Ohio History Journal

Book Reviews

 

 

 

PR Politics in Cincinnati: Thirty-Two Years of City Government Through

Proportional Representation. By Ralph A. Straetz. (New York: New York

University Press, 1958. xvii+312p.; bibliography and appendix. $5.00.)

From an early day the political history of Cincinnati has been a study in

contrasts. The home of such notable national figures as Edward McLean,

Joseph B. Foraker, William  Howard Taft, Nicholas Longworth, Judson

Harmon, and Robert A. Taft, it also numbers among its sons such divergent

local political figures as Henry Hunt, Herbert Bigelow, Murray Seasongood,

Charles Taft, and last but not least George Cox and Rud Hynicka. With

actors such as these in "starring roles," the political struggles that have

taken place in Cincinnati frequently have had an influence, for good or for

evil, that has extended far beyond the borders of the city. It is not surprising

then that Cincinnati politics, which is often unedifying but very seldom

dull, has long held a strong fascination for the student of the American

political process. During the first quarter of the century, when Cincinnati

was listed by Lord Bryce as one of the ten most poorly governed of the

larger American cities, an impressive number of political commentators, in-

cluding Lincoln Steffens, wrote at length on the low estate of the city. In

the second quarter of the century, particularly after major charter reforms

had been effected in 1924, an equally extensive body of writings appeared,

which has been largely devoted to the achievements of the "Cincinnati Ex-

periment" and to the operation of a new form of municipal government

based upon a small council, a city manager, and a system of proportional

representation (PR).

PR, it may be noted, is that system of voting (incorporated in both the

Model State Constitution and the Model City Charter of the National Muni-

cipal League) which most nearly provides for representation in a legislative

body on the basis of the actual voting strength of the various parties and

interest groups involved. The Cincinnati system of PR was used to select

the nine members of the city council (who in turn appointed the mayor and

city manager), and as the system operated, any minority group that could

muster ten percent of the city's vote usually found representation in the city

council. On September 30, 1957, after thirty-two years of existence, this

system, which has been called "a bulwark of the continuing reform move-

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BOOK REVIEWS           385

 

ment in Cincinnati," was defeated at the polls after an extremely bitter cam-

paign.

It is against this background that the author presents his study of Cin-

cinnati's experience with PR and the conditions surrounding its use. The

purpose of the study, in his words, "is to describe the political climate of

Cincinnati and to evaluate the contribution of Proportional Representation

in this climate." In sixteen interesting and closely packed chapters he dis-

cusses: the purposes and mechanics of PR; the reasons for its adoption in

Cincinnati (which prior to 1884 was dominated by the Democratic party

and for forty years thereafter was under the almost uninterrupted control of

the Republican organization); the actual performance of the PR system in

its thirty-two years of operation, with a catalog of the chief arguments

made for and against it by friend and foe; its impact on party organization

and responsibility, including its effects on the two-party system; its relation-

ship to party and group activity in the city council; its use by racial, relig-

ious, and economic groups to advance their own interests; and finally its

total effect on good government and the interests of all of the citizens. He

also presents a colorful account of some of the more important issues that

were contested in elections held during the period PR was in use and the

various campaign techniques employed by the several contending groups.

He gives particular attention to the hard-fought campaign which resulted

in the overthrow of PR and the complex social and political factors involved

in this contest.

Since Cincinnati has now joined two other major cities (Cleveland and

New York City) in discarding PR, some of the author's views on its opera-

tion in Cincinnati are of special interest. One of his views, which would

seem to run counter to the verdict of the Cincinnati electorate in overthrow-

ing it, is that PR does not increase the solidity of racial, religious, or econ-

omic group voting, or intensify the differences between such groups. He also

concludes that PR does not weaken the two-party system, although it does

provide "an opportunity for the local organizations of our national parties

that flounder in minority obscurity to re-establish a foot-hold" and gain a

"share in the power of governing." Another view that may come as a sur-

prise to some is that "PR elected councils have on the whole been conserva-

tive, balanced, experienced, with active majorities and minorities, but only

as dynamic as the citizens of Cincinnati have willed."

Although Mr. Straetz has undoubtedly emerged from his study as a

staunch friend of PR, he readily admits that "it provides no panacea" for

all of the ills that plague us as we attempt to provide an effective system of

government for our great massed centers of population. He is also quick to

point out that "no tinkering with the election machinery will replace the

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need for greater action and responsibility" by the entire citizenry and its

leadership and that "no particular election system is going to minimize

self-interest or short-sightedness." Nevertheless, he strongly believes that

since PR "has provided a workable and effective two-party system in one of

the largest cities in the country" for over three decades, it deserves a new

hearing. If and when such re-hearing takes place, Mr. Straetz's study, with

its informing background picture of Cincinnati politics, would seem to pro-

vide a good place to begin. Although a bibliography and appendix are in-

cluded, there is no index.

Ohio State University                           FRANCIS R. AUMANN

 

The Frontier in Perspective. Edited by Walker D. Wyman and Clifton B.

Kroeber. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957. xx+300p.;

bibliographies and index. $5.50.)

When the University of Wisconsin celebrated the hundredth anniversary

of Lyman C. Draper's appointment as corresponding secretary of the Wis-

consin State Historical Society in 1954, the history department arranged a

series of lectures under the title "Wisconsin Reconsiders the Frontier." Thir-

teen of them appear in this volume in two groups, "The World Frontier" and

"The American Frontier." The first group is the more pretentious and the

less valuable: four specialists in European and Far Eastern history who dis-

cuss parallels with the American frontier as Turner saw it write as if they

did not know what Turner had seen or said, and as if they had not had much

time to consider their fields in that perspective. A Latin-Americanist, Silvio

Zavala, has more misgivings; a historian of Canada, A. L. Burt, finds a

closer parallel than any of the others, as he has done already at greater

length with great insight. Walter P. Webb presents a summary of his last

book, The Great Frontier (1952), which revealed that he knew more about

the Great Plains than about economics or European history.

The second section includes another recapitulation, by Thomas P. Aber-

nethy, who summarizes effectively what he has disclosed at great length

about aristocratic elements in the Old Southwest in The Formative Period in

Alabama (1922) and later works. The contribution most nearly on the plane

that Turner himself worked on in his more substantial papers is Paul Gates's

paper on "Frontier Estate Builders and Farm Laborers," which carries for-

ward themes of his Frontier Landlords and Pioneer Tenants (1945) and

other works, with additional documentation. Henry Nash Smith has some-

thing newer to say in an unpretentious paper on "Mark Twain as an In-

terpreter of the Far West: The Structure of Roughing It," which, like parts

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BOOK REVIEWS         387

 

of his Virgin Land (1950), begins as a modest explication de texte and

rises to insights about the larger meanings of the West to the pioneer and

to the historian. Both Gates and Smith are anti-Turnerian in that they have

challenged some of Turner's major arguments; they are among the most

Turnerian of historians simply in the fact of cerebration.

