Ohio History Journal

Book Reviews

 

 

 

William Oxley Thompson, "Evangel of Education." By James E. Pollard.

(Columbus: Ohio State University, 1955. xi??303p.; chronology, biblio-

graphical notes, and index. $5.00.)

William Oxley Thompson's term as president of Ohio State University

was longer than that of his four predecessors combined, and longer than

that of his two successors. During his twenty-six years he brought the uni-

versity from obscurity to a position of respect in Ohio and the educational

world. His place in the annals of the university, as one of its greatest presi-

dents, is secure for all time.

Thompson built his notable career by ability and force of character, for

he had neither family nor influential friends to boost him up the ladder of

success. His father spent most of his life at the shoemaker's bench, and the

son was trained in the economics of poverty. He managed to graduate from

Muskingum College, where he delivered a commencement oration in Greek,

and from Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where

he received a traditional training in orthodox theology. In 1881 he was

licensed to preach.

After a short stay in Iowa as a home missionary, the young clergyman

took a church in Colorado, and soon found himself the president of

Longmont College, a struggling and short-lived institution. For his ad-

ministrative chores and a teaching schedule of four hours a day, five days a

week, he received an annual salary of five hundred dollars. In 1891, when

he was thirty-six, he became president and professor of history and political

economy at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio--an institution greatly in

need of resuscitation. Eight years later Dr. Thompson was chosen president

of Ohio State University. During his twenty-six year term the student body

grew from 1,268 to 11,535, the faculty from 113 to 697, and the insti-

tution blossomed into a full-fledged university.

President Thompson was a highly respected leader in the conclaves of

the Land Grant College Association and the National Association of State

Universities, and probably their most effective protagonist of state supported

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higher education which combined the vocational with the cultural. During

World War I he was drafted for important government work; in 1920 he

campaigned for the League of Nations and served as a member of the

anthracite coal commission. Early in his career he wrote a weekly column

for his brother's newspaper in Colorado; in his later years he was president

of a life insurance company, a director of a bank and several businesses, a

member of the school board of Columbus, and moderator of his church.

Dr. Pollard has followed this remarkable career of a great preacher and

educational administrator in detail. He has examined a mass of source

material, and evaluated it according to the canons of the historical craft.

He reveals genuine affection for his subject. The University Development

Fund published the study in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary

of Dr. Thompson's birth.

Most readers probably will be primarily interested in the wellsprings of

Dr. Thompson's nature and the reasons for his success, yet he remains

something of an enigma, for despite his instinctive friendliness and gener-

osity, he was never demonstrative and few knew him well. In his young

manhood fate dealt him several blows which might have warped a man of

lesser mold. Dr. Thompson was a courteous, yet forceful, gentleman, out-

spoken, sometimes amazingly frank and uninhibited, with a real sense of

humor. He was not afraid to make decisions, though he knew they would

be sharply criticized. He also understood that there is a place for ad-

ministrative inertia, when time is needed to let crises settle themselves. He

loved to preach and make speeches, and he did so until within a few weeks

of his death. He was not a flowery orator, however, nor a coiner of many

unforgettable phrases. His extraordinary success on the platform and in the

pulpit was due rather to his directness and integrity, and the sheer physical

power which made his words tumble out like a torrential mountain stream.

He was a massive person, who combined dignity with democracy. He read

widely, and subscribed for years for the London Times and the Manchester

Guardian. And he played baseball occasionally on campus, and shocked a

number of the faculty by sliding into a base. He was patient and under-

standing; a man who sought justice tempered with compassion, and people

knew he could be trusted.

President Thompson was eager to provide the state with better teachers,

but he did not subscribe to all the implications of "progressive education."

He was sympathetic toward intercollegiate athletics, but foresaw some of its

problems and did not live to see the colossal gladiatorial games of the

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present day. Because he had been a class-room teacher, he understood the

faculty and was tolerant of its occasional aberrations. He protected his staff

from outside interference, even when their views and actions collided with

his own convictions as a theologian and a lifelong, conservative Republican.

A university, he said, can be free only when it "neither coerces a man with

reference to his beliefs, nor suppresses his freedom in the expression of

them." In their memorial resolutions, the faculty paid him the finest tribute

to which a university administrator may aspire, by stressing his good sense

and courage in all matters of academic freedom.

Dr. Pollard's study deals mostly with President Thompson's official acts,

and his public pronouncements. To read all his speeches and sermons was

itself a sizable undertaking. Unfortunately, a chronicle of annual reports and

speeches about land grant colleges and state universities becomes repetitious

and makes dull reading. In years to come, historians of the university will

regret that many questions on which they would like more information,

remain unanswered in this biography. For example, what were the cir-

cumstances leading to Dr. Thompson's election to the presidency in 1899?

What were the techniques which made him so successful in dealing with

trustees, legislatures, and governors? What were all the forces behind the

early conflicts between the college of arts and sciences and the new college

of education, and between the homeopaths and the allopaths in the medical

school? In a number of cases the use of more collateral materials, including

newspapers, probably would have yielded interesting sidelights on these issues.

In 1931, after his retirement, Dr. Thompson journeyed to Mississippi to

look into the troubles between Governor Bilbo and the state university.

There was a serious issue over academic freedom on the Ohio State campus

at the same time. The average reader will feel that either the author should

have said nothing about the incident or much more. Such omissions are all

the more striking in view of the fact that the author devoted some pages

to a good analysis of the troubles of the Columbian Building and Loan As-

sociation, which the retired president tried to save from utter collapse for

the depositors.

In the closing pages Dr. Pollard proves his ability to do some really fine

writing. Less emphasis on routine detail, less slavish adherence to official

records, and more synthesis and interpretation would have made a good book

a better one and more interesting reading.

Western Reserve University                            CARL WITTKE

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Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917. By Arthur S. Link.

(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1954. xvii??331p.; illustrations, maps,

essay on sources, and index. $5.00.)

Mr. Link's volume is one of the first to be issued in the New American

Nation Series, a revival of the name and purpose of the multi-volume work

edited some fifty years ago by Albert Bushnell Hart. Harpers has wisely

selected two widely respected American historians, Henry Steele Commager

and Richard B. Morris, to edit the series. The ambitious scope of the project

can be realized when one stops to consider the problems of author selection,

continuity of subject material, and the vast number of new sources that

must be canvassed, all against the background of spiraling production costs.

To be at all successful, a multi-volume history must fall within the purse

limits of serious students; the moderate unit price of this set will undoubtedly

redound to its credit.

In the volume under consideration the author has chosen to introduce the

Wilson administration with a brief resume of the Progressive movement and

a discussion of the personalities and issues of the three-cornered battle for

the presidency in 1912. The text moves on immediately with the program

of the New Freedom, the first tottering steps of Wilsonian foreign policy,

and the impact of World War I on the nation. The bulk of the discussion

relates to the ever increasing problems surrounding the shaky position of

American neutrality and the gradual hardening of opinion before the break

that preceded war.

