Book Reviews
An Ohio Portrait. By George W. Knepper. (Columbus: The Ohio Historical
Society, 1976. 282p.; illustrations,
maps, index. $20.00.)
An Ohio Portrait is one of a growing list of publications resulting from
the
bicentennial which raises the hope that
whatever the ultimate assessment may
be of other phases of this national
birthday celebration it will be viewed in the
future as having provided the same kind
of noteworthy stimulus to publications
in the field of state and local history
as was provided by America's centennial.
This reviewer, a non-Ohioan,
congratulates the Ohio bicentennial commission
and the Ohio Historical Society for
collaborating on this handsome volume and
expresses his regrets that more states,
including his own Michigan, did not
follow Ohio's example in subsidizing
similar publications that will have
continuing value and use long after many
other bicentennial-financed activities
have been forgotten.
George Knepper's text is concise, yet
admirably comprehensive, treating not
only the standard topics that one
expects in such histories, but also handling
such subjects as the geographical and
geological background, the arts,
recreation, and sports in a more
satisfactory and knowledgeable manner (with
the notable exception of baseball, where
Knepper's account contains more
errors than it does hits) than one is
accustomed to finding in state histories.
Knepper is especially successful in
demonstrating the validity of the theme, to
which he repeatedly returns, of Ohio as
the most representative of all the states.
The more than 600 illustrations that
accompany the text are, as a group,
superb. As the author of a two-volume
pictorial history of Michigan, this
reviewer knows something of the
difficulties that one encounters in trying to
locate good materials for this kind of
work and he has nothing but admiration for
the outstanding job performed by those
who were responsible for searching
through the pictorial resources available
for An Ohio Portrait.
The book is not without its faults,
however. The text, although containing few
glaring factual errors, is sometimes
guilty of the tendency, common to this
genre, to claim too much for the state.
The space given to discussing the Scopes
Trial in Tennessee might have been used
better had it been devoted to an event in
the career of a lawyer whose life was
more closely associated with Ohio than that
of Clarence Darrow, who, although born
in Ohio, during most of his life lived and
practiced law elsewhere. Similarly,
Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, Taft, and
Harding, Ohioans all the way, would seem
to be enough presidents for Ohio to
claim, leaving native sons Grant and
Benjamin Harrison for Illinois and Indiana
to make of them what they will.
The sources of all the pictures are
meticulously noted at the end of the volume,
but there are no footnotes identifying
the sources used in writing the narrative,
nor is there any bibliography, the
addition of which would have been helpful to
the many non-specialists to whom the
book is designed to appeal. The picture
layout designed by Ron Mlicki is
effective and, in the case of the montages that
introduce each chapter, rather innovative.
Unfortunately, the text and the
appropriate illustrations are sometimes
separated by several pages, which can
lead to confusion, as, for example, when
a full page of illustrations on the
Cincinnati riot of 1884 appears in a
section devoted to labor troubles and the
138 OHIO HISTORY
caption does not indicate, as the text
does seven pages later, that this riot had
nothing to do with any labor dispute.
However, the strength of the whole work
more than compensates for the
weaknesses of any of its parts. An
Ohio Portrait should prove to be an excellent
introduction to the subject for those
who are unfamiliar with the state as well as a
source of much enjoyment and new
insights to those who are.
Eastern Michigan University George S. May
Christopher Gist: Colonial
Frontiersman, Explorer, and Indian Agent. By
Kenneth P. Bailey. (Hamden, CT: Archon
Books, 1976. 264p.; illustrations,
notes, appendices, bibliography, index.
$15.00.)
Professor Bailey states in his preface,
"Some years ago Alfred P. James stated
... 'numerous biographies of
Daniel Boone have been written, and so far as is
known to the present writer not one of
Christopher Gist, his not unworthy
predecessor in both exploration and
settlement beyond the Appalachians.' What
James had to say many years ago is still
true today." In this biography Bailey has
attempted to elevate Gist to his
rightful place in the history of the American
frontier.
By utilizing sources not available until
the mid-1950s and other material
previously inaccessible, he has written
an excellent biography of this
remarkable frontiersman. Gist was a
merchant, surveyor, ranger, explorer, and
Indian agent. Born in Maryland in 1705,
he was the son of Richard and Zepporah
Murray Gist. Bailey spends eight pages
tracing the early life of Christopher and
his family background. He briefly
mentions the marriage of Gist to Sarah
Howard in 1728 and the births of their
four sons and two daughters. He goes on
to state, "in studying the early
background of Christopher Gist, two types of
source material are available: first,
the Maryland Court records and church
records, and second, the Horn
Papers." Bailey contends that the first type has
little historical value, but when
confronted with reliance on the Horn Papers, he
is faced with a dilemma. He mentions the
alleged forgery of the Horn Papers
(p.18), but states that what they
contain is probably true. Bailey maintains,
"these Horn diaries tell so much
about Gist that makes sense, even if they are
fake, that one can only be sorry that
the blanks still exist" (p.19).
Despite his lament that blanks still
exist in the life of Christopher Gist, Bailey
has made every effort to fill in these
blanks by using solid and imaginative
research. By assembling what is known
about Gist and his relationship with his
contemporaries, Bailey has managed to
weave a fascinating biography of this
neglected frontiersman. Gist's own
writings are some of the most important
sources for this study. A picture
emerges of a complex man of many
occupations. When he participated in
expeditions into the Ohio country, he
commented on the land and the people who
inhabited the frontier. It was
deplorable that Gist had such difficulty
managing his personal affairs, while
working with government officials who
were unwilling or unable to recognize the
complexity of his situation. Gist's
situation serves as a good example of some of
the problems which plagued his successor
Indian agents on the frontier
throughout the early years of the United
States. It is to his credit that he was able
Book Reviews
139
to accomplish many of his objectives
while caught between the demands of daily
life and conflicting directives from his
superiors.
This scholarly volume is a welcome
addition to the study of life and society
during the late colonial era of the
history of the American frontier. It is a
handsome and readable book which
deserves a place on the bookshelf of those
who are interested in the early
development of the Ohio country.
