Ohio History Journal

Book Reviews

The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant. Volume II: April-September 1861. Edited by JOHN Y. SIMON. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Uni- versity Press, 1969. xxix + 399p.; foreword, preface, chronology, maps, illustrations, cal- endar, and index. $15.00.)   In his own lifetime Ulysses S. Grant was an enigma to most politicians and generals who knew him. The Grant revealed in his mem- oirs was either an overly modest or uncom- monly fortunate general. The shape of his character and the secrets of his success are not so elusive now, for a distinguished line of historians from J. F. C. Fuller to Bruce Catton have recaptured Grant's real strengths and reduced the apocrypha. Pub- lication of the first volume of Grant's Civil War correspondence complements the biog- raphers' efforts and sheds further light on how a thirty-nine year old leather merchant became the Union's supreme military com- mander. Carefully compiled and edited, the mate- rial in this second volume of Grant papers is prosaic in content and tone. I doubt that many will agree with Catton that the gen- eral was "one of the most articulate of all American soldiers." One will look in vain for a "secret" Grant in the mundane fam- ily letters. Much of the military correspon- dence is so routine that Grant would never have seen it had he had a professional staff. His movement orders would not pass muster for clarity and precision in a modern staff college. Yet, as T. Harry Williams points out in the Preface, Grant's misspelled and awk- ward letters in the first months of the Civil War do reveal the man's enduring strengths in the service of the Union. Grant was a "hard war" man from the beginning, a staunch nationalist prepared to see the war won, whatever the cost. This in- cluded a long and bloody conflict if need be, the end of slavery, the suspension of civil liberties, the bending of army regulations, and the sacrifice of family friendships and personal comforts. He was not, however, a fanatic. Not only did he understand the cru-

cial strategic position of the Missouri- Illinois-Kentucky riverlands for the North, but also the need for the allegiance of those living in the area. This volume includes his several admonitions against uncontrolled for- aging in "rebel" Missouri and Kentucky. In context with his personal correspondence these orders reflect no revulsion to confisca- tion where identified rebels were concerned. Grant, rather, wanted both to discipline his troops and to win the cooperation and loy- alty of the common folk wherever he com- manded. Intuitively he realized that the war was about all those little Galenas of the Mis- sissippi Valley. It is Grant's political observations that make the strongest impression in this vol- ume. The "apolitical" general wrote his sis- ter, for example, that "the rebel force numerically is much stronger than ours, but the difference is more than made up by hav- ing truth and justice on our side, whilst on the other they are cheered on by falsehood and deception." The military corres- pondence is not particularly dramatic, but Grant's daily attention to detail was the key to his success. His letters do reflect a flair for organization. As he himself realized, his previous experience in military administra- tion, his sense of priority, and his capacity for relentless work on supply problems made him indispensable to Governor Richard Yates and General John C. Fremont. Strategically, Grant was no military romantic ready to risk all in early clashes with the Confederate army; instead his troop dispositions were defensive and cautious because he believed the rebels held the in- itiative. While one senses that the general at Cairo was in control, there is little hint that he was pondering offensive operations down the Mississippi. The occupation of Paducah, for example, was designed simply to keep the Ohio River open. In all, this second volume of Grant papers is a handsome book and is so anno- tated that it provides a near-narrative of the Civil War's opening days along the Missis- sippi. Its subject, however, is not a "new"

