Ohio History Journal

Book Reviews

 

 

 

American Minds: A History of Ideas. By Stow Persons. (New York:

Henry Holt and Company, 1958. xii??467p.; suggestions for further

reading and index. $7.50.)

Here is a book with which all who are interested in American social

and intellectual history should be acquainted. It is designed partly as a

text and partly as an interpretive essay, a duality which since Parring-

ton has become almost standard practice (witness the work of Curti,

Gabriel, and Schneider). As the most recent effort "to provide an in-

troduction to the history of American thought" (p. vii), it offers an

original synthesis which departs in important ways from the structure

and material focus of its famous predecessors. Previous scholarly labors

in the vineyard of evolutionary and religious thinking eminently qualify

Professor Persons for his task.

The Persons' strategy in dealing with the growth of American thought

is "to describe the principal focal concentrations of ideas, or 'minds,'

that have determined the profile of American intellectual life during its

historical development. There have been five of these 'social minds,' and

the five parts of the book describe them as they appeared in chrono-

logical succession. . . . No effort is made to explain the formation or

dissolution of these systems of ideas or to trace the transitions between

them" (p. vii). The first two minds (Puritan and Enlightenment) and

almost a third of his pages center upon Colonial America. Here pro-

fessor Persons leans heavily upon recent scholarship in the field. Though

as impartial as one could reasonably expect, his sympathies are clearly

on the side of the Puritans. He ascribes to Thomas Hooker the real

authorship of the theory of mixed government in America (p. 30). He

sees democracy arising from majority Puritanism far more than from

dissenter sectarians like Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, for

whom he has no great taste (the Quakers come off best among colonial

sects). The fall of Puritanism he attributes to its defensive pose and

its inability to take missionary initiative against the smaller Baptist and

Quaker gadfly groups.

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In the "Mind of Nineteenth-Century Democracy: 1800-1860," Pro-

fessor Persons has some interesting things to say about the frontier.

He accepts its importance, especially in terms of religious development,

but with many qualifications. Only in the Jacksonian era did it play a

major role; on the Puritan frontier there was far more cooperation and

sense of community (the congregation, joint stock company) than in-

dividualism, which was restricted pretty much to business life. By the

early national period the frontier had become a homogenizer of classes,

though not of class stratification; it reshaped both universal churches

(except the Roman Catholics) and local sects into national denomina-

tions. In terms of education the frontier experience was our American

barbarian invasions, with the midwest colleges barely keeping cultural

traditions alive much as the monasteries of the Dark Ages had once

done for European civilization (p. 188).

The "Naturalistic Mind: 1865-1929" has much new material. It cor-

rects the standard Hofstadter treatment of social Darwinism on many

points, and deals thoroughly with the vitally important heredity vs. en-

vironment struggle which grew out of early Darwinism. Considerable

space is also devoted to ideas from the field of psychology and sociology,

a development long overdue. The final "Contemporary Neodemocratic

Mind" is at once the most challenging and the least satisfactory part of

American Minds, at least to this reviewer. It finds naturalistic science

in full retreat, leaving the field to revived religion and revived political

democracy. Both rely heavily upon Freudian psychology and both con-

trive to be popular and conservative at one and the same time. Evidently

the advice of Professor Langer in his 1957 American Historial Asso-

ciation presidential address is bearing fruit.

An effort to weigh strengths against weaknesses may be in order here.

There are many strengths. This is the first really new survey of Ameri-

can intellectual history which we have seen in over a decade. It is now

sixteen years since Curti's Growth appeared; Gabriel is still earlier.

Nor have revisions done more than delay their advancing obsolescence.

Here is a thoroughly up-to-date portrayal, giving social institutions like

racism and the voluntary association major emphasis, while paying as

much attention to past psychology, sociology, and anthropology as to

past politics, economics, and philosophy. This trend is very likely to

be followed in future treatments of the subject. Finally, Professor

Persons achieves great economies of space by omitting encyclopedic de-

tail about individuals and confining himself rather strictly to the content

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of ideas. This does much to simplify an area which is innately difficult

for the average college student.

One must also register certain critical comments. Without being anti-

science, Persons gives us a powerfully religion-oriented picture of the

American mind. Other subjects seem mere battlefields on which the

primary issue of a religious versus a materialistic way of life is fought

out. Yet Roman Catholicism is virtually ignored, receiving only thirteen

lines in contrast to ninety-odd pages on aspects of Protestantism after

1800. Again, some subjects which might give greater balance to the

total presentation are omitted--there is little or nothing on nationalism,

business social thought in the Age of Big Business, humanitarianism,

the rise of leisure, or cultural pluralism. The southern region is almost

excluded from discussion, forcing one to infer that the mind of America

was confined to the Northeast with nothing much but torso south of

Philadelphia. Third, the effort to present naturalism as more passe

than his "contemporary mind" has involved Professor Persons in some

curious chronological juxtapositions; for example, eugenics is discussed

under the nineteenth century, while the Social Gospel is contemporary.

It is hard to see that Nazi totalitarianism of the twentieth century rep-

resents "naturalism in action" (p. 350) any more than romantic, mysti-

cal faith in action.

Finally, despite his enthusiasm for American democracy, there is a

certain remoteness from life built into the Persons' account which raises

the belated question of just how valid the "minds" approach really is.

Apparently the "American mind" technique was first used in the twen-

ties by American philosophers writing about philosophic ideas. Then

Parrington applied it to literary thought, and Curti and Gabriel to

politico-economic ideas also. Is it possible that the farther away from

philosophy and the closer to mass opinion one gets, the less realistic

this kind of constructive typology becomes? There are at least two ex-

isting sources of potential criticism of the "minds" approach. One is

the Namierist and internal conflict school of historiography which de-

lights in breaking down generalizations into a multitude of variant

local feelings by statistical analysis. Another is the very public opinion

emphasis which Professor Persons discusses at length in Chapter 21.

Whatever the "mass mind" may be, it is certainly different from any

of the minds which intellectual historians give us.

In summary, American Minds is succinct, stimulating, modern--a

major work of synthesis in its field. The carefully edited text does

credit to all concerned (although this reviewer deeply regrets that

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nowhere in the book is there a single picture, map, or graphic aid of

any kind). Professor Persons deserves our congratulations and our

readership.

Teachers College                                              FREDERICK D. KERSHNER, JR.

Columbia University

 

The Jacksonian Era, 1828-1848. By Glyndon G. Van Deusen. (New

York: Harper and Brothers, 1959. xvi+291p.; maps, bibliographical

essay, and index. $5.00.)

Historians have never questioned Andrew Jackson's significance in

American history; nor have they agreed on the quality of his role as

president and party leader. In this respect they have merely reflected

the controversy that surrounded Jackson during his years of national

eminence, for few Americans have been so bitterly hated and so ardently

worshiped by their contemporaries. And since the age of Jackson rep-

resents the flowering of American political democracy, no writer can

divorce his appreciation or condemnation of Jackson from his attitude

toward the American political system itself. There is no easy middle

ground between Jackson and his enemies. Historians cannot think in

a political vacuum, especially when the conflicts in philosophy are clear

and dramatic. Even to attempt it is futile.

