5 OCTOBER 1912, Page 14

Lee the American. By Gamaliol Bradford, jun. (Constable and Co.

10s. 6d. net.)-Mr. Bradford has taken a great deal of pains in his analysis of Lee's character ; he omits nothing, he multiplies details which are oppressive, even annoying, as when, for instance, he quotes verbatim a letter dealing solely with underclothing. We get different chapters in which Lee is set in different positions and examined from different points of view- "Lee and his Army," "Lee in Battle," "Lee as a General," "Lee's Social and Domestic Life," " Lee's Spiritual Life." Mr. Bradford does not seem to see that a character so simple and so great does not need this elaborate dissection. But the purpose of his book, he explains, "is not so much biography as psychography "-the latter a "new term" explained in a long appendix.