Book Reviews
William Oxley Thompson, "Evangel
of Education." By James E.
Pollard.
(Columbus: Ohio State University, 1955.
xi??303p.; chronology, biblio-
graphical notes, and index. $5.00.)
William Oxley Thompson's term as
president of Ohio State University
was longer than that of his four
predecessors combined, and longer than
that of his two successors. During his
twenty-six years he brought the uni-
versity from obscurity to a position of respect
in Ohio and the educational
world. His place in the annals of the
university, as one of its greatest presi-
dents, is secure for all time.
Thompson built his notable career by
ability and force of character, for
he had neither family nor influential
friends to boost him up the ladder of
success. His father spent most of his
life at the shoemaker's bench, and the
son was trained in the economics of
poverty. He managed to graduate from
Muskingum College, where he delivered a
commencement oration in Greek,
and from Western Theological Seminary in
Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where
he received a traditional training in
orthodox theology. In 1881 he was
licensed to preach.
After a short stay in Iowa as a home
missionary, the young clergyman
took a church in Colorado, and soon
found himself the president of
Longmont College, a struggling and
short-lived institution. For his ad-
ministrative chores and a teaching
schedule of four hours a day, five days a
week, he received an annual salary of
five hundred dollars. In 1891, when
he was thirty-six, he became president
and professor of history and political
economy at Miami University in Oxford,
Ohio--an institution greatly in
need of resuscitation. Eight years later
Dr. Thompson was chosen president
of Ohio State University. During his
twenty-six year term the student body
grew from 1,268 to 11,535, the faculty
from 113 to 697, and the insti-
tution blossomed into a full-fledged
university.
President Thompson was a highly
respected leader in the conclaves of
the Land Grant College Association and
the National Association of State
Universities, and probably their most
effective protagonist of state supported
196
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
higher education which combined the
vocational with the cultural. During
World War I he was drafted for important
government work; in 1920 he
campaigned for the League of Nations and
served as a member of the
anthracite coal commission. Early in his
career he wrote a weekly column
for his brother's newspaper in Colorado;
in his later years he was president
of a life insurance company, a director
of a bank and several businesses, a
member of the school board of Columbus,
and moderator of his church.
Dr. Pollard has followed this remarkable
career of a great preacher and
educational administrator in detail. He
has examined a mass of source
material, and evaluated it according to
the canons of the historical craft.
He reveals genuine affection for his
subject. The University Development
Fund published the study in
commemoration of the hundredth anniversary
of Dr. Thompson's birth.
Most readers probably will be primarily
interested in the wellsprings of
Dr. Thompson's nature and the reasons
for his success, yet he remains
something of an enigma, for despite his
instinctive friendliness and gener-
osity, he was never demonstrative and
few knew him well. In his young
manhood fate dealt him several blows
which might have warped a man of
lesser mold. Dr. Thompson was a
courteous, yet forceful, gentleman, out-
spoken, sometimes amazingly frank and
uninhibited, with a real sense of
humor. He was not afraid to make
decisions, though he knew they would
be sharply criticized. He also
understood that there is a place for ad-
ministrative inertia, when time is
needed to let crises settle themselves. He
loved to preach and make speeches, and
he did so until within a few weeks
of his death. He was not a flowery
orator, however, nor a coiner of many
unforgettable phrases. His extraordinary
success on the platform and in the
pulpit was due rather to his directness
and integrity, and the sheer physical
power which made his words tumble out
like a torrential mountain stream.
He was a massive person, who combined
dignity with democracy. He read
widely, and subscribed for years for the
London Times and the Manchester
Guardian. And he played baseball occasionally on campus, and
shocked a
number of the faculty by sliding into a
base. He was patient and under-
standing; a man who sought justice
tempered with compassion, and people
knew he could be trusted.
President Thompson was eager to provide
the state with better teachers,
but he did not subscribe to all the
implications of "progressive education."
He was sympathetic toward
intercollegiate athletics, but foresaw some of its
problems and did not live to see the
colossal gladiatorial games of the
BOOK REVIEWS 197
present day. Because he had been a
class-room teacher, he understood the
faculty and was tolerant of its
occasional aberrations. He protected his staff
from outside interference, even when
their views and actions collided with
his own convictions as a theologian and
a lifelong, conservative Republican.
A university, he said, can be free only
when it "neither coerces a man with
reference to his beliefs, nor suppresses
his freedom in the expression of
them." In their memorial resolutions,
the faculty paid him the finest tribute
to which a university administrator may
aspire, by stressing his good sense
and courage in all matters of academic
freedom.
Dr. Pollard's study deals mostly with
President Thompson's official acts,
and his public pronouncements. To read
all his speeches and sermons was
itself a sizable undertaking.
Unfortunately, a chronicle of annual reports and
speeches about land grant colleges and
state universities becomes repetitious
and makes dull reading. In years to
come, historians of the university will
regret that many questions on which they
would like more information,
remain unanswered in this biography. For
example, what were the cir-
cumstances leading to Dr. Thompson's
election to the presidency in 1899?
What were the techniques which made him
so successful in dealing with
trustees, legislatures, and governors?
What were all the forces behind the
early conflicts between the college of
arts and sciences and the new college
of education, and between the homeopaths
and the allopaths in the medical
school? In a number of cases the use of
more collateral materials, including
newspapers, probably would have yielded
interesting sidelights on these issues.
In 1931, after his retirement, Dr. Thompson
journeyed to Mississippi to
look into the troubles between Governor
Bilbo and the state university.
There was a serious issue over academic
freedom on the Ohio State campus
at the same time. The average reader
will feel that either the author should
have said nothing about the incident or
much more. Such omissions are all
the more striking in view of the fact
that the author devoted some pages
to a good analysis of the troubles of
the Columbian Building and Loan As-
sociation, which the retired president
tried to save from utter collapse for
the depositors.
In the closing pages Dr. Pollard proves
his ability to do some really fine
writing. Less emphasis on routine
detail, less slavish adherence to official
records, and more synthesis and
interpretation would have made a good book
a better one and more interesting
reading.
Western Reserve University CARL WITTKE
198
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive
Era, 1910-1917. By Arthur S. Link.
(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1954.
xvii??331p.; illustrations, maps,
essay on sources, and index. $5.00.)
Mr. Link's volume is one of the first to
be issued in the New American
Nation Series, a revival of the name and
purpose of the multi-volume work
edited some fifty years ago by Albert
Bushnell Hart. Harpers has wisely
selected two widely respected American historians,
Henry Steele Commager
and Richard B. Morris, to edit the
series. The ambitious scope of the project
can be realized when one stops to
consider the problems of author selection,
continuity of subject material, and the
vast number of new sources that
must be canvassed, all against the
background of spiraling production costs.
To be at all successful, a multi-volume
history must fall within the purse
limits of serious students; the moderate
unit price of this set will undoubtedly
redound to its credit.
In the volume under consideration the
author has chosen to introduce the
Wilson administration with a brief
resume of the Progressive movement and
a discussion of the personalities and
issues of the three-cornered battle for
the presidency in 1912. The text moves
on immediately with the program
of the New Freedom, the first tottering
steps of Wilsonian foreign policy,
and the impact of World War I on the
nation. The bulk of the discussion
relates to the ever increasing problems
surrounding the shaky position of
American neutrality and the gradual
hardening of opinion before the break
that preceded war.
