Ohio History Journal

Book Reviews

 

 

 

Ohio Handbook of the Civil War. By Robert S. Harper. (Columbus:

Ohio Historical Society for the Ohio Civil War Centennial Commis-

sion, 1961. 78p.; illustrations, map, and bibliography. Paper, $1.00.)

This compact work is crammed with highly useful information. Be-

ginning with Abraham Lincoln's earliest appearances in Ohio before

the disruption of the Union, it covers in rapid-fire fashion a wide range

of topics. Ohio's reaction to secession, to the firing on Fort Sumter,

and the state's response to President Lincoln's call for volunteers

plunge the Buckeye State into a most active participation in the Civil

War.

Such diverse topics as Ohio troops in the military campaigns, Ohio's

winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the state's military

camps, its Civil War sites, its vigorous war governors, William Denni-

son, Jr., David Tod, and John Brough, its battle flags, and its two

Confederate cemeteries receive treatment here. For internal action

within the state, the most interesting sections describe the Jenkins raid

and the Morgan raid in fascinating detail. A twenty-page list of Ohio

military units is especially helpful. And the naming of Ohio generals

(defined as those who were born or lived a part of their lives in Ohio)

is particularly impressive as the names of Grant, Sherman, Sheridan,

McClellan, McPherson, Buell, and Rosecrans are encountered.

One wonders about the rather random organization of the volume,

and one wishes at points for fuller detail. But as a "handy" handbook

for miscellaneous information, this book will be welcomed by Ohio

Civil War fans during these centennial years.

Los Angeles State College                      DAVID LINDSEY

 

Newton D. Baker: A Biography. By C. H. Cramer. (Cleveland:

World Publishing Company, 1961. 310p.; illustrations, bibliography,

and index. $6.00.)

A full-length biography has long been due one of Ohio's most dis-

tinguished citizens, Newton D. Baker. The task has been admirably

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BOOK REVIEWS            361

fulfilled by C. H. Cramer, professor of history and dean of Adelbert

College of Western Reserve University. This is not an "authorized

biography," although Dean Cramer has made extensive use of the

Baker papers in the Library of Congress. On the other hand, it is not

a "debunking" biography. The author avoids both blind devotion and

picayune faultfinding. All of the major criticisms that were leveled at

Baker in his lifetime are aired. The worst canards uttered by unprin-

cipled opponents (for example, Henry Ford's charge that Baker was

a Russian Jew, or George Harvey's that Wilson had appointed a pacifist

as secretary of war) are easily disposed of. Some of the others, how-

ever, represented an honest difference of opinion (for example, the

critical commentary of Peter Witt and Jack Raper); in these instances

Dean Cramer presents both sides and lets the reader be the judge.

Baker, after all, withstood these criticisms when living, and his reputa-

tion can withstand them today.

He had a superb mind, rare oratorical gifts, a warm heart that made

him a devoted friend of Mayor Tom L. Johnson, President Woodrow

Wilson, and Justice John H. Clarke, and a generosity of spirit which

made it difficult for him to refuse a request for public service. Baker's

life was in large measure dedicated to the public service: secretary to

Postmaster General W. L. Wilson in President Cleveland's administra-

tion, city solicitor of Cleveland, later mayor of that city, and secretary

of war. Even after he turned to the private practice of law, he con-

tinued to devote much time to public causes: a trustee of seven col-

leges and universities, president of the Association for Adult Educa-

tion, co-founder of the National Conference of Christians and Jews,

member of the Wickersham Committee on Law Enforcement, appointed

by three presidents to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and an

eloquent spokesman for the cause of the League of Nations and the

World Court.

One-third of the book is devoted to Baker's major service to the na-

tion as secretary of war from 1916 to 1921. Although this might sug-

gest an unnecessary duplication of the work done by Frederick Palmer

in his earlier biography of Baker, which concentrated altogether on the

war years, the approach of the two authors is so different that the

second seems fresh rather than repetitive. Whereas Palmer was descrip-

tive--reporting at length not only Baker's views and actions but also

those of all others involved and quoting extensively from speeches and

statements--Cramer is analytical and much briefer--holding the spot-

light on Baker to assure that the secretary of war emerges as the

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362    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

dominant figure. Dean Cramer examines and clears Baker of personal

responsibility for the most serious charges directed against him:

America's unpreparedness in 1917 and incompetence and extravagance

in the conduct of the war. The author concludes that Baker's vital

role as secretary of war was as an eloquent interpreter and arbiter

between the military establishment, on the one hand, and the civilian

world of politicians, parents, and special pleaders, on the other. He

successfully brought the draft law into operation, created a wholesome

recreational environment for American soldiers, and contributed by his

knowledge of labor conditions and labor leaders to the elimination of

major strikes and lockouts in war industries. Added to this was his

selection of military leaders like Generals Pershing and March, his

unstinting support of them, and his skill in dealing with the British

on shipping. Clearly, Baker was the head, not the figurehead, of a

great and successful war enterprise.

Having become such a key participant in big government during the

First World War, Baker surprised some of his friends by his opposition

to Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, fashioned on the assumption that

the national government had a responsibility to act in the crisis of

the depression of the 1930's. But Baker was unwilling to endorse an

extension of federal power beyond the war itself. In all other situa-

tions he clung to the Jeffersonian brand of liberalism which had been

his guide since college days, favoring strong local government and weak

national authority. Many have insisted that Baker, because he had

favored an extension of governmental power at the city level when

he was city solicitor and then mayor of Cleveland, should have approved

of an increase at the national level and that he changed his mind be-

cause he represented the Van Sweringens and other industrial leaders

in the 1930's and was also piqued by his defeat by Roosevelt at the

Democratic convention in 1932. But there is nothing logically incon-

sistent or intellectually dishonest in his position. Rather what Baker's

position does reveal is a naivete in his economic thinking and a Rip-

Van-Winkle attitude toward the situation in which the nation found

itself at the height of the depression crisis.

If his tenacious adherence to Jeffersonian principles made him an

economic conservative in the latter years of his life, Baker may still

be classified as a "liberal" in his non-economic views: his support

of free speech (as counsel for newspaper defendants in two contempt-

of-court cases), of personal liberty (the "Jake the Barber" Factor

extradition case), of adult education, which reflected his faith in the

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BOOK REVIEWS           363

 

capacity of the common man, and of the international peace movement

through the League of Nations and the World Court. Again we see

the traits of liberalism in his concept of the university as a place of

free inquiry and liberal learning, not of vocational training, social drink-

ing, or the subsidizing of athletics.

Although so much is praiseworthy in this book, there are certain

shortcomings. The writing, while always clear and generally sprightly,

is marred by lapses in style--the use of slang cliches and hackneyed

epithets (for example, characterizations of Al Smith and Hoover on

p. 223). Long lists of references are lumped in one footnote, making

it most difficult for the reader to identify the sources of quotations.

There is no evidence that use has been made of the comments Baker

wrote on the margin or fly-leaf of many books in his personal library,

now the property of Western Reserve University--a number of which

have been edited by Willis Thornton in Newton D. Baker and His

Books. Had the author done so, he would have modified Baker's un-

favorable reaction to the first volume of The Intimate Papers of Colonel

House by adding Baker's notation that "the Second and Third volumes

of these papers are written in a fine spirit and are amazingly interest-

ing. They show both Wilson and House as very great men." More-

over, in his effort to be brief, the author has only skimmed over Baker's

period as city solicitor of Cleveland. Not one of the myriad of cases

in which Baker defended the city in the street-railway litigation is de-

scribed. Too much has been sacrificed to hold down the size of the

book. But with these few caveats this biography is highly recom-

mended as a sympathetic yet discerning picture of Newton D. Baker.

Kenyon College                          HOYT LANDON WARNER

 

The American Historian: A Social-Intellectual History of the Writing

of the American Past. By Harvey Wish. (New York: Oxford Uni-

versity Press, 1960. viii??366p.; bibliographic notes and index. $7.50.)

