Most Serene, Serene, most puissant, puissant, hugh illustrious, noble, honorable, The Mifflix Chat Thomsonser our In Passport given by the Continental Congress to Captain John Green of the For details of the voyage see McMaster, "History of the People of the United States," I, p. 259-262. Published monthly, except July and August, by McKinley Publishing Co., Philadelphia, Pa. Copyright, 1911, McKinley Publishing Co. Entered as second-class matter, October 26, 1909, at the Post-office at Philadelphia, Pa., under Act of March 3, 1879. HISTORY IN STORY FORM Explorers and Founders of America Makers and Defenders of America Two volumes. Price, 60 cents each. By Anna Elizabeth Foote, Department of History, Training School for Teachers, Jamaica, N. Y., and Avery Warner Skinner, State Inspector of Schools, Education Department, Albany, N. Y. These books for the fourth, fifth and sixth years present attractive biographical sketches of prominent characters in the history of America, from the days of the earliest adventurers down to the present time. Each character portrayed is a representative type of a period of activity or a phase of our country. Each sketch gives details that are sure to interest children, while the books as a whole present all the most important events of our history. The authors draw clear and interesting pictures of the customs and manners of the times, and give the children a good knowledge of home life and industrial progress. Each sketch is followed by suggestive topics for oral or written composition. Numerous attractive illustrations are included. AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 10 You will favor advertisers and publishers by mentioning this magazine in answering advertisements. The History Teacher's Magazine Managing Editor, ALBERT E. MCKINLEY, PH.D. PROF. ARTHUR C. HOWLAND, University of Pennsylvania. ARTHUR M. WOLFSON, Ph.D., DeWitt Clinton High DANIEL C. KNOWLTON, Ph.D., Barringer High School, Newark, N. J. WILLIAM FAIRLEY, Ph.D., Commercial High School, Brooklyn, N. Y. C. B. NEWTON, Lawrenceville School, New Jersey. ALBERT H. SANFORD, State Normal School, La Cross, Wis. Current History: JOHN HAYNES, Ph.D., Dorchester High School, Boston. Reports from the Historical Field: WALTER H. CUSHING, Secretary New England History Teachers' Association, South Framingham, Mass. History in the Grades: ARMAND J. GERSON, Ph.D., Robert Morris Public School, Philadelphia. SARAH A. DYNES. State Normal School, Trenton, N. J. LIDA LEE TALL, Supervisor of Grammar Grades, Balto., Md. Answers to Inquiries: CHARLES A. COULOMB, Ph.D. CORRESPONDING EDITORS. HENRY JOHNSON, Teachers' College, Columbia Univ., N. Y. MAREL HILL, Normal School, Lowell, Mass. H. W. EDWARDS, High School, Oakland, Cal. WALTER L. FLEMING, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge. MARY SHANNON SMITH. Meredith College, Raleigh, N. C. MARY LOUISE CHILDS, High School, Evanston, Ill. E. BRUCE FORREST, London, England. JAMES F. WILLARD, University of Colorado, Boulder, Col. Volume II. PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY, 1911. $1.00 a year 15 cents a copy Reference Work In High School History Courses BY CLARENCE PERKINS, PH.D., ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EUROPEAN HISTORY IN OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. One of the great difficulties which the progressive history teacher has to meet both in high schools and colleges is to induce his students to do regular, thorough, and systematic reading in reference books. The colleges and universities are insisting more and more vigorously that high school history courses be broader than any single text-book; but, owing to various difficulties, in many schools history is still taught almost wholly from a single text-book. It is true that far better books are to be had now than a decade or two ago, but even such excellent books as Robinson's Western Europe leave somewhat to be desired, and the study of these alone can give only a superficial knowledge of history and inferior training if not accompanied by a reasonable amount of systematic collateral reading. It is hardly necessary to present any brief to prove this. much. Many a high school student can hardly paraphrase accurately a few pages of simple prose and the minimum assignments should be proportioned to his abilities and then the reading be strictly required of him. The teacher may object, however, that first-year high school students are so immature that they do well if they get the main outlines of Greek and Roman History without attempting to master the intricacies of Athenian Constitutional History from Draco to Demosthenes or the checks and balances of the Roman constitution as told by Polybius. Moreover the ground to be covered in the first two years of high school history with these young students is very extensive, from the ancient Egyptians to present-day European conditions. Owing to the pressure of a variety of subjects in the curriculum, the time spent on the history of Continental Europe is often too short to admit of much reference reading being required. Even if time were