Ohio History Journal

Book Reviews

 

 

Manuscript Sources in the Library of Congress for Research on the American

Revolution. Compiled by John R. Sellers, Gerard W. Gawalt, Paul H. Smith,

and Patricia Molen van Ee. (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1975. iii

+ 372 p.; indexes. $8.70.)

 

The Library of Congress is many things to many people: a legislative library;

a leader in the introduction of new library techniques; the world's largest

depository of written materials; and the custodian of internationally significant

collections in a number of fields. Over many decades, the Library has also

made a valuable contribution to American and world scholarship through the

compilation of a series of bibliographies, catalogues, guides, and other refer-

ence works. Some years ago, the Library established an American Revolution

Bicentennial Office that has sponsored several symposia on the Revolution and

conducted a survey of the Library's manuscript sources for description in this

guide.

Under 1617 entries, the guide lists all of the Library's collections of original

manuscripts, photostats, microfilms, and transcripts on American history from

1763 to 1789. Two-thirds of the entries cover "Domestic Collections," which

include papers of public men, government records, diaries, account books, and

orderly books. The other entries list "Foreign Reproductions," material on

American history during the period, which was copied for the Library of Con-

gress from foreign archives in England, France, Spain, and other countries.

Each entry lists the name of the collection, its size and dates, the location of

originals in cases where the Library of Congress holds reproductions, and

reference to other guides to the individual collections. Most entries also in-

clude a short biographical identification of the person or family whose papers

are listed, a note on principal correspondents in the collection, and a descrip-

tion of the collection, which may range from a single line to half a page.

Students of black history, architecture, religion, and other aspects of Ameri-

can life will find some materials pertinent to their work listed here. There are

papers of Paul Cuffee and Pierre L'Enfant, of the Pennsylvania Abolitionist

Society and the Society of the Cincinnati, of blacksmiths, clergymen, planters,

and country storekeepers. The overwhelming emphasis, however, is in the

fields of political, military, and diplomatic history, and on the papers of promi-

nent American white males. This fact is explainable more by the interests of

earlier scholarly generations than by the myopia of the guide's compilers. For

the study of these subjects, the original manuscripts in the Library of Congress

are indispensable, and its reproductions of material in other libraries in this

country and abroad makes a massive group of manuscripts conveniently avail-

able in one place. One is compelled to use these great collections whether one

is interested in the events that led to revolution, the military engagements, the

history of diplomacy and government during the Confederation, or the men

who wrote the Constitution of 1787. Here are the diaries and journals of re-

volutionary soldiers and British officers, the family papers of American

loyalists and the Proceedings of the Loyalist Claims Commissioners, official

records of a number of states and of most major European powers. The repro-

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Book Reviews                                                  161

 

ductions of British materials include manuscripts in the British Museum, the

Public Record Office, the Lambeth Palace Library, and the several ministries

that dealt with colonial affairs and prosecution of the war.

A short sampling of some of the private papers listed gives some sense of the

importance of this volume: the Adams family (608 reels of microfilm),

Franklin, George Clinton, Galloway, Gates, Nathanael Greene, Hamilton (111

vols. and 3 boxes), Hancock, Jared Ingersoll, Lafayette, Jefferson (50,000

items), Henry Laurens, Monroe, Madison (108 vols. and 8 boxes), Gouverneur

Morris, Robert Morris, Rochambeau, Caesar Rodney, Mercy Otis Warren,

Washington, the Lee family, and the Livingston family. The originals or repro-

ductions of some of these materials are available in other libraries; others are

unique to the Library of Congress, which has filmed many of its manuscript

collections for purchase or loan to scholars around the country.

The guide lists a number of collections containing materials on the Ohio

country. Some of these are miscellaneous collections on the western region-

e.g., the Northwest Territory Collection and the thirty volumes of Kentucky

Manuscripts. The Library also holds the papers of a number of men directly

involved in land speculation or settlement of the Ohio Valley or who played

other roles in early Ohio history. Among these are the papers of Thomas J.

Clay, William Croghan, John Fitch, Simon Kenton, Duncan McArthur, John

Cleves Symmes, John D. Woelpper, and the Nathaniel Wright family.

The Ohio Academy of History is sponsoring the preparation of a guide to

sources on the American Revolution-printed, as well as original and photo-

graphic reproductions-that are in Ohio libraries. Though Ohio libraries have

few original manuscripts on the period, they are rich in printed and filmed

editions, and the Academy guide will assist the student of the Revolution in

identifying the closest library that holds material he requires. It will not, how-

ever, supplant this distinguished guide to Manuscript Sources in the Library of

Congress, a fitting contribution to the American bicentennial commemoration

from the nation's library.

 

Cleveland State University                              John Cary

 

 

 

Logistics and the Failure of the British Army in America: 1775-1783. By R.

Arthur Bowler. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975. xii + 290p.;

notes, bibliography, index. $12.50.)

 

This monograph is a penetrating and well-researched administrative history.

Along with two other volumes, Norman Baker's Government and Contractors:

The British Treasury and War Supplies, 1774-1783, and David Syretts' Ship-

ping and the American War, 1775-1783, Bowler's book marks an attempt to

rewrite the administrative history of the War for Independence.

The central question that Bowler focused on is the same one that has fasci-

nated historians for years-why did presumably invincible Britain lose the war

to a group of quarrelling colonies? The answers have tended to fall into three

categories: 1) the intense commitment and ability of the colonists, 2) foreign

intervention and 3) administrative and strategic errors on the part of the

British. Bowler's volume clearly falls into the third category.

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162                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

Those authors who have sought to explain the failure of the British army in

America usually cite the administrative errors of both the leadership in Eng-

land and the Commanders-in-chief in America. Bowler does not wish to ques-

tion these interpretations, but rather to expand and deepen our understanding

of the British loss. He seeks to demonstrate in this book "that the fighting

efficiency of an army is very often a function of its logistical efficiency and to

point out where logistical and administrative problems in America affected the

course of the war."

The British logistical organization had not yet developed into the logical and

efficient structure twentieth century warfare introduced. Several governmental

departments-the War Office, the Treasury, the Board of Ordinance and the

Navy Board-coordinated the war efforts for Britain. In America, four exten-

sive departments were responsible for logistics-quartermaster, commissary,

barrack master and engineer. The major portion of Bowler's book focuses on the

activities of these agencies and departments. The story is one of repeated failure.

The problem of securing sufficient food was perhaps the most persistent

logistical dilemma. Shortly after the beginning of the war, the British disco-

vered that they would not be able to rely on the American countryside to feed

the soldiers and citizens living in New York. A complex system of importing

food from England had to be established, but until after 1781, when it really did

not matter militarily, there was never a sufficient quantity of food, and much that

did arrive was inedible. Without sufficient provision reserves the British com-

manders were hesitant to embark on expeditions into the American interior.

