Book Reviews
The Kensington Stone: A Mystery
Solved. By Erik Wahlgren.
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
1958. xiv+228p.; illustra-
tions, bibliography, and index. $5.00.)
Few artifacts of American history have
aroused as much interest as
the Kensington stone. This stone with
its runic inscriptions, supposedly
discovered by a Minnesota farmer in
1898, has been the subject of
several books by Hjalmar Holand. No
American scholar has taken
the trouble to examine in detail the
case which Holand has presented,
although many have expressed scepticism.
Scandinavian runologists
have unanimously agreed that the stone
is a forgery, but their writings
are largely unknown in the United
States. In the face of all criticism,
Holand has maintained his position,
oftentimes not meeting the argument
or else simply dismissing those who
disagreed with him as willful men
intent on undermining his findings. Erik
Wahlgren of the University
of California at Los Angeles has now
investigated the famous stone
from the point of view of runology,
geology, and history, and his
findings should bring an end to any
tendency to accept the stone as an
authentic artifact dating from 1362.
The author shows that the leading rune
experts, led by Professor
Sven B. F. Jansson of the University of
Stockholm, have rejected the
inscriptions on sound bases. Letters,
the spelling of certain words, and
even some of the words are inconsistent
with the usages of Scandinavians
in the fourteenth century. The inscription
blends Swedish and Nor-
wegian in a manner common in the
Norwegian-Swedish communities
of Minnesota, gives details which
contrast with the laconic nature of
medieval runic inscriptions, contains no
abbreviations characteristic of
early inscriptions, and, unlike
authentic inscriptions, does not contain
a single name.
The author has made an exhaustive
investigation of the facts sur-
rounding the discovery of the stone. The
result is an undermining of the
assertions made by Holand as to the
precise date of discovery, the size
of the stone, the use of the stone as a
doorstep, and the role of various
Kensington citizens in bringing the
stone to public attention.
90
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Public statements of Holand and a
considerable portion of his corre-
spondence, notably that with the
Minnesota Historical Society, show
that Holand, in his determination to
defend the authenticity of the stone,
has grasped for every shred of evidence
in its favor, misconstrued valid
arguments against it or simply ignored
them, and constructed shaky
hypotheses and later cited them as
proven facts. The author demon-
strates also that Holand has been
inconsistent in his statements. In
brief, Holand appears as a publicity
agent rather than a scholar.
The author concludes his study with a
careful examination of the
evidence which suggests that some
Minnesotan with a sense of humor
manufactured the artifact. Several individuals
in the town of Kensington
had an amateur's knowledge of runes,
which they picked up from
Swedish books, were familiar with the
speculations of Ignatius Donnelly,
the Minnesota sage, on the existence of
a pre-Columbian culture, and
were aware of earlier frauds. Erik
Wahlgren offers no final con-
clusion as to the perpetrator of the
fraud, but he clearly suspects that
the farmer who allegedly discovered the
stone, Olof Ohman, had a
part in it. Ohman, portrayed by Holand
as a "crude rustic" who could
not possibly have manufactured a runic
inscription, possessed books
which dealt with runology, and he had
learned about runes in an
elementary school in his native Sweden.
Ohman was certainly not a
crude rustic. He demonstrated a
considerable interest in popular
writings. He was also familiar with a
controversy which raged in the
1890's over the question of whether the
Vikings had landed in America
prior to Columbus.
This book has all the fascination of a
detective story that examines
every shred of evidence. The author has
relegated the Kensington stone
to the category of interesting and
amusing relics of the American
frontier.
Michigan State University PAUL A. VARG
National Archives Accessions No. 54, June, 1958. Supplement to the
Guide to the Records in the National
Archives. (Washington: U. S.
National Archives, 1958. 48p. Paper.)
In addition to itemizing the accessions
of the National Archives for
the year July 1, 1956-June 30, 1957,
this publication contains an
important and interesting essay on
"Early Business Statistical Opera-
tions of the Federal Government,"
by Meyer H. Fishbein, the archivist
BOOK REVIEWS 91
in charge of the business economics
branch of the National Archives
and Record Service. Mr. Fishbein is
concerned with the relatively
neglected history of the collection of
business statistics by the United
States government in the period before
1890. He confines his dis-
cussion to statistics relating to
census enumeration, commerce and
navigation, and agriculture.
Mr. Fishbein's emphasis in his
consideration of the period 1789-1820
is on the methods employed in the
gathering of data for the altogether
inadequate census of manufactures of
1810 and 1820. In the author's
opinion, the major development from the
point of view of the history
of statistics in the United States from
1820 to 1860 was the extensive
collection of agricultural statistics
by the commissioners of patents,
beginning with Henry Ellsworth. The
statistics pertaining to internal
commerce during this period were
collected in a fashion that insured
their unreliability.
In the quarter century following the
Civil War, Mr. Fishbein
indicates, the "fundamental
techniques" associated with statistical admin-
istration in the twentieth century were
developed. A bureau of statistics
was established in the treasury
department in 1866, and the able
Francis Amasa Walker directed the
taking of the census of 1870 and
the census of 1880. By 1890 the problem
of statistical administration,
Mr. Fishbein concludes, was no longer
that of preparing schedules but
rather of interpreting the data that
was being collected.
Mr. Fishbein's major contribution is in
pointing out that although
the business statistics collected prior
to 1890 leave much to be desired,
significant progress had been made by
that time in the methodology
employed in the gathering of such
statistics. His account is lucid and
concise and should be of interest to
both economic historians and statis-
ticians.
University of Michigan SIDNEY FINE
Beginnings of the American
Rectangular Land Survey System, 1784-
1800. By William D. Pattison. University of Chicago,
Department
of Geography Research Paper No. 50.
(Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1957. vii+248p.;
frontispiece, maps, charts, appendix,
and bibliography. Paper, $3.00.)
This doctoral dissertation in geography
might be mistaken for one
in history, if some brief discussions
of surveying instruments and
92
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
methods were omitted. The research is
thorough, with unpublished
sources in the National Archives
particularly important. Voluminous
footnotes, frequently explanatory, an
extensive classified bibliography,
a logical arrangement of topics and
subtopics, and seventeen valuable
maps and diagrams (including the
frontispiece) attest to the book's
scholarly character.
The first four chapters cover much that
is familiar in explaining the
origins of the land ordinance of 1785
and its relationship to the
earlier ordinance of 1784. Jefferson's
ideas about the West take on a
new consistency when considered as a
whole. For example, the
meridians and parallels which he
suggested as boundaries for the small
states of his plan of 1784 would serve
as principal meridians and base
lines for land surveys and would go far
in resolving the conflict between
rectangularity and the northward
convergence of meridians. Also, his
idea of surveying the public lands into
"hundreds" (ten-mile square
townships) not only conformed to his
belief in the efficacy of the decimal
system but also was intended to provide
convenient units for various
purposes of local self-government.
Later-day criticisms of Jefferson's
use, in his statehood plans, of a
boundary meridian which placed the
eastern shore of Lake Michigan with the
states to the west on modern
maps are answered by the author's
reproduction of Thomas Hutchins'
contemporary map which located Lake
Michigan directly above the
meridian in question, thus making the
lake serve as the boundary.
