“The account of the development of its vast natural resources forms a marvelous record of which not only all Minnesotans but all Americans should be proud.”
“The book is somewhat marred for the reviewer by the author’s naïve assumption that all the acts of the early pioneers were virtuous, and that the Indian was cruel and crafty in opposing the seizure of his land. Although the growth of industries is dwelt upon, no mention, as far as could be found, was made of the passing of the wonderful resources of the state, its virgin timber and its mines, into the hands of the few. On the whole, however, the book is an interesting and faithful presentation of the life story of Minnesota.” P. L. Benjamin
POOLE, ERNEST.His family.*$1.50 (1½c) Macmillan 17-13623
A deep sense of the continuity of life, as it is handed on from generation to generation, pervades this thoughtful novel. Roger Gale, close on to sixty years old, living in the New York house that has been his home since his early marriage, tries to understand the new and bewildering currents of modern life as they are reflected in his three daughters. These three represent distinct types. Edith is the domestic and maternal woman, fiercely absorbed in her children. Deborah is the active woman, spending herself on social movements. Laura is the modern woman of society, living life gladly, throwing away old conventions and breaking into new paths, without fear and without regret. In each of them Roger sees his own life repeated. Each of the three has something of himself. It is the second daughter, Deborah, who is nearest to her father’s heart. With her passion for mothering the world at war with her instinct for personal motherhood, she is the most interesting study in this worth while book.
“The one story of this month, beyond doubt, is ‘His family.’” H. W. Boynton
“The most striking and appealing feature of the story is its absolute sincerity and plausibility. ... If English or French readers, or readers of any other nation, wish to gain an accurate knowledge of life as it is lived in an American family and an American community, they need only read Mr Poole’s novel.” E. F. E.
“Roger is not a sufficiently vivid personality to carry the burden of the book, and this defect will prevent it from making a permanent impression.”
“Roger Gale is the finest old father of a family since Silas Lapham, of whom in many ways he reminds me. And the resemblance, or, if the resemblance is not as close as I think, the recollection is a compliment to Mr Poole. For Mr Howells is a master in the portrayal of elderly men.” J: Macy
“The book is bigger than the ordinary novel, more far-reaching in its meaning, more deeply rooted in human experiences.”
“We find it happily difficult to put in the familiar measured terms our impression of such a book as this. In its mass, its solidity, its noble and simple contour, it rises like a shining peak above the high, and flat, plateaus of our ‘average workmanship.’”
“If Mr Poole were primarily an artist, writing a novel for the sake of giving such emotion as a work of art can convey, his insistence would not be nearly so great on his specific idea of the family. But the thing that seems to lead Mr Poole to write a novel is the same thing that led Zola to write novels—the desire to illustrate a large group-idea by the processes of fiction. It is really the way of the scientist as against the way of the artist. ... There is no ultimate recompense for the solemn theme that runs through ‘His family.’ Beginning with its pernicious enunciation on page 6, it comes back on pages 18, 25, 45, 85, 95, 118, 123, 149, 161, 196, 236, 268, 286, and heaven knows in how many other places—the theme that people live on in their children’s lives.” F. H.
“A book full of truth, power and beauty.” Clement Wood
“Told simply and sincerely, with careful craftsmanship, this book is worthy ofthe best traditions in American fiction. It touches on many vital problems of our modern life, but the problems are never emphasized at the expense of character.”
“This book is chiefly to be prized as a picture of Mr Poole’s own soul. ... It rewards the best that one can bring to it. ... It has spiritual penetration and latitude and elevation. It is filled throughout with a deep and intimate consciousness of the reality of other souls.” Lawrence Gilman
“A novel of admirable poise and of quiet but deep-lying social import.”
“Appeared in Everybody’s Magazine, v. 35-36, Sept. 1916-May 1917.”