They recognized that unfriendly civilians were not apt to make food available to

hungry British soldiers. Thus, according to Bowler, the generals were forced to

remain in the captured American cities rather than venture into the interior. The

failure of Generals Thomas Gage, William Howe and Henry Clinton to be more

aggressive was based, at least in part, on the inability of the British to logistically

support an army in the field for more than a short period.

Bowler has done extensive research into British records, especially Treasury

documents, and his thesis is convincing. He has confined his discussions to a

very limited topic, but the questions he raises about war-time activities need to

be examined further. In the past Revolutionary historiography has been con-

cerned primarily with military, political and ideological themes. Bowler's vol-

ume reminds us that while these factors are important, we need to consider

more thoroughly the everyday administrative and logistical problems of the

British if we are to have a clear picture of why they lost the colonies.

 

Ohio American Revolution                          David C. Twining

Bicentennial Advisory Commission

 

 

Passage Through the Garden: Lewis and Clark and the Image of the American

Northwest. By John Logan Allen. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975.

xxvi + 412p.; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $18.50.)

The University of Illinois Press has long had a reputation for producing

outstanding books detailing the explorations of Lewis and Clark. In 1962 the

Press issued the definitive Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by

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Book Reviews                                                   163

 

Donald Jackson. Seven years later the Press offered Paul Russell Cutright's

massive Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists. With the publication of John

Logan Allen's superb Passage through the Garden, the University of Illinois

Press has maintained its well-deserved reputation among Lewis and Clark

scholars.

Passage through the Garden is no mere retelling of familiar events. Rather,

Professor Allen has chosen to explore the geographical concepts which shaped

the expedition and the ways those concepts changed during the journey. Using

the interpretative framework developed by Henry Nash Smith and Leo Marx,

Allen offers a perceptive analysis of the two central images that dominated the

thinking of Lewis and Clark as well as their patron Thomas Jefferson. Those

twin ideas were that the Northwest was an agricultural garden, and, more

important, that a water route-a Passage to India-existed linking the Missouri

to the Columbia and on to the Pacific. Carefully tracing those ideas from

Spanish, French, and English sources, Allen correctly points to the way Jeffer-

son's agrarian republican hopes for America made geography into wish-

fullfillment.

Perhaps the most challenging chapter in Professor Allen's study comes early

in the book and is entitled "Image of the Northwest, 1803." While Allen has

frankly described this chapter as "highly speculative," his speculation proves

both fertile and firmly rooted in historical evidence. Noting the close working

relationship between Jefferson and Meriwether Lewis, Allen details the

sources of their geographical ideas. Using what geography they knew and what

they hoped was true, the President and the Explorer envisioned the Northwest

as a garden penetrated by an easy water route to the Pacific. "Thus," writes

Professor Allen, "was the image of the Northwest in 1803 a combination of fact

and rumor, of theory and conjecture, with a sprinkling of hope added for

seasoning."

When the explorers left St. Louis on May 14, 1804 to begin their trek to the

Pacific, they were firmly held in the grasp of geographical images and expecta-

tions centuries old. As Allen explains so precisely, the real accomplishment of

the expedition in the months to come was to "change the nature of the Ameri-

can knowledge of the Northwest. The captains would replace conjecture and

speculation, wild reasonings of theoretical and logical frameworks, with scien-

tific observation. They would fill many blank spaces on the maps of the

Northwest with facts recorded and verified rather than guessed at and hoped

for." Lewis and Clark found neither the Passage to India nor the Garden in the

West. Refusing to cling to outmoded expectations, they confronted reality and

thereby transformed the mental geography of North America.

Passage through the Garden is an impressive book, painstakingly re-

searched and lucidly written. Graced with forty-seven useful maps and illustra-

tions, John Logan Allen's work will be of lasting value to anyone intent on

pursuing Anglo-Americans and their changing image of the land they inhabit.

This monograph is a model of what can be achieved by wedding the history of

exploration to the discipline of historical geography.

 

Youngstown State University                         James P. Ronda

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164                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

 

Essays in Nineteenth Century Economic History: The Old Northwest. Edited

by David C. Klingaman and Richard K. Vedder. (Athens: Ohio University

Press, 1975. xiv + 356p.; illustrations, notes, index. $12.00.)

 

Those who have followed the recent efforts of economists to develop a

regional economic history for the antebellum South will see in this volume a

likely beginning for a similar evaluation of the Old Northwest. Once again

economists, rather than historians, are at center stage, and the questions and

methods are theirs. Of eleven essays, all but one focus on the antebellum

period. The exception is a fascinating though exceedingly complex piece (67

endogenous variables and 72 equations) in which Jeffrey Williamson argues

that declining inter-regional transport costs, by favoring the high-bulk, low-

value agricultural products of the Midwest over the low-bulk, high-value in-

dustrial products of the East, fostered economic growth during the Gilded Age

but also "had a very powerful negative influence on American industrializa-

tion. . ." (p. 318).

Over two-thirds of the essays deal with some facet of the general subject of

economic growth. Robert Gallman and Richard Easterlin explore productivity

in agriculture. Although both acknowledge the importance of the shift of pro-

duction to geographical areas of higher yield, Easterlin concludes that an

unfavorable price situation prevented newer states from translating productiv-

ity advantages into additions to income. It is also worth noting that Easterlin's

emphasis on low productivity levels in areas undergoing settlement is an idea

dating at least to Percy Wells Bidwell's and John I. Falconer's History of

Agriculture in the Northern United States (Washington, D.C., 1925). The

theme of economic growth is also central to Donald Adams' judicious essay on

the role of the banks in maintaining a money supply conducive to economic

growth and as financial intermediaries. In each case their contribution was less

than optimum. Income grew considerably faster than bank money, and banks

often neglected demands for long-term capital. Adams also remains skeptical

of even the theoretical necessity for banks as financial intermediaries. Edward

Rastatter makes a case for the neutral role of another kind of intermediary, the

land speculator. Readers familiar with Robert P. Swierenga's Pioneers and

Profits (Ames, Iowa, 1968) will recognize this thesis as essentially the new

orthodoxy, but the burden of Rastatter's proof is fresh: population "varied

positively and significantly with land values" (p. 133). Land, moreover, was

settled and producing within two years of its sale at public auction and, there-

fore, the land speculator could not have "significantly retarded or distorted the

settlement of the public lands" (p. 135). Rastatter is on unfirm ground only in

his dismissal of the possibilities of monopolization. This conclusion is based on

the assumption that land markets were in some significant sense national or

regional, when for large numbers of settlers they were local-often, in fact,

limited to a specific auction. In such circumstances market power could and

did exist. The role of institutional factors in the process of growth and expan-

sion is also the subject of a confused essay by Roger Ransom on canals.

