Слике страница
PDF
ePub

Notes from the Historical Field

The United States Bureau of Education has been using its influence to keep alive the interest in educational work in the present times of national crisis. An appeal has been made to religious organizations and to ministers, Sundayschool superintendents, and leaders of young people's societies urging them to help in preserving the national educational system. Similar appeals have been sent to the club women of the United States and also to labor unions.

Professor William F. Russell, who is known to the readers of THE HISTORY TEACHER'S MAGAZINE as the author of a study upon "The Early Teaching of History in Secondary Schools," has resigned his position in George Peabody College to accept an appointment as Dean of the College of Education at the State University of Iowa.

"Luther's Influence in Education" is the title of a contribution by Dr. R. B. Perry, president of Midland College, to the September number of "Education." Dr. Perry points out that Luther believed it to be the duty of the state to educate its citizens: that education should be universal; that attendance on the common schools should be compulsory; that education should be practical; that the curriculum should be broad and rich; and that better methods should be adopted in education.

The Committee on Thrift Education of the National Education Association has issued a pamphlet entitled, "Agricultural Preservation and Food Conciliation: A Study in Thrift." The subject of thrift is discussed under such "The Patriotic Necessity of Thrift," "How headings as Schools May Help Preserve Food Production," "Waste of Foods," ," "Thrift in the Home," "Food Storage and Preservation," The Relation of Thrift and Food Problems to Schools, and Particularly to Courses in Domestic Economy and Industrial Arts."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The sixth annual Bulletin of Historical Literature issued by the (English) Historical Association covers the principal historical writings of the year 1916. The Bulletin is edited by Professor F. J. C. Hearnshaw. It is divided into nine headings, as follows: "Ancient History," "Early Medieval History, 300-1000," 'Medieval History, 10001200," "Later Medieval History, 1200-1488," The Sixteenth Century," "The Seventeenth Century," "The Eighteenth Century," and "The Nineteenth Century," and "General Works." The secretary of the Association is Miss M. B. Curran, 22 Russell Square, London, W. C.

[ocr errors]

The American Association for International Conciliation has issued as No. 114 of its publications "Documents Relating to the Entry of the United States Into the Great War." The pamphlet contains the President's address of April 2; the resolution of Congress of April 6; the proclamation of the President of the same date; Mayor Mitchell's proclamation of that date, and President Wilson's address to his fellow-countrymen of April 16.

Mr. Lewis B. Swift has extended and revised his paper entitled, "America's Debt to England: The Failure to Teach the Foundations of Liberty," which he read before the American Historical Association at Cincinnati, December 28, 1916, and it has been published in pamphlet form by the Kautz Stationery Company, of Indianapolis (ten cents).

Dr. Milton R. Gutsch contributes the leading article to the Texas History Teacher's Bulletin for May, 1917 (Volume 5, No. 3), entitled, "The Field of Instruction in Elementary College History." The paper is accompanied by a number of tables giving statistics concerning the preparatory work of students entering the University of Texas.

Based upon this experience, the writer concludes that one field of history should be offered for all entering students, and that this one field should be English history. Professor Barker continues his source readings in Texas history. An index to Volume 1 to 5 of the Bulletin is contained in this number.

Teachers in Colorado and Wisconsin who desire leave of absence to teach in other parts of the country in order to become acquainted with conditions elsewhere, may obtain permission to do so from the boards of education under the terms of recent acts passed by the Legislatures of those States. There is a considerable amount of exchange in the teaching force of colleges and universities, particularly in summer schools. Exchange professorships with foreign countries have also been arranged, and efforts have been made to provide for an exchange of teachers from different parts of the British Empire. The permission granted in Wisconsin and in Colorado is in accordance with the principles already established for the exchange of professorships. Great good could be accomplished not only for the individual teacher, but also for school systems if a broader exchange of the teaching profession were possible.

