PREFACE
The scope, character, and purpose of this textbook perhaps require some clarification here. It covers the entire historic field, together with a chapter on prehistoric times; it presents a survey of human progress, rather than a chronological outline of events; it is intended for that large body of students who, for various reasons, do not take more than one year of history in the high school. They ought to gain from such a course,however brief, some conception of social development and some realization of man's upward march from the Stone Age until the present time. Nothing but general or universal history will give them that conception, — that realization. And only a history of the world will enable them to appreciate the contributions made by peoples widely separated in space and time to what is steadily becoming the common civilization of mankind.
About two thirds of the book are devoted to the last three centuries. This period furnishes the immediate historical background of the life of to-day: it is therefore the period ordinarily most interesting and profitable to the student. The chapters dealing with it are reproduced, with some abbreviation, from my Modern European History. The other chapters are based on my Early European History, but they contain much that is new, both in the text and also by way of maps and illustrations.
Teachers will find in the book, as in its predecessors, a variety of aids. The "Suggestions for Further Study" provide extended bibliographies. The "Studies" at the end of each chapter may be used either in the daily recitation or for review after the entire chapter has been read. The "Table of Events and Dates," forming the appendix, should be consulted frequently, and pupils should be required to explain and elaborate
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