Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

 

Men of Good Hope: A Story of American Progressives. By Daniel Aaron.

(New York, Oxford University Press, 1951. xiv+321p. $4.00.)

Men of Good Hope is a sympathetic but considered analysis of the social

philosophies of nine men whom the author believes have shaped or ex-

pressed progressive thought in America: Emerson, Theodore Parker, Henry

George, Edward Bellamy, Henry Demarest Lloyd, William Dean Howells,

and Thorstein Veblen-"precursors" and "prophetic agitators"-and Theo-

dore Roosevelt and Brooks Adams, latter day "pseudo progressives."

Anyone interested in the subject will inevitably be disappointed to dis-

cover persons he regards as champions of progressivism absent from Mr.

Aaron's list. Perhaps the omissions should be construed as a tribute to the

richness of our liberal tradition rather than as a criticism of this particular

book. Actually the coverage of Men of Good Hope is not as limited as the

table of contents would indicate, for the author makes a good deal more

than passing reference to many individuals such as Thoreau and Wendell

Phillips in addition to those he has singled out for intensive study.

It is unfortunate the book opens with a weak chapter. The author

makes the point that Emerson, the subject of his initial essay, was a "protean

figure" whose social and political views were often contradictory. Con-

sequently, he observes, it is almost impossible to write about Emerson's social

philosophy without frequent apologies and qualifications. Granted the dif-

ficulty of the task, Mr. Aaron's selection and organization of material does

little to advance his thesis that Emerson was a perfect representative of

progressivism. He may well have been, but this chapter does not prove the

point.

The rest of the book is much more satisfactory, the most rewarding por-

tions being the essays on Parker, George, Bellamy, Lloyd, Howells, and

Veblen. These chapters are written with understanding and assurance and

they give the reader insight into the thought of the men discussed as well as

revealing glimpses of their personalities and times. Mr. Aaron sees the same

argument running through the sermons of Parker, the prose-poem of George,

the sociological romances of Bellamy, the fact-studded tracts of Lloyd, the

realistic novels of Howells, and the academic monographs of Veblen: eco-

nomic and ethical considerations cannot be separated from one another. To

the author, this conviction is one of the earmarks of the Progressive.

In view of Aaron's emphasis upon the idealistic content of progressivism,

it is not surprising that he is rather critical of Theodore Roosevelt. He

414

• 1
 

Book Reviews                           415

recognizes that Roosevelt was "a high minded and completely honest public

servant," but he notes as well evidences of Roosevelt's "cosmic vanity and

inveterate opportunism." The author's preference for the thinker over the

man of action is made evident by the fact that he devotes three-fourths of

the chapter on Roosevelt and Brooks Adams to the latter. His essay on

Adams is a perceptive critique of an enigmatic figure. Aaron portrays him

as the formulator of a kind of "romantic conservatism," an arch imperialist

and advocate of state socialism whose much discussed pessimism "fluctuated

with his friends' political successes and failures."

The last chapter traces the ups and downs of progressivism in the ap-

proximately forty years since 1912 in a summary but provocative fashion.

The most interesting part of this concluding essay is the author's attempt to

explain the appeal of communism to certain liberal Americans during the

nineteen thirties. As is the case throughout the book the author approaches

this problem with commendable objectivity.

Mr. Aaron is director of the American Studies program at Smith College.

His book is an example of the many valuable contributions to American his-

tory which are currently being made by scholars trained in the field of

American literature. The literary historian brings to the fore the intellectual

and philosophical currents which are apt to be overlooked when history is

regarded solely as the narration of political and diplomatic events. The

weakness of the literary historian is a tendency to treat historical figures as

though they were exclusively men the study of whose "success" or "failure"

may be measured in terms of logic or rhetoric. In reading Mr. Aaron's book,

therefore, it is well to keep in mind that the world of Theodore Roosevelt

was quite different from that of Emerson; that the responsibilities of Wood-

row Wilson were heavier than those of Thorstein Veblen; and that interest-

ing and significant though they may be, aberrations in the mental processes

of individuals are seldom in themselves sufficient to explain the course of

history.

Men of Good Hope is a work of erudition, sincerity, and courage. It is,

moreover, a timely book. We stand today in peculiar need of reminders

such as this book provides of our heritage of native radicalism. Although by

no means a complete history of American progressivism, Mr. Aaron's ac-

count of the ideas of some of our liberal thinkers may well serve as an in-

troduction to supplementary studies of progressivism in action, not only in

politics, but in industry, labor, social work, education, and the arts.

ROBERT H. BREMNER

Ohio State University

• 2
 

416      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

Finney Lives On. By V. Raymond Edman. (New York, Fleming H. Revell

Company. ²⁵0p. $2.50.)

Charles G. Finney (1792-1875) was one of the outstanding ministers of

the nineteenth century. Best known for his remarkable success in the great

revivals of the 1830's, he also was instrumental in the free church move-

ment in New York City; contributed, first as professor and later as presi-

dent, to the development of Oberlin; and played a prominent role in the

antislavery, temperance, and moral reform crusades of the antebellum era.

V. Raymond Edman, president of Wheaton College, has attempted in this

slim volume to examine the life of Finney and evaluate his evangelistic

ideas. He divides his book into three parts: the man, the methods, and the

message. The first section consists of a biographical summary covering the

high points of Finney's career. The second analyzes his revival techniques,

extensively utilizing his Lectures on Revivals of Religion. The last section

contains five of Finney's representative sermons. The book's thesis is that

Finney's revival methods and religious message still survive and apply as

aptly today as they did in the nineteenth century. Its chief purpose is to

serve as a handbook for future revivals.

The author has succeeded in reflecting the spirit of Finney and his con-

temporaries. The book amply indicates how this evangelist put religious

matters uppermost, how he subordinated all other aspects of life in order to

save men's souls. His complete, carefully worked out techniques for con-

ducting revivals are examined in detail. One catches something of the moral

egotism of the evangelist as he lays down rules to follow in praying and

preaching.

The book's defects, however, far outweigh its merits. The author has fol-

lowed the nineteenth century style of adulatory religious biography. He

has inserted long verbatim quotations from Finney's Memoirs and other

works. He has not seen fit to document his many references, and the reader

will look in vain for footnotes. The bibliography is hardly adequate. There

is no indication that he has used the valuable Finney Papers in the Oberlin

College Library, even a cursory use of which would have richly improved

the work. He makes no mention of Finney's important contribution to the

antislavery movement where his evangelistic methods were so widely ap-

plied. Either he does not know or has chosen to ignore Finney's Views on

Sanctification and his Lectures on Systematic Theology, both of which

touched off considerable controversy and brought down upon him criticism

from orthodox circles.