The remaining papers are less significant, though they abound in interest-

ing detail. Frederic G. Cassidy discusses "Language on the American Fron-

tier," which takes him into lengthy extracts from writers as much removed

from the frontier as James Russell Lowell and William Gilmore Simms, as

well as into lists of words borrowed from German, Spanish, and French.

A. Irving Hallowell discusses "The Impact of the Indian on American Cul-

ture," ranging from the contributions of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine

Company to changing American attitudes toward the Indian, which Henry

Nash Smith and Roy H. Pearce (The Savages of America, 1953) have ex-

plored so perceptively. Walter Agard's "Classics on the Midwest Frontier"

abounds in picturesque examples in architecture, education, and journalism,

of the sort that R. C. Buley has collected, and extending well past the fron-

tier, even into the twentieth century.

The editors have tried with somewhat indifferent success to pull together

widely different approaches, reminding us further that members of summer

conferences are not likely to talk as if they listened to each other.

The mechanics of the volume seem inoffensive, aside from some eccentric

variations in forms of citations and the appearance of a former Ohioan,

Clarence Gohdes, as Clarence Golides (p. 231).

University of Oregon                                EARL POMEROY

 

The Presidency of John Adams: The Collapse of Federalism, 1795-1800. By

Stephen G. Kurtz. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1957.

⁴⁴8p.; illustrations, appendices, annotated bibliography, and index. $8.50.)

This book's subtitle reveals more of its contents than does the title, for

Adams does not emerge as a central figure until well beyond the halfway

point. What Dr. Kurtz provides is a most thorough analysis, virtually state

by state, of our earliest national political rivalries. Out of it all comes, first,

a picture of party struggles corrective of many commonly accepted views,

and second, a revised portrait of John Adams, traditionally described as

an irascible bungler but a martyr to peace.

The author's examination begins with the calculated Republican effort to

prevent the implementation of Jay's Treaty, which effort failed dismally be-

cause of the besmirching of Washington's character, and runs through the

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election of 1800. In between we are told of the deliberate delaying for poli-

tical reasons of Washington's farewell; of Jefferson's unwillingness to take

any leadership in the presidential campaign of 1796, indeed, of his prefer-

ence for Adams' election as his "senior"; of Virginia's desertion of Burr as

second choice for president in 1796; of Hamilton's willingness to send

Madison or Jefferson as emissary to France because he sensed the political

advantage that would accrue to the Federalists; of Adams' hatred of Hamil-

ton and of his dissensions with the Hamiltonians, particularly with respect

to defensive measures; and of Federalist political gains made as late as 1799

in response to Adams' determined peace overtures.

One of the great merits of this book is that it gets us away from glib gen-

eralizations about grand issues of principle--aristocratic control versus de-

mocracy, for example--and away too from exclusive concern with the chief

actors on the national scene. We get down to the infighting on the local

level. We hear from other newspapers besides the nationally recognized

partisan ones. We have unfolded for us the political strategy of the second-

and-third-string leaders. By making generous use of correspondence among

politicians at all levels, Dr. Kurtz throws light on problems of timing, the

seizure of the initiative by lesser bosses like John Beckley from James Madi-

son, the rapprochement between Elbridge Gerry and John Adams.

Adams is revealed as far more patient with the incompetence of McHenry

and the disloyalty of Pickering than is usually acknowledged. More import-

ant, Adams is shown to have more correctly gauged the trend of public

opinion in 1798-99 than the Hamiltonians. His bold stroke for peace with

France was motivated in part by his desire to win reelection in the expecta-

tion that peaceful moves might forge a third force that would return him

to the presidency. Adams tried to revert to the bipartisanship with which he

had begun his administration. Dr. Kurtz believes that the militarism and the

taxation program of the die-hard Federalists bulked larger among political

issues on the local level than is credited by historians who stress the alien

and sedition acts.

The collapse of the Federalist party, then, came from the short-sighted

effort of the Hamiltonians to create a standing army with Hamilton as effec-

tive head, the Hamiltonians ignoring the wishes of both the president, who

had favored a defensive navy from the beginning, and the president's large

personal following. The army, envisioned as a tool of the Federalist party

for use against Republicans in a possible war, was the bete noir of the Re-

publicans. For those willing to follow closely this careful dissection of po-

litical maneuvering, this will be a rewarding book.

Marietta College                                  ROBERT J. TAYLOR

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Ill-Starred General: Braddock of the Coldstream Guards. By Lee McCardell.

(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958. x+335p.; illustrations,

bibliography, and index. $6.00.)

Lee McCardell, a professional newspaperman, has written a life of Gen-

eral Edward Braddock which is obviously a labor of love and the product of

arduous research. The heart of his book, and the best part, is his account of

Braddock's famous expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1754. With great

care and skill the author pieces together the story of Braddock's taking com-

mand of the British forces destined for use against French America, the

transporting of these regulars from Ireland across the Atlantic, the build up

of men and supplies in Virginia for the push over the mountains, the long

hard march to the forks of the Ohio, the ambush and massacre of redcoats

and colonials by the French and Indians, and the headlong flight of the

survivors with their mortally wounded commander back over the primitive

road so recently and painfully hacked out of the wilderness. The story ends

with the death of General Braddock. And a corking good story it is, told

with an eye to detail and a sense of color reminiscent of Kenneth Roberts

at his best.

Mr. McCardell's account reveals the difficulties and frustrations met with

by the British general in his ill-fated attempt to wage war in this rude and

distant land. Braddock found the colonists reluctant to provide the troops

and supplies he required. The horses, wagons, and food which they under-

took to deliver were time and again either not forthcoming or seriously de-

layed, and when they did appear, the over-priced horses often proved to be

decrepit, the flour wormy, and the meat spoiled. Putting up with what was

to Braddock the general rascality and incompetence of the populace was not

the worst of it; he also had to cope with the perversity of American geo-

graphy, which laid upon him the harsh necessity of moving and supplying

an army through an untracked and unpeopled country of endless forest and

steep mountains only to meet at the end an enemy who refused to fight a

proper battle. The facts of the case suggest that many a far abler man than

Braddock would have had a hard time of it, but Mr. McCardell makes no

attempt to minimize the limitations of his portly and aging hero. Rather,

his treatment of the campaign tends to confirm the traditional appraisal of

Braddock as a conscientious military hack, reasonably competent in the Eu-

ropean battle situation but without the imagination or the flexibility to

adapt his tactics to the demands of a wild terrain or to Indian fighting.