American teachers of history have a particular stake in such a study

as this one by Professor Wish. They have occasion to consult a variety

of sources for theses and projects: multiple histories, like those by

George Bancroft and James Ford Rhodes; strategic works, like those

identified with Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., and Merle E. Curti. They

acquire impressions of the relative weight of different historical writings,

attitudes toward such different historians as Walter P. Webb and Louis

M. Hacker. Such a work as the present one by Professor Wish can

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364    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

help them to clarify the issues implicit in both their preferences and

antipathies.

There are surprisingly few surveys of American historiography. The

first major effort in the field was Michael Kraus's The Writing of

American History (1937), which moved bravely through vast archives

of published history in order to render an account of its achievements. H.

Hale Bellot, American History and American Historians (1952) was

something of a tour de force by a British scholar. Herman Ausubel,

Historians and Their Craft: A Study of the Presidential Addresses of

the American Historical Association, 1884-1945 (1950), was a valuable,

if somewhat specialized, examination.

Professor Wish has made the most determined effort to date to under-

stand trends in American historiography, and to explain the "social

conditioning" which guided major American historians. Thus, at the

very beginning, Puritan tenets firmly direct William Bradford's pion-

eer labors in his Of Plymouth Plantation, which combined valuable

information with somewhat less objective evaluations of both Satan and

Thomas Morton of Merrymount. All this is not too unexpected. But

the author also notes Bradford's literary qualities and economic predil-

ections. This effort at a balanced estimate informs his writing throughout

the volume.

The American Historian's most evident quality is temperateness. It

is easy to wax scornful over Jared Sparks's notorious shortcomings. Un-

fortunately, too many practitioners who are troubled by them have been

too busy to read Sparks. Professor Wish has been more conscientious,

and has been made more mellow. But though willing to accord credit--

often very generous credit--to historians who have, for example, tam-

pered with facts (as with Bancroft) or written from strictly biased

positions (as with the "unorthodox Whig," Hildreth), he does not

avoid issues. In addition, he preserves a democratic set of values which

can help, rather than hinder, the search for accuracy.

Readers can gain from discussions which do not emphasize, though

they note, the brilliance of Francis Parkman's prose, the torrent of fresh

data which McMaster released from untapped newspaper sources, the

magisterial concern for sources which Channing invested in his great

history. Professor Wish appears to be especially comfortable in his

description of the rise of social history. The curious fact that McMaster

had a high interest in democratic goals, yet was less than democratic

in his attitude toward humbler classes of American society is brought

out. Also explained is the fact that more substantial concern for the

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BOOK REVIEWS           365

 

newer immigrant strains, as exemplified in the History of American

Life series, resulted in better and improved social history.

In general, Professor Wish emphasizes the solid historians, who

undertook big tasks and dedicated years of work to their consumma-

tion: historians, in addition to those already mentioned, like Henry

Adams, Hermann von Holst, Charles M. Andrews, Lawrence H. Gip-

son, and Allan Nevins. Some readers may miss extended discussion

of modern historians presently deemed more "stimulating," "evocative,"

and "original" than those this work has preferred to stress. One might

ask, for example, how one would distinguish a present-day "hypothesis"

from hypotheses which Professor Wish takes seriously, like the all-

encompassing Turner thesis, or Beard's economic interpretation. It is

well-known that Turner had not exhausted archival materials before

delivering himself of his epochal pronouncements; and that Beard him-

self underscored that he was no more than offering suggestions and

inconclusive data for further examination. The answer as to the differ-

ence between earlier and more recent hypotheses would lie in Professor

Wish's own narrative. The great conjectures were set off by a back-

ground of exhaustive labors: of historians who worked large canvases

with industry as well as enthusiasm, with special attitudes and preju-

dices, no doubt, but with a will to prove their points and persuade their

readers. Whether their successors are equally rooted in historical reali-

ties and integrated historical labors is a subject which can profitably

engage readers of The American Historian.

Antioch College                                  Louis FILLER

 

The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature.

(New   York: Macmillan Company, 1961. xxxv??962p.; index.

$16.50.)

A small but distinguished group of historians assembled in a room

of Chicago's Conrad Hilton Hotel on December 27, 1953. They were

the members of the council of the American Historical Association.

Their attention was focused on a letter being read to them by the exe-

cutive secretary of the organization. The letter, written by the Mac-

millan Company, suggested the time had come for either reprinting or

revising the Guide to Historical Literature. Without hesitation, the

members of the council approved a resolution for the appointment of an

ad hoc committee to explore the possibility of undertaking a revision.

Here then, the seed was planted that was to bear fruit some seven

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366    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

years later with the publication early in 1961 of the new Guide to His-

torical Literature.

Thirty years have elapsed since the appearance of the original Guide.

Because of the enormous amount of history that had been made and

written in this period, the committee on revision realized at once the

nature of the task before it: a simple revision consisting of corrections

and additions would not suffice; the need was for a completely new

Guide.

Under the competent direction of George Frederick Howe, historian,

United States Department of Defense, the committee devoted much time

and effort to devising a plan of organization and procedure for the

new Guide. It solicited and received a grant of $75,000 to finance the

preparation and publication of the volume. It called for assistance upon

230 specialists in various fields of history, appointing 50 of them to be

responsible for the sections into which the Guide is divided. It engaged

the services of a central editor, William C. Davis of George Washington

University, to coordinate the project. To the central editor goes much

of the credit for the success of the entire operation; his name, inci-

dentally, receives no mention in the Introduction.

This reviewer can find no more accurate words to describe the Guide

than those used by its board of editors: "a bibliographic panorama as

well as an inventory of the best historical literature at the time of com-

pilation." One can have confidence that the 20,000 entries represent the

"best" by glancing at the names of the board of editors and the con-

tributors. They are all eminent scholars and experts in their respective

fields.

Historians, teachers, students, and librarians justly acclaimed the

original Guide when it was first published. The new Guide will no

doubt meet with an even more enthusiastic reception. By devoting

much more space to the less familiar areas of the world--Asia, Africa,

Slavic Europe--the present volume reflects the political realities of

today. Its detailed table of contents, virtual uniformity in the organi-

zation of the sections, complete index, annotations combined with in-

dividual entries--all of these are features which will make for even

greater facility in the use of the new Guide as compared with the old.

To criticize in any way the particular entries selected for inclusion

in the new Guide would require bibliographic omniscience, a character-

istic not possessed by this reviewer. To him it appears that the experts

have done their job well and that they deserve the gratitude of the his-

torical profession. One can only hope that the American Historical

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BOOK REVIEWS           367

 

Association will demonstrate its full appreciation of this fundamental,

monumental work by issuing periodic supplements at regular intervals

of less than thirty years.

Ohio State University                         CHARLES MORLEY

 

Carl Becker: A Biographical Study in American Intellectual History.

By Burleigh Taylor Wilkins. (Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University Press,

1961. ix??246p.; frontispiece, bibliography, and index. $5.50.)

Turner and Beard: American Historical Writing Reconsidered. By

Lee Benson. (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1960. xiii??241p.; appen-

dix and index. $5.00.)

In the late 1930's Charles A. Beard observed--somewhat caustically--

that "European disturbances in thought will find their loudest echoes

here after the lapse of thirty or forty years. If this conjecture is cor-

rect," he said, "then the problems that disturbed Croce about 1912

may become insistent in the United States about 1950." This provoca-

tive Beardian paradox is, however, basically inaccurate. The crisis

of the historical conscience had for many years prior to 1940 been

developing within the ranks of a select group of American historians,

led by James Harvey Robinson, the originator of the New History,

his sometime student Carl L. Becker, and Charles Beard himself. This

crisis reached its maturity in 1946 with the publication of the Social

Science Research Council's Bulletin 54 on Theory and Practice in

Historical Study. Since then historians have studied the careers of

Robinson, Becker, and Beard with a meticulousness that reaches hagio-

graphical proportions. Becker's latest biographer, Burleigh T. Wilkins,

for example, explored the Becker, Burr, and Hull papers at Cornell

for gleanings not brought to light by his immediate predecessors, Char-

lotte Smith and Cushing Strout; tracked down the family papers of

many of Becker's relatives and colleagues; and, with painstaking

devotion, ably summarized for the layman the main body of Becker's

writings.

