If the history in the Britannica was printed in the usual volumes on heavy paper, containing 100,000 words to a volume, it would fill about 70 such volumes, or, say, four good-sized shelves in an ordinary “unit” bookcase.
Method of Treatment
Every country and every event from the earliest syllable of recorded time receives its proper treatment. Under such circumstances it is obvious that in the limits of this Guide it would not be possible to give outlines of courses of historical readings for all nations and periods. Such readings in history alone would more than fill this whole Guide. But the information is all in the Britannica, and what has been said above will give the reader some notion of the authority of the articles written by natives of nearly every civilized country in the world, and some idea of the scope of treatment. The character of the subject matter of history and the method of treatment in the Britannica combine to make minute outlines less necessary for historical study than for the pursuit of a course in almost any other subject. The Britannica, the student will quickly see, contains in each instance a “key” article on the history of each nation—either as a separate article, like English History or Roman History or as a historical section of the article on the country—for instance, in the article Greece there is a “sub-article,” so to say, on history (Vol. 12, pp. 440–470), and in the article United States a sub-article on American history (Vol. 27, pp. 663–735). The student of any country’s history should read first such an article or sub-article, so that he will get a big outline view of the subject, and then use it as a basis or starting point for further reading, looking up in the Index volume the important topics mentioned in the main article. These will be:
(1) Articles on the history of parts of the country he is studying—states, provinces, counties, kingdoms, duchies, cities and towns.
(2) Biographies of rulers, statesmen, soldiers, reformers, etc.
(3) Articles on wars and battles, each under its proper heading.
(4) Articles on movements and changes, sometimes of national, sometimes of international importance, the Renaissance, political parties, economic, political and religious revolutions, the Crusades, etc.
(5) Articles on churches, sects and denominations of historical importance in the country under consideration.
But although it is impossible to give in this Guide complete courses of reading for the history of all countries, it is possible and desirable to give it in cases where it would be most useful to the greatest number of readers.
The following chapter is an outline course of study in the History of the United States, which is given in some detail, because it has a peculiar interest to Americans.