“Compared with ‘The harbor,’ ‘His family’ is analytical in even greater degree. It is not unjust to say that the second novel does not grip as did the first. It is perhaps more polished, and Mr Poole undoubtedly reveals a more pronounced grasp of the technique of the novel; but it lacks something of the enthusiasm, the vividness and the freshness of discovery which made ‘The harbor’ the immediate success it was. This is not to say, however, that ‘His family’ is not one of the notable novels of the season.”
POOLEY, ANDREW MELVILLE.Japan at the cross roads.*$3.50 (2½c) Dodd 952 (Eng ed 17-27871)
First hand facts about Japan brought together to delineate the real state of affairs in Japan and to indicate the forces which are at work moulding public opinion and the directions in which they are leading. Politics, finance, social conditions and religion are the interests that chiefly occupy the writer’s attention. “Mr Pooley pays tribute to the rapid progress Japanhas made, and to the vigor and energy of her statesmanship, but he does not disguise his belief that radical improvement must be effected before Japan can claim of right a position as a first-class power. ... Mr Pooley’s discussion of Japan’s foreign relations, particularly those with the United States, will do much to clear up a lot of misinformation about this matter which exists in America.” (Publishers’ note)
“The cumulative effect of all the criticism in the book is considerable; and, even assuming that some of the shadows in Mr Pooley’s picture are as dark as he paints them, we doubt whether the present is the best time to draw up so unflattering an account, and so sweeping an indictment, of our allies.”
“The author sums up the Japanese in a manner which clearly points out their weak as well as their strong characteristics.” H. S. K.
“The book would gain somewhat if the author conceded more frequent summaries of his facts and more emphatic statements of his conclusions; these the reader must carefully elicit for himself. So comprehensive a study should have an index appended. But these minor faults are insignificant in Mr Pooley’s illuminating achievement.”
“His chapters on ‘Social conditions,’ and on Japanese methods in Korea and Formosa, deserve attention. He shows how the war has benefited Japanese industry.”
POORE, IDA MARGARET (GRAVES) lady.Admiral’s wife in the making, 1860-1903.*$3 Dutton (Eng ed 17-20978)
“Lady Poore has written a very charming book on her girlhood and early married life, completing the autobiography which she began at the end, so to say, in her ‘Recollections of an admiral’s wife.’ The daughter of Dr Graves, Bishop of Limerick, she spent a happy youth in Dublin, Limerick, and County Kerry, with less happy intervals at an English school. She married in 1885, soon after Commander Poore had won great distinction by his work in the Nile expedition. ... As the wife of a naval officer with modest means, Lady Poore seems to have enjoyed life heartily in Bermuda, Halifax, Jamaica, Malta, Alexandria, and other stations whither her husband was sent, as well as in France and Italy for periods of unemployment.”—Spec
“A sense of humour and an element of delightful frankness are two factors helping to make Lady Poore’s book very pleasant reading.”
“The spirit not only of a very gracious and plucky British gentlewoman infuses it, but the spirit of Britain itself.”
“A few of these memoirs, a blessed few, are well worth reading, because their authors can write and ought to write. Among this last select class is Lady Poore.”
“This is a jolly book. It reads like the letter of an intimate friend who has snatched a spare moment to tell you the many things she has seen to interest her in her travels, because you are sure to understand the point of it all without expecting her to labour it.”
