"Professor Hughes offers an earnest 'Unless there is some emotional tie, some elective affinity linking the student to his subject of study, the results will be pedantic and perfunctory.' In other words, it is only a step from the sublime to the meticulous. Those eager to guard against that sad descent will find History as Art and as Science a guide, a tonic, and an inspiration. Its short, electrifying essays are so magnificently sane and persuasive they should be required reading for every student who contemplates a major in history."—Geoffrey Bruun, Saturday Review
He's quite clever, and consciously liberal, which is better than most of his colleagues back then. He was also reading Erikson, and shows that psychoanalysis can be applied to the writing of history. The example is that many of the Nazi leaders were Catholics, had lost their faith, and were looking for a new one.