Two volumes of special interest in regard to the early days of the
United States, in some ways complementary to each other in their
different points of view, are: "Alexander Hamilton," by F. G. Oliver:
Constable & Co., and "Historical Essays," by John Fitch.
Almost every point in regard to American institutions and political practice is fully treated in "The American Commonwealth," by Viscount Bryce, O.M., two volumes: The Macmillan Company, London and New York.
For the attitude of the British Government during the war the conclusive authority is the correspondence to be found in "The Life of Lord John Russell," by Sir Spencer Walpole, K.C.B., two volumes: Longmans, Green & Co., London and New York; and light on the attitude of the English people is thrown by "The Life of John Bright," by G. M. Trevelyan: Constable, London, and Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A.
With respect to the military history of the Civil War the author is specially indebted to "The Civil War in the United States," by W. Birkbeck Wood and Major J. E. Edmonds, R.E., with an introduction by Spenser Wilkinson: Methuen & Co., London, and Putnam, New York, which is the only concise and complete history of the war written with full knowledge of all recent works bearing on the subject. Mr. Nicolay's chapters in the "Cambridge Modern History" give a very lucid narrative of the war.
Among works of special interest bearing on the war, though not much concerning the subject of this book, it is only necessary to mention "'Stonewall' Jackson," by Colonel Henderson, C.B., two volumes: Longmans, London and New York; "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War" (a book of monographs by several authors, many of them actors in the war), four volumes: T. Fisher Unwin, London, and Century Company, New York, and "Story of the Civil War," by J. C. Ropes: Putnam, London and New York.
It may be added that a life of General Robert E. Lee had been projected, as a companion volume to this in the same series, by Brigadier-General Frederick Maurice, C.B., and it is to be hoped that, though suspended by the present war, this book may still be written. Existing biographies of Lee are disappointing. It has been (especially in view of this intended book on Lee) outside the scope of this volume to present the history of the Civil War with special reference to the Southern actors in it, but "Memoirs of Jefferson Davis" must be here referred to as in some sense an authoritative, though not a very attractive or interesting, exposition of the views of Southern statesmen at the time.
An interesting sidelight on the war may be found in "Life with the Confederate Army," by Watson, being the experiences of a Scotchman who for a time served under the Confederacy.
In regard to slavery and to Southern society before the war the author has made much use of "Our Slave States," by Frederick Law Olmsted; Dix and Edwards, New York, 1856, and other works of the same author. Mr. Olmsted was a Northerner, but his very full observations can be checked by the numerous quotations on the same subject collected by Mr. Rhodes in his history.
For the history of the South since the war and the present position of
the negroes, see the chapters on this subject in Bryce's "American
Commonwealth," second or any later edition, two volumes: Macmillan,
London and New York.
Mr. Owen Wister's novel, "Lady Baltimore": Macmillan, London and New
York, embraces a most interesting study of the survivals of the old
Southern society at the present time and of the present relations
between it and the North.