Book Reviews
American Minds: A History of Ideas. By Stow Persons. (New York:
Henry Holt and Company, 1958.
xii??467p.; suggestions for further
reading and index. $7.50.)
Here is a book with which all who are
interested in American social
and intellectual history should be
acquainted. It is designed partly as a
text and partly as an interpretive
essay, a duality which since Parring-
ton has become almost standard practice
(witness the work of Curti,
Gabriel, and Schneider). As the most
recent effort "to provide an in-
troduction to the history of American
thought" (p. vii), it offers an
original synthesis which departs in
important ways from the structure
and material focus of its famous
predecessors. Previous scholarly labors
in the vineyard of evolutionary and
religious thinking eminently qualify
Professor Persons for his task.
The Persons' strategy in dealing with
the growth of American thought
is "to describe the principal focal
concentrations of ideas, or 'minds,'
that have determined the profile of
American intellectual life during its
historical development. There have been
five of these 'social minds,' and
the five parts of the book describe them
as they appeared in chrono-
logical succession. . . . No effort is made
to explain the formation or
dissolution of these systems of ideas or
to trace the transitions between
them" (p. vii). The first two minds
(Puritan and Enlightenment) and
almost a third of his pages center upon
Colonial America. Here pro-
fessor Persons leans heavily upon recent
scholarship in the field. Though
as impartial as one could reasonably
expect, his sympathies are clearly
on the side of the Puritans. He ascribes
to Thomas Hooker the real
authorship of the theory of mixed
government in America (p. 30). He
sees democracy arising from majority
Puritanism far more than from
dissenter sectarians like Roger Williams
and Anne Hutchinson, for
whom he has no great taste (the Quakers
come off best among colonial
sects). The fall of Puritanism he
attributes to its defensive pose and
its inability to take missionary
initiative against the smaller Baptist and
Quaker gadfly groups.
308
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
In the "Mind of Nineteenth-Century
Democracy: 1800-1860," Pro-
fessor Persons has some interesting
things to say about the frontier.
He accepts its importance, especially in
terms of religious development,
but with many qualifications. Only in
the Jacksonian era did it play a
major role; on the Puritan frontier
there was far more cooperation and
sense of community (the congregation,
joint stock company) than in-
dividualism, which was restricted pretty
much to business life. By the
early national period the frontier had
become a homogenizer of classes,
though not of class stratification; it
reshaped both universal churches
(except the Roman Catholics) and local
sects into national denomina-
tions. In terms of education the
frontier experience was our American
barbarian invasions, with the midwest
colleges barely keeping cultural
traditions alive much as the monasteries
of the Dark Ages had once
done for European civilization (p. 188).
The "Naturalistic Mind:
1865-1929" has much new material. It cor-
rects the standard Hofstadter treatment
of social Darwinism on many
points, and deals thoroughly with the
vitally important heredity vs. en-
vironment struggle which grew out of
early Darwinism. Considerable
space is also devoted to ideas from the
field of psychology and sociology,
a development long overdue. The final
"Contemporary Neodemocratic
Mind" is at once the most
challenging and the least satisfactory part of
American Minds, at least to this reviewer. It finds naturalistic
science
in full retreat, leaving the field to
revived religion and revived political
democracy. Both rely heavily upon
Freudian psychology and both con-
trive to be popular and conservative at
one and the same time. Evidently
the advice of Professor Langer in his
1957 American Historial Asso-
ciation presidential address is bearing
fruit.
An effort to weigh strengths against
weaknesses may be in order here.
There are many strengths. This is the
first really new survey of Ameri-
can intellectual history which we have
seen in over a decade. It is now
sixteen years since Curti's Growth appeared;
Gabriel is still earlier.
Nor have revisions done more than delay
their advancing obsolescence.
Here is a thoroughly up-to-date
portrayal, giving social institutions like
racism and the voluntary association
major emphasis, while paying as
much attention to past psychology,
sociology, and anthropology as to
past politics, economics, and
philosophy. This trend is very likely to
be followed in future treatments of the
subject. Finally, Professor
Persons achieves great economies of
space by omitting encyclopedic de-
tail about individuals and confining
himself rather strictly to the content
BOOK REVIEWS 309
of ideas. This does much to simplify an
area which is innately difficult
for the average college student.
One must also register certain critical
comments. Without being anti-
science, Persons gives us a powerfully
religion-oriented picture of the
American mind. Other subjects seem mere
battlefields on which the
primary issue of a religious versus a
materialistic way of life is fought
out. Yet Roman Catholicism is virtually
ignored, receiving only thirteen
lines in contrast to ninety-odd pages on
aspects of Protestantism after
1800. Again, some subjects which might
give greater balance to the
total presentation are omitted--there is
little or nothing on nationalism,
business social thought in the Age of
Big Business, humanitarianism,
the rise of leisure, or cultural
pluralism. The southern region is almost
excluded from discussion, forcing one to
infer that the mind of America
was confined to the Northeast with
nothing much but torso south of
Philadelphia. Third, the effort to
present naturalism as more passe
than his "contemporary mind"
has involved Professor Persons in some
curious chronological juxtapositions;
for example, eugenics is discussed
under the nineteenth century, while the
Social Gospel is contemporary.
It is hard to see that Nazi
totalitarianism of the twentieth century rep-
resents "naturalism in action"
(p. 350) any more than romantic, mysti-
cal faith in action.
Finally, despite his enthusiasm for
American democracy, there is a
certain remoteness from life built into
the Persons' account which raises
the belated question of just how valid
the "minds" approach really is.
Apparently the "American mind"
technique was first used in the twen-
ties by American philosophers writing
about philosophic ideas. Then
Parrington applied it to literary
thought, and Curti and Gabriel to
politico-economic ideas also. Is it
possible that the farther away from
philosophy and the closer to mass
opinion one gets, the less realistic
this kind of constructive typology
becomes? There are at least two ex-
isting sources of potential criticism of
the "minds" approach. One is
the Namierist and internal conflict
school of historiography which de-
lights in breaking down generalizations
into a multitude of variant
local feelings by statistical analysis.
Another is the very public opinion
emphasis which Professor Persons
discusses at length in Chapter 21.
Whatever the "mass mind" may
be, it is certainly different from any
of the minds which intellectual
historians give us.
In summary, American Minds is
succinct, stimulating, modern--a
major work of synthesis in its field.
The carefully edited text does
credit to all concerned (although this
reviewer deeply regrets that
310 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
nowhere in the book is there a single
picture, map, or graphic aid of
any kind). Professor Persons deserves
our congratulations and our
readership.
Teachers College FREDERICK D. KERSHNER, JR.
Columbia University
The Jacksonian Era, 1828-1848. By Glyndon G. Van Deusen. (New
York: Harper and Brothers, 1959.
xvi+291p.; maps, bibliographical
essay, and index. $5.00.)
Historians have never questioned Andrew
Jackson's significance in
American history; nor have they agreed
on the quality of his role as
president and party leader. In this
respect they have merely reflected
the controversy that surrounded Jackson
during his years of national
eminence, for few Americans have been
so bitterly hated and so ardently
worshiped by their contemporaries. And
since the age of Jackson rep-
resents the flowering of American
political democracy, no writer can
divorce his appreciation or
condemnation of Jackson from his attitude
toward the American political system
itself. There is no easy middle
ground between Jackson and his enemies.
Historians cannot think in
a political vacuum, especially when the
conflicts in philosophy are clear
and dramatic. Even to attempt it is
futile.
Professor Van Deusen has not broken
this tradition of partisanship.
