THE RELATION OF AMERICAN HISTORY TO OTHER 

 FIELDS OF HISTORICAL STUDY 



BY EDWARD GAYLORD BOURNE 



[Edward Gaylord Bourne, Professor of History, Yale University, since 1895. b. 

 June 24, 1860, Strykersville, New York. B.A. Yale, 1883; Ph.D. ibid., 1892. 

 Lecturer on Political Science and Instructor in History, Yale University, 

 1886-88; Instructor in History, Adelbert College, 1888-90; Professor of 



History, ibid. 1890-95; Professor of History, Yale University, 1895 . 



Member of Council of American Historical Association; Member of American 

 Antiquarian Society; Corresponding Member of the Massachusetts Historical 

 Society. Author of History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837; Essays in Histor- 

 ical Criticism; Spain in America; Historical Introduction to " The Philippine 

 Islands"; Editor of Narratives of Hernando deSoto; Voyages and Explora- 

 tion* of Champlain.] 



LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, The subject assigned for the second 

 paper this morning is the Relation of American History to Other 

 Fields of Historical Study, and the officers of the Congress had most 

 appropriately selected Professor Hart of Harvard University to 

 discuss this theme. That he has found it impracticable to be here 

 owing to a pressure of other work is to be regretted for many reasons. 

 It was, indeed, most fitting that the institution which was the pioneer 

 in this country in developing systematic historical studies as a part 

 of its curriculum, and which is still the leader in that work . should 

 be represented at this gathering; nor was it less suitable that the 

 man to represent Harvard and the study of American history should 

 be the one upon whom as an organizer of historical labors has fallen 

 the mantle of Justin Winsor. 



In our common usage, the content of the term American history 

 embraces the history of the discovery of the New World, a most 

 cursory glance at the Spanish Conquest, the colonization of the 

 eastern coast by the English, the American Revolution, and the 

 political history of the United States. Such a restriction of meaning 

 is a natural outgrowth of circumstances in this country. 



In this place, however, near the centre of the continent first 

 explored by the Spaniards, on the great river discovered by De Soto, 

 and not so very many hours' ride from a point reached by Coronado 

 from the shores of the Pacific over three hundred and sixty years 

 ago, so narrow a construction of American history may rightly give 

 way to one which assigns to the Spanish American world a position 

 more truly in accord with its real historical significance in the history 

 of the race. It is the relation of American history in this broader 

 sense, the history of the activities and achievements of Europeans 

 in the New World, to the history of Europe and the history of the 

 United States, to which I invite your attention. 



