Ohio History Journal

Book Reviews

 

 

The Frontier Republic: Ideology and Politics in the Ohio Country, 1780-1825.

By Andrew R.L. Cayton. (Kent: Kent State University Press, 1986. xii +

¹⁹⁷p.; map, notes, essay on sources, index. $27.00.

 

The intellectual history of the early republic has undergone considerable

revival in recent years. Led by Bernard Bailyn at Harvard, whose The Ideo-

logical Origins of the American Revolution (1967) was a classic when pub-

lished, and continued by his pupil Gordon Wood of Brown University in the

highly acclaimed Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969), we

have now reached the third generation of this school with Wood's student,

Andrew Cayton. The Ball State University professor carries the evolving po-

litical tradition of early United States across the Appalachian chain into

Ohio. In a splendid but all too brief study, Cayton provides an introduction

to this state's history that must be read by everyone seeking to understand

the origins of its political tradition.

Cayton discovers a continuity in the political debates of the new nation

and finds them divided into two camps: the first, normally associated with

Jeffersonian Republicanism, "emphasized the primacy of local sovereignty

and demanded the fullest expression of democratic rights;" while the sec-

ond, which dominated Federalist thought, sought "to bring regularity to

what they perceived to be a disordered society" through the introduction

of "strong institutions to arbitrate among and guide the interests of the citi-

zens of a national society marked by increasing pluralism and economic com-

plexity" (pp. x-xi). Cayton sees these early political clashes less in terms of

economic, ethno-cultural, or personality conflicts and more in competing ide-

ological differences.

Unlike earlier historians of the state's origins, Cayton does not see the con-

flict between such rivals as Arthur St. Clair and Thomas Worthington as bat-

tles between right and wrong, but rather as the halting attempts of honest

men seeking solutions to fundamental issues in a pluralistic, frontier society

where there was no political behavioral consensus. He refuses to see in the

Republicans the wave of the future, but instead notes approvingly that "the

Federalist emphasis on designing the world and governments to shape peo-

ple was as important in nineteenth-century Ohio as the Jeffersonian Republi-

can insistence on democratic elections" (p. 153). Thus he finds that both the

New England and Virginia traditions that impacted so strongly on early state

politics made significant and continuing contributions to Ohio's history.

For Cayton, the key event in early Ohio politics is the Panic of 1819. It

splintered the Republican assumption of a democratic society in natural har-

mony and reinforced the Federalist tradition of the clash of interests. It is at

this point that Cayton divides the Republican party into two factions-the

Old Republicans representing those opposed to institutional power to direct

society and the moderate Republicans who sought to avoid future panics

and social unrest by strengthening the institutions of government. Here

Cayton makes his weakest argument, for he does not really comprehend the

threefold division of the Republicans. His "moderates" are really divided

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160                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

into two camps, the National Republicans (like William Henry Harrison), who

supported Federal government action to bring social order, and the Demo-

cratic Republicans (epitomized by New York's Martin Van Buren), who

wanted the state governments to provide direction to economic development.

Cayton is part of a new breed of scholars of the early Republic who em-

phasize the complexity of the political situation. The first of these new Ohio

historians was Donald Ratcliffe whose 1976 article in Ohio History marked

the opening salvo in a series of studies that brought the state's politics under

the umbrella of national develoments. Reinforcing this tradition is an article

by Jeffrey P. Brown in Journal of the Early Republic (1982) on Ohio Federal-

ism. Peter S. Onuf has provided an effective reexamination of the origins of

the statehood movement in a 1985 Ohio History article. It is somewhat ironic

that none of these scholars teaches in Ohio, about whose early history they

are now the leading authorities. With this book, Cayton has clearly become

the most prominent of the group. Despite a brevity which assumes a knowl-

edge of the details of Ohio politics possessed by few, The Frontier Republic

should be near the top of anyone's list of books concerned with the origins

of political traditions in the Old Northwest.

Bowling Green State University                  David Curtis Skaggs

 

 

Anthony Wayne: Soldier of the Early Republic. By Paul David Nelson.

(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985 x + ³⁶⁸p.; preface, illustra-

tions, maps, notes, selected bibliography, index. $27.50.)

 

In early 1792, President Washington faced a dilemma in addition to the

complete destruction of the American army in the Northwest Territory. The

chief executive had to find a commander who could rebuild the army and

reestablish U.S. claims to the region now threatened by a powerful Indian

confederacy. In his review of candidates for the position, Washington's

unflattering appraisal of his former Revolutionary War subordinate Anthony

Wayne as a man likely to be drawn into tangential disputes was as unfair as it

was inaccurate. As author Paul David Nelson explains in great detail,

Wayne's military record in the Revolution proved his competence. In both

large and small operations-on the battlefield and in Pennsylvania politics-

Wayne showed careful attention to planning and execution.

Despite Washington's initial doubts, Wayne received the appointment,

largely because of his well-known fondness for strict discipline and aggres-

siveness. Indeed, the sobriquet "Mad" Anthony imparted to him a reck-

lessness in war which was never supported in fact. As Nelson repeatedly

points out, a distinction should be made between Wayne's ardor in battle

and simple foolhardiness. Nelson establishes that Wayne possessed a

"streak of romanticism and dash" (p. 3) easily mistaken for empty-headed

enthusiasm.

Perhaps the best aspect of Nelson's portrait is the gradual revelation of

Wayne's mind and personality. Possessing more ideas than his braggart sol-

dier image might suggest, Wayne's political and constitutional views evolved

from youthful Whiggism to an entrenched Federalist outlook. As a young

man he believed in the efficacy of Revolutionary passion to mold an effective

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Book Reviews                                                  161

 

army of citizen soldiers. Niggardly support from politicians for his starving

and ill-equipped soldiers at Ticonderoga and Valley Forge convinced him

the army was the only remaining repository of the Revolution's ideals. Hold-

ing to republican principle, Wayne nevertheless turned away from a liberal

ethos to a more rigid and conservative interpretation of civil-military rela-

tions. The discipline and hierarchy of the army served, for Wayne, as a

model for all society. In practice the philosophically meritorious militia dis-

gusted him; such short-term volunteers (including notably the Kentucky mi-

litia of the 1790s) tended toward unreliability, poor discipline, and desertion.

Because of such rough experience in camp and combat, Wayne came to favor

an army of highly disciplined regulars, led by officers from the elite social

and propertied classes which directed a strong central government.

As he aged Wayne's "egotistical military romanticism" (p. 43) also

changed. His hot-headed valor of the 1770s later hardened into an almost

pathological love of war. Seeming early on to thrive on battle, Wayne by

war's end hungered for more, when others had grown weary of the blood-

shed and destruction. In Nelson's well-founded judgment, Wayne "flour-

ished . . . [on] glory, splendor, pomp, excitement, blood hatreds, destruc-

tion, and danger. . ." (p. 172).

Outside of this military life, Wayne demonstrated notable failures. Specu-

lation in Georgia land after the Revolution threw him into a financial debacle

from which he almost did not recover. Additionally, Wayne consistently

mistreated his family. Prolonged absences, neglect of home responsibilities,

and a long-standing affair with another woman eventually cost Wayne the

love of his wife, mother, daughter, and sister. In his last years his son, also

long ignored, reconciled with him somewhat. While military commandant at

Detroit, Wayne died. Appropriately, he was buried in his most elegant uni-

form, the emblem of his heart's only true object.

