A CONDENSED SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CONSTRUCTED FOR DEFINITE RESULTS IN RECITATION AND CONTAINING A NEW METHOD OF TOPICAL REVIEWS. BY WILLIAM SWINTON, A. M., PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AND AUTHOR OF CAMPAIGNS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC," "DECISIVE BATTLES OF THE WAR," ETC. With Maps and other Ellustrations. NEW YORK: IVISON, BLAKEMAN, TAYLOR, & COMPANY, 138 & 140 GRAND STREET. CHICAGO: 133 & 135 STATE STREET. HARVARD 047* Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, BY WILLIAM SWINTON, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & Co. CAMBRIDGE. PREFACE. THIS condensed manual of the History of the United States has been prepared in order to meet the views and wants of that large and increasing class of teachers, and more especially the teachers in our common schools, who are aiming at definite results in this study. It has grown out of a need deeply felt by the author during many years' occupation in class-room recitation. This manual is not a mere picture-book or story-book: with such works the market is fully supplied. It aims at something which, if not higher, is at least different. It is designed as a working book, and hence discards both the high-flown narrative style and the meaningless details of the majority of school histories. The text will derive its interest from the lucid presentation of the subjectmatter, — in itself deeply interesting. The technical points of novelty and superiority which the author thinks he may fairly claim as the justification of this manual will be evident to all practical teachers. Some of these points are: 1. A plan of clear and concise paragraphing, by which the gist of each paragraph is readily apprehended by the pupil. 2. A total, and it is hoped welcome, absence of involved, inverted, or in anywise rhetorical sentences, and the use, in lieu thereof, of the direct, concise, and recitable construction. 3. A new method of Topical Reviews. On this point—perhaps the leading point of novelty in the book—the author refers the teacher to an examination of the Reviews themselves. See the Topical Review at the close of the Period of Discovery, page 22; of the Colonial Period, page 107; of the Revolutionary War, page 155; and the other similar Reviews. The difference between the present and the old method of reviewing which does no more than print a string of review questions, referring to preceding pages for the piecemeal answers must be obvious. There can be few judicious teachers who have not discovered that pupils, in order |