The wide-awake student who has read this far in this chapter and has referred to the articles mentioned in the Britannica, will now be saying to himself: “There is evidently much valuable information in the encyclopaedia about the history and status of civil service reform, and this seems as full and complete for the United States as for Great Britain. If other topics are as fully treated in the Britannica, it will be invaluable to me in preparation for general information papers for civil service examinations.” And he will be right. For instance, the government employe must know more about the government and its machinery and history than does the average “man in the street”,—and he can learn this from the Britannica.
As has already been pointed out, the main treatment of the government of the United States in the Britannica is by James Bryce. This means that it is authoritative and that it is interesting and that in both these qualities it is far superior to the usual text book of “civics” or “civil government.” It occupies pp. 646–661 of volume 27, and is equivalent to about 50 pages of this Guide—so that it is more than a bare outline. And it is followed by a valuable bibliography of the subject to guide the student to the best books on any special topic which he may wish to pursue further.
But this is far from being all the information in the Britannica on the subject. The contribution of Mr. Bryce is only a part of the article United States. The entire article would take up nearly 400 pages if printed in the style of this Guide. It treats the physical geography, geology, climate, fauna and flora, population, industries and commerce, government, finance, army and history of the country—the equivalent of 225 pages of this Guide is devoted to History alone. All parts of this article contain valuable information about the country; and this article is supplemented by hundreds of others:—
(a) Articles on each of the states, arranged much as in the article United States with sections on history and government serving as an authoritative summary of the salient facts, and making up a complete course on state “civics,” government and history;
(b) Articles on cities and towns with similar treatment of the distinctive elements in the government of each, and of the main points in their history;
(c) Separate articles on the important rivers, lakes, mountains and other topics in physical geography;
(d) Separate articles on topics in American history and government: such as Nullification, State Rights, Fugitive Slave Laws, Electoral Commission; and
(e) Biographies of great Americans, famous in war, politics, administration, business, science, art, religion,—in short all fields of activity.
In brief, whether for an examination on general information, on civics, on history, or on the special branch of the civil service to which the student wishes to be appointed, no book will give as valuable and complete information as the Britannica.