Chapter III: Part 3

THE INFLUENCE OF OLIVER CROMWELL AND WILLIAM III ON AMERICAN HISTORY.

In teaching the history of Europe from the Treaty of Westphalia to the beginning of the French Revolution, no mistake is commoner than the one of regarding the almost continuous series of wars between the European States as a purposeless struggle for territorial aggrandizement. Equally in American history, the teacher is prone to allow his interest in the growth of social and political institutions to obscure the fact that the North American continent was, for nearly a century, merely a distant battleground on which Holland, England and France were struggling for commercial supremacy. “Unity is given to the history of England in the eighteenth century,” says Seeley (“Expansion of England,” p. 77), “if you remark the single fact that Greater Britain during that period was establishing itself in opposition to Greater France.... You will, I think, find it very helpful in studying the history of those two countries always to bear in mind that throughout most of that period the five States of Western Europe all alike are not properly European States but world States, and that they debate continually among themselves a mighty question, which is not European at all and which the student with his eye fixed on Europe is too apt to disregard, namely, the question of the possession of the New World.” In the same way, the student of American history must be continually reminded that he is studying not the history of half a dozen or more isolated communities, but a phase of a great European struggle for world power.

Struggle with the Dutch.

From 1689 to 1763, this struggle is marked by an almost continuous war between France and England. An earlier generation, however, witnessed a similar struggle between Holland and England. This earlier struggle is also vitally important in the history of North America. Few students of American history are aware of the unprecedented growth of the Dutch maritime power during the first half of the seventeenth century. To most of them the founding of New Netherlands is an isolated fact, comparatively unimportant because the Dutch colony ultimately fell into the hands of the English. The fact nevertheless remains that throughout the greater part of the seventeenth century the carrying trade of the world was in the hands of the Dutch and Amsterdam was the exchange of the world. What Venice had been in the fifteenth century, Amsterdam became in the seventeenth.

“To break this monopoly was England’s object; and to raise his country to a position of leadership in the commercial world was one of the greatest ambitions of Cromwell.” (Andrew’s “Colonial Self Government,” p. 11; see also p. 15). In 1651, at the instance of Cromwell, Parliament passed the first Navigation Act, “for the increase of the shipping and the encouragement of the navigation of this [the English] nation.” In the light of later events, we in America are too apt to regard this act and its successors as designed to limit the trade of the colonies. As a matter of fact, a sufficient study of these acts, especially those of 1651 and 1660, will show that they were aimed directly at the Dutch who were at the time the maritime carriers both for England and for the other nations of Europe.

The Navigation Acts.

As a result of the first Navigation Act, England entered almost at once on the series of three wars, 1652-1654, 1665-1667, 1672-1674, which lasted just long enough to break the commercial supremacy of Holland. Every school boy knows that as a result of these wars England acquired the colony of New Netherlands, but few, even of his elders, realize that, “The Navigation Act, which remained substantially in force for nearly two hundred years is the great legislative monument of the Commonwealth, it was the first manifestation of the newly awakened consciousness of the community, the act which laid the foundation of the English commercial empire.” (Seeley’s “Growth of British Policy,” II, p. 25.)

Throughout this period of rivalry between Holland and England, especially after 1660, often against the will of the people, the English government maintained a close alliance with the king of France, the bitterest enemy of the Dutch people. In the last years of the reign of James II, however, the tide of English feeling turned irresistibly against the French alliance. Though James still looked to his cousin, Louis XIV, for aid and comfort, the people of England would have no more of him, and for this reason, as well as for purely domestic reasons, James was in the end forced to flee from the country. Thenceforward, there was a complete change in the English foreign policy.

The Dutch and English Against France.

When William of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland, the most uncompromising enemy of Louis XIV, accepted the crown of England there came not only a complete revolution in the English constitutional system, but also, and far more important for the history of the American colonies, a complete revolution in England’s foreign policy. War between England and France, in spite of the traditional rivalry handed down from Plantagenet times, had been extremely rare; Englishmen and Frenchmen had lived peacefully side by side for half a century or more in the northeastern part of North America, while Englishmen and Dutchmen were struggling for the possession of the territory between Long Island Sound and Delaware Bay. Henceforth, the English and the Dutch were to fight side by side in the effort to break the power of Louis the Magnificent both in Europe and in America. Just as between 1651 and 1689 it was the first interest of the English that the maritime power of the Dutch should be broken, so now, “it was a first interest of England that the encroachments of France should be arrested, and that the Dutch should be saved from destruction. The rivalry between the English and Dutch must cease; the two sea powers must combine in opposition to France” (Seeley, “Growth of British Policy,” II, p. 207).

How efficiently William III set this policy in motion is attested by the history of Europe and America in the eighteenth century. Though he personally never realized the magnitude of the issue, though from first to last he was primarily interested in the preservation of Holland, though had he realized that his work was to result in the aggrandizement of England at the expense both of Holland and France, he would probably never have accepted the English throne, the far-reaching effects of this policy are to be seen not only in America but in Asia and in Africa as well. The accession of William III is thus the turning point in American colonial history. Almost at once, he set in motion that series of wars which ended in America only when the last vestige of French colonial empire had disappeared from the continent. What he began, Marlborough and Pitt, in later generations, completed.