Hugh Williamson of North Carolina,
overlooked by other historians
of the public lands, shares with
Jefferson the credit for originating the
rectangular system, and in the 1790's,
again in congress, he was a
vital link in the chain of its
preservation.
The book takes issue with the advocates
of New England origins
by producing strong evidence to show
that southern experience and
southern leadership were more
responsible for the chief features of
the ordinance of 1785, and that there
were New England opponents
of the arbitrary rectangular grid.
European precedents, which have been
traced back to Roman models,
are dismissed with a "not
proven" conclusion, though the Dutch con-
nections of Williamson are not ruled out
as a possible bridge. The
author rejects the suggestion of
Professor C. E. Sherman in his volume
Ohio Land Subdivisions in the Ohio Topographic Survey that Colonel
Henry Bouquet's plan for square-mile
fortified stations may have
influenced Jefferson, who owned a copy
of the book proposing it.
BOOK REVIEWS 93
Incidentally, Professor Sherman is
referred to as the author of one of
the two best accounts of public land
surveying in individual states, a
judgment in which this reviewer heartily
concurs.
The most interesting part of the book
for the general reader is the
discussion of the actual surveys of
1785-87 in the Seven Ranges, with
Indians and rumors of Indians
interrupting or delaying progress and
expenses of supplies and transportation
running far above the two
dollars per mile congress had fixed as a
fair rate. The meager financial
returns from the auction sales of 1787
and the proposals of the Ohio-
Scioto group and John Cleves Symmes to
buy large tracts which they
would undertake to develop explain the
suspension of further federal
surveying, although rectangular surveys
were the rule in these purchases.
Not until after the passage of the land
law of 1796 were the principles
of the ordinance of 1785 again applied
to the public lands in the
Northwest. By this time the Indian
menace had been ended and land
companies were making themselves
unpopular.
The concluding pages discuss the system
that had been developed
by the early 1800's, and also evaluate
the contributions of several key
figures, chief among them Thomas
Hutchins, geographer of the United
States, who had charge of the earliest
surveys, Rufus Putnam, first
surveyor general under the land act of
1796, and his successor, Jared
Mansfield, who established the system of
principal meridians and base
lines.
A page of errata takes care of most of
the textual errors that escaped
the proofreader. Two or three minor
slips caught the reviewer's eye,
but only one is worth mentioning. The
adjective "adult" does not appear
in the Northwest Ordinance's requirement
of "sixty thousand free
inhabitants" for statehood (p.16).
It is regrettable that such a fine study
should have to appear in a
paper cover series and without an index.
Ohio State University EUGENE H. ROSEBOOM
Colonel Erkuries Beatty,
1759-1823: Pennsylvania Revolutionary
Soldier; New Jersey Judge, Senator,
Farmer, and Prominent Citizen
of Princeton. By Harry B. Weiss and Grace M. Ziegler. (Trenton,
N. J.: The Past Times Press, 1958.
vi+80p.; illustrations, bibliog-
raphy, and index. $4.00.)
This slim, attractively bound volume,
with a limited publication of
two hundred copies, is a compilation of
scattered notes concerning
94
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Erkuries (Greek: "E, from, and
Kurios, the Lord") Beatty. In only a
very limited sense can it be called a
biography. Likewise it is not a
genealogical study. In fact, one is hard
put to define the work.
The title of the volume describes rather
adequately (but far too
generously) its contents, and the seven
chapters which compose it deal
with various phases of
"Colonel" Beatty's life and activities. However,
no phase of the subject's life or works
is fully explored. The reader
often wonders whether it would not have
been wiser to publish Beatty's
letters and journals in edited form
rather than lift excerpts from them
in a generally haphazard fashion. There
is far too much skipping about,
far too little exposition of the man's
life, which one is inclined to
imagine must have been an interesting
and active one. Too much is
omitted and too little of importance
included.
Beatty was a soldier, farmer,
politician, and land speculator. Yet
this volume fails to do the subject
justice. Here and there one finds
interesting anecdotes and scraps of
information. However, in toto,
there is a lack of cohesion and a
general failure to handle the topic
effectively.
Of the four diaries of Erkuries Beatty
summarized cursorily in
the final chapter, only one, dealing
with Beatty's military life (May
1786 - June 1787), has been published.
An edited edition of the other
three would have been, and might yet be,
an interesting and worthwhile
contribution to the deepening of our
historical knowledge and apprecia-
tion.
Anthony Wayne Parkway Board RICHARD C. KNOPF
The Lost Panoramas of the
Mississippi. By John Francis
McDermott.
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1958. xvii+211p.; illustra-
tions, notes, sources consulted, and
index. $7.50.)
Obviously the work of years of careful
and thoughtful research, this
well-designed, well-illustrated, and
well-organized book presents the
interesting story of the motion pictures
of a century ago. It would be
difficult to improve on this book in any
aspect. The only regret is
that after reading about these panoramas
one cannot see any of the
finest examples. Doubtless they would
seem crude to us today, harsh
in color, sketchy, and over-theatrical.
But their real interest would be
of a historical nature, for many of the
cities have grown beyond
recognition, some have disappeared, life
on the Mississippi has changed.
BOOK REVIEWS 95
Panoramas such as these were not an
American invention, but they
became immediately popular here in the
early nineteenth century as an
American expression, done in haste, a
source of great rivalry, exaggera-
tion, press agentry, and romantic
description. The Mississippi with its
tributaries lent itself perfectly to
this new medium. A trip down the
rivers had been a common experience and
was in itself like the unrolling
of a giant painting. Those who had not
experienced this romantic
journey flocked to see it depicted in
the many panoramas displayed
a century ago in America and Europe.
John Banvard claimed his panorama was
"The Biggest/Picture in
the World," three miles long.
Actually it was 440 yards in length.
He was the first and most financially
successful of these artists. Like
those who followed, he depicted the
towns and villages, the scenic beauty
along the river, Indian life, river
boat explosions, night scenes, and
recent incidents along the river that
would attract the public. A
lecturer stood in front of the
twelve-feet-high moving picture, and often
special effects such as smoke and
musical accompaniment were used.
John Rowson Smith claimed his moving
panorama was four miles
long, the first of such efforts, and
far superior to Banvard's. All that
remains of his work are woodcuts taken
from it, which reveal drafts-
manship superior to the others. About
Sam Stockwell's life and
panorama little is known. Though it was
highly praised in his native
city, St. Louis, he lost all his money
on it. Henry Lewis' life and
panorama are treated fully, for
fortunately his sketch book has been
preserved in which he recorded details
he later painted in large scale.
Unlike his predecessors, he showed both
sides of the river and presented
views taken from an elevation. The
Frenchman, Leon Pomarede, last
of the big five, went a step further by
making oil sketches on location.
His work was destroyed by fire in 1850.
Milwaukee Art Center EDWARD H. DWIGHT
They Gathered at the River: The
Story of the Great Revivalists and
Their Impact Upon Religion in
America. By Bernard Weisberger.
(Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and
Company, 1958. 345p.;
illustrations, bibliography, and index.
