Book Reviews
Teach the Freeman: The Correspondence
of Rutherford B. Hayes and
the Slater Fund for Negro Education,
1881-1887. Edited by Louis
D. Rubin, Jr. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State University Press, 1959.
Two volumes. lv??236??302p.; index.
$10.00.)
Through the philanthropy of a textile
manufacturer of Norwich,
Connecticut, the John F. Slater Fund for
the Education of Freedmen
was established for the purpose of
"uplifting the lately emancipated
population of the Southern States, and
their posterity, by conferring
upon them the blessings of Christian
education." Incorporated in 1882,
the fund carried on its work until 1937,
when it was merged with the
Southern Education Foundation.
From the establishment of the fund until
his death in 1893, Ruther-
ford B. Hayes served as president of its
board of trustees. Other dis-
tinguished persons from both North and
South served on the board in
this period, including Morison R. Waite,
who served as vice president,
and Daniel Coit Gilman, who served as
secretary and later as president
after the death of Hayes. From papers in
the Rutherford B. Hayes
Library at Fremont, Ohio, Louis D.
Rubin, Jr., has selected and edited
correspondence pertaining to the Slater
Fund now published in these two
volumes.
A large part of this correspondence
consists of letters written to
Hayes by Atticus G. Haygood, the first
general agent of the fund. A
southerner and a Methodist minister,
Haygood had resigned from the
presidency of Emory College to work for
the fund because of his intense
interest in Negro education. He
determined in large measure where
and for what purposes income from the
fund was to be spent. The
letters show that Hayes loyally
supported Haygood and protected him
from intervention by other trustees who
disagreed with his methods.
Haygood was a supporter of the vogue for
"industrial" or manual
training in institutions of higher
learning for Negroes, and in order to
qualify for aid from the Slater Fund a
school had at least to give the
appearance of offering such training.
Haygood also believed that the
greatest good could be accomplished by
making small grants to a large
BOOK REVIEWS 79
number of schools. His method was
described by one recipient as
"dropping nest eggs of a few
hundred dollars each in many places."
By 1891 no less than thirty-six
institutions were receiving annual
grants ranging from $600 to $5,000. The
following year, when J. L. M.
Curry, who was already general agent for
the Peabody Fund, suc-
ceeded Haygood, a change in policy was
begun. Curry believed, "Diffu-
sion is weakness; concentration on
selected schools and objects is
strength."
Most of the published correspondence
deals with routine matters
connected with the operation of the
fund. There is relatively little
about Negroes or the schools for them.
Mr. Rubin has written an
informative introduction, which he
concludes with an evaluation. The
Slater Fund was established in a period
when the civil rights of Negroes
were deteriorating and when there was
generally indifference or hos-
tility toward educational opportunities
for Negroes. The work of Hay-
good and Curry could not reverse this
trend, but Rubin concludes that
the Slater Fund and the men associated
with it did help "to make the
cause of Negro higher education
respectable." And such Negro leaders
of the twentieth century as James Weldon
Johnson, Benjamin Brawley,
Channing Tobias, Kelly Miller, and W. E.
B. DuBois secured their
education in part in schools which the
Slater Fund helped to keep
alive in the 1880's and 1890's.
Butler University EMMA LOU THORNBROUGH
Cattle Kingdom in the Ohio Valley,
1783-1860. By Paul C. Henlein.
(Lexington: University of Kentucky
Press, 1959. x??198p.; map,
bibliographical note, and index. $6.50.)
This study, in its original form a
doctoral dissertation at the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin, is an important
contribution to the history of
American agriculture. In addition, it
develops more fully than any
other published account a significant
chapter in the history of the
Ohio Valley.
Professor Henlein's "Cattle
Kingdom" does not encompass the entire
valley but is limited to an area
included in the states of Kentucky, Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois. Here emerged a
beef cattle industry, which
spanned the region by 1830, based on
practices that had already proven
successful in older settled areas and
that in many respects eventually
were transferred to a cow country more
familiar to modern readers and
television viewers.