Influence Upon America.

If we keep these facts in mind: first, that the Navigation Act of 1651 inaugurated a trade policy that was to build up the English carrying trade at the expense of the Dutch; and second, that the accession of William of Orange as William III of England marked the end of the rivalry between the English and the Dutch and inaugurated the struggle between the English and the French, Oliver Cromwell and William of Orange become two of the most important figures in American history and therefore deserve far more attention than is usually accorded them in teaching American history.

For the further study of this phase of American history, the student is recommended to the works of Fiske and Parkman, and to the shorter treatises contained in the volumes of Hart’s “American Nation.” Especially important, however, are the two works of Professor J. R. Seeley which have several times been quoted in this paper: “The Growth of British Policy” and the “Expansion of England.”

A New Text-Book on American History By James and Sanford

REVIEWED BY JOHN SHARPLESS FOX, PH.D., OF THE UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL,
CHICAGO.

The new text-book by James and Sanford is an advanced and compendious manual for use in high schools. In it the authors have escaped in large measure the fault common to some of our older texts of writing an _essay_ on American history; on the other hand they have avoided the more grievous error of dumping a mass of undigested facts into their book. They have borne in mind the important principle that generalizations, to be useful, must be accompanied by the _facts_. The _how_ and the _why_ are explained in this text, and the authors do not assume an undue intimacy with providence.

It has been their aim, they tell us, “to give the main features in the development of our nation, to explain the America of to-day, its civilization and its traditions.” They have sought to emphasize “the achievements of men and women” in the more important fields of human activity,--the “political, industrial, educational and religious.” “Military phases of our history ... have been subordinated to the accounts of the victories of peace.” They have given unusual attention to “the advance of the frontier” and to “the growth and influence of the West”; and “particular care has been taken to state the essential facts in European history necessary to the explanation of events in America.” Unlike some of our older books,--and the parson who announces his text and bids it adieu--the authors have given no separate chapter or section to physical geography, but have called attention to the influence of geographical conditions in connection with events and conditions as they arise. In the opinion of the reviewer, this method has received a large measure of justification in the event, (e. g., pp. 92-95.)

In the matter of proportion, the authors have assigned much more space than is usual to the period following the Civil War, and considerably less to the period from 1789 to 1860; yet the latter does not suffer thereby. The book is divided into chapters (XXXI), with appropriate titles, and marginal notes indicate the contents of paragraphs. Information of a more advanced and supplementary character has been placed in smaller type, which may be omitted by teachers lacking time, or at discretion. It is not clear, however, why the Ordinance of 1787 should be relegated to this minor position (p. 189).

Colonial History.

The account of the thirteen colonies is of sufficient fulness to show clearly the origins of the people and their institutions. It is, however, a matter of regret that the authors have not made it clearer that the thirteen mainland colonies who won their independence were not the only English colonial establishments in America. The discovery of America is made reasonable (pp. 1-10); the varying motives of English and European colonization, and the principal difficulties in the way of permanent settlement by Europeans in America are clearly set forth (pp. 30-40, 91); the fact that the Puritans were political as well as religious refugees, of a practical character, and not merely religious idealists, is made clear (pp. 53-55). The land systems prevailing in the different colonies are explained (pp. 43, 47, 52, _et passim_), and the more general statement is made (p. 91): “The great underlying economic fact of this [eighteenth century] colonization was the existence in America of boundless areas of cultivable land that might be had on easy terms.” The Indians are treated in their contact with the whites, and their degeneracy is made the occasion of general remarks on the inevitable consequences attending the contact between a superior and an inferior race (pp. 98-100). Here, too, “the land question” is shown to be fundamental. The influence of the fur-trade in this and later times is dwelt upon (pp. 97-98, 108, 111). A notable statement of seventeenth century colonial conditions and of eighteenth century problems occurs on pages 101-102.

Social and economic life receives unusual attention throughout the book, and wherever possible is shown in its relation to physical conditions and environment. The West receives the best treatment we have noted in any text-book. Excellent accounts of why the settlers went to the West, how they travelled, how they obtained their land, and of how Western democracy arose and reacted on the East, are here given. (See “Westward Migration and Internal Improvements,” pp. 273-281).

The authors make no attempt to “write down” to their readers, and we suspect that some of their economic discussions of international trade, financial crises, and monetary problems will overshoot the mark. Be it said, however, that things are everywhere reduced to their simplest terms. Something must be left to the teacher,--and to providence! Some of the other more important topics treated are: Progress in invention and labor-saving devices, and their attendant effects on production; the growth of commerce due to increased facilities for transportation; the growth of capitalistic combinations, corporations, and trusts, with their attendant problems of legislative regulation; the rise of labor unions and their _raison d’etre_ (Chapters XXVII, XXIX). Educational, literary, philanthropic, and religious history are given due attention.

Topics and Biographical Notes.

