History of West Point, and its Military Importance during the American Revolution, and the Origin and Progress of the United States Military Academy. By Captain EDWARD C. BOYNTON, A.M., Adjutant of the Military Academy.  New York:  D. Van Nostrand.

In every country there must be localities the names of which are particularly associated with the national history.  But in the United States there are few such places that are not portions of some one of the States; and if they have been the scene of incidents sufficient in number and importance to furnish material for an historical monograph, or so-called local history, it will probably derive its special interest and coloring mainly from events of the Colonial period and the development of the material prosperity of the particular State or section.  The associations of West Point, the seat of the United States Military Academy, are in this respect remarkable, that they derive their interest exclusively from circumstances incidental to the birth and progress of the nation.  The history of the place is an important part of the nation’s history.  Compared with more comprehensive annals, wherein minute description of places and persons is impossible from the breadth of view, local histories leave on the reader more vivid impressions by affording a more microscopic and personal inspection.  Where the minor history, as we may call it, is thus connected with the greater story of the body politic, it always enables the mind to combine, in the sequence of cause and effect, a certain series of events in the course of the nation’s life, leaving a more distinct apprehension of the reality of that life in the past, by giving a rapid glance, under strong light, over a part, than usually remains after the perusal of larger works which attempt the survey of the whole.

From the beginning of the history of the United States, the administrative power of the National Government has been continuously exercised at West Point, to the exclusion of all other authority.  It was occupied by the Continental forces at the commencement of the Revolutionary contest, as a place of the greatest strategic importance.  It was the objective point in that drama of Arnold’s treason, which, by involving the fate of Andre, is remembered as one of the most romantic incidents in the story of the war.  In Captain Boynton’s new “History of West Point,” the aspect of the place, in connection with the events of that time, is given by that method of description which always leaves the sense of historic verity.  The maps, plans, reports, letters, and accounts, with the spelling and types, though by no means with the printing or the paper of past days, are reproduced; and the actors on the scene, not only those of high position, whose names are household words, but those also whose part was humbler and whose memory is obscure, are allowed to present themselves to us as they appeared before the public of their