Ohio History Journal

Book Reviews

 

 

 

Organized for Prohibition: A New History of the Anti-Saloon League. By K.

Austin Kerr. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985. xvii + 293p.; illus-

trations, notes, note on sources, index. $25.00.)

 

The vineyards of temperance history have been well worked. Since its or-

ganized beginnings in the 1820s, temperance reform has appealed to count-

less thousands of Americans, old and young, female and male, wealthy and

poor, liberal and conservative. Consequently, the movement has had a diver-

sity, a longevity, and a prolific literature which have allowed historians am-

ple scope for their research and interpretative skills. The recent work of Nor-

man Clark and Ned Dannenbaum, for example, has revised earlier portraits

of temperance advocates as cranky political reactionaries, describing them

instead as perceptive commentators on the ill effects of alcohol on American

life and genuine reformers.

K. Austin Kerr's history of the Anti-Saloon League falls within this posi-

tive tradition. Mindful of the large existing literature, Kerr maintains that this

is a "new history" because it focuses upon the "nuts and bolts" of the

league's internal structure. Relying upon a massive collection of the league's

hitherto unused records at the Ohio Historical Society, Kerr treats the

league as an example of the "managerial revolution" described by Kenneth

Boulding and Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., an approach foreshadowed as early

as 1928 by Peter Odegard's Pressure Politics: The Story of the Anti-Saloon

League.

The book's greatest strength is its tightly woven and closely argued narra-

tive of the league's internal workings. With the Ohio league as an organiza-

tional model, the national Anti-Saloon League was established in 1895, and

"[F]rom its inception was to be like a modern business firm, bureaucratic

and not democratic" at both the national and the local levels. This structure

was well suited for fund-raising, temperance education, and enlisting the sup-

port of Protestant churches and congregations, as evidenced by the league's

rapid string of victories: the defeat of "wet" Ohio governor Myron Herrick in

1905, the passage of the federal Webb-Kenyon Bill in 1913, and the ratifica-

tion of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919.

However, Kerr argues, although prohibition may have "worked" because

it curtailed American drinking, the league itself did not after 1920. Earlier ef-

forts to reform the league bureaucracy and allow greater participation by

member churches had been only cosmetic, and as a result, "the league

structure was ill-suited for resolving the disputes that arose after victory was

achieved." When its leadership divided over tactics in the 1920s, therefore,

the league found it increasingly difficult to raise funds from member church-

es, endorsed the Republican Party and Herbert Hoover in 1928, and was

discredited with them after 1929. Nor was the rigid league bureaucracy

adapted to building the cultural consensus on the value of a dry society

which might have given longer life to the "noble experiment."

Kerr, therefore, attributes the league's victories before 1919 and its decline

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138                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

afterward in large part to an organizational structure which utilized "modern

managerial skills from the business world." ("Wets" too failed to follow ap-

propriate managerial procedures, hampering their fight against a dry Ameri-

ca.) Other explanations get only passing attention although Kerr briefly con-

cedes that the league was on the right side of the progressive reformers'

reliance upon state and federal governments, and on the wrong side of the

cultural battles of the 1920s between nineteenth-century evangelicalism and

self-discipline and twentieth-century consumerism and self-gratification.

Of particular interest is Kerr's discussion of the influence of the Nonparti-

san WCTU on league strategy, since the Nonpartisan, which broke with the

WCTU "regulars" when Frances Willard endorsed the Prohibition Party,

usually gets scant attention from historians. Kerr pays too little attention,

however, to the apt parallels between the league and the National American

Women's Suffrage Association. Like the league, the NAWSA was a non parti-

san single-issue organization. Unlike the league, the NAWSA did change its

structure when it became the League of Women Voters. But this change

could not halt the loss of momentum, membership, and unity after its own

victory in 1920.

For in fact structure is not everything, and the application of organization-

al theory to this temperance group is in many respects unsatisfactory. The

league called itself as "the church in action"; its strength derived from the

pulpits and collection baskets of evangelical Protestantism. Kerr himself de-

scribes the league "part of the social gospel." The use of the business analo-

gy, therefore, seems incongruous-as if one had come across Washington

Gladden in a grey flannel suit. Although new models can often lend new in-

sights, historians must also remember to take the past sometimes at its own

word-in this case to view the league as an example of the politicization of an

intensely religious impulse rather than as a variant of American entrepreneur-

ship. What is good for General Motors may not be good for the Anti-Saloon

League.

John Carroll University                            Marian J. Morton

 

 

 

The Falls City Engineers: A History of the Louisville District, Corps of Engi-

neers, United States Army 1970-1983. By Leland R. Johnson. (Louisville:

United States Army Engineer District, 1984. v + 346p.; illustrations, notes,

bibliography, index. $8.00.)

 

This book is designed as a supplement to the author's The Falls City Engi-

neers: A History of the Louisville District, Corps of Engineers, published in

1975, and, as its predecessor, is an encyclopedic treatment of the activities of

the Louisville Engineer District for the period covered. Chronologically this

is a period of change for the Engineers, involving major alterations in the mis-

sion of the organization from basic military construction to a "realignment in

response to the national environmental movement" (p. i). It also is a period

marked by a growing clamor of voices questioning some of the activities of

the Corps of Engineers, climaxing with the tumultuous controversy over the

proposed construction of a dam on the Red River of Kentucky which would,

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Book Reviews                                                  139

 

it was contended, destroy the famous Red River Gorge, one of the most

scenic and environmentally unique areas in the nation.

This volume would have been an excellent opportunity for the Corps to air

its side of this controversy and to present its arguments in support of policies

which critics have dismissed as "boondoggles," but the author downplays

these controversies. The Red River Gorge dispute, for example, is not dealt

with per se, but rather is presented piecemeal as the result of a rigid chrono-

logical structuring of the text. The result is a presentation which lacks coher-

ence, and, in the process, gives the impression that dealing with political

controversy is something with which the author is uncomfortable.

Of course, this is an inherent problem facing any historian who takes upon

himself the task of writing a "house history." It is much easier to work with

facts, statistics, and "accomplishments" than with controversies. And facts

are to be found throughout this book. It is thorough in its coverage of the ac-

complishments of the Corps; from the modernization of navigation on the

Ohio to the construction of a new chapel at Fort Knox, this volume catalogs

the construction of every dam and the building of every structure undertaken

by the District.

Many of the Corps' activities have all of the characteristics of high drama,

such as the successful removal of a barge loaded with potentially deadly

chlorine which broke away from a tow and lodged against McAlpine Dam in

Louisville in 1972, or another chemical barge, this one leaking noxious fumes,

which was hung up on Markland Dam in 1974 and which was safely neutral-

ized in a touchy project dubbed "Operation Big Stink."

But the drama of these events and other challenging activities is largely

obscured by the turgid writing style of the author-let's face it, the book

reads like an engineering manual, and to browse through it for recreation

would generate about as much excitement as watching scum grow on a stag-

nant pond.

Yet this book, along with its predecessor volume, should be in every li-

brary with an interest in the history, economy or environment of the Ohio

Valley, and every collection with an interest in the workings of the federal

government and its agencies-in short, this is a most valuable volume to have

on the shelf as a ready reference for anything from the building of a flood-

control dam in Indiana to the government's response to the "Day of a Hun-

dred Tornadoes" on April 3, 1974.

For Kentuckians there is also an essay entitled "Upriver to the Three

Forks: Kentucky River Project Construction, 1836-1917," which is included

in this volume as an appendix. Not only does it describe the incredible diffi-

culties involved in bringing navigation to the Kentucky River valley, it in-

cludes some rare and historic photographs.

Thus, despite its weaknesses, this is an important work, and the author is

to be commended for his diligent treatment of a complex subject. The Corps

of Engineers, in sponsoring this work, has made available a book which will

be the standard treatment of the subject for the foreseeable future, and

which will be a gold mine, both in its text and footnotes, for students doing

research into the many activities of the Falls City Engineers.

Kentucky Wesleyan College                              Lee A. Dew

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140                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

Voice of the New West: John G. Jackson and His Life and Times. By Stephen

W. Brown. (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1985. xxv + 262p.;

illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $22.95.)

