Book Reviews
Leadership in the American
Revolution: Papers Presented at the Third Sym-
posium, May 9 and 10, 1974. Edited by the Library of Congress.
(Washington, D. C.: Library of Congress,
1974. ix + 135p.; notes. $4.50.)
The five papers presented at the Third
Symposium on the American Revolu-
tion sponsored by the Library of
Congress, each prefaced by a brief, gracious
introduction by L. H. Butterfield,
comprise this attractive book. It is much more
successful than most collections of
papers: each author is a skilled craftsman;
each writes in an area of his expertise;
and each is assigned a topic that
illuminates the central theme of
leadership in the American Revolution.
In his paper "American Political
Leadership: The Optimistic Ethical World
View and the Jeffersonian
Synthesis," Alfred H. Kelly concludes that the
"optimistic ethical world
view," so named by Albert Schweitzer, has "exer-
cised a profound impact upon American
political leadership, indeed . . . inter-
preted broadly it may be the principal
distinguishing characteristic of that
leadership" (p. 9). The decisive
American contribution to the vitality of this
view lay in a synthesis of
constitutionalism, Enlightenment rationalism, and
democracy, chief credit for which Kelly
assigns to Thomas Jefferson and his
political heirs of the next two
generations. Today, says Kelly, the optimistic
ethical view of reality is in deep
trouble, one manifestation being a loss by the
American political community of its
sense of special destiny.
Marcus Cunliffe examines
"Congressional Leadership in the American Re-
volution" and concludes with John
Adams and Thomas Jefferson that the topic
is, on the whole, "unwriteably
complex" because its issues "elude definition."
Yet he believes historians have done
well, to a "commendable degree," in
sorting out the record. Most of this
paper is spent identifying difficulties con-
fronting anyone attempting a
comprehensive work on this topic. Cunliffe con-
cludes with some remarks leading toward
a new synthesis, but modestly denies
that he is the person to write it.
Gordon Wood's "The Democratization
of Mind in the American Revolution"
is perhaps the most successful piece in
this collection. With grace and lucidity he
asserts that "ideas and power,
intellectualism and politics" came together
uniquely in the Revolutionary Era. The
leaders of this time were "intellectuals
without being alienated and political
leaders without being obsessed with votes"
(p. 64). Ultimately the new democratic
society would undermine both their
political and their intellectual
authority. Some will argue with Wood's confi-
dence that the debate over the Sedition
Act "marked the crucial turning point ir
the democratization of the American
mind" (p. 81).
In his essay "Military Leadership
in the American Revolution," Don Higgin.
botham displays an admirable grasp of
his topic, yet there is only so much one
can do to bring system and order to the
eclecticism characteristic of the Ameri
can military in the Revolutionary Era.
Attention is drawn to European models
and ties and to the political
consciousness of the "most successful ranking
officers."
Each of these topics defies glib
generalization, but perhaps none so much as
Bruce Mazlish's "Leadership in the
American Revolution; The Psychologica
Book Reviews
87
Dimension." Psychohistory, for all
its merits, still creates a sense of unease
among conventional historians who prefer
to apply a common sense evaluation
to phrases like Founding Father or
Mother Country rather than to examine them
for Freudian overtones. Mazlish's brief
case study of George Washington,
involving themes of abandonment,
betrayal, and an Oedipal tendency, is in-
tended to be "suggestive ... of the
sort of questions one might wish to ask about
the personal lives of the leaders of the
American Revolution" (p. 131).
This book is a useful contribution in
the continuing effort to understand the
roots of American character and
accomplishment and a worthy addition to our
Bicentennial celebration.
The University of Akron George W. Knepper
A Documentary History of the Indiana
Decade of the Harmony Society, 1814-
1824: Volume In 1814-1819. Compiled and edited by Karl J. R. Arndt.
(Indianapolis: Indiana Historical
Society, 1975. xxiii + 837p.; illustrations,
notes, index. Cloth, $17.50; paper,
$8.00.)
It is always a matter for thought that
relatively few people could identify
George Rapp, whereas Robert Owen's name
is universally recognized. Yet the
"Rappites" were highly
successful as a community in Pennsylvania and India-
na, whereas the "Owenites"
were thorough failures. Indeed, the editor of this
work cites Owen among others to testify
for the Harmony Society as "a thriving
economic concern and religious
community." Thriving they were, but it would
be self-deception to imagine that
Rappites can ever achieve the place in society's
vital legends that Owen did.