$5.00.)
In 1880 Calvin Colton, Presbyterian
minister and pamphleteer, an-
nounced that revivals "have become
the grand absorbing theme . . . of
the American religious world."
Bernard Weisberger has examined
96
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
this absorbing theme and with careful
documentation and in lively prose
has traced the evolution of the American
revival from 1798 to the
present day. In so doing, he has ranged
widely through the basic
monographic works of recent religious
and historical scholarship and
has examined critically the works of
leading members of what in time
came to be the "profession" of
evangelists.
Weisberger's main theses are now fairly
widely accepted. He
emphasizes the point that the revival,
as a means of conversion and
membership recruitment, was not the
recourse of all American Chris-
tians, that its major support and
influence was in the rural and small-
town middle class, that stressing the
role of the individual and emotion
became important props on which
revivalism rested, that the revival
was the agent of Calvinism's
metamorphosis in the nineteenth century,
and that a steady progression (or
regression) can be traced in the
role, techniques, and objectives of the
evangelists from Finney to Moody
to Sunday.
The author is at his best in the
profiles he draws of some of the
major revivalists in our history. With
careful choice of illustrations
and illuminating quotations, he draws
excellent studies of James
McGready, James Finley, Timothy Dwight,
Charles Finney, Dwight
Moody, Billy Sunday, and others. His
footnote on the Moody bibliog-
raphy is an essay in itself, and his
quotations from some of Billy
Sunday's sermons are a highlight of the
book.
In tracing the growth and transformation
of the revival from
the Kentucky clearing to the
metropolitan tabernacle, one is reminded
again and again of the deep-rooted
anti-intellectualism of most evange-
lists. As Weisberger points out, after
Finney's time no popular
evangelist was a graduate of a
first-class university or seminary. Peter
Cartwright represented the evangelistic
attitude when he declared that
an educated minister reminded him of
"a gosling that had got the
straddles by wading in the dew."
Billy Sunday had similar sentiments
less delicately expressed.
This book is not only well documented;
it is well written. Weisberger
has a rare ability for brief, direct,
pungent phrases. Describing New
England revivalism, he writes that it
"helped to fit out American Chris-
tianity with a set of working clothes.
It was not the opium, but the
adrenaline, of the people."
Discussing Finney's phenomenal success,
he concludes, "He did not study the
popular mind; he had it." Summing
up Billy Sunday's role, he writes,
"Revivalism had been born in the
BOOK REVIEWS 97
marriage of Calvinism and the American
frontier, introduced to the city
by Finney, and nourished to gigantic
growth by Moody. Now it was
about to put on the trappings of
vaudeville."
The book is not without its limitations.
Weisberger gives inadequate
attention to the contributions of
Jonathan Edwards and George White-
field. He slights the theological
aspects of the nineteenth-century
revivals. The important influence of
Nathaniel Taylor, especially on
Lyman Beecher, is overlooked. Daniel
Baker, the southern Presbyterian
revivalist, is dismissed in five lines,
and Jason Lee is not even mentioned.
Weisberger could have profited from a
close reading of Timothy Smith's
Revivalism and Social Reform. The excellent footnotes, unfortunately,
are at the back of the book.
Although he carries his narrative to
current times, Weisberger omits
reference to Billy Graham, who might
appear to be the inevitable
extension in the shifting emphases of
revivals from Finney's day to
this. He concludes with a question
perhaps wisely left unanswered:
"Would the 'new' revival really
have any roots at all in the American
past?"
Lafayette College CHARLES C. COLE, JR.
Entangling Alliance: Politics &
Diplomacy Under George Washington.
By Alexander DeConde. (Durham, N.C.:
Duke University Press,
1958. xiv+536p.;
bibliographical note and index. $7.50.)
In this detailed work Professor DeConde
has considered the problem
of why and how between 1789 and 1797 the
Franco-American alliance
was so transformed that by the latter
year the two countries were
practically in a state of war. The book
is far from being a traditional
history of Franco-American diplomatic
relations in these years. Pro-
fessor DeConde treats as an integral
part of his work the problem of
the interaction of domestic politics and
American foreign policy, and
in particular stresses the importance of
the system of Alexander Hamil-
ton. He attempts to show that the
Hamiltonian system was an all-
pervading force in Washington's
administration, and that this system
was of basic importance in the collapse
of the Franco-American alliance.
In doing this Professor DeConde reaches
the conclusion that Washing-
ton was a tool of the Hamiltonians, and
that by accepting the Hamil-
tonian system as the philosophical
foundation of his government,
Washington made his government
incompatible with the French alliance.
98
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Professor DeConde supports his
conclusions not only by a detailed
discussion of the diplomatic relations
between France and America,
but also by a careful analysis of the
American political situation.
Though the earlier chapters of the
book--dealing with the background
of the period, the Hamiltonian system,
the deterioration in Anglo-
American relations, and Jay's
Treaty--present a scholarly and well-
written account of the era, they
contribute little that is essentially new.
It is when Professor DeConde turns to
the more specific problems of
Franco-American relations that the work
assumes its greatest import-
ance. After showing how commerce between
France and America
prospered insufficiently to provide a
firm economic backing to the
alliance of 1778, Professor DeConde
relates in considerable detail the
shortcomings and the problems of
diplomatic representation in both
countries. The story of Genet's
indiscretions is well known, but too
often in the past insufficient attention
has been devoted to the work
of Governeur Morris and James Monroe in
Paris, and of Fauchet and
Adet in the United States. Professor
DeConde however considers
both the problems they faced and the
errors they committed, and suc-
ceeds in presenting a perceptive account
of the collapse of the Franco-
American alliance. Particularly
enlightening is Professor DeConde's
discussion of the manner in which the
French government was driven
by the pro-British policy of the American
government to interfere in
American politics. In fact, Professor
DeConde argues that owing to the
capture of the American government by
Hamilton and Washington, the
French alliance was doomed from the
beginning of the new national
government.
In view of its iconoclastic nature it
seems unlikely that Professor
DeConde's work will meet with unanimous
approval. Admirers of
Washington are unlikely to welcome this
treatment of the president
as a puppet of the Hamiltonians. Yet
Professor DeConde bases his
work on extensive research, and presents
his ideas in stimulating form.
These ideas merit careful consideration
by all who wish to understand
American foreign policy in its early
years, and by all who are interested
in the wider implications of the interaction
of foreign policy and
domestic politics.
University of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee REGINALD HORSMAN
BOOK REVIEWS 99
The War of 1812 in the Old Northwest.
By Alec R. Gilpin. (East Lan-
sing: Michigan State University Press,
1958. vii+286p.; illustrations,
bibliography, and index. $6.50.)
This work is largely confined to
military campaigns and battles of
the War of 1812 in the Old Northwest.
For this reason the causes
of the war are not considered within its
scope. Even though historians
have not recently given much attention
to the war and have left the
field open, the author has not attempted
a general revision.
Two main divisions of the work are
easily discernible. The first
part treats the military activity of
William Hull, governor of Michigan
Territory, who was appointed brigadier
general and given command
of the North Western Army. The second
part concerns the invasion
of Canada by William Henry Harrison, who
had been governor of
Indiana Territory. He too was appointed
brigadier general and given
command of a new army of the Northwest.
