Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/16

vi Christian Church, and some mention of it has to be made in almost every chapter.

Inasmuch as emigrants from all parts and from all races of Europe have long since been coming to the United States and becoming American citizens, it has seemed worth while to include the states and racial groups of central and eastern Europe, as well as the richer medieval history of those western European lands whose institutions and culture have thus far had the greatest influence upon our own.

In conformity with present tendencies in historical writing, economic and social conditions are given due attention, and many minor details of military and political history are omitted. In these days of tottering thrones I have even ventured to lay the axe at the root of absolutism and to dispense with genealogical tables. Contemporary events sadly remind us that the age of wars is not past; but they have also demonstrated that an intensive study of Cæsar's Commentaries and the tactics of Hastings and Crécy is of little use even to the modern military specialist; while they have further reminded us that in the art of the past there are precious models and inspirations, whose loss is almost irreparable. Since man is a reasoning and emotional being, it is unfair to the past actors and uninteresting to the present readers of history merely to chronicle events without some indication of the ideas and ideals behind them as well as of the personalities that produced them. But discussion of economic and intellectual influences should not be carried so far as to reduce the narrative of events in political history to a mere skeleton. If wars and politics are to be discussed at all, they should be treated with sufficient fullness to insure clearness and interest.

The background of physical geography is frequently referred to and described. In the maps the aim has been to omit confusing detail and to keep them in close accord with the text. As a rule all places mentioned in the text and no others are given in the accompanying maps. Considerable space has been devoted to the Roman Empire, its civilization, and its decline, and to the early history of the