The bayonet charge at Fallen Timbers in 1794 crowned his greatest mili-

tary victory and typified his life-a headlong lunge into peril despite the con-

sequences. Surpassing all previous Wayne biographies and document collec-

tions, Nelson's exhaustively researched account adds profound dimensions

to this soldier's story. Anthony Wayne merits acclaim as a model biography.

Kentucky Historical Society                    James Russell Harris

 

 

The Union Cavalry in the Civil War. Volume III: The War in the West

1861-1865. By Stephen Z. Starr. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University

Press, 1985. xv + 616p.; maps, illustrations, notes, appendix, addenda to

bibliography, index. $32.50.)

 

Starr finished this concluding volume of his trilogy on the Northern caval-

ry in the Civil War just before he died in 1985. A lengthy work that capped

his long-term interest in the cavalry, the three-volume study has been

praised by reviewers as a major contribution to Civil War military studies. Its

breadth of coverage and sweeping chronological narrative lend credibility to

that assessment. Volumes one and two covered the cavalry's operations in

the East from 1861 to Appomattox. This volume chronicles the Western war,

including the Trans-Mississippi.

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162                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

It is time to take a critical look at this trilogy as well as this volume, lest the

generous assessments of previous reviewers be taken too much for granted.

Starr has produced a series of books that is valuable mainly for the Civil War

buff. This volume consists primarily of a brief narrative of the major cam-

paigns and battles which included cavalry operations. Much of this, not sur-

prisingly, is shallow; he could hardly have done a thorough job of describ-

ing all cavalry actions in the West in one volume. The generalist will like

Starr's easy style, his sensitivity for the anecdote, and his avoidance of real

depth. The fact that this trilogy has already achieved something like classic

status will enhance the buff's ownership of all three volumes.

But for the professional military historian this book is very disappointing.

The research is inadequate. Starr relied far too heavily on the Official Rec-

ords, which, by some estimates, included only about 10 percent of all the re-

ports, dispatches, and telegrams produced by the Union army. This is no

petty gripe, but is of real significance in the context of what Starr wanted to

accomplish. His only organizing theme is the growing sense among com-

manders that cavalry, to be most effective, needed to be organized separate-

ly from the infantry and given greater autonomy in the chain of command. At

more than one point in the narrative Starr bemoans the fact that more infor-

mation regarding cavalry organization is not furnished in the O.R. The 90

percent of the records that remain unpublished but available to anyone in

the National Archives would have gone a long way toward relieving his frus-

tration.

In addition to the O.R., Starr relied on two or three collections of pub-

lished letters and memoirs, a smattering of regimental histories, and only one

collection of unpublished letters. The narrative contains only one reference to

a few muster rolls in the National Archives, and Starr made no thorough use

of relevant secondary sources. The mass of unpublished personal accounts

that exists for the Yankee cavalry remain untouched, its wealth of detailed

information regarding Starr's subject yet unused by historians except for a

few case studies here and there. Starr's taste for the anecdote, if nothing

else, could have been satiated in these sources.

The writing style that generalists will find delightful will probably irk pro-

fessionals. I quickly became tired of the awkward phrase "it will be noted."

His analysis, which is genuinely useful to specialists, is too brief and

undeveloped. It could have been condensed into a fine article. In the epi-

logue, Starr finally devotes a few pages to an interesting and promising

discussion of differences between Western and Eastern cavalry, what made

each work or fail. It is an all too brief moment of insight for a historian who

had devoted so much time and effort to his subject. This volume, as well as

the entire trilogy, falls far short of what its subject deserves, but both will

probably remain staples of the generalist's library for a long time to come.

Texas Tech University                                   Earl J. Hess

 

 

 

 

Narrow Gauge in Ohio: The Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern Railway. By

John W. Hauck. (Boulder, Colorado: Pruett Publishing Company, 1986.

309p.; illustrations, appendix, roster and timetables, index. $29.95.)

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Book Reviews                                                  163

 

John W. Hauck has written an exceptionally good railroad biography. A la-

bor of love, this is a detailed account of a marginal commuter line, which af-

ter many difficulties finally connected Lebanon with Cincinnati. Focusing on

the problems of construction and on a seemingly endless succession of corpo-

rate failures and reorganizations, Hauck also elucidates some major themes in

urban and transportation history as they apply to Cincinnati and its suburbs.

Located on the highlands between the Great Miami and Little Miami riv-

ers, Lebanon was bypassed by early railroads that hugged the level ground

of the river valleys. From the 1850s to the completion of a narrow-gauge line

in 1881, Lebanon's commercial elite worked for a rail connection with

Cincinnati, confident that such a link would assure their city's growth and

prosperity. Hauck elucidates the many failed projects generated by these ef-

forts in boosterism in the thirty years after 1850.

In 1874 Lebanon interests incorporated the Miami Valley Narrow Gauge

Railway Co. with the intent of building a three-foot line to Cincinnati.

Narrow-gauge lines, theorists held, could be built and operated more eco-

nomically than standard-gauge roads, thereby allowing successful operation

in areas where traffic density could not support a full-scale road. Short on

capital and existing traffic centers along their intended route, the Miami Val-

ley's backers found narrow-gauge theories particularly appealing.

The Miami Valley began construction in 1876 and failed four years later, in

part because of heavy trestling expenses associated with the daunting task of

descending Cincinnati's rugged Deer Creek Valley to a business-district ter-

minal site, and in part from director chicanery. From the financial wreckage

arose the Cincinnati Northern, completed between Cincinnati and Lebanon

in 1881, and by 1883 part of a Boston-controlled narrow-gauge network linking

Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis. This combination in turn quickly failed,

and in 1885 the renamed Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern was detached

and sold in bankruptcy to local interests. From 1885 until 1896, when ac-

quired by the Pennsylvania Railroad, the company operated an independent

suburban line, heavily dependent upon commuter traffic.

Hauck devotes limited attention to the narrow-gauge movement in Ohio.

Peaking at eleven hundred miles in 1884, mileage dwindled to 162 ten years

later; companies found their inability to interchange cars with standard-

gauge roads an obstacle greater than whatever advantages narrow-gauge

technology conferred. The CL&N conformed its track to standard gauge in

1894.

In the course of his narrative Hauck nicely demonstrates how subsequent

transportation developments adversely affected the CL&N's commuter traf-

fic. Reaching Norwood in 1891, the electric streetcar immediately became

the transit mode of choice in the areas between Norwood and downtown.

Deprived of its inner suburban haulage, the railroad rebuilt its traffic in the

growing outer suburbs, only to see it reduced by more than half after a paral-

leling interurban reached Lebanon in 1903. Traffic slowly recovered, peaking

in 1921; motor bus and private automobile use thereafter cut so deeply into

rail use that remaining passenger service was abandoned in 1934. In the twen-

tieth century revenues came increasingly from freight as Norwood in particu-

lar developed as an early industrial suburb. Today Conrail maintains those

parts of the route that warrant local freight service.

Hauck has been both well and poorly served by his publisher. Beautifully

produced, the book is replete with well-chosen black-and-white photo-

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164                                                OHIO HISTORY

 

graphs. On the other hand, Hauck notes in his introduction that the pub-

lisher required that he remove from his manuscript additional material on

the little-studied narrow-gauge movement and delete all documentation. The

published work is therefore more of a traditional railroad biography than

the author intended. It is, however, a very able example of that genre.