POORMAN, ALFRED PETER.Applied mechanics. il*$2 McGraw 620.1 17-17214
“A knowledge of general physics and of the calculus is assumed for the study of this undergraduate text-book, which aims to develop basic principles in a way which the average student can easily follow. Two unusual features are claimed: (1), the extended use of the graphic method; (2), the large number of illustrative examples which have been solved in detail. Numerous practical problems with answers are also given. The author is associate professor of applied mechanics in Purdue university.”—N Y P L New Tech Bks
“The book is a fine example of effective, interest-arousing presentation. Instead of dealing with abstract principles, the strong psychological appeal of a single engineering problem is used. Some of the principles in which many graduates are especially weak have been given exceptionally clear and satisfactory treatment. The typographical work, the drawings and reproductions are also distinctly superior to previous standards.” J. P. J. Williams
PORTER, ARTHUR KINGSLEY.Lombard architecture. 4v v 1-3 ea*$12, v 4*$15; set*$50 Yale univ. press 723 (17-9830)
Professor Porter describes his book as “a definite synthetic analysis of Lombard architecture.” Volume 1 traces its growth from its Byzantine beginnings in the sixth century to the end of the twelfth century. “More than half of this volume is given to the discussion of ornament and the arts accessory to architecture.” “Part 4 of volume 1 is given to iconography. Volumes 2 and 3 take up in detail the study of the multitudes of edifices which, often hidden away in remote villages and cities, have been up to now scarcely even a name and which, nevertheless, preserve precious remains, full of interest to the student of religion, of architecture and of other arts. These volumes are printed in a smaller type and are extraordinarily rich in legendary and historic lore.” (Boston Transcript) The fourth volume consists of a series of 244 plates with from two to ten half-tones each. The bibliography gives an idea of the author’s wide reading. “Only 750 copies are printed from type.”
“For the architect these superb volumes will be of the utmost importance; the general reader will find in them an enormous amount of information presented in a clear and fascinating style. The portfolio of illustrations, many of them from pictures taken with the magical telephotographic lens, will appeal to anyone who delights in rare views. The typography is faultless.” N. H. D.
“The amount of careful erudition, of often eloquent description, of sound judgment and accurate criticism is bewildering. The translations of justifying text in Latin and Italian must in themselves have taken months of labor; the searching out of authorities and the balancing of contrary views, resulting frequently in the rectification of dates and the discovery of unknown or wholly forgotten artists and architects, the knowledge of history involved and the breadth of architectural comprehension make the work of first importance.” N. H. D.
“Of that most important element in Lombard ornament, the grotesque, the author writes with convincing common sense.”
“The most careful, scholarly, and learned work dealing with architecture that has thus far been produced in America. Only one criticism is possible, and that is on the presentation of the plates; these, which consist of a great mass of folio sheets, unbound, each containing four or five illustrations, bear numbers only, and the task of sorting them out as one reads, identifying them from a key sheet, and getting them back again into the box, is almost insuperable.” R. A. Cram
PORTER, MRS ELEANOR (HODGMAN) (ELEANOR STUART, pseud.).Road to understanding.il*$1.40 (1c) Houghton 17-9250
The story opens with an unfortunate marriage. Helen and Burke were alike in one thing only; each was self-centered and spoiled. Attractedby Helen’s pretty face, Burke defied his father and gave up his home to marry her. Trouble followed shortly and a separation. Left with her baby daughter, Helen begins to think things out. She decides to make of herself the kind of woman Burke could respect. She is very ignorant but she is willing to learn. With the help of good friends, she does so. Many years pass and Betty, the daughter, is a grownup girl before the three are again brought together.
“Will be popular, specially with inexperienced girls.”
“One or two situations which are well worked out make the book worth reading.”
“The book is without doubt decidedly different from Mrs Porter’s previous work. ... As an artist Mrs Porter shows both more power and more restraint in this new novel.” D. L. M.
“Of the light and shade and depth of true characterization she has hardly an inkling. She has that plentiful lack of humour which seems almost an asset with the best-buying public. ... We note that this preposterous story stands second to ‘Mr Britling’ upon the bestselling lists for April. It would be interesting to know how many readers of either can have endured the other.”
“We find ourselves always objecting to the situations as more than improbable and to the characters as not consistent with themselves. Besides, life is short, and the road Mrs Porter’s heroine elects is unconscionably long. Still, the book is so well written and holds so much of truth that it must be ranked among the really good stories of the day, well worth the reading.”