Missouri Southern State College Robert E. Smith
The United States Marines: 1775-1975.
By Brigadier General Edwin H. Sim-
mons. (New York: The Viking Press, 1976.
x + 342p.; illustrations, maps,
bibliography, index. $8.95.)
In November 1975 the United States
Marine Corps celebrated its two
hundredth birthday. Stimulated by this
event, Brigadier General Edwin H.
Simmons, USMC (Ret.), has written a
brief history of the Corps from its
establishment in 1775 to the Mayaguez
incident of 1975. General Simmons
surveys the origins, development, and
utilization of the Marines in minor affrays
and major wars. The focus of the
attention is on the activities of the twentieth
century in general and World War II in
particular. The volume includes a number
of maps which help the reader follow the
campaign narratives and an extensive
bibliography listing the previous
histories of the Corps.
Despite the title, the work is really
only a history of Marine Corps operations.
The emphasis is on action, not on
analysis. The wars are seen in a very limited
perspective-the U.S. Marine Corps in combat. For
example, General
Simmons' account of the Mexican War
includes nothing about the background
of the conflict. The narrative
concentrates on the Marines' role and ignores the
fact that they constituted only a small
part of the total American combat force
and were involved in only some of the
campaigns of the war. Throughout the
book non-combat episodes are either
ignored or slighted. General Simmons
devotes only three pages to racial
issues and his discussion is limited to the years
1941 to 1950. He mentions that in 1949
the Secretary of the Navy ordered the end
of racial discrimination in the Marines.
There is no explanation offered as to why
this order did not immediately follow
President Truman's 1948 executive order
ending discrimination in the armed
forces. The author totally ignores the racial
issues in the years following 1950, even
though they became major problems for
the Corps, especially during the Vietnam
War.
A more serious flaw is the author's
failure to come to grips with the issue of the
mission of the U.S. Marine Corps. There
is never any attempt made to clarify the
roles of the Corps. While there is a
brief mention of the development of
amphibious techniques in the 1920s,
General Simmons never relates why they
were deemed necessary by the Marine
leaders.
If the book is viewed solely as a
history of Marine operations, the subject on
which it concentrates, it still has
serious flaws. The battle narratives are
dehumanized. There is an excessive focus
on commanders and their units. There
is a bewildering profusion of the
latter: battalions, divisions, brigades, landing
forces, aircraft wings, aircraft groups,
and aircraft squadrons. They and their
acronyms come and go rapidly and
confusion is the result. At times the author's
140 OHIO HISTORY
style adds to the reader's bewilderment.
For example, he mentions that a unit
"landed administratively"
(p.219) but fails to explain this unusual term.
The book does provide a brief overview
of the combat operations of the U.S.
Marine Corps but this alone is not
enough to satisfy the military history buff or
the professional historian searching for
a history of the Corps. In terms of its
view of Marine history and the
description of it, the book is an example of some
of the traditional problems with the
writing of military history. Its excessive
concern with leaders, operations, and
units, and its consequent neglect of the
individual soldier, the processes of
decision making, and the context of events,
result in a book which contributes
little to our knowledge of the history of the
United States Marine Corps.
Ohio University Marvin E.
Fletcher
Frontier Musicians on the
Connoquenessing, Wabash, and Ohio. By
Richard
D. Wetzel. (Athens: Ohio University
Press, 1976. 294p.; illustrations,
bibliography, index. $16.00.)
At last the music history of George
Rapp's Harmony Society has been
written. We owe this long overdue
achievement to a young Professor of
Music,Literature and History at Ohio
University who received his scholarly
training at Pittsburgh's Cathedral of
Learning, which itself is the grand
realization of Richard Wagner's Liebestod,
the musical interpretation of the
elevating climax to the immortal love of
Tristan and Isolde. This reviewer is
especially pleased to see this work in
print and well done because many years
ago he tried to interest a historian of
music in the rewarding possibilities of
this research only to be told: "If
it were worth doing, it would already have
been done." This volume proves that
the research was worth doing.
Wetzel takes this history from its
humble, genuine, and pious beginnings
through its various phases of
development to the blatant and blaring end with
the conquest of Broadway by a
combination of Diamond Jim Brady taste and
Barnum and Bailey method. Needless to
say, this end was neither envisioned
nor expected by the Harmonists whose
hard-earned wealth was to be placed
at the feet of Jesus upon His return in
testimony of their faithful stewardship
of the talents He had given them. While
this history covers the entire century
of music in George Rapp's Harmony
Society, readers in western
Pennsylvania will be especially
interested in the close connection of Economy
on the Ohio River and the city of
Pittsburgh. Thus, Wetzel has described the
musical relationships of two famous
Pittsburghers to the Harmony Society
orchestra: Charles von Bonnhorst and
Williams Cumings Peters. Both
composed music especially for the
Harmonists and enjoyed hearing them
perform. Bonnhorst was a very
influential attorney who handled many of the
legal affairs of the Society and Peters
for a time directed and taught music in
the Society. The home of von Bonnhorst
often was the center of musical
events and for important German visitors
he acted as official greeter of the
city of Pittsburgh. "The greatest
American author," Charles Sealsfield, had
his mail addressed to von Bonnhorst's
home, and German poet Lenau not
Book Reviews
141
only played his violin at musical
evenings there but also was introduced to the
Harmony Society where he lived for some
time.
Because the Harmonists were dedicated to
a restoration of the
pre-established harmony of life, music
was considered only one phase of
human existence and the development of
musical talent was never allowed to
further any kind of "prima
donnaism." That is probably the reason why Dr.
Muller's humble request that W. C.
Peters be engaged to continue his
teaching at Economy was denied by Father
Rapp, yet Rapp permitted his
granddaughter to receive special lessons
in piano and voice. This was one of
his inconsistencies for which the
Society paid dearly, but the fact remains
that Gertrude Rapp was raised as a
princess in every respect and was, from
her birth in the Society, given
preferential treatment in all things, not only in
music.