Whereas his analyses of the battles of
the Jackson years over personali-
ties, ideas, and issues are
characterized by fairness and moderation, he
does not refrain from passing judgment.
In his conclusions the critics of
Jackson come off the better. For
example, he writes of Jackson the man:
"He was a personality without
fear. But he lacked the capacity for that
slow and often painful balancing of
opposite viewpoints, the fruit of
philosophic reflection, which is the
characteristic of the man of culture.
His emotions were volcanic. They easily
rose to the surface and, when
they erupted, were overpowering in
their intensity" (pp. 98-99). To the
author, Jackson's leadership was
largely a failure. He doubts that Old
Hickory ever represented a clearly
thought-out philosophy of govern-
ment. In true Jeffersonian tradition,
the Jacksonians favored little gov-
ernment and opposed industrialism,
without considering the fundamental
nature of American economic
development. The author criticizes them
for clinging to a hard-money policy
which denied the need of expanding
credit. He finds greater economic
realism and harmony of interest in
Clay's American system and in the
conviction that the national economy
BOOK REVIEWS 311
could be stimulated and directed by
benevolent governmental action than
in the variety of proposals that
characterized the Jacksonian program.
In his analysis of the forties,
Professor Van Deusen concludes that
the Democratic leadership, in leaving
Van Buren behind, became in-
creasingly conservative in outlook. In
matters of economic policy it
continued the negative program of the
thirties, but it found its funda-
mental challenges in expansion and in
the avoidance of the slavery
conflict. As the drive for new policies
tended to originate in the North,
Democratic conservatism gave the South a
larger voice in national
affairs than it had enjoyed in the days
of Jackson and Van Buren. By
1848 the old issues were dead--the
national bank, distribution of the
proceeds of public land sales, and even
the tariff. The chief task of the
politicians had become that of holding
the national parties together in the
face of sectional controversy.
This volume contains no new or startling
interpretations. It is
rather a judiciously balanced synthesis
of previous scholarship. No sig-
nificant interpretation of the past has
been ignored; each finds its place
in the author's scheme. But the book
also represents extensive original
research, for the author preceded this
general study of the Jacksonian
period with significant biographies of
Henry Clay, Thurlow Weed, and
Horace Greeley. Thus this volume, sound
in conception and execution,
will long remain a standard survey of
Jacksonian democracy.
University of Illinois NORMAN A. GRAEBNER
The Jacksonian Heritage: Pennsylvania
Politics, 1833-1848. By Charles
McCool Snyder. (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum
Commission, 1958. x??256p.; map,
illustrations, appendix, bibliog-
raphy, and index. $3.50.)
It is now possible for the student of
Pennsylvania politics to read six
volumes, by different authors, which
span the history of that state from
1740 to 1848--Theodore Thayer
(1740-1776), Robert Brunhouse
(1776-1790), Harry Tinkcom (1790-1801),
Sanford Higginbotham
(1800-1816), Philip Klein (1817-1832),
and now Charles Snyder's
recent volume. (Side excursions are also
available for western Penn-
sylvania only, in the works of Russell
Ferguson and James Kehl.)
Pennsylvania, so large and
diversified--containing within its boun-
daries an urban, sophisticated society
and the rawest of frontiers, farming
(largest rye crop) as well as mining and
manufacturing (largest iron
312
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
production), and thriving commercial
activities on the Atlantic seacoast
and on the Ohio, Susquehanna, and
Monongahela rivers--reflected the
sectional and divisive tensions quickly
growing throughout America in
the age of Jackson. New economic and
social issues--Jackson's war on
the second bank, tariff fights, the war
with Mexico, slavery, and slavery
in the territories--captured and divided
the opinions of politically con-
scious Americans. These and other issues
were the yeast that fermented
a host of major and minor political
parties, such as Democrat, Whig,
Liberty, Free Soil, Anti-Masonic,
Nullifier, and local "workingmen"
organizations. The era of good feelings
was over.
Though the author concentrates most of
his attention on the state
scene, he shifts deftly to the national
panorama at appropriate moments.
He warns the unwary in his preface that
"issues emanating from the
nation's capital had repercussions in
the states; and local issues, in turn,
sometimes reached the halls of Congress
and the White House." After
a short initial chapter rapidly
surveying the geographical, social, and
economic patterns of Pennsylvania, the
monograph covers three subjects
in exhaustive detail: the bank war,
especially developments after Jack-
son's veto of the recharter bill; the
tariff question and its emergence as
the most crucial state issue; and the
political maneuverings and battles
in Pennsylvania during the fifteen years
from 1833 to 1848.
Mr. Snyder is to be complimented on
rugged research in primary
sources, on a fluid style, and on
well-reasoned conclusions. Yet I can-
not recommend this book without several
qualifications. First, it is dry
reading despite the felicitous style.
Perhaps some of the subject matter
is to blame, but the reviewer feels
there are too many names and too
many dates, too much trivia (especially
on local elections) which could
have been omitted. Further, prominent
figures such as Thaddeus Ste-
vens, James Buchanan, and Simon Cameron
are treated without color
or spirit. Secondly, while the
bibliography is extensive, still it contains
peculiar gaps. Joseph Dorfman's famous
critique of Schlesinger's Age
of Jackson (American Historical
Review, January 1949), and William
Sullivan's recent and invaluable
monograph, The Industrial Worker in
Pennsylvania, 1800-1840, to take but two examples, are not mentioned.
Finally, at times the author strains to
protest what is obvious and ele-
mentary. He tells us, for example, that
Pennsylvanians were not often
selected for cabinet positions in
Washington, "since executives hesitated
to face the wrath of dissatisfied
elements which inevitably accompanied
such appointments." But I believe
this statement would be true for
BOOK REVIEWS 313
practically every state. Indeed, it
might even be considered a constant
ingredient of American political life.
Montana State University MORTON BORDEN
Herbert Hoover and the Great
Depression. By Harris Gaylord Warren.
(New York: Oxford University Press,
1959. x??372p.; index.
$7.00.)
Harris Gaylord Warren's interpretation
of Herbert Hoover as the
"greatest Republican of his
generation" is an honest effort to push aside
highly partisan judgments and arrive at
an accurate evaluation. The dif-
ficulty in achieving this aim lies
partly in the fact that estimates of the
former president will depend upon the
writer's inclination to oppose or
favor some degree of collectivist
program controlled by a democratically
governed state. There can be no wholly
objective view of Herbert
Hoover.
Within this limitation the author has
achieved his aim. He gives
Herbert Hoover due credit for his
positive program for dealing with
the depression. The hard working,
humanitarian, and extremely knowl-
edgeable president did everything within
the confining limits of his eco-
nomic credo. Herbert Hoover failed
miserably, as the author sees it,
because he was a prisoner of his own
fears of big government, socialism,
inflation, and a loss of individualism.
The walls erected by these fears
made it impossible for him to launch out
on a program sufficiently dar-
ing and meaningful to win the confidence
of the people. The direct
victims of the depression rejected the
old stereotypes of rugged indi-
vidualism out of desperation, and in the
midst of tragedy not even the
respectable and well intentioned high
priest could make them believe
that going off the gold standard was
worse than starvation.
Hoover's "principles" shut him
off from reality. The author makes
this point in a lucid fashion in his
treatment of Hoover and relief. The
president received his statistics on
starvation and undernourishment
from bureaus that simply did not have
any figures on the tragedy that
stalked the country. Mr. Hoover rejoiced
in the absence of starvation.
Yet, even casual investigations in the
hospitals of the great cities or in-
quiries by social workers in the coal
mining towns of Pennsylvania and
a hundred other towns would have freed
Mr. Hoover of his illusion.