 

Professor Stephen W. Brown chose his subject well; John George Jackson

appears to have been a fascinating man. Jackson was born during the Revolu-

tionary War near what is now Buckhannon, West Virginia, and spent most of

his life at nearby Clarksburg, on the West Fork of the Monongahela River.

During his early years he studied surveying and the law, without the benefit

of formal schooling; fathered an illegitimate son, John Jay Triplett, and was

subsequently sued for breach of promise by the boy's mother; supported

the famous resolutions against the Alien and Sedition Acts while serving in

the Virginia legislature; and married Mary Payne, a sister of Dolley Madison.

All this before reaching the age of twenty-five.

The second half of John G. Jackson's life was even more eventful. Within a

few months of the death of his wife, the thirty-year-old Jackson was smitten

with another Mary, this time the daughter of the eminent Ohio politician,

Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr. She was precisely half his age when they met,

and during the two years it took to convince the hesitant Miss Meigs to marry

him, Jackson was involved in at least one other serious courtship. For a man

who described himself at this time as balding and "fat as an Italian singer"

(p. 98), Jackson had more than his share of romantic encounters. His political

career also proceeded apace. He served a total of six terms in the House of

Representatives (1803-10, 1813-17), where he abstained from voting on an

unusually large number of important bills, and his vituperative attacks on col-

leagues who differed from him led to a duel which left Jackson gravely

wounded. He returned to the Virginia legislature between congressional

stints, was elected a brigadier general in the state militia, and served briefly

during the War of 1812. In 1819 he was appointed by President Monroe to a

federal judgeship for the western district of Virginia. Jackson died at Clarks-

burg six years later, at the age of forty-seven. The author, a lifelong resident

of West Virginia, makes a strong case for viewing John G. Jackson, above all,

as a westerner who labored diligently to extend the franchise and secure

proportional representation in the Virginia legislature; but, as Brown points

out, most of the gains in this regard came long after Jackson's death.

In addition to his public career, Jackson was an entrepreneurial westerner

of the first rank. His Clarksburg industries included an impressive array of

sawmills, saltworks, gristmills, cotton and woolen factories, ironworks, and

tanneries-all operated by hired white laborers and many of the forty-one

slaves he eventually acquired. He also had extensive holdings in lands,

banks, and internal improvement companies. Brown does an admirable job

of documenting Jackson's business successes and disappointments, but he

occasionally presents facts and figures without explanation. For example, in

1809 Jackson owned nearly thirty-five hundred acres in Harrison County

valued at almost twenty-nine thousand dollars; yet, Brown reports without

comment that while his holdings had more than doubled by 1821, their to-

tal value had increased by less than one thousand dollars. More importantly,

it is curious that the author makes no mention of the panic of 1819, or any im-

pact it may have had on Jackson's diverse business interests.

Professor Brown acknowledges that this book is an outgrowth of his doc-

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Book Reviews                                                    141

 

toral studies (and the bibiliography reveals that Jackson was also the sub-

ject of his master's thesis), and it frequently bears the markings of a basically

unrevised dissertation. The author appears to have relied heavily on dated

secondary sources, and he generally avoids critically analyzing motives and

actions. Brown seems to be particularly attracted to Henry Adams's nine-

volume History of the United States of America, published seventy-five years

ago, and his bibliography includes several citations to the original American

Nation Series. The lack of comprehensive analysis is a more significant short-

coming. The reader is left without an understanding of why Jackson and

those close to him acted as they did. Why did Mary Meigs Jackson, the

daughter of a senator, refuse to live with her husband when he served in the

House? Why did Brigadier General Jackson, after being ordered by the gov-

ernor of Virginia to march his militiamen to Point Pleasant, suddenly show up

at Franklinton [Columbus], Ohio with a small band of friends who then

joined General William Henry Harrison's forces as an informal "corps of

mounted Riflemen" (p. 114)? And why, after displaying his martial fervor by

offering to pay the expenses of his Clarksburg cavalrymen, did Jackson ab-

ruptly return home, before seeing any military action, merely because a few of

Harrison's subordinate officers objected to his lofty rank? While a federal

judge, Jackson presided over several cases which personally involved close

relatives; again, no explanation is offered as to why he did not disqualify

himself. Furthermore, no attempt is made to reconcile his Jeffersonian princi-

ples with the proposed constitutional amendments Jackson introduced in

Congress, which included explicit authorizations for federally funded roads

and canals and the chartering of a national bank. Those who seek more infor-

mation might wish to consult Dorothy Davis's biography of Jackson, as well

as Brown's work.

Parenthetically, this reader was distracted by a number of problems

which could have been cleared up by a scrupulous copy editor. Among

these are the intrusive and seemingly arbitrary use of the term "sic," and a

number of striking redundancies. We are informed on four separate occasions

that John W. Eppes was a son-in-law of Thomas Jefferson, and are twice told

that Jackson purchased $367 worth of silverware in Georgetown while serv-

ing in Congress.

In conclusion, Professor Brown instills in the reader a sense that John

George Jackson was peripherally involved in many of the important events of

the early national period, but this biography falls somewhat short in re-

vealing and illuminating the man and his age.

Wichita State University                         Willard Carl Klunder

 

 

 

John Carroll University: A Century of Service. By Donald P. Gavin. (Kent:

The Kent State University Press, 1985. xx + 553p.; illustrations, chronolog-

ical tables, appendixes, notes, notes on sources, index. $27.50.)

 

Founded in 1886 as the nineteenth of twenty-eight Jesuit colleges and

universities in the United States, St. Ignatius College-now John Carroll

University-would undergo a "sometimes painful transition" (p. xi) from tra-

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142                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

ditional church college on Cleveland's ethnic West Side to modern universi-

ty crosstown in University Heights. And from long association University

Historian Donald P. Gavin well knew the "minefield" of sensitivities (p. xi)

that awaited any scholarly study of such a Catholic institution run by a relig-

ious order. Three major conflicts between diocesan bishop and collegiate

rector give particular focus to his account of the first half-century; thereafter

the search for a new balance among consultors, trustees, administrators, and

faculty receives more attention, especially following Vatican II and student

protest of the sixties. Even by 1980, where the story intentionally breaks off,

old and difficult problems remained for a second century's accounting; the

quest for their resolution, and for true university recognition, still persists.

Gavin's research has been thorough, his noting of even minor details,

meticulous. Into the web of administrative maneuvering, moreover, he has

sought to weave academic developments and student activities, including a

whole chapter on "Football Fame: An Elusive Goal, 1916-1935." And in the

post-1945 era, where he draws upon personal observation of such important

rector-presidents as Father Welfle (1946-1956) and Father Dunn (1956-1967),

his interpretation achieves an especially authoritative delineation.

This 553-page volume will most interest those familiar with Catholic educa-

tion and Cleveland's particular situation. The relation of parish to college, im-

portant as it was to St. Ignatius' founders, may well elude non-Catholics, as

will many of the disputes within the Cleveland diocese over educational

tasks. The seeming lack of local controversy during the 1914-18 war-given

the school's German associations-may puzzle historians also, as will its sup-

posed lag "almost a generation behind" many American colleges, "including

Catholic ones" (p. 165). For Cleveland's Catholic community and Jesuit edu-

cational leaders, however, and for alumni/ae since the "Iron Ages" of 1886-

1914, this detailed, candid, often wryly humorous history should be quite

revealing. Certainly it will provide the vital perspective that John Carroll

needs today.

Among the many illustrations are a few buildings, some student scenes,

several maps, and seemingly countless photographs of individuals-all iden-

tified briefly on the page. Included also, beyond acknowledgements and a

most informative preface, are two chronologies; six narrative appendices in-

cluding the "Mission Statement" of John Carroll University; six further ap-

pendices listing Jesuit and Catholic leaders, enrollments and degrees grant-

ed, faculty and student awards, and student-union presidents; sixty pages of

"Notes" and four of "Notes on Sources." Amid such centennial plenty,

where the dust jacket even explains the university seal, only the sixteen-page

index loses out: it lacks numerous academic and non-academic categories,

omits many page references, and will otherwise frustrate would-be users.