80 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Pioneers who moved into the valley
sought self-sufficiency and more.
They, as well as those who followed
them, practiced diversified farm-
ing. Soil and climate were conducive to
the production of grain, par-
ticularly of corn, which grew in great
abundance. The most feasible
method of disposing profitably of large
crops of corn, other than using
it in the manufacture of whisky, was to
convert it into meat which could
be packed and shipped or driven on the
hoof to distant markets.
Admitting some doubt as to "whether
the Ohio Valley was more a
beef-cattle empire than a hog
empire," the author chooses to devote
his attention mainly to factors that
place it in the former category.
Methodically he examines the successive
stages in the history of the
cattle kingdom as it developed in the
Kentucky Bluegrass, the middle
Scioto Valley, and the Miami Valley,
expanded to the Wabash Valley,
and spread on into the Sangamon Valley
of Illinois. He calls attention
to the specialization in agriculture
whereby thin animals were trans-
ferred from range lands to feeding
areas, where corn was plentiful,
for fattening before being driven to the
seaboard markets.
The work of the Pattons, Renicks, Clays,
Goffs, and others in
improving beef cattle is discussed in
connection with breeding prac-
tices, importations, and changing
fashions with regard to types of
animals. The story of the
"Seventeens," an importation by Lewis
Sanders which became the subject of
controversy, is handled judi-
ciously. The vicissitudes faced on the
drive to market and the un-
certainty of profits at the end of the
long trail are outlined in
considerable detail. The final chapter
describes the movement of the
cattle kingdom westward beyond the
valley of the Ohio.
The book is based on an impressive array
of sources, including
manuscripts, newspapers, the
contemporary agricultural press, govern-
ment documents, travel accounts, and
specialized works. Most notable
are the papers of some of the cattle
barons themselves which the author
searched out and was the first to use.
Less trustworthy, of course, is
the information based on tradition and
that obtained in personal inter-
views with descendants of the cattlemen.
A few, rather obvious errors (that have
little bearing on the story)
should have been eliminated. For
example, Green Clay was not "the
uncle of Henry Clay" (p. 8), nor
was James B. Clay "Henry Clay's
eldest son" (p. 181). The
occasional use of such terms as "squirrel
headed lawyer" and "fancy-dan
lawyer" does little to enliven the style.
Professor Henlein gives a
straightforward account in which a great
many facts are presented. The book is
readable and informative, and it
BOOK REVIEWS 81
fills a need. The University of Kentucky
Press deserves commendation
for placing footnotes at the bottom of
the page, where they should be.
University of Kentucky JAMES F. HOPKINS
George Croghan: Wilderness Diplomat. By Nicholas B. Wainwright.
(Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press for the Institute
of Early American History and Culture,
1959. x??334p.; maps,
bibliographical essay, and index.
$6.00.)
The doughty Pennsylvanians who crossed
the Alleghenies in the
middle decades of the eighteenth century
to tap the rich fur trade with
the Ohio Indians wrote the first chapter
in the story of the Old North-
west. No character was more central in
that story than George Croghan,
the leading figure in western Indian
affairs for more than a quarter of a
century. Publication of Nicholas
Wainwright's full-scale biography of
Croghan is therefore a welcome event.
Wainwright's readable volume
is not the first scholarly treatment of
Croghan. In 1926 the late Albert
T. Volwiler published George Croghan
and the Westward Movement,
1741-1782--a reliable study of Croghan's public life and his role in
westward expansion. But the wealth of
material that has since become
available, including Croghan's personal
papers among the manuscripts
of the Cadwallader family of
Philadelphia, has enabled Wainwright to
write a more detailed and intimate
biography.
A biographer could scarcely have chosen
a more colorful subject.
In 1741 Croghan came out of Ireland
equipped with a flair for shrewd
business manipulations and a genial,
generous temperament to seek
his fortune in the Indian trade. Within
a decade he had become the
leading Pennsylvania trader.