Nor is this the case because Owen was
more "human" than Rapp and his
followers. If anything, Owen, with his
dogmatic view of human nature as
malleable, was less insightful than
these pious Germans, who were moved by
human love. Thus, while several of his
followers were in Indiana studying land
and opportunities, Rapp and their people
back in Harmonie, Pennsylvania,
hungered for their company. This litany
of love and courage in the face of death
by fever and other misadventures
suffuses these pages. "I certainly hope that
none among you is homesick for the old
place," writes Rapp; "none of us here
any longer feels that this is his home.
We are bored by the many business
transactions which are awaiting
settlement" (p. 13).
But whether bored or not, the Rappites's
willingness to work and build was
unstinted, with phenomenal results. The
legend of early American hard work
needs occasional correction. Rappites
studied plant culture and cattle, pur-
chases and sales which took them into
Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, and as far away
by river boat as New Orleans. But they
early observed that "the people plant
very little and laugh about it" (p.
42). The lush land, a frame of mind which saw
building materials in stones, and useful
associates among neighbors with whom
to overcome wilderness created affluent
Rappite communities and better than
contented people. They inspired others
from Germany to wish to join them,
some 150 in 1817 and 1818, and still
such others as settled in Ohio to found Zoar,
which Harmonists helped with counsel and
funds.
The Harmonists could not receive all who
were attracted to them because
differences of temperament or religious
beliefs made comradeship too difficult.
88 OHIO HISTORY
Rumors and fears caused their critics to
imagine such things as that they
abstained from sex and thus had no children. But though
they were cordial to
Shakers, with whom they were being
confused, they had some eighty to a
hundred children being well cared for in
their schools. Some Harmonists did put
aside sexual congress, but for religious
reasons. Others did not. What they had in
common was their dedication to their
leader's biblical inspiration and practical
rule. As one of them said, with no sense
of resentment, Rapp was a despot, but
his heart was good.
It is not possible in a review to sum up
the wealth of documentation which
Professor Arndt has brought together,
for example respecting indentureship, a
subject vital in a nation of minorities.
Thus, he reproduces (pp. 409-410) the
indenture of Henny, "a woman of
colour," dated October 20, 1817, which bound
her for forty years; Harmonist policy
toward whites was less drastic. Arndt's
careful and detailed footnotes
substantially deepen the rich text, in comment of
such worthies as General William Henry
Harrison and Thomas Jefferson, as
well as such others of distinction as
George Flower of the English Prairie
settlement in Illinois and Caleb Lownes,
a reformer of Philadelphia and Yellow
Springs, Ohio. Such a footnote as that
on pages 336-337 discusses immigration in
terms taking in German policy toward
their nationals, Goethe's novel Wilhelm
Meister, and Byron's Don Juan.
Arndt himself sums up the categories of
material he has collected in an
"Editorial Note" commenting on
aspects of the life of the community and its
relationships abroad. And yet categories
remain which have not been included:
books recording meteorological
information, precise records of the renting of
farms to non-members of the Society,
with detailed statements of farm produc-
tion and financial responsibility, and
the like. Indeed, community members
themselves were almost as predictable as
their material output: "Everyone,
men, women, and children, had a task
assigned to him which he dutifully
performed - in the fields, mills, or
shops" (p. xiv).
This fact to some extent explains
posterity's lack of intense interest in the
Rappites: they were too predictable in
their industry and steadiness of tempera-
ment. Historians, agricultural experts,
sociologists, and utopians will study
aspects of this splendid record to
answer particular needs. But we may have to
conclude that Owen's puerile atheism and
succeeding spiritualism, his
"economic determinism," and
his quick panaceas for human ills somehow
comport better with society's changing
but modish fancies than does Rapp's
fundamentalism and hard work. Historical
understanding involves a species of
logic not wholly identifiable with
reason in the simplistic sense.
Rapp can be associated, to an extent,
with what has recently been called
"middle America": the people
with ground roots, tradition, moderate interests
and demands. The error is to identify
their endorsements with their vagaries
Yes, they like Norman Rockwell and
continue to respect "David Grayson's'
vision of urban-rural America. But there
are "mod" sideburns at midwes
Rotary as well as on Fifth Avenue New
York. The traditions of America are real
and Rapp is closer to them than Owen.
