Excerpt from The United States, a Graphic History

In other words, this vast, potential reading public has not been reading serious books, particularly of the non-fiction variety. Why is this? One may hazard a number of reasons. First, perhaps, is to be noted the fact that serious non-fiction books heretofore have been written as a rule for that highly trained minority which has had a university education or its equivalent. Such books too often have employed the special vocabularies to which even the social sciences have succumbed. Also, more frequently than not, books have not been basic books; that is to say, they have assumed a familiarity with underlying assumptions and have taken up a tale which started somethose who have not had university educations. Its text is brief it is not more than words in length. The visual aids it employs, pictorial statistics in this case, are an integral part Of the book rather than simply illustrative material. Mechanically, the book is everything one might wish: its type-face is clear and easy to read; the book's bulk is not excessive; and its price is low.

It has been said that the pictorial statistics in The United States: A Graphic History are as much a part of the work as the text itself. Indeed, the reader may obtain a fairly good notion of the nature of the economic develop ment Of the United States, historically conceived either by reading the text alone continuously or by consulting the charts Without any reference to the text at all. But he is likely to get a fuller and more rounded presentation one that ordinarily could have been achieved (through the printed word alone) only in a text four or five times the length of that employed here by a reading Of brief chapters and accompanying charts together. The text, in effect, plays a. Dual role: it is a continuous narrative and at the same time each chapter is explanatory Of the chart associated with it.

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