An excellent feature of the political and constitutional history is the presence of brief biographical sketches of important statesmen. For teachers who prefer to teach American government in connection with the history, special provision is made by means of marginal references and supplementary questions, and an elaborate outline of topics arising in the text is added (Appendix I, pp. 527-534), with appropriate references to the Constitution and to the authors’ “Government in State and Nation.” This is further supplemented by a list of topics, relating to other features of our government not naturally arising in a history course.

The book is provided with abundant and well-selected illustrations, from authentic sources; the maps are numerous and helpful, but not distinctive. At the end of each chapter are suggestive and stimulating topics and questions, with references within the compass of high school pupils. These references are almost unique in that they are _specific_ and _brief_.

A few inaccuracies and misleading statements have been noticed: The statement, “There was no gold in this region” (p. 23), referring to Spanish territory in the United States, should be modified. None was _found_. For “Eyler” read Tyler (p. 67); for “Cheney” (p. 91), read Cheyney. The remark respecting the slave trade, that “during colonial times no protest seems to have arisen against the wickedness and inhumanity of this traffic” (p. 131) loses sight of the Mennonite protest of 1688, as well as the work and writings of John Woolman, Anthony Benezet, and others. Finally, Connecticut is correctly stated Democratic in the text, but erroneously Republican in the Election Map of 1876 (p. 447).

Taken as a whole, the book is well adapted to its purpose. The style is usually simple and direct; facts are well selected and are clearly and impartially stated; the scholarship is of a high order. The index might be made fuller with profit.

[“American History.” By James Alton James, Professor of History in Northwestern University, and Albert Hart Sanford, Professor of History in the Stevens Point, Wisconsin State Normal School. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1909. Pp. xvii, 563.]

Ancient History in the Secondary School

WILLIAM FAIRLEY, Ph.D., Editor.

EARLY GREECE

Scope of the Month’s Work.

In our larger city schools the work is so systematized that the teacher knows just how far along he should be at any season of the year. For teachers who are working by themselves in small schools and are not specialists in history a very useful guide may be found in the “History Syllabus for Secondary Schools,” issued by the New England History Teachers’ Association, and published by D. C. Heath & Co., of Boston. The “Outline of Ancient History,” in pamphlet form may be had by itself. One value of these outlines is that they divide the work into one hundred exercises, and then indicate the proportion of time this group of teachers have found it wise to devote to each section of the work. During October the teacher ought to carry his class down nearly to the Persian invasions, and at least as far as the development of Sparta.

Importance of the Greeks.

It is hard for the cultured teacher to feel the difference between his own attitude toward Greece and that of the child of fourteen or fifteen who is approaching the subject for the first time. To such a child Greece is simply a name as yet. And it would seem to be a good practice for the teacher in a simple talk to try to enlist the interest of his class by some statement of the reasons why we are going to devote nearly a half year to the study of a very little, and to-day very obscure, country. The teacher should show certain characteristics which make Greece of vast importance. Among these will be found the fact of the wonderful intellectual force of the Greeks, which led them into the same lines of thought and investigation which interest the modern world; their love of independence, in such marked contrast with the servility of the Oriental races at whose history we have been looking in the past month, and especially their artistic supremacy, which made them the great masters in the creation of beauty for all time; and their masterpieces in architecture and sculpture should be contrasted with the work of Egyptians and Mesopotamians, for the most part so grotesque and unlovely.

This article will not attempt to follow the month’s lessons at all in detail, but will emphasize the main things which the young student should carry forward with him as the early story of this people who made themselves in so many ways the forerunners of our modern life.

Map Work.

An early task is to become familiar with the physical characteristics of the land. Nothing will help better than map-drawing. Relief maps are of great service as showing the mountainous nature and the effect of this on private and public life. Ancient Greece was about two hundred and fifty miles in length from north to south and one hundred and sixty-five miles at the most from east to west. It lies between the thirty-sixth and fortieth parallels of latitude, corresponding very closely in distance and latitude to our coast as it extends from the partition line of the Carolinas up as far as New York City. A comparison of the area of Greece with that of the pupil’s own State is desirable. For instance, while the area of New York State is about 48,000 square miles, Greece contained but 21,000. And very early in the course the fact should be brought out that this tiny territory, in the greatest days of its people, was never united politically, but divided into rival States, really nations, each only about as large as one of our counties. A wholesome corrective to our American boastfulness over size may be found in the slightness of area and population of this marvellous land, which has contributed so many more than its proportionate share of mighty men.

Races and Migrations.

Pelasgian, Mycenean, Achæan, Dorian,--such was the order of the peoples who made Greece. The Greeks, or Hellenes, in whom our interest is centered, belong to the two last of these groups. The Pelasgians concern us in the high schools only as much as the men of the stone age in British history. The Myceneans we know only from the ruins of their towns. That in some respects they were ahead of the earlier Achæans might be pointed out. The relationship of the historic Greeks to the other races of Europe and their kindred with ourselves are important. We feel strange toward Egyptian and Babylonian, but are cousins to the Greeks. The teacher who happens to know Greek might show the similarities of Greek and English speech in the common homely words of everyday life.

Epic, Myth and Legend.

