Chapter 17

20–26872

This work forms one of the volumes of the National history of France. It is preceded by “The century of the renaissance” by L. Batiffol, published in 1916, and is followed by “The eighteenth century,” by Casimir Stryienski, also issued in 1916. Contents: The youth of Louis XIII; Richelieu; The preponderance of France (1630–1643); The kingdom under Louis XIII; The beginnings of society and of classic literature; The Fronde and Mazarin; The “Roi-soleil”; The glorious years, 1661–1678; Decline; Religious matters; Sunset; The kingdom under Louis XIV; The great age. References come at the end of the chapters and there is an index.

“Distinctly a readable book.”

“This new presentation of the greatest period in the history of France is brilliantly written.”

“Boulenger has undertaken a difficult task, and he has done it well. Though treating the general history of a whole century in some detail, he is neither superficial nor tiringly technical. One feature of his book is especially commendable; the author’s desire to be non-partisan. It may be well to bring out the fact that, for the real or quasi-specialist, Boulenger treats his subject too much from the outside, and thus fails to emphasize sufficiently at least one feature of much importance for the proper understanding of the epoch he treats.”

“His portraits of Richelieu, Mazarin, Colbert and the great King himself are vivid and unforgettable. M. Boulenger is a learned historian but, like so many French scholars, he wears his learning lightly.”

“M. Boulenger’s subject is relatively simple, but it is a big one, and it has the disadvantage of being hackneyed. The best praise that can be given to his book is to say that it is on a level with M. Madelin’s ‘French revolution,’ and superior to any other volumes in this attractive series.”

BOULNOIS, HENRY PERCY.Modern roads. il *$5.75 (*16s) Longmans 625.7

(Eng ed 20–9208)

“The author was a member of the British Advisory engineering committee appointed in 1910 as a result of the increasing dust nuisance due to poorly constructed roads. Much information regarding British conditions was obtained and standard specifications produced. This book covers in a comprehensive way the subjects of motor traffic, the various kinds of roads and details of construction, waves and corrugations, slippery streets, with appendices relating to traffic regulations.”—N Y P L New Tech Bks

BOURNE, RANDOLPH SILLIMAN.[2]History of a literary radical; and other essays. *$2 (3c) Huebsch 814

This collection of essays, reprinted from various magazines, is edited with an introduction by Van Wyck Brooks. The latter is a sketch of the author’s intellectual development which is corroborated in the first essay, “History of a literary radical.” What Bourne stood for, says Van Wyck Brooks, was a new fellowship of the youth of America, a league of youth, for the purpose of creating, out of the blind chaos of American society, a fine, free, articulate cultural order. “He, if any one, in the days to come, would have conjured out of our dry soil the green shoots of a beautiful and a characteristic literature: he knew that soil so well, and why it was dry, and how it ought to be irrigated!” (Introd.) The essays are: History of a literary radical; Our cultural humility; Six portraits; This older generation; A mirror of the Middle West; Ernest: or Parent for a day; On discussion; The puritan’s will to power; The immanence of Dostoevsky; The art of Theodore Dreiser; The uses of infallibility; Impressions of Europe; Trans-national America; Fragment of a novel.

“The essay which gives its title to the book is a piece of intellectual biography which is worth the careful study of everyone who is puzzled by the open revolt of the choicest intellects in our undergraduate bodies against the ideals and discipline of our universities. In ‘The Puritan’s will to power’ and in ‘Transnational America’ Randolph Bourne’s feelings were perhaps too deeply involved to permit him to attain the complete clarity and cogency usual with him. But the gently whimsical ‘Ernest, or Parent for a day’ would be a sufficient compensation for any imperfections there might be elsewhere in the book.” Alvin Johnson

“It is impossible, in spite of all that makes it valuable, to read this book without a final sense of disappointment. Randolph Bourne’s interests were as wide as the world; his views were true and tempered; his style is simple, and it is effective chiefly because the words he uses are wise and exact rather than original; but his appeal, after all, is very narrow. He is the pure intellectual addressing the ‘younger intelligentsia,’ and his exclusiveness gradually becomes slightly tiresome even as the phrase quoted becomes irritating.” Freda Kirchwey

BOURNE, RANDOLPH SILLIMAN.Untimely papers. *$1.50 (3½c) Huebsch 320.4

20–26319

For descriptive note see Annual for 1919.