Spearheading the English advance into
the Ohio country, he developed a vast
trading empire that stretched
north to the mouth of the Cuyahoga on
Lake Erie and west to Pick-
awillany on the Great Miami. His success
among the Ohio Indians
alarmed the French and constituted
perhaps the major consideration
in prompting them to increase their
activities in that region after King
George's War. The resumption of
hostilities in 1754 resulted in the
collapse of Croghan's trading operations,
and during the war Croghan
acted first as Indian agent for
Pennsylvania and then after 1756 as Sir
William Johnson's principal deputy in
the Northern Indian Department.
It was in the field of Indian diplomacy
that he made his most significant
contributions. In the postwar years his
capacity to win the trust and
82 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
respect of the Indians and his dexterity
in handling critical situations
enabled him to maintain a precarious
peace in the West. After fifteen
years of service he resigned his agency
in 1771 to devote full time to
his land interests. Indeed, land
speculations and empire building had
fired Croghan's imagination for over
twenty years. From the Indians
he had acquired over two million acres
near Pittsburgh and in western
New York for speculative purposes. In
the 1760's he had authored
an unsuccessful project to found a
colony in the Illinois country and
had been the chief promoter behind the
abortive Indiana and Vandalia
companies. But his land schemes, like
his earlier trading ventures, all
failed to measure up to his expectations
and ended in disaster. In the
early 1770's he began to fade into the
background. The early years of
the Revolution found him serving as
chairman of Pittsburgh's commit-
tee of correspondence, but congress
twice ignored him in selecting an
agent to handle Indian affairs. He spent
the last five years of his life
in Philadelphia distrusted by both
British and Americans and plagued
by creditors. He died in 1782 with few
tangible resources and no public
acclaim.
Croghan's many-sided story is not an
easy one to tell, but Wain-
wright has proved more than equal to the
task. In what will surely
stand as the definitive biography of
Croghan, the author presents a com-
pletely candid account of Croghan's
exciting and devious career. He
shows quite conclusively that in the
late colonial period Croghan "was
unequalled in the field of western
Indian diplomacy," but, after un-
raveling the tangled threads of
Croghan's business activities, he does
not hesitate to conclude that Croghan
simply "could not play the game
straight." Best of all, Wainwright
achieves a vivid and lifelike portrait
of Croghan. Moreover, in this portrait
one can see the unfolding pano-
rama of the early stages of the
development of the Old Northwest in
the descriptions of the inner workings
of the Indian trade and Indian
diplomacy, the economics and psychology
of frontier business enter-
prises, and the machinations of early
western land speculators. In
short, this volume is so completely
satisfying that would-be biographers
of colonial Americans might well adopt
it as their vade mecum.
There are maps, a good index, and a
splendid bibliographical essay
that offers a convenient guide to the
literature of the western frontier
in the decades immediately preceding the
Revolution.
Western Reserve University JACK P. GREENE
BOOK REVIEWS 83
Army Life on the Western Frontier:
Selections from the Official
Reports Made Between 1826 and 1845
by Colonel George Croghan.
Edited by Francis Paul Prucha. (Norman:
University of Oklahoma
Press, 1958. xxxvi??187p.; map,
illustrations, bibliography, appendix,
and index. $4.00.)
George Croghan rose to fame in 1813
when, as a young army captain
in command of Fort Stephenson at Lower
Sandusky (Fremont, Ohio),
he and his small group of men repulsed
the British led by General
Proctor. The country was in sore need
of a victory, even one of minor
importance, and Croghan immediately won
nation-wide acclaim.
At the end of the war, Croghan left the
service for private life. He
returned to active duty in 1825 when he
was appointed an inspector
general, a position he held for over
twenty years. In 1826 he was
assigned to inspect the forts along the
western frontier.