One of the most impressive features of
Mr. Link's study is the obvious
amount of scholarly research that went
into it. This is no rehash of tired old
secondary material. The author has
sought to examine every possible col-
lection of primary information relating
to his subject, and one cannot help
but admire the care with which these
sources are handled.
If any criticism can be leveled at the
book, it must be directed at the
emphasis Mr. Link places on Wilson
himself. As he suggests in his preface,
this volume is essentially an outline of
a much more detailed three-volume
biography of Wilson that has been in
preparation for some time. It is
natural, therefore, that the author
should center his attention on Wilson and
his immediate circle of advisers. Those
who intend to use this book as a
single reading source on the period
1910-17, even within the limits im-
posed by the title, will be disappointed
with the relatively skimpy treatment
given to other personalities of
importance, including most of the Progressive
leaders, and to many of the less
dramatic pressures and issues of the times.
BOOK REVIEWS 199
As a study of the Wilsonian personality
and the attitudes and actions of
the president, however, Mr. Link's book
deserves a great deal of praise.
Colonial Williamsburg WILLIAM G. KEENER
America's Rise to World Power,
1898-1954. By Foster Rhea Dulles. (New
York: Harper and Brothers, 1955.
xviii??+314p.; illustrations, maps, bibli-
ography, and index. $5.00.)
This book sets a high standard for
subsequent volumes in the New
American Nation Series. In attractive
format, it is readable, informative, and
as scholarly and as sound as any rapid
survey of such a complex and con-
troversial subject is likely to be.
Strictly speaking, this volume is not a
diplomatic history of the United
States since the turn of the century,
for it is concerned only with those
developments in the field of foreign
policy during this period that have
marked this nation's rise to world
power. Even this attempt in one brief
volume called for a high degree of selection
and, as the author recognized,
posed serious problems of omission and
emphasis.
The basic thesis of the book is that the
major goals of American foreign
policy--national security, foreign
trade, and extension of freedom--have
remained unchanged since the nation's
founding, but the policies to imple-
ment these goals have changed radically.
The book's underlying theme is
the continuing conflict between
isolationism and non-isolationism.
Some readers will disagree with
Professor Dulles in both his selection and
treatment. The Latin-American specialist
may feel that his area has been
slighted, and the student of World War
II may wonder why the question
of unconditional surrender, the
Morgenthau Plan, and our relations with
Spain were either omitted or given but
passing comment; the isolationist
will most certainly find himself under
continued and vigorous attack, and
the revisionist will find neither
comfort nor support.
This reader, however, believes that the
author has commendably met the
problems of omission and emphasis. Good
proportion is shown in the ap-
proximately equal number of pages given
the periods of the Spanish-
American War to the close of World War
I, the twenties and thirties, and
since 1940. Professor Dulles, though a
man of conviction, avoids both pallid
objectivity and dogmatic partisanship.
He is clearly an internationalist; he
is appreciative of the isolationist
tradition in American history but he
leaves no doubt that in his opinion,
whatever its merits may have been in
the early years of the country,
isolationism had outlived its usefulness by
200
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the twentieth century. Equally clearly,
he is no revisionist; though granting
possible errors in judgment, he finds
neither plot nor treason at Pearl
Harbor or in the American China policy;
and as for Yalta, he stoutly main-
tains there was no sell-out.
Nearly six hundred footnotes, eighteen
pages of annotated bibliography,
thirty-two illustrations, nine maps,
eight cartoons, and an adequate index
add interest and attraction, value and
usefulness for both the scholar and
the general reader.
University of Oklahoma WILLIAM E. LIVEZEY
Custer's Luck. By Edgar I. Stewart. (Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press,
1955. xvi??522p.; illustrations, maps,
bibliography, and index. $5.95.)
Still another book on the Custer affair
in the valley of the Little Big
Horn River would seem superfluous in
view of the mountain of writings
already produced dealing with this
relatively minor incident in western
history. Professor Edgar I. Stewart of
Eastern Washington State College has
nevertheless essayed the task of telling
the story of the battle as straight-
forwardly as possible, "without
passion or prejudice, utilizing the contribu-
tions of recent scholarship as well as
the accounts of those who wrote many
years ago."
The volume divides into two roughly
equal parts. The first section pro-
vides a survey of the Plains Indians and
United States government policy in
dealing with them. It traces in full
measure the background of the 1876
campaign against the Indians, Custer's
difficulties in Washington immediately
preceding the launching of the
expedition, the wanderings of the tribes, and
the three-pronged military drive under
Generals Alfred Terry and George
Crook and Colonel John Gibbon in the
late spring and summer of 1876.
In close focus the account follows the
movements of the Indians and the
efforts of the army units to locate the
tribes in the Montana-Wyoming
country, shifting back and forth between
them and correlating their move-
ments in time and space.
All of this sets the stage for the
second part of the book, which presents
in thorough, painstaking detail the
journey of the Custer-led Seventh Cavalry
up the valley of Rosebud Creek, over the
Wolf Mountains, and down into
the valley of death along the Little Big
Horn. The evidence on each move
made by Custer's force is carefully
examined and weighed. A supreme, and
on the whole effective, effort is made
to sift the facts from the mass of
biased accounts, memoirs, and
rationalizations that later accumulated about
BOOK REVIEWS 201
the affair. The actions of Custer and
his subordinates are subjected to micro-
scopic examination while the author
analyzes the reasons for the actions and
the possible alternative courses that
might have been pursued.
Professor Stewart cautiously and
judiciously assays the evidence at every
point in the story. Nor is this an easy
task, since so many of the contemporary
accounts--by Indian as well as military
man--were rendered in such a way
as to protect the teller from possible
retaliation or blame, or to enhance his
reputation for courage and foresight.
Often the early accounts were slanted
or distorted out of consideration for
Custer's devoted widow. Years later
many participants recalled aspects of
the affair that they had not seen fit
to relate earlier. Author Stewart wends
his way warily through the welter of
accounts, taking full cognizance of the
time and circumstances in which they
were offered, and arrives at
well-buttressed estimates of the credibility of the
statements. He readily concedes that on
many points the truth is not only
hard to come by but will probably never
be known.
Interpretation is not avoided nor is the
assessing of responsibility for the
debacle. Much blame, the author
maintains, belongs squarely on Custer's
romantic shoulders, first for disobeying
Terry's orders by moving too fast
and too recklessly against the horde of
hostile Indians whose enormous size
Custer knew outnumbered his own force by
a tremendous margin, and
second, for splitting the Seventh
Cavalry into three small detachments. But
Major Marcus Reno also comes in for a
large share of blame for not pushing
his initial attack on the Indian
encampment, an action that might have pre-
vented the Indians from throwing their
entire weight against Custer's small
force; and similarly, blame also
attaches to Captain Fred Benteen for failing
to join Custer when ordered to do so.
This work offers a rich account, broadly
based upon careful reading of the
available evidence, set in full perspective,
and judiciously told. Professor
Stewart has magnificently achieved his
purpose of telling the complete story
of Custer's tragedy "without
passion or prejudice."
Oberlin College DAVID LINDSEY
Lincoln the President: Last Full
Measure. By J. G. Randall and Richard
N.
Current. (New York: Dodd, Mead and
Company, 1955. xi??421p.; il-
lustrations, bibliography, and index.
