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It were to be wished that more writers possessed of some literary skill, who have
borne a part in the wonderful drama involving men and events enacted in this
country during the century now drawing to a close, had given us their sincere
personal impressions in autobiographic form. Such narratives, in proportion as
they are truthful, are far more trustworthy than history written long after the
event by authors who were neither observers nor participants in the scenes
which they describe.

Among American biographies which will help the reader to gain a tolerably wide
acquaintance with the men and affairs of the past century in this country, are
the series of Lives of American Statesmen, of which thirty volumes have been
published. These include Washington, the Adamses, Jefferson, Franklin,
Hamilton, Jay, Madison, Marshall, Monroe, Henry, Gallatin, Morris, Randolph,
Jackson, Van Buren, Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Cass, Benton, Seward, Lincoln,
Chase, Stevens, and Sumner. While these Memoirs are of very unequal merit,
they are sufficiently instructive to be valuable to all students of our national
history.

Another very useful series is that of American Men of Letters, edited by Charles
Dudley Warner, in fifteen volumes, which already includes Franklin, Bryant,
Cooper, Irving, Noah Webster, Simms, Poe, Emerson, Ripley, Margaret Fuller,
Willis, Thoreau, Taylor, and Curtis.

In the department of history, the best books for learners are not always the
most famous. Any mere synopsis of universal history is necessarily dry reading,
but for a constant help in reference, guiding one to the best original sources,
under each country, and with very readable extracts from the best writers
treating on each period, the late work of J. N. Larned, "History for Ready
Reference," five volumes, will be found invaluable.

Brewer's Historic Note Book, in a single volume, answers many historic queries in
a single glance at the alphabet. For the History of the United States, either John
Fiske's or Eggleston's is an excellent compend, while for the fullest treatment,
Bancroft's covers the period from the discovery of America up to the adoption of
the constitution in 1789, in a style at once full, classical, and picturesque. For
continuations, McMaster's History of the People of the United States covers the
period from 1789 to 1824, and is being continued. James Schouler has written a
History of the United States from 1789 to 1861, in five volumes, while J. F.
Rhodes ably covers the years 1850 to the Civil War with a much more copious
narrative.

For the annals of England, the Short History of England by J. R. Green is a most
excellent compend. For more elaborate works, the histories of Hume and
Macaulay bring the story of the British Empire down to about 1700. For the
more modern period, Lecky's History of England in the 18th century is excellent,
and for the present century, McCarthy's History of Our Own Time, and Miss
Martineau's History of England, 1815-52, are well written works. French history
is briefly treated in the Student's History of France, while Guizot's complete
History, in eight volumes, gives a much fuller account, from the beginnings of
France in the Roman period, to the year 1848. Carlyle's French Revolution is a
splendid picture of that wonderful epoch, and Sloane's History of Napoleon gives
very full details of the later period.

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