Wilkins approaches the study of Becker's ideas chronologically,

beginning with a careful delineation of the formative years. The crucial

moment in Becker's intellectual development occurred in his early

twenties (a fact not made very clear by Wilkins), when faced with a

choice between the vita activa and the vita contemplativa Becker selected

the latter. His choice was deeply influenced by his teachers, Frederick

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368    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Jackson Turner, Charles Homer Haskins, and James Harvey Robinson.

Turner's devotion to the historical craft (a point brought out by Lee

Benson), Haskins' espousal of the "ideal of critical scholarship," and

Robinson's enthusiasm for the "New History" of the social sciences

presented a combination of talents that the young historian found

irresistible. For years Becker worked under the shadow of these titans.

Only in 1910 was his intellectual tutelage finally and dramatically

ended. In that year, while still a young professor at the University of

Kansas, he published his intellectual declaration of independence entitled

"Detachment and the Writing of History," in which he asked the

ancient question, "What is Truth" -- or, in this instance, "What is

Historical Truth?" In 1910, posing such a question was like shouting

"the Emperor has no clothes" at a profession that had long since

arrived at the truth, and had done so scientifically. The so-called

scientific method can best be described as the patient amassing of reams

of footnotes that somehow in the process of being gathered reveal to

the researcher patterns of the truth by a process of historiographical

epiphany. These scientific historians, termed by Beard the American

Rankeans, or better, the American neo-Rankeans, interpreted Ranke's

injunction, wie es eigentlich gewesen, with pathetic narrowness. Natur-

ally they resented being told by a young Kansas professor that objective

history was a will-o'-the-wisp, that they themselves were captives of

their own predilections, creatures confined to a particular time, place,

and circumstance, forever barred from seeing the historical past "as it

actually happened." Yet Becker's own intellectual pattern was set: he

remained until his death a prober, a questioner, a searcher after the

truth, who summarized his position by saying that "the most intriguing

aspect of history turns out to be neither the study of history nor history

itself . . . but rather the study of historical study."

The apogee of Becker's career came in the early 1930's with his

election to the presidency of the American Historical Association and

with the publication of his best book, The Heavenly City of the Eight-

eenth-Century Philosophers. Becker sympathized deeply with the

humanitarian crusade of the eighteenth-century rationalists. Yet, for

all his understanding of the age of reason, he failed to discern that

beneath the philosophe's mask of witty cynicism and clever paradox

lay an awareness of the tragic sense of life, an awareness that animated

their writings and gave serious purpose to their proposals for reform.

Indeed, the Voltaires, Montesquieus, Diderots, and their followers

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BOOK REVIEWS           369

 

repeatedly suggested hard-headed, practical measures for the amelio-

ration of man's poverty and the restoration of his individual dignity.

But they often did so with a profound sense of pessimism that stemmed

from their realization of the facts of life, of man's inhumanity to man,

of his bigotry, cupidity, callosity. This side of the Enlightenment, the

more complex, tragic side, has, since Becker's essay appeared, been

described by Friedrich Meinecke, Ernst Cassirer, Paul Hazard, and

Peter Gay, who have restored to the period its true dimensions. Yet,

for all The Heavenly City's parochial limitations, Becker produced in

his essay a remarkable tour de force, which has outlasted many of its

weightier competitors simply because it asked significant questions.

Becker's answers may have been wrong, but it was the quality of rest-

less searching, the use of daring juxtaposition and ironical twists, that

were his major contribution to the study of the Enlightenment and,

indeed, to the historical profession as a whole. It is an illusive heritage,

but none the less, a real one.

Wilkins' account of this heritage is, withal, rather prosaic. He follows

his sources relentlessly but with little imagination; seldom does he rise

above his materials to view the whole man. Perhaps it would have

been better had he approached the study of such a mercurial person as

Becker by the topical method rather than the chronological--anything

to get away from the overpowering sense of detail that obscures rather

than illuminates the reader's path to an understanding of one of the

greatest of the latter-day philosophes.

To turn from the writings of Becker to those of Beard is like stepping

out of the muted, diffused light of a late eighteenth-century drawing room

into the clamor and iridescence of a twentieth-century emporium. Where

Becker is hesitant, uncertain, questioning, Beard is certain, positive,

insistent. Where Becker uses the rapier of wit, Beard employs the

sledgehammer of unsmiling certitude. Yet Beard's contributions to

the historical profession are no less impressive than those of Becker:

from his seminal ideas on the American Revolution has arisen a historio-

graphical controversy (well defined by Lee Benson) that has kept a crop

of young scholars busy for years; from his writings on the origins of

World War II has sprung a rather unscholarly, if not ungentlemanly,

exchange of verbal blows that still raises the ire of many historians;

and finally, from his writings on the philosophy of history (abetted by

Becker), has arisen an awareness among many American historians of

the need for a critical examination of the philosophic presuppositions

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370    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

held by members of their own craft. Together, Beard and Becker were

Nestors of their profession, who posed questions that will keep their

epigoni at work for another generation or two.

Ohio State University                          JOHN C. RULE

 

Cultural Life of the New Nation, 1776-1830. By Russel Blaine Nye.

The New American Nation Series, edited by Henry Steele Commager

and Richard B. Morris. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1960.

xii??324p.; illustrations, bibliography, and index. $5.00.)

The exacting standards set by earlier volumes in the New American

Nation series, edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B.

Morris, have been maintained in this readable book by Russel B. Nye,

chairman of the English department at Michigan State University and

well known for his study Midwestern Progressive Politics and his

biography of George Bancroft. The Cultural Life of the New Nation

falls naturally into two parts, the first a consideration of those aspects

of the eighteenth-century enlightenment which had relevance for the

American experience, and the second, a description of the growth of

our culture in the formative years of the young republic. There are

fascinating chapters on science and the organization of scientific knowl-

edge after 1776, the social structure in the early 1800's, the growth of

educational institutions, the religious ferment and the expansion of

American Protestantism, the first steps toward a national literature,

and the search for an American style in art and architecture.

Nye has done particularly well in delineating those aspects of the

Enlightenment which took root in American soil. He points out how

misleading it is to picture eighteenth-century America as simply a

reflection of eighteenth-century Europe. Through copious quotations

he shows what Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Cooper, James Otis, Joel

Barlow, and others meant when they used such terms as Nature and

the Great Chain of Being. He traces the impact of Romanticism on

certain aspects of the American scene, pointing out that the Romantic

movement in the United States tended to be more individualistic and

more democratically based than it was in European countries.

If there is any single thesis for this book, it is that Americans in their

art, literature, education, indeed in all aspects of their cultural life,

sought to develop a sense of identity, to foster what was unique in the

American experiment, to emancipate themselves intellectually after

winning political freedom, and to make the nation's adolescence a period

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BOOK REVIEWS           371

of both creative rebellion and cultural dependence on the heritage of

western civilization. Nye calls the years from 1776 to 1830 "a period

of contradictions." It was a self-conscious era, in which many aspects of

our environment, physical and psychological, contributed to the shaping

of American nationalism. He shows why Americans looked upon their

country as an asylum, a place where new political and social concepts

could flourish.

There are only a few faults to find with this book. Nye makes exten-

sive use of secondary rather than primary sources. He omits reference

to the contributions of business and law to the social life of this period.

In his chapter on religion, there is only passing mention of the Plan

of Union of 1801. In his account of the Second Great Awakening, he

does not make a sufficiently clear-cut distinction between eastern and

western revivalism. In his brief account of Charles Brockden Brown,

America's first professional novelist, he has obviously ignored the

biographies by Clark and Warfel. Although he devotes ample attention

to Washington Allston, John Adams, Joel Barlow, and Timothy Dwight,

he slights Eli Whitney, Horace Bushnell, and Herman Melville. The

bibliography is selective, not exhaustive.