Those who can read and play music will
be delighted to find the generous
reproductions of musical notes from the
Harmony Society Archives, thus
providing rich documentary evidence of
the kind of music played by these
frontier musicians. There is also a
record with excerpts of Harmonist music
for those who wish to listen. Although
there is much evidence of a love for
classical music, there is a tragic
absence of classic Kirchenlieder or Chorale.
The greatest of these hymns are not
found in the hymnals of the Harmony
Society, and from this point of view
these hymnals show poor taste. Two
explanations might be offered. First,
Wurttemberg went through two
reformations with the result that the
form of service there became one of the
coldest and liturgically most deficient
in all the Lander of Germany. Out of
fear of popishness all the beauty of the
Lutheran Kirchenlied and the
profoundly religious heritage of the
Christian Church were discarded.
Nowhere in all German lands has this
reviewer found as cold and uninspiring
an order of worship as in Wurttemberg.
He was constantly reminded of
Heine's chilling description of the
Kantian ghost in the Harzreise. Second,
George Rapp and his Harmonists were
those who rebelled against this
religious frigidity but in their search
for warmth they made the mistake of
turning to the mysticism of Jacob
Boehme. This then resulted in many weird
compositions to Sophia, causing one
early historian of the Harmonists to
express the view that no gathering of
nuts from a nut-house in the area could
have composed a greater nonsense than is
found in these Boehme-inspired
hymns. Rapp's rebellion against the cold
form of service in the established
church was fully justified, if only he
had been sensible enough to search for
warmth in the great religious musical
heritage of Lutheran Saxony or Catholic
Bavaria. Egomania and stubbornness, a
characteristic of Suabians, kept him
from such a solution.
Wetzel's book offers much to many, but
his reviewer would recommend it
especially for its critical analysis of
Harmony Society music and for its
catalog of the Harmony Society music
collection in Economy, now named
Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Others may wish
to stress other values of the work
but because this reviewer is much
interested in the history of German printing
in the United States, he found the
catalog of the Harmony Society collection
of special value to his own research. In
any case, this volume belongs in the
library of any reader who would like to
satisfy a curiosity about music in
America, because it covers a chapter in
the history of music in this country
that has been overlooked until this
volume appeared.
Clark University Karl J. R.
Arndt
142 OHIO HISTORY
Western River Transportation: The Era
of Early Internal Development,
1810-1860. By Erik F. Haites, James Mak, and Gary M. Walton.
(Baltimore:
The Johns Hopkins University Press,
1975. xi + 209p.; notes, appendices,
bibliography, index. $12.50.)
This volume bears many similarities to
an earlier study in which Gary M.
Walton joined James F. Shepherd in
writing Shipping, Maritime Trade, and the
Economic Development of Colonial
North America, published in 1972. Each
of
these studies is essentially quantitative in character
and in each about a third of
the pages are given to appendices which illustrate and
support the conclusions.
In their present study of western river
transportation in the pre-Civil War
period, Erik F. Haites, James Mak, and
Walton stress their "emphasis on
quantification and economic
analysis" to distinguish their contribution. Most of
their analysis concentrates on the trunk
line of river transportation between
Louisville and New Orleans, a route for
which statistical evidence is most
plentiful.
The authors assert that between 1815 and
1860 steamboat improvements
"generated a rate of productivity
advance far greater than occurred in any other
transportation medium of the nineteenth
century" (pp.61, 119); and it is the
western rivers, rather than canals and
railroads, which were "the dominant
medium of trade" (p. 11) for most
of the antebellum years. The small capital
required to engage in river
transportation made competition the greatest
stimulant to cost reduction. This
competition, the authors add, made private
enterprise more significant than the
activist state in the transportation
development of the time, thus modifying
recent emphasis on the role of
government in nineteenth-century
internal improvements.
The steamboat brought greatest savings
in upstream traffic, as expected, but
downstream savings followed as well.
Increased speed itself was less significant
in steamboat competition than the
increase in the number of round trips per year
that came from a longer navigation
season and the improvement in steamboat
design for shallow water use. Even after
steamboat profits declined in the 1830s,
they remained at bonanza levels along
the tributaries. Keelboating and
flatboating also come under study here,
the former declining rapidly on the trunk
routes but continuing on the
tributaries, the latter continuing to supplement the
steamboat as the time was shortened for
the upstream return of flatboat crews
when another drift downstream could be
undertaken.
The authors note the points at which
their data is incomplete and their
conclusions are tentative, but their
language is excessive when they write in the
preface that for the antebellum period
"the void recounting the history of river
transportation requires filling."
They emphasize that Louis C. Hunter's "classic
history" of Steamboats on the
Western Rivers (1949) was "invaluable" for their
own study, and their footnotes cite
Hunter on a fourth of the 123 pages of their
text. The index, however, cites only ten
page references for Hunter. Their work
would be more valuable if they had
included more on economic development
and urban growth in the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys.
This book brings together comprehensive
data on western river transportation
before the Civil War, draws provocative
new interpretations from that data, and
enlarges our knowledge of the use of
flatboats, keelboats, and steamboats in
western trade.
Miami University Ronald E.
Shaw
Book Reviews
143
Hired Hands and Plowboys: Farm Labor
in the Midwest, 1815-60. By David E.
Schob. (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1975. x + 329p.; notes, tables,
bibliography, index. $10.95.)
Contemporary United States agriculture
is characterized by abundant yields,
almost total mechanization, large
exports, and massive business units. Pleas-
antly intruding into the atmosphere and
concerns of twentieth-century Ameri-
can agriculture is David E. Schob's Hired
Hands and Plowboys. The book
humanistically deals with the topic of
farm labor in the states of the Old North-
west Territory between 1815 and 1860.
