Ohio History Journal

Book Reviews

 

 

 

The Intimate Letters of John Cleves Symmes and His Family, Including

Those of His Daughter Mrs. William Henry Harrison, Wife of the Ninth

President of the United States. Edited by Beverley W. Bond, Jr. (Cincin-

nati: Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, 1956. xxxiii??174p.;

frontispiece and index. $4.50.)

The more-public papers of John Cleves Symmes, founder of the Miami

Purchase and one of the three high judges of the Northwest Territory,

were edited by Dr. Bond in 1926. This new volume is more personal, and

what it has to tell is harder to describe. First of all, it makes a human

being of the man whom Dr. Bond significantly calls "gentleman pioneer."

The mere juxtaposition of these two common words awakens associations,

recalling perhaps Roanoke or Jamestown or Rugby, Tennessee: failures

or near-failures. Gentlemen pioneers on the other hand can bring to the

woods that culture without which a frontier may be too dearly bought.

Symmes's easy-going urbanity in the wilderness and among wild men, white

and red, made for readable letters.

It also made for economic difficulties. Robert Morris, the famous finan-

cier of the Revolution, handled some of Symmes's affairs in the East until

Symmes's lax business methods became too much for him. One of the

gentleman pioneer's sons-in-law, Peyton Short, lost all of his wife's portion

in a few effectively disastrous speculations--a fortune which Symmes had been

"fifty years in acquiring." Symmes's Purchase was a success, but it rewarded

its founder little. As Symmes observed to his grandson, "When it rains

homony, our dish is generally bottom upwards."

Symmes's other son-in-law was William Henry Harrison, of whom he

expected no great financial feats: "He can neither bleed, plead, nor preach,

and if he could plow I should be satisfied. His best prospect is in the army,

he has talents, and if he can dodge well a few years, it is probable he may

become conspicuous." Symmes, though a New Jersey colonel during the

Revolution, had no awe of the military. As a judge he was jealous of the

army's jurisdictional pretensions in the Northwest. Privately he felt it "a

great pity that all mankind are not Quakers."

There are many details of frontier life in this correspondence. Through

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BOOK REVIEWS          423

 

Symmes's eyes we can see an effect of St. Clair's defeat--the panicky

desertion of farms that almost led to a general stampede back to Kentucky.

Symmes makes it seem as if the Indians came very dose to driving the whites

out of the Purchase at least. Symmes had many suggestions for an army

capable of fighting Indians--giving them hatchets instead of swords, for

example---but one suggestion that hints at the composition of St. Clair's

army was that the new body should not be composed of "such as enter into

service because they can live no longer unhung any other way."

Symmes was, naturally, in the milling and distilling businesses as well as

real estate. We learn that, on the frontier, gin, rum, cherry bounce, and

sour punch were all only corn whiskey with flavoring added. In the case

of sour punch, the flavoring was sulphuric acid.

We can learn more about Symmes and his milieu from these new letters,

but even if we could not, many of them would still be worth reading for

their wit.

Miami University                             JOHN W. WEATHERFORD

 

The Early Jackson Party in Ohio, By Harry R. Stevens. (Durham, N. C.:

Duke University Press, 1957. xiii??187p.; appendices, bibliographical note,

and index. $4.50.)

This little book undertakes to analyze the composition of the Ohio group

that supported Andrew Jackson in the presidential election of 1824, and

to show how they organized themselves and promoted Jackson's candidacy.

It does not profess to study the campaign or to explain the results of the

election.

The author asserts that by laborious research he has determined the

loyalties of about 6,000 Ohio citizens of that generation, and has compiled

some biographical information about each of them. He ventures the pre-

sumption that his conclusions are probably approximately valid for the

other 44,000 citizens who voted for president in Ohio in 1824.

Careful earlier writers, for example, Roseboom and Utter, while ad-

mitting the importance of the personal appeal of the candidates, found

that they were not only well known but fairly well identified with stands

on slavery, banking, internal improvements, and tariff. It has generally

been assumed that these and other national issues played a significant part

in the Ohio election. It is admitted, of course, that the people of the state

were remarkably apathetic, for no one could have assumed that any partic-

ular candidate would win or lose. It is estimated that less than forty percent

of the population eligible to vote bothered to go to the polls. A month

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424     THE OHIO      HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

earlier almost 77,000 had turned out to elect a governor, but only 50,000

were counted in the presidential election. John Quincy Adams polled

about a quarter of the vote; Clay won a few hundred votes more than

Jackson and took the state's electoral vote.

In describing the makeup of the Ohio Jacksonians, Stevens implicitly

challenges the interpretation that the issues had some effect in grouping the

followers of each of the candidates. Nor does he find that the Jackson group

in any particular locality differed from the groups that supported Clay or

Adams. For each candidate he finds supporters in every occupation, income

level, and religious sect. There was little political coherence among migrants

from a particular geographical region of the United States. What, then,

differentiated the Jackson supporters from their neighbors who worked for

his opponents? The author states his conclusions in a tentative and almost

apologetic way and identifies no single factor. What he seems to be saying

in his careful and qualified way is that the basis is, if not casual, at least

highly non-rational. He suspects that one should recognize the role of

personality structure: "The more energetic and overtly aggressive might

prefer Jackson; the more judicious and reflective, Adams; the more skilled

in 'wire-working,' Clay. Such a conclusion cannot, of course, be proved,

but it may be amply documented."

Stevens' conclusions, if valid, seem highly important. If he has broken

new ground he has done himself an injustice by not showing the furrows.

The book contains no bibliography and offers footnotes for direct quotations

only. It is evident that the author has devoted to this minor subject a

measure of research unusual in these days of hastily written interpretations.

It seems probable that he has assembled a mass of detailed evidence that

would be useful to scholars investigating other topics. It would seem highly

desirable that he deposit at an appropriate historical library his working

notes and correspondence.

Oberlin College                                       THOMAS LEDUC

 

The German-Language Press in America. By Carl Wittke. (Lexington:

University of Kentucky Press, 1957. vi??311p.; index. $6.50.)

Carl Wittke has added another study to the impressive number of mono-

graphs which during the last twenty years he has contributed to American

immigration history, particularly to its German-American sector. The pre-

sent investigation is broader and more comprehensive than all his previous

research in the field of Americana-Germanica. Everyone concerned with

immigration history knows that nothing reveals the pulse of a national

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minority group as clearly as its newspapers. No other medium reflects as

impressively as does its press the rise and fall, the fears and hopes, the

awareness of difference as well as the acculturation of an immigrant group.

