The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-19
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES,
nv Waddy Thompson. Maps and IL
mstratiOns. Price. ST. Publishers:
O. 20
In The
q Z ID

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES,
by Waddy Thompson. Maps ana IL
lrIstratiOns. Price, 81. PuDIishers'
ID. G.. Heath & Co., Boston.
This book has met with warm APP
proval in both the North and the
south IT is a. fair book, written by
a fair man, who has gone to the orr
einal source for information FROM
an elaborate review of this book by
General Henry V. Boynton, general
in the Federal army, we make TINS eX-
tract:
This school history, by a Southern
author, is remarkable in that 1t Is the
| most successful attempt OF any writer
from that section to make an impair
| tial presentation of the question when
SO long divided the country and fnally
| brought on the civil war; so far as
my knowledge of school histories ex-
| tends, it is the first from the South
for which this claim is made. 1t is
not the first SO far as general accuracy
regarding campaigns and battles is
concerned, for the school histories or
| both Mrs. Lee and Dr. Jones are more
accurate in these features than the
| majority of those used in the North,
| as the latter were first issued. Later
| some of the more prominent OF these
| have been hammered into fair con-
dition of accuracy. But both of these
| leading Southern histories, OUTSIDE OF
| the accounts of battles, present views
of the causes of the conflict and its
progress, which are decidedly sectional
rather than National.
| "The purposes here set forth nave
: been kept we'll in view by MI. Ihonp-
son. The civil war chapters OF ms
| history were called to my attention IN
| the manuscript. The careIulheSs OIL
his work. its general accuracy, and its
| cta6 notice. 1t
| showed that he had not followed the
| nernicious practice of so many North
| ern writer's of school histories, OF
| copving from those who had preceded
them as authors, but instead had con-
suited and followed the ofnclal re-
cords which the Government had
printed and made accessible to all.
| These records as every one VINO
| osniras to write war history should
| know. but as all who have published
| works on war history have not known,
contain in 127 volumes, each with
! conious index and a general index
| volume, every scrap of battle history,
both Union and Confederate, in the
| possession of the Government. 1t Will
| he perfectly apparent to any one even
measurably acquainted with these re-
| cords that the majority of writer's on
school histories, and even some or the
most prominent writer's OF more elap-
crate histories, have written without
. consulting them. Many of the battle
| histories with which the great army
| Of pupils in the schools of the Nation
| las been provided have evidently been
| compiled from newspaper and maya
| zine articles of the war time, which
| naturally were filled with the wild re-
| ports of the field, and the vague, nasty
| and faulty accounts which first reach
| ed the public from the front.
"Those who will take the trouble to
gather any dozen school histories of
the civil war campaigns, which nave
| not been lately corrected, will find the
| errors in those of earliest dates per-
| ratuated in the others. And If these
| errors were traced backward in the or
/ der Of the years of publication, the
| genesis of the whole series of plumbers
| would be found in some erroneous
! stories which were accepted at the
| time, and not afterward tested by the
/ official records when these became
| available.
| This lamentable condition concern
! ing our war histories is not. as al
ready intimated confined to school
Histories. Perhaps the most remark
able instance of this is found in that
| recent most pretentious History OF
| the United States, one of the volumes
o. the Cambridge History, planned by
Lord Action. It's chapters on the civil
war TEEN with inexcusable errors
which the slightest attention to the
official record would have made i'm
possible. This statement may seem
| incredible, but it is true.
"Mr. Thompson, instead of copying
from others, went to the fountain
head and made a careful study of the
| war records on his own account 1t
| was not the easiest way or the evil
dent way of the professional compiler
of school histories, but it was the
sound way, and the method which
| will enable his work to stand the
proper test. So far as these chapters
or the civil war are concerned, it
| would be fortunate for Northern
school children if this history could
be substituted for many of those now
used in our schools. And for that
matter, the same may be said OF Mrs.
Lees history. Portions of the political
chapters of the last, however, would
first need elimination or most radical
amendment.
Notwithstanding the reduction of its
price from three dollars to one dollar
| | er year The World To-Day for July
| is the strongest issue of this great ma
Gazine that has appeared. There is
certainly nothing in magazine .ltera-
ture 70 compare with 1t at the price.
special word SnOulu De SpoheH etpoul
the illustrations CT the numher. They
are unique, beautiful, and timely.
''The Magma Charta of Japan"
happily timely topic, will be discussed
in the July Century by Baron Ken
faro Kaneko. one of the four authors
of the japanese constitution. Baron
Kaneko is a Harvard a. b. and Doc
tor of Laws. He is member of
Japan's House of Peers and was for
merly Minister of State for Agricul-
ture and Commerce. He is in Amy
lea now as the envoy of the Japanese
Emperor
The Century Company will issue
early in July a novel of the time of
the Louisiana purchase by new
writer.-a novel for which those who
have read the manuscript predict
large sale. 1t is said that number
of distinguished historical characters
figure in the story,-Thomas Jefferson,