One of the most impressive features of Mr. Link's study is the obvious

amount of scholarly research that went into it. This is no rehash of tired old

secondary material. The author has sought to examine every possible col-

lection of primary information relating to his subject, and one cannot help

but admire the care with which these sources are handled.

If any criticism can be leveled at the book, it must be directed at the

emphasis Mr. Link places on Wilson himself. As he suggests in his preface,

this volume is essentially an outline of a much more detailed three-volume

biography of Wilson that has been in preparation for some time. It is

natural, therefore, that the author should center his attention on Wilson and

his immediate circle of advisers. Those who intend to use this book as a

single reading source on the period 1910-17, even within the limits im-

posed by the title, will be disappointed with the relatively skimpy treatment

given to other personalities of importance, including most of the Progressive

leaders, and to many of the less dramatic pressures and issues of the times.

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As a study of the Wilsonian personality and the attitudes and actions of

the president, however, Mr. Link's book deserves a great deal of praise.

Colonial Williamsburg                          WILLIAM G. KEENER

 

America's Rise to World Power, 1898-1954. By Foster Rhea Dulles. (New

York: Harper and Brothers, 1955. xviii??+314p.; illustrations, maps, bibli-

ography, and index. $5.00.)

This book sets a high standard for subsequent volumes in the New

American Nation Series. In attractive format, it is readable, informative, and

as scholarly and as sound as any rapid survey of such a complex and con-

troversial subject is likely to be.

Strictly speaking, this volume is not a diplomatic history of the United

States since the turn of the century, for it is concerned only with those

developments in the field of foreign policy during this period that have

marked this nation's rise to world power. Even this attempt in one brief

volume called for a high degree of selection and, as the author recognized,

posed serious problems of omission and emphasis.

The basic thesis of the book is that the major goals of American foreign

policy--national security, foreign trade, and extension of freedom--have

remained unchanged since the nation's founding, but the policies to imple-

ment these goals have changed radically. The book's underlying theme is

the continuing conflict between isolationism and non-isolationism.

Some readers will disagree with Professor Dulles in both his selection and

treatment. The Latin-American specialist may feel that his area has been

slighted, and the student of World War II may wonder why the question

of unconditional surrender, the Morgenthau Plan, and our relations with

Spain were either omitted or given but passing comment; the isolationist

will most certainly find himself under continued and vigorous attack, and

the revisionist will find neither comfort nor support.

This reader, however, believes that the author has commendably met the

problems of omission and emphasis. Good proportion is shown in the ap-

proximately equal number of pages given the periods of the Spanish-

American War to the close of World War I, the twenties and thirties, and

since 1940. Professor Dulles, though a man of conviction, avoids both pallid

objectivity and dogmatic partisanship. He is clearly an internationalist; he

is appreciative of the isolationist tradition in American history but he

leaves no doubt that in his opinion, whatever its merits may have been in

the early years of the country, isolationism had outlived its usefulness by

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the twentieth century. Equally clearly, he is no revisionist; though granting

possible errors in judgment, he finds neither plot nor treason at Pearl

Harbor or in the American China policy; and as for Yalta, he stoutly main-

tains there was no sell-out.

Nearly six hundred footnotes, eighteen pages of annotated bibliography,

thirty-two illustrations, nine maps, eight cartoons, and an adequate index

add interest and attraction, value and usefulness for both the scholar and

the general reader.

University of Oklahoma                           WILLIAM E. LIVEZEY

 

Custer's Luck. By Edgar I. Stewart. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,

1955. xvi??522p.; illustrations, maps, bibliography, and index. $5.95.)

Still another book on the Custer affair in the valley of the Little Big

Horn River would seem superfluous in view of the mountain of writings

already produced dealing with this relatively minor incident in western

history. Professor Edgar I. Stewart of Eastern Washington State College has

nevertheless essayed the task of telling the story of the battle as straight-

forwardly as possible, "without passion or prejudice, utilizing the contribu-

tions of recent scholarship as well as the accounts of those who wrote many

years ago."

The volume divides into two roughly equal parts. The first section pro-

vides a survey of the Plains Indians and United States government policy in

dealing with them. It traces in full measure the background of the 1876

campaign against the Indians, Custer's difficulties in Washington immediately

preceding the launching of the expedition, the wanderings of the tribes, and

the three-pronged military drive under Generals Alfred Terry and George

Crook and Colonel John Gibbon in the late spring and summer of 1876.

In close focus the account follows the movements of the Indians and the

efforts of the army units to locate the tribes in the Montana-Wyoming

country, shifting back and forth between them and correlating their move-

ments in time and space.

All of this sets the stage for the second part of the book, which presents

in thorough, painstaking detail the journey of the Custer-led Seventh Cavalry

up the valley of Rosebud Creek, over the Wolf Mountains, and down into

the valley of death along the Little Big Horn. The evidence on each move

made by Custer's force is carefully examined and weighed. A supreme, and

on the whole effective, effort is made to sift the facts from the mass of

biased accounts, memoirs, and rationalizations that later accumulated about

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the affair. The actions of Custer and his subordinates are subjected to micro-

scopic examination while the author analyzes the reasons for the actions and

the possible alternative courses that might have been pursued.

Professor Stewart cautiously and judiciously assays the evidence at every

point in the story. Nor is this an easy task, since so many of the contemporary

accounts--by Indian as well as military man--were rendered in such a way

as to protect the teller from possible retaliation or blame, or to enhance his

reputation for courage and foresight. Often the early accounts were slanted

or distorted out of consideration for Custer's devoted widow. Years later

many participants recalled aspects of the affair that they had not seen fit

to relate earlier. Author Stewart wends his way warily through the welter of

accounts, taking full cognizance of the time and circumstances in which they

were offered, and arrives at well-buttressed estimates of the credibility of the

statements. He readily concedes that on many points the truth is not only

hard to come by but will probably never be known.

Interpretation is not avoided nor is the assessing of responsibility for the

debacle. Much blame, the author maintains, belongs squarely on Custer's

romantic shoulders, first for disobeying Terry's orders by moving too fast

and too recklessly against the horde of hostile Indians whose enormous size

Custer knew outnumbered his own force by a tremendous margin, and

second, for splitting the Seventh Cavalry into three small detachments. But

Major Marcus Reno also comes in for a large share of blame for not pushing

his initial attack on the Indian encampment, an action that might have pre-

vented the Indians from throwing their entire weight against Custer's small

force; and similarly, blame also attaches to Captain Fred Benteen for failing

to join Custer when ordered to do so.

