Ohio History Journal

Book Reviews

 

 

 

 

Workers in Industrial America: Essays on the 20th Century Struggle. By

David Brody. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. ix + 257p.;

notes. $14.95.)

 

 

In recent years, as the intellectual luster of the labor movement has

dimmed and unions have become as attractive to scholars as, say, the

Knights of Columbus, labor historians have beat a hasty retreat. Labor

history has become working class history; ethnic divisions, social mobility,

and the "consciousness" or workers increasingly have absorbed the energies

of graduate students; and institutional history has all but disappeared.

Even the successful holdouts try to cover their tracks. Hence the misleading

title of this collection of essays on unions, organizing strategies, collective

bargaining and other presumably passe' subjects. Granted, Professor Brody

pays tribute to the "new" history in the first twenty pages of his essay on the

"American Worker in the Progressive Era," but that is the only lapse and it

is devoted not to workers but to the industrial wage earners who were

potential union recruits. Having thus lured the unsuspecting reader, Brody

proceeds to demonstrate that there is profit in beating dead horses. The best

of his essays are very good indeed; the others-mostly book reviews that are

too fragmentary to do more than raise questions-still warrant careful

examination. In short, this is a useful volume that should rate high on the

reading list of anyone who will admit to an interest in the role of unions in

recent American history.

Professor Brody is most comfortable with the industrial union issue in the

1930s and 1940s. His classic essays, "The Rise and Decline of Welfare Capi-

talism" and "The Emergence of Mass-Production Unionism," have long

been required reading for serious students of the Great Depression and

alone would be worth the price of the book. Together with a series of Brody's

book reviews, they emphasize the uniqueness of the Depression era: the

unaccustomed vulnerability of employers, the restiveness of industrial

workers and the growing pro-union partisanship of the government and the

courts. Yet, as Brody stresses, these developments did not produce indus-

trial unions, only opportunities. The other novel feature of the 1930s was

the remarkably vigorous and resourceful leadership of John L. Leis and his

CIO lieutenants. And it was Lewis's leadership that, in the final analysis,

proved decisive. These points are by no means new or startling; for the most

part Brody adheres to well-trod paths. His contribution has been to analyze

these features of the Depression environment with greater force and clarity

than other historians. Indeed, one concludes this book with a sense of regret

that Brody has not applied his talents more widely. What about the AFL

revival of the late 1930s? The effects of the industrial union in the plant?

The rapid growth of unions in the immediate prewar years when public

opinion had turned decisively against them? Alas, the book review, even the

extended review essay, is no substitute for substantative historical writing.

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Book Reviews                                                     263

 

Brody anticipates this criticism by including two new essays on unions in

the post-World War II years. One focuses on union activities in the political

realm, the other on collective bargaining. Both are able summaries of major

trends, especially those circumstances and decisions which served to re-

strict union power in American society. Brody argues that union leaders

sought to maximize their political influence by restricting their role in

politics. Their persistent aim was to guide the Democratic party without

controlling it. In retrospect this appears to have been a shrewd and wise

strategy. American unions have had less formal political clout than British

unions, for example, but they and the Democratic party are healthier for

their calculated abnegation of power. Brody's essay on postwar collective

bargaining is also an excellent introduction to the subject, yet I find it less

satisfying for several reasons. First, it treats the years since 1945 as an

undifferentiated whole. It would be unthinkable to view the years between

1900 and 1935 as a unit; why, then, is it appropriate to even acceptable to

approach the postwar years in that way? I suspect that Brody has inadver-

tently fallen victim to the dead hand of institutional economics, reflected

directly or indirectly in the writings of the industrial relations experts that

he correctly and necessarily relies on for much of his data. Second, the essay

exaggerates the union potential in the immediate postwar years and thus

the degree of union decline in recent decades. Brody quotes Sumner Slich-

ter's proclamation of the emergence of a "laboristic" economy in the 1940s.

This was a misleading (and self-serving, for a labor economist) perception.

In the prewar centralized, functionally-organized corporation, manufactur-

ing was accorded far less importance than marketing and finance. In the

new decentralized corporations of the 1940s and 1950s it received even less

prominence. If unions had somehow taken complete control of production, a

step they never seriously entertained, they still would have played a rel-

atively small role in the corporation. It was and is the strike, not "industrial

democracy," that threatens the corporation, a fact that union leaders, what-

ever their rhetorical predilections, have long appreciated. For executives,

the challenge of the postwar years was to learn to manage industrial rela-

tions, as they had earlier learned to manage sales, finance, and other busi-

ness functions. When they mastered that challenge the union "threat" re-

ceded and the "laboristic" economy was exposed as a chimera. Brody is too

shrewd to miss these trends, but his reliance on the industrial relations

experts and his tendency to view events from the union perspective often

subordinate them to other, less important factors.

Nevertheless, these essays, like Brody's work on the 1930s, provide con-

vincing evidence that in the right hands traditional labor history can hold

its own with the "new" history. If this book has the effect it should have,

Brody and Oxford University Press may even muster the courage to give

the second edition a more realistic title.

 

University of Akron                                    Daniel Nelson

 

 

The United States and the Caribbean, 1900-1970. By Lester D. Langley.

(Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1980. ix + 324p.; biblio-

graphical essay, notes, index. $22.00.)

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264                                                    OHIO HISTORY

 

With this book Professor Lester Langley, of the University of Georgia,

has completed his two-volume study of the United States and the Carib-

bean. Together, these volumes provide a useful and sometimes stimulating

survey of the subject. Langley has relied almost entirely on secondary

works and as a result this book provides an important synthesis of the

existing literature. But, this is essentially a broad survey and Langley

contributes very few new insights or research findings.

The basic theme of this book is the rise and fall of the American empire in

the Caribbean. As Langley describes it in his introduction:

 

The destiny of the Caribbean in the twentieth century would be, then, that of an

empire, an empire without colonies. In its empire the United States, on occasion for

genuinely unselfish, and at other times, for blatantly selfish, motives, would impose

political order, economic tutelage, and civic morality.

 

Langley emphasizes ideological and political factors in his discussion of

empire, but he is not very precise either in his definition of the term or in

his explanation of what constituted the American empire. At times it seems

that Langley attributes empire to the fact that the United States was simp-

ly more powerful than the countries in the Caribbean and has tried, with

very mixed results, to exert influence in the area. He periodically mentions

the economic "domination" of the United States but provides few specifics

concerning trade and investment. To Langley, the American empire was

rooted in psychological rather than economic determinants: a policy based

on a rather irrational fear of foreign control of the Caribbean.

For part of the book Langley tries to maintain a balanced approach to the

question of American imperialism. He describes the various nuances, para-

doxes, and contradictions in American policy, and gives due credit to the

changes in policy effected by different policymakers. The last one-third of

the book, however, tends to deteriorate into a carping denunciation of

American imperialism that Langley cites as the cause of almost all of the

problems of Caribbean nations. Indeed, the Cuban Revolution is the only

bright spot in Langley's recital of oppression, exploitation, and interven-

tion. In part, this emphasis reflects the existing state of the literature that

is based more on ideology than on research. It also reflects what Mark

Falcoff has called the "Hairshirt" complex that particularly affects

academic liberals.

Unfortunately, in his drive to castigate the United States Langley

ignores the genuine advances made by the Dominican Republic in the

1970s, the Soviet military buildup in the Caribbean, and the fact that after

twenty years of freedom from American "domination" Cuba is still depen-

dent on sugar and foreign handouts. The United States has played a mixed

role in the post-World War II Caribbean, but the story needs to be told

without excessive moralizing and with due appreciation of legitimate fac-

tors of national security.

University of Toledo                           Robert Freeman Smith

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Book Reviews                                                    265

 

Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery. By Leon F. Litwack.

(New York: Vintage Books, 1979. xvi + 651p.; notes, selected bibliogra-

phy and manuscript sources, index. $7.95 paper.)

 

 

Leon F. Litwack, professor of history at the University of California-

Berkeley, has written the most comprehensive treatment to date of the

emancipation of four million slaves and their reaction to freedom.

Been in the Storm So Long is divided into ten chapters. The first three,

"The Faithful Slave," "Black Liberators," and "Kingdom Comin'," explain

the problems and uncertainties created for both blacks and whites by the

Civil War. "Slaves No More," "How Free is Free," and "The Feel of Free-

dom: Moving About," are stirring accounts of the responses of blacks to

freedom. The final chapters, "Back to Work: Old Compulsions," "Back to

Work: The New Dependency," "The Gospel and The Primer," and "Becom-

ing A People," describe the adjustment of both blacks and whites to eman-

cipation and the choices blacks made in reconstructing their new social

order within the confines of postwar southern society.

The central story professor Litwack narrates in Been in the Storm So

Long is how black men and women, born into slavery, "acted on every level

to help shape their condition and future as freedmen and freedwomen," and

how they defined freedom based upon their own notions of manhood and

womanhood. Litwack synthesizes and builds upon a number of earlier

works, including Peter Kolchin's First Freedom; The Responses of Alabam-

a's Blacks to Emanicpation and Reconstruction (1972) and Herbert Gut-

man's The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (1976).