$7.50.)
This is the fourth and final volume of
J. G. Randall's great biographical
study of Lincoln. The Last Full
Measure covers roughly the last year of the
presidency, the period from the spring
of 1864 to the fatal day in April
202
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
1865, though there is some reaching back
into earlier years in order to de-
velop certain aspects of foreign affairs
and public relations. Since Randall
wished his biography to be concerned
with the living Lincoln only, there is
no attempt to treat the assassination
and its aftermath.
Lincoln and Randall had at least one
characteristic in common--an un-
usual capacity for growth and
development--and this quality of both the
biographer and his subject is amply
demonstrated in the present volume.
To be sure, the whole of Lincoln's
presidency was an ordeal, but no period
called for greater patience,
forbearance, and wisdom than the last year.
Although the Union had built up its
forces to overwhelming strength and
had succeeded in putting the South on
the defensive, Lincoln had to sit in
the White House during the summer of
1864 and read the dreary accounts
of Grant's sledgehammer blows against
Lee's defenses--apparently futile
assaults accompanied by frightful
losses. If there were slaughter and seeming
stalemate at the front, there were
division and dissatisfaction at home. The
long and frequent casualty lists gave
rise to public clamor for replacement of
Grant, "the butcher of Cold
Harbor." On the one hand there were dis-
loyalty and copperheadism, and on the
other the honest advocacy of a nego-
tiated peace, all of which had to be
dealt with. There was widespread and
not unjustified grumbling over the unfair
and unequal draft laws. Dis-
affection reached even into the official
family of the president, the chief
offender being Salmon P. Chase, the
secretary of the treasury, who was
scheming and plotting to gain the
nomination for himself. Amid all this
the American people were called upon to
assess their leadership. Though
Lincoln was caricatured as a buffoon and
clown (among other things) and
though he himself thought he "would
probably lose," the election of 1864
brought victory to the so-called Union
Party. The election vindicated
Lincoln's leadership, but it did not
discourage the opposition within his own
party. As the Union armies gradually but
surely tightened their hold over
the South, the radicals in congress
began to unfold their plans for re-
construction. Lincoln probably never
realized the full extent of their vin-
dictiveness, but he was painfully aware
of, and tried as best he could to
assuage, the forces of hatred and
vengeance that had been let loose by the
war. In the midst of all his official
cares he found little or no relief in his
personal family life, for Mrs. Lincoln
was becoming more and more nervous
and unstable, though the authors suggest
that the president probably never
realized that his wife was bordering on
insanity.
For months the only bright spot in an
otherwise gloomy picture was in
the field of foreign affairs. Under
Seward's erratic but usually able leadership
BOOK REVIEWS 203
the threat of foreign intervention was
past, and by and large the United
States was getting along well with other
nations. By February and March of
1865, also, the military situation saw
further improvement. The policy of
massive assault on broad fronts was at
last paying off, and it was apparent
that the Confederacy must soon give in.
The news of Lee's surrender came
in April and, though it lifted a great
burden from Lincoln's shoulders, he
felt no sense of exhilaration or
exultation. The victory had been too costly
and it brought with it too many
problems. In short, this last year of Lincoln's
life was the supreme test, and it
brought to full flower his best qualities:
his patience amid disappointments and
failures, his tolerance of human
weaknesses, and above all his balance
and reason untainted by hatred or
vanity. This indeed was his finest hour.
Professor Randall, whose entire
scholarly life was, in a sense, a preparation
for this volume, was not permitted to
carry it to a conclusion. At the time of
his death, early in 1953, he had
completed eight of the sixteen chapters but
had left only a bare outline of what was
to follow. He had also indicated
that he wished his colleague, Richard
Current, to carry the work to com-
pletion. This Mr. Current has done with
admirable success: there is no
jarring disparity between the first half
and the last half of the book so
far as this reviewer can detect. The
volume indicates the ripe scholarship
and deep understanding of Randall and
the skill and dexterity of Current.
If it does not quite rise to the
occasion, if it does not fully meet the chal-
lenge, perhaps it is because the
challenge requires something more than the
abilities of learned and thorough historians.
It would require as well the
talents of a supreme literary artist.
Ohio State University HARRY L. COLES
Lincoln and the Bluegrass: Slavery
and Civil War in Kentucky. By William
H. Townsend. (Lexington: University of
Kentucky Press, 1955. xiv??
392p.; bibliographical notes and index.
$6.50.)
Although only the very youthful years of
Lincoln were spent in Kentucky,
the author points out many factors that
kept this native son in frequent
contact with the Bluegrass. Among these
factors were occasional visits to
Kentucky, wide acquaintance with Mary
Todd's numerous friends, the ever
present Lexington Observer in the
Lincoln home in Illinois and an in-
creasing number of political friends as
Lincoln's political horizon broadened.
204
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The author is at his best in describing
life and society in the early Blue-
grass and in his portrayal of
personalities. Considerable attention is paid to
the Lincoln and Todd families,
respectively; to numerous cases involving
litigation; to the cultural life of the
Lexington region; and to the institution
of slavery and the differences of
opinion concerning it. The darker side of
slavery, as illustrated by slave
auctions and punishment, receives the most
emphasis, and, in the controversy over
it Cassius M. Clay and Dr. Robert J.
Breckinridge, strong antislavery
leaders, are evidently Mr. Townsend's heroes.
Little is said of the impact of northern
abolitionism upon the controversy in
this border state. The author feels that
Lincoln's hostility to the institution
was intensified by his contacts with it
in Kentucky and by the developments
concerning it there.
The descending of war clouds and the
ensuing controversy over secession
in this divided state; the pitting of
brother against brother and the com-
plicated situation for President Lincoln
arising from the fact that most
members of the Todd family were active
southern sympathizers are matters
well handled. The president's lenient
policy toward secessionist sympathizers
is amply illustrated, but the highly
controversial point of the use of federal
troops in the congressional elections of
1862 is not mentioned.
The author's work is less satisfactory
when he leaves Kentucky and deals
with phases of American history
elsewhere. His discussion of the organi-
zation of the territory of Arkansas in
1818 in connection with Lincoln's
views on slavery in the territories (pp.
216-218) indicates an apparent lack
of understanding that congress had, at
earlier dates, specifically refrained
from applying the antislavery provision
of the Northwest Ordinance to cer-
tain territories. An explanation, which
is lacking, of how the race question
became so involved in the
Lincoln-Douglas debates and of the basis upon
which Douglas claimed Lincoln favored
racial equality would give rise to
the question as to whether the latter's
answer on that point was "clear and
convincing" (p. 230). The author
seems to accept without question the
version of the Kansas-Nebraska act given
by its contemporary critics, and
nowhere is there any reflection of the
implications of that measure as given
by many modern scholars.
The book is written in fascinating
style, and it contains many interesting
illustrations. The footnotes are placed
in the back, a current tendency with
which the reviewer is not in accord. The
index, in some cases, lacks thorough-
ness as a guide to the subjects listed.
Ohio State University HENRY H. SIMMS
BOOK REVIEWS 205
Three Years With Grant, As Recalled
by War Correspondent Sylvanus
Cadwallader. Edited and with an introduction and notes by Benjamin
P.
Thomas. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1955. xiv??353??viiip.; maps
and index. $4.75.)
