Although not neglecting material equipment with all it means in a modern high school, it is gratifying to find it completely subordinated to the living, active side of the institution, the teacher, the principal and the pupil. His treatment of principal and of pupil reveals true pedagogical insight and genuine sympathy, but it is the teacher for whom he cherishes such advanced ideals of academic and professional training, of personality, and of experience, that he characterizes as “by all odds, the most influential factor in high school education.” The real heart and life of the school is reached in the keen and suggestive discussions of the class exercise, character-forming government, and the recently-conceived possibilities of social development, with its numerous and serious problems, one of which only is the secret society. There is inspiration in the high ideals of the relations between high school and community. For many reasons given, it is a timely topic for teachers and parents, and when even partially realized will aid in the solution of present problems and help to determine future development, two questions, whose impartial and fundamental treatment is a real stimulus and a safe guide. This book deserves wide reading for many reasons. It is encouraging in spirit, but fearless in criticism, which is everywhere constructive; its style is simple and direct throughout, thus adapting itself to the attention of parents and school boards as well as the profession; it deals with questions vital to both large and small schools; its bibliographies and illustrative material in the appendices are pilots on a vast sea; and a careful reading will result in a greatly-increased faith in the present high value and the boundless future possibilities which the author cherishes in such large measure for the American high school. [“The American High School.” By John Franklin Brown, Ph.D. The Macmillan Co., 1909.] * * * * * NOTES. Professor Henry L. Cannon, of Leland Stanford Junior University, has in preparation for early publication by Ginn & Co. a book of reading references for English history, in which upon a great many topics of English history he will give references to over fifteen hundred books upon English history. Professor Allen C. Thomas, of Haverford College, is preparing for publication by D. C. Heath & Co. a new text-book in English history, which will follow the principles already applied by the author in his School History of the United States. Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer has published through the Macmillan Co. the first part of her comprehensive work upon the history of the city of New York. The first two volumes deal with the history of the city in the seventeenth century. * * * * * Make Your Own Series