The University of Akron                           Douglas V. Shaw

 

 

Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture. Edited by

Dell Upton and John Michael Vlach. (Athens: The University of Georgia

Press, 1986. xiv + 592p.; illustrations, notes, readings, index. $24.95 paper;

$50.00 cloth.)

 

In the past two decades social historians have shifted the focus of their in-

vestigations away from the study of elites and toward the exprience of the

"average" population. This same change has occurred within the specializa-

tion of architectural history as well. In moving away from a narrow focus on

large-scale structures and buildings designed by notable architects, investi-

gators have defined a field they have called vernacular architecture. This

field consists of structures built by the users themselves, dependent upon lo-

cal tradition in place of the aid of the design professionals.

Common Places brings together twenty-three previously published essays

in this new field. It begins with an attempt to define vernacular architecture

and cites the importance of traditional or "folk" practices in building that are

utilized by a particular group without conscious thought as to design. Linked

to this is the more modern set of building techniques and decorative devices

used by mass builders who work without the services of design profession-

als such as architects or interior decorators. Included as well are practices of

landscaping and town planning. The editors admit to the loose nature of their

working definition, but maintain that the field will define itself as future in-

vestigations proceed.

The essays that follow are grouped into five sections. The first, entitled

Definitions and Demonstrations, presents articles that link particular architec-

tural forms to specific social and cultural groups. One traces nineteenth-

century housing forms through the Ohio Valley and upper South and associ-

ates these forms with the origins of the settlers in the New England, Middle

Atlantic, and Lower Chesapeake regions. Other essays look in depth at spe-

cific social groups and their buildings; the houses of German immigrants

from the Rhine in a Shenandoah Valley settlement; so-called shotgun hous-

es of the South and the Caribbean which can be traced back to African

forms; and the suburban bungalow of the early twentieth century, a vernacu-

lar type rooted in popular images of how proper family life of the period

should be lived. Two final articles study the role of tradition in land use: one

notes the continuity of ethnic patterns in layout and cultivation of fields in

Vermont, while the other illustrates similar forms of courthouse squares in

the Midwest and South in the nineteenth century.

The second section focuses more specifically on construction techniques,

and how they can be linked to a particular group. Common folk traditions of

construction are found in colonial Rhode Island, in the log structures of east-

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Book Reviews                                                  165

 

ern seaboard and midwestern regions, in the tools used in Indiana during its

frontier era, and in the Dutch origins of framing techniques for barn construc-

tion in various parts of the country. The third section, entitled Function,

looks at how buildings are used by their inhabitants and how these uses re-

flect traditions and images prevalent within the group. The furnishings of the

houses are treated as artifacts in studies of the Massachusetts houses of the

colonial period and of typical hall furniture of the Victorian era. Another es-

say uses what the editors describe as visual archeaology in the interpretation

of photographs of circa 1900 interiors in an attempt to link posessions with

then current ideals of what home life should be.

Parts four and five deal with broader topics. Part four, entitled History,

looks at four man-made environments and traces how architecture aided the

inhabitants to achieve their social goals. These environments include the

nineteenth-century alleys of Washington, D.C., the seventeenth-century

farmhouse in New England, and two colonial Virginia environments: the

plantation and the solitary house. Part five, Design and Intention, addresses

the question of the degree to which the craftsmen were conscious of design

issues. Examined are the brickwork on a set of eighteenth-century houses in

southern New Jersey, the evolution of eighteenth-century domestic planning

in the Delaware Valley, the role of popular imagery in the architecture of late

nineteenth-century Minnesota farmhouses, and the strength of the utilitarian

motive in vernacular architecture of the comtemporary highway strip. Also

examined is the career of one particular builder in late nineteenth century

who combined vernacular traditions with current architectural fashions.

Finally, one architect contributes an essay that maintains that the builders

were quite conscious of design, despite their lack of formal training.

Common Places has the strengths and weaknesses natural to a collection of

essays clustered around a set of themes. Many of the essays stand alone as

valuable contributions to architectural and social history, and their combi-

nation in a single volume is useful to historian and architect alike. The histori-

an might take issue with some of the conclusions, but the effort to define the

field of vernacular architectural history requires such a presentation of the

current scholarship. The architect will find the photographs and drawings

useful in undertaking any restoration work. A complete bibliography adds to

this usefulness.

The weakness of Common Place is the linkage of the essays around themes

such as History, Function, and Design and Intention. Most of the essays con-

tain elements of all these themes; indeed, any focus, whether it is on con-

struction, land use, furnishing, or some other topic, should examine each of

these themes as an integral part of the investigation. Perhaps a better means

of organization would have been chronology, geography, or building type.

Scholars and architects working on Ohio buildings will find little of specif-

ic use in Common Place. Some of the material dealing with migration patterns

in the first essay on Folk Housing and, tangentially, the essays on courthouse

square planning and log housing pertain to the state. More useful is the meth-

odology presented in the essays.

Ohio Historical Society                            Daniel J. Prosser

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166                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

Political Prairie Fire: The Nonpartisan League, 1915-1922. By Robert L.

Morlan. With a new introduction by Larry Remele. (St. Paul: Minnesota

Historical Society Press/Borealis, 1985. xii + 414p.: notes, bibliography,

new index. $10.95 Paper.)

The Nonpartisan League, 1915-22; An Annotated Bibliography. Compiled by

Patrick K. Coleman and Charles R. Lamb. (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical

Society Press, 1985. ix + 86p.: index. $12.95 Paper.)

 

Popular, political, and scholarly interest in the history of farm protest has

ridden the crests of generational rediscovery of the ongoing plight of the van-

ishing family farmer in America. Midwestern farm protest has flowed like an

inland tide over the past one and a quarter centuries of American history-

the Grange, the Farmers' Alliances, the Populists, the Nonpartisan League,

the National Farmers' Union, the Farmers' Holiday Association, and the

American Agricultural Movement. On June 19, 1985, amidst the most recent

wave of family farm foreclosures, public television stations across the country

aired Plowing Up a Storm: The History of Midwestern Farm Activism, spon-

sored by the Nebraska Educational Television Network and funded by hu-

manities councils in Nebraska, Iowa, and North Dakota. This superbly re-

searched, edited, and illustrated show provided an accurate historical

overview of farm protest in the midwest since the 1870s. Significantly, one

section discussed the emergence of the Nonpartisan League (NPL) between

1915 and 1922 in North Dakota, Minnesota, and other states. With publica-

tion of these two works, the Minnesota Historical Society joins the growing

number of scholars, citizens, and activists in attempting to understand the

origins, course, and consequences of generational changes and interest in

farm protest. The late Robert P. Morlan, a political scientist at the University

of Redlands in California, died in April 1985 just as this third printing of his

classic, standard history of the NPL went to press. Patrick K. Coleman and

Charles R. Lamb have put together an updated bibliography to complement

Morlan's work, to reveal locations of recently rediscovered primary sources,

and to draw attention to younger scholars' findings which have often revised

Morlan's traditional account.