The president's humanitarianism, writes
Professor Warren, would have
recognized the tragedy of a flood, a
drought, or of a city desolated by
314
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
war. The writer infers that Hoover's
deeply held economic credo made
it impossible for him to recognize the
tragedy imposed by the break-
down of the economic system.
Professor Warren does not analyze the
depression as an economist.
He is primarily concerned with Herbert
Hoover as a political leader.
However, he quite rightly traces
Hoover's political failings to his creed
of economics. Yet, Hoover was far ahead
of the Republican old guard.
In fact, when Professor Warren calls
Hoover the greatest Republican
of his generation, it is less an
encomium for the former president than
it is a condemnation of a group of
politicians who simply refused to face
the facts of modern economic life.
The author has a talent for lucid
exposition and knife-like phrases.
He has achieved objectivity within the
limits imposed by his own re-
jection of Hoover's basic economic
philosophy. His book is well done,
but Hoover's political career is a
well-traversed desert that offers few
fresh observations. This is particularly
true when the author confines
himself to secondary sources and limits
his approach to the narrows of
the political scene.
Michigan State University PAUL A. VARG
The Cotton Regency: The Northern
Merchants and Reconstruction,
1865-1880. By George Ruble Woolfolk. (New York: Bookman As-
sociates, 1958. 311p.; illustrations,
bibliography, and index. $5.00.)
Well known is Charles Beard's view of
the Civil War as the "Sec-
ond American Revolution," a war
that resulted in the suppression of
the forces of agrarianism and the
elevation to power of the exponents
of industrialization and commercialism.
This interpretation now gets
further, well-documented support from
Professor Woolfolk who at-
tempts in his book to give the reader
some insight into how certair
aspects of this revolution were
accomplished, and by whom. Largely
ignoring the industrial exploitation of
the South as something that oc
curred only after 1880 (and beyond the
ken of this book), the author
devotes his entire attention to
discussing the achievements of the north
ern merchants in rendering the South
commercially tributary to the
North during the fifteen-year period
immediately following the war
To accomplish this, he claims the urban
business groups of the Eas
"allied" with similar business
groups of the Midwest to achieve thei
aims. "This," says the author,
"is the essence of sectionalism as a fore
in American history."
BOOK REVIEWS 315
In separate chapters Professor Woolfolk
minutely examines the indi-
vidual merchants of the two northern
sections in an attempt to show the
economic ideas and interests they shared
as a basis of their alliance.
He then describes how the interests of
these merchants were for a time
made to coincide with the political
reconstruction program of the Radi-
cal Republicans. Later, he points out,
they found it to their advantage
to repudiate the political mistakes of
the party, but nevertheless pro-
ceeded uninterruptedly to exploit the
South economically. In one of his
best chapters the author tells the story
of the successful struggle by
urban centers outside of New York to
make some of the midwestern
commercial cities original points of
entry and demonstrates how this
aided the midwestern capitalists in
their efforts to compete for the south-
ern market. How some of these same men
influenced the tariff policies
of the government is also particularly
revealing.
This book deserves the careful attention
of specialists in the field, for
it is well written, and Professor
Woolfolk has done a thorough job of
research in a difficult period. His
sources are widely varied and include
an impressive list of books, articles,
newspapers, and government docu-
ments. Much of the best evidence he
presents, however, was gleaned
only by a tedious sifting of almost
limitless commercial pamphlets and
records of boards of trade and chambers
of commerce of many cities.
Such thorough research deserves
commendation and has resulted in a
book that cannot help but add
considerably to our understanding of the
reconstruction era.
Bowling Green State University ROBERT W. TWYMAN
The Territorial Papers of the United
States. Volume XXIII, The Ter-
ritory of Florida, 1824-1828. Compiled and edited by Clarence Edwin
Carter. (Washington: Government Printing
Office, 1958. v??1191p.;
maps and index. $6.50.)
Still a generation away from statehood,
though longer settled by
Europeans than any other part of the
United States, Florida Territory
in the middle 1820's grew more slowly
and less promisingly than other
frontier communities. Its entire
population was less than the decade's
increase in Illinois or Michigan; it was
to lag behind the rest of the
lower South until the 1940's, while the
South in turn lagged behind
the North (and behind the newer
territory and state of Hawaii, which
Floridians and other southerners have
been reluctant to recognize as
ready for statehood). Yet society in
Florida was not merely back-
316 THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
ward: in the twenties it inherited some
of the troubles that had vexed
Jackson and the Spaniards earlier and
anticipated those that broke out
in the Seminole war later.
The documents in this volume are full of
complaints: of uncertainty
in title to land; of need for canals,
roads, and ports of entry; of dis-
tances from government; and especially
of Indians and of their slaves,
whom the Indians regarded, said an
agent, "rather as fellow Sufferers
and companions in misery than as
inferiors" (p. 911). "I am more and
more Convinced," wrote Governor
DuVal, "that the Slaves belonging to
the Indians are a Serious nusance, they
have by their art and Cunning
entire Controul Over their Masters"
(p. 454). These were years also
of important political beginnings, for
congress in 1826 authorized the
people of Florida to elect its
legislative council, as the people of Ar-
kansas had done since 1820.
The editing of the Territorial Papers
continues in the exemplary style
to which Professor Carter has accustomed
us. This is a long volume
for four years of a territory that
lasted twenty-four. The length prompts
hope that the editor may find some kind
of scholarly seven-league boots
to reach the Pacific; yet Far-Westerners
will miss much if their early
history has to appear in file
microcopies or calendars merely rather than
in extenso, with the useful footnotes of the present format.
University of Oregon EARL POMEROY
Vein of Iron: The Pickands Mather
Story. By Walter Havighurst.
(Cleveland and New York: World
Publishing Company, 1958. 223p.;
illustrations and index. $4.00.)
"Iron seemeth a simple metal, but
in its nature are many mysteries
. . . and men who bend to them their
minds shall, in arriving days, gather
therefrom great profits not to
themselves alone but to all mankind."
With this introductory quotation from
Joseph Glanvill in 1668,
Walter Havighurst sets the keynote for
the pages of his eloquent saga
of men and iron mining of the Great
Lakes region. A story of action
and drama, which tells of the discovery
of the mines and the develop-
ment of the operational companies
composed of Clevelanders, it is in-
deed! It is also the historic record of
an era, a transitional period when,
pioneering days past, young men of
ambition and vision could and did
seek new worlds to conquer. In this case
it was the world of iron, coal,
and eventually steel, which was to
remake the economy of America and
BOOK REVIEWS 317
serve as the link to America's
present-day leadership in national wealth
and high scale of living.
Vein of Iron is, in a way, a biography--the story of men, chiefly
the story of the Pickands brothers and
the Mathers of Cleveland. These
names, now familiar from the blast
furnaces of Pennsylvania to the
mines of Lake Superior, were not as well
known at the conclusion of
the Civil War when Mr. Havighurst begins
his story. Cleveland, he
writes, was a busy city of 70,000
people. "Schooners and steamers
were crowding the river mouth, mills,
furnaces, oil refineries, elevators
spreading in the smoky Cuyahoga
basin--carriages were rolling past the
mansions of Euclid Avenue." Then
James Pickands started his career
in the Lake Superior mining country, at
twenty-eight years of age, with
no money but with great energy, working
with Jay Morse of Marquette,
a man already well established in the
mining field, aggressive, tireless,
a man of action.
The story of Colonel Pickands continues.