If the point of view here presented is
accepted, General Hull will
be regarded in a more favorable manner
than has been accorded him.
On the other hand, the author may be
considered as too friendly to the
governor. Since Hull had urged the
construction of naval vessels in
order to control the Great Lakes,
Professor Gilpin feels that the failure
of the national government to accept his
recommendation in part
absolves Hull from blame for his later
surrender of Detroit. Notification
of the declaration of war did not reach
him until two weeks had passed,
while the Canadians knew about it in one
week. The difference in
communication was in part responsible
for the capture of Hull's official
correspondence and medical supplies.
The actual surrender of Detroit is
explained by many developments.
After the capture of Michilimackinac,
many Indians from the northwest
were expected to join those already
under Tecumseh and General Isaac
Brock. Probably more important was the
difficulty of getting supplies
while the British controlled Fort Malden
on the Detroit River. The
plottings and misbehavior of Colonels
Duncan McArthur and Lewis
Cass, and Hull's responsibility for the
civilians in the face of Indian
warfare considerably increased his
troubles. Although Professor Gilpin
notes mistakes made by Hull, he
concludes that the national adminis-
tration made the governor a scapegoat in
part to cover mistakes for
which national officials were
responsible.
After describing frontier warfare in Illinois,
Indiana, and Ohio, the
narrative turns to the second major
topic--the Canadian campaign of
100
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
General Harrison. The author treats
Harrison favorably, but he does
not feel that the verdict of historians
needs serious revision. The
chapters in this part of the volume have
a better balance.
The workmanship of the author in general
seems to be sound and his
style clear. Few errors of fact or of
printing were noted. It is obvious
that he does not exaggerate in order to
obtain effect or to make his
narrative dramatic. He has depended
largely upon manuscript and
printed sources, but the use of material
in the libraries of the United
States seems to outweigh the use of
Canadian collections. The work
will certainly be helpful to many
persons who are interested in the
progress of the military campaigns of
the War of 1812 in the Old
Northwest.
Indiana University JOHN D. BARNHART
The Modern Researcher. By Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff.
(New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company,
1957. xiii+386p.;
bibliography and index. $6.00.)
This engaging manual covers proper
approaches to historical investi-
gation, efficient procedures in
determining the facts bearing upon any
event, and the presentation of findings
in a pleasing manner designed to
encourage further reading by an
historically-minded public. It differs
from traditional expositions of the
subject and the considerable number
of newer treatises beginning to crowd
the field by its deft philosophical
approach, its wide coverage of time,
place, and subject matter, its
powerful appeal to reader imagination,
and a masterly style which
makes its perusal an exhilarating
intellectual adventure.
Part I: First Principles, covers
research and report as historian's
work and the A B C of technique. Part
II: Research, deals with a
broad range of subjects such as the
searcher's mind, fact finding,
authentication, the handling of ideas,
truth and causation, pattern and
bias, the laws of history, and
historical schools. Part III: Writing, is
unique among works of this nature in
that, embracing nearly one-third
the entire volume, it mirrors the two
authors' deep concern over the
most neglected aspect of historical
craftsmanship. Indeed, this section,
dealing with such diverse matters as the
organization of data, the war
on jargon and cliches, the need for
clarity in expression, the art of
quoting, footnoting, and the correcting
of proof, might readily be
embodied in toto in a sound new college
text on English composition.
BOOK REVIEWS 101
Beginning students will react very
favorably to the practical nature
of this "how to" book. It
offers sound suggestions of an elementary
nature such as the selection and
delimitation of a subject, the proper
use of a library, and the mechanics of
taking and processing notes.
Much is made of the six cardinal
principles which should direct the
efforts of all investigators--accuracy,
love of order, logic, honesty,
self-awareness, and imagination.
Emphasis is placed upon the need
for interpreting findings if these are
to rise above the level of collected
evidence and are to serve any real
purpose.
The average graduate student will
probably find the pages on data
verification, the handling of ideas,
causation, and bias of special interest.
Employing incidents and situations
familiar to many and striking a
responsive chord in all, Messrs. Barzun
and Graff trace the logical
steps to follow in determining the facts
of a case, running down quota-
tions, and identifying unnamed sources.
Warning is sounded respecting
any desire to manage ideas and the
pitfalls confronting any writer
clustering his findings around them.
The authors hold that attempts to
formalize causal description by
differentiating between one so-called
paramount cause and attendant
contributory ones must inevitably end in
self-stultification. Rather, to
their mind, causation occurring in a
long chain of varied events must
be set apart from causation within a
closed system. Creator outlook is
viewed as normal in all writing and by
no means undesirable. The
dividing line between good and bad kinds
of writer interest is placed
at the point where author predilection
begins to spoil the product and
personal viewpoint then becomes bias.
All in all, this is a sound, scholarly
presentation in an intriguing
vein which will prove eminently
successful in historical methods classes
and which should be made required study
for history majors. It is
certain to enjoy wide popularity among
teachers and students alike.
Believe it or not, a procedural volume
can, on occasion, be nothing less
than fascinating!
Ohio State University LOWELL RAGATZ
The Splendid Little War. By Frank Freidel. (Boston: Little, Brown
and Company, 1958. 314p.; illustrations.
$8.50.)
In this handsome volume Frank Freidel
has prepared an informal
history of the Spanish-American
War--"The Splendid Little War" of
102
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
John Hay. More than three hundred
carefully selected illustrations
(chiefly photographs, with numerous
drawings and a few maps) pro-
vide a graphic account of the important
leaders, the various naval
engagements, the infantry actions, and
behind-the-lines activities.
Among these are line drawings made on
the spot by such noted artists
as Frederic Remington, Howard Chandler
Christy, and William
Glackens. The reproduction of both
photographs and drawings is
superb.
To accompany the illustrations, Freidel
has assembled a running text
from the recollections of many
eyewitnesses, ranging from the heroic
Richard Harding Davis, Stephen Bonsal,
Stephen Crane, and Theodore
Roosevelt to unknown enlisted men. For Freidel's
purposes there is
ample material: eighty-nine
correspondents sailed from Tampa with
the first contingent of Cuba-bound
troops. Later, many of the leading
officers and cabinet members wrote
accounts of their roles in the war.
For the casual reader the volume
presents a superb impression of
this "little" war which
plummeted the United States into prominence as
a world power and an imperialistic
nation with possessions far from the
American continent. He learns about the
sinking of the Maine in the
Havana harbor, the dramatic victory of
Admiral Dewey at Manila Bay
and other naval exploits, the
difficulties of organizing an army, the
landing at Daiquiri, the assault on El
Caney, the taking of San
Juan Hill, the siege of Santiago, the
Puerto Rican campaign, and the
Philippine expedition. The incompetency
and inefficiency of the war
department quickly become evident, as
does the inability of the medical
profession to cope with yellow fever
and other diseases.
For the serious student of the nineties
Freidel offers little that is
new. He makes only the slightest effort
to explain the causes of the
war, to analyze the main strategy, or
to summarize the results. While
he provides suggestions for further
reading, the scholar will quickly
exhaust them. The absence of an index
is regrettable.