“Written during America’s war preparations, these papers are well named untimely, for they question with the rigor of a clear minded, uncompromising pacifist and idealist, America’s attitude in combating the spirit of the war lord with war. They are an interesting portrayal of the courage in his belief of the author.”

“Dying just when he should have come into his own, Randolph Bourne left behind him a set of brilliant essays on the political life of yesterday. These have been gathered and edited by James Oppenheim with a foreword perhaps a thought too laudatory. Yet much can be said for Mr Bourne’s keen insight and flashing style. His sentences are diamond cut, his reasoning clear even to the most undiscerning.”

Reviewed by E. C. Parsons

“They are courageous papers in that they represent an unwincing defence of an attitude which can never have been at all popular. They are turned from protest into positive statement by a long and unfinished essay on the state, in which Mr Bourne was clearly searching to vindicate the ultimate rights of personality against the demands of authority outside. The whole essay is a superb cry of anger against a tyranny which he felt to be grinding. Yet I venture to think that the essay is in fact largely devoid of realistic basis. It has a specialized motivation which makes it valuable as the record of a personal experience, but impracticable as a contribution to political science.” H. J. Laski

“It is the book of a too sensitive spirit, dying brokenhearted in a world that seemed hopelessly insane and misdirected. Whatever we may think of the substance of these essays there can be no question of the delicate beauty of their expression or the evidence they give of the patrician dignity and courage which marked the author’s personality.”

“No educated, honest, able-bodied man can read the war essays of Randolph Bourne without some degree of admiration for their dead author and some sort of shame for himself. What we say now without being either brave or original he said then, not, perhaps, with the maturity of a Bertrand Russell or a Romain Rolland, but at least with fine courage and imagination. It may turn out that the cleanest picture of ourselves when we were not ourselves is here in these two hundred and thirty pages.”

“The unfinished fragment on the state, which was to have been so great a book, is still a keen and impressive analysis of social psychology.... And after the self-styled peace what would Randolph Bourne have added, what doubly bitter denunciation, to the temperate ironies of these searching papers? Perhaps nothing but the tolerant smile of one who foresaw.” Marion Tyler

“Academically, his arguments may have been right, but it is obvious that they were uttered at a time when they must have proved the reverse of helpful. They may now be read with the dispassionate calm to which they are entitled, and they well repay careful consideration.”

“He proved right in many of the pronouncements which can now be weighed against actual happenings; and for this reason there is hope that a kindly hearing may yet be given to the essays here reprinted.”

“These papers are overshadowed by the war; and as the war figured in Bourne’s outlook as a tragic impertinence which had rudely choked the young shoots of a new life in America with which his dearest hopes were bound up, there is a steady undertow of resentment which disturbs the balance of his thought. But all the same, these papers were worth printing as a historical document to show the generations to come how the war struck a profound and honest mind that had enthroned the spirit of life and was already seeing afar off the triumph of life over the forces of death.” R. R.

“He could write—there is no question about that—and he could think, but these two fine qualities do not excuse the fact that his first principles are nearly always wrong.” M. F. Egan

BOWEN, WILLIAM.[2]Enchanted forest. il *$2.50 Macmillan

20–20549

In this series of fairy tales a forest is turned into paper, its brooks petrified and the voice of the birds stilled by the bad temper of a king. How the forest was redeemed by Bilbo the woodcutter’s son, who thereby won the princess; how the pair cured the old king’s temper through an “Interrupter” and his “Encourager”; and how little Prince Bojohn and his playmate Bodkin had many adventures with elves and fairies, is all told in these tales with delightful humor. The book is illustrated by Maud and Miska Petersham.

BOWER, B. M., pseud. (BERTHA MUZZY SINCLAIR) (MRS BERTRAND WILLIAM SINCLAIR).Quirt. il *$1.75 (2½c) Little

20–8857

Lorraine Hunter lives in Los Angeles and has absorbed her ideas of the “West” from the movies. She has never known her father, a rancher in Idaho, but she pictures him as a cattle king and sees herself in the rôle of cattle king’s daughter. She finds the Quirt, Brit Hunter’s ranch, a very different place from her imaginings. It is one of the few small ranches allowed to survive in the shadow of the great Sawtooth cattle company’s holdings. Other small owners have been absorbed or have met “accidental” deaths, but Brit and his partner, as two highly respected old-timers, have remained unmolested. On the night of her arrival Lorraine loses her way and finds herself mixed up with one of the “accidents” referred to. She talks, and talk is dangerous to the Sawtooth. In the fight that follows Lone Morgan lines up with the Quirt but it is Swan Vjolmar, the seemingly innocent Swede, who plays the final card.