Professor Van Deusen has not broken this tradition of partisanship.

Whereas his analyses of the battles of the Jackson years over personali-

ties, ideas, and issues are characterized by fairness and moderation, he

does not refrain from passing judgment. In his conclusions the critics of

Jackson come off the better. For example, he writes of Jackson the man:

"He was a personality without fear. But he lacked the capacity for that

slow and often painful balancing of opposite viewpoints, the fruit of

philosophic reflection, which is the characteristic of the man of culture.

His emotions were volcanic. They easily rose to the surface and, when

they erupted, were overpowering in their intensity" (pp. 98-99). To the

author, Jackson's leadership was largely a failure. He doubts that Old

Hickory ever represented a clearly thought-out philosophy of govern-

ment. In true Jeffersonian tradition, the Jacksonians favored little gov-

ernment and opposed industrialism, without considering the fundamental

nature of American economic development. The author criticizes them

for clinging to a hard-money policy which denied the need of expanding

credit. He finds greater economic realism and harmony of interest in

Clay's American system and in the conviction that the national economy

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could be stimulated and directed by benevolent governmental action than

in the variety of proposals that characterized the Jacksonian program.

In his analysis of the forties, Professor Van Deusen concludes that

the Democratic leadership, in leaving Van Buren behind, became in-

creasingly conservative in outlook. In matters of economic policy it

continued the negative program of the thirties, but it found its funda-

mental challenges in expansion and in the avoidance of the slavery

conflict. As the drive for new policies tended to originate in the North,

Democratic conservatism gave the South a larger voice in national

affairs than it had enjoyed in the days of Jackson and Van Buren. By

1848 the old issues were dead--the national bank, distribution of the

proceeds of public land sales, and even the tariff. The chief task of the

politicians had become that of holding the national parties together in the

face of sectional controversy.

This volume contains no new or startling interpretations. It is

rather a judiciously balanced synthesis of previous scholarship. No sig-

nificant interpretation of the past has been ignored; each finds its place

in the author's scheme. But the book also represents extensive original

research, for the author preceded this general study of the Jacksonian

period with significant biographies of Henry Clay, Thurlow Weed, and

Horace Greeley. Thus this volume, sound in conception and execution,

will long remain a standard survey of Jacksonian democracy.

University of Illinois                 NORMAN A. GRAEBNER

 

The Jacksonian Heritage: Pennsylvania Politics, 1833-1848. By Charles

McCool Snyder. (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum

Commission, 1958. x??256p.; map, illustrations, appendix, bibliog-

raphy, and index. $3.50.)

It is now possible for the student of Pennsylvania politics to read six

volumes, by different authors, which span the history of that state from

1740 to 1848--Theodore Thayer (1740-1776), Robert Brunhouse

(1776-1790), Harry Tinkcom (1790-1801), Sanford Higginbotham

(1800-1816), Philip Klein (1817-1832), and now Charles Snyder's

recent volume. (Side excursions are also available for western Penn-

sylvania only, in the works of Russell Ferguson and James Kehl.)

Pennsylvania, so large and diversified--containing within its boun-

daries an urban, sophisticated society and the rawest of frontiers, farming

(largest rye crop) as well as mining and manufacturing (largest iron

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production), and thriving commercial activities on the Atlantic seacoast

and on the Ohio, Susquehanna, and Monongahela rivers--reflected the

sectional and divisive tensions quickly growing throughout America in

the age of Jackson. New economic and social issues--Jackson's war on

the second bank, tariff fights, the war with Mexico, slavery, and slavery

in the territories--captured and divided the opinions of politically con-

scious Americans. These and other issues were the yeast that fermented

a host of major and minor political parties, such as Democrat, Whig,

Liberty, Free Soil, Anti-Masonic, Nullifier, and local "workingmen"

organizations. The era of good feelings was over.

Though the author concentrates most of his attention on the state

scene, he shifts deftly to the national panorama at appropriate moments.

He warns the unwary in his preface that "issues emanating from the

nation's capital had repercussions in the states; and local issues, in turn,

sometimes reached the halls of Congress and the White House." After

a short initial chapter rapidly surveying the geographical, social, and

economic patterns of Pennsylvania, the monograph covers three subjects

in exhaustive detail: the bank war, especially developments after Jack-

son's veto of the recharter bill; the tariff question and its emergence as

the most crucial state issue; and the political maneuverings and battles

in Pennsylvania during the fifteen years from 1833 to 1848.

Mr. Snyder is to be complimented on rugged research in primary

sources, on a fluid style, and on well-reasoned conclusions. Yet I can-

not recommend this book without several qualifications. First, it is dry

reading despite the felicitous style. Perhaps some of the subject matter

is to blame, but the reviewer feels there are too many names and too

many dates, too much trivia (especially on local elections) which could

have been omitted. Further, prominent figures such as Thaddeus Ste-

vens, James Buchanan, and Simon Cameron are treated without color

or spirit. Secondly, while the bibliography is extensive, still it contains

peculiar gaps. Joseph Dorfman's famous critique of Schlesinger's Age

of Jackson (American Historical Review, January 1949), and William

Sullivan's recent and invaluable monograph, The Industrial Worker in

Pennsylvania, 1800-1840, to take but two examples, are not mentioned.

Finally, at times the author strains to protest what is obvious and ele-

mentary. He tells us, for example, that Pennsylvanians were not often

selected for cabinet positions in Washington, "since executives hesitated

to face the wrath of dissatisfied elements which inevitably accompanied

such appointments." But I believe this statement would be true for

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BOOK REVIEWS          313

 

practically every state. Indeed, it might even be considered a constant

ingredient of American political life.

Montana State University                    MORTON BORDEN

 

Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. By Harris Gaylord Warren.

(New York: Oxford University Press, 1959. x??372p.; index.

$7.00.)

Harris Gaylord Warren's interpretation of Herbert Hoover as the

"greatest Republican of his generation" is an honest effort to push aside

highly partisan judgments and arrive at an accurate evaluation. The dif-

ficulty in achieving this aim lies partly in the fact that estimates of the

former president will depend upon the writer's inclination to oppose or

favor some degree of collectivist program controlled by a democratically

governed state. There can be no wholly objective view of Herbert

Hoover.

Within this limitation the author has achieved his aim. He gives

Herbert Hoover due credit for his positive program for dealing with

the depression. The hard working, humanitarian, and extremely knowl-

edgeable president did everything within the confining limits of his eco-

nomic credo. Herbert Hoover failed miserably, as the author sees it,

because he was a prisoner of his own fears of big government, socialism,

inflation, and a loss of individualism. The walls erected by these fears

made it impossible for him to launch out on a program sufficiently dar-

ing and meaningful to win the confidence of the people. The direct

victims of the depression rejected the old stereotypes of rugged indi-

vidualism out of desperation, and in the midst of tragedy not even the

respectable and well intentioned high priest could make them believe

that going off the gold standard was worse than starvation.