The panorama of life in
the North Country unrolls. With
marvelous powers of description the
author recreates for his readers life in
the iron country: long cold win-
ters when the bays froze and life went
on runners to the tune of sleigh
bells; summers when hammers rang as
mansions of the iron kings were
built and log villages became towns.
Now the name of Mather comes into the
story, and the reader is
introduced to this famous Cleveland
family of New England origin, and
particularly to Samuel Mather whose name
is still a synonym for phi-
lanthropy and support of a wide range of
Cleveland's cultural activities.
A sympathetic picture of young Mather is
drawn. He is described as
sensitive, shy, and self-conscious
because of an early injury in a mine
explosion, but more fortunate than most
lads in his opportunities for
world-wide travels, which were to
develop a keen mind and capacity
for business leadership.
Together with the main theme of these
two men and their careers in
creating a vast iron and coal empire,
the author of Vein of Iron has
skillfully interwoven scene after scene,
vivid picture after vivid picture,
of life in the North Country and of
ships on the lakes. Turning the
pages at random, the reader envisages
mules on the wet red paths of
the mines, crumbling old mine works like
ruined chapels, the whine of
sawmills, shanties of the woodsmen,
graceful sailing ships on the water-
ways, new steel freighters sliding down
the runways.
And behind it all there was the dream
and drive of dynamic men who
have left their names and the stamp of
their personalities on the history
318
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of the lakes--Harry Coulby, who walked
the Lake Shore Railroad
tracks to Cleveland as a boy; Alex
McDougall, who dreamed of a
cigar-shaped freighter and made his
dream come true; Raphael Pum-
pelly, Harvard geologist with a golden
beard, who had crossed the Gobi
Desert and also explored the ore regions
of Upper Michigan. And a
long list of famous Cleveland
names--Hanna, Eaton, Chisholm, Beau-
mont, Hay, Hoyt--the index of this book
reads like a Who's Who of
First Families of Cleveland.
Mr. Havighurst has done a superb job of
combining the history of an
era, a region, and men. He has told a
thrilling tale of men of vision and
courage who pitted their wit and
strength against the stubborn hold-
ings of nature and thereby not only
created wealth for themselves, but
brought expansion and growth to their
home town and in fact to the
whole country.
With Vein of Iron the author has
added another volume to his long
list of successful writings in the field
of regional history.
Cleveland Public Library DONNA L. ROOT
It Floats: The Story of Procter and
Gamble. By Alfred Lief. (New
York: Rinehart and Company, 1958. 338p.;
illustrations and index.
$5.95.)
Alfred Lief's early books are
biographies of American statesmen, jur-
ists, and businessmen. During the past
decade he has turned his atten-
tion to the writing of
"biographies" of business firms. Since systems
for the retention of archives vary greatly
among modern business firms,
it must sometimes be difficult for an
author to locate all the source ma-
terial he would like. But if the records
of a company exist and are
available, it is likely that Lief has
used them all. He presents his story
in a style that is at once readable,
enjoyable, and succinct.
It Floats is the 123-year history of Procter and Gamble. The com-
pany was started in a humble manner by
two brothers-in-law who ped-
dled candles and soap on the streets of
Cincinnati in 1837. They formed
a company which grew slowly at first,
having its ups and downs prior
to the Civil War. After the discovery of
a pure white floating soap
about 1882, it began to grow rapidly.
The advertising and marketing
genius of the firm in those days was Harley
Procter, son of one of the
founders. He had been searching for a
name for the new white soap,
and inspiration came to him during a
church service in a biblical pas-
BOOK REVIEWS 319
sage descriptive of "ivory
palaces, redolent with myrrh, aloes and cas-
sia." He siezed upon the word
IVORY, and sent a sample to a chemist
for analysis. Soap-makers in those days
were often criticized for selling
soap containing somewhat dangerous
impurities. The chemist reported
the presence of a small amount of
uncombined alkali, carbonates and
mineral matter, totaling .56%.
Subtracting this from 100, Procter iso-
lated the scientific fact that P. &
G.'s new soap was 99.44% pure. This
became an important part of the
advertising and the subsequent success
of this product.
According to legend, Lief says, a
machine for mixing soap was left
in operation unintentionally by a
worker during his lunch hour. The
paddles had whipped the mixture so that
the batch had more air in it
than usual. Some of that batch was
packaged through error and got
onto the market. The slogan "It
Floats" came from an order for "some
more of that soap that floats."
The author treats many aspects of the
business, such as sales policy,
advertising campaigns, the
establishment of foreign subsidiaries, finance,
research, and labor relations. P. &
G. has a rather remarkable record
with respect to the latter; it was a
pioneer in employee relations, profit-
sharing, mass production, and
brand-name merchandising. Lief has tied
the history of the company in with the
social history of the country,
particularly in manners, customs, and
dress. Many of the early adver-
tisements are used as illustrations in
the volume.
Familiar product names appear on the
pages as you read this fast-
moving story. Camay, Chipso, Duz,
Oxydol, Lux, Rinso, Tide, and
Spic and Span are familiar to all.
Detergents started with Dreft; then
came Drene. Diversification came in the
early days of experimentation
with vegetable oils. Out came Crisco.
Later a drug-products division
was formed. Out of the laboratory came
a tooth paste. The first one
was called Gleem, and later came Crest.
P. & G. created an edible-oil
department, starting with a liquid
stabilizer for peanut butter called Fix.
Latest among the subsidiaries is a
cellulose-products division manufac-
turing Charmin paper towels. Space does
not permit more than a
reference to the radio and TV programs
which soap companies began
when the radio broadcasting industry
came into being, but the whole
story is here.
The book is attractively bound. The
boards are covered with a white
satin-like paper with the word IVORY
impressed across the front, so
that lying on a table, the book has the
general appearance of a large cake
320
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of soap. On the usually blank flyleaf
there appears in the upper right-
hand corner in large type: 99.44/100%
Firestone Library and Archives WILLIAM D. OVERMAN
The Civil War, A Narrative: Fort
Sumter to Perryville. By Shelby
Foote. (New York: Random House, 1958.
810p.; maps, bibliographi-
cal notes, and index. $10.00.)
The literary bombardment preparatory to
the forthcoming centennial
of the Civil War mounts! Confronted, for
example, by a book club
devoted to American history which offers
no less than five of its eight
current selections from the years
1861-65, the student of history per-
haps needs to be reminded that the
history of America encompasses 464
other years too.
The contribution of Mr. Shelby Foote, a
novelist and author of an
earlier historical work, Shiloh, is
a colorful narrative which attempts
to weave into a consistent whole the
far-flung campaigns in Virginia,
the trans-Appalachian area, the Far
West, and on the high seas, from
the firing on Fort Sumter through the
autumn of 1862. A synthesis of
this kind brings into sharp focus such
vital and neglected chapters in
Civil War history as the naval actions
which early in the war effectively
sealed the major ports of the
Confederacy, and the offensives in the
West which even before Bragg's abortive
invasion of Kentucky placed
federal forces firmly astride the major
waterways of the rebellious
western states. Viewed from this
perspective, the indecisive results
at Perryville and Antietam seem meager
reparation for the already des-
perate plight of the rebel cause.
Mr. Foote is at his best when he draws
upon his novelist's insight
to present sharply etched portraits of
the leaders, both political and
military--but it is a faculty he
overtaxes. While a case might be made
that the wounded pride of a McClellan
could alter the course of history,
to categorize the actions of vast
numbers of men in battle as a response
to the whims or prejudices of a leader
(for example, the unrequited
love of A. P. Hill, page 479) is to
over-simplify and distort. The "hero"
interpretation of history which the
author apparently accepts ignores
vital factors such as manpower, quality
of armament, industrial effi-
ciency, transportation, soldier
psychology--the sinews of any military
effort.