Thus the history of the German language press in America (if written by

competent hands) must necessarily become a microcosm of the history of the

German-Americans as a whole. Carl Wittke has admirably accomplished this

task. There is no need to comment on the thoroughness of his research.

It seems that he left none of the hundreds and thousands of yellowing,

crumbling pages of newspaper volumes unturned. From his previous writings

we know how efficiently he collects his material and how exhaustively and

discriminatingly he interprets it. Perhaps it is unnecessary to say that an

historian as skillful as Dean Wittke avoids the danger of chronicling the

individual fortunes of the numerous German-American papers (there were

about 800 in the peak decade after 1890), yet a few words should indicate

how masterfully he acquits himself of the onerous task of holding so many

threads in his hands and weaving them together into a broad carpet showing

distinct patterns and designs.

The first German newspaper in America was published in Philadelphia

in 1732. Before the end of the century no less than thirty-eight German

papers appeared in Pennsylvania, not to mention a number of others in

adjacent states such as New York and Maryland. From the very first issue

onward these papers give evidence of the double function of the German-

American (and any other immigrant) press: to strengthen the national

consciousness of the immigrant and to interpret America to the newcomer.

Over the course of two centuries most German-American newspaper editors

have been keenly aware of this double mission. It is an interesting though

unanswerable question as to how many of them knew deep in their hearts

that in the last analysis these two functions were irreconcilable and mu-

tually exclusive. To interpret America to the immigrant, to acquaint him

with its traditions and institutions, that is, to "americanize" him--what

other consequence could it have than to cause the awareness of his German

identity to evaporate, possibly in the first, certainly in the second generation.

This is the tragic conflict of the German-American press: the better it ful-

filled its mission, the quicker it shortened its history; the more it justified

its raison d' etre, the more it removed the reason for its existence. If

and when the immigrant (partly with the help of his German news-

paper) had been acclimatized, assimilated, americanized, he would let the

subscription to his German paper expire and read an American journal.

Carl Wittke shows that the conditions during the period between 1730

and 1830 were not favorable to the development of a German language

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426     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

press. The Pennsylvania papers were in a peculiar predicament, on account

of repeated demands that they drop standard German in favor of the Penn-

sylvania German dialect. Only after 1830, when new waves of German

immigrants reached the American shores did the number of German publi-

cations show a considerable increase. Two of the most outstanding papers

(still in existence) were founded within one decade, the New Yorker

Staatszeitung (1834) and the Baltimore Correspondent (1841). The Cin-

cinnati Volksblatt (1836), issued continuously up to World War I, was

the first and, for some time, the only daily in the entire field of German-

American journalism. The most astonishing and almost spectacular expansion

of the German press occurred in the decades after 1850. Carl Wittke

emphasizes the interrelationship between this growth and the arrival of

the Forty-eighters, a highly articulate group of intellectual refugees, among

them a high percentage of men with political convictions and journalistic

experience. There is no doubt that the Forty-eighters gave an enormous

impetus to German-American journalism, quantitatively and qualitatively.

Perhaps the author stresses this interrelationship too much, because with or

without the Forty-eighters the German press would have expanded. There

were other contributing factors: the widening intellectual outlook of the

older immigrant groups, the generally mounting interest in public issues

in the decade before the Civil War, and above all the steadily rising immi-

gration figures. The number of foreign-born of German descent in Ohio

was 112,022 in 1850 and 166,888 in 1860, that is, an increase of forty-nine

percent. By the sheer force of their increasing numbers the German immi-

grants would have demanded more, bigger, and better newspapers. It was

their good fortune that in this historical moment the Forty-eighters provided

them with an aggressive (often too aggressive), instructive, and sanely

guiding journalism which aroused the Germans to an interest in the political

issues of the time, induced them to participate in the election campaigns, and

thereby accelerated their americanization.

In the field of domestic politics it is not easy to draw a clear-cut political

profile of German-American journalism. There was no strict adherence

to the one or the other party. Party lines were frequently transcended, as

is illustrated by the political criss-crossings of the most distinguished Ger-

man-American journalist, Carl Schurz. On some public issues we find a

remarkable consistency over a period of many decades. Almost all German

papers advocated sound money, civil service, and tariff reform. Solidly

they opposed woman's suffrage, since in their opinion it would "result

in a disastrous deterioration of female virtues." Three successive generations

of German-American journalists battled manfully against any attempt to

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BOOK REVIEWS         427

 

promote the temperance or prohibition movement. In some regions there

were subterranean connections between the German-American press and the

brewing industry, and still in 1924 George Sylvester Viereck was concerned

about the fact that "the German-American vote has floated too long on an

ocean of beer." German-American newspapers may have occasionally been

influenced by the Milwaukee brewers, but there is clear evidence that they

never took their cues from any German government. In fact, some German

language papers in the United States were forbidden in pre-war, imperial

Germany. During the years from 1850 to 1875 (Wittke calls this the

"Hellenic Age in German-American journalism") the editors vigorously

took sides and fought eloquently for or against certain public issues. There-

after the editors became more interested in advertisment space and circulation

figures, their editorials avoided missionizing and crusading and gave only

non-offensive, colorless comments on current events. Even before the First

World War the curve of German-American journalism declined rapidly.

The war then hastened this decline enormously. To illustrate this with a

few figures: the total number of German publications was 727 in 1890;

537 in 1914; 489 in 1917; 278 in 1920; and 172 in 1930.

It has often been confirmed that among all foreign language organs which

served the various national minority groups in this country the German press

was the most numerous, the most influential, the best edited, and the one

on the highest intellectual level. We may now add to this that it is the one

which has received the most thorough, most competent, and most fascin-

ating historical treatment. Carl Wittke's book will become a model for any

further attempt at chronicling the fate of the foreign language press in the

United States.

Ohio State University                               DIETER CUNZ

 

The Railroad Station: An Architectural History. By Carroll L. V. Meeks.

(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956. xxvi??203p.; illustrations,

diagrams, appendix, bibliographical essay, and index. $7.50.)

Looking back on the nineteenth century, Carroll L. V. Meeks attempts

in The Railroad Station to find a theme or a characteristic descriptive of

the period. Using railway architecture as a springboard, he demonstrates

the impact of advances in metal construction (engineering) and the role

of the "picturesque" as the dominant aesthetic of the whole century.

The growth of transportation facilities westward brought the railroad

station to every section of the country. This building became as much a

prestige symbol for the community as it had practical value. In terms of

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428     THE OHIO     HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

art and architecture it was more like a giant piece of sculpture, and like

so much of the smaller art of this period, its visual impressions, especially

the exterior of the building, stemmed from European sources. The structure

of the engineered giant was complicated and amplified with lavish richness.

