William Hickling Prescott

Regarded simply from the standpoint of literary criticism, the _Conquest of Mexico_ is Prescott's masterpiece. More than that, it is one of the most brilliant examples which the...

After the publication of _Ferdinand and Isabella_, its author rested on his oars, treating himself to social relaxation and enjoying thoroughly the praise which came to him from...

To the native-born New Englander the name of Prescott has, for more than a century, possessed associations that give to it the stamp of genuine distinction. Those who have borne...

While Prescott was still engaged in his Mexican and Peruvian researches, and, in fact, even before he had undertaken them, another fascinating subject had found lodgement in his...

In forming an estimate of Prescott's rank among American writers of history, one's thought inevitably associates him with certain of his contemporaries. The Spanish subjects whi...

Dr. Johnson, in his rather unsympathetic life of Milton, declares that it is impossible for a blind man to write history. Already, before Prescott began historical composition,...

Prescott's return to his home brought him face to face with the perplexing question of his future. During his two years of absence this question must often have been forced upon...

The _Conquest of Peru_ was, for the most part, written more rapidly than any other of Prescott's histories. Much of the material necessary for it had been acquired during his ea...

The _History of Ferdinand and Isabella_ is best regarded as Prescott's initiation into the writing of historical literature. It was a _prolusio_, a preliminary trial of his powe...

Throughout the first few decades of the nineteenth century, the United States, though forming a political entity, were in everything but name divided into three separate nations...