One might have assumed that all
eye-witness and first-hand accounts of
the Civil War on a highly authoritative
level, had been published long ago.
But now, in the midst of several
estimable books based on research long
years after the event, comes Three Years
With Grant by Sylvanus Cad-
wallader, perhaps the most eminent of
the newspaper correspondents who
covered that conflict, culled from a
manuscript resurrected from the vaults
of the Illinois Historical Society and
published for the first time.
Cadwallader, employed first as war
correspondent by the Chicago Times
and later as correspondent in chief of
the New York Herald, was attached
to Grant's headquarters from before
Vicksburg to the fateful day at Ap-
pomattox Court House. Actually, and
amazingly, Cadwallader virtually had
the privileges of a staff officer, being
privy to many of the top-flight con-
ferences and confidences, having
unrestricted access to headquarters, going
on missions for Grant, sending his
dispatches sometimes in official pouches,
being supplied with credentials from
Grant which superseded credentials
and orders of all other general
officers, and privileged to use military boats,
in fact, being in a position to
"pull rank" under almost every conceivable
circumstance.
To a newspaper man, the narrative of
methods of gathering and dis-
patching news under the circumstances of
this greatest of all wars fought
on the American continent is a
revelation and a romance. But Three Years
With Grant far transcends such parochial interest. It is a
valuable contri-
bution to the mounting biographical
material on Grant as well as a com-
mentary on the conduct of the war.
Perhaps the most comment excited by Three
Years With Grant will arise
from Cadwallader's frank account of his
first-hand experience with Grant's
overindulgence in alcohol from time to
time. Grant's use of liquor has been
a matter of national discussion since it
first was employed in an effort to
discredit him by his enemies and other
partisans in his earliest campaigns.
It is almost as if the public were
perpetually determined to wring the last
drop of information on the matter--and
in Cadwallader's account, they
would seem to have gotten it.
In the campaign leading up to Vicksburg,
Cadwallader had a startling ex-
perience with Grant's excessive
indulgence, interposed his personal efforts
to head the general off, protected him
from widespread public detection in
one of the general's sorriest moments,
earned the eternal gratitude of Grant--
206
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and what was equally important that of
Rawlins, Grant's chief aide. It was
partly because of Cadwallader's
continuing role of watchdog over Grant's
drinking, but to a larger degree his
repeatedly demonstrated reliability and
dependability in all matters connected
with his handling of even the touchiest
news with respect to the prosecution of
the war, that he gained his great
prestige and power at the front, was
permitted the broadest discretion, and
assisted the New York Herald in
establishing itself as the most authoritative
source on news of the war.
Cadwallader had personal contacts with
all of the general officers of the
Union army who in any wise were
associated with Grant, including those
other Ohioans, Sherman and Sheridan. He
analyzes Meade, Halleck, and
the others. He saw Lincoln on several
occasions at the front and once carried
captured Confederate colors to him on
Grant's orders. He even has some
passing observations on Mrs. Lincoln. He
saw Lee at Appomattox and the
day after and describes vividly the
surrender scene.
In view of the popularty of best-selling
Andersonville, the prodigious
novel by McKinley Kantor, Cadwallader's
authentic statements regarding the
North's policy against exchange of
prisoners in the latter part of the war is
interesting and re-enforcing.
Three Years With Grant, in addition to its appraisal of personalities, is
a civilian's picture of how the war was
fought at the command level and
how the individual Union soldier fared.
And mention should be made of
the fact that Cadwallader, like Grant,
Sherman, and Sheridan, was a native
of Ohio.
Ohio State Journal KARL B. PAULY
Civil War in Pictures. By Fletcher Pratt. (New York: Henry Holt and Com-
pany, 1955. 256p.; illustrations.
$10.00.)
This big picture book supplements four
recent accounts of Civil War
journalism: Bernard A. Weisberger's Reporters
for the Union (1953), Louis
M. Starr's vivid Bohemian Brigade (1954),
J. Cutler Andrews' The North
Reports the Civil War (1955)--the most comprehensive and solid of them--
and Emmet Crozier's Yankee Reporters,
1861-65 (1956). Mr. Pratt's book,
however, is not another tale of newsmen
at work, but a piecing to-
gether of a history of the war from
contemporary newspaper pictures and re-
ports. From the files of Harper's
Weekly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated
Newspaper, and hence from the northern viewpoint, he has selected
about
three hundred on-the-spot battle
sketches and scores of news reports. He sup-
plies his own continuity for them and
salts the mixture with ironic hind-
BOOK REVIEWS 207
sights upon their varying degrees of
accuracy. The title of the volume does
not make clear that Mr. Pratt gives
large space to sorting out "the constant
interplay of misestimates and accurate
insights" in the editors' week-to-week
understanding of the war's events.
The civilian's picture of the fighting
from 1861 to 1865 depended not so
much upon the camera, which then made
only time exposures incapable of
being directly reproduced, but upon the
sketchpads of artist-correspondents,
whose pictures, delivered in New York,
could be reduced to woodcuts for
printing. Artistically their work was
often crude, but an occasional brilliant
drawing stands out in these pages, such
as Winslow Homer's sketch of a
federal sniper propped in a pine tree,
squinting with deadly concentration
through his telescopic sights.
Starting with some naive
suppositions--for example that infantry attacked
in parade-ground formations, or that
running horses bounded as on a merry-
go-round--the artists became more
realistic as the war went on, and oc-
casionally bested the written news in
accuracy. There were, however, long
lapses between a battle and its
depiction in the New York papers, more than
three weeks in the case of nearby Gettysburg;
and some important actions,
such as Sherman's march through Georgia,
did not get pictured at all.
This is a popular book, not a scholarly
one. Mr. Pratt's style is attractive
and his simplification of the war's
complexities is expert. But the reader
must be nimble, for the text constantly
changes subject abruptly, and its
relation to the accompanying pictures is
not always clear. Though mostly
objective and well proportioned, it is
invaded by some personal enthusiasms.
Ships make good pictures certainly, but
the author, a naval historian, would
seem to have been over-partial in the
space he gives to their role in the
fighting; and he has more patience than
some of his readers will have for
lingering critically upon General George
McClellan's character and political
career. Unfortunately there is no index,
nor note about the source of quo-
tations and pictures, nor any kind of
map.
The only depiction of Ohio men (p. 154)
shows the 73d Ohio Volunteers
charging with bayonets in Lookout
Valley, before Chattanooga, on October
28, 1863.
University of Illinois (Chicago) JAMES B. STRONKS
The Age of Reform: From Bryan to
F.D.R. By Richard Hofstadter. (New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955. viii??328??xxp.;
index. $4.50.)
This is a study of the ideas of the
Populists and Progressives, inspired,
we are told, "by the need for a new
analysis from the perspective of our
208
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
time." The "new analysis"
is critical, the "perspective" is from the liberal,
"realist" point of view. The
author, professor of history at Columbia Uni-
versity, is skeptical of the
abstractions, "moralizing," and the "soft policy,"
in which Populists and Progressives too
often indulged. This, however, is
not a slashing, debunking work. The
author does not claim too much for
his opinions; also he is quick to salve
the wounds he has opened by healing
concessions. His primary concerns are
Populism and Progressivism, that is,
the general movements of protest
associated with those terms, not merely
the People's Party or the Bull Moosers.
