464 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
to be regretted, in the interest of sociology, that the title had not been limited to its last two words: Sociologie Première.
Washington, D. C.
The History of the Last Quarter Century in the United States. By E. Benjamin Andrews, 2 vols., pp. xxii + 390 and xxi + 409. Three hundred and fifty illustrations. $6. Charles Scribner's Sons.
The history which is hardest to understand is that nearest to the student. Precisely this contemporary history is of most consequence to the sociologist who believes that his science should be able to interpret their own times to men of action. The difficulties of writing contemporary history can hardly be more justly and clearly expressed than in President Andrews' preface. The volumes do not profess to contain the final word upon the social reactions of the last twenty-five years in our country. They are recitals of events which seem to a man of keen historical instinct the most significant. President Andrews has little in common with the historical microscopists. He knows the value of details so well that he can subordinate them properly to the general effect, and still present more truth by his method than the sifters of historical diamond dust are apt to reach. In these volumes he is not writing for philosophers, but he is telling a story which ought to fascinate all intelligent Americans. He has frequently chosen to speak of the picturesque instead of the vitally essential occurrences, but in general he has recorded events in which controlling tendencies are betrayed. Although the work will entertain like fiction those who want to read it simply for diversion, I regard it as a most suitable prepparation for systematic knowledge of our own times. The author has discounted the inevitable inadequacies of such an attempt, by the qualifications in his preface. He need have no doubt, however, about the fulfillment of his wish "that prospectors traversing this forest here-after may get on better for our toil in blazing the path."
The two volumes contain much material besides that which originally appeared in Scribner's. The author's well-known views upon the utility of silver as a money metal color his account of the monetary legislation of 1873, and subsequent years, but, in justice to him and to ourselves, it must be admitted by fair-minded men that the argument