Form and ornament, rather than function, became the primary design ele-

ment.

Interested as we are in today, the question of symbol is important. Will the

twentieth century also be characterized by a piece of transport sculpture--

for example, the airport terminal? Or will a more active, daily product

like man's home environment show that twentieth-century life is active,

intense, and beautiful all at once, and that man, for whom life should be

creative and meaningful, cannot live in a world of public monuments.

This work contains many illustrations of railway stations, large and

small, representative of both Europe and the United States. A few designs

of twentieth-century vintage are included and contrast dramatically with the

nineteenth-century "picturesque." Since the railroad station is often con-

sidered the gateway of a city, these illustrations give the feeling of a world

tour. However, for the practicing architect, engineer, or student of art

history, this collection of facts, diagrams, and pictures will be of primary

interest. How much influence such a survey of the architectural past will

have upon the designs of the future is highly questionable. The illustrations

of proposed railway stations seem tied to the box-like efficiency of "inter-

national style." Perhaps the necessity for cleanliness prompts architects to

think they must jump through this stylistic hoop. However, Mr. Meeks,

when speaking of Frank Lloyd Wright as the successor to Alfred Water-

house, points to a more hopeful future: "In both men there is freedom from

the straight jacket of a single vocabulary, an interest in new materials used

decoratively, an avoidance of the bald, and a devoted attention to richness."

The nineteenth century was dominated by style--"picturesque eclecticism."

Whatever type of building is surveyed and scrutinized as representative of

the twentieth century, we can hope that it will be characterized by creative

ingenuity and freedom from the conformity of style.

Ohio State University                            GEORGE L. WILLIAMS

 

General George B. McClellan, Shield of the Union. By Warren W. Has-

sler, Jr. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1957. xvi??350p.;

illustrations, maps, critical essay on authorities, and index. $6.00.)

General George B. McClellan had a remarkable career. Born in Philadel-

phia of well-to-do parents, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania

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Preparatory School at fifteen years of age and by special action was admitted

to West Point two years before attaining the regulation minimum age.

After graduating second in his class he served with distinction under General

Winfield Scott in the Mexican War. During the Crimean War he was sent

as an official observer, and his report on the operations before Sevastopol

and on the military systems and practices of the European powers was

widely circulated and highly regarded in military circles. Resigning his

commission in the army, he served for a while as president of a railroad in

Ohio, but when the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter he promptly volun-

teered his services to the Union. Assuming command of Ohio troops, both

militia and volunteers, he was successful in his campaign to rid West Virginia

of the Confederates. After the fiasco of the battle of First Bull Run he was

chosen to take command of the Army of the Potomac and for a time served

as commander-in-chief of all the Union forces. His military career ended

in November 1862, when he was finally removed from command of all

troops. As the Democratic candidate for president in 1864 he ran unsuccess-

fully against Lincoln. After the war he engaged in several large engineering

enterprises and became one of the most popular and able governors New

Jersey ever had.

Here, obviously, was a man of no mean ability, and yet he was accused

of incompetence, stupidity, and downright disloyalty. He became during his

lifetime, and remains, one of the most controversial figures of the Civil War

era. The reason for the wide differences of opinion on McClellan are many,

but among the principal are these: he never won a clear-cut victory, and in

war, there is no substitute for victory; he was a conservative who made light

of high-sounding and idealistic phrases, and the Civil War was fought

"to preserve government of, by, and for the people"; he differed with

Lincoln on both strategy and politics, and as everyone knows, Lincoln

could do no wrong in either.

In this biography the author has made a distinctive contribution to

Civil War literature. By wisely limiting himself to the eighteen action-

packed months from April 1861, when McClellan assumed command of all

Ohio troops, to November 1862, when he was relieved of command of the

Army of the Potomac, he has been able to concentrate on the heart of

McClellan's military career. He has gone to the sources and he has probably

made out the best possible case for McClellan. The author has demonstrated

also the fact that the military do not operate in a vacuum. War and politics

are inseparable, and Mr. Hassler has shown the political pressures that

affected and sometimes determined military decisions. Noteworthy also is

the fact that the author has shown an awareness of what is sometimes

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430     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

called the smoke of battle. That is to say, he has written with the realization

that men are not blocks to be moved around on a chess board, but human

beings with weaknesses and failings operating across plains, hills, and

gullies, and amid sleet, snow, and rain.

From his study Mr. Hassler concludes that "McClellan was not only a

most able organizer, drillmaster, and disciplinarian [qualities generally con-

ceded] but was also a soldier of superior strategic and tactical ability as

compared with many other prominent generals on both sides [qualities

sometimes denied]. Political enmity toward him was largely his undoing."

If we concede these points (quite a concession), the question still remains,

why was McClellan made the supreme example of political jealousy and

interference? The answer seems to be that personal success came too soon.

McClellan became commander-in-chief of the Federal armies at the age of

thirty-five. He had much to learn, his principal subordinates had much to

learn, in fact the whole country had much to learn about war. He was, then,

a victim of ignorance and inexperience. In a statement quoted by the author,

Grant explained the situation as follows: "The test which was applied to

him would be terrible to any man, being made a major general at the

beginning of the war. It has always seemed to me that the critics of Mc-

Clellan do not consider the vast and cruel responsibility--the war, a new

thing to all of us, the army new, everything to do from the outset, with a

restless people and Congress. McClellan was a young man when this de-

volved upon him."

Ohio State University                               HARRY L. COLES

 

Children of the Levee. By Lafcadio Hearn. Edited by O. W. Frost; intro-

duction by John Ball. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1957.

vii??lllp.; illustrations. $3.50.)

These twelve sketches of Negro waterfront life were written as newspaper

feature stories by Lafcadio Hearn during the 1870's, when the young and

never to be assimilated immigrant of mixed Greek and Irish parentage was

working as a reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Commercial.

In bringing together these pieces, of which six had never been reprinted,

Professor Frost has made available a work of considerable literary and

historical interest. The sketches show a craftsmanship that is remarkable

in view of the author's apprentice status and the circumstances of their

composition. Although published at intervals over a period of four years,

they are consistent in tone and in point of view, which combines the neces-

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sary detachment of the artist with a necessary sympathy, here explainable

by the tendency of the alien author to identify himself with the "Pariah

People" of whom he writes.

The opening sketch, "A Child of the Levee," establishes the mood and

theme of the book. A drunken Negro is fished out of the river by policemen.