On balance, however, this is a well-written account of an important

period in our past and a useful addition to a noteworthy series.

Lafayette College                         CHARLES C. COLE, JR.

 

The Federalist Era, 1789-1801. By John C. Miller. The New Ameri-

can Nation Series, edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B.

Morris. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1960. xv??304p.;

illustrations, map, bibliography, and index. $5.00.)

The first decade of America's national history is as significant,

exciting, and crucial as certain later periods our historians seem to have

favored. Issues of fundamental importance--constitutional interpreta-

tions, federal relations, neutrality, finance, and civil liberties--were

debated with zest and then venom, and from these debates political

parties emerged and precedents were established. It was an age of

giants. What other period has produced the stellar constellation of the

1790's? Washington, Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and a

host of lesser lights invest the political quarrels of that era with

philosophical dignity. Their conflicting personalities enliven and spice

the drama; but it is to their obvious intellectual superiority and dedi-

cation that we can accredit the enduring importance of that age.

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For some time now we have lacked a first-rate work of synthesis,

particularly since younger scholars--for example, James M. Smith on

the alien and sedition acts, Noble E. Cunningham on the early history

of the Republican party, and so forth--have contributed important

additions to or re-interpretations of our knowledge of this period. Pro-

fessor John C. Miller fulfills this need with impressive scholarship

and felicitous style.

Professor Miller displays no particular partiality to either the Feder-

alist or Republican position, a flaw difficult to avoid and one which has

led to emotionally biased distortions (to be found, for example, in the

writings of Claude Bowers). His expositions of Hamiltonianism and

Jeffersonianism are clear and balanced; he has not been caught up in

the purple rhetoric. This objectivity does not preclude Professor Miller

from taking a position on matters in dispute. For example, his interpre-

tation of the Antifederalists (pp. 20-25) is questionable, though not

necessarily incorrect. Can he prove that "some Antifederalists" were

"chagrined" at the bill of rights; that "they perceived that they had

been outmaneuvered by Madison"? I would imagine the Antifederalists

welcomed the bill of rights, though some would have preferred further

amendments. Or, to select another example, historians divide on the

relative importance of Jefferson and Madison in America's early history.

Of late there has been a Madisonian revival, an effort to redress the

imbalance of attentions devoted to Jefferson. Miller agrees, and states

(p. 103) that "part of the reputation Jefferson enjoyed as a leader of

the Republican party was owing to the assiduity with which Madison

acclaimed him as a paragon of virtue and wisdom. . . . If the reward

had gone to the man who had done most for the Republican party,

James Madison would have been its first candidate for the Presidency."

The reviewer feels the imbalance has been more than corrected.

The book, I am sorry to say, is both overfootnoted and poorly foot-

noted. The reviewer is properly impressed with the fantastic number of

sources utilized; and distressed that the footnotes fail to specify in

exactly which source a particular quotation will be found.

In brief, The Federalist Era is a highly successful synthesis, well

written, refreshing in its judgments, and to be ranked among the best

of the New American Nation series.

Montana State University                       MORTON BORDEN

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BOOK REVIEWS           373

 

The New Nation, 1800-1845. By Charles M. Wiltse. The Making of

America Series, edited by David Donald. (New York: Hill and

Wang, 1961. xii??237p.; bibliographical essay and index. $4.50.)

This book by the distinguished biographer of Calhoun is a slender

volume in the new series entitled The Making of America. Each volume

in the projected set is designed to bring the "best of historical scholar-

ship . . . to the general reader."

It is apparent that Wiltse undertook a staggering task, for he

attempted to blend the major economic, intellectual, and social develop-

ments into a short account that is grounded in the political history of

the epoch. As might be expected, the section devoted to intellectual

and social movements, other than the antislavery crusade, is a sequence

of hurried paragraphs. Those concerned with painting, architecture,

belles-lettres, Mormonism, and the most significant humanitarian re-

forms are so brief that the narrative is thinner than that found in a

solid textbook. The handling of some questions, such as the utopian

experiments of the age and education, is more detailed and suggestive.

The inadequacy of the section is counterbalanced by the stronger treat-

ment of the slavery controversy during this pivotal period.

The chapters on the main political and economic currents of the era

are the product of a confident author. He touches on every important

development in the years under consideration. On the whole, his sense

of proportion is sound. Without detailing all of the strong sections,

mention might be made of the account of the second Bank of the

United States and banking in general, of the spirit of New England

during the War of 1812, and of the various facets of the tariff question.

The study is so compressed, nevertheless, that anyone familiar with the

period will be constantly frustrated by the omission of essential material

or qualifications that would give greater depth and balance to the book.

Certain of Wiltse's conclusions and lines of emphasis can hardly fail

to disturb the serious student. The role of labor in the Locofoco leader-

ship is overemphasized, and one wonders if the North-South alliance

in the Democratic party was "dissolved" by the admittedly crucial vote

taken on the tariff of 1842. His judgment that the cautious Monroe-

Adams policy toward revolutionary Latin America, while working for

a Florida treaty, was successful with regard to Florida only because

Britain was herself cautious toward the Spanish colonies, is unsatis-

factory. Wiltse stresses the theme of an emerging nationalism through-

out the period, but his account points to his conclusion that the "half

a century between the Kentucky Resolutions and the Oregon settlement

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374    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

was characterized by sectional strife and sectional compromise." His

assertion that Webster's speeches in 1830 and Jackson's proclamation

of 1832 destroyed nullification and "the whole states rights dogma from

which it was derived" is offset by the attention given to Calhoun's

senate resolutions of 1838, and the obvious fact that the dogma of state

sovereignty was not dead.

Although the work is aimed at a wide audience, it is lamentable that

no contemporary portraits, drawings, or political cartoons are to be

found in the book. Their absence, coupled with the omission of a good

series of maps, weakens the study in this reviewer's opinion. In the

same vein, the decision to print the book without footnotes, while it

will be praised by many readers, deprives even the casual student of

an opportunity to get at the scholarly foundations of any particular

section of the work. An extensive, critical bibliography of twenty-nine

pages is an asset for every class of readers. Although written in an

easy style, this book offers little for the serious student of the period

and has limitations for the general reader.

Ohio Wesleyan University                  RICHARD W. SMITH

 

The Stakes of Power, 1845-1877. By Roy F. Nichols. The Making of

America Series, edited by David Donald. (New York: Hill and

Wang, 1961. x??246p.; maps, bibliographical note, and index. $4.50.)

This small volume inaugurates The Making of America series in

American history, published by Hill and Wang under the general

editorship of David Donald. Its six projected volumes, of which The

Stakes of Power is the fourth in the chronological sequence, will span

the whole of the nation's experience. For a series designed to bring the

best in historical scholarship to the general reader, this is an auspicious

beginning indeed.

In accordance with its title, this book pursues as its central theme the

almost revolutionary shift in the location and purpose of political power

in the United States between 1845 and 1877. Until the eve of the

Civil War the South had control of national policy, wielding its

authority through its dominance of congress and the Democratic party.

As the chief inheritors of Jacksonian laissez-faireism, southern spokes-

men sought primarily to defend the country's agricultural interests. By

1877 national leadership had been transferred to the captains of the new

industrialism. The new coalition of southern conservatives, intellectual

successors of the prewar southern Whigs, and northern Republicans

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BOOK REVIEWS            375

 

appeared quite capable of determining the future course of national

policy.

Without the Civil War this triumph of whiggery would have been

slow and faltering at best, for it was the sectional cataclysm that separ-

ated the southern agrarians from their northern colleagues and reduced

the power of Jacksonianism in American life. By 1861 politicians,

North and South, had exploited sectional issues with such fantastic

success that they were powerless either to retreat or to move forward.