Most of our pupils have heard in the lower schools something of Homer and his “Iliad” and “Odyssey”; and the stories of some of the gods and heroes are more or less familiar. When the teacher comes to the Homeric poems he will not be able to interest his young charges very much in their higher criticism; but he would do well, if time allow, to use the special topic and report method here. The story of the “Iliad,” the theme of the “Odyssey,” and certain characteristic episodes from each might be read to the class by pupils assigned to such duty. A similar course may be taken with regard to the legends of the heroes and gods. One interesting story read will be worth a week of mere recital of the twelve labors of Heracles, or the dry account of the fact that Perseus had something to do with Medusa, and Bellerophon with the Chimæra.

In these times of slighting of the ancient world it is well to reflect how many of the commonest allusions of literature, and even of political editorials, depend for their meaning upon some knowledge of the Greek stories. We speak of “hundred-handed” (Briareus) or “hundred-headed” (Hydra) evils of municipal mismanagement; we talk of “cleansing the Augean stables”; Cyclops, Siren, Gorgon, Chimæra, are household words. We owe it to the children not to let them escape into life without some ability to grasp the content of such daily allusions.

Early Politics.

Mention has already been made of the petty size of the typical Greek State. The marvel is that the Greeks did so much while so divided. We shall speak of “city states.” Some child will run away with a notion of something like New York or Boston with its suburbs. Make them feel that all Greece never had as many people as New York City.

It was the intense Greek individualism which kept the States apart. The difference between Greek individualism and that of the Englishman or American should be indicated. The latter is personal. The Greek was swallowed up in his State, that was his unit and his love.

The progress through monarchy, oligarchy and tyranny to democracy is rightly made much of in the books. (Compare the “tyrant” with our “boss.”) When we come to the development and the glories of the Greek democracy a large degree of caution is needed. In the writer’s opinion there is a good deal of glamour about this so-called democracy. The best Greek never dreamed of manhood suffrage, or the rights of man as man. In his view never were “all men created free and equal.” Athens in her best days had but 30,000 voters, and refused citizenship to all outsiders, even fellow-Greeks from across the nearest border line. Slavery was one of the corner-stones of society. So far as it went, the democracy of Athens was of the pure type. That should be made plain when reached. While our modern democracy, save for minor phases, is representative and not pure, the fact remains that the nineteenth century has brought to birth the only real democracy. And that is one point of our superiority over the Greeks and of more importance than our mechanical and scientific advantages.

West, in his “Ancient World,” gives an excellent summary of the bonds which made the Greek world one against all “barbarians” in spite of rivalries among their petty States. He cites (pp. 95-97) the common language and literature; the belief in racial kinship; the Olympian religion, with its games, oracles and amphictyonies, as such forceful bonds of union.

The little land we know as Greece was but a small part of the Hellenic world. Doubtless the eastern shore of the Ægean Sea was as truly Hellenic as Attica or Sparta. And the colonies from that coast to Massilia in the west, and notably in Sicily and Magna Græcia, were of vast importance in spreading Greek speech and ideals through the later Roman world and down into modern times. The political independence of the Greek colony is of interest. A good exercise for some student would be to point out how Marseilles, or Syracuse or Chalcis or Cumæ differed in their relations to the parent States from the relationship of the Philippines to the United States, or of Canada or India to Great Britain. And this topic is another illustration of the truth that save for a few cases like the successful resistance to the Persians, the service of the Greeks to the world has been mainly in the intellectual rather than in the physical and political sphere.

Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero

FOWLER’S RECENT WORK REVIEWED BY PROFESSOR A. C. HOWLAND.

This book on Roman social life in the last generation of the Republic, by the well-known author of “The City State of the Greeks and Romans” and other studies in ancient history, will be welcomed by teachers both of Roman history and of Latin. No other study in English deals with just this aspect of the period, and the easy style and interesting method of presentation make the work especially valuable as collateral reading for classes. Its material has been drawn largely from Cicero’s correspondence and the results of widely-scattered investigations have here been brought together and digested.

The first chapter is devoted to the topography of Rome. After a statement of the principal geographical causes for the growth of Roman dominion (pp. 4-8), there follows (pp. 12-23) a description of the main points of interest within the walls in Cicero’s day, the account being noteworthy alike for its clearness and for its omission of details. A good map at the end of the book enables the reader to fix each feature of the city accurately. The second chapter, on the lower population, is perhaps the most interesting in the book, as it deals with a topic seldom discussed and on which our information is very meager. The subject is discussed under three heads--how this population was housed, how it was fed and clothed and how it was employed. Notwithstanding the contempt felt by the writers of the period for the lower classes, Mr. Fowler makes it evident that an understanding of their environment will explain many an obscure point in the history of the period. Why, for instance, had the old Roman religion fallen into such decay at the close of the Republic? We naturally look for scepticism among the cultured, where the old traditions had been undermined by the sudden influx of wealth and Greek culture, but not among the poor and ignorant, who could have been little touched by such influences. But when we consider the tenement houses in which the poor lived, with whole families occupying but one or two rooms (pp. 28-32), it can be seen that there was no place here for the Penates or the family hearth, that the old domestic rites, which constituted the Roman religion so far as it affected the individual, were of necessity driven out and that the poorer classes were forced to satisfy their religious cravings by substituting the gregarious, non-family oriental cults, with their common temples and services. Here the worshippers could enter into personal relations with a deity as they could not in the indigenous Roman temple, which had to do solely with the State’s worship. The only other point around which the personal religious feeling of the old Roman clung--the family tomb--likewise no longer existed for the poor Roman of the city, who could not afford this luxury, but must see the members of his family cast into a common burying place with many others (p. 320).