When he identifies himself in the station house, he is prevailed upon to

entertain his rescuers by going through the repertory of imitations of

individual steamboat whistles for which he is locally famous. The situation

epitomizes the life of Hearn's Levee Negro: his degradation, his impulse

to seek escape--in this case by way of bad whisky and the river--and at

the same time his crude but unquenchable drive toward expression, here

inspired, as Hearn suggests, by the great river steamboat as an image of

transcendence and escape.

The character of the prisoner artist is sharply individualized in a few

telling strokes, and, from the sketches that follow, other equally distinctive

characters emerge: Dolly, the voluptuous and proud lover of beauty who

scorned to keep window flowers in her sordid surroundings; Old Man

Pickett, the ex-slave tavern keeper, an embittered philanthropist who in

his care for Levee derelicts put to shame the organized charity of white

Cincinnati; Jot the Voodoo; and Auntie Porter, the ancient foster mother

to generations of unwanted Levee children.

Hearn also recounts the activities and pastimes of the Negro roustabouts

and the tradesmen, and women, who cater to their limited needs. Con-

spicuous among these are drinking, gambling, making love, and engaging

in dramatic and musical entertainment (a lengthy though expurgated account

of the roustabouts' river ballads appears in "Levee Life"). Most satisfying

of all, it seems, is dancing. In the "drunkenness of music" and the "intoxi-

cation of the dance," Hearn remarks that the Negro roustabout finds his

heaven, one that is "certainly not to be despised."

The sketches are also valuable as a record of an unassimilated and unac-

cepted primitive element in a nineteenth-century urban environment. To my

knowledge the only other direct information concerning these people,

apart from river ballads that have been collected, exists in occasional brief

and sometimes condescending comments upon life in "Bucktown" by the

"local" editors of Cincinnati newspapers. The world, or underworld, in-

habited by Hearn's obscure characters is in many respects the same world

that such twentieth-century Negro artists as Louis Armstrong, Ethel Waters,

and Richard Wright have documented in writing of their origins. However,

the nineteenth-century society is in its balladry, juba-patting, and group

dancing somewhat closer to its savage and plantation-system past.

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432     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Hearn's account underlines the human cost of the exploitation of minority

groups during the expansionist period. This aspect is emphasized by the

many images of corruption and decay in the depiction of the appalling slum

of a prosperous young western American city. As a sympathetic observer,

Hearn sees these conditions as a social evil. As an artist, he uses the images

of corruption and decay to provide a foil or backdrop which heightens by

contrast the beauty and vitality of the Negro riverfront life.

Children of the Levee is attractively designed and illustrated by William

K. Hubbell of the University of Kentucky. In both format and content

the book reflects the standards of the University of Kentucky Press.

Syracuse University                               WALTER E. SUTTON

 

The Negro in the United States: A Brief History. By Rayford W. Logan.

(Princeton, N. J.: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1957. 191p.; documents,

selected bibliography, and index. Paper, $1.25.)

This is an Anvil Original publication based on recent studies, a selected

bibliography, and the author's unpublished diary. It is contended by some

of the author's immediate colleagues and also acknowledged by him that

this book was based on masters' theses under his guidance and written by

students of the department of history at Howard University. Be that as it

may, this unpretentious little volume lacking illustrative materials is still

an unusual edition and was apparently written to help serve specific needs.

Judging from this and Professor Logan's previous publications, there is the

indication that he perhaps temporarily has forsaken the field of European

imperialism. Besides greener pastures, he saw the need of a compact volume

which would serve more adequately interested students in the social sciences

and related fields. Possibly he also felt that it would serve not only the

interested person but that group of foreign civil servants and other people

overseas who feel the need to digest only the salient points in their hurried

tasks which on some occasions have direct, important relationships to the

problem of Negroes. This is not only a pocket-size depository of selected

documents but also an essay containing sufficient historical treatment with

brevity of style to provide much of interest and entertainment for the casual

reader.

The book is divided into two parts, the first of which is the historical

presentation of the Negro in the United States in seven chapters. The second

part is composed of approximately thirty documents supporting the narrative.

The materialistic interpretation generally prevails throughout the book,

beginning with the concept that "economic necessity rather than racial

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BOOK REVIEWS          433

 

prejudice dictated the beginning of Negro slavery in North America" (p. 9),

to the "effective trade union leaders who are reaching down to the masses"

(p. 104). In fairness to the sociological treatment on the gains of the

Negro made through the courts, Professor Logan as an historian shows a

keen insight and gives scholarly, concise, and succinct explanations.

By no means does his treatment leave one with a rosy picture. "There is

need for Congress to pass a federal law forbidding discrimination in industry

for the goal really to be within reach" (p. 95). "Negroes do not yet have

complete equality in the Armed Services" (p. 94). In the dear old Southland

"politicians were most successful in organizing resistance" to the recent

supreme court decisions affecting segregation. Among his five main con-

clusions, the author indicates that the progress made during the past fifty

years has come largely through the impact of war and the combined efforts

of Negro intellectuals and liberal whites. He does see, however, the possi-

bility of first class citizenship for Negroes in the not too distant future.

There are some pertinent and provocative queries. Will there ever be a

real breakthrough on the housing front? Does continuance of the Cold War

envisage additional gains? Since the "increased tempo" of Negro gains was

from World War I to World War II, will first class citizenship come in

the wake of World War III? Will the anniversary emancipation date 1963

witness the continuance of the domination in congress of a Southern Bourbon

hardcore in coalition with other illiberals of both parties in the North?

This reviewer feels that this book is one that might create a desire on the

part of pupils to learn more about their national history in relation to this

minority. It is not a textual presentation weighted with formal documen-

tation. It might conceivably result in more people concluding that history

is not a dull subject.

Central State College                          PAUL MCSTALLWORTH

 

British Emigration to North America: Projects and Opinions in the Early

Victorian Period. By W. S. Shepperson. (Minneapolis: University of

Minnesota Press, 1957. xiv??302p.; frontispiece, notes, appendices,

bibliography, and index. $5.00.)

The story of the great migration of various European peoples to the

New World has received much attention in recent decades from competent

scholars. Many able research students dealing with merely one aspect of the

subject, the movement and settlement of Scandinavians, have made notable

contributions to our knowledge of immigrant history. Among these have

been Theodore C. Blegen, Marcus Hansen, Carlton Qualey, and George

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M. Stephenson, to mention only a few. Carl Wittke, moreover, has not

only given us a distinguished summary of the life and influence of non-

British, non-Negro elements in United States history in his We Who Built

America, but has analyzed the story of The Irish in America and has given

us significant volumes on German-American contributions. He has been the

author of practically definitive biographies of Karl Heinzen and Wilhelm

Weitling and has told carefully the story of German-Americans in the World

War and very recently of the German-Language Press in America.