Their very success had cast the nation adrift, waiting for some crisis

that would shatter the uneasy peace. The occasion for civil war hap-

pened to be the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Of this outbreak of

hostilities Dean Nichols writes: "Pride, politics, patience, prudence,

pique, petulance, and plotting had all been mixed up in a highly complex

emotional melange. One safe generalization remained: nobody planned

it that way" (p. 100). The author traces the war years in four chapters,

effectively devoting one chapter to each year. His final four chapters

relate the history of northern and southern reconstruction.

Those who would expect an excellent and thoughtful portrayal of

these middle years from the pen of Dean Nichols will not be disap-

pointed. In style and character the volume tends toward narrative

rather than analysis. Its generalizations follow established patterns.

Because it includes social, military, diplomatic, economic, and intellec-

tual as well as political history, its opening chapters do not reveal the

full impact of successive events in the sectional struggle. In keeping

with his theme, the author is less concerned with offering specific or

unique explanations for the coming of the Civil War than with tracing

the changing structure of national politics. Yet the varied material has

been blended so carefully and the course of shifting power rendered

so apparent that there is little of major significance left unnoticed in

the history of these formative years. The author has remained remark-

ably impartial, and he has written with a clarity and sense of excitement

which reflects well the drama of the Civil War era.

University of Illinois                   NORMAN A. GRAEBNER

 

The Anatomy of American Popular Culture, 1840-1861. By Carl Bode.

(Berkeley:  University of California Press, 1959.  xxi??292p.;

illustrations, note on the sources, and index. $6.00.)

In commenting upon the meaning of the word culture in his title,

Mr. Bode singles out two general definitions of the term: the anthro-

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376    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

pologist interprets it as "the sum of man's learned activities"; the

literary historian describes it as everything in print. Mr. Bode's appli-

cation of the term lies somewhere between the two, he believes, as the

statement of his three aims indicates: "To paint, in panoramic fashion,

a picture of our popular fine arts of the 1840's and 1850's in all their

unexpected richness. To try with the eyes of that time to search out,

assemble, and display the most prominent varieties of works in print.

And to suggest how the American character may have revealed itself

through its cultural preferences." It seems, however, that Mr. Bode's

idea of culture is closer to that of the literary historian, since about

two-thirds of his book is devoted to popular publications of the two

decades before the Civil War, while the remainder is divided among

drama, music, architecture, and visual arts.

These subjects occupy the chapters of the first part of the book,

under the general title, "The Public's Arts." Popular melodramas like

W. H. Smith's The Drunkard, Bulwer's The Lady of Lyons, and Dr.

R. M. Bird's The Gladiator are featured in a discussion of the stage,

while Lowell Mason, Stephen Foster, and the popular Scandinavian

visitors Ole Bull and Jenny Lind, serve as examples of the musical

taste of the time. A survey of domestic architecture considers the

vogue of the Gothic, the Greek Revival, and the Italian modes in the

absence of anything resembling an authentic native style. In the most

interesting chapters of this section, those dealing with painting and

sculpture, the realistic and humorous genre painting of Mount and

Bingham stands beside the historical works of Emanuel Leutze, a once

enormously respected product of the Dusseldorf school, now best known

for his "Washington Crossing the Delaware." In sculpture, Hiram

Powers' genteel neo-classical nude, "The Greek Slave," was a sensa-

tional success, and Mr. Bode speculates upon some of the reasons for

its impact upon the American public.

A little-known phenomenon of the time was the art association,

which issued a magazine to its members and distributed works of art

through annual lotteries. Two of these organizations, the American

Art Union and the Cosmopolitan Art Association, flourished succes-

sively during the 1850's.

Of the remaining chapters, most are given over to a discussion of

books and periodicals--mostly books--published during the twenty-year

period. Mr. Bode's method of surveying the many types of fictional

and non-fictional works is to present plot summaries or descriptions

of the contents of representative selections, together with some con-

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BOOK REVIEWS           377

sideration of the reasons for their popular appeal. The publications

include temperance novels, a genre in which even Walt Whitman tried

his hand in a work best forgotten, but which is more familiarly repre-

sented by T. S. Arthur's Ten Nights in a Bar-Room. A description of

the activities of the enterprising American Tract Society testifies to

the importance of the evangelical religious press. The discussion of

the popular novel published and sold in parts features such English

favorites as Scott and Dickens rather than American authors, although

George Lippard's lurid Gothic novel of Philadelphia, The Quaker City,

is introduced. Lippard's proletarian sympathies set him apart from

most of his American contemporaries; Mr. Bode considers them in

some detail and emphasizes the factor of class feeling in this chapter

on the novel of the 1840's. In curious contrast to this approach, an

elementary discussion of Jungian archetypes (the "anima," the "ani-

mus," the "wise old man," the "earth mother") is provided as a per-

spective in the chapter dealing with the domestic novel of the 1850's,

of which the most famous was Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. A

chapter on travel literature describes the contributions to this type by

Dana, Melville, and Bayard Taylor, while the depressing state of popu-

lar verse (Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Sigourney, Mr. Longfellow) receives

attention in a chapter appropriately entitled "The Sentimental Muse."

Longfellow, whom Mr. Bode recognizes as America's most popular

poet, is usually regarded as having had a cultural influence comparable

to that of the author of the McGuffey readers. Yet the discussion of

this "household poet" is devoted to his remarkably shrewd marketing

techniques, while the question of the relation of his poetry to his culture

is ignored.

Mr. Bode's work, which is based largely on original sources and on

a viewing or reading of representative works, is a useful and interesting

survey--selective rather than exhaustive--of "our popular fine arts."

It is questionable, however, whether it is an anatomy of popular culture,

as its title claims. If an anatomy is understood as a close analysis of

the ideas and values underlying cultural phenomena, Mr. Bode's inter-

pretation is hardly intensive or consistent enough to justify the term.

The reader is also left with the sense of intentions acknowledged but

unrealized. In his prefatory remarks, Mr. Bode speaks of a pattern of

cultural change and development occurring in the very important period

of his study: "It might almost be said that the United States was a

simple nation culturally when the 'forties began and a complex one

when the 'fifties ended. This was a time of maturing, a time when our

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378    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

culture first assumed its modern shape." Yet the book as a whole does

not provide a systematic analysis of the complexity of American culture

or of its growth and maturation.

Syracuse University                          WALTER SUTTON

 

The Rising American Empire. By Richard W. Van Alstyne. (New

York: Oxford University Press, 1960. xi??215p.; maps and index.

$6.00.)

From its beginnings the United States was an imperial power. This

is the conclusion of Professor R. W. Van Alstyne of the University of

Southern California in his new book The Rising American Empire.

The expansionist impulse stirred the ambitions of the first colonists on

these shores, Mr. Van Alstyne holds, and "when the United States

started its career as an independent state its growth pattern was fully

established and visible to far-seeing leaders." The expanding frontier

of the new republic did not follow a simple westward path by land

across the continent: "As a coastal country of the eighteenth century,

the United States looked seaward as well as landward, and the paths of

its growing empire in the nineteenth century stretched out to sea as

well as across the continent."

The idea that the New World was destined as the exclusive domain

of English-speaking stock was an article of faith among the colonists

who settled the North Atlantic seaboard. After independence, the found-

ing fathers of the new United States retained this belief that the conti-

nent belonged, as of right, to the people of the thirteen colonies. Step by

step the American republic pushed westward, until with the Mexican

War the territorial expanse of the United States reached from coast to

coast. Less successful was the thrust northward. Amid the very

struggle for independence, the Americans aspired to seize Canada. Time

and again in the years that followed, the expansionist tide threatened

to overflow the northern boundary and engulf the entire continent.

But this northward advance was delayed long enough by internal dis-

sension and civil war for a rival nationalism--a Canadian nationalism--

to solidify and block further American expansion.