Contrary to Ransom's own conclusions about the positive contributions of the

canal system, the data presented here indicate that of the Ohio and Indiana

canals, only the Ohio Canal was of much benefit to the region, by any

economic or social definition. The additional suggestion that canals promoted

extensive economic growth, and that the transformation to industrialization

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Book Reviews                                                  165

 

was dependent upon the railroad and the telegraph (the former because of its

ability "to move people and goods rapidly" [p. 264]) is unproven in these pages

and ignores evidence of pre-railroad industrialization.

Several essays explore the concept of the region's rapid maturity and its

implications. From their perspective of population movements, Richard Ved-

der and Lowell Gallaway date Ohio's maturity to 1840, when the state became

a net exporter of human resources. Don Leet's discussion of the relationship

between fertility and settlement interprets maturity as an ongoing process,

characterized by the development of stress. Stress is generated when an ag-

ricultural area ages and experiences a decline in available opportunities, and

Leet believes it is this decline, rather than ongoing urbanization, which ex-

plains declining fertility. I only wish the author had gone further and presented a

more elaborate explanation and historical framework for what is essentially a

mathematical relationship. If the primary assumption is that children are con-

ceived in order to provide farm labor, then surely the farm-labor market (the

availability of hired hands) becomes a factor worthy of study. What Leet sees

as declining opportunity might just as well be interpreted positively-as evi-

dence of the existence in more settled areas of a highly structured, efficient

farm-labor market, obviating the need for a child labor force.

The converse of declining opportunity at maturity-substantial opportunity

at an earlier stage of development-is presented in an essay on Ohio wealth by

Lee Soltow, which demonstrates the positive relationship between the average

value of property in real estate and chronological age. Soltow concludes that

these rewards to age were in substantial measure a function of the opportunity

to acquire land in a frontier environment. One can agree with this, I think,

without finding in it any evidence of equal opportunity or equal distribution of

wealth. One crucial question, of course, is which younger people eventually

acquire property? And it goes without saying that Ohio must also have been a

superb place not to accumulate wealth. David Klingaman provides additional

information on the distribution of wealth in a narrowly conceived and focused

discussion based on northeastern Ohio sources. In the last analysis, however,

Klingaman's data-oriented approach may prove of more value than William

Parker's "From Northwest to Midwest: Social Bases of a Regional History."

Parker's essay is myth-perpetuating (the newer societies of the west were

democratic and homogenous), overly simple (Midwesterners are composites of

various types, including Yankees, southern hill people, peasants and gamblers),

and cryptic (on the causes of the Civil War). Much of the material is entertaining;

almost all is highly speculative.

This collection has all the strengths and weaknesses of the new economic

history. Most of the authors are concerned with questions of production and

efficiency rather than distribution, and they see growth proceeding naturally

and inexorably, rather than being fostered by intelligent entrepreneurship or

hindered by the machinations of speculators. The critical unstated assumption

is that growth is beneficial. It follows that policies which resulted in growth are

also beneficial. The transfer of income from the poor to the rich through infla-

tion is called "involuntary saving" and considered a necessary tool; leisure is

treated as socially desirable, by definition, although clearly leisure, too, is

often forced on one group by another (e.g. compulsory retirement policies). I

am not sure that the pervasive emphasis on growth is not a misplaced remnant

of the competition with the Soviets over GNP. The reader who has no such

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166                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

doubts, or who can transcend them while he examines this volume, will be

amply rewarded for his attention.

 

State University of New York                      William Graebner

College at Fredonia

 

 

Slavery and the Churches in Early America, 1619-1819. By Lester B. Scherer.

(Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1975.

163p.; notes, index. $5.95.)

 

Christians have good reason for embarrassment about the intimate and

long-standing connection between their faith and so wretched a system of labor

and racial control as African slavery. From St. Paul and Augustine of Hippo to

Cotton Mather and Bishop Berkeley, as Scherer observes, theologians and

prelates have managed to twist the Gospel of Jesus into justifications for

human bondage. Why, one asks, did it take the church so long to reach liberta-

rian conclusions that even a slaveholding Deist like Thomas Jefferson found

self-evident? Professor Scherer notes the irony of that circumstance, but he

does not speculate on so perplexing a subject; instead, he ably describes two

centuries of churchly fumblings, apologies, misgivings, and half-conscious un-

ease.

Too often church scholars (like most of us) speak to each other, and usually

in parochial and pietistic terms, especially in regard to their denominations'

gradual but allegedly benign evolution toward antislavery. Scherer, however,

is largely free of technical jargon, aiming for lucidity, brevity, and a salutary

objectivity. He is most persuasive when treating theological explanations for

the enslavement of Africans and for the Christian necessity of masterly be-

nevolence. Yet, like too many other liberal historians, he fails to grasp the full

social context: a traditional Hobbesian society in which life for most people

was "nasty, brutish, and short." For instance, he asserts that according to

seventeenth-century English thought, "the social hierarchy did not slide gently

downward to slavery; slavery was an abyss" (p.25). For the last decade,

Lawrence Stone, J. H. Plumb, and Edmund Morgan have argued otherwise.

Indentured servants, apprentices, redemptioners were also, though only tem-

porarily, unfree menials without status or effective rights. Only as productivity

and accompanying ideological changes advanced were Africans left frozen in

the lower reaches of a worldly hell. Without taking account of the larger con-

text of labor arrangements, Scherer leaves the impression that Christians were

singularly ill-disposed toward blacks, whereas for most of the period he covered

white property-holders and their clerical friends tenaciously clung to all means

of retaining power against the potential rages of the dispossessed.

Scherer seems most persuasive when handling religious rather than social

themes. For instance, he draws a very useful distinction (Troeltsch's famous

dichotomy) between "church" and "sect." The former institution, as he

suggests, reflected the traditional task of relating religious belief to worldly

activity (including slaveholding), while the sect, in this case the American

Quakers, strove for a higher standard, though at the expense of political influ-

ence. His recital of how Quakers moved toward antislavery is an excellent

synthesis of that tangled story. He is most at home with Anglicans, New

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Book Reviews                                                  167

 

England Puritans, and Virginia Presbyterians, but he neglects the Baptists who

frequently included slaves as full church members, contrary to the practices of

their ecclesiastical and social betters. Unfortunately, the author says almost

nothing about black reactions to white evangelism; we are left wondering if

Christianity arrived at the slave cabin door sometime after 1819-a very doubt-

ful proposition.

The chief deficiency of the book lies in its paucity of original research. Even

in a brief survey such as this there should be room for archival work, especially

since the religious sources in both northern and southern repositories are so

rich and still untouched. Yet, the final opinion must be favorable. Though the

materials and the interpretations, both borrowed from recent secondary

sources, are familiar to the specialist, Scherer's well-organized, uncomplicated

narrative is an appealing volume suitable for a general audience or under-

graduate class.

