HISTORY

In recent years, history readers have had a consistently good run of books. This year was below par in this field, but it produced a few standouts.

A STUDY OF HISTORY, VOLS. VII-X, by Arnold Toynbee, brought to an end the most massive and controver sial historical inquiry since Spengler. It saw the West in a time of troubles, on the brink of becoming part of a world state, and ended by affirming that man can control his earthly destiny, but only by earning the grace of God.

A HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES, by Steven Runciman. The third and last volume of the best written and most scholarly history of Christianity's greatest show of militant faith.

THE REASON WHY, by Cecil Woodham-Smith, told superbly the story of the charge of the Light Brigade and the incompetent, blundering commanders who consigned the unit to needless destruction. GREAT RIVER, by Paul Horgan, showed what can happen when a fine novelist with a sense of history tackles a congenial subject, in this case the story of the Rio Grande country from prehistoric time on.

TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES, by Randolph Paul. No light reading here, but an able, thorough discussion of the nation's tax problems and policies since the birth of the Republic.

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