STORY OF THE AMERICAS

This has a chance for a market comparable to The Story of Philosophy, accelerated by the fact that is composite history of the whole American continent is acutely needed. Most readers will find the South American (Hispanic American) chapters more exciting reading than those dealing with history and trends and significances more or less familiar. Leland Baldwin, one of our young historians, has the faculty for intense concentration without sacrificing a sense of drama and pace and personalities (this is true in greater degree of the southern part of the hemisphere strangely enough. A South American might feel that the history of North America was almost impersonal, once the period of conquest was past.) I particularly liked his analysis of the basic differences in tempo and psychology and the effect on history. He succeeded in differentiating the developments of the various South American countries, so that -- at the close -- one has a sense of melding without superimposing, a sense of history still in the making. Much of the material will be new to the average reader. Baldwin at times allows his personal bias to color his manner of presenting facts but on the whole is objective, and thoroughly readable.