This work offers a rich account, broadly based upon careful reading of the

available evidence, set in full perspective, and judiciously told. Professor

Stewart has magnificently achieved his purpose of telling the complete story

of Custer's tragedy "without passion or prejudice."

Oberlin College                                        DAVID LINDSEY

 

Lincoln the President: Last Full Measure. By J. G. Randall and Richard N.

Current. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1955. xi??421p.; il-

lustrations, bibliography, and index. $7.50.)

This is the fourth and final volume of J. G. Randall's great biographical

study of Lincoln. The Last Full Measure covers roughly the last year of the

presidency, the period from the spring of 1864 to the fatal day in April

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1865, though there is some reaching back into earlier years in order to de-

velop certain aspects of foreign affairs and public relations. Since Randall

wished his biography to be concerned with the living Lincoln only, there is

no attempt to treat the assassination and its aftermath.

Lincoln and Randall had at least one characteristic in common--an un-

usual capacity for growth and development--and this quality of both the

biographer and his subject is amply demonstrated in the present volume.

To be sure, the whole of Lincoln's presidency was an ordeal, but no period

called for greater patience, forbearance, and wisdom than the last year.

Although the Union had built up its forces to overwhelming strength and

had succeeded in putting the South on the defensive, Lincoln had to sit in

the White House during the summer of 1864 and read the dreary accounts

of Grant's sledgehammer blows against Lee's defenses--apparently futile

assaults accompanied by frightful losses. If there were slaughter and seeming

stalemate at the front, there were division and dissatisfaction at home. The

long and frequent casualty lists gave rise to public clamor for replacement of

Grant, "the butcher of Cold Harbor." On the one hand there were dis-

loyalty and copperheadism, and on the other the honest advocacy of a nego-

tiated peace, all of which had to be dealt with. There was widespread and

not unjustified grumbling over the unfair and unequal draft laws. Dis-

affection reached even into the official family of the president, the chief

offender being Salmon P. Chase, the secretary of the treasury, who was

scheming and plotting to gain the nomination for himself. Amid all this

the American people were called upon to assess their leadership. Though

Lincoln was caricatured as a buffoon and clown (among other things) and

though he himself thought he "would probably lose," the election of 1864

brought victory to the so-called Union Party. The election vindicated

Lincoln's leadership, but it did not discourage the opposition within his own

party. As the Union armies gradually but surely tightened their hold over

the South, the radicals in congress began to unfold their plans for re-

construction. Lincoln probably never realized the full extent of their vin-

dictiveness, but he was painfully aware of, and tried as best he could to

assuage, the forces of hatred and vengeance that had been let loose by the

war. In the midst of all his official cares he found little or no relief in his

personal family life, for Mrs. Lincoln was becoming more and more nervous

and unstable, though the authors suggest that the president probably never

realized that his wife was bordering on insanity.

For months the only bright spot in an otherwise gloomy picture was in

the field of foreign affairs. Under Seward's erratic but usually able leadership

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the threat of foreign intervention was past, and by and large the United

States was getting along well with other nations. By February and March of

1865, also, the military situation saw further improvement. The policy of

massive assault on broad fronts was at last paying off, and it was apparent

that the Confederacy must soon give in. The news of Lee's surrender came

in April and, though it lifted a great burden from Lincoln's shoulders, he

felt no sense of exhilaration or exultation. The victory had been too costly

and it brought with it too many problems. In short, this last year of Lincoln's

life was the supreme test, and it brought to full flower his best qualities:

his patience amid disappointments and failures, his tolerance of human

weaknesses, and above all his balance and reason untainted by hatred or

vanity. This indeed was his finest hour.

Professor Randall, whose entire scholarly life was, in a sense, a preparation

for this volume, was not permitted to carry it to a conclusion. At the time of

his death, early in 1953, he had completed eight of the sixteen chapters but

had left only a bare outline of what was to follow. He had also indicated

that he wished his colleague, Richard Current, to carry the work to com-

pletion. This Mr. Current has done with admirable success: there is no

jarring disparity between the first half and the last half of the book so

far as this reviewer can detect. The volume indicates the ripe scholarship

and deep understanding of Randall and the skill and dexterity of Current.

If it does not quite rise to the occasion, if it does not fully meet the chal-

lenge, perhaps it is because the challenge requires something more than the

abilities of learned and thorough historians. It would require as well the

talents of a supreme literary artist.

Ohio State University                                HARRY L. COLES

 

 

Lincoln and the Bluegrass: Slavery and Civil War in Kentucky. By William

H. Townsend. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1955. xiv??

392p.; bibliographical notes and index. $6.50.)

Although only the very youthful years of Lincoln were spent in Kentucky,

the author points out many factors that kept this native son in frequent

contact with the Bluegrass. Among these factors were occasional visits to

Kentucky, wide acquaintance with Mary Todd's numerous friends, the ever

present Lexington Observer in the Lincoln home in Illinois and an in-

creasing number of political friends as Lincoln's political horizon broadened.

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204     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

The author is at his best in describing life and society in the early Blue-

grass and in his portrayal of personalities. Considerable attention is paid to

the Lincoln and Todd families, respectively; to numerous cases involving

litigation; to the cultural life of the Lexington region; and to the institution

of slavery and the differences of opinion concerning it. The darker side of

slavery, as illustrated by slave auctions and punishment, receives the most

emphasis, and, in the controversy over it Cassius M. Clay and Dr. Robert J.

Breckinridge, strong antislavery leaders, are evidently Mr. Townsend's heroes.

Little is said of the impact of northern abolitionism upon the controversy in

this border state. The author feels that Lincoln's hostility to the institution

was intensified by his contacts with it in Kentucky and by the developments

concerning it there.

The descending of war clouds and the ensuing controversy over secession

in this divided state; the pitting of brother against brother and the com-

plicated situation for President Lincoln arising from the fact that most

members of the Todd family were active southern sympathizers are matters

well handled. The president's lenient policy toward secessionist sympathizers

is amply illustrated, but the highly controversial point of the use of federal

troops in the congressional elections of 1862 is not mentioned.

The author's work is less satisfactory when he leaves Kentucky and deals

with phases of American history elsewhere. His discussion of the organi-

zation of the territory of Arkansas in 1818 in connection with Lincoln's

views on slavery in the territories (pp. 216-218) indicates an apparent lack

of understanding that congress had, at earlier dates, specifically refrained

from applying the antislavery provision of the Northwest Ordinance to cer-

tain territories. An explanation, which is lacking, of how the race question

became so involved in the Lincoln-Douglas debates and of the basis upon

which Douglas claimed Lincoln favored racial equality would give rise to

the question as to whether the latter's answer on that point was "clear and

convincing" (p. 230). The author seems to accept without question the

version of the Kansas-Nebraska act given by its contemporary critics, and

nowhere is there any reflection of the implications of that measure as given

by many modern scholars.