But anyone, in high places in
Washington, or elsewhere who expects to
appeal successfully to "middle
America" for support might find it
is out at the moment for cocktails. How fror
time to time it picks up the slack of
society-for it does-is important to
understand.
Antioch College Louis Fille
Book Reviews
89
The Disruption of the Pennsylvania
Democracy, 1848-1860. By John F. Cole-
man. (Harrisburg: The Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission,
1975. v + 184p.; notes, bibliobraphy,
index. $5.50.)
Borrowing the title from Roy Nichols'
notable work on the collapse of the
national Democracy, Professor Coleman
(St. Francis College) has written a
concise study of political parties in
Pennsylvania during the pre-Civil War
decade. A revised dissertation, it
begins with two brief and informative
background chapters; thereafter, his
chapters, keyed to national and gubernato-
rial elections, indicate their content,
i.e., Whiggery Triumphant, 1848; Re-
surgence of the Democracy, 1849-1851;
Native Sons and Dark Horses, 1852;
Collapse of the Two-Party System,
1853-1855; Pennsylvania Picks a President,
1856; The Old Order Changeth, 1857-1859;
the Disruption of the Democracy,
1860; and Looking Backward.
Coleman uses manuscript collections and
secondary sources to investigate
and trace the careers of the major
politicos in Pennsylvania, e.g., James Bucha-
nan, William Bigler, Simon Cameron, and
John W. Forney. These elites are the
foci around which he tells the familiar
story of the evolution of the Whig,
Democratic, American, and Republican
parties and their intra-party squabbles.
However, he "plugs" the
Keystone State's political reverberations into previ-
ous national studies of the period and
stresses the reactions, by each party and
its factions, to the tariff issue,
nativism, and slavery extension. More impor-
tantly, he emphasizes the effects of
bitter patronage fights (both state and
national), the influence of urban
politics, and the constantly shifting alliances.
One may quarrel with Coleman's rather
general analyses of voter behavior (the
inclusion of maps would have been a
welcome addition), but he does satisfactor-
ily delineate the complex relationships
of the political leaders to ever-changing
party labels in a pivotal state that was
truly sui generis. The bibliography and
index are adequate and the lengthy
appendixes include raw voting data, by
county, for each presidential and
gubernatorial election. The Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission is to
be commended for publishing, so
cheaply in these inflationary times,
another monograph in an ongoing series of
studies of crucial periods, in the
state's political history.
California State College, J. Kent Folmar
Pennsylvania
Through One Man's Eyes, The Civil War
Experiences of a Belmont County
Volunteer: Letters of James G.
Theaker. Edited by Paul E. Rieger.
(Mount
Vernon: Printing Arts Press, Inc., 1974.
xx + 177p.; illustrations, notes,
appendixes, bibliography, index. $6.95.)
James G. Theaker (1830-1910) lived most
of his long life in his home county,
"Bonnie Belmont," along the
Ohio River across from Wheeling, West Virginia.
The exception was his Civil War service
with the 50th O.V.I., September,
1862-July 1865. Theaker was not a
particularly unusual man. He entered the
service because of a strong feeling for
the Union, an attitude that he maintained
throughout the war. He was fortunate in
his good health as he survived the
90 OHIO HISTORY
vicissitudes of camp life, sometimes
more dangerous than the rebel army. He
was also a literate man and closely
connected with family and friends in Bel-
mont, hence the collection of well
written and informative letters. Written
mainly to his brother and sister, the
letters touched on daily camplife, business
affairs at home, politics, and military
developments. His desire that the rebellion
be crushed led him to advocate
large-scale conscription and the use of black
soldiers. In the same vein he urged
support of the Lincoln administration and a
commensurate attack on the
"Copperheads." He was particularly concerned
that Ohio deny the governor's office to
Clement Vallandigham in 1863. The
soldiers would support John Brough, he
said, but the people at home had to carry
most of the weight. "The success of
Vail. would be most disastrous to the Union
case." No doubt his company would
go for Brough. "An old Democrat in the co.
received a letter from a Butternut
friend, trying to influence him to vote for Vall.
Well, he cursed him and all his friends
a little, and asked for a furlough to go
home and shoot him, and this is the
general feeling."