Few historians have shown much interest
in the Spanish-American
War. Chadwick's history, published in
1911, remained for years the
standard work. The Martial Spirit, by
Walter Millis, which appeared
in 1931, was a "debunking"
interpretation. Highly readable, Millis'
book is consistently flavored by
satiric thrusts at "an unnecessary war,"
the gross stupidity of the McKinley
administration, and the utter incom-
petency of the armed services. Thus the
conventional view of the war,
given in almost every textbook and
hence accepted by most Americans,
BOOK REVIEWS 103
has come to be that it was fought for
foolish purposes, by musical
comedy soldiers (T. R. riding up San
Juan Hill, yelling, "Charge!"),
and compassionate sailors ("Don't
cheer, boys; those poor devils are
dying"), and directed by a fumbling
president ("No more backbone
than a chocolate eclair").
Freidel's volume only partly corrects this
unfortunate conception. We still await a
balanced, scholarly history
of the "Splendid Little War."
Ohio State University EVERETT WALTERS
Joseph Barker: Recollections of the
First Settlement of Ohio. Edited
with Introduction and Notes by George
Jordan Blazier, with a Genea-
logy and Biography of Colonel Joseph
Barker by Rodney T. Hood.
(Marietta, Ohio: Marietta College, 1958.
xviii??96p.; illustrations,
maps, and index. $3.00.)
Dr. Blazier, librarian and archivist of
Marietta College; Dr. Hood, an
assistant professor of mathematics at
Ohio University; Henry Barker
Fernald, a descendant of Joseph Barker;
and Marietta College are all
to be commended for the preparation and
publication of this handsome
little volume dealing with the
political, social, economic, cultural, and
military development of early Marietta
and the Ohio Company lands.
The original manuscript was prepared by
Joseph Barker in the late
years of his life on the request of the
historian Dr. Samuel Prescott
Hildreth, who used it extensively in the
preparation of his two volumes
of Ohio history, Pioneer History (1848),
and Biographical and His-
torical Memoirs of the Early Pioneer
Settlers of Ohio (1852).
From the biographical data supplied by
Professor Hood we find that
Joseph Barker served variously as a
militia sergeant during the Indian
Wars of the 1790's and as a colonel
thereafter, as a justice of the peace
and of the court of common pleas, and as
a legislator. However, his
major claim to prominence was
established through his associations
with Harman Blennerhassett. It was
Barker who built the celebrated
island mansion near Belpre for the
Blennerhassetts, and it was Barker
who later built fifteen boats on the
Muskingum River at the Dudley
Woodbridge farm for the use of the
Burr-Blennerhassett conspirators.
However, if the reader expects to tap a
rich source of data respecting
the Burr Conspiracy, he is doomed to
disappointment, for the Recollec-
tions are based almost entirely upon the period 1789-95.
The strength of the book lies in its
faithful chronicling of the stresses
104
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and strains, triumphs and shortcomings
of pioneer life in a frontier
community. The reader re-lives with
Barker the back-breaking task of
clearing the forest and erecting a home,
the omnipresent fear of Indian
attack, including the best account that
I have yet come across of the
Big Bottom massacre, the dread of the
"fever and ague," the pleasures
of pike fishing in the broad Ohio, and
the rejoicing at Marietta's first
Thanksgiving.
Dr. Blazier has performed the task of
editor most commendably. The
flavor of the original manuscript
permeates each page. The book is a
must for those students of Ohio's
history who are interested in delving
into invaluable primary sources.
Kent State University PHILLIP R. SHRIVER
The Realist at War: The Mature Years,
1885-1920, of William Dean
Howells. By Edwin H. Cady.
(Syracuse: Syracuse University
Press, 1958. xii??299p.; bibliographical
notes, index, and illustrated
end papers. $5.00.)
The second, and concluding, volume of
Professor Cady's interpretive
biography of William Dean Howells deals
in detail with the decade
1885-95, when the ex-Ohioan reached his
highest plateau of creative
power and was the country's leading man
of letters. It then sketches
more rapidly his remaining years when,
as sage of the "Editor's Easy
Chair" in Harper's, he
declined into the popularly esteemed academi-
cian.
Writing for a patient and attentive,
mainly a professional audience,
Mr. Cady gives only a quarter of his
space to the human interest stuff
of most biographies--to the
circumstances of Howells' family, friends,
and career. Another quarter is spent on
longish analytical synopses
of Howells' major books after 1885. The
remaining half of the volume
is given to a sensitive fine-combing of
the intimate ties between Howells'
evolving literary instincts and his
ripening moral intelligence. This
last subject is no doubt worth close
attention, for Howells was both a
master craftsman in fiction and an interesting
ethical personality. This
was true especially during the
remarkable growth from his forty-seventh
to his fifty-fourth years (1884-91),
when the impact of Tolstoy's mes-
sage, the controversial hanging of the
Chicago anarchists, and the
cruel death of his daughter Winifred
permanently changed his literary
ideas, his humanitarian sympathies, and
his private morale.
BOOK REVIEWS 105
Mr. Cady's book is a piece of careful
scholarship, intelligent, clear,
and fairly well written. There have
been, however, some casualties
in the process. In Howells' case there
are factors which induce a
defensive, protective partisanship in
some of his students. The present
book, for example, seems to be overly
sympathetic in its account of
Howells' relations with the world, and
possibly too lenient in its
valuation of his fiction.
Assuredly Howells' fine novels merit
more respect than they get,
but we keep returning to that
interesting query about his enormous
talent: excellent as his art was, why
wasn't it better? He never wrote
anything quite good enough to set along
side The Scarlet Letter, Moby
Dick, Huckleberry Finn, or The Ambassadors. The faithful reader of
Howells grows old before his time in the
repeated frustration of having
his expectations starved in the last
quarter of a novel. Howells wrote
more fine first halves of novels than
anybody in the business, but for
various aesthetic and temperamental
reasons he either chose to let a
novel flag short of its own promise or
else was incapable of generating
the passion, pressure, and heat which in
a genius tempers a fine book
into a great one.
There are various explanations for
Howells' ultimate falling-short.
His realist theory inhibited a
completely free choice of material and
treatment. His dainty tastes made him
tiptoe when he should have
strode. His vision usually excluded that
dark demonic region which
intensifies many masterpieces. He may
even have been a victim of his
wizardly ease and facility, the despair
of his competitors, by which he
spun off smooth tens, hundreds,
thousands of pages every morning,
every week, every month for fifty years.
And, if irreproachably indus-
trious, he may have been too complacent,
even too lazy, for the agonies
of an all-out struggle to transcend the
merely superior product which
was his honorable trademark.
But it has been wonderfully to our
advantage, and to Ohio's credit,
to have had Howells precisely as he was.
Taken all together, he was
an influence such as we have never had
since upon the direction and
character of American writing. It is, of
course, a compliment to
Howells that we test him by only the
highest standards.
University of Illinois, Chicago JAMES B. STRONKS
106
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Era of Theodore Roosevelt,
1900-1912. By George E. Mowry.