Of late our knowledge of migration from England and Scotland has been

much furthered by the publications of various scholars. These include

articles like those of M. Hamlin Cannon, "Migration of English Mormons

to America," American Historical Review, LII (1947), 436-455, and "The

English Mormons in America," ibid., LVII (1952), 893-908, and the one

by Professor Mildred Campbell of Vassar College, "English Emigration on

the Eve of the American Revolution," ibid., LXI (1955), 1-20. Representa-

tive volumes include Rowland J. Berthoff, British Immigrants in Industrial

America, 1790-1950 (Cambridge, 1953), and Charles C. Graham, Colonists

From Scotland: Emigration to North America, 1707-1783 (Ithaca, 1956).

The present work, the second major contribution by Professor Shepperson

of the University of Nevada, follows his earlier The Promotion of British

Emigration by Agents for American Lands, 1840-1860 (Reno, 1954). His

careful research was conducted in the British Museum and other repositories

in Great Britain and the United States and was based on governmental

records, unpublished diaries, contemporary periodicals and newspapers, as

well as pertinent books, pamphlets, and unpublished dissertations.

The book is organized in two sections. The first gives an account of the

movement to the New World as faced by farmers, agricultural workers, and

the landed aristocracy; labor unions, Chartists, and unorganized industrial

workers; and philanthropic agencies, self-help societies, and religious bodies.

The second section analyzes the very controversial subject of the exodus of

laborers and skilled workers from the standpoint of commercial men,

financiers, industrialists, and other business interests.

The study is confined to the early Victorian years and demonstrates the

very "unscientifically planned" nature of the migration. Laissez-faire theories

and the realization that immigrants to British North America would

eventually locate in the United States were deterrents to governmental

initiative. The general features of this story are well known, but in this

volume the details have been spelled out with meticulous care.

Ohio State University                     FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER

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BOOK REVIEWS         435

 

Background to Glory: The Life of George Rogers Clark. By John Bakeless.

(Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1957. 386p.;

frontispiece, map, notes, and index. $6.00.)

John Bakeless brings an historian's methods, a writer's experience, and

a soldier's training together in this latest biography of George Rogers Clark.

The historian's methods took the author to the sources, and the book is based

in large part on manuscripts and other contemporary material. His experi-

ence as a writer is evident in two ways. First, his style is easy--almost

jaunty. This book was written for a broad popular audience and is not

stuffy in any way. Yet Mr. Bakeless is careful to avoid what he describes

as "hideous . . . novelized biography." When his characters speak, he

does not invent conversations for them. The remarks within the quotation

marks are carefully documented and their origins often reported in the

body of the text.

The second manifestation of the author's experience as a writer is the

wealth of "color" he includes. Experience gained in writing four other

books on discovery and the American frontier, including one which chron-

icled the adventures of explorer William Clark, youngest brother of George

Rogers Clark, undoubtedly helped Mr. Bakeless make this volume not

only a biography but also an interesting account of the times in which the

subject lived.

It is the author's experience as a soldier in two wars which makes this

story of George Rogers Clark unique and particularly valuable. Clark was

an excellent military leader. Bakeless, trained to recognize leadership

qualities in others, identifies Clark's traits as a leader and explains how each

characteristic contributed to military success on the frontier. Clark, without

formal training but endowed with high intelligence and a lot of common

sense, practiced what are recognized today as some of the best techniques

of small unit tactics, psychological warfare, and military intelligence. All

of these techniques are carefully described, and the book therefore has

value not only for those interested in the period of Clark's life but also

for those interested in modern military science.

The narrative concentrates on Clark's exploits in the American Revolu-

tion. The details of the expeditions against Kaskaskia and Vincennes fill

over half the pages. Yet no important event in Clark's life is omitted, and

his fall from influence is treated sympathetically and adequately.

There is some inaccuracy in the descriptions of Ohio geography.

Chillicothe on the Scioto River is placed "on the Little Miami" (p. 262).

Moving Piqua "some miles from the modern Piqua, Ohio" (p. 254) does

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436     THE OHIO     HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

not seem enough to justify the implication that it was "some ten or twelve

miles away" from Chillicothe (p. 262). The present straight line distance

between the two cities is about eighty-five miles. These and other small

flaws do not seriously mar the book, however. The next person who com-

plains to this reviewer that good history is dull or dry is going to have

this volume thrust at him as proof to the contrary.

Ohio University                            GEORGE H. LOBDELL, JR.

 

An Educational History of the American People. By Adolphe E. Meyer.

(New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1957. xx??444p.; biblio-

graphic note and index. $6.00.)

The publisher of this college textbook states that it treats adult and

workers' education, intercultural and international education, and progressive

education; and he claims that it has "a fuller treatment of the educational

history of the twentieth century than has heretofore been put into a general

history of American education." This last claim cannot be accepted. Edgar

Knight's Education in the United States is an exception, and there are others.

Professor Meyer's book is somewhat shorter than many books in its field,

and at the same time he has evidently tried to provide a simple treatment of

his material. Also, enough social history is included to provide an interpre-

tative background for the educational history. For each of these laudable

efforts he has had to pay a price.

We shall take the second point first. The social history is for the most

part woven into the general narrative and not set apart in separate chapters

or sections. This seems wise, for it reduces the danger that a student-and

possibly the author--may not see the connections that are supposed to exist

between the schools and the chosen social matrix. It might be an even better

plan to reduce the social history to a minimum and to have students secure

it from the works of Beard, Schlesinger, and other historians. Indeed

Professor Meyer suggests this. Either plan has advantages and defects.

Among the omissions of this book, the private schools stand out. Private

schools promote a good deal of the education of the American people; but

this book gives little or no attention to Groton, or Culver, or the country

day schools which grew up in suburbia after World War I. Phillips Andover

is mentioned but not Phillips Exeter and her famous textbook writer, G.

A. Wentworth. The extensive Catholic system of education gets only the

briefest mention.

We shall now refer again to the simplification question. Since the book

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BOOK REVIEWS          437

 

is concerned with public education, one should expect adequate treatment

of national and state laws on education and the related court decisions.

This is not what one finds, and some of what is found is incorrect. We are

told (p. 31) that the Massachusetts law of 1647 "did not actually establish

a school." Perhaps one should not expect a law to establish a school; but

the law in question, in plain terms, required all towns of one hundred

families to establish schools.