Croghan faced an arduous task. He had
to inspect the forts that
were strung along a more than 2000-mile
frontier: from Fort Brady
at Sault Ste. Marie to Fort Jackson
below New Orleans, as well as
stations on the Missouri River and on
other tributaries of the Missis-
sippi. At each post he noted conditions
and submitted a report to the
general-in-chief at the end of his
yearly tour.
Croghan was often disturbed by the
conditions he found in the West.
At times he found posts such as Fort
Brady and Fort Jessup that were
poorly located. The garrison at New
Orleans, he believed, was un-
necessary as the citizens of that city
could defend themselves. He was
angered when the important post at Fort
Towson on the Red River
in Indian Territory was temporarily
abandoned because of the high cost
of provisioning it. The forts, he
noted, were often poorly designed,
constructed of inferior materials, and
inadequately supplied. He often
condemned the excessive construction
costs. He was especially critical
of the crude barracks he found at many
posts and of the bedbug-infested
bunks.
Following his orders, Croghan attempted
to check on all aspects of
military life on the frontier. He
examined the food supplies, reported on
the sutlers who ran the post stores,
studied the medical facilities, and
inspected the arms and equipment of the
men.
At most of the posts that he inspected,
Croghan found that good
discipline prevailed. But there were
certain obstacles to proper military
order. Croghan worried about the large
number of immigrants entering
the army in the 1830's and 1840's
because many of these recruits did
84
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
not understand enough English to
comprehend the commands of their
superiors. He frequently mentioned the
increased drunkenness among
the soldiery which he blamed on off-post
drinking due to the army's
decision in 1830 to halt the daily
ration of liquor. He also observed that
many of the soldiers spent more time
growing vegetables or cutting
wood than they spent on military
affairs.
Croghan's frank reports also contain
some information on general
frontier conditions and on the Indian
problem. He emphasized the need
for the army to impress the Indians with
its military strength. He noted
that the Indians were not always
responsible for the unsettled frontier
conditions. Half of the Indian troubles,
he believed, were due to the
actions of white men. Many of the
difficulties with the Indians could
be removed if the red men were treated
in a fair but forceful manner.
Father Prucha has taken selections from
Croghan's reports and
arranged them in chronological order
under topics such as military
policy, administration and services, the
forts, and the men. Although the
reports are not complete, the editor has
chosen the more informative
passages. The introduction contains a
brief sketch of Croghan's life.
A map of the forts is included as well
as a series of illustrations. An
appendix contains a list of the forts
visited on each of Croghan's tours.
The nature of his assignment makes
Croghan's reports somewhat repe-
titious, but his perceptive views and
forthright statements make them
interesting. The volume is well edited
and, although not for the general
reader, will be of interest to the
student of military history and western
Americana.
Central Michigan University WILLIAM T. BULGER, JR.
General Sherman's Son: The Life of
Thomas Ewing Sherman, S. J.
By Joseph T. Durkin, S.J. (New York:
Farrar, Straus and Cudahy,
1959. ix??276p.; illustrations,
appendices, list of sources, and index.
$4.50.)
"Happy families are all alike;
every unhappy family is unhappy in
its own way," said Tolstoy. The
family of General William Tecumseh
Sherman, though loyally and
affectionately devoted to one another, had
their own breed of unhappiness. The
father, though a man of rare
intelligence, great energy, and complete
honesty and integrity, was at
times violent and rude and nearly always
hypersensitive, haughtily
aristocratic, and restless. The mother,
Ellen Ewing, was loyal to her
husband, proud of her family, and devoted
to her Roman Catholic
BOOK REVIEWS 85
religion to the point of fanaticism. The
general was not a Catholic and
never became one, but he agreed that his
children--seven in all--should
be raised in that faith. The death of
the eldest son during the Civil War,
the pressures of fame and family
tradition, intense differences of tem-
perament, and differences on religion
produced a particular brand of
unhappiness for the Shermans.