The New Deal, which has been
treated in a single chapter, was
included, he explains, to provide comparisons
and contrasts by which the other two may
be better understood.
Professor Hofstadter has subjected the
ideas and intellectual attitudes of
the Populists to a rigorous re-examination.
At the outset he concedes the
significance of their contributions in
attacking the evils of industrialism,
stirring the latent liberalism,
insisting upon the federal government's re-
sponsibility for the common welfare, and
devising a program of reforms,
which later served the Progressives. But
what distress him are the strains of
provincialism, nativism, and bellicose
patriotism, and the tincture of anti-
Semitism in Populist thought. His
supporting evidence is fresh to present-
day readers, including a resume of a
fantastic anti-utopian novel by Ignatius
Donnelly and a chauvinistic essay from
the pen of Mary Elizabeth Lease.
He admits that such illiberal attitudes
have accompanied other reform waves
and that conservatives of the time
shared them too. Still he cannot ignore
such blemishes, particularly as they
have been often overlooked.
He punctures the agrarian myth which has
been a favorite not only of the
Populists but of Americans generally.
This is the notion that the yoeman
farmer is the ideal citizen, the source
of national virtue, and as such entitled
to the special concern and protection of
the government. The myth is traced
from Thomas Jefferson to Calvin
Coolidge. Oddly enough, it appears to
have become more tenaciously held as it
became more fictional. In reality,
the author insists, American farming has
become a commercial venture and
the values of the farmer are
indistinguishable from those of the businessman.
Both have developed the speculative
temper, the acquisitive instinct.
Although Professor Hofstadter's
strictures on Progressivism are less sharp,
he finds some of the same flaws in its
thought. He criticizes the similar
tendency to oversimplify problems and
cures, to adhere rigidly to moral
absolutes, and to shun political and
economic realities. He argues that the
Progressives placed too much trust in
the rightness of their inherited Yankee-
Protestant ethic and were, therefore,
unable to understand the needs of the
BOOK REVIEWS 209
European immigrant workers who held to a
clashing set of beliefs. Further-
more, the Progressives' faith in the
efficacy of their campaigns against bosses
and trusts was misplaced, because it did
not fit the political and economic
facts of the time.
A suggestive and useful contribution to
the dynamics of Progressivism is
the author's thesis that a key segment
of the leadership was motivated not
by economic deprivation but by the
status revolution which occurred after
the Civil War. These were men of the
Mugwump type, old gentry, mer-
chants, small manufacturers, clergy,
educators, and lawyers, who were con-
scious that the deference and power
their kind had once enjoyed was being
transferred to the newly rich, the
masters of the great corporations. They
wished to reassert their
Yankee-Protestant ideals and regain their lost prestige
by once again assuming civic leadership.
Unlike the old Mugwumps, they
were willing to accept state
intervention, to trust popular government, and
even to join with the Populists.
While denying the economic motivation of
this group, the author does
not dismiss economic considerations
altogether. He contends that much of
the lower middle class support for
Progressivism was inspired by the rising
cost of living, which was attributed to
the accelerated expansion of trusts
and labor unions. This is the first
instance of the unorganized urban con-
sumers asserting themselves as a self-conscious
force in American politics.
There seem to this reviewer certain
weaknesses in the author's analysis of
Progressivism. He makes only brief,
cursory references to the movement at
the state and municipal levels. Had he
made a close study of these, he
would not have overemphasized the ideal
of the neutral state in Progressive
thinking. Certainly the civic revival in
the cities was an effort to have
government play a positive role in
enriching the lives of its citizens. Nor
would he have found such a sharp
contrast between Progressivism and the
New Deal. Such municipal and state
reformers as Hazen Pingree, Tom
Johnson, James Cox, Robert LaFollette,
and Mark Fagan were, like the
New Dealers, experimental and pragmatic
in approach, politically realistic
in working with self-interested
politicians, and friendly to labor and the
underprivileged. The difference is less
than Professor Hofstadter insists upon.
This book is a pleasure to read because
of its lively prose and lucidity of
expression. It is grounded on wide
reading in monographs and a substantial
sampling of journals of opinion. There
is no indication that fresh manu-
script material was used. It is evident
that more primary histories of the
Populist and Progressive movements in
the states and cities need to be
written and published to make such
syntheses as this one more accurate and
210
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
meaningful. There is no separate
bibliography, though footnote citations are
extensive. The footnote commentary seems
too voluminous to this reviewer.
The index is comprehensive.
Kenyon College LANDON WARNER
A
Bibliography of Indiana Imprints, 1804-1853. By Cecil K. Byrd and
Howard H. Peckham. (Indianapolis:
Indiana Historical Bureau, 1955.
xxi??479p.; author and subject index and
printers and publishers index.
$10.00.)
This scrupulously edited list of
imprints represents the first fifty years of
printing, exclusive of the periodical
press, in the state of Indiana. As such
it marks the culmination of efforts that
began in the thirties with Mary
Alden Walker's The Beginnings of
Printing in the State of Indiana
(1934) and the ubiquitous Douglas
McMurtrie's Indiana Imprints 1804-1849
(1937). The unpublished records of the
Federal Imprints Inventory of the
Historical Records Survey were also
consulted, although the usefulness of
this source was limited by its
incompleteness and by errors in its listings.
After careful investigation the editors
produced a bibliography of nearly
two thousand imprints (1,984 plus 25
unlocated items). Locations are listed
for the entries. Besides books and
pamphlets the bibliography includes a
representative listing of sheet music
and broadsides. Here the coverage is
not intended to be comprehensive, but
the items included are interesting and
diversified and may serve to attract
attention to these relatively neglected
sources.
An imprint bibliography of this sort is
more than a listing of titles of
specimens of rare and obscure Americana.
It is a chart of the development
of a representative midwestern state
from a raw frontier community to a
relatively stable industrialized
society. In the first years the concerns of the
settlers are limited. The editors quote
Dennis Hanks's observation on the
culture of the Hoosier state in pioneer
days: "We lived the same as Indians
'cepting we took an interest in politics
and religion." Law and politics and
religion are the categories which emerge
from the scanty publications of
the first years of printing. Among the
religious groups the Baptists, sur-
prisingly, were the most active in
publishing. Their output alone accounts
for more than a fifth of the listings in
the bibliography. In contrast, the
Methodists, who were strong in the West
during this period, are represented
by only a few titles. In this case the
bibliography is not representative of the
relative strength of the two groups,
since the book and periodical publishing
BOOK REVIEWS 211
needs of the Methodists were supplied
from outside the state by the Western
Methodist Book Concern, established in
Cincinnati in 1820, and by a Phila-
delphia concern earlier.
Beginning with the 1820's a rapid
diversification of titles is apparent.
Promotional literature and legal
documents reflect the period of road and
canal building, activities that subsided
as the interest in railroad building
mounted toward its peak in the 1850's.
Other titles tell of the struggle for
common schools and the establishment of
the first colleges, of the temperance
movement, of abolitionism, of
experiments in community living, and of
other reform movements of the pre-Civil
War decades; sheet music and
broadsides announcing tent shows and
lectures are symptomatic of popular
taste and interests in the period. The
first novel "published" in the state was
The Cottagers of Glenburnie, A Scotch
Novel, by Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton.