“Take it from a pessimist, this new book by Eleanor H. Porter will be among the six best sellers within a month and it really is much more of a book than ‘Pollyanna.’” Robert Lynd
PORTER, GENE (STRATTON) (MRS CHARLES DARWIN PORTER).Friends in feathers. il*$3.50 (4c) Doubleday 598.2 17-15687
A revised and enlarged edition of “What I have done with birds,” published in 1907. It is primarily a book on bird photography. It is illustrated with the author’s own remarkable photographs and the text is made up largely of an account of experiences while obtaining these pictures.
“The illustrations, showing various birds never before photographed in their natural positions are uniquely fascinating.”
“One of the most fascinating of bird books.”
“Though a student of bird-life would look in vain for any new observations of importance, and though the natural history to which the author frequently appeals is of a very thin quality, her work, nevertheless, is worthy of high praise for the excellence of many of her photographic studies; only a field student who is an adept with the camera can appreciate how fine some of these pictures really are.”
PORTER, HAROLD EVERETT (HOLWORTHY HALL, pseud.).Dormie one, and other golf stories. il*$1.35 (2c) Century 17-24401
A collection of golf stories, reprinted from Collier’s, Every Week, and other magazines. Contents: Alibi; If you don’t mind my telling you; The runner-up; The luck of the devil; The last round; If it interferes with business; Dormie one; “Consolation.” In the preface which he adds gratuitously the author touches on the difficulties involved in writing stories about golf. “I know of only one other sport,” he says, “which offers fewer possibilities for a red-blooded story of nerve and skill and stamina—and that’s billiards!”
“A collection of excellent stories. ... But good as they all are, well written technically, and often bubbling over with shrewd dialogue, we rather doubt their holding readers to whom the revered game of golf is an unknown quantity.”
“This collection of tales, none of which is impossible (if indeed any is improbable), will be the joy of many a golfer second only to playing the game.”
“The eight tales comprise a sort of anthology of the links; in deft plot construction, in sharp character sketching in every attribute that goes to the making of a good story, the author has succeeded admirably.” C. W.
“You need not be necessarily a golfer to appreciate the stories, for though a golf course is invariably employed as a setting, there is in each story a perspicacious study of human temperaments, together with a literary finish, which gives it a value entirely independent of its eighteen-hole environment.”
“They are so rich in human nature that the subject-matter is merely incidental.”
PORTER, HAROLD EVERETT (HOLWORTHY HALL, pseud.).What he least expected. il*$1.50 (2c) Bobbs 17-8466
The hero is a young Harvard man who at the beginning of the story is down on his luck. The European war has just closed the New York Stock exchange and deprived him of his job. He answers a “help wanted” advertisement and after a rigid cross examination finds himself engaged at a high salary. What his work is to be remains a mystery. He is sent to one of the best hotels and told to wait further orders. The action begins almost immediately, following his introduction to two attractive girls. New York and Bermuda are the scenes of the story. “Help wanted,” was its title during serial publication in Collier’s.
“Mr Hall’s books and stories belong to the harmless group. ... The public is said to like love stories, real or false, hackneyed or original, and Mr Hall believes we must feed the public what we think it wants.”
“Who says that grown-up Americans don’t believe in fairies?... Mr Holworthy Hall turns raw mythologic ore into the pure gold of that kind of installment novel which keeps its readers infantile.”
“The liveliest kind of a lively yarn, with all sorts of entanglements and cross-purposes that thoroughly accomplish their manifest destiny—which is to bewilder and interest the reader.”
“The author always makes his characters talk easily and amusingly, but his plot is too complicated and unreal to rivet attention.”
“A love story which has married a detective story. The union has its points.” M. A. Hopkins
“A light story which moves at a rapid pace, with a liberal sprinkling of colloquial slang and humor.”
POUND, EZRA LOOMIS.[2]Lustra of Ezra Pound, with earlier poems.*$1.50 Knopf 811 17-31072
The first book of Mr Pound’s poetry to appear in this country since 1912. The first group contains about eighty short pieces whose themes range from “The tea shop” to “The study in aesthetics.” In the second group are translations from the Chinese of Rihaku, from the notes of the late Ernest Fenollosa, and the decipherings of the Professors Mori and Ariga. The last thirty are poems published before 1911.