Schob skillfully relates the varied
chores of farm workers-clearing the land,
plowing the soil, teamstering, and
harvesting. In addition to these more familiar
types of agricultural labor, the author
details some of the more specialized tasks
performed by hired help-drainage, well
digging, cellar digging, and horticul-
ture. Furthermore, he has included
excellent discussions on such winter season
jobs as logging, sawmilling, and pork
packaging. Of special interest is Schob's
identification of various ethnic and
minority groups with certain specialized
skills and his two chapters on the lives
of hired boys and girls. Finally, he
provides an engrossing and exhaustive
account of the hired hands' relationships
with employers, work days, duties,
contracts, wages, hiring arrangements and
conditions, and leisure-time activities.
Although Schob confirms existing ideas
concerning farm labor, he has written
an enduring book. Every student of
agricultural and midwestern history must
read this work. It is an extremely
enjoyable and highly informative study
reemphasizing the backbreaking efforts
of hired farm hands and their important
contributions to a developing nation.
The author treats his subject more
thoroughly and extensively than anyone
who has explored this topic. His very
significant insights and conclusions are
supported by comprehensive and time-
consuming research in manuscripts,
diaries, ledgers, farm newspapers, and
government documents. All in all, Hired
Hands and Plowboys is a most excel-
lent history of farm labor in the
pre-Civil War Middlewest.
Muskingum College Ronald A.
Mulder
The Making of the Monroe Doctrine. By Ernest R. May. (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1975. xviii +
306p.; illustrations, notes, tables,
appendices, indices. $12.50.)
James Monroe was in that select company
of presidents to have his name
affixed to a stated national policy. The
Monroe Doctrine proclaimed bravely in
1823 that the New World was not subject
to future colonization by European
powers. Never considered as law-national
or international-it had limited
initial impact. It was never the
cardinal factor in preventing Great Power
dismemberment of Latin America. Rather,
Europe kept its hands off because of
internal preoccupations and
opportunities nearer at home. Moreover, economic
power proved more attractive than
political dominion. Nonetheless, the Doc-
trine eventually achieved tremendous
historical significance as a vital American
self-defense policy. By the end of the
nineteenth century, to impugn it was akin
to attacking motherhood, the Fourth of
July, or the Republic itself.
144 OHIO HISTORY
Ernest May of Harvard University
describes here the genesis of Monroe's
edict, concluding that each of the
leading politicians of the early national period
was motivated by both their own ideas of
the national interest and their own
private ambitions for political destiny. He accounts
for America's "go-it-alone"
policy in terms of each leader's
jockeying for the best personal position in the
1824 presidential sweepstakes. The
ambition to succeed Monroe, according to
May, was not as cynical as it was
pragmatic. The upcoming election explains
much if not all about the origins of the
Doctrine, certainly more than the
traditional explanation which stresses
the unfounded American fear of potential
Old World intervention in the New.
May wisely notes that his conclusions
are inferential, speculative, and often
based on circumstantial evidence. He
admits that the connection between
foreign policy debates and presidential
politics is "sparse and ambiguous."
While this book is an instructive and
interesting lesson in historical
reconstruction, May's attempt to
recreate the 1820's Zeitgeist and his own
feeling that the Monroe Doctrine was
essentially the result of an election
campaign may lead to charges of
oversimplification.
The author's tracing of the Doctrine's
evolution in terms of domestic politics
makes no real reference to the vibrant
cultural nationalism which pervaded the
country after the second war with
England. In addition to its political
connotations, the Monroe Doctrine was
part of the same impulse which yielded
the first protective tariff, Marshall's
ringing decisions, the boom in internal
improvements, diplomatic accommodations
with England and Russia, the
romantic writings of Washington Irving
and James Fenimore Cooper, the
Americanization of the English language,
and even the adoption of Uncle Sam as
a national symbol.
Professor May has provided a provocative
study of the making of foreign
policy in the light of national
interests and personal aggrandizement. His
descriptions of Federal Age
politicos-their bitter rivalries and their effect on
diplomacy-are both informative and
revealing. One is also rewarded by May's
advice in his concluding chapter. Here
he suggests that the relation between
governmental structure and diplomacy
ought to receive more attention from the
academic and journalistic guilds. While
May's hypotheses are attractive, all will
not agree with his premises and
conclusions, but this work should induce lively
dialogue.
State University of New York at
Buffalo Milton Plesur
History of Black Americans: From
Africa to the Emergence of the Cotton
Kingdom. By Philip S. Foner. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1975. 680p.;
maps, bibliography, index. $25.00.)
Professor Foner's study is the first
volume of a prospective four-volume
history of black Americans. It is the
first multi-volume work to trace the history
of blacks from their early African past
to the present. The first volume analyzes
the African heritage and traces the
development of black history down to the
emergence of the Cotton Kingdom. The
author has combined his own vast
research in a wide variety of original
sources with the significant research of
other historians into a synthesized
narrative which will be a most comprehensive
study on the black experience when
completed.
Book Reviews
145
Foner has exposed a multitude of
historical fallacies and mistakes which have
been repeated by generations of
historians. We learn that Deborah Gannett, a
female who enlisted in the revolutionary
army in disguise as a man, was not a
black as has been assumed. "The
evidence indicates that Deborah Gannett was
a white indentured servant"
(p.341), but the author adds that black women,
usually slaves, did in fact serve in the
revolutionary army as nurses and cooks.
Contrary to traditional history, Foner
shows that blacks were not anesthetized
by apathy during the revolutionary fight
for freedom. Slaves protested,
petitioned, and fought for their freedom
as "Minute Men."
As John Alden asserted, "it is
simply not true" that it was quite easy to
destroy slavery in the northern states
(p.345). Foner hopes that Arthur
Zilversmith has laid to rest the widely
prevalent belief that slavery ended in the
North because it proved to be
economically unprofitable. The pro-slavery
petitions to the Virginia Constitutional
Convention that researchers have made
available, call into question the
accuracy of Winthrop Jordan's conclusion that
"no one in the South stood up in
public to endorse Negro slavery" (p.382).
There was no sweeping antislavery
movement in the South from the
revolutionary period to the invention of
the cotton gin. The fact that slavery
continued even after the American Revolution
"to serve as the economic
backbone of Virginia" was the
fundamental reason that slavery survived in the
South (p.386).