“The tale begins interestingly enough, but what with deeds of violence, and thunderstorms of a like violence, soon passes into the realms of mediocrity.”

“The story moves briskly, with plenty of sensational incident, while all its detail, as always in B. M. Bower’s novels, is colorful and convincing.”

“A story of western life that is both fresh and plausible.”

BOWMAN, ARCHIBALD ALLAN.Sonnets from a prison camp. *$1.50 Lane 811

20–8620

The author, professor of philosophy at Princeton university, says of these sonnets written in captivity that they “stood between my soul and madness,” and hopes that what has meant so much to him under one of the heaviest blows that can befall a soldier will have some general human interest. They are grouped as follows: In the field; The nadir; On the march; Rastatt; Hesepe; Thoughts of home; Influences; Watchwords and maxims; England and Oxford; Home thoughts once more; Interlude; England.

“When he begins to write of those reflective themes to which the sonnet form is fitted, Mr Bowman reveals himself as an interesting and talented writer. Mr Bowman’s chief defect is a certain stiltedness and overnobility of language, which sometimes leads him to talk of prosaic or trivial things with a pomp which does not become them.”

“Benvenuto Cellini also wrote sonnets in captivity: and they are as perfunctory and uninspired as are Professor Bowman’s.” R. M. Weaver

Reviewed by Marguerite Williams

“Grave and eloquent sonnets, a little sententious and here and there a little prosaic.”

BOYER, WILBUR SARLES.Johnnie Kelly. il *$2 (3c) Houghton

20–16092

Johnnie Kelly is a red-headed Irish boy of thirteen when he makes his debut at Public school 199, Amsterdam ave., the Bronx. The teachers regard him as a terror, but one instructor, Daniel Parks, takes enough interest in him to try to show him how he can be a leader. His various escapades fill the book, culminating in his being elected vice-president of the Amsterdam Republic, and receiving the wrist watch which is offered to the pupil who sells the most liberty bonds. Incidentally, he plays no small part in the romance that develops between Mr Parks and the pretty new teacher, Helen Bouck.

“Many schoolmasters are of a cut-and-dried sort, who cut circles in deep ruts and see nothing in life beyond the daily routine of the schoolroom. But Mr Boyer sees beyond this and has made a natural study of the boy and his characteristics. Not this alone, but he himself has a rare gift of humor, and the two are combined in ‘Johnnie Kelly.’”

“The efforts of a ‘Bronix’ policeman’s son to attain popularity in a Manhattan public school are amusing enough, and he and his young associates are human and healthy.” M. H. B. Mussey

BOYNTON, PERCY HOLMES.History of American literature. *$2.25 Ginn 810.9

20–3784

Omitting authors of minor importance the book has been written “with a view to showing the drift of American thought as illustrated by major writers or groups and as revealed by a careful study of one or two cardinal works of each.... The growth of American self-consciousness and the changing ideals of American patriotism have been kept in mind throughout.... As an aid to the student, there are appended to each chapter (except the last three) topics and problems for study, and book lists which summarize the output of each man, indicate available editions, and point to the critical material which may be used as a supplement, but not as a substitute, for first-hand study.” (Preface) Beginning with the 17th century, the contents contain chapters on the earliest verse, the poetry of the revolution and the early drama, all our American classics as: Irving, Cooper, Bryant, Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Whittier, Longfellow, Lowell, Mrs Stowe and Holmes, the later poetry and Walt Whitman, the rise of fiction and contemporary drama. There are also two maps, three chronological charts, an appendix characterizing the most significant American periodicals and an index.

“The style throughout is marked with a crispness and vivacity that are missing in too many textbooks in the same field. The author’s scientific knowledge and scholarship are winningly displayed on every page of his book.”

BRACKETT, CHARLES.Counsel of the ungodly. *$2 (3c) Appleton

20–13703

When Peter van Hoeven, scion of an old and wealthy New York family, lost his fortune at the age of sixty-two, he determined to earn his living as a butler. Luck brought him into a newly rich family, mother and daughter, of whom the mother is exuberantly vulgar and the daughter sensitively aware of their short-comings. Jacob Smith, alias Peter van Hoeven, becomes Mary’s guardian angel and she relies on him and confides in him more and more. When it is subsequently discovered that Mary is not Mrs Davison’s daughter, as the long lost husband with the real daughter turns up, Peter resolves to adopt Mary as his niece, trumping up a story of a lost brother Richard whose daughter she is. That she really is his niece becomes probable later. He now makes himself known to his family to whom he introduces his niece. He also undertakes to cure her of an undesirable love affair by first engineering her into and then out of an engagement by ungodly counsel. As the right fellow is waiting just around the corner it all ends well.

