Excerpt from A Text Book of American History History is a record Of events that has affected the social welfare. The record of an event is incomplete without an ex planation of its causes and effects. Interpretation is an essen tial part of history. The statement of a fact is not history, but journalism. Generalizing upon facts not themselves recited is philosophy. But history is neither journalism nor philosophy Nor is it a sum of' biographies. A biographical event ects the man's welfare. Because it is of human interest, it not therefore necessarily of historical importance. An epitome of facts, a philosophy of events, or a body of biographical details is not a history, or a school history, how ever it may be entitled. History deals with events of general human interest, tracing them in their sequence and. Order, Show ing their causes and effects. History is essentially a method Of revealing the past by finding its truth and explaining it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.