In this Pulitzer Prize winning history, Litwack reveals the common ex-

periences of southern whites and blacks within the peculiar institution

where relationships were prescribed by law. He graphically illustrates the

intimacy of the master/slave relationships while poignantly depicting the

apprehensions and fears of the "master" class as the peculiar institution

collapsed. Litwack suggests that whites never really knew their slaves-the

very slaves who over generations came to know the most intimate details

regarding their masters. The former slaves witnessed the "vulnerability"

and dependency of their "white folks" as the Civil War ushered in drastic

changes in the South. Yet, southern whites were not prepared to accept

those changes and relied upon their past experiences, real and imagined, in

slavery as the basis for charting the future.

In a fair and even-handed manner, Professor Litwack discusses Northern

and Southern opposition to arming blacks. He notes the paternalistic treat-

ment of black soldiers by New England abolitionists and traces the change

in northern sentiment from opposition to the employment of black soldiers

to support for the recruitment of blacks to meet state enlistment quotas.

The advancement of Union forces and the end of the War brought skepti-

cism and fear to the slaves over the form freedom would take. Trepidation

on the part of the freedmen soon gave way to overwhelming joy. Whites

feared that emancipation would mean the collapse of southern society in the

absence of some means of controlling the freedom. The urge physically to

remove themselves from the plantation was viewed by southern whites as

evidence that the freedmen would not work without coercion. Few histo-

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266                                                   OHIO HISTORY

 

rians, even those sympathetic to the plight of the freedmen, explained in

meaningful terms the choices freedmen made following the War. Litwack

suggests that having been slaves, the freedmen had to test their freedom in

some concrete way. The testing took myriad forms, from physically leaving

the scene of bondage to changing their slave names. Their preferences or

choices were less important than the fact that they, not the slaveholder,

made the decisions. They decided for whom they would work, to maintain

their marriage bonds, to establish households, to keep their wives and

mothers in the home, to seek an education, to establish schools and chur-

ches, and finally, to seek all of the duties and obligations inherent in

citizenship including the right to vote.

While the former slaves defined their freedom, the former masters came

to the realization that they never really knew the men and women they had

held in bondage. Faced with the uncertainty of the future, southern whites

reached into the past-their past experience in slavery-for guidance. The

former slaveholders never exhibited any feelings of regret or immorality at

having held slaves. Having been conditioned to believe that blacks would

not work without force, they began the systematic attempt to reduce the

freedmen to their former condition of servitude. As a consequence, the Re-

construction period resulted in conflicts between whites, who on the one

hand attempted to erect a new social order based upon the old institution of

slavery, and blacks, who on the other hand sought to exercise their new

freedom.

The attempt to determine what form that freedom would take received

little guidance from the state legislatures, the courts and the federal gov-

ernment. Freedom for the former slaves was eventually worked out in the

day to day lives and experiences of blacks and whites. The failure of the

federal government to provide basic protection and even more importantly

land virtually left the freedmen at the mercy of their former masters. Land-

less blacks realized that economic independence and personal freedom were

joint propositions. The failure to adequately assist the freedmen immediate-

ly after the War doomed Radical Reconstruction to failure and the freedmen

to a repressive, rigid caste system.

Been in the Storm So Long is one of those indispensable books for under-

standing southern history in the postwar period and subsequent race rela-

tions in the south.

 

Ohio Historical Society                             John E. Fleming

 

 

The Presidential Election of 1916. By S.D. Lovell. (Carbondale: Southern

Illinois University Press, 1980. 229p.; tables, appendices, notes, bib-

liography, index. $22.50.)

 

This study finds that no one of the numerous influences on the Wilson-

Hughes contest was decisive "except in the context of numerous other influ-

ences," and that "the really basic influences on the election-the foundation

stones for the greater mound of Democratic votes-were social legislation

and peace" (p. 181). As have most works about this election, Lovell's attrib-

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Book Reviews                                                 267

 

utes Wilson's triumph in large measure to his timely success in piloting

through Congress in 1916 a fresh spate of legislation helpful to farmers,

workers, and businessmen, which garnered him sufficient votes in normally

Republican states west of the Mississippi to win in the Electoral College.

The author might have mentioned that Wilson here espoused the legislative

program of cooperation between government and business which he had

strongly condemned when his archenemy, Theodore Roosevelt, had urged it

in 1912. It was in these states, too, Lovell finds (as have others), that the

aloof Hughes's mildly bellicose statements, coupled with the Rough Rider's

stridently pro-war utterances, avowedly on the "bearded iceberg's" behalf,

swung support to the White House incumbent who had avoided war and

taken the middle ground over preparedness. Although this author breaks

no new ground here, he does deal with these factors more extensively than

his predecessors.

Professor Lowell offers us some new insights into several aspects of this

election. He points out that "within the limits of the technology of the time,

the Democrats demonstrated a degree of effort and sophistication of method

that could be emulated by later campaigners" (p. 89). He gives the reader a

rewarding explanation of why, with all of Wilson's advantages, Hughes

very nearly won the election.

Lovell explores the roles of workers, farmers, Irish- and German-

Americans, Blacks, prohibitionists, and suffragettes. He skillfully ex-

amines the issues of the tariff and prosperity, Republican Old Guardists vs.

Progressives, and the personalities and philosophies of Wilson and Hughes.

He provides us with statistical comparisons of the 1904-1928 votes of Irish-

and German-Americans and farmers. He concludes that many Irish voters

found the president's liberal legislation more appealing than the clerical

calls to vote against him, mainly over his Mexican policy and silence over

British "misrule" in Ireland. Somewhat surprisingly, Lovell shows that,

despite the anti-Wilson exhortations of certain of the leaders, German-

Americans gave the president about the normal proportion of their vote for

a Democratic presidential aspirant.

Among other worthwhile topics this work explores is Hughes's tour of

California, during which he managed to offend enough workers and pro-

gressives to barely swing that state, and hence the national Electoral Col-

lege, to Wilson. More fundamental to the election, Hughes was handicapped

by his own honesty. He could not, in good conscience, attack the major part

of Wilson's record and platform. The discord among Republicans in both

Ohio and California also helped Hughes lose those states.

Although the author's bibliography is impressive, he neglects a study

that points to another important factor in Hughes's loss of California by less

than 4,000 votes (and of Ohio as well)-the swing of some 300,000 socialist

voters from their party's nominee in 1912 to Wilson in 1916. This informa-

tion is provided by the Arthur Link-William Leary account of the 1916

election in the History of American Presidential Elections, Arthur Schlesin-

ger, Jr., editor (p. 2270).

Nevertheless, Lowell's concise, well organized, and usually well-written

monograph is interesting and suspenseful. It is as close to a definitive study

of the 1916 election as we are likely to receive for some time to come.

 

Miami University-Hamilton Campus                Edward B. Parsons

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268                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

Theodore Roosevelt and the Idea of Race. By Thomas G. Dyer. (Baton Rouge:

Louisiana State University Press, 1980. xiii + 182p.; notes, bibliogra-

phy, index. $14.95.)

 

By focussing upon ways in which Theodore Roosevelt thought about race,

this study seeks to suggest how these ideas "affected Roosevelt and influ-

enced his career." But Dyer's primary purpose is "to demonstrate the im-

portance of race thinking during the period by accentuating [sic] the de-

velopment and scope of the race idea in the mind of one individual." He

seems to be a moderate like William Harbaugh in judging Roosevelt's posi-

tion, yet by concentrating upon the racial theme Dyer makes it appear too

large a factor in TR's career. And it can be questioned whether an analysis

of"the race idea" in one political leader's thought adequately demonstrates

the importance of "race thinking" in post-Civil War America.

Dyer relies heavily upon primary sources-the 24-volume edition of the

Works; the eight volumes of Letters edited by Elting Morison, et. al.; and the

voluminous Roosevelt Papers in the Library of Congress, within which he

probably found direction from previous researchers. In the chapters espe-

cially on "racial education" and on "Blacks," he also cites pertinent scholar-

ly studies within his general bibliography.

After an opening account of Roosevelt's education in ideas of race from

childhood on, successive chapters examine "Theory," "History and the

Anglo-Saxon Tradition," "Indians," "Blacks," "Race, Immigration, and Im-

perialism," and "Race Suicide." Such a topical arrangement has advan-

tages, yet it does break up the integrated development of Roosevelt's

thought on racial issues through a long public career. And a topical

approach also does not provide the best context in which to relate his ideas

on race to the general structure of his social and political philosophy.

Dyer's analysis of racial theory is particularly valuable: it demonstrates

that after 1900 Roosevelt rejected "Anglo-Saxon" or "Aryan" as racial de-

scriptions; that he employed a "plural concept of race" reflective of his

times; that he developed more mature and complex views in response to new

scholarship; and that he was a neo-Lamarckian in keeping with his belief

that society could be changed by altering the social environment. The dis-

cussion of "Indians" brings out the contradictory complexity of Roosevelt's

thought, moreover, whereas that of "Blacks" reemphasizes his belief in

Lamarckian gradualism.

The treatment of "Race, Immigration, and Imperialism," on the other

hand, is less satisfactory, because it does not put racial ideas into a broader

context. Roosevelt's attitude toward Irishmen in the New York Assembly

really reflected anti-Tammany sentiments; he would have no political cause

to modify them. His view of immigrants generally, moreover, was tied up

with a larger concern for order and unity, while his comparative evaluation

of the Chinese and the Japanese included social and diplomatic factors that

Dyer slights. And the brief section on Roosevelt's imperialist expressions

needs a better historical background for comprehension.

Roosevelt's concern about race suicide, finally, raises the broad question

of how representative he was: did his sense of history and his love of order

not make him much more sensitive to this issue than Americans were

generally? And beyond this particular matter, can the importance of "race

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Book Reviews                                                   269

 

thinking" in this period really be judged "by accentuating the development

and scope of the race idea in the mind of one individual"?