Within each chapter, Gavin has utilized section headings to promote clari-

ty; unfortunately they also interrupt flow and can obscure general argument.

At the same time they well indicate the complexity that characterized this

Jesuit institution's development within an urban setting among so many dif-

ferent (and often conflicting) interests. "A Century of Service" is the subtitle

of this study, and fittingly so. Yet it was a century, too, of intense jealousy

and competition, from which Catholic institutions of higher education in

Gavin's view have too often suffered (p. x).

Denison University                              G. Wallace Chessman

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Book Reviews                                                  143

 

The City of Hills & Kilns: Life and Work in East Liverpool, Ohio. By William

C. Gates, Jr. (East Liverpool, Ohio: East Liverpool Historical Society, 1984.

viii + 500p.; illustrations, figures, tables, graphs, photographs, notes, ap-

pendices, sources consulted, index. $22.50.)

 

East Liverpool, a small town on the eastern border of Ohio, achieved eco-

nomic success and an international reputation in the nineteenth century as a

center for the pottery industry. This development was aided by the proximi-

ty of necessary raw materials and, in the second half of the century, by the

influx of large numbers of English immigrants skilled in the art of pottery

making. The industry continued to grow and prosper until beset by economic

problems resulting from the Great Depression and by a gradually declining

market for its wares as the twentieth century progressed.

The City of Hills and Kilns is a complete and thorough history of the town

and the various phases of its development. The author, using a chronological

format, follows the community from its early settlement in 1802 to its gradual

decline as a major economic force in the second half of the twentieth century.

His emphasis, however, is on the industry which was the lifeblood of the

town through much of that time. He explains how the pottery industry be-

gan there, how the early problems of the business were solved, and how

and why it became so successful in the late nineteenth century. Work in the

potteries affected every phase of life in the town during that period, and

members of local families found employment there generation after genera-

tion. The fortunes of local businessmen and bankers were directly affected

by the degree of prosperity of the potteries, and when they began to fall on

hard times, the rest of the community did, as well.

This book is obviously a labor of love, and one that has absorbed a great

deal of time and effort from the author, who serves as Curator of the Ohio

Historical Society's East Liverpool Museum of Ceramics. Its encyclopedic

detail and its careful chronicling of the life of the community of East Liver-

pool will undoubtedly make it the authoritative work on the subject for dec-

ades to come. It is the kind of historical treatment that few communities re-

ceive, but which provides us with invaluable data on life in the small town

during the year's of America's greatest growth and development. Vintage

photographs complement the text, and the photo essay on the pottery in-

dustry is valuable in helping the reader understand the work's technical

aspects.

The book's minor shortcomings are largely technical. Its length and the

choice of type make it somewhat formidable, especially for the casual reader.

One might wish that the book had been made a little more visually appeal-

ing. On the whole, however, it provides an excellent treatment of the history

of this unique community, and exhibits the kind of dedication on its author's

part that one could wish to see applied to the history of a number of other

midwestern towns.

Indiana State University                      Rebecca S. Shoemaker

 

 

 

Tribal Dispossession and the Ottawa Indian University Fraud. By William E.

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144                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

Unrau and H. Craig Miner. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985.

xi + 212p.; illustrations, notes, bibliograph, index. $17.95.)

 

The Ottawa and Ojibwa once told an apocryphal story about a praying In-

dian who had died. When he went to the heaven of the whites, he was told

praying Indians were not admitted. When he went to the dwelling of the In-

dian dead, he was excluded "because he had forsaken his father's cus-

toms." He then returned to earth "to resume the form of his body and

haunt his former life." (Robert Berkhofer, Salvation and the Savage.) Efforts

of Christian missionaries among these Algonquian people of the Great Lakes

often led to the ambivalence suggested in this tale. The bands of Ottawa that

William E. Unrau and H. Craig Miner deal with in Tribal Dispossession and

the Ottawa University Fraud were no exception. These Ohio bands, known as

Blanchard's Fork and Roche de Boeuf, had been served by French Catho-

lics prior to the 1750s. From the 1820s forward, however, they were the ob-

jects of Baptist missionary efforts.

In the 1830s, under the urging of Baptist minister Isaac McCoy, these

Woodland people removed from northwest Ohio to new reservation lands

near the Osage River in eastern Kansas. There they remained until shortly

after the Civil War, when they removed again to Indian Territory. During

their brief three decades in Kansas, these Ottawa were subjected to one of

the most complex frauds to occur on the American frontier. By this date

speculation was hardly a newcomer to the frontier. From Virginia's expansion

in the early 1600s forward, speculation served as the handmaiden to eco-

nomic success in frontier areas. On the Ottawa Reservation in Kansas, the

speculators set their sights on founding a university that would enhance their

own personal fortunes, and, incidentally, the economic health of the town of

Ottawa. The Ottawa Indians played a crucial role in the process. In a treaty of

1862 they donated 20,000 acres of land set aside for the school. Ostensibly,

the proposed institution-first known as Roger Williams University and then

renamed Ottawa University-was designed "for the benefit of the Ottawas"

(p. 85). In the long run, however, the Ottawa gained no benefit. Enrollment in

the school was almost exclusively non-Indian, and the Ottawa were de-

frauded of all of the financial remuneration from the sale of 15,000 acres of

school lands, as well as the value of the school building and orchard stand-

ing in the acreage remaining.

The conclusion to the story did not occur until post-World War II. In the

1960s, under the auspices of the Indian Claims Commission, the descen-

dents of these two Ottawa groups were awarded a sum of $406,000 for having

been "systematically defrauded" in the establishment of the university that

bore their name. Recently the school has established a scholarship fund for

Ottawa students, but few have chosen to attend.

In this brief monograph Unrau and Miner have written an intriguing case

study of Indian-white relations on the Prairie-Plains frontier. Demonstrating a

close acquaintance with the numerous documents pertaining to the universi-

ty, they have compiled an investigative account of the machinations of the

key individuals who masterminded the fraud. Aware of the dangers of moral

censure by historians, they have nonetheless attempted a "moral analysis"

of these men. In defense of their approach, they point out that "it was pre-

cisely in the name of education and morality that the fraud took place" (p. 8).

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Book Reviews                                                  145

 

They build a convincing case. Perhaps the greatest irony in this episode lies

in the Christian rhetoric espoused by these frontier opportunists in support

of their illegal maneuvers. In this portrayal, they emerge as egocentric hypo-

crites who showed little concern for the impact of their schemes on the Otta-

wa themselves. Although they moved within the rubric of Christianity, at

least one of them is more aptly described as "an ethical chameleon."

Unrau and Miner are good storytellers, and herein lies the strength of their

monograph. It is an intricately woven, well-researched account of white de-

ception of one Indian group on the frontier. The authors do not pretend

to offer any extensive insights on the Ottawa point of view. Hence the Ot-

tawa themselves emerge only as shadowy, stereotyped figures, unclarified

through any ethnohistorical analysis. But within this limitation, Unrau and

Miner have told a tale with devastating implications for the role of the entre-

preneur on the American Indian frontier.

University of New Mexico                     Margaret Connell Szasz

 

 

 

Flight in America 1900-1983: From the Wrights to the Astronauts. By Roger E.

Bilstein. (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1984. xii + 356p.;

illustrations, notes, index. $32.50.)

 

Roger Bilstein has provided the first single-volume narrative history of

flight in America. The book is a model for the study of the impact of a tech-

nology on American society. The reader is treated to a wealth of fascinating

detail describing the way in which the new technology helped to shape life

in the twentieth century. The response of the military, the business commu-

nity, artists, bankers, movie makers, lawyers, farmers, musicians, and the

man on the street to the startling potential of air travel is explored in detail.

The volume is organized around the three traditional divisions of the

industry-military, commercial and general aviation. The treatment of these

standard themes is sometimes a bit uneven. General aviation, for example,

seems to receive more complete and detailed treatment than that accorded

to the military services or the air lines. On the whole, however, the author

provides a fine and very complete overview of the subject.

As social history, the book succeeds admirably. A broad array of topics

such as the origins of air law, the impact of flight on the arts, and the growth

of the government based infrastructure supporting the aerospace industry re-

ceive attention for the first time.