Theaker's ardently pro-Union politics
carried over into his thoughts on the
military. He seemed to adapt to
soldiering quite well, with little complaining
about the army in his letters. His major
negative comments involved the failure
of the Army of the Potomac and the
general lack of aggressiveness by Union
commanders. But once the Atlanta
campaign commenced his spirits rose, even
though he saw some heavy fighting. He
consistently expressed confidence in his
own company and regiment and the highest
regard for Generals John M.
Schofield, James B. McPherson, and
always, William T. Sherman. He expres-
sed also a certain fatalism, common to
many veterans, regarding the possibility
of losing his life in one of the
engagements. He was wounded in the foot at the
battle of Franklin, but recovered
without appreciable damage to his health or
morale. Indeed, he rejoined Sherman in
the Carolinas and returned home in the
summer of 1865, fully satisfied that he
had done his duty as a man and equally
happy to return to Belmont County.
It is this matter-of-factness that lends
a particular flavor to the letters and in
this respect probably gives them their
value. Editor Rieger has done a competent
job of annotation (with some archaic
forms, which are only mildly irritating) and
while not overstating the importance of
the collection, reveals a justifiable
admiration for Captain Theaker and the
cause he represented.
Kent State University John T. Hubbell
Paul Laurence Dunbar: A Bibliography.
By E. W. Metcalf, Jr. (Metuchen: The
Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1975. ix + 193p.;
indices. $7.50.)
As the popularity of Black history has
catapulted and expanded within the last
ten years, accompanied by the heightened
interest in social and intellectual
history, Paul Laurence Dunbar is
receiving new attention from scholars and
students. Professor Metcalf fills the
gap with a bibliography that will help to
springboard vitally needed new research
into the literary history on Dunbar and
Black Americans during the 1890s and the
early 1900s. This is the first bibliog-
raphy to provide scholars with an
overview of most of the writings by and about
Dunbar between 1888 to 1975.
Book Reviews
91
While the prominence and accomplishments
of Dunbar (1872-1906) justify the
voluminous writings about his life and
work, they also assure for the poet a
permanent place among the literary
giants of both American history and English
literature. A single review of 3,500
words of praise by William Dean Howells the
most celebrated literary figure in the
country, launched one of the most pheno-
menal careers in American literary
annals. The review made Dunbar the darling
and delight of audiences from Dayton,
Ohio to London, England.
Having meticulously prepared a brief
introduction, the author divided the
bibliography into three sections. The
first section lists material written by
Dunbar and the reprinting of his work.
The second category contains secondary
material in rich detail, and competently
annotated; the final division indicates
the microfilm collections of Dunbar,
arranged chronologically.
There are a few suggestions,
nonetheless, which may aid Professor Metcalf
whenever or if ever he elects to update
his work. First of all, three important
poems written in 1893 were left out:
"Deacon Jones's Grievance", May 5, 1893,
"The Lawyer's Ways", July 31,
and on September 18, "The Old Country
Papers". In addition, several
articles were excluded: Thomas D. Pawley,
"Dunbar as Playwright", Black
World, April 1975; Philip St. Laurent, "Paul
Laurence Dunbar", Chicago Sun
Times, September 1968; G. H. Hudson,
"Dunbar Dialect et La
Negritude", Phylon, September 1973; Hudson, "A Poet
For All Times: Paul Laurence Dunbar,
1872-1906", National Scene, August/
September 1973; and Hudson, "Paul
Laurence Dunbar: A Reconsideration,"
The Afro-American Journal, September 1973.
In other areas, the editor did not
consider Herbert Aptheker's Annotated
Bibliography of the Published
Writings of W.E.B. DuBois in which
there are a
number of significant references to
Dunbar. Moreover, the author might want to
include, later, more of the dramatic
works written by Dunbar. For example:
Herrick, a delightful comedy of manners in the style of Sheridan
and Wilde; On
the Island of Tanawana, replete with songs, vaudeville gags, and farcical
action;
The Quibbler's Wife, apparently intended as a melodrama; The Stolen Calf,
perhaps written, directed, and acted by
Dunbar; and Winter Roses, a play which
does not exist in the manuscript, but
according to Benjamin Brawley was sent to
Richard Harrison.
