Planet Ebook and The Creative Archive

    I've just barely finished a couple books on the collapse of Roman/Classical Civilization in the early 7th Century AD following the violent spread of Islam throughout the Near East and most of the the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The Islamic invasion and predations caused a three century "dark age" throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Near and Middle East where there is virtually no activities that left archeological evidence (this is has inspired a theory that the 7th, 8th, and 9th Centuries were "made up" and never occurred). This dark age was not just physical destruction of communities and trade, but also a destruction of books and libraries, and the end of trade in papyrus that was used as "paper" at that time throughout Europe and other Mediterranean areas. As much as anything else, this resulted in the loss of the Roman/Classical Civilization with its widespread literacy and helped usher in the period of feudalism. 

    It must be presumed that any disaster sufficient to destroy or seriously disrupt civilization could result in a similar loss of libraries and centers of learning on a national level, and certainly disruption of elementary and secondary education at the local and state level. Yet I have only seen at most one or two books on prepping that have discussed preparing to educate your children and to set aside books that important to preserving our culture. I believe it was Alexis de Tocqueville who related that in the early American Republic there was not to be found a home, high or low, that did not have a Bible, something written by Shakespeare, and a newspaper or similar. And, in fact, the shared love of Shakespeare by both the "masses" and the "elites" was a feature of American civilization until the flood of foreign migration in the post-Civil War era.

    We are not in so dire a predicament of losing our civilizational knowledge today. Libraries, both great and small, are widespread across the continent; and the average person can likewise afford personal libraries greater than all but the wealthiest individuals could afford in prior centuries. If electronic devices can be preserved, then a person can easily put together a collection of books ranging from kindergarten level to college and professional texts and treatises, reference books related to the trades, engineering, medicine, manufacturing, etc. 

    But educating future generations is more than just assembling a bunch of how-to books. Even the Arab invaders of the 7th Century saw the value in keeping alive knowledge concerning science, medicine, and other technical subjects. What they destroyed were the religious, philosophical, and cultural and literary works of the ages. For instance, although parts of the collection of the Library of Alexandria had been victim to fires, mobs, and armies before, the Library met its final end on the orders of the Second Muslim Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab (634 – 644 AD). Although some historians consider the account apocryphal, an early account of the destruction related (footnotes omitted; brackets in original):

    "We are told that the Arab emir, ‘Amr ibn al-‘Āṣ, consulted ibn al-Khattab on what to do with the books in the Library of Alexandria. Ibn al-Khattab’s answer came quick to him:

    “As for the books you mention, if there is in it what complies with the Book of God [Q’uran], then it is already there and is not needed and if what is in these books contradict the Book of God there is no need for it. And you can then proceed in destroying them.”

    ‘Amr ibn al-‘Āṣ then ordered that the books should be dispersed in the public baths and to burn them in the bath’s heaters. Al-Qifti adds: “And I was told that at that time several public baths used [the books] for heating, bringing some fame to new public baths which later on were forgotten afterwards and it is said that they had enough heating for six months. One who listens to what has happened can only be amazed!”

    So, with the importance of preserving cultural and literary works in mind, I was pleasantly surprised to come across a web-site called Planet Ebook that has a collection of what are generally considered some of the great cultural and literary works of Western Civilization (at least, those that are no longer under copyright). Books by Mark Twain, James Joyce, Nicolo Machiavelli, Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, and more. Each book, moreover, is available in PDF, epub, and mobi formats so you can be sure to get one that is compatible with one of your electronic book readers. And, of course, I have listed other resources for locating books in my ebook resource page.

    Another source I came across recently was a site called The Creative Archive that has collected together ebook versions of the classic Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Three Investigator books. The books are offered in PDF, but they don't have page numbering, header or footers, so they should easily be converted to epub and mobi files. I know these are not classics of American literature but they do inculcate many Western values through fun and interesting stories for tweens and early teens.