Book Notes
The Civil War Letters of an Ohio
Soldier: S.O. Chamberlain and the 49th Ohio
Volunteer Infantry. By Dick and Judy Chamberlain. (Flournoy, California:
Dick
Chamberlain, 1990. ix + 67p.;
illustrations.) Letters written by a Seneca Coun-
ty soldier during the years 1861 -65 are
interspersed with the authors' explication
of their contents. A candid portrayal of
campaigning with the Army of the Cum-
berland, the letters speak with a
certain rude eloquence of the tedium and hard-
ship of the tented field, yet are rarely
gloomy. A letter of November 2, 1864, pro-
vides the only affirmation the reviewer
is aware of that soldiers legally too young
to vote participated in the crucial
elections of that year.
Ohio Historical Society James K. Richards
Antioch-The Dixon Era., 1959-1975. Compiled and edited by Edla M. Dixon.
(Saco, Maine: Bastille Books, 1991. xii
+ 232p.; illustrations, appendices, index.)
These are the reflections of James P.
Dixon on his activities and experiences as
the fifteenth president of Antioch
College at a time of extensive academic pro-
gram expansion. A discussion of the
college's pre-Dixon history, with special em-
phasis on Arthur Morgan and his
contemporaries, provides a good context for the
former president's recollections.
Dixon's work as an administrator, fund raiser,
and program developer that culminated in
the student strike of 1973 and precip-
itated his leaving the college, are
treated in a straightforward narrative. The read-
er not intimately familiar with many of
the remarkable academic innovations in-
stituted at Antioch during Dixon's
tenure will, at times, desire a more complete
explanation of the various programs. Nonetheless,
it stands as an important and
interesting recounting from a college
administrator's perspective of one of the
more tumultuous periods in the history
of higher education in Ohio.
Ohio Historical Society David A. Simmons
Brownie the Boomer: The Life of
Charles P. Brown, an American Railroader.
Edited by H. Roger Grant. (DeKalb:
Northern Illinois Press, 1991. xx + 259p.;
illustrations, notes, appendix, index.)
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, itinerant railroad
workers-boomers-went from job to job and road
to road, moving on when the company
canned them or when the mood hit them.
While they played a vital role in the
building and operation of the nation's grow-
ing rail network, few left written
accounts of their times. Charles Brown (1879-
before 1957) was an exception. In 1929
and 1930 Brown privately published two
versions of his autobiography, providing
an intimate and wholly readable account
of a boomer's life. Eminent railroad historian
Roger Grant of the University of
Akron has taken parts of each version,
edited the result, and added a very help-
ful introduction and much-needed notes
to produce a volume that is as readable
as it is valuable.
Ohio Historial Society Christopher S.
Duckworth