Woodward, Walter C. Political Parties in Oregon, 1843-1868. This new book should be in all Northwestern libraries. Its title conveys its true usefulness for a study of Oregon in territorial and early statehood days.
HISTORY TEACHERS' SECTION
The History Teachers' Section, inaugurated in this number, will be edited by various members of the editorial staff. The Section will be devoted to questions and problems of interest to the teacher of history in the high schools and colleges. This first number will be given to a survey of the magazines edited in the interest of the teaching of history.
The History Teachers Magazine is edited by the McKinley Publishing Co., Philadelphia, under the supervision of a committee of the American Historical Association. The first number appeared September 1909, under the sole editorship of Dr. Albert E. McKinley; financial difficulties arose and caused the suspension of publication from June, 1911, to February, 1912, when it came under the present supervision of the American Historical Association. The contents cover a wide range of interests: Articles of a general character on subject matter or methodology of history; Reports from the Historical Field; Periodical literature; Book Reviews; and Recent Historical Publications. In the January, 1914, number, Waldo L. Cook, of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, published the address he gave before the New England History Teachers' Association last April on The Press in its Relation to History. He discussed in full the "cause of the reporter," and concluded that the case "might also be said to be in the hands of you teachers of history; your ennobling influence upon the press of the future, and consequently upon the history which shall be born of the future, may become incalculable if your teaching is aflame with the ideal that facts are sacred and that truth is holy." In the next number Dr. Jameson, of the Carnegie Foundation, has an article on the Typical Steps of American Expansion wherein he traces through the expansion of American territory his contention that "the processes we have been following were mainly the fruit, not of artificial intrigue and political conspiracy, but of natural economic and social development, on the part of men chiefly engaged in the great human occupation of making a quiet living." Perhaps the most important article in the March number is A Hidden Cause of the Mexican War, by Moses W. Ware. In this article he brings out the fact of the Northern holdings of Texan securities, which joined with Southern interest in slavery; and these two independent interests were "each equally potent in involving the United States in the war with Mexico." Another article, in the February number, it is hoped will be read by every history teacher in the state: Edwin E. Slosson's A Stranger at School. It has been reprinted from The Independent. It must be read to be appreciated.
A series of articles have been appearing through several numbers dealing with the teaching of Greek History from several points of view of both subject matter and methods. The book reviews are of passing interest, while the recent historical publications are especially valuable. In the latter the announcements of the books of the month are classified according to American, Ancient, English, European, Medieval, Miscellaneous, Biography, Government and Politics.
The University of Texas is now publishing a "Texas History Teacher's Bulletin." The first number was issued November 15th, 1912; and four numbers have appeared so far. It is published quarterly by the History Department of the University and contains "brief, practical articles and suggestions, discussions of local problems, occasional reprints from The History Teachers' Magazine * * * and other educational journals, outlines, book lists and notes, and news of history teachers in Texas and elsewhere." The articles are of a very practical nature, dealing with the use of maps in the class work: Local History in various schools; use of note-books in high school work; parallel readings; efforts to improve history teaching; is questioning essential to good teaching; Historical Geography; sources; etc. It reprints for its readers the book publications of the History Teachers' Magazine.