Originally published in 1955 and republished in 1974, Political Prairie Fire

still remains the best comprehensive history of the early years of the NPL

with its political strength centered in North Dakota and Minnesota. Morlan's

work with the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor party in the late 1940s

sparked his interest in the NPL's history and led to this narrative account

that established the framework for researching and writing the history of

the NPL. Morlan emphasized the League's origins; its innovative use of the

direct primary; its legislative program to aid family farmers; its condemnation

as "socialist," "prussianized," and "bolshevik" in the wartime mobiliza-

tion and postwar Red Scare of 1917-1920; and its rapid decline after 1920. By

1915 farmers in western North Dakota faced severe economic hardships

including marketing malpractices in the inspection, weighing, and grading of

grain; exorbitant elevator storage charges and discriminatory railroad rate

practices; and domination by bankers in St. Paul and Minneapolis through

high interest rates and increased farm foreclosures. Under the charismatic

leadership of Arthur C. Townley and his Socialist veterans corps of organi-

zers using modern sales techniques, Ford automobiles, and members' dues

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Book Reviews                                                  167

 

payment by postdated checks, farmers employed the direct primary to win

control of the Republican Party in hopes of bringing about "the New Day in

North Dakota." Following the capture of the governorship and both houses

of the state legislature in the 1918 elections, the NPL enacted the New Day in

the 1919 legislative session. The NPL created state-sponsored and state-

financed agencies such as the Industrial Commission, the Bank of North Da-

kota, the Mill and Elevator Association, and the Home Building Association.

Morlan's account delivers massive narrative detail of these developments al-

most to the point of inundation. He leaves summary, analysis, and discussion

of the NPL's legacy to the last in claiming that the NPL was "the last of the

great farmers' crusades" which "laid much of the foundation of modern

midwestern liberalism," so that the "radicalism of 1916 is in large measure

the accepted practice of today" (pp. 359-361).

Over the last thirty years a younger generation of revisionist scholars inter-

ested in the social history of farm protest has challenged parts of Morlan's

narrative. Did the NPL emerge spontaneously in reaction to economic condi-

tions or more from the conscious organizing work of socialists and farm

cooperative members? Why did Scandinavian-Americans, especially

Norwegian-American farmers, play key roles in the NPL leadership? What

role did farm women play in the daily lives of NPL rank and file members?

What were the social origins and financial connections of NPL opponents?

Was Townley the only significant NPL leader? How strong were NPL chap-

ters in states other than North Dakota and Minnesota? What was the larger

political legacy of the NPL for national politics? Fortunately, Larry Remele,

author of articles on the NPL and historical editor at the State Historical So-

ciety of North Dakota, provides the readers of this reprint edition of

Morlan's work with a new introduction which addresses these questions and

suggests new avenues for research. Although his own research revises as-

pects of Morlan's account, Remele fairly and accurately notes that "Until a

historian accepts the challenge of building a new synthesis, Political Prairie

Fire will stand unequaled as the best single source of information about the

League" (p. xxii). Sections of Morlan's history indicate that future reseachers

might profitably examine the NPL as the social, religious and organizational

base for what Lawrence Goodwyn has termed for an earlier period of farm

protest the "movement culture" to preserve and extend the democratic

promise of America. A reliance on "democratic centralization" by NPL

leaders deserves careful examination in its relation to rank and file member-

ship activities - this is one key issue Morlan slights in ways that more mod-

ern scholars might find troubling.

The Coleman and Lamb bibliography provides 1010 entries that comple-

ment Morlan's now dated list of sources and "will help researchers to dis-

cover the answers" (p. ix) to new questions. Coleman and Lamb arrange

entries in convenient research categories, while including photographs and

anti-NPL cartoons from the period. Their most helpful work comes in point-

ing to individual and organizational papers discovered since Morlan's pio-

neering research in the 1940s. Materials housed at the Minnesota Historical

Society, the State Historical Society of North Dakota, the North Dakota In-

stitute for Regional Studies at North Dakota State University, and the Uni-

versity of North Dakota Special Collections will be particularly useful to fu-

ture researchers.

Morlan's Political Prairie Fire serves as the NPL analogue history to John

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168                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

D. Hick's classic The Populist Revolt (1931) - both works are the place to

start. For previously unavailable primary sources and innovative studies and

interpretations by younger historians of the NPL, the Coleman and Lamb

bibliography deserves not only praise but the best compliment of heavy use

by reseachers. The Minnesota Historical Society should be congratulated

and thanked for riding the latest crest of scholarly interest in midwestern

farm protest in such well-wrought style through publication of these two fine

works. Now that we have a more sophisticated understanding of nineteenth

century farm protest, perhaps we can look forward to more scholarly atten-

tion to such twentieth century post-Populist protest movements as the Non-

partisan League and its sometime competitor, the Farmers' Union.

Tennessee Technological University                Patrick D. Reagan

 

 

Daniel Drake, M.D.: Frontiersman of the Mind. Edited by Charles D. Aring,

Albert Barnes Voorheis, and Cory Oysler. (Cincinnati: Crossroads Books,

1985. xxviii + 60 p.; illustrations, biographical sketch. $9.50.)

 

An excellent biographical sketch of Daniel Drake (1785-1852) that intro-

duces this slim volume makes it clear that Drake was among the most tireless

professors and physicians of his day, or anyone's day for that matter.

As a founder or co-founder, Drake has among his accomplishments the

University of Cincinnati, the Medical College of Ohio, two schools for the

blind, three medical journals, a teaching hospital, a circulating library, and a

medical society or two. And, in fact, he even gets credit for suggesting the

buckeye as the state emblem for Ohio. As an author, Drake's busy pen

turned out at least 692 manuscripts and publications according to a bibliogra-

phy published by H. D. Shapiro and Z. L. Miller, Physician to the West

(1970), with the most important being his classic Systematic Treatise: On the

Principal Disease of the Interior Valley of North America, as They Appear in

the Caucasian, African, Indian (2 vols. 1850, 1854). As a professor and physi-

cian, Drake received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (where

Benjamin Rush was one of his professors), began practice in Cincinnati, and

then embarked on a teaching career that found him alternately at The

Cincinnati College, the Medical College of Ohio, Transylvania University in

Lexington, and The Louisville Medical Institute, and then took him back to

the East for one year at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

This volume, however, provides still another side to Drake, that of orator,

for which he was also renown. It consists of three convocation or valedictory

addresses delivered in 1827 at the Medical Department of Transylvania

(where Drake was one of the original five members of the first faculty of med-

icine West of the Allegheny Mountains); in 1835 at the Department of the

Cincinnati College (founded by Drake, who was also its first President); and

in 1840 at the Louisville Medical Institute (where Drake held the Chair for

Clinical Medicine and Pathological Anatomy). In all of these addresses

Drake powerfully, eloquently and often humorously exhorts young medical

graduates to respect their profession and carry on its best traditions, not the

least of which in Drake's firm opinion was to constantly keep an open mind,

and always be prepared to grow as both scientist and humanist.

• 10
 

Book Reviews                                                    169

 

This work was born of a search conducted by the Committee for the Bi-

centennial of Daniel Drake for unpublished materials by or about Drake to

mark the occasion. Those now-published materials were discovered in the

History of the Health Sciences Library and Museum of the University of

Cincinnati and printed on fine quality paper with very few of the production

errors that too frequently characterize an effort of this sort. In my opinion its

only flaw lies in the absence of a few pages discussing Drake's most important

written work. His thoughts on the course of Asiatic Cholera in Cincinnati at

the beginning of the decade of the 1830s are certainly worth a few words,

while his acute observations on the geography and ethnicity of disease that

established him as an authority who was frequently cited in contemporary

medical journals are worth a great deal more than a few words. This aside,

the volume represents a fine tribute to a great man.