As to the employment of the lower classes, it is pointed out that in spite of the contempt for retail trade and the crafts--a feeling similar to that of the higher classes in England and due to the same causes--there were many callings at which free Romans must have worked at this time, including milling and baking, market gardening, shoemaking, the making and washing of woolen clothing, etc. (pp. 42-55). But the inadequacy of legal protection for the poor and the uncertainty of employment made a regular income precarious.

In chapter III there is given an excellent description of the activities and business organizations of the Equites in their capacities both as public contractors (pp. 65-80) and as private business men (pp. 80-94), which throws much light on the sources of wealth and the financial methods of this class. The following chapter, on the governing aristocracy, attempts to classify the various types of the nobility and to illustrate each by a brief sketch of some one of its members. The attitude of the old and new nobility towards each other, the effects for good and for evil of the Greek culture on the various classes, and the frivolity and absence of the sense of responsibility among the younger public men are well brought out. The lively description of Cœlius, the talented, but scatter-brained, young friend and pupil of Cicero (pp. 127-33), is one of the most interesting passages of the book.

After thus taking up the different classes of the Roman population, the author proceeds to discuss the more general aspects of the life of the day under such headings as “Marriage and the Roman Lady,” “Education of the Upper Classes,” “The Slave Population,” “The House of the Rich Man in Town and Country,” “Daily Life of the Well-to-do,” “Holidays and Public Amusements and Religion.” The treatment throughout is fresh and vivid, except in the chapter on public amusements, which is rather uninteresting. Under the subject of marriage, after a discussion of the decay of that institution and the increase of divorce and immorality, we are especially grateful for the story of the long and beautiful wedded life, as found in the so-called “Laudatio Turiæ,” and now told in full in English for the first time (pp. 158-67). There must have been many similar cases of domestic devotion and happiness, but they naturally pass unmentioned in the writings of the time, as they largely do in the literature of our own day. The discussion of Roman education is valuable because it explains the weak points of the system and the way in which these produced many of the moral shortcomings in the men of the day. The question of slavery is viewed from an unprejudiced standpoint. Its influence on the depopulation of the provinces is clearly brought out (pp. 206-10), but it is also shown that its economic effects in Italy were not altogether evil, and that slave labor by no means drove free labor from the market (pp. 213-22). The author holds with Wallon[8] and Seeck[9] that the unrestricted manumission of slaves had on the whole an injurious effect on Roman life and character. The Roman idea of religion, so puzzling to the average student, is nowhere more clearly explained than in the last chapter, and here as elsewhere the treatment is so simple and plain as well as scholarly, that no better book can be placed in the hands of a class.

[“Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero.” W. Ward Fowler. The Macmillan Co. 1909. Pp. xiii, 362.]

FOOTNOTES:

[8] Histoire de l’Esclavage.

[9] Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt.

History in the Grades

ARMAND J. GERSON, Editor.

COLUMBUS,--SPANISH EXPLORER. A TYPE-LESSON.

If the lesson on Columbus is to be indeed a type-lesson, it behooves the teacher in preparing it to make a careful selection of such elements of the story as may properly form the basis for the subsequent teaching of other Spanish explorers. As was pointed out in this department in last month’s issue,[10] the truest economy in history teaching consists in the careful construction of a definite foundation of correct historical concepts upon which the detailed superstructure of later lessons may be rapidly and yet substantially reared.

Certain elements in the life, environment, and explorations of Christopher Columbus may well be used as the foundation for the teaching of all the Spanish explorations of the New World. These essential elements should be presented with great thoroughness, and the children’s interest in them made active and enthusiastic. Their knowledge of them must be concrete, many-sided, living; only then will it constitute what the psychologist likes to call the “apperceptive basis” for subsequent analysis, comparison, and generalization.

On the other hand, the teaching of Columbus will necessarily involve many facts which belong distinctively to his life and actions, and to which later Spanish explorations have little, or at the most a very remote relation. It is obvious that the teaching of such portions of our topic can hardly be said to constitute a “type-lesson.” These points serve a definite purpose of their own, and should be presented in their own way. Let us, therefore, in our practical consideration of the presentation of our lesson on Columbus, consider separately the “type-elements” and what for convenience we may call the “specific elements.”

Previous Preparation.

In the first place, in the preparation of our lesson on Columbus, as, in fact, in the preparation of any lesson, the teacher must have definitely in mind just what preliminary instruction has been given. Let us assume, then, that the soil has been prepared,--that the class is already familiar with the ideas of the size and shape of the earth which were current in the 15th century; with the parts of the world that were known; with the general geographical situation of the chief nations of Europe; with the nature of the trade with the Far East; and, still more important, with the causes of the activity of the time in the direction of finding new trade routes to the Orient. These basic ideas should have become firmly fixed and their interrelations clearly brought out before we introduce our Columbus “type-lesson.”