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Grant but an utterly familiar one. He is the dogged ex-captain who in war found the perfect arena for his talents and a new pur- pose in his life. Grant would have liked the maxim of another American general: "Wherever you are, do all that you can."   ALLAN R. MILLETT The Ohio State University   History of Education in Michigan Series: Vol. I, Education in the Wilderness. By FLOYD R. DAIN. (Lansing; Michigan Histor- ical Commission, 1968. xviii + 345p.; illus- trations, bibliography, and index. $6.00.); Vol. II, The Michigan Search for Educational Standards. By CHARLES R. STARRING and JAMES O. KNAUSS. (Lansing: Michigan His- torical Commission, 1969. xii + 225p.; illus- trations, appendix, bibliography, and index. $6.00.); Vol. III, Schools for an Urban Society. By DONALD W. DISBROW. (Lansing: Michigan Historical Commission, 1968. xiv + 337p.; illustrations, bibliography, and index. $6.00.) This three-volume history of Michigan ele- mentary and secondary education completes a project initiated in 1963 by the publica- tion of Willis F. Dunbar's The Michigan Record in Higher Education. Together the volumes provide a comprehensive and authoritative account which compares favor- ably with other state histories. The first volume, Education in the Wilder- ness, treats the years from earliest settlement to the state constitutional convention of 1850. The author has done a remarkable job of assembling information from the scattered records of the period, and he portrays vividly the early efforts to establish schools on the sparsely-populated frontier. Unfortunately in his eagerness to tell the story in detail he fails to interpret the events. This is most obvious in the treatment of the common school crusade of the 1830's and 1840's where the author seems to get lost in a maze of legislative acts and gives little insight into the impulses behind the movement to build a public school system. The value of the vol- ume, then, lies not in its analysis but in its generally clear presentation of hitherto un- collected factual material.

The Michigan Search for Educational Standards is an excellent survey of the last half of the nineteenth century. The authors see the enormous expansion of formal edu- cation as a part of the transformation of America from an agrarian, community- oriented society to an urban, industrial na- tion. By adopting this interpretive framework they are able to describe clearly the social forces which led to such developments as the rise of the high school, the standardiza- tion of curricula, and the bureaucratization of educational administration. If there is a weakness in the volume it is the authors' failure to give sufficient attention to those schoolmen and laymen who opposed expan- sion and centralization. The recent failures of big city school systems suggest that these critics may have been worthy of more ser- ious consideration. Schools for an Urban Society treats the period from 1908 to the middle sixties. Rec- ognizing that what happens in the twentieth century in Michigan differs little from what happens in the rest of the country, the author is less concerned with providing a narrative account of the state's educational develop- ment than with examining in depth the response of the schools to some of the major disruptions and social changes of the day. What emerges is a rather formless work full of interesting case studies but lacking a gen- eral interpretive scheme. The reader is given fascinating glimpses of the impact of the world wars, the depression, and the New Deal, but is left to decide for himself how the functions of the school have changed over the long run. Despite their weaknesses all three vol- umes make significant contributions to our knowledge of American educational history. If they fail to produce any startling reinter- pretations, they at least provide well- balanced and informative accounts. They are refreshingly free of the boosterism that so often mars efforts of this sort. They are well written and beautifully produced. The Michigan Historical Commission is to be commended for its sponsorship of the project.   B. EDWARD MCCLELLAN The Ohio State University

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The Fenian Movement. By MABEL GREGORY WALKER. (Colorado Springs: Ralph Myles Publisher, Inc., 1969. ix + 215p.; bibliogra- phy and index. $2.95 paper; $5.95 cloth.)   The enthusiastic welcome recently accorded to Bernadette Devlin serves as a vivid re- minder of the persistent importance of Irish- American nationalism. Those interested in the historical development of this phenom- enon are fortunate in having Thomas N. Brown's perceptive analysis of the period from 1870 to 1890, but a full account of the highly significant period which immediately preceded it has been sorely needed. Now Mabel Gregory Walker has attempted to fill this void with her study of the Fenians, those highly improbable revolutionaries who used the United States as a staging area for invasions of both Ireland and Canada and who agitated the already highly-charged sit- uations in domestic politics and British- American relations. The book's strongest point is the author's thoroughly detailed narrative of the inner workings of the movement itself. From the outset the Fenian cause was weakened by recurring factionalism emanating initially from the struggle for leadership between James Stephens and John O'Mahoney. Fur- ther division was engendered by each impor- tant issue that arose. What should be the Fenians' relationship with the revolution- aries in Ireland itself? Should they seek to get at England through an invasion of Can- ada? Should they support Democrats or Republicans or neither? Who should wield the power in the organization--the head cen- ter or the Fenian senate? All of these divi- sions are carefully developed in sufficient detail to give the reader a feeling of mastery over the mechanics of the movement. Less satisfactory are the author's attempts to gain an appreciation of the broader impli- cations of Fenianism. Her discussion of its domestic political importance, for example, is too limited and desperately needs the kind of detailed voting analysis done by Arthur Mann in LaGuardia Comes to Power or Lee Benson in The Concept of Jacksonian Democ- racy. In this age of quantification, the his- torian who generalizes about politics without

