Preserved Smith (1880 1941), a professor in the history department of Cornell University, owed his unusual first name to Puritan ancestors who could be traced back to the seventeenth century. His great interest was in the Protestant reformation, and its wide-ranging political and cultural effects in Europe and America. An obituary remarks that his writings 'reveal a remarkable breadth of knowledge and interest and a consistent devotion to high standards of scholarly integrity'. This two-volume work of 1930 4, discussing 'modern culture' from 1543 to 1776, displays these qualities in...

Preserved Smith (1880 1941), a professor in the history department of Cornell University, owed his unusual first name to Puritan ancestors who could be traced back to the seventeenth century. His great interest was in the Protestant reformation, and its wide-ranging political and cultural effects in Europe and America. An obituary remarks that his writings 'reveal a remarkable breadth of knowledge and interest and a consistent devotion to high standards of scholarly integrity'. This two-volume work of 1930 4, discussing 'modern culture' from 1543 to 1776, displays these qualities in...

The best excuse for writing the history of anything is the intrinsic interest of the subject. Most men of past generations have thought, and many men still think, of politics as the warp and woof of social life. History for a long time therefore treated chiefly politics. Then came the economists to arouse the interest of scholars and of the public in the production and distribution of wealth. Economic history rightly absorbs much attention, for it illumines, with its new searchlight, many a dark corner of the past, and explains many features of present-day society. But to many men today...