Cambridge History of American Literature: volume 3
Trent, William Peterfield, 1862-1939., Erskine, John, 1879-1951., Sherman, Stuart Pratt, 1881-1926., Van Doren, Carl, 1885-1950., Ed.

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[181] passed through several editions, in the United States and Europe. Its thesis was that history results from the action on human activity of climate, soil, natural resources, and other physical surroundings. Having stated it in principle, he took up the history of nation after nation, showing to his own satisfaction that his theory operated successfully in each. He had little history to begin with and his statements, taken from uncritical secondary works, were full of errors. The same failing appears even more plainly in his History of the American Civil War (3 vols., 1867). His popularity was largely promoted by his clear and vivid style and by the frankness with which he repudiated what Comte called theological and metaphysical states of knowledge, demanding that all truth should be studied scientifically. Since most of his criticisms were aimed at the Roman church he did not arouse the ire of the Protestants. His History of the conflict between religion and Science (1874), his last work, found place in the same series in which appeared Bagehot's Physics and politics, Spencer's Sociology, and Tyndall's Forms of water. It was one of the most widely demanded of the group.

Draper's history of the Civil War brings him into relation with a group of patriotic writers who attempted to record the history of that struggle. The books that first appeared, as William Swinton's Campaigns of the army of the Potomac (1866) and Horace Greeley's American conflict (2 vols., 1864-66), were tinged with prejudice, however much the authors strove to keep it down. After ten years or more had passed a calmer attitude existed, and we encounter a number of books in which is discerned a serious striving to attain impartiality. In this stage the first notable effort was the series published by the Scribners known as Campaigns of the Civil War (13 vols., 1881– 90), in which prominent military men co-operated. It was followed by a similar series called The Navy in the Civil War (3 vols., 1885). Another co-operative work, much read at the time and still valuable, was Battles and leaders of the Civil War (4 vols., 1887-89), a collection of short papers written by participants in the war, and presenting the views on both sides of the struggle. Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel were the editors whose good judgment and industry made the series a striking success. The same spirit of impartiality