Page:Source Problems in English History.djvu/23



WENTY years ago the value of the use of sources in teaching history was generally recognized. But usually only detached fragments were employed, and these served only to interest the student and to vivify the narrative. There were a few exceptions, such as some of the numbers in the series of Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, published by the University of Pennsylvania. Even these, however, did not furnish any setting for the problem, or suggest the important questions which were to be solved. Consequently the average teacher was not able to employ such material to the best advantage. When the first volume in this series, by Duncalf and Krey, was published, a very important advance was made. For then there was a sufficient amount of apparatus to enable teachers to use the material in a satisfactory manner. One keen reviewer wrote, “The thorough carrying out of the method even in this small field will afford critical training such as few students of history, we fear, now get in either