Furthermore, the author's historical background at the beginning of the

• 3
 

Book Reviews                            417

book is an over-simplification. He overemphasizes, the "vulgarity of the

frontier" (p. 18) and tends to give a stereotype of that section. His interpre-

tation of the Second Great Awakening, a decade after which "all of Ameri-

can life had been lifted to new spiritual and moral heights" (p. 17), is

open to question. Although America may have been "vastly different and

better because of the revivals led by Finney" (p. 80), there is ample evidence

that the effects of revivals were often quite transitory. It is probably a typo-

graphical error that the date of the New Lebanon Convention is given as

1826 on page 62 instead of 1827.

Finally, one must question the author's basic premise, that Finney's reli-

gious ideas and revival techniques can still apply to the twentieth century.

While Billy Graham echoes an earlier call and while protracted meetings

and anxious benches still survive in isolated communities, the nineteenth

century evangelist has been antiquated by the Civil War, by the industrializa-

tion of America, and by Darwinism. The grandchildren of Finney's followers

have found evolution more convincing than original sin, the test tube more

efficacious than the anxious seat, and the search for knowledge more satis-

factory than conversion.

CHARLES C. COLE, JR.

Columbia University

 

 

General Charles Lee, Traitor or Patriot? By John Richard Alden. (Baton

Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 1951. ix+369p., maps, illustrations,

and index. $4.75.)

General Charles Lee (no relation to the Virginia Lees), second in com-

mand to Washington, prominent and controversial figure of his time, is

generally disposed of with a sentence or two, plus an explanatory footnote,

in most textbooks and general histories. The account usually runs something

like this: As a result of the French alliance and the addition of French sea

power to the American cause, the British in June 1778 were forced to evacu-

ate Philadelphia. This action gave Washington one of his rare chances to

seize the initiative and to attack the British as they retired across New Jersey.

General Washington planned aggressive action against the British and would

have executed a crippling blow had it not been for the insubordination and

disaffection of General Charles Lee, a native of Britain in the American

service. Disregarding his orders to attack, General Lee retreated before an

insignificant contingent of the British Army. Furious over this disobedience

of orders, General Washington, when he arrived on the field, called Lee

• 4
 

418      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

a "damned Poltroon," deprived him of command, and taking charge himself

rallied the retreating Americans to save the day. So tradition has it.

Now along comes a revisionist to reexamine tradition and to set us aright:

General Lee was guilty neither of insubordination nor of depriving the

Americans of a victory; General Washington did not curse on the battle-

field; and it was General Lee's rather than General Washington's tactics

that saved the day. These being the facts of the case (according to our

author), General Lee has suffered unjustly at the hands of General Wash-

ington, the Continental Congress, and historians generally.

Doubtless it was a worthy project to attempt to revise the superficial and

summary treatment accorded Lee in most general histories. Yet, as is often the

case with revisionists, the question arises whether the author has not gone too

far in an attempt to prove his point. He states, for example, that in general-

ship Lee "seems to have been superior to Washington and Nathanael Greene."

The case for Lee's generalship would seem to rest mainly on his performances

at Charleston and Monmouth, for on no other occasions does he seem to

have played a crucial role. Lee was appointed second major general in the

Continental Army in June of 1775. By July he was at the American camp

in Cambridge and served during the siege of Boston. Early in 1776 he was

ordered to New York to superintend the defense of that city. In March he

was put in command of the Continental forces in the South. Arriving at

Charleston in June he promptly advised the South Carolinians against any

attempt to hold Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island. Lee's advice was dis-

regarded and since he was not in charge of South Carolina troops, prepara-

tions for holding the fort went forward. What followed is pretty generally

known. Cannon ball from the British ships sank harmlessly into the soft

palmetto logs of Moultrie's fort; repelled on both land and sea the British

were forced to abandon their plan for invading the South in 1776. In spite

of this outstanding success the author suggests that tactically Lee was right,

that it was only luck and Providence that saved the stubborn South Caro-

linians. Yet Lee is praised to the skies for his masterly handling of the situa-

tion, and the victory at Charleston is portrayed as his most glorious hour. It

is worth noting in this connection that Lee himself, never one to hide his

light under a bushel, gave the main credit to Colonel William Moultrie and

the South Carolinians.

Late in the summer of 1776 Lee was ordered to rejoin the main army in

New York. When he arrived on the scene he advised Washington to retreat

from Harlem Heights and to abandon Fort Washington, advice which, ac-

cording to the author was sound (no matter what the outcome Lee's tactical

• 5
 

Book Reviews                           419

advice seems always to have been "sound"). After the British captured Fort

Washington and began their pursuit of Washington across New Jersey, Lee

set up as a solo artist. Despite repeated orders to join the main army he

held back, apparently with the idea of playing an independent role and

striking the British in a series of guerilla attacks. Lee was loitering near

Morristown when he was suddenly taken prisoner on December 13, 1776.

There was some talk of his being taken back to England and tried for deser-

tion, but he had prudently resigned his half pay in the British Army when

he joined the American cause. After much negotiation he was exchanged in

April 1778 and rejoined the army as it was starting for the Monmouth

campaign. On Lee's role in that fateful episode the author concludes: "He

may not have performed brilliantly at Monmouth, although the evidence sug-

gests that his tactics were fundamentally sound." Perhaps the soundness or

unsoundness of Lee's tactics had better be left to the military experts. Waiv-

ing for the moment the purely military aspects one may nevertheless inquire

into Lee's attitude at the time. Since his capture he had ceased to advocate

American independence and had in fact worked toward a negotiated peace

with a privileged position for the United States within the British Empire.

While a prisoner he even went so far as to present his captors with a plan

for bringing the war to a close. It is this action, perhaps even more than

what happened at Monmouth, that has caused some historians to charge him

with treason. It is this charge too, perhaps, that led the author to choose a

subtitle in the form of a question: Traitor or Patriot? After reading the

evidence this reviewer is inclined to answer, "neither." When it suited his

purpose Lee pled for and worked toward American independence. But he

grew weary in the cause and began to advocate compromise and conciliation.