“No one challenges the poet’s right to draw his materials from any source that he chooses. No one cares how far into the past he penetrates, so that he brings back something of beauty and value, something that he has revitalized and made his own. But when from these excursions into the antique he brings back chiefly what is inconsequent and often repulsive, one sees no particular reason for going so far afield for material.” J. B. Rittenhouse
“His poems are too complicated for hasty judgment. One must read—and read again a week later. They are ironical, jeering and intolerant, they are lonely, contemplative, searching, carefully formed and firmly living. Perhaps you hate Ezra Pound. He says many of us have the manner. Perhaps you like him, but whatever else you do you cannot ignore him. He has an individual fashion of saying things and he is without fear.” K. B.
“Its range and variety are its most outstanding quality and its chief defect. The volume seems a catch-all for Pound’s slightest utterance. What makes this lust for print the more puzzling is the fact that Mr Pound has not only a critical but a selective gift. But ‘Lustra’ is something more than a haphazard and too inclusive collection; it is the record of a retreat, a gradual withdrawal from life.” L: Untermeyer
“In this book we have no signs of those graceful medieval verses that Mr Pound used to write so perfectly. Sometimes Mr Pound is so modern as to be incomprehensible.”
“‘Lustra’ does more than force the painful conclusion of deterioration: it reveals the actual process, the poems written before 1911 being separated from those composed later. Rarely is it possible to see in one book so sharp a line of cleavage, so complete a superiority of periods as Mr Pound lets us witness by his act of separation. Before 1911 life still stung Mr Pound.” M. T.
“The ‘Lustra’ is bookish; instead of revealing further heights or depths of existence, it bears the echoes of dead literature. Personally, I would rather have one of Arturo Giovanetti’s things, such as ‘The last nickel’ or ‘The walker,’ or one of Carl Sandburg’s Chicago poems than the whole volume called ‘Lustra,’ in spite of the embroidered gorgeousness of the Cathay translations, contained therein.” G: W. Cronyn
“The only healthy pages are entitled ‘Poems published before 1911.’”
“The form which Mr Pound has chosen gives brevity, and that is enough. The richness of content compensates for its looseness. But in Mr Pound’s original poems there is seldom this compensation. It is poetry made too easy. As you read it you feel as if you had tried to sneeze and failed. There is a titillation, the promise of something about to happen, but at the end nothing has happened, not even a well-turned verse. That is the fault we have to find with most of these poems; too little happens in them. When Mr Pound is serious there is promise in his seriousness.”
POWELL, CHILTON LATHAM.English domestic relations, 1487-1653. (Studies in English and comparative literature)*$1.50 (2½c) Columbia univ. press 392 17-11684
The author calls this “a study of matrimony and family life in theory and practice as revealed by the literature, law, and history of the period,” and states in his preface that he has tried “to make the field of investigation within these limits as all-inclusive as possible.” “Four appendixes are added to the book, in the first of which a complete account is given for the first time of the divorce suit of Henry VIII, and in the second, a new conception of the married life of Milton and the cause of his famous divorce tracts is advanced.” (Am Hist R) There are fourteen pages of bibliography.
“Perhaps the most valuable portions of Dr Powell’s book are the chapters describing and analyzing the domestic conduct book of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the contemporary attitudes towards woman and the wider ranges of domestic literature. ... Such a careful and detailed study as Dr Powell’s should be sincerely welcomed by every student of the family. The fresh material it assembles and the painstaking way in which it traces the evolution of new ideas concerning marriage and divorce make it a genuine contribution to the growing body of literature on this subject.” Willystine Goodsell
“The author’s interests—and his style—are not literary, but the book will be useful to the student of literature as well as of social history.”
