Introductory American History

Introductory American History

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Title: Introductory American History
Author: Henry Eldridge Bourne and Elbert Jay Benton
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INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY
BY
HENRY ELDRIDGE BOURNE AND ELBERT JAY BENTON
PROFESSORS OF HISTORY IN WESTERN RESERVE
UNIVERSITY

1912

INTRODUCTION
This volume is the introductory part of a course in American history
embodying the plan of study recommended by the Committee of Eight
of the American Historical Association.[1] The plan calls for a
continuous course running through grades six, seven, and eight. The
events which have taken place within the limits of what is now the
United States must necessarily furnish the most of the content of the

lessons. But the Committee urge that enough other matter, of an
introductory character, be included to teach boys and girls of from
twelve to fourteen years of age that our civilization had its beginnings
far back in the history of the Old World. Such introductory study will
enable them to think of our country in its true historical setting. The
Committee recommend that about two-thirds of one year's work be
devoted to this preliminary matter, and that the remainder of the year be
given to the period of discovery and exploration.
The plan of the Committee of Eight emphasizes three or four lines of
development in the world's history leading up to American history
proper.
First, there was a movement of conquest or colonization by which the
ancient civilized world, originally made up of communities like the
Greeks and Phoenicians in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean Seas,
spread to southern Italy and adjacent lands. The Roman conquest of
Italy and of the barbarian tribes of western Europe expanded the
civilized world to the shores of the Atlantic. Within this greater Roman
world new nations grew up. The migration of Europeans to the
American continent was the final step.
Second, accompanying the growth of the civilized world in extent was
a growth of knowledge of the shape of the earth, or of what we call
geography. Columbus was a geographer as well as the herald of an
expanding world.
A third process was the creation and transmission of all that we mean
by civilization. Here, as the Committee remark, the effort should be to
"show, in a very simple way, the civilization which formed the heritage
of those who were to go to America, that is, to explain what America
started with."
The Committee also suggest that it is necessary "to associate the three
or four peoples of Europe which were to have a share in American
colonization with enough of their characteristic incidents to give the
child some feeling for the name 'England,' 'Spain,' 'Holland,' and
'France.'"

No attempt is made in this book to give a connected history of Greece,
Rome, England, or any other country of Europe. Such an attempt would
be utterly destructive of the plan. Only those features of early
civilization and those incidents of history have been selected which
appear to have a vital relation to the subsequent fortunes of mankind in
America as well as in Europe. They are treated in all cases as
introductory. Opinions may differ upon the question of what topics best
illustrate the relation. The Committee leaves a wide margin of
opportunity for the exercise of judgment in selection. In the use of a
textbook based on the plan the teacher should use the same liberty of
selection. For example, we have chosen the story of Marathon to
illustrate the idea of the heroic memories of Greece. Others may prefer
Thermopylae, because