A SHORT HISTORY OF AMERICAN LIFE.

By Nelson Manfred Blake '30. New York:McGraw-Hill Company, 1952. XIV, 752 pp. $5.75.

For some time there has existed a growing need for a first class single volume text which would effectively synthesize American economic, social and cultural history. Professor Blake has now met this need in a book which is excel.ently organized, surprisingly hensive in its treatment and very readable-a difficult task well performed.

At first thought it might seem that a textbook in American history minus politics, diplomacy and war would be but dull reading. But this need not be the case, as the author ably demonstrates. Politics and wars are important of course, but even more so in shaping the America of today has been the development of our economic and social institutions in which the original European heritage has been significantly modified by American conditions. And in the history of these institutional developments with their interplay one upon another is to be found not only material of interest and importance in the story of the American people, but personalities quite as fascinating and colorful as those to be found in the political and military history of the nation, although not always, perhaps, quite so much in the public eye.

For a single volume of some seven hundred pages the author's treatment of his subject is astonishingly full. There are excellent chapters on immigration, agriculture, business, industry and labor, as well as on the transportation problems of the nation and their solution. Even more interesting, perhaps, are the chapters detvoted to social and cultural history; to the changing religious scene, morals and manners, the rise of popular and higher eduction and the progress of American literature, art and science. Nor is the impact of tir)an growth on the life of the nation neglected. And although, as the author points out. this is not a book interested in battles and politics, adequate attention is paid to the economic and social causes and consequences of our greater wars and major political changes.

Not only is A Short History of American Life unusually comprehensive in scope, but Professor Blake has digested a huge mass of material extremely well, and has presented it in a fashion that should appeal not only to The student but to the general reader. For Both the illustrations scattered through the book should prove entertaining and instruclive.