Hoover's "principles" shut him off from reality. The author makes

this point in a lucid fashion in his treatment of Hoover and relief. The

president received his statistics on starvation and undernourishment

from bureaus that simply did not have any figures on the tragedy that

stalked the country. Mr. Hoover rejoiced in the absence of starvation.

Yet, even casual investigations in the hospitals of the great cities or in-

quiries by social workers in the coal mining towns of Pennsylvania and

a hundred other towns would have freed Mr. Hoover of his illusion.

The president's humanitarianism, writes Professor Warren, would have

recognized the tragedy of a flood, a drought, or of a city desolated by

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314    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

war. The writer infers that Hoover's deeply held economic credo made

it impossible for him to recognize the tragedy imposed by the break-

down of the economic system.

Professor Warren does not analyze the depression as an economist.

He is primarily concerned with Herbert Hoover as a political leader.

However, he quite rightly traces Hoover's political failings to his creed

of economics. Yet, Hoover was far ahead of the Republican old guard.

In fact, when Professor Warren calls Hoover the greatest Republican

of his generation, it is less an encomium for the former president than

it is a condemnation of a group of politicians who simply refused to face

the facts of modern economic life.

The author has a talent for lucid exposition and knife-like phrases.

He has achieved objectivity within the limits imposed by his own re-

jection of Hoover's basic economic philosophy. His book is well done,

but Hoover's political career is a well-traversed desert that offers few

fresh observations. This is particularly true when the author confines

himself to secondary sources and limits his approach to the narrows of

the political scene.

Michigan State University                       PAUL A. VARG

 

The Cotton Regency: The Northern Merchants and Reconstruction,

1865-1880. By George Ruble Woolfolk. (New York: Bookman As-

sociates, 1958. 311p.; illustrations, bibliography, and index. $5.00.)

Well known is Charles Beard's view of the Civil War as the "Sec-

ond American Revolution," a war that resulted in the suppression of

the forces of agrarianism and the elevation to power of the exponents

of industrialization and commercialism. This interpretation now gets

further, well-documented support from Professor Woolfolk who at-

tempts in his book to give the reader some insight into how certair

aspects of this revolution were accomplished, and by whom. Largely

ignoring the industrial exploitation of the South as something that oc

curred only after 1880 (and beyond the ken of this book), the author

devotes his entire attention to discussing the achievements of the north

ern merchants in rendering the South commercially tributary to the

North during the fifteen-year period immediately following the war

To accomplish this, he claims the urban business groups of the Eas

"allied" with similar business groups of the Midwest to achieve thei

aims. "This," says the author, "is the essence of sectionalism as a fore

in American history."

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BOOK REVIEWS          315

 

In separate chapters Professor Woolfolk minutely examines the indi-

vidual merchants of the two northern sections in an attempt to show the

economic ideas and interests they shared as a basis of their alliance.

He then describes how the interests of these merchants were for a time

made to coincide with the political reconstruction program of the Radi-

cal Republicans. Later, he points out, they found it to their advantage

to repudiate the political mistakes of the party, but nevertheless pro-

ceeded uninterruptedly to exploit the South economically. In one of his

best chapters the author tells the story of the successful struggle by

urban centers outside of New York to make some of the midwestern

commercial cities original points of entry and demonstrates how this

aided the midwestern capitalists in their efforts to compete for the south-

ern market. How some of these same men influenced the tariff policies

of the government is also particularly revealing.

This book deserves the careful attention of specialists in the field, for

it is well written, and Professor Woolfolk has done a thorough job of

research in a difficult period. His sources are widely varied and include

an impressive list of books, articles, newspapers, and government docu-

ments. Much of the best evidence he presents, however, was gleaned

only by a tedious sifting of almost limitless commercial pamphlets and

records of boards of trade and chambers of commerce of many cities.

Such thorough research deserves commendation and has resulted in a

book that cannot help but add considerably to our understanding of the

reconstruction era.

Bowling Green State University            ROBERT W. TWYMAN

 

The Territorial Papers of the United States. Volume XXIII, The Ter-

ritory of Florida, 1824-1828. Compiled and edited by Clarence Edwin

Carter. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1958. v??1191p.;

maps and index. $6.50.)

Still a generation away from statehood, though longer settled by

Europeans than any other part of the United States, Florida Territory

in the middle 1820's grew more slowly and less promisingly than other

frontier communities. Its entire population was less than the decade's

increase in Illinois or Michigan; it was to lag behind the rest of the

lower South until the 1940's, while the South in turn lagged behind

the North (and behind the newer territory and state of Hawaii, which

Floridians and other southerners have been reluctant to recognize as

ready for statehood). Yet society in Florida was not merely back-

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316    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

ward: in the twenties it inherited some of the troubles that had vexed

Jackson and the Spaniards earlier and anticipated those that broke out

in the Seminole war later.

The documents in this volume are full of complaints: of uncertainty

in title to land; of need for canals, roads, and ports of entry; of dis-

tances from government; and especially of Indians and of their slaves,

whom the Indians regarded, said an agent, "rather as fellow Sufferers

and companions in misery than as inferiors" (p. 911). "I am more and

more Convinced," wrote Governor DuVal, "that the Slaves belonging to

the Indians are a Serious nusance, they have by their art and Cunning

entire Controul Over their Masters" (p. 454). These were years also

of important political beginnings, for congress in 1826 authorized the

people of Florida to elect its legislative council, as the people of Ar-

kansas had done since 1820.

The editing of the Territorial Papers continues in the exemplary style

to which Professor Carter has accustomed us. This is a long volume

for four years of a territory that lasted twenty-four. The length prompts

hope that the editor may find some kind of scholarly seven-league boots

to reach the Pacific; yet Far-Westerners will miss much if their early

history has to appear in file microcopies or calendars merely rather than

in extenso, with the useful footnotes of the present format.

University of Oregon                          EARL POMEROY

 

Vein of Iron: The Pickands Mather Story. By Walter Havighurst.

(Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Company, 1958. 223p.;

illustrations and index. $4.00.)

"Iron seemeth a simple metal, but in its nature are many mysteries

. . . and men who bend to them their minds shall, in arriving days, gather

therefrom great profits not to themselves alone but to all mankind."

With this introductory quotation from Joseph Glanvill in 1668,

Walter Havighurst sets the keynote for the pages of his eloquent saga

of men and iron mining of the Great Lakes region. A story of action

and drama, which tells of the discovery of the mines and the develop-

ment of the operational companies composed of Clevelanders, it is in-

deed! It is also the historic record of an era, a transitional period when,

pioneering days past, young men of ambition and vision could and did

seek new worlds to conquer. In this case it was the world of iron, coal,

and eventually steel, which was to remake the economy of America and

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BOOK REVIEWS 317

 

serve as the link to America's present-day leadership in national wealth

and high scale of living.

