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BOOK REVIEWS |
THE HEARTLAND: OHIO, INDIANA, ILLINOIS. By Walter Havighurst. Regions of America Series, edited by Carl Car- mer. (New York: Harper & Row, 1962. xi ?? 400p.; map, illustrations, bibliog- raphy, and index. $5.95.) This book portrays and interprets the history, achievements, and character of the area which became Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois from the coming of the French to the present. Professor Havighurst understands that the area has a favorable location and that it is rich in natural resources. He is also aware that it has achieved significant economic, political, and cultural attainments within a remark- ably short span of time. In fact, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois are "the heartland, the center of America's population and the source of important currents of its political, economic and cultural life" (p. 3). The American Middle West, however, cannot be subdivided into distinct geo- graphical areas. Havighurst himself speaks of the "heartland" of Ohio, Indi- ana, and Illinois as "a land without bar- riers" and "an avenue through which restless people, many of its own among them, moved on to new frontiers" to the west (p. 4). Nevertheless, he asserts that these three states have more in common with one another than they have with their neighbors. The reviewer concurs, but he disagrees with the thesis that "the Ohio River marks a border; in character and in tradition Kentucky is distinct from the states that face it on the north" (p. 3). From early American settlement to the present, the residents of southern |
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois have at times felt closer ties and associations between themselves and the residents of Kentucky than between themselves and the northern inhabitants of their own states. The volume is not as current as might be desired concerning the findings of his- torians. Here and there commonly known information is offered with but little inter- pretation, while elsewhere bold interpre- tations are made with limited factual support. Errors of fact and dogmatic views are too common. For instance, Pickawillany, Ohio, is said to be located on the Ohio River (p. 41), Governor William Henry Harrison is said to have cleared the Indian title from "all of Illinois" (p. 93), Hancock (presumably Winfield S.) is listed as a Confederate general (p. 267), and Havighurst un- qualifiedly asserts that La Salle, in 1669, "was the first white man to pass down the Ohio into the green heart of the continent" (p. 15). Fortunately, The Heartland is written by one who understands and appreci- ates the significance of the outstanding achievements of Ohio, Indiana, and Illi- nois. Moreover, it offers much useful and interesting information about selected aspects, chapters, and personalities in the history of these three states. DONALD F. CARMONY Indiana University THE STATE PARKS: THEIR MEANING IN AMERICAN LIFE. By Freeman Tilden. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962. |
244 OHIO HISTORY |
xvi ?? 496 ?? xip.; illustrations, maps, appendices, and index. $5.50.) This new book fills a long-felt need for those interested in state parks. It melds together in the author's own inimitable philosophical manner, the origins, prin- ciples, policies, and problems of the state park movement, which is as diverse as the interests of the fifty states. The author was chosen for this task because of his discerning mind and his faculty for fer- reting out the myriad facets of state park philosophy and growth during the past forty-two years. After himself traveling over forty thou- sand miles and visiting hundreds of areas, he takes the reader on a tour of the state parks of the nation by selecting those outstanding in each of four principal regions of the country. Included is a tribute to the "men and women of vision the country over who could look into the future and devote themselves to the acqui- sition of recreation sites while there is yet time." The seventy-four descriptive chapters include examples of all cate- gories of parks. The areas described were selected as outstanding examples of a variety of types. They are not offered as the "best parks"--no one is qualified to make such a distinction. Of interest to Ohioans are the chapters on the Hock- ing Hills, Lake Hope, and the Newark Earthworks. A shorter description of Hueston Woods and Pike Lake is in- cluded, together with photos of Lake Hope and the Newark Earthworks. This comprehensive study was deliberately de- signed to be "a useful guide for the tourist, traveler and vacationist" and for the professional, "a compendium of de- tailed information to more than 180 of the most important state parks." The foreword by Conrad L. Wirth, director of the National Park Service, capably sets the quality of the volume and points out the cooperation of "The Service," in aiding the state park move- ment to attain its present-day status. There are today many who can recall the contributions of "The Service" during |
the days of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the fine developments of that period. Mr. Tilden brings to the reader, re- gardless of his interest, an outstanding volume, "written in warmly human terms and an absorbing chronicle of state parks lore." The book belongs in the library of all who use, or are interested in, the state parks of the nation. V. W. FLICKINGER Ohio Division of Parks AMERICAN POLITICAL TERMS: AN HISTORI- CAL DICTIONARY. By
Hans Sperber and Travis Trittschuh.