Consider some more recent examples. The early state school laws are

merely listed (pp. 105 ff.) or treated summarily. The Ohio laws of 1837

and 1838 are not mentioned. Ohio University is called (pp. 113 f.) "the

University of Ohio," and 1809 is given as the date of its charter. The correct

date is 1804. Samuel Lewis is merely named in a list of educational re-

formers (p. 166) along with the Michigan leaders, Isaac Crary and

J. D. Pierce. In text and index the latter is given as "John Price." But we

must not allow ourselves to be diverted to the listing of the numerous minor

and major errors. We return to the educational legislation, the Smith-Hughes

act for example. The law is mentioned in three places, but nowhere are

its provisions given. And this seems to be a fair example of the handling

of the somewhat dry but highly important subject of school laws.

Except for one example, we shall not exhibit the peculiar language of

the first half of this book. The example: teachers are not called teachers

but are called "birchmen," practicing birchmen (p. 67), private (p. 86),

junior (p.¹²⁶), and Boston (p. 163) birchmen. Professor Meyer is able to

write standard English. He has often done so in other books and in the

latter portion of this one.

There is a general bibliography and a great wealth of documentary

footnotes. The book is profusely and elaborately illustrated by means of

twenty-four plates with no less than seventy separate pictures.

Ohio State University                                   H. G. GOOD

 

Professional Amateur: The Biography of Charles Franklin Kettering. By T.

A. Boyd. (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1957. xii??242p.;

illustrations and index. $4.50.)

Charles F. Kettering is one of a handful of Americans who have helped

to change the face of twentieth-century America if not the world. This is

especially true in the vast realm of transportation. In this connection alone

he is identified with a variety of major developments, any one of which

would have given him enduring fame. To name only three, he was largely

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438     THE OHIO     HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

responsible for the self-starter which helped to make the automobile the

vehicle of the masses instead of for the muscle-bound few, for the pro-

duction of anti-knock gasoline, and for the refinement of the diesel engine

to serve a variety of purposes on land and sea.

The life story of Charles F. Kettering, whom the author, with some

justification, calls "a twentieth century Benjamin Franklin," is in the

best of the familiar American tradition. He was an Ohio farm boy who

made the most of his limited opportunities and turned them into a

challenge. Before he went to college he was a country school teacher. And

before he completed his formal schooling in engineering on the Ohio State

University campus he was a telephone lineman.

After graduation his first really productive work was with the National

Cash Register Company in Dayton. There, among other things, he

harnessed the electric motor to cash registers and emancipated them from

the tiresome hand-crank stage. There also he began a long and important

connection with Colonel E. A. Deeds and with the Wright brothers.

Although for years he has maintained residences in Detroit, New York,

Miami, and near Loudonville, Dayton has been home to Mr. Kettering for

more than half a century. It was there that he was one of the founders of

the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, more commonly known as

Delco, which was absorbed later as part of the research division of the

General Motors Corporation. He was one of the prime movers also in the

Dayton Metal Products Company and the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company.

But Mr. Kettering is best known for his connection with General

Motors, which he served ably and fruitfully for twenty-seven years, especially

as general manager of its central research laboratories. Since his "retirement"

a decade ago, Mr. Kettering, if anything, has been busier than ever.

What T. A. Boyd has done in this book is to bring the career of his long-

time General Motors associate down to date and to reappraise it. In a

foreword, Alfred P. Sloan, another longtime Kettering associate, observes

that the significance of the Kettering saga is "first, the lesson to be learned;

second, the story itself." The narrative is broken conveniently into three

parts: the early years, 1876-1904, the middle years, 1905-1919, and the

years since 1920.

Americans have long known Charles F. Kettering as a most unorthodox

and most unusual man, to whom teamwork meant the loss of neither his

independence nor his individuality; on the contrary, it has only seemed

to strengthen and intensify these qualities in him. In preparing the work

the author drew upon the knowledge and experience of more than a score

of persons long associated with Mr. Kettering.

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BOOK REVIEWS          439

 

It is in character that the biography itself is "different." While it is re-

plete with appropriate photographs, it has no chapter headings and has

no formal documentation of much of the material. There are times when

the writing leaves something to be desired, and it is sometimes frustrating

to read Kettering quotations without knowing when or where they were

uttered. At the same time, it is a warmly human story about a remarkable

man who has used his rare gifts unselfishly for the benefit of mankind.

Here is one of the most unusual men that America has so far produced,

and the book is a welcome addition to the growing store of Ohioana.

Ohio State University                               JAMES E. POLLARD

 

 

Opponents of War, 1917-1918. By H. C. Peterson and Gilbert C. Fite.

(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957. xiii??399p.; illustrations,

bibliography, and index. $6.00.)

The publisher's blurb on the dust jacket states that this book covers

"with unusual thoroughness a field hitherto insufficiently explored."

Although disclaiming definitiveness and indicating the book is not a full

study of American public opinion during World War I, the authors maintain

in their foreword that it does represent an "extensive picture of intolerance

and the demand for conformity and [shows] how these demands manifested

themselves." Happily, the result sustains the claims of both the publisher

and the authors (in 1952 Professor Peterson died and Professor Fite con-

tinued and completed the study).

The authors begin their examination of opposition to the war with the

diplomatic break between Germany and the United States in February

1917, and, contrary to the title, carry it through the Red Scare madness of

1919-20. Following a strict chronological pattern, they first describe the

pre-war pacifist crusade, the widespread anti-preparedness sentiment, the

anti-war position of such stalwarts as La Follette and Norris, and the

vigorous anti-war opposition of the Socialists. The scene then shifts to a

consideration of the counterattack made on such anti-war activity. Early

suppression took on a variety of forms--moral chastisement, social ostracism,

community harassment, and press vituperation. Of course, such activity

helped feed the flames of fear--a fear which ultimately spread through the

entire body politic and made any act of nonconformity appear dangerous.

Subsequent federal action in the form of slacker raids, adverse court

decisions, and the passage of the espionage and sedition acts was merely

symptomatic of what was occurring in an even more virulent manner on the

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440     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

local level. Here a host of superpatriotic societies and self-styled spy-chasing

outfits vied with one another to "save" the country. Under such circum-

stances any intelligent opposition to the war, or the draft, or the method

of organizing the war effort was rapidly eliminated.

As the war progressed, so did the public and governmental attack on

nonconformity. By 1918 the "war" on the anti-war opposition, particularly

on socialists, anarchists, and other anti-war radicals, gained full momentum.

The authors show that there was more to this attack than a simple excess

of patriotism. Economic conservatives, anti-labor elements, and reactionaries

of all sorts saw their chance and took it. Radicals first, then liberals of all

kinds became fair game. Socialist publications were barred from the mails,

anarchists such as Goldman and Berkman were thrown in jail, IWW's were

subjected to violent mob action. The Bisbee deportations and the murder

of Frank Little were indications of the brutality practiced against radicals.

