This page has been validated.

Studies: Military and Diplomatic
1775–1865

By CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS

Cloth8vo424 pages$2.50 netBy mail, $2.67

This volume, the work of an original thinker and ripe scholar, contains a series of studies on military strategy in the war of Independence and on the diplomatic history of the Civil War. These studies upset many preconceived notions of these campaigns as given in our so-called standard histories. Looking at the battles of Bunker Hill and Long Island and the campaign around Philadelphia in 1777 from a military point of view, Mr. Adams shows how far the conduct of the commanders on both sides was defective and the general weakness of plan and performance. The far-reaching results of this weakness in plan and in the execution of the plans formulated are pointed out by the author.

On the Civil War are presented studies based upon unpublished material or upon critical examination of the work of others. Many of the facts which serve as a basis for the different essays were secured from the unpublished papers of Mr. Adams’s father, who was Minister to Great Britain during the Civil War. Among the most interesting of these studies is that dealing with the attitude of Queen Victoria toward the United States during the Civil War. The effects of the cotton blockade on English industry with its cousequent danger of English intervention is also discussed.

“With no desire to pay an unjustified compliment, it may be said that Mr. Adams, as an historical essayist, is not without resemblance to Macaulay. There is the same uncompromising presentation of opinion without regard to its popularity, the same precision directed toward the analysis of evidence, and much of the literary grace that gives to that analysis its most attractive form.”—The Argonaut.

“The appearance of a new volume of historical studies from the pen of Mr. Adams is an event of historical and literary importance.”—The Nation.


THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Publishers
64–66 Fifth Avenue
New York