Ohio History Journal

BOOK  REVIEWS

ULYSSES S, GRANT CHRONOLOGY. By John Y. Simon. Introduction by Bruce Cat- ton. (Columbus: Ohio Historical So- ciety for the Ulysses S. Grant Associa- tion and the Ohio Civil War Centennial Commission, 1963. 39p. Paper, $1.50.) Historians long have experienced diffi- culty assessing Ulysses S. Grant's true role in American history. A complex man, Grant was a product of his times, a man possessed of both the strengths and the weaknesses of the age. For years the fame of Lincoln and Lee overshadowed that of the quiet soldier. Then World War II shattered the overt optimism of earlier generations and remolded value judg- ments to a modern age. Grant's reputa- tion profited by the change, and scholars began to give more sympathetic atten- tion to the stumpy little general, whose drinking habits and tragic years in the presidency too long overshadowed the fact that he was also one of the great Americans. In Ulysses S. Grant Chronology, Pro- fessor John Y. Simon continues the task so ably begun by the late Lloyd Lewis and carried on by Bruce Catton, of bring- ing into focus the life of the complicated commander of northern armies. This publication, one of several by the Ohio Historical Society commemorating the Civil War, is a preliminary to a larger work, to be published soon, the complete writings of "this gifted American sol- dier." This new work, described as a "definitive edition" of Grant's writings by Bruce Catton, will be published under the auspices of the recently organized

Ulysses S. Grant Association, with Pro- fessor Simon as chief editor. Chronology is a short, well-organized account of the important dates and events in Grant's hectic life. The author chooses his details well and uses excellent quota- tions from Grant's writings to illustrate both the man's personality and his gen- eral style of writing. There are pithy remarks revealing Grant's serious side, as when the general speaks of the Shiloh carnage--"possible to walk across the clearing, in any direction, stepping on dead bodies"--and others that show a humorous side--"The reason I voted for Buchanan was that I knew Fremont." Weakness in the book naturally comes from dearth of detail. One misses, in the author's sketchy outline, such things as the importance of Grant's personal plan- ning in the Henry-Donelson campaign, the seriousness of his struggle with Henry W. Halleck, and the growing friendship between the general and President Lin- coln. The short work adds little if any- thing to the able scholarship of Catton and the Williamses. Despite its short- comings this book serves two important functions. It properly commemorates the life of a great general, probably Ohio's greatest; and it is a summary guide to the most important dates and events in Grant's life, a guide that may be used to advantage after the publication of the Grant papers. Some reference must also be made to the brief introduction by Bruce Catton. More an introduction to the papers them- selves, Catton praises Grant's style of

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writing. Though he does not refute Ver- non Parrington's "bale of hay" concept, he does credit Grant with a definite style, a style, says Catton, "many a professional writing man might like to have."   ROBERT HARTJE Wittenberg University     YANKEE IN GRAY: THE CIVIL WAR MEMOIRS OF HENRY E. HANDERSON, WITH A SE- LECTION OF HIS WARTIME LETTERS. Biographical introduction by Clyde Lottridge Cummer. (Cleveland: Press of Western Reserve University, 1962. vii??132p. $6.50.) Dr. Henry E. Handerson lies buried in an unpretentious grave near the Gothic entrance to Cleveland's Woodland Ceme- tery. Once a prominent physician in the city, a scholar devoted to the history of medicine, and one of the founders of the Cleveland Medical Library Association and Academy of Medicine, he was long remembered in his profession as a tall, slender, distinguished gentleman with a white beard, black skullcap, and Prince Albert coat. Handerson's earlier military career is recovered in his remarkable Civil War memoirs and in letters to his sister and foster father in Cleveland from field camps and three prison compounds. An Ohioan employed as a tutor in Louisiana when the war broke out, Handerson elected to enlist with his friends in the Confederate army, in which he fought and served loyally as a staff officer to the end. In his memoirs he emerges as "a fiery, youthful Confederate officer, lead- ing a charge at a run up-hill over fallen logs and brush, sounding the 'Rebel yell,' leaping a hedge and alighting in a ten- foot ditch among Federal troopers who surrounded him and his comrades." He escaped, fought in other engagements, was dangerously wounded in the neck, and was eventually captured in the Wil- derness and imprisoned at Fort Delaware. Written a generation after the occur- rences they describe, the memoirs have a

literary polish unusual among Civil War reminiscences. Handerson's imagination undoubtedly embellishes the narrative. Yet his extant wartime letters, thirty-four of which are printed with his memoirs, prove him to be a keen, frank, and objec- tive observer of the southern society and personalities he knew as a civilian and captain. A few maps and more pictures should highlight the text in such an expensive book. The volume is handsomely printed, meticulously edited, and free from print- ing errors. It will appeal to the general reader and Civil War buff alike. KENNETH E. DAVISON Heidelberg College     MORRISON R. WAITE: THE TRIUMPH OF CHARACTER. By C. Peter Magrath. (New York: Macmillan Company, 1963. viii??334p.; illustrations, bibli- ography, and index. $10.00.) Of the three Ohioans who have acted as the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, Morrison R. Waite, the seventh chief justice, who served be- tween 1874 and 1888, is probably the least known. That is not to say that his career has gone unnoticed, as Mr. Bruce R. Trimble has examined his life and constitutional doctrine in a doctoral dis- sertation (1934) and a book, Chief Jus- tice Waite, Defender of the Public Inter- est (1938). Moreover, Felix Frankfurter, who considered his judicial efforts to be "enveloped in neglect" gave careful at- tention to some aspects of his work in his The Commerce Clause Under Mar- shall, Taney and Waite (1937), as has Charles Fairman (one of the ablest stu- dents of the court) in his study of Mr. Justice Miller and the Supreme Court, 1862-1890 (1939). Now comes a new book, in which the writer, a political scientist presently teaching at Brown Uni- versity, attempts a new interpretation made possible by the availability of some new materials and the widening literature on the judicial process. The net result

