The Bookman's Manual; A Guide to Literature (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXXII. AMERICAN HISTORY AND BOOKS ABOUT HISTORIANS HISTORIES OF THE UNITED STATES The nineteenth century has been called the age of historians. With the dawn of that century, history became a science for specialists, the methods of older historians being discredited. In England, "all eighteenth century historians are condemned except Gibbon. 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' is the one work of the Eighteenth Century which is still accepted."--G. P. Gooch. In America a similar change took place. The work of American historians after 1800 belongs to science rather than to letters. These historians went direct to the sources for material for their histories, and the searching of archives and the study of original documents revolutionized the writing of history. Historians soon began to specialize in limited fields of history, and to-day every period has its specialist. We seldom hear of one man's attempting a history of the world, as Sir Walter Raleigh did in prison, although H. G. Wells, with his "Outline of History" (Macmillan, 2 vols.) may be considered the exception. Historians confine themselves more and more to certain epochs of history, for the sake of greater thoroughness. It has been predicted that the coming histories will all be co-operative, like the great "Cambridge Modern History" planned by Lord Acton, and our own "American Nation" edited by Albert Bushnell Hart. In studying the works of historians, the reader should understand above all the period which each work covers; then the best history for any given period. Bancroft, George. 1800--1891. f? History of the United States. 6 vols. Appleton. (n From the discovery of the continent to the establishment of the Constitution in 1789., gE History of the Formation of the ...