 

 

Denison University                             G. Wallace Chessman

 

 

Kennedy and Roosevelt: The Uneasy Alliance. By Michael R. Beschloss.

(New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 180. 318p.; illustrations, bib-

liographical note, general sources, notes, index. $14.95.)

 

Kennedy and Roosevelt: The Uneasy Alliance is an interesting and read-

able historical analysis of the political relationship between Joseph Patrick

Kennedy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It is written by Michael R. Besch-

loss, a student of James MacGregor Burns whose interepretations of FDR

form much of the background of the book. So Burnsian is it in places that it

could as well have been called "The Hedgehog and the Fox."

Beschloss's thesis is that Kennedy and Roosevelt were a study in con-

trasts. They had marked differences in personalities and backgrounds, and

contradictory views of leadership and public service. Their opposing visions

affected their performances in business and government and explained

their relationship as allies and as adversaries.

Like a hedgehog, Kennedy was focused, intent, single-minded. As the son

of an Irish-Catholic saloonkeeper and ward boss from East Boston he

wanted power for his family to symbolize its acceptance, its prestige, its

social and financial security. Beschloss, like Burns, argues that Kennedy is

an example of a transactional leader motivated by self-interst; one who

interprets political issues from his own narrow view of personalities and

economics. Kennedy's advocacy of the New Deal reforms, his desire for a

strong centralized government and his support for a negotiated peace with

Hitler all grew from his overwhelming concern to provide stability and

security for his family. His conception of public service explains his success

in the business world, where individual ambition is rewarded over public

purpose.

Roosevelt, by contrast, relished complexities, was relaxed, stable, even

sly, like a fox. His conception of power was more rational than Kennedy's

and grew from his sense of noblesse oblige appropriate to a Dutchess County

squire whose constituency was the nation, not the family. He exemplified

the Burnsian concept of the transforming leader who satisfies the self-

interest of leaders and followers but does so for a noble common purpose. To

FDR the New Deal was something greater than Kennedy's agent of stabil-

ity. Its job was not just to promote economic recovery, but to establish

higher principles like justice, equality, and liberty through collective ac-

tion. To Roosevelt, power was the fulfillment of self; to Kennedy, it was the

preservation of self.

Beschloss traces the uneasy alliance between Kennedy and Roosevelt

from its earliest beginnings during World War I to Kennedy's active sup-

port of Roosevelt's presidential campaign in 1932, through Kennedy's ago-

nizing two-year wait for his reward as the chairman of the newly created

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270                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

Securities and Exchange Commission and later the Maritime Commission,

and ultimately to the heights and depths of his career as the United States

Ambassador to the prestigious Court of St. James.

Beschloss's scholarship is sound and exhaustive. He has combed through

the pertinent materials at the various presidential libraries and governmen-

tal agencies and has had access to Kennedy's diplomatic diary and select

papers from the Joseph P. Kennedy Collection. The book also benefits from

conversations and interviews with people who were Kennedy's associates

and friends.

If the book is lacking in any way, it may be that the ardent student

showed too much devotion to his mentor's thesis and that the close, equal

relationship between Kennedy and Roosevelt implied by the title is over-

stated. Actually, Kennedy was one more person Roosevelt found useful

temporarily; one he discarded when it became expedient. Kennedy's signif-

icance may well lie not in his role as financial wizard, or as Wall Street's

watchdog, or even as Roosevelt's ally and adversary, but rather as the

founder of one of the most important political dynasties of the 20th century.

Had his family not risen to national prominence, the relationship between

Kennedy and Roosevelt might have been placed in a more accurate perspec-

tive.

 

Michigan State University                       Jane Karoline Vieth

 

 

The New Deal and American Indian Tribalism: The Administration of the

Indian Reorganization Act, 1934-45. By Graham D. Taylor. (Lincoln:

University of Nebraska Press, 1980. xiii + 203p.; appendix, notes, bib-

liographical essay, index. $15.95.)

 

Virtually all who have studied John Collier and the Indian Reorganiza-

tion Act of 1934 have agreed that there was genuine humanitarian concern

among those who formulated the Indian New Deal. These same observers

agree, however, that the act failed to deal adequately with the complex

variety of issues facing Native Americans and government officials. This

complexity of problems, which has so long defied solution, is the subject of

Graham D. Taylor's study of the administration of Collier's reform efforts.

The book complements Kenneth R. Philp's recent biography of Collier and

the studies by Donald H. Parman and Lawrence C. Kelly on the Navajo

response to the New Deal. Taylor focuses on those elements of the Indian

New Deal which Collier regarded as fundamental-tribal political reorga-

nization and its integration with the development of Indian economic re-

sources-and effectively demonstrates the shortcomings of the new

approach along with its more limited achievements.

The allotment policies of the Dawes Act had reduced Indian land holdings

from 139 to 48 million acres between 1887 and 1932. The Indian Reorga-

nization Act did not end what for many Indians had become a destructive

approach. Although the new approach was voluntary, about two-thirds of

both the Indian units and the total Indian population agreed to participate.

Part of the reason the remaining one-third opposed this approach was that

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Book Reviews                                                   271

 

the act forced Indians to organize politically and economically through trib-

al auspices; for many these were artificial units in both their political and

social life. Collier and other officials often rather naively assumed that

Indians lived in domestic harmony, an assumption which ignored divisions

often unrelated to white influence. Sometimes rival claims were brought

together on a tribal council with the result being much factional rivalry and

internal strife. Traditional Indian consensus decision making was replaced

by white-imposed majority rule, a process which often accentuated religious

and cultural differences. The Indian Reorganization Act was not flexible

enough in recognizing that the tribe was not always a genuine political

unit. The result was that some Indians saw the tribal councils as red pup-

pets of white bureaucracy.

Taylor demonstrates that the act's greatest failure was in the economic

realm where depression conditions accentuated an already difficult situa-

tion. The economic programs frequently failed to give adequate Indian par-

ticipation, and the rigid ideas of Collier and other officials rarely reconciled

the need for local self-determination with the need for bureaucratic exper-

tise. Too often these programs degenerated into a mere experiment in social

engineering designed to manipulate Indian behavior. After 1940 when Con-

gress became increasingly resistant to financial assistance, it became im-

possible to improve Indian living standards on anything more than a tem-

porary basis.

Yet the record was not all bleak, for the act did provide for written tribal

constitutions which had the potential of establishing Indian self-

determination and instilling a greater sense of pride among Indians in their

cultural heritage. That such self-determination often remained an illusion

was a measure of the complexity of the issues and personalities involved.

Graham Taylor's study of the Indian Reorganization Act shows both the

efforts of Washington officials and the reaction among Indians in all parts of

the country. Too often, however, Native Americans appear to be reacting to

a policy imposed on them rather than having a real input into its formula-

tion and operation. That Indians do not have a greater place in this study is

more an accurate reflection of the actual situation than it is the fault of the

author. Using a vast amount of sources, primary and secondary, including

records in the National Archives, the Collier papers, House and Senate

hearing transcripts, tribal organization records, and the minutes of tribal

councils, Taylor has successfully shown the difficulty of imposing rigid

political and economic ideas on such a diversified people.

 

Youngstown State University                        Frederick J. Blue

 

 

One Nation Divisible: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States Since

1938. By Richard Polenberg. (New York: The Viking Press, 1980. 363p.;

notes, index. $12.95.)

 

 

All men are not treated as equals in American society or any other socie-

ty. Richard Polenberg's study of pervasive social inequality in the United

States during the past four decades amply illustrates this social stratifica-

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272                                                   OHIO HISTORY

 

tion axiom. However, his interpretation of separate and unequal status

associated with class, racial, and ethnic differences does not merely belabor

an obvious correlation. From a broader perspective, it considers the effect of

social status differentials within a pluralistic society. Although his perspec-

tive is more historical than sociological, Polenberg recognizes the conceptual

clarification by Max Weber and the findings of early community studies by

W. Loyd Warner and others. However, his examination of status groups

illustrates trends rather than specific theory.

One regrettable trend is the decline in regional differences. During the

1930s motorists used highways named after local heroes (i.e., Robert E. Lee

Highway) or geographical features (i.e., the Catskill Turnpike). Adjacent

restaurants served "regional" dishes-fried chicken or clam chowder or

Texas "red hot" chili. No doubt regional differences survive-contrary to

Polenberg's over-generalization-but are less apparent to motorists on in-

terchangeable, numbered Interstates or to patrons of adjacent fast-food pit

stops.

Social divisions existed before the 1930s (when Polenberg begins his ex-

amination) but probably received closer, and more formal, attention after

social scientists-such as Warner-discovered separate and unequal rank-

ing systems in otherwise American small towns. Earlier, in their Middle-

town studies, the Lynds descrbed life-style differences at various class

levels. As in other periods of political and socioeconomic crisis, public

awareness of status differences increased during the Great Depression. By

1939, unemployment among white males declined somewhat; however,

efforts of the Roosevelt administration to improve the caste-like status of

blacks were minimal. Ethnic groups turned inwardly to vital, well-

organized, and extensive subcommunities in urban areas. Census figures

for 1940 indicate ethnic groups provided the largest proportion of popula-

tion in several urban areas. In Cleveland, for example, these groups

accounted for two-thirds of the population (p. 35).

