voyage around the world, the capture of New Amsterdam by the English,
George Rogers Clark's taking of Vincennes, and the bombardment of Fort
Sumter, inspired the imagination of contemporaries, and stir the blood
of their descendants. A few words should be said as to the make-up of
the volumes. Each contains a portrait of some man especially eminent
within the field of that volume. Each volume also contains a series of
colored and black-and-white maps, which add details better presented in
graphic form than in print. There being no general atlas of American
history in existence, the series of maps taken together will show the
territorial progress of the country and will illustrate explorations
and many military movements. Some of the maps will be reproductions of
contemporary maps or sketches, but most of them have been made for the
series by the collaboration of authors and editor. Each volume has
foot-notes, with the triple purpose of backing up the author's
statements by the weight of his authorities, of leading the reader to
further excursions into wider fields, and of furnishing the
investigator with the means of further study. The citations are
condensed as far as is possible while leaving them unmistakable, and
the full titles of most of the works cited will be found in the
critical essay on bibliography at the end of each volume. This constant
reference to authorities, a salutary check on the writer and a
safeguard to the reader, is one of the features of the work; and the
bibliographical chapters carefully select from the immense mass of
literature on American history the titles of the most authentic and the
most useful secondary works and sources. The principle of the whole
series is that every book shall be written by an expert for laymen; and
every volume must

therefore stand the double test of accuracy and of readableness.
American history loses nothing in dramatic climax because it is true or