 

Case Western Reserve University               Bertram Wyatt-Brown

 

 

The Search for a Black Nationality: Black Emigration and Colonization 1787-

1863. By Floyd J. Miller. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975. xiii +

295p.; notes, bibliography, index. $10.95.)

 

The concept of a "black nationality" has acquired more substance, if not

more precision, over the last three decades as historians have traced through

two centuries of complex permutations the impelling drive among blacks for

self-realization, without demeaning dependence upon whites. Floyd Miller's

book focuses on this subject with rigorous comprehension and comprehensive

rigor during the nation's first 75 years.

His understanding of black-initiated colonization movements and their chief

movers is impressive; from Paul Cuffe to Martin Delany and J. Theodore

Holly, the men and their movements emerge in human dimension. Miller's

scholarly probing is exemplary, exhuming a wide range of primary and secon-

dary sources which he has explored with indefatigable care.

His treatment of emigration as a manifestation of black nationality is cohe-

rent. Paul Cuffe's abortive efforts in this country and in Sierra Leone, inhibited

by apathy and war, reflect admirably upon this little-known man of extraordi-

nary capacity. The American Colonization Society effort in Sierra Leone and

the first Haitian settlement are tragedies of error, marred by misunderstanding,

yet these early fumblings were essential growth experiences for blacks and

whites. Emigration had a renaissance in the 1850's, attributed to the energetics

of Lewis Woodson, whose disciple, Martin Delany, organized American and

Canadian blacks and eventually contracted for land just east of Lagos in what

is now Nigeria. Holly's interest was Haiti and although he prospered there, his

settlement evaporated.

Several threads of black history are tied more tightly by this study. The

dominance of whites, suffocating black aspirations, is a recurrent theme. The

American Colonization Society, for example, spread like a blanket over emig-

rationist plans after 1816. Intraracial disputes, documented with debilitating

frequency, demonstrate once again that the American black community con-

sists of individuals who think and act independently to free the race of imposed

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168                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

shackles. James Forten and Frederick Douglass, for example, could never

quite accept emigration while Delany, Henry Highland Garnet and others be-

came its most ardent disciples. Others moved between the poles of emigration

and abolition, or even among the various poles of emigration itself (to Canada?

to Haiti? to Africa?), manifesting that very human trait of flexibility or, less

charitably, indecisiveness.

These important conclusions-white dominance, black squabbling, and black

inconsistency-need such clarification if we are properly to understand both the

evolving role of black people, as individuals and as a community, in American

society, and the compelling thrust of black nationality.

Even as early as the first half of the nineteenth century black nationality had

developed into three interdependent, yet independent ideologies. The first was

the idea that being black in America carried a special, affirmative identifica-

tion, a mark not so much of skin color but of tradition, perspective and com-

munication. An amalgam of African background, slavery, the caste of pre-

judice, Christianity, and multiple random individual experiences, this belief is a

forerunner of what we know today as black culture. In the earlier period, it was

often expressed defensively: "We have always adopted the policies that white

men established for themselves," Delany wrote in 1852, "without considering

their applicability or adaptedness of us" (p. 132). The emigration movements

were a positive expression of this idea.

Black nationality also came to mean a coming together of black people to

fight for the same opportunities of citizenship, education, employment, resi-

dence and similar rights enjoyed by whites. The multiplicity of national and

state conventions, particularly in the 1830's and 1850's, makes this clear, even

though the conventions' specific objectives varied in time and place. Rarely

would blacks gather without some outpouring of resentment against their op-

pressed state, some insistent demands for equal rights. Before H. H. Garnet

turned to emigration, he was a militant abolitionist: "America is my home, my

country, and I have no other," he proclaimed in 1848. "I love whatever of

good there may be in her institutions. I hate her sins" (p. 188).

Black nationality, finally, included the idea of a black nation, within or

without the boundaries of the United States. Most versions of this began with a

black community, expanded into a thriving country with a sound economy and

a strong government. Whatever the version, the projection was independence

for black people. Delany's word was "self-reliance," but Holly, who later

became a prominent Haitian, put the challenge more dramatically: "You are

less than men if you would permit any amount of sufferings and privations to

prevent your going forth to build a nationality of your race to do service in the

cause of God and humanity" (p. 241).

Miller's book highlights the importance of an emerging black nationality for

blacks and whites. It deserves a wide audience.

 

Heidelberg College                             Leslie H. Fishel, jr.

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Book Reviews                                                  169

 

Allies for Freedom: Blacks and John Brown. By Benjamin Quarles. (New

York: Oxford University Press, 1974. xiv + 244p.; illustrations, notes, bib-

liographical note, index. $7.95).

 

More than a decade before his assault on Harpers Ferry, John Brown be-

came almost single-mindedly preoccupied with the plight of Afro-Americans,

free and slave. He sought their friendship as equals and without prejudice, and

he died to eliminate their oppressions. Blacks, in turn, trusted and cooperated

with Brown, and they canonized him after his death. Brown's relationship with

blacks symbolized the potential for strong black-white cooperation and was

founded upon the "liberal vision of the brotherhood of man."

This is the essential message of Benjamin Quarles' most recent book. It is

sustained by prodigious research and gracious writing, and makes enjoyable

reading. Yet Allies for Freedom suffers from certain deficiencies. The author

never makes clear which general elements of the black community aided

Brown before his hanging or which canonized him after his death. Quarles cites

the words and deeds of national black leaders like Frederick Douglass, W.E.B.

DuBois, and Kelly Miller; but what were the social and economic backgrounds

and the fundamental concerns of the many "anonymous" blacks who signed

petitions, wrote private letters, and passed on an oral tradition exalting Brown?

Nor can we ignore the many blacks who were indifferent toward Brown or

even the minority who were hostile in the decades between Harpers Ferry and

modern times. If Professor Quarles is to demonstrate that a Brown-black tradi-

tion of cooperation extended beyond a limited Negro leadership elite, more

precise analysis of both the black masses and black leaders seemingly cool or

hostile to Brown is imperative. Complexities, variations, and conflicts among

Afro-Americans must be explained.