The New American Nation Series. (New
York: Harper and Broth-
ers, 1958. xvi??330p.; illustrations,
bibliography, and index. $5.00.)
The reader who expects to find here a
concise narrative and a
thoughtful interpretation of the opening
years of this century will not
be disappointed. Professor Mowry's two
monographs on Theodore
Roosevelt and the Progressive
Movement (1946) and The California
Progressives (1951) were important contributions to the
historiography
of this period; the present volume is an
equally important summary and
synthesis of the Republican phase of the
Progressive era. The domi-
nance of Roosevelt and the Republicans
on the national scene lends a
unity to this segment of the pre-war
years just as the rise of Wilson and
the Democrats helps to organize the
succeeding volume in the Harper
series--Arthur S. Link's Woodrow
Wilson and the Progressive Era.
This is neither easy nor quick reading
for those who may come to
it without a fair background of study.
The first third of the book is
devoted to an exposition of the setting:
surveys of economic, social,
and intellectual changes, local
expressions of the new reform spirit,
and a fine chapter on "The
Progressive Profile" that provides the key
to Mowry's interpretation of the story
that follows. Roosevelt's two
terms and Taft's unhappy four years
provide the outline of the main
narrative.
Certainly no really dull book in which
the Great T. R. figures promi-
nently ought ever to be published, and
this is not dull. Judgments
on The Strenuous One will always differ,
but Mowry's are generally
friendly, at least by today's low
standards. He is careful to say that
in 1901 progressivism "achieved a
spokesman in the White House"
rather than a leader. Roosevelt was a
"broker between past and
present" (p. 114), and therefore
neither a model conservative nor a
model progressive, but an extremely able
democratic politician. Seem-
ingly filled with simple notions, he was
never a simple man, but he was
a representative one. The Roosevelt who
felt and said that "political
expediency draws the line" may be
seen as basically a conservative
or a progressive, depending, Mowry concludes,
on one's yardstick.
Measuring from either end, one comes
pretty close to the middle.
Taft's administration, in view of what
might reasonably have been
expected, made "at best an
indifferent record" (p. 232). A reading
of Mowry confirms the commonly held view
that there are few lessons
BOOK REVIEWS 107
in presidential leadership that cannot
be drawn from these four years,
nearly all of them at the expense of
Taft's reputation.
Altogether, this book is everything that
could be expected of it, and
should hold its intended place as a
benchmark for some time to come.
The writing is polished, the annotation
appropriate, and the twenty-page
critical bibliography at the end
conforms to the current belief that such
material is written to be read. The few errors
of fact that this reviewer
spotted were in every case incidental to
the main argument. Lodge
did not desert Blaine in 1884, as is
asserted on page 108; Root did not
speak to the Union League Club in
January 1904, with the purpose of
"cutting the ground from under the
Roosevelt people" (p. 174)--that
one must have been a
"typo"--and the Socialists did not receive "well
over a million" votes in 1912 (p.
292) if Debs's vote is the measure,
but about 900,000.
Illinois State Historical
Library THOMAS E. FELT
Make Free: The Story of the
Underground Railroad. By William
Breyfogle. (Philadelphia and New York:
J. B. Lippincott Company,
1958. 287p.; end-paper maps,
bibliography, and index. $4.50.)
This monograph is without footnotes, but
has occasional citations
of authorities in the body of the text.
The author justifies such pro-
cedure on the ground that footnotes are
burdensome both to the writer
and the reader.
The title of the book is misleading as
to its scope. In view of the
fact that the Underground Railroad was
contemporaneous with slavery
and of course ended with the demise of
the institution, the author ap-
parently feels that he must examine most
of the angles of the slavery
controversy. Thus he discusses at length
the social system of the Old
South, draws portraits of leaders North
and South, whether abolitionists
or otherwise, and gives his version of
the controversy over antislavery
petitions, the reopening of the foreign
slave trade, and the status of
slavery in the territories.
The author writes in entertaining style,
and as long as he is dealing
with the Underground Railroad his
presentation is based on such sources
as are generally used in connection with
that topic. Levi Coffin, John
Rankin, William Still, Isaac Hopper, and
other conductors of the
Underground stand out as courageous,
daring, zealous individuals,
willing to defy the law of the land
because they felt it bolstered an
evil institution.
108
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Mr. Breyfogle shows, however, far less
understanding of other phases
of the history of the middle period, and
his sweeping assertions and
positive statements leave much to be
desired. The aggressiveness of
the South is a recurring theme in the
book, but the impact of the
abolition attack upon that section
receives scant attention. The state-
ment that Louisana, Alabama, and Georgia
passed laws in the 1850's
legalizing importation of Negro
apprentices is not correct (p. 138), nor
is the statement (p. 150) that
"three-fifths of all Negroes" were counted
in apportioning representation.
Allegations that there was "deliberate
breeding" of slaves for the market
(p. 20) and that in a considerable
portion of the lower South "it was
almost established practice to work
a slave to death" in a brief period
(p. 219) are not supported by any
references to authority. It is difficult
to understand how the Sumner-
Brooks affair could be explained without
any reference to Sumner's
personal remarks concerning Butler. Five
times on two pages (223-
224) the idea is expressed that personal
gain by Douglas was the
motivating force for a central
transcontinental railroad. No other factor
is mentioned. Moreover, it is stated
that "Jefferson Davis was glad to
exchange a southern route for the
transcontinental railroad for new
land thrown open to the slave
power" (p. 224). The South "never
admitted that there was any great
problem to be solved," yet Lincoln
was among those who saw the matter and
its difficulties "with clearer
eyes" because he said he could not
blame the South for not solving a
problem which, "if given all
earthly power," he could not solve (p. 137).
Since the author attempted to develop
the general sectional theme,
his selective bibliography could
reasonably be expected to include many
more contemporary interpreters of that
theme than the few it does.
Acquaintance with the work of such
authors might have brought nearer
to realization that objectivity which
the jacket proclaims.
Ohio State University HENRY H. SIMMS
The Great Rebellion: The Emergence of
the American Conscience. By
Earl Schenck Miers. (Cleveland and New
York: World Publishing
Company, 1958. xii??369p.; notes on the
sources, bibliography, and
index. $6.00.)
Why the Civil War? By Otto Eisenschiml. (Indianapolis and New
York: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1958.
x??208p.; notes, bibliography,
and index. $3.75.)
BOOK REVIEWS 109
One of America's most respected
authorities on the Civil War has
sat down with his thoughts and his
typewriter and has turned out what
appears to him to have been the high
points of the great conflict and
the eternal meaning of it. The result is
an entrancing work, skillfully
planned, beautifully written. While
nothing new is added to history
itself, the story told by Mr. Miers
gains a new stature in the re-telling.
The impression left on this reader is
that perhaps the war was, after
all, worth fighting, and that the
sacrifice was not entirely in vain.
Then, after writing the book--or perhaps
he did it before he began
the book, to collect his thoughts--Mr.