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of his effort is a vividly drawn picture of Morrison R. Waite as a jurist and a useful and interesting analysis of the work of the court in the seventh and eighth dec- ades of the last century. During this period the court had the difficult task: (1) of interpreting the measures that ended Reconstruction and establishing new working relationships between North and South for a people eager to forget sectional strife; (2) of assimilating the war amendments into the body of traditional constitutional law, while assisting the recently emancipated Negro to find his way in a white man's world; and (3) of reviewing the legal measures that were being worked out for the regulation of economic life in a rapidly industrializing America. Prob- lems such as these could challenge the best efforts of the greatest of American judges, and there seemed to be little in the background or experience of Morri- son R. Waite to prepare him for a test of this magnitude. Born in a Connecticut village in 1816, the son of a lawyer and judge, he was graduated from Yale College in 1837, read law with his father for one year, then settled down in northwestern Ohio, where he engaged in the general practice of law from 1838 to 1874. During this period he also worked steadily for the Whig and Republican parties; ran un- successfully for congress on two occa- sions; served one term each in the state legislature and the Toledo City Council; and in 1873 was elected to the Ohio Con- stitutional Convention, of which body he became president. His only public service outside of the state was as one of the three legal representatives appointed by Presi- dent Grant in 1871 to present the Ameri- can case against Great Britain before the Geneva Tribunal of Arbitration for war damages suffered from the actions of the Alabama and other Confederate raiders. When he came to the chief justiceship in 1874 as Grant's fifth, or possibly sev- enth, choice, he had received less public recognition than any man who ever

came to that office with the exception of Melville Fuller. Moreover, he took his seat among such well-known judges as Miller, Field, Bradley, Davis, Swayne, Clifford, and Strong, several of whom (Miller and Swayne at least) felt that the chief justiceship should have gone to them, and at a time when the court was held in low esteem by the public. Under these circumstances, the work of Waite in reestablishing the prestige of a court made up of powerful personalities of widely varying temperaments and habits, and in guiding the court through a difficult period of social and economic adjustment with very little public disap- proval, not only constitutes a notable achievement but in view of the signifi- cance of the court's decisions affecting civil rights, corporate control, and eco- nomic regulation, gives credence to the writer's final judgment that "Morrison Waite has been a vastly underrated figure in American Constitutional history." In broad terms, the writer sees the work of Waite and his court as largely a task of consolidation and conciliation. Eschewing extreme interpretation, its de- cisions in cases in the civil rights field stood for the proposition that, although secession was a dead doctrine, the basic relationship between the states and the federal government remained much as it had been before the war. Thus the states continued to have primary jurisdiction over the behavior of their citizens. In cases in the economic area, the court, following doctrines that go back to Mar- shall's day, held that the public authori- ties were amply endowed with power to regulate the powerful new economic en- terprises that were emerging. In the writer's view even the Munn case, the landmark case of the Waite period, was a consolidating not a revolutionary doc- trine, since as Justice Bradley's research indicated, the history of the English com- mon law as well as American experience in the eighteenth and nineteenth centu- ries reveals a history of economic regula- tion. The decisions in the civil rights

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cases suggest that the Waite court was concerned not only with consolidation, as opposed to innovation, but with con- ciliation as well. Running through all of Waite's work is a conception of judicial self-abnegation that in some significant ways is more closely in line with that of Holmes, Bran- deis, Hand, and Frankfurter than the conceptions of those who favor a more active role for the court. To Waite, who had spent the larger part of his life in the "frontier democracy" of Ohio where men were building a vigorous new com- monwealth, there could be no doubt as to the capacities of his fellow citizens for self-government. Had he not seen them establish entirely new cities in the swamp lands of northwestern Ohio, and had not the institutions which they had created to provide order and promote welfare grown stronger through the years. It is perhaps not strange then that Waite's views often reflect his simple faith that the people know their own interests and can best achieve them through representatives of their own choosing, in legislative bodies. Waite also thought that judges should be slow to move in making policy choices that verged on the law-making process. Where judges were compelled to make law in the process of interpreting it (as Hoadly says they inevitably must), Waite strongly urged them to move with circum- spection, feeling their way cautiously, and, above all, to avoid making "too much law at once." For Waite, who be- lieved in the people, did not think it nec- essary for some "elite," whether it be an "aristocracy of the robe" or otherwise, to become the guardian of their liberties, their preceptor, or their decision-maker. This book draws a clear picture of a man who had a great respect for the peo- ple, for the high court in which he served, and for the judicial office. He worked hard to be a good judge and to the limits of his powers he succeeded. Although his opinions do not show the legal learning of a Bradley, or the style of a Holmes, Cardozo, or Frankfurter of a later day,

or even of a Field, Miller, or Harlan of his own day, they do reflect the qualities of the good lawyer that he was, in their emphasis on conciseness, on logical con- struction, and on factual realities. In his management of the administrative duties of the court, as in other aspects of his judicial work, he reflects his high-minded conceptions of the judicial role. The qualities of character which he brought to his work are worthy of the considera- tion of every judge. The writer of this book has worked hard to give us this picture of Ohio's least known chief jus- tice, and his efforts are to be commended. FRANCIS R. AUMANN Ohio State University   INDIANA HOUSES OF THE NINETEENTH CEN- TURY. By Wilbur D. Peat. (Indian- apolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1962. xiv??195p.; illustrations and index. $12.50.) ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE OF EVANSVILLE: AN INTERPRETIVE REVIEW OF THE NINE- TEENTH CENTURY. By Howard E. Wooden. (Evansville, Ind.: Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, 1962. vi??78p.; illustrations. $1.00.) Indiana Houses is the impressive result of a survey of Indiana architecture in the nineteenth century begun by the Indiana Historical Society about twelve years ago and accomplished through the voluntary assistance of many persons throughout the state. It is a handsome book, written and compiled by the competent director of the John Herron Art Museum, Indian- apolis, prepared and published under grants from Lilly Endowment, Inc., and designed, printed, and bound by the Lake- side Press. This volume makes a distinctive con- tribution to the cultural history of Indi- ana. Moreover, because Indiana's archi- tecture is similar to that of other states, particularly those of the Old Northwest, this study can serve as an admirable guide to the domestic architectural designs and transitions of Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

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Mr. Peat introduces his work with a brief discussion of the importance of un- derstanding our architectural heritage. "Architecture," he points out, "like paint- ing, music, and poetry, is basically de- sign. A building is a symphony of shapes and lines, lights and shadows, textures and colors, combined to bring to the eyes of the observer distinct aesthetic experi- ences. Sometimes these elements unite to create a sober, quiet impression; at other times they produce a restless, lively one. Some houses are unassuming and modest; others are pompous and arrogant. Some suggest intimacy; others express aloof- ness." The significance of the historical study of architecture is that it relates architectural design to the lives, tastes, and interests of a people at particular periods in their history. With this in mind, the author proceeds to describe and illustrate (there are 193 photographs and numerous drawings) Indiana's architectural movements, begin- ning with the Federal or Early Republi- can (1800-1840), which reflected the new spirit of national independence, and ad- vancing through the Classical Revival (1835-50), which revealed an interest in Greek and Roman antiquities and a sym- pathy for the Greek struggle for inde- pendence and satisfied the need of simple, symmetrical, and relatively inexpensive construction; the Gothic Revival (1845- 60), which was motivated in part by writings, such as Scott's novels, on the Middle Ages, and which, with its steep roofs, tall pointed gables, and ornamental bargeboards, expressed the freer spirit that the developing American economy could afford; the Italianate (1845-70), which attempted to reproduce the beauty and elegance of the Italian Renaissance and through which the American archi- tects sought "to achieve comfort and liva- bility along with informality and a degree of picturesqueness"; the French Imperial or French Second Empire (1865-80), which, with its commodious structure, mansard roof, ornamental dormer win-