available, there is the great difficulty of securing enough duplicate copies even of a few standard reference books to enable all the students to do their reading. Some of these difficulties confront even the college teacher, especially in the large freshman course; but they do not warrant any teacher in refusing to insist on collateral reading being done. The high school freshman is immature, but surely he is capable of doing some reading,.if it is brought down nearly to his level. The teacher can well afford to slur rapidly over the details of Egyptian, Chaldean, and Assyrian History, giving merely a clear picture of the life under these ancient monarchies and an outline of their contributions to world civilization. The student need not be compelled to master all the details of the constitutional changes of Athens from Homeric times to Cleisthenes and the details of early Greek History, if the teacher will only insist on the thorough mastery of some outside reading on the history of Athens and Sparta after the fifth century. Use the biographical method as much as possible. Dry institutional history does not interest the high school student, but he can be vitally interested in the personality and deeds of "reat men, and that sort of reading should be assigned. Excessive emphasis on biography may well tend to give somewhat of a false prospective, but the teacher will have at least aroused interest and shown the student that all the facts of Ancient History are not contained in one single volume. The teacher should take care, however, not to assign too The difficulty offered by the amount of material to be dealt with in the first two years of high school history can best be met by going rapidly over the earlier portion of each historical subject, such as the early parts of Greek and Roman History which are largely mythical, the medieval period in the history of Continental Europe and England, and the colonial period of American History. The teacher should never forget that high school pupils are not likely to be interested in or benefited by antiquarian research, that the most of them will never go beyond the high school if they complete that course, and that the prime object of high school history should not be preparation for college, but preparation for life, to give the student knowledge of the past century or two of the history of England and Europe, and to form in him the habit of correct thinking concerning the political and social problems which he will meet in the complex modern world. This will also be found to be the line of least resistance in the case of the average boy or girl. Interest can be stimulated by the introduction of material about very recent and contemporary European events. Back files of standard reviews and magazines can be very effectively used for this purpose by assigning reports on special topics of current interest to individual students. In dealing with topics as far back as the Renaissance and Protestant Revolt the teacher can continually bring out the connection between these movements and modern conditions and thus show the practical importance of the subject matter under discussion. Even in Greek and Roman History the same method should be followed. The modern period of Greece, that following Alexander's conquests, is more like the present time in events and especially in its political, social, economic, and intellectual conditions than the earlier periods and should receive more emphasis than it usually does. Likewise due emphasis should be placed on the Roman Empire and its influence on the Middle Ages. Even after going rapidly over the medieval portion of European or English History, it may well be advisable not to require very extensive collateral reading on all the following periods. It is better to do thoroughly what is attempted than to do a large amount superficially. In his plan for the course as a whole, the teacher should fix his students' attention on two or three central ideas, the development of which it is the business of the course to trace. For England there might be the growth of religious liberty and democracy; and for Medieval and Modern History, the growth of the modern nations and their unification under single governments, and the rise and spread of constitutional liberty. The great epochs in history such as the Protestant Revolt and the French Revolution should be made to stand out in bold relief, and every event previous to either which can be connected casually to the great epoch-making movement should be emphasized, and its connection explained by the students themselves so far as possible. For example, the various events and sub-topics of Louis XIV's reign can nearly all be shown to be causally connected with the Great Revolution. The student can be made to see that the general policy of Louis XIV in his wars was ill-advised because he drove Holland into the arms of her commercial rival England, whose commercial and colonial expansion it would have been the best policy for France to forestall; and that the tradition of Louis XIV's policy of ruinous emphasis on land wars at the expense of naval and