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1962. x ?? 516p.; bibliography. $14.50.) The authors, an Ohio State University professor emeritus of German and a Wayne State University assistant profes- sor of English, did not prepare this vol- ume primarily for the campaigning politi- cian. Instead they wish that he will "find himself considerably sobered by discover- ing that the catchwords he wants to use ... have been used before and very often been found wanting." Seeking to remove prejudices against historical linguistics, they offer their dic- tionary as a protest against specialization by the philologist who "feels that he is not competent to deal with a subject that with more justice may be claimed by the historian, and vice versa." Since the reviewer is not professionally either a philologist or an historian, he can take a neutral stand on that issue, while agree- ing with the authors that their work may help to "curb the tendency to acquiesce in approximations where precise facts might and ought to be found." For in- stance, their findings show that the his- tory of the phrase "fifty-four forty or fight" begins "in 1846 and therefore could not possibly have influenced the outcome of the preceding election" in 1844. Their objective is "to establish the historical facts behind each word," but |
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they are aware of their "inability to take more than the first step toward the fulfillment of this task." Nevertheless, they have blazed a clear trail. Others may want to take a different course through the verbal morass of political terms. They might decide to divide the material into two parts: one containing political terms that have caught on and are still meaningful in the political arena. If they have passed into the general vocabulary, only their politi- cal origins need to be traced; general dictionaries can be relied upon for their more general usages. "Interposition" is an example of the political terms in this volume which would appear in the pro- posed first part. The authors trace its history back to 1774, after noting its earlier English usage. Citations of its use as late as 1956 would indicate, even if we did not know from our own reading, that it is still alive. Incidentally, "inte- grate" does not appear but "amalgamate" does. Is the former word too recent in its political use to be placed in an histori- cal dictionary? The latter word, "amalgamate," with a pre-Civil War usage similar to "inte- grate" today, is the type of word I would be inclined to put in a second part: words with only a short political life, that have since passed into "innocuous desuetude." (This phrase, page 213, probably deserves placement in my suggested first part.) Numerous other terms in this volume clearly belong in the second category. These obsolete terms, perhaps arranged by historical periods rather than in one alphabetical order, would be mainly con- sulted by the specialist who needs to know the meaning of words used in the period he is studying. A few examples are: Algerine, "the colloquial name of a faction in Rhode Island politics at the time of the Dorr War." Aliunde, "This term was popular for a few years, fol- lowing its use by the electoral commis- sion . . . in its decision on the disputed election of 1876." Doodlebug, "Meaning |
not clear; perhaps a voter without fixed political convictions." Old guard and stalwart are
living political terms but to list with them 306, referring to the 306 stalwarts in the 1880 Republican conven- tion who supported Grant for a third term, merely clutters a widely useful and interesting collection of currently mean- ingful political terms with transitory words and phrases of interest only to his- torians of the period in which they had their brief and inglorious life. HOWARD WHITE Miami University THE PAPERS OF SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON. Volume XIII. Prepared for publication by Milton W. Hamilton. (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1962. xiii??1026p.; illustrations, chronological list of documents, Vols. I-XIII, errata, Vols. I-XII. $10.00.) To a generation that has seen the inau- guration of so many giant multi-volume projects to edit and publish the papers of important figures in American history and has perhaps often despaired of the completion of any of them, it is encourag- ing to see an older and similar undertak- ing brought to fruition. The volume under review is the final one in a dis- tinguished series, begun over forty years ago by James Sullivan and continued under the successive editorships of Alex- ander C. Flick, Almon W. Lauber, and Milton W. Hamilton, that now contains all existing papers pertaining to Sir Wil- liam Johnson, the Irish immigrant who made a fortune in the Indian trade on the frontier of western New York after 1740, was adopted by the Mohawks, and from 1756 until his death in 1774 served as royal superintendent for Indian affairs in the northern Indian department. The present volume contains both those items found too late for inclusion in their proper chronological niche in the last four volumes and a number of longer documents--including journals of War- ren Johnson, Robert Rogers, Daniel |
246 OHIO HISTORY |
Claus, George Croghan, and Sir William himself--that could not be published earlier. Guy Johnson's letters after his uncle's death, the inventory of Sir Wil- liam's possessions at Johnson Hall at the time of his death, a list of errata in earlier volumes, a chronological finding list of all the documents in the series, and an essay by Dr. Hamilton on the Johnson portraits round out the volume. These documents are so miscellaneous and range over such a long period that it is impossible to do justice to them in a short review. Of special interest, how- ever, are the items of a non-public nature. The letters and accounts on the building of Johnson Hall in 1763, the inventory of Johnson Hall in 1774, and Sir William's accounts with local merchants provide some insight into his taste and his style of life. Johnson Hall with its grand pro- portions and simple elegance matched many of the stately residences of the old New York families along the Hudson; yet Indians wandered in and out at will, and two blockhouses flanked it on either side. Along with a gold-headed cane, two silver- mounted whips, "Scarlet Russell Cour- tains," Delft tiles, and nearly £300 of silver plate were buffalo skins and Indian trinkets. Prints of the king and queen hung just around the corner from three "Indian pictures." Johnson Hall, per- haps just Sir William himself, seems to have been the link between civilization and the wilderness, the push and pull between the two having been reduced, neutralized, and finally made to work to- gether in harmony by a lord of the forest who had succeeded in joining the best of two worlds. JACK P. GREENE Western Reserve University THE LITERARY VOYAGER OR MUZZENIEGUN. By Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. Edited and with an introduction by Philip P. Mason. (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1962. xxvi ?? 193p.; frontispiece and index. $5.00.) |
This volume is a curiosity that will interest few persons who are not already strongly attracted either to the nineteenth- century Indian agent and scholar Henry Rowe Schoolcraft or to his amateur liter- ary activity. It is composed of all the extant numbers of the fifteen hand-written issues of "The Literary Voyager" pro- duced and mainly writen by Schoolcraft from December 1826 to April 1827, early in his career as an Indian agent and while he was living at Sault Ste. Marie. Items in the "Voyager" are varied, but most of them focus either on local history and geography of the Northwest or on Indi- ans, especially the Chippewas. A number of romanticized Indian tales are included, as well as more "factual" articles. There may be some unique Indian material printed here, but the items I have checked have been included in one or another of Schoolcraft's more serious productions. Also included are a number of bad poems, panegyrics to various noble savages and Indian mode of life, and effusions on one of the tragic events of his life--the early death of his first son. The Literary Voyager reflects the spuri- ous sentimentality, high moral tone, intel- lectual pretensions, and romantic hyper- bole of this era. Philip P. Mason has used his editing talents well, but this material hardly seems to be worth them. DOROTHY LIBBY Indiana University THE MAKERS OF SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS IN AMERICA SINCE 1700.