The tragic life of the second son,
Thomas Ewing, was partly the result
and partly the cause of some of this
unhappiness. With the death of the
eldest son both parents looked to Tom to
carry on the fame and fortune
of the family. As a youth, Tom seemed to
measure up to his parents
highest expectations: he was dutiful,
studious, attentive, and morally
straight. Graduating from Yale at twenty
the young man went to St.
Louis, the family home, to read law and
to help manage business inter-
ests of the family. After a year, out of
a blue sky, he announced his
firm resolve to enter the Jesuit order
and to become a priest. The
stunned father never quite reconciled
himself to this decision.
The novitiate accepted the discipline of
his faith without question,
breezed through his theological studies,
and in due time was ordained a
priest. Within a short time he became
one of the most sought-after
preachers of the day. For approximately
fifteen years he traveled the
length and breadth of the land
thundering against the evils of the day:
materialism, modernism, and socialism.
He was said to be responsible
for explaining the true nature of
Catholicism to hostile critics and to
have converted many souls. During the
Spanish-American War he
served as a chaplain in Puerto Rico and
wrote some reports that for
their perceptiveness, clarity, and
cogency suggest the father's operational
reports at their best. But that he also
shared some of his father's blind
spots is illustrated by an incident
occurring in 1906. He was invited to
dinner at the White House. President
Roosevelt suggested that Father
Sherman ride through Georgia along the
route of General Sherman's
march to the sea. This invitation was
accepted with alacrity along with
a large escort of United States cavalry.
When an outcry arose in both
the southern and northern press against
the reenactment of that epic
of murder, pillage, and plunder, Father
Sherman was surprised and
hurt. The second march to the sea had to
be abandoned amid much
chagrin.
Not long after this extraordinary
episode there was a physical and
mental breakdown from which Father
Sherman never fully recovered.
There were quarrels with his superiors,
feuds with the family, and
finally a repudiation of the Jesuit
order. Long months spent in sani-
86
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
toriums scattered over the country
failed to restore health of mind. Out
of Christian charity, and to avoid
scandal, both the family and the
Jesuits humored their brother and
supported him as best they could.
After numerous trips across the
continent and to Europe the more
violent resentments were calmed. Most of
the declining years were spent
in a humble dwelling in Santa Barbara,
California, where the old priest
continued to say mass in his private
chapel. In the spring of 1933 Father
Sherman became deathly ill and was taken
to a hospital in New Orleans.
There was a massive hemorrhage of the
stomach, the shock of which
apparently cleared for a few moments a
long troubled mind. "Call
Father Provincial," he said,
"I wish to renew my vows as a Jesuit."
The author of this sad story is a Jesuit
and a trained historian.
Making extensive use of private family
papers, he has treated his sub-
ject with sympathy and understanding.
Ohio State University HARRY L. COLES
The Making of an American Community:
A Case Study of Democracy
in a Frontier County. By Merle Curti with the assistance of Robert
Daniel and others. (Stanford, Calif.:
Stanford University Press,
1959. vii??483p.; maps, appendices, and
index. $8.50.)
All science and scholarship meet in
historiography, and all disciplines
can contribute to the arsenal of skills
and techniques which the historian
has at his command. For the record of
all human thought and action
is the stuff of which history is made,
and the totality of life itself is the
historian's universe. But traditionally
the historian, though he has
drawn freely from a wide circle of
auxiliary sciences, has avoided the
methods of his colleagues in the other
social sciences. In part, but only
in part, is this rejection inherent in
the indirect nature of the historical
method itself. To be sure, the historian
cannot poll the framers of the
Declaration of Independence or
interrogate Hannibal respecting his
strategic decision not to march directly
on Rome. Despite the interest
of early twentieth-century historians in
the "common man," his-
torians generally have been relatively
uninterested in the behavior of
people in the mass, or in statistics of
human thought and action.
The volume here being reviewed, then, is
something of a pioneering
attempt to determine whether, by
applying the case study method to his-
torical research and by analyzing the
interrelationships of data respecting
economic, social, political,
educational, and other factors, it is possible to
write history that is really objective.