An Outline for the Study of the History of Idaho, with Reading Lists and References" has been prepared by Professor H. L. Talkington, of the Lewiston State Normal School, and is issued in the "Idaho Bulletin of Education," Volume 2, No. 4. Professor Talkington divides the history of Idaho into sixteen chapters, in which he includes the era of exploration, routes to the west, the fur trading era, the missionary period, the mining era, immigration to the west, the geography of Idaho, early settlements and roads, political history of the Oregon country, political history of Idaho, Indian wars, public lands, educational systems, State educational institutions, other State institutions, and local history and civics. Each one of these topics is accompanied by an outline and brief bibliography and suggestions as to the method of handling the subject.

"The Battle Line of Democracy," an anthology prepared by the Committee on Public Information, Washington, D. C., which was mentioned in THE HISTORY TEACHER'S MAGAZINE for September as selling for 25 cents, has been changed in price to 15 cents. Requests for copies should be sent to the Committee on Public Information.

"The Public School System in Relation to the Coming Conflict for National Supremacy is a pamphlet by V. S. Bryant published by Longmans, Green & Company, for the English Committee on the Neglect of Science. The work shows an analysis of the curriculum in the private and public schools of England. It expounds the role of science in the general scheme of education. An idea of the constructive policy of the author may be gained from the following quotation: "A new method must replace the old, which, without sacrificing the formation of moral fibre, will at the same time produce men of energy, men of decis. ion and men of business. The classical system does not and cannot produce this type which is so absolutely and so immediately essential for the attainment of national supremacy in the future."

The proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Session of the State Literary and Historical Association of North Carolina contain a number of interesting papers among which may be noted "The Sovereign State of, North Carolina, 1787-1789" by W. W. Pierson, Jr.; "Suffrage in North Carolina," by W. S. Wilson; "History of Crimes and Punishments in North Carolina " by T. M. Pittman; and " North Carolina Bibliography 1916" by M. W. Leatherman.

The meeting of the Tufts College Teachers' Association on October 27 will have certain papers of interest to teachers of history and government. Dr. John S. Scully will speak on "Up To The Minute Teaching" at the morning session at Packard Hall, Tufts College. In the afternoon there will be a series of conferences including one on "Recent Changes in History" at which the changes in the various fields of history will be discussed by Harriet E. Tuell, Roy W. Hatch, George S. Pearson, Winthrop Tirrell and others. A luncheon will be served on the campus and tickets may be secured there.

Miss Blanche Leavitt, Teacher in the Rogers High School, Newport, R. I., since 1896, died on September 16. Miss Leavitt was not only a remarkably successful teacher of history but devoted much of her time to historical associations.

A New England Board for Historical Service, composed of a group of historians in New England, has been organized to co-operate with the National Board in Washington. The New England group has been devoting its attention to the giving of lectures and informal addresses on the historic facts underlying the war issues. A series of lectures was given at White Mountain hotels during the past summer by Prof. Arthur I. Andrews, of Tufts College, and Dr. Mason W. Tyler, of the University of Minnesota. The New England Board has organized a body of specialists in history, who have offered their services freely to any community which desires lectures upon the historic aspects of the war. The only stipulations are the guarantee of the lecturer's expenses and a respectable audience. Details concerning the topics of the lectures and the available lecturers can be obtained from the secretary, Prof. Arthur I. Andrews, Tufts College, Mass.

The National Security League (31 Pine Street, New York City) has published a series of pamphlets entitled "Patriotism Through Education." Thirteen of these pamphlets have come to hand. They are as follows: "Knowledge by the People the True Basis of National Security," by S. Stanwood Menken; "Getting Your Audience," by Rev. Dr. Sartell Prentice; "What Our Country Asks of Its Young Women," by Mrs. Percy V. Pennypacker; "Some Neglected Aspects of Public Speaking," by Prof. Solomon H. Clark; "The Ideals of Our War," by Prof. Robert McNutt McElroy; "Fourth of July Oration," by Hon. George W. Wickersham; "The Food Administration," by Frederic C. Woodward; 'The Outlook for Democracy," by Dr. William H. Hobbs; "The German Tragedy," by Dr. Henry W. Farnam; "Democracy and World Politics," by Dr. Shailer Mathews; "Hurry Up, America!" by Pomeroy Burton; "The Navy and the War," by Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt; "Suggestions for Speakers on the United States and the World War," by Prof. Richard T. Ely. The league has also published a Hand Book of the War for Public Speakers (25 cents), edited by Albert Bushnell Hart and Arthur O. Lovejoy.

