George Bancroft: Master Historian.

Bancroft's ten-volume History of the United States from the Discovery of the Continent contains an inherent contradiction. This essay explores Bancroft's attempts to reconcile two contradictory points of view--the universality of human nature and his belief that nations developed their own distinctive values or ethos, Bancroft seemed to want it both ways: Americans shared a common human nature with all others, and yet they became something quite different historically. How could this be?