Volume IV in a projected study of the complete history of American magazines, this covers the years directly before and after the turn of the century, an exciting period which saw the start of many trends still in operation and a great wave of prosperity that put the American magazine business in the profitable state it enjoys today. The book is meant primarily for reference and as such is divided into two distinct parts. The first is a survey of the period, historical, political, economic, literary and so forth, with each aspect of the times given in reference to the coverage it received in different types of magazines and, in turn, how the social trends affected coverage and periodical publication. The most notable of these was the emergence of the popular ten cent magazine, typified by McClure's and Munsey's. The second part of the book is devoted to an alphabetical listing, from Argosy to Vogue, of sketches of the many magazines that existed in these two decades. Reportorial rather than critical, this covers only the judgments periodicals had to make of each other, but as a study of changing editorial ideas and patterns of mass media it makes an important contribution to the field and certainly essential reading for students of a fascinating subject.