The Wisconsin Loyalty Legion (228 First National Bank Building, Milwaukee, Wis.) has prepared a series of lectures to be given throughout the State. Among the topics listed for these lectures are: "Why We Are at War;" "Mobilization of a Nation;" "Feeding a World at War;"

66

Caring for the Injured;" "Financing the War;" "Our Fighting Forces;" ;""Civilian Care for Fighters;" and "Autocracy Versus Democracy."

"The Trade of the Delaware District Before the Revolution," by Mary Alice Hanna, appears as No. 4, Volume 2, of the Smith College Studies in History. The study is divided into three parts: The Economic Conditions in the Delaware District Before 1763; British Trade and Revenue Legislation, 1763-1773; and the Effect of British Legislation. The English legislation, as pointed out, injured the trade of the district because that trade depended upon circuitous routes which were practically forbidden by the "enumerated" policy. A resort was had to illegal methods on a larger scale than before the restriction legislation was passed. The authority of the vice-admiralty courts and custom houses of the district was completely nullified and "such conditions of trade existed as to make the period for the individual traders more prosperous than any previous one."

Comments on History Teaching in Colleges

Editor THE HISTORY TEACHER'S MAGAZINE:

DEAR SIR: In the valuable symposium on the elementary college course in history, published in the MAGAZINE for April, is one statement that attracts my attention particularly.

[ocr errors]

On page 112, discussing the field of such a course, Professor Show says, "Every man is fully persuaded in his own eyes that the thing which he is doing is the best thing to do." That proposition is probably almost absolutely true. I assume that by "best" Professor Show means, and expects the " every man to mean, that which is really the most desirable thing to do, from the standpoint of the ideal history teacher. That being understood, the history department at Louisiana State University, as far as the field of the elementary course is concerned, is not doing what it believes to be the best.

Both the head of the department, Dr. Walter L. Fleming, and myself, consider that for many reasons, the introductory course in history should be a course in general history. For many years that is what has been offered the freshman, without very satisfactory results. We have found that the attitude of the average freshman is that since such a course covers much the same ground that two of his high school courses did, he has not much to gain from it, and is simply bound to take it, because the faculty, in its pigheaded arbitrariness, has so decreed.

About two years ago, Professor Fleming inaugurated an experiment. The old freshman course, "History 1-2," was re-arranged somewhat. History 1-2, "The Essentials of History," was offered as before, but for those students who could give presumptive evidence that they could profit by such a course, 66 History la-2a" was offered. This is simply a freshman course, in which the history of England is the narrative thread, to which are attached the general" ramifications of European history. In the 1916-1917 session, Professor Fleming and I each had a section of 1-2 and of la-2a. At the midyear examinations I found that in 1-2, out of a section of twenty-seven students, eighteen, or only 66% per cent., passed. In the section of la-2a, thirty out of thirty-two, or 93 per cent. +, passed. This was the larger section, and the one in which I was less interested.

We explain that by the fact that the novelty of the course is attractive, because no English history is offered in the high schools of this State. Consequently, for the 1917-18 session only the course based on England will be offered to all freshmen.

Here, then, are two men who believe that the best thing to do is to give the freshmen a course in general history, yet are actually giving a course in English history; that is, doing the practical thing.

MILLEDGE, L. BONHAM, JR., Professor of History and Political Science, Louisiana State University.

