J. H. CALEF, U. S. ARMY. BERARD'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. REVISED BY C. E. BUSH. Teacher of History in the Connecticut State Normal School. PHILADELPHIA COWPERTH WAIT & Co. PREFACE. To warrant the renewal of the claims of this history to public attention at a time when it must compete with so large a number of similar works, it should possess some new and important features; and the writer claims as the best reason for its production a special and practical adaptation to the actual work of teaching. The days of assigning lessons by the page and of listening to memoriter recitations (text-book in hand, to insure a verbatim repetition of the author's language) are fast passing away. The methods of the time demand that teachers shall actually teach, and that recitations shall be tests of the pupil's real grasp of the subject under consideration. In this one point of adaptation to actual teaching, less improvement has been made in the textbooks on history than in those relating to other branches of education. The plan of this book was wrought out in the classroom, and there subjected to such tests as give assurance that it will facilitate the work of both teacher and student. Each division of the book is preceded by a careful analysis of the subject treated, and the text strictly follows the order of these analyses. By this means the teacher can command the entire contents of the book and its arrangement in the briefest possible time, and may be largely, if not entirely, freed from the necessity of using any text-book in the classroom, either in presenting the advance lesson or in testing the acquirements of pupils. |