Since the intent of this book is to tell
a story, all scholarly para-
phernalia such as footnotes and a formal
bibliography are dispensed with.
BOOK REVIEWS 321
While this may be justified, less
acceptable is the uncritical treatment
of some of the perplexing and unresolved
controversies of the war.
What of the dispute between Lincoln and
McClellan concerning the
number of troops necessary to defend
Washington during the Peninsu-
lar campaign, the rift between Polk and
Bragg in the Kentucky offen-
sive, McClellan's lack of support of
Pope at Second Manassas? While
considerable attention is given to the
machinations in England and
France of the envoys Slidell and Mason,
one wonders why there is no
mention of that able diplomat, Charles
Francis Adams.
The reader who seeks new insight into
the military history of the
Civil War must turn elsewhere. Mr. Foote
is a facile story teller, but
he is treading, albeit with somewhat
broader strides, ground already
traversed by other such gifted narrators
as Bruce Catton and Clifford
Dowdey. It is unfortunate that the
forthcoming centennial has as yet
produced no writer combining an
effective writing style with meticulous
and revealing historical research to
follow in the footsteps of Douglas S.
Freeman and Kenneth P. Williams.
San Francisco State College JOHN L. SHOVER
The Lincoln Nobody Knows. By Richard N. Current. (New York:
McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1958.
x??314p.; bibliographical essay
and index. $5.50.)
Abraham Lincoln is in history as he was
in life the most enigmatic,
the most controversial, of all our
national figures. He is many things
to many men. The Lincoln mystery is the
modern version of the six
blind men of Hindustan, inclined at
learning, who went to see the
elephant. Their finding was that the
great beast, touched in various
places by unseeing hands, is a wall, a
rope, a tree, or what have you.
Dr. David Donald of Columbia University,
Lincoln authority, recently
illustrated the difference of opinion
about Lincoln by pointing out that
to William Lloyd Garrison he was
"the chainbreaker for millions of
oppressed," while racist Senator
James K. Vardaman of Mississippi
thought his ideas "substantially
identical" to his own.
There are numerous phases of Lincoln's
life on which even the most
astute scholars disagree. They face
these and similar questions: Was
Lincoln the sincere friend of the Negro?
What about Ann Rutledge?
What is the truth about him and Mary
Todd? Was he a religious man,
and what was his belief? Did Lincoln
trigger the Civil War by gouging
the South into firing the first shot?
Might not actual civil war have
322
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
been avoided? Did he possess the genius
of a military commander or
did he bungle the campaigns of trained
generals? Was he a politician
or a statesman? Was he a tender man or
did he use his powers of
clemency for political gain?
Millions of words on both sides of the
major controversial points
have been offered in evidence. Now
Richard N. Current, an eminently
well-qualified Lincoln scholar and a
talented writer, steps up with a
summation and a verdict in his book, The
Man Nobody Knows. It is a
poor title but a remarkably fine book.
Professor Current, a teacher of history
at the University of North
Carolina, discusses the most
controversial subjects of Lincoln's life in
eleven scholarly essays. In his own
words, "I advance conclusions of
my own, but only on the understanding
that they represent fallible
opinion rather than incontrovertible
fact. For my assumption on that,
on issues where competent authorities
differ, the questions cannot really
be answered, no matter how positive
individual experts may be."
Nonetheless, Dr. Current does come up
with some rather conclusive
answers, and they will surprise many a
student of the life and times of
the Civil War president. The author does
not look at Lincoln in awe,
nor even in wonder; he examines him as a
rare specimen. Therein lies
the value of the book.
Whether or not the Lincoln student--and
remember that this work
is for the advanced class--agrees with
Dr. Current's conclusions, he
will be compelled to admit that this is
the best volume of its kind to
date and that it is likely to stand
until new evidence in all the areas
discussed is brought to light.
Ohio Historical Society ROBERT S. HARPER
Stephen A. Douglas: Defender of the
Union. By Gerald M. Capers. The
Library of American Biography. (Boston:
Little, Brown and Com-
pany, 1959. xi??239p.; bibliographical
note and index. $3.50.)
The neglect of Stephen A. Douglas by
American biographers and
historians is well known. No man of
equal stature in nineteenth-century
political history remains so little
known today. Actually, there are many
Douglas biographies, but the number of good
biographies is very few.
Only two might be so considered: Allen
Johnson's 1908 study, which is
still in many respects the best, and
George Fort Milton's Eve of Conflict,
published in 1934, despite its
shortcomings, a detailed and valuable ac-
BOOK REVIEWS 323
count of Douglas' later years. Professor
Gerald M. Capers has now
added a third volume to this category.
Stephen A. Douglas: Defender of the
Union is brief, very general
in its treatment of the facts of
Douglas' life, but careful in its analysis of
the role played by Douglas in the
sectional conflict. As a selection in
the Library of American Biography
series, it was not intended to be a
full treatment of his life, but only an
attempt to relate Douglas closely
to his own times. Like most of the
studies of Douglas, the larger por-
tion of the book (eight out of ten
chapters) deals with the last twelve
years or so of his life. These were the
years of greatest significance to
Douglas' career and to his place in
American history, and they are the
years for which the source materials
dealing with his life are most
abundant.
Douglas was probably the most
controversial figure in American
politics during the last decade of his
life, and no biographer who chooses
Douglas for his subject can be neutral
for long. Capers confides to the
reader his original intention of
remaining neutral towards Douglas, an
intention soon abandoned. He has risen
to the defense of the Little Giant,
but it is a defense that in this
reviewer's opinion is well supported by the
facts. The author adds little that is
new to what we know of Douglas'
life (after all, not his purpose); he
acknowledges an extensive use of
Milton's study, but goes beyond Milton
in his analysis of Douglas' ideas
on the significant issues of his period
and of the development of his
national career. To Capers, Douglas'
story is a typical "American suc-
cess story when the West was
young." He is portrayed as a man of
integrity, sincere, consistent, and
devoted to his country and his political
party; yet he had his weaknesses
(although these do not receive quite
so much emphasis in the work). A man of
high ambition and many
political attainments, Douglas did
indeed cram "a lot of living into his
forty-eight years."
The book would have benefited from more
careful editing; there
are more errors than should be. The
author, for example, has been
careless with names: McLernand for
McClernand (p. 121), William
Shannon for Wilson Shannon (p. 131), and
the consistent misspelling
of Sheahan. William G. Brown's brief
biography of Douglas was pub-
lished in 1902, not 1911 (p. 229). A
wider knowledge of the impact
of slavery on the West and of the Kansas
struggle would have avoided
some rather questionable statements. For
example, the fact that the
census of 1860 listed two slaves for
Kansas Territory did not confirm
Douglas' belief that slavery would
follow the dictates of nature (p. 108).
324
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
In 1857, there were an estimated four
hundred slaves in Kansas, most
of whom departed with their masters when
the Lecompton movement
was defeated. On page 173, the author
states that "there were no signs"
that the slavery question would arise in
New Mexico and Utah, yet
each territory, after some discussion,
acted on the question, in both cases
legalizing it within their boundaries.
While some questions of fact and
interpretation might be raised, the
contribution of the book to a deeper
understanding of one of America's
most complex political figures remains
undisturbed. Professor Capers
has placed us in his debt for this
word-picture of Stephen A. Douglas.
University of Illinois ROBERT W. JOHANNSEN
The White House and Its Thirty-Two
Families. By Amy La Follette
Jensen. Howard C. Jensen, Art Editor.
