THE PARKMAN READER

Excellently edited and selected this makes available excerpts from Parkman's many volumes now out of print on France and England In North America and succeeds in presenting the sweep of his history and the quality of his research, evaluation and style. Morison's capsule biography of Parkman is cleancut and warm; his introduction indicates the reasons for sharing his ""joy and inspiration"" with new generations and explains his handling of the sections of the text, his modernizing of place name spellings, the deletion of Parkman's footnotes and the excuse for his own. The book comprises about one seventh of the whole work, places the material on Native Tribes at the beginning, then goes on to the pioneers of France, the Jesuits, the Great West and the growth of Canada; it closes with the Indian Wars, King Williams', Queen Anne's, the taking of Louisburg, the Seven Years War- and the epic picture of Wolfe and Montcalm at Quebec. The selections are lengthy to insure the completeness of the picture and are chosen with an eye to displaying the great historian's skill, vitality and sensitivity. A work that should find a welcome in all libraries, this is a happy resurrection of basic American material.