dows, and other details, satisfied the needs of rising businessmen for imposing homes; the Neo-Jacobean (1875-90), which, though based on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English models, fur- thered American striving for originality and picturesqueness; and the Roman- esque Revival (1875-98), which, inspired by French medieval chateaux and abbeys, produced homes for the "new rich" that were "large, bold, and ponderous" and too formidable for successful domestic architecture. Mr. Wooden's Architectural Heritage of Evansville is comparable to Indiana Houses, but with specific application to a local community. In this instance the author gives more attention to the local economy and the availability of construc- tion materials. He also expands his anal- ysis to include public and business archi- tecture. This volume traces the architectural patterns in the nineteenth century as does Indiana Houses, but devotes greater dis- cussion to the Italianate movement, which is broken down into the Tuscan Revival, the Neo-Renaissance style, and the Lom- bard Romanesque mode. He also expands upon the later French, or Richardson, Romanesque, and suggests that its devo- tion to a relationship of structure and function makes it the first modern move- ment in American architecture. This book- let deserved better treatment than it got in publication and in the illustrations of Evansville structures. Some differences between the two treat- ments are worthy of note. Mr. Peat finds beauty and value in all phases of nineteenth-century architecture and ex- presses no concern over the varied results; Mr. Wooden, on the other hand, is troubled by the "hodge podge of Victori- anism" produced by the "flair for being different" that influenced architectural style during most of the century. Thus, he finds that the American "Main Street" is still essentially Victorian and that the grip of Victorianism on our architecture tends

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to inflict archaic designs and forms on "a radically changed mode of human exist- ence. A second difference between the two books lies in the use of terms and the treatment of sources of styles. These dis- crepancies suggest that it may be about time for architectural historians to get to- gether to determine origins and standard- ize the definitions of terms. These are instructive books which should offer suggestions for comparable studies in the cultural history of many other states and local communities. JAMES H. RODABAUGH Kent State University       A HISTORY OF INDIANA LITERATURE, WITH EMPHASIS ON THE AUTHORS OF IMAGI- NATIVE WORKS WHO COMMENCED WRIT- ING PRIOR TO WORLD WAR II. By Arthur W. Shumaker. Indiana Historical Col- lections, Volume XLII. (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1962. xii ??611p.; frontispiece and index. Cloth, $7.50; also available from Indiana His- torical Society in paper cover, $3.50.) If this long, detailed chronicle was to be produced at all, it probably required a native son so devoted to the cause of Indiana authorship that his survey would be, as this one is, predictably long on loyalty and short on criticism. While this History does not shrink, when absolutely necessary, from calling a third-rate author a second-rate one, its literary valuations are very kind ones, being overly re- spectful of mere popularity and mere Hoosierness. Despite this, it will be useful to readers who want, under a single cover, a fact- packed account of the awesome fecundity of Indiana bookmaking over the years. An introduction explains the grounds for winnowing a possible 1,563 authors down to a workable list of 142--none of them, to be quite truthful, a literary man to be compared with America's best. Such inclusiveness is justified, however, pre- cisely because no one but a professional

Hoosier has heard of eighty-five percent of these local literati. The introduction also speculates as to why it is that litera- ture has (in a more or less arresting phrase) "gushed from the well springs of Indiana . . . nearly as regularly as corn and cut limestone." Spanning 150 years, the History is divided into three eras: "Early Litera- ture" covers (in 200 pages) books from 1821 to 1870. It is the most interesting and useful chunk of the survey because it reports on primitive and obscure volumes now inaccessible, and perhaps unreadable. The second section, titled "The Golden Age," covers (in 300 pages) authors from Edward Eggleston through Booth Tark- ington. The last section deals (in 80 pages) with the "afterglow"--two dozen writers since 1920, some still at work. A fuller table of contents would have been helpful in showing the ground to be covered in each of these sections, but an admirably detailed index of over 1,200 entries steers the reader to any given author or title. Since this tome was the product of a single man and not a team, it is under- standable that it is heavily derivative. A synthesis of previous compilations and studies, some of them excellent, some not, it conscientiously acknowledges its debt in footnotes on nearly every page. But in retailing second-hand critical opinions it sometimes perpetuates unsound or out- moded ones. If the History tends to drag heavily ("The next author to be considered...") through shoals of very small fish, it perks up whenever it deals with that presumed Hoosier specialty, folksy humor. Thus it is at its best when it deals with George Ade and Kin Hubbard--except for the puzzling diagnoses that Ade's wit is "con- sistently Hoosier," whatever that is, and that Hubbard's humor "is, of course, Middle Western." Less cryptic, but also provincial, is the boast that Indiana developed no "syn- thetic intellectual centers such as Green- wich Village," or that a book called The

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Bears of Blue River (1901) by Charles Major, "the Sir Walter Scott of his town" (Shelbyville), is "still popular." As a literary work itself, the History leaves something to be desired, especially in style. The wheels of fortune spin, and characters returned from death's door leap into life in novels (speedily penned) which on maiden voyages on the perilous seas of literature bear away laurels, make signal contributions, thrill the young in heart, and carve a niche in the halls of fame. But if the cliche fallout is rather alarm- ing, it is not fatal, for the History is not meant to be read through but rather to be referred to. And as a reference book not likely to be superseded, it is a welcome addition to the annals of the Midwest. JAMES B. STRONKS University of Illinois (Chicago)       THE ROAD TO NORMALCY: THE PRESIDEN- TIAL CAMPAIGN AND ELECTION OF 1920. By Wesley M. Bagby. Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, Series LXXX, Num- ber 1.   (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1962. 206p.; bibliography and index. $5.50.) The election of 1920 has gone down in American political mythology as the tri- umph of wicked reaction over noble idealism. Any schoolboy can recite how Harding was picked in the famous "smoke-filled room." These myths were not manufactured out of whole cloth. The election did reveal the once-flourishing progressive movement in eclipse. And the outcome did foreclose any possibility of this country's participation in the League of Nations. Yet the accepted picture is misleading. In this book Wesley M. Bagby of the history department at West Virginia Uni- versity clears away many of the myths surrounding the election. Perhaps his most significant contribution is his explo- sion of the "smoke-filled room" myth. Harding was, he shows, not a "dark

