Chapter 50

The excellence of Robinson's "History of Western Europe" has been attested by the immediate and widespread adoption of the book in many of the best schools and colleges of the country. It is an epoch-making text-book on the subject, in that it solves in an entirely satisfactory manner the problem of proportion.

The book differs from its predecessors in omitting all isolated, uncorrelated facts, which only obscure the great issues upon which the pupil's attention should be fixed. In this way the writer has gained the space necessary to give a clear and interesting account of the all-important movements, customs, institutions, and achievements of western Europe since the German barbarians conquered the Roman Empire. Such matters of first-rate importance as feudalism, the mediæval Church, the French Revolution, and the development of the modern European states have received much fuller treatment than has been customary in histories of this compass.

The work is thoroughly scholarly and trustworthy, since the writer has relied either upon the most recent treatises of the best European authorities of the day or upon a personal study of the primary sources themselves. Carefully selected illustrations and an abundance of maps accompany the text.

GINN & COMPANY PUBLISHERS

READINGS IN EUROPEAN HISTORY

By JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON, Professor of History in Columbia University. Designed to supplement his "Introduction to the History of Western Europe"