“Light and fairly amusing.”

“It is a delightful atmosphere into which you are led in this swiftly moving story, where almost every one is pleasant to know.”

“The author’s flexible style and skill in drollery, distinctly above the average, makes one regret that he has not employed his literary ability in a less inconsequential plot.”

BRADFORD, GAMALIEL.Prophet of joy. *$1.50 Houghton 811

20–14773

This tale in verse relates the career of a millionaire’s son, a golden-haired vision of a boy, imbued with a faith that it was his mission to redeem the world with the gospel of joy. His first convert was a spinster cousin, Theodora, who undertook to stand between him and his stern father, to be ever his haven of refuge and to smooth the way for him generally. His exploits are many and fantastic. He meets all manner of people, the lowly and the artists, the pious and the rich, and he meets them all alike with laughter, gaiety, and love. With this love and joy in life he at last undertakes to assuage a striking mob and meets his death. The woman agitator whose method, unlike his, had been to stir up hatred and revenge as a means of salvation, but who had long loved the boy, vows before his body that violence must die and dedicates herself to “joy’s pure torch” and to love as the “Star of immortal hope to mortal men.”

“Characters, incidents and beauty of telling combine to make an interesting story and a poem of wide appeal.”

“What fun the author must have had composing all this! He has not only worked with his subject, he has played with it. He keeps up his own and the reader’s courage, sometimes by whistling. It is one of the most original contributions to literature that I have seen, and I know nothing in American literature which it resembles. And it is written in the American, not the English language.” W: L. Phelps

“When the ‘prophet of joy’ is killed in an attempt to mediate between a band of strikers and their employer, there is little sense of pathos because the character has been largely a creature of fancy and as such has engaged the reader’s attention rather than his affection. But Mr Bradford is fluent and dexterous and the rhymes carry one along through one hundred and ninety-three pages of easy and agreeable reading.” L. M. R.

“He takes pains to show what it is that he is not talking about—Christian Science, Sunday school morality, silly altruism—but we are never sure what it is that he is talking about, and never sure that his is not the nambiest-pambiest of palliatives.”

“Mr Bradford is a poet, and a good one. Much of the present poem shows a deftness and a skill that place him high among writers of light verse. But in all fairness he must leave his ivory tower and acquaint himself with causes he dislikes before writing unfairly of them. The book, barring this one capital fault, is a capital one, and as such may be recommended.” C. W.

“It seems to the present reviewer, indeed, the most stimulating and absorbing volume that has appeared in American poetry since ‘The Congo’ and ‘Spoon River.’ It is not an imitation but a vital incarnation of the Byronic satire, proving that modern life may be dressed in an ancient mode at least as effectively as in the fashions of the hour. The ‘Prophet’ should find an audience for many years to come; should even, one is tempted to say, win a permanent place among the classics of lighter American verse.” C: W. Stork

“Nothing can be gayer, idler, saucier, easier, more winningly devious and desultory than his treatment of the eight-line Italian epic stanza. The story is agreeable, and the only point of failure is the point in which in a poem of this kind failure is most forgivable and least important—the nature and handling of the thesis.”

BRADLEY, ARTHUR GRANVILLE.Book of the Severn. il *$5 Dodd 914.2

(Eng ed 21–834)

“The ancients had river gods; we too have them in our minds and feel their qualities. For rivers are things of life and personality, of soul and character.... Some of our river gods are men and some are women.... Father Thames has proclaimed his sex for all time; but the Severn has been a lady since literature began.” (Chapter 1) The author shows his readers not only the scenic but also the historic Severn and conducts him from its cradle in Plinlimmon to Gloucester with sixteen color plates to mark the way. There is no index.

“The author tells the story in ample detail and with full knowledge.”

“In brief, this is a most entertaining volume. The coloured plates do not add much to its attractions.”

“Mr Bradley has a mingled zest for scenery, for history, and for the humours and graces of life, which makes him one of the best of all-around companions on such a series of excursions, either afoot or in an armchair.”