If this were an account only of Braddock's campaign in America and

nothing more, and it is a pity that it is not, there would be little to complain

of. As a biography or as military history, the book has serious structural

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faults. For the first hundred or so pages the author moves through the com-

plexities of a century of British history, generously interlarding his account

of political, military, social, and even ecclesiastical developments with court

chitchat and anecdote. The whole thing lacks perspective, balance, and--what

is worse--point. Woven into the general summary is a history of the

Coldstream Guards, Braddock's regiment until 1753, and popping up along

the way whenever the record permits are three generations of Braddocks,

whose connections with great events, if any, were usually remote. In 1754

the biographer abruptly shifts his focus, abandons his broad canvas, and

settles down for the rest of the book to a detailed re-creation of the story

of the expedition. There is hardly even a suggestion of the relation of Brad-

dock's defeat to the great war it precipitated.

Mr. McCardell's Ill-Starred General indicates that his talents lie in the

direction of military narrative. At this, he can run circles around most so-

called professional historians.

College of William and Mary                           W. W. ABBOT

 

The American Business System: A Historical Perspective, 1900-1955. By

Thomas C. Cochran. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1957.

viii+227p.; tables, bibliographical notes, and index. $4.75.)

This is the latest volume in the Library of Congress Series in American

Civilization. It is intended for the general reader, although it contains the

fruit of some original research (principally on recent regional business de-

velopments) which will be of interest to the specialist in history and

economics.

The author attempts "to see the history of business forms and business

action in their essential relationships to technological and industrial change,

and to suggest some of the interactions of the whole complex with the rest

of American civilization" (p. 5). He views the book as a study in economic

development intended to establish a new  "pattern for analyzing United

States economic growth" (p. 5)--a pattern in which the businessman and

business organization are in the foreground. A prominent theme is the

changing role of the businessman in the economy and, more generally, in

the society, as that role is seen by the businessman and by the society.

The author's purposes are diverse and ambitious for so slender a volume.

This reviewer wishes that the book had been devoted entirely to the last-

named subject. The pages on the role of the businessman and the closely re-

lated subject of the changing forms of organization and administration skip

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BOOK REVIEWS          391

 

by. Would there were more of them. These pages might have been set in

the context of broad social and economic changes without detailed treatment

of the latter. But Professor Cochran has attempted to go beyond this. As

noted above, he has tried to create a new analytical pattern for the study

of economic development in toto. Unfortunately, the promised new pattern

does not emerge with real clarity. The narratives concerning technological

and social change often obscure the main lines, rather than sharpening them.

The material on savings and investment is formed into a separate, tradi-

tional pattern (marred by analytical errors), which is connected but tenu-

ously with the general pattern. But these shortcomings should not be over-

emphasized. The book is readable and rewarding.

The book is divided into two parts. The first deals with the period 1900-

1930. The author characterizes the business system, seeks its roots, analyzes

contemporary views of the business role, and attempts to identify the seeds

of change. The second part carries forward to 1955. The effects of de-

pression, "welfare state," war, and boom on the character of business or-

ganization and the social place of business are traced out. The volume ends

with an assessment of the present social responsibilities of business and the

capacities of the business system to bear them.

Ohio State University                          ROBERT E. GALLMAN

 

Revivalism  and Social Reform  in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America. By

Timothy L. Smith. (New York and Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1957.

253p.; bibliographical essay and index. $4.00.)

American cultural historians have, in recent years, made handsome amends

for an earlier neglect of religion as a significant social force in American

history. Now, to the rapidly expanding monographic literature in this area,

Timothy L. Smith has added a well-written study, based upon remarkably

painstaking and wide-ranging research and strengthened by an exceptionally

firm grasp of theology. His task has been the difficult one of weaving the

tangled threads of denominationalism into a coherent story. In this he has

succeeded admirably, doing full justice to the complexity of the story while

keeping his central theme before the reader.

Dr. Smith states his thesis at the outset:

 

The gist of it is simply that revival measures and perfectionist aspiration

flourished increasingly between 1840 and 1865 in all the major denomina-

tions--particularly in the cities. And they drew together a constellation of

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ideas and customs which ever since have lighted the diverging paths of

American Protestantism. Lay leadership, the drive toward interdenomina-

tional fellowship, the primacy of ethics over dogma, and the democratization

of Calvinism were more nearly fruits of fervor than of reflection. The

quest of personal holiness became in some ways a kind of plain man's

transcendentalism, which geared ancient creeds to the drive shaft of social

reform. Far from disdaining earthly affairs, the evangelists played a key

role in the widespread attack upon slavery, poverty, and greed.

After examining the revivalist impulse as it manifested itself in the various

denominations at mid-century, Dr. Smith proceeds to measure its impact

upon perfectionist ideals, social reform, and antislavery activity. He finds

that where "church historians have assumed that revivals and perfectionism

declined in public favor after about 1842," the truth is that these forces be-

came increasingly important after that period, to prepare the way for the

rise of the social gospel later in the century.

It would be too much to say that Dr. Smith has given conclusive proof

of his main thesis. While his account of the revivals of 1858 is probably the

best that has been written on the subject, the fact of this revivalist upsurge is

one which previous church historians have taken into account. One would

infer from Dr. Smith's general statements that this outpouring was the cli-

max of a steadily growing revivalism; yet his evidence for such a continuity

is not particularly strong, and he himself writes of "the intermittent and

local awakenings characteristic of the years after 1842." Nor is his evidence

conclusive so far as demonstrating the mid-nineteenth-century origins of the

attack on poverty and greed which typified the later social gospel movement.

He perceives the beginnings of Protestant institutional work in the slums

in the establishment of Phoebe Palmer's Five Points Mission at mid-century.

But church workers had struggled with slum conditions long before 1850,

while settlement-house programs remained few and rudimentary by the

time of the Civil War, as Dr. Smith concedes.

Dr. Smith has assumed on the part of the reader a flattering degree of

knowledge in theological matters, and most readers--including most his-

torians--will find much of it hard going, despite the excellence of its style.

They will nevertheless find much of value in it. The opening chapter, in

particular, presents a summary of "The Inner Structure of American Pro-

testantism," which will reward the attention of all who are interested in

understanding the American national character.

University of Missouri                        GILMAN M. OSTRANDER

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The War for Independence: A Military History. By Howard H. Peckham.

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958. ix+226p.; end-paper maps,

bibliography, and index. $3.50.)

The military history of the American Revolution has received much at-

tention in the past decade. At least six single-volume surveys of the war

have been published besides the longer works of Christopher Ward and

Douglas Southall Freeman. In addition, there have been numerous works on

individual battles and campaigns, and studies of some of the leaders of the

armed forces on both sides. One of the reasons for the renewed interest in

the military aspects of the war is that the William L. Clements Library at

the University of Michigan has in recent years become a storehouse of

manuscript sources on this subject. Professor Peckham, who is director of

the Clements Library, has made valuable use of these sources in his new

survey of the war. His book, one of the topical volumes in the Chicago His-

tory of American Civilization series, is a concise account of the military

events of the war; the other aspects of the Revolution are covered in an-

other volume in the series, Edmund Morgan's Birth of the Republic:

1763-89.

