Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/493

Volume X//I1 April, igo-j _Ntmiber j %'^t Vixmuw §^i$t0iital %tskm THE MEETING OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION AT PROMDEXCE A CITY of many historic memories and not a few ancient build- ings, Providence is an eminently suitable place in which to hold one of the annual meetings of the American Historical Asso- ciation. It is also so convenient of access by railroad from an area richly populated with members of the Association that about three hundred attended. As four other associations, the American Eco- nomic Association, the American Political Science Association, the Bibliographical Society of America and the American Sociological Society, held their annual meetings at the same time and place, and the New England History Teachers' Association assembled with the national historical body on one of the days, the resources of Provi- dence with respect to hotel accommodations were taxed to their utmost. More serious was the sense of mental crowding and con- fusion which is inevitably produced by sessions so numerous, even if the Historical Association had not had, as it certainly did have, too full a programme. One who paused to reflect, if any were able to achieve that feat during those three days, must have felt some longings for those simpler days when as yet the other societies were not, days of quieter sessions, before the age — we need not borrow Burke's unamiable phrase about the age " of sophisters, economists and calculators " — but before the period of " entangling alliances ". But anything like physical crowding was wholly avoided by the careful arrangements made by the local committee, whose work de- serves all praise, and by the fortunate presence, on or near the grounds of Brown University, of an abundance of suitable halls and rooms for the meetings and for the entertainment of all the societies. Seldom if ever at any annual meeting have all things AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XII. — 32. ( 48 j )