PREFACE In preparing the following pages for students who are about to enter seriously on the study of United States history, I have been guided in the selection of material and in the method of presenting this material by a desire to place more emphasis on the industrial and social activities of the American people than is usually placed by writers of textbooks which we may for convenience call political histories. In placing this emphasis I have tried not to neglect the really important political movements, constitutional developments, and military events. Necessarily many of these movements, developments, and events have been given less prominence than is customary in political histories, yet not one of first-rate importance has been intentionally omitted. Likewise in numerous places, the industry of the country has received less detailed treatment than is usually accorded it in industrial or economic histories. As a result, this book differs somewhat, on the one hand, from texts now generally used in high schools; and, on the other hand, from those used in college classes in economic history. It devotes considerably more space to industry and society than does the political history; and, unlike an industrial history, it gives attention to politics, constitutions, and military affairs. In taking what may appear to many to be middle ground as a basis on which to prepare a United States history for advanced high-school students and for college freshmen, I am supported by my own experience as a teacher of United States history in various types of schools, and by other teachers in high schools, academies, normal schools, colleges, and universities, who assure me that the plan is sound. This text, it is believed, will meet the needs of college classes in American industrial history, as well as of advanced high-school classes in the conventional United States history courses; will give to the students of the latter a well proportioned view of American life; and will assist the college freshman to relate his already acquired knowledge of American history to the new knowledge he gains in his classes in economic history. In apportioning space among the various time periods, I have departed somewhat from the usual division. Thus in the first of the three parts into which the text is divided I have devoted one chapter to a brief account of European conditions prior to about 1600; one chapter to discovery and colonization; one chapter to colonial society and government; three chapters |