Book Reviews Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson. Two Volumes. (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1970. Vol. I: January 1 to June 30, 1968, lxix + + 761p. + A-93p.; index, $10.50; Vol. II: July 1, 1968 to January 20, 1969, Ixiii + p.763-1404 + A-93p.; index, $9.50.) Most students of the United States are by now familiar with this continuing series. Launched in 1957, it now covers in full the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations, and in the future, along with annual compilations of the Nixon papers, will be extended back to 1928, covering all years of the Hoover and Roosevelt adminis- trations. For those working in the recent period, this series has become a valuable re- search tool, providing in a single publication the type of uniform, systematic, inclusive collection not yet available for earlier peri- ods. Given the high standards maintained by the editors and compilers, there has been lit- tle question as to its reliability. Texts have been faithfully reproduced; editorial com- ments, while limited in scope and number, have been accurate and informative; and, so far as I can determine, there have been no instances of arbitrary or politically oriented selection, omission, or alteration. The volumes under review, covering the last 386 days of the Johnson administration, maintain the same standards and format of those published previously. They include, along with numerous ceremonial items, all the President's major addresses, messages, press conferences, and public letters, among them such items as his last two messages on the state of the Union, his special messages on urban problems, conservation, civil rights, consumer protection, and crime, his state- ments on gun control, the Pueblo crisis, the Vietnam War, and the Paris peace talks, and perhaps most fascinating of all, his surprise announcement revealing his decision not to seek reelection. As in previous volumes, the items are in strict chronological sequence, |
but an excellent index enables the reader to locate quickly those pertaining to any given topic. From the perspective of less than two years, one cannot yet tell whether historians will regard this period of 386 days as being of great significance. Quite possibly, they may look upon it as one of the nation's critical turning points. It was, after all, a time marked by the emergence of the "new poli- tics" and the disintegration of the old Demo- cratic coalition, by major shifts in reform and foreign policy attitudes, by the most drastic repudiation of a national leader since the ordeals of Woodrow Wilson and Herb- ert Hoover, and by a new sense of pessimism and disillusionment in the face of national divisiveness, political polarization, and seem- ingly insoluble problems. Johnson describes it as a time not only of "anguish" and
"deep divisions," but also of "resolution"
and "progress." The mood that pervades many of his statements is that of a man who has lost his bearings, who reacts with defensive self- justification, and who in the end is much relieved by the shedding of responsibility. Scholars, of course, will have to go much deeper in order to understand what was hap- pening and why it happened, but these vol- umes will provide an authentic record of the President's public positions and reactions during a period that seems likely to be the subject of intense historical study in the future. ELLIS W.
HAWLEY University of Iowa The Cross of Culture: A Social Analysis of Midwestern Politics, 1850-1900. By PAUL KLEPPNER. (New
York: Free Press, 1970. x + 402p.; tables, appendices, bibliography, and index. $8.00.) Dr. Kleppner is dissatisfied with traditional approaches to the study of American polit- ical history. In this sophisticated and chal- lenging work he has offered some alterna- |
252 tives, both in theory and in method, to understanding nineteenth century politics in the three midwestern states, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The author believes that his- torians for too long have carried economic and social preconceptions into their analyses of political behavior. These prejudices have impeded comprehension of some of the more important aspects of American politics. His- torians also have been very reluctant to take advantage of the useful analytical tools of the social and behavioral sciences. An attempt has been made to avoid these pitfalls. Using relatively complex statistical tech- niques, Dr. Kleppner has compiled a county by county analysis of voting trends for the period 1850-1900. Complementing this study are similarly precise analyses of voting pat- terns in the major urban areas of the three states. His data, the author claims, "shake old shibboleths." What emerges from his findings is nothing less than a fundamentally new interpretation of the "importance of the role played by religious perspectives in shap- ing party loyalties" (p. 71). Kleppner argues that religion--not economic class, social status, or urban-rural location--was the prime determinant of party affiliation and voter behavior in the period under discussion. He describes this phenomenon in terms of a "pietistic-ritualistic continuum" (p. 72). A person's place on the continuum was predi- cated by the extent to which he valued "right action" (for the pietistic), or "right