History of the United States. Vol. V. By Edward Channing. The Macmillan Company, New York City. Pp. 615.
This is the most recent volume of Professor Channing's eight volume History of the United States from the very beginning of our history to the present time. This particular volume covers the years from 1815 to 1848 and is entitled "The Period of Transition." It is written in keeping with the standard of thoroughness characteristic of the author and is made further informing by the use of ten valuable maps illustrating important facts in American History.
In this volume the author engages the attention of the reader with an account of the wonderful century in which he writes. He then discusses the westward movement of the population, urban migration, the rise of labor unions, giving more attention to economic matters than his predecessors have been accustomed to do in the treatment of this period. A study of the documentary history of the United States has convinced the author that these important factors in the making of this country have been neglected. His treatment, therefore, is a change in the point of view in American historical writing.
This volume does not show the usual interest in slavery and abolition. Only one chapter of this large work is devoted primarily to the plantation life and abolitionism. The author discusses the lot of the slave, accounting for his tendency to escape from bondage, the traffic in human flesh, the free people of color, the colonization movement in the South, and abolition in the North. This chapter culminates in a discussion of the efforts of William Lloyd Garrison, the agitating editor of the Liberator, of Wendell Phillips, the abolition orator, of Prudence Crandall, the sacrificing worker, and of Elijah Lovejoy, the martyr in the cause. Prof. Channing does not go into details as to the achievements of the abolitionists. His account is merely sufficient to connect this movement with other forces at work in the country at that time.
Most of this volume is devoted to changes in religion, education, literature, and politics, effected by such outstanding figures as James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster. The book shows an extensive treatment of the territorial expansion of that time, especially the efforts to secure Texas, California and Oregon, and the war with Mexico. On the whole, this book has a decided economic and social trend. It is an effort to account for the significant upheavals in our history through connection with important industrial and economic events which have materially influenced the history of the United States during the last century. The book emphasizes the fact that current history can not be easily written, that one must be far removed from situations in the past in order to weigh the influences having a bearing thereon to determine exactly how the country has become what it is today.
Recent History of the United States. By Frederick L. Paxson. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. Pp. 588.
This book beginning with the inauguration of Hayes shows how he reestablished home rule in the South, thus clearing the way for a realization of education and economic reconstruction of both South and North. The author then treats the civil and border strife as expressed in the Mexican Revolution of 1876, Indian wars, social unrest, national labor unions, and the War with Spain. Then follows the treatment of post-bellum ideals as expressed by literary periodicals and new writers showing a revolution in literature, and especially in historical writing.