The book is written in fascinating style, and it contains many interesting

illustrations. The footnotes are placed in the back, a current tendency with

which the reviewer is not in accord. The index, in some cases, lacks thorough-

ness as a guide to the subjects listed.

Ohio State University                                 HENRY H. SIMMS

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BOOK REVIEWS         205

 

Three Years With Grant, As Recalled by War Correspondent Sylvanus

Cadwallader. Edited and with an introduction and notes by Benjamin P.

Thomas. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955. xiv??353??viiip.; maps

and index. $4.75.)

One might have assumed that all eye-witness and first-hand accounts of

the Civil War on a highly authoritative level, had been published long ago.

But now, in the midst of several estimable books based on research long

years after the event, comes Three Years With Grant by Sylvanus Cad-

wallader, perhaps the most eminent of the newspaper correspondents who

covered that conflict, culled from a manuscript resurrected from the vaults

of the Illinois Historical Society and published for the first time.

Cadwallader, employed first as war correspondent by the Chicago Times

and later as correspondent in chief of the New York Herald, was attached

to Grant's headquarters from before Vicksburg to the fateful day at Ap-

pomattox Court House. Actually, and amazingly, Cadwallader virtually had

the privileges of a staff officer, being privy to many of the top-flight con-

ferences and confidences, having unrestricted access to headquarters, going

on missions for Grant, sending his dispatches sometimes in official pouches,

being supplied with credentials from Grant which superseded credentials

and orders of all other general officers, and privileged to use military boats,

in fact, being in a position to "pull rank" under almost every conceivable

circumstance.

To a newspaper man, the narrative of methods of gathering and dis-

patching news under the circumstances of this greatest of all wars fought

on the American continent is a revelation and a romance. But Three Years

With Grant far transcends such parochial interest. It is a valuable contri-

bution to the mounting biographical material on Grant as well as a com-

mentary on the conduct of the war.

Perhaps the most comment excited by Three Years With Grant will arise

from Cadwallader's frank account of his first-hand experience with Grant's

overindulgence in alcohol from time to time. Grant's use of liquor has been

a matter of national discussion since it first was employed in an effort to

discredit him by his enemies and other partisans in his earliest campaigns.

It is almost as if the public were perpetually determined to wring the last

drop of information on the matter--and in Cadwallader's account, they

would seem to have gotten it.

In the campaign leading up to Vicksburg, Cadwallader had a startling ex-

perience with Grant's excessive indulgence, interposed his personal efforts

to head the general off, protected him from widespread public detection in

one of the general's sorriest moments, earned the eternal gratitude of Grant--

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206     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

and what was equally important that of Rawlins, Grant's chief aide. It was

partly because of Cadwallader's continuing role of watchdog over Grant's

drinking, but to a larger degree his repeatedly demonstrated reliability and

dependability in all matters connected with his handling of even the touchiest

news with respect to the prosecution of the war, that he gained his great

prestige and power at the front, was permitted the broadest discretion, and

assisted the New York Herald in establishing itself as the most authoritative

source on news of the war.

Cadwallader had personal contacts with all of the general officers of the

Union army who in any wise were associated with Grant, including those

other Ohioans, Sherman and Sheridan. He analyzes Meade, Halleck, and

the others. He saw Lincoln on several occasions at the front and once carried

captured Confederate colors to him on Grant's orders. He even has some

passing observations on Mrs. Lincoln. He saw Lee at Appomattox and the

day after and describes vividly the surrender scene.

In view of the popularty of best-selling Andersonville, the prodigious

novel by McKinley Kantor, Cadwallader's authentic statements regarding the

North's policy against exchange of prisoners in the latter part of the war is

interesting and re-enforcing.

Three Years With Grant, in addition to its appraisal of personalities, is

a civilian's picture of how the war was fought at the command level and

how the individual Union soldier fared. And mention should be made of

the fact that Cadwallader, like Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, was a native

of Ohio.

Ohio State Journal                                   KARL B. PAULY

 

Civil War in Pictures. By Fletcher Pratt. (New York: Henry Holt and Com-

pany, 1955. 256p.; illustrations. $10.00.)

This big picture book supplements four recent accounts of Civil War

journalism: Bernard A. Weisberger's Reporters for the Union (1953), Louis

M. Starr's vivid Bohemian Brigade (1954), J. Cutler Andrews' The North

Reports the Civil War (1955)--the most comprehensive and solid of them--

and Emmet Crozier's Yankee Reporters, 1861-65 (1956). Mr. Pratt's book,

however, is not another tale of newsmen at work, but a piecing to-

gether of a history of the war from contemporary newspaper pictures and re-

ports. From the files of Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated

Newspaper, and hence from the northern viewpoint, he has selected about

three hundred on-the-spot battle sketches and scores of news reports. He sup-

plies his own continuity for them and salts the mixture with ironic hind-

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sights upon their varying degrees of accuracy. The title of the volume does

not make clear that Mr. Pratt gives large space to sorting out "the constant

interplay of misestimates and accurate insights" in the editors' week-to-week

understanding of the war's events.

The civilian's picture of the fighting from 1861 to 1865 depended not so

much upon the camera, which then made only time exposures incapable of

being directly reproduced, but upon the sketchpads of artist-correspondents,

whose pictures, delivered in New York, could be reduced to woodcuts for

printing. Artistically their work was often crude, but an occasional brilliant

drawing stands out in these pages, such as Winslow Homer's sketch of a

federal sniper propped in a pine tree, squinting with deadly concentration

through his telescopic sights.

Starting with some naive suppositions--for example that infantry attacked

in parade-ground formations, or that running horses bounded as on a merry-

go-round--the artists became more realistic as the war went on, and oc-

casionally bested the written news in accuracy. There were, however, long

lapses between a battle and its depiction in the New York papers, more than

three weeks in the case of nearby Gettysburg; and some important actions,

such as Sherman's march through Georgia, did not get pictured at all.

This is a popular book, not a scholarly one. Mr. Pratt's style is attractive

and his simplification of the war's complexities is expert. But the reader

must be nimble, for the text constantly changes subject abruptly, and its

relation to the accompanying pictures is not always clear. Though mostly

objective and well proportioned, it is invaded by some personal enthusiasms.

Ships make good pictures certainly, but the author, a naval historian, would

seem to have been over-partial in the space he gives to their role in the

fighting; and he has more patience than some of his readers will have for

lingering critically upon General George McClellan's character and political

career. Unfortunately there is no index, nor note about the source of quo-

tations and pictures, nor any kind of map.

The only depiction of Ohio men (p. 154) shows the 73d Ohio Volunteers

charging with bayonets in Lookout Valley, before Chattanooga, on October

28, 1863.

