should devote about half to the period since the Civil War.

This course should be required of all students taking the A.B. degree
and in all other liberal arts courses; an exception may be made in the
case of those taking certain specialized scientific courses--for these
students, the history required in the high school may be deemed
sufficient.

In this course a textbook is necessary, and if the class is large it
is desirable that the text be uniform. The text should be written by a
true historian with broad and comprehensive views, by one who knows
how to appraise historic values, and, if possible, by one who commands
an attractive literary style. If the textbook is written by Dr.
Dry-as-dust, however learned he may be, the whole burden of keeping
the class interested rests with the teacher; and, moreover, many of
the students will never become lovers of the subject to such a degree
as to make it a lifelong study.

The exclusive lecture system is intolerable, and the same is true of
the quiz. A teacher will do his best work if untrammeled by rules. He
should conduct a class in his own way and according to his own
temperament. It is doubtful if the teacher who carefully plans and
maps out the work he intends to present to the class is the most
successful teacher. A teacher who is free, spontaneous, without a
fixed method, ready in passing from the lecture to the quiz and vice
versa at any moment, quick in asking unexpected questions, will
usually have little trouble in keeping a class alert. Above all, a
teacher of college history must explain the meaning of things with far
greater fullness than is possible in a condensed textbook, and it is a
most excellent practice to ask opinions of members of the class on
almost all debatable questions that may arise. The reason for this is
obvious.

The usual method of the writer, in as far as he has a method, is to
spend the first fifteen or twenty minutes of the class hour in hearing
reports from two or three students on special topics that have been
assigned them a week or two before, topics that require library
reference work and that could not possibly be developed from the
textbook. These topics are not on the subject of the day's lesson, but
of some preceding lesson. After commenting on these reports and often
asking for opinions and comments of the class, we plunge into the
day's lesson.

The use of a current periodical in class should be encouraged. It
brings the