Vein of Iron is, in a way, a biography--the story of men, chiefly

the story of the Pickands brothers and the Mathers of Cleveland. These

names, now familiar from the blast furnaces of Pennsylvania to the

mines of Lake Superior, were not as well known at the conclusion of

the Civil War when Mr. Havighurst begins his story. Cleveland, he

writes, was a busy city of 70,000 people. "Schooners and steamers

were crowding the river mouth, mills, furnaces, oil refineries, elevators

spreading in the smoky Cuyahoga basin--carriages were rolling past the

mansions of Euclid Avenue." Then James Pickands started his career

in the Lake Superior mining country, at twenty-eight years of age, with

no money but with great energy, working with Jay Morse of Marquette,

a man already well established in the mining field, aggressive, tireless,

a man of action.

The story of Colonel Pickands continues. The panorama of life in

the North Country unrolls. With marvelous powers of description the

author recreates for his readers life in the iron country: long cold win-

ters when the bays froze and life went on runners to the tune of sleigh

bells; summers when hammers rang as mansions of the iron kings were

built and log villages became towns.

Now the name of Mather comes into the story, and the reader is

introduced to this famous Cleveland family of New England origin, and

particularly to Samuel Mather whose name is still a synonym for phi-

lanthropy and support of a wide range of Cleveland's cultural activities.

A sympathetic picture of young Mather is drawn. He is described as

sensitive, shy, and self-conscious because of an early injury in a mine

explosion, but more fortunate than most lads in his opportunities for

world-wide travels, which were to develop a keen mind and capacity

for business leadership.

Together with the main theme of these two men and their careers in

creating a vast iron and coal empire, the author of Vein of Iron has

skillfully interwoven scene after scene, vivid picture after vivid picture,

of life in the North Country and of ships on the lakes. Turning the

pages at random, the reader envisages mules on the wet red paths of

the mines, crumbling old mine works like ruined chapels, the whine of

sawmills, shanties of the woodsmen, graceful sailing ships on the water-

ways, new steel freighters sliding down the runways.

And behind it all there was the dream and drive of dynamic men who

have left their names and the stamp of their personalities on the history

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318    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

of the lakes--Harry Coulby, who walked the Lake Shore Railroad

tracks to Cleveland as a boy; Alex McDougall, who dreamed of a

cigar-shaped freighter and made his dream come true; Raphael Pum-

pelly, Harvard geologist with a golden beard, who had crossed the Gobi

Desert and also explored the ore regions of Upper Michigan. And a

long list of famous Cleveland names--Hanna, Eaton, Chisholm, Beau-

mont, Hay, Hoyt--the index of this book reads like a Who's Who of

First Families of Cleveland.

Mr. Havighurst has done a superb job of combining the history of an

era, a region, and men. He has told a thrilling tale of men of vision and

courage who pitted their wit and strength against the stubborn hold-

ings of nature and thereby not only created wealth for themselves, but

brought expansion and growth to their home town and in fact to the

whole country.

With Vein of Iron the author has added another volume to his long

list of successful writings in the field of regional history.

Cleveland Public Library                      DONNA L. ROOT

 

It Floats: The Story of Procter and Gamble. By Alfred Lief. (New

York: Rinehart and Company, 1958. 338p.; illustrations and index.

$5.95.)

Alfred Lief's early books are biographies of American statesmen, jur-

ists, and businessmen. During the past decade he has turned his atten-

tion to the writing of "biographies" of business firms. Since systems

for the retention of archives vary greatly among modern business firms,

it must sometimes be difficult for an author to locate all the source ma-

terial he would like. But if the records of a company exist and are

available, it is likely that Lief has used them all. He presents his story

in a style that is at once readable, enjoyable, and succinct.

It Floats is the 123-year history of Procter and Gamble. The com-

pany was started in a humble manner by two brothers-in-law who ped-

dled candles and soap on the streets of Cincinnati in 1837. They formed

a company which grew slowly at first, having its ups and downs prior

to the Civil War. After the discovery of a pure white floating soap

about 1882, it began to grow rapidly. The advertising and marketing

genius of the firm in those days was Harley Procter, son of one of the

founders. He had been searching for a name for the new white soap,

and inspiration came to him during a church service in a biblical pas-

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BOOK REVIEWS          319

 

sage descriptive of "ivory palaces, redolent with myrrh, aloes and cas-

sia." He siezed upon the word IVORY, and sent a sample to a chemist

for analysis. Soap-makers in those days were often criticized for selling

soap containing somewhat dangerous impurities. The chemist reported

the presence of a small amount of uncombined alkali, carbonates and

mineral matter, totaling .56%. Subtracting this from 100, Procter iso-

lated the scientific fact that P. & G.'s new soap was 99.44% pure. This

became an important part of the advertising and the subsequent success

of this product.

According to legend, Lief says, a machine for mixing soap was left

in operation unintentionally by a worker during his lunch hour. The

paddles had whipped the mixture so that the batch had more air in it

than usual. Some of that batch was packaged through error and got

onto the market. The slogan "It Floats" came from an order for "some

more of that soap that floats."

The author treats many aspects of the business, such as sales policy,

advertising campaigns, the establishment of foreign subsidiaries, finance,

research, and labor relations. P. & G. has a rather remarkable record

with respect to the latter; it was a pioneer in employee relations, profit-

sharing, mass production, and brand-name merchandising. Lief has tied

the history of the company in with the social history of the country,

particularly in manners, customs, and dress. Many of the early adver-

tisements are used as illustrations in the volume.

Familiar product names appear on the pages as you read this fast-

moving story. Camay, Chipso, Duz, Oxydol, Lux, Rinso, Tide, and

Spic and Span are familiar to all. Detergents started with Dreft; then

came Drene. Diversification came in the early days of experimentation

with vegetable oils. Out came Crisco. Later a drug-products division

was formed. Out of the laboratory came a tooth paste. The first one

was called Gleem, and later came Crest. P. & G. created an edible-oil

department, starting with a liquid stabilizer for peanut butter called Fix.

Latest among the subsidiaries is a cellulose-products division manufac-

turing Charmin paper towels. Space does not permit more than a

reference to the radio and TV programs which soap companies began

when the radio broadcasting industry came into being, but the whole

story is here.

The book is attractively bound. The boards are covered with a white

satin-like paper with the word IVORY impressed across the front, so

that lying on a table, the book has the general appearance of a large cake

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320    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

of soap. On the usually blank flyleaf there appears in the upper right-

hand corner in large type: 99.44/100%

Firestone Library and Archives           WILLIAM D. OVERMAN

 

The Civil War, A Narrative: Fort Sumter to Perryville. By Shelby

Foote. (New York: Random House, 1958. 810p.; maps, bibliographi-

cal notes, and index. $10.00.)

The literary bombardment preparatory to the forthcoming centennial

of the Civil War mounts! Confronted, for example, by a book club

devoted to American history which offers no less than five of its eight

current selections from the years 1861-65, the student of history per-

haps needs to be reminded that the history of America encompasses 464

other years too.