colonial power was followed by his mediocre successors, thus piling up much of the debt which finally obliged Louis XVI to call the Estates General in 1789. It can likewise be shown that the domestic policies of Louis XIV helped to bring on the Revolution and influenced its progress during the succeeding years. The central government took to itself more and more power and thus deprived the French people of all political experience. Finally when the crash swept away the cumbrous and inefficient bureaucracy, the mass of French people knew nothing of self-government, made many blunders, and eventually the way was paved for another absolutism more complete than that of the eighteenth century Bourbons. Louis's attraction of the majority of the nobles to Paris, which did much to afflict France with the evils of absentee landlordism, Colbert's paternal economic policies and failure to make thoroughgoing reforms in the taxation system, and the religious unification of France brought about by the persecutions of the Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes can all be shown to be causes of the outbreak of the Revolution and influential in its progress. The same method can be effectively applied to many other periods to the great stimulation of the average student's power of thought. By emphasizing the reasons for events, by getting underneath the surface of the facts, the interest of the students can be aroused and their powers of judgment developed. Very frequently this emphasis on interpretation will bring out knowledge gained from the collateral reading, and thus make the student feel that his work is known. One of the greatest difficulties in getting the outside reading thoroughly mastered is the natural laziness of the students and their belief that the teacher will never know if the work is not done. Unfortunately all too many teachers do not know how little of their assigned reading is actually studied by their pupils. Often the assignments are to books which may be historically accurate but are insufferably dull to the active boy or girl. This last objection applies with especial force to some collections of original source material. Far be it from me to deny the value of training the student in the use of original sources, but the requirements of the use of this material must be reasonable. In the limited time allowed to most general courses, it seems inadvisable to lay much emphasis on the study of documents which do much to kill interest in the subject if rigidly required, and if not, are seldom read except by the ultra-conscientious student. References should always be selected with the view to interesting the students so they will continue their reading voluntarily both while in the school and after they leave. The reading of a capitulary of Charlemagne, a charter of a medieval town, or the Rule of St. Benedict is valuable for advanced college students, but such documents are not read with avidity by the college freshman, to say nothing of the high school student. But there are sources which can be used to advantage even by very immature students. The works of Plutarch and Herodotus were intended for comparatively untrained minds in their own day, and will interest the modern boys and girls. Letters of such men as Cicero and Luther, and diaries such as Pepys' can be effectively used. and even some documents such as the directions for the medieval ordeals can be made interesting. Selections from a variety of such sources are now readily accessible in collec tions compiled for use in connection with certain texts, such as Robinson's "Readings in European History," Cheyney's "Readings in English History," and Ogg's "Source Book of Medieval History." Copies of such source books should be in the chool library. In some cases owing to the difficulty of securing an adequate variety of reference books for the library it may be desirable to require every student to have a source book; but surely such sources ought not to be used to the exclusion of standard secondary works. In case either the source book or the secondary works must be omitted, as a rule the secondary material can be more effectively used. To ensure the thorough perusal of collateral reading, books written in a clear and interesting style should be chosen whenever possible. Absolute historical accuracy and a clear and interesting literary style are strangely difficult to find combined in one single book, but above all, the teachers should shun the work lacking in interest and charm of style, however accurate. Expert opinions sometimes differ regarding certain books and it is only with hesitation that the following suggestions are made. In Ancient History the biographical side should be stressed and material from Herodotus, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Isocrates, Plutarch, Livy, Polybius, Cicero, and Caesar can be effectively used. Interest can be aroused by concentrating considerably upon the careers of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar as depicted by Benjamin I. Wheeler and Warde Fowler, (Heroes of the Nation Series, Putnam). In Medieval