belief" (for the ritualistic) (p. 73). Kleppner employs this conceptualization to simplify the "cen- tral tendencies" of voting behavior. He argues that political strategists during this period understood the close linkage of religious ten- dencies to voting behavior and took this into account in their campaigning. Also, the author utilizes the tools of "content analysis," for example, to show that the approach of newspaper editorials and other political tracts were strongly geared to the religious proclivities of their readers (p. 153). Kleppner argues that the political behav- ior in these three states is characterized by a voter realignment during the 1850's which stabilized into a "politics of equilibrium" until the 1890's, when a new fluctuation occurred. The factors involved in the phe- nomenon of fluctuation and stability were the economic and social upheaval en- |
OHIO HISTORY gendered by industrialization as well as the interplay of religious perspective with party identification on the local level. Despite the intriguing nature of its thesis and a relatively straightforward presentation, the study has its difficulties. Relying as heav- ily as it must on statistical evidence, the nar- rative often has trouble sustaining its pace under the sheer weight of numbers. Another difficulty is that Kleppner assumes too high an expertise on the part of his reader because much of the social and behavioral science theory used in the work, as well as its sta- tistical technique, is relatively sophisticated. Further, most of the statistical evidence is open to wide and varying interpretation. Although Dr. Kleppner's data is persuasive, additional study of the facts will have to be made before empirical validity of his argu- ment is fully established. In all, the book is an impressive example of the relevancy of applying interdisciplinary techniques to historical research and of the value of quantitative analysis in deriving new conceptualizations of the American past. EDWARD R. LENTZ The Ohio State University The Warren G. Harding Papers: An Inventory to the Microfilm Edition. Edited by ANDREA D. LENTZ. (Columbus:
Ohio Historical Society, 1970. 283p.; introduction, illustra- tions, and appendices. Paper, $3.00.) A great historiographical event has taken place: the papers of Warren G. Harding are available to the public--almost. The bulk of the Harding Papers are now safely in the custody of the Ohio Historical Society, and, via microfilm, accessible to scholars all over the world. Thus, at last, has the 1924 dream of Dr. Charles Moore of the Library of Con- gress of adding this important collection to the great series of Presidential Papers in the nation's capital come true. Processing of the collection was financed from 1964-66 by a grant from the Timken Foundation. The film work in 1968 and 1969 was made possible by a National Historical Publications Com- mission grant of $40,000. The inventory consists mainly of a 14- page set of "series descriptions" of the
mate- |
Book Reviews rials constituting the Harding Papers, an 80-page summary entitled "roll notes," and 168 pages of appendices. There are 20 series: the Marion papers (1888-1920), the sena- torial papers (1915-21), the presidential elec- tion papers (1918-21), the presidential papers (1921-1923), speeches (1899-1923); the papers of Mrs. Harding (1916-1926), Charles E. and Carl W. Sawyer (1916-1942), George B. Christian, Sr. and Jr. (1918-1933), Kathleen Lawler (1898-1937), Hoke Donithen (1894- 1928), Charles E. Hard (1894-1941), Malcolm Jennings (1914-1923), Frank E. Scobey (1914- 1928); and the collections of genealogical data, of the Harding Memorial Association (1923-1965), of Cyril Clemens (1927-1952), and of Ray Baker Harris. The roll notes contain summaries of the contents of each role including lists of the names of the leading correspondents and important subject matter and related corre- spondents, when there are such. Omitted from filming are boxes relating to Marion Star routine business affairs, resolutions and con- dolences to Mrs. Harding, estate accounts, Mrs. Harding's personal finances, the regis- tration book used at Trinity Baptist Church during the dedication of the Harding Memorial, miscellaneous invitations and reso- lutions received by the White House (1921- 1923), and the transcript of the Minutes and Proceedings of the Ohio Republican State Convention of 1910. Appendix A has box conversion tables indicating the relationship of old box num- bers to the new numbering arrangement. Box contents were not changed, just the num- bers, when the filming was done. Appendix B indicates the roll in which films of each box are to be found. Appendix C contains an alphabetical index of file or folder titles in the official, or executive, office portion of the presidential papers. Appendix D has the same information for the presidential papers originally located in Harding's private office, except that some files had no numerical des- ignations, and therefore had to be arranged alphabetically without file numbers and filmed accordingly. Appendices E and F re- late respectively to copies of Harding's speeches found in the collection and to re- lated materials both in and out of Colum- bus. The latter unfortunately fails to refer to the Ohio Historical Society's own papers of |