CONCLUSIONS FROM STUDY OF 2250 DARTMOUTH UNDERGRADUATES' HISTORY COURSES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

For the four classes, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, there were taken from the admission records the courses for which about 1,500 students received entrance credit in history for work done in high school. Of these 1,500 students, 77 per cent. had received credit for courses in ancient history; 12 per cent. for medieval and modern European; 24 per cent. for English history; 48 per cent. for American history. The percentage receiving credit for at least two courses in history was 61 per cent. Only 13 per cent. appeared to receive credit for at least three courses.

For the last two classes entering (1919, 1920), 750 blanks were filled out by freshmen themselves, showing what courses they had taken in history in high school (or preparatory school)-whether they had received credit for them on entering college or not. Of those 750 freshmen, 85 per cent. had taken ancient history; 23 per cent. medieval and modern European; 35 per cent. English history; 62 per cent. American history. At least two courses in history had been taken by 71 per cent.; at least three courses by 28 per cent.

Putting together the number in four earlier classes who received entrance credit for courses in history, and the number in last two classes who report having taken courses, we find that out of 2,250 undergraduates at Dartmouth in the last six classes (1915-1920), the total percentage who either received entrance credit, or studied the respective courses in high school, was as follows: Ancient history, 80 per cent.; European, 16 per cent.; English, 28 per cent.; American, 53 per cent. Of the total of 2,250, 64 per cent. either presented or had taken at least two courses; and 18 per. cent. presented or had taken at least three courses.

To sum up:

1. The vast majority take and receive credit for ancient history (77 to 85 per cent.).

2. A large majority take American history in high school, and about half receive entrance credit for it (62 to about 48 per cent.)

3. Of those taking American history in high school, 77 per cent. have it in the last year.

4. Ninety-seven per cent. have had American history in either grammar or high school.

5. The per cent. either studying or receiving credit for European history is surprisingly small, only 16 per cent., as compared with 28 per cent. for English history.

It should perhaps be added that these figures do not represent New England schools so largely as would be generally presupposed, but rather a fairly national distribution. For the last year, 1916-1917, 48 per cent. of Dartmouth students were from outside New England.

It appears fairly clear that in a college where the percentage taking ancient and American history is so large,

and the percentage taking European in the high school is so small, the course offered to freshmen in college would naturally be in European history, if regard be had to the largest gap in the historical knowledge of an entering class. HERBERT DARLING FOSTER.

NEW COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY FOR THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF PHILADELPHIA.

A new course of study in history for the entire eight grades was put into force in Philadelphia last month. The course was prepared under the direction of Superintendent John P. Garber by a committee composed of District Superintendents, principals of schools and teachers in the high schools. The General Chairman of the Committee was Holman White. The committee was divided into four subcommittees, as follows: History for Grades 7 and 8-Nina L. Crawford, Chairman; for Grades 5 and 6-Dr. Charles A. Coulomb, Chairman; for grades 1, 2, 3 and 4-Louise F. Perring, Chairman; Committee on Methods and Suggestive Lessons-Dr. Albert L. Rowland, Chairman.

The remaining members of the committee were: Horace Hoagland, Dr. Belle F. Clark, William McLaughlin, Charles Buckley, Lillian DuBois, Robert MacMillan, John L. Shroy, Louise H. Haeseler, Helen K. Yerkes, Bertha F. Cox, Margaret L. Gill, Robert C. String, Frances Young, J. Thornton Emrey, Thomas Groetzinger, William Lowry, Edwin Montanye, Harriet Keller.

The course, as will be seen from the summary given below, follows in some respects the recommendations of the Committee of Eight. The instruction runs through three cycles, in each of which the pupil starts with stories of early life, and comes down to American history. Cycle one includes grades one and two, and takes up stories of Indian life and American holidays and festivals; cycle two includes grades three, four and five, beginning with hero stories of legend and history, stories of great explorers, stories of local history and an informal survey of American history through biography. The third cycle includes grades six to eight, beginning with a general account of ancient and medieval life and the age of discovery. This is followed by the history of America down to 1815, and in the eighth grade the century from 1815 to 1917 is treated.

