A HISTORY OP AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND CULTURE
(America'sMarch Toward Democracy. By Harold O. Rugg, 'OB. Boston, Ginn & Co. 1981. This is the fourth volume of Professor Rugg's six book social-science course for the junior High school. It is prepared for the second half of the eighth grade, and for supplementary use there is, as for the other volumes, a pupil's work book.
The idea of the series commends itself to those teachers of history and other social studies, who feel that life is a unit and who wish to impress upon the mind of their pupils the interaction of geography, history, economic and social forces. To those, on the other hand, who teach the subject as a string of dates, of unrelated units, and of military campaigns, such a course will doubtless seem radical. The synthesized presentation is along the line of the most advanced thinking on the subject of method in socialscience.
In the preparation of these texts, Professor Rugg has had the assistance of a group of collaborators, associates and assistants, each of whom is a specialist in his line. The pages are copiously illustrated with really worthwhile drawings and halftones.
The historical period covered by volume four is, in general, from the Revolution to the period following the world war, with emphasis upon the establishment and workings of our form of democratic government. Items of strictly historical significance are not neglected, but usually history and geography are introduced as aids to understand the present institutions of our modern world.
Much of the material has grown out of classroom use and has stood the test of real teaching. Research of the most exacting kind has proceeded publication or even the adoption of the synthesized plan. The material presupposes a larger allotment of time than is usually given to the separate subjects in the average public or private school program. If the adoption of these text books leads to this greater emphasis on the social studies, a worthy objective will have been attained. One who has studied the series will have a consecutive view of the growth of American civilization, and of our nation's contribution to the culture and thought of the world.
The work is readable and is so arranged that the volumes would be a worthy addition to any library. If there are readers who are following the "College Course for Alumni," and feel the need of a less advanced preview of any aspect of the social sciences, let him pick up one of Professor Rugg's volumes. He will, I think, not lay it down, until he has refreshed his memory at this rich fountain source. He will also have an excellent taste of what he missed in a unified view point in the social studies, provided he is a graduate of a quarter of a century ago. Thanks to Professor Rugg and his associates, our sons will be men of broader outlook, wider sympathies and better citizens, than we have been.