The contribution of Mr. Shelby Foote, a novelist and author of an

earlier historical work, Shiloh, is a colorful narrative which attempts

to weave into a consistent whole the far-flung campaigns in Virginia,

the trans-Appalachian area, the Far West, and on the high seas, from

the firing on Fort Sumter through the autumn of 1862. A synthesis of

this kind brings into sharp focus such vital and neglected chapters in

Civil War history as the naval actions which early in the war effectively

sealed the major ports of the Confederacy, and the offensives in the

West which even before Bragg's abortive invasion of Kentucky placed

federal forces firmly astride the major waterways of the rebellious

western states. Viewed from this perspective, the indecisive results

at Perryville and Antietam seem meager reparation for the already des-

perate plight of the rebel cause.

Mr. Foote is at his best when he draws upon his novelist's insight

to present sharply etched portraits of the leaders, both political and

military--but it is a faculty he overtaxes. While a case might be made

that the wounded pride of a McClellan could alter the course of history,

to categorize the actions of vast numbers of men in battle as a response

to the whims or prejudices of a leader (for example, the unrequited

love of A. P. Hill, page 479) is to over-simplify and distort. The "hero"

interpretation of history which the author apparently accepts ignores

vital factors such as manpower, quality of armament, industrial effi-

ciency, transportation, soldier psychology--the sinews of any military

effort.

Since the intent of this book is to tell a story, all scholarly para-

phernalia such as footnotes and a formal bibliography are dispensed with.

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BOOK REVIEWS          321

 

While this may be justified, less acceptable is the uncritical treatment

of some of the perplexing and unresolved controversies of the war.

What of the dispute between Lincoln and McClellan concerning the

number of troops necessary to defend Washington during the Peninsu-

lar campaign, the rift between Polk and Bragg in the Kentucky offen-

sive, McClellan's lack of support of Pope at Second Manassas? While

considerable attention is given to the machinations in England and

France of the envoys Slidell and Mason, one wonders why there is no

mention of that able diplomat, Charles Francis Adams.

The reader who seeks new insight into the military history of the

Civil War must turn elsewhere. Mr. Foote is a facile story teller, but

he is treading, albeit with somewhat broader strides, ground already

traversed by other such gifted narrators as Bruce Catton and Clifford

Dowdey. It is unfortunate that the forthcoming centennial has as yet

produced no writer combining an effective writing style with meticulous

and revealing historical research to follow in the footsteps of Douglas S.

Freeman and Kenneth P. Williams.

San Francisco State College                  JOHN L. SHOVER

 

The Lincoln Nobody Knows. By Richard N. Current. (New York:

McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1958. x??314p.; bibliographical essay

and index. $5.50.)

Abraham Lincoln is in history as he was in life the most enigmatic,

the most controversial, of all our national figures. He is many things

to many men. The Lincoln mystery is the modern version of the six

blind men of Hindustan, inclined at learning, who went to see the

elephant. Their finding was that the great beast, touched in various

places by unseeing hands, is a wall, a rope, a tree, or what have you.

Dr. David Donald of Columbia University, Lincoln authority, recently

illustrated the difference of opinion about Lincoln by pointing out that

to William Lloyd Garrison he was "the chainbreaker for millions of

oppressed," while racist Senator James K. Vardaman of Mississippi

thought his ideas "substantially identical" to his own.

There are numerous phases of Lincoln's life on which even the most

astute scholars disagree. They face these and similar questions: Was

Lincoln the sincere friend of the Negro? What about Ann Rutledge?

What is the truth about him and Mary Todd? Was he a religious man,

and what was his belief? Did Lincoln trigger the Civil War by gouging

the South into firing the first shot? Might not actual civil war have

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322    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

been avoided? Did he possess the genius of a military commander or

did he bungle the campaigns of trained generals? Was he a politician

or a statesman? Was he a tender man or did he use his powers of

clemency for political gain?

Millions of words on both sides of the major controversial points

have been offered in evidence. Now Richard N. Current, an eminently

well-qualified Lincoln scholar and a talented writer, steps up with a

summation and a verdict in his book, The Man Nobody Knows. It is a

poor title but a remarkably fine book.

Professor Current, a teacher of history at the University of North

Carolina, discusses the most controversial subjects of Lincoln's life in

eleven scholarly essays. In his own words, "I advance conclusions of

my own, but only on the understanding that they represent fallible

opinion rather than incontrovertible fact. For my assumption on that,

on issues where competent authorities differ, the questions cannot really

be answered, no matter how positive individual experts may be."

Nonetheless, Dr. Current does come up with some rather conclusive

answers, and they will surprise many a student of the life and times of

the Civil War president. The author does not look at Lincoln in awe,

nor even in wonder; he examines him as a rare specimen. Therein lies

the value of the book.

Whether or not the Lincoln student--and remember that this work

is for the advanced class--agrees with Dr. Current's conclusions, he

will be compelled to admit that this is the best volume of its kind to

date and that it is likely to stand until new evidence in all the areas

discussed is brought to light.

Ohio Historical Society                     ROBERT S. HARPER

 

Stephen A. Douglas: Defender of the Union. By Gerald M. Capers. The

Library of American Biography. (Boston: Little, Brown and Com-

pany, 1959. xi??239p.; bibliographical note and index. $3.50.)

The neglect of Stephen A. Douglas by American biographers and

historians is well known. No man of equal stature in nineteenth-century

political history remains so little known today. Actually, there are many

Douglas biographies, but the number of good biographies is very few.

Only two might be so considered: Allen Johnson's 1908 study, which is

still in many respects the best, and George Fort Milton's Eve of Conflict,

published in 1934, despite its shortcomings, a detailed and valuable ac-

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BOOK REVIEWS          323

 

count of Douglas' later years. Professor Gerald M. Capers has now

added a third volume to this category.

Stephen A. Douglas: Defender of the Union is brief, very general

in its treatment of the facts of Douglas' life, but careful in its analysis of

the role played by Douglas in the sectional conflict. As a selection in

the Library of American Biography series, it was not intended to be a

full treatment of his life, but only an attempt to relate Douglas closely

to his own times. Like most of the studies of Douglas, the larger por-

tion of the book (eight out of ten chapters) deals with the last twelve

years or so of his life. These were the years of greatest significance to

Douglas' career and to his place in American history, and they are the

years for which the source materials dealing with his life are most

abundant.

Douglas was probably the most controversial figure in American

politics during the last decade of his life, and no biographer who chooses

Douglas for his subject can be neutral for long. Capers confides to the

reader his original intention of remaining neutral towards Douglas, an

intention soon abandoned. He has risen to the defense of the Little Giant,

but it is a defense that in this reviewer's opinion is well supported by the

facts. The author adds little that is new to what we know of Douglas'

life (after all, not his purpose); he acknowledges an extensive use of

Milton's study, but goes beyond Milton in his analysis of Douglas' ideas

on the significant issues of his period and of the development of his

national career. To Capers, Douglas' story is a typical "American suc-

cess story when the West was young." He is portrayed as a man of

integrity, sincere, consistent, and devoted to his country and his political

party; yet he had his weaknesses (although these do not receive quite

so much emphasis in the work). A man of high ambition and many

political attainments, Douglas did indeed cram "a lot of living into his

forty-eight years."

