温馨提示：该书已有译者，路过请绕道哦~~~ Industrial and Social History of England eastern parts of England. The softer strata have been worn away into great broad valleys, furnishing the central and eastern plains or lowlands of the country. The rivers of the south and of the far north run for the most part by short and direct courses to the sea. The rivers of the midlands are much longer and larger. As a result of the gradual sinking of the island, in recent geological periods the sea has extended some distance up the course of these rivers, making an almost unbroken series of estuaries along the whole coast. The climate of England is milder and more equable than is indicated by the latitude, which is that of Labrador in the western hemisphere and of Prussia and central Russia on the Continent of Europe. This is due to the fact that the Gulf Stream flows around its southern and western shores, bringing warmth and a superabundance of moisture from the southern Atlantic. These physical characteristics have been of immense influence on the destinies of England. Her position was far on the outskirts of the world as it was known to ancient and mediaeval times, and England played a correspondingly inconspicuous part during those periods. In the habitable world as it has been known since the fifteenth century, on the other hand, that position is a distinctly central one, open alike to the eastern and the western hemisphere, to northern and southern lands. Her situation of insularity and at the same time of proximity to the Continent laid her open to frequent invasion in early times, but after she secured a navy made her singularly safe from subjugation. It made the development of many of her institutions tardy, yet at the same time gave her the opportunity to borrow pnd assimilate what she would from the customs of foreign nations.

Edward Potts Cheyney, A.M., LL.D. (1861–1947) was an American historical and economic writer, born at Wallingford, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1883. He visited German universities and studied at the British Museum. The University of Pennsylvania conferred the degree of LL.D. on him in 1911. His writings were employed as college textbooks. They include: Social Changes in England in the Sixteenth Century (1896) Social and Industrial History of England (1901) Short History of England (1904) European Background of American History (1904) Readings in English History (1908) A History of England, from the Defeat of the Armada to the Death of Elizabeth (two volumes; volume i, 1914)