(New York: McGraw-Hill
Book Company, 1958. 282p.; illustrations
and bibliography. $12.50.)
There have been many books written about
the White House and
its occupants, but none for popular
appeal can equal this book written
and illustrated by a husband and wife
team. It is an extraordinary
book, big, splendidly organized and
illustrated, and smoothly written.
Many of the illustrations appear here
for the first time.
Mrs. Jensen is the author of one other
book--a children's story of
the West, The Pony Express. She
was trained as a pianist, but turned
to writing to express her keen interest
in American history. Her hus-
band has illustrated many books, and is
now executive art director for
the Popular Science Publishing Company.
John Adams was the first president to
occupy the White House,
which was being built during the
Washington administration from plans
executed by James Hoban, whose drawings
are reproduced in the book.
At first the building was known as the
"President's House," then as
the Executive Mansion. In 1810 it was
first referred to in the press
as the "white house." Nearly a
century later, the White House name
became official.
One of the rare illustrations included
is the architect Benjamin La-
trobe's version of the fire-blackened
walls of the White House after
the British burned it in 1814.
Ohio and Virginia tie for first place in
their claims for most occu-
pants of the White House. Ohio's
presidential sons were William
Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant,
Rutherford B. Hayes, James A.
Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William
McKinley, William Howard
BOOK REVIEWS 325
Taft, and Warren G. Harding. The book
devotes 86 pages and 119
illustrations to the presidents from
Ohio. Photographs taken during
the Benjamin Harrison administration
outnumber those of other Ohio
presidents, with the Hayes
administration second in number.
Four of the Ohio presidents--William
Henry Harrison, Harding,
Garfield, and McKinley--died while
occupying the White House, the
latter two by the hands of assassins. A
rare photograph of the White
House in mourning following the death of
Garfield was furnished by the
Rutherford B. Hayes Library.
Probably the most intimate description
of the interior of the White
House was written during the Hayes
administration by a newspaper
correspondent, Austine Snead, who wrote
under the name of "Miss
Grundy." Miss Snead was from
Kentucky, and she was accepted by the
Hayes family over any other
correspondent. She was permitted by
President and Mrs. Hayes to write a
room-by-room description of the
White House. This description was
furnished the author of the book
by the Rutherford B. Hayes Library,
where Miss Grundy's letters are
being compiled.
The White House and Its Thirty-Two
Families gives rare glimpses
of all the presidents. In it one finds
contrast between their public and
private personalities. One finds, too,
that often the First Ladies were
more controversial than the
husbands. Between seriousness and
tragedy, there are moments of fun and
hilarity--receptions of Mrs.
Hayes's where "water flowed like
wine"; President Taft's oversized
bathtub, a picture of which is
published; Margaret Truman's attempt to
capture the Lincoln ghost; and the
impish pranks of the White House
children.
The book easily meets the author's
purpose of a popular account of
the White House and its occupants, and
still does not close the door
to a scholarly and fully documented
history of it.
Rutherford B. Hayes Library WATT P. MARCHMAN
The American Heritage Book of the
Revolution. By the editors of
American Heritage. Editor in charge: Richard M. Ketchum. (New
York: American Heritage Publishing
Company, 1958. 384p.; illustra-
tions, maps, and index. $12.50.)
The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six: The Story
of the American Revolution as
Told by Participants. Edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard
B. Morris. (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill
Company, 1958. Two vol-
326
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
umes. xxxiv??xx??1348p.; illustrations,
maps, bibliography, and
index. $15.00.)
American Heritage is established with the lay public as the hallmark
of well written history in popular style
and in attractive and well illus-
trated format. It is probably the best
of several similar mid-twentieth-
century ventures. It is certainly more
extensive in coverage, volume,
and sponsorship than any other contemporary
attempt of its kind.
Besides the bimonthly hard-cover
magazine, book-length publications
occasionally appear. The Revolution, the
abbreviated title used by the
publishers, is one of these.
The Revolution is concerned with the events from the surrender of
the French on the Plains of Abraham in
1759 to the surrender of the
English at Yorktown in 1781. Except for
J. H. Plumb's brief intro-
ductory chapter on eighteenth-century
England, the text is written by
Bruce Lancaster. The chapters consist of
text and sections of slick-
paper illustrations. About one-third of
the text is ornamented with
marginal maps, quotations, sketches, and
other decorative materials;
there are also some full-page
illustrations. The slick-paper illus-
tration section is interlaced with
contextual settings and in some in-
stances is as long or longer than the
text itself. In two cases the chapter
has no text section. The illustrative
material in this volume takes up a
considerable percentage of the total
space.
The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six deals with the period from the Boston
Tea Party to the achievement of the
treaty of peace following the
surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Several hundred eyewitnesses
and participants wrote the letters, gave
the speeches, made the observa-
tions, kept the faithful diaries,
recorded the memoirs, issued the orders,
and pamphleteered the polemics that
constitute these two volumes. The
editors include political, social,
economic, diplomatic, and intellectual,
as well as the military, phases of the
Revolution. Any such undertak-
ing is of necessity selective, not
definitive, in its coverage.
The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six is not a body of source material such as
the works of a man or a collection of
documents which pertain to a
chosen subject; but it is, instead, a
selection of existing records that
best describe incidents, or portray or
argue points of view. They are
the grist of history. With the careful
introductions and the connective
narration by the editors, the layman can
construct his own story of the
Revolution and form his own opinions.
From this he can pursue
the subject to greater depth and on a
more sophisticated level. To
BOOK REVIEWS 327
that end the bibliography is quite
helpful. The volume is well conceived
and executed, and it is worthy of
applause that the editors have at least
one subsequent volume, on the
Confederation period, in preparation.
Where they overlap in the phases of the
American Revolution with
which they are concerned, these two
works can be compared. An
example of this is the war in the Old
Northwest. In The Revolution,
some six pages of text give a reasonable
secondary account of the
exploits of George Rogers Clark. A
two-page reproduction of a 1755
Lewis Evans map of the middle colonies,
including the Old Northwest,
is too detailed and early to be of much
value, but a portion of a 1778
Thomas Hutchins map of the Illinois
country is more helpful although
of a very limited area. In The Spirit
of 'Seventy-Six, the same topic
is presented in about twenty-five pages
of letters, official reports, and
diary excerpts of Clark, Henry Hamilton,
David Zeisberger, John
Floyd, William Croghan, and Andrew
Steele, with connective explana-
tions by the editors, and a full-page
map which clearly delineates the
routes of Clark and Hamilton.
This points out the degree and the
method of coverage in the two
works and indicates the more superficial
nature of The Revolution.
But such a comparison is not entirely
valid because the two are really
different approaches to the same
subject--the one is a pictorial history,
and the other is a participant
word-picture history. Each has a different
purpose and each accomplishes it rather
well. So the two, in a sense,
are complementary works.
Miami University DWIGHT L. SMITH
The Geology of the Great Lakes. By Jack L. Hough. (Urbana: Uni-
versity of Illinois Press, 1958.
xviii??313p.; illustrations, charts, maps,
bibliography, and index. $8.50.)
Between the covers of this compact
volume, Dr. Jack L. Hough pre-
sents much fact, inference, and critical
thinking on the geology of the
Great Lakes. To the formidable task of
assembling, sifting, and analyz-
ing the painfully detailed work of
others, and of admixing the results
of his own research, Dr. Hough has
applied, with diligence and care,
his experience as geologist, author, and
editor.
