Early European History
Webster, Hutton
English
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EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY
BY
HUTTON WEBSTER, PH.D.
"There is no part of history so generally useful as that which relates to
the progress of the human mind, the gradual improvement of reason, the
successive advances of science, the vicissitudes of learning and
ignorance, which are the light and darkness of thinking beings, the
extinction and resuscitation of arts, and the revolutions of the
intellectual world."
--SAMUEL JOHNSON, _Rasselas_.
PREFACE
This book aims to furnish a concise and connected account of human
progress during ancient, medieval, and early modern times. It should meet
the requirements of those high schools and preparatory schools where
ancient history, as a separate discipline, is being supplanted by a more
extended course introductory to the study of recent times and contemporary
problems. Such a course was first outlined by the Regents of the
University of the State of New York in their _Syllabus for Secondary
Schools_, issued in 1910.
Since the appearance of the Regents' _Syllabus_ the Committee of Five of
the American Historical Association has made its _Report_ (1911),
suggesting a rearrangement of the curriculum which would permit a year's
work in English and Continental history. Still more recently the Committee
on Social Studies of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary
Education, in its _Report_ (1916) to the National Education Association
has definitely recommended the division of European history into two
parts, of which the first should include ancient and Oriental
civilization, English and Continental history to approximately the end of
the seventeenth century, and the period of American exploration.
The first twelve chapters of the present work are based upon the author's
_Ancient History_, published four years ago. In spite of many omissions,
it has been possible to follow without essential modification the plan of
the earlier volume. A number of new maps and illustrations have been added
to these chapters.
The selection of collateral reading, always a difficult problem in the
secondary school, is doubly difficult when so much ground must be covered
in a single course. The author ventures, therefore, to call attention to
his _Readings in Ancient History_. Its purpose, in the words of the
preface, is "to provide immature pupils with a variety of extended,
unified, and interesting extracts on matters which a textbook treats with
necessary, though none the less deplorable, condensation." A companion
volume, entitled _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, will be
published shortly. References to both books are inserted in footnotes.
At the end of what has been a long and engrossing task, it becomes a
pleasant duty to acknowledge the help which has been received from
teachers in school and college. Various chapters, either in manuscript or
in the proofs, have been read by Professor James M. Leake of Bryn Mawr
College; Professor J. C. Hildt of Smith College; Very Rev. Patrick J.
Healy, Professor of Church History in the Catholic University of America;
Professor E. F. Humphrey of Trinity College; Dr. James Sullivan, Director
of the Division of Archives and History, State Dept. of Education of New
York; Constantine E. McGuire, Assistant Secretary General, International
High Commission, Washington; Miss Margaret E. McGill, of the Newton
(Mass.) High School; and Miss Mabel Chesley, of the Erasmus Hall High
School, Brooklyn. The author would also express appreciation of the labors
of the cartographers, artists, and printers, to whose accuracy and skill
every page of the book bears witness.
HUTTON WEBSTER
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, February, 1917
[Illustration: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL GEMS.
1 Steatite from Crete, two lions with forefeet on a pedestal, above
a sun
2 Sardonyx from Elis, a goddess holding up a goat by the horns
3 Rock crystal a bearded Triton
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