Drake, Nelson and Napoleon: Studies. By SIR WALTER RUNCIMAN, Bart., Author of "The Tragedy of St. Helena," etc. Ill.u.s.trated. Demy 8vo, cloth.
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In this work Sir Walter Runciman deals first with Drake and what he calls the Fleet Tradition, of which he regards Drake, the greatest Elizabethan sailor, as the indubitable founder; next the author deals at considerable length with Nelson, his relations with Lady Hamilton, and the various heroic achievements which have immortalised his name. From Nelson the author pa.s.ses on to Napoleon, and shows how his career and policy have had a vital relation to the World War. As himself a sailor of the old wooden-ships period, Sir Walter is able to handle with special knowledge and intimacy the technique of the seafaring exploits of Nelson; and Sir Walter"s a.n.a.lysis of the character of Nelson, a combination of vanity, childishness, statesmanlike ability, and incomparable seamanship and courage, is singularly well conceived.
Bolingbroke and Walpole. By the Rt. Hon. J. M. ROBERTSON, Author of "Shakespeare and Chapman," "The Economics of Progress," etc., etc.
Demy 8vo, cloth.
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Many years ago, in his "Introduction to English Politics" (recast as "The Evolution of States"), Mr. Robertson proposed to continue that survey in a series of studies of the leading English politicians, from Bolingbroke to Gladstone. Taking up the long suspended plan, he has now produced a volume on the two leading statesmen of an important period, approaching its problems through their respective actions. The aim is to present political history at once in its national and its personal aspects, treating the personalities of politicians as important forces, but studying at the same time the whole intellectual environment. A special feature of the volume intended to be developed in those which may follow is a long chapter in "The Social Evolution," setting forth the nation"s progress, from generation to generation, in commerce, industry, morals, education, literature, art, science, and well-being.
Seen from a Railway Platform. By WILLIAM VINCENT. Crown 8vo, cloth.
(Spring, 1920.)
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Mr. Vincent must from his early years have cultivated his faculty of observation, and he has a marvellous memory for what he has seen or heard. His recollections start from the early "sixties, when, as a boy, he got a situation as bookstall clerk, from which position he rose to be bookstall manager in various parts of the country. His experiences as bookstall manager on a railway platform, with its continuously shifting crowds and contacts with various idiosyncracies, are highly interesting, but he recalls many events that have happened in his time away from the bookstall, the notorious Heenan fight, the remarkable exhibition of the "Great Eastern" and others. He gives curious accounts of the early railway carriages, the treatment of the third-cla.s.s pa.s.senger and much other lore concerning railway travel in the now distant days.
Altogether, Mr. Vincent has produced a valuable volume of reminiscences.
Life of Liza Lehmann. By Herself. With a Coloured Frontispiece and 16 pp. Ill.u.s.trations. Large Crown 8vo, cloth.
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Shortly before her death, Madame Liza Lehmann completed a volume of Reminiscences. A charming and gifted woman her life was spent in artistic and literary surroundings. She was the daughter of an artist, Rudolf Lehmann, the wife of another, Herbert Bedford, one of her sisters being Mrs. Barry Pain, and her cousins including Muriel Menie Dowie ("The Girl in the Carpathians") and Mr. R. C. Lehmann, of "Punch." Her memories include a dinner with Verdi, conversations with Jenny Lind, anecdotes of Edward VII, Brahms, Mme. Clara b.u.t.t, and other celebrities.
As the composer of "A Persian Garden," she became world-renowned, and her self-revelation is not less interesting than her t.i.t-bits about other artists.
Men and Manner in Parliament. By SIR HENRY LUCY. With a Biographical Note and about 32 Ill.u.s.trations. Large Crown 8vo.
