These citations also mention a few of the more accessible sources, which should be used solely for purposes of illustration.
It is the custom in many schools to spread the study of American history over two years, and to devote the first year to a detailed study of the period before 1760.

This is a very bad arrangement.

In the first place, it gives an undue emphasis to the colonial period; in the second place, as many pupils never return to school, they never have an opportunity to study the later period at all; in the third place, it prevents those pupils who complete this study from gaining an intelligent view of the development of the American people.

And, finally, most of the time the second year is spent in the study of the Revolutionary War and of the War for the Union.

A better way would be to go over the whole book the first year with some parallel reading, and the second year to review the book and study with greater care important episodes, as the making of the Constitution, the struggle for freedom in the territories, and the War for the Union.