One may also question Quarles' claim that the relationship between Brown

and blacks symbolized a viable tradition of black-white cooperation in pursuit

of "man's common humanity." Quarles admits that Brown mistakenly as-

sumed that most blacks were militant and ready for violent action against racial

oppression. He also acknowledges that at least "a few" blacks hesitated "to

join a movement led by any white.. ." Finally, Quarles notes "that black

abolitionists and their white counterparts were often in sharp disagreement as

to priorities and role, with black reformers becoming more self-consciously

black during the 1840's and 1850's." Given Brown's misreading of black wil-

lingness to commit violence, and given the sharp disagreements between white

and black abolitionists that Quarles delineates so well in his Black Abolitionists

(1969), the Brown-black relationship could not have been one of total trust and

confidence. Brown shared with many other white abolitionists the vision that

slavery retarded more than Negro liberty-that it held back the millennial

"Kingdom of God." Black abolitionists usually had more precise and tangible

goals. For most of them, the elimination of Southern racial bondage and the

extension of civil rights for freemen were specific and self-contained ends.

To be sure, Brown may have had greater empathy and more immediate

concern for blacks than most of his white abolitionist contemporaries. But

there must have been very serious strains in the Brown-black relationship as

well as strong harmonies. The relationship must have been complex and ambi-

valent. After Brown's death, canonizers could invent a mythic white hero who,

in his relationship to blacks, evidenced none of this strain and ambivalence. It

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170                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

would seem, then, that even a judicious and thorough historian like Professor

Quarles shares something with Brown's canonizers. Like the canonizers,

Quarles seems to allow the simple post-execution hero image to color his

appraisal of the living John Brown.

 

Bowling Green State Univeristy                Lawrence J. Friedman

 

The Mariposa Indian War, 1850-1851; Diaries of Robert Eccleston: The

California Gold Rush, Yosemite, and the High Sierra. Edited by C. Gregory

Crampton. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1957. Reprinted 1975.

vii + 168p.; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $10.00.)

 

C. Gregory Crampton's The Mariposa Indian War reproduces for a wider

reading audience a work previously known largely to specialists and to the

Bancroft Library Friends. Crampton's efforts are directed to editing some of

the diary materials recorded by Robert J. Eccleston during his sojourn in the

Sierra country during 1850 and 1851.

Although the title indicates that the book will give us new information about

the so-called Mariposa Indian War, such is really not the case. What Eccles

records is an additional facet of the California mining frontier. Details of the

daily toil involved in working for gold in the high mountain streams, of the costs

involved, and of the rigors of mining camp life in general are the major legacy

of the Eccleston materials held by the Bancroft Library.

There is little or no material about the Sierra Indians in this work. Ethno-

graphic detail is provided in only one passage, and pencil sketches of natives

and native dwellings are omitted from the reproduced materials.

The contribution of the book is to the literature of the mining frontier;

nothing more should be claimed. Certainly the rigors of stream mining de-

scribed here should help as we seek a better understanding of the true nature of

mining camp life, apart from Bret Hart's Outcasts of Poker Flats. Worthy of

note, too, are the amusements, such as horse racing, and the general instability

of mining frontier life, which should help us understand the psychology of the

frontier. For those interested in the history of mining, or even the early his-

tory of the Yosemite area, this will prove an interesting little book, but for

those interested in native American studies, this will be of only tangential

interest.

 

Marietta College                            James H. O'Donnell, III

 

 

Laura Clay and the Woman's Rights Movement. By Paul E. Fuller. (Lexington

University Press of Kentucky, 1975. x + 217p.; illustrations, notes, bibliog

raphy, index. $12.50.)

 

Laura Clay, one of the most prominent sectional suffrage leaders and prog

ressive southerners, who died at ninety-two in 1941, left to historians one of the

richest collections of papers and correspondence that exists on the women'

rights movement. Paul Fuller is the first historian to give this material th

significant attention it deserves. The author traces Laura Clay's life from he

• 11
 

Book Reviews                                                 171

 

childhood in the home of her famous father, the abolitionist Cassius Clay of

Kentucky, through several chronological periods culminating with the wo-

men's suffrage amendment. In this excellent biography the author manages to

enlist the reader's admiration for this extraordinarily energetic and devoted

woman. Clay is depicted as a progressive southerner who could separate points

of view from personality, and diplomatically received both triumph and defeat.

She was involved in numerous women's rights activities that put her in touch

with many women across America. For example, she worked for the passage

of laws that provided equity in property rights between husband and wife, and

a coguardianship law. Her efforts at coeducation in Kentucky are also noted.

Most of all it was Clay's position on the national suffrage movement that gave

her special notoriety. In her mind female suffrage should come through the

states, and therefore she appreciated the national amendment in so far as it

served to publicize the suffrage issue generally. Here Fuller makes his

strongest point. Clay opposed the federal amendment because, in her words, it

would "diminish the people's watchfulness over the legislation which affects

their own particular requirements." The New York Times, among others, took

this to mean that Clay's opposition was based on a typical southern prejudice

against Negroes. While Clay did not deny that racial bias influenced the issue

in the South, Fuller emphasizes that "her objections to the federal amendment

were based on the principle of federal-state relations." The states, she be-

lieved, should be able to extend the vote at their own discretion to avoid the

dangers of enfranchising untrained votes, especially "in this time of world

revolution." Fuller's effective analysis of these points is supported by exten-

sive documentation that goes beyond the Clay papers. Although compact al-

most to a fault in a couple of places, this overdue biography of Laura Clay is

quite readable and deserves a place along with the works of Eileen Kraditor

and Ann Frior Scott in understanding the Southern women's suffrage move-

ment.

 

Muskingum College                                  Joe L. Dubbert

 

 

An Ohio Reader. Volume I: 1750 to the Civil War. Volume II: Reconstruction

to the Present. Edited by Thomas H. Smith. (Grand Rapids: William B.

Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1975. 324p. and ⁴39p.; notes. Paper, $4.95

and $5.95.)

 

These two volumes contain selections from the entire chronological range of

the history of Ohio, bringing conveniently together some fascinating materials

printed previously in widely scattered places. Students and teachers of the

state's history, as well as the general public, will find a wide choice of docu-

ments describing the land which became Ohio, some of the peoples who came

to live there, and social and political problems which they encountered over

the past two centuries. Of course no compilation of readings can include the

personal favorites of every purchaser, but anyone interested in history who

opens these volumes should find selections of interest.

Each volume is broken into chronological periods with appropriate topics

developed for each section; each section, but not each document, has introduc-

tory comments by the editor. Thus the reader will find accounts of Indian wars,

• 12
 

172                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

tales of travel through the developing region, reports by government officers

and journalists of social and economic conditions, and examples of how

Ohioans disagreed on political issues in episodes such as the 1912 Constitu-

tional Convention. The editor's choices reflect the history profession's con-

cern with exploring Black experiences, and its awareness of differing opinions

on the role of women in government and society.

The writing of state history poses difficult conceptual problems. As the

editor points out in his introductory remarks, the boundaries are man-made.

Should one then focus exclusively on the man-made entity, which would re-

quire a concentration on government history to the exclusion of broader social,

economic, and intellectual developments which have shaped so much of the

recent historiography of our national life? Or should the writer of state history

simply adopt as his or her domain anything which happened in the state, or the

activities of anyone who happened at some point to live within its boundaries?