By Charles E. Smart. (Troy, N. Y.: Regal Art Press, 1962. xxiv ?? 182p.; illustrations and bibliography. Cloth, $5.95; paper, $4.95.) There are countless fields of collecting; these may range from firearms to lace, from steam-traction engines to postage stamps. The positive identification of col- lection material is of prime importance not only to the ardent collector but also to the historian or the museum curator. |
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Fortunately, surveying instruments gen- erally carry a maker's name and address. Unfortunately, little attempt has been made to identify these makers and the periods in which they worked. Mr. Smart, chairman of the board of the W. and L. E. Gurley Instrument Company, was prompted to do his research when he became curious about the various instru- ment makers listed in the Gurley com- pany's repair file. He began by examin- ing these repair records; he sent ques- tionnaires to various historical societies asking for information; he traveled about the eastern states searching local records. After four years of research he has com- piled his results in book form. This is the first serious work on the identification and dating of surveying instrument makers and as such deserves the attention of all who are concerned with historical objects. Specific informa- tion on individuals requires a great amount of tedious work; Mr. Smart has, in almost all instances, recorded more facts than just names, addresses, and dates. Many instruments and advertise- ments are illustrated. The undated or in- correctly dated object is certainly not uncommon in the museum-collector field. Mr. Smart's book will help eliminate con- jecture in one more area. As a pioneer work, much information will have to be added as names are discovered which are not included in this edition. DONALD A. HUTSLAR Ohio Historical Society ARTHUR CAPPER: PUBLISHER, POLITICIAN, AND PHILANTHROPIST. By Homer E. Socolofsky. (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1962. 283p.; illustra- tions, bibliographical note, and index. $6.00.) After examining forty file drawers of Arthur Capper papers, some of the 450 volumes of newspapers and magazines published by Capper, and holding some fifty interviews with persons who knew |
Capper, Socolofsky manages somehow to summarize the long and enigmatic career of the man who has been correctly con- sidered a Kansas institution. Capper began his career in journalism in 1884, when he became a printer's ap- prentice and then a reporter on the Topeka Daily Capital. His career as a publisher began when he borrowed $1,000 for a down payment on the Topeka Mail, which he purchased for $2,500 in 1893. When he died in 1951 Capper Publica- tions included the national Household; two regional publications, Capper's Weekly and Capper's
Farmer; and the state papers Topeka Daily Capital, Kansas City Kansan, Kansas Farmer, Missouri Ruralist, Ohio Farmer, Michigan Farmer, and Pennsylvania Farmer. He also owned two radio stations and the Capper Print- ing Company. His gargantuan success arose in part from his uncanny ability to know when to buy a paper, and in part from the low taxes, wages, and costs of equipment and raw materials which prevailed when he was building his empire. The major explanation, however, of his triumphs in journalism as well as his seven consecu- tive political victories--two terms as gov- ernor, and five terms as United States Senator--was that he reflected rather than guided public opinion. He never deviated in his loyalty to the Republican party, the party of his one-party state. He per- mitted his subordinates editorial freedom as long as they were "in tune" with the sentiments of readers in the region and in the states. Again and again he asked, "What do the voters think Congress ought to do?" His antennae were a short list of questions which he included in letters sent from his office in Washington, regu- lar reports from his employees, and the Capper Polls in his own publications. His extreme sensitivity to
"grass-root" public opinion and his unswerving party loyalty explain his many shifts in posi- tion. In July 1919 he thought that the senate should quickly accept Wilson's League of Nations without partisanship. |
248 OHIO HISTORY |
When his polls showed that eighty-five percent of those polled were against entry into the league without reservations, he joined the Lodge opposition camp in October. Many years later, when public opinion had shifted, Capper voted for the ratification of the charter of the United Nations. As leader of the farm bloc of the 1920's he supported the McNary- Haugen plan of farm relief, but also Coolidge's appointment as secretary of agriculture of William M. Jardine, presi- dent of Kansas State College, an avowed opponent of the plan. Although candidate Hoover was openly opposed to Muscle Shoals and other farm legislation dear to Capper's heart, Capper supported him in 1928 despite the earnest protestations of Senator George Wj Norris, who called attention to the inconsistencies of the Kansas senator. When public opinion in Kansas favored the early New Deal, Cap- per was a New Deal Republican; when public opinion seemed to change, Capper reversed himself. Capper's farm voting record showed a firm loyalty to farmers. He did remain true to the religious ideals that his Quaker parents had imparted to him. Their hatred of liquor continued in his battle for prohibition.
