Historian, critic, and horticulturist Francis Parkman was renowned for his analytical acuity and narrative skill. In A Half Century of Conflict: France and England in North America, Volume 1, Parkman dissects and explains the tumult that surrounded the birth of the United States. This book is regarded as one of the highest literary achievements in nineteenth-century historical writing.

Philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, lawyer, and prolific author—Francis Bacon was a true polymath and Renaissance man, and is regarded as one of the progenitors of the school of thought known as Empiricism, as well as the scientific method. In this volume, Bacon discusses a remarkably wide-ranging array of philosophical and scientific subjects, putting the mind-boggling breadth of his knowledge on full display.