Just as the writing of state history often suffers from a lack of a clear definition

of purpose, so do these volumes. Thus they inform us of how nineteenth

century government struggled with the problems of establishing public educa-

tion, without one word on the system of higher education; yet room is found to

include excerpts from hardly unique contributions of Ohioans in Congress to

the debates over "manifest destiny." The second volume contains vivid de-

scriptions of the living conditions in which some Ohioans found themselves in

the burgeoning urban-industrial society of the late nineteenth and early twen-

tieth centuries, with no mention of the role of the state government in promot-

ing immigration or the shift in the source of migration to southern and eastern

Europe. The editor reveals some confusion of purpose when, in the introduc-

tion to the second volume (which repeats the introduction to the first volume),

he states "Ohio history can be seen as a microcosm of national history" (p. 9),

and then begins his next section with "the reconstruction period. . .had a

different meaning in Ohio than in the South" (p. 15). This reviewer wished for a

clearer purpose than his assertion that we study state history because some-

how it collectively adds up to national history.

The writing of state history is made difficult, furthermore, because it re-

quires the historian to take into account changing interpretations developed in

the national historiography. These volumes do so only to a limited extent in

their samples of Black and women's history. One comes away from them

unaware that, nationally, historians are conceptualizing their work around the

increasing bureaucratization and centralization of power in society, unaware of

recent insights into the class biases of some reformers, or the role of state

government in promoting local business interests. Insights into the ways social,

political, and intellectual life were shaped by successive waves of immigration

must be found elsewhere. Research by political historians, who have systemat-

ically described patterns of grass-roots political behavior in the late nineteenth

century and found Ohioans bitterly divided on matters of religious belief and

ethnicity, is unrecognized here. In sum, the interpretive framework implicit in

these volumes is of the liberal genre without recognition of contradictory in-

terpretations developed in the profession in the past decade.

Undoubtedly these volumes will be useful in courses on Ohio history. An Ohio

Reader is an interesting attempt to fill a void in the conveniently available

literature of our state's history. It supplements and enriches existing secondary

accounts. It will be the future task of scholars to sharpen our focus on the

• 13
 

Book Reviews                                                  173

 

purposes of state history, and perhaps to enlarge our understanding of the

historical roles of state government.

 

The Ohio State University                           K. Austin Kerr

 

 

Ohio-An American Heartland. By Allen G. Noble and Albert J. Korsok. (Col-

umbus: Ohio Division of Geological Survey, 1975, xiii + 230p.; illustrations,

tables, notes, bibliography, index. $5.00.)

 

Not since Alfred J. Wright's Economic Geography of Ohio, published in

1957, has there been a comprehensive geography of the state. Allen Noble and

Albert Korsok, both members of the geography department at The University

of Akron, have not only filled this void, but have done so admirably. Professor

Noble developed six of the 12 chapters, Professor Korsok four, and two other

members of the Akron department each contributed a chapter. Despite some

unevenness in the approach and quality of the chapters, the book is a well-

done, unified whole.

There are certain similarities between this volume and Wright's: for one,

both are published by the Division of Geological Survey (this is Bulletin 65 and

Wright's was Bulletin 50). The physical appearance is similar, but it must be

added that the present volume is superior in terms of typescript, photographic

selection and layout, and in the varied and effective maps, charts, and draw-

ings that it includes; and, finally, there is similarity in organization although the

present volume has a broader focus and reflects a pronounced effort by the

authors to relate aspects of Ohio's geography to certain trends apparent in

current geographic research. Wright, on the other hand, provided the reader

with considerably more historic perspective and emphasized more strongly a

regional approach.

After a short "Introduction" which attempts to place Ohio in perspective

relative to the nation, an historical treatment of "Settlement in Ohio" follows.

The chapter is well-done although this reviewer, for one, would like to have

seen more attention given to the impact of the unique role of alternative land

survey systems upon settlement and development. The process of historic

settlement leads, but not quite naturally in the text, to a discussion of popula-

tion. And here, as in later chapters, an attempt is made to tie theory (in this

case, von Thunen's model and Weber's industrial location model) to Ohio's

"real world" experience.

Chapters 4, 5, and 6, dealing with physical landscape, agriculture, and the

extractive industries, respectively, are the most conventional in approach. A

traditional descriptive treatment of the state's geology, climate, vegetation,

and soils characterizes Chapter 4; the discussion is reinforced by relevant maps

and sketches. The section on agriculture is noteworthy for its emphasis upon

land values and incomes in an urban state. There is, as well, the expected

discussion of major commodities and agricultural regions, but major attention

is focused on the state's changing agriculture. The chapter on extractive indus-

tries is largely descriptive, based, as it is, upon available production data.

There is too little effort here to consider these activities in any but a superficial

way. For example, given the scope of our energy resource problems and related

• 14
 

174                                                    OHIO HISTORY

 

environmental issues, the treatment of these topcis is skimpy indeed.

In Chapter 7, "Manufacturing in Ohio," the approach is less stereotyped and

more rewarding. For example, after suggesting that Ohio is favorably situated

for industrial development, Noble discusses several of the key factors affecting

location decisions and, to a limited extent, draws upon location theory to help

explain Ohio's growth as an industrial state. While these factors are never

strongly treated in the chapter, the author does, at least, provide the interested

reader with a few basic concepts relative to industrial location and industrial

classification for Ohio cities. The final part of the chapter is given over to a

description of the industrial mix of major industrial centers: Noble carries this

difficult task off quite well by emphasizing the historical evolution of industry

in the respective city and by placing it in perspective relative to those factors

responsible for industrial change.

In a way, it might have been useful to have included the introductory pages

of Chapter 8, "Transport and Commerce in Ohio," in the first one or two

chapters of the text. The historical review has relevance to the settlement of

the state; the two subjects could have been dealt with accordingly. In the main,

however, this chapter deals with present transportation systems. Specific at-

tention is given to the different experiences of Cleveland and Cincinnati vis-a-

vis their "shipping patterns," and there is a short but worthwhile discussion of

retail and wholesale trade in the state.

It is Chapter 9, "The Urban Geography of Ohio," that strikes this reviewer

as one of the two or three most innovative. There is a nice mix of topics here

ranging from, but not limited to, a consideration of the phenomena of site and

situation as factors affecting the initial location and later development of many

Ohio cities (including some as small as Conneaut and as large as Cleveland), to

an attempt to classify by function these communities, and to a very well-

developed section on the internal structure of Ohio's cities in which basic

theories (i.e., concentric zone, sector, multiple nuclei) are postulated and then

applied to state examples. Excellent visuals accompany the discussion includ-

ing maps of the internal structure of several cities, computer-generated maps of

urban pollution, and an interesting series of maps that report on various qual-

ities of social geography, such as ethnicity, homicides, etc., of selected Ohio

cities.