Moreover, the volume contains a wealth of fascinating social and cultural

detail. Want to know when the first in-flight movie was shown, who invented

the stewardess, how the legend of the Gremlin was born, or who played the

part of "Sky King" on television? It is all here.

While the author did not set out to write a history of aerospace technolo-

gy, the reader could wish for a bit more detail on key technological issues.

American leadership in the production of commercial airliners in the mid-

1930s is noted, for example, but the technical factors underlying that domin-

ance are not explained. Eight pages are devoted to Presidential flying and

three to propellers. The index lists seven pages on the subject of the stew-

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146                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

ardess, but does not contain entries for stressed skin construction or the

multi-web wing.

The volume is a delight to read. Bilstein tells his story in sparkling prose

illustrated with a well-chosen selection of photos that serve as a nice comple-

ment to his text. The bibliography and notes are combined in an essay that

serves as a priceless introduction to the literature. All in all, the book is the

best treatment of the impact of the airplane on American life that we are likely

to see for a very long time to come.

National Air and Space Museum

Smithsonian Institution                              Tom D. Crouch

 

 

Technological Utopianism in American Culture. By Howard P. Segal. (Chica-

go: The University of Chicago Press, 1985. x + 301p.; illustrations, notes,

appendix, bibliography, index. $30.00 cloth; $14.95 paper.)

 

What has Howard Segal written for us? Historical interpretation? If so,

what is its primary focus? 1) A study of twenty-five technological utopians

and their place in U.S. social history and in European and U.S. utopian tra-

ditions? or 2) A study of changing U.S. social patterns 1880-1930? Is this,

rather, social criticism, arguing: 1) The perennial importance of utopian think-

ing for cultural analysis? 2) The value of technological plateaus as an antidote

to current cultural ailments in the U.S.? 3) An analysis of what is wrong with

America's technological society? Or, finally, is this a bibliography for all of

the above topics and many more? The good news and the bad news about

Technological Utopianism in American Culture is that the answer to all these

questions seems to be "yes."

I learned a great deal reading the book. Segal's overview of European uto-

pianism [Chapter 4] is crisp and elegant. From Thomas More through Aug-

uste Comte we are treated to an economical synthesis of this multi-faceted

tradition. In like fashion, though with just a little less success, he surveys a

host of nineteenth [Chapter 5] and early twentieth century [Chapter 6] trends

that form the context for the technological utopians of the period. This is

very helpful material. So too, in a very different mode, are Segal's ventures

into contemporary social criticism in Chapters 7 through 9. I particularly

liked his treatment of work in America (pp. 130-135) and his "technological

plateau" model [Chapter 8]. Best of all are the extraordinary critical bibliog-

raphies found in many end notes. Segal is an impressive reader of social his-

tory and social criticism for the U.S. and the larger world.

Alas, for all its many virtues, this is a poorly written book. Dense sentence

structure often makes for heavy going and eighty-three pages of notes for a

text of less than 160 pages overwhelm the reader. More important, it reveals

Segal's ambivalene. Is he crafting his own interpretation of utopian literature,

or is he weaving a fabric taken from a host of other interpreters? If the first,

then Chapter 2's twelve-page summary of the primary sources seems skimpy.

Where, for example, is Segal's intrepretation of the pervasive rationalism

which seems to be the common affliction of the technological utopians? It is

scattered about in Chapters 3 through 6, but Segal's perspective is repeated-

ly blurred by overly brief synopsis-like summaries of other scholar's inter-

• 10
 

Book Reviews                                                  147

 

pretations. What does Segal himself conclude, from his study of these 25

utopians, about the significance of technological utopianism for contemporary

American society? Hints, and more hints, tantalize us in Chapters 7 through

9, but we must wade through the now familiar host of paraphrased commen-

tators to find them. Were I refereeing this manuscript rather than reviewing

the book I would urge publication-there is important material here-but

only after a revision that drastically cut back the apologetic references to oth-

er scholars while expanding and elaborating on the author's own very help-

ful insights.

But here the book stands, its virtues and vices embedded in the printed

page. I encourage getting the book and reading it. For your first reading ig-

nore the overwhelming and distracting end notes. Skim lightly over the over-

ly apologetic inserts that clog the textual flow, suggesting as they do an au-

thor responding to potential critics (dissertation committee?) rather than

addressing his readers. Let the benefits of Segal's breadth of vision wash

over you without too much interruption. You will be rewarded with a re-

freshing look at America's twentieth century love affair with technological

"progress." When you have finished, keep this book handy on your refer-

ence shelf, and when you find yourself wanting a bibliography for any of the

host of subtleties treated here just turn to the perfectly adequate index, track

down the appropriate passage and, presto, you will find a first rate bibliogra-

phy waiting for you disguised as a source note at the end of the paragraph.

University of Detroit                    John M. Staudenmaier, S.J.

 

 

American Log Buildings: An Old World Heritage. By Terry G. Jordan. (Chap-

el Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1985. x + 193p.; illustra-

tions, maps and charts, notes, bibliography, index. $26.00.)

 

Mr. Jordan's book is long overdue. Log construction has been so en-

trenched in twentieth century folklore that two obvious facts have been ig-

nored: 1) That historical literature does exist pertaining to log construction;

and, 2) That log buildings do still exist in their supposed countries of origin.

Mr. Jordan decided to examine the Old World log buildings in situ, and

spent four summers in northern Europe (primarily Sweden), central Europe

(Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany), and southern Europe (Switzer-

land, Austria, West Germany), as well as a fifth summer in the British Isles.

This field work has been summarized in the book under review.

Rather than ending the various debates on origins of construction technol-

ogies and building designs, Mr. Jordan's work will open new areas of re-

search and discussion. He lays particular emphasis on the contributions of

the Swedes and Finns in New Sweden, in the Delaware Bay area in the early

seventeenth century, and demonstrates that many facets of log construction

used on the American frontier can be found today only in the Scandinavian

countries. Earlier researchers had placed more emphasis on central Europe

as the source of most log construction techniques.

Log buildings in the United States present ennumerable problems for the

researcher who is usually presented a house or barn in indifferent repair and

shrouded in conjecture, and then expected to pronounce the date of con-

• 11
 

148                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

struction and the name, or at the very least the country of origin, of the

builder. Obviously, the only tangible evidence is the presence of the log

building. Each structure is its own problem; it may have features in common

with other buildings in the vicinity, or it may be unique. Rare is the structure

that has any reliable historic data available. A myriad of characteristics

must be noted: styles of hewing and notching; the joists, rafters, fenestra-

tion, chimney placement; the partitions, molding patterns, paint colors, and

so on, each characteristic often divisible into sub-categories. This raw mass

of data, bolstered by comparable extant structures and literary resources,

will hopefully give a reliable construction date and origin of style. Interpreta-

tion and identification are further complicated in a state like Ohio that was

quickly settled by both established colonial families and direct foreign im-

migration.

It is with the topic of diffusion of log construction techniques that this re-

viewer must differ, in a matter of degrees, from some of Mr. Jordan's prem-

ises. For example: The Society of Separatists, a minor German religious sect

which immigrated from Wurttemberg in 1817 and settled in Ohio late in the

year, built several log houses in their community known as "Zoar." Their

own records indicate the members did the construction. The logs are wider

than the usual eight inches, which coincides with the German-Slavic Bor-

derland, noted by Mr. Jordan, but are "V" notched, which technique he

found only among the Swedes and Finns. There is no known connection be-

tween the Zoarites and any earlier group of settlers influenced by New Swed-

en construction practices. I have seen several log houses in the townships

surrounding Zoar with the same wide logs and V-notching; the 1850 census

shows an absolute dominance of immigrants from Wurttemberg. Many came

from the countryside around Swabische Hall and Swabische Gmund north

of Stuttgart.

Another example: There are a large number of well-constructed two story

log houses in west-central Ohio built by (?) French immigrants during the

1850s and 60s (the present generation claims their ancestors actually did the

work). Typologically, the houses do have certain features-log crosswalls

and projecting plate logs-unusual to other Ohio log houses; the corners are

V-notched. The Germans in an adjacent township are predominantly West-

phalian, so it is entirely possible they knew V-notching and crosswalls in

northern Germany; however, if the French were the actual builders, from

whom did they learn? It is interesting that the log crosswall has turned up in

at least two houses near the Ursuline Convent of St. Martin in Brown County.