In the famous academic controversy
between Melville Herskovits, who
claimed that "Africaness" was
the foundation of black Americans' mores, and
Franklin Frazier, who argued for
"Americanness," Foner takes a
middle-of-the-road stance by agreeing
that "slavery altered social patterns
profoundly," but "did not
wholly obliterate African culture" (p.83). In the
historical controversy between the Frank
Tannenbaum school that saw slavery
as less harsh in Latin America, and the
anti-Tannenbaum school that
insisted slavery was equally brutal
everywhere, Foner identifies with the
anti-Tannenbaum forces. Foner concluded
that, "Regardless of ...
background, religion, or nationality,
the plantation system was everywhere
equally savage" (p.185).
Foner sees black separatism as not only
the result of white prejudice and
discrimination, but also the separate
historical experience of black Americans.
Almost all of the author's evidence,
however, points to the overriding
importance of white discrimination in
creating black separatism, especially as it
appeared in the black church.
The author has not used footnotes to
indicate the specific sources of his
material, but includes a bibliography of
material used for each chapter as the
basis of the narrative.
When Foner's work is complete, it
probably will be the most definitive study
on the black experience.
Morehead State University Victor B. Howard
The Dangerous Class: Crime and
Poverty in Columbus, Ohio, 1860-1885. By
Eric H. Monkkonen. (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1975. x +
186p.; notes, tables, index. $13.50.)
This is a book about crime and poverty
and their relationship to urbanization
146 OHIO HISTORY
and industrialization. The city of
Columbus is incidental, chosen by Monkkonen
because certain records are extant for
the years during which the city underwent
rapid industrialization. But the fact
that Columbus seldom intrudes into the
narrative should not deter potential
readers, for this is an important piece of
scholarship.
Monkkonen sets out to examine the
assertions commonly made by both
nineteenth- and twentieth-century
observers that urbanization and
industrialization were responsible for
dramatic increases in the incidences of
crime and poverty and that criminals and
paupers constituted a single,
homogeneous "dangerous class."
These are difficult propositions either to
prove or disprove conclusively, as the
author admits, but Monkkonen makes
ingenious use of the newer quantitative
methods to demonstrate that, at least for
Columbus between 1860 and 1885, both
propositions were class-biased
assertions ungrounded in reality. Rapid
urbanization and industrial growth
affected neither the crime rate nor the
poverty rate; nor did their poverty drive
the poor to criminal activity.
Monkkonen employs three levels of
analysis. The first is a state-wide
ecological analysis of the relationship
between crime and poverty rates and rural
and urban differences. Using
county-level published federal census data for
1870 and 1880 and county-level crime and
poverty statistics published annually
by the Ohio Secretary of State, the
author defines "urban" and "rural" through
an innovative use of factor analysis,
then uses multiple-regression techniques to
discover correlations between the urban
and rural factors and his eight-category
crime classification. These analyses
indicate that most crimes were committed
at relatively stable rates between 1867
and 1891, that the structures of Ohio cities
became more mature or modern during the
1870s, that only "theft" and "theft
by trick" were urban crimes by
1880, and that poverty was not associated with
the urban/industrial factor.
The second level of analysis reduces the
focus from the state to Franklin
County. Here Monkkonen uses the
manuscript criminal dockets of the Franklin
County Court of Common Pleas to gauge
county crime rates and specific crimes,
to analyze certain aspects of criminal
defendants, and to examine judicial
behavior and court methods. In another
chapter (Chapter 5) the admission
ledgers of the county infirmary
(poorhouse) provide the basis for a similar
analysis of county-wide pauperism rates,
social characteristics of paupers (age,
sex, origin), and correlation of poverty
rates with crime rates. The results of
these analyses are complex, but they
generally confirm the earlier state-wide
ecological analysis.
Individual criminals (Chapter 4) and
paupers (Chapter 6) are the focus of the
third level of analysis. Using the
federal census manuscripts for Franklin County
in 1870, Columbus city directories
between 1860 and 1883, and a random sample
of the 1870 county population of
non-criminals, the author can compare
criminals and paupers with the general
population in terms of age, birthplace,
occupation, property holdings, living
arrangements, and rural or urban
residence. The focus upon individuals
further permits Monkkonen to address
the question of whether or not criminal
behavior and poverty arose from the
same types of people-whether there
existed a homogeneous "dangerous
class." The answers again are
complex, but the overall conclusion is that the
profiles of criminals and paupers are
quite different.
The Dangerous Class is a significant book not only because of its challenge
to
traditional and modern bromides about
the city as the root of evil, but also, and
Book Reviews
147
perhaps more importantly, because it
illustrates both the possibilities and the
problems of the quantitative approach to
urban and social history. This is not an
easy book to read, let alone to
understand, for the statistically untrained, and
even the statistical sophisticate will
question Monkkonen's admittedly
restricted definitions of
"crime" and "poverty," his failure to use the 1880 as
well as the 1870 federal census
manuscripts for the individual-level analysis, and
the absence of tests for statistical
significance when comparisons are made
among criminals, paupers, and the county
population sample. Nevertheless,
Monkkonen's analyses and conclusions are
based upon a much broader and
more encompassing, and thus more valid,
set of evidence than the elite literary
sources from which historians have
worked in the past.
The Ohio State University Richard J. Hopkins
The Public Image of Big Business in
America, 1880-1940: A Quantitative Study
in Social Change. By Louis Galambos. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1975. xii + 324p.;
graphs, tables, appendix, notes, index.
$15.00.)
Louis Galambos wanted to be both a fox
and a hedgehog (p.253) and became a
hedgefox; the new breed could be
improved. In a very ambitious study, the
distinguished Professor Galambos, with
considerable assistance from Barbara
Barrow Spence, attempted to mix the
theoretical, systematic approach of social
scientists with traditional historians'
concern and empathy for the past (and
knowledge of the historical literature,
at which Galambos excels). The result will
not satisfy either group of scholars
entirely. The book is meant to be a major
work, but in it the rich conceptual
possibilities promised by content analysis are
not well-explored; the statistical
analysis is primitive and sometimes simplistic;
the style of writing is much better than
that of most social scientists but still
unexciting; and the conclusions are
often commonplace. It is a good book; but it
is not nearly as good as it should have
been.