horse" but one of the leading early con- tenders, the favorite of the rank-and-file professional politicians who made up the convention, and the logical candidate when the other front-runners -- Wood, Johnson, and   Lowden -- faltered.  He further shows that some of the old-guard leaders who participated in the famed conference were using Harding as a stalking-horse to block Wood and hoped to throw the nomination to Republican National Chairman Will Hays. But their attempt failed in the face of Harding's popularity with the rank-and-file dele- gates. "To insist," Mr. Bagby concludes, "that a small group of men imposed a candidate on the convention is 'melo- drama.' " Equally illuminating is Mr. Bagby's account of the contest for the Democratic nomination. Despite his illness, Wilson himself was angling for a third nomina- tion. His refusal to withdraw his name and the all-too-evident signs of his recep- tivity to--indeed, positive desire for--the nomination left his heir apparent William G. McAdoo "in a state of tortured inde- cision." Wilson's ambitions, McAdoo's failure to give leadership to his support- ers, and the rivalry between McAdoo and Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer allowed the anti-Wilson forces within the Democratic party led by the big-city bosses to put over James M. Cox. With Cox's nomination, Mr. Bagby writes, "the Democratic party had undergone a reac- tion to the right." The election was not the "solemn refer- endum" on the league that Wilson had demanded. "Harding had whittled the league issue so fine," Mr. Bagby points out, "that many were unable to see any real difference between the two parties." Nor was there any clear-cut and decisive difference in the domestic programs of the two candidates. Thus the Democratic de- feat was foreshadowed from the first-- although the Republican leaders were, in the earlier phases of the campaign at least, not as confident as Mr. Bagby sug- gests. The host of irritants and discon-

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tents incident to the war and its aftermath had produced an overwhelming demand for a change--and Warren G. Harding was its beneficiary. Mr. Bagby has written an able and valuable monograph. His research is sound and extensive. He would have profited from looking at the Lowden papers, although he has made skillful use of the biography by William T. Hutchin- son. More serious is his failure to consult the Will Hays Papers in the Indiana State Library. And he would have found J. Joseph Huthmacher's Massachusetts Peo- ple and Politics most illuminating on the Republican appeal to ethnic groups dis- affected over the Versailles treaty. The entire treatment of the election campaign is perfunctory and unimaginative -- a weakness compounded by stilted writing. These criticisms notwithstanding, the book is the best available study of the election of 1920. Its major shortcoming is that Mr. Bagby himself has fallen victim to the myth that the war destroyed progres- sivism. "With the war," he concludes, "had arisen a spirit antithetical to the progressive humanitarianism of the pre- war years. . . . A war won in the name of ideals had set in motion forces which undermined progressivism." On the con- trary, I would suggest that progressivism was the victim of its own limitations. The progressives wished no radical alteration in the existing framework of American society. They aimed no more than to tinker here and there to remove the worst --or at least the most conspicuous-- abuses. By 1916 the progressive move- ment reached the limits of what most progressives were disposed to accept--and had gone beyond those of many of the T.R. stripe. Even before the war, progres- sivism was on the wane. JOHN BRAEMAN Brooklyn College       TEAPOT DOME: OIL AND POLITICS IN THE 1920's.  By Burl Noggle.    (Baton

Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1962. ix??233p.; illustrations, bibliographical note, and index. $6.00.) The Teapot Dome story concerns Ohio mainly because it concerns President Warren G. Harding. Noggle's contribu- tion to this part of the story is minimal. This is not his fault, because the Harding presidential papers have been closed to the public. Noggle shows that conserva- tionists Gifford Pinchot and Henry A. Slattery got to Harding first in regard to forest conservation and, therefore, cap- tured the president's mind on that subject. And, of course, everybody knows that anti-conservationist Albert B. Fall got to Harding first in regard to the oil reserves and, therefore, captured the presidential mind on that subject. Moreover, as Noggle puts it, there has been no conclu- sive proof that "Harding . . . knowingly touched a dishonest dollar." As for Harding's guilt by association with and overtrust of Fall, there is also no new knowledge. Unfortunately, Noggle adopts the conventional anti-Harding putty-man thought pattern. Thus Hard- ing's utterances on conservation are said to be characterized by "opacity," the president is said to be guilty of "perhaps fleeing from decision," and John D. Hicks's opinion is endorsed to the effect that the slanting of government policy in the 1920's to the support of business "was far more scandalous than the merely po- litical depravity for which the Harding regime was noted." Noggle's reflections on Harding are too often supported by citations from the bland, after-the-fact opinionating of William Allen White. Unfortunately, Noggle has missed three important and very relevant bits that would help normalize the relation of Harding to Fall and Teapot Dome. One is the demonstration by John A. Lloyd that Fall was endorsed for a cabinet posi- tion (even the secretaryship of state) by none other than Charles Evans Hughes (Northwest Ohio Quarterly, Winter, 1959- 60). Another is the statement of Harding to Albert D. Lasker when the latter said

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that Fall's oil leasing policy "smells." "Albert," he said, "this isn't the first time that this rumor has come to me, but if Albert Fall isn't an honest man, I'm not fit to be President of the United States." (Oral History Research Office, Columbia University.) Finally, Noggle does not come to grips with the well-known turn- ing of Harding against Fall as indicated in the New York Times of February 11, 1922. Some day somebody is going to weigh the possibility of Harding's alleged inde- cisiveness being part of his characteristic practice of reserving his judgment until all the facts were in from reliable and knowledgeable people. Maybe he waited too long on oil conservation. But, as president, Harding was seeking to avoid what Republicans claimed were the dicta- torial, non-consultative methods of Presi- dent Wilson. It is possible that, by so doing, Harding was playing his part in the pattern of the day of trying to re- store more balance to government policy making. Noggle has added much new knowledge to the Teapot Dome story, especially to Thomas J. Walsh's heroic part therein. But there is still a long way to go, espe- cially in the field of petroleum engineer- ing, and in a thorough analysis of the court records, so as to clarify the conflict- ing verdicts involved in the bribery issue. RANDOLPH C. DOWNES University of Toledo       PORTRAIT IN OIL: HOW THE OHIO OIL COMPANY GREW TO BECOME MARATHON. By Hartzell Spence. (New York: Mc- Graw-Hill Book Company, 1962. x?? 358p.; illustrations and index. $5.95.) This book is a typical company history written with the approval of the Marathon Oil (formerly Ohio Oil) Company in con- nection with its seventy-fifth anniversary. Marathon makes an excellent subject. From its beginning in 1887 amidst an oil and gas boom in northwestern Ohio, through its twenty-two-year absorption

