This series of English History Source Books is intended for use
with any ordinary textbook of English History. Experience has
conclusively shown that such apparatus is a valuable--nay, an
indispensable--adjunct to the history lesson. It is capable of
two main uses: either by way of lively illustration at the close
of a lesson, or by way of inference-drawing, before the textbook
is read, at the beginning of the lesson. The kind of problems
and exercises that may be based on the documents are legion, and
are admirably illustrated in a _History of England for Schools_,
Part I., by Keatinge and Frazer, pp. 377-381. However, we have no
wish to prescribe for the teacher the manner in which he shall
exercise his craft, but simply to provide him and his pupils with
materials hitherto not readily accessible for school purposes. The
very moderate price of the books in this series should bring them
within the reach of every secondary school. Source books enable
the pupil to take a more active part than hitherto in the history
lesson. Here is the apparatus, the raw material: its use we leave
to teacher and taught.
Our belief is that the books may profitably be used by all grades
of historical students between the standards of fourth-form boys
in secondary schools and undergraduates at Universities. What
differentiates students at one extreme from those at the other is
not so much the kind of subject-matter dealt with, as the amount
they can read into or extract from it.
In regard to choice of subject-matter, while trying to satisfy the
natural demand for certain "stock" documents of vital importance,
we hope to introduce much fresh and novel matter. It is our
intention that the majority of the extracts should be lively in
style--that is, personal, or descriptive, or rhetorical, or even
strongly partisan--and should not so much profess to give the
truth as supply data for inference. We aim at the greatest possible
variety, and lay under contribution letters, biographies, ballads
and poems, diaries, debates, and newspaper accounts. Economics,
London, municipal, and social life generally, and local history,
are represented in these pages.
The order of the extracts is strictly chronological, each being
numbered, titled, and dated, and its authority given. The text
is modernised, where necessary, to the extent of leaving no
difficulties in reading.
We shall be most grateful to teachers and students who may send us
suggestions for improvement.