Professor Bryce's work rises at once to an eminent place among studies of great nations and their institutions. It is, so far as America goes, a work unique in scope, spirit, and knowledge. There is nothing like it anywhere extant, nothing that approaches it. Without exaggeration, it may be called the most considerable and gratifying tribute that has yet been bestowed upon America by an Englishman, and, perhaps, by even England herself. . . . One despairs in an attempt to give an adequate account of a work so infused with knowledge and sparkling with Suggestion. Every thoughtful American will read it, and will long hold in grateful remembrance its author's name. It is a work that takes instant rank as the keenest critique and most trustworthy description of America's social and political life and is recognized as the most remarkable among English books for the accuracy of its statements, its fairness of judgment, and its clearness of comprehension. Written with full knowledge by a distinguished Englishman to dispel vulgar prejudices and to help kindred people to understand each other better, Prof. Bryce's work is in a sense an embassy of peace, a message of good-will from one nation to another. This is volume one out of four, "The National Government".

"The Notes from the Editors accompanying Volume I of Bryce's The American Commonwealth deal with Bryce's life. Those accompanying Volume II deal with the work itself, and contain the bibliographic note."--Publisher

Professor Bryce’s work rises at once to an eminent place among studies of great nations and their institutions. It is, so far as America goes, a work unique in scope, spirit, and knowledge. There is nothing like it anywhere extant, nothing that approaches it. Without exaggeration, it may be called the most considerable and gratifying tribute that has yet been bestowed upon America by an Englishman, and, perhaps, by even England herself. . . . One despairs in an attempt to give an adequate account of a work so infused with knowledge and sparkling with Suggestion. Every thoughtful American will read it, and will long hold in grateful remembrance its author’s name. It is a work that takes instant rank as the keenest critique and most trustworthy description of America’s social and political life and is recognized as the most remarkable among English books for the accuracy of its statements, its fairness of judgment, and its clearness of comprehension. Written with full knowledge by a distinguished Englishman to dispel vulgar prejudices and to help kindred people to understand each other better, Prof. Bryce’s work is in a sense an embassy of peace, a message of good-will from one nation to another. This is volume two out of four, “The State Governments”.

First published in 1888, The American Commonwealth was an instant classic, a three-volume set discussing the political structure of American society, its legal system, and its people with an analysis that is both broad and in-depth. Volume I covers the Constitution and the American political system. It discusses the structure of American government and the ways in which the living American government as an entity responds to crisis. The possibilities and power struggles inherent in the American system of government are examined and documented with a fair hand. Bryce goes into further detail about state constitutions and the differing legal structures that exist on a more local level. Anyone with an interest in politics or American history will find Bryce's commentary penetratingly insightful. British historian VISCOUNT JAMES BRYCE (1838-1922) attended the University of Glasgow and Trinity College, Oxford. He is best known for his scholarship of the Holy Roman Empire. His popular works include Studies in History and Jurisprudence (1901) and Studies in Contemporary Biography (1903).

An NPR Book of the Year At the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States was one of the world's richest, most populous, most technologically advanced nations. It was also a nation divided along numerous fault lines, with conflicting aspirations and concerns pulling it in different directions. And it was a nation unsure about the role it wanted to play in the world, if any. Americans were the beneficiaries of a global order they had no responsibility for maintaining. Many preferred to avoid being drawn into what seemed an ever more competitive, conflictual, and militarized international environment. However, many also were eager to see the United States taking a share of international responsibility, working with others to preserve peace and advance civilization. The story of American foreign policy in the first four decades of the twentieth century is about the effort to do both - "to adjust the nation to its new position without sacrificing the principles developed in the past," as one contemporary put it. This would prove a difficult task. The collapse of British naval power, combined with the rise of Germany and Japan, suddenly placed the United States in a pivotal position. American military power helped defeat Germany in the First World War, and the peace that followed was significantly shaped by a U.S. president. But Americans recoiled from their deep involvement in world affairs, and for the next two decades, they sat by as fascism and tyranny spread unchecked, ultimately causing the liberal world order to fall apart. America's resulting intervention in the Second World War marked the beginning of a new era, for the United States and for the world. Brilliant and insightful, The Ghost at the Feast shows both the perils of American withdrawal from the world and the price of international responsibility.