by Rockefeller's Standard Oil, to its pres- ent status as a huge independent company with a half billion dollars in assets, the firm has had an eventful history to tran- scribe. It grew in its seventy-five years from a small, conservatively run company until today it produces, refines, or mar- kets in many states of the United States and in eleven other nations. The author makes a convincing case for the fact that this firm, rather than being a soulless corporation, is made up of "nice people," that it has tremendous morale among its employees, and that despite the fact that members of the Donnell family have established a long-standing dynasty as the chief executive officers of the business, all promotions throughout the firm have been based strictly on merit. The company is philanthropic, civic-minded, and, in for- eign lands, says Mr. Spence, "Marathon is not merely a corporate developer of natural resources: it is an ambassador and a private Point Four assistance program." To ward off any charges that Portrait in Oil is simply a bit of Madison Avenue promotionalism for the Marathon Oil Company, Mr. Spence insists that he was given complete access to all official rec- ords, that company personnel were in- structed by management to answer any and all of his questions "however embar- rassing they might be," and that he was given complete freedom to write as he pleased. There is little doubt that this is all true, for at times the author writes very candidly; however, the professional business historian will note the sparsity of certain significant statistical informa- tion in the book. The figures on oil pro- duction and leases, while scattered, are interesting and useful, but there is to be found in this volume only very incomplete information about such basic matters as the company's sales and profits, and almost no details on things like the profit- ability of various divisions, breakdowns on costs, and so forth. One cannot help wondering if Mr. Spence took sufficient advantage of his excellent opportunity to

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study the company records. There are no footnotes and no bibliography. In the foreword he admits to "substantial use" of the works of a Mr. William D. Hum- phrey, including his unpublished manu- script entitled "A History of the Ohio Oil Company, 1887-1937." Hartzell Spence is a highly talented journalist and novelist and his literary skill is very evident in this book. The reader will be impressed with his ability to weave routine business matters into a fascinating narrative. Like many such writers, however, he apparently has relied heavily on interviews and as a result the book deals much with personalities and is somewhat anecdotal. The business his- torian will find much that is missing and will necessarily regard some of the infor- mation he does find with caution. ROBERT W. TWYMAN Bowling Green State University     PROHIBITION AND THE PROGRESSIVE MOVE- MENT, 1900-1920. By James H. Tim- berlake. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963. 238p.; illustra- tions and index. $5.25.) BUSINESSMEN AND REFORM: A STUDY OF THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT. By Rob- ert H. Wiebe. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962. ix?? 283p.; bibliography and index. $6.00.) The publication of these two books by the Harvard University Press is an indi- cation of the lively interest that continues to be maintained in the progressive move- ment of 1900 to 1917. Both studies broaden the scope of the conventional treatment of progressivism: James H. Timberlake's by including prohibition among the "progressive reforms" and Robert H. Wiebe's by embracing business- men among the progressive reformers. Mr. Timberlake's contribution is to analyze systematically the several argu- ments that were used by those favoring prohibition (or temperance in any form). He devotes a chapter to each category of argument: the religious, the scientific and

the social, the economic, and the political. Many of the arguments are familiar ones. To this reviewer the freshest documenta- tion is to be found in the chapter on the scientific and social arguments. The sig- nificant work of the Anti-Saloon League is reviewed in a separate chapter, and the final one details the steps in nationalizing prohibition. The author stresses a half- forgotten point that national prohibition, although predominantly supported by rural states, would never have been adopted without strong support from in- dustrial states as well. Ohio occupies a featured role in this study, for it was here that the first state anti-saloon league was founded in 1893, which was to be a model for other state associations and was to provide from its membership the first superintendent of the national league as well as thirty-four superintendents of other state leagues. Because of the intensity of the prohibi- tionists' campaign in Ohio the opposition was also more thoroughly organized and more active in this state than elsewhere. In 1907 the first Personal Liberty League was founded here, and the brewers began an unsuccessful movement to reform the saloons. Ohio, however, lagged in adopt- ing state-wide prohibition, although local option had made much of the state dry before the Ohio legislature ratified the eighteenth amendment in 1919. The major fault that this reviewer has to find with Mr. Timberlake's thesis is that it fails to give enough weight to the arguments of progressives opposed to prohibition like Tom L. Johnson, Samuel M. Jones, and James M. Cox. Their opposition is reported, but there is no elaboration of their counter arguments that prohibition was a distracting issue and that it diverted attention from more fundamenal issues such as equal taxation, regulation of utilities, municipal home rule, penal reform, and the like. More- over, the author is incorrect in insisting that these reformers opposed prohibition because they had an immigrant labor, and therefore wet, electorate to whom to

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appeal for support. They were motivated by principle, not expediency. Mr. Tim- berlake's identification of prohibition with "progressive reform" was not accepted by these urban progressives, and it has yet to win wide acceptance among historians. Proof of this last contention is the omission of any extended discussion of this subject in Robert Wiebe's Business- men and Reform. He gives the topic only passing mention and does not include prohibition in his list of reforms desired by progressives. In this respect he has adopted a conventional approach. But in many other respects he challenges the stereotypes. In particular, he is critical of the tradition that arose in the progres- sive era to cast businessmen as villains, plotting the downfall of progressive re- formers. On the other hand, he does not find acceptable the recent tendency to reverse this picture and to go as far as does Carl Degler in insisting that "pro- gressivism was largely a businessmen's movement." The significance of Professor Wiebe's study is his success in delineating various types of businessmen and in tracing their varied relations with progressive reform. By particularizing the elements within the business community and their own in- ternal rivalries he makes clear why there was both business support for and opposi- tion to the same reforms. By limiting his attention exclusively to the progressive movement at the national level he can make the assertion that businessmen were the "backbone" of reform to the panic of 1907. However, this seems to this re- viewer too arbitrary a judgment, for it misses the proper perspective on the movement as a whole. To that date progressivism had largely manifested itself at the level of the local and state governments; it was only afterwards that the movement spread significantly to the national government. By then other groups than businessmen were the leaders in pressing for reform. Moreover, the author makes clear that businessmen were limited reformers. They