What are the essential features of the Columbus lesson, the emphasis of which will entitle it to be considered a “type-lesson”? Or, to re-phrase our query, what are the “type-elements” of the story of Columbus?

Spanish Characteristics.

First of all, if our lesson is to typify the Spanish explorers as a group, it should supply a basic concept of Spanish life and character in the 15th and 16th centuries. It is not a matter of much difficulty to arouse in our pupils a real interest in the Spaniards of that time. There is so much of the romantic and the picturesque about this phase of American history that for the conscientious teacher it will always constitute one of the most attractive portions of his work. Varied selections from literature suitable to the age of the children should be read to them. Better still, they should be encouraged to continue this sort of reading on their own accounts; appropriate material for this purpose should be on hand in the school library. The religious element in Spanish life should receive particular emphasis, some reference being made to the Inquisition and the popular attitude toward heresy. As an important element in the European background of American history, this phase of our subject dare not be overlooked, but it goes without saying that in our public schools it is a topic which must be handled with extreme tact. The severe etiquette of the Spanish court, the Spanish dress, Spanish arms and armor, should all receive their proper amount of attention. Pictures, as well as stories, should be brought into constant requisition to make this portion of the work concrete.

Some notion of the political standing and relations of Spain, properly adapted to children of elementary school age, must also be considered as essentially a “type-element” in our lesson. For pupils in the grades it will probably suffice to point out very briefly the long struggle with the Moors, brought to a successful termination by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492; the combination in the 16th century of various and widely separate realms under the Hapsburgs; and the natural jealousy of France and England toward this rising world-power.

The next “type-element” necessary to consider will be the topic of Spanish modes of navigation. At this point our lesson becomes typical of the period of exploration in general rather than of Spanish explorations in particular, inasmuch as Spanish vessels, sailors, etc., were not, for our purposes in the grades at least, essentially different from those of other contemporary nations. It is important, however, that our pupils should have definite ideas on this point if their knowledge of the early explorations is to be in any true sense real. Pictures of Spanish vessels of the period are easy to procure, and should be referred to in this connection. Attention should be called to the significant features of these boats,--their small size, their peculiar construction, their usual rate of speed, etc. In all purely descriptive work of this sort it is well for the teacher to keep in mind that a happy comparison is frequently of more value than pages of prosy details and measurements. Take, for example, Mark Twain’s delightful comparison in his description of one of the pyramids: each stone as big as a freight-car!

Finally, the prevailing superstitious fears of unknown seas, wild notions regarding the monsters of the deep and inhabitants of distant lands, the consequent scarcity of sailors for voyages of exploration, the bravery and steadfastness of purpose required to lead such an expedition,--these points may surely be said to constitute a “type-element.” To be sure, as time went on and ignorance of distant regions gradually disappeared, the force of these factors in history diminished. Throughout the exploration period, however, they remain an element to be reckoned with and constantly to be referred to. Selections from Mandeville might very appropriately be read in this connection to lend color and life to the presentation.

Life of Columbus.

We are now ready to consider what we have designated the “specific elements” of the Columbus lesson; that is, those features of the story that refer to Columbus as an individual explorer, but can hardly be considered typical of the Spanish explorations in general. If the “type-elements” have been duly impressed, this portion of the lesson will present little difficulty and can be covered in a comparatively short time, largely, in fact, in the form of readings.

The nationality and early life of Columbus should first occupy the attention of teacher and class. The fact that he was an Italian is significant. Passing reference might well be made to the political disorganization of Italy and the declining importance of its commercial centers. The boyhood of our hero is picturesque and may easily be made to arouse the interest of boys and girls of our own day. Let them feel that he was a child like themselves and give them some appreciation of his childhood’s environment,--the Italian sky and sea-coast.

The geographical ideas of Columbus and the development of his pet project have a definite relation to the preliminary lessons on the geographical notions of his time. His errors should be clearly pointed out. In this portion of the presentation, as in most others, a good wall map must be on hand for constant reference.

The futile attempts of Columbus to get the support necessary for his venture need not occupy us long. His experience at the court of Spain, however, and his first voyage will require more elaborate treatment. Here constant reference must be made to the “type-elements,”--particularly in connection with Spanish court life, Spanish motives, the furnishing and manning of the three boats which constituted his fleet.

The subsequent voyages of Columbus may be passed over very rapidly, preferably with very little detail. Similarly his later life and his sad death will call for but passing notice.

This entire narrative portion of our topic is largely handled for us by any of the standard elementary text-books, which, by the way, it is important that our pupils should learn to use. The real teaching, that is to say, the history tracing and idea-building, has been accomplished in connection with the “type-elements.” The rest of the problem in large measure solves itself.

The “type-lesson” on Columbus just outlined will occupy a number of history periods. It is important that it should not be hurried. The old pedagogic maxim that we should make haste slowly applies with peculiar force to the “type-lesson” method. We begin slowly that we may gain time later. More than that, we are furnishing our pupils with a definite stock of fundamental historical notions which will constitute for them a genuine intellectual capital. As they go on with the study of history, they will find that their “type ideas” help to interpret the detailed facts they meet, which facts in turn will tend to re-enforce the “type-ideas.”