This chapter is followed by another imaginative and innovative discussion,

"The Countryside and Small Town in Ohio." Some attention is given to the

origins of towns and to place names, but the principal contribution is an exten-

sive section (15 pages) that emphasizes house, barn, and fence types, and gives

detailed attention to town patterns. The discussion is enhanced immensely by

18 drawings of house and barn types, and by 19 representations of town pat-

terns. It is here, rather than in the second chapter, that the cultural heritage of

the state is most effectively treated.

"The Social Geography of Ohio," the subject of Chapter 11, is a topic never

dealt with in earlier geographies of the state. Here, issues of poverty and income

differences are considered. Using government data, a series of maps has been

constructed to illustrate "Measures of Disadvantage" within the state by county

for such subjects as per capita public assistance, housing quality, infant mortali-

ty, etc. Distinctive regional differences are anticipated, of course, and the data

presented here support one's conjectures-Appalachian Ohio is as distinctive in

its social geography as it is in its physical geography!

• 15
 

Book Reviews                                                  175

 

The final chapter is a highly generalized discussion of the problems that face

the state and of some possibilities for resolving them. Specifically, attention is

focused on the urban environment (need for better planning), the physical

environment (pollution and resource limitations), and Appalachia (an addi-

tional argument that suggests that somehow this region can become a major

recreation area and, thereby, support itself). A special section deals with the

idea of promoting more satisfactorily a recreation and tourist industry in the

state. And, finally, brief attention is given to government (it is suggested,

perhaps naively, that metropolitan government may resolve local government

problems) and to the proliferation of government services.

Those of us who teach courses in the Geography of Ohio welcome this

up-to-date text. It provides not only the background and data for traditional

subjects, but offers a number of new approaches (i.e., new to Ohio geog-

raphies) and numerous well-conceived visuals as well. There is a solid though

not exhaustive bibliography and two appendices relating to population data and

to population growth trends. There may be shortcomings and even flaws in

both the approach and content of the volume, but if there are they are more

than offset by the numerous good features that this volume possesses.

 

The Ohio State University                         Henry L. Hunker

 

 

History of Willard, Ohio, with Pioneer Sketches of New Haven, Greenfield,

Norwich and Richmond Townships. By Joseph F. Dush. (Willard: The

Lakeside Press, 1974, xiii + 318p.; illustrations, index. $17.95.)

 

Writing local history presents a very challenging dilemma. An author who

attempts what Mr. Dush has attempted in his History of Willard, Ohio may on

the one hand aim his work at the home folks, in which case there will appear

substantial lists of people associated with one project or another which may

satisfy the desire of the local citizens to see their names in print, but which will

only weary the more professional historian and cause him to write an unfavor-

able review. On the other hand, he may forego such details as the lists and seek

to write a discerning history in which the community is placed on the larger

stage of county, state and nation. But here, unless he is writing about a great

metropolitan area, he may well discover that his volume remains on bookstore

shelves unpurchased and he, or his sponsors, is saddled with debt.

Mr. Dush may well have tried to satisfy both his neighbors and historians in

this work. He has done better by the home folks. We understand. Still there are

some things omitted that the local citizens should know which would also have

pleased the historian. For example, no one can gainsay that railroads are the

raison d'etre for the founding of Willard, yet one searches in vain for the story

of the building of Willard's first railroad. All we get on that is "The Baltimore

and Ohio Railroad Company purchased several shorter lines of railroad in Ohio,

among them the Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark lines that ran north and

south through Huron County just west of New Haven." All of us are entitled to

the details about when and why and how this line was built and also when it

was purchased. Without this line there could have been no later Chicago Junc-

tion.

The reader gets frequent glimpses of the story of the Baltimore and Ohio

• 16
 

176                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

main line and its Willard installations, yet the book is finished with the feeling

that that is just what it gives: glimpses. One could wish for a thorough job such

as the author has done for Midwest Industries and the Donelly Co., both of

which received detailed and apparently complete treatment. By the time one

completes this book these companies seem to be more solid institutions in the

community than the venerable Baltimore and Ohio.

One wishes that the planning of fringe aspects of all books were as well done

as for this one. The book is physically attractive, it has a useful index, a

pleasing format and inspired drawings in the margins. Mr. Dush is to be highly

complimented in these areas. There is one omission: a useful city map with

named streets to help the outsider (maybe even the resident) keep up with the

author as he moves around over the city.

The History of Willard, Ohio is a useful work of local history, pleasant to

read, with acceptable organization, good research in some areas but weaknes-

ses in the treatment of the railroads and a tendency to remember the home

folks at the expense of the historian.

 

Ohio Northern University                              Boyd Sobers

 

 

Ethnic Groups in Ohio with Special Emphasis on Cleveland: An Annotated

Bibliographical Guide. By Lubomyr R. Wynear et al. (Cleveland: Cleveland

State University, Cleveland Ethnic Heritage Studies Development Prog-

ram, 1975. vi + 254p.; notes, appendices, indexes. $6.50.)

 

The recent mushrooming of interest in ethnic studies in the United States led

the Cleveland Board of Education and the Intercollegiate Council on Ethnic

Studies under the direction of Dr. Karl Bonutti, as well as the Catholic school

system in Cleveland, to a joint effort to receive funding support from the U.S.

Office of Education, Department of Health Education and Welfare, to produce

this very excellent bibliographical guide. Professor Lubomyr R. Wynear of

Kent State University headed the team of scholars who compiled and anno-

tated the entries.

Greater Cleveland, with an ethnic mosaic of over sixty ethnic and racial

groups, seemed a logical place to treat in such a study. The book begins with a

listing of general reference sources and a list of general works on ethnicity in

the United States. It moves on quickly to a more specific consideration of the

ethnic groups in Greater Cleveland about which there is likely to be the

greatest research interest, such as (in alphabetical order): American Indian,

Appalachian, Arab-American, Black-American, Byelorussian, Chinese, Croa-

tian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, German, Greek, Hungarian,

Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Puerto Rican,

Romanian, Russian, Scottish, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Swiss and

Ukranian-American. The book concludes with an appendix that contains a

directory of archival holdings in Cleveland and a listing of repositories of

Cleveland ethnic newspapers, as well as a chart of the recent ethnic popula-

tions of Cleveland and the United States.

Both the scope of the book and its intended audience are purposely limited.

By his own avowal, the author has restricted the listings to: "selective" items

in the English language only, with an emphasis on "reference and monographic

• 17
 

Book Reviews                                                    177

 

publications." Dissertations and masters' theses were also included, as well as

a few periodical articles. The book was designed for use by junior-high and

high-school students as well as college undergraduates.

