Chapter Chapter 6 of Index by Simonds History of American Literature

1885, the historian completed a revision of his work, and condensed the narrative within the limits of six volumes. Bancroft's History has always been recognized as a work of value, although it does not hold a place in literature with those of Parkman, Motley, and Prescott. Its author was a stanch Democrat, and this political bias is obvious in the work. Richard Hildreth (1807-1865), also a citizen of Massachusetts, and a Whig, produced a History of the United States (1849-1852) in six volumes; it does not measure up to the standard of Bancroft's work. A scholarly History of New England (1858) by John Gorham Palfrey (1796-1881), and two noteworthy volumes dealing with the history of Louisiana (1851-1852) by Charles Étienne Gayarré (1805-1895) may well be mentioned here, although local rather than national in scope. The youngest, and not the least important among recent historical writers in this field is John Fiske (1842-1901), a brilliant and popular essayist upon philosophical and religious themes, whose first historical study, The Critical Period of American History, appeared in 1888. Jared Sparks (1789-1866) was a pioneer in the field of national biography. Sparks was a Unitarian clergyman, a professor of history at Harvard, and president of that college. He wrote the lives of Washington and Franklin and edited their writings: the Washington, in 1834-1838, the Franklin, in 1836-1840. He also edited a great Library of American Biography in twenty-five volumes which was completed in 1848.

Authorities

The student is referred to the William Hickling Prescott, by Rollo Ogden, and the Francis Parkman, by Henry D. Sedgwick, in the American Men of Letters Series. The Life of Motley, by his close friend, Oliver Wendell Holmes, is the best available biography at present.