Bowling Green State University                      Kenneth F. Kiple

 

 

The Hoosier Politician: Officeholding and Political Culture in Indiana,

1896-1920. By Philip R. VanderMeer. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,

1985. xii + 256p: illustrations, tables, appendix, bibliography, index.

$19.95.)

 

Regardless of new approaches to the study of history - and in spite of pe-

riodic detractors - the study of American political history remains a major

area of scholarship. Over the years, however, trends have shifted. Examina-

tion of important or significant political leaders gave way to research on party

structuring, or on voter analysis, or on the impact of local issues in

determining election results or party strength. All have added to an under-

standing of American political life. And in their vein, Philip R. VanderMeer

has put together a thorough and informative assessment of members of the

Indiana General Assembly from 1897-1919. What he has constructed is pri-

marily a collective biography of 1,127 legislators. Thus, while many studies

over the last several years have focused on voter behavior, VanderMeer's

work looks at this large, but selective, group of elected state officials. Fur-

thermore, using the methods and ideas of the "new political history"

school, he strives to define the "political culture" of Indiana.

The conclusions that VanderMeer drew from his research are interesting.

For example, he found that most lawmakers during these years, regardless of

party, could be considered amateur politicians. They were not active in

seeking offices prior to their election to the General Assembly, and most did

not serve many terms or attempt to gain other office. At the same time,

though, most had been active in party work, if not as candidates for offices.

Indeed, VanderMeer ascertained that the party system was strong in Indiana

- both during the Gilded Age and in the Progressive Era covered by his

study. Individual charisma and personal ambitions were not factors

propelling most legislators into political contests. Then too, VanderMeer de-

veloped a generalized image of a typical member of the General Assembly: a

man of "middling" origins, generally well rooted in his residence, middle

class in social standing, better than average education for the times, and a

member of voluntary community associations. These observations, and oth-

• 11
 

170                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

ers, provide insights into the political culture of Indiana for the twenty-some

years covered by VanderMeer. Yet, by 1919 it became clear that the set of

values and attitudes by which Hoosier voters and politicians had operated

for so many years was changing. In particular, the professionalization of politi-

cal careers and the national emphasis of political campaigns had effect in

Indiana as they did in other states.

In all, Philip R. VanderMeer has produced an almost exhaustive, system-

atic examination of members of the Indiana General Assembly during a peri-

od of American history when political activism and reform efforts flourished.

However, the purpose of his investigation was not to analyze the successes,

failures, or effectiveness of the Indiana General Assembly: its objective was

to delineate the characteristics of these lawmakers in order to draw some

conclusions about the political culture of the times. He clearly succeeded. Of

course, the validity of his work is circumscribed by its scope - members of

the General Assembly. Large generalizations about Indiana or Midwestern

politics and political ways cannot be drawn from this study, only extrapo-

lated for supposition. What is now needed is for other enterprising historians

to complete similar studies on political life and politicians in other states for

the same period. Then, perhaps, an encompassing interpretation of political

culture(s) for the Progressive Era may be developed.

Marshalltown Community College                Thomas Burnell Colbert

 

 

The Fortress in the Age of Vauban and Frederick the Great 1660-1789. Seige

Warfare Series, Volume II. By Christopher Duffy. (London: Routledge &

Kegan Paul, 1985. xv + 318p.; maps, illustrations, glossary, bibliography,

indices. $50.00.)

 

The idea that the vast American forests and frontier molded and shaped

the national character was itself historic when Frederick Jackson Turner ar-

ticulated his frontier thesis before the annual meeting of the American His-

torical Association in 1893. Turner was the first prominent professional histo-

rian to put the concept into words and is thus given credit for it; but since

then many American historians and the lay public have embraced the idea

that European institutions were automatically transmogrified in the American

frontier shortly after they hit the eastern shore. Nowhere was this more true,

according to this line of thought, than with military tactics. The assertion

that the European regular army was "lost" in the North American woods

has in time obtained the status of holy writ in American historiography.

As an English scholar, Christopher Duffy has a different, and I think more

factual, point of view. Duffy views military affairs in 18th century North

America in its proper context, as an extension of European struggles for land

and thrones. Specifically he focuses on the European world of fortress de-

sign and seige warfare from the age of Louis XIV in the late 17th century to

the eve of the French Revolution. His final chapter summarizes the history of

seiges in the European colonial empires in India, the West Indies and North

America.

This is Duffy's third major excursion into the history of fortress warfare. A

senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies of the Royal Military Acade-

• 12
 

Book Reviews                                                    171

 

my at Sandhurst, his first volume on the topic was published in 1975 under

the title Fire and Stone. It dealt with the technical aspects of positioning, de-

signing, erecting, defending and attacking "artillery fortifications." His sec-

ond volume was produced in 1979 and is actually the companion to the pres-

ent work. Seige Warfare: The Fortress in the Modern World 1494-1660

addressed the earlier chronology and included sections on little appreciated

topics such as oriental military engineering.

In his latest history Duffy strives to integrate the history of fortress warfare

into the military and political history of the period, an age of almost relentless

conflict. The role of fortresses and seiges in the struggles between the Bour-

bon, Hapsburg and Hohenzollern families for control of various national

thrones is examined. Duffy's intent is not to provide the definitive descrip-

tion of any of these seiges or fortresses, but to pull together information and

make observations on fortress warfare as practiced by late-17th and 18th

century Europeans. The "standard" for this era was established by

Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban of Louis XIV's court. But Duffy does not

limit his discussion to the great French school of engineering, as he also

treats less well-remembered practitioners of the military arts such as the

Dutchman Menno van Coehoorn, Sweden's Erik Dahlberg and Augustin

Ehrensvard and Spain's Jorge Prospero Verboom. In so doing he demon-

strates that an important factor in Vauban's successes and fame was his

seemingly unlimited support from his government, something that few other

engineers enjoyed.

Duffy is clearly a Francophile, so that his comments on the work of other

nations often sound a trifle pejorative. And yet among the most intriguing as-

pects of the volume are the descriptions of the development of specific for-

tress and seige characteristics by each nation or military leader. The Ger-

mans and Russians receive the most disparagement. The former are noted for

their "general backwardness in fortress warfare" (p.22), and the "Musco-

vite" seiges are described as so typically "muddled" (p.245) that they were

often forced into bloody frontal assaults. Even an absolute monarch like

Frederick the Great was less successful than one might expect. While he was

himself "enlightened" in engineering matters and developed his own style of

fortification (p. 138), Frederick's lackluster seiges reflected an ineptitude in

personally dealing with his own engineer corps. Americans in the Revolution

are characterized as "enthusiastic diggers" (p.280), reflecting their whole-

hearted adoption of European fortress warfare techniques, although Duffy

indicates that there is contradictory evidence on the genuine opinion French

officers held on the execution of the seige at Yorktown in 1781.

This brings me back to my original point of departure. The British and

French fortifications and seiges in North America were not, in Duffy's opin-

ion, a consequence of any innovations in fortress warfare, but simply another

application of methods and techniques learned in Europe. No evidence ex-

ists, for example, to suggest that the construction of Fort Dusquesne at

Pittsburgh under the direction of the French Francois Le Mercier or the

British efforts by General John Forbes to capture it incorporated any princi-

ples except those familiar and acceptable to old European masters like

Vauban. In fact, Duffy's study suggests that, the legendary nature of the

American forests and terrain notwithstanding, the officers who went to spe-

cial lengths to transport their European artillery and followed European tac-

tics in North America were indeed the most successful in seige warfare dur-

• 13
 

172                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

ing the colonial period. The Fortress in the Age of Vauban is therefore of

enormous value to the student of American military history. Duffy has laid

the groundwork for a comprehensive survey to determine if the national

characteristics he has identified can be seen throughout the fortifications

built by the various nations in North America. The handsome production,

which includes sharp photos and excellent line drawings, makes it a

worthwhile investment, although its price may make it inaccessible to all but

the most serious student.