utilizing some of the political scientist's methodology does so at his own peril. Fur- ther, Mrs. Walker leaves the reader with the impression that the signing of the Washing- ton Treaty of 1871 heralded a new era of friendly Anglo-American relations and that this in turn was the death knell for the Fenians. Actually, the euphoria of the Wash- ington Treaty was short-lived. A lasting rapprochement between the United States and Britain did not come until well into the 1890's, while Irish-American agitation in other forms, as Brown has clearly shown, continued unabated throughout the same period. Finally, the author never really comes to grips with the central issue of the mean- ing of hyphenate nationalism. Were the Fen- ians simply Irishmen sojourning in America, or were they somewhere in limbo, uprooted men seeking to adjust to the traumatic expe- rience of shedding one culture and donning another? Despite these shortcomings, Mrs. Walker has produced work that can be read with great profit by anyone interested in the his- tory of immigration or in the foreign rela- tions of the United States. The questions it raises are still very relevant today in this era of Cuban refugees and captive nations reso- lutions, to say nothing of the current situa- tion in the North of Ireland.   JOHN D. BUENKER Eastern Illinois University     Railroutes South: Louisville's Fight for the Southern Market, 1865-1872. By LEONARD P. CURRY. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1969. 150p.; charts and index. $5.95.) One may, with some justification, ask whether yet another telling of the struggle over the chartering of the Cincinnati Southern Rail- way is necessary. Previous writers, such as R. O. Biggs, E. A. Ferguson, C. G. Hall, J. S. Hollander, and E. M. Coulter, have already written about this subject. However, they were principally concerned with Cin- cinnati's viewpoint. Dr. Curry's account de- scribes the action from the point of view of Louisville. Therein lies the justification for another description of the efforts of Cin-

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cinnati to obtain permission to construct its own railroad into the heart of the South. The book has nine chapters and may log- ically be divided into two major parts. In the first three chapters, Professor Curry writes well of the economic development of Louis- ville and her efforts to increase commerce with the South while preventing Cincinnati from gaining significant inroads into that region. The last six chapters describe in fair detail the efforts of lobbyists from Louisville and Cincinnati to influence members of the Kentucky Legislature. Dr. Curry's sources include a multitude of records of various organizations and gov- ernment bodies in Louisville, numerous news- papers, journals of the Kentucky legislature, and local histories. I am puzzled, however, by the omission of two important publica- tions devoted to railroad activities: Railroad Record, published in Cincinnati, and Amer- ican Railroad Journal, published in New York. The former is particularly important because of its physical proximity to the action, but the latter also devoted a consid- erable amount of space to southern and western railroads. There are a couple of minor points which detract from an otherwise good book. Three maps and four tables are included in the book but are not listed anywhere. Though citations appear in the text, footnote pro- cedure is dishearteningly inconsistent. That part of the story which Mr. Curry tells, he does rather well. It is unfortunate, however, he did not start at the beginning of the struggle. This occurred in 1835 when the Kentucky legislature granted a charter to the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad--but only after it was assured that branches would be built to Louisville and Maysville. It is certain that Louisville's fight did not stop in 1872 merely because the Cincinnati Southern was chartered. Even though the road was not completed until 1877, it is highly unlikely that trade patterns were altered immediately. Louisville cer- tainly continued to struggle for her share of southern trade. This book, then, deals with a brief skirmish in a long campaign.   CHARLES R. SCHULTZ The Marine Historical Association, Inc.