University of Illinois (Chicago)                JAMES B. STRONKS

 

The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F.D.R. By Richard Hofstadter. (New

York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955. viii??328??xxp.; index. $4.50.)

This is a study of the ideas of the Populists and Progressives, inspired,

we are told, "by the need for a new analysis from the perspective of our

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208     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

time." The "new analysis" is critical, the "perspective" is from the liberal,

"realist" point of view. The author, professor of history at Columbia Uni-

versity, is skeptical of the abstractions, "moralizing," and the "soft policy,"

in which Populists and Progressives too often indulged. This, however, is

not a slashing, debunking work. The author does not claim too much for

his opinions; also he is quick to salve the wounds he has opened by healing

concessions. His primary concerns are Populism and Progressivism, that is,

the general movements of protest associated with those terms, not merely

the People's Party or the Bull Moosers. The New Deal, which has been

treated in a single chapter, was included, he explains, to provide comparisons

and contrasts by which the other two may be better understood.

Professor Hofstadter has subjected the ideas and intellectual attitudes of

the Populists to a rigorous re-examination. At the outset he concedes the

significance of their contributions in attacking the evils of industrialism,

stirring the latent liberalism, insisting upon the federal government's re-

sponsibility for the common welfare, and devising a program of reforms,

which later served the Progressives. But what distress him are the strains of

provincialism, nativism, and bellicose patriotism, and the tincture of anti-

Semitism in Populist thought. His supporting evidence is fresh to present-

day readers, including a resume of a fantastic anti-utopian novel by Ignatius

Donnelly and a chauvinistic essay from the pen of Mary Elizabeth Lease.

He admits that such illiberal attitudes have accompanied other reform waves

and that conservatives of the time shared them too. Still he cannot ignore

such blemishes, particularly as they have been often overlooked.

He punctures the agrarian myth which has been a favorite not only of the

Populists but of Americans generally. This is the notion that the yoeman

farmer is the ideal citizen, the source of national virtue, and as such entitled

to the special concern and protection of the government. The myth is traced

from Thomas Jefferson to Calvin Coolidge. Oddly enough, it appears to

have become more tenaciously held as it became more fictional. In reality,

the author insists, American farming has become a commercial venture and

the values of the farmer are indistinguishable from those of the businessman.

Both have developed the speculative temper, the acquisitive instinct.

Although Professor Hofstadter's strictures on Progressivism are less sharp,

he finds some of the same flaws in its thought. He criticizes the similar

tendency to oversimplify problems and cures, to adhere rigidly to moral

absolutes, and to shun political and economic realities. He argues that the

Progressives placed too much trust in the rightness of their inherited Yankee-

Protestant ethic and were, therefore, unable to understand the needs of the

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BOOK REVIEWS           209

 

European immigrant workers who held to a clashing set of beliefs. Further-

more, the Progressives' faith in the efficacy of their campaigns against bosses

and trusts was misplaced, because it did not fit the political and economic

facts of the time.

A suggestive and useful contribution to the dynamics of Progressivism is

the author's thesis that a key segment of the leadership was motivated not

by economic deprivation but by the status revolution which occurred after

the Civil War. These were men of the Mugwump type, old gentry, mer-

chants, small manufacturers, clergy, educators, and lawyers, who were con-

scious that the deference and power their kind had once enjoyed was being

transferred to the newly rich, the masters of the great corporations. They

wished to reassert their Yankee-Protestant ideals and regain their lost prestige

by once again assuming civic leadership. Unlike the old Mugwumps, they

were willing to accept state intervention, to trust popular government, and

even to join with the Populists.

While denying the economic motivation of this group, the author does

not dismiss economic considerations altogether. He contends that much of

the lower middle class support for Progressivism was inspired by the rising

cost of living, which was attributed to the accelerated expansion of trusts

and labor unions. This is the first instance of the unorganized urban con-

sumers asserting themselves as a self-conscious force in American politics.

There seem to this reviewer certain weaknesses in the author's analysis of

Progressivism. He makes only brief, cursory references to the movement at

the state and municipal levels. Had he made a close study of these, he

would not have overemphasized the ideal of the neutral state in Progressive

thinking. Certainly the civic revival in the cities was an effort to have

government play a positive role in enriching the lives of its citizens. Nor

would he have found such a sharp contrast between Progressivism and the

New Deal. Such municipal and state reformers as Hazen Pingree, Tom

Johnson, James Cox, Robert LaFollette, and Mark Fagan were, like the

New Dealers, experimental and pragmatic in approach, politically realistic

in working with self-interested politicians, and friendly to labor and the

underprivileged. The difference is less than Professor Hofstadter insists upon.

This book is a pleasure to read because of its lively prose and lucidity of

expression. It is grounded on wide reading in monographs and a substantial

sampling of journals of opinion. There is no indication that fresh manu-

script material was used. It is evident that more primary histories of the

Populist and Progressive movements in the states and cities need to be

written and published to make such syntheses as this one more accurate and

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210     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

meaningful. There is no separate bibliography, though footnote citations are

extensive. The footnote commentary seems too voluminous to this reviewer.

The index is comprehensive.

Kenyon College                                        LANDON WARNER

 

A  Bibliography of Indiana Imprints, 1804-1853. By Cecil K. Byrd and

Howard H. Peckham. (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1955.

xxi??479p.; author and subject index and printers and publishers index.

$10.00.)

This scrupulously edited list of imprints represents the first fifty years of

printing, exclusive of the periodical press, in the state of Indiana. As such

it marks the culmination of efforts that began in the thirties with Mary

Alden Walker's The Beginnings of Printing in the State of Indiana

(1934) and the ubiquitous Douglas McMurtrie's Indiana Imprints 1804-1849

(1937). The unpublished records of the Federal Imprints Inventory of the

Historical Records Survey were also consulted, although the usefulness of

this source was limited by its incompleteness and by errors in its listings.

After careful investigation the editors produced a bibliography of nearly

two thousand imprints (1,984 plus 25 unlocated items). Locations are listed

for the entries. Besides books and pamphlets the bibliography includes a

representative listing of sheet music and broadsides. Here the coverage is

not intended to be comprehensive, but the items included are interesting and

diversified and may serve to attract attention to these relatively neglected

sources.

An imprint bibliography of this sort is more than a listing of titles of

specimens of rare and obscure Americana. It is a chart of the development

of a representative midwestern state from a raw frontier community to a

relatively stable industrialized society. In the first years the concerns of the

settlers are limited. The editors quote Dennis Hanks's observation on the

culture of the Hoosier state in pioneer days: "We lived the same as Indians

'cepting we took an interest in politics and religion." Law and politics and

religion are the categories which emerge from the scanty publications of

the first years of printing. Among the religious groups the Baptists, sur-

prisingly, were the most active in publishing. Their output alone accounts

for more than a fifth of the listings in the bibliography. In contrast, the

Methodists, who were strong in the West during this period, are represented

by only a few titles. In this case the bibliography is not representative of the

relative strength of the two groups, since the book and periodical publishing

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BOOK REVIEWS          211

 

needs of the Methodists were supplied from outside the state by the Western

Methodist Book Concern, established in Cincinnati in 1820, and by a Phila-

delphia concern earlier.

