GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



The United States, with an Excursion into Mexico. Handbook for Travel- 

 lers. Edited by Karl Baedeker. Pp. c + 579, with 19 maps and 

 24 plans. Second revised edition. Leipsic: Karl Baedeker. 1899. 

 Sole agents for the United States : Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 

 §3.60 net. 

 To those who are not already familiar with Baedeker's famous guide 

 books no brief review of this, his latest and perhaps his most successful 

 volume, will convey any adequate idea of the prodigious amount of in- 

 formation that has been compressed into it or of the judgment and skill 

 with which the attractions of the countiy for the traveler are set forth. 

 Opening the volume at random, one is at once struck by the clearness 

 and beauty of the maps and plans which accompany the descriptions of 

 the principal cities, mountains, and other places of interest, even to bat- 

 tlefields and public buildings. The minuteness of the information con- 

 cerning routes of travel, hotels, restaurants, and theaters creates almost 

 as instantaneous and favorable an impression, while upon closer exami- 

 nation the wealth of information brought together and the remarkable 

 discriminating intelligence displayed in the enumeration of the different 

 objects of interest come as the crowning surprise to those who have no 

 previous knowledge of the thoroughness which is characteristic of a 

 Baedeker guide book. No other publication, great or small, can compare 

 with this little volume as a compendium of information concerning the 

 United States, and, guide book though it is, there is no school library in 

 the country too well equipped to find it a useful acquisition. J. H. 



The Races of Europe- By William Z. Ripley, Ph. D., Assistant Professor 

 of Sociology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lecturer on 

 Anthropology at Columbia University. New York : D. Appleton & 

 Company. 1899. $6. 

 This book is a monument of careful and profound scholarship. There 

 is nothing about it superficial. Whether the reader agrees with or dis- 

 sents from its arguments and conclusions, he will carry throughout its 

 perusal a sympathetic and never-abating admiration for its honesty of 

 purpose and for the wide learning of its author. 



In the preface Professor Ripley states that his aim has been " to co- 

 ordinate, illustrate, and interpret the vast mass of original material" 

 concerning race or physical relationship which has been accumulated by 

 investigators and observers in all parts of Europe. In the oriental tale 

 the Persian khan imposes upon his librarian the task of reducing to a 

 single volume the many hundred manuscripts of his library, and at the 

 same time of omitting nothing which those many manuscripts contain. 

 A task as immense this author imposes upon himself. Too high tribute 

 cannot be paid to the conscientious faithfulness with which he has per- 

 formed his task. It is manifest on every page and in every line. The 



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