By their records, several log houses in the original settlement were con-

structed by veterans of the Napoleonic campaigns. Perhaps the social and

political upheaval throughout Europe during the late-eighteenth, early-nine-

teenth centuries diffused a general knowledge of log construction among the

military carpenters and engineers and their assistants.

The double-pen log barn was and is common throughout the state, but

chiefly in the areas that developed during the first half of the nineteenth

century. Once planing mills, and lumber yards, were established in the

1840s, the multi-bay braced-frame barn became the standard structure

throughout the state, except in the marginal agricultural counties of south-

eastern Ohio and small pockets elsewhere. These log barns were built exten-

sively by the first settlers, chiefly Scotch-Irish and German, usually second

and third generation immigrants, coming from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and

• 12
 

Book Reviews                                                  149

 

Maryland. I believe the design was originally derived from the three-bay

braced-frame barn prevalent in the British Isles and, to a lesser extent, in

Europe, and was not influenced by Scandinavian structures, as Mr. Jordan

contends. In any case, the design concept of two-log pens and an open space,

used for both barns and houses, was an application of common sense to the

problem of creating space. (Despite Mr. Jordan's comment that houses had

"pens" and barns "cribs," I have seldom found any word but "pen" in use

in Ohio literature: double-pen house, double-pen barn. Also, according to

the ample literature extant for Ohio, hewing was almost always accomplished

with a felling ax and a broadax, not an adze.)

Many of the review book's comparative references are to southern states; I

do not know southern log construction practices outside the literature, but it

is obvious there were differences in design, technique, and jargon. The

twentieth century interest in "folk" arts and crafts has centered heavily on

the Appalachian states, some areas remaining remarkably unchanged since

the Civil War.

Southeastern Ohio, and much of the Ohio River corridor, is usually in-

cluded in "Appalachia." While there are similarities, Ohio is more closely

related to the states immediately to its east-Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsyl-

vania, Maryland-rather than to the southern Appalachian belt. Because

most of the recent reference literature concerns itself with the latter region, an

impression is left that the Old Northwest followed the same typology-

which is not necessarily true.

I would like to know more of the migratory clans of northern Europe.

Where did each learn log construction? Was there a common locale, or did

the technique develop independently among the many forest-dwelling races

of the Bronze or Iron Age? Although such topics are beyond the scope of

Mr. Jordan's book, they would seem necessary to the understanding of Eu-

ropean and New World typological diffusion (perhaps these questions have

been addressed in ethnographic literature). I have found a few features on

log structures built by direct central European immigrants that are attributed

to Scandinavian influence in this country. Obviously, another and older in-

fluence must be considered. The rough "log cabin" may be Scandinavia's

gift to the New World; the hewed "log house" seems more illusive.

I wish I had had Mr. Jordan's book available when writing my own work

on Ohio (The Architecture of Migration: Log Construction in the Ohio Coun-

try, 1750-1850). Unfortunately, it was even too late to add a footnote. Since my

book deals exclusively with Ohio and not with the Old World heritage of log

construction, the two works hopefully complement one another. Mr. Jordan's

book should certainly turn attention to Europe for the origins of log construc-

tion. The subject has been handled in a straightforward, clear manner. The

illustrations are good (though it would have been helpful had more exam-

ples been dated). This is an attractive, authoritative book, and will be a

standard reference among students of architecture and folklore.

Ohio Historical Society                             Donald Hutslar

 

 

History of American Ceramics: An Annotated Bibliography. By Susan R.

Strong. (Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, 1983. xxii + 184p.; index-

es. $16.00.)

• 13
 

150                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

Strong's bibliography inevitably invites comparison with Ruth Irwin

Weidner's 1982 bibliography, American Ceramics Before 1930 (reviewed in

Ohio History, 92, 1983: pp. 183-184), which in a number of ways proves to be

the more useful work, although the two compilations vary enough in scope,

content, and design for both to be worthwhile source books. Strong, for

whatever reason, deliberately eschews the periodical literature that ac-

counts for some 2300 of Weidner's entries. Also omitted-perhaps more

logically-are technical and geological publications. On the other hand, the

present bibliography is conveniently annotated.

While there is naturally some overlap (41 of the first 100 entries in Strong's

compilation are included in Weidner's), Strong's bibliography stands on its

own merit. It is particularly useful in the area of "art pottery" and contains

numerous exhibition and auction catalogues, as well as collector's guides and

price lists that are omitted by Weidner. Strong appears to have culled the

dissertation and thesis literature more thoroughly, although many of the ti-

tles included relate to contemporary ceramic art deliberately excluded from

Weidner's purview. Works on the brick and tile industry (other than decora-

tive tile) are not included in Strong's study.

Strong has organized her 600-some entries under 22 headings, including

"Bibliographies," "Dictionaries and Encyclopedias," "Marks," "General

History," "Specialized History," "Historical Archaeology," "Folk Pottery,"

"Art Pottery," "Dinnerware," "Porcelain," "Tiles," "Modern Ceramics,"

"Regional and Local History," "Individual Potteries," and "Individual Pot-

ters." There are also sections of "selections" on technique, expositions, man-

ufacturing, and antiques. Separate author, title, and subject indexes provide

access to these various sections.

The "Regional and Local History" section on Ohio contains only 18 en-

tries. Although this is more than for any other state, and while inclusion of

such obscure publications as George Garner's 1844 letter describing East

Liverpool (published in 1934) indicates some thoroughness in combing the

literature, Weidner's compilation remains the more comprehensive in both

scope and execution. Contrast Strong's two entries for the Weller Pottery Co.

with Weidner's twelve; or Strong's 22 entries for Rookwood with Weidner's

88.

Ideally, these two compilations would have been combined in one bibli-

ography. As it is, they both are very useful works that must be consulted by

anyone interested in the history of American ceramics.

Ohio State University Libraries                   James L. Murphy

 

 

 

 

Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789. Volume 9: February 1-May 31,

1778. Edited by Paul H. Smith. (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress,

1982. xxviii + 844p.; illustrations, chronology of congress, list of delegates,

notes, index. $19.00.)

Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789. Volume 10: June 1-September 30,

1778. Edited by Paul H. Smith. (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress,

1983. xxix + 766pp.; illustrations, chronology of congress, list of delegates,

notes, index. $27.00.)

• 14
 

Book Reviews                                                  151

 

A new member of the Continental Congress wrote to a friend at home of his

initial impression, "There are here as in most Assemblys some very Sensable

Speakers, & some very loud Talkers." From February 1st to September 30th,

1778-the months covered by these volumes-, the Congress had much to

talk about and needed a great deal of sensible advice. In some ways, it was

the worst of times, a veritable winter of despair. William Howe's army occu-

pied Philadelphia while the Congress was exiled to the village of York, and

Washington's tiny force endured the rigors of winter at Valley Forge. Prices

soared as the value of continental currency plummeted. Inefficiency in the

supply system was compounded by corruption in the quartermaster and com-

missary departments. One member wrote, "The Number of little, piddling,

pilfering Plunderers in the Character of Deputies, & Deputies Assistants is

sufficient almost to form an Army ..." The officer corps hinted at mass res-

ignations if a half-pay pension for life was not voted, and the debate on this

issue became so heated that President Henry Laurens reprimanded the

members for their disorder. Eventually a compromise was effected, giving of-

ficers half pay for seven years and enlisted men a payment of $80.

By spring and summer, hopes had risen to such a pitch that some mem-

bers believed the war would end in a matter of months. Baron Von Steuben

had worked miracles in instilling discipline and morale in the continental line,

and Nathanael Greene was bringing order to the quartermaster's corps. In

early May, news arrived of the treaties with France, to be followed shortly

by the arrival of the young republic's first foreign ambassador, Conrad-

Alexandre Gerard from the court of France. The sending of a French army

and fleet was to prove decisive in hastening the end of the revolutionary war

and achieving American independence. In June, the British army withdrew

from Philadelphia. Despite American failure to strike a decisive blow against

the British at Monmouth, Washington's men demonstrated that Von Steu-

ben's training had turned them into a professional army. These encouraging

developments allowed the Congress to reject, with some relish, the propos-

als of the Carlisle Commission that had been sent from England to negotiate

an end to the war short of American independence.