During World War II, ethnic consciousness increased as European home-

lands became combat zones or occupied areas. Most ethnic groups, however,

demonstrated loyalty and patriotism by joining the "homefront" war effort.

Racial injustice remained. Japanese-Americans were forced into relocation

camps and blacks were denied public housing. Equal employment for blacks

was a goal rather than a reality. After the war, the Korean Conflict and

various Cold War confrontations as well as allegations of congressional

investigating committees produced an era of insecurity. The "Communist

threat" affected immigrant quota legislation and attitudes toward "alien"

immigrants and also diverted attention from persistent racial discrimina-

tion.

During the 1950s most large cities lost population to surrounding sub-

urbs. In Cleveland, according to 1950 Census figures, suburban population

increased by 94 percent (p. 128). As blacks moved into inner-city areas, they

found institutionalized discrimination in education, employment, trans-

portation, and housing. By the end of the decade, opening skirmishes of the

Black Revolution occurred in Little Rock, Montgomery, and Levittown

(New Jersey).

The decade of the 1960s best illustrates Polenberg's emphasis upon

"turbulent" consequences of social divisions. During an "age of reform" in

the first half of the decade, President Lyndon Johnson responded to tension

• 11
 

Book Reviews                                                   273

 

and frustration among racial minorities (particularly blacks) by trying to

fulfill Great Society promises. War on Poverty programs and Quota Law

(1965) revisions were responses to past discrimination. By 1967, however,

Vietnam became a disastrous distraction. Riots by war protestors-and by

blacks after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.-frightened and

angered observers. At the end of the decade, white ethnic groups demanded

recognition and respect, and the emergent "new ethnicity" attracted mixed

reviews from social scientists concerned with new sources of social divisive-

ness.

Such divisiveness, together with a post-Vietnam reaction against estab-

lished institutions (such as the federal government), encouraged contem-

porary social fragmentation. Recent Supreme Court decisions in "affirma-

tive discrimination" cases, militant demands of ERA advocates, and ex-

ploitation of new, illegal immigrants are reactions to separate and unequal

status within a "segmented society." The status divisions recognized in

community studies of the 1930s survive-and probably are more appar-

ent-in 1980.

Polenberg's description avoids a formal hypothesis and polemic criticism.

His social history is an interpretation of the reactions of diverse status

groups-but not an explanation. He admits his categories of status groups-

ethnic, racial, and class-are overlapping and interdependent. However,

the footnotes for each chapter are extensive, relevant, and presented clear-

ly. A 24-page annotated "essay on sources" is a valuable bonus. The book

itself represents enthusiastic scholarly effort and attractive literary style. It

deserves the attention of the wide audience it will attract.

 

State University of New York at Oneonta        Eugene E. Obidinski

 

 

The Boundaries of Utopia. By Carol Weisbrod. (New York: Pantheon Books,

1980. xxii + 298p.; appendix, notes, index. $15.95.)

 

 

Religious and social deviance in America has always posed complex ques-

tions for the larger society. From the days of early dissident settlers such as

the Puritans to recent years when communal and religious cult groups have

attracted attention and notoriety, Americans have been both fascinated and

repelled by efforts to create alternative lifestyles. In this important study,

Carol Weisbrod analyzes the reaction of the American legal system to four

religious utopian experiments of nineteenth-century America-the Shak-

ers, Harmony Society, Oneida, and Zoar. Focusing on the litigation by those

who seceded from these communities, the book suggests the wide range of

issues that such groups raise for understanding the nature and limits of

American pluralism.

Weisbrod begins by analyzing the experience of a fifth communally-

oriented religious group, the Mormons, as a point for comparison for the

utopians. Mormon deviance in political, economic, and social life-when

combined with a rapidly expanding movement-was seen as so threatening

that ultimately the American government engaged in criminal prosecution

• 12
 

274                                                OHIO HISTORY

 

against the group to force it to give up or drastically modify its unorthodox

practices. By contrast, although the religious utopians were sometimes

even more unorthodox than the Mormons, these smaller and more self-

contained groups were viewed as less threatening by the larger society and

were judged in the more benign context of the law of contracts.

The membership contracts that the utopian groups developed usually

involved an agreement to turn over all possessions to the society upon

joining and not to accumulate any private property while remaining within

the group. In return, members would be maintained by the group, but if

they withdrew they had no legal rights under the contracts for the return of

their original property or the payment of wages (in practice, discretionary

repayments were often made). By analyzing key court cases, Weisbrod

shows that when individuals withdrew and brought suit to recover property

or void the original contract, state and federal judiciaries usually upheld

the utopian contract. Arguments that the contracts were invalid and

against public policy because they were produced by fraud, had a tendency

to enslave, or violated religious liberty, were usually rejected. This legal

support for the integrity of utopian membership contracts was a reflection,

Weisbrod suggests, of many of the values of nineteenth-century America,

including respect for the concept of the right of free contract and the separa-

tion of church and state. Although these religious utopians challenged con-

ventional religious, economic, and even sexual norms, they nevertheless

owed much of their success to the openness of the very society that they

were criticizing.

As an attempt to break new ground in the largely untouched field of the

comparative legal history of these utopian groups, this study is an impres-

sive achievement despite some weaknesses. Specialists might wish that the

author had made more use of manuscript sources in addition to the primary

and secondary printed records on which she largely relies; some topics such

as the Mormon comparison could benefit by further development. In gener-

al, however, this study effectively identifies the chief issues raised by the

experiences of these utopian groups and relates those issues to their broader

social context. The account is largely free from technical jargon and pre-

sents a clear and lively account of the legal vicissitudes of five very interest-

ing groups, three of which (the Mormons, Shakers, and Zoar) were active in

Ohio. Like Kai Erikson's analysis of Puritan deviance, Weisbrod's study

raises questions of public policy, the limits of individual freedom, and the

relationship between government and private organizations that are of as

great concern today as they were in the past.

 

Georgia Institute of Technology                   Lawrence Foster

 

 

Popular Justice: A History of American Criminal Justice. By Samuel Wal-

ker. (New York: Oxford University Prss, 1980. xiii + 287p.; suggestions

for further reading, notes, index. $12.95.)

 

Samuel Walker has written a historical survey of the American criminal

justice system, a subject of great political and scholarly concern. Walker's

• 13
 

Book Reviews                                                    275

 

purpose is to provide a historical framework in which current concerns

about rising crime rates, failure of criminal rehabilitation, scandalous pris-

on conditions, and police demoralization can better be understood. Popular

Justice could not have been better timed. With the proliferation over the

past decade of scholarship on crime and the legal system, a general, even if

preliminary, history of the American criminal system is finally possible. To

this end Walker examines the colonial experience, explains the significant

changes wrought by the "enlightenment" and the American Revolution,

identifies the creation of an institutional penal system in the nineteenth

century, and discusses at length the emergence of professional penology in

the twentieth century. Throughout, he recognizes the influences of such

factors as urbanization, ethnicity, social mobility, racism, sexism, and class

hegemony. Popular Justice provides a great deal of information, particular-

ly on the twentieth century.

Even so, the book is a disappointment, for Walker obscures the past with

his pervasive presentism. In literally dozens of places Walker voices his

dismay over injustice, arbitrariness, and the inefficiency of the American

legal system. Despite his understandable concern for "justice," he never

explains what the concept means or on what authority it should rest. At

different times he castigates traditional, religious, legal, and popular def-

initions. Consequently, he is left with no standard of judgement beyond

what appears manifestly unjust to him. As it turns out, virtually everything

that Americans have done in the name of justice has been, in Walker's

opinion, either "unjust, arbitrary, or inefficient," and frequently all of the

above. But the real villain of Popular Justice is the public. Walker intended

his title to be ironic.

Two examples illustrate Walker's method. In evaluating eighteenth-cen-

tury capital crimes, he points out an amazing number of capital offenses

ranging from first degree murder to petty larceny. Correctly, Walker points

out that by virtually any standard of justice, if enforced, this represented

overkill. Then he explains that in fact the constabulary were so inefficient

that only a small percentage of crimes led to indictments, that jurors rarely

convicted more than a small fraction of those indicted, and that the judges

managed to find some means to avoid executing most of the convicted. In

sum, while on paper the system seemed overly harsh, in practice the ineffi-

ciency of the system and the compassion of jurors and judges mitigated the

criminal law. Walker concludes that, not only was the system overly harsh,

but it was inefficient, and by opting for mercy the jurors and judges exhib-

ited unwarranted discretion. For Walker, discretion is arbitrary whim, even

in the name of justice. In judging eighteenth-century law by twentieth-

century standards, he fails to appreciate that despite all the problems and

inconsistencies, eighteenth-century Americans, to a remarkable degree,

kept in focus the most important issue, justice.

Walker reaches an equally puzzling conclusion about the seventeenth-

century Salem Village witch trials. In describing what is perhaps the

greatest single example of the violation of legal due process in American

history, Walker ignores entirely the procedural question. Nor does he ask,

why were otherwise law-abiding citizens accused by their neighbors of ficti-

tious crimes? And, perhaps equally important, why has the United States

never again undergone another witchcraft hysteria comparable to Salem's?

• 14
 

276                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

Instead, he concludes the Massachusetts authorities' assumption that the

criminal law should be used "to suppress real or imagined threats to the

community" was at the heart of the episode (p. 29).

