Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

 

Greek Revival Architecture in America. By Talbot Hamlin.

(New York, Oxford University Press, 1944. Cloth. 439p.

$7.50.)

The author, who is librarian of the Avery Memorial library

and the Fine Arts library at Columbia University, is an architect

and the author of a number of books on architecture. In this

book he has traced the important trend in American architecture

and life during the period previous to the Civil War, emphasizing

the development of Greek revival architecture in the United States,

which he discusses not so much as a revival but rather a native

American development. The book is developed along regional

lines beginning with late colonial architecture and tracing the

classical revival in the early cities and from New England, through

the old South, the Gulf states and through the west to the Pacific

coast. The last chapter is devoted to a discussion as to "why the

Greek revival succeeded and why it failed." The book contains

96 pages of halftone plates, including numerous plans and sec-

tions. Thirteen of the illustrations are from photographs by I. T.

Frary and thirteen pictures of typical Ohio buildings are given,

eight of which are from Frary's collection.

An annotated bibliography adds to the value of this book, a

reading of which book will give one a new appreciation of the large

number of beautiful buildings erected in the United States during

the period.                                       H. L.

 

Writings on Early American Architecture--An Annotated List of

Books and Articles on Architecture Constructed before 1860

in the Eastern Half of the United States. By Frank J. Roos,

Jr. (Columbus, Ohio, The Ohio State University Press, 1943.

27Ip. $2.75.)

The Library of the Society has recently received a copy of

Writings on Early American Architecture, by Frank J. Roos, Jr.,

associate professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Ohio State

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BOOK REVIEWS                     297

 

University. This attractive, well designed book is one of a series

of Graduate School Studies.

Mr. Roos has written an interesting introduction in which he

defines his terms, gives a brief review of past work in this field

and makes suggestions for further study. The text itself contains

2,782 entries conveniently divided under these headings: General

References; Colonial; Early Republican; New England; Middle

Atlantic States; Southern States; North Central States; Archi-

tects; Bibliographies. The large geographical areas are further

divided into states and cities. The entries deal with interior deco-

ration and restoration as well as architectural design for both

religious and secular buildings. The index is comprehensive and

well arranged.

'Writings on Early American Architecture will be of great

value not only to students of architecture, design and history but

also to the layman interested in this phase of his country's past.

M. S.

 

The American. By James Truslow Adams. (New York, Scrib-

ner's, 1943. 404p. $3.00.)

In this book Mr. Adams has made a very notable addition

to his series of contributions to American history. His theme is

to find what the American is, and the answer is that America made

the American rather than the usually accepted theory that the

American made America.

Looked at from this angle, American history takes on a new

meaning of special significance to Americans today and the ap-

pearance of the book at this particular time is most appropriate.

Adams traces the colonial beginnings and shows how they

were influenced by environment. The effect of the same influences

are shown in connection with the American Revolution, the estab-

lishment of independence, the throwing off of European influ-

ences and the rise of American democracy. The composite makeup

of the American is clearly defined and the development of western

democracy and nationality are vividly portrayed. All in all it is a

vivid presentation of the American--what he is and what he may

be expected to accomplish.                         H. L.

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Freedom's Ferment. By Alice Felt Tyler. (Minneapolis, Uni-

versity of Minnesota Press, 1944. Cloth. ⁶⁰⁸p. $5.00.)

The author, assistant professor of history in the University

of Minnesota, has presented in this book phases of American

social history to 1860, showing in action the democratic faith of

the young American Republic. The book is divided into three

parts. The first deals with the faith of the young Republic, the

second with Cults and Utopias and the third with humanitarian

crusades.

The author says she wrote the book because she was "ex-

asperated by all the silly twaddle being written about the eccen-

tricities of the early American Republic" and saw "more than

froth in our heritage from the past." Among the subjects dis-

cussed which have a direct bearing on Ohio are the Pilgrims,

Mormons, Separatists of Zoar and the Shakers. Under humani-

tarian crusades are discussed education, penal reform, care of

dependents and delinquents, the temperance crusade, the crusade

for peace, the anti-slavery movement and the rights of women.

The author's conclusion is that the urge for reform found in

every phase of life was the result of the fusion of religious free-

dom and political democracy.

The forty-nine illustrations are well chosen and there is a

good bibliography and index. The book is also issued in a text

edition at $4.50.

H. L.

 

Twelfth Child in Wheels of Time. By Mary Cook Neubeck.

(Philadelphia, Dorrance and Co., 1942. Cloth, illus. ²⁰⁶p.

$1.75)

This is a story of a large American family with a twelfth

child. This child's ancestors were early American stock and the

story is told of their early experiences, migration westward, and

early settlement in Guernsey County, Ohio. Pioneer conditions

are described and the development of social and industrial life is

traced to the present in the life experience of the "twelfth child,"

who is Mrs. Barbara (Cook) Beckter, born in 1865. Transporta-

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BOOK REVIEWS                    299

tion development is described.  Interspersed are a number of

poems bearing upon the subject matter.

H. L.

 

The Queen Was in the Kitchen. By Daphne Alloway McVicker.

Illustrated by Colin Allen. (New York, Whittlesey House,

1944. 232p. Illustrations. $2.50.)

This is a hilarious recital of one family's troubles with a

succession of maids, mostly "refined white girls," who weren't too

refined and certainly weren't the efficient paragons their literary

mistress expected them to be. Perhaps therein lay the crux of

the kitchen difficulties, but therein also lies the humor of the tale.