253 Ohio governors Bushnell, Nash, Herrick, and Harris, which contain many letters to and from Harding. It is to be noted that index-wise the in- ventory is not complete. For financial reasons an item index and a complete name index could not be prepared. The file index pre- sented is limited to the presidential execu- tive office papers and to the private office file for the years 1921-23. The lack is only par- tially remedied in the roll notes. The story of the sorting, burning, editing, classification, and peregrinations of the Hard- ing Papers is narrated. The burning part, which was once thought to apply to the en- tire collection, seems to have been limited to Mrs. Harding's post-mortem inspection of the President's White House private office personal material, half or more of which may have been consigned to the flames. The great bulk of Harding's papers relating to public and political affairs is probably free from tampering. It should be noted that all photo- graphs, printed pamphlets, and documents have not been filmed. They have been sep- arated from the collection and placed in the library of the Ohio Historical Society. One collection of letters, those of Harding to Mrs. Carrie Phillips, once in the brief cus- tody of the Ohio Historical Society, has been transferred by legal process to the Harding heirs. In accounting for the Society's not film- ing these letters as part of the microfilm edi- tion, the reviewer knows that the Harding- Phillips letters have, in fact, been filmed privately, and their whereabouts can be eas- ily ascertained. Documents containing further information about these papers can be found in the Probate Court records of Marion county, and in Franklin county public rec- ords, copies of which have been, and pre- sumably still are, in the Society records. These include a sworn deposition by a Society offi- cial concerning alleged reasons for the pri- vate filming. The "Biographical Chronology" has no indication of the Harding family's ten-year residence in Caledonia, Ohio. Proof reading lapses include James A. Cox for James M. Cox (p. 283) and George B. Donavan for George B. Donavin (p. 95). RANDOLPH C. DOWNES University of Toledo |
254 Joshua R. Giddings and the Tactics of Rad- ical Politics.
By JAMES BREWER STEWART. (Cleveland: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1970. xiv + 318p.; bibliogra- phical essay and index. $8.50.) Joshua Giddings, the maverick Representa- tive from Ohio's Western Reserve from 1839 to 1859, occupies a prominent place in ante- bellum political history. He was perhaps the key member of a tiny, but always growing, coterie of congressmen who for twenty years contested southern legislative power and, against the will of leaders of both parties, thrust the slavery issue into the forefront of national politics. In his role as political agitator Giddings played a conspicuous part in destroying com- ity between the sections and in breaking up the Whig party. Thus, he was partly respon- sible for creating the situation that allowed the nation to plunge into Civil War. On that account Giddings has always been subject to partisan interpretation. His reputation, like that of most of his contemporaries, has had its ups and downs. A hero among anti- slavery reformers in the nineteenth century, he fell to low esteem a generation ago when "revisionist historians" found in the
activities of such contentious politicians one of the causes of a war they regarded as needless and avoidable. Now as a new generation of scholars takes its own look at the role of the radical reformer and the function of agita- tion (and apparently assumes, at least with respect to the American Civil War, the mor- ality of violence in a worthy cause) the careers of such men as Giddings are once again assessed favorably. According to the author of this work, "without the vital link which Giddings helped to create between traditionalist rep- resentative government and the root-and- branch activist, much of America's moral impetus for constructive change would have been without effect in the halls of Congress" (p. x). In one of his most arresting insights Stewart finds the distinction between " 'real- istic' politics and 'radical reformers' " to be an arbitrary one which was "largely the in- vention of later historians" (p. 205). While insisting on the link between rad- ical abolitionists and politics, Stewart neglects to demonstrate it as convincingly as |
OHIO HISTORY would be desirable. This is the more curious since it is precisely this connection that Stewart declares to be central to his view of Giddings. Giddings' relationship with such radicals during the 1850's is described, although without much specificity, but his ties with them during the 1840's is hardly treated. The interaction between Giddings and the abolitionists of Ohio remains unex- plored. We would not know, were we to rely solely on this book, that the leading group of Garrisonians outside New England was located at Salem, Ohio, not far from Giddings' own congressional district. Although their newspaper, the Anti-Slavery Bugle, is