Their pacificism ex- pressed itself in his soft-spoken words, in his avoidance of controversy, in his support of the principle of the League of Nations, the World Court, the Pact of Paris, the neutrality legislation, and the United Nations. Their belief in the equal- ity of all men and their sympathy for the underprivileged remained with him until death. Without wavering Capper sup- ported woman suffrage and the program of the National Association for the Ad- vancement of Colored People. When Marian Anderson was denied permission to use Constitution Hall in 1939, Capper and Eleanor Roosevelt led in the sponsor- ship of the Easter concert of Miss Ander- son from the steps of the Lincoln Me- morial. In the humane spirit of a Quaker, the childless Capper bequeathed his prop- |
erty to the Capper Foundation for Crip- pled Children. Socolofsky is an excellent craftsman. The reviewer's only regret about the book is that the narrative, for whatever reason, is too short. With more room for his pen the author could have included more details about such things as the content and significance of the voluminous and widespread Capper press. He could have amplified his own interpretations of Cap- per. In doing these things he could have made some of the deeds of Arthur Capper more intelligible and dynamic than they appear to be in the book. CLAYTON S. ELLSWORTH College of Wooster GUIDE TO FEDERAL ARCHIVES RELATING TO THE CIVIL WAR. By Kenneth W. Mun- den and Henry Putney Beers. (Wash- ington: National Archives, 1962. 721p.;
appendix and index. $3.00.) The publication of guides to American history is not a new idea, witness the publication of Writings on American His- tory as
early as 1902, but it is an idea well worth copying, one that will be copied often as IBM developments con- tinue to have an impact on research tech- niques. To the shelf which contains such important works as the Harvard Guide to American History, the Guide to Diplo- matic History of the United States, the Guide to Records in the National Archives, and
numerous other compila- tions of source materials has been added the Guide to Federal Archives Relating to the Civil War. Soon to follow will be a companion volume, Guide to the Archives of the Government of the Confederate States of America. Both of these new publications seem destined for prominent places in research libraries all over the country. The compilers of these new Civil War guides initiated their studies with the assumption "that the extant archives of all Federal agencies existing in the 1860's" had information of value on the |
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Civil War to offer and they were not disappointed. In the Guide to Federal Archives they
not only concerned them- selves with the many valuable records of our National Archives but also included records of the war that are contained in other Washington repositories, including the federal records center and numerous government agencies. Their compilation includes an index of material found in all the major divisions of the federal gov- ernment during and immediately follow- ing the war: congress, the judiciary, the presidency, the executive departments, and many smaller departments that aided in the total war effort. Several prominent features of this study will attract the attention of the student of this tragic era of American history. In the first place, the material in each department is thoroughly covered and well organized. At the beginning of each chapter, when a new department is introduced, there is a concise description of that department, its history, its func- tion during the war, and the leading personalities who served therein during the war years. Finally, at the end of the book, there is an excellent index which aids the student in making cross-refer- ences or in finding unusual material. Special reference should also be drawn to the chapter on the war department. This chapter includes long listings of materials from numerous bureaus, branches, courts, divisions, and so on, even including a special section on Mathew Brady's collec- tion of Civil War photographs. Even before the Civil War ended the federal government began work collect- ing and preserving the records of that awesome conflict. In 1864 it began pub- lishing what would eventually be the Official Records of the Union and Con- federate Armies, a monumental produc- tion. This project, completed in 1901, stimulated interest in Civil War research and writing. Publication of Civil War guides will foster new interest and en- thusiasm for this well-mined period. This |
could be undesirable or it could add a new dimension to war research. Since these guides deal with the records from many departments, students will have greater opportunities to treat the war as a whole, to work with this complicated period with an interest based on wider and more profound investigations than some of the current writing on the sub- ject. A vast amount of untapped material lies buried in the various departments described by the Guide to Federal Ar- chives and
students should profit from easier access to the sources. The work of the compilers of these new guides on America's tragic era has answered a need long felt by students of this war, a need eloquently expressed by historian Allan Nevins when he stated that one of the objectives of the Civil War centennial celebration was "to pro- mote the publication of books and the collections of sources, which will stand as a permanent memorial of this com- memoration." Such a work is the Guide to Federal Archives Relating to the Civil War. ROBERT HARTJE Wittenberg University INSULL. By
Forrest McDonald. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962. xii??350p.; illustrations and index. $4.95.) This book is a biography of Samuel Insull, the Chicago millionaire, whose huge utilities empire came crashing down in the early thirties. The subsequent court trials of Insull on charges of fraud, em- bezzlement, and violation of the bank- ruptcy acts have given him a certain notoriety for those who lived in that time. But to most people he is only a shadowy figure of passing importance at most. Forrest McDonald is attempting to resur- rect Samuel Insull apparently for two reasons: one, to give him his proper niche in history, and two, to exonerate him of most of the charges against him. |