Ohio Historical Society                          David A. Simmons

 

 

Slavery and Rice Culture in Low Country Georgia, 1750-1860. By Julia Floyd

Smith. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985. xiv + 266p.; notes,

illustrations, appendices, bibliography, index. $19.95.)

 

Agriculture and slavery on the tidewater plantations of Georgia was differ-

ent from that found in the cotton lands of the upland South. Along coastal

Georgia the planters emphasized rice production and used slaves who were

knowledgeable about that farming practice. Rice cultivation not only re-

quired large landholdings, which Crown policy supported with unlimited

grants to planters and the headright system, but it also necessitated an abun-

dant and skilled labor supply. In the absence of sufficient free, white labor,

the planters generally held more than 100 bondsmen for their work force.

These slaves usually received better care than did the bondsmen on the cot-

ton plantations. Environmental and technological limitations, however, pre-

vented rice farming from becoming more than a specialty crop in the

antebellum South. By 1860, only 30,000 acres of rice were under cultivation.

Still, rice plantations were large, averaging more than 400 acres; they also

were extensively capitalized at between $50,000 and $100,000 each. Overall,

rice cultivation not only was a profitable farming venture, but it also shaped

the cultural development of coastal Georgia in a fashion that was distinct

from other portions of the South.

Julia Floyd Smith, professor emerita of history at Georgia Southern

College, has written an excellent survey of the growth and development of

the slave culture in coastal Georgia from the introduction of tidal flow rice

cultivation and slavery in 1750 to the eve of the Civil War. She finds that rice

plantations were isolated, specialized and efficiently managed farming enter-

prises. Rice plantations provided adequate profits and high status for the lo-

cal, absentee owners. The isolation of the tidewater plantations, however,

prevented the acculturation of the coastal slave population with bondsmen in

the interior. As a result, blacks in lowland Georgia became culturally distinc-

tive. They retained their African cultural identity to a far greater extent than

slaves did elsewhere in Georgia or the South. The retention of their own lan-

guage, which they creolized with English to produce the still extant Gullah

dialect, is a major example of their cultural uniqueness.

Smith ranges widely over the culture of tidewater Georgia. She clearly ex-

plains the complicated and demanding process of rice cultivation, based on

the task system, from planting to marketing. Rice production, however, is not

her only concern. She also provides a good introduction to the organization

• 14
 

Book Reviews                                                  173

 

of the rice plantations by discussing the slave trade, daily maintenance and

health care, Christian religious development and the use of overseers and

drivers. Smith also analyzes slave resistance and the position of free blacks in

Georgia society. The end product is a fine study of black and white culture

on the rice plantations of lowland Georgia.

Overall, Smith has written a smooth narrative about slavery in the rice

producing area of Georgia. Most of her account, however, is not new. Few ag-

ricultural or southern historians will find fresh insights about rice cultivation

or slavery. Rather, Smith's primary contribution to scholarship is to provide

an excellent synthesis of both subjects. Historians will need to add this

study to their library collections for general reference purposes. Although

the book suffers from some problems of repetition and organization, and

while the term "Negro" is rather dated, Smith has made a worthy addition

to the history of American agriculture, slavery and the South. Moreover, this

is an excellently produced book, and the notes are at the bottom of the page

where they should be.

The State Historical Society of Missouri           R. Douglas Hurt

 

 

Pedagogue for God's Kingdom: Lyman Beecher and The Second Great Awak-

ening. By James W. Fraser. (Lanham, Maryland: The University Press of

America, 1985. 237p.; notes, bibliography, $12.75 paper; $26.00 cloth.)

 

The purpose of this study is to examine Lyman Beecher as a leader of a

generation of American churchmen and educators who were leaders of the

second great awakening. They undertook to use the movement to mold the

entire institutional life to bring about the millennium - the Kingdom of God

in America. Fraser's book is not a biography of Beecher, but he uses the life

of Beecher as a vehicle and a focal point to examine the cluster of related ed-

ucational institutions which emerged in the first half of the nineteenth centu-

ry as instruments to promote the Protestant concept of a millennial society.

Fraser's study is based on the assumption that significant insights into the

history of education can be gained by studying the configurations of the

overlapping educational institutions which collectively made up the educa-

tional milieu of the era.

Fraser's configuration includes seven educational agencies that Beecher

was involved with and served as the spokesman for their aspirations through

his writings and preaching. These institutions were the church, college, the-

ological seminary, Sunday school, public school, journal and home mission.

These institutions functioned together through the operation of voluntary as-

sociations of which Beecher was one of the central figures and organizers.

One of Beecher's most important accomplishments was contributions to

the understanding of the significance of the west in the theory of the

millennism by his A Plea for the West in which he explained the central role

the west would play in the concept of the coming of the millennium. It was in

his Plea for the West that he developed his most militant anti-Catholicism.

He saw Catholicism as the enemy in the west just as he had earlier seen Epis-

copalians and Unitarians as the enemies in the east.

Beecher was instrumental in the formation of the American Education So-

• 15
 

174                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

ciety whch subsidized needy theological students. He conceived of the the-

ological seminary as an institution to train a new generation of revival clergy

who would continue the work of building the millennium. Colleges should

be designed to train leaders for the academies, Sunday schools and public

schools.

The public schools were important in the evangelical plan because the

church alone was not considered sufficient. Beecher idealized the Puritan

educational system of New England. Fraser calls attention to the fact that

there were many nonevangelical and non-New Englanders among whom the

evangelists worked in creating a western school system. He points out that

Edward Miller overstated the New England educational influence in Ohio.

(OAHSP, 1918), but also says that William McAlpine was guilty of an over-

correction in favor of non-New England influence. (OAHSQ, 1929.)

The author concludes that Beecher did not succeed in harmonizing the

educational institutions though they often cooperated closely. "While

'Protestantizing' the culture," Frazer contends, "the evangelicals were

secularizing their millenium" (p.203). Although John Dewey differed in

many respects from Beecher, he was in accord with Beecher that schools

should serve to transform society.

Frazer's book is of particular interest to the student of the history of Amer-

ican education.

Morehead State University                         Victor B. Howard

 

 

The Salvation Army Farm Colonies. By Clark C. Spence. (Tucson: The Uni-

versity of Arizona Press, 1985. vii + 151p.; notes, bibliographical essay, in-

dex. $19.95.)

 

The Salvation Army planted three farm colonies in the United States in

1898: Fort Romie, California; Fort Amity, Colorado; and Fort Herrick, Ohio.

Although the Army relied on the example of hundreds of earlier European

and American farm colonies, Clark Spence argues that these colonies were

unique in their ambition to move millions of urban unemployed to the land.

They would "aid the needy, improve living conditions, reform criminals, ....

[and] diminish the breakup of families."

