History of the State of Idaho. By C. J. BROSNAN, Supt. of Schools at Nampa, Idaho. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1918. Pp. 237.) For many years there has been a need for a real history of Idaho. Bancroft's is very good as far as 1889 but is not published as a separate volume and is not down to date, Hailey's is a labored product of an aged and honored pioneer, and McConnell's is impossible. This publication by the Scribner's is a finished book, well arranged as to subjects, reliable as to facts and statistics and readable as to style. It is known to have been written at the request of the Department of Education in Idaho and in the class of school histories it will take a high rank, but is really more than that and will become the reference volume for the people of the state. It is a book of moderate size, has numerous illustrations, and a series of maps which clearly indicate the tortuous growth of the state as to its boundaries. There is a slight lack of balance, there is no bibliography, and the index of only four and a half pages is inadequate. The imprint of the publisher is sufficient evidence of good physical make-up. Mr. Brosnan, the author, is to be commended for his skill in condensed statements and attractive chapter subdivision and in a chronology and transition which carry along the interest of the reader. Every librarian and historical student in the Pacific Northwest has known that he was writing this book for he has consulted them all and has thus been able to obtain the latest scientific research concerning the earlier periods of the history of Idaho and Old Oregon from which it came. T. C. ELLIOTT. The Applewoman of the Klickitat. By ANNA VAN RENSSELAER MORRIS. (New York: Duffield and Company. 1918. Pp. 271. $1.50.) The author presents a very interesting personal narrative of her experiences as a pioneer apple-orchardist in the Columbia River country. Weary of the life of a journalist in New York city, she is persuaded by a real estate agent to take up a quarter section of government land in the Far West, and develop it into an orchard. She goes to live on it with a semi-invalid brother, meets many helpful friends, and at the end of the book has lived there six and a half years and gathered her second crop of apples. Her views of the business and rewards, of apple-orcharding, are perhaps more rosy than actual conditions warrant. She seems to have had more capital, and more good advice and assistance than most people can count on, and one preparing to follow in her footsteps had best take her story with a grain of salt. Occasionally the pill shows through the sugar coating-that is to say, in some places the book reads like a real estate agent's advertisement or an apple-grower's text-book-but in general the style of writing is smooth and easy, pleasant and interesting to read. She has many bright and entertaining things to say of the varied types of people resident in the country, their past experiences, their present successes or failures, and philosophies. A slight love story-perhaps a little more sugar coating-runs through the whole, concerning a young man who comes to visit the author, and the young wife of a crabbed well-borer who disposes of himself conveniently and heroically by drowning, while rescuing a little Indian boy who had fallen into the Columbia. The main interest, however, is the development of the applegrowing country, and the author has succeeded in giving a pleasant picture which will doubtless draw the attention of many toward orcharding. EVELYN MAY BLODGETT. The Cruise of the Corwin. By JOHN MUIR. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1917. Pp. 279.) In a series of letters to the San Francisco Evening Bulletin and in his private journal kept from day to day, John Muir left a very complete and extremely valuable record of his experiences and observations while on board the revenue steamer "Corwin" in the Far North. In June of 1881, the Jeannette, in command of Lieutenant George W. DeLong, was crushed in the ice and sank about one hundred and fifty miles north of the New Siberian Islands. In the spring of 1880, when the Jeannette had been missing for nearly a year, the Corwin was commissioned, in addition to her regular duties, to search for traces of the lost vessel and her crew. Again in 1881 she set sail from San Francisco with the same object in view and it was at this time that John Muir was one of the party. He had long been eager to study the evidences of glaciation in the Arctic region and so took advantage of this rare opportunity. The Corwin touched at many points in the Far North, Wrangell Land and Herald Island being of particular interest. Mr. Muir's report is the first and practically the only scientific account of this part of the Arctic regions. In addition to his geological reports, some interesting botanical notes are included. The author showed himself much interested also in the people of the lands which he visited, and has given us a fascinating account of the lives and customs of the various tribes of Indians found along the Alaskan and Siberian coasts. His descriptions of their villages, their homes and of the people themselves are extremely interesting. The Cruise of the Corwin is edited by William Frederic Badè and is exceptionally well done. It was a rather difficult task to take material from two sources and put it together without danger of repetition, but Mr. Badè has been very successful in selecting the most important and essential material and has presented it in a very readable form. At the end of the narrative he has included as an appendix the scientific record of the glaciation of the Arctic and subArctic regions visited during the cruise, also Mr. Muir's botanical notes. While these are readable they are of chief interest to scientists. The book is a valuable contribution to the literature of the Far North. MARGARET SCHUMACHER. The Education of Henry