13 OCTOBER 1928, Page 21

Some Books of the Week

The historically minded will find much to interest and more to annoy them in the two formidable volumes which Mr. Esme Wingfield-Stratford describes as The History of British Civilization (Routledge, 42s.). His book is not so much a narrative as a commentary. He has read widely though not deeply, and his statements of fact need thorough revision. He is mainly concerned to express his own views on the rightness or wrongness of historical personages and national movements, and his animadversions, in the eighteenth century manner, are sometimes entertaining. But to those who do not know their history Mr. Wingfield-Stratford is not a guide to be recommended.

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