did little to improve the lot of low-income Americans, and they were hostile to labor's efforts to better its lot by union- ization. They wanted to purify democracy but not to extend it; they fought vari- out forms of direct democracy and the extension of the suffrage. But, in contrast, at least one segment of the busi- ness community supported each major program for federal control of the econ- omy. In this area businessmen exercised their greatest influence on reform and earned their right to be called "progres- sive." However, they stood apart from other reformers, because of their narrow public philosophy and their lack of a grand social vision; they represented the hard side of progressivism. The author concludes that the progres- sive movement effected a subtle change in the business community, even though it was not apparent on the surface. Busi- nessmen were made freshly aware of the needs of American society in general; they came to accept government regula- tion as a fact of life; and they recognized the need to be flexible, to exercise political tact, to maintain friendly relations with the Democratic party as well as their tra- ditional ally, the Republican party, and to develop good public relations. Because of the arbitrary limits set by the author there is no discussion of busi- nessmen and reform in Ohio or in any other state, although there is a reference to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce as an example of an enlightened business association. This reviewer's only criti- cism is that the book seems anti-climactic: the preface leads one to expect more than one finds in the conclusion about busi- nessmen as reformers. Nevertheless, Rob- ert Wiebe is to be commended for not pressing his case beyond what the evi- dence will support. It is this intellectual integrity throughout that gives sharpness and perceptiveness to his analysis.   LANDON WARNER Kenyon College

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JOHN SINEY: THE MINERS' MARTYR. By Edward Pinkowski. (Philadelphia: Sunshine Press, 1963. xv ?? 335p.; illu- trations, bibliographical essay, and index. $6.00.) The decade of the 1870's was one of hard times, unemployment, and frustra- tion for American wage earners. It was also a period during which they were shifting their attention from the furor of the Civil War to the vigorous labor organization of the 1880's. Between 1868 and 1878 John Siney made a substantial contribution to the labor movement, espe- cially in coal mining, and to the political activity of labor and Greenback groups. John Siney was born on a potato farm in Ireland in 1831, grew up in the cotton mills and brickyards of Lancashire, Eng- land, and migrated to the anthracite coal area of eastern Pennsylvania in 1863. By 1868 he had learned the miner's trade and gained the confidence of his fellow work- ers so that they would join with him in organizing the Workingmen's Benevolent Association at St. Clair. Siney soon be- came president and went on to organize workers throughout the anthracite region. His offers to arbitrate were usually re- jected by the operators, and the need of wider organization led him into the bitu- minous areas of the Appalachian and in- terior fields. For the larger area Siney promoted and became president of the Miners' National Association, organized at Cleveland in 1873. Most of what Siney attempted was doomed to fail in a period of severe de- pression. Miners lacked discipline enough to exert effective pressure; operators re- fused to recognize unions; government officials and judges usually supported the operators. Siney's dreams of a producers' coal cooperative in Tennessee failed to win support from the miners. His work for the Labor Reform party was scuttled by the withdrawal of David Davis as its presidential candidate in 1872. The fail- ure of the Greenback Labor party in 1878 further discouraged a man soon to die of "miner's consumption."

Forces of the times prevented Siney's becoming a greater figure than he was, but he, as much as anyone, typified the labor struggles of the decade. It is re- grettable that his biographer had to rely primarily on inadequate newspaper and secondary materials and that the story is told in words that are often poorly chosen and assembled. The results are frequently inaccurate or apparently naive. The account swings from mawkish adjec- tives to unnecessarily severe criticism. The author has Siney visit the Chicago World's Fair twenty years before it was held, makes Mark Hanna secretary of state, and confuses the naming and back- ground of the Greenback party. This book is better than no biography of John Siney, but not welcome if it discourages a more thorough and perceptive study. GEORGE B. ENGBERG University of Cincinnati       AFTER TIPPECANOE: SOME ASPECTS OF THE WAR OF 1812. By William T. Utter, W. Kaye Lamb, George F. G. Stanley, C. P. Stacey, Reginald Hors- man, and Thomas D. Clark. Edited with a preface by Philip P. Mason. Introduction by Fred Coyne Hamil. (East Lansing: Michigan State Uni- versity Press, 1963. ix ?? 106p.; index. $4.00.) After Tippecanoe: Some Aspects of the War of 1812 consists of lectures written for publication by six historians of that controversial struggle--three Americans and three Canadians. Given originally in Windsor, Canada, and Detroit, Michigan, under the sponsorship of the Algonquin Club as a memorial to the late Milo M. Quaife and the late Joseph E. Bayliss, the papers deal almost exclusively with the war as it developed in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. One theme unites the papers and justi- fies their inclusion in a single volume. All deal with the question of how the United States, with such superior re-

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sources of men and material, should have failed so signally in carrying out its objective of conquering Canada. The late Professor William  T. Utter of Denison University, in a brief evaluation of the causes of the war, asserts that the Ameri- can declaration was premature and the campaigns badly fought. W. Kaye Lamb, dominion archivist and national librarian of Canada, describes the strategy of Sir Isaac Brock to defend the province of Upper Canada by attacking American border posts and his stunning capture of Hull's army at Detroit; he concludes that Brock had "a major share in Can- ada's survival in 1812." Professor George F. G. Stanley of the Royal Military Col- lege traces the part played by Canadian militia in the war and believes that they performed "an important and essential role" in Canada's successful defense. Professor C. P. Stacey of the University of Toronto reaffirms Admiral Mahan's thesis as to the "vital importance of naval power on the Lakes" in deciding the course of the war. Professor Reginald Horsman of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee holds that Britain's Indian allies proved "decisive" in extending British control over the region west of Lake Michgan and in the victories at Detroit, the River Raisin, and the first siege of Fort Meigs. Finally, Professor Thomas D. Clark of the University of Kentucky describes the poor planning, in- experience, and supply difficulties that weakened Kentucky's war effort and her contribution to the American cause. Those interested in the details of the war as it developed in the western Great Lakes region may find value in this vol- ume. Those seeking an understanding of the causes of the war, a systematic ex- planation of its outcome in the West, or an analysis of the relationship between events in the western and eastern theaters, will find it less useful. The papers, as the preface accurately states, give "only passing attention to [the] causes and the overall conduct" of the war, were "not intended to give a definitive account" of

the conflict, and do not constitute "any radical departure from the accepted the- ories of the struggle. They are the ob- servations of six scholars who have done extensive research on the War."   ROGER H. BROWN Dartmouth College     RUNAWAY TO HEAVEN: THE STORY OF HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. By Johanna Johnston. (Garden City, N. Y.: Dou- bleday and Company, 1963. ix??490p.; illustrations, bibliography, and index. $5.95.) This undocumented "life and times" biography is the first major study of Harriet Beecher Stowe since Forrest Wil- son's monumental Crusader in Crinoline (1942). In factual presentation as well as in interpretation, it hews closely to the Wilson book. Indeed, Miss Johnston frankly confesses her debt to Wilson's "definitive biography." Miss Johnston's principal purpose is to "reassess and reinterpret the facts already known." If this book contains any new insights or revelations, they have eluded this reader. The portrait is all-too- familiar, with a minor change in emphasis here and there, and slight alteration in the ordering of the facts. Miss Johnston appears to be of that school which believes that an author can camp in, let us say, the New York Public Library and grind out brilliant biogra- phies. The wandering way is not for her. She would be wise to emulate such liter- ary gypsies as Ishbel Ross or Catherine Drinker Bowen, who are equally gifted with the pen but who scour the country (and world) in search of raw materials to provide depth and originality to their studies; or Forrest Wilson. Wilson, for example, had enough foresight to visit Cincinnati, the home of Mrs. Stowe for what were perhaps the most important eighteen years of her life. There, in a local historical society (the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio), he found a body of primary materials

