HARVARD Copyright, 1914, by ARTHUR C. PERRY, JR., and GERTRUDE A. PRICE Copyright, 1914, in Great Britain Am. Hist. Second Book W. P. I PREFACE THE general practice of our elementary schools is to study the subject of American History in two cycles. This volume is the second of a two-book series intended to serve as textbooks for pupils in the first cycle of their study, and to cover two years' work. Each book, however, is so planned that it can be used independently of the other. The books aim to introduce the pupil to the history of his country in accordance with accepted pedagogical method. It is not their purpose to give the student a detailed and comprehensive study of the philosophy of history, or to appeal especially to the judgment and those other faculties whose fuller development comes with adolescence. The books are deliberately organized, as regards both subject matter and vocabulary, on lines of adaptability to children of ten or twelve years of age. The interest of the child must be aroused — and his interest at this age is not in the philosophy of cause and effect. His interest is in the drama of events rather than in their causal sequence: it is in adventure, not politics; in heroism, not statesmanship; in deeds, not philosophy; in people, not statistics. Later in his school career he may turn toward |