The movement towards utilizing the remarkably rich and continuous source literature of English history in the secondary and higher teaching of the subject is well illustrated in the appearance of this full and interesting collection of source readings. Leaving aside the early and rather advanced collections of documentary sources by Stubbs, Prothero, Gardiner and other English historians, we have had during the last decade a succession of source-books for English history. No book, however, has brought together and organized for purposes of study and instruction so large an amount of diverse material as is to be found in Professor Cheyney’s “Readings in English History.” Although but recently published, it is becoming most popular and is proving invaluable to the earnest and enthusiastic teacher in search of profitable collateral reading.
The volume is a substantial one of nearly eight hundred pages, and is divided into chapters to correspond with the author’s “Short History of England,” which the “Readings” is primarily intended to illustrate. Right here, however, it should be said that the “Readings” can be used advantageously with any standard text-book of English history and that teachers who do not use Professor Cheyney’s text-book will find the “Readings” almost as valuable for illustrative purposes and collateral reference as those who do. The “Readings” can stand on its own merits as a book in every way. Each general chapter is divided into excellent topical divisions, while the extracts used are numbered consecutively throughout, showing a total of four hundred and fifty-seven selections, beginning with Julius Cæsar’s description of Britain and ending with an editorial from the “New York Times” on the significance of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Could anything be more comprehensive?
In regard to the special contents of the volume, space will permit of only a very brief survey and mention. The selections to illustrate the geography of England, prehistoric and Celtic Britain, and Roman Britain have been admirably made and furnish enough collateral reading for any high school class studying this early period. Classical and early English sources have been skilfully drawn on and interestingly presented. For Anglo-Saxon England the great literary and historical writings such as Tacitus’ “Germania,” Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History,” the “Beowulf,” the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,” Asser’s “Life of Alfred,” and various collections of Anglo-Saxon laws and documents, have been freely used and furnish a scholarly and yet not too advanced a background for the ordinary narrative history. In selecting and organizing his material for Norman and Plantagenet England Professor Cheyney has likewise shown remarkable judgment and discrimination. It is in the modern part, however, that his skilful editorial work is seen to fullest advantage and the variety and breadth of selection is really remarkable. The light thrown on the great Puritan movement of the seventeenth century and on the struggle between the Stuarts and their parliaments is so interesting and valuable that no American teacher of English history can afford to ignore or overlook Chapter XIV on “The Personal Monarchy of the Early Stuarts.” Equally, if not more, important are the extracts contained in the three last chapters illustrating the foundation of the British Empire of to-day, the period of revolution in industry and in politics and government, and the growth of real democracy and social equality through the great reforms of the nineteenth century. All forms of public and private record have been drawn on for illustration, and it will be a poor teacher who cannot make more vital and interesting any lesson in modern English history by the aid of these illuminating and interesting selections. If any criticism is to be made of the contents of the “Readings,” it is of the sort that is sometimes made after too elaborate and substantial a dinner—that we have been perhaps a little over-supplied with rich and savory intellectual food by the efforts and industry of Professor Cheyney.
How Teachers Can Best Use the “Readings.”
Teachers of English history in high schools and colleges can make most effective use of the “Readings” by having a copy in the hands of each pupil and requiring regular study of assignments in conjunction with the text-book. In this way the “Readings” will furnish a library of valuable illustrative material supplementary to the text-book and will meet the problem of outside reading. The extracts have been so selected and arranged that those for any given topic are not excessive in number or length. If for any reason, however, it is not possible or advisable to have each pupil own a copy of the book, a good plan would be to have available in the school reference library a considerable number of duplicate copies, which members of the class can study and consult. The teacher will, of course, be thoroughly conversant with the material in the “Readings” and can introduce it as a part of the recitation or discussion. An interesting and important extract read aloud in class is frequently of great value in giving life and meaning to the subject matter. The least desirable way for any teacher to use the “Readings” is that of restricting it to personal use alone, as many teachers are prone to do in connection with source-books and other reference works. In order to fulfil its proper function in education a book should reach both teachers and students and be the basis for discussion in the class room. A well-trained and efficient teacher is always anxious that the members of the class shall have every opportunity for reading and study outside of the text-book. We would, therefore, urge on all teachers of English history the great desirability of introducing into general class use this new and exceedingly valuable collection of source readings.
[“Readings in English History Drawn from the Original Sources,” intended to illustrate “A Short History of England,” by Edward Potts Cheyney, Boston, New York, etc.: Ginn & Co. Pp. xxxvi, 781. $1.60.]
[Reports from the Historical Field]
WALTER H. CUSHING, Editor.