This is the first major study of the colonies, which William Booth pro-

posed in his Darkest England Scheme of 1890. The Army's founder com-

posed In Darkest England and the Way Out as a program to move the "sub-

merged tenth" back to the land in three steps: from city workshops which

salvaged urban waste, to English farm colonies for training in agricultural

skills, to overseas colonies where they would farm small plots under the

Army's tutelage as they gradually purchased the farm themselves. The

plan's genius was in its immense scale, proposing to move millions back to the

land, and in Booth's ability to lure the support of progressive reformers who,

in the 1880s to 1920s, embraced back-to-the-land ideas, scientific social and

agricultural reforms, efficient business methods, and imperial-colonial no-

tions.

Spence's careful study describes the Army's management, finances,

choice of colonists, and the colonists' work, income, and social relations.

• 16
 

Book Reviews                                                  175

 

The colonies' main problem was capitalization. Spence agrees with the con-

clusion of Commander Frederick Booth-Tucker, General Booth's son-in-law

and sponsor of the American colonies, and of H. Rider Haggard, an investi-

gator commissioned by the British government, that only governments had

resources to support a plan of the proportion Booth had envisioned. Senator

Mark Hanna of Ohio, a prime supporter of the Army's efforts, died before

Congress considered his "Booth-Tucker Bill" in 1904, and Haggard was

unable to convince a shaky Tory government and rival social agencies to sup-

port his plan in 1905. These failures brought down the curtain on the scheme

by 1906. Lack of capital made improvement of the land difficult, and irriga-

tion and drainage problems drove all but a few of the Army's colonists off

the land. After 1906 the Army was more successful in emigration schemes,

particularly in moving emigrants from England to Canada, and in "city

agencies to uplift the poor."

The Army acquired its Ohio colony of 288 acres, near Mentor, the early

home town of James A. Garfield, and named it for Myron T. Herrick, a promi-

nent banker, later ambassador to France and Ohio Governor. Herrick and

his brother-in-law, James Parmalee, sold the land and lent the Army $5,000.

Herrick had an interest in agricultural schemes and had introduced Booth-

Tucker to Mark Hanna. Although Fort Herrick deviated from the farm colony

scheme due to insufficient acreage, Booth-Tucker saw it as a training farm for

colonies in the West. Only ten families became colonists in 1898, and only two

remained by 1900 due to drainage and other problems. In 1903 the Army re-

organized Fort Herrick as an "Industrial Colony" to dry-out inebriates nine

miles from the nearest saloon. But within a few years it became a "Fresh Air

Camp for the Children of Cleveland," just twenty-miles away, until the Army

sold it in 1974.

The back-to-the-land mentality enticed men like Herrick and Hanna to

support the Army's colonies in 1898. But, as Spence points out, their support

was insufficient or too late to save the Army's scheme. This book ends with a

summary of vestiges of the colonization idea in the 1920s.

Spence fails to distinguish pre-Civil War utopian schemes from the inten-

tional communities established by social-religious-governmental organiza-

tions at the end of the century, nor does he tell us how William Booth, an

English revivalist preacher with little love for social remedies apart from indi-

vidual soul salvation, became a social reformer in the 1880s. Even though the

colonies had no alcohol or dance halls, the Army's spiritual side resented

the organization's scarce resources for evangelization being spent on essen-

tially social reform programs. Spence's work is well organized, but a bibliog-

raphy would have been helpful, and the title should reflect that Spence's fo-

cus is only on the Army's American colonies. The Army also had colonies in

England, Canada, Australasia, southern Africa, and India, as Spence notes.

Otherwise, Spence provides an important contribution to students of the

back-to-the-land and colonization movements.

University of Cincinnati                       Norman H. Murdoch

 

 

"Let the Eagle Soar!" The Foreign Policy of Andrew Jackson. By John M.

Belohlavek. (Lincoln: The University of Nebraska Press, 1985. ³²⁸p.;

maps, appendixes, notes, bibliography, index. $28.95.)

• 17
 

176                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

John M. Belohlavek's goal is to create a positive portrait of American for-

eign policy in the Age of Jackson. His "Let the Eagle Soar!" offers a compre-

hensive, detailed analysis of United States diplomacy during the Jackson

administration. Old Hickory, Belohlavek argues, directed an "aggressive,

bold, and imaginative" (p.2) approach to foreign affairs that proved largely

successful in furthering America's commercial growth and in protecting the

nation's honor.

Historians of the Jacksonian period have often ignored foreign policy or as-

sumed that because Jackson opposed political involvement overseas, he

must not have been concerned with other aspects of foreign relations.

Belohlavek insist that while Jackson did oppose American participation in

foreign alliances, he was committed to the expansion of American economic

interests and the enhancement of America's international prestige. This poli-

cy may not have been new, Belohlavek admits, but Jackson's execution dem-

onstrated a "sharper, harder-hitting edge" and so "produced greater re-

sults" than previous administrations (p. 23).

It is this Jackson style of diplomacy that attracts Belohlavek's greatest in-

terest. His Jackson is not so much a quick-tempered frontiersman as a "calm

and dispassionate" (p.55), carefully calculating statesman, capable of consid-

erable "tact, patience, and finesse" (p. 252). Motivated by a blend of "ego

and patriotism" (p. 9), Jackson, Belohlavek tells us, took personal charge of

the country's diplomacy and succeeded in achieving "more often than not

. . .increased profits for American businessmen and a new-found respect for

the United States" (p. 53).

Among the many foreign policy accomplishments that Belohlavek associ-

ates with the Jackson administration, he places special emphasis on the 75

percent growth in exports and the 250 percent increase in imports during the

Jackson years; the reorganization of the consular service; the strengthening

of United States naval forces; the pursuit of positive relations with Europe;

and the settlement of oustanding claims against European powers, including

the difficult and protracted dispute with France. Belohlavek reserves his

highest praise for Jackson's handling of American ties with Great Britain.

Setting aside past animosities, Jackson successfully concluded agreements

with America's former enemy over such issues as trade in the West Indies

and the Maine boundary - though the latter agreement was never ratified.

By striving to establish a relationship of mutual respect, he "ushered in a

new era of Anglo-American understanding" (p. 73).

Belohlavek's treatment of Jackson's foreign policy record is by no means

limited to an analysis of European relations. He presents a lengthy, thorough

examination of all American efforts at trade expansion in every part of the

world. At times his account is maddeningly detailed, but always the story is

fascinating and the theme of international commitment well documented.

Ever determined to defend Jackson the diplomat, Belohlavek even insists

that the most celebrated of these American forays into the far reaches of the

globe, the incident at Quallah Battoo, was yet another example of Andrew

Jackson's "deliberate and thoughtful" (p. 162) approach to foreign affairs.

Belohlavek concedes that not all of Jackson's diplomatic efforts were suc-

cessful. He admits, for example, that Jackson's attempt to purchase Texas

from Mexico failed, but argues that no Mexican government could have

agreed to a sale and survived the domestic outcry. Belohlavek has less pa-

tience with Jackson's Latin American policy. Here he sees Jackson's reluc-

• 18
 

Book Reviews                                                  177

 

tance to engage in political intervention as having a crippling impact on

America's status in the region. A limited interpretation of the Monroe Doc-

trine, argues Belohlavek, led Jackson to respond timidly to crises in such

places as Argentina and Columbia. This timidity, coupled with a number of

poor Latin American appointments, allowed Great Britain to gain ascendancy

in an area of the world the United States could have more successfully influ-

enced.