Continental expansion provided one focus for American imperial

ambitions; another lay southward in the Carribbean. Cuba, Jefferson

prophesied, was destined to come beneath the stars and stripes, and

the Monroe Doctrine marked off the "Western Hemisphere" as an

exclusive American sphere of interest. The war with Mexico gave

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BOOK REVIEWS           379

 

impetus to these ambitions for turning the Caribbean into an American

lake, but the slavery controversy blocked action. The bids by Secretary

of State Seward and then by President Grant after the Civil War to

resume expansion southward into the Caribbean came to nothing. Not

until the end of the century did the imperialist tide run strongly again.

Then the Spanish-American War made the United States the dominant

power in the Caribbean. Britain recognized this country's hegemony in

the Hay-Pauncefote treaty, and one after another of the Caribbean

republics fell under the suzerainty of the colossus of the north in the

years that followed.

The Spanish-American War marked the culmination of a third

historic expansionist drive--the thrust westward across the Pacific to

China. As early as the 1780's, Yankee traders sailed the Pacific to join

in the scramble for the wealth of Asia. The interest in the Oregon

country and California reflected not so much the land hunger of the

frontiersman as the ambition of the seaboard merchants of the east

coast to annex those windows opening on the great trade marts of the

Orient. With this newly acquired frontage on the Pacific came new

appetites--the opening of Japan, the purchase of Alaska, repeated bids

to annex Hawaii. But the sectional conflict before the Civil War and

popular indifference afterward stalled this drive until the end of the

century, when the Spanish-American War carried the United States

to the doorstep of China. The acquisition of the Philippines was no

"great aberration," Professor Van Alstyne concludes. "It was, rather,

the climax to the drive for wealth and influence in east Asia that had

started in the eighteenth century."

The present book--an outgrowth of the Commonwealth Fund Lec-

tures which the author delivered at University College, London, in

1956--contains many keen insights and suggestive conclusions. This

reviewer, however, believes that Professor Van Alstyne has overstated

the importance of conscious planning in American expansionism. There

were aspiring geopoliticians aplenty with grandiose schemes, and their

influence frequently reached into high places, including the White

House; even more important, there was throughout most of American

history a readiness by the American people and its leaders to seize

whatever boons providence had to bestow. Providence is an apt word

here; much of American expansion had a providential quality. Take

the Louisiana Purchase, for instance. The Americans grasped the

opportunity when presented, but can hardly be said to have made the

opportunity. Even more to the point is the Spanish-American War.

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380    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Whatever the large-policy adherents may have had in mind (and this

is by no means clear), the country as a whole, and its responsible

leaders, blundered half-wittingly into war. Perhaps Mr. Van Alstyne

felt that in a brief series of lectures he should focus upon the less

familiar aspects of the story. The result makes provocative reading--

but his book is scarcely the final word on American expansionism.

Ohio State University                         JOHN BRAEMAN

 

Pen Pictures of Early Western Pennsylvania. Edited by John W.

Harpster.  (Pittsburgh:  University of Pittsburgh Press, 1938.

Facsimile reprint edition, 1960. xv??337p.; maps, annotated bibli-

ography, and index. $5.00.)

The Keelboat Age on Western Waters. By Leland D. Baldwin. (Pitts-

burgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1941. Facsimile reprint

edition, 1960. xiv??268p.; end-paper map, illustrations, bibliography,

and index. $5.00.)

The University of Pittsburgh Press has reprinted by facsimile two

of its earlier publications. Over two decades have not affected the worth

of Pen Pictures; nor in about the same span of time has subsequent

research added significantly to the subject matter of the Keelboat Age.

Harpster combed through the accounts of travelers who pushed west-

ward across the Appalachian Mountains. He excerpted parts of thirty-

eight that concern western Pennsylvania, which, according to his map,

includes a little less than the western half of the state. The wide variety

of observers and their accounts are not just a hodge-podge. By careful

selection and with editorial context Harpster has reconstructed the

story of the development of western Pennsylvania from 1748 to 1829.

That the literary quality of the accounts varies widely and that the

observations omit much one might wish were included are of little conse-

quence. What is important is that generally these are eyewitness

accounts, significant raw material from which history is reconstructed.

For example, Conrad Weiser tells of his 1748 mission to woo the Ohio

Indian trade from the French. Father Bonnecamps, chaplain and map

maker on the lead plate planting Celeron expedition, writes of the French

effort to assert ownership in the Ohio country. James Smith, a member

of the Braddock expedition who was captured by the Indians, lived to

recount his experiences. William Trent, in command of the militia,

details the siege of Fort Pitt during the Pontiac affair. George Wash-

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BOOK REVIEWS           381

 

ington confides to his diary the problem of squatters on his western

lands; James Elliot relates the life of a soldier in the Whiskey Rebellion;

John May records the trials and tribulations of a Boston merchant

launching his goods on western waters for the Marietta settlement;

Benjamin Rush so observes the methodical development of the frontier

to qualify himself as an early-day Frederick Jackson Turner.

The Keelboat Age is a monographic study of a period which overlaps

Pen Pictures somewhat. Baldwin says "it was probably soon after the

Revolution that keelboats came into general use on the Ohio" (p. 44).

When the steamboat came into its own, some keelboats continued in

competition; others became "auxiliary carrier[s] towed by the steam-

boat" (p. 193); others retreated to the upper tributaries and shallower

streams, "where they continued to act as carriers for the goods brought

to the heads of steamboat navigation" (p. 194). But the heyday of the

keelboat was over.

Baldwin's western waters are the Mississippi and the Ohio systems,

with emphasis on the latter. He is primarily concerned with the role of

rivers in the life of the early West. His presentation is a detailed analy-

sis of kinds of boats, the building of river boats and ocean ships, the

breed of men who navigated the streams, river navigation as a skill, the

movement of goods and immigrants, and snags and Indians and pirates

and other hazards of western navigation.

The simultaneous reprinting of these two volumes may be more than

coincidental, for in many respects they are companion pieces. They make

for delightful and informative reading. Some of Harpster's editorial

comments are too oversimplified. Unfortunately, the facsimile process

blurs some of Baldwin's illustrations. Errors of fact are few and incon-

sequential and do not detract seriously from the texts themselves. It

should be noted that valuable bibliographies append both; the one in

Pen Pictures is an introduction to a vast and fascinating literature

which could not be included in the volume.

Miami University                             DWIGHT L. SMITH

 

Michigan in the War of 1812. By Fred C. Hamil. John M. Munson

History Fund Pamphlet Number 4. (Lansing: Michigan Historical

Commission, 1960. vii??44p.; map, illustrations, and recommended

reading list. Paper, $1.00.)

This pamphlet, written originally as an article in Michigan History

by a historian who combines Canadian birth with a Canadian-American

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382    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

education and years of teaching at Wayne State University, has a prop-

erly objective approach toward the War of 1812. It is a well-rounded

account of the war in the American Northwest and adjacent Ontario,

with the Detroit area as the strategic center.

There are few heroes, much blundering, and at the end a stalemate,

with the Americans controlling the Detroit frontier and harassing

Ontario, and the British the upper lakes and the northern shores of

lakes Erie and Ontario. Poor planning and inept leadership nullified

American numerical superiority in the early months of the war. The

British had Indian allies, but at times these were a liability. The supply

problem was serious for both sides, and naval control of Lake Erie was

vital. Perry's victory was followed by Harrison's successful, if limited,

offensive.

The author accepts too wholeheartedly the expansionist interpretation

of the causes of the war. That restless American frontiersmen were

"gazing with greedy eyes on the rich and empty lands of Upper Canada"

is open to question. Bombastic War Hawk oratory has misled too many

historians.

A map of the war area, a dozen contemporary illustrations, and a brief

selective list of books for recommended reading add to the pamphlet's

value for the classroom and the adult general reader. This is one of a

series on Michigan history financed by the John M. Munson Michigan

History Fund.

Ohio State University                   EUGENE H. ROSEBOOM

 

Indiana in the War of the Rebellion: Report of the Adjutant General.