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Samuel Insull came to America from England in 1881 and quickly found a position as Thomas Edison's private sec- retary. Serving as a kind of trouble shooter for Edison in the latter's numer- ous business ventures, Insull soon knew more about Edison's financial affairs than Edison did himself. Insull's twelve-year association with the great inventor brought him into contact with the politi- cal and financial leaders of the day and taught him many of the skills he would soon use to create a corporate empire of his own. Insull eventually controlled com- panies which were worth $3,000,000,000 and which produced one-eighth of all the electricity and gas used in the United States. Such companies as Commonwealth Edison, People's Gas, Light and Coke, and the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois were only a few of the larger corporations within a network of utilities, electric railways, and holding companies that extended into thirty-two states. In the process of creating this empire, Insull acquired his full share of enemies, including such powerful figures as Cyrus Eaton and J. P. Morgan. When the 1929 crash and the depression en- meshed him in debt, his enemies moved in for the kill. Professor McDonald has researched his subject with that infinite thoroughness that this profession of ours requires. He has had access to the necessary family papers, company records, and newspaper files and has obviously gone over them with care. Furthermore, the author is a fine literary craftsman whose book reads easily and entertainingly despite the some- times technical nature of the subject. The most serious criticism that can be made is that, like many biographers, Dr. Mc- Donald has taken up the cudgels for his subject. Samuel Insull's cause has become Forrest McDonald's cause. The reader is asked on occasion to accept rather naive explanations for some of Insull's actions. For example, to believe that Samuel Insull sought power in the business world largely because his wife chose to close |
her bedroom door to him or that he was tricked into taking over the direction of the People's Gas, Light and Coke Com- pany simply by a display of a model gas engine in the showrooms of the utility's office building--this stretches the read- er's credulity somewhat. Professor Mc- Donald credits Insull with pioneering rural electrification, developing the prin- ciples of mass production, and contribut- ing almost as much to charity as he earned. Dr. McDonald leaves the impres- sion that he feels Samuel Insull deserved a medal rather than a criminal indictment in the last years of his life. The author writes so convincingly that he also leaves the impression that he may well be abso- lutely right. ROBERT W. TWYMAN Bowling Green State University THE FARM
BUREAU AND THE NEW DEAL: A STUDY OF THE MAKING OF NATIONAL FARM POLICY, 1933-40. By Christiana M. Campbell. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1962. viii??215p.; bibli- ography and index. $4.75.) THE AGRARIAN MOVEMENT IN ILLINOIS, 1880-1896. By Roy V. Scott. Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, Volume 52. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1962. vii??153p.; bibliography and index. Cloth, $4.00; paper, $3.00.) Agricultural history is a field of study full of opportunities for new and fruitful scholarly investigations. These two short volumes are welcome and valuable con- tributions to the growing body of basic work in agricultural history upon which more general studies can be based. Both are the result of diligent research into the problems of organizing farmers for political power, the Alliance aspiring to achieve power in Illinois in the decade following 1880 and the Farm Bureau pre- suming to exercise national power in the ten years after 1930. Though half a cen- tury separates these two examples of agri- cultural organization, there are common |
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problems. American farmers and types of farming have been so variable as to defy unity on any program. Yet, since the nation moved toward an urban-industrial character, agriculture has sensed the need for organized power if it is to overcome an inherently disadvantaged position. The Farmers' Alliance movement in Illinois followed the Granger uprising and preceded the Populist revolt, but the Alliance does not fit a picture of ascend- ing agrarian discontent. Though agri- culture stood halfway between the world of the past (self-sufficiency) and the world of the future (business and indus- try), the farmers of the eastern Middle West were more commercialized than the newer farming areas to the west and were not so responsive to rural radicalism. Professor Scott clearly reveals the diver- sity in Illinois farms--the same is true of Ohio and to a lesser degree of Indiana-- that made them unresponsive to populistic agrarianism. Professor Scott's
book shows that his research was exhaustive, that he knows farming, and that he writes clearly and directly. The American Farm Bureau Federation was the sort of businessman-farmer's organization toward which the Illinois Alliance was leading. During the period of the New Deal the Farm Bureau en- joyed considerable influence upon legis- lation and the administration of farm policy. The Farm Bureau was able to exercise power because it developed an unusual unity among the principal ele- ments of agriculture and had the espe- cially able leadership of Ed O'Neal. Per- haps this was the historic high point in the effective application of agriculture's power to the national government. Yet, there were severe limits within which the Farm Bureau could operate. Agriculture had become a minority group in the nation, and the general public interest was more compelling than the special interest. The Farm Bureau was also a captive of its recent history. During the decade preceding 1933 farmers had de- |
veloped the conviction that large-scale government economic intervention was required to save the rural portion of the nation from a disaster that would pull down the others. It was unavoidable that this government intervention should be for the purpose of supporting prices and that such supports should be based upon the parity formula. This led automatic- ally to a two-price system with tariff pro- tection and economic nationalism. It was also almost inevitable that these should lead to efforts at supply manage- ment or production restriction. These elements of farm policy, full of awkward conflicts, had taken shape before the Farm Bureau became coupled with the New Deal. The role of the Farm Bureau was to reinforce these policies when no administration could have avoided them, but when the New Deal moved in the direction of rural reform it met the re- sistance of the Farm Bureau, which con- tinued to proceed along the established channels. Dr. Campbell's book overstates the power of the Farm Bureau to construct national farm policy, but its power was very large when used to prevent changes in policy. The author gained access to the private papers of Ed O'Neal and the records of the American Farm Bureau Federation, which were fully studied. As a result, Dr. Campbell has made a unique contribution to the literature of agricul- tural organizations. JAMES H. SHIDELER University of California, Davis THE PUBLIC LANDS: STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. Edited by
