THE FIRST BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY

With such a distinguished contributor to the series, one might have hoped for a more unusual book than he has provided. He roughs in a very elementary outline of the period of discovery and settlement. The Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World Wars I and II highspot the once over lightly, and there are brief introductory sketches of significant Americans,- Paul Revere, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lincoln, Lee, Edison, etc. So much matter for so brief a book necessitates superficial handling, aided by succinct statement of fact, and decorative and informative illustrations by Leonard Everett Fisher. One wonders whether the inclusion of such broad range subjects is sound in a series which is, after all, an introduction not a digest of the subject matter.