A History of Our Own Times, Volume 2 (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

In these seven volumes, published in 1908, Justin McCarthy takes on the contemporary history of England with an unbiased yet unflinching eye. This politically moderate, even-tempered work is an ambitious yet brilliant piece of history. Picking up in 1848, McCarthy discusses Chartism and The Young Ireland Movement; he ends the volume right after the close of the Crimean war in 1856, and includes a history of the literature of the time.