Aside from the light thrown upon such key developments, these volumes

of letters illuminate a host of other matters. Questions were raised about tak-

ing Indians into the American service and about raising a regiment of slaves.

Congress authorized the granting of 800 acres of land to any captain in the

British service who was not a British subject who would desert with at least

40 men. This was aimed especially at Hessian officers, and in fact some 13,000

of the 30,000 Hessians who came to America never returned home. Other

matters that captured the attention of members included the trial of Charles

Lee, the investigation of Silas Deane's activities in Europe, the failed attack of

General Sullivan against the British in Rhode Island, and the subsequent

anti-French sentiment that stemmed from Admiral D'Estaing's decision to

pursue a British fleet rather than support Sullivan. Few things, however,

consumed so much of the delegates' time as the difficulty of administering

the government without a proper executive department and the dreadful

state of government finance. Three days a week were devoted to discussions

of the currency, finance, and reform of the Treasury. Volume X prints a draft

of Gouverneur Morris's thoughtful paper on finance, in which he proposed

an import duty, and the ceding of western lands to the nation, so that a sink-

ing fund could be created to pay off the public debt (pp. 202-207).

• 15
 

152                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

Unfortunately, a tariff was impossible even under the proposed Articles of

Confederation, and Maryland and other states refused to ratify the Articles

until all states yielded their western claims. Under its charter of 1609, Virgin-

ia claimed everything running west and northwest "from sea to sea," includ-

ing all of the five states that were to become the Northwest Territory. Virginia

was the last of several states to accept a more modest definition of its western

boundary, and the Articles were finally ratified in 1781. The Confederation's

financial problems continued, however, since an amendment to give the cen-

tral government financial support failed for lack of unanimous consent.

These volumes, part of a continuing series under the superb editorial di-

rection of Paul H. Smith, are an invaluable source for studying the birth of

the American republic. The letters come from hundreds of manuscript col-

lections in more than 60 libraries, as well as newspapers and other printed

sources. Footnotes assist in clarifying obscure allusions and ambiguities, as

well as identifying persons who may be referred to in the letters only as "the

great man" or "the general." Some of the notes are gems of historical analy-

sis, explaining alternate drafts of papers and referring the reader to an ex-

traordinary range of sources and scholarly writings. The delegates did not

have the perspective or the great historical resources available to scholars

today, but they did sense the historical importance of the events they wit-

nessed. Thus, they appropriated $1000 to Ebenezer Hazard to collect and

publish records relating to American History, including the war for inde-

pendence. Hazard, sometimes called the first American historical editor,

copied archives in New England and elsewhere, and published two volumes

that might be said to be the forerunner of the much more extensive, and

much more costly, series reviewed here.

Cleveland State University                             John H. Cary

 

 

The Papers of Henry Clay. Volume 8: Candidate, Compromiser, Whig, March

5, 1829-December 31, 1836. Edited by Robert Seager II and Melba Porter

Hay. (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1984. xii + 948p.;

notes, calendar of unpublished letters, name and subject index. $40.00.)

 

Some of this correspondence concerns family matters: the care of Clay's

beautiful home, "Ashland"; the insanity of his son, Theodore; the budding

career of Henry Clay, Jr. Still, after leaving Washington in March of 1829

Henry Clay devoted most of his letters to one theme-ousting Jackson from

the White House, preferably with himself as a replacement. Some of these

letters have appeared before, at times incompletely, in Calvin Colton's The

Life . . . of Henry Clay. Many have not. And if they do not greatly alter our

view of Clay, they sharpen our understanding. The Kentuckian is revealed as

the coordinator of his party, tirelessly offering his friends advice and tactical

suggestions. Clay could err; he consistently underrated the talents of Jack-

son. But until the last, he harbored few illusions about the difficulty of un-

seating Old Hickory in 1832. The correspondence also undermines the hoary

notion that it was he who urged Biddle to seek an early recharter for the

B.U.S. Presumably, Clay risked the Bank for an issue to use against Jackson.

But there is no evidence of this in the letters; indeed, the protective tariff re-

• 16
 

Book Reviews                                                    153

 

mained the issue closest to Clay's heart in 1831-32. Perhaps his task that year

was hopeless. Even so, it was made infinitely more difficult by the rise of the

Anti-Masonic party. Clay rebuffed overtures from that movement-partly

from principle, and partly because an overt alliance might alienate Masonic

supporters. (However, he did encourage such an alliance in New York.) The

three-party race probably cost him some electoral votes, but hardly lost him

the election. After 1832 Clay devoted most of his energies to western issues,

the tariff compromise, and the Bank War. Unwilling to run in 1836 unless all

the Opposition could unite on him-an unlikely event-he took little interest

in the Whig maneuvers prior to that contest. Indeed, his letters nearly ignore

the election that ended in Van Buren's victory.

To the editors' credit, this volume notes and summarizes all of Clay's re-

marks on the floor of the Senate. They are not printed in full, and did not

need to be; the speeches are readily available in The Register of Debates in

Congress, or Blair's Congressional Globe. Nonetheless, the volume is not

without its flaws. Whether from financial pressure or a desire to shorten the

text, the editors have expanded the device of summarizing many letters-as

was done in Volume 7. Mostly diplomatic correspondence was concerned

then; now many topics and correspondents are affected. Indeed, a random

sample (of the first six months of 1832) reveals that more than 100 out of 180

letters are summarized. Granted, some of these can be found elsewhere. But

some cannot; and many are of considerable interest, from such correspon-

dents as Francis Brooke, John Sergeant and James Madison. The reviewer's

own research suggests that the editors have indeed been faithful to the main

thrust of the letters. Yet certain nuances will be lost; and as the editors them-

selves admit, summaries are "decidely subjective." Consequently, the spe-

cialist will not find this volume as useful as earlier ones. Nonetheless, this

volume is an admirable and conscientious job within the confines of the edi-

tors' methodology. It provides a highly revealing portrait of a leader denied

the office his friends believed he was born to fill. Every academic library

and every serious student of the era should have this book.

Midwestern State University                        Everett W. Kindig

 

 

The Wise Men of Foreign Affairs: The History of the Council on Foreign Rela-

tions. By Robert D. Schulzinger. (New York: Columbia University Press,

1984. xiii + 342p.; notes, bibliography, index. $27.50.)

 

Reading this pioneering history of the Council on Foreign Affairs makes

one feel almost sorry for America's elite. As Robert Schulzinger crisply puts it

in his opening sentences of this study, "Being well off in American [sic] is no

fun. The pay is fine; it is the respectability that hurts."

Founded immediately after World War I by disillusioned (i.e., not listened

to) experts who had followed Wilson to Versailles, the Council on Foreign

Relations has spent its sixty-odd years occupying only the outermost corri-

dors of power of U.S. statecraft. In its lonely seclusion it has attempted to

provide an expert and steady hand on U.S. foreign policy, shielding it from

the inflamed opinions of the mass electorate who, of course, cannot hope to

understand the mysteries of dealing with other countries. Even the eventual

• 17
 

154                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

inclusion of some of its founders (the Dulles brothers) or former employees

(Henry Kissinger and McGeorge Bundy) into the ranks of high government

service has left the Council for the most part on the outside looking in.

As Robert Schulzinger demonstrates, this is not to say that the Council

has not tried. Its many publications, reports, analyses and statements; its

myriad researchers over the years; its ability to attract (and sometimes repel)

academic superstars are a testament to the Council's almost boundless ener-

gy, optimism, and successful efforts to secure Rockefeller and Ford Founda-

tion funding. (The old boy network works marvelously well in the exchange

of money; perhaps it is just ideas it has trouble with.)