Indiana Historical Collections, Volume XLI. (Indianapolis: Indiana

Historical Bureau, 1960. xii??603p.; illustrations, appendix, and

index. Cloth, $6.00; paper, $2.50.)

This is a new edition of Volume I of W. H. H. Terrell's eight-volume

Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana, which the state

legislature published between 1865 and 1869. Volumes two through

eight contained military rosters and statistics, but Volume I, the last

written and the most important, was a general summary of Indiana's

political and military activity during the Civil War.

Indiana's aid to the war was substantial. Over two hundred thousand

Hoosiers saw service. More than one in ten died in the 308 engagements

in which they participated. The homefront furnished immeasurable

materiel. In these volumes the author, who was Governor Oliver P.

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BOOK REVIEWS           383

 

Morton's military secretary and later adjutant general, conscientiously,

exhaustively, and often capably chronicled the events and recorded the

statistics of this effort.

The chief fault of the work is the author's overzealous devotion to his

native state and his chief. The work abounds with bias. The campaign

of Western Virginia was, according to Terrell, "largely carried on by

Indiana troops and planned and conducted by an Indiana General." The

effort was, in fact, a joint venture of the northern states, attempting to

secure the decision of Western Virginia to secede from secession.

Ohio, most threatened by the proximity of Confederate forces, supplied

the major part of the provisional army of West Virginia. General Mc-

Clellan, actively in charge of the campaign, was commander of the Ohio

department, which included the state of Indiana. The significance of

Indiana's contribution to the war should not have been marred by

exaggeration.

Many portions of the book, particularly the chapter on "Internal

State Troubles," are apologies for Governor Morton's administration.

Neither the author nor Morton could accept opposition and both unhesi-

tatingly labeled any adversary a traitor. When Indiana Democrats

protested against the suspension of habeas corpus, government usurpa-

tion of power, and rabid abolitionism, Morton notified Washington that

the Democrats were trying to sabotage the war effort. Of the election

of 1862 (when the people of Indiana replaced a Morton-dominated

legislature with Democrats), Terrell wrote that Indiana had been taken

"out of loyal hands." When Morton was virtual dictator of Indiana in

1863, running the government on funds received from the war depart-

ment, Terrell recorded that the state was saved only through Morton's

"iron will and unfailing sagacity." Morton was an able patriot and did

much to aid the war effort, but we are never permitted to view the less

admirable traits of this man whom Lincoln described as "the skeeredest

man I know of."

Exasperating though the bias may be, the book remains a fountain of

usually reliable facts and a basic instrument in understanding Indiana's

part in the war. The Indiana Historical Bureau is to be commended for

making this hard-to-obtain traditional source easily available through

republication. Editing has eliminated typographical errors, and punctua-

tion has been modernized. Bell Wiley's admirable foreword warns the

reader of many of the book's pitfalls.

New sources have been uncovered since Terrell's recording, time has

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384    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

given us perspective, and competent historians are available who might

write a new, definitive work. Hopefully, the Indiana Historical Bureau

will climax the centennial recognition by sponsoring a fresh study of the

very important role of Indiana in the Civil War.

Ohio State University                      KENNETH WHEELER

 

 

American Indians. By William T. Hagan. The Chicago History of

American Civilization Series, edited by Daniel J. Boorstin. (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1961. xi??190p.; illustrations, chrono-

logical check list, suggested readings, and index. $4.50.)

Indian-white relations in America are a record of raw brutality as

wretched as any in history. If we were to imagine a landing today on

the American littoral by an alien race from outer space, we could begin

to assay what happened here to the American "Indians." Suppose, too,

that our latter-day space invaders relentlessly possessed the land from

eastern shore to the western sea. And that at last our "American Way"

came to be tolerated only as living diorama in restricted places called

"reservations." The idea is chilling.

Walter Hagan hardly goes as far as this in his recitation of more

than three centuries of wrongs suffered by Indians at the hands of

whites. But he does define quite graphically the highlights of the

Indian-white juxtaposition from its colonial beginnings to its present-

day frustrations.

This little volume is by no means a little work. It is no simple task

to detail more than three centuries of Indian-white confrontation. And,

in fact, this is not detail. It is synthesis--expertly done. Step by step

the story of the opposing races is traced from colonial days to our own

times. The great variation among whites and the vast diversity among

Indians complicated matters so tragically that solutions have always

seemed impossible. Yet, at last in our own time, Professor Hagan sees

some real possibility of a Pan-Indian movement in this country--and

an ultimate adjustment with whites.

Yet, until our own times, the humanitarians who have had sympa-

thetic understanding of Indians were to be found in the East; the whites

who tyrannized the "savages" lived up against the receding frontier.

Much the same, one might reflect, as with the Negro. The humanitarians

are in the North; the bigots are closer to the problem.

If there are defects in this little book, they are understandable. It is

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BOOK REVIEWS           385

 

manifestly impossible to do an adequate coverage of a subject of this

magnitude in such limited format. Synthesis becomes kaleidoscopic.

There is no real picture of American governmental policy toward the

Indian--except incidentally. And this theme is long overdue for treat-

ment. Hagan has quite properly avoided such a tempting byway.

Walter Hagan has done credit to the Chicago History of American

Civilization series. This is a timely book and it is excitingly written.

University of Southern California        RUSSELL L. CALDWELL

 

American Railroads.  By John F. Stover. The Chicago History of

American Civilization Series, edited by Daniel J. Boorstin. (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1961. xiv??302p.; illustrations, maps,

bibliography, and index. $5.00.)

Despite their obvious importance to the growth of the nation, Ameri-

can railroads have yet to be accorded a thorough, complete, and scholarly

history. With some exceptions, works on railroad history to date seem

to have been written either to glorify individual corporations or to

commemorate "dear dead days beyond recall." Thus the appearance of

John F. Stover's American Railroads as part of the Chicago History of

American Civilization series is most welcome. The work itself, however,

is a disappointment.

To judge from the excellent annotated bibliography (there are no

footnotes), a good deal of research went into the preparation of this

volume. Yet the main emphasis appears to have been placed on secon-

dary materials; the work offers little that is new in either subject matter

or treatment. The author touches upon all of the major facets of Ameri-

can railroad history--beginnings, expansion, the railroads in war, trans-

continental lines, consolidation and standardization, corruption and regu-

lation, technical improvements, the railroads in decline--but the brevity

of his account precludes his dealing with any of these subjects in depth.

The strongest portions of the work, perhaps, are those relating to the

twentieth century, especially to the period of federal control during the

First World War and the period of rapid decline after the Second. Fre-

quently, however, Professor Stover's account amounts to little more

than a recitation of statistics. Commendably avoiding the "romance of

the rails" approach, he has fallen into the opposite trap of being, very

often, quite dull.

The reader who is at all familiar with the history of American rail-

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386    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

roads will find very little here that he has not encountered elsewhere.

The general reader will no doubt come upon much that is new to him.

There are, however, better accounts available. In short, this work does

not replace Stewart H. Holbrook's frankly nostalgic and highly anec-

dotal Story of American Railroads. The definitive history of America's

railroads has not yet appeared.

Ohio Historical Society                      F. M. WHITAKER

 

The American Civil Engineer: Origins and Conflict. By Daniel Hovey

Calhoun. (Cambridge: The Technology Press of the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology, 1960. xiv??295p.; appendices, bibliographi-

cal note, and index. $5.50.)

Until recent years, the early-nineteenth century American engineer

had remained a relatively obscure figure in American historiography.

This would have been understandable if the importance of the subject

had been measured by the number of engineers at work in the United

States in the period 1815-50. By another measure, however, the

significance of the subject is indisputable: The canal and railroad proj-

ects that employed most of the country's civil engineers were at the

center of American politics in that period. The proper role of govern-

ment in meeting transport needs, the selection of specific projects, and

the operation of transportation enterprises, all were critical political

issues involving the judgment and competence of engineers. Moreover,

popular opinion regarding internal improvements--and regarding the

men who designed, built, and ran them--most likely reflected broader

social attitudes.