The book is divided into two parts. In
Part I ("The Great Lakes
Region: The Present Lakes and Pre-Lake
History. Methods of Dating
Events of Lake History"), Dr. Hough
discusses the topographic and
geologic setting of the modern Great
Lakes; the chemistry, thermal
328
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
stratification, and movement of lake
water; the sediments of the lakes;
their preglacial and glacial history, in
summary; and the dating of known
significant events in the history of the
region. This part of the book is
addressed chiefly to the non-geologist,
but here the geologist will find
many gateways to further thinking and
reading.
In Part II ("History of Lake
Stages"), Professor Hough presents
a technical but refreshingly concise
treatment of the history of the lake
stages. He comments critically on the
evidence and reasoning of other
workers, particularly Leverett and
Taylor, and introduces ideas stem-
ming from his own research. Several of his
spirited criticisms of some
of the work of Leverett and Taylor
suggest more the zeal of the prose-
cutor than the calm detachment of the
jurist. Perhaps this approach is
warranted; its expression in lively
prose will stimulate readers of all
shades of taste and opinion.
The organization of Part II helps to
clarify a complex history
which, in many other presentations,
looms as such a colossal tangle of
events that the senses dull and interest
flags before the excitement of
comprehension and synthesis can be won.
Since the histories of each of
the lake basins, prior to the time of
Lake Algonquin, are essentially
independent of each other, Dr. Hough
treats these histories separately.
From the time of Lake Algonquin some of
the lake basins had common
stages; for this part of the story Dr.
Hough's basic organization is in
terms of successive stages, not in terms
of lake basins. The history of
the Ontario basin is treated in a
separate chapter.
Parts I and II complement each other,
particularly for the reader
interested in Part II. The reviewer
wonders, however, how far the
non-specialist will progress into Part
II before being defeated by its
level of presentation, in spite of its
excellent organization and the prior
preparation provided by Part I. As
compact as this volume is, it is
entirely possible that with minor
changes each of the two parts could
have been published successfully as a
separate small book, thereby pro-
viding the non-specialist with a choice
to which he is entitled in this day
of expensive books.
Chapter 2, "The Lake Water,"
and Chapter 3, "Sediments of the
Great Lakes," cover much material
in a small amount of space, but they
do not include some rather significant
data (viz., hindcast wave energies,
details of littoral drift, detailed data
on currents and bottom sediments)
available in published and unpublished
sources. These omissions do not
invalidate any of the ideas presented,
but the inclusion of such data
BOOK REVIEWS 329
would increase the book's usefulness as
a source of reference material for
all categories of readers.
It is hoped that later editions will
include an author index, either
in combination with the subject index,
or as part of the bibliography.
The illustrations and tables in the
present volume are, in general, clear
and quite useful. The bibliography is
extensive.
Many people will be justifiably grateful
to Dr. Hough for having
written this book. Certainly it will be
a much-used desk reference for
many people, including the reviewer.
Ohio State University HOWARD J. PINCUS
Schoolcraft's Expedition to Lake
Itasca: The Discovery of the Source
of the Mississippi. Edited
by Philip P. Mason. (East Lansing:
Michigan State University Press, 1959.
xxvi??390p.; end-paper maps,
appendices, bibliography, and index.
$7.50.)
Philip Mason, historian and archivist at
Wayne University, Detroit,
Michigan, has brought together in this
volume the important materials
relating to the expedition led by Henry
Rowe Schoolcraft, Indian agent
at Sault Ste. Marie, in 1832 into the
Indian country on the upper
Mississippi. These materials include
Schoolcraft's Narrative of an Ex-
pedition Through the Upper
Mississippi to Itasca Lake, his Exploratory
Trip Through the St. Croix and
Burntwood (or Brule) Rivers, official
instructions and reports,
correspondence, newspaper articles, and the
daily journals of other members of the
expedition. Dr. Douglass Hough-
ton was the expedition physician and was
interested in natural history;
the Rev. William T. Boutwell, a
Presbyterian missionary, was interested
in the possibilities of establishing
missions in the region, and was invited
along to view it by his personal friend,
Schoolcraft; and Lieutenant
James Allen was detailed to be the
commander of the military escort for
the expedition, and, in addition, was
instructed to collect information on
the topographic and geographic features of
the area as well as data on
native groups. Most of Allen's map is
also reproduced here on the end
papers. Some of these materials have
been published, at least in part,
elsewhere, either shortly after the
expedition (as were Schoolcraft's
Narrative and Allen's Journal and the
newspaper articles), or, more
recently (as was some of the
correspondence, in the series of Territorial
Papers, edited by Clarence E. Carter). To these documents Mason
has
added comments and notes, identifying
individuals and obscure refer-
330
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ences, and pointing out some of the
differences in the several journals
and letters on particular points. He has
also added a useful index.
As Mason indicates, Schoolcraft failed
in his official mission, that of
making a lasting peace between the
contesting Chippewa and Sioux
Indians. He also points out that
Schoolcraft's statements about events
must sometimes be taken at less than
face value, as in his later version
of the naming of Lake Itasca. Mason
includes, too, material on School-
craft's leaving Lieutenant Allen behind
in questionable circumstances.
Rightfully, however, Mason shows that
Schoolcraft was a man of some
scope and imagination, and deserves
credit for his capabilities. The chief
results of the expedition were the
increased knowledge of the peoples, of
the topography and geography, and of the
natural history of the upper
Mississippi region. The general region
of the source of the Mississippi
River had been known for some time, and
Lake Itasca had been well
known by the Indians, French, and other
early travelers in the region
as Lac la Biche or Elk Lake. To the
Schoolcraft expedition, however,
does belong the credit for calling the
precise source of the river to
general attention. Another contribution
of the expedition was the vac-
cinating by Houghton of 2,070 Chippewa
Indians against the dreaded
smallpox disease.
As a result of working with
Schoolcraft's information on Indians,
both in the Narrative and in other
published and manuscript sources, I
am perhaps less inclined than Mr. Mason
to view with tolerance School-
craft's poetic imagination and artful
arrangement of information. Mason
has rendered a service to historians and
other scholars by providing here
the ballast of related materials on the
expedition to correct such bias.
This volume is an essential one to add
to any Minnesota, Michigan,
or Wisconsin regional or historical
library collection.
Indiana University DOROTHY LIBBY
My Partner, The River: The White Pine
Story on the Susquehanna.
By R. Dudley Tonkin. (Pittsburgh:
University of Pittsburgh Press,
1958. xii??276p.;
illustrations, appendices, glossary, and index. $6.00.)
The author of this volume was raised in
the Susquehanna Valley and
worked in the woods there during his
earlier years. While he no doubt
has relied a great deal upon his memory
of those days gone by in writing
this book, it also is very evident that
he has devoted considerable time
and effort to locating and utilizing
original source material, much of
which is still in private possession. He
is to be commended for under-
BOOK REVIEWS 331
taking and completing a task which many
"old-timers" talk about doing
but seldom actually do.
The book traces the development of white
pine logging in the Susque-
hanna Valley from the late 1830's
through the turn of the century. In
relating this story, the author has told
how the river, and the forest
growing on its shores, contributed to
the economic development of the
valley and the state of Pennsylvania. It
is, however, more than a mere
recital of bare economic facts and the
results accruing therefrom. Also
included are several heart-warming and
at times penetrating sketches
of individuals and families who lived
and worked in the valley. Since
the author has had first-hand experience
in logging, it is no surprise that
his description of the equipment and
processes used in the woods during
his time are excellent.
