FROM THE PREFACE.

The present work is meant, in the first instance, for the young—­not alone for boys and girls, but for young men and women who have yet to make themselves familiar with the more important features of their country’s history.  By a book for the young is meant one in which the author studies to make his statements clear and explicit, in which curious and picturesque details are inserted, and in which the writer does not neglect such anecdotes as lend the charm of a human and personal interest to the broader facts of the nation’s story.  That history is often tiresome to the young is not so much the fault of history as of a false method of writing by which one contrives to relate events without sympathy or imagination, without narrative connection or animation.  The attempt to master vague and general records of kiln-dried facts is certain to beget in the ordinary reader a repulsion from the study of history—­one of the very most important of all studies for its widening influence on general culture.

[Illustration:  INDIAN’S TRAP.]

“Fills a decided gap which has existed for the past twenty years in American historical literature.  The work is admirably planned and executed, and will at once take its place as a standard record of the life, growth, and development of the nation.  It is profusely and beautifully illustrated.”—­Boston Transcript.

“The book in its new dress makes a much finer appearance than before, and will be welcomed by older readers as gladly as its predecessor was greeted by girls and boys.  The lavish use the publishers have made of colored plates, woodcuts, and photographic reproductions, gives an unwonted piquancy to the printed page, catching the eye as surely as the text engages the mind.”—­New York Critic.

[Illustration:  GENERAL PUTNAM.]

“The author writes history as a story.  It can never be less than that.  The book will enlist the interest of young people, enlighten their understanding, and by the glow of its statements fix the great events of the country firmly in the mind.”—­San Francisco Bulletin.