listed in the bibliography, the foot- notes and text offer no reason to suggest that it was much used in preparing this study. What some would regard as a minor flaw in this work is a certain modishness in phrase and concept that seems not quite ap- propriate to the subject matter treated. We are told that Giddings "always believed in the regenerative powers of confrontation" (p. 250). Perhaps he did; yet Giddings' meth- ods of confronting the "Slave Power" surely differed qualitatively from the tactics today's radicals term confrontation. A similar care- lessness in expression occasionally appears elsewhere. One wonders, for example, exactly what the author had in mind when he labeled Lewis Tappan "the penultimate of evangelical reform" (p. 204). As political history this book is useful and informative. It adds in a significant way to our knowledge about the political conflicts that preceded the Civil War and about their relationship to antislavery agitation. It sup- ports the view recently put forward by Aileen Kraditor that the Garrisonians were less oblivious to the utility of politics than had been assumed. As biography, however, the book is less successful. The chapters on Giddings' childhood and youth are brief and unconvincing. A measure of their inadequacy is the fact that what appears to have been one of the crucial events in Giddings' life, the emotional crisis that afflicted him in his forty-second year--considerably later than any identity crisis Erik Erickson ever heard of--is described in an incongruously matter- of-fact way and not satisfactorily explained. MERTON L. DILLON The Ohio State University |
Book Reviews Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideol- ogy of the Republican Party Before the Civil War. By ERIC
FONER. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970. xii + 353p.; bibli- ography and index. $8.50.) The antebellum Republican party has not generally enjoyed a good historical reputa- tion as scholars have repeatedly subjected the motives of its members to serious ques- tioning. These historians, however, have rarely given adequate consideration to the makeup of the party and the ideology of its leaders. They have not come to grips with the divergent factions within the party, nor have they considered fully how these fac- tions influenced and shaped the political philosophy of the party. In his study, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, Eric Foner has done an admirable job in filling these his- torical gaps. The result is a significant con- tribution to our understanding of the Republican party in the decade preceding the Civil War as well as a greater apprecia- tion of the party's difficulties and accom- plishments. Much of the narrative covers familiar ground, but it is told in such a way as to provide new and meaningful insight. Foner begins with a careful analysis of the Repub- lican belief in the existence of two thoroughly different and antagonistic civilizations that were competing for political control. Repub- lican leaders affirmed the superiority of the socioeconomic system of the North, cham- pioning a dynamic expanding capitalism based on free labor and rejecting with hor- ror the stratified slave system of the South which challenged the North for control of the Federal Government. A major purpose of the book is to describe the position and ideology of each important faction of the Republican party and to note the contributions and degree of influence of each. In discussing the Radicals, Foner shows how the leadership of such men as William H. Seward and Salmon P. Chase stressed the moral approach and pressed for the complete divorce of the Federal Gov- ernment from any sanction or protection of slavery. The author explains conclusively that while the Radicals did lose some influ- ence to the Democratic Republicans, the conservatives and moderates after 1856, this |
255 loss was not as great as historians have assumed. In a highly significant section of his study Foner investigates three key issues with which the party had to wrestle: nativism, race, and slavery. It is on the second of these that the author is on the shakiest ground. It is his belief that recent historians in attack- ing the Republicans for racial prejudice "have carried a good point too far and have failed to make the necessary distinctions either within the Republican party or be- tween Republicans and Democrats" (p. 333). While recognizing the racist appeals used by many Republicans, especially the old Barn- burner element, Foner believes that there was more to Republican attitudes than mere racism. Republicans as a rule distinguished between natural and civil rights, which they were willing to grant blacks on the one hand, and political rights, which they were unwill- ing to grant on the other. Here his interpre- tation is somewhat fuzzy both because his distinction between civil and political rights is unclear and because he, like the Republi- can party before him, has not come to grips with how natural and civil rights were to be achieved if political and economic rights were denied. Northern white society was basi- cally racist in character, and all that can be shown in defense of the Republicans on the issue was that there were varying degrees of racism. Only a few of the more advanced Radicals believed that the black man was the white man's equal; and, on that point, they were far removed from the mainstream of Republican thinking. Foner has made a good point, but he, like those he criticizes, has carried it too far. Foner also proves conclusively that his- torians have placed too much emphasis on economic issues as a uniting force among early Republicans. Instead, he demonstrates that the party was united by the twin prin- ciples of free soil and unionism. A total and inevitable conflict between North and South was the result. This thoroughly researched and documented work, thus, effectively de- fines the role of the Republican party in the coming of the Civil War and successfully corrects many of our earlier misconceptions. FREDERICK J. BLUE Youngstown State University |