FOOTNOTE:

[10] “The Type-Lesson in History,” HISTORY TEACHER’S MAGAZINE, September, 1909.

Reports from the Historical Field

WALTER H. CUSHING, Editor.

A New Organization.

The history teachers of Colorado are about to organize an association and have appointed a committee, of which Professor James G. Willard is chairman. With so many questions in history teaching still unsettled, we welcome a new organization which by discussion and interchange of views will hasten the solution of these problems. The history teachers in about one-half the States of the Union are now included in organizations, with the American Historical Association as a sort of clearing house.

Raising the Standard in Louisiana.

Heretofore the State course of study has not provided for a satisfactory history program in the high schools, but with this year a new course of study goes into operation which gives about three years to history. At the request of the State Department of Education Professor Walter L. Fleming, of the State University, has prepared a syllabus covering the work, with suggestions for map work, reading, note-books, etc. In the future two or even three years’ work in history may be required of the candidates for the freshman class.

Considerable interest has been developed in certain fields of history by the Rally Day competition at the University. The high schools of the State send representatives to the High School Rally Day at the University in April. These pupils are chosen after local contests and sent to Baton Rouge. The pupils’ subjects for the debate and essay contests are published by the Program Committee.

To prepare teachers adequately for their work two courses are offered at the State University, one in “Methods of Teaching History,” and another in “Aids in the Studying and Teaching of History.” Instruction covers use of texts, sources, reference works, map work, pictures, advertising, material useful in history teaching, etc. Great improvement is already noticeable and especially good work is done in Shreveport and New Orleans.

Proceedings of the North Central History Teachers’ Association.

The annual report of this association, containing the papers and discussions of the April meeting, was issued during the summer. As usual, it contains much which will repay careful reading and reflection even by those who were fortunate enough to be present at the meeting. Professor Samuel B. Harding, of Indiana University, in treating of “Some Concrete Problems in the Teaching of Medieval and Modern History,” opposed the plan of teaching this field of history on the “single nation” plan. With regard to the proportion of time to be allotted the parts of this course, he advocated giving roughly one-third to the period 800 A.D.-1500 A.D.; another one-third to the period ending with 1789, and the final one-third to the French Revolution and the 19th century. He suggested several devices for emphasizing the “time” problem, or chronology, urged the use of maps, and especially called attention to the greatest problem, how to make history concrete, how to make it definite. The speaker advocated the regular use of note-books and urged a greater use of pictures.

In considering “What Changes Should be Made in the Report of the Committee of Seven?” Professor A. C. McLaughlin referred to the complaint, especially in the East, against the great length of the course in ancient history. He gave reasons why it had seemed desirable to the Committee of Seven to continue the study of Roman history to 800 A.D., and predicted that the Committee of Five will cling to that year, “but recommend, more decidedly and with more assurance than did the earlier report, the somewhat hasty perusal of the period from 300 to 800. It may be desirable to state very distinctly and definitely what topics should be taken up....

“The most perplexing question is how the general history of Western Europe should be treated from 800 or thereabouts to the present time.” The speaker would not change the general arrangement of the four blocks recommended in the old report, but advised a very hurried treatment of the first six or eight hundred years. (Compare Professor Harding, above.) There are serious objections to giving up a continuous and unbroken treatment of English history as is sometimes recommended.

In its recommendation on Civil Government the Committee of Seven seems to have been misunderstood. The old report did not advise that separate courses in civil government should not be given. It urged a strong combined course in American history and government in preference to two separate weak courses. In any case they should be taught as interrelated and interdependent subjects.

At the business meeting of the association, Carl E. Pray, of the Normal School, Milwaukee, was elected president, and George H. Gaston, of the Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago, was re-elected secretary.

A Syllabus in Civil Government for Secondary Schools.

Considerable interest has been aroused in the forthcoming syllabus in Civil Government prepared by a special committee of the New England History Teachers’ Association, for whom it will be published late in the fall by the Macmillan Company.

There will be two parts to the book: An introduction of about twenty pages given to a discussion of the general subject and representing in a limited field the relation that the report of the Committee of Seven bore to the History Syllabus; and the syllabus proper consisting of approximately one hundred and twenty pages, with topics, diagrams, general and specific references and bibliographies. Specimen pages of the syllabus have been tried in the class-rooms of schools in widely different parts of the country, and the subject was discussed at the April meeting of the association.

