Editing Hubert Howe Bancroft (section)

===Note on production methods===
Bancroft made use of [[index card]]s in the organization and compilation of facts for his lengthy and massive series of historical volumes.<ref name=Chron /> In the course of his organization of source material and writing, Bancroft made use of scores of research assistants, the contributions of some of whom amounted to the output of co-writers.<ref name=Chron />

Originally he seems to have intended to use topical sections of writing produced by his assistants as the basis of a broad narrative which he himself would write, but as the work progressed he came to use the statements as they were, with only slight changes. He said his assistants were capable investigators, and there is evidence that some of them deserved his confidence; [[Frances Fuller Victor]], in particular, was a well-known author. However, his failure to acknowledge each contribution created doubt about the quality of the work. Overall, although Bancroft considered himself the author of his works, in contemporary terms it is more accurate to consider him an editor and compiler.<ref>[https://mythebookofwealth.wordpress.com/2015/02/19/biography-of-hubert-how-bancroft/ "Hubert Howe Bancroft – Author or Editor?"], March 12, 2011. Retrieved November 10, 2013.</ref>

Neither Bancroft, nor most of his assistants, had enough training to avoid stating their personal opinions and enthusiasms, but their works were generally well received in their time. Historian [[Francis Parkman]] praised Bancroft's ''The Native Races'' in ''[[The North American Review]].   Lewis Henry Morgan's essay, "Montezuma's Dinner,"  rebuts Lewis Henry Morgan's ideas about gradations of civilization.  In turn, Morgan's essay was based on Friedrick Engel's "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State: in the Light of the Researches of Lewis H. Morgan."  Bancroft critiqued Morgan's understanding of stages of civilization and savagery.  Both Morgan's and Engel's ideas are most certainly antiquated and reveal a profound and mechanistic understanding of human development.