Hart, Albert Bushnell, ed. American nation: a history from original sources by associated scholars. 28v. per. v. *$2. Harper.
Group II of this series of histories, volumes 6–10, is devoted to the “Transformation into a nation,” including Provincial America, by Evarts Boutell Greene; France in America, by Reuben Gold Thwaites; Preliminaries of the Revolution, by George Elliott Howard; The American Revolution, by Claude Halstead Van Tyne; and The confederation and the constitution, by Andrew Cunningham McLaughlin. The first volume of Group III, which division includes volumes 11–15 and treats the “Development of the nation,” is a discussion of The federalist system, by John Spencer Bassett. The author says, “On its political side this volume treats of three principal facts; the successful establishment of the government under the constitution, the organization of the Republican party on the basis of popular government, and the steady adherence of the government to a policy of neutrality at a time when we were threatened with serious foreign complications.” The author follows the program of establishing an effective government while the nation faced a new constitution and trying international situations.
Number twelve in this “American nation” series is a discussion of “The Jeffersonian system” by Edward Channing. It “emphasizes the innate tendency to expansion of territory, of which Louisiana, West Florida, and Oregon were all examples. The special and successful purpose of the author is to make clear how it was possible for the nation to expand in territory and in spirit, and for the federal government to gain consequence and authority, while at the same time the government was growing more democratic: it is a study in imperial democracy.”
Number fourteen in this series is the “Rise of the new West” by Frederick Jackson Turner of the University of Wisconsin. “Professor Turner takes up the west as an integral part of the Union, with a self-consciousness as lively as that of the east or south, with its own aims and prejudices, but as a partner in the councils and the benefits of the national government which, as a whole, it is the aim at this volume to describe.” The period covered is that from 1815 to 1830. The panic of 1819, the Missouri compromise, The Monroe doctrine in particular and the tariff disputes, internal improvements and foreign trade relations in general are fully treated.
The fifteenth volume of “The American nation” series is Dr. William McDonald’s discussion of “Jacksonian democracy.” The aggressive personality of Andrew Jackson is made to dominate the solution of the great questions of national policy paramount during the years 1829–37. The study reveals the president and man, and shows the evolution of the political principles upon which a new democratic party was founded.
In volume seventeen the expansion movement which extended the boundaries of the United States from the western edge of the Louisiana purchase to the Pacific ocean, is described “in such a way as to indicate the real forces which gave it impulse, and how they actually worked, and especially to show how it was affected by, and how it reacted upon, the contemporaneous sectionalizing movement which finally ended in civil war.”
In volume 18 of “The American nation” Dr. Smith has covered the subject of “Parties and slavery from 1850 to 1859,” that transition period, which saw old party organization dissolve and new ones crystalize. The aim of the volume is “to bring out the contrast between the old parties and their aims and the new and imperious issues.” The efforts to prevent the crisis which resulted in the Civil war, and the rival habits of thought which made it inevitable are clearly shown, the effects of the struggle upon parties, legislation and the courts as well as the social and economic changes brought about by railroad development and the growth of cotton are carefully detailed.
“The first part of volume nineteen in the “American nation” series discusses political divergences in the light of sectional rivalry and mutual dislike revealed by the election of Lincoln to the presidency. The author presents the full significance of the John Brown raid, pictures the attitude of Buchanan and his unsuccessful attempts at compromise. discusses the status of the federal forts, pays tribute to the high minded attitude of Lincoln and closes with the fall of Sumter.”
“In scholarship and construction he has produced the best synopsis of the subject existing within the limits of a single volume, and ... his careful references and a valuable bibliography enhance the utility of the book to the student who desires to inquire for himself.” M. Oppenheim.