Individual writers have treated only limited chronological fields.
Meantime there, is a rapid increase of published sources and of
serviceable monographs based on material hitherto unused. On the one
side there is a necessity for an intelligent summarizing of the present
knowledge of American history by trained specialists; on the other hand
there is need of a complete work, written in untechnical style, which
shall serve for the instruction and the entertainment of the general
reader.

To accomplish this double task within a time short enough to serve its
purpose, there is but one possible method, the co-operative. Such a
division of labor has been employed in several German, French, and
English enterprises; but this is the first attempt, to carry out that
system on a large scale for the whole of the United States.

The title of the work succinctly suggests the character of the series,
The American Nation. A History. From Original Materials by Associated
Scholars. The subject is the "American Nation," the people combined
into a mighty political organization, with a national tradition, a
national purpose, and a national character. But the nation, as it is,
is built upon its own past and can be understood only in the light of
its origin and development. Hence this series is a "history," and a
consecutive history, in which events shall be shown not only in their
succession, but in their relation to one another; in which cause shall
be connected with effect and the effect become a second cause. It is a
history "from original materials," because such materials, combined
with the recollections of living men, are the only source of our
knowledge of the past. No accurate history can be written which does
not spring from the sources, and it is safer to use them at first hand
than to accept them as quoted or expounded by other people. It is a