Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/672

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

A NEW HISTORY SERIES By James Harvey Robinson, Columbia University, and James Henry Breasted, The University of Chicago The old saying that " a book reflects its maker's personality " was never applied with greater truth than in the case of these new histories by James Harvey Robinson and James Henry "Breasted. Never before has a course of this scope been offered for high schools which, in addition to those essential qualities demanded of a text- book, possessed in so large a measure such attractiveness of style, such grasp of historical perspective, such farseeing breadth of vision and scholarly thoroughness as is found in these two volumes for high schools. ANCIENT TIMES By James Henry Breasted, xx + 742 pages, $1.60 For the first year of high-school history. In subject matter as well as in style the author's constant aim has been to make this book simple enough to be put into the hands of first-year classes. It is nevertheless planned to stimulate and interest all pupils of high-school age. The book aims to present the career of man from the Early Stone Age to the break-up of the Roman Empire in a connected story of expand- ing life and civilization. The story is always as graphic and picturesque as it is scholarly, and is enriched at every point by the results of the most recent excavations and discoveries. The elaborate system of maps and the full illustrative material, comprising eight full-page color plates and over three hundred black and white cuts, set a new standard for textbook illustration. MEDIEVAL AND MODERN TIMES By James Harvey Robinson. 777 pages, $1.60 " Medieval and Modern Times," for the second year of high-school history, covers the history of western Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the present, placing the emphasis on the conditions and institutions which characterized the life of their times rather than upon events. Thus the student, instead of retaining a confused memory of names and dates, is given a general knowledge of world history in- valuable to him in interpreting the present. The exceptional full-page plates and colored illustrations and the multitude of cuts from draw- ings and rare photographs parallel the text in power to visualize the scene and to interest the student. 103 a GINN AND COMPANY Publishers