What other purpose is there for any legal system? Criminals, almost by

definition, are those who in some way threaten a community. Legal histo-

rians can show how the definitions of "crime" and "criminal" have changed

and might even suggest revisions of contemporary definitions, but it hardly

seems realistic to deny a community the means to protect itself. By develop-

ing social profiles of criminals and judges, analyzing the type of behavior

which was punished by crimes, identifying the changes which have occur-

red in legal practices, and comparing American to non-American practices,

legal historians can provide valuable information and even alternate possi-

bilities for legal reform. But it serves no purpose, even in the face of admit-

ted miscarriages of justice, to deny a community the right to protect itself.

Still, Walker cites example after example of popular injustice without de-

termining whether such occurrences were necessary, frequent, exceptional,

unprecedented, or the rule. He leaves us without any systematic body of

historical evidence even to place the present system in historical perspec-

tive.

Walker's problems are in part a result of his implicit thesis that popular

influence on the criminal justice system invariably leads to injustice. For

him the terms popular participation and vigilantism are virtually inter-

changeable. Walker concludes that one way to improve our contemporary

justice system would be to diminish popular input even further. It is quite

possible that the institutional and professionalization of the justice system,

by denying most citizens the opportunity to participate, might be one of the

causes of our current problems. For most people, criminals, police, and

judges alike are no longer identifiable as persons. They have become ab-

stract entities who at times forcefully, and apparently randomly, intrude

themselves into our lives. It is a system that the community no longer

seems to control and, consequently, that no longer insures even "rough

justice." Frightened by rising crime rates and frustrated by an ineffectual

system, citizens have often reacted by demanding less leniency, longer sent-

ences, revival of capital punishment, and parodoxically, reduced funding.

Like the Massachusetts Puritans, most Americans today continue to believe

that the criminal system should protect them against what they consider

criminal behavior. And like the vigilantes in western mining towns, many

seem willing to take the law into their own hands in the absence of an

effective criminal system. Indifference to these anxieties hardly bodes well

for those who care about justice.

It is appropriate to question what behavior should be subject to criminal

punishment or whether current procedures guarantee fair trials free from

social and economic prejudice. However, the legitimacy of the public's de-

mand for protection would seem beyond dispute. From a purely practical

perspective, in a democratic society where major decisions to reform the

justice system finally depend on public approval, it seems incumbent that

the public not be seen as an interloper but rather should be invited back

into the system. Such participation might well result in increased popular

understanding and respect for procedural safeguards, an awareness of the

complexities of criminal behavior, and a determination to render justice.

• 15
 

Book Reviews                                                   277

 

Certainly, there is much in the historical record to justify such hopes even

as there are other countless examples of popular failure to act justly.

 

Kenyon College                                     William B. Scott

 

 

Citadels, Ramparts, and Stockades: America's Historic Forts. By Irvin

Haas. (West Hanover, Massachusetts: Halliday Lithograph Corporation,

1979. 211p.; illustrations. $11.95.)

 

The preservation of military sites or properties associated with military

leaders has been an element of historic preservation since its inception

during the middle of the 19th century. Military historians, therefore, have a

certain advantage over their colleagues since they can often visit and ex-

perience firsthand some aspects of the historic environment that helped to

shape the lives of their subjects.

Irvin Haas, the author of a number of travel guides to historic properties,

has prepared a volume which describes eighty-five forts representing vir-

tually all periods of United States history from the Colonial era into the

early 20th century. The examples stretch from large-scale models like Fort

Augusta, Pennsylvania, to the massive masonry fortresses like Fort Pulas-

ki, Georgia. Arranged into four geographical groupings within the nation,

descriptions average about a single page in length for each fort. The history

of the construction and occupation of the fortification and a description of its

historic and present appearance are included, along with travel directions

and visiting schedules. The "Midwest and West"-by far the largest group-

ing-has two Ohio examples: Fort Recovery and Campus Martius. The

volume includes sites where only markers remain, ruins where nature

takes its gradual toll, restorations which have been returned to an earlier

historic appearance, and reconstructions recreating structures long since

destroyed. Unlike some of Haas's earlier travel-oriented volumes, the au-

thor provides no clues to explain the choice of these eighty-five forts. It

might, in fact, be suggested that Haas has attempted too much for a single

relatively slender volume. There are, for example, obvious omissions in the

Midwest section: the major reconstructions of Fort Meigs at Maumee, Ohio,

and Fort Wayne in Indiana. Even the combination of the Midwest and West

into one section produces a geographical area of enormous scale for the

traveler. But the most serious flaw in the volume is the total absence of any

mapping to help orient the reader to the general location of the forts.

Although Haas makes no claims at reaching more than a general audience,

the lack of bibliography works against those with even a casual interest in

fortifications. Finally, the somewhat haphazard mixture of historic and

contemporary photographs is at times misleading, and there are some un-

fortunate publisher's errors in placing photographs with the wrong article.

The volumes on western forts authored by Herbert Hart and published by

Bonanza Books are more manageable in concept and format than Haas's

volume, but they are also restricted in scope to a few regions of the country.

The Haas volume is the first recent effort to deal with the subject from a

national perspective for the general public. The articles on each fort,

• 16
 

278                                                OHIO HISTORY

 

although without supporting material, provide a good starting point for

individuals interested in the country's historic fortifications.

 

Ohio Historical Society                        David A. Simmons

 

 

Kentucky in the New Republic: The Process of Constitution Making. By Joan

Wells Coward. (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1979. ix +

220p.; charts, graphs, maps, notes, appendix, bibliographical essay, in-

dex. $17.00.)

 

When Kentucky entered the Union in 1792, Americans had already de-

voted some forty years to constitutional questions, first with respect to

relations between the thirteen colonies and England and, after 1776, to the

organic law of both the general and state governments. The prolonged con-

sideration of the Articles of Confederation, the experiences of the 1780s, and

the adoption of the Constitution in 1787 emphasize the importance of con-

stitutional principles and governmental forms and procedures to the gen-

eration of the revolution. By virtue of timing, as Coward notes, Kentucky

became "something of a testing ground, a focus, for the debate upon consti-

tutional ideas, assumptions, and structure" that engaged the thoughts and

attention of leaders of the nation and the states (p. 3).

Deferential politics still prevailed in Kentucky when the state adopted its

first constitution in 1792. The three principal political elements identified

by Coward, who follows the conclusions of Patricia Watlington, were the

country party, dominated by planters, surveyors, and other landowners who

had benefited from the Virginia land system; the court party, led by

lawyers, judges, and others interested in the economic, commercial, and

political development of Kentucky as an independent political entity; and

the partisans, considered rabble and distrusted and feared by most leaders.

These divisions and the lack of extensive legislative or governmental ex-

perience by most members of the constitutional convention of 1792 allowed

George Nicholas to play a dominant role in its deliberations and decisions.

Reflecting the prevailing views of democracy and political thought in the

new nation, Nicholas attempted to provide Kentucky with an enlightened

frame of government that would, through separation of powers and careful-

ly constructed checks and balances, arrest tendencies toward unbridled

popular sovereignty.

By 1799, when Kentucky adopted its second constitution, issue-oriented

campaigns and popular expectations that politicians should act for the com-

mon good had undermined deferential politics. Most delegates to the second

constitutional convention realized that they must satisfy the demands of

the people if any frame of government which they constructed would en-

dure. The instrument which they drew up, therefore, departed from a rigid

separation of power to make the legislative, or popular, branch of govern-

ment supreme in any substantive clashes between it and the executive and

judicial branches. The new constitution provided for universal white male

suffrage, the direct popular election of state officials, the right of citizens to

hold office irrespective of ownership of property, and the lack of any prohibi-

• 17
 

Book Reviews                                                   279

 

tion on campaigning. In short, with the new constitution Kentucky moved

toward a nineteenth-century competitive brand of politics. On the other

hand, the convention gave little support to either the limitation of slavery

or emancipation, which unorganized religious elements and moral crusad-

ers had advocated in 1792. The 1799 convention was dominated by practical

politicians, whose stipulation that emancipation could occur only under the

strictest conditions set a pattern for nearly every southern state admitted to

the Union after 1800.

The importance of its attainment of statehood in 1792 and its constitu-

tional development in the 1790s can be appreciated when Kentucky is com-

pared with West Virginia, which remained a part of the Old Dominion until

1863. Despite repeated efforts, particularly in 1816, 1825, and 1829-30,

West Virginia did not match the achievements of Kentucky until the Virgin-

ia convention of 1850-51, when the state accepted universal white male

suffrage, representation in the legislature in accordance with white popula-

tion, popular election of state and county officials, and other goals, most of

which Kentucky attained half a century earlier.

Coward has based her work upon an extensive and careful examination of

pertinent sources, both official and personal. Although her focus is upon the

process of constitution making, she has illuminated Kentucky history dur-

ing the 1790s.

 

West Virginia Institute of Technology                  Otis K. Rice

 

 

American Engineers of the Nineteenth Century: A Biographical Index. By

Christine Roysdon and Linda A. Khatri. (New York: Garland Publishing

Inc., 1978. xv + 247p.; journals indexed, index. $24.00.)

 

The nature of the engineering profession in the United States at the end

of the nineteenth century was a stark contrast to the beginning of the

century. As the eighteenth century ended, the new federal government was

so short of trained engineers that men were imported from Europe to design

fortifications. Even by the time of the internal improvement craze in the

1820s and 1830s, canal and road promoters were still complaining of the

lack of qualified engineering staffs. Gradually, as new technical schools

were created around the country and numerous public works projects pro-

vided an on-the-job training ground, the number of engineers grew, even-

tually becoming a major professional body in nineteenth century America.

