hat I could
have made the book a better one if I had been able to give more time to
revising my studies. Yet I believe that the story told here is
substantially true; and I am very sure that it is worth the telling.

If I am asked why I think it desirable at this moment to attempt,
however inadequately, a history of our latest Ally, I answer that at
this moment the whole future of our civilization may depend upon a
thoroughly good understanding between those nations which are now joined
in battle for its defence, and that ignorance of each other's history is
perhaps the greatest menace to such an understanding. To take one
instance at random--how many English writers have censured, sometimes in
terms of friendly sorrow, sometimes in a manner somewhat pharisaical,
the treatment of Negroes in Southern States in all its phases, varying
from the provision of separate waiting-rooms to sporadic outbreaks of
lynching! How few ever mention, or seem to have even heard the word
"Reconstruction"--a word which, in its historical connotation, explains
all!

I should, perhaps, add a word to those Americans who may chance to read
this book. To them, of course, I must offer a somewhat different
apology. I believe that, with all my limitations, I can tell my
fellow-countrymen things about the history of America which they do not
know. It would be absurd effrontery to pretend that I can tell Americans
what they do not know. For them, whatever interest this book may possess
must depend upon the value of a foreigner's interpretation of the facts.
I know that I should be extraordinarily interested in an American's view
of the story of England since the Separation; and I can only hope that
some degree of such interest may attach to these pages in American eyes.

It will be obvious to Americans that in some respects my view of their
history is individual. For instance, I give Andrew Jackson both a
greater place in the development of American democracy and a higher meed
of personal praise than do most modern American historians and writers
whom I have read. I give my judgment for what it is worth. In my view,
the victory of Jackson over the Whigs was the turning-point of American
history and finally decided that the United States should be a democracy
and not a parliamentary oligarchy. And I am further of opinion that,
both as soldier and ruler, "Old Hickory" was a hero of whom any nation
might well be proud.

I am afraid that some offence