Taking all his faults and misdeeds into account, however, he was not a

traitor of the stripe of Benedict Arnold. Some of his contemporaries ac-

curately took the measure of the man when they described him as a soldier

of fortune.

Though one may question both Lee's military genius and his patriotism

there can be no doubt that he was a bizarre and fascinating personality. His

life was filled with story-book adventure. In addition to his Revolutionary

War exploits he served in both America and Portugal during the Seven

Years War. Finding advancement in the British Army slow he entered the

service of the king of Poland. As "general and adjutant" in the Polish Army

he had a series of stirring adventures in the Balkans and Turkey. Widely

traveled and well read by the standards of his profession, Lee could and did

pass for a scholar. Physically ugly, he had many women but no wife, if we

• 6
 

420      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

exclude the Iroquois maiden that he temporarily annexed on his first sojourn

in America. His character was marked by a pronounced eccentricity which

manifested itself in sharp contrasts; a slovenliness in dress but a liking for

bathing, social gaiety but private melancholy, a low opinion of mankind but

a strange fondness for dogs. He could express himself both orally and in

writing with rare wit, clarity, and perspicuity. Sophisticated and worldly but

at the same time humane and considerate of his inferiors Lee, in short,

embodied many of the virtues and vices of his time.

HARRY L. COLES

Ohio State University

 

Yankee Eloquence in the Middle West; the Ohio Lyceum 1850-1870. By

David Mead. (East Lansing, Michigan State College Press, 1951. 273p.

$4.50.)

Within the kind of limited compass which characterizes our contemporary

historical scholarship, Dr. Mead has written a thorough work. He has out-

lined chronologically and geographically the schedules of fifteen important

eastern lecturers, such 'as Emerson, Bronson Alcott, Wendell Phillips, and

Theodore Parker, in their Ohio tours between 1850 and 1870. The record

illuminates, quantitatively at least, eastern influence upon the Ohio lyceum

system during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. In addition, by

careful use of Ohio newspapers, which constituted his principal source ma-

terial, the author has systematically recorded the mixed reactions by western

editors to eastern orators and their talks. In the course of trailing lecturers

and quoting editorials, he has carried his story on occasion to the very

brink of serious questions about the role and function of the lecture system

and at other times to anecdotes about men and events which help to en-

liven a pedestrian narrative.

The opening chapter provides the only framework of generalization

within which to place the facts that flood the following fifteen short chap-

ters. Several fertile suggestions help to explain the incentives for and the

obstacles to the eastern lyceum system in Ohio. In general, the motive of

New England orators was declared to be the lofty one of diffusing Christian

morality and wholesome knowledge, the standards for which were pre-

sumably set by these sane, cultured, Protestant intellectuals. There seemed to

be an implicit fear among easterners of the upper class that their cultural

hegemony might be scuttled by the growing numbers and the moral "in-

stability" on the frontier. The subjects selected by eastern lecturers were

literary, moral, scientfic, historical, or travel, but rarely political. The search

• 7
 

Book Reviews                            421

for eternal and transcendent values was considered 'a more elevating (and

perhaps safer) experience than the divisive discussions of partisan politics.

It was the rare courage of a Wendell Phillips, vigorously defending

abolitionism, that turned the lyceum platform in scattered instances into a

forum for crucial democratic discussion.

With the opening of the West through railroads, skilled orators from the

East swarmed into the new areas to elevate minds, save souls, and collect

lecture fees. The westerners, however, as Mead quite aptly suggests, were

not passive recipients of this cultural onslaught. They frequently evinced a

strong desire to encourage the growth of an independent culture, though the

author does not suggest the auspices under which this sectional enthusiasm

flourished or the values upon which it rested. Furthermore, the craving in a

new, growing area for practical knowledge rather than metaphysical sermons,

coupled with the lack of time on the frontier for cultural pursuits, acted as

real limiting factors on the growth of the eastern lyceum system in Ohio.

The inadequacies of this able work can be attributed largely to errors of

omission. Mead has failed to give a systematic account of the content of

the many lectures to which he alludes. In what fashion is the reader to

evaluate the sharp criticism or unqualified approval by Ohio newspapers

of the lectures of Brownson or Beecher or Emerson? Except for the rare

instances in which the author has quoted specific points in the lectures from

editorials, the nature of the eastern message to the West remains a mystery.

The chapter on Emerson is particularly unrewarding in this respect. The

author leads the reader to the editorial attacks on the great transcendentalist

in Akron in 1856, in Cleveland in 1857, or in Warren in 1865. But what

did Emerson say? One can surmise the nature of the message from knowledge

of the lecturer's philosophical position, but it was a legitimate part of the

work of the author to scour the writings and biographies in order to sum-

marize the teachings of his orators.

In addition, this book, which ends abruptly without summary or con-

clusion, is slight in interpretative reflections which give greater validity

to assembled data and often serve as hypotheses for further research. It ap-

pears significant to the reader that Americans, who indulge so predominantly

in frivolous entertainments today, were willing to patronize formal lectures

in the mid-19th century. Is this a sign that intellectual ferment was a prod-

uct in American development of social mobility and pioneering expansive-

ness? Is the virtual disappearance of cultural fluidity, under the impact of

the dulling conformity imposed by the mass media of information, as Reis-

man and other social scientists have pointed out, correlated with a period

• 8
 

422      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

of diminishing opportunity and growing social control? Along another line

of questioning, the author might have addressed himself to the relationship

of western interest in practical knowledge and the formation of certain im-

portant American themes, such as success and progress. Is the demand for

practical learning a fundamental component of a growing middle-class cul-

ture, as Louis Wright noted in his discussion of middle-class behavior in

Elizabethan England? The Ohio lyceum was, after all, a system of public in-

formation. As such, it reflected, in its motives and function, something of

group or class behavior in the East and West, something of the values that

flourished in both sections. Out of this material Dr. Mead might have forged

something as original interpretatively as his work is thorough factually.

HARVEY GOLDBERG

Ohio State University

 

 

A Friendly Mission: John Candler's Letters from America, 1853-1854.

Edited, with an introduction, by Gayle Thornbrough. (Indiana Historical

Society Publications, XVI, No. 1. Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Society,

1951. 122p., itinerary, index. Paper, $1.00.)

