“The pledge given by Mr. McMaster, that ‘the history of the people shall be the chief theme,’ is punctiliously and satisfactorily fulfilled. He carries out his promise in a complete, vivid, and delightful way. We should add that the literary execution of the work is worthy of the indefatigable industry and unceasing vigilance with which the stores of historical material have been accumulated, weighed, and sifted. The cardinal qualities of style, lucidity, animation, and energy, are everywhere present. Seldom, indeed, has a book, in which matter of substantial value has been so happily united to attractiveness of form, been offered by an American author to his fellow-citizens.”—New York Sun.
“To recount the marvelous progress of the American people, to describe their life, their literature, their occupations, their amusements, is Mr. McMaster’s object. His theme is an important one, and we congratulate him on his success. It has rarely been our province to notice a book with so many excellences and so few defects.”—New York Herald.
“Mr. McMaster at once shows his grasp of the various themes and his special capacity as a historian of the people. His aim is high, but he hits the mark.”—New York Journal of Commerce.
“I have had to read a good deal of history in my day, but I find so much freshness in the way Professor McMaster has treated his subject that it is quite like a new story.”—Philadelphia Press.
“Mr. McMaster’s success as a writer seems to us distinct and decisive. In the first place he has written a remarkably readable history. His style is clear and vigorous, if not always condensed. He has the faculty of felicitous comparison and contrast in a marked degree. Mr. McMaster has produced one of the most spirited of histories, a book which will be widely read, and the entertaining quality of which is conspicuous beyond that of any work of its kind.”—Boston Gazette.
New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street.
THE
Historical Reference-Book,