In commenting upon the importance of works of fiction the historian finds himself in strange waters, but with familiar tools at his command. Except as signs of the times, few novels would merit such a serious approach, but the exceptions can be most rewarding. The importance of fiction, both for good and for bad, has long been recognized. It does not have to be great literature to be significant: it has to be popular. Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the fictional output of the “Muckrakers” have had profound influences on the thought and history of the United States. The popularity of Captain Marryat’s sea novels changed the regulations of the British Navy. Kipling almost “set” the accepted concept of relations between the East and West in his manifold descriptions of the “White Man’s Burden” —again because of his popularity as a writer. These are but a few of the examples that can be culled from an examination of the fiction to be found in the English language, and there are many others equally significant. Fiction can establish patterns of thought on past and present problems that should make biographers, essayists, and historians jealous, as established patterns of thought can go far toward making or changing history.