Beginning with the 1820's a rapid diversification of titles is apparent.

Promotional literature and legal documents reflect the period of road and

canal building, activities that subsided as the interest in railroad building

mounted toward its peak in the 1850's. Other titles tell of the struggle for

common schools and the establishment of the first colleges, of the temperance

movement, of abolitionism, of experiments in community living, and of

other reform movements of the pre-Civil War decades; sheet music and

broadsides announcing tent shows and lectures are symptomatic of popular

taste and interests in the period. The first novel "published" in the state was

The Cottagers of Glenburnie, A Scotch Novel, by Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton.

Actually a reprint of an 1808 Edinburgh publication, this title was issued

in South Hanover in 1835. The dearth of fiction and poetry in the Indiana

list can be partially explained by the fact that whatever needs existed could

be supplied from such nearby large regional centers as Cincinnati for the

Ohio Valley and Chicago for the northern part of the state.

Indianapolis was slow in emerging as the publishing center for the state.

It did not become the largest city until after 1850, when the growth of the

railroads favored it because of its central location. The leading early pub-

lishing centers were Vincennes, where Elihu Stout set up the state's first

press in 1804, Madison, Hanover, New Harmony, and Richmond. Of these

the most impressive in terms of range of ideas and of subjects treated were

the Quaker press in Richmond, which dates from 1822, and the press at

New Harmony, which, beginning in 1825, issued publications in numerous

fields, including the natural sciences, education, music, and social theory.

The bibliography is well indexed, with separate listings for authors and

subjects and for printers, publishers, and printing offices.

Syracuse University                                WALTER SUTTON

 

The American Collector: Four Essays Commemorating the Draper Centennial

of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1954. Edited by Donald R.

McNeil. (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1955. [viii]??

61p. $2.00.)

The four addresses which comprise this little book were delivered before

the State Historical Society of Wisconsin on Founders Day, 1955. They are

part of the society's celebration of the life and deeds of Lyman C. Draper a

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212     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

century after he became secretary of the society and sixty-four years after

his death.

In "Draper's Predecessors and Contemporaries," Lyman H. Butterfield

sketches the histories of some of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century

American collectors of manuscripts. Mr. Butterfield is a competent editor

and an experienced reader of original historical manuscripts. My guess is

that most of the many manuscripts he has used during his career have been

at his command only because a collector saved them. It seems to me un-

fortunate that he should characterize collectors as a "misguided race of men."

Roy P. Basler's comments on "The Modern Collector" are especially in-

teresting. His title implies a definitive discourse on an extremely complex

kind of person, but he makes no attempt to take on such an awe-inspiring

task. What he gives charmingly and authoritatively is an account of his

personal associations with one kind of manuscript collector, that is, the

Lincoln enthusiast.

Donald R. McNeil's report of "The Wisconsin Experiments" is heartening

news. The general neglect by historical societies and private collectors of

recent and current manuscripts is distressing. Here, at last, is a concise re-

port of the start made by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin to preserve

manuscripts which are not yet antique. It is a matter deserving more attention.

Alice E. Smith's survey of "The Draper Manuscripts" is a fascinating,

rapid excursion through one of this country's most exciting collections of

manuscripts. Miss Smith knows the collection intimately and has chosen her

illustrations well. Her essay makes absorbing reading and is certainly the

best tribute in the volume to Lyman C. Draper.

Cleveland, Ohio                                       COLTON STORM

 

The Stark County Story. By Edward Thornton Heald. Volume IV, Part 1,

Free People at Work, 1917-1955. (Canton, Ohio: Stark County Historical

Society, 1955. xv??856p.; illustrations and index. $11.00.)

Mr. Heald and the Stark County Historical Society are to be congratulated

on the publication of this fourth volume of The Stark County Story. This

unique venture, reproducing with only slight editorial revision an extended

series of historical broadcasts prepared with painstaking care by Mr. Heald,

the society's historian, assembles a great mass of historic fact and presents

it in convenient form. While the organization of this material is episodic

or topical, as befits a radio program, the introduction and occasional cross

references help to tie the various parts of the story together.

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BOOK REVIEWS           213

 

The scripts included in this volume are numbered 232 to 301. Each treats

a separate company or special group activity, such as that of the local C.I.O.,

or the A.F. of L., or the Automobile Club. Sometimes the development, like

that of area shopping centers, is placed in the broader setting of national

trends, but more generally the materials are strictly local with a considerable

amount of detail on the individuals involved, showing the results of per-

sonal interviews and other earnest research efforts.

In addition to the scripts dealing more directly with the economy of the

city of Canton, which celebrated its sesquicentennial in 1955, this volume

includes those treating a dozen different minority groups as well as other

sections on "home talent culture" and on educational and social activities in

the region during the years since 1917. A profusion of illustrations and maps,

which crowd 125 plates, contributes pictorial detail to this broad panoramic

view of a vigorously growing industrial city. Not only will alert citizens in

the community find much of interest here on all walks of life in this

neighborhood, but years hence a historian of Canton will delight to find such

full documentation of the period already assembled for his study and in-

terpretation. The bibliography, which lists numerous citations for each script,

runs to 20 closely printed pages, while the index, still more closely packed

in three columns, occupies 34 pages, further demonstrating the prodigious

labors of the compiler of this 870-page volume.

City of Rochester                                  BLAKE MCKELVEY

 

The Living Past of America: A Pictorial Treasury of Our Historic Houses

and Villages That Have Been Preserved and Restored. By Cornelius

Vanderbilt, Jr. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1955. xiv??234p.; illus-

trations and index. $5.95.)

The Fifty Best Historic American Houses, Colonial and Federal, Now Fur-

nished and Open to the Public. By Ralph E. Carpenter, Jr. (New York:

E. P. Dutton and Company, 1955. 112p.; illustrations. $2.75.)

Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., apparently can afford to indulge himself, as

few of us can, in those pleasures he chooses. I must say that I greatly ad-

mire, and perhaps envy, him in one of his choicest delights, that of traveling

about this country enjoying and studying its historic sites. What great fun

Mr. Vanderbilt must have had the past several years, journeying from coast

to coast in his trailer, lecturing, writing, doing research, and, perhaps best of

all, visiting those birthplaces, homes, shops, villages, and other landmarks

which, Mr. Vanderbilt suggests, are "fundamentally the American tradition"!

