts of every major conflict from the Napoleonic Wars to World War One — military history's canonical texts are freely available. So are personal memoirs and regimental histories written by participants in the Civil War, World War One, and other conflicts whose veterans are now gone. Browse all free books →