Actually a reprint of an 1808 Edinburgh
publication, this title was issued
in South Hanover in 1835. The dearth of
fiction and poetry in the Indiana
list can be partially explained by the
fact that whatever needs existed could
be supplied from such nearby large
regional centers as Cincinnati for the
Ohio Valley and Chicago for the northern
part of the state.
Indianapolis was slow in emerging as the
publishing center for the state.
It did not become the largest city until
after 1850, when the growth of the
railroads favored it because of its
central location. The leading early pub-
lishing centers were Vincennes, where
Elihu Stout set up the state's first
press in 1804, Madison, Hanover, New
Harmony, and Richmond. Of these
the most impressive in terms of range of
ideas and of subjects treated were
the Quaker press in Richmond, which
dates from 1822, and the press at
New Harmony, which, beginning in 1825,
issued publications in numerous
fields, including the natural sciences,
education, music, and social theory.
The bibliography is well indexed, with
separate listings for authors and
subjects and for printers, publishers,
and printing offices.
Syracuse University WALTER SUTTON
The American Collector: Four Essays
Commemorating the Draper Centennial
of the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, 1954. Edited by Donald R.
McNeil. (Madison: State Historical
Society of Wisconsin, 1955. [viii]??
61p. $2.00.)
The four addresses which comprise this
little book were delivered before
the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin on Founders Day, 1955. They are
part of the society's celebration of the
life and deeds of Lyman C. Draper a
212
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
century after he became secretary of the
society and sixty-four years after
his death.
In "Draper's Predecessors and
Contemporaries," Lyman H. Butterfield
sketches the histories of some of the
eighteenth and nineteenth-century
American collectors of manuscripts. Mr.
Butterfield is a competent editor
and an experienced reader of original
historical manuscripts. My guess is
that most of the many manuscripts he has
used during his career have been
at his command only because a collector
saved them. It seems to me un-
fortunate that he should characterize
collectors as a "misguided race of men."
Roy P. Basler's comments on "The
Modern Collector" are especially in-
teresting. His title implies a
definitive discourse on an extremely complex
kind of person, but he makes no attempt
to take on such an awe-inspiring
task. What he gives charmingly and
authoritatively is an account of his
personal associations with one kind of
manuscript collector, that is, the
Lincoln enthusiast.
Donald R. McNeil's report of "The
Wisconsin Experiments" is heartening
news. The general neglect by historical
societies and private collectors of
recent and current manuscripts is
distressing. Here, at last, is a concise re-
port of the start made by the State
Historical Society of Wisconsin to preserve
manuscripts which are not yet antique.
It is a matter deserving more attention.
Alice E. Smith's survey of "The Draper
Manuscripts" is a fascinating,
rapid excursion through one of this
country's most exciting collections of
manuscripts. Miss Smith knows the
collection intimately and has chosen her
illustrations well. Her essay makes
absorbing reading and is certainly the
best tribute in the volume to Lyman C.
Draper.
Cleveland, Ohio COLTON STORM
The Stark County Story. By Edward Thornton Heald. Volume IV, Part 1,
Free People at Work, 1917-1955. (Canton, Ohio: Stark County Historical
Society, 1955. xv??856p.; illustrations
and index. $11.00.)
Mr. Heald and the Stark County
Historical Society are to be congratulated
on the publication of this fourth volume
of The Stark County Story. This
unique venture, reproducing with only
slight editorial revision an extended
series of historical broadcasts prepared
with painstaking care by Mr. Heald,
the society's historian, assembles a
great mass of historic fact and presents
it in convenient form. While the organization
of this material is episodic
or topical, as befits a radio program,
the introduction and occasional cross
references help to tie the various parts
of the story together.
BOOK REVIEWS 213
The scripts included in this volume are
numbered 232 to 301. Each treats
a separate company or special group
activity, such as that of the local C.I.O.,
or the A.F. of L., or the Automobile
Club. Sometimes the development, like
that of area shopping centers, is placed
in the broader setting of national
trends, but more generally the materials
are strictly local with a considerable
amount of detail on the individuals
involved, showing the results of per-
sonal interviews and other earnest
research efforts.
In addition to the scripts dealing more
directly with the economy of the
city of Canton, which celebrated its
sesquicentennial in 1955, this volume
includes those treating a dozen
different minority groups as well as other
sections on "home talent
culture" and on educational and social activities in
the region during the years since 1917.
A profusion of illustrations and maps,
which crowd 125 plates, contributes
pictorial detail to this broad panoramic
view of a vigorously growing industrial
city. Not only will alert citizens in
the community find much of interest here
on all walks of life in this
neighborhood, but years hence a
historian of Canton will delight to find such
full documentation of the period already
assembled for his study and in-
terpretation. The bibliography, which
lists numerous citations for each script,
runs to 20 closely printed pages, while
the index, still more closely packed
in three columns, occupies 34 pages,
further demonstrating the prodigious
labors of the compiler of this 870-page
volume.
City of Rochester BLAKE MCKELVEY
The Living Past of America: A
Pictorial Treasury of Our Historic Houses
and Villages That Have Been Preserved
and Restored. By Cornelius
Vanderbilt, Jr. (New York: Crown
Publishers, 1955. xiv??234p.; illus-
trations and index. $5.95.)
The Fifty Best Historic American
Houses, Colonial and Federal, Now Fur-
nished and Open to the Public. By Ralph E. Carpenter, Jr. (New York:
E. P. Dutton and Company, 1955. 112p.;
illustrations. $2.75.)
Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., apparently
can afford to indulge himself, as
few of us can, in those pleasures he
chooses. I must say that I greatly ad-
mire, and perhaps envy, him in one of
his choicest delights, that of traveling
about this country enjoying and studying
its historic sites. What great fun
Mr. Vanderbilt must have had the past
several years, journeying from coast
to coast in his trailer, lecturing,
writing, doing research, and, perhaps best of
all, visiting those birthplaces, homes,
shops, villages, and other landmarks
which, Mr. Vanderbilt suggests, are
"fundamentally the American tradition"!
214
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
But Mr. Vanderbilt determined two or
three years ago to share his won-
derful privilege with all of us with a
similar interest who can afford $5.95
for a book or who have a library card.
With the cooperation of Crown
Publishers, Inc., he produced The
Living Past of America, a handsome, ex-
tensively illustrated volume presenting
"a comprehensive panoramic view of
the country's historic places,
representative of the thousands of such shrines,
landmarks, early homes, buildings and
villages that Americans treasure."
The book offers information on and
pictures of more than two hundred
historic spots in forty-three states and
the District of Columbia. It should
serve as an admirable guide for
tourists. At the end of the volume Mr.
Vanderbilt has included a lengthy list
of historic preservations in each state,
with a key to the historic significance
and period of each property. The places
treated in the book are those Mr.
Vanderbilt liked, and, in most cases, they
are places most Americans interested in
our nation's history would also like.
The Ohio sites included are the Rufus
Putnam House at Marietta; U. S.
Grant's birthplace at Mt. Pleasant;
Thomas Edison's birthplace at Milan;
Zoar Village at Zoar; Schoenbrunn Village
near New Philadelphia; Haw-
thorn Hill, the home of Orville Wright,
at Dayton; Rubicon Homestead,
the Patterson family home, also at
Dayton; and Adena, the home of Thomas
Worthington, at Chillicothe.