Adams, an Autobiography. (Boston: Readers in the State of Washington are interested in all members of America's most wonderful family-the Adamses. Within the State there is a county and a mountain named in honor of John Adams. His son, John Quincy Adams, was one of the negotiators of the Treaty of Ghent, 1814, which practically saved Oregon to the United States. Charles Francis Adams, of the next generation, succeeded his father and grandfather in the important position as United States Minister to Great Britain. His term, from 1861 to 1868, was filled with such firmness, tact, and good sense that it is cited "among the foremost triumphs of American diplomacy." His third son, Henry Adams, author of the present work, was his private secretary during those stressful years. Henry Adams was one of the most brilliant historians produced by America; more from the quality than from the quantity of his work is this true. The present book is the cap-sheaf of his intellectual harvest. Worthington C. Ford says in The Nations "The book is unique." People and events are observed for seventy years to value their contributions toward an education. The pages have a peculiar fascination. They are utterly frank and, at the same time, they sparkle with wit and a puzzling distrust of a really great fund of knowledge. The book circulated in manuscript form for ten years and was then left with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge for publication after the author's death. The death occurred on March 28, 1918. The Senator wrote a brief editor's preface and the Massachusetts Historical Society copyrighted the work and gave it over to the publishers. The editor says that the author "used to say, half in jest, that his great ambition was to complete St. Augustine's Confessions, but that St. Augustine, like a great artist, had worked from multiplicity to unity, while he like a small one, had to reverse the method and work back from unity to multiplicity." Generations of educators and historians are sure to find inspiration in this most remarkable autobiography yet produced in the new world. EDMOND S. MEANY. Sacajawea, The Indian Princess. By ANNA WOLFROM. (Kansas City, Missouri: Burton Publishing Company. 1918. Pp. 31. 50 cents.) The author is a teacher in the Northeast High School, Kansas City, Missouri. She is the author of plays entitled: Albion and Rosamond, The Living Voice and Human Wisps. The present work is a play in three acts and on the title page is "The Indian Girl Who Piloted the Lewis and Clark Expedition Across the Rocky Mountains." The play ends at the sea. Much is made of the Bird Woman's helpfulness, more than Lewis or Clark record. It will probably help to give many a better idea of the girl's part in one of America's greatest dramas in real life. A History of Spain. By CHARLES E. CHAPMAN. (New York: The Macmillan Company. 1918. Pp. 559. $2.60.) The author is Assistant Professor of History in the University of California. In 1916, he published through the same house The Founding of Spanish California and, through other channels, smaller papers such as Researches in Spain, The Founding of San Francisco and Difficulties of Maintaining the Department of San Blas, 17751777. He is now planning a work on Spanish institutions in the colonies and later independent states. It is readily seen that Professor Chapman is rapidly rearing an enduring monument to his industry and scholarship in this field of Spanish-American history. In this present work he has used the materials suited to his purpose in the four-volume work by Rafael Altamira entitled Espana y de la civilizacion espanola. The author of the original work furnishes a frank, yet graceful, introduction, saying that the English-speaking public will here have a faithful portrait of Spain, "instead of a caricature drawn in ignorance of the facts or in bad faith." Professor Chapman depends on his own researches for the last two chapters (of recent events) having spent two years, 1912-1914, in Spain. The present work does not bear directly upon Spanish work in the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Ocean is mentioned four times but in no case extensively. The book is a good, compact history of Spain with greatest emphasis placed on the period from the sixteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Oregon Pioneer Association, Transactions of the Forty-third Annual Reunion. Compiled by GEORGE H. HIMES. (Portland: The Association. 1918. Pp. 201 to 269.) The pamphlet is late in its appearance as the reunion was held in Portland on June 24, 1915. There is included a brief record of the thirtieth annual reunion of the Indian War Veterans of the North Pacific Coast, held in Portland during the same month. There are other matters of historic value including a diary by Lot Livermore relating to the winter of 1861-2, the hardest winter ever known in Oregon. A Brief History of the War. By FREDERIC DUNCALO. (Austin: The University of Texas. 1918. Pp. 87.) The Professor of Medieval History here gives a short and concise review of the great war, including the part that the United States has taken in the conflict. On its appearance it was expected that the part of Texas in the war would be given space, but that was not the purpose. The treatise ends with the words, "Democracy can give no quarter to autocracy." Possibilities in State Historical Celebrations.. By HARLOw Lindley. (Reprinted from the Poceedings of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association. Volume IX., Part II. 1918. Pp. 307 to 317.) Indiana set aside $25,000 with which to celebrate its centennial. Of this sum, $5,000 was to be devoted to publication and already three volumes have appeared with a fourth in preparation. The balance of the money was used for the stimulation and aid of celebrations throughout the State of Indiana. In concluding his report Professor Lindley says: "Beware of commercialized patriotism; |