Larry G. Jones

George Washington gained a reputation for military excellence for his service in the French and Indian War. This experience, combined with his unique situation as a relative outsider, made him an obvious choice to lead the Continental Army. Washington...

Mark Twain wrote this essay when asked to share something with America’s youth. Though he begins in a serious tone, his advice quickly takes a turn for the satirical: “Always obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the...

An Account of An Extraordinary Fireball Bursting at Sea is a short, first hand account of a phenomenal event that occured in 1749. Aboard his ship Montague, he witnessed a blue fireball on the Mediterranean Sea. Some believe it to be a first hand...

Mark Twain was commissioned to deliver this speech before the virgin voyage of the St. Paul steamship. On the day of its scheduled departure from Philadelphia to England, however, it could not be moved. Had Twain delivered it, this is among the...

As humans, we often wonder about our heroes’ (and, perhaps, our enemies’) opinions on the most assorted of topics. Mark Twain’s speech “Cigars and Tobacco” serves to satiate such curiosities. In it, he details his storied history with those two...

Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms is an important document in the history of the United States. In it, the Second Continental Congress explained why the Colonies had taken up arms against Britain. Author - Second Continental...

Today, the US Constitution is held as sacred and infallible. But the process of creating it was lengthy, painstaking, and fraught with disagreement. The evidence of this historic struggle is in Benjamin Franklin’s landmark speech, Disapproving and...

Mark Twain delivered this speech at the dedication of new buildings at the College of the City of New York. The mayor who preceded him mentioned that good citizenship should take precedence even over education. Twain uses this introduction to...

These infamous words closed the impassioned speech Patrick Henry delivered at the Second Virginia Convention in 1775. With this speech, he persuaded the convention to mobilize troops to defend Virginia against the British. No official transcription of...

It may seem odd that Mark Twain delivered a 4th of July speech in London in 1907. Aside from poking fun at the American obsession with fireworks and drunken revelry, however, the brilliant Twain knew just how to tie the topic of American independence...

Jim Bridger was a legendary frontiersman of the western United States c. 1820-1850. In addition to being a skilled outdoorsman, he was also an expert mediator. Bridger helped negotiate relations among Native tribes and the white men who were intruding...

Jim Bridger was a famous frontiersman in the Rockies whose legacy extended beyond the wilderness he explored. The legends of his life inspired countless western stories, this one included. In this excerpt from Famous Frontiersmen and Heroes of the...

On December 29, 1890, the U.S. military entered the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with the intention of disarming the natives. When met with resistance, the cavalry opened fire on the Lakota in a massacre that killed several hundred men, women,...

In 1790, Moses Seixas of the Touro Synagogue wrote a letter to President Washington. Representing a people who had been escaping persecution for generations, he wanted confirmation that Jews would be given full freedom in the United States. Washington...

With this biting speech, Mark Twain dissects the damaging role newspapers can play in society. He argues that America’s public opinion is formed “by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up...

Poe’s characters often take turns for the worse, and this is the literal case in this shipwreck story by the author. Aboard a ship taking off from Indonesia, the narrator’s ship and crew is struck by a storm that kills everyone but the narrator and...

In this speech, Mark Twain muses on the capricious nature of man’s memory, particularly regarding how he views his past. To illustrate, he tells a tale from this youth about the time he stole a watermelon only to open it and discover it was green....

The act of dedicating a time to be thankful preceded the Thanksgiving holiday. It even preceded what most think of as the “First Thanksgiving” in Plymouth. This act became an official holiday only after a committee introduced a resolution on the...

Though many of his tales have morals, so few of Poe’s stories start with the idea that they are meant to be moralistic as is the case with Never Bet the Devil Your Head. In this story, the narrator showcases his friend, Toby Dammit, who is a man of...

As the Revolutionary War came to an end, Congress had failed to pay many of its soldiers. In response, a group of officers from the Continental Army planned a mutiny. When they met to discuss their plans, George Washington arrived on the scene to have...

Before George Washington was president, he was a great general. He understood not only how to lead men into battle, but also how to keep them fighting when things became bleak. After the brutal Battle of Long Island, Washington wrote to the president...

A heated conflict arose among the states, threatening to divide the nation in two. No, it wasn’t the Civil War; it was the Constitutional Constitution of 1787. Delegates bitterly disagreed about whether or not large states deserved more representation...

On the Decay of the Art of Lying is a classic essay penned by Mark Twain in 1880. This narration is performed by Larry G. Jones. Author - Mark Twain. Narrator - Larry G. Jones. Published Date - Sunday, 22 January 2023. Copyright - © 1880 Mark Twain ©.

E.M. Bounds examines the importance of prayer in a Christian’s life with this seminal book that is still studied widely today. Bounds, a former Army chaplain, directed his text at church leaders, but his musings can be useful for all Christians...