Contemporary American History, 1877-1913. By Charles A. Beard. (Macmillan and
Co. 6s. 6d. net.)—To write the history of our own generation is always a difficult task ; we cannot see the wood for the tree.. But it is well worth attempting. As Professor Beard says, "it is showing no disrespect to our ancestors to be as much interested in our age as they were in theirs ; and the doctrine that we can know more about Andrew Jackson whom we have not seen than about Theodore Roosevelt whom we have seen is a pernicious psychological error." Yet, when we find that Professor Beard prefaces his chapter on Mr. Roosevelt's administrations by the admission that " they cannot be characterized by a general phrase," we must feel that there is something to be said for the "psychological error." We believe that the historian of the twentieth century will find no difficulty in excogitating such a phrase, which will be some- thing like " Clean government and the rule of brotherhood."
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