A correlative purpose was to test,
BOOK REVIEWS 87
by the use of this method, the validity
of one aspect of the frontier
theory of Frederick Jackson Turner--the
influence of the frontier upon
democracy.
The plan adopted by Professor Curti was
to study an actual frontier,
Trempealeau County in Wisconsin, and to
examine in so far as possible
all surviving records for evidences of
democratic practices, for example,
the extent of individual participation
in the making of decisions respect-
ing the common life, the equality of economic
and cultural opportunity,
and the degree of individualism enjoyed
by the inhabitants. To this end
he set out to examine microscopically,
through the quantitative tech-
niques of the social scientist, the
transition from a pioneer to a settle-
ment community to discover the amount of
democracy, in Turner's sense,
that existed initially, developed during
the processes of settlement, and
was present during the period following
settlement. (Curti presented
his method in a paper, "Democracy
in a Wisconsin Frontier Commu-
nity," presented before the Sixth
Newberry Library Conference on
American Studies, Chicago, May 21,
1955.) Thus he hoped not only to
present additional evidence in support
of the Turner thesis, but also to
test the applicability of these social
science techniques to historiography.
As a control Curti used eleven
contiguous and predominantly rural coun-
ties in northern Vermont from which many
Trempealeaunians had
migrated. Using unpublished census data
from 1850 to 1880, respecting
all householders and gainfully employed
persons, and a wide variety of
other sources--diaries, local records,
correspondence, newspapers, and
even interviews--the investigators found
that political democracy was
mainly derived from the tailor-made
county government imposed by
the state of Wisconsin, rather than from
any particular frontier attitudes.
Equality of economic opportunity was
inherent in the fact that the
agricultural life was not dominated by a
few men, and progression up
the "economic ladder" from
farm hand to farm owner was relatively
easy for those who remained in the
county. But loans and mortgages
were not concentrated in the hands of a
few, and were common and
usually negotiated with neighbors and
business associates. Further-
more they were small and quickly
liquidated.
As to education, the foreign-born were
not hampered by anti-
democratic or other hostile attitudes.
Cultural opportunities on the
frontier were limited generally by
geographic dispersion of the popu-
lation, relative poverty, a general
absence of family traditions favorable
to intellectual pursuits, and language
barriers for the foreign-born.
Trempealeau County, however, quickly
borrowed from other parts of
88
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the country the means for the
dissemination of knowledge which opened
the gates of education to the settlers
and their children.
Incidence of leadership, an important
characteristic of democracy,
was higher during the early frontier
period than later. This may in part
be explained by the fact that, as a
community becomes more settled,
specialization of function increases and
tends to diminish versatility of
leadership, or that the greater ethnic
homogeneity of the frontier con-
tributes to an early incidence of
leadership. But it certainly seems to be
true that the individual had a greater
chance of becoming an office
holder before 1860 than he had in 1880.
In the opinion of the present reviewer,
however, one of the most
important results of this study is the
light its method throws on the
acculturation of the immigrant.
Immigrant populations, for example,
were found to be more mobile than the
native born. Immigrant repre-
sentation in the labor force was less
and foreign-born percentages in
business and the professions were higher
than is usually assumed. On
the other hand, mobility of the
immigrant is not necessarily symptomatic
of economic insecurity; certain groups
traditionally considered to be
very poor, notably the Irish and the
Poles, made excellent economic
adjustments. The non-English-speaking
groups tended to acquire as
much land as their more-favored
native-born neighbors, and there was
a resultant increase in the
participation of the foreign-born in politics.
But further case studies of this type
are needed before valid judgments
can be made respecting the political
behavior, cultural participation,
and extent of intermarriage among the
foreign-born. Particularly are
these studies needed for the older rural
and urban communities of the
eastern regions of the country.