This criticism does not mar Belohlavek's overall assessment of Jacksonian

foreign policy. The image of Andrew Jackson-Diplomatist continues to soar

alongside the American eagle in his account. This treatment of Jackson may

be questioned at points; Old Hickory's failures in Latin America, for one

thing, may be of greater significance than Belohlavek would care to admit.

Nevertheless, Belohlavek has made an important contribution to our appreci-

ation of America's nineteenth-century commitment to an active involvement in

world affairs.

The University of Texas at Arlington            Stephen E. Maizlish

 

 

George Washington Williams: A Biography. By John Hope Franklin.

(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985. xxiv + 348p.; illustra-

tions, notes, note on sources, appendixes, index. $24.95.)

 

In 1945, while preparing to write From Slavery to Freedom: A History of

Negro Americans, John Hope Franklin found A History of the Negro Race in

America from 1619 to 1880, written by George Washington Williams and pub-

lished in 1882. Thus began a forty-year undertaking in which Franklin, him-

self a pioneer among mid-twentieth century American historians,

rediscovered the remarkable story of the first historian of American blacks.

The resulting biography is compelling on three levels. Readers will not only

be captivated by Williams's unusual life, but they will also relish Franklin's

brief account of "stalking George Washington Williams" from scattered evi-

dence on three continents. Finally, they may find themselves pondering

both the similarities and the contrasts between the biographer and his sub-

ject.

Like Franklin, Williams was a man of ability who was deeply committed to

black Americans. Both overcame barriers of racism with significant achieve-

ments. Born into a poor free black family in Pennsylvania in 1849, Williams as

a teenager fought in the U.S. Civil War and in Mexico against Maximilian.

After theological training, Williams became the minister of Boston's Twelfth

Baptist Church in 1873. After less than two years, he resigned to launch a na-

tional black newspaper, The Commoner. When the paper failed after only two

months, Williams moved to Ohio. Between 1876-1883, he had a varied ca-

reer as minister of Cincinnati's Union Baptist Church (1876-77), columnist for

the Cincinnati Commercial, law student, Republican politican, first black

member of the Ohio legislature (1880-81), and pathbreaking historian of his

race. After unsuccessful attempts to become U.S. minister to Haiti, Williams

directed his energies eastward across the Atlantic. He was in Europe in

1888-89 and toured Africa in 1890-91 as an agent for railroad chief Collis

Huntington. In the Congo Free State, however, he not only advised against

• 19
 

178                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

future railroad construction and other economic projects but was also re-

volted by the brutality, exploitation, and mismanagement under the Belgian

monarch's rule. His Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold I1 (1890), the

first expose of conditions in the Congo, created hostility toward Williams and

cost him Huntington's financial support. His already frail health further

weakened by his African travels, Williams died in England in August, 1891,

at age 41.

As clergyman, journalist, legislator, advocate, and historian, Williams ac-

complished much in his brief life. Not only was he frequently a black

"first," but most of what Williams did, he did well. For example, Franklin

rates A History of the Negro Race and a second book, History of the Negro

Troops in the War of the Rebellion (1887), as substantial works. Williams did

exhaustive research, rendered independent judgments, and broke new

ground in the use of interviews and newspapers as historical sources. But for

all his abilities, Williams, unlike his biographer, was a tragic figure. Restless

and unfulfilled, he moved quickly from one endeavor to another. Gifted, he

was also egotistical and apt to debate or correct others; these qualities did

not endear him to his peers. Sadly, Williams neglected his wife and son, left

some debts unpaid, and falsified his achievements on occasion. Franklin has

given us a biography which is traditionally conceived, gracefully written,

and impressively researched. It is futher enriched by the author's command

of the times in which Williams lived. Franklin follows Williams's life in great

detail and reveals his subject's achievements and his shortcomings. As the

author concludes, "It is well that one should not try to make more of him

than what he was - a flawed but brilliant human being."

Eastern Michigan University                       Michael W. Homel

 

 

Truman: The Rise to Power. By Richard Lawrence Miller. (New York:

McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986. xvi + 536p.; illustrations, notes, bibli-

ographic note, index. $19.95.)

 

The scholarly literature concerning Harry S. Truman quite naturally has fo-

cused on his presidency. His pre-presidential years, most especially those

covering his involvement in the government of Jackson County, Missouri,

have been covered rather cursorily in most biographies. In contrast,

Richard Lawrence Miller's study is devoted solely to examining Truman's ca-

reer prior to his accession to the presidency in April 1945. It is heavily docu-

mented and rests upon detailed manuscript research especially among papers

housed in the Truman Library. Miller has mined the Truman "Family, Busi-

ness and Personal" papers thoroughly and gleaned much of value from

Truman's Senate papers.

Truman: The Rise to Power challenges the conventional view of Truman's re-

lationship with the monumentally corrupt Kansas City political machine led

by Boss Tom Pendergast. Miller assaults forcefully the view, presented

among others by Lyle W. Dorsett in The Pendergast Machine, that Truman

was untouched by the machine's corrupt practices yet a beneficiary of its po-

litical power. He argues that "Truman played a key role in maintaining the

Pendergast control of life in Jackson County after 1926," and that "he not

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Book Reviews                                                  179

 

only knew of the machine's illegalities but participated in some of them" (p.

167). He presents Truman, the presiding judge of Jackson County, Henry

McElroy, the Kansas City manager and Johnny Lazia, the machine's enfor-

cer, as comprising "the triumvirate directly below Boss Tom" (p. 247). While

Miller's analysis is rather strained at times, as for example in his linking

Truman and Lazia, it is ultimately convincing in revealing Truman's deep in-

volvement with the Pendergast machine.

What strengthens the book is that Miller has not attempted to write an ex-

pose simply to illuminate the "dark side" of Harry Truman. He willingly ad-

mits that Truman differed from many of his associates in the Pendergast or-

ganization. The future president had a positive vision for the future,

genuinely sought to use government to improve the lives of citizens, occasion-

ally tried to limit the corruption involved in the letting of contracts and, most

notably, never profited personally from the illegal activities of the machine.

And Truman had a conscience that forced him constantly to wrestle with the

question of whether the ends he sought justified the means he used.

Miller's work also contains material of interest concerning Truman's person-

ality and basic beliefs. Miller attempts to portray Truman as carefully follow-

ing a "plan for his life" (p.24) which involved his gaining experience in fi-

nance, the military and farming. This attempt is somewhat artificial and

forced and ignores the role in Truman's life of factors over which he had lit-

tle control. On more particular matters, however, such as the importance of

freemasonry for Truman (p.⁷²), his religious outlook (p. 75), his approach to

politics (p.314), and his racist attitudes (pp. 84 and 325-27) Miller is perceptive

and persuasive. Miller does not add significantly to our understanding of ei-

ther Truman's senatorial career or his election and brief service as vice-

president, although he includes an interesting account of Truman's little-

known and extremely naive involvement with the Moral Rearmament

movement in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Richard Miller claims that in researching this book he discovered a

"Truman Establishment" (which he never describes) that is "very uneasy

about investigations into his (Truman's) role with the Pendergast machine"

(p. ix). Clearly an investigation such as Miller's upsets the rather stock image

of Truman as simply the unsullied public servant unswervingly devoted to

the common good. But it provides a more human and accurate portrait of

Truman and, as such, a better basis for understanding his actions as presi-

dent.

University of Notre Dame                Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C.,

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