Finally, the reviewer would suggest the
mention of another category, the
unpublished Master's theses on the
subject. In this area he might consider the
following: Ralph Glassgow Johnson,
"The Poetry of Dunbar and McKay: A
Study", M.A. Thesis, Duquesne
University, 1948; J. Cortez Cooper, "Paul
Laurence Dunbar: The Poet", M.A.
Thesis, Ohio State University, 1931; Ed-
ward Eley Graham, "A Song Cycle and
Its Theoretical Analysis", M.A. Thesis,
Dayton University, 1968; Sister Dolores
Keller, "A Catalogue of the Books
Preserved In the Paul Laurence Dunbar
House", M.A. Thesis, Dayton Univer-
sity, 1968 (this thesis is an excellent
source because of the numerous poems and
notes written by and to Dunbar, writings
yet unpublished); and G. H. Hudson,
"A Biography of Paul Laurence
Dunbar", Doctoral Dissertation, Ohio State
University, 1970.
However, the suggestions recorded above
do not destroy the value of the
Bibliography as an indispensible book
with multitudinous sources on the life and
times of Dunbar. Consequently, Professor
Metcalf's work is bound to be con-
sulted and to be used with profit by
those students, scholars, and librarians of the
92 OHIO HISTORY
period whose labors touch the lives of
Paul Laurence Dunbar and his contem-
poraries.
Lincoln University Gossie Harold
Hudson
Black Americans and the White Man's
Burden, 1898-1903. By Willard B.
Gatewood, Jr. (Urbana: University of
Illinois Press, 1975. xi + 352p.; notes,
bibliography, index. $12.95.)
Professor Willard B. Gatewood has
demonstrated through careful research,
using the files of black newspapers of
the period 1898-1903 from all parts of the
United States, that the opinions of
blacks on the question of the United States
taking up the White Man's Burden was far
from uniform. That there was
ambivalence among blacks on this
question he has ably recorded, showing that
black opinion was divided in much the
same manner as white. Some blacks were
in favor of the policy of expansion into
the areas desired by advocates of a
"larger policy" because they
believed that Hawaii, the Philippines, Cuba and
Puerto Rico would provide opportunities
for United States blacks, who were
denied equality of opportunity at home,
to emigrate to these areas and develop to
their optimum potential. Blacks who held
this view were mostly Republicans,
many of them editors or publishers, who
used the same rhetoric as the McKinley
administration in its support of an
imperial adventure. In opposition to this view
the author has marshalled the opinions
of blacks who were afraid of an administ-
ration that proposed to do for peoples
in the insular areas what they had failed to
do for blacks at home; that is, to bring
the blessings of democratic government
and Christian brotherhood to people of
color. He makes clear that blacks were
aware of the inability of the majority
of white political leaders and decision
makers to deal with nonwhites on a basis
of equality. He graphically shows what
official Spanish propaganda depicted
with telling effect-Uncle Sam hurrying
off to liberate blacks in Cuba while
lynching blacks at home. The Baker case in
Lake City, South Carolina, was an
example: "Frazier B. Baker, a black Repub-
lican, had encountered opposition from
whites. The lengths to which they were
prepared to go in preventing Negro
office holding were demonstrated on Feb-
ruary 22, 1889, when a mob set fire to
Baker's house and shot at members of his
family as they tried to escape. Baker
and his infant son were killed." After this
tragedy John Mitchell, a black editor,
questioned the wisdom of an expansionist
policy which would affect the lives of
colored people in Cuba and elsewhere.
"Tell us more about a war with
Spain," he declared, "discourse no longer upon
the beauties of the 'pearl of the Antilles'
(Cuba), sing no more the song of
annexation of the 'garden spot of the
Pacific' (Hawaii). We can defend none of
these if we cannot protect our own
citizens [living] within forty-eight hours' ride
of the national capital." Ralph W.
Tyler, a prominent Ohio black man, confided
to a friend that he would not fight for
the United States "as long as the nightmare
of Lake City remains undispelled."
Blacks in uniform were treated the same
as black civilians. Gatewood writes
that "nothing so clearly dramatized
the paradox and incongruity bred of racial
prejudice as the experience of the men
of the Twenty-fourth Infantry in charge of
Spanish prisoners during their transfer
from Tampa to Fort McPherson, Geor-
gia. In several towns along the route
crowds of whites gathered, presumably to
Book Reviews
93
view the Spaniards; but the center of
their attention and the target of their insults
and taunts were the Negro
soldiers."
