The existence of so large a body of Negroes who already had the rudiments of an education goes far to account for the rapid growth of schools as soon as the Negroes were made free, and especially for that eagerness that was shown for advanced learning which made an almost immediate demand for secondary schools and colleges at the more important centers of population throughout the South. The people had received, in some way or other, a love of education and a start in obtaining it under the old slave system, so that when the new chance came they were ready to make a good use of it. G. S. DICKERMAN. BOOK REVIEWS _The Centennial History of Illinois, Volume III. The Era of the Civil War 1848-1870._ By ARTHUR CHARLES COLE. The Illinois Centennial Commission, Springfield, Illinois, 1919. This volume of this work deals with the period of the most dramatic history of the State. After discussing the frontier and the rise of railroads, the author directs his attention to the agitation and compromise of 1850, the origin of the Republican party, the Lincoln-Douglass Debates, the election of 1860, the appeal to arms, the war in Illinois, new abolitionists and copperheads, and the war in its relation to agriculture and the industrial revolution. The book is illustrated with such portraits as those of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglass, Lyman Trumbull and Richard Yates. There are maps showing the foreign-born population in 1860, the presidential election in 1848, the vote for treasurer in 1854, the vote for congressmen in 1858, the vote on the constitution in 1862, the vote for congressmen-at-large in 1860, and the presidential election in 1868. The volume closes with an adequate bibliography and a useful index. As a book on the Civil War is not uncommon, one does not ordinarily expect many things new from such a volume inasmuch as most of them cover familiar ground. In connecting the history of Illinois with the national drama of Civil War, however, the author has brought forward facts which, although belonging to local history, have a national significance and historians will make use of them, although they will not agree with him in all of his views. The scientific use which he has made of the newspaper material of that day is especially commendable. He has, moreover, shown that this history was as economic as political. Good farms and roads figured as conspicuously as efficient generals and wise statesmen.