By the end of the war the circle of repression had widened until it en-

compassed almost every phase of public activity. The nation was gripped in

a terror of its own making because of the indiscriminate purging of movies,

screening of school curricula, disciplining of clergymen, superpatriotic super-

vision of teachers, mob harassment of conscientious objectors, loose applica-

tion of the espionage and sedition acts, and the absolute elimination of all

overt and verbal opposition. Then, with the transferal of public and

governmental animosity from the Hun to the Bolshevik at the close of the

war, the atmosphere became even more charged with intolerance. The sub-

sequent Red Scare was largely the legacy of the bigotry of the war period.

The authors tell this harrowing tale of intolerance and suppression without

much editorial indignation which, while a bit too clinical for some readers,

is effective because of the impression of understatement. On the whole, it is

a story which seems almost unbelievable. If one did not know better, he

might be tempted to say, "It could not have happened here."

The book is written in a pleasing manner; the style is straightforward

and clear, rarely brilliant, but rarely pedantic or dull. The organization of

the material makes sense, although transitions are frequently rough. Also,

the authors, wishing to emphasize a point, sometimes pile up so much

evidence that the primary purpose is defeated. This is especially true

in their detailed consideration of numerous court cases, the value of which,

beyond several examples, is highly dubious.

Except for some of the above detail, it might be argued candidly that

the authors really tell us little that was not generally known before. Yet it

seems to this reviewer that they have rendered us a service by bringing

together this material between the covers of one book. We need to be re-

• 19
 

BOOK REVIEWS          441

 

minded now and again of the degree to which we fall short of our best

principles in order to condition us against making similar mistakes in the

future. Those who do not agree with this "lesson" view of history will find,

in particular, that the last chapter, "The Value of Freedom," will rub them

the wrong way. Such persons will claim that the book would be a stronger

historical piece of work without this chapter--that it makes the book too

much "a tract for the times."

This reviewer stands with the authors in believing that the past has

something important to say to the present. Perhaps those who do not believe

so are the very persons who ought most to read Opponents of War,

1917-1918.

Pennsylvania State University                     ROBERT K. MURRAY

 

 

Readings in Indiana History. Compiled by Gayle Thornbrough and Dorothy

Riker. Indiana Historical Collections, XXXVI. (Indianapolis: Indiana

Historical Bureau, 1956. xii??625p.; index. Paper, $2.00; doth, $4.50.)

With increasing frequency historical societies are asked for readily avail-

able materials that illustrate, explain, and narrate local, state, and regional,

as well as national history. This reflects a growing interest in and a desire

to learn more of our past heritage. This presents an opportunity which is

rightfully the responsibility of such as the Indiana Historical Bureau.

Readings in Indiana History is, in a certain sense, a selective history of

that state from prehistoric times to the near present. It is not history

written as such, that is, as a continuous narrative or discussion. Rather, it is

a series of topics or events presented as eyewitness accounts of participants

or observers; formal documents such as treaties, letters, ordinances, and

laws; descriptions of pioneer practices by persons who used them; statistics;

and well-chosen secondary accounts by competent historians and writers.

Thus one can run the gamut from pioneer soapmaking to Eugene V. Debs's

account of how he became a socialist; from the Quebec act to an auto-

biographical statement by Elwood Haynes about his invention of the

horseless carriage; from an account of capture and torture and escape from

the Indians to a reporter's story of the delivery of 72,000 Hoosier-land

hatching eggs to post-war Korea.

The volume opens with Glenn Black's brief description of the prehistoric

Indian cultures of Indiana; it closes with a selection from Wendell Willkie's

One World. In between are thirty-two chapters or groups of selections that

concern certain segments of history such as the French period or Indian

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442     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

affairs from 1795 to 1813, special topics like the Indiana constitutional

convention of 1850 or the public land question, and cultural areas of interest

as the development of education or the beginnings of churches in the state.

The make-up of this volume is such that the average reader can sample

its contents at almost any selection and find it interesting and informative.

The readings stand alone as well as related to the group in which each

is placed. Although the focus of the book is, in a sense, Indiana, it would

be unfortunate for this notion to become too prevalent. To assert that

any state's history can be confined to artificial political boundaries is crass

ignorance and gross error. Many of the selections in this collection are

apropos and pertinent to regional, national, and international, as well as

Indiana history. Its appeal, therefore, is much broader than to just the

state of Indiana.

Instead of Readings for such a collection, perhaps a more accurate title is

Selected Readings. Almost anyone compiling a similar list would include

or delete this or that selection from the present compilation. Universal

agreement is impossible. The editors have selected what, in their judgment

and considerable knowledge of the subject, seem to be the most representative

samples of readings available. They have made a judicious choice. Merely as

a comment, this reviewer feels that some imbalance occurs by allotting only

thirty-one pages out of six hundred to the prehistoric, French, and English

periods. This is due, in part, to the paucity of available materials.

Respectable and carefully selected collections of this sort are welcomed

as much needed tools for classroom use and as instructive as well as inter-

esting material for laymen's leisure reading. This particular volume sets a

high standard for others to follow.

Miami University                                    DWIGHT L. SMITH

 

 

The New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America,

1564-1860. By George C. Groce and David H. Wallace. (New Haven:

Yale University Press, 1957. xxvii??759p.; key to sources. $15.00.)

American art and social history fields have long needed a complete,

accurate source book of information on early American artists. Well-known

painters and sculptors appear in every American art history book, periodical

index, and general biographical encyclopedia, but prior to this volume at

least a dozen standard references had to be consulted to locate even the

barest facts on the less famous early artists of this country, if, indeed, any

information was available at all.

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BOOK REVIEWS          443

 

The Dictionary of Artists in America is a repository of material on more

than ten thousand American artists. To quote the authors, it is "a documented

biographical dictionary of painters, draftsmen, sculptors, engravers, litho-

graphers, and allied artists, either amateur or professional, native or foreign-

born, who worked within the continental limits of the United States between

the years 1564 and 1860, inclusive."

In so far as possible the following information is given for each artist

listed: full name, date and place of birth and death, media and subject

matter of work, chronology of residence and exhibitions, pupils, and in

some cases, location and reproduction of representative works. An effort has

been made to record more detailed information on minor artists heretofore

unlisted and generally unknown, while entries on famous men, about which

much has been written, are limited to essential facts. For example, material

on John Singleton Copley occupies about two column inches, whereas, about

six column inches are devoted to the biographical sketch of Godfrey N.

Frankenstein, a painter little known outside the state of Ohio.