Miers turned out a prologue
that actually is a critical summation,
rich and observing. Here are
the author's own words:
This is a book about the American people
and what happened to
them during one Christmas week, as the
result of a tragic Thursday,
and on a Palm Sunday. It is a book of
love and hate, of faith and
fear, of tormented loyalties and
unyielding principles, of passion and
patience and greed and sacrifice. It is
a book of some moments that
took years to crystallize and other
moments that were clear and com-
plete in the winking of an eye. It is a
book about persons so well known
in history and legend that we speak
their names as though they were
honored kinsmen and about others who
rest today beneath crumbled,
forgotten tombs.
The three momentous weeks explored are
Christmas week of 1860,
when old South Carolinians saw their
dream of secession had come
true and the young men promenaded in
their long gray army coats on
the streets of Charleston; the week in
the following April when the
first shell was lofted into the old red
brick pile called Fort Sumter; and
the week of Palm Sunday, four bloody
years later, when the lofty-
minded Lee met U. S. Grant, a man who
did a job he got paid for,
to surrender the Army of Northern
Virginia at Appomattox Court
House.
Lincoln's assassination is treated as an
incident in the aftermath--a
treatment that surely is subject to
careful examination--because the
victory had been won, and the epic
vision of free men, for which the
epic war was fought, attained.
The author contends that the years from
Sumter to Appomattox
saw the emergence of the American
conscience. Perhaps they did, for
the black man. But the American
conscience still was to be stirred
on behalf of the economic white slave
who labored only to be thrown
on the junk pile when used up.
110
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The book is dedicated to "the
affectionate memory" of Benjamin P.
Thomas, the late celebrated Lincoln
scholar. We could not permit
this mark of respect to a mutual friend
to pass without notice.
Now some remarks on Dr. Eisenchiml's
book. The thesis of this
work by the author of Why Was Lincoln
Murdered? is that President
Lincoln triggered the Civil War by
tricking South Carolina into firing
the first shot, thus putting the odium
on the Confederacy.
The scene of the plot was Fort Sumter,
where Major Robert Ander-
son was being forced into surrender by a
lack of supplies, these same
supplies having been cut off by loaded
and primed southern guns.
Lincoln's long-recognized bungling
efforts to send relief to Anderson
are seen by Dr. Eisenschiml as a
carefully planted booby trap into which
the fire-eaters stepped. It is this
reader's private view that those con-
nected with the Lincoln administration
were content to let it appear
to have been a plot in an effort to
cover up their failure to achieve
the obvious purpose.
Be that as it may, Dr. Eisenchiml offers
a battery of documentation
to fire his charges. A book so
controversial and provocative should
be read by the Civil War buff, if for no
other reason than to argue
about it at the next session of his
Round Table.
Ohio Historical Society ROBERT S. HARPER
Indian Villages of the Illinois
Country, Historic Tribes. By Wayne C.
Temple. Illinois State Museum, Scientific
Papers, Vol. II, Part 2.
(Springfield: Illinois State Museum,
1958. 218p.; illustrations,
bibliography, and index. Paper, $3.50.)
The stated purpose of this volume is to
narrate the entry into, the
occupation of, and the eventual removal
from the Illinois country of
each major tribe or group of tribes of
historic Indians in the seventeenth,
eighteenth, and early nineteenth
centuries. Accordingly the title of the
study is somewhat misleading and too restrictive;
it is much more than
just a consideration of the Indian
villages. It is, instead, a handbook
or a modified encyclopedic presentation
of the political history, the inter-
tribal affairs, and the Indian-white
relations of the principal tribes who
at one time occupied the Illinois
country. This includes the Chippewa,
Delaware, Fox, Iliniwek, Kickapoo,
Mascouten, Menominee, Miami,
Ottawa, Potawatomi, Sauk, Shawnee, and
Winnebago.
BOOK REVIEWS 111
No doubt about it, this study represents
a considerable amount of
research time and effort. Considered as
a work for either other pro-
fessionals or laymen, however, it has
certain inadequacies. From a
textual standpoint, for example, there
are too many contradictions and
apparent errors. Chicago is a Michigamea
chief some times (pp. 12,
41), and a Tamaroa chief at other times
(pp. 35, 47). The Illini, which
included the Michigamea and Peoria (p.
11), "all spoke the same lan-
guage" (p. 14), but "did not
speak the same language" (p. 18). An
Iroquois attack on the Miami is reported
at two different dates (pp. 28,
58). Such statements as "the French
. . . furnished arms and ammu-
nition to the Iroquois" (p. 23) and
"the French-English struggle . . .
raged . . . in North America and in
Europe from 1701 until 1763"
(p. 44) need qualification and
documentation to be acceptable. These
errors and questionable statements
unfortunately tend to cast a shadow
of unreliability over the entire work.
Another inadequacy is a total absence of
maps. Although the
present work is one of a series in which
Sara Jones Tucker's Indian
Villages of the Illinois Country Part
I, Atlas, was published in 1942,
it cannot be assumed that the atlas is
readily available to all who
wish to use it with the present volume.
And although the introduction
of the volume under review notes a
forthcoming supplemental atlas,
that does not help the reader now. The
text is literally crammed with
hundreds of place names and geographic
features. Several well ex-
ecuted maps, at least one for each tribe
or major group, would im-
measurably enhance the value and
usability of the book, much more
so than the five random illustrations
that are incorporated into the text.
Finally, some observations on the index
need to be made. A well
compiled index, especially to a detailed
study of this sort, is mandatory.
Anything less than this is almost a
drawback. A few examples will
suffice. An "and passim" reference
in an index is hardly of any value.
There are only two listings of the many
that should be made for LaSalle.
For Hotcangara it suggests "see
Winnebago." Does that mean "Win-
nebago Indians," "Winnebago
Prophet," or "Winnebago War," each of
which has several page references? A
scholar looking for Tioakakee
in this index needs to know that this
was the Potawatomi name for the
Kankakee River, else he will not learn
whether there is a reference
to it in the book. If the reader is
looking for Prophetstown, the Win-
nebago village is listed under
"Prophetstown," but the Shawnee village
is listed under
"Keth-tip-pe-canunk." Perhaps the index presupposes
112
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
highly sophisticated readers. Unhappily,
as these illustrations demon-
strate, the index to this volume does
not do full justice to the text and
therefore is not a satisfactory
reference or research aid.
Miami University DWIGHT L. SMITH
Independent Man: The Life of Senator
James Couzens. By Harry
Barnard. (New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1958. viii??376p.;
frontispiece, bibliography, and index.
$5.95.)
The life of Senator James Couzens amply
supports the phrase with
which Harry Barnard characterizes him,
"Independent Man." The
author might have added also,
"Neglected Man," for general histories
written in the 1940's and 1950's all but
ignore him. Yet he deserves
to be remembered for his indispensable
part in establishing the Ford
Motor Company and for his long public
career, first as a reform police
commissioner and mayor of Detroit,
1916-22, then as the gadfly of the
Republican--his own--party in the United
States Senate, 1922-36. It
is the more remarkable that he
accomplished what he did politically
because he was a non-organization man
and he was out of phase with his
times. During the heyday of the
progressive movement he was en-
grossed in the affairs of the Ford Motor
Company, assiduously gather-
ing a large fortune from the enterprise,
thereby fulfilling a youthful
ambition. To be sure, he and Henry Ford
introduced, as a profit-
sharing device, the enlightened
five-dollar-a-day minimum wage in the
Ford plant which electrified the
country. Mr. Barnard presents a
convincing case that Couzens was
primarily responsible for the five-
dollar figure, though he concedes that
it could not have been adopted
without Ford's consent. It was after he
broke with Ford in 1915,
ostensibly because of the latter's
outspoken pacifism, that Couzens
abandoned money making which had begun
to pall upon him and
entered upon a political career that was
to last the rest of his life.
