A Short History Of England is a book written by G. K. Chesterton which has a beginning of the popular histories are all, nearly without exception, written against the people, and in them, the populace is either ignored or elaborately proved to have been wrong. Green's "A Short History of the English People" seems to have been thought too short for the people to be properly mentioned. There is much in contemporary literature for portraits of men like Henry II. or Edward I, but this did not seem to have been found or even sought. A popular Encyclopedia appeared some years ago, professing among other things to teach English History to the masses. It would be absurd to pretend to have achieved proportion, but the author will confess to some attempt to correct a disproportion. English history is misread especially, he thinks because the crisis is missed. It is usually put about the period of the Stuarts, and many of the memorials suffer from the same visitation. The House of Commons became, for good or evil, a great organ of government, surviving the Church, the monarchy, and the mob; it did many great and not a few good things.