Documentation of the information presented is given in an abbreviated

key form at the end of each biography. This provides the reader with a

starting point for more detailed research on his subject. There is an

alphabetized bibliography of all sources employed at the end of the book.

Extensive research in primary source material is apparent throughout the

work. Nonetheless, many entries depend on secondary sources and, oc-

casionally, on personally volunteered information.

In collecting the data necessary to the successful publication of this

volume, the authors are to be complimented on overcoming a formidable

problem of organization and cooperation. Through their efforts the

assistance of the Frick Art Reference Library, Library of Congress, New

York Public Library, and hundreds of other institutions and individuals

has been organized to contribute to the completeness of the Dictionary. It

is inevitable in a project of such broad scope that many names and much

additional material will come to light as a result of this publication.

The present volume has been evolving since the Works Progress Admin-

istration project of the New Jersey Historical Records Survey which, under

the direction of George Groce, compiled information leading to the publica-

tion of 1440 Early American Portrait Artists in 1940. A revision and expan-

sion of this original list was started almost immediately by Dr. Groce,

aided by the New York City Art Project and historical records surveys

in several states. Unfortunately the enlarged work, listing about three

thousand portrait artists, did not get published before the W.P.A. program

ended in 1942. However, the amassed data was turned over to the New-

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444     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

York Historical Society, and in 1945, following the war, the work was

resumed under the joint direction of Dr. Groce and Charles E. Baker,

editor of the society. As a result of a suggestion by editor Baker, the plan

was enlarged at this time to include not only portraitists, but all artists

active in America before 1860. The new scope of the project required a

vast amount of additional research, which was carried out between 1945

and 1952 under the direction of Dr. Groce. Since 1952, David H. Wallace,

assistant editor of the New-York Historical Society, has been responsible

for consolidating the information and shaping the final draft, which was

completed in June 1956.

At present the Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860 is the most

extensive and complete source for basic information on American artists

of the period. In this reviewer's opinion it is the most important single

contribution made to the field of American art history in the past twenty

years. It is certain to be a great stimulus and an aid to the study of this aspect

of our cultural heritage. No library, collector, or museum can afford to be

without a copy.

College of Wooster                           DONALD R. MAcKENZIE

 

A Baker's Dozen: Thirteen Unusual Americans. By Russel B. Nye. (East

Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1956. xi??300p.; note on

sources. $5.00.)

This reviewer will begin by differing with the jacket and the preface over

the depths of the oblivion to which history has consigned some of these

thirteen unusual Americans. A check of the indexes of five recent college

textbooks of American history near at hand revealed that Vallandigham and

Jacob S. Coxey were listed in all five, Blennerhassett and Nat Turner in four,

and Elijah Lovejoy in three. Writers of Ohio history have devoted

much space to the first three and to another of the thirteen, Simon Girty,

renegade of the Revolution, who, surprisingly, was not found in any of the

indexes consulted.

Somewhat more obscure but deserving of rescue from oblivion are John

Ledyard, a transcontinental vagabond who set out for Oregon from London

by way of Siberia in 1786 and would have made it if Empress Catherine

had not stopped him when he was well on the way to his goal; John

Humphrey Noyes, founder of once famed Oneida experiment in communal

living (one textbook mentioned him); and Phineas Quimby, whose earnest

gropings in fields that psychology and psychiatry later pre-empted at least

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BOOK REVIEWS          445

 

rose above the levels of fakery and influenced the ideas of Mrs. Mary

Baker G. Eddy.

There is less to be said for preserving the memory of that Pennsylvania

windbag John Fries, who became almost by accident a rebel and a convicted

and pardoned traitor (who rated one index citation); or of shrewd, op-

portunistic James Strang, who created and ruled an offshoot Mormon com-

munity on some Lake Michigan islands for half a dozen years; or of that

genteel gangster and cold-blooded killer John Murrell, whose fantastic

conspiracy to set up an empire of criminals and slaves terrorized the lower

Mississippi Valley in the 1830's though his role may have been overexposed

in the lurid account of his chief accuser, young Virgil Stewart.

The one essay that this reviewer found dull was Edward Bonney's

search for and capture of a gang of Iowa and Illinois robbers and murderers

who operated on the frontier in the 1840's. A lawyer turned detective,

Bonney trailed his quarries relentlessly, but the details and characters soon

become confusing and are never very exciting. Otherwise, the author has

written entertainingly about both the familiar and the obscure. His sketches

of Coxey and Lovejoy appealed especially to this reader. A brief biblio-

graphical note suggests the chief sources. A few slight errors of detail may

easily be forgiven in a book dealing with such diverse figures.

Ohio State University                         EUGENE H. ROSEBOOM

 

Mammals of the Great Lakes Region. By William H. Burt. (Ann Arbor:

University of Michigan Press, 1957. xv??246p.; illustrations, habitat

maps, references, and index. $4.75.)

This compact volume is, in its author's word, "a revision of The Mammals

of Michigan, with species added to include the area surrounding the Great

Lakes." It is, in fact, much more than a revision, as new material has been

added and a completely new set of distribution maps prepared. Life histories

and descriptions of seventy-four species of wild mammals considered endemic

to the Great Lakes region are treated in the major section of the book. This

section is illustrated with maps showing the distribution of each species

in the Great Lakes area and range in North America. A gross outline

drawing of each species is also used to aid the amateur in identification.

Three species, the wolverine (Gulo luscus Linnaeus), the mountain lion

(Felis concolor Linnaeus), and the bison (Bison bison Linnaeus), are listed

as species now vanished from the area. A key to the mammals of the region

is included for use with prepared skins or animals in the flesh. A separate

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446     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

key based on skull characteristics is also presented. A list of the dental

formulae of mammals of the region and a table in which descriptive measure-

ments and life history data are summarized are especially helpful to both

the amateur and trained mammalogist.

The author has included much information useful to the biology teacher

or student interested in becoming familiar with the mammals of this region.

A chapter on collecting and preparation of specimens and a long introduction

are especially helpful. Faunal changes, adaptive radiation, population

dynamics, home ranges, and economic status of mammals in the area are

treated in the introduction. This reviewer doubts that modern animal

control specialists would agree with all of the author's recommendations on

control. On page 7, for example, the author advises that "the wise farmer

will keep these pests (house mice and meadow voles) at a minimum by the

constant use of snap traps." Although snap traps are excellent for obtaining

study material, they have long been outmoded as a rodent control measure

on the modern farm. Although this recommendation is clearly out of date,

the book as a whole is modern both in format and content. Its convenient

size, 5 1/2 inches by 8 3/4 inches, makes it a handy volume for field use.

Ohio State University                       CHARLES A. DAMBACH

• 25