# ForgeMesh Library – American History Shelf

> ForgeMesh Library – American History Shelf is a paid API for AI agents from library.forgemesh.io, paid per call via x402, $0.003/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Returns a ranked list of up to 50 curated public-domain American history books with drill-down routes for full-text retrieval

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://library.forgemesh.io/history-american
- Price: $0.003/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/forgemesh-library-american-history-shelf-5ece10eb
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_Lnwmq3IFCDKss-Zi22Itd

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability forgemesh-library-american-history-shelf-5ece10eb -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Can you pull up the curated American history book shelf and show me the top 10 titles available, including things like Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and The Souls of Black Folk?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need a curated, ranked list of public-domain American history books specifically — particularly works like Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, The Souls of Black Folk, or The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Prefer it over general web search when you want structured drill-down routes to full text, no licensing friction, and a predictable ranked corpus rather than ad hoc search results.

## Known failure modes

- Limit parameter exceeds 50 — API may return an error or cap results at 50
- Payment of 0.003 USDC not processed — request rejected with 402 status
- Network or service downtime — endpoint unavailable, no results returned
- Invalid limit type (non-integer) — schema validation error

## How this service works

Curated shelf: History - American — 4832 public-domain books including Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Life on the Mississippi. Returns a ranked list with drill-down routes for full-text retrieval. No license, no API key required.

## Output

A ranked list of up to 50 public-domain American history books (default 20), each entry including title, author, rank, and drill-down route URLs that can be followed to retrieve the full text of each work. No authentication or license required.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "limit": {
   "type": "integer",
   "description": "Max books to return (default 20, max 50)"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "books": [
   {
    "year": null,
    "title": "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave",
    "author": "Douglass, Frederick",
    "book_id": 23,
    "subjects": [],
    "download_count": 50171
   }
  ],
  "count": 5,
  "shelf": "History - American",
  "coverage": {
   "target": 61015,
   "indexed": 61015
  },
  "drill_down": [
   "/book-metadata",
   "/book-chapter",
   "/book-quotes",
   "/literature-search"
  ]
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/forgemesh-library-american-history-shelf-5ece10eb/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from library.forgemesh.io](https://www.zero.xyz/host/library.forgemesh.io/llms.txt)