Reform in Detroit: Hazen S. Pingree and Urban Politics. By MELVIN G. HOLLI. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. xvi + 269p.; bibliography and index. $7.50.)     While municipal problems of the 1960's seem to defy solution, the headaches city mayors faced in the 1890's were still awesome. Merely paving streets, hauling garbage, light- ing the city, transporting citizens, and sup- plying water and gas, taxed the ingenuity of the most gifted administrator. Probably the most gifted was Hazen S. Pingree, mayor of Detroit from 1890 to 1897. Pingree fought the vested interests and monopolists in his quest for social justice several years before any other municipal progressive had entered the fray. And when the others--the Golden Rule Joneses and Tom Johnsons--did appear, they had an outstanding example to follow in Pingree. That the Detroit mayor set the tone for urban reformers at the turn of the century is obvious from Professor Holli's well-researched, well-written, stimu- lating volume.   Pingree fits no neat ideological pigeon- hole--few politicians do. He entered office as a millionaire shoe manufacturer, sharing most of the "good government" nostrums of his time. It did not take long, however, for him to recognize that really good govern- ment meant far more than efficiency, econ- omy, and the merit system. He learned that those who spoke most loudly in favor of these traditional reforms were the men who resisted his street paving program or opposed his war on corrupt sewer contractors. These same "privileged interests" favored long-term franchises for the street railways, which in turn charged excessive fares to patrons. Un- aware of social injustice before, Pingree now became an angry crusader for social justice. Pingree's dormant humanitarianism blossomed when he saw the heavy weight of late nineteenth century America crush down the poor classes of the city. He led their fight for a decent life.   In his analysis of "structural reform" versus "social reform" Professor Holli is

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perhaps at his best, although he is good all the way through. Structural reform, sup- ported by the "good government" exponents, stressed improving only the formal organi- zations of government without reference to the human substance underneath. Social reformers, like Pingree, Jones, and Johnson went directly to the people, liberated the city, and opened the door to meaningful change and opportunity for the urban masses. Professor Holli knocks a few holes in the popular "status revolution" interpretation of the Progressive Era. This is the theory that the great progressives had family roots in a pre-Industrial Revolution age, had lost all to the nineteenth century nouveau riche, and wanted it back. Of course, Tom L. Johnson could not be fitted into such a socio-economic strait jacket; Golden Rule Jones could not be fitted into it. And now it is shown that Hazen Pingree cannot be fitted into it either. Rather than representing a pre-industrial aristocracy, these persons were all direct products of the Industrial Revolution, self- made men who had accumulated their wealth in the '80's and '90's. It was not that they wanted something back that had gotten away from them. It was simply that they were humanitarians who saw great social wrongs in their midst and sought to correct them. This is an outstanding book. Pingree's career, Detroit's history, public utility opera- tions, the nature of reform, all this and much more make Professor Holli's volume some- thing special in the field, and sets a standard of quality which future scholars would do well to emulate.   EUGENE C. MURDOCK Marietta College       Unemployment Insurance: The American Ex- perience, 1915-1935. By DANIEL NELSON. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969. 305p.; illustrations, appendices, biblio- graphical note, and index. $10.00.) The volume opens with a preface and closes with an epilogue containing an editorial observation from the 1908 Independent that

most Americans accepted "a colonial or fron- tier philosophy" that each person had a duty to provide all his own needs in good times and bad. The nine chapters comprising the book's 222 pages of text are a historian's account of how certain individuals and groups succeeded in modifying this view in the United States and in getting the country to accept a comprehensive system of employ- ment insurance as part of the greatest piece of social welfare legislation enacted during the New Deal. Businessmen, economists, social workers, union leaders, labor legisla- tion experts, and political reformers all had roles to play. The leadership, dominant ideas, and status of the movement changed often, but the author skillfully keeps the reader from mixing or losing the numerous threads of the narrative. The author admits that his use of the term "unemployment insurance" is not entirely accurate since he describes systems that were not based on insurance principles. If the reader bears in mind that the author is primarily interested in describing systems designed to pay benefits to unemployed workers, he will not trap himself into expect- ing a study that meets the requirements that Prudential or Travelers set for research reports. The story often appears to be as deceptive as an iceberg. Most of us inter- ested in the New Deal see only the one tenth of the berg protruding from the sea, that small portion of the fight for unemploy- ment insurance that found expression in the Social Security Act. This book deals primarily with that submerged portion of the berg, that portion of the fight that was waged on the industrial-labor front and in such key states as Wisconsin, Ohio, and Massachusetts. This aspect of the problem has long needed study. The "European" approach to meet workers' economic needs was typified by the British system based on contributions from the state, employers, and employees. Appar- ently this approach was felt from the start to be incompatible with the colonial self- help philosophy of the United States. How- ever, in line with another colonial injunction that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," the American approach that

