A Dusty Tomes Audio BookIn Cooperation with Spoken Realms
Volume 6 of 27 in The American Nation: A History published by Harper Brothers (1904—1918). Edited by Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor of History at Harvard University.
Editor's Introduction to the Series: That a new history of the United States is needed, extending from the discovery down to the present time hardly needs a statement. No such comprehensive work by a competent writer is now in existence. Individual writers have treated only limited chronological fields. Meantime, there is a rapid increase of published sources and of serviceable monographs based on material hitherto unused. On the one side, there is a necessity for an intelligent summarizing of the present knowledge of American history by trained specialists; on the other hand, there is a need for a complete work, written in untechnical style, which shall serve for the instruction and the entertainment of the general reader.
From the Editor's Introduction to Volume Six: To the period between 1689 and 1740 has been applied the term "The Forgotten Half-Century." Most of the writers on colonial history in detail give special attention to the seventeenth century, the period of upbuilding; and general historians like Bancroft and Hildreth sweep rather lightly over the epoch between the English Revolution and the forerunners of the American Revolution. In distributing the parts of The American Nation, this period has been selected for special treatment, because within it are to be found the roots of many later institutions and experiences... Its theme is the essential difficulty of reconciling imperial control with the degree of local responsibility which had to be accorded to the colonists.