Galambos' goal was admirable-to apply
quantitative, behavioral techniques
to recover and measure responses of
ordinary Americans (rather than
"intellectuals") to what he
considers the single most important phenomenon in
recent United States history, the
emergence of giant corporations from 1880 to
1940. To accomplish this task, he
examined a sample of issues from sixty years
of eleven periodicals: five farm
journals, one engineering journal, three labor
journals, and two Protestant journals.
Curiously, he never really confronts the
crucial problem of how these sources
reflect attitudes of a vaguely-defined
middle class rather than that of editors
(and their advertisers). Instead, he lapses
into attributing editorial opinions and
emotive expressions in news stories to
beliefs and values held by
"farmers" or "engineers" throughout the book. His
concept of content analysis is nothing
more than counting what he reads (after
deciding whether items were favorable,
unfavorable, or neutral), a rudimentary
technique that adds only a little to the
approach of more conventional historians.
Even in this case, the work contains a
basic flaw for which Galambos' apology
does not compensate adequately (p.281,
n. 14): he did not take standard steps to
test the reliability of his coding
judgments. The explanation of the research and
coding design, while honest and
straightforward, underscores the crudity of
148 OHIO HISTORY
conceptualization, especially the
regrettable decision to attach equal
significance to all "items"
whether they were one line or an entire editorial.
Analysis of the data is flawed by poorly
constructed tables and graphs
presented in such a way that it is impossible to
compare changing attitudes
among the various "groups"
(i.e., journals). Several equations presented in
Chapter 9 can only be called pseudo-statistical.
Nothing inherent in Galambos'
approach justifies some of his
"casual" explanations, which usually amount to
inferential leaps between his data and
his impressive command of the historical
literature. Such displays of Galambos'
erudition add considerably to the size of
the book. In fact, findings from the
content analysis could have been reported in
an article, which might have been very
successful. The only justification for
publishing the results in the present
form would have been to provide the model
for research and analysis which Galambos
clearly intended, but on this basis the
book fails.
The Ohio State University Eugene J. Watts
The General: Robert L. Bullard and
Officership in the United States Army
1881-1925. By Allan R. Millett. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1975. xi +
499p.; maps, notes, essay on sources, index. $19.95.)
Allan R. Millett claims that Robert Lee
Bullard was typical of the generation
of officers appointed between 1898 and
1920. Primarily for this reason, Millett
believes that his career "is an
admirable vehicle for examining . . . the crucial
period of the professionalization of the
American officer corps" (p. 10). Judging
from the argument of the Introduction,
this is the main purpose of-or justifica-
tion for-Millett's 499-page biography of
a relatively obscure and unimportant
general. But if Bullard was
"typical," he was typical of the rule-obeying,
promotion-seeking, conventional
generals. He was not typical of those whom
Morris Janowitz called the
rule-breaking, unconventional generals, who have in
the past formed the "elite
nucleus" of the army, and who were also part of the
process of professionalization.
Moreover, this biography is written more as a
conventional, uncritical "life and
times" of one man than as an analytical
vehicle for the study of many men.
Millett tells us a great deal about Bullard, but
he rarely attempts to tell us in any
formal analytical manner how Bullard's life
illuminates the process of professionalization.
Usually we are left to draw our
own analogies and conclusions. If the
examination of professionalization was
indeed Millett's purpose, he might have
come closer to achieving it had he
written a group biography, a study of
professionalization itself, or a history of
the army; that is, something similar to
Janowitz's The Professional Soldier or
Gordon Craig's The Politics of the
Prussian Army.
In fact, this biography comes closer to
another claim Millett has made for it:
"Bullard's career illuminates the
process by which one man was integrated into
the occupation of army officer and came
to hold high responsibility in his
profession" (p.3). As the study of
one man, the book is an interesting work about
an Alabamian who rose through the ranks
of the army, fought in two major wars
and several major campaigns, and lived
through a crucial period of army and
United States history. His life
partially illuminates several areas-race rela-
tions, the evolution of strategy and
tactics, manpower policy, and interven-
tionism, to name a few more in addition
to professionalization. Millett's research
Book Reviews
149
is extraordinarily extensive, his style
of writing is occasionally moving, and he
provides a considerable amount of
"background" history about the people,
forces, and events of Bullard's time.
But readers will probably not come to
regard Bullard as an "appealing
man," as Millett has. Millett's overly-detailed,
sometimes heavy-handed writing does not
quite succeed in making Bullard
come to life. And while Bullard was not
entirely unappealing, it is not easy to like
a man who was obsequious and racist, who
"pacified" colonial populations, and
was in favor of suppressing union
strikers. Compounding the problem is that
Millett preemptorily decided to ignore
the personal and psychological influences
on Bullard's career in favor of an
exclusive emphasis on professional influences.
But if we make allowances for the
methodological and stylistic flaws in the book,
it emerges as a solid, well-researched
account of an average general whose
career spanned an important period of
army history.
Miami University Jeffrey
Kimball
Simple Justice: The History of
"Brown v. Board of Education" and Black
America's Struggle for Equality. By Richard Kluger. (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1976 x + 823p.; illustrations,
appendix, bibliography, notes,
indices. $15.95.)
A former journalist, book publishing
executive, and novelist, Richard Kluger
has given readers a detailed but
well-written and absorbing study of the
NAACP's and the black community's legal
assault on public school segregation
of the early and mid-1950s, set against
a complex background of public policy,
racism, and litigation stretching back
to antebellum America.
Kluger examined a number of key
manuscript collections, including those of
the NAACP in New York and at the Library
of Congress, the papers of several
Supreme Court justices, and a
substantial amount of published material. He lists
134 persons with whom he had
face-to-face interviews, telephone conversa-
tions, or an exchange of correspondence.