Vernon Carstensen. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1963. xxvi??522p.; appendices, tables, and index. $6.75.) Celebrating a double anniversary-the centennial of the homestead act and the sesquicentennial of the general land office --an editorial board of eight historians |
252 OHIO HISTORY |
and land economists selected twenty-four articles on the history of the public do- main to be republished in this volume. Three deal with factors shaping the first public land laws; nine with the distribu- tion of the lands; nine with comment and criticism on the functioning of the land system; and three with problems of intensive management of public domain resources. The collection has several notable merits. For the first time scholars may consult in one source the scattered controversial articles on the "railway land grant legend," and four classic ar- ticles demoting the pre-emption laws and the homestead act from their celebrated status as symbols of frontier democracy and the safety-valve of free land. The appendix, newly published, provides a chart of original land entries, a map showing principal meridians of the fed- eral surveys, two essays on source ma- terials, a list of land offices with their dates of opening, and a brief sketch of the public career of each commissioner of the general land office. The selections, chosen from an origi- nal slate of sixty, supplement rather than parallel the primarily legislative histories by Treat, Wellington, Stephenson, Hib- bard, Robbins, and Peffer. The editor recognizes that much of interest has had to be excluded. Though two articles deal with mining laws, he finds that mining and mineral leasing legislation is not ade- quately represented. The selection and disposal of grants to states is treated only in connection with grazing states of the arid West. The operation of many spe- cialized land acts is barely suggested, and twentieth-century problems receive slight attention. One might note other omis- sions. No article deals generally with the problem of land classification. Only two brief articles on the administration of grazing land suggest the problem of adapting public land laws to the arid region; John Wesley Powell's name does not appear even in the index. Though two authors note the importance of pri- vate land claims in governing disposal |
in several states, no article focuses pri- marily on those claims. In his intro- duction, the editor states, "The land laws reflected the strength and skill of num- erous powerful public and private inter- ests." Precisely how they reflected it is rather suggested than demonstrated in the articles selected--and this is also true of the legislative histories cited above. Since this reviewer has no nominees for omission among the articles published, there is little point in quibbling with the editors' choices. But the problems of selection serve as one more demonstration of the difficulties entailed in presenting a "comprehensive" history of the public domain. Even the articles chosen indi- cate the uneven state of research in the subject, and the contradictory conclusions arising from this unevenness. For ex- ample, Philip Raup, in his introduction to the first section, states, "The relevant comparison is not the defective system as applied with the ideal system as con- ceived by those who drafted the laws. It is rather with other countries that have struggled with the same problem and have attempted solutions by more 'orderly' procedures." Yet the first type of com- parison, rather than the second, charac- terizes the articles of commentary and criticism in this volume. Allan Bogue, in his incisive analysis of the functioning of Iowa claims clubs, explodes the myth that these clubs represented the working of "frontier democracy." Joseph Ellison, on the other hand, accepts the contempo- rary public estimate that miners' claim associations did represent "frontier de- mocracy." Would comparable methods, applied to comparable sources, have re- solved this contradiction? Articles by Paul W. Gates and Thomas LeDuc indi- cate the immense quantitative significance of military bounty land scrip in acquiring lands during the period 1850 to 1860. Arthur C. Cole's "Cyclical and Sectional Variations in the Sale of Public Lands, 1816-1860," a unique quantitative study, ignores the disposal of lands paid for in scrip. |
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On a more fundamental level, the vol- ume as a whole both explicitly and im- plicitly rejects the old dichotomous con- flicts of settler versus speculator, East versus West, settlement versus revenue, as explanatory principles in the study of public land affairs. It ignores altogether the recently fashionable dichotomies of "myth" and "reality" about the
West as they affected the land system. Yet it seems clear from the variety, the incom- pleteness, and the unevenness of the se- lections presented, that no alternative principles of explanation have succeeded in replacing those rejected. MARY E. YOUNG Ohio State University AMERICAN HERITAGE: THE MAGAZINE OF HISTORY. Volume XIII (December 1961-October 1962). Like the musical comedy or the mystery story, an issue of American Heritage follows a familiar pattern. From the front-cover reproduction of a famous painting to the back-cover print or car- toon or cigar-box label, the staff headed by publisher James Parton and editor Oliver Jensen blend a dependable mixture of political, military, social, and cultural history with generous amounts of illus- tration (about 115 per volume, over half in color). Whatever one's taste in the American past, unless it be for the duller aspects too often treated by the profes- sional historian, one will find something pleasing in any number of the year here reviewed. Mother and daughter, for example, should be interested in Martha Bacon's "The Parson and the Bluestocking" (December); George R. Stewart's "The Prairie Schooner Got Them There" (Feb- ruary) ; Lida Mayo's "Thackeray in Love" (April); Roger Butterfield's "Pic- tures in the Papers" (June) Darrett B. Rutman's "'My beloved and good Hus- band . . .'" (August); and Eleanor Wil- son MacAdoo's "The Courtship of Wood- row Wilson" (October). |