Few people possessed a more enlightened sense of the wrong and evil

of slavery than did the English Quakers. Once the stigma of slavery and

the slave trade had been erased in the British Empire, the Society of Friends

sought new lands to which they might carry their antislavery crusade. At

the London Yearly Meeting in 1853 four English Quakers were selected to

tour the United States and to present to the political leaders of America a

lengthy memorial against slavery. While traveling through this country,

John Candler, a member of this four-man deputation, penned a series of

letters to his wife in which he made a conscious attempt to understand, in-

terpret, and express the complex meanings of his American experience.

These revealing letters are the sensitive record of a trip through twenty-six

of the thirty-one states then in existence.

The collection is 'a kaleidoscope recording of the social, economic, and

political pattern of America during the early 1850's. The bulk of material

is presented by physical description, sometimes emotionally toned, but more

often merely observed and noted. There are many passages which evoke

intimately the grandeur and spirit of a land where "everything in nature is

great." Candler's description of a meal served him in Columbus, Ohio,

where "the table groaned under the weight of good things," his awe at see-

ing a cob of corn which had twelve hundred grains, his impressions of

energetic Indiana, where "everything bespeaks a giant growth," and an

• 9
 

Book Reviews                            423

ecstatic picture of the limitless American plains are all among the English-

man's most satisfying experiences. Candler's critical comments are reserved

for the manners of some Americans, the crudities of local lodgings, and

the inconveniences and delays of traveling in the United States. In the eye

of this sensitive Quaker some midwesterners were "coarse, rude, and pro-

fane," while their southern brethren were "low-lived, tobacco chewing, idle

trash of white men." An inn was an "incommodious domicile to travellers

who have any refinement of manners." The rigors of traveling 10,237 miles

through the United States by steamboat, railroad, stagecoach, private car-

riage, and on foot obviously elicited scornful criticism.

Where slavery and the slaveholder were concerned, John Candler had

no perspective, no sense of relation or proportion. He believed uncom-

promisingly that slavery, in the words of John Wesley, was "the sum and

substance of all villainy." Although the New York Herald referred to Candler

and his colleagues as "abolitionists," a term which the four Friends feared

might expose them to the "terrors of Lynch law," the Quaker mission was

received, on the whole, with respect throughout the country. President

Franklin Pierce heard their calm appeal and assured them of a safe passage

in the South. Most southern governors honored the sincerity of the Quaker

mission, listened sympathetically, and objected moderately, although Sterling

Price of Missouri "girded on his proslavery sword" and angrily returned

the Friends' memorial. Interestingly enough, some of Candler's choicest out-

bursts are directed against hypocritical northerners and their governors, men

like Joel A. Matteson of Illinois, William Medill of Ohio, and Horace

Seymour of New York, whom Candler accuses of hiding their prejudice

against the Negro under the cloak of political expediency. After spending

only two months in America, Candler was so disgusted with the determina-

tion of "the great mass of democracy" to uphold anti-Negro discriminations

that he saw no immediate prospect of change except through divine in-

tercession.

Miss Gayle Thornbrough's editing of A Friendly Mission is, in the best

sense, complete. She has tied the letters together in an interesting continuity,

and has identified carefully the historical persons and episodes mentioned.

Besides appending an itinerary, listing routes, dates, mileage, and means of

conveyance, she has an index of exceptional fullness, clarity, and conven-

ience. The Indiana Historical Society is to be complimented for publishing

A Friendly Mission. This is the kind of work that more state historical so-

cieties should be publishing.

HAROLD M. HELFMAN

Ohio State University

• 10
 

424      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

This Is Detroit: 250 Years in Pictures. By Milo M. Quaife and edited by

William White. (Detroit, Wayne University Press, 1951. x+198p. Cloth-

bound, $3.50; paper, $2.00.)

Detroit is two hundred and fifty years young, the bustling, dynamic

powerhouse of our national might. The city has grown through oppressions

and depressions from a remote outpost where Antoine Sieur de la Mothe

Cadillac and his brigade of bateaux and Indian canoes first landed on July

24, 1701, to the motor capital of the world and the arsenal of democratic

nations. This Is Detroit is the official publication of Detroit's 250th Birth-

day Festival Committee and undertakes to present by picture and descriptive

text the story of this dramatic growth from the quiet "City of the Strait" to

an industrial metropolis.

The compilers of this pictorial account have recognized frankly the hazards

of dividing their work into two chronological sections, 1701-1901, and 1901-

1951. Obviously there is a scarcity of available pictures to record the changes

during the first two hundred years, and too many materials illustrating the

last five decades of the city's greatest growth. Therefore, few will criticize

the choice of illustrations to be found in the first seventy-four pages of the

book, although an obvious omission is one of Detroit's greatest spiritual and

cultural pioneers, the Rev. John Montieth.

Probably every reader, however, will have some quarrel with the editor's

selection of significant personages and happenings of the past fifty years.

Why include several pictures of Wayne University and not even one of the

University of Detroit, Marygrove College, or the Detroit Institute of Tech-

nology? Can an outsider correctly understand Detroit's cultural life without

seeing the Garrick Theater and the late Jessie Bonstelle, or the Detroit Sym-

phony Orchestra under the baton of the late Ossip Gabrilowitsch, or the con-

troversial Diego Rivera murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts? Do not the

thousands of people lining the Detroit River to watch Gar Wood and his

succession of Miss Americas fight to retain the Harmsworth Trophy belong

to the Detroit diorama, and is not the automobile speedster, the late Barney

Oldfield, with his inevitable cigar, a part of the Detroit picture?

As a native Detroiter, this reviewer's reactions to the section on the "Mod-

ern Metropolis" go even deeper. Dr. Milo M. Quaife is an eminent historian

with a distinguished lifetime of reading and writing about Detroit; and

Professor William White of Wayne University is an ex-journalist who should

recognize the robust and chromatic history of a city. Yet their last one hun-

dred and twenty-four pages are, in the main, a mere Baedeker of buildings,

devoid of the intense vitality and spirited energy that really is Detroit. By

• 11
 

Book Reviews                         425

ignoring action pictures and concentrating on still shots and the concrete

and steel of downtown Detroit, the authors give the reader no excited thrill

of discovery or of participation. The pictures chosen are generally too inert,

too formal, and lacking in human warmth. The stranger to Detroit gets

too few pictures of how Detroiters actually lived-for example, the delirium

of the city when wild crowds gathered on the steps of the City Hall to

celebrate Armistice Day, November 11, 1918; applestands, bread lines, men

crowding around employment offices as a fumbling city fought its way out

of a depression; the exploits of the Purple Gang and the Black Legion;

derelicts shuffling down Michigan Avenue; Grosse Pointe debutantes and

weary office workers window-shopping along Washington Boulevard. In-

stead of merely showing a street of Old Detroit, why did not the editor

select a picture of milady strolling down the selfsame street? Why show

posed portrait photos of Ty Cobb and Joe Louis when there are thousands

of shots showing the "Georgia Peach" and the "Brown Bomber" in action?