256 Radicalism, Racism, and Party Realignment: The Border States During Reconstruction. Edited by RICHARD O. CURRY. (Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 1969. xxvi + 357p.; maps, bibliography, and index. $10.00.) In Radicalism, Racism, and Party Realign- ment, Richard
O. Curry has brought together nine essays treating Reconstruction in the border states. Six of these deal with individ- ual states. In all the chapters one finds re- flected the common themes suggested in the title. The black man's place in society and his vote became the shibboleth which cost the Radical or Union party its political head. The reaction of the people of the border states, who objected to the black man and to government intervention for whatever cause, was a realignment which in most cases ousted the parties which had prevailed dur- ing the war years and immediately thereafter. The political studies of Missouri (William E. Parrish), Tennessee (Thomas B. Alexan- der), Maryland (Charles L. Wagandt), and Delaware (Harold B. Hancock) are well done. Somewhat more interpretive views are pre- sented by Curry and Ross A. Webb on West Virginia and Kentucky respectively. Curry emphasizes the circumstances surrounding the dismemberment of Virginia and creation of West Virginia as he explains the bitter partisanship of Reconstruction politics in West Virginia. Of particular note is his evi- dence that twenty-five of the fifty counties, ultimately a part of West Virginia, were pro- secessionist and anti-dismemberment. Pro- fessor Webb's thesis emerges as he comments on what he calls the historical myth of Ken- tucky as pro-southern during the war and in Reconstruction. Webb proposes that Ken- tucky was not pro-southern, that her busi- ness interests lay northward, that the young men joined the Union army more than two to one over those volunteering for service in the Confederacy, and that pro-southerners were in the minority. In his view, Kentucky was anti-administration and anti- congressional, not pro-southern. The other third of this volume is given over to three more general essays that fall within the framework of the whole: Jacque- line Balk and Ari Hoogenboom, "The Origins of Border State Liberal Republicanism"; W. Augustus Low, "The Freedmen's Bureau in |
OHIO HISTORY the Border States"; and William Gillette, "Anatomy of a Failure: Federal Enforce- ment of the Right to Vote in the Border States during Reconstruction." Each of these essays is a solid piece, although in general they seem somewhat repetitious after one has read the first six chapters on the indi- vidual states. Students of Reconstruction history will be served well by this volume, gaining in- sight into areas often ignored in the sound and fury of mythologizing and demytholo- gizing Reconstruction in the South. Brief bibliographical essays increase the usefulness of the book. Beyond its service as a tool and a mirror of the times, Curry's volume raises questions about the second Reconstruction of our own day. In commenting on Negro edu- cation, the editor observed that progress in the field could not "obscure the overwhelm- ing evidence of the psychopathology which characterized the outlook of significant num- bers of white Americans on any question pertaining to race" (p. xxi). That psycho- pathology did not end in the nineteenth cen- tury. Whether we can cope any more adequately with the problems of racism, or individualism, or federalism, than did our ancestors remains to be seen. JAMES H. O'DONNELL, III Marietta College The Frontier in the Formative Years, 1783- 1815. By
REGINALD HORSMAN. (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1970. xii + 237p.; foreward, maps, illustrations, bibli- ographical essay, and index. Paper, $3.50.) This Reginald Horsman book is one of nine volumes in the series, Histories of the Ameri- can Frontier, edited
by Ray A. Billington. The volume appears to deal with a broader aspect of the developing frontier than the others. Composed of nine illustrated and mapped chapters, the work is a bold attempt to summarize and synthesize the panorama of history as it unfolded, primarily in the trans-Appalachian and the Mississippi Val- ley regions, from the end of the American Revolution to the conclusion of the War of 1812. For the sake of consistency, a nod, too, is made in the direction of the population |