Summary of the Course of Study in History.
GRADES ONE AND TWO.

Oral instruction, dramatization.
Grades I and II.

Stories of Indian life.

Appreciation of public holidays and festivals.-Columbus Day; Penn Day; Thanksgiving Day; Lincoln's Birthday; Washington's Birthday; Arbor Day; May Day; Memorial Day; Flag Day (Independence Day).

GRADE THREE.

Oral instruction, dramatization, supplementary reading. Grade 3A-Fall Term.

Stories of heroes of legend and history.-Joseph; Moses; David; Ulysses; Alexander; Horatius; Cincinnatus; Siegfried; Arthur; Roland.

Appreciation of public holidays and festivals. Grade 3B-Fall Term.

Stories of heroes of legend and history.-Siegfried; Arthur; Roland; Alfred the Great; Richard the Lion Hearted; Robert Bruce; William Tell; Joan of Arc; Peter the Great; Florence Nightingale.

Appreciation of public holidays.

GRADE FOUR.

Oral instruction and supplementary reading. Grade 4A.

Stories of great explorers.-Lief Ericsson; Christopher Columbus; Sir Walter Raleigh; Samuel Champlain; Henry Hudson.

Settlers in the South.-John Smith; the settlers and the Indians.

Settlers in New England.-Miles Standish; the settlers and the Indians.

George Washington. Benjamin Franklin.

Grade 4B.

Stories from local history.-Pennsylvania's neighbors, John Printz and Peter Stuyvesant; William Penn; the settlers and the Indians; distinguished Pennsylvanians, John Bartram, Francis Daniel Pastorius, Benjamin West, Benjamin Rush; places of historical interest, Penn's House, Betsy Ross House, Christ Church, Independence Hall; interesting historical places in the school neighborhood.

GRADE FIVE.

Informal survey of American history through the lives of the nation's leading heroes. Oral instruction supplemented by text-book.

Grade 5A.

Men who helped to make our country independent.— Franklin; Adams; Henry; Philadelphia Tea Party; Washington; Jefferson; Paul Jones; Lafayette; George Rogers Clark; Robert Morris; Anthony Wayne; John Barry; Peter Muhlenberg.

Men who helped to make our country strong.-Hamilton; Decatur; Perry; Stephen Girard.

Men who helped to make our country larger.-Daniel Boone; Lewis and Clark; Davy Crockett; John C. Fremont. Grade 5B.

Great inventors and great achievements.-Eli Whitney; Robert Fulton; Governor Clinton and the Erie Canal; the first train; Cyrus McCormick; Samuel F. B. Morse; Alexander Graham Bell; Thomas A. Edison.

Men and women who helped to rid our country of slavery. -Lucretia Mott; Harriet Beecher Stowe; Abraham Lincoln; Ulysses S. Grant; Jay Cooke.

A Southern leader.-Robert E. Lee.

Helpful men and women who belong to recent times.William McKinley; Grover Cleveland; Clara Barton; Frances Willard.

GRADE SIX.

Impressions of ancient and medieval life. Oral instruction supplemented by text-book. Grade 6A.

The Greeks. Why we remember them; the Greeks as builders and artists; spread of Greek culture.

The Romans.-The beginnings of Rome; Roman conquest of Italy; Roman conquest of the Mediterranean lands; Roman conquest in the West; the Roman Empire; Rome and Christianity.

The Germanic peoples.-The German tribes; conversion of the Germans to Christianity; overthrow of the Roman Empire in the West; German conquest of Britain; King Alfred the Great; Norman conquest of England; Norman kings forced to acknowledge the rights of the people.

Life in Europe during the Middle Ages.-Social life; religious life; education.

Grade 6B.

The Crusades.-Pilgrimages; the crusades; the Renais

sance.

