The sun., 1918-12-29
Five Good Bookfuls of History.

A SIX a professor of history what are
"A the requirements for a good book
OF history. Enter his answer in your
note book and move on to the next pro-
fessor of history on your schedule. When
Won have seen twenty professors and writ
len down twenty formulas, subject the
contents of YOUR note book 10 close an
alysis and resynthetize into a composite
prescription. Then assigning TO this a
value Of 10 per cent. of perfection, credit
the remaining percentage to Leglblllty
(which probably none of the children OF
Academe Will have thought TO menticnl.
OF course if your time, inclination for
the task and energy are limited, you may
eliminate the resynthesis. You might dis
pense with the analysis and even reduce
the number of professors interviewed. BY
as much as there is prOJectlle power IN
logic-You might continue diminishing the
various factors in the experiment until
they reached the vanishing point and you
were back where we started you, with
nothing on your mind but the query:
What are the requirements for a good
book of history? Then you could inst
take our word for it: a small proportion
of assorted qualities and a proportion
about five and two-thirds times as large
of that excellent but awkwardly named
king quality of them all, ReadablenesS.
Without this. though it nave all else, writ
ten history has small justification for ex,
istenee. With this, though it lacks mant
d~esirables, it is III some degree worth at
tending to.
Mr.. Usher's book, The Pilgrims and
Their History reads easily. Hack a
chunk ont of page %:
"And now in the autumn an abundant
harvest was reaped, and with the houses
thus completed and the ffty-One surviv-
OTIS in excellent health, a celebration was
held. The first Thanksgiving dinner con-
sisted Of a plentiful supply of wild fowl,
deer and hasty pudding. Probably none
of the butter. cheese and biscuits brought
from England were left at this time,
though no doubt brandy and ~schnapps
were still on hand: Some modern admir-
ers of the Pilgrims will be surprised and
perhaps distressed TO learn that this his
toric feast was graced by the presence Of
Massasoit and his entire tribe. 1t lasted
ut least three days. Not i'm
probably the first Thanksgiving dinner
much more nearly resembled an outdoor
barbecue, attended by the entire populs-
ton, than a grimly deeorous meal eaten
sOIemnly by each family in its own house"
Sort of a cross between prayer meeting
and a college class reunion-ehfN Take
Mr.. Usher's theological history on faith
he has studied it a good deal more than
most of us; and give him credit for a
geodly human view Of those first New
Englanders who leavened the American
lump. And for the learned, or the would
be learned, he adds some facts, with the
deductions therefrOm, about 'the loss of
political independence"
Professor Max Farrand of Yale sees
The Development Of the UEtted States as
. a broad trail which he follows briskly. He
dares TO say things like this:
The Americans were a nation of immi-
grants, a composite people, and the process
Of fusion was slow. While it was taking
place thought and action were dominated
by a relatively small upper class which
was in general closely allied TO the English