Book Reviews movements into Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and western New York. Yet the weight of the study is shifted, understand- ably, to the regions of the old Southwest, the Old Northwest, and the Louisiana Pur- chase areas. One cannot overlook the myriad difficul- ties which such a study as this demands. The lengthy bibliography itself is a tour de force of collecting together, under one head, most of the time-honored sources of frontier Americana of the period involved. True, lit- tle of the rich periodical literature is listed, but this is forgiven when the limits of time and space are considered. The narrative itself, however, leaves much to be desired. While an extensive treatment or a thorough study of so broad a topic could not be hoped for, a distinguished scholar's summary is to be expected. Aside from the final chapter dealing with the War of 1812 (Mr. Horsman's specialty), the other eight chapters lack insight, convincing inter- pretation, and, perhaps in a more culpable vein, relate again old myths and questionable interpretations long since either abandoned or revised. Even though the illustrations seem ade- quate, this reviewer wonders why spurious items found their way onto the pages when better and authentic ones are available. Thus, some of the pictures might spark exotic inter- est, but they seem to be poor choices for a historical work. Likewise the maps, while clearly drawn, seldom are serious adjuncts to the text and leave the reader with the impression that they were hurriedly composed and inserted as afterthoughts. The reviewer for many years has hoped that a study on this topic would be forth- coming, and he had in mind using this book as a selected reading in one of his upper division classes. But such the case will not be! The volume is far too cursory in its treat- ment, sometimes shoddily written, and too often in error in detail to be deemed useful. To ask students to purchase it for the sake of the sound last chapter would be a pro- fessional imposition. Perhaps the real tragedy of the Frontier in the Formative Years is that it has been composed by a scholar having a heretofore unrivalled reputation as well as having received the accolade by Professor |
257 Billington of "Mr. Frontier" in American historiography. One must mourn that the reputations of two deservedly distinguished scholars should be sullied even in a minor way. RICHARD C. KNOPF Kent State University Physician to the West: Selected Writings of Daniel Drake on Science and Society. Edited by HENRY D. SHAPIRO and ZANE L. MILLER. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1970. xxxviii + 418p.; frontispiece, introduc- tions, chronology, endpaper map, and bibli- ographical essay. $11.55.) Even though historians have not ignored the achievements of Daniel Drake, this is the first time that an assessment of his accom- plishments within the context of the prob- lems that faced society during the first half of the nineteenth century has been attempted. In preparation for this volume the coeditors considered almost innumerable articles, books, tracts, and printed speeches prepared by Drake during a prolific literary and scientific career, which spanned nearly half a century, before they decided upon the eighteen items that best illustrate Drake's philosophical and scientific mind. Both editors contribute short, but impor- tant, interpretive evaluations of the life work of this famous Cincinnatian who has been termed the "Benjamin Franklin of the West." Professor Shapiro considers the physician in the context of a young and aggressive scien- tific community that sought to free scientific thought from the metaphysical speculation of rational science, popular during the En- lightenment, in order to study the world by means of the tenets of Baconian empiricism. It was through the use of this method that man could be freed from the limitations of his environment. Drake's persistent observa- tions of the world led him to personal in- volvement in an effort to solve the social problems that faced Cincinnati in his day. Careful observations of society, Drake believed, would unalterably direct man to discover correct social and political institu- tions. As far as he was concerned, the Whig |
258 party would be the vehicle for their estab- lishment. Professor Miller concerns himself with Drake's concept of the city and western society. The physician, devoted to systematic scientific investigation, accepted the premise that society and the universe were divinely ordered and that through observations of the environment man could discover this order- liness as well as his own proper niche within society. Drake was distressed by the disrup- tive features of the secession crisis of 1832 and consequently developed a unique theory of urban federalism in which he saw the West as the unifying factor in an orderly federal union. Confronted by the evidence that he had gathered through his observa- tions, which revealed a diverse and unpre- dictable society in Cincinnati, Drake turned to the development of civilizing institutions that he hoped would exert moderating and stabilizing influences upon society. He there- fore devoted his energies to founding schools, banks, libraries, intellectual journals, and literary and temperance societies. Drake saw the free black in white society as a potential disturbing factor and believed that he belonged back in his natural African habitat. A bibliography of five hundred items ar- ranged in chronological order impresses the reader with the extent of Drake's prolific lit- erary and scientific career. The book was sponsored by the Sesquicentennial Commit- tee of the University of Cincinnati, to com- memorate the founding of that institution, and the Medical Foundation of the Cincin- nati Academy of Medicine. The volume is a good addition for those who collect Drakeana and presents to the historian at least eighteen selections of Drake material that is otherwise hard to find. What is still needed, however, by social historians is not another book of readings, but rather a more extensive study of Drake as a leading philoso- pher from the West along with an evaluation of his place in the cultural and intellectual history of the country. THOMAS H. SMITH Ohio University Haskell of Gettysburg: His Life and Civil War Papers. Edited