After the war racial violence seemed to
assume a more brutal and inhumane
character. "Beginning with the
'massacre' in Wilmington, North Carolina, and
the mine wars in Illinois in the fall of
1898, reports of racial incidents appeared in
the press almost daily for the next two
years, culminating in the bloody race riots
in New Orleans, Akron and New York in
the summer of 1900." These manifesta-
tions of racial prejudice illustrated to
black Americans the hypocrisy of a war for
the liberation of the Cuban peoples.
Professor Gatewood has brought together
sufficient evidence to support the
contention that the period in which the
United States took up the "White Man's
Burden" coincided with the nadir of
the black experience in the United States.
A very important contribution by the
author is his articulation of the dilemma
posed by the use and deployment of Negro
troops before, during and after the
war with Spain. States were reluctant to
use blacks in their Guard, and where
they were used they were in separate
units. Professor Gatewood underscores
the uneasiness of governors, military
commanders and the president of the
United States over the use of black
troops when black people were being
lynched in practically every state in
the union. Of particular interest to Ohio
readers is the lynching that took place
in Urbana, Ohio, in 1897 and its con-
sequent effect on the black Ninth
Batallion of the Ohio National Guard. It was
apparent that there was some concern in
all sections of the country regarding the
use of blacks as soldiers in defense of
a country which offered them at best
second class citizenship. Professor
Gatewood gives us an insight into the his-
toric reasons for the fear which besets
some white Americans today in the face of
an all volunteer army composed larely of
minorities.
The author has marshalled evidence of
the failure of the melting pot concept as
far as a large minority of nonwhites was
concerned. He has shown how virulent
racism, incubated at home, was like a
disease carried wherever the American
flag was planted. While many claimed
that the Afro-American was somehow
immune to tropical diseases, Gatewood
has shown that American racism was
not immune to any climate or geography.
This is all that was needed to convince
black Americans that white Americans
preached one thing and practiced
another.
The materials used by the author cover a
wide range of letters, interviews,
manuscripts, government documents,
published and unpublished theses,
periodicals and newspapers. The author
relies heavily on the opinions of black
editors of newspapers, but includes the
opinions and views of black politicians,
religious leaders, educators, and
military personnel as well. The geographic
scope of the research covers all areas
of the United States. The work is divided
into eleven chapters and a conclusion,
with an excellent bibliography which uses
extant materials as well as the most
recent publications of the 1970s that are
pertinent to the subject. Indexing is
ably done. Gatewood's style is such that the
reader puts the book down with
difficulty. It is the hope of this reviewer that
Black Americans and the White Man's
Burden will be made available in a
less
expensive paperback edition.
Central State University Rubin F. Weston
94 OHIO HISTORY
Into the Twenties: The United States
from Armistice to Normalcy. By Burl
Noggle. (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1974. ix + 233p.; notes, bib-
liography, index. $8.50.)
For many decades, historians have found
the year 1920 a watershed. The
inauguration of Harding, they claim, led
to the death of Progressivism and the
triumph of reaction. Professor Noggle
shows that such a picture is greatly
oversimplified. Indeed, Harding,
Coolidge, and Hoover "were more caretakers
than innovators," for the country
was "already predisposed to move in the
direction in which they chose to
go" (p. viii).
Surprisingly enough, the United States
had ended World War I with high
hopes. War prosperity continued until
1921. Many Americans faced the tasks of
demobilization with optimism, believing
that the discipline sustained during the
war effort could help design a sound
peacetime economy. Every major interest
group, including various business
organizations, possessed its own reconstruc-
tion program.
To Noggle, it was the aftermath of the
Great War, not the war itself, that led to
"normalcy." In his excellent
section on demobilization, the author trenchantly
reveals that Wilson advocated no
reconstruction program and appeared indif-
ferent to the issue. Similarly, the
President lacked a labor policy, even when
unemployment had set in, and was either
confused or apathetic about the future
of the federally-controlled railroad
system. Noggle suggests that Wilson's
apparent unconcern was rooted in a
desire to buy off Republican demands for a
vengeful peace, although he recognizes
such factors as a divided Congress and
Wilson's own fears of a huge
bureaucratic machinery. (Perhaps the New Free-
dom had a longer life than we think).