“The performance is scarcely equal to the promise. The second half of the volume deals with the literature of the subject and, though the author discusses a number of important but little-known writings, this part of the work is scarcely more than a critical bibliography. The important part of the study comprises the first three chapters. ... The field was harvested a dozen years ago with some thoroughness by Professor Howard in his monumental ‘History of matrimonial institutions’; but Dr Powell has discovered several unused literary sources and has been able to correct Professor Howard’s conclusions on various important points.”
“It is included in the ‘Studies in English and comparative literature,’ but is of wider scope than most books so classified. There is a good deal here that will be of interest to the student of ‘kulturgeschichte’ or to the sociologist, for the author has very carefully assembled a good body of information respecting marriage and the family, from sources not ordinarily open to the non-expert in the period’s literature.”
“Dr Powell’s method, if it yields little to our actual knowledge, certainly gives a useful summary of contemporary opinion.”
POWELL, E. ALEXANDER.Brothers in arms.*50c (7c) Houghton 940.91 17-17404
A tribute to the French, written on the occasion of the visit of the French mission to America by a well-known war correspondent who has marched with the armies of France, and who wishes those of his country-people who have not had the same opportunity as he of knowing the French “to understand what manner of men are these our brothers in arms.” He does for our relations with France what Captain Ian Hay Beith has done for our relations with England in “Getting together.”
“The first twenty pages is fulsome in style. The writer is so eager to excel in description that his work becomes monotonous and devoid of interest. Beginning with the twenty-ninth page comes a change. Mr Powell swings into his best stride.”
“Might suitably serve as a memorial of the visit of Marshall Joffre and the other French commissioners to this country. Moreover, it is worth reading on its own account.”
POWELL, E. ALEXANDER.Italy at war and the Allies in the west.il*$1.50 (3c) Scribner 940.91 17-14525
This is the author’s third book on the war. “Fighting in Flanders” and “Vive la France” have preceded it. The first four chapters are devoted to Italy’s part. He says, “It is no exaggeration to say that not one American in a thousand has any adequate conception of what Italy is fighting for, nor any appreciation of the splendid part she is playing in the war.” Contents: The way to the war; Why Italy went to war; Fighting on the roof of Europe; The road to Trieste; With the Russians in Champagne; “They shall not pass”; “That contemptible little army”; With the Belgians on the Yser.
“More descriptive of actual fighting conditions and less of a political interpretation than Bainville (Booklist 13:442 Jl ‘17).”
“He has a talent for collecting interesting scraps of information and adapting technical details of artillery or aviation to the comprehension of the uninitiated.”
“If his visits to the Champagne, Verdun and the Somme front are less impressive, it is because what is comprized within the title of his book, ‘Italy at war,’ today is the best first hand record of that war region.”
“The chapter on ‘Why Italy went to war’ is of particular value. For that question is perhaps the one of the whole war concerning which Americans in general have felt most uncertainty and about which they had the least information.”
POWELL, OLA.Successful canning and preserving. (Lippincott’s home manuals) il*$2 Lippincott 664 17-26659
This is a “practical handbook for schools, clubs and home use,” by an assistant in the home demonstration work of the United States Department of agriculture. It covers the history of scientific canning, the equipment, canning in tin and glass, the description of the processes necessary for canning fruits and vegetables, with suggestions for their use in the diet, the drying of fruits, vegetables and herbs, the preservation of meat, canning club organization, the business side of canning, teaching canning and related activities. Questions and bibliographies are given at the ends of the chapters. The appendix gives an “Address list of state institutions from which agricultural extension work under the Smith-Lever act is directed” and an “Address list of firms furnishing supplies for canning and preserving.”
“The most complete manual to date, for a textbook or for scientific canning at home on a small or large scale.”
“The title does not do full justice to the extent and value of the information contained.”
“With the help of many illustrations, proper preparation and equipment are presented. The unfortunate part of it is that few can afford such a complete and adequate paraphernalia as is here advised.”