A progressive, first by instinct, later
by intellectual conviction, he
was destined to serve at a time when the
country had turned from
reform to normalcy. Nevertheless, he
gave his adopted city of Detroit
the kind of administration that Tom L.
Johnson had given to Cleveland.
He led a drive for proper law
enforcement, for better schools and
hospitals, for sewer and street
improvements, for municipal ownership
of street railways (a plan that he had
supported since the 1890's when
Mayor Hazen S. Pingree first proposed
it), and he gave a remarkable
BOOK REVIEWS 113
Performance in preserving the right of
free speech in the city during
he red hysteria of 1919-20.
He was appointed in 1922 to the senate
seat vacated by Truman H.
Newberry, who preferred to resign rather
than face the charges of
Graud in his election. Couzens was twice
re-elected, in 1924 and 1930.
In the senate he was a party maverick,
out of sympathy with the
views of the three Republican presidents
who occupied the White
House from 1921 to 1933. In dramatic
fashion this multimillionaire
senator berated the Republican tax
policy of favoring the rich and
attacked its author, the
multimillionaire secretary of the treasury,
Andrew W. Mellon. The
"millionaire's war" achieved no immediate
change but Couzens' attack helped
prepare the ground for the taxing
policies of the New Deal. It is not
surprising that he became an
ardent, though not uncritical, admirer
of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his
policies. The final act of Couzens, the
"Independent Man," was to
announce on the eve of the primary
election of 1936 in which he was
seeking the Republican nomination for
senator once again, that he
intended to support FDR in the general
election. After his inevitable
defeat in the primaries, he was being
urged by Roosevelt to accept the
chairmanship of the new maritime
commission when Couzens died on
October 26, 1936.
An obituary in the New Republic spoke
of Couzens as the "most
intellectually honest man" in
Washington. He was that, and a
humanitarian as well. What gives particular significance to his
career is that he helped to keep alive
the spirit of liberal reform in
the era between the progressive movement
and the New Deal when it
required great courage and tenacity.
Harry Barnard, already well known for
his biographies of John Peter
Altgeld and Rutherford B. Hayes, is to
be commended for resurrecting
this all-but-forgotten man. He has made
no attempt to conceal blem-
ishes or to whitewash Couzens' career,
but he has set the record
straight on such controversial points as
the income-tax-evasion charge
and the even more damaging allegation
that Couzens, because of a
grudge against Ford, had prevented an
RFC loan which would have
saved the Detroit banks in the financial
crisis of 1933. The author
has succeeded in evoking a sympathetic
portrait without sacrificing
objectivity.
Kenyon College LANDON WARNER
114
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant. By John Frederick Charles
Fuller. (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1958. xxvi??411p.;
frontispiece, maps, plans, appendices,
and index. $6.50.)
The ever-rising torrent of Civil War
books, already having reached
flood stage, threatens to engulf the
average reader completely in the
next few years. Now, as one volume in
its Civil War Centennial Series,
Indiana University Press offers a second
edition of Major General
J. F. C. Fuller's classic study of
General Ulysses S. Grant, originally
published in 1929.
Fuller's original object was "to
examine what Grant accomplished
as a soldier" and "to show
that as such he has not been fully appre-
ciated." In his Foreword to the
present volume, the author declares
his belief that even though the nature
of warfare has greatly changed
since Grant's day, a war of mutual
nuclear obliteration is "not probable."
But since limited wars will likely occur
in the future, Fuller asserts
that "generals of today and
tomorrow can learn lessons of inestimable
value" from a study of Grant's
generalship in the first truly modern war.
Because of the minutely detailed nature
of the volume, comments
must be confined to a few crucial
points. While Fuller concedes Grant's
lapses and limitations, such as his
neglect of defensive measures at
Shiloh and his failure to appreciate and
use the full advantage of his
superior fire power in Virginia, Fuller
remains a strong Grant partisan
throughout. In refuting charges of
wanton sacrificing of lives in the
frontal assaults of the Virginia
campaigns, the author develops effec-
tively Grant's matchless comprehension
of the overriding requirement
of the war's grand strategy that he
maintain ceaseless, driving pressure
on Lee's front, while Sherman's army
wheeled for an assault upon Lee's
rear that would end Confederate
resistance. Fuller credits Grant
with devising this strategy, especially
Sherman's campaign, and with
putting into effective use in the East
those tactics of mobility he had
mastered in the West.
The study rests of course on the Official
Records. Although the
Foreword acknowledges the appearance of
many new works on the
subject since 1929, none is cited in the
footnotes. While some of the
judgments on Grant's actions at certain
points are debatable, one must
certainly agree with Grant's observation
that "the war begot a spirit
of independence and enterprise"--no
less in writing of and interpreting
the war than in other fields.
Los Angeles State College DAVID LINDSEY
Book Reviews
The Kensington Stone: A Mystery
Solved. By Erik Wahlgren.
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
1958. xiv+228p.; illustra-
tions, bibliography, and index. $5.00.)
Few artifacts of American history have
aroused as much interest as
the Kensington stone. This stone with
its runic inscriptions, supposedly
discovered by a Minnesota farmer in
1898, has been the subject of
several books by Hjalmar Holand. No
American scholar has taken
the trouble to examine in detail the
case which Holand has presented,
although many have expressed scepticism.
Scandinavian runologists
have unanimously agreed that the stone
is a forgery, but their writings
are largely unknown in the United
States. In the face of all criticism,
Holand has maintained his position,
oftentimes not meeting the argument
or else simply dismissing those who
disagreed with him as willful men
intent on undermining his findings. Erik
Wahlgren of the University
of California at Los Angeles has now
investigated the famous stone
from the point of view of runology,
geology, and history, and his
findings should bring an end to any
tendency to accept the stone as an
authentic artifact dating from 1362.
The author shows that the leading rune
experts, led by Professor
Sven B. F. Jansson of the University of
Stockholm, have rejected the
inscriptions on sound bases. Letters,
the spelling of certain words, and
even some of the words are inconsistent
with the usages of Scandinavians
in the fourteenth century. The inscription
blends Swedish and Nor-
wegian in a manner common in the
Norwegian-Swedish communities
of Minnesota, gives details which
contrast with the laconic nature of
medieval runic inscriptions, contains no
abbreviations characteristic of
early inscriptions, and, unlike
authentic inscriptions, does not contain
a single name.
The author has made an exhaustive
investigation of the facts sur-
rounding the discovery of the stone. The
result is an undermining of the
assertions made by Holand as to the
precise date of discovery, the size
of the stone, the use of the stone as a
doorstep, and the role of various
Kensington citizens in bringing the
stone to public attention.