Hubert Howe Bancroft - Critique of production methods, Published works, Sources

Historian and publisher, born in Granville, Ohio, USA. Beginning as a bookseller in Buffalo, he founded his own lucrative publishing and mercantile house in San Francisco (1858). After collecting 60 000 source volumes, ‘The Macaulay of the West’, as he has been known, edited and published The Native Races of the Pacific States (1875), the first of his landmark History of the Pacific States of America (39 vols, 1875–1900). He continued publishing until 1916.

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Hubert Howe Bancroft (May 5, 1832–1918), an American historian and ethnologist, was born in Granville, Ohio. He also accumulated a great library of historical material, and eventually he gave up business to devote himself entirely to writing and publishing history.

In 1885 Bancroft purchased a ranch with an adobe home on it located in Spring Valley, in San Diego County, as a retirement home. It now is a National Historic Landmark.

Critique of production methods

Bancroft published a well-known group of local histories. Having formed a large collection of materials on the history of the Pacific coast, he then employed research and writing assistants to organize and produce statements of facts for large sections of a proposed general history. Overall, although Bancroft considered himself the author of the work, it is more accurate to consider him an editor and compiler.

Neither Bancroft, nor most of his assistants, had preparatory training sufficient to save them from pitfalls common to historical works of this period. Andrew Carnegie related in his autobiography that Bancroft's "History of the United States" was a book he had "studied with more care than any other book I had then read." Bancroft's response to Morgan's criticism suggests that he did not understand Morgan's theory, which now is generally accepted by scholars.

Published works

Native Races of the Pacific States (vols. 1–5, 1874) History of Central America (vols. 6–8, 1883–87) History of Mexico (vols. 9–14, 1883–87) History of the Northern Mexican States and Texas (vols. 15–16, 1884–89) History of Arizona and New Mexico (vol. 17, 1889) History of California (vols. 18–24, 1884–90) History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming (vol. 25, 1890) History of Utah (vol. 26, 1889) History of the North-West Coast (vols. 27–28, 1884) History of Oregon (vols. 29–30, 1886–88) History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana (vol. 31, 1890) History of British Columbia (vol. 32, 1887) History of Alaska (vol. 33, 1886) California Pastorals (vol. 34, 1888) California inter Pocula (vol. 35, 1888) Popular Tribunals (vols. 36–37, 1887) Essays and Miscellany (vol. 38, 1890) Literary Industries (vol. Book of the Fair Book of Wealth Resources of Mexico The New Pacific

Sources

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21) (VOLUME XVII.