ÉTATS-UNIS
187
in the movement, of the frontier and of colonial history as imperial rather than local to alter traditional interpretations profoundly. The emphasis placed upon it today does not, interestingly enough, arise out of the United States having found herself possessed of an empire upon the conclusion the Spanish War or out of her spectacular success in imperialistic adventures since. The American people are not colonially minded. They betray but slight concern over their distant holdings, calmly ignore them as fields for investment, and dream of neither colonial careers nor settlement overseas. The phrases " American empire " and " American colonies " are never heard. The man in the street would, indeed, vehemently deny the very existence of either and would find himself hard put to name the territories under national control, let alone define the exact relations existing between the mĂŠtropole and any given one. The explanation is rather to be found in the triumph of the so-called new, or integral history. When exclusively political narratives of European affairs were cast aside and social, economic and cultural factors were given their proper share of attention, the importance of the spread of occidental peoples in shaping old world civilization became readily apparent. The matter has received adequate recognition in all recent modern history texts and some, such as Abbott's Expansion of Europe and Gillespie's History of Europe, 1500-1815, find their central theme in it. Inevitably, detailed attention came to be paid to the founding of new societies, the adaptation of homeland institutions to strange environments and the growth of divergent cultures there. In consequence, lectures on colonial history are now being offered in almost every American university and contributions to the literature of the subject are appearing in unparalleled number. No adequate survey of the colonial movement as a whole has yet appeared in the United States and a comprehensive treatise on the rule of outlying possessions still remains to be