The most glaring fault in the volume is
the great diversity in chapter
size. While Chapters 3 and 14 are not
even three full pages in length,
Chapter 6 is fifty-five pages. Chapter 2
is merely a reprinting of the
Boom Charter of 1846, enacted by the
Pennsylvania legislature, and
could very well have been included in
the appendix. The lack of foot-
notes and bibliography will be
frustrating to those professional historians
who read the book, although most will be
grateful for the glossary which
is included. A detailed map of the river
valley would have been very
useful, as would have been the inclusion
of page references to the
illustrations.
Although Mr. Tonkin's work is not a
great contribution to national
historical scholarship, it is one of the
better examples of amateur local
histories and is of unquestionable value
to one who desires to gain fur-
ther knowledge and a deeper
understanding of the region's history.
Ohio Historical Society BRUCE C. HARDING
The Unmarried Sisters. By Dale Fife. (New York: Farrar, Straus
and Cudahy, 1958. 208p.; illustrations.
$3.50.)
The Unmarried Sisters continues the story of Shatzie Houck's volatile
Alsatian family with whom we became
acquainted in Weddings in the
Family by the same author. In the latter work Mama Houck, who
was
militantly French, yet spoke with a
German accent, was continually
occupied in establishing her sisters and
brothers in Toledo after their
trek from the old country. Now the
domestic and business affairs of
Uncles Theofil, Bertie, et al., are
in good order, and Mama must take
332
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
on the more difficult task of guiding
the second generation which is
without attachment to, or memories of,
the old country.
A dissonant note appears in the
traditional harmony of those days
when all the relatives gathered on one
of the uncle's farms for butcher-
ing and the sauerkraut stomp. Helene,
eldest of the Houck girls, goes
off to a football game and makes a date
for the movies.
"How are we to know what is right
in this country?" Mama asks.
"What are we to say to Helene when
she tells us 'but everyone is going.'
. . . In Alsace there was protection in
the set order of tradition."
Papa is not Alsatian, but German, and of
a more philosophical turn
of mind. "This is a new
country," he tells Mama. "People worship the
new for they have not had time for
tradition. In the old country parents
are revered. Here the parents revere the
children." He concludes
that common sense is the only guide, for
it works well in the new
country and the old.
The Houck daughters evidently fared well
under this philosophy.
In unhappy contrast is little Electra
across the street, who is being
raised "twentieth century."
She wanders from one crepe-bedecked house
to the next in quest of the truth about
what happens to grandmothers
who "pass." At an Irish wake,
surrounded by strangers, she learns that
"our grandmothers are well situated
and getting ready to welcome us."
To Shatzie Houck who trooped along with
Electra there was no riddle.
People simply died. The life cycle was
as plain as that of Houck's
clematis vine. But Electra's mother
considered this pure barbarism.
The Houcks were progressive. Despite
tearful and fearful remon-
strances from the relatives, Papa picked
up his railroad passes and took
his brood all the way across the country
to California. Their trip to
the bottom of Grand Canyon is one of the
most hilarious passages in
the book.
The family returns to Toledo to find
that world unrest has crept
into their very parlor, when on a Sunday
afternoon German uncles and
Alsatian uncles argue heatedly about the
Kaiser and German atrocities.
But love and marriage go on. Helene
becomes engaged--in the
American way with a diamond ring. But
the first generation wishes her
well with the singing of "Du, du
liegst mir in herzen"--because the sec-
ond generation does not really know what
a good love song is, says
Uncle Florival.
Toledo, Ohio KATHRYN M. KELLER
BOOK REVIEWS 333
The Family Saga and Other Phases of
American Folklore. By Mody
C. Boatright, Robert B. Downs, and John
T. Flanagan. (Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1958.
ix??65p.; illustrations and bibliog-
raphy. $2.50.)
The three pieces brought together here
under a somewhat loose-
fitting title were given as special
lectures at the University of Illinois
Library School in 1958. The first two of
them, "The Family Saga as
a Form of Folklore" and
"Apocryphal Biology: A Chapter in American
Folklore," probably lose something
by being reduced to print, for their
respective authors, Mody C. Boatright
and Robert B. Downs, are skill-
ful raconteurs as well as able scholars.
The third, Professor John T.
Flanagan's "Folklore in American
Literature," suffers less as it is less
anecdotal. All three pieces are
stimulating and informative, and it is
good to have them between covers.
Professor Boatright defines his subject
as "lore that tends to cluster
about families, or often the patriarchs
or matriarchs of families, which is
preserved and modified by oral
transmission, and which is believed to be
true." As he notes, stories about
the missing family jewels, unclaimed
legacies awaiting Americans in foreign
lands, and grandpa's motives
for settling in Texas raise fascinating
problems of form, motif, and re-
lation to actuality. Some of his readers
will certainly be moved to
follow his suggestion that they
investigate their own family sagas. In
so doing they will doubtless discover
how much light a type of lore
which now lies disregarded and
practically in their own backyards casts
upon social history.
Professor Downs in his "Apocryphal
Biology" covers both flora and
fauna, discussing out-sized pumpkins,
potatoes, watermelons, and corn,
as well as fearsome creatures like the
augerino, the cactus cat, the gilly-
galoo, the goofus, the hodag, the
hoop-snake, the mosquitobee, the Piasa
Bird, the ratchet owl, the sidehill gouger,
the snipe, the squonk, the
wampus cat, and the whickle. Since he
has given us so much, it seems
churlish to chide him for what he leaves
out, but he really should have
mentioned two beasts famed in both oral
and written tradition: the
highbehind and the whangdoodle.
Professor Flanagan indicates the
obligations which writers like Mel-
ville, Mark Twain, Cable, and Faulkner
owe to folklore. His thesis
is that "folklore in American
literature is almost as old as folklore in
American life," and he proves it
handily. For those who wish to pursue
the subject further, he provides a list
of references.
Western Reserve University GEORGE KUMMER
Book Reviews
American Minds: A History of Ideas. By Stow Persons. (New York:
Henry Holt and Company, 1958.
xii??467p.; suggestions for further
reading and index. $7.50.)
Here is a book with which all who are
interested in American social
and intellectual history should be
acquainted. It is designed partly as a
text and partly as an interpretive
essay, a duality which since Parring-
ton has become almost standard practice
(witness the work of Curti,
Gabriel, and Schneider). As the most
recent effort "to provide an in-
troduction to the history of American
thought" (p. vii), it offers an
original synthesis which departs in
important ways from the structure
and material focus of its famous
predecessors. Previous scholarly labors
in the vineyard of evolutionary and
religious thinking eminently qualify
Professor Persons for his task.
The Persons' strategy in dealing with
the growth of American thought
is "to describe the principal focal
concentrations of ideas, or 'minds,'
that have determined the profile of
American intellectual life during its
historical development. There have been
five of these 'social minds,' and
the five parts of the book describe them
as they appeared in chrono-
logical succession. . . . No effort is made
to explain the formation or
dissolution of these systems of ideas or
to trace the transitions between
them" (p. vii). The first two minds
(Puritan and Enlightenment) and
almost a third of his pages center upon
Colonial America. Here pro-
fessor Persons leans heavily upon recent
scholarship in the field. Though
as impartial as one could reasonably
expect, his sympathies are clearly
on the side of the Puritans. He ascribes
to Thomas Hooker the real
authorship of the theory of mixed
government in America (p. 30). He
sees democracy arising from majority
Puritanism far more than from
dissenter sectarians like Roger Williams
and Anne Hutchinson, for
whom he has no great taste (the Quakers
come off best among colonial
sects). The fall of Puritanism he
attributes to its defensive pose and
its inability to take missionary
initiative against the smaller Baptist and
Quaker gadfly groups.