Robert Schulzinger gives us a solid look at the many ideas and plans the

Council has generated for a seemingly unresponsive government. He also ana-

lyzes the tensions which exist within an elite and between the elite and the

hoi polloi. Ironically, while trying for the most part unsuccessfully to estab-

lish a foothold in the State Department, the Council has suffered vehement

attacks from conservatives convinced it is part of a liberal conspiracy to con-

trol foreign policy. Schulzinger goes a long way in debunking this myth.

Schulzinger's wry sense of humor, as evidenced by the earlier quotation, is

evident throughout The Wise Men of Foreign Affairs. He takes delightful

jabs at the prose style of the Council's chief organ, Foreign Affairs, and does

not spare the platitudes of Henry Kissinger or the ambiguous warnings of

George Kennan.

Well researched and written, The Wise Men of Foreign Affairs is a sound

study of a collection of privileged individuals and their creation which, to

echo Rodney Dangerfield, get no respect.

Cleveland State University                          Michael V. Wells

 

 

 

To Make Democracy Safe for America: Patricians and Preparedness in the

Progressive Era. By Michael Pearlman. (Champaign: University of Illinois

Press, 1984. vii + 297p.; illustrations, notes, index. $19.95.)

 

In the late-nineteenth century some of the established upper class saw

their power ebbing and their America disappearing. They sought to bring

back the past. The Spanish-American War convinced them that military

service would provide "a social program able to resolve such outstanding na-

tional problems as unassimilated immigration, slovenly labor, political con-

flict, and serious crime." It is this small group and their involvement in the

preparedness movement which is the subject of Michael Pearlman's detailed

study.

Pearlman has chosen to expound his position by looking at the careers and

ideas of a number of these patricians, some prominent, like Theodore Roose-

velt and Leonard Wood, and others not so well known, such as George W.

Pepper and Robert Bacon. In their view America was being transformed for

the worst by industrialism and by waves of immigrants. What was needed,

these individuals argued, was a social purgative; military training and a war

would accomplish this. The new Americans would become transformed into

individuals with the same ideas as the patricians. They themselves took part

in the prewar civilian training camps to set examples for their fellow Ameri-

cans of all classes.

• 18
 

Book Reviews                                                  155

 

The war and the mass mobilization they had waited for brought no sol-

ace. While the melting pot that was the 77th Division showed that war could

bring about unification and purification, little else about the war went ac-

cording to plan. It was more a bloodbath than a rite of cleansing. As the war

fever ebbed and their goal receded, the preparedness movement disinte-

grated. The patricians assigned various causes for their failures; many aban-

doned the ideas and some left the country. By 1940 few were still interested

in using military training to remold America.

Michael Pearlman has done a tremendous amount of research in primary

and secondary sources, but the results do not seem to justify the effort. The

author has done a good job of detailing the motivations of the patricians

who joined the preparedness movement. What he does not explain is what

impact they had in the movement itself or on American society. The evi-

dence presented would seem to indicate that they had little influence. Few

Americans were willing to adopt the concept of universal military training be-

fore World War I, and even fewer after the war. The patricians' message was

ignored, despite a widespread feeling that many groups needed to be Ameri-

canized. Another problem with this work is that it is really too long for the

narrowly focused topic. Despite the title, nearly one-third of the book covers

the postwar careers of the patricians. Equally unsatisfying are Pearlman's con-

clusions. He suggests that the military itself was responsible for the failure of

the purification effort. The army, Pearlman claims, was no different than the

rest of American society and thus could not be expected to really change the

recruits. This conclusion certainly merits more than the few pages that it re-

ceives. On the other hand, Pearlman does not explore whether the patri-

cians sought an unachievable goal; the past could not be retrieved through

any institution.

Michael Pearlman has written an overlong work to explain how some patri-

cians sought to recapture their vision of America through military service for

all. They failed to change American life because they did not understand

the American military or America itself.

Ohio University                                    Marvin Fletcher

 

 

For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America.

By Allen R. Millett and Peter Maslowski. (New York: The Free Press, 1984.

xiv + 621p.; illustrations, maps, tables, index. $24.95.)

 

Military history has since World War II been largely redefined. Its scope

goes beyond the traditional fascination with battles and tactics, and in-

cludes the study of such diverse topics as war production, mobilization,

recruitment, weapons technology, and the many complex issues involving

civil-military relations. More recent scholarship is also concerned to portray

military history in its broader context-"in the round," so to speak. Thus at

present we find much greater emphasis on the social, political, economic,

and moral dimensions of warfare.

For the Common Defense, by Allan R. Millett and Peter Maslowski, clearly

falls under the heading of "new" military history. Its purpose is not to

reexamine distant battles, but rather, to trace the broad outline of American

• 19
 

156                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

military history and policy from colonial times to the present, and analyze the

behavior and social characteristics of the armed forces. It is a comprehen-

sive, well-crafted summary of United States military history, doubtless one

of the best overall accounts to have been published in years.

For example, I found the authors' treatment of Indian warfare particularly

good, also their discussion of the colonial militia system. The earliest settlers

arrived in "a dangerous new world" (title of the first chapter) and their "ini-

tial colonies represented little more than amphibious landings on a hostile

coastline followed by the consolidation of small, insecure beachheads" (p.

1). In this setting the newcomers gave at least as well as they got. Unable to

bring the swift-moving Indians to decisive battle, colonial militiamen adopt-

ed the more ruthless strategy of attacking villages, killing old men, women,

and children, and destroying crops. "Men who believed they were fighting

to protect their own homes and families from savage heathens eagerly

torched Indian dwellings, slaughtered noncombatants, and starved surviv-

ors by destroying food supplies" (p. 12). It was a form of warfare which the

Indians found both new and shocking.

Millett and Maslowski do an excellent job as well detailing the steady im-

pact of technology on warfare, and also illustrate the important role the mili-

tary has played in American society throughout history. Armed forces have

done far more than simply wage war, as this account makes clear. For exam-

ple, uniformed troops were called upon at different times to capture runaway

slaves, put down local rebellions, conduct "low-intensity" operations in the

Reconstruction South, police labor strikes in the North, and assist with ex-

ploration and disaster relief at home, and intervention abroad. Other topics

discussed include the evolution of military professionalism, reform and reor-

ganization in the armed services, naval developments since the Revolution,

and living conditions in the military. Indeed living conditions were so deplor-

able throughout most of the nineteenth century that incredibly large num-

bers of troops resorted to drinking and desertion. In 1830 alone, "more than

1,200 men deserted from an Army with an authorized strength of only

6,000!" (p. 133).

Of the seventeen chapters in this book, the two on the Civil War are cer-

tainly among the best. They provide capsule descriptions of all the major

campaigns, along with many thoughtful observations regarding generalship,

strategy, tactics, warmaking resources and logistics. "The paramount fact

about Civil War battles," in the authors' view, "was that weaponry had

outpaced tactics and communications" (p. 227). Mass assaults against well-

entrenched defenders, or in the face of rifled weapons, caused unprecedent-

ed casualties on both sides. It inevitably meant, in the words of one Union

officer, "a slaughter pen, a charnel-house, and an army of weeping mothers

and sisters at home" (quoted p. 228). The authors' interpretation reflects sen-

sitivity as well as good judgment. Moreover, in a relatively short space they

manage to shed new light on such issues as mobilization and recruitment

techniques, the effects of disease and desertion, casualty figures, civilian

morale, the use of black troops, the war at sea, Lincoln's suppression of civil

liberties, the political climate-and much, much more. It is a splendid syn-

thesis.

Unfortunately not all of the chapters are as well written, either in style or

content, as these two. Some of the latter chapters in particular seem to lack

clarity and are less comprehensive. For instance, one finds very little on

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Book Reviews                                                  157

 

blacks and virtually nothing on women in the armed services during the

twentieth century. Nor is there any mention in the text of the "Brownsville

incident," the Bonus March during the Great Depression, or the World War

II race riots. We are told that Allied code breakers made a singular contribu-

tion toward victory in World War II, yet the authors omit any direct reference

to the ULTRA secret, except in the bibliography.

But the chapter which will probably inspire the most debate is the one on

the Vietnam War, curiously entitled "In Dubious Battle." Here President

Johnson emerges as an irresolute leader who gave up too easily following the

Tet offensive-and thereby "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory" (p.

