r chief objective point after New York? Or how did
Cornwallis happen to be at Yorktown when Washington made such a long
leap and pounced upon him there? And so on. Such questions the
old-fashioned text-books not only did not try to answer, they did not
even recognize their existence. As to the large histories, they of
course include so many details that it requires maturity of judgment to
discriminate between the facts that are cardinal and those that are
merely incidental. When I give lectures to schoolboys and schoolgirls, I
observe that a reference to causes and effects always seems to heighten
the interest of the story. I therefore offer them this little book, not
as a rival but as an aid to the ordinary text-book. I am aware that a
narrative so condensed must necessarily suffer from the omission of many
picturesque and striking details. The world is so made that one often
has to lose a little in one direction in order to gain something in
another. This book is an experiment. If it seems to answer its purpose,
I may follow it with others, treating other portions of American history
in similar fashion.

CAMBRIDGE, _February 11, 1889_.

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CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JOHN FISKE vii

I. INTRODUCTION 1

II. THE COLONIES IN 1750 4

III. THE FRENCH WARS, AND THE FIRST PLAN OF UNION 26

IV. THE STAMP ACT, AND THE REVENUE LAWS 39

V. THE CRISIS 78

VI. THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CENTRE 104

VII. THE FRENCH ALLIANCE 144

VIII. BIRTH OF THE NATION 182

COLLATERAL READING 195

INDEX 197

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LIST OF MAPS.

_Facing page_

INVASION OF CANADA 92

WASHINGTON'S CAMPAIGNS IN NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA 120

BURGOYNE'S CAMPAIGN 130

THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN 172

NOTE.--These maps are used by permission of, and by arrangement with,
Messrs. Ginn & Company.

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