The book is wonderfully rich-looking and attractive in its printing and

design; and the Wayne University Press is to be complimented on a solid

job of craftsmanship. But since This Is Detroit must be judged on content

rather than on appearance, this reviewer feels that the general failure of

the compilers to train the eye of their camera upon the action-packed drama

of a people living in a great city does not justify the title used.

HAROLD M. HELFMAN

Ohio State University

 

 

The Serene Cincinnatians. By Alvin F. Harlow. (New York, E. P. Dutton,

1950. 442p., bibliography and index. $4.50.)

This is the sixth volume of the Society in America Series to appear and

the only one to deal with a city in the Middle West. Alvin F. Harlow has

put his long experience in social history to good use in deftly weaving events

and personalities into a mosaic which covers the entire scope of the Queen

City's one hundred and eighty-three years. The result is a narrative both

pleasing and informative which is a real boon to those curious about the

past of Ohio's oldest metropolis.

Few realize how baffling the problem of writing good urban history has

been. The customary political or economic approach has never been very suc-

cessful when applied to cities; after all, how many care about last year's

aldermen? Sacrificing objectivity, amateur authors included dreary and vol-

uminous biographical summaries of subscribers in order to assure sales.

• 12
 

426       Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

But if such works were purchased, they were seldom read. Only recently

has a more sophisticated author group appeared, stressing the multiple

themes of social and cultural history for interpreting urbanism and convinc-

ing a number of publishers that there's really gold in "them thar" cities.

Hence the editors have carefully stated that "the aim of these volumes is

to portray the individual characteristics, to underscore the idiosyncracies, and

to trace the growth of . . . [urban] societies with special emphasis on local

traditions and on the personalities which embodied them." Within these

limits one can find little fault with Harlow's well-told story. Certainly the

serenity of Cincinnatians, which has so impressed the author, is unlikely to

be disturbed by the many good things said about them. Almost anyone could

read with profit the excellent chapters describing Cincinnati porkpacking,

the German community, and those musical triumphs in which Theodore

Thomas played such a stellar role. Whenever the interest flags, Harlow is

ready with an anecdote--about the pious cable car magnate who scrupul-

ously resigned the presidency of his company every Saturday night only to

be reelected promptly on Monday morning, thus neatly preserving his Sab-

batarian principles--about the educated cobbler who reprinted rare items

of Americana in his humble shop and astounded an ex-Governor of Vermont

with his learning-or about the pickpocket, victimized by post-Civil War

feminine fashions, who complained, "'Since the damned overskirts come

inter style, I haven't made me salt.'"

The professional historian, too, can enjoy a narrative which is frankly

pitched to catch the layman's eye, while he will observe much which the

general reader may only sense or perhaps miss altogether. First he will note

that many things are described with artistry, but few are explained. For

example Civil War excitement in Cincinnati rates a chapter, but the impact

of that struggle upon the city's economic structure or its way of life is not

developed. There is only a casual reference to the great influence which

Cincinnati exercised upon midwestern neighbors in its ever-fluctuating

hinterland, and none at all to the municipal sources from which ideas were

borrowed.

While Harlow's tendency to overstate may gratify Cincinnati pride, it

will weaken his book with many. His addiction to claiming "firsts" will

not inspire confidence among those familiar with the history of science and

the almost insoluble problem of determining priority in the discovery of

inventions. Again we read, "There was a passion for education in the

Mississippi Valley which in the course of time lifted it to a plateau

of literacy higher than that of the East," (p.¹39) a statement which will

• 13
 

Book Reviews                           427

raise eyebrows in more than one section of the country. One of the very few

misstatements occurs on page 143 where William H. McGuffey (to this

reviewer's horror!) is credited with "four years as president of Ohio State

University" when in fact it was Ohio University at Athens which was the

scene of his stewardship.

But these are indeed small matters to set against the general excellence of

The Serene Cincinnatians. It is to be hoped that Ohioans will give it the

generous patronage which it thoroughly merits.

FREDERICK D. KERSHNER, JR.

Ohio University

 

 

Lake Port (Lucas County Historical Series, III). By Randolph C. Downes.

With a chapter on architecture by G. Harrison Orians. Illustrated By Kathryn

Miller Keller. (Toledo, The Historical Society of Northwestern Ohio, 1951.

xii+457p. Maps, illustrations, acknowledgments, bibliography, index.

Paper, $3.15.)

Dr. Randolph C. Downes, author of Frontier Ohio and Council Fires on

the Upper Ohio, is director of the Historical Society of Northwestern Ohio

and editor of the society's quarterly and is a member of the history depart-

ment of the University of Toledo. With this volume he has completed the

third in a series of six volumes on the history of Lucas County, Ohio. The

first two volumes were The Conquest (1948) and Canal Days (1949),

which brought local historical events down to about 1850, and in this

volume the author covers the period between 1850 to and including 1875.

Toledo, in the optimistic planning of its early promoters, was to become

a principal terminus of shipping on the lakes and the leading city of the

West. The building of docks and the preparing of extensive plans for rail-

road lines into the city were toward this view. But as the western movement

expanded Toledo failed to hold the lead, and railroad improvements with

lines extending westward and eastward to the Atlantic brought about stiff

competition with lake transportation.

Turning from a discussion of transportation developments, the author

next gives his attention to the slavery question and politics shortly before

the Civil War. National problems he relates closely to local events. When

the Civil War broke out after compromise failed, many Lucas County men

joined the Ohio Northwest Regiment, which came to be known as the 14th

Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Other men formed brigades, companies,

and parts of companies in the 25th, 27th, 47th, 67th, 100th, 130th regiments

• 14
 

428      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

and the 3rd Cavalry, and saw active service in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee,

Mississippi, Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Impact of the war at home,

soldier life, songs, prison life, the anti-administration "copper-heads," and

the political scene for ten years after the war are all reviewed in the first

half of the book.