Professional societies were organized as the numbers increased, beginning

with the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1852. Each group had its

own journal with timely articles on engineering trends, often featuring

detailed information and drawings of major projects. More importantly for

LeHigh University Librarians Christine Roysdon and Linda Khatri, these

journals often contained "Memoirs of Deceased Members" that have impor-

tant biographical material. Naturally, the most prominent and well-known

engineers received the most "press" at the time of their death, but these

obituaries also included sketches of more obscure engineers for whom in-

formation is often not available elsewhere.

• 18
 

280                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

Roysdon and Khatri examined thirty-one different professional journals

that gave an excellent cross-section of nineteenth century engineering. In-

cluded are general periodicals such as the Transactions and Proceedings of

the American Society of Civil Engineers, as well as the more narrowly

defined journals like Electrical Engineer and Iron Age. The authors pre-

pared an index to the obituaries in these journals that includes each en-

gineer's name, birth and death dates, and a brief indication of his specialty,

along with the specific bibliographical references to the articles.

From this collection, it might be possible to get some indication of those

engineers most highly regarded by the profession during the century. John

Ericsson, the Swedish-born inventor of the screw propellor and designer of

the ironclad USS Monitor during the Civil War, had nineteen biographical

sketches in the index, the most indicated for any engineer. Alexander Hol-

ley, who also had nineteen sketches, was a New York-based mechanical

engineer and extensively published technical writer of the mid-nineteenth

century who became one of the foremost steel-plant designers in the United

States following the Civil War. Charles Emery, also from New York and an

authority on steam power and electrical engineering, was another indexed

engineer who received major notices upon his death.

The indexed journals were not strictly eastern oriented, and thus many

Ohio engineers were included in the obituary columns. This was especially

true of the bridge and railroad engineers whose specialization naturally led

to more national exposure, although a number of city engineers were also

included. Unfortunately, the antebellum period of Ohio engineering that

focused on the canal system was largely absent from the index simply

because there were no periodicals during this era.

The only major shortcomings of the volume are its title and time frame.

Many very significant nineteenth century engineers lived into the twen-

tieth century and are excluded by the cut-off date of 1900. Herman Haupt,

for example, author of a major work on bridge engineering in the 1850s and

superintendent of the Union army's rail system during much of the Civil

War, was omitted because he died in 1905. The title unhappily leaves the

impression of a far more comprehensive volume than, in fact, it is. The

authors nonetheless have done all historians of technology a major service

by enhancing accessibility to a wealth of biographical references on Amer-

ican engineers.

 

Ohio Historical Society                          David A. Simmons

 

 

The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Indepen-

dence. Edited by John C. Dann. (Chicago: The University of Chicago

Press, 1980. xxvi + 446p.; illustrations, chronology of events, index.

$20.00)

 

John C. Dann, director of the Clements Library at the University of

Michigan, has edited this final volume in the Clements Library Bicenten-

nial Studies series. Like its predecessors it is beautifully produced, and

reflects the meticulous and thoughtful editing one wishes for, but does not

always find, in the "eyewitness account" genre.

• 19
 

Book Reviews                                                  281

 

Drawing upon the vast collection of American Revolution military pen-

sion records housed in the National Archives, Dann has selected seventy-

nine applications of veterans "with consideration for geographical spread ...

as examples of the most historically significant reminiscences" (xi). These

narratives, of which all but two were recorded in response to a comprehen-

sive pension act passed by Congress in 1832, are arranged in twelve chap-

ters. The first seven chapters, from "New England in Arms" to "Virginia, to

Yorktown," provide both geographical and chronological coverage. Four

following chapters-"The Indian Frontier," "Maritime Combat," "Behind

Enemy Lines," and "Logistics"-are not arranged chronologically, but

broaden the scope and variety of the narratives to emphasize the complexity

and multi-dimensional nature of the war. A final chapter, "Other Revolu-

tionaries," appears almost as an afterthought, as though the editor had

several stories left over after fitting together his format. It does contain one

of the two accounts by black veterans, neither of which is especially signifi-

cant in illuminating the peculiar situation of blacks fighting for a freedom

from which they were in large part excluded. There are brief but indis-

pensable headnotes for each narrative; at least they are indispensable for

the scholar who might with justification question the accuracy of memories

of events fifty or more years in the past. Each applicant is identified, his

account is placed in the general context of the war in his sector, and obvious

errors of fact are corrected. The index is especially useful as the table of

contents lists only chapter titles. A "Chronology of Events" (by year, month,

and day) helps the reader to place particular incidents in the overall context

of the war. The forty-seven illustrations, all in black and white, add little to

the usefulness or enjoyment of the book.

The Revolution Remembered certainly affords an unusual and richly

variegated view of the war; unusual because, unlike most diaries and

memoirs of the War for Independence, these accounts are told by the face-

less (and voiceless, but for the pension law) multitude who fought the bat-

tles, secured the food and materiel, manned the ships, and spied and scouted

in the common cause. They provide insights into countless, and otherwise

forgotten, facets of what Dann rightly calls "one of the most unusual armies

ever to win a war" (xvi). Mary Osborn (pp. 240-250) evokes the confusion

and excitement of the final days at Yorktown, and introduces us to a very

human, wryly humorous George Washington. Alpheus Parkhurst's descrip-

tion of Benedict Arnold's defection preserves the rich flavor and wild sur-

mise of camp gossip (pp. 56-59). Richard Wallace, who swam frigid Lake

Champlain on the night of September 17, 1777, to deliver information

essential to the attack on the British post at Mount Independence, reminds

us that the fortunes of war often rest with the courage and resourcefulness

of individuals who seldom figure in the grander analyses of strategy and

tactics (pp. 95-100).

Yet, for all their fascination, these accounts should be read and evaluated

with caution. They are, after all, stories told long after the war was but a

memory. Dann notes that these narrators, "between sixty-five and eighty-

five" in the 1830s, were young men during the war. This youthfulness, he

states, "is a distinct advantage, because at the time of service the applicants

were impressionable, enthusiastic for military life, and observant" (xix).

This is surely a questionable generality, and indeed a number of the narra-

tives belie it in one or more of its particulars. Further, how are we to be

• 20
 

282                                                   OHIO HISTORY

 

certain that the events of that long ago war "were the events most deeply

imprinted on their minds"(xx)? The scholar who would use these narratives

as primary source material for the war would be well advised to check not

only facts, but impressions, against other available data on the war.

These narratives are really not, as Dann apparently hopes, a convenient

introduction to the vast corpus of pension material in the National Arc-

hives, for they are, as he himself asserts, the most literate, and therefore the

most atypical, of those accounts. One agrees, however, with his conclusion

that the reader of this book "will come away with a new understanding of

what Revolutionary service was like for the average man and an apprecia-

tion of what these men accomplished in gaining us our political independ-

ence" (xxi).

The Ohio State University                         Paul C. Bowers, Jr.

 

 

 

 

An Ohio Schoolmistress: The Memoirs of Irene Hardy. Edited by Louis

Filler. (Kent; Kent State University Press, 1980. xi+ 310p.; biblio-

graphical notes, index. $14.50.

 

Like Chaucer's Oxford Student, Irene Hardy was a lifelong student who

"would gladly learn and gladly teach." For over seventy years she studied

and observed her world. For over forty years she taught elementary, secon-

dary, and college classes in Ohio and California. During retirement Hardy

began her last educational effort: her memoirs-a quiet, gentle, personal

history of nineteenth-century life.

Proceeding with studied deliberation, Hardy thoroughly describes her

early life in and near Eaton, Ohio, noting with special delight those events

and ideas that had changed since her childhood for she feared they would be

lost unless she recorded them. Coupled with this sense of history is a

polished writing style which makes the book a pleasant first-hand reminis-

cence. Even though this journal recorded her personal growth, Hardy sel-

dom revealed her innermost feelings-only her passion for education and

pedagogic theories.

A successful writer, poet, and teacher, Hardy appeared to be a singularly

liberated woman in an unliberated age; yet she eschewed the Woman's

Rights movement, repelled by the aggressive nature of its participants. Her

world was placid; rowdies, whether in the classroom or in the lecture hall,

were given short shrift in her memoirs.

Historian Louis Filler has edited out any repetition in the original 530-

page manuscript and updated the spelling and punctuation. This manu-

script, with additional poems, letters and clippings, is held in the Antioch

College Library. Readers interested in rural life in early Ohio, or the histo-

ries of education, Antioch College, or Preble County, will be enchanted with

Irene Hardy's total recall and complete dedication to her task.

Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co.                      Clare Wulker

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Book Reviews                                                   283

 

The Glacial Kame Indians. By Robert N. Converse. (Worthington: The

Archaeological Society of Ohio, n. d. 159p.; illustrations, notes, refer-

ences. $12.75.)

 

 

The Glacial Kame "culture" has been one of the most neglected and

poorly defined archaeological phenomena in the Ohio region since the term

was first coined by Warren King Moorehead in 1909. Reasons for this in-

clude the fact that most Glacial Kames sites are discovered accidentally by

construction work or gravel operations; that they are, therefore, virtually

that they have generally been given short shrift by professional archaeolo-

gists faced with the most impossible type of salvage situation and the likeli-

hood that nothing new will be discovered for the effort.

