The history we learn from textbooks tells us very little about why history happened. What were people thinking? To learn that, we have to turn to original sources.
Each one of these articles presents the words of someone who was living in the middle of historical events whose outcome could not be known at the time. From them we learn what people were thinking.
And it may be hoped that these articles will also change our own thinking. Every one of them shows history in a light our textbooks never shine on it. If we are honest, we must ask ourselves the question whether we are as ignorant of our own history as these writers often were of theirs. The answer is almost certainly yes.