The discovery of the western world.-Beginnings of discovery; Columbus; John Cabot; Vasco de Gama; Balboa; Magellan; Cartier; Cortes; Pizarro; Ponce de Leon; De Soto; Coronado.

European ambitions and the new world.-Spain; France; England; Holland.

GRADE SEVEN.

Study of American history, 1607 to 1815.
Oral instruction, text-book, collateral reading.
Grade 7A.

Seventeenth century conditions in England and America. ---North America, geographical conditions; conditions in England leading to emigration.

English settlements in America.-The first English settlement; settlement of New England; founding of Maryland; later Southern colonies; Pennsylvania.

Colonial rivalries.-Early French settlements; Spanish settlements; the Dutch in the Hudson Valley; conflicting claims of rival powers.

Struggle for colonial empire between England and France.-Holland and England against France; early wars between England and France; French and Indian War. Life in the colonies.

Grade 7B.

From colonies to nation.-Steps toward union; conditions and events leading to the American Revolution; beginnings of the Revolutionary War; period of difficulty; the French alliance; war on the seas; conclusion of the war.

Organization of the United States.-The new republic; the formation of the Constitution; the new government. The new republic and wars in Europe.-Revolution in France; European wars and American interests; Jeffersonian democracy in power; new wars in Europe and their consequences to America.

GRADE EIGHT.

Study of history of the United States, 1815 to present, current events..

Oral instruction, text-books, collateral reading. Grade 8A.

Industrial and social development.-Industrial revolution in England and America; emigration to the West; the Missouri Compromise.

New neighbors and new problems.-The Monroe Doctrine; politics from 1824 to 1832; our neighbors; war with Mexico.

Territorial expansion and the slavery question.-Slavery in the new territory; industrial and social development of the North; slavery in the middle West.

Crisis of the Republic.-The danger of disunion; comparative study of the Union and the Confederacy; the first years of the war; the turning of the tide; overthrow of the Confederacy.

Grade 8B.

Peace and its problems.-Conditions in the country at the close of the Civil War; reconstruction; troubles in the South.

The new union and the larger Europe.-Neighbors and rivals; national reorganization; the Spanish-American War; expansion and its problems; recent economic and political development.

BOOK REVIEWS

EDITED BY PROFESSOR WAYLAND J. CHASE,
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN.

GRIFFIS, WILLIAM ELLIOTT. The Mikado: Institution and
Person. A Study of the Internal Forces of Japan.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1915. Pp. viii,
346. $1.50.

Those who have read “The Religions of Japan ” and “The Mikado's Empire," by the same author, will have a fairly good idea of the general character of this book. Dr. Griffis has been a student of Japanese history for over forty-five years, and was long engaged in Japan in educational work. In this connection he made many acquaintances among the more thoughtful Japanese, and was fortunate in enjoying numerous audiences with the great Mikado Mutsuhito who died in 1912. It is especially the career of this personage that he discusses, but much is said of the earlier conditions which this Mikado had to overcome before he acquired the power to which he eventually arrived. The peculiar influences of Chinese culture, the qualities of Shintoism-so strange to the Western mindand the dual government of Mikado and Shogun are in turn discussed. Apart from these chapters which present such a foreign atmosphere to Occidentals, are some concluding chapters which have an immediate bearing upon the Great War. According to Dr. Griffis, the rise of Japan, leading to the defeat of Russia, sounded the signal for the Teutonic attack. "In a large sense of the word, Mikadoism was the force that disturbed 'the balance of power' in Europe, tumbled the edifices of British and Russian, German and French statecraft into ruin, and compelled world views." The disclosure of Russia's weakness, the sudden increase in the armies of Germany and France, and then the Great War, all followed as a matter of course.

Stanford University.

HENRY L. CANNON.

KNOWLTON, DANIEL C., AND HOWE, SAMUEL B. Essentials in Modern European History. New York: Longmans, Greene & Co., 1917. Pp. 437. $1.50.

