CURRENT LITE RAT U R E.
PRE-NORMAN ENGLAND.
The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Norman Conquest. By Thomas Hodgkin, D.C.L., Litt.D. (Longmans and Co. 7s. 6d. net.)—The new series of which Dr. Hodgkin's volume is the first aims at presenting the whole of English history in a work of moderate compass,—namely, twelve volumes of five or six hundred pages each. It proposes to deal primarily with politics, with England as a State, and to give social and economic development a second place. There is room and to spare for such a work, and if all the component parts reach the high level of the present instalment it will be a credit to English scholar- ship. Dr. Hodgkin has his own method of writing history. The "grand manner" would have been out of place in what is meant to be a popular series, so the author has set himself to interest his readers. He is never dull or verbose or obscure, and his enthusiasm for the great story of our island gives his narrative the charm of a romance. It is not "popular" history in the vulgar sense, for the author is a laborious and accurate scholar, and has made full use of all existing authorities. Such authori- ties are difficult enough, for most of the period dealt with is shrouded in the mists of uncertainty, and history has to be constructed often out of the most scattered fragments of fact. With such a period imagination is not without its uses, and if the reader cannot be given accurate information, he may at least be given material for his fancy to play with. According to Pro- copies, Britain was the island to which the souls of the dead were ferried, and something of this strange romance must always inspire the tale of these early years. To this aspect Dr. Hodgkin has done full justice. Without ever entering the domain of the fantastic or departing from a rigorous scholarship, he has endeavoured to reproduce something of that romance which is inseparable from the dawn of history. For the political historian pure and simple it is not an encouraging period. The wars of conquest and reconquest afforded no scope for Constitutionalism, and, save in the case of Alfred, the main interest is to be found outside the work of government. At the date of the battle of Hastings England, Dr. Hodgkin thinks, was in a state of "political incapacity," and "it was necessary that it should be passed through the fire and hammered on the anvil." We can heartily recommend the work as the most full and succinct narrative of our early history with which we are acquainted.
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