Ohio History Journal

BOOK NOTES.

Any book mentioned in this department can be obtained through the Pub-

lisher of the QUARTERLY.

PRIMITIVE INDUSTRY: or Illustrations of the Handiwork in Stone, Bone

and Clay of the Native Races of the Northern Atlantic Seaboard of Amer-

ica. By Charles C. Abbott, M.D. Pp. 560. Salem, Mass.: Geo. A. Bates.

Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1881.

Taken all together, Dr. Abbott's work on Primitive Industry is the most

important single contribution yet made to the subject of American archaeol-

ogy. The illustrations are numerous, and drawn from the whole range of

specimens in the Peabody Archaeological Museum at Cambridge, Mass.

The world is specially indebted to Dr. Abbott for the discovery of palaeo-

lithic implements in the gravel deposits upon which the city of Trenton,

N. J., is built-a discovery which at once connects the archaeology of Amer-

ica with the most ancient relics of man in the Old World. It is in this

volume that the full account of these discoveries is detailed, occupying the

last ninety pages, and containing a chapter by Professor Lewis, of the Penn-

sylvania Geological Survey, giving the evidence that this gravel is of glacial

origin, thus proving the existence of man in America before the close of the

glacial period. The book should, be read by every student of archaeology.

 

 

THE MOUND BUILDERS: Being an account of a remarkable people that

once inhabited the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, together with an

investigation into the archaeology of Butler county, O. By J. P. MacLean.

Illustrated with over one hundred figures. Pp. 233. Cincinnati: Robert

Clarke & Co., 1887.

This inexpensive volume has for some time been the best manual avail-

able to assist in the study of the earthworks of Ohio, and must remain such

for some time, until the results of present investigations are much more

fully systematized and thought out. To the archaeology of Butler county

eighty pages are devoted.

 

NEW YORK: The Planting and the Growth of the Empire State. By Ellis

H. Roberts. (American Commonwealths). 2 Vols. Boston: Houghton, Mif-

flin & Co., 1887.

The want of a history of the Empire State has long been felt, and this

want has at last been supplied. Within these two volumes the author has

compressed the chief matters of interest and importance pertaining to the

history of the first State of the Union. By following the normal division of

its history into periods, Mr. Roberts has been enabled, and has well utilized

his opportunity, to trace the growth of the State from its infancy, with

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110      Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

 

apparently a proper adjustment of leading and minor features. The char-

acter of the people at different eras is well shown as producing its effect

upon the immediate doings and permanent institutions of the State. The

political history of the State; the progress of educational institutions; the

development of internal improvements and the construction of water-ways;

the constitutional and judicial experiences; the peculiar land problems,

arising from the old Dutch colonization; the literary activity; the progress

and supremacy of manufactures-all these are dwelt upon with clearness

and in detail. The relations of New York to the Nation at various import-

ant crises are shown in a clear, though occasionally too favorable, light.

The author might, indeed ought to have dwelt more forcibly upon the

municipal problems which have arisen in connection with the city of New

York. In no State of the Union have questions of municipal administra-

tion come more constantly to the front, and received more curious and

experimental solutions than here. The results and experiences of these are

properly an important part of the life of the State. On the whole, how-

ever, Mr. Roberts has made one of the most successful of the works in this

valuable series.

 

 

LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. By Carl Schurz. (American Statesmen). 2 Vols.

Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1887.

A biography of Henry Clay from the pen of so thorough a student of

American political history and affairs, as Mr. Schurz, is in itself almost an

epoch in biographical literature. In the case of Clay, more than in that of

almost any other American statesman of the second era, the life of the man

is merged in the history of the country. Covering, as it does, almost a half

century of active political labor, including the period of the War of 1812,

the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1833, the Compromise of 1850,

several hot presidential campaigns, the early stages of the American System,

to give an account of Clay's life is but to write American political history as

molded, bent, made or marred by Henry Clay - to view it and him in their

mutual relationships. With an occasional bias, on the one side or the other,

Mr. Schurz has, as was to be expected, given us an admirable book. His

position as a leader of political thought at a later time has given Mr. Schurz

a great advantage in estimating Clay's career, though at the same time, one

less actively interested in political affairs, might have been expected to view

certain phases of Clay's life in a little less striking light. The book is one

that will be highly valued by readers and students of American political

history.

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