and Modern History, reading can best be concentrated on a few of the great periods and time can be found for considerable reference work on these by covering the Middle Ages far more rapidly than is usually done, perhaps leaving from two-thirds to three-quarters of the year for the modern period from about 1500 A.D. Two excellent books on the Reformation are Walker, "The Reformation" (Scribner), and Lindsay, "History of the Reformation," (Scribner). Of these the former is the briefer and is marked by excellent organization of material, the latter is longer but much more interesting. Schwill, "Political History of Modern Europe" (Scribner), is very useful especially for good references of moderate length dealing with France and England at the close of the sixtenth century, and England under the Stuarts and in the eighteenth century, but should not be used to the exclusion of more thorough works treating of the French French Revolution, Napoleon and the Nineteenth Century Europe. Robinson, "History of Western Europe" devotes eightyseven pages to this period, Schwill covers it in sixtyeight pages. If Robinson is used as a text-book and a proportionate time is spent on the period, evidently reference books of a more advanced character should be used. Adams, "Growth of the French Nation" (Macmillan) is a very good reference especially on the reigns of Louis XIV and his successors, but there are a number of excellent books dealing especially with the Revolutionary Period which can be used successfully, notably Mathews," "The French Revolution" (Longmans); Rose "Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era" (Putnam); Stephens, "Revolutionary Europe" (Macmillan); and above all, Johnston, "Napoleon" (Holt). These are somewhat detailed for complete reading by high school students, but extracts can well be assigned and the last work by Johnston will be read with eagerness by nearly every high school boy. Excellent material for references of moderate length will be found in Robinson and Beard, "The Development of Modern Europe" (Ginn), and Seignobos, "History of Contemporary Civilization" (Scribner) which are likewise among the very best books of their character dealing with Europe since 1815. For English History there are a number of well-known books such as those of Terry, Green, Gardiner, Tout and Ransome. The first two of these will be found most interesting to high school students. The epoch of the great con In American History and Civil Government the high school student should do more extensive reading than in any of the previously mentioned courses. Here as before, more effective work can be done by spending little time on the colonial period and concentrating attention on the history of the nation. The three books in the Epoch Series and Elson's "History of the United States" (Macmillan) are excellent and can be effectively used throughout the course For special periods, Fiske, "The Critical Period;" several volumes in the American Statesmen Series of biographies (Houghton, Mifflin) especially Lodge's Lodge's Washington, Morse's Jefferson, Lodge's Webster, Morse's Lincoln, Hart's Chase, and McCall's Thaddeus Stevens; and G. Hunt's Calhoun in the American Crisis Series (Jacobs, Philadelphiay will be found very useful for reference work. In Civics, Beard, "American Government and Politics" (Macmillan 1910); Reinsch, "Readings on American Federal Government" (Ginn); Benjamin Harrison, "This Country of Ours" (Scribner); Wilson, "Congressional Government" (Houghton, Mifflin); Ashley, "The American Federal State" (Macmillan); and Bryce, "American Commonwealth" (abridged edition) give excellent material which is very interesting, especially the first four works mentioned. In buying books for a school library, great care should be taken not to scatter the purchases over too large a number of different works. Under ordinary circumstances money spent for a single copy of a first-class reference book might almost as well be given to some poor boy to buy a needed text-book. If the book is worth buying at all, several duplicate copies should be purchased so that there may be a fair chance of every student in the class being able to use it at about the time the book is needed. Of course exceptions to this may occur, especially where there are several books adequately covering the same topics.* The warnings of timid librarians should be disregarded if they object to the purchase of duplicates. Libraries should be for the real use of the students, not for ornamental purposes. In general the best plan is to concentrate attention on the most important epochs in history, buy the two or three best books dealing with each of these epochs, and buy enough duplicates so that they can be effectively used by all the students. If the supply of books is scanty, students will complain that they were not able to get any of the books required and therefore the teacher ought not to expect them to know what they contained. There should be no cause for such complaints. the supply of books is not sufficient, the reading should not be absolutely required; but, if it is required, no