At the same time, the son may look at "The Old Showman's Last Triumph" (P. T. Barnum); Malcolm Cowley and Daniel P. Mannix's "Middle Passage"; Paul K. Andrist's "Massacre!"; Leon Wolff's "Black Jack's Mexican Goose Chase"; Joseph L. Morrison's "The Soda Fountain"; and Allan Nevins' edition of Colonel Wainwright's diary or Walter Havighurst's "A Sword for George Rogers Clark." And of course the father can always find an article of especial appeal to an artist, or a churchman, or a military buff, or a political enthusiast, or simply a man "doddering peacefully down the sunset slope," in Bruce Catton's words, perennially fascinated by the land of his youth (see particularly R. S. Monihan's "Ocean to Ocean -- by Automobile!" April 1962). Though an air of nostalgia suffuses these pages, each number carries a more controversial piece. Moshe Decter wound up an eleven-part series on America and Russia in December 1961 with a study of fellow-traveling between the wars; the February following, Colonel T. N. Dupuy reviewed the November 25-December 7, 1941, evidence to conclude that "military failures were responsible for Pearl Har- bor." "Peary or Cook: Who Discovered the North Pole?" was John Edward Weems's question (he says Peary did) two months later, while in June, Francis Russell propounded his new thesis that Sacco was guilty, Vanzetti innocent. A germane topic for August was "Ride-In!" --a product of Alan F. Westin's research on Justice John Marshall Harlan--and that October Harry Louis Selden came out strongly for reform in "The Electoral College: Does It Choose the Best Man?" Of more interest to professional his- torians, perhaps, are the selections from forthcoming books -- a regular American Heritage feature,
along with Bruce Cat- ton's reviews and Richard M. Ketchum's "Faces From the Past." At times these are essays based upon the books; as fre- |
254 OHIO HISTORY |
quently, they are excerpts from the manu- script. Particularly valuable, here, were "The Wartime Cabinet" (June) and "Nuremberg: The Fall of the Nazi Super- men" (August) from Francis Biddle's autobiography, In Brief Authority, as well as the opening chapter of Carl Car- mer's new study of the Mormons (Octo- ber). But most scholars among the 330,000 subscribers will no doubt use these vol- umes to get out of their special fields. We can always wait to read the published book. And we will never draw a citation from American Heritage. But where else can we find such interesting, well-written articles, so soundly researched and so charmingly illustrated, by which to in- dulge ourselves in the sheer enjoyment of the past? G. WALLACE CHESSMAN Denison University THE AMERICAN COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY: A HISTORY. By Frederick Rudolph. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962. xii??516??xxxviip.; bibliography and index. $6.75.) The title of this book accurately calls it a history of colleges and universities rather than a history of higher education in the United States. It is mainly a his- tory of colleges, because real universities hardly existed in the first two centuries of American life. The specialized under- graduate colleges of commerce, education, engineering, and others within the univer- sities are not given any special attention. Because of the diversity among insti- tutions which are named colleges or uni- versities, the author has the usual diffi- culty with definitions. With regard to universities the problem is solved (p. 331) by the presentation of a series of historic pronouncements. A university offers "the freedom to study in depth" in one or more fields (University of Vir- ginia); facilitates study under a graduate faculty of arts in the effort to advance scholarship (Johns Hopkins); is a con- |
tinuation and deepening of the work of the college (Harvard) ; or, taking some liberty with the text, is an institution in which one may learn anything (Cornell). Actually the chapter on the "Flowering of the University" and other chapters, by describing several universities and recit- ing their history--in other words, by pointing to examples--offer a satisfac- tory substitute for a definition. As the book carefully explains, many factors combine to produce the existing diversity in colleges and universities: the extent and sectional differences of the country, the fifty states, the numerous religious denominations, and the increas- ing number of professions and technical and service occupations which require ad- vanced training. We are at present acutely conscious of the disagreement about the administration of universities at the North and the South, but this and the supreme court decision of 1954 which bears on this subject are not treated. The national defense education act of 1958 is not men- tioned. In a chapter on "Academic Man," which describes conflicts in which facul- ties have been engaged, the organization of the American Association of University Professors is barely mentioned (p. 415). There is a chapter on college football, including the building of stadiums, and the passion for victory which has devel- oped, especially among the overwrought alumni. Baseball is mentioned in the book but not basketball with its scandals. Physical education is briefly treated. Other student and faculty interests are reported. Religion in the colleges, from compulsory chapel to the university pas- torates, is considered. The Newman Clubs, Westminster, Wesley, and other denominational "foundations" are omitted. Omissions are inevitable in a book of five hundred pages which deals with a thousand colleges. On the other hand, several subjects re- ceive extended treatment. The political movements which affected the colleges and universities, especially Jacksonian democ- |
BOOK REVIEWS 255 |
racy and Progressivism, receive appropri- ate emphasis. Great attention is bestowed upon the history of the curriculum, teach- ing conditions, and student interest in studies. The book devotes greater atten- tion than some others of its kind to the rise, support, and influence of state uni- versities and land-grant colleges, the latter especially appropriate in 1962. It is a national, not a sectional book. The book is unfortunately marred by several errors. Perhaps no work in a first edition wholly escapes. We shall list some statements and words which seem to call for correction. The statement on page 73 about the relation of Latin to the Reformation and of Greek and Greece to the Renaissance is one such sentence. The revival of learning was first a revival of classical Latin; but the statement is also otherwise unhistorical. The first board of the College of Philadelphia, con- trary to an opinion on page 173, had the Rev. Richard Peters, rector of Christ Church, Philadelphia, as a member from the beginning and from 1756 he was president of the board. Although the in- stitution had no formal denominational connection, it was as pious as some others, King's College, for example. For the evi- dence read E. P. Cheyney's History of the University of Pennsylvania (1940), es- pecially page 172. The account of the manual-labor move- ment, pages 217-218, differs from that given by historians of education. Public high schools in 1860 were not confined to "the urban centers of the Northeast," as stated on page 281ff. Chicago estab- lished a high school, modeled in part on the Philadelphia Central, in 1856. By 1860 there were twenty in Ohio. It is true that the development of the state universities and land-grant colleges was hampered by the lack of an adequate number of good high schools. By slips of the pen, "epitaph," page 243, was used for another word, probably epigram; "script," page 252, for [public land] scrip; and "Education," on page 256, apparently for Patents. At least there |
