Forrest, J. Dorsey. Development of western civilization: a study in ethical, economic, and political evolution. *$2. Univ. of Chicago press.
7–20984.
A history in which the course of social evolution is traced. The analysis of the conditioning facts of European social history is made on the basis of their ethical, economic and political values. The work is the outgrowth of a demand for a fit setting of present-day development and conditions, and has entailed a vast amount of careful selection of materials.
“The author’s method and treatment offer little ground for objection. What there is of it must be a matter of difference of emphasis rather than attack upon fundamentals. The thing of real moment is that he has given a new and important elucidation of the continuity of history.” John H. Coney.
| + + | Am. Hist. R. 13: 117. O. ’07. 990w. |
“If he had not stated its purpose in the preface no one would have ever discovered it.”
| + − | Ind. 63: 1122. N. 7, ’07. 290w. |
“He fails to develop clearly the origins of modern states, the specific contributions of the renaissance and the reformation and the continuing activity of the religious and ethical impulse after the breakdown in the authority of the church. This last, indeed, is the most serious blemish in his scholarly work.”
| + − | Outlook. 86: 473. Je. 29, ’07. 510w. |