Suggestions

DR. WILLIAM RANDALL WATERMAN, Professor of History, recommends the following books to members of the Alumni body:

"Of the numerous books in the field of American history and biography which have appeared during the past year the following suggestions represent a selection which the writer particularly enjoyed.

"Of wide general interest should be America in Midpassage, by Charles A. and Mary Beard. (Reviewed in the November issue.) In the Rise of New York Port (Scribner's, 1939, $3.75) Robert G. Albion has given us a study which should rank with Samuel E. Morison's Maritime History of Massachusetts. This is a book which must not be overlooked by those who are interested in the story of our old merchant marine. While on matters maritime .. attention should be called to the Rise of American Naval Power, 1776-1918, by Harold and Margaret Sprout (Princeton, 1939, $3.75; recommended by Prof. Harold J. Tobin in the October issue).

This might well be supplemented by the new study of Alfred Thayer Mahan, 1840- 1914, by W. Puleston (Yale Press, 1939, $4)

"In the field of historical biography the most publicized work of the year was Carl Sandburg's study of Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, in four volumes. (Harcourt, 1939, $20; recommended in the December issue). Representing years of study and research, this monumental work is a distinct addition to our ever growing literature of Lincoln and the Civil War. The reading of it, however, should be pursued in judicious amounts over a considerable period of time. More modest in scope, and yet of much interest for those who have followed the revival of enthusiasm for our Civil War history, was Burton J. Hendrick's Statesmen of theLost Cause (Little, Brown, 1939, $3.75) which offers an excellent study of the civil leaders of the South during the great struggle. Still another readable study of mid-nineteenth century history Was, Fremont: Pathmaker of the West, by Allan Nevins (Appleton-Century, 1939, $5). This is unquestionably our best full length biography of a man who just missed being one of the dominant figures of his times. Of somewhat wider appeal was Henry J. Pringle's Life and Times ofWilliam Howard Taft, two volumes, (Farrar, 1939, $7.50), a thoughtful biography which should rank with the best of the year.

"The past year also produced two books on Vermont which merit the attention of the host of Dartmouth men interested in the Green Mountain state. One of these, Vermont in the Making, 7750-/777, by Matt B. Jones '94 (Harvard Press, 1939, $4; see R. W. G. Vail's review of this in the December issue) is a substantial and scholarly account of the settlement and early problems, chiefly legal and political, that preceded the emergence of Vermont as a separate state. Of a somewhat different character is Social Ferment in Vermont, 1791-1850, by David M. Ludlum (Columbia, 1939, $3.50), a study of the various religious, political, and social reform movements which swept over Vermont in the first half of the 19th century.

"Finally it should be noted that the appearance of the three volumes of Vernon L. Parrington's Main Currents in American Thought in a single volume (Harcourt. 1939, $345) now makes possible at reasonable cost the ownership of one of the most significant and stimulating books of recent years in the field of American history and literature."