Mr. Carpenter's Fifty Best Historic
American Houses of the Colonial and
Federal periods also presents a personal
selection, this time based, however,
on a "combined 'score' of
historical association, architectural interest, and the
furnishing of the interior." The
little volume gives a photograph of each of
the houses, with a brief commentary on
the significance of each in terms of
its history, architecture, and
furnishings. Each of his houses is now furnished
and open to the public.
It is perhaps worth noting that all of
Mr. Carpenter's fifty best houses
are in New England, the Middle Atlantic
States, Maryland, Virginia, and the
District of Columbia. It would seem safe
to assume that most of the authori-
ties in the field would not agree with
all of the author's choices. It would
seem also that he may have been
presumptuous in deciding that his fifty were
the best in the whole country, thus
eliminating fine homes in the South, the
Middle West, and the Southwest, and the
early French homes in the lower
Mississippi Valley.
It is true, however, that the East from
Virginia northward has shown
greater interest than the other regions
in preserving its distinctive historic
homes, and has opened them to the
public, well restored and well furnished.
In the South not many of the best
colonial homes have been opened to the
BOOK REVIEWS 215
public, and in the Old Northwest and the
Mississippi Valley those beautiful
homes of the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries which have been
opened, have been denied the furnishings
that they deserve.
While Mr. Carpenter's selections
possibly do display a bit of provincialism,
they reveal also to the discriminating
observer that many states have not
given a full measure of devotion to
those lovely homes which are a valuable
and beautiful part of the American
tradition.
Ohio Historical Society JAMES H. RODABAUGH
Prehistory of the Upper Ohio Valley:
An Introductory Archeological Study.
By William J. Mayer-Oakes.
Anthropological Series, No. 2. Annals of
Carnegie Museum, Vol. 34. (Pittsburgh:
Carnegie Museum, 1955. ii??
296p.; illustrations, references,
recommendations, appendices, and index.
Cloth, $5.00; paper, $4.00.)
This book is concerned with the results
of the initial phase of an archae-
ological reconnaissance and survey of
the upper Ohio Valley made in 1950,
1951, and 1952, and is of particular
importance in providing the first syn-
thesis of a poorly understood area.
Following the Preface, a "brief
popular summary" of the prehistory of
the area, supplemented with drawings and
excellent maps, is presented and
described within six periods of time
(Historic, Late Prehistoric, Middle
Woodland, Early Woodland, Archaic, and
Paleo-Indian). Subsequent sec-
tions present the background and history
of the survey; methods and tech-
niques employed, including the
reproduction of forms used in the survey;
physiography, climate, soils, animal and
plant life; archaeological history of
the region; and analytical procedures.
The largest section of the volume is
devoted to descriptive analysis and
interpretation of the artifacts and
features which are "arranged by four
major drainages in the area and within
these by the time periods (epochs)."
Like previous sections it is well
organized and profusely illustrated. This
is followed by a detailed ceramic
analysis, with fifteen pottery types de-
scribed. The ceramic concept and the
serration method are briefly discussed
and applied to the 23,525 potsherds
recovered in the survey. Professional
archaeologists and particularly students
should heed this little "exercise."
In the "interpretative
summary" the author brings together all known
data and presents line-drawings of
typical artifacts for the major epochs in
the area.
Five appendices include a summary of the
sites, a list of informants by
216
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
county, a list of illustrations and
tables, and definitions of terms used.
"Recommendations" briefly
lists seven internal problems and five external
problems for solution.
The author should be complimented for an
excellent piece of work and
for the distinct contribution to our
knowledge of the upper Ohio Valley.
It is indeed the basis for future
work rather than a "framework," as the
author so modestly states.
Ohio Historical Society RAYMOND S. BABY
Search for Purpose. By Arthur E. Morgan. (Yellow Springs, Ohio: Antioch
Press, 1955. ix??197p.; bibliography and
index. $3.00.)
This is a success story, though one with
a difference. The author, dis-
tinguished engineer, administrator of
public affairs, and educator, ignores
these outward manifestations of success
and examines his life in terms of a
relentless search for human purpose, for
meaningfulness, beginning with his
boyhood, when, as he states it, "I
became imbued with the idea that
nothing was more important than that I
should get general direction, pur-
pose and motivation for my life"
(p. 6).
The directing value of an idea seriously
held has perhaps never been more
excitingly illustrated than in this
writing. Mr. Morgan is blessed with almost
total recall of years that add up for
most of us to little more than a general
blur of passing days in which no central
purpose was sensed and no need for
one was felt. Not many, for instance,
would write: "By the age of nine I had
acquired a strong purpose to commit
myself without reserve to achieving a
good way of life, which at that time I
took to be the pattern of belief and
conduct of the evangelical Protestant
church in which I was growing up"
(p. 8). And of the few who would, but a
small percentage could suggest
that their boyish curiosity (Mr. Morgan
assures us that his curiosity ranged
far and wide at this point) led them to
speculate about the meaning of
such theological phrasings as "God
is all-powerful, . . . there is nothing he
cannot do" (p. 9).
Arthur Morgan's speculation was no mere
speculative idleness, however.
He enjoyed solitude, not because he did
not enjoy playmates but because
in the woods he loved he found pleasure
in mulling over problems his
reading and experience had posed. The
author was obviously a purposeful
young man, moving, throughout the years
of boyhood and young manhood,
from problems to books, to reflective
solitude, to experience, to further
problems, and on and on. The answers he
reached in this continuing process
BOOK REVIEWS 217
stirred further speculation. They did
not end it. It is not surprising, there-
fore, that such a young man, in his
later years, would look back upon a
town library that "was an
exceptionally fine collection of the world's great
literature" as "a precious
window onto life and thought." The library, he
recalls, "was like foster parents
to me"; it was "a whole congregation of
friends" (p. 9).
As was true of many another of his
generation, the author found the
doctrine of evolution in conflict with
the beliefs of his church. From this
conflict arose the following
"clean-cut question: is it right to inquire, or
should one suppress his inquiry to
maintain his faith?" (p. 10). Questions
of this character are seldom so
clear-cut for young people, and, unfortunately,
adults seldom help in their
clarification. The educational significance of this
failure does not escape the author,
though he does not mention it explicitly.
His book is written, however, in the
hope that it will help others, especially
young people, find meaning in their
lives. In any event, Arthur Morgan had
come upon a question of such moment that
he can now say, "Never in the
more than sixty years since then have I
applied myself more intensively and
unremittingly, or with more complete
sincerity, to any question" (p. 11).
After more than a year of struggle and
against the urging of religious ad-
visers he respected, he found his
answer. It was: "I decided for free inquiry"
(p. 11; my italics).
This decision was reached in 1894, and,
as the remaining pages of this
small but exciting book make clear, it
became the dominant theme of a
life which, however engaged in the going
affairs of men, has never deviated
from it. Mr. Morgan initiated his search
early. He has continued it. His
guiding principle opened a world to
explore; it did not give him a world
complete. "It seems to me," he
says, in reflecting upon the years of his
search, "that there is one supreme
virtue a man may have. It is loyalty to
the adventure of life. If there is one
supreme disloyalty, one greatest course
of treason, possible to men, it is that
in this great adventure, this struggle,
this searching for a good way of life,
we do not do the best we can. To be
a dilettante, playing with life, is
treason." And to this he adds: "As we
travel through life we must learn by
experience where the values of living
lie. We must learn about desirable
experiences by having them. As to what
constitutes purposeful living, great
tolerance of judgment is appropriate"
(p. 191). Obviously, the commitment of
1894 was a solid one.