Material retrieved from Glacial Kame sites is usually sparse and poorly

documented; and quickly scattered among private collections. The people

who buried their dead in the glacial outwash kames of northwestern Ohio,

eastern Indiana, and southern Michigan included little else other than

marine shell ornaments (beads and gorgets) with their dead. Occasionally

they added slate gorgets or stone tubular pipes, copper beads or awls, antler

flakers or harpoons, and a rare birdstone or two. The dearth and monotony

of such grave goods do little to help the archaeologist in deducing informa-

tion about the way of life of these prehistoric Indians, a problem exacer-

bated by the general neglect Glacial Kame sites have received.

Converse's book, if short on conclusions, does go far toward documenting

available information on the material culture of the Glacial Kame Indians,

something which has been attempted only once before, by Wilbur M. Cun-

ningham in 1948 (A Study of the Glacial Kame Culture in Michigan, Ohio

and Indiana). Converse's work is a generally fine update of Cunningham's

pioneer study and describes a remarkable number of Glacial Kame sites

that have come to light since Cunningham's original publication. These,

unfortunately, are not presented in any order, and there is neither an index

nor a table of contents for the volume. Coverage of each site varies consider-

ably with the amount and availability of artifact material recovered, as

might be expected from the nature of the Glacial Kame problem; but, while

the book displays exemplary zeal in including all known Glacial Kame

sites, many are described only in the briefest paragraph or two, and these

are often completely undocumented.

His comparison of the Glacial Kame culture to related Red Ochre, Meado-

wood, and Old Copper burial manifestations closely follows Dragoo's 1963

(Mounds for the Dead) summary and makes no mention of Mary Ellen

Didier's study on Red Ochre turkey-tail blade distribution or Joseph Gran-

ger's recent work on Meadowood (Meadowood Phase Settlement Pattern in

the Niagara Frontier Region of Western New York State, University of

Michigan, Anthropological Papers, No. 65, 1978), although attention is

given to the major Williams site, recently excavated by the University of

Toledo and the Toledo Area Aboriginal Research Club. Though rightly dis-

trusting an early 2500 B.C. date from the Red Lake Meadowood site in New

York, Converse seems unaware that the more acceptable date of 841 BC

from the Hunt site is actually from the same site, "Red Lake" and "Hunt"

being one and the same site.

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284                                                   OHIO HISTORY

 

Converse concludes that Glacial Kame was coeval with early Adena and

may have directly influenced the Hopewell culture. He emphasizes the

desirability of professional reanalysis of existing Glacial Kame collections

and known habitation sites in the Glacial Kame area, as well as the need for

accurate and comprehensive radiocarbon-dating of Glacial Kame finds. His

book should do much to arouse interest in this perplexing archaeological

manifestation and will make future Glacial Kame studies much easier.

 

Ohio Historical Society                             James L. Murphy

 

 

Local Government Records: An Introduction to Their Management, Pres-

ervation, and use. By H. G. Jones. (Nashville: American Association for

State and Local History, 1980. xxi + 208p.; illustrations, worksheets,

appendices, index. $6.95.)

 

A central theme Jones sets for Local Government Records: An Introduc-

tion to Their Management, Preservation, and Use is "the community of

interest between the local official ... and the researcher .... Each comple-

ments the work of the other" (p. xi). According to Jones, nationally there are

81,000 local governmental jurisdictions or opportunities to develop mutual-

ly-shared interests.

H. G. Jones is one of the major contributors to North Carolina's excellent

public archives program. He is also the author of books on state records and

on the National Archives and Records Service. Here he turns his attention

to two distinct but intertwined groups: the keepers and users of local gov-

ernment records.

The book is arranged in two parts: one on management and preservation,

the other on use. Part One begins with a chapter on the long neglect of local

government records, which only began to change in the 1930s. Chapter Two

explains thoroughly and forcefully the steps to be taken in developing a

local public records management program. The third chapter identifies

some means for coping with the quantity of material. Chapter Four de-

scribes the beginning management efforts of ten selected counties and

municipalities. The fifth chapter concludes Part One by pointing out the

challenge and stressing the need for leadership from public officials, state

archival agencies, and interested third parties (historians, genealogists,

and records management professionals).

Chapter Six begins Part Two by describing the general structure of local

government, and the use scholars (like Merle Curti, Jackston T. Main, and

Sam Bass Warner) have made of local records in recent decades. Chapter

Seven indicates the diversity of information available in local government

records, while Chapter Eight provides a synopsis of the character of various

records groupings-vital statistics records, wills and estate records, tax

records, school records, and others. The text ends with a brief chapter on

preparation for research and the need for courtesy by users.

The book has the virtue of being readable; a number of charts, forms, and

photographs supplement the text. Of particular note is the useful composite

inventory sheet tipped in opposite page 38. The index is thorough; for in-

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Book Reviews                                                    285

 

stance, even publications cited in footnotes may be searched by title or

author.

The primary weakness of the book is a failure to develop as adequately as

possible the preservation component. As strong as Chapter Two is, Jones

does not spell out what is to be done with records preserved permanently.

Should not officials be given more information on the meaning of arrange-

ment and description, methods for retrieving records not electronically

stored, and finding aids? And why is there no word about preserving mate-

rials in mylar or acid-free folders once microfilmed? In the same vein, a

brief section on the necessity for proper security measures would have been

helpful. And in the discussion of microfilms, the book would be stronger

with specific information on the requirements for archival quality film, to

equal the attention given the marvels of this technological tool.

While the writing style of Part Two may appear pedestrian, Jones sup-

plies a plethora of ideas about and insights into the research uses of local

government records. His borrowed analogy of the combination of the tele-

scope and the microscope (pp. 119, 169) is a good one to note.

Ohioans can take pride in the coverge their state receives in the book. The

state is included, however, in Jones's statement at the outset that "there

exists in the country neither a model [local records management] program

nor an agreement on what should constitute a model program," (p. x). The

state's code could be enhanced by the addition of provisions listed on pages

24 and 25.

In summary, H. G. Jones lays down avenues for future dialogue between

the keepers and the users. The National Historical Publications and Rec-

ords Commission is to be commended for its grant that made the book

possible. Local officials, state legislators, historians, genealogists, and

archivists will all profit from reading Jones's Local Government Records.

 

Ohio Historical Society                              George W. Bain

 

 

The Diaries of George Washington. Volume V. July 1786-December 1789.

Edited by Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig. (Charlottesville; Uni-

versity Press of Virginia, 1979 xvi + 559p.; illustrations, notes, bib-

liography, index. $30.00.)

The Diaries of George Washington. Volume VI. January 1790-December

1799. Edited by Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig. (Charlottesville:

University Press of Virginia, 1980. xvii + 554p.; illustrations, notes,

bibliography, index. $30.00.).

 

These two volumes represent the culmination of the first portion of The

Papers of George Washington project jointly sponsored by the National His-

torical Publications and Records Commission and the University of Virgin-

ia. As in the first four volumes of the Diaries, there are few textual changes

from the four-volume John C. Fitzpatrick edition of 1925. Still, the editorial

excellence and the often extensive notations expand our comprehension of

the daily life of Washington.

The centerpiece of these tomes is less the text and annotations and more

• 24
 

286                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

the comprehensive index in volume six. Nearly 150 pages long, this biblio-

graphic effort goes beyond the names and places of the previous volumes. In

many ways this cumulative index achieves its purpose. The section dealing

with "agriculture" is nine pages long, subdivided into sixty-one "crop" cate-

gories from "barley" to "winter vetch" with additional topics from "experi-

ments" to "weather." Were this not enough, more may be found under such

headings as "farm equipment," "fences and fencing," "horticulture," and

"Mount Vernon." "Labor," "slaves," and "tenants" constitute other major

subject areas. Even under the diarist's name one finds twenty-four topics in

five pages. But for all its attempts at comprehensiveness, there are numer-

ous omissions and commissions. Is not the "Mr. Goldsborough" of Montgom-

ery County, Maryland, in volume four the tavernkeeper mentioned in the

next volume? Often the index does not distinguish between the various

Potomac River rapids and falls visited by Washington throughout his life.

In fact, the quality of place name citation seems to have deteriorated in

these volumes over that in previous ones. Moreover, if one wishes to find the

first identifying notation on an often-mentioned figure, it may take effort,

as it does for George Augustine Washington (1763-1793).

All of the quibbling over an index may appear pedantic, but we must

remember that this whole effort is for the use of scholars, not the general

public, and that there will probably never again be another edition of the

diaries.

While generally one finds the annotations more than adequate, some

excessively so, one is troubled by lapses. The identity of non-Virginians is

less well-documented than that of Virginians (for instance, 6:193). The visit

of James Madison and James Monroe to Mount Vernon on October 23-24,

1786, receives little comment (5:36). Surely this involved an exchange of

views with enormous political implications. Not only is the North Carolina

cession of its trans-Appalachian lands not indexed under Tennessee, but the

editorial comment is excessively brief and not helpful (6:56). On the other

hand, the long and delightful note about Paul F. Fevot (6:289) is not really

necessary when the Papers will contain the full text of the correspondence.

Washington's entries are hardly enjoyable reading. Normally they con-

sist of weather observations and a brief summary of the day's activities.

Seldom does he express an opinion. When he does, the entry stands in stark

contrast to the textual norm. The best of these occur when he takes trips

and makes notes about the localities through which he passes. Occasionally

one witnesses the shrewd businessman that Washington was: for instance,

when he traded a prize stallion to General Henry Lee for five thousand

acres of Virginia land (5:432). No wonder Lee became bankrupt. The entries

during the presidency constitute memoranda for record that have interest-

ing implications: for example, the long comments relative to the Whiskey

Rebellion (6:178-195).

