Among studies of Lincoln, containing a wealth of illustrative stories, a very high place is due to “The True Abraham Lincoln,” by William Eleroy Curtis:  The J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and London.

For the history of America at the period concerned the reader may be most confidently referred to a work, which by plentiful extracts and citations enables its writer’s judgment to be checked, without detracting from the interest and power of his narrative, namely, “History of the United States, 1850-1877,” by James Ford Rhodes, in seven volumes:  The Macmillan Company, London and New York.

Among the shorter complete histories of the United States are:  “The United States:  an Outline of Political History,” by Goldwin Smith:  The Macmillan Company, London and New York; the article “United States of America” (section “History”) in the “Encyclopaedia Britannica” (see also the many excellent articles on American biography in the “Encyclopaedia Britannica"); “The Cambridge Modern History:  Vol.  VII., United States of America”:  Cambridge University Press, and The Macmillan Company, New York.

Two volumes of special interest in regard to the early days of the United States, in some ways complementary to each other in their different points of view, are:  “Alexander Hamilton,” by F. G. Oliver:  Constable & Co., and “Historical Essays,” by John Fitch.

Almost every point in regard to American institutions and political practice is fully treated in “The American Commonwealth,” by Viscount Bryce, O.M., two volumes:  The Macmillan Company, London and New York.

For the attitude of the British Government during the war the conclusive authority is the correspondence to be found in “The Life of Lord John Russell,” by Sir Spencer Walpole, K.C.B., two volumes:  Longmans, Green & Co., London and New York; and light on the attitude of the English people is thrown by “The Life of John Bright,” by G. M. Trevelyan:  Constable, London, and Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A.

With respect to the military history of the Civil War the author is specially indebted to “The Civil War in the United States,” by W. Birkbeck Wood and Major J. E. Edmonds, R.E., with an introduction by Spenser Wilkinson:  Methuen & Co., London, and Putnam, New York, which is the only concise and complete history of the war written with full knowledge of all recent works bearing on the subject.  Mr. Nicolay’s chapters in the “Cambridge Modern History” give a very lucid narrative of the war.

Among works of special interest bearing on the war, though not much concerning the subject of this book, it is only necessary to mention “‘Stonewall’ Jackson,” by Colonel Henderson, C.B., two volumes:  Longmans, London and New York; “Battles and Leaders of the Civil War” (a book of monographs by several authors, many of them actors in the war), four volumes:  T. Fisher Unwin, London, and Century Company, New York, and “Story of the Civil War,” by J. C. Ropes:  Putnam, London and New York.