“The author has done a remarkably thorough bit of work.” M. G. S.
“The directions for each method are carefully given and the recipes varied.”
POWELL, MRS SOPHIA HILL (HULSIZER).Children’s library; a dynamic factor in education; with an introd. by J: Cotton Dana.*$1.75 (2c) Wilson, H. W. 028.5 17-13388
A discussion of the relation of the children’s library to the school from the modern educational point of view. As the author points out in her first chapter, the attitude of modern educators toward the place of books in the child’s early school life has undergone a change. She writes of: The place of books in education; Early libraries for children; The elementary-school library; The high-school library; The library resources of country children; Public library relations with public schools; The public library an integral part of the public education; The children’s room; The children’s librarian and her training; Aids to library work with children; Book selection; Some social aspects of library work with children. An extensive bibliography follows. John Cotton Dana in his introduction says, “A careful study of the relations of children’s reading to teachers, parents and librarians has long been needed, and this is precisely what Mrs Powell has given us.” The author is a graduate of the Pratt institute library school, and her library experience has included work in Cleveland and New York.
“This book is unexpectedly interesting and thought-provoking. An example of the critical method of the author is her discussion of the much-lauded children’s room, which, it appears upon careful examination, neither meets an otherwise unmet educational need nor does it properly meet a real recreational need. The last chapter, on ‘Some social aspects of library work with children,’ suggests a number of possibilities for the library in a wider social field.” F. F. Bernard
“Sensible, interesting, compact and inclusive—should be used in every library.”
“A book which all school administrators and those charged with instruction in English ought to read.”
“A study of its sane pages will help both teacher and librarian, and thereby, incidentally, the children.”
“Some well-considered and apparently sound conclusions concerning the place of reading in education and the use of cultural books in elementary schools are set forth.”
“A revelation of the development and the possibilities of this educational agency. All who are interested in the possibilities of the library will find the entire book very helpful and the bibliographies highly useful.”
“This book deserves the attention of all who direct the study of English in either elementary or high school.”
“The book under review will do much to unify the work of the public school and the public library. The book is certain to find an important place in all libraries as a general-reference book and as a text in library-training schools.”
POWERS, HARRY HUNTINGTON.[2]America among the nations.*$1.50 (2c) Macmillan 327.73 18-669
In some sense a sequel to the work published a year ago, “The things men fight for.” The aim of the writer is to furnish an historic interpretation of our national character and our relation to other nations; to supply the “family point of view” from which America was obliged to look forth when she entered the war and sobecame a member of the European family. The first part of the text is devoted to a consideration of “America at home,” including among the chapters: The first Americans, The struggle for the Pacific; Despoiling the Latin, The break with tradition, The aftermath of Panama, and Pan-Americanism; the second part treats “America among the world powers,” with chapters on: The great powers, The Mongolian menace, Greater Japan, The unfeared Powers, The background of Europe, Germany, the storm centre, The storm area, The greatest empire, The great fellowship, and Forecast.
PRATT, HENRY SHERRING.Manual of the common invertebrate animals, exclusive of insects. il*$3.50 McClurg 592 16-17348
“As the author remarks in his preface, there has been no lack of manuals relating to the common insects, but hitherto a person wishing to identify animals of the other invertebrate groups has had to go to technical papers and treatises which, in many cases, have been inaccessible to all except specialists. Professor Pratt’s manual follows that of Leunis’s ‘Zoologie,’ a standard German work dealing with the animals of Europe; it is intended especially, for use in the eastern and central portions of the United States and Canada.”—N Y Times
“Needed only in large, school, and college libraries.”
“It will be a useful book for the reference shelves of biological laboratories, for general libraries, and for students of zoology. It does not replace special monographs.”
“There is a good glossary and a thorough index. The thousand-odd illustrations are all familiar line cuts of textbook style, well chosen and clearly reproduced. The faults are almost altogether those due to the condensation necessary to the limits of a single volume. The uncoated paper does away with extra weight. The most serious lack is the absence of all common names, except in the case of groups.”