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(Beecher letters, Semi-Colon Club papers, etc.) which had never been seen by ear- lier Stowe scholars. He also acquired a visual impression of the physical makeup of the city and surrounding area, which provided him with a basis for his colorful background  descriptions.  One doubts that Wilson would have made Miss John- ston's minor error of having Harriet boat "down" the river to Maysville from Cin- cinnati. A word is in order on Miss Johnston's interpretation  of the "times."  There seems to be a conspicuous symmetry be- tween the author's oversimplified anal- yses of nineteenth-century American his- tory and the inclusion of Morison and Commager's popular college undergradu- ate text Growth of the American Republic (which volume?) in the brief listing of supplemental books. To say that the Con- necticut legislature of the 1817 period was "handpicked by the rich and be- wigged Congregational clergy" is gross distortion, if not error. Her comments on Lincoln as a politician and the Doug- las transcontinental railroad issue are also something less than cogent. Since this book is obviously intended for the mass audience, one cannot be overly critical of it. Miss Johnston may not be a bird-dog researcher, but she is an accomplished storyteller and her work should titillate the ladies of the literary clubs across the land. The serious stu- dent, however, will continue to rely on Wilson's exhaustively researched biog- raphy, still the best account of Lyman Beecher's mousey little daughter. Louis L. TUCKER Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio     ANTISLAVERY AND DISUNION, 1858-1861: STUDIES IN THE RHETORIC OF COMPRO- MISE AND CONFLICT. Prepared under the auspices of the Speech Association of America. Edited by J. Jeffery Auer. (New York: Harper and Row, 1963. xii??427p.; index. $6.00.)

This monograph represents an attempt to combine the techniques of expression and presentation with historical analysis. Its purpose is well expressed in the fol- lowing language of the editor: "Twenty- three studies deal with as many samples of American public address on the issues of antislavery and disunion, chronologi- cally organized, in the period from September, 1858, to April, 1861. These are representative and significant speeches and not, of course, the only important ones. They have been selected to combine notable factors of occasion and place, audience attitude, and speaker's purpose" (Preface, vii). Since two studies have dual authorship, there are actually twenty- five authors. Of the twenty-three themes, eleven have to do with the North, five with the South, and seven may be termed as funda- mentally intersectional. The following are samples of topics and authors: "The Brownlow-Pryne Debate, September, 1858," by Gordon F. Hostettler; "Jeffer- son Davis, Sectional Diplomat, 1858," by Ralph Richardson; "The Wellington Rescue Case, 1859," by Warren Guthrie; "Robert Barnwell Rhett's Speech, July 4, 1859," by H. Hardy Perritt; "Ford Doug- lass' Fourth of July Oration, 1860," by Orville A. Hitchcock and Ota Thomas Reynolds; "The Campaign of Stephen A. Douglas in the South, 1860," by Lionel Crocker; "William  H. Seward on the 'Irrepressible Conflict,' October 25, 1858," by Robert T. Oliver; "Benjamin Morgan Palmer's Thanksgiving Sermon, 1860," by Wayne C. Eubank; "The Republican Na- tional Convention of 1860," by Kenneth M. Stampp; "New Governors Speak for War, January, 1861," by William B. Hes- seltine and Larry Gara; "The Washington Peace Conference of 1861," by Robert Gray Gunderson. While the studies are generally inter- esting in approach and are well docu- mented, the analytical quality of the last five mentioned above make them particu- larly appealing. Sections dealing with John Bell as the symbol of a powerful

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conservative minority in the South and with the intertwining of economic policies and the slavery controversy would have made the volume more representative. Two factual errors were noted. "James N. Hammond of North Carolina" (p. 45) should be James H. Hammond of South Carolina. There were approximately 30,000 miles of railroad in the country in 1860, but the statement that "by 1860 over 30,000 miles of track united the Atlantic seaboard economically and politi- cally with the Old Northwest" (p. 108) is scarcely correct. Space permits comment on only several of many challenging judgments. The view that the Democratic division in the nation in 1860 was reflected within the South is followed by the strange assertion that "the Democratic split throughout the South assured the election of the Republi- can candidate" (p. 335). The South was anti-Lincoln, regardless of the number of candidates. One opinion is that "irrepres- sible conflict was the essence of the [Republican] platform" of 1860 (p. 41), another that "the Republican platform of 1860 followed the conservative lead" symbolized by Lincoln (p. 143), and still a third views the party principles of that year as moderate, practical, and designed to cement various groups of Republicans (pp. 202-206, 211). HENRY H. SIMMS Ohio State University     A DIARY OF BATTLE: THE PERSONAL JOUR- NALS OF COLONEL CHARLES S. WAIN- WRIGHT, 1861-1865. Edited by Allan Nevins. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1962. xviii ?? 549p.; maps, appendix, and index. $8.75.) In the long list of soldier journals and memoirs, there have been few enough from artillery officers in the Civil War. The Confederates, with such famed artil- lerists as E. P. Alexander and the Rev. William N. Pendleton, seem not only to have managed their artillery better but to have recounted the exploits of their

gunners more fully. A welcome addition to the literature of the war are the per- sonal journals of Colonel Charles S. Wainwright, commander of the First New York Artillery. He was chief of artillery in the First Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and later in the Fifth Corps, commanding a brigade. He served from the Peninsular Campaign to Appomat- tox--through Chancellorsville, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilder- ness, and Petersburg (missing only Sec- ond Manasses), and won praise in each campaign for his handling of his artillery. He was a student of war, of gunnery, of strategy, and he devoted much energy to advocating--with only limited success-- the reorganization of the artillery com- mand so that it could become a more effective arm. He filled his journals with the accounts of his efforts. His journals contain, however, much more. Colonel Wainwright's interests ranged from English literature to good wines and gourmet meals. He took an active and a vigorous interest in politics and freely passed judgment on both Radi- cal Republicans and Peace Democrats. He thought that Lincoln was lacking in imagination, and courage, but was filled with "obstinate conceit." He considered Grant a bungler and saw no purpose in the senseless attacks and repeated flank movements from Spottsylvania to Cold Harbor. He detailed the erratic course of General Gouverneur K. Warren and con- cluded that he was close to insanity. He reported Hooker's character bad, Hal- leck's spiteful, and found Secretary of War E. M. Stanton a man of "rancorous hate." He had contempt for Negroes and Irishmen. On the other hand, he was unstinting in his praise of General George B. McClellan, admired Generals Meade, and Hancock, and Sedgewick. Colonel Wainwright was a man of strong con- victions. Editor Nevins, who purchased the diary from Wainwright's heirs, was unable to learn much of the diarist's civil career. The journal is that of a competent soldier