The book would have benefited from more careful editing; there

are more errors than should be. The author, for example, has been

careless with names: McLernand for McClernand (p. 121), William

Shannon for Wilson Shannon (p. 131), and the consistent misspelling

of Sheahan. William G. Brown's brief biography of Douglas was pub-

lished in 1902, not 1911 (p. 229). A wider knowledge of the impact

of slavery on the West and of the Kansas struggle would have avoided

some rather questionable statements. For example, the fact that the

census of 1860 listed two slaves for Kansas Territory did not confirm

Douglas' belief that slavery would follow the dictates of nature (p. 108).

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324    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

In 1857, there were an estimated four hundred slaves in Kansas, most

of whom departed with their masters when the Lecompton movement

was defeated. On page 173, the author states that "there were no signs"

that the slavery question would arise in New Mexico and Utah, yet

each territory, after some discussion, acted on the question, in both cases

legalizing it within their boundaries.

While some questions of fact and interpretation might be raised, the

contribution of the book to a deeper understanding of one of America's

most complex political figures remains undisturbed. Professor Capers

has placed us in his debt for this word-picture of Stephen A. Douglas.

University of Illinois                 ROBERT W. JOHANNSEN

 

The White House and Its Thirty-Two Families. By Amy La Follette

Jensen. Howard C. Jensen, Art Editor. (New York: McGraw-Hill

Book Company, 1958. 282p.; illustrations and bibliography. $12.50.)

There have been many books written about the White House and

its occupants, but none for popular appeal can equal this book written

and illustrated by a husband and wife team. It is an extraordinary

book, big, splendidly organized and illustrated, and smoothly written.

Many of the illustrations appear here for the first time.

Mrs. Jensen is the author of one other book--a children's story of

the West, The Pony Express. She was trained as a pianist, but turned

to writing to express her keen interest in American history. Her hus-

band has illustrated many books, and is now executive art director for

the Popular Science Publishing Company.

John Adams was the first president to occupy the White House,

which was being built during the Washington administration from plans

executed by James Hoban, whose drawings are reproduced in the book.

At first the building was known as the "President's House," then as

the Executive Mansion. In 1810 it was first referred to in the press

as the "white house." Nearly a century later, the White House name

became official.

One of the rare illustrations included is the architect Benjamin La-

trobe's version of the fire-blackened walls of the White House after

the British burned it in 1814.

Ohio and Virginia tie for first place in their claims for most occu-

pants of the White House. Ohio's presidential sons were William

Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A.

Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard

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BOOK REVIEWS          325

 

Taft, and Warren G. Harding. The book devotes 86 pages and 119

illustrations to the presidents from Ohio. Photographs taken during

the Benjamin Harrison administration outnumber those of other Ohio

presidents, with the Hayes administration second in number.

Four of the Ohio presidents--William Henry Harrison, Harding,

Garfield, and McKinley--died while occupying the White House, the

latter two by the hands of assassins. A rare photograph of the White

House in mourning following the death of Garfield was furnished by the

Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

Probably the most intimate description of the interior of the White

House was written during the Hayes administration by a newspaper

correspondent, Austine Snead, who wrote under the name of "Miss

Grundy." Miss Snead was from Kentucky, and she was accepted by the

Hayes family over any other correspondent. She was permitted by

President and Mrs. Hayes to write a room-by-room description of the

White House. This description was furnished the author of the book

by the Rutherford B. Hayes Library, where Miss Grundy's letters are

being compiled.

The White House and Its Thirty-Two Families gives rare glimpses

of all the presidents. In it one finds contrast between their public and

private personalities. One finds, too, that often the First Ladies were

more controversial than the husbands.  Between seriousness and

tragedy, there are moments of fun and hilarity--receptions of Mrs.

Hayes's where "water flowed like wine"; President Taft's oversized

bathtub, a picture of which is published; Margaret Truman's attempt to

capture the Lincoln ghost; and the impish pranks of the White House

children.

The book easily meets the author's purpose of a popular account of

the White House and its occupants, and still does not close the door

to a scholarly and fully documented history of it.

Rutherford B. Hayes Library              WATT P. MARCHMAN

 

The American Heritage Book of the Revolution. By the editors of

American Heritage. Editor in charge: Richard M. Ketchum. (New

York: American Heritage Publishing Company, 1958. ³⁸⁴p.; illustra-

tions, maps, and index. $12.50.)

The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution as

Told by Participants. Edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard

B. Morris. (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1958. Two vol-

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326     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

umes. xxxiv??xx??1348p.; illustrations, maps, bibliography, and

index. $15.00.)

American Heritage is established with the lay public as the hallmark

of well written history in popular style and in attractive and well illus-

trated format. It is probably the best of several similar mid-twentieth-

century ventures. It is certainly more extensive in coverage, volume,

and sponsorship than any other contemporary attempt of its kind.

Besides the bimonthly hard-cover magazine, book-length publications

occasionally appear. The Revolution, the abbreviated title used by the

publishers, is one of these.

The Revolution is concerned with the events from the surrender of

the French on the Plains of Abraham in 1759 to the surrender of the

English at Yorktown in 1781. Except for J. H. Plumb's brief intro-

ductory chapter on eighteenth-century England, the text is written by

Bruce Lancaster. The chapters consist of text and sections of slick-

paper illustrations. About one-third of the text is ornamented with

marginal maps, quotations, sketches, and other decorative materials;

there are also some full-page illustrations.  The slick-paper illus-

tration section is interlaced with contextual settings and in some in-

stances is as long or longer than the text itself. In two cases the chapter

has no text section. The illustrative material in this volume takes up a

considerable percentage of the total space.

The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six deals with the period from the Boston

Tea Party to the achievement of the treaty of peace following the

surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Several hundred eyewitnesses

and participants wrote the letters, gave the speeches, made the observa-

tions, kept the faithful diaries, recorded the memoirs, issued the orders,

and pamphleteered the polemics that constitute these two volumes. The

editors include political, social, economic, diplomatic, and intellectual,

as well as the military, phases of the Revolution. Any such undertak-

ing is of necessity selective, not definitive, in its coverage.

The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six is not a body of source material such as

the works of a man or a collection of documents which pertain to a

chosen subject; but it is, instead, a selection of existing records that

best describe incidents, or portray or argue points of view. They are

the grist of history. With the careful introductions and the connective

narration by the editors, the layman can construct his own story of the

Revolution and form his own opinions. From this he can pursue

the subject to greater depth and on a more sophisticated level. To

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BOOK REVIEWS          327

 

that end the bibliography is quite helpful. The volume is well conceived

and executed, and it is worthy of applause that the editors have at least

one subsequent volume, on the Confederation period, in preparation.

Where they overlap in the phases of the American Revolution with

which they are concerned, these two works can be compared. An

example of this is the war in the Old Northwest. In The Revolution,

some six pages of text give a reasonable secondary account of the

exploits of George Rogers Clark. A two-page reproduction of a 1755

Lewis Evans map of the middle colonies, including the Old Northwest,

is too detailed and early to be of much value, but a portion of a 1778

Thomas Hutchins map of the Illinois country is more helpful although

of a very limited area. In The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six, the same topic

is presented in about twenty-five pages of letters, official reports, and

diary excerpts of Clark, Henry Hamilton, David Zeisberger, John

Floyd, William Croghan, and Andrew Steele, with connective explana-

tions by the editors, and a full-page map which clearly delineates the

routes of Clark and Hamilton.

