Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

 

 

Educating for Democracy. A Symposium. (Yellow Springs, The

Antioch Press, 1937. ¹⁴⁸p.)

Antioch College is responsible for the publication of this in-

teresting symposium on one of the most pertinent and many

faceted problems facing educational leaders of today: what is

the function of education in a democratic state? Believing that

a discussion of some of the issues involved in such a question

would be of value, and wishing to honor its first president, Horace

Mann, Antioch College made the necessary arrangements for such

a symposium, the immediate occasion for the event being the

formal opening of the nation-wide Horace Mann Centennial Cele-

bration, with the dedication on October 16 and 17, 1936, of the

bronze statue of Mann presented to the college by Hugh Taylor

Birch.  The papers herein contained were prepared for the

symposium, for the dedication ceremonies, and for publication in

this volume.

The book opens with a concise biographical sketch of Horace

Mann, "champion of democracy," written by R. L. Straker. Then

follows a tripartite discussion: the educational program; educa-

tion and social organization; and education and progress.

A survey of the contributors shows that the book is by no

means a schoolmen's volume. Two lawyers, one physicist, one

engineer, two manufacturers, and one editor have been given an

opportunity to express their opinions on present-day education,

and the assemblage of their views, together with those of seven

well-known educators, have resulted in a book which is both

significant and stimulating in its varied expressions.

In general the contributors have agreed upon three things:

that education today faces a much larger task than it did during

the life-time of Horace Mann; that democracy is the best type of

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BOOK REVIEWS                        373

 

social organization for this country and that "public education

has a positive responsibility to shape those habits of thought and

action which in turn shape organized conditions of social action;"

and that American education has had a great past and will have an

even greater future.

Perhaps the most complete and satisfying questioning of

education today is that given by John Dewey in his paper on

"Education, the Foundation for Social Organization," in which,

after reviewing the educational philosophy of Horace Mann, he

turns to an even more complete examination of contemporary

principles and practices in the field of education.

His definition of our present problem is exact:

The educational question of the present is how the educational struc-

ture may be rebuilt so that it will develop habits and customs pertinent to

the present scheme of social relationships, with its intricate and far-flung

interdependence among individuals. The reconstruction must take effect

alike in the spirit, the studies, and the methods of the school system, and

in the kind of preparation its teachers receive.

His concluding sentence not only rounds off his own essay

but also serves as a summarizing statement of the central thought

of the entire volume:

The enforcement of understanding of what the democratic way of life

is and means, throughout every mode of human association, the family, the

shop, industrial and financial institutions, is the pre-eminent task of public

education in our generation. We shall continue the work to which Horace

Mann gave himself by engaging devotedly in the execution of this task.

Appended to the prepared papers are other interesting sec-

tions: appropriate quotations from the speeches and writings of

Horace Mann; the addresses given at Yellow Springs at the time

of the dedication of the Horace Mann monument; and a verbatim

report of the remarks made in the course of the panel discussion

which followed the formal delivery of the symposium papers.

Educating for Democracy is a valuable book, unique in its

inception and worthwhile in its completion. It can be read with

profit by all people alert to the many problems inherent in con-

temporary education, for it speaks to the concerned layman as

well as to the trained schoolman.

LOIS R. HIESTAND.

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374    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

American Frontier. By Elisabeth Peck.     (New York, Double-

day, Doran & Co., Inc., 1937. 195p. $2.00.)

As a teacher among the mountaineers, Elisabeth Peck first

conceived and nurtured her project for an epic of the American

frontier, but before her dream was realized she had to travel

hundreds of miles through the American backwoods, do supple-

mentary study at the British Museum, and ruthlessly destroy the

first prose drafts of her work. It was only when Mrs. Peck, her-

self a poet, put her carefully garnered data of America's pioneer

era into the form used by the people themselves for preserving

their folklore (that is, the folk ballad) that her inimitable tales

found the form for which they were best fitted.

Her material, however, dominates its form, and her book will

be read and remembered primarily for its revealing and full-

flavored pictures of pioneer experiences in the United States be-

tween 1780 and 1875. Based upon fact material hidden away in

old journals, pamphlets, letters and wills, these sketches reproduce

not merely what men and women on the frontier did, but also what

they thought and felt in those stirring times. Of her book the

author says:

Although the poems are entirely separate, they have been so arranged

in time and place as to give a certain continuity of thought, as the reader

follows the human reactions which pioneering produced in men and women

in Kentucky and Tennessee, in the Northwest Territory, in the Gulf Coun-

try, along the Mississippi River, in Texas, in California, and finally found

a life in the Cattle Country.

The Ohio reader will be especially interested in those poems

which depict his own, or adjacent, regions: "White Man," "Oyez,

Oyez," "Disillusionment," "Granny's Garden," "By the Fireside,"

"Rope Spinner," "Margaret Blennerhassett," "Pioneer Widow,"

"The Shakers," "Johnny Appleseed Comes," and so forth.

Physically the book is an attractive one, interestingly bound

and with appropriate illustrations preceding each poem. Incident-

ally, the author herself says: "If you want to enjoy the poems

most thoroughly, you will read them aloud not too nicely, but

with a robust rhythm."

Lois R. HIESTAND.

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BOOK REVIEWS                     375

 

An Illustrated Handbook of Art History. By Frank J. Roos, Jr.

(New York, The Macmillan Company, 1937. 304p. $2.50.)

Compiled by Professor J. Roos, a member of the faculty of

Ohio State University, this illustrated handbook is an encyclo-

pedia of Occidental art from prehistoric times to the present.

It is a book of two thousand pictures, small to be sure, but

well reproduced and admirably selected to serve the purpose for

which they were assembled: a one-volume illustrated handbook

suitable for use in history of art and art appreciation courses.

In choosing his material Professor Roos drew not only from

his own experiences as a teacher of such courses but also on an

extensive survey which he had made of similar courses given in

representative colleges and art schools throughout the country.

The compiler's careful attention to class needs is evident in his fol-

lowing of the periods and artists covered by the most commonly

used texts and by his emphasis on works which are American

owned and hence available in the original to American students.

While organized primarily for use by art students and teach-

ers the book should, and probably will, serve a larger group. In-

expensive, easily handled, and with its material conveniently and

logically arranged, it is well suited for use as a reference work by

persons whose interest in art is avocational rather than profes-

sional. It is to be regretted perhaps that space limitations for-

bade inclusion of brief explanations of the artists and schools of

art represented, but such information is outside the scope of the

book and can, of course, be found in more formal texts on the

history of art. The wealth and diversity of the book's illustra-

tions (there are reproductions of paintings, sculpture, architecture,

and furniture of different periods and styles) further increase its

value as a trustworthy and convenient reference book for use by

all persons who at one time or another need to have at hand a

comprehensive and reliable book illustrating in miniature the artis-

tic masterpieces of the past and present. In addition to the two

thousand pictures there are a number of pages of helpful charts

and a very full index.

Lois R. HIESTAND.

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