Readers will find his discussions of
NAACP lawyers-their strategies, working
relationships, and personalities-
thoroughly fascinating. Beyond that, he
brings to life a seemingly endless cast of
participants, people on both sides of
the desegregation issue at local, state, and
federal levels, as each of the five
cases comprising the Brown decisions of 1954
and 1955 made its way from point of
origin to final Supreme Court ruling. The
story culminates with intriguing
depictions of the Warren Court justices and
their clerks, an explication of personal
and judicial drama that may prove the
book's most important contribution to
public understanding and appreciation of
how the high court serves the republic.
Like any undertaking of this magnitude,
the book has its defects, none of
which destroys its central thrust. Most
regrettably, there are no footnotes linked
to specific content. Rather, the sources
are clustered by chapter at the end of the
book (pp.803-23), and only in the case
of direct quotations can we tie a reference
to a particular portion of the text.
Occasionally, Kluger misses the nuances of
the black experience. His abbreviated
treatment of slavery (pp.27-28) is
stereotypical and uninformed by the
scholarship of the 1970s. William Monroe
Trotter's Boston "riot"
occurred in 1903, not 1905 (p.95); and while Trotter and
W. E. B. Du Bois get a full measure of
treatment as opponents of Booker T.
Washington (pp.91-100), Ida B.
Wells-Barnett is noticeably missing. At one
150 OHIO HISTORY
point, Kluger confuses the National
Lawyers Guild with the National Bai
Association (p.221); he accedes too
easily to the notion that lower-class black
families lead a non-verbal existence
(p.320); and his passing reference to the
Black Panther party reflects little more
than J. Edgar Hoover's carefully orches
trated definition of the group (p.762).
On several occasions, the long-time
NAACP leader, Walter White, suffers from
Kluger's imperfect awareness of the
man and his career, possibly because the
author relied too uncritically on wha
some of White's contemporaries reported
of him. Finally, it is hard to under
stand Kluger's repeated use of the term
"colored" when discussing black men
and women of the past half century; it
seems an anachronism wholly at odds with
the overall tone of his generally
praiseworthy book.
University of Akron Robert L.
Zangrando
Fruits of the Shaker Tree of Life:
Memoirs of Fifty Years of Collecting and
Research. By Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews.
(Stockbridge,
MA: The Berkshire Traveller Press, 1975.
xviii + 219p.; illustrations,
catalogue. $8.95.)
By Shaker Hands: The Art and the
World of the Shakers-the Furniture and
Artifacts, and the Spirit and
Precepts Embodied in Their Simplicity, Beauty,
and Functional Practicality. By June Sprigg. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1975. xiv + 219p.; illustrations, notes,
bibliography, index. $15.O0
hardcover; $7.95 paper.)
Since the 1920s, Faith and Edward Deming
Andrews have been the explorers
and the chroniclers most responsible for
awakening both a general and scho-
larly interest in the Shaker sect, its
philosophies, and its products. Prior to the
Andrews' first studies, historians and
students of the decorative arts had giver
the Shakers little more than a passing
glance. Since that time, and due in a large
degree to the pioneering work of the
Andrews, both scholars and the public have
become aware of the Society of
Believers' contributions and accomplishments,
and over the past few years a number of
popular studies, scholarly inquiries,
restorations of Shaker villages, and
reproductions of Shaker products have
resulted.
In their seven books and over fifty
articles, essays, and pamphlets, as well as
in their assemblage of a vast collection
of Shaker materials, the Andrews
accomplished a great deal towards attaining
their goal of "documenting a whole
culture." Following Mr. Andrews'
death in 1964, Mrs. Andrews has continued
their work, and in Fruits of the
Shaker Tree of Life she has compiled many tidbits
of information regarding the Shakers and
a fascinating collection of the An-
drews' reminiscences of over fifty years
of study, living with, and writing about
the Shakers.
In this series of brief articles, the
Andrews relate their adventures as
they went about acquiring their vast
knowledge of Shakerism and assembling
their extremely important collection of
Shaker artifacts and manuscripts. They
tell of the friendships they cultivated
with other collectors and scholars and with
the Shakers themselves. They discuss
frankly their work with the American
Index of Design and their efforts to
share their knowledge and collections with
others. Both undertakings presented
disappointments as well as rewards. Last-
Book Reviews
151
ly, they include a descriptive catalogue
of the collection they presented in 1964
to Shaker Community, Inc., which is now
displayed at the restored Shaker
village at Hancock, Massachusetts. While
in many instances the catalogue fails
to give detailed information about the
objects, and much of the material was
previously illustrated and discussed in
Edward Andrews' Shaker Furniture, The
Craftsmanship of an American Communal
Sect (1950), the present catalogue
does list the collection in its entirety
and demonstrates once again the
importance of the Andrews' contribution
to our understanding of Shaker
craftsmanship.
Fruits of the Shaker Tree of Life is a personal book. It is a series of conversa-
tions between old acquaintances-the
authors and those who have known them
personally or through their previous
contributions. As such it assumes the
familiarity that friends have with each
other and their mutual interests. Yet, like
many conversations, the experiences it
relates are interesting to those who just
happened to stop by for a warm and
comfortable evening. Those who are
fascinated by the Shakers, the Andrews
and their work, or the joys and disap-
pointments of collecting will find this
an enlightening book.
The Andrews represent the first
generation of twentieth-century historians
and antiquarians who have devoted their
time and energy to studying the
Shakers. The second generation of Shaker
scholars is building on the founda-
tions erected by the Andrews and their
contemporaries. With her first book,
By Shaker Hands, June Sprigg, who at the time of the book's publication
was a Fellow in the Early American
Decorative Arts program at the Winterthur
Museum, establishes herself as a member
of that second generation.
By Shaker Hands bears the ambitious subtitle The Art and World of
the
Shakers-the Furniture and Artifacts,
and the Spirit and Precepts Embodied in
their Simplicity, Beauty, and
Functional Practicality. Contrary to
what one
might expect, it is not a work dealing
in the main with the actual products of
Shaker craftsmanship. Rather its
emphasis is upon the sect's philosophies and
how they necessitated the creation of
Shaker products and dictated the acts of
creation, instilling those products with
an ability to reflect their philosophical
origins.