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214     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

But Mr. Vanderbilt determined two or three years ago to share his won-

derful privilege with all of us with a similar interest who can afford $5.95

for a book or who have a library card. With the cooperation of Crown

Publishers, Inc., he produced The Living Past of America, a handsome, ex-

tensively illustrated volume presenting "a comprehensive panoramic view of

the country's historic places, representative of the thousands of such shrines,

landmarks, early homes, buildings and villages that Americans treasure."

The book offers information on and pictures of more than two hundred

historic spots in forty-three states and the District of Columbia. It should

serve as an admirable guide for tourists. At the end of the volume Mr.

Vanderbilt has included a lengthy list of historic preservations in each state,

with a key to the historic significance and period of each property. The places

treated in the book are those Mr. Vanderbilt liked, and, in most cases, they

are places most Americans interested in our nation's history would also like.

The Ohio sites included are the Rufus Putnam House at Marietta; U. S.

Grant's birthplace at Mt. Pleasant; Thomas Edison's birthplace at Milan;

Zoar Village at Zoar; Schoenbrunn Village near New Philadelphia; Haw-

thorn Hill, the home of Orville Wright, at Dayton; Rubicon Homestead,

the Patterson family home, also at Dayton; and Adena, the home of Thomas

Worthington, at Chillicothe.

Mr. Carpenter's Fifty Best Historic American Houses of the Colonial and

Federal periods also presents a personal selection, this time based, however,

on a "combined 'score' of historical association, architectural interest, and the

furnishing of the interior." The little volume gives a photograph of each of

the houses, with a brief commentary on the significance of each in terms of

its history, architecture, and furnishings. Each of his houses is now furnished

and open to the public.

It is perhaps worth noting that all of Mr. Carpenter's fifty best houses

are in New England, the Middle Atlantic States, Maryland, Virginia, and the

District of Columbia. It would seem safe to assume that most of the authori-

ties in the field would not agree with all of the author's choices. It would

seem also that he may have been presumptuous in deciding that his fifty were

the best in the whole country, thus eliminating fine homes in the South, the

Middle West, and the Southwest, and the early French homes in the lower

Mississippi Valley.

It is true, however, that the East from Virginia northward has shown

greater interest than the other regions in preserving its distinctive historic

homes, and has opened them to the public, well restored and well furnished.

In the South not many of the best colonial homes have been opened to the

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BOOK REVIEWS           215

 

public, and in the Old Northwest and the Mississippi Valley those beautiful

homes of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries which have been

opened, have been denied the furnishings that they deserve.

While Mr. Carpenter's selections possibly do display a bit of provincialism,

they reveal also to the discriminating observer that many states have not

given a full measure of devotion to those lovely homes which are a valuable

and beautiful part of the American tradition.

Ohio Historical Society                         JAMES H. RODABAUGH

 

Prehistory of the Upper Ohio Valley: An Introductory Archeological Study.

By William J. Mayer-Oakes. Anthropological Series, No. 2. Annals of

Carnegie Museum, Vol. 34. (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Museum, 1955. ii??

296p.; illustrations, references, recommendations, appendices, and index.

Cloth, $5.00; paper, $4.00.)

This book is concerned with the results of the initial phase of an archae-

ological reconnaissance and survey of the upper Ohio Valley made in 1950,

1951, and 1952, and is of particular importance in providing the first syn-

thesis of a poorly understood area.

Following the Preface, a "brief popular summary" of the prehistory of

the area, supplemented with drawings and excellent maps, is presented and

described within six periods of time (Historic, Late Prehistoric, Middle

Woodland, Early Woodland, Archaic, and Paleo-Indian). Subsequent sec-

tions present the background and history of the survey; methods and tech-

niques employed, including the reproduction of forms used in the survey;

physiography, climate, soils, animal and plant life; archaeological history of

the region; and analytical procedures.

The largest section of the volume is devoted to descriptive analysis and

interpretation of the artifacts and features which are "arranged by four

major drainages in the area and within these by the time periods (epochs)."

Like previous sections it is well organized and profusely illustrated. This

is followed by a detailed ceramic analysis, with fifteen pottery types de-

scribed. The ceramic concept and the serration method are briefly discussed

and applied to the 23,525 potsherds recovered in the survey. Professional

archaeologists and particularly students should heed this little "exercise."

In the "interpretative summary" the author brings together all known

data and presents line-drawings of typical artifacts for the major epochs in

the area.

Five appendices include a summary of the sites, a list of informants by

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216     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

county, a list of illustrations and tables, and definitions of terms used.

"Recommendations" briefly lists seven internal problems and five external

problems for solution.

The author should be complimented for an excellent piece of work and

for the distinct contribution to our knowledge of the upper Ohio Valley.

It is indeed the basis for future work rather than a "framework," as the

author so modestly states.

Ohio Historical Society                           RAYMOND S. BABY

 

Search for Purpose. By Arthur E. Morgan. (Yellow Springs, Ohio: Antioch

Press, 1955. ix??197p.; bibliography and index. $3.00.)

This is a success story, though one with a difference. The author, dis-

tinguished engineer, administrator of public affairs, and educator, ignores

these outward manifestations of success and examines his life in terms of a

relentless search for human purpose, for meaningfulness, beginning with his

boyhood, when, as he states it, "I became imbued with the idea that

nothing was more important than that I should get general direction, pur-

pose and motivation for my life" (p. 6).

The directing value of an idea seriously held has perhaps never been more

excitingly illustrated than in this writing. Mr. Morgan is blessed with almost

total recall of years that add up for most of us to little more than a general

blur of passing days in which no central purpose was sensed and no need for

one was felt. Not many, for instance, would write: "By the age of nine I had

acquired a strong purpose to commit myself without reserve to achieving a

good way of life, which at that time I took to be the pattern of belief and

conduct of the evangelical Protestant church in which I was growing up"

(p. 8). And of the few who would, but a small percentage could suggest

that their boyish curiosity (Mr. Morgan assures us that his curiosity ranged

far and wide at this point) led them to speculate about the meaning of

such theological phrasings as "God is all-powerful, . . . there is nothing he

cannot do" (p. 9).

Arthur Morgan's speculation was no mere speculative idleness, however.

He enjoyed solitude, not because he did not enjoy playmates but because

in the woods he loved he found pleasure in mulling over problems his

reading and experience had posed. The author was obviously a purposeful

young man, moving, throughout the years of boyhood and young manhood,

from problems to books, to reflective solitude, to experience, to further

problems, and on and on. The answers he reached in this continuing process

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BOOK REVIEWS          217

 

stirred further speculation. They did not end it. It is not surprising, there-

fore, that such a young man, in his later years, would look back upon a

town library that "was an exceptionally fine collection of the world's great

literature" as "a precious window onto life and thought." The library, he

recalls, "was like foster parents to me"; it was "a whole congregation of

friends" (p. 9).