Mr. Peckham depicts a small war fought over a vast battlefield. He shows

how a poorly disciplined army of civilians won a victory over professional

troops. The strategy of the British army as well as that of the American

forces is clearly presented; the leaders on both sides are succinctly char-

acterized. Unlike the authors of several of the other studies of the War for

Independence, Mr. Peckham does not limit his work to the land campaigns;

he also devotes a chapter to naval operations. Those readers who are in-

terested in the fighting which occurred west of the Appalachians will find a

short description of that action. The value of a citizen army, the importance

of the rifle, the use of flexible tactics on land and sea, and other lessons of

the war which changed military thinking, particularly in Europe, are sum-

marized.

The author presents some new estimates on the size of the American army.

His figures greatly reduce the usual numbers given and indicate that only

about 100,000 men ever took up arms in the American cause, with never

more than 30,000 men in arms at any one time. His estimate raises the cost

of the war in lives, showing that the American fatalities (including those

dead from illnesses and wounds) amounted to from 10,000 to 12,000 men.

The War for Independence is written for the general reader rather than

the specialist in the field. Like the other volumes in the series, it is not foot-

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noted but has a selective bibliography for each chapter. Unfortunately there

are no maps in the body of the book, but the end papers do contain maps

of the northern and southern theaters of war. In this brief but selective vol-

ume the author has presented a well balanced and highly readable account

of the events which brought us our independence.

Ohio State University                     WILLIAM T. BULGER, JR.

 

The Living Museum: Experiences of an Art Historian and Museum Direc-

tor--Alexander Dorner. By Samuel Cauman. (New York: New York Uni-

versity Press, 1957. xi+216p.; illustrations, appendices, bibliography,

and index. $10.00.)

This is an arrogant book about an able and arrogant man. The title is

clumsy and forbidding; it is a shock to realize that the book was planned

to appear during the lifetime of the subject. It is fitting that the introduc-

tion is by Gropius, who states with characteristic humility that "Alexander

Dorner regards himself simply as an agent in the drive for the solution of

the major problems of our time; the integration of arts and humanities with

science and industrial life" (p. vi). Author, subject, and school make enor-

mous, almost exclusive claims, which are allowed by most of the world.

"Without the new kind of design developed at the Bauhaus as re-established

at Dessau, there would hardly exist any modern design at all" (author's Pre-

face, p. ix). The effects upon modern English prose style may not be so

happy.

There are as many pioneers of modern art as people who claim that they

played outstanding roles in the development of the atom bomb. Alexander

Dorner is such a case. He was there in the early days of the Bauhaus, whose

history is now being re-created. The Abstract Cabinet in the Landemuseum

is now to become famous, as history brings out the fact connected with the

currently fashionable. After Hitler came to power, Dorner came to rest at

the Providence Museum, where his friends claim that his installations made

history. In the accounts of his two museums there is much dropping of

names and much philosophy: "Walter Gropius, Mies Van der Rohe, and

James Johnson Sweeney were waiting in a New York hotel when the

Normandie arrived at its pier" (p. 122); "Therefore Goldschmidt and his

spirited followers were almost as much opposed to the Hegelian trend as to

the neo-Kantian" (p. 127).

His career had a descending curve, perhaps a sad one, for as Seneca says,

"It is when the gods hate a man with an uncommon abhorrence that they

drive him into the profession of a schoolmaster." It is difficult even for the

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BOOK REVIEWS         395

 

author to claim that a teacher in a remote female seminary such as Benning-

ton is in a position to change the pulse of things. The photograph on page

187 showing seminar members with the Tree of Life chart they created may

be touching, but it is hardly to be taken seriously as a contribution to art

history.

And yet the fortune of the Bauhaus movement, from museum installation

to popular skyscrapers, has been extraordinary indeed, and we accept as

modern, as the only contemporary style, what may be merely the fumbling

of a few simple and arrogant minds.

Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts              MAHONRI SHARP YOUNG

 

The Long Haul West: The Great Canal Era, 1817-1850. By Madeline Sad-

ler Waggoner. (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1958. 320p.; illustra-

tions, end-paper map, bibliography, and index. $5.75.)

This volume tells in lively and entertaining fashion the story of Ameri-

ca's canals and their contribution to the "Big Push" of westward migration

in the early nineteenth century. It makes no pretense of being a scholarly

study, but rather seeks to breathe life into this drama of our past with vivid

phrasings and extensive use of contemporary chronicles. The author's style

is often quaint and "folksy," abounding in such chapter titles as "A

Hankerin' for Westerin'" and in expressive spellings like "canawls" and

"canawling" (happily not used throughout). Frequent use is made of the

kind of homely detail which is familiar as the stock in trade of historical

novelists. After all, who but a footnote-bound pedant could cavil at the

portrayal of nineteenth-century authors sitting down with "blackberry-

juiced quill pens" in hand to scratch out their thoughts and observations on

canals and the American West?

Roughly half the volume is devoted to the Erie Canal, recounting not

only the long struggle to get the idea of such a canal accepted but also the

difficulties attending its construction, the ceremonies marking its completion,

the problems encountered in its operation, its effect on patterns of migra-

tion, and the pleasures and pains of travelers on its watery path. Since New

York's "Big Ditch" stood head and shoulders above all other man-made

waterways in success and in significance, this seemingly disproportionate

emphasis is perhaps justified. In addition, the canal systems of Pennsylvania,

Ohio, and Indiana each receive a chapter, while some of the other efforts in

the East and in the Mississippi Valley come in for briefer mention. To set

the canal era in historic perspective, the author sketches in as well the stor-

ies of the Cumberland Road, that inadequate and bone-shaking route to the

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West which briefly served the nation before the coming of canals, and of the

Iron Horse, whose competition spelled a premature end to the heyday of the

canal.

Despite the obvious virtues of this volume as a highly readable populariza-

tion, this reviewer must take exception to the enthusiastic publisher's blurb,

which tells us that this is "the first complete account of America's colorful

canal-building era." One never knows how seriously such dust-jacket prose

is intended, but this is certainly going too far. The present work is by no

means as comprehensive as its closest counterpart, Alvin F. Harlow's Old

Towpaths, another popular account published a generation ago in 1926. In-

deed, a comparision of the two books suggests that Mrs. Waggoner's main

achievement has been to popularize the discussion of canal history still

further, by the omission of much of the important detail which characterized

the older book, and the inclusion of extensive anecdotal material. Further-

more, some uncomfortably close parallels between the two books in content

and organization are noticeable (compare, for example, Waggoner, Chap. 1,

with Harlow, Chaps. 2 and and 3, and Waggoner, p. 268, with Harlow,

p. 106).