"Outside the field of business and commerce, Toledo's most emphasized

achievement was in its school system," Dr. Downes states as he examines

the growth of the city's schools between 1850 and 1875. Toledo adopted a

high school athletic program before the Civil War and the school super-

intendents were very advanced in their programs. A search for practical edu-

cation led to the establishment by Jesup W. Scott and his sons of what later

came to be the University of Toledo.

In succeeding chapters Dr. Downes writes of Toledo's church life and

religious movements, literature and science, civic improvements, sports and

recreation, the German settlers, the Negroes, women's rights, and the temper-

ance movement. Dr. G. Harrison Orians contributes a chapter on early

architecture of the county.

The typography follows the style set by the first two volumes, and is

similar to textbook arrangement, with principal topics set forth in boldface

type at the beginning of each paragraph or groups of paragraphs. Of added

interest are illustrations and maps in the text drawn by Mrs. Kathryn Miller

Keller of Toledo. The book's paper covers, however, are not substantial.

WATT P. MARCHMAN

The Hayes Memorial Library

 

A Documentary Survey of the French Revolution. By John Hall Stewart.

(New York, The Macmillan Company, 1951. 818p. $6.00.)

With the appearance of John Hall Stewart's A Documentary Survey of the

French Revolution few college teachers will wish to take the time or trouble

to "organize" or "reorganize" their courses on the French Revolution. Pro-

fessor Stewart of Western Reserve University, with a greater expenditure of

time, energy, and thought than most of them can afford, has done the work

for them. Included in this volume the college teacher will find a history of

the Revolution in Mr. Stewart's running commentary on the documents pre-

sented, an outline in the detailed table of contents, complete bibliographies

with volume, chapter, and even page references at the close of each chapter,

and a glossary in the index.

• 15
 

Book Reviews                          429

The very same features of the book which will appeal to college teachers

will no doubt be welcomed by the students. Here is a far more complete col-

lection of documents than is found in Anderson's Constitutions and Other

Select Documents. Unlike Legg's Select Documents which deals (in French)

only with the Constituent Assembly, Stewart's well-translated and judiciously-

chosen documents cover the entire revolutionary decade. Consisting mainly

of excerpts from the memoirs of contemporaries, Higgins' The French Revo-

lution differs considerably from Stewart's book which is primarily a col-

lection of public documents. Thus the former is not replaced by the latter

but serves, in fact, as an excellent complement to it by giving the student

more of the flavor and atmosphere of the Revolution.

Although designed chiefly for teachers and undergraduates, the book

will have some value for the graduate student as an introduction to the litera-

ture, primary and secondary, of the French Revolution. Of course, of far

greater value to the graduate student is Mr. Stewart's own earlier volume

entitled France 1715-1815. A Guide to Materials in Cleveland.

The author does more in his Documentary Survey of the French Revolu-

tion than simply present a series of documents. Each chapter, section, and

document is preceded by a commentary. These commentaries tell in concise

terms the history of the Revolution and give unity and continuity to the

text. The unity found here is certainly unusual for a book of this sort and

may be explained by the fact that the work was originally intended as a his-

tory of the Revolution, with documentary insertions. Apparently, as the

author states in his preface, only the limitations of space prevented the

realization of the original plan.

Special mention deserves to be made of the ideas expressed by Professor

Stewart in his concluding chapter. Here he summarizes the immediate con-

sequences of the Revolution by comparing France of 1789 with France at

the close of the century. Although he concedes that many changes had oc-

curred along political, economic, social, religious, and intellectual lines-

"never prior to 1799, had so much been achieved by one people in such

a short span of time!"-the author nevertheless points out that for an ac-

curate evaluation of the Revolution one must weigh the "apparent achieve-

ments" against the "actual accomplishments." He makes no attempt to ap-

praise the ultimate consequences of the Great Revolution, asserting that this

might conceivably involve "the entire history of west Europe since 1799."

CHARLES MORLEY

Ohio State University

• 16
 

430      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

Architecture of the Old Northwest Territory: A Study of Early Architec-

ture in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Part of Minnesota.

By Rexford Newcomb. (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1950.

xvii+176p.+xcvi plates. $20.00.)

Here is an interesting volume, of value to the social historian and to the

lay reader who has a predilection for the study of old buildings and antiques.

It is the most extensive work of its kind ever undertaken on the Old North-

west, a section which has felt the cross-currents of virtually all the architec-

tural trends in the country.

Specifically, this book covers the period from the beginnings of French

settlement in the Illinois Country and at Detroit to the time of the Civil

War. It treats successively the pioneer structures of the first settlements in

the territory, the influence of southern forms upon the architecture of the

lower Northwest, the introduction of New England colonial styles, the

domination of the Greek Revival from about 1830 to the Civil War, and

the spread of the Gothic Revival from England and the Atlantic Seaboard

to the Old Northwest.

The French used logs and stone in the construction of their buildings.

Most common in the Old Northwest was the poteaux en terre house in which

the walls were built of heavy logs set vertically in the ground. The log

cabin, so well known to Americans, was introduced by the Swedish colonists

in the 17th century and found its way to the Northwest in the 18th. The

log construction served the pioneers in the heavily wooded sections of the

Northwest until well into the 19th century.

The beginnings of organized settlement under the Ordinance of 1787 in-

troduced two new architectural influences, one from the South and the other

from New England. The Southern Federal style is distinguished by a "pre-

dilection for brick, the symmetrical disposition of the structures, wide central

halls, detached service buildings, classical frontal porticoes . . ."; the New

England influence was felt in the erection of Georgian homes, followed by

the chastened Federal style of the East.

The Old Northwest, however, really grew up under the influence of the

Greek Revival, introduced to this country by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. By

1830 production in the Northwest had reached a point sufficient to enable

the growing population to build substantial homes. By that time the Greek

Revival was in full swing and thousands of homes, schools, churches, and

other buildings were erected in that tradition during the next three or four

decades. In the same period the Gothic Revival, also introduced by Latrobe,

• 17
 

Book Reviews                         431

flourished, though it failed to achieve the popularity of the classical forms

except in its use on church and academic structures.