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was developed later than the continental systems aimed at doing more than providing relief for unemployed workers. The preven- tive approach required that the employer should be encouraged by various means to limit unemployment. Depression and politi- cal controversy finally drove America into a nationwide system of insurance. The book is based on extensive research. The bibliography is very brief, but it includes thirty-five significant manuscript collections. The footnotes display a wide sampling of books, journals, newspapers, and correspon- dence. They are tucked away at the end of the book, but they are easy to use since the author has introduced no quotations and supplementary information that makes turn- ing to the back of the book such a chore.   WILLIAM F. ZORNOW Kent State University     Factories in the Valley: Neenah-Menasha, 1870-1915. By CHARLES N. GLAAB and LAW- RENCE H. LARSEN. (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1969, ix + 293p.; illus- trations, bibliography, and index. $6.00.)   This book centers on the urban and indus- trial development of two adjoining communi- ties located in the Fox River Valley of eastern Wisconsin. Caught up by the dramatic urban expan- sion of the late nineteenth century, promoters of the twin communities envisaged Neenah and Menasha becoming the "Pittsburgh of the West--a single industrial metropolis"-- that would surpass the older eastern metro- politan centers. The availability of water and rail transportation, abundant water power, and strong leadership encouraged such lofty expectations. The local entrepreneurs first concentrated their efforts on flour milling. By 1870 production compared favorably with such important midwestern milling cities as Akron and Toledo. The rise of Minneapolis in the early 1870's as an important milling area, however, blunted Neenah-Menasha's hopes of becoming a "great city" through a thriving flour milling industry. By the mid 1870's capital shifted to paper manufactur- ing. Natural advantages worked together to

make Neenah-Menasha "a center of paper making." In astute management and innova- tive techniques, Kimberly and Clark Com- pany set the pace, and by 1885 no paper company of comparable size existed in the Midwest. Although the nucleus of an emerging industrial center existed, Neenah and Menasha never fulfilled the expectations of the founders--by the 1890's the combined population was still under 12,000. The fail- ure of Neenah and Menasha to evolve into a large urban area is one of the major con- cerns of the authors of this scholarly work. They argue that the inability of the two towns to fuse into a single city caused wasteful duplication of urban services and detrimental rivalries. More importantly, they point to the local leaders who failed to de- velop the water power at hand. Such lack of foresight caused the paper industry to pro- liferate throughout the entire Fox Valley. Also, the fact that large-scale manufacturers were uninterested in promoting community growth further explains Neenah-Menasha's fate. According to the authors, "industrializa- tion alone was not the road to urban great- ness in the nineteenth century." Although one wonders whether Professors Glaab and Larsen have over emphasized the urban aspirations of the early Neenah and Menasha citizenry, this book is a significant contribution to our understanding of nine- teenth century urban and industrial expan- sion. Too often urban historians have focused on the development of metropolitan centers while ignoring the small towns that failed in their quest for urban greatness. The book also focuses on the calloused attitude of the employer toward labor (disputing a theory that smaller manufacturing towns "enjoyed a more benevolent kind of industrial capital- ism . . . .") and, interestingly enough, the authors show that the Neenah-Menasha immigrant never experienced the problems of assimilation that Oscar Handlin has vividly described in The Uprooted. This reviewer compliments The State His- torical Society of Wisconsin for including the notes at the bottom of the page and for the bibliographical essay at the end of the book.   JAMES N. GIGLIO Southwest Missouri State College

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