Introductory American History [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION This volume is the introductory part of a course in American history embodying the plan of study recommended by the Committee of Eight of the American Historical Association.1 The plan calls for a continuous course running through grades six, seven, and eight. The events which have taken place within the limits of what is now the United States must necessarily furnish the most of the content of the lessons. But the Com mittee ürge that enough other matter, of an introductory character, be included to teach boys and girls of from twelve to fourteen years of age that our civilization had its beginnings far back in the history of the Old World. Such introductory study will enable them to think of our country in its true historical setting. The Committee recommend that about two-thirds of one year's work be devoted to this preliminary matter, and that the remainder of the year be given to the period of discovery and exploration. The plan of the Committee of Eight emphasizes three or four lines of development in the world's history leading up to American history proper. First, there was a movement of conquest or colonization by which the ancient civilized world, originally made up of communities üke the Greeks and Phoenicians in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean Seas, spread to southern Italy and adjacent lands. The Román conquest of Italy and of the barbarian tribes of western Europe expanded the civilized world to the shores of the Atlantic. Within this greater Román world new nations grew up. The migration of Europeans to the American continent was the final step. 1 The Study of History in Elementary Schools. Scribner's, 1909. ui