“The author is professor of biology in Haverford college.”
PREEV, ZINOVY N.Russian revolution and Who’s who in Russia.*2s Bale & Danielsson, London 947 (Eng ed 17-20023)
“This little book, by the editor of the Twentieth Century Russian and Anglo-Russian Review, contains first an account of the revolution (19pp.) and then a ‘Who’s who,’ not confined to persons but containing explanations of phrases like ‘Constitutional Democrats,’ ‘Intelligentsia,’ ‘Zemstvo union,’ &c.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“The brief biographies, beginning with the Tsaritsa, speak freely about the persons they deal with.”
PREVITÉ ORTON, CHARLES WILLIAM.Outlines of medieval history. maps*$2.75 (2c) Putnam 940 (Eng ed 17-21845)
A history of medieval Europe, embracing the period from 895 to 1492 A.D. The author says, “In the choice of events to narrate I have been guided by their far-off results, rather than by their immediate éclat in their own time, and have tried to indicate how in the middle ages were accomplished the growth of modern man and the life and attitude to life of modern times.” Contents: The barbarian migrations; The Eastern empire and the Saracens; The fusion of races in western Europe; The development of feudalism; The papal monarchy; The East and the crusades; The fall of the Western empire and of the papal theocracy; France and England; The councils and the Italian renaissance; The East and the Turks; The despotic monarchies.
“Mr Orton fairly accomplishes his aim of indicating ‘how in the middle ages were accomplished the growth of modern man and the life and attitude to life of modern times.’ As this involves some loss of local colour and a style which, though clear and well balanced, is usually a little bare and restrained, the book will probably be more appreciated by older than younger students, but this must be accounted a defect of its quality.” J. T.
“This is a lucid and scholarly sketch of a vast subject which is by no means remote from practical politics, though it nominally closed with the fifteenth century. ... Mr Previté Orton has to deal with masses of facts and dates, but he writes very well and is full of ideas, so that his book is easy to read.”
“The want of a satisfactory guide to medieval history has long been felt. Hallam’s work is no longer adequate, and more recent books dealing with the subject do not cover the whole ground. Students have been thrown back, therefore, on treatises having a wider range, such as Lavisse and Rambaud’s ‘Histoire générale,’ of which medieval history forms only a part. Mr Previté Orton’s ‘Outlines’ satisfies the conditions desired by giving within reasonable limits a comprehensive survey of the middle ages as a distinct historical subject. The success he has achieved in this difficult task is very great.”
PRICE, CHARLES MATLACK.Practical book of architecture. il*$6 Lippincott 720 16-24966
“The purpose of this handsomely made and compactly written volume is simple but very much worth while; to state in untechnical language the sources of our present day architecture. Not so much regarding the details of classic architecture as it appears in the Parthenon or the mysteries of Gothic architecture woven into a fabric like Notre Dame; but rather a clear statement of just what distinguishes classic and Gothic architecture respectively, how much of its ‘indicia’ are practically applicable to the needs of to-day. ... Most interesting perhaps are the two chapters on Native American architecture and on such special topics as ‘l’art nouveau’ and ‘modernist’ architecture, as well as the office building, modern hotel and railroad terminal. ... The second part of the book, ‘A practical guide to building,’ discusses sanely such questions for the prospective house builder as the selection of site, style and materials to be used, the choice of and relations with the architect, comparative costs of various styles and materials, and plans and interior details.”—Pub W
“A popular treatment of interest to those intending to build, to beginners in the study of architecture, and to the general reader. Covers the subject fully as an art and a science and yet may be understood by the layman. ... Has excellent illustrations, many of modern work.”
“The illustrations, 255 in number, are particularly good.”
“The reader gets unusual delight from the illustrations, which are mainly chosen from well-known buildings in big cities, thereby making them more vital and understandable.”