The book appears to be intended as a
popular introduction to Shaker
philosophy and life-style. While most of
the material it covers has been treated in
previous publications, Ms. Sprigg's
approach is less awesome than that of many
earlier works and therefore is more
likely to attract the casual reader. Her style is
colloquial and readable. After an
introduction stating the Shakers' overriding
concerns with community and sharing, Ms.
Sprigg presents and elaborates upon
the Shaker conceptions of time, order,
space, simplicity, perfection, utility,
cleanliness, health, thrift, honesty,
permanence, and progress. A chapter is
devoted to exploring the Shakers'
attitudes toward each of these topics and to
delineating how these philosophies were
embodied in the Believers' day-to-day
lives and products. Throughout, Ms.
Sprigg stresses that the Shakers believed
their communities and life-style to be
an embodiment of heaven upon earth, and
she forcefully conveys the effect this
had upon them. She frequently calls upon
the Shakers to speak for themselves and
to good effect. Accompanying the text
are a large number of Ms. Sprigg's
pencil sketches used to illustrate the
application of the Believers'
philosophical tenets to their craftsmanship. Its
graphics and organization make the book
attractive and inviting.
As an introduction to Shaker philosophy,
life-style, and products, however, By
Shaker Hands does lack necessary background material. Ms. Sprigg
seldom
152 OHIO HISTORY
delves into the philosophical and
theological origins of Shaker beliefs. The
movement is not placed within the
context of similar "other worldly" beliefs and
communities that preceeded or were
contemporary with it. Little mention is
made of influences other than religious
beliefs and community living that af-
fected the Believers' life-style and
products. Additional notes would make the
work more valuable to the student,
especially in instances where Ms. Sprigg sets
forth new interpretations. For example, when she states
that the introduction of
"worldly" conveniences,
tastes, and worship forms represent an application of
the Shakers' firm belief in progress rather
than a corruption of their original
ideals, more evidence needs to be cited.
Obviously the author is deeply impressed
with the Shaker way of life and at
times presents a somewhat simplified and
romantic view of it. Everything is a bit
too neat-too perfect-to be believable.
With few exceptions, the Believers
are presented as strict adherents to
their written philosophies. To be sure, they
were stricter than most "of the
world," but their written goals must not be taken
literally as their actual
accomplishments. Emphasis is placed upon some Shaker
craft techniques or aspects of
mechanical inventiveness that are not really
exceptional in and of themselves. While
the Shakers were mechanically crea-
tive, their foremost mechanical gift was
a desire for efficiency coupled with a
willingness to make use of time- and
labor-saving devices when these devices
produced quality products. They did not
inevitably believe that "no machine
could put as much ... perfection into
any article as an individual could" (p.28).
Despite these criticisms, however, By
Shaker Hands contains a wealth of
material and offers a thoughtful
presentation and interpretation of the Shaker
way of life and philosophy. As her
subtitle indicates, Ms. Sprigg's undertaking
was great, and I hope that she will
continue to devote her enthusiasm for the
Shakers and her talents to additional
studies.
The Ohio Historical Society J. M.
Gaynor
Book Reviews
An Ohio Portrait. By George W. Knepper. (Columbus: The Ohio Historical
Society, 1976. 282p.; illustrations,
maps, index. $20.00.)
An Ohio Portrait is one of a growing list of publications resulting from
the
bicentennial which raises the hope that
whatever the ultimate assessment may
be of other phases of this national
birthday celebration it will be viewed in the
future as having provided the same kind
of noteworthy stimulus to publications
in the field of state and local history
as was provided by America's centennial.
This reviewer, a non-Ohioan,
congratulates the Ohio bicentennial commission
and the Ohio Historical Society for
collaborating on this handsome volume and
expresses his regrets that more states,
including his own Michigan, did not
follow Ohio's example in subsidizing
similar publications that will have
continuing value and use long after many
other bicentennial-financed activities
have been forgotten.
George Knepper's text is concise, yet
admirably comprehensive, treating not
only the standard topics that one
expects in such histories, but also handling
such subjects as the geographical and
geological background, the arts,
recreation, and sports in a more
satisfactory and knowledgeable manner (with
the notable exception of baseball, where
Knepper's account contains more
errors than it does hits) than one is
accustomed to finding in state histories.
Knepper is especially successful in
demonstrating the validity of the theme, to
which he repeatedly returns, of Ohio as
the most representative of all the states.
The more than 600 illustrations that
accompany the text are, as a group,
superb. As the author of a two-volume
pictorial history of Michigan, this
reviewer knows something of the
difficulties that one encounters in trying to
locate good materials for this kind of
work and he has nothing but admiration for
the outstanding job performed by those
who were responsible for searching
through the pictorial resources available
for An Ohio Portrait.
The book is not without its faults,
however. The text, although containing few
glaring factual errors, is sometimes
guilty of the tendency, common to this
genre, to claim too much for the state.
The space given to discussing the Scopes
Trial in Tennessee might have been used
better had it been devoted to an event in
the career of a lawyer whose life was
more closely associated with Ohio than that
of Clarence Darrow, who, although born
in Ohio, during most of his life lived and
practiced law elsewhere. Similarly,
Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, Taft, and
Harding, Ohioans all the way, would seem
to be enough presidents for Ohio to
claim, leaving native sons Grant and
Benjamin Harrison for Illinois and Indiana
to make of them what they will.
The sources of all the pictures are
meticulously noted at the end of the volume,
but there are no footnotes identifying
the sources used in writing the narrative,
nor is there any bibliography, the
addition of which would have been helpful to
the many non-specialists to whom the
book is designed to appeal. The picture
layout designed by Ron Mlicki is
effective and, in the case of the montages that
introduce each chapter, rather innovative.
Unfortunately, the text and the
appropriate illustrations are sometimes
separated by several pages, which can
lead to confusion, as, for example, when
a full page of illustrations on the
Cincinnati riot of 1884 appears in a
section devoted to labor troubles and the