Noggle's treatment of Wilson's foreign
policy is equally perceptive. Relying
upon such historians as Arno J. Mayer,
he covers America's intricate Russian
policy and offers a thoughtful bibliographical
essay in the process. Wilson's
coveted League, he claims, was designed
to "bolster and sustain an interna-
tional system of nation-states,
capitalistic in trade, and governments friendly if
not patterned after that of the United
States" (p. 134). Hence, Harding's effort,
centering on a world economic community
in which all doors were open, merely
continued Wilsonian policies. The author
also outlines the Administration's
Mexican policy, noting that by 1919
Lansing had brought the United States to
the brink of war.
Other parts of the book also possess
revisionist elements. Differing with such
students of the Red Scare as Stanley
Coben and John Higham, Noggle finds
more to the incident than psychic
disequilibrium. Prohibition, the author claims,
was no one-dimensional movement
engineered, by puritanical fanatics, but
rather a Progressive measure endorsed by
a wide variety of reformers, social
workers, and businessmen. Noggle
notes-almost in passing-that the flapper
movement was underway before World War I
broke out, that northbound blacks
often took jobs inferior to those they
had had in the South, and that a play-by-
play account of the 1919 World Series
offers in itself little proof of Black Sox
guilt. The author uses current Harding
research to good advantage, showing that
the Marion politician was at all times
"his own man."
In short, Noggle offers an excellent
synthesis. He has integrated the fresh
secondary literature with such
significant primary sources as the McAdoo.
Book Reviews
95
Borah, and Wilson papers. His
bibliography is thorough, his writing clear.
Wilson's Russian policy could have been
made sharper: at times, Noggle hints
that the President was confused and
uncertain (p. 129), at times he stresses an
anti-revolutionary design (p. 144).
There is an occasional cliche (e.g. Amos
Pinchot "chock-full of reform
enthusiasm") and banality (e.g. "With whatever
it produced, Hollywood would profoundly
influence American manners and
perhaps morals as well in the years to
come"-p. 173). All told, however, the
work is a most valuable one. If nothing
else, it should force many professors to
rewrite their lectures.
New College of the University of Justus D. Doenecke
South Florida
Yesterday's Akron: The First 150
Years. By Kenneth Nichols. (Miami: E.
A.
Seemann Publishing, Inc., 1975. 120p.;
204 photographs, drawings, and
maps. $9.95.)
This reviewer, who had a number of
relatives among the massive World War I
migration from West Virginia to Akron,
Ohio, found Kenneth Nichols' pictorial
history, Yesterday's Akron, a
personal delight. The compiler, an Akron Beacon
Journal reporter,
avoided the pitfall of so many local historians who portray only
city pioneers and elites. Nichols
devotes equal attention to pioneer settlers,
industrial tycoons, and civic leaders on
one hand and to migrants, rubber
workers, and victims of the Great
Depression on the other. The viewer runs the
gamut from the West Virginia Saloon to
F. A. Seiberling's Portage Path man-
sion, "Stan Hywet"; from
Hooverville and the soup line to the garish Loew's
Theater where clouds began floating and
stars twinkling beneath a make-believe
sky only six months before the Great
Crash; and from the race riot of 1900 and
the awesome march of hooded Klansmen in
the 1920s to the "Wedding of the
Century" that united the Ford and
Firestone families. One discovers the antici-
pated Goodyear-not Goodrich-blimp and
the unexpected: young rubber
worker Clark Gable. In short, the book
should excite as much attention in the
union hall as along Portage Path.
Certain photos that might have attracted
widespread national attention, those
of the race riot of 1900 and the rubber
strikes of the 1930s, unfortunately do not
equal the dramatic scenes of fleeing
blacks and pursuing whites in Chicago in
1919 or the action shots of the
Minneapolis truckers' strike of 1934 or the
Memorial Day Massacre in 1937. Too many
photos of early buildings and street
parades remain for this reviewer's
taste. On the other hand, there are some
model photos: "Stan Hywet," a
muscular tire builder, the Klan march, the
Hooverville scene, the W.P.A. canning
school, and cleaning women reading the
news of the Pearl Harbor attack.