Many problems confronted the committee at the outset, and at least a working agreement had to be reached upon the following questions:

1. What should be the position of the study and what time allotment should it reasonably expect?

2. What should be the aims of instruction in government in secondary schools?

3. What should be the scope and what should be the places of emphasis?

4. What should be its relation to other subjects of the curriculum?

5. What should be the point of attack and order of topics?

6. What should be the method?

7. What should be the form of the syllabus?

The conclusions reached by the committee may be briefly summarized. Two or two and one-half forty-five-minute periods a week should be allotted, and the subject should be correlated with United States history. Instruction in civics should aim to train the mind, to develop political intelligence, to awaken civic consciousness, to interest the pupil in civic duty, and to prepare him, through instruction and practice, for its exercise. The scope of the subject should include actual government as found in the local unit, the State, and the nation, with so much of the history of government as is needed to explain present institutions and conditions. Enough of the theory of government should be given to establish an orderly arrangement of the subject matter in the pupil’s mind. The ethical principles underlying government should be examined in a concrete way; and attention should be given to the application of these principles in the social duties of school life.

Civics should not be confounded with constitutional history. It is important enough to have its own field, and, while correlated with history, economics and ethics, should not be trammeled by either of these.

The most serious problem which the committee had to solve was that of the order of topics. Should local or national government come first? The majority of the committee favored local, State, national as the order. They also decided that not more than one-fourth of the time should be given to a study of the federal government.

Much stress is laid on the importance of studying local government, so far as possible, at first hand. This necessitates frequent, systematically-planned visits to local bodies and careful study of local documents, such as reports, specimen papers, etc.

No hard and fast form for the syllabus has been used. Sometimes topics, sometimes questions, and again statements are used wherever best adapted to the purpose.

The committee consists of Dr. Hay Greene Huling, English High School, Cambridge, chairman; Wilson R. Butler, High School, New Bedford; Professor L. B. Evans, Tufts College; Dr. John Haynes, Dorchester High School; Dr. W. B. Munro, Harvard University. Mr. Butler is editor for the committee.

Report of the Committee of Eight.

This report on history in the elementary grades has been prepared by a committee of the American Historical Association, Professor James A. James, of Northwestern University, chairman, and will be published this fall by “Scribner’s.” The work for each of the eight grades is treated in detailed topics accompanied by reading lists for teachers and for pupils. The object of the course for the first two grades is “to give the child an impression of primitive life and an appreciation of public holidays.” Grade three deals with Heroes of Other Times, Columbus, and the Indians. In the fourth and fifth grades emphasis is placed on Historical Scenes and Persons in American History. The object sought in grade six is to impress on the child’s mind that “the beginnings of American ways of living are to be sought far back in the story of the world.” The topics, therefore, seek to bring out the contributions made by Greeks, Romans, and the people of medieval Europe, especially England, closing with the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The seventh grade topics deal with the exploration and settlement of North America and the growth of the colonies to 1763. The eighth grade topics bring United States history down to the present time, and suggest subjects for supplementary talks on European history.

The report also contains a chapter on Methods, an “Outline for Teaching the Development of a Constitutional Government in the Eighth Grade in Three Lessons of Forty Minutes Each,” contributed by Miss Blanche A. Cheney, of the Lowell, Mass., State Normal School; an “Outline for Teaching the Birth of the German Nation in the Eighth Grade,” by Miss Blanche E. Hazard, of the Brockton, Mass., High School; an article on elementary civics, and appendices on history teaching in German, French and English elementary schools.

The subject of history in the elementary grades has also been treated in a stimulating manner in a course prepared by Superintendent W. F. Gordy for the schools of Springfield, Mass. The work is here outlined for nine grades, the last being devoted to English history as related to the history of our own country.

NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION.

The next meeting of the New England History Teachers’ Association will be held on Saturday, October 16, in Boston. The Council seriously considered for a time the expediency of waiving the constitutional requirement and holding the meeting in the western part of Massachusetts, probably in Greenfield. The preference of a large minority of the members for Boston, however, led the Council to follow the regular practice of holding the annual meeting in Boston. The association has held meetings in Springfield, Hartford and Portland, and the wisdom of meeting once a year outside of Boston seems proved by the large attendance at those places.

Had the meeting been held in Greenfield, the subject would have been “Local Aids in the Study of History,” a most appropriate topic for a meeting in that richly historical region. For the Boston meeting the Council has selected the subject of “Economics,” which has been clamoring for recognition ever since the association was founded.

Topics in economics enter to a considerable extent into American history, but it is a question how far economic theory should be developed in a secondary school course. The field is a tempting one to a teacher filled with his subject: the fundamental principles of money, foreign trade, rent, capital and labor, corporate organization, socialism, these and many others the young man will inevitably come in contact with daily. What guidance shall he have and where shall he obtain it?

Bibliographies.

Of considerable value to all progressive teachers of history is the “Annual List of Books on History and Civics,” selected and critically reviewed with reference to their value for high school teachers and pupils prepared by a special committee of the North Central Association under the editorship of Professor W. J. Chase, of the University of Wisconsin. The list comprises new books on teaching history, ancient, medieval and modern, English history and government, United States history and government. Each title is accompanied by name of publisher and price. There is a critical estimate averaging half a page. Text-books and special treatises on a small field are not included. Copies may be obtained of Mr. G. H. Gaston, Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago, for twenty-five cents.

“The Atlantic Educational Journal,” published by the Maryland Educational Publishing Company, Baltimore, Md., has a “Bibliography of History for Schools,” prepared by a committee of the Association of History Teachers of Maryland under the chairmanship of Professor C. M. Andrews.