As might be expected in a popular study of this kind, there are no foot-

notes. Documentation consists of a nine-page bibliography, which might

be more acceptable were it not for its failure to mention many standard

works. For example, in her long list of works consulted, the author cites

but three of the seventeen items on canal history comprising the biblio-

graphy for the canal chapter in George R. Taylor's recent and authoritative

economic history of the period, The Transportation Revolution, 1815-1860,

a work which is itself not cited.

An adequate scholarly history of the canal era in America would be an

important contribution, but until one appears, it is this reviewer's feeling

that Harlow's old study will remain much more satisfactory for any serious

purpose than the present volume.

Baldwin-Wallace College                     MARTIN DEMING LEWIS

 

The Republican Era, 1869-1901: A Study in Administrative History. By

Leonard D. White. (New York: Macmillan Company, 1958. ix+406p.;

index. $6.00.)

In this last volume of his extensive study of administrative history, Pro-

fessor White has traced the evolution of the American system from 1869 to

1901. As in the preceding volumes, The Federalists, The Jeffersonians, and

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BOOK REVIEWS          397

 

The Jacksonians, he treats his subject with skill and sound scholarship. The

four volumes encompass a century of administrative history.

Mr. White pictures the administrative stage on which the scene of the

dominating conflicts of the politically dreary post-Civil War period took

place. First is the struggle between president and congress; and second, the

contest between politician and civil service reformer. As he sees it, there

was a close relationship between the two controversies, because the recon-

struction of the executive power, sunk to a low point during Johnson's

administration, involved the victory over congress in the making of political

appointments. Quite naturally, he develops at length the early efforts of the

civil service reformers, the passage of the Pendleton act in 1883, and the

discouragingly slow acceptance of the merit system, not only by the politi-

cians but by the people at large. Only a few readers will have much interest

in the dry and perfunctory accounts of the departments of treasury, war,

navy, interior, agriculture, and post office, 1869-1901.

Mr. White, who died early this year, has made no attempt to gloss over

the "good old days." Indeed, he labels the Republican era as "thirty years

of intellectual stagnation" in the field of administration, and decries the

low level of political standards. Basic in his view was the general acceptance

of the patronage system, the notion that to the victor belong the spoils.

Every president from Hayes to McKinley suffered from the onslaught of the

spoilsmen and the baying of the pension hounds.

Ohioans will quickly note that three sons of the state, Hayes, Garfield,

and McKinley--four, if Harrison is counted--were presidents during this

Republican era. None of them men of eminence, they did, however, con-

tribute materially to the growing power of the executive and show interest,

if not real leadership, in the struggle for the merit system.

Ohio State University                             EVERETT WALTERS

 

A Selective Bibliography of Important Books, Pamphlets, and Broadsides Re-

lating to Michigan History. By Albert Harry Greenly. (Lunenburg, Vt.:

Stinehour Press, 1958. xvii+165p.; illustrations, bibliography, and index.

$25.00.)

The title of this volume might have been A Critical and Narrative Biblio-

graphy, for, in addition to the facts of publication, the compiler, frequently

evaluates a book, gives a brief account of the contents, includes other pert-

inent information about it, and provides a biographical sketch of the author.

This is truly an interesting book. As Howard H. Peckham wrote in the in-

troduction, "it can be read."

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398     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Mr. Greenly for many years was a collector of Michiganiana. The books

about which he wrote were in his own library, and he was intimately ac-

quainted with the contents.

Arrangement of the entries is largely chronological by date of publication,

although the grouping of titles under a subject head sometimes causes a

divergence from this scheme. The first body of books consists of writings

by Frenchmen. Most of them, such as Champlain, Hennepin, Lahontan,

Sagard, and Charlevoix, are well known. The second group was published

during the British regime in Michigan. The first two are the Diary of the

Siege of Detroit in the War with Pontiac, and the Journal of Pontiac's Con-

spiracy, 1763. Mr. Greenly here discusses the authorship of the manuscripts

from which the printed versions were made. In this section are ten books

on Indian captivities which occurred during both the British and the Ameri-

can regimes.

In the early American period are included a dozen books on General Wil-

liam Hull's disastrous campaign, several from the press of Father Gabriel

Richard, six speeches by Lewis Cass, six books by Henry R. Schoolcraft, Dr.

William Beaumont's Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and

about fifty items dealing with the Michigan-Ohio boundary dispute and the

Toledo War. Most of them are government documents which might well

have been omitted. This group contains also the Journal of the Michigan

Constitutional Convention, 1835, and the Journal of the first convention of

assent, 1836, which refused to accept the terms congress imposed for ad-

mission to the Union. Mr. Greenly does not mention the so-called Frost-

Bitten Convention, which in December of the same year bowed to the edict

of congress.

Other books included are the first directory of Detroit, 1837, the first

history of Michigan, 1839, the Rev. Isaac McCoy's History of Baptist Indian

Missions, 1840, and a curious attack on McCoy, entitled Missionary Abom-

inations Unmasked. There are also sections headed "Lake Superior and the

Upper Peninsula," "The Mormons in Michigan," "Michigan in the Civil

War," "Lumber-Salt-Saginaw," "Grand Traverse Region," "Grand River

and the Grand River Valley," and "Automobile Industry." The last is en-

tirely inadequate.

After the entrance of Michigan into the Union, little space is given, as a

rule, to each book, although exceptions are the treatment of McCoy's writ-

ings and those of James J. Strang, the Mormon king of Beaver Island.

Unfortunately there are some historical inaccuracies. On page xvi the

statement is made that "Detroit and Mackinac . . . were not finally surrend-

ered by the French until 1796." On the same page the author dates the

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BOOK REVIEWS         399

 

"commencement of the first railroad of importance in Michigan westward

from Detroit" in the 1840's. As a matter of fact, the Michigan Central

reached Ann Arbor in 1839 and Kalamazoo in 1846.

Father Louis Hennepin is said to have been the first explorer of the

Mississippi River north of the Illinois (p. 7). As a matter of fact, Louis

Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette had paddled down the Mississippi

from the mouth of the Wisconsin in 1673, seven years earlier. This error

is related to another on the same page. The author has Jolliet and Mar-

quette traveling southward along the west coast of Lake Michigan, reaching

the Illinois River by the Chicago portage and entering the Mississippi from

the Illinois. This was the route they followed in reverse on their return.

Again, on page 137, the author gives a garbled account of the murder of

James J. Strang. Combining his arrest in 1854 with his assassination in 1856,

he makes of them a single incident.

Since the author intended his book to be selective rather than complete,

there is little ground for questioning his choices. Nevertheless, one wonders

why he omitted Caroline S. Kirkland's A New Home--Who'll Follow. Per-

haps he regarded it as fiction. If so, it is much truer to life than Flavius J.

Littlejohn's Legends of Michigan and the Old Northwest, which is included.