It is a good author who can laugh at her own shortcomings

and this Mrs. McVicker has done in this volume. She has, at the

same time, succeeded in producing a rollicking story about her-

self, her family and the procession of domestics that complicated

instead of simplified life's household problems.

These problems were the simple, ordinary ones that annoy

every mother and wife trying to budget on an inadequate income,

attempting to do housework with too little strength and not over-

much aptitude and dreaming dreams of a writing career midst the

hubbub and confusion of cleaning, cooking, washing and child-

rearing. Her recital will undoubtedly remind readers of similar

episodes in their own checkered careers as mistresses of maids.

Something seemed to be wrong with every one of the maids

that came to work for this Columbus housewife--that is, every

one except the last: either they were incompetent or they possessed

homicidal tendencies; they played saxophones or they had gangster

boy-friends. Thus the procession moved on, yet, somehow the

author and her brood blithely managed to survive all of these

creatures and even to endure intervening periods of complete

"maidlessness." Through it all, Mrs. McVicker wrote her short

stories and poems and managed to become quite successful. Her

family is now growing up; her problems should be less com-

plicated, but the maid problem is still an unsolved one, for

Hannah, the perfect phenomenon, who made up for the short-

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300   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

comings of all her impossible predecessors, need no longer be a

domestic. Hannah's husband is making good money as a war-

worker.

The book is delightfully illustrated and, despite compliance

with war-time regulations, the type is easy to read. Mrs. Mc-

Vicker's characters are real people, though a few of the maids are,

perhaps, a bit overdrawn, especially Lucinda. Tom is the most

shadowy and sketchy character in the book, but then this is pri-

marily a story of maids and not of husbands.

B. E. J.

 

The Return. By Margaret Rhodes Peattie. (New York, William

Morrow and Company, 1944. 128p. $2.00.)

This book is beautifully written and may be called excellent

in many ways. In fact, it could have been a classic were it not

for its Achilles' heel of four unfortunate sentences on page 30.

Otherwise, the story of that great day we are all waiting for, is

well-done, with the simplicity of "Our Town" and the "Human

Comedy," though a bit too sketchy for any comparison as to the

characterizations.

The small New England town, the excitement of its citizenry,

from distinguished old General Sedgwick to swarthy Angelo

Petralio, the reactions of the wives, the babies, the fathers and

mothers--the stay-at-homes eagerly awaiting the imminent return

of their loved ones--it all offers fine material for an author's pen.

This rose-tinted picture, then, of a segment of America's

post World War II, may be called a prophecy. Yet, while the

author was dreaming and prophecying she might have enlarged

her vision and shaken loose from some of the narrowness and

intolerance of pre-war prejudices. For example, why doesn't Paul,

who "stayed at home to work in the factory" become "rich as all

git-out" instead of "them Polaks"? Also, aren't there "any Jew

refugees" returning as heroes; must they all be Souse Peters and

Joe Aguillas?

This, in contrast to the author's naive presentation of post-

war labor problems: Jack Houghton relinquishes his claim to his

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BOOK REVIEWS                     301

 

old job without so much as a murmur when he learns that it is

now held by a girl from another town whose "husband was killed

on Guadalcanal" and who has a "two-year-old baby." Jack just

says, "I didn't know. Forget it."

Still, on the whole, the story is nicely done. It does not,

however, live up to its own possibilities, and this is a pity.

B. E. J.

 

 

Ohio--The State and Its Government. By James P. Griffith and

John W. Smith (New York, Oxford Book Co., 1944. 123p.

6oc.)

This brief presentation of the history and government of

Ohio presents to the student or general reader a practical view

of the State as a going concern. It is divided into eight chapters

devoted to the building of a democratic state, the state, county,

township, village and municipal government. The institutions for

the preservation of a democratic state are followed by two chap-

ters entitled, "The state serving us" in which the interests of the

citizen as protected by the state are outlined. The last chapter

is devoted to the subject of the citizen serving the state and in this

are described the jury system, taxes, voting and the responsibilities

of good citizenship. The book is well indexed. In preparing this

book the authors have rendered a real service to the people of

the State. It is adaptable as a text for civil government.

H. L.

 

 

A Pilgrimage of Liberty. Compiled and edited by Edgar Ewing

Brandon, Dean Emeritus of Miami University. (Athens,

Ohio. The Lawhead Press. 1944. Cloth. Illus. Maps.

488p. $3.00.)

The full title of this book is A Pilgrimage of Liberty, A

Contemporary Account of the Triumphal Tour of General La-

fayette through the Southern and Western States in 1825, as Re-

ported by the Local Newspapers.

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302 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

The book includes addresses of welcome by governors and

other public officials, descriptions of banquets, parades, balls and

other ceremonies which took place while Lafayette was making

his five thousand mile journey through the South and West. The

picture given by the local press reports throws much light on the

social, economic and political life of the times.

H. L.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTES

 

Dorothy V. Martin is a cataloger in the National Archives,

Washington, D. C.

Lucille B. Emch is associate librarian of the University of

Toledo Library, Toledo, Ohio.

Alice McGuffey Morrill Ruggles (Mrs.), a grandniece of

Charles D. Drake, is interested in the social history of the Middle

West and has contributed other articles to the Quarterly. She

resides in Boston, Massachusetts.

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