SOURCE: A review of The Law of Civilization and Decay, in The Yale Review, 1896, pp. 451-53.

In the following excerpt, the reviewer finds Adams's The Law of Civilization and Decay a flawed yet valuable work in determining historical patterns.

Reference was made in a notice of Kidd's Social Evolution in the third volume of this Review, to the probability that we should have many attempts in the next few years to construct a philosophy of history on the basis of our existing knowledge. The present attempt is by the historian of the Emancipation of Massachusetts. Any one who thinks it possible for the present age to produce a final philosophy of history, would derive much instruction by reading this book and Mr. Kidd's together.

The term "science" of history rather than "philosophy" must be applied to the attempt, if we speak strictly. It opens—to give the order...