The brief text is both incisive and
informative, recapturing most of the city's
significant challenges and responses
over the years. The serious student of the
city who has read Karl Grismer's Akron
and Summit County will, however, find
little new information here. A few minor
errors escaped detection, eg. Dr.
Eliakim founding Cascade a century late
(p. 11); WPA activity in 1973 (p. 85);
and Wendell Wilkie campaigning for the
presidency in 1944 (p. 106). The author,
basing his optimism on Akron's
successful recovery from the Great Depression
96 OHIO HISTORY
when the city first threatened to become
a ghost town, seems too sanguine about
the city's future. A permanent energy
crisis, threatening both of Akron's basic
industries, rubber and trucking, poses a
far more serious threat to the city than
did the temporary depression. Urban
renewal, stressed in the closing pages,
offers only a temporary boon to the
local construction industry but cannot arrest
a decline imposed by an energy crisis.
Halting construction on a city expressway
while still leading nowhere and
abandonment by railroad passenger service of a
newly erected modern urban
transportation center shortly after it was com-
pleted are unhappy omens.
Ohio's secondary schools and public
libraries and Akron's union halls should
make the book widely available, and
Summit County social studies teachers
would find it useful in the classroom.
Many present and former residents of
Akron would enjoy owning the volume, which,
at today's book prices, is
modestly priced.
The Ohio State University, John W. Hevener
Lima Campus
Book Reviews
Leadership in the American
Revolution: Papers Presented at the Third Sym-
posium, May 9 and 10, 1974. Edited by the Library of Congress.
(Washington, D. C.: Library of Congress,
1974. ix + 135p.; notes. $4.50.)
The five papers presented at the Third
Symposium on the American Revolu-
tion sponsored by the Library of
Congress, each prefaced by a brief, gracious
introduction by L. H. Butterfield,
comprise this attractive book. It is much more
successful than most collections of
papers: each author is a skilled craftsman;
each writes in an area of his expertise;
and each is assigned a topic that
illuminates the central theme of
leadership in the American Revolution.
In his paper "American Political
Leadership: The Optimistic Ethical World
View and the Jeffersonian
Synthesis," Alfred H. Kelly concludes that the
"optimistic ethical world
view," so named by Albert Schweitzer, has "exer-
cised a profound impact upon American
political leadership, indeed . . . inter-
preted broadly it may be the principal
distinguishing characteristic of that
leadership" (p. 9). The decisive
American contribution to the vitality of this
view lay in a synthesis of
constitutionalism, Enlightenment rationalism, and
democracy, chief credit for which Kelly
assigns to Thomas Jefferson and his
political heirs of the next two
generations. Today, says Kelly, the optimistic
ethical view of reality is in deep
trouble, one manifestation being a loss by the
American political community of its
sense of special destiny.
Marcus Cunliffe examines
"Congressional Leadership in the American Re-
volution" and concludes with John
Adams and Thomas Jefferson that the topic
is, on the whole, "unwriteably
complex" because its issues "elude definition."
Yet he believes historians have done
well, to a "commendable degree," in
sorting out the record. Most of this
paper is spent identifying difficulties con-
fronting anyone attempting a
comprehensive work on this topic. Cunliffe con-
cludes with some remarks leading toward
a new synthesis, but modestly denies
that he is the person to write it.
Gordon Wood's "The Democratization
of Mind in the American Revolution"
is perhaps the most successful piece in
this collection. With grace and lucidity he
asserts that "ideas and power,
intellectualism and politics" came together
uniquely in the Revolutionary Era. The
leaders of this time were "intellectuals
without being alienated and political
leaders without being obsessed with votes"
(p. 64). Ultimately the new democratic
society would undermine both their
political and their intellectual
authority. Some will argue with Wood's confi-
dence that the debate over the Sedition
Act "marked the crucial turning point ir
the democratization of the American
mind" (p. 81).
In his essay "Military Leadership
in the American Revolution," Don Higgin.
botham displays an admirable grasp of
his topic, yet there is only so much one
can do to bring system and order to the
eclecticism characteristic of the Ameri
can military in the Revolutionary Era.
Attention is drawn to European models
and ties and to the political
consciousness of the "most successful ranking
officers."
Each of these topics defies glib
generalization, but perhaps none so much as
Bruce Mazlish's "Leadership in the
American Revolution; The Psychologica