BRADLEY, GLENN DANFORD.Story of the Santa Fe. (Frontiers of America) il *$3 Badger, R: G. 656

20–6283

“The [story of the] railroad known as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe describes the beginnings and development of one of the most extensive of American railroad systems. Projected by the vision of Cyrus K. Holliday, and developed by the energy and financial support of other farseeing Americans, this railroad was built to develop the business which was originally conducted in primitive fashion from the Missouri river across the Kansas prairies and through the mountains to the old mining centre, Santa Fe. It is an account of what real men by the exercise of push and profanity have been able to accomplish, even in the face of tremendous obstacles and hindrances, both natural and those presented by the devilish ingenuity of man.”—Boston Transcript

“The story as written by Mr Bradley is very complete. The author has done his work very well.” J. S. B.

BRADLEY, MRS MARY (HASTINGS).Fortieth door. *$1.75 (2c) Appleton

20–2264

A romantic adventure story staged in Cairo, Jack Ryder, altho young and good to look at, has managed to evade the society of girls and devote himself wholly to the fascinations of Egyptian tombs. He is bored unspeakably at thought of the masked ball to which his compatriot, Jinny Jeffries, is dragging him. But at the ball he meets Aimée, the alluring veiled figure who is to lead him so far on the road to romance. It is only when the dance is over, his heart already well lost, that he learns that her attire is no picturesque disguise donned for an evening, that she is a high born Moslem escaped for a few mad moments from the haremlik. Fate and ancient custom are against him, but he learns by accident that Aimée is of French birth, and youth, daring and good luck conspire on his side to bring all to a happy end.

“Here is a ‘romantic incident’ carried through from start to finish without a false note, though some of the harmony toward the end is, as is were, a trifle close.” H. W. Boynton

“Mrs Bradley transports us to the realms of romance. We realize that we are not moving among scenes of reality, but we do not greatly care.”

“The story is well thought out and interesting. And it has the merit of being smoothly written and vividly as well.”

“Cleverly told with plot of interest and original details well sustained throughout.”

“A good adventure story.”

BRADLEY-BIRT, FRANCIS BRADLEY.Bengal fairy tales. il *$5 (7½c) Lane 398.2

20–22478

These fairy tales have been collected by the author from the natives of Bengal by word of mouth. They breathe the spirit of the East and are unlike any of western tales, as are also the six full-page illustrations in color by Abanindranath Tagore. The contents are in three parts, the first of which consists of the stories told by Bhabaghuray, the traveller.

“The really ideal illustrator of this kind of literature is, of course, the artist who is himself a product of the land which has given birth to it, and from this point of view the book illustrated by Mr Tagore is of special interest.”

BRADY, LORETTA ELLEN.Green forest fairy book. il *$2 (4c) Little

20–18407

A book of new fairy tales into which the author has put much of the true fairy-land atmosphere. Some of the titles are: Dame Grumble and her curious apple tree: A tale of the Northland kingdom; The little tree that never grew up; The tale of Punchinello; The strange tale of the brown bear. The illustrations are by Alice B. Preston.

BRAITHWAITE, WILLIAM STANLEY BEAUMONT, ed. Anthology of magazine verse for 1919; and Year book of American poetry. *$2.25 Small 811.08

Mr Braithwaite who omits from this annual volume his usual critical introductory essay takes occasion to call attention to Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “The valley of the shadow,” as a poem demanding careful attention and study. Other notable poems are Leonora Speyer’s “The queen bee flies,” Sara Teasdale’s “August moonrise,” Vachel Lindsay’s “The empire of China is crumbling down,” Lola Ridge’s “The everlasting return”; also poems by Witter Bynner, Scudder Middleton, Edna St Vincent Millay, Louis Untermeyer, Maxwell Bodenheim, Amy Lowell, and others.

Reviewed by H: A. Lappin

“Taken as a whole, the ‘Anthology of magazine verse for 1919’ possesses distinct merit as a collection of contemporary verse. As a stepping-stone in the steady advance of American poetry it is even more interesting.” D. L. M.

“All in all the anthology is valuable not only as literature, but as a barometer of the spirit of the times.”

“There is poetry here of a grade we like to boast of being able to find every day in the magazines, that of Conrad Aiken, Sara Teasdale, Clement Wood, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and sundry others. There is singing here that is something more than verse, and there is verse that is something less than poetry.” R. P. Utter

“The year book is, if anything, more representative and satisfactory than its predecessors. The critical material at the back is more restrained than hitherto, and gains thereby. For those who wish to keep up with the best of the new poetry, the book is indispensable.” C. W.