Overall, this is a fine, but not a perfect effort. The termination of this

series provides an appropriate time to assess the implications for the much

larger Papers project which W. W. Abbot will edit in association with

Dorothy Twohig. First, the excellent maps found in volume one should be

included in each subsequent volume where appropriate. Second, before edit-

ing the letters, the criticisms of G. Thomas Tanselle relative to historical

editing in the Julian Boyd tradition need to be considered (Studies in Bib-

liography, 31 [1978], 1-56). Third, we need coordination between the various

• 25
 

Book Reviews                                                    287

 

historical editing projects to reduce duplication of effort in this most expen-

sive set of letter-press editions. There is no need to reproduce the corres-

pondence of John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Nathanael Greene, or Tho-

mas Jefferson to Washington when it already appears in a definitive edito-

rial form. With such criticisms in mind, we look forward to the forthcoming

seventy-five volumes of the Washington letters.

 

Bowling Green State University                   David Curtis Skaggs

 

 

 

Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women,

1750-1800. By Mary Beth Norton. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company,

1980. xvi + 384p.; illustrations, notes, glossary of major families and

sources, index. $15.00.)

 

Professor Norton's study challenges prevailing interpretations of

women's history and of the impact of the American Revolution upon women.

She rejects the notion of a pre-Revolutionary golden age for American white

women in which substantial participation in the family economy and the

wider world allegedly brought many privileges and enhanced self-esteem.

Norton also rejects the theory that following the Revolution, which brought

no major benefits to women, the onset of nineteenth-century industrializa-

tion condemned women to the sphere of domesticity or to the evils of factory

labor. In either case, women supposedly became victims of changes from

which they could be rescued only by feminism.

Norton disputes the foregoing interpretation only to replace it with one

even more traditional-i.e., an extension to include women in the thesis

that the Revolution was a liberating social movement. To sustain her case,

Norton divides Liberty's Daughters in two. In the first part, "The Constant

Pattern of Women's Lives," she offers primarily literary evidence from

family papers of middle- and upper-class white women to prove that before

the Revolution they lived restricted, dependent lives within the male-

dominated family. Although notable housekeepers and exemplary wives

and mothers were admired, their earthly rewards were meager. Whom to

marry was for most American women the decision upon which their fates

rested. Less educated than their brothers, they were ignorant of matters

beyond the household and even of family legal and business affairs.

Although domestic roles-wife, mother, housekeeper, spinster, etc.-were

vital to family and community, they were unsatisfying because of their

endless monotony.

The Revolution, according to Norton, uplifted women. In Part II, "The

Changing Patterns of Women's Lives," she seeks to prove that, as political

upheavals usually do, the Revolution contributed toward a more equal sta-

tus for women. It heightened political awareness in many and made them

conscious of their dependence. It forced them to undertake jobs and roles

outside the domestic sphere and to cope in a self-reliant way with war's

hardships. And in the postwar period the emergent republican ideology

accorded them sovereignty in the domestic sphere and responsibility for the

education of future generations of republicans. Although woman's sphere

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288                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

remained separate from man's, the two were complementary. Thus, claims

Norton, the Revolution brought progress for women and laid the ground-

work for later feminism.

Norton has dug deeply and ingeniously into the scattered and fragmen-

tary literature of eighteenth-century American womanhood. Her book is

excellent as a synthesis of recent monographs and as a summary of diverse

source materials. In several respects, however, it is disappointing. First, the

evidence does not fully sustain her thesis, forcing Norton to resort to flaccid

generalizations such as "The old ways were by no means entirely displaced,

but increasing numbers of American families no longer conformed to the

previously dominant patriarchal style" (p. 229). Precisely what "increasing

numbers" means is anyone's guess. Second, not every scholar will accept

Norton's assertion that middle- and upper-class white women speak for the

experience of all American women of the period. Third, despite some atten-

tion to blacks, Liberty's Daughters is mainly traditional, liberal, elitist,

consensus history and it suffers the contradictions of its type. It is at once

too specialized to reach a popular audience and too impressionistic and

lacking in scientific rigor to convince social scientists.

 

Fairmont State College                        Charles H. McCormick

 

 

 

Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789. Volume 3. January 1, 1776-May

15, 1776. Paul H. Smith, editor. (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Con-

gress, 1979. xxix + 735p.; illustrations, chronology of Congress, list of

delegates, notes, index. $10.25.)

Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789. Volume 4. May 16, 1776-August

15, 1776. Paul H. Smith, editor. (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Con-

gress, 1979, xxviii + 738p.; illustrations, chronology of Congress, list of

delegates, notes, index. $11.25.)

 

These volumes continue the series begun in 1976 as a bicentennial pro-

ject, which eventually will print a large part of the letters and diary entries

of delegates to the Continental Congress between 1774 and 1789. Like the

1921-1936 edition of the letters by Edmund C. Burnett, this one under Paul

H. Smith's direction is graced by superior historical editing. Some of the

footnotes are models of analysis of disputed issues on such points as con-

tributions to the authorship of congressional addresses, Lord Drummond's

proposals on negotiations, and various political intrigues in Congress. This

new edition is much fuller than was Burnett's; these two volumes total some

1,400 pages on the same period that needed only 298 pages in the earlier

edition.

Few primary source collections on so limited a period cover as many

subjects of great historical interest and significance as do these volumes.

Militarily, these seven months saw the frustration of the Canadian expedi-

tion and the death of Richard Montgomery, the British evacuation of Bos-

ton, the check to the British at Charleston, and the launching of the largest

British military expedition to that time against New York. The volumes are

• 27
 

Book Reviews                                                   289

 

strewn with fascinating comment on Paine's Common Sense, the desires of

some for reconciliation and the impatience of others to declare indepen-

dence. Here one sees the pressures brought to bear on delegations from

Pennsylvania and New York, which were reluctant to take the final step, as

well as the jubilance once the Declaration was adopted. Several other mat-

ters seemed equally crucial, and in some ways were more important than

the Declaration itself: the opening of American trade to European coun-

tries; developing foreign alliances and getting powder and guns from

abroad; the rapid inflation and cheapening of currencies; the authorization

of new governments in the states; and-perhaps the greatest danger to

intercolonial unity-the question of whether representation in the confed-

eracy should be equal or proportional to wealth or population.

Specialists on the American Revolution scarcely need to have these

volumes recommended to them, but it would be unfortunate if only they

alone were to look at them. The fact is that these letters contain delightful

reading for anyone interested in the American Revolution, the manners and

life of the eighteenth century, or the thought of a group of unusually

talented men who had a talent for graceful and pungent prose. This review-

er can do nothing better for prospective readers than provide a sample from

the writings of the delegates.

Here, for example, is John Adams on the education of his sons: "John has

Genius and so has Charles. Take Care that they don't go astray. Cultivate

their Minds, inspire their little Hearts.... Let them revere nothing but

Religion, Morality and Liberty." He responded to his wife's request that

politicians not forget the rights of women by saying that he had no intention

of giving up masculine pretensions, though men were masters in name only,

and hoped General Washington and others would fight rather than be sub-

jected to "the Despotism of the Petticoat." His fellow delegate, Robert Treat

Paine, complained about sacrificing his fortune and happiness in service

while suffering the "cold, haughty, disrepectful behaviour" of Sam and John

Adams and the intrigue of their faction to replace him at the Congress.

On public matters, Sam Adams warned that a standing army "is always

dangerous to the Liberties of the people. Soldiers are apt to consider them-

selves as a Body distinct from the rest of the Citizens .... Such a Power

should be watched with a jealouse Eye." John Adams, who thought much

about constitutions, felt that he would make a better architect of govern-

ments than Thomas Paine. While applauding Paine's view of the rela-

tionship with Britain, he added, "Indeed this Writer has a better Hand at

pulling down the building." Still, he rejoiced to live in a time that might be

envied by ancient philosophers and lawgivers, when a people had a chance

of designing a completely new government for themselves.

Many of the delegates, like Oliver Wolcott, were struck by the handsome

appearance of Philadelphia: "Their State House and Churches are elegant

... and their jail in Appearance more resembles a Princes Palace than a

House of Confinement." Some delegates from other colonies distrusted the

New Englanders, whom Edward Rutledge depicted as men of "low Cunning,

and those levelling Principles which Men without Character and without

Fortune in general Possess." One delegate wryly expressed the hope that

the splitting of an army mortar that had been dubbed Congress was not an

omen for that body, while another said that he hoped if Congress were

exalted, it would not be upon a gallows.

• 28
 

290                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

Finally, there are the sentiments on separation from England. One dele-

gate suggested that no reason could be given for rushing into such a mea-

sure "but the Reason of every Madman, a Shew of our Spirit." Others criti-

cized the reluctance of New York to take a stand, describing it as "the

weakest Province in point of Intellect, Valour, public Spirit, or any thing

else that is great and good upon the Continent." John Adams, one of the

great letter writers of the eighteenth century, summed it up best once

again: "The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha,

in the History of America. ... It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and

Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and illumina-

tions from one End of This Continent to the other from this Time forward

forever more."

These volumes are never going to be bestsellers, but to an intelligent,

perceptive reader, both the subject matter and the writing style may have

an appeal that the drugstore paperback does not.

 

Cleveland State University                           John H. Cary.

• 29