BIBLIOGRAPHY
The best work to be consulted on the history of Belgium is that by H. Pirenne, professor in the University of Ghent, entitled Histoire de Belgique, Vols. I-IV, Brussels, 1900-1911. The work is not yet complete: the fourth volume carries us down to 1648. Those wishing to study more in detail the various problems of Belgian history will find the enumeration of original sources and modern books in H. Pirenne, Bibliographie de l’histoire de Belgiques, 2d ed., Brussels, 1902. For a list of books published since 1902 see the Belgian periodical Archives belges, where the important books and articles on Belgian history are reviewed and discussed.
Works written in English are the following: Demetrius C. Boulger, A History of Belgium, 2 vols., London, 1902-9; J. de C. MacDonnell, Belgium, Her Kings, Kingdom and People, London, 1914; R. C. K. Ensor, Belgium, New York and London [1915]. The work by Boulger is mainly based on the old work of Théodore Juste, Histoire de Belgique (new edition in 3 vols., Brussels, 1895), which is not up to date and cannot be compared with Pirenne’s Histoire. The works by MacDonnell and Ensor deal especially with the contemporary history of Belgium, the former treating Belgian politics from the Catholic point of view, the latter being frequently ill informed and unjust toward the Catholic party. Both have their merits in dealing with the history of Belgium in the nineteenth century. Modern Belgium has also been studied by H. Charriaut, la Belgique moderne, Paris, 1910. This book offers much information, but contains many mis-statements. For social problems, see B. Seebohm Rowntree, Land and Labour: Lessons from Belgium, London, 1910. In French there exists an excellent survey of the most important periods of Belgian history, written by G. Kurth, la nationalité belge, Brussels, 1913.
A very readable book, well written and well illustrated, based on accurate historical information, and dealing with the history of Flanders in the largest sense of the word, is the work of Edward Neville Vose, The Spell of Flanders, Boston, Page Co., 1915. The author, describing the visit he made to various Flemish towns, gives a good account of the most striking facts of their history.
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