This is a companion volume to Howe's "Essentials in Early European History" (same publishers, 1912). The present volume follows the excellent outlines by Knowlton and Wolfson, which were published a few years ago in THE HISTORY TEACHER'S MAGAZINE.

It has often been said by teachers that one reason for unsatisfactory text-books was that they were usually written by college or university men who had never had high school teaching experience, and were therefore not familiar with the problems of the teachers in the secondary schools. This objection cannot be raised against this book, as both of the authors are high school teachers.

[ocr errors]

The book begins with a survey of conditions in Europe in the eighteenth century. One chapter is given to each of the following subjects: (1) "Social and Political Conditions; " (2) Industrial and Commercial Conditions; (3) "Rival Colonial and Commercial Powers and the Commercial Wars of the Eighteenth Century." Then follows the "French Revolution" and the "Napoleonic Periods," and an excellent chapter on the "Industrial Revolution." Some 218 pages are given to the period before 1815, including the "Industrial Revolution," and only some 187 pages to the period since 1815. This division hardly bears out the statement in the preface: "The march of events, however, has been so rapid that correspondingly more space has been devoted to contemporary history than to the earlier epochs." Although the book has just been published, the story really

stops with 1914. There is no attempt to explain adequately the causes of the Great War or to narrate the events of the last three years, although incidental reference is made at times to the probable effects of the war of 1914.

The narrative is interesting and usually clear. One sentence at least may be mentioned as an exception to this rule. Speaking of the change in the British colonial policy after the Seven Years' War (p. 76), the authors say: "When the great struggle was over the situation seemed to demand that the American colonies should not only repay a part of the expenditure of the millions of pounds sterling which had been spent in establishing a British dominion in America, but that they should help bear the burden of the new plans of defense which experience had shown to be so necessary." The reviewer questions the accuracy of the first part of the statement so far as any intention on the part of Great Britain was concerned, and believes that the student would gain an erroneous impres sion from the sentence as to what Great Britain proposed to do with the money raised from the colonies.

There are some forty-two maps and plans, some fifteen of which are colored. The illustrations are good. The teaching helps are excellent. The references at the close of each chapter are to a few good books which should be in every high school library, and are grouped under topics for collateral reading. Source studies and suggestions for map work accompany the several chapters.

University of Minnesota.

WILSON P. SHORTRIDGE.

BURGESS, JOHN W. The Administration of President Hayes. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916. Pp. xi, 154. $1.00.

This little volume comprises the Larwill lectures, at Kenyon College, for 1915. The first lecture reviews the political, economic and social situation in the nation in 1876; the second describes the election of 1876, the disputed count and the inauguration; the third discusses the southern and the financial policies of Hayes; and the final one gives an account of "the re-establishment of the government upon its constitutional foundations," which is to say, the contests with the Democrats over the riders upon the appropriation bills and with the Republican leaders over civil service reform. The author has presented his views with the clarity and felicity which distinguish all his writings. Nowhere, for instance, is there a clearer statement in brief compass of the Republican contention that the certificates of the Republican electors from the disputed states in 1876-1877 were the only legal certificates. At the same time the reader finds frequent illustrations of that proneness to dogmatic assertion which is also characteristic. For example, it is asserted that "the claimed legislature . . . and . . . claimed governor [the McEnery government of Louisiana] had never had any legal existence" (p. 51); "no President or Vice-President had ever had a more complete title legally to his office than did Mr. Hayes and Mr. Wheeler " (p. 55), and that " any grounds of complaint in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina against the Republicans... were entirely over-balanced by those against the Democrats" (p. 55).

While he has added nothing to what even the casual student has known of the facts of the period, Doctor Burgess has probably succeeded in his main purpose, which was to give to the world a better appreciation of the high character and the sound public services of President Hayes. But even the most sincere admirers of that president are likely to question the assertion that he was called by more than human appointment to lead the Republican party" (p. 36),

[ocr errors]
« ПретходнаНастави »