560). He and his civilian advisors, along with Congress and the press, are ac-

cused of hampering the military's efforts to the point that the war became in

effect unwinnable. It is not quite a "stabbed in the back" thesis, but close.

"When," for instance, "antiwar critics railed that the United States dropped

more bombs in Southeast Asia than it had delivered in World War II, the

military knew that only one-tenth of that tonnage had fallen on the DRV

(Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and that those bombs had not been

aimed at targets worthy of the name" (p. 557). Likewise, Johnson's massive

bombing campaign, code-named ROLLING THUNDER, is said to have

failed "because it never passed the Communists' threshold of pain, which

was predictably high in an authoritarian regime engaged in a total war" (p.

557). Many readers of this chapter will no doubt conclude that the time for a

balanced assessment of the military role in Vietnam is not yet.

Despite the above mentioned criticisms, For the Common Defense merits a

great deal of praise. It offers the most wide ranging and up-to-date, single-

volume summary of United States military history yet available. One can easi-

ly anticipate that it will be regarded as the standard text in the field for years

to come.

U.S. Army Quartermaster School

Fort Lee, Virginia                                Steven E. Anders

 

 

 

American Place-Names: A Concise and Selective Dictionary for the Conti-

nental United States of America. By George R. Stewart. (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1985. xlii + 550p.; $9.95 paper.)

 

This is a reprint of the original 1970 edition, one in the Oxford Paperback

Reference series. The author has given us much more than a dictionary here:

the opening section includes a lengthy preface, introduction, and a bibliogra-

phy in which he discusses his approach to this work, describes and dis-

cusses a classification of place names, and refers to other related references.

Within the body of the work, the alphabetized entries include meaning

and derivation of each name, and in many cases comments about multiple

uses of a name. Stewart gives the date and occasion of naming in some of his

entries, and places some names into the context of their wider usage today:

"The first important use of Columbus was that in Ohio (1812), followed

in the 1820's by...." The discussions of name origins and the cross-

references between names are well written, highly readable, and useful. The

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158                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

spacing between entries increases the readability of the book and allows

room for annotations by the user. However, as often happens with place-

name dictionaries, there are no guides to pronunciation. This is an unfortu-

nate lapse when dealing with a geographic area (North America) where many

names (such as those from American Indian languages) come from cultures

foreign to the culture of potential major users.

As with any specialized dictionary, the coverage of this one is limited: it

considers only the names of places within the continental United States,

including Alaska, even though the main title's use of the word "American"

suggests broader geographic coverage. To this reviewer, this seems overly

limited; the work would have benefited from the inclusion of Canada. The

arbitrary borders of today had little or nothing to do with the native and

early Old World influences on place names, and many of the potential users of

this work will have interests that cross over the very long border between

Canada and the United States.

In his preface, the author points out that the United States lacks "a na-

tional gazetteer including both habitation names and names for natural fea-

tures...." His work helps to fill this gap, but by his own estimates it can

only sample the enormous number of named places in the United States-

"about one to the square mile," for an estimated 3.5 million. Therefore, the

author had to be selective, and in his selection process for this dictionary,

he used three categories of names: "Names of well-known places, e.g., Phila-

delphia, Mississippi ("Algonquian . . . recorded in a French context in 1666

as Messipi, 'big river.' "), Mount Rainier; repeated names . . . which appear

upon several or many places, e.g., Lost, Big, Beaver (". . . has given rise to, at

a rough estimate, the names of 1,000 natural features.... "); unusual names

.. .which attract attention to themselves . . ., e.g., Vermilion . . ., Nome

("This is a wholly authenticated instance of an origin by mistake.") . . ,

Goodnight." Although one can easily think of missing names, the selection

process seems to have worked well, resulting in a very useful "selective dic-

tionary."

Although a dictionary, as the author states, "is a work of reference to be

consulted rather than read," this particular work has an interesting enough

subject matter and is well enough written that one can browse with pleasure.

Indeed, this dictionary of American place-names should be a useful and

well-used addition to the reference shelf of anyone whose vocation or avoca-

tion requires geographic knowledge. Additionally, for anyone who enjoys

reading about the United States, or who plans real or imagined journeys,

these 550 pages of closely packed information should be well worth the pur-

chase price.

Ohio Historical Society                            Carl W. Albrecht

 

 

 

 

 

The March to the Sea and Beyond: Sherman's Troops in the Savannah and

Carolinas Campaigns. By Joseph T. Glatthaar. (New York: New York Uni-

versity Press, 1985. xvi + 318p.; illustrations, maps, notes, appendices,

bibliography, index. $27.95).

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Book Reviews                                                  159

 

Because Glatthaar's title may be confusing, the subject matter of his book

needs explanation. This is not a detailed chronological analysis of Sherman's

marches; Glatthaar's account of their sequence is limited to a fourteen-page

introduction. The book's emphasis instead is on the Union company officers

and enlisted men. As Glatthaar correctly observes, only the late Bell I. Wiley

had previously examined intensively the social history of ordinary soldiers.

For the first time Glatthaar has written such a history of predominantly

Western veteran troops. The author contends that these men's competence

and confidence did much to asssure Sherman's success.

Glatthaar bases his narrative on impressive research. He draws on a wide

range of memoirs, regimental histories, letters and diaries and also thorough-

ly mines archival materials. Moreover, he subjects to statistical analysis sev-

eral aspects, including the amount of prior military service of officers and men

and the strikingly few casualties suffered by Sherman's carefully screened

veterans. However, the lengthy block backnotes make it difficult to relate

sources to specific items in the text. The use of illustrations and maps is ef-

fective.

The narrative is divided into topical chapters which combine various fea-

tures of the marches through Georgia and the Carolinas. The initial chapter,

"The Army," is especially important because of its general description of the

soldiers' backgrounds and characteristics. Here and at some other places,

deeper and more thorough treatment would have improved the book. For

example, much more attention could have been given to the methods of

leadership employed by commissioned and noncommissioned officers. In

another instance, the chapter entitled "The Army and Blacks" dismisses

with undue haste the likelihood of sex relations between soldiers and black

women (p. 63). Even evidence cited elsewhere (pp. 75, 93, 94) suggests the

need for additional consideration of this question.

Of the destructiveness of Sherman's campaign, Glatthaar supplies abun-

dant evidence. Readers familiar only with the march through Georgia may

be surprised by the far greater damage inflicted on South Carolina. Glatt-

haar's wealth of examples of house burnings makes one wonder how it was

possible for postwar writers (including Sherman) seriously to have ques-

tioned which side was responsible for torching Columbia, South Carolina.

According to the author, Sherman's men devastated in a conscious effort to

break Southern morale and thus end the war. Doubtless that was the end

result, but just how purposeful was all of this furniture destruction and play-

ful arson? Much of it would seem to have been simple youthful vandalism.

By accumulation of detail, Glatthaar succeeds in developing the human

interest inherent in his subject. Often he does this by the apt use of the

colorful quotation, such as one soldier's reference to mud: "'we floundered

through it in as cheerful frame of mind as a squad of bounty jumpers going to

execution' " (p. 109). Sometimes the author uses the startling statistic. (Sher-

man's men corduroyed almost 800 miles of road in the Carolinas alone.) Oth-

er little-known details reveal in odd ways the spirit of the latter part of the

war. Thus, the soldiers generally killed all dogs on the assumption that they

had been used for tracking Union prisoners-and probably also for escaped

slaves.

The limited amount of combat during the marches receives adequate treat-

ment, with a clear description of the campaign's major battle at Bentonville.

While the army's final march to Washington and the Grand Review are well

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160                                                   OHIO HISTORY

 

described, one wishes for more on its demobilization. It would have been

especially helpful to have learned to what extent the postwar careers of

Sherman's picked veterans differed from those of average soldiers. Were

they more likely to have joined veterans groups? What might a comparison of

samplings of postwar medical claims reveal? Nonetheless, Glatthaar has writ-

ten a moving history of a force in whose ranks marched many Ohioans. Obvi-

ously he agrees with one soldier who boasted (p. 38), "'There is nothing in

this world like Sherman's army.'"

Kent State University                                 Frank L. Byrne

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