Please note, as of April 16, 2018, the titles HEB contributed to the Humanities Open Book program are live to the public on the new Fulcrum platform. You can find them at https://www.fulcrum.org/heb. You may download it in EPUB or Mobi format from the table below.

ACLS Humanities E-Book (HEB) is proud to participate in Humanities Open Book (HOB), a program intended to give a second life to outstanding out-of-print books in the humanities by turning them into free e-books. HEB is among select awardees to have been chosen for participation in this joint initiative of The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the largest financial supporters of humanities research in the United States.

The program makes available a set of digital open-access editions of titles that are currently out-of-print from a range of different sources and rights holders. The new project focuses on these works as,

“A huge, mostly untapped resource of remarkable scholarship going back decades that is largely unused by today’s scholars, teachers, students, and members of the public, many of whom turn first to the Internet when looking for information. … The Humanities Open Book pilot grant program aims to ‘unlock’ these books by republishing them as high-quality electronic books that anyone in the world can download and read on computers, tablets, or mobile phones at no charge.” – NEH

For more information, see the NEH press release.

Among the publishers and other participants selected to build the Humanities Open Book list, HEB had a unique opportunity to pursue and represent authors who are not affiliated with a publishing body acting on their behalf, instead licensing the works directly. HEB worked with a specially convened committee to identify books whose authors have retained or recovered publishing rights. The books were selected for their enduring scholarly value and potential public interest.  HEB would like to thank the Society for the History of Technology, African Studies Association, and American Folklore Society for their active participation in selecting the titles.

As of August 1, 2017, the title are available in EPUB 3.0.1, Mobi, and page scan (HEB) versions.  XML versions are also available and can be found in our XML title list.  You may also download the corresponding ACLS HOB White paper and ACLS Report to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation if you wish.

Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.