In spite of these failings, Mr. Greenly's bibliography is an interesting

volume and a useful tool for those who want to know about Michigan in

books. Illustrations, usually the title page of an important work, give the

reader a glimpse of the typography of the various periods, and an index

facilitates the finding of authors and books in the bibliography.

University of Michigan                             F. CLEVER BALD

 

Culture Under Canvas: The Story of Tent Chautauqua. By Harry P. Harri-

son as told to Karl Detzer. (New York: Hastings House, 1958. xxviii+

287p.; illustrations and index. $6.50.)

For over two decades at the start of this century, the big brown tent,

pitched near Main Street or in a nearby pasture, symbolized summer-circuit

chautauqua. In this volume Harry P. Harrison, directly associated with canvas

culture from the beginning, portrays the rise and fall of this nation-wide ex-

travaganza in mass education, entertainment, and persuasion. Published ten

years after Victoria and Robert Case's We Called It Culture: The Story of

Chautauqua, it tells the story more intimately and thoroughly, but with the

same sympathetic bias.

Roots for the traveling tent reach back to Josiah Holbrook's early nine-

teenth-century lyceum, James Redpath's lecture bureau, and Methodist Bishop

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400     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Vincent's late nineteenth-century laboratory for Sunday School teachers at

Lake Chautauqua. In 1901, still in college, Harrison joined Keith Vawter,

the founder of summer chautauqua. After purchasing one-third interest in

the Redpath bureau, Vawter hired Harrison to sell winter lyceum courses

to South Dakota communities. Then, three years later, equipped with a new

pair of duck pants, necessary apparel for a platform superintendent, he

plunged with Vawter from winter lyceum into circuit chautauqua, a career

he pursued until the last big tent folded.

Like a good speech to entertain or a seven-day chautauqua program, Harri-

son's narrative lacks a closely knit organization, but likewise suffers few

dull moments. Rich in reminiscence, yet short on precise documentation, it

calls forth an endless parade of political debaters, elocutionists, preachers,

chalk talkers, magicians, humorists, operatic stars, bands, bell ringers, quar-

tets, and, finally, even actors for the culture-starved but puritanical folk

who jammed the tents, yet sincerely feared the theater.

Freely intermixing personal recollection, historical fact, thumb-nail bio-

graphy, and folksy anecdote with brief but perceptive analysis, Harrison ex-

plores the reasons for success and failure in his band of troupers. "Old

Dependable," William Jennings Bryan, receives the most searching rhetori-

cal criticism, and top billing as the greatest name of all. But after examining

speaker, audience, and setting, the author remains genuinely puzzled by

Bryan's never-ending appeal, as year after year, through fair weather and

foul, the undiminishing multitudes tirelessly packed the tents on "Bryan

Day." Although the "Great Commoner" specialized in "mother, home, and

heaven" panegyrics, others, like "Fighting Bob" La Follette, used the tent

platform as a political stump; countless agitators for penal reform, woman's

suffrage, prohibition, and innumerable "isms" opened new vistas for eager

listeners. Moreover, managers struggled manfully to promote free and full

discussion of public issues, successfully resisting the attempts of Wall Street

to control this potentially potent propaganda medium.

But as the mud on Main Street gave way to brick, the horse and buggy

to the Model-T, so staged performances under the tent succumbed to an

early chautauqua novelty stunt, the flickering screen; and personal appear-

ances by singers seemed less attractive than music through ear phones. Man-

agers found it impossible to sell their fantastically cheap tickets; the big

brown tent fell in 1934; but the tradition continues at Lake Chautauqua and

other permanent sites. This account offers the reader more than nostalgia; it

lends new insight to an era, its political and social issues, its advocates, its

audiences, its performers, and its culture.

Oberlin College                                      PAUL H. BOASE

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BOOK REVIEWS          401

 

The Mind of Alexander Hamilton. Arranged with an introduction by Saul

K. Padover. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1958. vi+461p.; index.

$6.50.)

Heritage from Hamilton, with a Selection of Personal Letters. By Broadus

Mitchell. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1957. 160p.; illus-

trations. $3.75.)

These two volumes constitute a portion of the studies and eulogies of

Alexander Hamilton prompted by his bicentenary in 1957. Both cite evi-

dence, presumably authentic, of Hamilton's birth in 1755. Apparently this

information was not established soon enough to have moved the bicentennial

celebration to 1955.

Saul K. Padover, a professor in the graduate faculty of the New School

for Social Research, is an old hand at editing anthologies of the writings of

the founding fathers. He has previously performed this service for Wash-

ington, Jefferson, and Madison. In such a work, of course, the editor under-

takes to present what he believes to be an accurate portrayal of the character

of his subject through a selection of writings chosen for the purpose. Pro-

fessor Padover has done his job skillfully. All of the papers have been

available previously, but they are here woven together to give a picture of

Alexander Hamilton from youth through an uncommonly active life to his

premature death at the hand of Aaron Burr. Whether the evaluation of the

strengths and weaknesses of Hamilton will be altered in any way by the

forthcoming publication of the definitive edition of his works by Columbia

University cannot now be known. It is clear beyond doubt that he was a man

of deep and sincere convictions. It is clear, also, that he had boundless

energy and ingenuity in seeking the practical achievement of his goals.

Whether these convictions and this practical drive made him a patriot or a

mere bigot, present opinion may vary as it did in his own day. Furthermore,

most of the time Hamilton seems to stand forth as the embodiment of the

highest morality through his self-sacrificing devotion to a conception of the

public good. But again, pettiness and even venality have not been totally

absent.

Heritage from Hamilton is a work of quite different sort. While more

than a third of its small bulk is made up of a selection from Hamilton's

letters, the book is essentially the Gino Speranza Lectures in Columbia Uni-

versity for 1956-57. Broadus Mitchell, professor of economics at Rutgers

University, has written widely in the fields of economics and economic his-

tory. The jacket of this book informs us that he is currentlly completing the

final volume of a definitive biography of Hamilton.

This work has little of narrative quality about it. Rather, it is an analysis

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402     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

of Hamilton's role in relation to the great issues of his time, many of which

remain as issues of today. Professor Mitchell has chosen his words care-

fully. His style often reveals elegance both of conception and expression.

He presents Hamilton to us as "Continentalist," "Finance Minister," and

"Party Leader." Under the heading "Continentalist" we see the Hamilton

who opposed all divisiveness among the colonial governments. He could

see strength--and even survival--only in a central government so consti-

tuted that it could override local differences of outlook and present a single

face both internally and externally. For this view he argued, wrote, and

fought. As "Finance Minister" we see Hamilton as secretary of the treasury,

establishing not only the immediate financial operating procedures of the

new government but also, in his famous "Reports," the long-range goals

which he thought it should seek. As "Party Leader" we see the practical and

sometimes scheming partisan trying by hook or crook to translate his po-

litical and economic ideals into succesful operation.