Bearing in mind this limited scope and purpose, the book must be judged to

be an excellent new tool for use in social science research classes with a racial

or ethnic focus. It is well organized for easy and quick use by less sophisticated

students.

This reviewer is impressed by two final points. One is the fact that Professor

Wynear's very fine bibliographical guide is a good research tool in itself. The

other point is that the book was obviously designed to fit in perfectly with a

whole series of monographs on the various Cleveland ethnic minorities, some

of which have already been published and others of which are due off the press

in the near future. One might wish that other cities would follow this example.

 

Xavier University                                     Paul L. Simon

 

 

The American Heritage History of Railroads in America. By Oliver O. Jensen.

(New York: American Heritage Publishing Company, 1975. 320p.; illustra-

tions, bibliography, index. $29.95.)

Railroads in America, by Oliver O. Jensen, editor of American Heritage

Magazine, is a popular treatment of railroading in the United States. Tracing the

industry from its beginnings a century and a half ago to the present era of Amtrak

and Conrail, Jensen suggests that "The history of American railroads sometimes

seems ... a paradigm of the history of the republic itself. Both were created

through heroic struggles, both swelled to imperial influence and power; both, as

is the way with empires, have fallen on difficult, uncertain times" (p. 7).

Through a combination of narrative essays and contemporary observations, the

author discusses a variety of specialized topics, including the evolution of rail

motive power, construction of the first transcontinental line, station architec-

ture, and the industry's romantic image in the American mind. Although the text

is considerable, photographs, line drawings and other illustrative material com-

prise the bulk of the work.

This publication is a high-quality "buff" book, full of nostalgia for the railfan

and the general reader alike. Both will admire the book's marvelous illustra-

tions, its gracefully written text, and the coverage of colorful topics. Serious

students of railroad history, however, will probably find little of value in Mr.

Jensen's text. Repeatedly the author demonstrates his rather shallow grasp of

general American history and an insufficient knowledge of railroad history.

There are numerous examples of his limitations, but two will suffice. When

Jensen discusses government regulation of the rail network, he seems totally

unaware of most "standard" studies, including Gabriel Kolko's classic Rail-

roads and Regulations, 1877-1916. And when Jensen describes the railroad

station he not only ignores the all-important standardized structure, but he

incorrectly asserts that "carpenters armed with jig saws constructed fanciful

Gothic ornamentation; arched windows, for instance, or scrolled supports for

the eves" (p. 217). Rather than being the products of skilled and imaginative

local craftsmen, these ornaments were more likely fashioned on machines in

many woodworking factories of the East and the Middle West. Finally, this

• 18
 

178                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

reviewer, although a dedicated railfan himself, is annoyed by the constant

"digs" at the non-rail transportation industry, the Interstate Commerce Com-

mission, and over-all government policies vis-a-vis American railroads. How-

ever, if one shares Mr. Jensen's point of view, these comments should be

appreciated.

 

The University of Akron                             H. Roger Grant

 

 

Thurber: A Biography. By Burton Bernstein. (New York: Dodd, Mead &

Company, 1975. ix + 532p.; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $15.00.)

 

Any book whose first chapter begins with the sentence, "Columbus is a

depressing place," can't be all bad. As first sentences go, it ranks right up there

with "Arma virumque cano" and "Call me Ishmael." Burton Bernstein's deflat-

ing opening is a positive omen. Although he had insisted on sole control of the

final manuscript, the temptation in an "authorized" biography, especially when

some principals of the story are still living, is to soften edges, to spare feelings, to

avoid conflicts. Luckily, Bernstein resisted the temptation. Thurber's widow,

Helen, found the book "too negative," but its tone reminded me of the definition

of a friend as someone who knows all your faults and still likes you.

Bernstein has produced a useful and readable biography. As official biog-

rapher, with access to Thurber's papers and letters, his research is as thorough

as could be wished. He does a workmanlike job on the drudgery of biography-

listing names, places, dates, yet refrains from overwhelming the reader with

detailed trivia. He often, and commendably, allows Thurber to speak for himself

by quoting extensively from private letters. He manages the mass of biographic

material well: the tragic childhood accident which eventually cost Thurber his

sight; his sometimes stormy relationships with his family; his ambivalent feel-

ings about Columbus, his home town, and about Ohio State, his alma mater. A

very useful selected bibliography of material by and about Thurber is also

provided.

Bernstein, with a keen understanding of the difference between public and

private virtue, does not feel it necessary to turn Thurber into a plaster saint. We

are shown the talented artist and the sometimes tortured human being. Thurber

fluctuated between fits of alcoholic rage and subsequent sobered apology; he got

divorced; he had extra-marital affairs. He also wrote stories and drew cartoons

which have been favorably compared to the works of Mark Twain and Henri

Matisse, respectively.

Bernstein's prose is sometimes distracting and annoyingly self-conscious.

Using the German "echt" when "best" or "vintage" is meant, as in "the story

is not echt Thurber," is overly pedantic. For the most part, however, his prose is

at the service of his story.

Thurber's long association with the New Yorker and its unique founder and

editor, Harold Ross, is also duly chronicled. Some of the best anecdotes in the

book concern Ross. When another cartoonist objected that Ross refused his

work and printed "stuff by that fifth-rate artist Thurber," Ross was quick to

correct him. "Third rate," he said. Although Bernstein does not indulge himself

in celebrity anecdotes for their own sake, with a man like Thurber they are

inevitable. Some are titillating: Thurber in a speakeasy, throwing a glass of

• 19
 

Book Reviews                                                  179

 

whiskey at Lillian Hellman; some are amusing: Thurber forging Ross' signature

of approval on his cartoons to get them printed; some are genuinely astonishing:

the blind Thurber being guided to his extra-marital liaisons by a young New

Yorker office boy, Truman Capote.

Bernstein's straightforward narration of Thurber's disintegration and increas-

ing paranoia during his final years makes harrowing reading. But Thurber

himself was unsentimental about death. In a letter to his brother Robert in 1928,

he wrote: "There ought to be some point to it all and I live in the hopes that the

adventure of death is something equal to the adventure of life which is pretty

colorful and interesting even if hard. It would seem strange to me if God made

such a complicated world and such complicated people and then had no more to

offer than blankness at the end, so I live in the curiosity and the hope and the

excitement of what there may be afterwards. ..."

No doubt there will be other (more positive?) biographical treatments of

Thurber. And certainly there will be more detailed literary and artistic criticisms

than Bernstein, limited by the biographic form, was able to provide. Neverthe-

less, for an understanding of Thurber as man and artist, Bernstein's work is

essential reading.

 

The Ohio Historical Society                    Patrick G. Miller, Jr.

• 20