Rise or Fall?

The book "The Rise of European Civilization," by Charles Seignobos is a piece of work that has qualities of a mathematical treatise or a very formal symphony or architectural construction, it is pure historical art. For that reason it will not be easy for the general public to read and while the translation deserves great praise, the fact that this volume is the result of translation is unlikely to increase its popular appeal. Seignobos is of course well aware that Hitlerist notions were rife in Germany long before 1914. In writing of Germany after 1870 he points out that nationalism there was consolidated into a pseudo-scientific doctrine based upon a confusion between race and language.