A History of Europe by H. A. L. FisherReview by: J. E. PomfretThe American Historical Review, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Oct., 1936), pp. 107-109Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1840287 .

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Fisher: History of Europe 107

ment appears to be more categorical than the evidence warrants. Possibly "heresy all but disappeared from among clergy and people alike" in Eng- land by the middle of the fifteenth century (p. 226), but this conclusion is not universally accepted by students of the subject, and an exploration of the English episcopal registers which still repose in manuscript might over- throw it. Evidence which has been overlooked might have caused the qual- ification of some assertions. The acceptance of Adams's view that the rep- resentatives who met at Westminister in 1254 merely reported the actions of local assemblies (p. 99) makes the development of representation in Eng- land appear to be unduly late (Pasquet, An Essay on the Origins of the House of Commons, pp. 67-70; Persecution and Liberty: Essays in Honor of George Lincoln Burr, pp. 142-144), and the failure to note the possibility that Henry II may have convened a representative assembly in England as early as iI88 (Facts and Factors in Economic History: Articles by former Stu- dents of Edwin Francis Gay, PP. 71, 72) impairs somewhat the force of the claim that "chronologically speaking, Spain is 'the mother of parliaments'" (p. 73). Some of the few mistakes noted are insignificant. Though it is twice implied that the papacy made general levies of annates before 1306 (pp. 42, 43, 184), in neither instance does the implication affect the validity of the general conclusion with which it is associated. Indeed, the mature soundness of the author's historical judgment is nowhere displayed to better advantage than in the skill with which he has avoided both the pitfalls set for the unwary by some of his sources and the serious errors which the very nature of his task rendered it easy to make. Professor Cheyney has accom- plished one of the most difficult tasks which the historian can undertake: he has characterized the life of a period with brevity, with charming simplicity and clarity of style, and without any serious sacrifice of the historical truth of which he has so long been the stanchest of exponents.

HIIerford College. W. E. LUNT.

MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY

A History of Europe. By H. A. L. FISHER, Warden of New College, Oxford. Volume II, Renaissance, Reformation, Reason; volume III, The Liberal Experiment. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1935; 1936. Pp. x, 435-8IO, xvii; xii, 8I1-1271, XViii. $4.oo each.) In any general history above the purely informative level the selection

and presentation of material weigh heavily in the reader's mind. To these volumes even the specialist may turn with some promise of profit, for Mr. Fisher reveals on the whole a fine sense of proportion combined with econ- omy of statement. In his patient exposition of the history of Europe no credo is developed, and his refreshing faith in liberalism, democracy, and internationalism carries no bias. His survey, if anything, confirms a

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Io8 Reviews of Books

belief in the painful hesitancy of social development through the ages. The second volume covers the ground from the Renaissance to the

French Revolution. How a society divided between lay and cleric gave way to one divided into rich and poor, and how an atmosphere hostile to free inquiry was supplanted by one in which science could live and mature, are the threads that one may trace through the author's account of the Renais- sance, the Reformation, and the rise of Rationalism. The appearance of a new body of knowledge, wholly divorced from commentaries and glosses, and arising from wider geographical horizons and a closer interrogation of nature, had two important consequences. A cultural effulgence originating in Italy, the Renaissance, constituted one; the other was a challenge to the Church Universal and the Empire. Out of a prolonged struggle, in which ideals all but vanished, came Protestantism and the national state. Neither was a real solution, and Europe, as usual, had missed an opportunity. Still compensations were found in sectarianism, the bridge of faith, Calvinist virtue, Milton and Bach, and, for humble folk, the Bible and church music. National government was superior to feudal license, but it was also the spearhead of power politics, adaptable equally in dynastic, commercial, or imperialistic rivalries.

Political history receives its due share of attention in chapters dealing with the rise of the Dutch Republic, Spain and England, Mazarin, the English Revolution, Louis XIV, Sweden, Turkey, Russia, Prussia, and the wars of the eighteenth century. In treating the American Revolution, Mr. Fisher sees nothing outrageous in taxing colonists for colonial defense but condemns as folly the manner in which the ministry pursued the issue of taxation and adds that the conduct of the war was no less unfortunate than the policy which made war inevitable. French intervention, providential for America, was suicidal for Louis XVI because "the spectacle of republicanism trium- phant and monarchy overthrown kindled in every forward-reaching mind in France the vision of a Europe remade after the new American pattern of republican liberty". The volume closes with the Industrial Revolution, whose advent Adam Smith saluted so exuberantly but whose results Marx was later to examine so pessimistically.

The final volume is devoted to the French Revolution, the nationalist movements, and the Great War and its aftermath. To show how civil, polit- ical, and religious freedom became firmly established in Britain, the Do- minions, France, Holland, the Scandinavian countries, and the United States, is Mr. Fisher's task. From Mirabeau to Bismarck the narrative fol- lows well-defined channels. Praiseworthy are policies calculated to benefit mankind, such as social amelioration and abolition of the slave traffic; stupid, the system whereby a few misguided men such as Bismarck, Gra- mont, Aehrenthal, Isvolski, and Berchtold could commit whole nations to slaughter. In assessing responsibility for the World War Mr. Fisher blames

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D'Irsay: Histoire des universites 109

Berchtold for persisting in punitive measures, Germany for not putting on the brakes, and Nicholas II for allowing his general staff to run away with him. In his epilogue, he adds: "The tragedy of the Great War was that it was fought between the most highly civilized peoples in Europe on an issue which a few level-headed men could easily have composed". Mr. Fisher reiterates (pp. 858, iI69, r i86) that when America joined the war she threw freedom of the seas to the winds, but he neglects to add that the ignoring of this question in i9I9 stimulated the building of a navy capable of enforc- ing its rights in the future.

The substance of the peace treaties was dictated by "inexorable facts" which Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and Wilson were compelled to accept. Taking into consideration all their shortcomings, of which he is fully aware, Mr. Fisher praises the new political boundaries, "so drawn that three per cent only of the total population of the Continent live under alien rule". Of the League he says that "it offers the world as much world-government as the world can stand". As a historical philosopher who has faithfully ac- counted for many wasted generations of effort, Mr. Fisher expects but lit- tle of today. Yet he probably indulges the hopes so well expressed by Briand at the false Locarno: "Nous avons parle europeen. C'est une langue nouvelle qu'il faudra bien que l'on apprenne."

Princeton University. J. E. POMFRET.

Histoire des universites franfaises et etrangeres. Par STEPHEN D'IRSAY. Tome II, lJu XVIe siecle a i86o. (Paris: Auguste Picard. 1935. PP. vi, 451.

55 fr.) This second volume of D'Irsay's magnum opus (the first, which appeared

in 1933, was reviewed in this journal, XXXIX, 30r-303) is unfortunately incomplete. His sudden and premature death in November, I934, at the age of forty, brought the work to a close with i86o instead of our own time and deprived us of the last six projected chapters-say 150 pages of text-which were to be devoted chiefly to the non-European universities, especially those of the United States, to relations with the great public, to the effects of the World War, and to conclusions forecasted in his first volume. The lack of a chapter on our universities is particularly regrettable, for D'Irsay came from Budapest to this country in I92I and taught in several of our great medical schools, and his occasional "asides" indicate that he had something to say about our institutions of higher learning.

The promised bibliography and index are most praiseworthy. The for- mer contains, the prefatory note tells us, in the neighborhood of four thou- sand titles, and each entry gives reference to the pages of both volumes in which it is cited. The bibliography is a modern mine of information on its subject. The index is analytical for persons, places, and subjects; it seems complete and accurate; and it enables the consultant to find, I had almost

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