American History Tad by Contemporaries. Vol. IV., "Welding of the
Nation, 1845-1900." By Albert Bushnell Hart. (Mac- millan and Co. 8s. 6d.)—Mr. Hart describes in his preface the. difficulties of choice which have beset him ; there was so much excellent material, and so little space in which to exhibit it. It is not easy for us to give even the faintest idea of the results which he has obtained. Generally, we may say, he has given us a very vivid picture of a half-century of extraordinary interest. We here have changed and grown in this time, but the change and growth of the United States has been incomparably greater. From the beginning of the Mexican War to the end of the Spanish War makes a period such as it would be diffioult to find elsewhere in history. To mention two things only, Emancipation and the Imperial idea, is quite sufficient. As a matter of fact, there are lesser issues which we cannot even enumerate. And it is to be noted that these matters concerned the interests of Europe much more than anything in the earlier history of the States. Documents bearing on the external relations of the country are naturally the most interesting portion of the volume, excepting, of course, the inexhaustible subject of the Civil War. At the same time, there is much concerning social probleme that demands attention. There is the Indian question, for example, and the far graver negro question. It is true that on these matters Mr. Hart does not give us much. On the latter there is an extract from a work by Mr. Booker Washington. But it would have been well if we otild have had some expressions of opinion on the other side, something, for instance, that would explain the startling explo- sion of Southern feeling which declares it to be an outrage that President Roosevelt should invite Mr. Booker Washington to dinner.
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