SOURCE; A review of The Law of Civilization and Decay: An Essay on History, in American Historical Review, Vol. 49, No. 1, October, 1943, pp. 77-78.

In the following excerpt, Coulborn favorably reviews The Law of Civilization and Decay, but finds much of its research and conclusions dated.

The republication of Brooks Adams' theory of history [The Law of Civilization and Decay: An Essay on History] is an event of importance to historians. Mr. Alfred Knopf judged such an event timely. Dr. Charles A. Beard judged Brooks Adams' work the best lesson from the American classics for the present generation of historians. By this judgment and by his introduction Dr. Beard repeats the attempt made by Brooks Adams' more distinguished brother Henry, half a century ago, to persuade American historians to take their profession seriously and address themselves to the problem Brooks Adams faced.

Brooks Adams explained history as a cyclical...