The late Professor H. W. C. Davis, who died prematurely
in 1928, had departed from the usual practice of Regius Pro- fessors at Oxford by lecturing on the outlines of European history instead of taking some special subject like the Norman ' dynasty which he had made his own. He believed that the ordinary student, or the ordinary man or woman, should have a general idea of the historic process, which is a corrective of much facile optimism. His lectures on Europe from 800 to 1789 have been edited by the very 'competent hands of Mr. G. N. Clark (Methuen, 8s. 6d.) and may be warmly com- mended to the average reader. Western Europe cannot safely ignore its history, complicated though the subject may be ; many- of our present difficulties have their roots deep in. the past, as the examples of Alsace, the Saar and the Trentino attest.
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