This volume traces the development of each of these architectural influ-

ences throughout the Old Northwest, discussing the modifications in design

which various regions introduced. It attempts also to set the architectural

developments in their proper historical scene. The architectural styles dis-

cussed are supported by brief descriptions of numerous examples of buildings

and by about twenty-five figures and ninety-six plates. A glossary of archi-

tectural terms and an extensive bibliography add to the value of the volume.

The chief criticism of the book lies in the numerous errors of fact in the

paragraphs dealing with the history of the Old Northwest. The author's

presentation of the history of the Indians is inadequate, and the location of

the famous Fort Ancient is near Lebanon in Warren County, Ohio, not at

Newark (p. 6). The section on the discovery of the Northwest by the French

is admittedly sketchy, but it leaves out LaSalle's contact with the Ohio Val-

ley in 1669-70 and the coming of coureurs de bois to the lake regions after

Groseilliers and Radisson. In the chapter on the Westward Movement there

are errors in connection with Connecticut's land claims in Ohio (p. 36), land

donations for education purposes (p. 36), the interpretation of the Ordi-

nance of 1787 (p. 37), the appointment of directors of the Ohio Company

(p. 39), the history of the Moravian mission villages in Ohio (pp. 39-40),

the Symmes Purchase (p. 40), and the date of completion of the Ohio Canal

(p. 42). The southern Republicans did not hold Ohio's governorship until

1830 as the author claims (p. 62); Thomas Worthington was not Ohio's

first governor, nor does he seem to have had a middle name (p. 63); Adena,

Worthington's home, was built in 1806-7, and there is evidence that Latrobe

drew plans for the house (p. 63); the measurements and description of

Adena are not correct (p. 63); the National Road ended at Vandalia,

not St. Louis (p. 100), and the Society of the Separatists of Zoar was

founded in order to set up a program for paying for the land purchase not

to care for the old and needy (p.¹55). The reviewer has not attempted to

check details on the history of the states other than Ohio. On the whole these

errors are relatively insignificant, but they do mar the book.

For Ohioans it may be of interest to note that of 200 pictures of houses

on the plates in this volume 80 are of Ohio homes. The book is beautifully

printed and the plates are excellent.

JAMES H. RODABAUGH

Ohio State Archaeological and

Historical Society

• 18
 

432      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

Journals of the General Assembly of Indiana Territory, 1805-1815. Edited

by Gayle Thornbrough and Dorothy Riker, with an introduction by John

D. Barnhart. (Indiana Historical Collections, XXXII. Indianapolis, Indiana

Historical Bureau, 1950. ix+1106p., appendices and index. $6.00.)

In 1950 the state of Indiana celebrated the sesquicentennial of the found-

ing of Indiana Territory in 1800. Such an occasion calls for special efforts,

not only speech-making, parades, exhibits, and other forms of publicity and

celebration, but also contributions of a more lasting nature. From the stand-

point of scholarship it is befitting that the Indiana Historical Bureau should

make generally available important documentary materials concerning the

territorial days of the state. The tasks of scholars and other interested persons

are manifestly eased by such publications. While the labor of adequate and

competent editing is seldom recognized and given its due credit anyone who

has done serious historical research will recognize immediately its value and

indispensability. The content, manner of presentation, and importance of

the source materials here "Offered in Observance of the Indiana Territory

Sesquicentennial, 1800-1950" speak well of the work of the Bureau.

In the 1787 ordinance establishing the government of the "Territory of

the United States northwest of the River Ohio" provision was made for suc-

cessive steps of development leading to the formation of "not less than three

nor more than five States." As had been envisioned by its drafters sufficient

settlement and sentiment warranted advancement of the eastern part of the

territory about a dozen years later. In 1800 a division was made in the

Northwest Territory with its western portion becoming Indiana Territory.

There was to be established in the newly created territory "a Government

in all respects similar to that provided by the ordinance [of 1787]."

By 1805 Indiana Territory had grown and developed to the point where

it was ready for the semirepresentative stage of territorial government. That

meant there would now be a bicameral general assembly composed of a

legislative council and a house of representatives. The present volume is

composed primarily of the journals of the general assembly of the territory

as copied from the original manuscripts. Of the house journals, those for

1806, 1807, and 1810 have not been located. Except for the 1813-14 session,

the council's journals have not been found. The council journal for 1808 was

printed, however, in the Vincennes (Indiana) Western Sun and has been

reprinted from its files. In the absence of journals for the sessions as noted

above, the editors have included pertinent available documents that indicate

the principal transactions of the assembly.

• 19
 

Book Reviews                            433

With the papers of the territorial governors (Messages and Letters of

William Henry Harrison [which contain in addition the papers of John

Gibson, acting governor, 1812-13, and Thomas Posey, governor, 1813-16],

VII and IX of the Indiana Historical Collections), their official records

(Executive Journal of Indiana Territory, 1800-1816, III, No. 3, of the Pub-

lications of the Indiana Historical Society), the territorial laws (The Laws of

Indiana Territory, 1801-1809, of the Indiana Historical Collections Reprints

series; and The Laws of Indiana Territory, 1809-1816, XX of the Indiana

Historical Collections), and the present volume a rather complete story of

territorial Indiana is made readily available to interested scholars and re-

searchers.

John D. Barnhart's introduction, "The Democratization of the Northwest

Ordinance," gives further publicity to his thesis that "the frontiersmen . . .

[assumed] the burden of self-government more rapidly and with fewer re-

strictions than the authors of the Ordinance had anticipated." Professor

Barnhart's essay highlights the territorial legislative history.

A most valuable contribution to this work by the editors are the biographi-

cal sketches of the members of the territorial legislature. Among them are

found such one-time Ohioans as James Scott, friend of Thomas Worthington,

pioneer settler along the Scioto, and Adams County judge; Benjamin Cham-

bers, relative and helper of Israel Ludlow and resident of Dayton and Cin-

cinnati; John Paul, businessman, member of the Ohio constitutional con-

vention, and proprietor of Xenia; William Hendricks, Cincinnati lawyer;

Ezra Ferris, Baptist preacher and schoolteacher in Lebanon; and James Dill,

veteran of the Anthony Wayne campaign, Cincinnati businessman, and law

partner in offices of the St. Clair family. These forty-odd sketches represent

a prodigious amount of culling and collecting of information that is generally

obscure and unavailable. As other collections are uncovered and made avail-

able to researchers (e.g., the William Polke papers recently deposited in the

manuscripts division of the Indiana University Library), some of these

sketches can be enlarged. Substantially, however, they are presently of a

definitive nature.