lame excuses should be accepted. Students can be required to hand in lists of their study periods and a schedule arranged indicating at what hours each student is entitled to a certain reference book. Then the teacher can hold his students to use the books at the proper hours. The writer has found this scheme successful in college classes where most of the reading was in two or three reference books. If The attention of students should not be scattered over too great a variety of reference books for a given lesson or series of lessons, but concentrated on the two or three best ones arranged in order of preference with definite references to volume and exact pages. The minimum requirement may well be any single one of the references. This concentration *Of course, these remarks do not apply to the purchase of certain standard sets of books intended to be used for the investigation of special topics by individual students, e. g. Rhodes, History of United States since the compromise of 1850, etc. is necessary because the teacher should have the facts and their interpretation in the references fresh in his mind in order to question effectively. It is almost useless to assign references and then question only on the material in the text book, relying on such schemes as an examination of the signatures at the reserved book desk or on signed statements. from students as to how many pages they have read. Unless he is especially interested, the average student does no more work than is required of him. He soon becomes aware of these schemes, and is tempted to lie or cheat if he thinks that it will succeed. The teacher should incorporate into his lesson plan or analysis the important points made by other writers as well as those made by the author of the textbook, and use this material regularly in the daily recitations. When this is done, students will soon learn that they must read if they wish to make a good showing in the class-room. Students can be stimulated to do individual thinking by occasionally dwelling in class on questions which are in any way debatable. If the teacher can arouse the combativeness of his students, get them to talk freely and forget they are in school in their eagerness to down one another in argument, he has won a great victory. Students who wish to succeed in wordy battles must have the ammunition which good reference books can give. Some such debatable topics. will occur to every teacher of history. Some of the following may be suggestive;-the policies of Themistocles vs. those of Aristides, Cimon vs. Themistocles, the strategy of the Persians and Greeks in the Persian Wars and the Spartans and Athenians in the Peloponnesian War, Demosthenes vs. Philip of Macedon, Caesar vs. Pompey, Octavius vs. Cicero, the medieval popes vs. the medieval emperors, Luther's authorization of Philip of Hesse's bigamy, Henry IV of Navarre's change of religion, the character of Henry VIII, the dissolution of the English monasteries, the execution of Charles I of England, the causes of the American Revolution from the English point of view, the originality of Louis XIV's policies, the necessity of the Reign of Terror, "Was the Battle of Waterloo as decisive as it has generally been regarded ?", and many others. In American History debatable questions are far easier to find, such as Jefferson's Embargo Policy, the tariff question, the United States Bank, the Mexican War, the slavery question in its various aspects, the right of nullification and secession, the reconstruction policies of Lincoln and Johnson, and of Stevens and the Congressional leaders, the silver question, the trust problem, and many others. One of the great difficulties with which history teachers have to deal is the fact that high school and college students often think they can get a history lesson by reading On the other hand, what the subject matter only once. more can the conscientious student do? Master the lesson, some one answers; but how know when the lesson is mastered? Other subjects in the curriculum set definite and often difficult tasks; but when the task is done, the student can leave the subject with the satisfaction that comes from a consciousness that his lesson is fully prepared. The definite problems of mathematics and foreign languages cannot be escaped by any sort of a "bluff," the history lesson may. Hence the superficial student often gets his history lesson last if at all; and the conscientious student perhaps reads widely but is temporarily outshone in the class-room by some brilliant "bluffer." The writer has had experience in teaching not only history, but Latin, German, and mathematics in high school and has found that this real difficulty can be overcome by spending the last one fifth of the hour in assigning a number of definite questions on the next lesson, framed as far as possible to cover the main points of fact and interpretation taken up in the collateral references as well as the text-book. These give the history lesson a definite character from which the lazy student cannot readily escape. The answers to the questions may be required to be handed in or |