Those who equate the search for purpose
with an acceptance by others
of that which they affirm will find the
conclusions reached here somewhat
disturbing. Those of totalitarian
inclination, of course, will reject them. They
218
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
give neither comfort nor quarter to
those who wish to organize society in
order to "suppress or exclude any
noncomforming element" (p. 69). What
the conclusions do is to reveal a spirit
which was unwilling to stand hitched
to the posts convention has a way of
erecting for the young--posts that in
time become objects of worship, with
those who attend them asking that
their meaning be accepted on faith, not
reflected upon.
The result is an unusual volume. The
author has written with refreshing
frankness. And he has written simply.
His wide range of experience has
given him a storehouse of illustrative
material which he draws upon with
frequency and effectiveness. Yet the
story of his success, professionally and
economically, does not intrude upon his
story of a continuing quest to gain
perspective upon the human venture. What
was an early personal concern
became, also early, a keen desire to
advance the "search of mankind in its
search for enduring values" (p.
108). It was this, as he puts it, that served
as "my aim and my religion for more
than three-quarters of my life"
(pp. 108-109).
Arthur Morgan has served his fellowmen
well on many occasions, and
in many capacities. He has seldom served
them better than in this exami-
nation of his own effort to come to
terms with life. Many others, of all
ages, should be stimulated and aided as
they, too, search for meaning. What
is at issue in his judgment is that
intelligence should be turned upon
"changing, refining, enlarging and
informing men's purposes and incentives."
He will not admit that man is so limited
that he must depend "on blind
acceptance of authority." His quest
has led him to conclude that the "refine-
ment of human purpose" is no
mysterious process but a "feasible human
enterprise, well within the scope of
human ability" (p. 190). His book is
a public audit of this hypothesis. It
should have many readers.
Ohio State University H. GORDON HULLFISH
A Treasury of Mississippi River
Folklore (Ohio River Edition).
Benjamin
A. Botkin. (New York: Crown Publishers,
1955. xx??620p.; illustrations
and index. $5.00.)
Writing a review of Botkin's latest
anthology is like remarking on the
seventh pup in a litter. The comments
which reviewers have made con-
cerning A Treasury of American
Folklore, A Treasury of New England
Folklore, and so on, though true, seem too weary to be used again
in regard
to A Treasury of Mississippi River
Folklore. Like its brothers, A Treasury
of Mississippi River Folklore is misnamed (it's local lore, not folklore), is
BOOK REVIEWS 219
helter-skelter in organization, and is
maudlin in tone. Yet, like its brothers,
it is worth having because it brings
together such a mass of hard-to-come-by
matter, because it makes good reading,
and because it gives one a real
feel for the region of the Mississippi
watershed.
Perhaps at this stage of Botkin's
"game," a comment on the seven an-
thologies as a group would be most
appropriate. Let me state that Botkin
has missed a golden opportunity, one
that some folklorists would give
their proverbial right arms for. A
scholar, with strong backing and popular
appeal, Botkin has had a real chance to
unveil for Americans the inner-
workings of their culture. The thesis
that American folklore must be defined
along occupational, geographical, and
ethnic lines rather than along the
traditional lines of the medieval class
system, argued by Botkin in outline in
The Standard Dictionary of Folklore,
Mythology, and Legend (see pp.
43-48), could have been "nailed
down" once and for all in the seven
volumes to date. Nor would a thesis of
this sort, steeping in the readable
legends and accounts that prove it, have
hurt the sale value of the books
at all. But Botkin, either because he
can't or won't organize, has chosen
rather to pack his volumes as a rat
might, to confine himself to such themes
as "huzzah for the hills," and
to invite the scorn of his fellow scholars.
Thinking over Botkin's output, one
recalls the feelings in Mudville after
the mighty Casey had been to bat.
As a balance to my comment, yet at the
same time in the atmosphere of
"faint praise," let me quote
Carl Carmer in the Foreword to A Treasury of
Mississippi River Folklore:
It takes an imaginative skill equal to
that of a truly great detective and,
added to that, a kind of special
intuition to run down so vast and enter-
taining a group of tales, anecdotes,
descriptive passages, songs, little-known
bits of history, as Mr. Botkin has put
together in the laudable effort to
give his readers ample evidence from
which to draw their own conclusions
about the social history of the big
river which flows through the heart of
our Midwest.
One can, it is true, draw his own
conclusions from the vast and entertaining
pages of Botkin's latest book, and
social historians interested in this great
watershed will note for themselves that
the brawl and confusion of the
Mississippi is the ingredient most
typical of our culture, locally and
nationally. If one can make this
projection of the picture of Mississippi
River life onto the contemporary
American scene--our business, national
games, popular music, and so forth--one
can use Botkin's book in a myriad
of ways. But to do this, one becomes the
editor of material Botkin has
220
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
gathered and spent but two introductory
pages commenting on. One has to
finish a job an author has merely begun.
What, then, does a reviewer say about
Anthology 7? If you've read Botkin
before, you know what sort of material
will be in A Treasury of Mississippi
River Folklore. If you are reading for pleasure, the book will
fascinate you;
if you are reading as a folklorist,
historian, or sociologist, it will frustrate
you. The book will sell. Sic transit
Botkin mundi.
Denison University TRISTRAM P. COFFIN
Book Reviews
William Oxley Thompson, "Evangel
of Education." By James E.
Pollard.
(Columbus: Ohio State University, 1955.
xi??303p.; chronology, biblio-
graphical notes, and index. $5.00.)
William Oxley Thompson's term as
president of Ohio State University
was longer than that of his four
predecessors combined, and longer than
that of his two successors. During his
twenty-six years he brought the uni-
versity from obscurity to a position of respect
in Ohio and the educational
world. His place in the annals of the
university, as one of its greatest presi-
dents, is secure for all time.
Thompson built his notable career by
ability and force of character, for
he had neither family nor influential
friends to boost him up the ladder of
success. His father spent most of his
life at the shoemaker's bench, and the
son was trained in the economics of
poverty. He managed to graduate from
Muskingum College, where he delivered a
commencement oration in Greek,
and from Western Theological Seminary in
Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where
he received a traditional training in
orthodox theology. In 1881 he was
licensed to preach.
After a short stay in Iowa as a home
missionary, the young clergyman
took a church in Colorado, and soon
found himself the president of
Longmont College, a struggling and
short-lived institution. For his ad-
ministrative chores and a teaching
schedule of four hours a day, five days a
week, he received an annual salary of
five hundred dollars. In 1891, when
he was thirty-six, he became president
and professor of history and political
economy at Miami University in Oxford,
Ohio--an institution greatly in
need of resuscitation. Eight years later
Dr. Thompson was chosen president
of Ohio State University. During his
twenty-six year term the student body
grew from 1,268 to 11,535, the faculty
from 113 to 697, and the insti-
tution blossomed into a full-fledged
university.
President Thompson was a highly
respected leader in the conclaves of
the Land Grant College Association and
the National Association of State
Universities, and probably their most
effective protagonist of state supported