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As "Member for the Chiltern Hundreds" Sir Henry Lucy published an interesting volume on the Parliament of 1874. The book has been long out of print, but it again came "on the tapis" as it seemed to the publisher so thoroughly worth bringing to life again. It is recorded in the authorised Life of President Wilson that study of the articles on their original publication in the "Gentleman"s Magazine" directed his career into the field of politics. He wrote to the author apropos this book: "I shall always think of you as one of my instructors." The book is essentially a connected series of character-sketches written in the well-known witty manner of the famous _Punch_ diarist. Gladstone, "Dizzy," Dilke, Bright, Auberon Herbert, Roebuck, Sir Stafford Northcote, etc., are some of the leading figures, and lesser-known M.P."s resume a vigorous vitality, thanks to Sir Henry"s magic pen.
Anglo-American Relations, 1861-1865. By BROUGHAM VILLIERS & W. H.
CHESSON. Large Crown 8vo, cloth.
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This book deals with the causes of friction and misunderstandings between Great Britain and the United States during the trying years of the Civil War. The reasons which, for a time, gave prominence to the Southern sympathies of the British ruling cla.s.ses, while rendering almost inarticulate the far deeper feeling for the Cause of Union and Emanc.i.p.ation among the ma.s.ses of our people, are examined and explained.
Such dramatic incidents as the Trent affair, the launching of the "Alabama," and Lincoln"s Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation are dealt with from the point of view of their effect upon opinion in this country as ill.u.s.trated by contemporary correspondence and literature. Interesting facts, now almost forgotten, of the movements inaugurated by the English friends of the North to explain to our people the true issues at stake in the conflict are reproduced, and an attempt is made to estimate the influence of the controversies of the time on the subsequent relations of the English-speaking peoples.
Mr. W. H. Chesson, grandson of George Thompson, the anti-slavery orator, who was William Lloyd Garrison"s bosom friend, contributes a chapter which attempts to convey an impression of the influence of Transatlantic problems upon English oratory and the writings of public men.
Woodrow Wilson: An interpretation. By A. MAURICE LOW, Author of "The American People: A Study in National Psychology," with a Portrait. Crown 8vo, cloth.
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Mr. A. Maurice Low has long been recognised as, next to Lord Bryce, the most acute, discriminating, and well-informed of the English critics of America. His long residence in that country and his exhaustive study of certain phases of American life have given him a background for the interpretation of their political life.
Mr. Low has written this interpretation of President Wilson "because the man to-day who occupies the largest place in the world"s thought is almost as little understood by his own people as he is by the peoples of other countries, and still remains an enigma," but his point of view as an interpreter is that of a contemporary foreign observer who, while having the benefit of long residence in the United States and an intimate knowledge of its people and politics, may justly claim a detached point of view and to be uninfluenced by personal or political considerations.
Peace-Making at Paris. By SISLEY HUDDLESTON. Large Crown 8vo, cloth.
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Mr. Huddleston has been one of the most independent commentators of the proceedings at the Paris Conference, with a keen sense of the realities, and his despatches have, in the phrase of one of our best-known authors, made him "easily the best" of the Paris correspondents. This book aims at giving a broad account of the seven months which followed the Armistice; but the writer has a point of view and has not told the story of these memorable days objectively, such as might have been done by any compiler with the aid of the newspapers. A resident in Paris, he has lived close to the heart of the Conference, and throws a vivid light on certain events which it is of the utmost importance to understand. Thus the famous "moderation interview," which was followed by the telegram of protest from 370 M.P."s and the return to Westminster of the Prime Minister, who made the most sensational speech of his career, came from his pen. The att.i.tude of Mr. Wilson is specially studied; his apotheosis and the waning of his star and his apparent lapse from "Wilsonianism" is explained. There is shown the dramatic clash of ideas. Special attention is devoted to the strange and changing policy in Russia, and some extremely curious episodes are revealed. This is not merely a timely publication, but the volume is likely to preserve for many years its place as the most illuminating piece of work about the two hundred odd days in Paris. It is certain to raise many controversies, and it is one of those books which it is indispensable to read.
Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman. Edited with an Introduction by THOMAS B. HARNED (One of Walt Whitman"s Literary Executors). Cloth.
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Anne Gilchrist, a charming woman of rare literary culture and intelligence, who was born in 1828 and died in 1885, was Whitman"s first notable female eulogist in England, her essay on him being a valuable piece of pioneer-criticism. Admiration in her case became identified with love; in the "seventies she wrote Whitman ardent love letters, the contents of which would have surprised any literary man less acquainted than he was to heroic candour. Whitman was not insensible to the affectionate feelings of Mrs. Gilchrist (her husband died in 1861), and his share of their correspondence is of considerable interest to students of "Leaves of Gra.s.s."
Breaking the Hindenburg Line: The Story of the 46th (North Midland) Division. By RAYMOND E. PRIESTLEY, Author of "Antarctic Adventure."
Ill.u.s.trated. Large Crown 8vo, cloth. (Second Impression.)
7s. 6d. Net. Inland Postage, 6d.
Written by a member of the Division for his comrades and their relatives and friends, the book is first of all intended to place on record for the North Midland people the deeds of their men during the weeks which crowned four years of steadfast endeavour during the Great War.
It has, however, a wider significance, and thus deserves a wider circulation. The North Midland county regiments were composed mainly of miners, machinists, operatives and agriculturists: men without military traditions or militant desires. The last men to take to war without an all-compelling reason.
The Transvaal Surrounded. By W. J. LEYDS, Litt.D., Author of "The First Annexation of the Transvaal." With Maps. Demy 8vo, cloth.
(Spring, 1920.)
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This work is a continuation of "The First Annexation of the Transvaal"
by the same author, and like the previous volume is based chiefly on British doc.u.ments, Blue Books, and other official records. References are given to these, and the reader can form his own opinion from them.
To find his way through the overwhelming ma.s.s of doc.u.ments is only possible for the man who for long years drew up and signed most of the papers issued by his Government. For the official records accessible to the historian are incomplete; they must be supplemented by the archives of the Republic. Only when this has been done--as it has now by one who knows--will the history of the relations between England and the Boers be freed from falsehood and slander.
Modern j.a.pan: Its Political, Military and Industrial Development.
By WILLIAM MONTGOMERY MCGOVERN, Ph.D., M.R.A.D., F.R.A.I., M.J.S., etc. Lecturer on j.a.panese, School of Oriental Studies (Unv. of Lond.), Priest of the Nishi, Hongwaryi, Kyoto, j.a.pan, (Spring, 1920.)
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Unlike the book of casual impressions by the tourist or globe-trotter or a tedious work of reference for the library, Mr. McGovern"s book on "Modern j.a.pan," gives for the average educated man an interesting description of the evolution of j.a.pan as a modern world Power, and describes the gradual triumphs over innumerable obstacles which she accomplished. The book relates how the Restoration of 1867 was carried out by a small coterie of ex-Samurai, in whose hands, or in that of their successors, political power has ever since remained. We see portrayed the perfecting of the Bureaucratic machine, the general, political and inst.i.tutional history, the stimulation of militarism and Imperialism, and centralised industry. It is a vivid account of the real j.a.pan of to-day, and of the process by which it has become so. Though comprehensible to the non-technical reader, yet the most careful student of Far Eastern affairs will find much of value in the acute a.n.a.lysis of the j.a.panese nation. The author is one who has resided for years in j.a.pan, was largely educated there, who was in the j.a.panese Government service, and who, by his fluent knowledge of the language, was in intimate contact with all the leading statesmen of to-day. Furthermore his position as priest of the great Buddhist temple of Kyoto brought him in touch with phases of j.a.panese life most unusual for a European. While neither pro nor anti-j.a.panese, he has delineated the extraordinary efficiency of the machine of State (so largely modelled on Germany), while, at the same time, he has pointed out certain dangers inherent in its autocratic bureaucracy.