14. Use of Secondary Works
FOR the indispensable background of narrative history there is a large literature. The best way of teaching a young class is by a text-book ; but the ground as fast as traversed must be extended by the use of sources for reading, — perhaps for reading aloud, — and for simple topical work (see No. 9 above). The pupil should go beyond the material in this volume, if libraries be available. For older classes there should be a fuller text-book, preferably one which has brief specific bibliographies ; and pupils may be encouraged to make little studies of the biography of writers in this volume, and of the events of which parts are related, using additional sources so far as available. For college classes a more extended narrative may be used as the basis ; and the reading of all the selections in this volume may be required, and enforced by proper examinations ; in addition there should be written work. For the most advanced students of American history this collection is only a nucleus around which to group their studies from sources.
The secondary book has then two functions : to cover the whole field, bridging over the gaps between sources ; and to furnish a starting-point from which the pupil, reader, or student may reach the sources, so as to extend the text- book, to check its statements, and to enliven them.
15. Select List of Secondary Works on the Eighteenth Century and the Revolution
THE secondary material on the period covered by this volume is scanty on the first half century, and over-abundant on the revolutionary period. There is still much need of a critical account of the development of the colonies from the revolution of 1688 to the French war of 1750. Almost the only properly-trained writer on colonial government is Herbert L. Osgood (American Historical Review, II, 644, III, 31, 244). The historians of the period are characterized in Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, and in Charles Kendall Adams, Manual of Historical Literature (New York, 1882). Some of the books most useful to the pupil, student, or reader are enumerated below.