As was true of many another of his generation, the author found the

doctrine of evolution in conflict with the beliefs of his church. From this

conflict arose the following "clean-cut question: is it right to inquire, or

should one suppress his inquiry to maintain his faith?" (p. 10). Questions

of this character are seldom so clear-cut for young people, and, unfortunately,

adults seldom help in their clarification. The educational significance of this

failure does not escape the author, though he does not mention it explicitly.

His book is written, however, in the hope that it will help others, especially

young people, find meaning in their lives. In any event, Arthur Morgan had

come upon a question of such moment that he can now say, "Never in the

more than sixty years since then have I applied myself more intensively and

unremittingly, or with more complete sincerity, to any question" (p. 11).

After more than a year of struggle and against the urging of religious ad-

visers he respected, he found his answer. It was: "I decided for free inquiry"

(p. 11; my italics).

This decision was reached in 1894, and, as the remaining pages of this

small but exciting book make clear, it became the dominant theme of a

life which, however engaged in the going affairs of men, has never deviated

from it. Mr. Morgan initiated his search early. He has continued it. His

guiding principle opened a world to explore; it did not give him a world

complete. "It seems to me," he says, in reflecting upon the years of his

search, "that there is one supreme virtue a man may have. It is loyalty to

the adventure of life. If there is one supreme disloyalty, one greatest course

of treason, possible to men, it is that in this great adventure, this struggle,

this searching for a good way of life, we do not do the best we can. To be

a dilettante, playing with life, is treason." And to this he adds: "As we

travel through life we must learn by experience where the values of living

lie. We must learn about desirable experiences by having them. As to what

constitutes purposeful living, great tolerance of judgment is appropriate"

(p. 191). Obviously, the commitment of 1894 was a solid one.

Those who equate the search for purpose with an acceptance by others

of that which they affirm will find the conclusions reached here somewhat

disturbing. Those of totalitarian inclination, of course, will reject them. They

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218     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

give neither comfort nor quarter to those who wish to organize society in

order to "suppress or exclude any noncomforming element" (p. 69). What

the conclusions do is to reveal a spirit which was unwilling to stand hitched

to the posts convention has a way of erecting for the young--posts that in

time become objects of worship, with those who attend them asking that

their meaning be accepted on faith, not reflected upon.

The result is an unusual volume. The author has written with refreshing

frankness. And he has written simply. His wide range of experience has

given him a storehouse of illustrative material which he draws upon with

frequency and effectiveness. Yet the story of his success, professionally and

economically, does not intrude upon his story of a continuing quest to gain

perspective upon the human venture. What was an early personal concern

became, also early, a keen desire to advance the "search of mankind in its

search for enduring values" (p. 108). It was this, as he puts it, that served

as "my aim and my religion for more than three-quarters of my life"

(pp. 108-109).

Arthur Morgan has served his fellowmen well on many occasions, and

in many capacities. He has seldom served them better than in this exami-

nation of his own effort to come to terms with life. Many others, of all

ages, should be stimulated and aided as they, too, search for meaning. What

is at issue in his judgment is that intelligence should be turned upon

"changing, refining, enlarging and informing men's purposes and incentives."

He will not admit that man is so limited that he must depend "on blind

acceptance of authority." His quest has led him to conclude that the "refine-

ment of human purpose" is no mysterious process but a "feasible human

enterprise, well within the scope of human ability" (p. 190). His book is

a public audit of this hypothesis. It should have many readers.

Ohio State University                        H. GORDON HULLFISH

 

A Treasury of Mississippi River Folklore (Ohio River Edition). Benjamin

A. Botkin. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1955. xx??620p.; illustrations

and index. $5.00.)

Writing a review of Botkin's latest anthology is like remarking on the

seventh pup in a litter. The comments which reviewers have made con-

cerning A Treasury of American Folklore, A Treasury of New England

Folklore, and so on, though true, seem too weary to be used again in regard

to A Treasury of Mississippi River Folklore. Like its brothers, A Treasury

of Mississippi River Folklore is misnamed (it's local lore, not folklore), is

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BOOK REVIEWS          219

 

helter-skelter in organization, and is maudlin in tone. Yet, like its brothers,

it is worth having because it brings together such a mass of hard-to-come-by

matter, because it makes good reading, and because it gives one a real

feel for the region of the Mississippi watershed.

Perhaps at this stage of Botkin's "game," a comment on the seven an-

thologies as a group would be most appropriate. Let me state that Botkin

has missed a golden opportunity, one that some folklorists would give

their proverbial right arms for. A scholar, with strong backing and popular

appeal, Botkin has had a real chance to unveil for Americans the inner-

workings of their culture. The thesis that American folklore must be defined

along occupational, geographical, and ethnic lines rather than along the

traditional lines of the medieval class system, argued by Botkin in outline in

The Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend (see pp.

43-48), could have been "nailed down" once and for all in the seven

volumes to date. Nor would a thesis of this sort, steeping in the readable

legends and accounts that prove it, have hurt the sale value of the books

at all. But Botkin, either because he can't or won't organize, has chosen

rather to pack his volumes as a rat might, to confine himself to such themes

as "huzzah for the hills," and to invite the scorn of his fellow scholars.

Thinking over Botkin's output, one recalls the feelings in Mudville after

the mighty Casey had been to bat.

As a balance to my comment, yet at the same time in the atmosphere of

"faint praise," let me quote Carl Carmer in the Foreword to A Treasury of

Mississippi River Folklore:

 

It takes an imaginative skill equal to that of a truly great detective and,

added to that, a kind of special intuition to run down so vast and enter-

taining a group of tales, anecdotes, descriptive passages, songs, little-known

bits of history, as Mr. Botkin has put together in the laudable effort to

give his readers ample evidence from which to draw their own conclusions

about the social history of the big river which flows through the heart of

our Midwest.

One can, it is true, draw his own conclusions from the vast and entertaining

pages of Botkin's latest book, and social historians interested in this great

watershed will note for themselves that the brawl and confusion of the

Mississippi is the ingredient most typical of our culture, locally and

nationally. If one can make this projection of the picture of Mississippi

River life onto the contemporary American scene--our business, national

games, popular music, and so forth--one can use Botkin's book in a myriad

of ways. But to do this, one becomes the editor of material Botkin has

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220     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

gathered and spent but two introductory pages commenting on. One has to

finish a job an author has merely begun.

What, then, does a reviewer say about Anthology 7? If you've read Botkin

before, you know what sort of material will be in A Treasury of Mississippi

River Folklore. If you are reading for pleasure, the book will fascinate you;

if you are reading as a folklorist, historian, or sociologist, it will frustrate

you. The book will sell. Sic transit Botkin mundi.

Denison University                             TRISTRAM P. COFFIN

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