This points out the degree and the method of coverage in the two

works and indicates the more superficial nature of The Revolution.

But such a comparison is not entirely valid because the two are really

different approaches to the same subject--the one is a pictorial history,

and the other is a participant word-picture history. Each has a different

purpose and each accomplishes it rather well. So the two, in a sense,

are complementary works.

Miami University                            DWIGHT L. SMITH

 

The Geology of the Great Lakes. By Jack L. Hough. (Urbana: Uni-

versity of Illinois Press, 1958. xviii??313p.; illustrations, charts, maps,

bibliography, and index. $8.50.)

Between the covers of this compact volume, Dr. Jack L. Hough pre-

sents much fact, inference, and critical thinking on the geology of the

Great Lakes. To the formidable task of assembling, sifting, and analyz-

ing the painfully detailed work of others, and of admixing the results

of his own research, Dr. Hough has applied, with diligence and care,

his experience as geologist, author, and editor.

The book is divided into two parts. In Part I ("The Great Lakes

Region: The Present Lakes and Pre-Lake History. Methods of Dating

Events of Lake History"), Dr. Hough discusses the topographic and

geologic setting of the modern Great Lakes; the chemistry, thermal

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328    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

stratification, and movement of lake water; the sediments of the lakes;

their preglacial and glacial history, in summary; and the dating of known

significant events in the history of the region. This part of the book is

addressed chiefly to the non-geologist, but here the geologist will find

many gateways to further thinking and reading.

In Part II ("History of Lake Stages"), Professor Hough presents

a technical but refreshingly concise treatment of the history of the lake

stages. He comments critically on the evidence and reasoning of other

workers, particularly Leverett and Taylor, and introduces ideas stem-

ming from his own research. Several of his spirited criticisms of some

of the work of Leverett and Taylor suggest more the zeal of the prose-

cutor than the calm detachment of the jurist. Perhaps this approach is

warranted; its expression in lively prose will stimulate readers of all

shades of taste and opinion.

The organization of Part II helps to clarify a complex history

which, in many other presentations, looms as such a colossal tangle of

events that the senses dull and interest flags before the excitement of

comprehension and synthesis can be won. Since the histories of each of

the lake basins, prior to the time of Lake Algonquin, are essentially

independent of each other, Dr. Hough treats these histories separately.

From the time of Lake Algonquin some of the lake basins had common

stages; for this part of the story Dr. Hough's basic organization is in

terms of successive stages, not in terms of lake basins. The history of

the Ontario basin is treated in a separate chapter.

Parts I and II complement each other, particularly for the reader

interested in Part II. The reviewer wonders, however, how far the

non-specialist will progress into Part II before being defeated by its

level of presentation, in spite of its excellent organization and the prior

preparation provided by Part I. As compact as this volume is, it is

entirely possible that with minor changes each of the two parts could

have been published successfully as a separate small book, thereby pro-

viding the non-specialist with a choice to which he is entitled in this day

of expensive books.

Chapter 2, "The Lake Water," and Chapter 3, "Sediments of the

Great Lakes," cover much material in a small amount of space, but they

do not include some rather significant data (viz., hindcast wave energies,

details of littoral drift, detailed data on currents and bottom sediments)

available in published and unpublished sources. These omissions do not

invalidate any of the ideas presented, but the inclusion of such data

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BOOK REVIEWS          329

 

would increase the book's usefulness as a source of reference material for

all categories of readers.

It is hoped that later editions will include an author index, either

in combination with the subject index, or as part of the bibliography.

The illustrations and tables in the present volume are, in general, clear

and quite useful. The bibliography is extensive.

Many people will be justifiably grateful to Dr. Hough for having

written this book. Certainly it will be a much-used desk reference for

many people, including the reviewer.

Ohio State University                       HOWARD J. PINCUS

 

Schoolcraft's Expedition to Lake Itasca: The Discovery of the Source

of the Mississippi.  Edited by Philip P. Mason. (East Lansing:

Michigan State University Press, 1959. xxvi??390p.; end-paper maps,

appendices, bibliography, and index. $7.50.)

Philip Mason, historian and archivist at Wayne University, Detroit,

Michigan, has brought together in this volume the important materials

relating to the expedition led by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Indian agent

at Sault Ste. Marie, in 1832 into the Indian country on the upper

Mississippi. These materials include Schoolcraft's Narrative of an Ex-

pedition Through the Upper Mississippi to Itasca Lake, his Exploratory

Trip Through the St. Croix and Burntwood (or Brule) Rivers, official

instructions and reports, correspondence, newspaper articles, and the

daily journals of other members of the expedition. Dr. Douglass Hough-

ton was the expedition physician and was interested in natural history;

the Rev. William T. Boutwell, a Presbyterian missionary, was interested

in the possibilities of establishing missions in the region, and was invited

along to view it by his personal friend, Schoolcraft; and Lieutenant

James Allen was detailed to be the commander of the military escort for

the expedition, and, in addition, was instructed to collect information on

the topographic and geographic features of the area as well as data on

native groups. Most of Allen's map is also reproduced here on the end

papers. Some of these materials have been published, at least in part,

elsewhere, either shortly after the expedition (as were Schoolcraft's

Narrative and Allen's Journal and the newspaper articles), or, more

recently (as was some of the correspondence, in the series of Territorial

Papers, edited by Clarence E. Carter). To these documents Mason has

added comments and notes, identifying individuals and obscure refer-

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330    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

ences, and pointing out some of the differences in the several journals

and letters on particular points. He has also added a useful index.

As Mason indicates, Schoolcraft failed in his official mission, that of

making a lasting peace between the contesting Chippewa and Sioux

Indians. He also points out that Schoolcraft's statements about events

must sometimes be taken at less than face value, as in his later version

of the naming of Lake Itasca. Mason includes, too, material on School-

craft's leaving Lieutenant Allen behind in questionable circumstances.

Rightfully, however, Mason shows that Schoolcraft was a man of some

scope and imagination, and deserves credit for his capabilities. The chief

results of the expedition were the increased knowledge of the peoples, of

the topography and geography, and of the natural history of the upper

Mississippi region. The general region of the source of the Mississippi

River had been known for some time, and Lake Itasca had been well

known by the Indians, French, and other early travelers in the region

as Lac la Biche or Elk Lake. To the Schoolcraft expedition, however,

does belong the credit for calling the precise source of the river to

general attention. Another contribution of the expedition was the vac-

cinating by Houghton of 2,070 Chippewa Indians against the dreaded

smallpox disease.

As a result of working with Schoolcraft's information on Indians,

both in the Narrative and in other published and manuscript sources, I

am perhaps less inclined than Mr. Mason to view with tolerance School-

craft's poetic imagination and artful arrangement of information. Mason

has rendered a service to historians and other scholars by providing here

the ballast of related materials on the expedition to correct such bias.