The value of the Journals of the General Assembly of Indiana Territory

has been considerably enhanced by the editorial contributions of Miss Gayle

Thornbrough and Miss Dorothy Riker and the introductory essay of Pro-

fessor Barnhart.

DWIGHT L. SMITH

Ohio State University

• 20
 

434      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

The Valley of the Lower Thames, 1640-1850. By Fred Coyne Hamil.

(Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1951. xi+390p., illustrations and

maps. $5.00.)

This is an intensive study in the local history of the Lower Thames, or

more specifically, of the present County of Kent, a geographical protuberance

of the province of Ontario opposite the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair,

and economically, a part of the Lake Erie region. Kent today is a rich

agricultural section. The river, once a highroad of travel and commerce

and a unifying force, lost much of its importance with the coming of the

railroad in the 1850's.

Beginning with the earliest explorations and the story of the Indians,

the author treats the several waves of settlement that mark the development

of the valley-French Canadians centered around the great marshes, American

Loyalists who came after the Revolution, Moravians eager to Christianize the

natives, Scotch-Highlanders at Baldoon, British and American immigrants,

and Negroes who came via the Underground Railroad. The main events

in the history of this area to 1850 are presented in minute detail, in-

cluding the system of land grants and the troublesome crown and clergy

reserves; the economic development of the region, crops, crafts, and in-

dustry; shipping, stagecoaches, inns, and roads; public health and early

medical practice; the rise of Chatham as "an emporium of the West";

churches, revivals, and missionaries; Indian Wars and the War of 1812;

political unrest which led to local self-government and attacks on the

special privileges of the "Family Compact" in Upper Canada; the Rebellion

of 1837 and its aftermath of border violence; and the eventual achievement

of self-government. Ohioans will find especially interesting those sections

which refer to such prominent individuals as David Zeisberger, Duncan

McArthur, and William Henry Harrison, and to Wayne's advance down

the Maumee, General Hull's inept and ill-fated campaign around Detroit,

the attack on Fort Meigs in which militia from Kent took part, and the

border disturbances of the late 1830's in which people from northern Ohio

and the large lake ports were involved.

The author was trained in the universities of Canada and the United

States and is a native of the region of which he writes so well. At present

he is a member of the department of history of Wayne University. His

book is a model of what can be done with local history as a means to a

better understanding of events that have national and international sig-

nificance. It is based on prodigious and patient research in a mass of

original and secondary sources, and is carefully documented and in-

• 21
 

Book Reviews                           435

terestingly written. The index is excellent, and maps and plates valuable.

The volume meets the highest standards of historical craftsmanship.

CARL WITTKE

Western Reserve University

 

Federal Records of World War II. Vol. I, Civilian Agencies; Vol. II,

Military Agencies. (National Archives Publication No. 51-7. Washington,

D. C., Government Printing Office, 1951. 1073, 1061p. Paper, $2.50 ea.)

Over two thousand pages is a lot of writing just to describe in general

terms the records of one government in one war. But then it is a big govern-

ment, and it was indeed a big war. In fact it has been estimated that the

federal government accumulated over ten million cubic feet of records during

World War II, enough to fill a continuous line of four-drawer file cabinets

reaching all the way from the nation's capital to Chicago. In view of the

neglect and indifference accorded the records of the federal government in

World War I and of the long drawn-out process of putting those that were

preserved in order, the control over the records of World War II indicated

by the publication of this Guide less than six years after the conflict ended

is a tribute to the staff of the National Archives and the records staffs of

the numerous government agencies whose records are described therein.

The Guide is intended to be general only, "so that persons wishing to find

information on particular subjects will be able to determine which, among

many, are the groups of records most likely to contain the information they

desire." More detailed finding media are, in most cases, available in the Na-

tional Archives or in the respective agencies having custody of the records

in question. (Not all records described have been transferred to the National

Archives.) The period covered is generally from the beginning of war in

Europe in 1939 to the completion of demobilization following the surrender

of Japan in 1945.

Volume I, Civilian Agencies, covers the records of such regularly con-

stituted civilian departments and branches of the federal government as

congress, the federal courts, and the various executive departments (except-

ing War and Navy), in so far as their functions embraced matters relating

to national defense. It also covers the records of the numerous emergency

civilian agencies, such as the War Resources Board, Selective Service, the

Office of Production Management, the Office of Price Administration, and

over forty-five other civilian agencies created specifically in response to the

war needs of the country.

• 22
 

436      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

Volume II, Military Agencies, covers the records of the War Department

and the Army; the Navy; the various interallied and interservice military

agencies such as the Combined Chiefs of Staff, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and

the Office of Strategic Services; and the records of the various theaters of

operation including the American, European, Mediterranean, African, Mid-

dle East, China-Burma-India, and Pacific.

For the purpose of description, arrangement in the Guide is by major de-

partment or branch of the federal government; related agencies or other

governmental units are described thereunder. This is a welcome departure

from the procedure usually followed in National Archives guides, namely

the "Record Group" arrangement reflecting the relative order of accession

rather than any logical relationship existing among the various bodies of

records accessioned.

The descriptions of the records of each separate governmental unit are in

two main parts: (1) a brief history of the unit itself and a description of its

functions, particularly as they relate to the war effort; and (2) a descrip-

tion of each specific series of records created by that unit, including such

details as their nature (whether correspondence, reports, minute books, etc.),

how arranged, approximate volume in cubic feet, name of the agency cur-

rently (summer, 1949) having custody of the records, and mention of such

additional sources of information concerning the unit or its records as are

available from books or other library materials.

A most useful feature of the Guide is the comprehensive index to both

volumes appearing at the end of Volume II. That index covers not only the

various designations by which the branches and departments of the Govern-

ment whose records are described are known, but also the names of in-

dividuals mentioned in the descriptions. It also covers the numerous subjects

on which those records contain information. Under "Rubber" and the various

subheads thereunder, for example, are over one hundred entries as well as a

cross reference to "Tires and Tubes." This is the kind of indexing that

makes a guide of real value to the user.

JAMES N. YOUNG

Library & Archives

The Firestone Tire &

Rubber Company

• 23