content: No. I purchased them from a used book store. I had a little trip out there and visited it in my free time. As for these ones specifically, I wanted the first 7 due to being published soon after the Civil War. The "Lives and Deeds..." book includes Lincoln and Grant, and was published 7 years after the Civil War ended.  The South Africa book I chose because of the current happening in South Africa, and that it may become the next Rhodesia. The Utah book I picked up because I'm LDS.