by FRANK L. BYRNE and |
OHIO HISTORY ANDREW T. WEAVER. (Madison: State His- torical Society of Wisconsin, 1970. vii + 258p.; map, illustrations, and index. $6.95.) The battle of Gettysburg continues to be the inspiration for the publication of books and articles, some good, some bad, others redun- dant. The present work is good, and, because it is more than just another retelling of this Pennsylvania battle, it is not redundant and can be read with profit by both historians and Civil War buffs. Frank A. Haskell was born in Vermont on July 13, 1828, moved to Wisconsin to study law in his brother's office, and attended Dartmouth College 1850-1854. He then re- turned to Wisconsin to practice law and also became drill master of a militia company. When the war came this military training served him well, earning for him a place on the staff of General John Gibbon. Though he never doubted his ability for higher office, he remained a lieutenant and a staff mem- ber for most of the war and stayed with Gibbon as the latter rose to corps command. His staff position allowed Haskell to observe much that he otherwise would not have seen and permitted him to compose his famous description of the battle of Gettysburg. When he did receive the command he so wanted, it led to his death at Cold Harbor in 1864. This book, excellently edited by Profes- sor Frank L. Byrne of Kent State University and the late Andrew T. Weaver, for many years professor of speech at the University of Wisconsin, presents the first scholarly accurate edition of Haskell's celebrated Gettysburg account. It also prints his other accounts of the war and gives a sketch of his life. It combines elements of military and personal history on both the national and state level. Frank A. Haskell was a very ambitious man and one with an intense belief in him- self, his favorite generals, and the Army of the Potomac. His letters, describing battles and army life from Manassas through Antie- tam, from Fredericksburg and Chancellors- ville to Gettysburg and after, are replete with the eye witness excitement characteristic of good military history. He displays his dislike for the press and politicians, but saves his special disfavor for those whom he considers incompetent, such as, generals Pope, |
Book Reviews McDowell, Hooker, and Sickles. His fondest words of praise are for his favorites, generals Gibbon, Meade, Hancock, and McClellan. He never neglects the opportunity to show himself in a favorable light, though he does so in such a charming way that the reader seldom minds it. For example, in praising his own action in rallying troops at the "Bloody Angle," he uses the device of com- plimenting his horse Dick for the animal's bravery in the face of fire. Haskell's famous account of Gettysburg, the heart of this present book, is a thorough, well written description of the battle. It gives the reader the location and disposition of troops, a panoramic view of the physical locale, descriptive sketches of the leading generals, and the activities of the individual soldier. As good editors should, Byrne and Weaver mainly let Haskell speak for him- self, clarifying and correcting only when necessary. JOHN F. MARSZALEK, JR. Gannon College, Erie, Pa. Little Mack: Joseph B. McCullagh of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. By CHARLES C.
SLAY- TON. Foreword by
HOWARD RUSK LONG. (Carbondale and Edwardsville, Ill.: South- ern Illinois University Press, 1969. xv + 266p.; illustrations, bibliography, appendices, and index. $8.95.) In Cincinnati, Ohio, first as a teenage corre- spondent for the Enquirer, then as a Civil War reporter for the Gazette and the Com- mercial, Irish-born
Joseph Burbridge McCul- lagh planted the reputation that flowered during his twenty-five years as an editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Full credit to his Ohio experiences is not lacking in this first full length biography of the self-made leader of the transition from personal news- paper editorializing to political independence and impartial reporting. McCullagh's ex- ploits as "Mack" with Grant's armies up to the Vicksburg surrender, then as secretary to Ohio's Senator John Sherman, his 1863-1867 dispatches from Washington to the Com- mercial, and
his "journalistic first" interview with President Andrew Johnson, February 10, 1868, all tended to give him prime rank |
259 among his ink-stained contemporaries. McCullagh's coverage of the Johnson im- peachment hearings in 1868 prompted the Enquirer to
lure him from the Commercial and make him managing editor. There he hired young John A. Cockerill, of Adams County, publisher of the True Telegraph in Hamilton, and who, as Joseph Pulitzer's prize editor of the Post-Dispatch, would become McCullagh's principal competitor in St. Louis in the era of sensationalized news. McCullagh left Ohio in 1870 to join the Chicago Repub- lican, which