Forest Hill's recent study of the army engineers has illuminated one

important aspect of American engineering in the early period. The

present work deals with the civil engineer's achievement of professional

status at a time when the ability to handle surveying instruments was,

in many areas of the United States, as common as is the ability to

operate an automobile today. The study is confined to engineers em-

ployed on transportation projects, but the author casts a wide net, dis-

puting some historians' characterization of this era as an "individual-

istic" one. "It was not a Jeffersonian America but a corporate America

that supported the engineer, sustained the engineer, and quite early

defined his character," Mr. Calhoun asserts. If the author himself

sometimes oversimplifies or gropes for significances, it detracts only

marginally from a suggestive study.

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BOOK REVIEWS            387

 

Calhoun describes the peculiar demands that canal and railroad enter-

prises, both public and private, made upon their engineering staffs, the

conflicting views among engineers of what their proper role should

be, and the development of early professional organizations. After 1816

the number of American engineers gradually increased in response to

demand during the internal-improvements boom. Some of these engi-

neers were trained at West Point and in private academies, but a larger

group was given on-the-job training in New York and other states and

was promoted through hierarchical organizations.

One of the author's major contributions is his discussion, in Chapter

3 and elsewhere, of the engineer's function at various stages in the his-

tory of the typical transport enterprise. Probably no discussion in print

is so informative or perceptive regarding the technical and managerial

functions of engineers--or, more importantly, regarding the areas in

which the two functions overlapped. There is also valuable information

concerning the pay of engineers, the estimated number of professionals

and their training, and the effects of economy measures on engineers

employed by state projects in the years after 1837.

The attitudes of the public toward engineers is less successfully

treated. In his Government Promotion of American Canals and Rail-

roads, Carter Goodrich makes the point that the Whig and Democratic

parties had no fixed attitudes toward internal improvements at the state

level. If in one state the Whigs were critics of an improvements pro-

gram, in another state the Democrats might be found voicing identical

criticisms. Mr. Calhoun asserts, however, that there was a fairly clear-

cut division between what he terms "whiggish" and "democratical"

views. The whiggish view, he states, was sympathetic with the profes-

sional objectives of engineers and favorable toward large-scale construc-

tion of internal improvements; the democratical view preferred the

"practical man" to the professional engineer and favored "projects

directed for and by local interests." These "partyish" labels seem too

elusive to be useful. The author himself appears uncomfortable with the

terms, having once created them. Whiggish ideas, he writes, "if not the

strict property of political Whigs, do deserve the label"; and he presents

similar qualifications for the term democratical. We are left, therefore,

with the unhappy prospect of "whiggish Democrats" and "democratical

Whigs," solely because of these misleading definitions. It is clear that

two such views often came into conflict, but to term "the real issue ...

social, even political" appears overdrawn, given the evidence at hand.

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388    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

In light of this approach, it is unfortunate that the author's search for

manuscripts never carried him into the various state archives, which are

replete with material relating to engineers on the public works. In

consequence, the book does very little to illuminate the critical question

of the relationship of the engineer to the politics of the period; the

impact of patronage politics is not discussed at all.

Two minor objections might be stated. The author alludes (p. xi) to

a decline in canal construction immediately after the panic of 1837; in

fact, the decline occurred only after 1839. An impression is left (p. 144)

that in 1840 Ohio halted major canal construction involving new con-

tracts; this was merely a temporary retrenchment measure, as the two

major western canals were completed in 1843 and 1845.

Such reservations do not alter the contention that this is a valuable

book. The text itself comprises 199 pages, and the unusually lengthy

notes are a mine of bibliographical information.

Dartmouth College                         HARRY N. SCHEIBER

 

The Health of the Presidents. By Rudolph Marx, M.D. (New York:

G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1960. ³⁷6p.; index. $5.95.)

The American public has probably always had an interest in the

health of the president. Attention to the matter has increased in recent

years with enlightenment of the public in health matters and with its

growing appreciation of the relation of the president's health to his

conduct of national affairs, the resulting continuity of governmental

policies, and the stability of our world leadership. As evidence of this

concern one needs only to recall the national and world-wide attention

given to the health of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eisenhower and the

health competition between the principal political opponents during the

recent presidential campaign. The appearance of The Health of the

Presidents is an instance of the public interest in the subject.

The author, Dr. Rudolph Marx, a surgeon of Los Angeles and pro-

fessionally well recognized, is medically qualified to bring together a

history of the presidents' health. He evidently has been a student of

American history, as well, to have produced so balanced an account of

medicine and national history. The volume deals with the health of

thirty presidents from Washington to Franklin D. Roosevelt (inclusive)

but excluding Hoover, each account being presented in an individual

chapter without transitional text. The length of chapter varies, depend-

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BOOK REVIEWS            389

 

ing on the comparative amount of information given on the illnesses

of each person.

The text, however, is not a recital of dry clinical data and technical

descriptions of terminal pathology. If pertinent, the health history of

childhood is given, with references to family illnesses, possible genetic

inheritances, and environmental factors. The state of health of wife and

children is described, together with intimate accounts of family life and

death. Each president's physical features, personal habits, and psycho-

logical makeup are described, and the reader is given an understanding

of his personality and from this his reactions to the problems of his per-

sonal and public life.

The illnesses of recent presidents are described with expected accuracy

and completeness, but the earlier the subject in presidential succession

the less is the certainty of diagnosis. In such cases, Marx offers specu-

lations and interpretations to supply the reader with the soundest advice

available in the light of modern medical knowledge. While not avoiding

technical terms, he does not "talk down" to his reader; an educated

layman can understand the terminology used. Occasionally, there are

digressions in clinical descriptions that explain briefly the disease process

involved and the significance of an observation.

The account of illnesses suffered from the time of Washington to

Franklin D. Roosevelt is an interesting recapitulation of prevalent

diseases identifiable with succeeding periods of time: smallpox, yellow

fever, malaria, tuberculosis; typhoid, dysentery; heart disease, arterio-

sclerosis, cerebral vascular disease. One could suppose that presidents of

earlier periods suffered more from the effects of cardiovascular disease

than indicated by the records, inasmuch as the group lived to remark-

ably advanced years. As to age itself, only six of the thirty died as early

as their fifties and three of these by assassination.

The progressive record is also a review of the advances in science and

medicine. References to disease processes, aids in diagnosis, and meth-

ods of treatment, and even to terminology itself indicate the changes that

have taken place. Marx occasionally indulges in the "if game" of what

might have been the diagnosis if it had been made with modern accuracy,

if the treatment had been thus and so, and if modern drugs had been

available. One wonders whether our national history might have been

different if....

The author's important role of interpretation is effectively carried

out, and only occasionally is an observation made with which the

reviewer does not agree. The principle of cause and effect is frequently

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390    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

used to explain the meaning of an event. Sometimes this practice strains

the credulity of the reader, and he should be put on his guard against

potential pitfalls in reasoning. An example of this is the psychiatric

explanation offered to explain a presidential reaction, of which Marx

seems fond, when data are obviously minimal, and when a basic factor

common to two events could be operating instead of one incident pre-

disposing to the other.

Thus far this review has referred to the main thesis of the book,

consistent with its title. It must be made clear, however, that many other

facets of the presidents' lives are intermingled with health matters:

political fortunes, governmental affairs, relations with the congress,

international issues, the prosecution of wars, national economics, and

life in Washington. The result is a smoothly-running narrative, rising

to heights of drama by sheer description without resort to sensational

expressions. The various topics, whether of health or otherwise, fit

together to make a whole so that the reader has a peculiar sense of

acquaintance with the personal and official career of each chief executive.

There are no references, bibliography, or illustrations. The index is

made up of names and medical terms, and excludes reference to historical

or political events.

The Health of the Presidents is obviously for popular reading and for

that purpose is recommended as interesting and informative. It com-

bines personal and national history, and presents to American citizens

a balanced account of the health and careers of their presidents.

Ohio State University                        N. PAUL HUDSON

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