EUROPE SINCE WATERLOO : 1815-1919. By * William Stearns Davis, Ph.D.
Illustrated. (Parsons. 30s.)—One would wish to treat with respect the work of a Professor of History in the University of Minnesota. But an examination of his book makes respect difficult. Its pages bristle with misprints, with hideosities like " similacrum " and " main- tainance " ; there is an excessive use of needless italic, savouring of the walks of cheap sensational journalism ; fine writing is distressingly common—" so the (pacificist) sparrows twittered amid the ivy, while the thunderstorm drew nigh "while to write Bertrab . . . was utterly non-committal as to just what then was said," betrays (in the last seven words) a lamentable lack of appreciation of any of the values of style. Nor in matters of historical dis- crimination does Dr. Davis show himself more reliable ; his account of the battle of Jutland is ludicrously inadequate ; to call Castlereagh (whose name is not mentioned in the index) a reactionary in foreign politics is open to more than questicin ; the concatenation of Marshal Foch and General Pershing in the heading, " The Sword of Foch and of Pershing," displays a want of historical balance, as does also the judgment that
there have been few, if any, greater battles in the history of the world " than the Battle of the Argonne ; and nothing but sheer ignorance could have allowed him to allude to " the doltish peasantry " of Spain. Dr. Davis calls his book a non-technical history," and that perhaps is his excuse for producing a work which is so signally lacking both in literary :tad historical technique. •
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