was destroyed in the great Chi- cago fire in October 1871. Thereafter his life and career were linked to the Globe-Democrat. Self-educated, McCullagh turned his sharp mind, abrasive writing style, aggressive spirit, and fresh ideas toward pioneering many of the techniques of modern news gathering, for which, the author feels, others get undue acclaim. He staged controversial religious dialogues, opinion polls, question- naires among Congressmen, crusades against gambling and lotteries, and mass coverage of political conventions. His energy and enter- prise brought increased circulation and finan- cial returns. At the apex of his success, ill health at fifty-four resulted in death under circumstances pointing to suicide. The biographer, from a background of thirty years on the Globe-Democrat and fif- teen more as a professor of journalism at Southern Illinois University, presents the enigmatic McCullagh with insight, sympathy, and admiration. He succeeds in his mission to recover his subject from the obscurity and neglect that replaced, in seventy-five years, the national recognition McCullagh enjoyed in his lifetime. The book is fourth in the series edited by Howard Rust Long, New Horizons in Journalism, which is concerned with modern, historical, legal, and inter- national journalism. CHARLES M. CUMMINGS Columbus, Ohio |
Book Reviews Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson. Two Volumes. (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1970. Vol. I: January 1 to June 30, 1968, lxix + + 761p. + A-93p.; index, $10.50; Vol. II: July 1, 1968 to January 20, 1969, Ixiii + p.763-1404 + A-93p.; index, $9.50.) Most students of the United States are by now familiar with this continuing series. Launched in 1957, it now covers in full the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations, and in the future, along with annual compilations of the Nixon papers, will be extended back to 1928, covering all years of the Hoover and Roosevelt adminis- trations. For those working in the recent period, this series has become a valuable re- search tool, providing in a single publication the type of uniform, systematic, inclusive collection not yet available for earlier peri- ods. Given the high standards maintained by the editors and compilers, there has been lit- tle question as to its reliability. Texts have been faithfully reproduced; editorial com- ments, while limited in scope and number, have been accurate and informative; and, so far as I can determine, there have been no instances of arbitrary or politically oriented selection, omission, or alteration. The volumes under review, covering the last 386 days of the Johnson administration, maintain the same standards and format of those published previously. They include, along with numerous ceremonial items, all the President's major addresses, messages, press conferences, and public letters, among them such items as his last two messages on the state of the Union, his special messages on urban problems, conservation, civil rights, consumer protection, and crime, his state- ments on gun control, the Pueblo crisis, the Vietnam War, and the Paris peace talks, and perhaps most fascinating of all, his surprise announcement revealing his decision not to seek reelection. As in previous volumes, the items are in strict chronological sequence, |
but an excellent index enables the reader to locate quickly those pertaining to any given topic. From the perspective of less than two years, one cannot yet tell whether historians will regard this period of 386 days as being of great significance. Quite possibly, they may look upon it as one of the nation's critical turning points. It was, after all, a time marked by the emergence of the "new poli- tics" and the disintegration of the old Demo- cratic coalition, by major shifts in reform and foreign policy attitudes, by the most drastic repudiation of a national leader since the ordeals of Woodrow Wilson and Herb- ert Hoover, and by a new sense of pessimism and disillusionment in the face of national divisiveness, political polarization, and seem- ingly insoluble problems. Johnson describes it as a time not only of "anguish" and
"deep divisions," but also of "resolution"
and "progress." The mood that pervades many of his statements is that of a man who has lost his bearings, who reacts with defensive self- justification, and who in the end is much relieved by the shedding of responsibility. Scholars, of course, will have to go much deeper in order to understand what was hap- pening and why it happened, but these vol- umes will provide an authentic record of the President's public positions and reactions during a period that seems likely to be the subject of intense historical study in the future. ELLIS W.
HAWLEY University of Iowa The Cross of Culture: A Social Analysis of Midwestern Politics, 1850-1900. By PAUL KLEPPNER. (New
York: Free Press, 1970. x + 402p.; tables, appendices, bibliography, and index. $8.00.) Dr. Kleppner is dissatisfied with traditional approaches to the study of American polit- ical history. In this sophisticated and chal- lenging work he has offered some alterna- |