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and an accomplished gentleman who "came out of obscurity" into the army, and, after Appomattox, "disappears into obscurity again." Yet the journal itself is an intriguing document, and it is un- fortunate, at least for scholars, that more than half the manuscript remains unpub- lished in the Huntington Library. The editor selected "all the material that he deems of historical importance or gen- eral interest" and omitted "much arid and repetitious detail." The editor has sup- plied a connecting narrative to cover the deleted portions. One suspects, however, that the arid detail, even though it lacked general interest, might prove rewarding to the serious scholar seeking fresh light on the battles in the eastern theater. Such searchers will, of course, have to journey to Southern California. WILLIAM B. HESSELTINE University of Wisconsin   BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE: RADICAL RE- PUBLICAN FROM OHIO. By H. L. Tre- fousse. (New York: Twayne Publish- ers, 1963. 404p.; illustrations, bibliog- raphy, and index. $6.50.) This well-documented, revisionist biog- raphy shows Ben Wade to be less vindic- tive than popularly supposed. Professor Hans Trefousse of Brooklyn College seems to have as his knight-errantry the championing of reviled Radicals, entering the lists here for Ohio's Senator Wade fresh from a quest on behalf of another maligned Radical in his Ben Butler: The South Called Him Beast. This book is a welcome correction to the traditional portrayal of Radical con- spirators at odds with Lincoln created by William A. Dunning, James G. Randall, and T. Harry Williams. Taking his text, apparently, out of David Donald's Lincoln Reconsidered, Trefousse's exegesis depicts Wade as "Lincoln's goad" and as playing "an important role," since "Lincoln needed Wade's needling in order to move forward" (p. 247). Donald paints a similar picture of Senator Sumner, while

biographers Fawn Brodie and Ralph Korngold put Representative Stevens on such a canvas. Coming from humble circumstances, Ben Wade (1800-1878) rose to national prominence by fearless, forthright, incor- ruptible leadership. These same traits made him too unbending to trim sail at crucial tacks in his career when it might have been more expedient. Wade's des- perate struggle to overcome shyness and poverty partly accounted for his inflex- ibility. Though he pushed the war vigor- ously with his joint committee on the conduct of the war, he was free of per- sonal animus toward the South. Wade consistently championed underdogs; har- boring personal prejudices against Ne- groes, he worked all the harder for their rights. Having covered Wade's career to 1865 in the first 240 pages, Trefousse treats the exciting postbellum era in the last 72 pages. In narrating the dramatic struggle between Andrew Johnson and Wade, the author supports the McKitrick thesis (Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction) concerning Johnson's blundering leader- ship. On impeachment, Trefousse argues cogently that Wade's being in line to suc- ceed Johnson contributed importantly to the narrow failure to convict. Conserva- tives may have voted for Wade to become president pro tempore of the senate in order to insure Johnson's acquittal. Wade's tactlessness in pushing rights for women, labor, and Negroes--coupled with remembrance of the harsh Wade-Davis Manifesto--stamped him as too radical and alienated too many senators for his elevation to the presidency via Johnson's removal. A great deal of research went into this biography as seen by the 54 pages of footnotes and the numerous manuscript collections cited. The writing is not dis- tinguished, however, seldom matching the colorfulness of Wade or the drama of his times. Too frequent typographical errors -- "hismself," "whould," "priviliege"--

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unnecessarily undermine confidence and cry out for better editing. EDGAR A. TOPPIN University of Akron       A COMPANY OF HEROES: TIE AMERICAN FRONTIER, 1775-1783. By Dale Van Every. (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1962. vi ?? 328p.; maps, bibliography, and index. $6.00.) This book, a continuation of the au- thor's Forth to the Wilderness: The First American Frontier, 1754-1774, tells the story of the Revolutionary War in the West in a manner reminiscent of both Francis Parkman and Lyman C. Draper. With cinematic effect Mr. Van Every pre- sents an enormous tapestry filled with movement and episodic pageantry, a montage of forest and clearing, campfire and cabin, breechclout and buckskin. The images are intense--an Indian raid is played out in tableau--and the heroes are epic, George Rogers Clark, the Virginian, and Joseph Brant, the Mohawk. The script contains little sex but plenty of gore, Patriot, Indian, and Tory, and usually in full color. No one has better portrayed the passions of this time and place, the intense interracial animosity, the Old Testament fury of this small-scale but total war in the back parts of the colonies. In narrative this book is superb; in interpretation it is boldly western. That the 1783 boundaries of the United States extended to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River "was entirely due to the achievement of the frontier people." They

thwarted the British plan to drive the frontier in upon the seaboard. Instead, "stubbornly immovable" westerners held their stockades, and traded hit and run warfare with the Indians. While wilder- ness logistical problems were such that neither side could really push home a campaign, time and again George Rogers Clark engineered a successful delaying action, including the surprise march to Vincennes. "Certainly no one after Wash- ington served the Revolutionary cause with more enduring effect." On the other side was Brant. Of all American Indians from Powhatan to Geronimo, "none was as remarkable as Joseph Brant." Mr. Van Every does give both sides; the Indians are not the only ones guilty of atrocities. But it is still clear that his Company of Heroes de- fended the settlers' clearings, not the Indians'. And the Tory few who sided with "marauding packs of Iroquois," or Shawnee, or Wyandot, play "the terrible role." Of Alexander McKee, "No Indian could have been more fanatically bent upon driving the last settler from the bor- ders of the Indian Country." Whether or not Mr. Van Every sympa- thizes very much with the lost cause of the red men, he writes a rousing story, the kind of history that used to hold children from their play and old men from the chimney corner. It still does. An Ohio history buff may even forgive the omission in the bibliography of Milo M. Quaife, and, in text and maps, of the Auglaize River. LEE NATHANIEL NEWCOMER Wisconsin State College, Oshkosh

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