Nietzsche

Present biographical series, initiated by the volume on JL Nietzsche by Crane Brinton, has no intention of offering to the public once again the biographies of men which appear with almost monotonous regularity Napoleon, Cavour, Gladstone, Marx. It proposes instead to present the lives of men for whom there is no biography, or no adequate biography in English. At the same time these biographies will deal with men who left a significant impress on their age, men who may properly be considered as Makers of Modern Europe. Contributors will be invited to keep steadily before them the view that serious historical biography involves constantly the relation of its subject to his historical context. They will expose in adequate detail the problems with which the statesman dealt, the significant contributions which the thinker made. They will address themselves constantly to the question What was the significance of this man for his epoch The conception and development of the present series owes much to the counsel of others and especially of those here men tioned. I have consulted repeatedly various ones of my col leagues at Harvard, and have had the helpful advice of Professor Charles K. Webster of the University of London, Professors Carl L. Becker and Philip E. Mosely of Cornell, Pro fessors Arthur M. Wilson of Dartmouth and Chester W. Clark of the University of Iowa, and Drs. Edgar P. Dean and Robert G. Woolbert of the Council on Foreign Relations. In this, as in viii