The political aspects of Hamilton's thought have had more thorough re-

view than the economic. Why should this man, an avowed admirer of the

Wealth of Nations and its argument for freedom of the individual, devote

his own career to the establishment of a strong central government to plan

and preside over the affairs of the new nation? Such questions remain

enigmatic and may always do so. Mitchell inclines toward the view that

Hamilton, like Friedrich List and others of later years and lesser note, re-

garded full economic freedom as an accompaniment of strength. Lacking

strength, as the new state governments obviously did, the only path toward

prosperity and ultimate economic freedom lay in a central government

powerful enough to enforce a unity of policy which might create the pre-

requisite strength (p. 62). If this is a correct interpretation, a reincarnated

Hamilton in mid-twentieth century might find himself on the opposite side

of some public issues from many of his avowed followers. In any case,

enough of Hamilton's issues remain as our issues that any additional light

upon them is to be welcomed.

Ohio State University                            ROBERT D. PATTON

 

The Gingerbread Age: A View of Victorian America. By John Maass. (New

York and Toronto: Rinehart and Company, 1957. 212p.; illustrations,

bibliography, and index. $7.95.)

The historical period covered by John Maass in The Gingerbread Age

runs from 1837 to 1876. The earlier date indicates an America which was

primarily agricultural; however, by 1876, America had developed to a posi-

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BOOK REVIEWS          403

 

tion of great industrial power. This was an enormously creative and pro-

gressive era during which many so-called modern conveniences in heating,

cooking, lighting, and plumbing had become a part of home life. Architec-

turally speaking, American Victorian, according to Mr. Maass, is the archi-

tecture of our first industrial age.

American Victorian has now become history, and there is a movement to

preserve some of the specimens of this period with a reverence similar to

our zeal regarding eighteenth-century examples of colonial architecture. The

general revival of interest in Victoriana stems from the post-World War II

years when the charm of gingerbread design began to be lauded by dealers

and decorators.

Since we have returned to comparative simplicity in design, it is difficult

to appraise the effect of "gingerbread" on American life during its heyday.

It brought exuberant color, more and larger windows, high rooms, big kitch-

ens, and ample storage space in cellar and attic. This architecture was an

expression of its time: "Victorian buildings are perfect symbols of an era

which was not given to understatement. They are in complete harmony with

the heavy meals, strong drink, elaborate clothes, ornate furnishings, flamboy-

ant art, melodramatic plays, loud music, flowery speeches, and thundering

sermons of mid-nineteenth century America." Buildings were designed as

fittting ornaments and Victorian architecture is strongly rooted in civic pride

and suggests much in terms of developing the social strata of a town. Today,

these once respectable residences near the center of town have taken on a

blighted appearance. Now rooming houses, they all too often are neglected

and have a gloomy, unpainted, shuttered character that hides their early

splendor.

The Victorian architects were jacks-of-all-trades. They doubled as engin-

eers. There were few trained designers and no architectural magazines at this

time. The pattern books filled a great need and were instrumental in spread-

ing architectural ideas and methods across the country. A number of Gothic

stone mansions appeared, but stonework and hand carving was too costly for

widespread use. However, the expensive Gothic was translated into "Car-

penter Gothic," in which gingerbread and curlicues were fashioned from a

more easily worked and inexpensive material, wood. "These characteristic

Americana have steep gables, and pointed windows; sometimes they were

sheathed with vertical boarding . . . considered particularly fitting for a

Gothic cottage because of its upward tendency."

The Gingerbread Age presents an interesting view into a dynamic period

of American development. The illustrations and drawings are representative

of many types of building, residences, churches, barns, as well as public

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404     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

buildings. Perhaps "gingerbread" is still too prevalent for us to award it

much attention and respect. It stands boldly between two periods of simplic-

ity. As it becomes a rarity and more a part of the historical past, probably

our admiration will grow. But there is the danger that the best examples of

Victoriana will be torn down along with the objectionable ones. Then we

will treasure all the more this excellent pictorial treatment of Victoriana in

its finest flower.

Ohio State University                          GEORGE L. WILLIAMS

 

Industrial Medicine in Western Pennsylvania, 1850-1950. By T. Lyle Hazlett

and William W. Hummel. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press,

1958. xviii+301p.; illustrations, appendices, bibliographical essay, and

index. $6.00.)

The nineteenth century, as most medical historians know, was marked in

the United States by the rise of the factory system, the organization of labor

unions, the introduction of new and complicated machines, and a gradual

awareness that both private and public agencies should protect the health

of the citizen. This century witnessed an unfolding of a research based upon

empiricism and a philosophy of humanitarianism. Legislatures passed acts

regulating hours of labor, demanding safety devices for industrial machinery,

prescribing conditions under which women and children might work, and

creating state departments of health whose duties were to prevent disease,

assure safe water supplies, provide for prenatal care, and, in general, seek

to establish a sanitary environment.

The protection and medical care of the worker soon became a major con-

cern of both private physicians and state agencies. Actually, of course, as

the authors of this history of industrial medicine in western Pennsylvania

make clear, individuals such as Bernardino Ramazzini in 1700 and C. Turner

Thackrah in 1831 had published root volumes on the effects of the trades,

arts, and professions on health and longevity. The authors' first chapter (and

it is rather too lengthy) traces these backgrounds of industrial medicine.

Subsequent chapters carry the story from the work of pioneer physicians to

recent times. There is a section on the literature and research in the field of

industrial medicine. Many workers in the field are well acquainted with this

material, but it may prove useful to others who wish a rather general guide

to further reading.

Perhaps the essential interest--and contribution--of this study lies in the

fact that western Pennsylvania developed early as a railroad and a steel cen-

ter, thus becoming a sort of a proving ground for industrial medicine; that

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BOOK REVIEWS          405

 

the Pennsylvania Department of Health was not established until 1885, thus

for many years throwing the burden of treating the worker upon private

physicians and voluntary associations; and that one of the authors of this

volume, Dr. T. Lyle Hazlett, is an outstanding leader in the field of indus-

trial medicine, having served as medical director of the Westinghouse Elec-

tric Corporation in Pittsburgh, chairman of the department of industrial

medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, and chairman of the medical board

under the occupation disease act.

It is not surprising, therefore, that this volume should emphasize the

contributions of individuals and associations that Dr. Hazlett knew and with

which he was associated. It could be that he himself suggested the book's

organization--the surgical phase, 1900-1915, preventive medicine, 1916-

1930, medical engineering, 1930-1941, medical relations, 1940-1950. This

somewhat original approach, although provocative, seems not to make full

allowance for other significant factors. It would be instructive, indeed, if

more attention had been paid to local ordinances and state statutes de-

signed to protect the health of the worker in the same general manner that

attention is paid, for example, to the department of labor and industry. Yet,

to offset this apparent underemphasis, there is full and detailed information

on safety provisions in general and in such companies as the United States

Steel Corporation. The authors must be congratulated also for the careful

attention paid to mental hygiene in industry.