was no "Commissioner of Education" at the date indicated. Finally, the "Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh," is not, as stated on page 431, a "foundation oriented to the support of colleges and universities." The book is well-written and at times eloquent. After a long period of waiting we now have four recent books on the history of colleges and universities or higher education. The authors of two of these have limited themselves to a phase or a period of the general subject, but all will be useful and have long been needed. Professor Rudolph's volume will be of great value to all students of American institutions and culture. H. G. GOOD Ohio State University REPUBLICAN HEYDAY: REPUBLICANISM THROUGH THE MCKINLEY YEARS. By Clarence A. Stern. (Sioux City, Iowa: C. A. Stern, 1962. vii??97p.; bibliog- raphy. Paper, $1.25.) Devoting some space to this short work here may be defended on two counts: first, its subject is one of interest to many Ohioans; second, it is such an incredibly bad piece of work that those who may feel they should read it ought to be ad- vised to put it off indefinitely. Rather than adding to our understanding of the period he considers, Stern has subtracted from it. He has discovered that the Republican party developed so close an alliance with the "commercial classes" in the last decade of the nineteenth century, and had become so "entrenched in . . . control of the national government" by the time of McKinley's death in 1901 as to "insure industrialists of a long period of Republican rule highly favorable to their interests" (p. 45). If the subse- quent ten years is defined as a long time, and if some aspects of the Roosevelt and Taft administrations are taken lightly enough, this is certainly true. It is not, however, very new or exciting. William Jennings Bryan repeatedly made this point, and at the same time tried to ac- |
256 OHIO HISTORY |
count for the conservatism of his own party before it repudiated Grover Cleve- land -- something Stern never quite gets around to. The author's main criteria for evalu- ating the Republicans under Hanna (and this is where he locates them) are certain undefended assumptions as to what poli- cies would have been in the best national interest. He disapproves of the indirect election of senators, the high tariff, the weakening of the Sherman and interstate commerce acts, our involvement in war and imperialism, and so on. In all of this, incidentally, this reviewer agrees with him. But it may be that the time is a bit overripe for pointing with alarm at those who did not share our disap- proval sixty-odd years ago. It is a good thing to be able to tell the good guys from the bad guys, but the world is probably waiting for other news from us now. To keep
the record straight, it should be added that Stern does not recommend voting for Bryan unreserv- |
edly: he feels that for all its faults, "the Republican
leadership as developed through his [Hanna's] efforts was proba- bly of a higher order than that which the Democrats would then have been able to supply." As this suggests, he feels rather badly about the structure of the American party system. The "Selected Readings" that occupy the final thirty-four pages of this volume include some ephemeral items usually weeded out from such lists, and is of in- terest on that account. Had it included more than a scattering of books (and any articles) published since 1950, how- ever, it would have been more help- ful. One sees only Fine, Leech, Sage, Sievers, and some college texts, but misses, among others, Thorelli, Moos, Roseboom, Hays, and Hofstadter. The literary style, built on sentences appar- ently modeled after academic German, will not appeal to many either. THOMAS E. FELT College of Wooster |
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BOOK REVIEWS |
THE HEARTLAND: OHIO, INDIANA, ILLINOIS. By Walter Havighurst. Regions of America Series, edited by Carl Car- mer. (New York: Harper & Row, 1962. xi ?? 400p.; map, illustrations, bibliog- raphy, and index. $5.95.) This book portrays and interprets the history, achievements, and character of the area which became Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois from the coming of the French to the present. Professor Havighurst understands that the area has a favorable location and that it is rich in natural resources. He is also aware that it has achieved significant economic, political, and cultural attainments within a remark- ably short span of time. In fact, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois are "the heartland, the center of America's population and the source of important currents of its political, economic and cultural life" (p. 3). The American Middle West, however, cannot be subdivided into distinct geo- graphical areas. Havighurst himself speaks of the "heartland" of Ohio, Indi- ana, and Illinois as "a land without bar- riers" and "an avenue through which restless people, many of its own among them, moved on to new frontiers" to the west (p. 4). Nevertheless, he asserts that these three states have more in common with one another than they have with their neighbors. The reviewer concurs, but he disagrees with the thesis that "the Ohio River marks a border; in character and in tradition Kentucky is distinct from the states that face it on the north" (p. 3). From early American settlement to the present, the residents of southern |
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois have at times felt closer ties and associations between themselves and the residents of Kentucky than between themselves and the northern inhabitants of their own states. The volume is not as current as might be desired concerning the findings of his- torians. Here and there commonly known information is offered with but little inter- pretation, while elsewhere bold interpre- tations are made with limited factual support. Errors of fact and dogmatic views are too common. For instance, Pickawillany, Ohio, is said to be located on the Ohio River (p. 41), Governor William Henry Harrison is said to have cleared the Indian title from "all of Illinois" (p. 93), Hancock (presumably Winfield S.) is listed as a Confederate general (p. 267), and Havighurst un- qualifiedly asserts that La Salle, in 1669, "was the first white man to pass down the Ohio into the green heart of the continent" (p. 15). Fortunately, The Heartland is written by one who understands and appreci- ates the significance of the outstanding achievements of Ohio, Indiana, and Illi- nois. Moreover, it offers much useful and interesting information about selected aspects, chapters, and personalities in the history of these three states. DONALD F. CARMONY Indiana University THE STATE PARKS: THEIR MEANING IN AMERICAN LIFE. By Freeman Tilden. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962. |