“Critics have often told Mr Braithwaite that his collections of magazine verse can never have the highest value because the best American poetry is not published in magazines. This year, at any rate, that would seem to be untrue. It is doubtful whether anything better than Edwin Arlington Robinson’s ‘Valley of the shadow’ has been published in any of the books of the year.” Marguerite Wilkinson

“Mr Braithwaite’s annual ‘Anthology of magazine verse’ improves from year to year. The present volume is no exception to this rule. Particularly to be commended is the elimination of Mr Braithwaite’s usual attempt at rating the verse of the year according to merit.”

“Mr Braithwaite has done his work with knowledge, with discernment, and with a liberality which sometimes compromises his discernment.”

“He is too generous in his appreciation, including much that is excellent but not significant. As with every anthology, we quarrel with the selections. Though the book would gain by omissions, the general level is a high one.” E: B. Reed

BRAITHWAITE, WILLIAM STANLEY BEAUMONT, ed. Book of modern British verse. *$2 Small 821.08

20–1984

“A collection intended to acquaint American readers with contemporary British verse in the period which ‘began with an assault upon reality and a shock of symbols’ to be disturbed and perhaps re-directed by the forces of war.” (Booklist) “John Masefield’s ‘August, 1914,’ is included, and G. K. Chesterton’s booming ‘Lepanto,’ also favorite poems by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Walter de la Mare, J. C. Squires, Ralph Hodgson, Joseph Campbell, James Stephens, Thomas MacDonald and many others. William Butler Yeats, probably the greatest of all living makers of lyrics, is not represented. But it is generally understood that his work seldom appears in anthologies.” (N Y Times)

“It has Masefield’s ‘Biography,’ ‘August, 1914,’ and ‘Cargoes’; Belloc’s ‘South country’; Brooke’s five splendid sonnets; Julian Grenfell’s ‘Into battle’—finest of all the ‘war poems’; de la Mare’s ‘The listeners.’ And these are only a few of the memorable things included.” H: A. Lappin

“Due to something more incomprehensible than his taste he has failed signally. ‘The book of modern British verse’ begins as a misnomer; it ends as a misrepresentation.” L: Untermeyer

“It exhibits the period fairly enough without characterizing it, and with this book as with other anthologies, even the best, the critical reader will miss old friends and make new ones.” R. P. Utter

“A pleasant and interesting little book. Mr Braithwaite has over-emphasized the importance of Cicely Fox Smith’s verse.... Nor do the ‘Songs from the evil wood’ represent Lord Dunsany’s poetic talent as well as would a passage from his imaginative and often beautiful prose.” Marguerite Wilkinson

“The sheer beauty and spontaneity of these poems must surprise pleasantly those who have believed this period of social unrest and of war incapable of producing art of the highest order.” B. L.

BRAND, MAX.Trailin’! *$1.75 (3c) Putnam

20–6637

A wild-west story that opens in Madison Square garden, where Anthony Woodbury accepts a challenge and rides a man-killing horse. Shortly after, the man Anthony has always regarded as his father is killed and Anthony goes West to follow the trail of the slayer and learn the secret of his birth. With the foolhardiness of a tenderfoot he takes unrealized risks, but his skill and daring always carry him through, and he is successful too in winning a western bride.

“The story undeniably grips.”

BRANOM, MENDEL EVERETT.Project method in education. (Library of educational methods) *$1.75 Badger, R. G. 371.3

19–15249

In his first chapter on “The nature of the project method,” the author discusses the term “project” and the different meanings assigned to it, saying, “There is no fundamental difference of opinion concerning the meaning of the word, but the difference lies in the degree of elasticity that should be permitted. In every case a unit of purposeful, intellectualized activity is involved.” The chapters that follow take up: The evolution of the project as an educational concept; The relation of the project method to instincts; The social basis for the project method; The significance of motivation; Teaching by projects; Learning by projects; The project-question; The project-exercise; The project-problem; Manual or physical projects; Mental projects not involving manual activity; The project method in history; The project method in geography; The reorganization of the course of study; The preparation of the teacher. There are twelve pages of references and an index.

“A valuable discussion of the project method.”

“The author sets forth in clear terms one of the existing needs in education, namely, to get away from the ‘bookish, theoretical education of former days.’ There are times, however, when his distinctions are not exactly clear to the reader.”

BRASOL, BORIS L.Socialism vs. civilization. *$2 Scribner 335

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