Although this volume concerns itself with western Pennsylvania, one can-

not but wish that Messrs. Hazlett and Hummel had raised their sights

sufficiently to compare and/or contrast the development of industrial medi-

cine in their area with that in the remainder of Pennsylvania and had, here

and there, indicated even briefly what was going on in the same field in other

industrial areas throughout the entire country. Workmen's compensation was

not confined to western Pennsylvania nor was the safety movement or the

contributions of the United States Public Health Service or the development

of similar approaches in other states. One cannot do everything in a single

volume, however, and this study is a fair mirroring of the growth of in-

dustrial medicine in a restricted area. And this area has exerted proud in-

fluence throughout the United States, not only in the writings of such

leaders as John Milligan, Webster B. Lowmann, and John B. Lowmann but

also by the work of the Mellon Institute for Industrial Research and the de-

partment of occupational health of the graduate school of the University of

Pennsylvania.

University of Minnesota                           PHILIP D. JORDAN

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406     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Ireland and the American Immigration, 1850-1900. By Arnold Schrier.

(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1958. x+210p.; appendix

tables, notes and bibliography, and index. $4.50.)

Considering the size and importance of the Irish element in the American

population, surprisingly little of a scholarly nature has been written about

the history of the Irish immigration, and almost nothing about the effects

of the Irish exodus upon Ireland itself. This book seeks to redress the bal-

ance. It is the result of a year and a half of study in Ireland, and is based

upon the examination of many primary and secondary sources on both sides

of the Atlantic, including immigrant letters, and data gathered by question-

naires and interviews with Irishmen who returned from the United States

to their native land.

The first two chapters are introductory to the main theme, and describe

conditions in Ireland which led to the flight from hunger to a land of hope,

whose image was derived largely from thousands of "America letters"

which described the attractions of this new "driving country." Thereupon

the author examines in detail the reaction of emigration on Ireland, the fu-

tile efforts of the press to stop the drainage of population, the attitude of

the Catholic Church, and proposals to dam the flood through home rule,

the development of industries, and making the Irishman more thrifty and

productive at home. The author analyzes the effects of emigration upon the

number and size of Irish farms and the change from tillage to pasture land,

and upon labor, wages, employment, and general living conditions. In his

most interesting chapter, he deals with the customs, legends, love charms,

and ballads which grew up in Ireland as a result of decades of emigration

to the United States. The most interesting of these customs undoubtedly was

the "American wake," the conversion of an ancient ceremony to a new pur-

pose to bid farewell to emigrants whom one was not likely to ever see

again. Finally, the author deals with the effects of the reimportation of men

and money from the United States into Ireland. The remittances from Irish

laborers and servant girls reached amazing totals, and "American money"

was spent for a wide variety of purposes, some of it for political agitation

in the days of the Fenians and the Land League. The number of "returned

Yanks," however, represented a mere trickle, for Irishmen were not "birds

of passage." Nevertheless, the few Irish who returned had some influence

upon their home community, although they apparently made little impression

on Irish politics.

The author has made a real contribution to the story of Irish-American im-

migration. His narrative suffers occasionally from too much detail and an un-

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BOOK REVIEWS          407

 

necessary belaboring of familiar and obvious facts. The concluding chapter

is unnecessary in so short a book, because it is a mere recapitulation and to

some extent a restatement of points already made in the preface. These are

matters of minor importance, however. The book represents sound scholar-

ship and prodigious research, and its footnotes and appendices will prove as

important for scholars as the narrative itself.

Western Reserve University                            CARL WITTKE

 

Prince of Carpetbaggers. By Jonathan Daniels. (Philadelphia and New York:

J. B. Lippincott Company, 1958. 319p.; frontispiece, sources and ac-

knowledgements, and index. $4.95.)

During the Civil War General Milton Smith Littlefield fought at Shiloh

and organized Negro battalions for the North in Florida and the "en-

chanted" Sea Islands off the Carolina coast. After the conflict, through lavish

entertainment and bribery of legislators in North Carolina and Florida, this

elegant "Prince of Bummers" profited handsomely from the loot of state

treasuries, the theft of railroads, and the hoodwinking of European bond

buyers. While the stealing lasted, the tall and bearded officer, whose exterior

was "beautiful to behold," lived in regal splendor; when others gained con-

trol, Littlefield became penniless, jumped hotel bills, and now lies in an un-

marked grave near New York City.

Jonathan Daniels is the liberal editor of the Raleigh News and Observer

as well as the prominent author of a number of books. His latest work rep-

resents the piecing together of a "continental jig-saw puzzle" from blocks

gathered in a nation-wide search for new material on the Prince of Carpet-

baggers. Daniels was assiduous in his detective work, but the brand-new find-

ings were slim beyond material from the Grand Rapids Press on Littlefield's

early life in Michigan, and a "mutilated scrapbook and some other papers"

which had belonged to the general. The unfortunate mutilation was perpe-

trated by the general's son, a minister famous in later years as a compiler

of sacred hymns. The excisions might have clarified financial transactions

now difficult to comprehend, as well as the nature of Littlefield's involve-

ment with Mrs. Ann Cavarly--a woman of mystery appearing and reappear-

ing in his wanderings--who disdained a carpetbag "but moved with a bon-

net box and a Saratoga trunk."

One understands that it was imperative for Daniels to bridge the gaps

from public documents and well-known secondary works, and he uses this

material with scholarly and stylistic competence. Nonetheless Littlefield fre-

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408     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

quently becomes lost in discursions that bring in local color, political his-

tory, and biographical sketches that sometimes go beyond what is usually

considered adequate identification of collateral dramatis personnae. If the

reader's mind is on Prince Littlefield, this device can be disconcerting. Some

will also find fault with Daniels' testament that he is "not much of a man

for footnotes," although "without cluttering the narrative" he has made a

scholarly attempt to cite references in the text. This reviewer is still uncer-

tain as to the extent and size of the "mutilated scrapbook and some other

papers" which are all that remain from the hand of General Milton Smith

Littlefield.

This study, written by a southerner, makes it objectively clear that carpet-

baggers were but one evidence of a national "reign of shoddy," and that

Gould, Fisk, and Littlefield from the North were matched by southern "re-

spectables" like Swepson, Hawkins, and Ransom, who carted away a bounte-

ous share of booty. By comparison the Negroes--so often blamed for the

excesses of carpetbag rule--were forced to resort to a legislative "smelling

committee" in an ineffectual attempt to even sniff at the rich pickings. They

could not compete in financial skulduggery with either General Littlefield or

General Ransom, the latter a southern Christian gentleman who before the

war was said to have prepared a pious creed for his slaves: "Love Jesus.

Obey the Master. And don't steal Mr. Ransom's corn."

Western Reserve University                            C. H. CRAMER

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