This volume is an essential one to add to any Minnesota, Michigan,

or Wisconsin regional or historical library collection.

Indiana University                            DOROTHY LIBBY

 

My Partner, The River: The White Pine Story on the Susquehanna.

By R. Dudley Tonkin. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press,

1958. xii??²76p.; illustrations, appendices, glossary, and index. $6.00.)

The author of this volume was raised in the Susquehanna Valley and

worked in the woods there during his earlier years. While he no doubt

has relied a great deal upon his memory of those days gone by in writing

this book, it also is very evident that he has devoted considerable time

and effort to locating and utilizing original source material, much of

which is still in private possession. He is to be commended for under-

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BOOK REVIEWS          331

 

taking and completing a task which many "old-timers" talk about doing

but seldom actually do.

The book traces the development of white pine logging in the Susque-

hanna Valley from the late 1830's through the turn of the century. In

relating this story, the author has told how the river, and the forest

growing on its shores, contributed to the economic development of the

valley and the state of Pennsylvania. It is, however, more than a mere

recital of bare economic facts and the results accruing therefrom. Also

included are several heart-warming and at times penetrating sketches

of individuals and families who lived and worked in the valley. Since

the author has had first-hand experience in logging, it is no surprise that

his description of the equipment and processes used in the woods during

his time are excellent.

The most glaring fault in the volume is the great diversity in chapter

size. While Chapters 3 and 14 are not even three full pages in length,

Chapter 6 is fifty-five pages. Chapter 2 is merely a reprinting of the

Boom Charter of 1846, enacted by the Pennsylvania legislature, and

could very well have been included in the appendix. The lack of foot-

notes and bibliography will be frustrating to those professional historians

who read the book, although most will be grateful for the glossary which

is included. A detailed map of the river valley would have been very

useful, as would have been the inclusion of page references to the

illustrations.

Although Mr. Tonkin's work is not a great contribution to national

historical scholarship, it is one of the better examples of amateur local

histories and is of unquestionable value to one who desires to gain fur-

ther knowledge and a deeper understanding of the region's history.

Ohio Historical Society                    BRUCE C. HARDING

 

The Unmarried Sisters. By Dale Fife. (New York: Farrar, Straus

and Cudahy, 1958. 208p.; illustrations. $3.50.)

The Unmarried Sisters continues the story of Shatzie Houck's volatile

Alsatian family with whom we became acquainted in Weddings in the

Family by the same author. In the latter work Mama Houck, who was

militantly French, yet spoke with a German accent, was continually

occupied in establishing her sisters and brothers in Toledo after their

trek from the old country. Now the domestic and business affairs of

Uncles Theofil, Bertie, et al., are in good order, and Mama must take

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332    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

on the more difficult task of guiding the second generation which is

without attachment to, or memories of, the old country.

A dissonant note appears in the traditional harmony of those days

when all the relatives gathered on one of the uncle's farms for butcher-

ing and the sauerkraut stomp. Helene, eldest of the Houck girls, goes

off to a football game and makes a date for the movies.

"How are we to know what is right in this country?" Mama asks.

"What are we to say to Helene when she tells us 'but everyone is going.'

. . . In Alsace there was protection in the set order of tradition."

Papa is not Alsatian, but German, and of a more philosophical turn

of mind. "This is a new country," he tells Mama. "People worship the

new for they have not had time for tradition. In the old country parents

are revered. Here the parents revere the children." He concludes

that common sense is the only guide, for it works well in the new

country and the old.

The Houck daughters evidently fared well under this philosophy.

In unhappy contrast is little Electra across the street, who is being

raised "twentieth century." She wanders from one crepe-bedecked house

to the next in quest of the truth about what happens to grandmothers

who "pass." At an Irish wake, surrounded by strangers, she learns that

"our grandmothers are well situated and getting ready to welcome us."

To Shatzie Houck who trooped along with Electra there was no riddle.

People simply died. The life cycle was as plain as that of Houck's

clematis vine. But Electra's mother considered this pure barbarism.

The Houcks were progressive. Despite tearful and fearful remon-

strances from the relatives, Papa picked up his railroad passes and took

his brood all the way across the country to California. Their trip to

the bottom of Grand Canyon is one of the most hilarious passages in

the book.

The family returns to Toledo to find that world unrest has crept

into their very parlor, when on a Sunday afternoon German uncles and

Alsatian uncles argue heatedly about the Kaiser and German atrocities.

But love and marriage go on. Helene becomes engaged--in the

American way with a diamond ring. But the first generation wishes her

well with the singing of "Du, du liegst mir in herzen"--because the sec-

ond generation does not really know what a good love song is, says

Uncle Florival.

Toledo, Ohio                             KATHRYN M. KELLER

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BOOK REVIEWS          333

 

The Family Saga and Other Phases of American Folklore. By Mody

C. Boatright, Robert B. Downs, and John T. Flanagan. (Urbana:

University of Illinois Press, 1958. ix??65p.; illustrations and bibliog-

raphy. $2.50.)

The three pieces brought together here under a somewhat loose-

fitting title were given as special lectures at the University of Illinois

Library School in 1958. The first two of them, "The Family Saga as

a Form of Folklore" and "Apocryphal Biology: A Chapter in American

Folklore," probably lose something by being reduced to print, for their

respective authors, Mody C. Boatright and Robert B. Downs, are skill-

ful raconteurs as well as able scholars. The third, Professor John T.

Flanagan's "Folklore in American Literature," suffers less as it is less

anecdotal. All three pieces are stimulating and informative, and it is

good to have them between covers.

Professor Boatright defines his subject as "lore that tends to cluster

about families, or often the patriarchs or matriarchs of families, which is

preserved and modified by oral transmission, and which is believed to be

true." As he notes, stories about the missing family jewels, unclaimed

legacies awaiting Americans in foreign lands, and grandpa's motives

for settling in Texas raise fascinating problems of form, motif, and re-

lation to actuality. Some of his readers will certainly be moved to

follow his suggestion that they investigate their own family sagas. In

so doing they will doubtless discover how much light a type of lore

which now lies disregarded and practically in their own backyards casts

upon social history.

Professor Downs in his "Apocryphal Biology" covers both flora and

fauna, discussing out-sized pumpkins, potatoes, watermelons, and corn,

as well as fearsome creatures like the augerino, the cactus cat, the gilly-

galoo, the goofus, the hodag, the hoop-snake, the mosquitobee, the Piasa

Bird, the ratchet owl, the sidehill gouger, the snipe, the squonk, the

wampus cat, and the whickle. Since he has given us so much, it seems

churlish to chide him for what he leaves out, but he really should have

mentioned two beasts famed in both oral and written tradition: the

highbehind and the whangdoodle.

Professor Flanagan indicates the obligations which writers like Mel-

ville, Mark Twain, Cable, and Faulkner owe to folklore. His thesis

is that "folklore in American literature is almost as old as folklore in

American life," and he proves it handily. For those who wish to pursue

the subject further, he provides a list of references.

Western Reserve University                    GEORGE KUMMER

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