BR TO W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. / WARDER NORTON, 23 MAR. 1942
BRACERS 47412. ALS. Norton papers, Columbia U.
Proofread by K. Blackwell and A. Duncan

<letterhead>
Little Datchet Farm
Malvern R.D. 1
Pennsylvania1
March 23, 1942

Dear Warder

I enclose a “puff” of Burns’s book,2 which I have read with the greatest interest. I will return it in a day or two when I have had time to make a few notes on it. I hope when it is published you will let me have a copy.

It has some defects. There is much repetition, e.g. the statement that the Bishop of Rome was the only Patriarch in the West occurs much too often. The slogan “No bishop, no king” is wrongly attributed to James II instead of Charles I. I have noted a few small inaccuracies which he would no doubt have corrected.

I can appreciate the book because almost all books on the period are ecclesiastical and therefore biassed. It is a valuable contribution to an important subject.

I will write on other topics soon.

Yours sincerely
Bertrand Russell —

THE FIRST EUROPE by C. Delisle Burns is a book of great interest and great importance. It deals with the period from 400 to 800 A.D., which is very little studied, and on which very few good books exist. Yet in this period were founded the institutions of mediaeval Europe, many of which persisted till quite modern times. The subject is treated with a wealth of knowledge, but not with the aloofness of mere erudition; everything is related to human problems which are still important at the present day. The conflict of an old and feeble civilization with the vigorous and brutal barbarians, with the consequent changes in the lives of ordinary men and women; the transition from an urban slave-economy built on imperial trade to a rural serf-economy in which almost all production was for local needs; the decay of culture, the growth of anarchy (?), and the gradual emergence of new centers of social cohesion; all this is better told than in any other book known to me. To any one who wishes to understand Europe, both mediaeval and modern, the book is invaluable.

Bertrand Russell

• 1

  [document] Proofread against a microfilm printout of the original.

• 2

  “puff” of Burns’s book The puff is transcribed here from a typed version that has a query.