The study can be criticized for not
testing the Turner thesis, but only
the authors' interpretation of Turner's
theory that the ready availability
of free, or virtually free, land
promoted economic equality which, in turn,
fostered political equality. One can
also question whether the county
studied was typical of the frontier. To
both of these limitations the
authors readily confess. One may even go
so far as to question the
importance of their conclusion that
their investigation, both in its quanti-
tative and qualitative aspects,
supports, in general, the Turner thesis
concerning the influence of the frontier
upon democracy. In certain
important respects the inquiry showed
that there was more democracy
in Trempealeau County in the 1870's than
in the 1850's and early
1860's. What is important,
however, is that the procedure, by giving
more precise information than hitherto
has been available on such subjects
BOOK REVIEWS 89
as social mobility, economic and
occupational status, literacy, and the
acculturation of the immigrant, has made
possible a deeper insight into
the Turner theory of frontier democracy
than could have been achieved
by the use either of traditional methods
or of quantitative methods alone.
This operational approach to specific
testable units of larger problems,
that is, the case study method, combines
the traditional historical ap-
proach with certain social science research
techniques and in consequence
provides a higher degree of objectivity
than could otherwise have been
obtained.
Finally, one can criticize this book for
the form of its presentation.
Admittedly, statistical tabulations such
as Curti uses do not make
inspiring or even pleasurable reading.
But this is history for the his-
torian, not history for the general
public. This is the data from which
the popularizer, and we use the noun in
no derogatory sense, can weave
a more accurate pattern of the
historical tapestry. That Merle Curti can
write for "the common
man" as well as about him, is amply proved by
the success of his Growth of American
Thought. Curti is a man with
more than one string to his bow, and he
should be encouraged to use
them all.
Western Reserve University JESSE H. SHERA
Ordeal of Faith: The Crisis of
Church-Going America, 1865-1900. By
Francis P. Weisenburger. (New York:
Philosophical Library, 1959.
ix??380p.; index. $6.00.)
In 1835, de Tocqueville emphasized the
vital role of religion in the
life of the young American Republic.
About a century later, the elder
Schlesinger published an excellent
article on "A Critical Period in
American Religion, 1875-1900," in
the Proceedings of the Massachusetts
Historical Society. Professor
Weisenburger has elaborated on what
de Tocqueville and Schlesinger suggested
earlier, but he begins with
1865, presents a wealth of new material,
and many penetrating observa-
tions on this significant period in
American religious history, which
marked the emergence of many problems
that are still with us today.
During the period under discussion, the
American people experienced
the impact of science and Darwinism on
organized religion; the conflict
between reason and revelation, geology
and Genesis, humanism and
supernaturalism; the development of the
"higher criticism" which ex-
posed the Bible to the same critical
scholarship applied to other historical
sources; an increasing interest in and
appreciation of the great religions
90
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of the world other than Christianity;
and the problems of urbanization
and industrialization, especially as
they affected the lot of the laboring
classes. Man seemed to be losing, in the
opinion of many, his favored
position as the center of the universe,
ruled by an anthropomorphic God,
personally concerned with his daily
affairs, and the churches had to
redefine their position on these and
many other questions. For some it
meant a move toward stricter orthodoxy
and evangelical fundamental-
ism; for others, a struggle to reconcile
science and philosophy with
theology, or a search for a more
humanistic approach toward a social
gospel primarily concerned with
establishing the Kingdom on earth.
The church, moreover, was losing its
earlier grip on many matters of
custom and conduct; family worship was
declining, and many of the
old religious inhibitions, for example
on sex, marriage, and divorce,
were no longer as effective as they once
were.
Professor Weisenburger has examined the
many aspects of this prob-
lem, and the continuing controversies
between what have come to be
called the modernists and the
fundamentalists. His narrative deals not
only with the whole range of organized
religion, from Roman Catholi-
cism and Judaism to Unitarianism and the
Ethical Culture movement,
but also includes such organizations as
the Salvation Army, Christian
Science, the Swedenborgians, and some of
the smaller immigrant
churches which serve a particular ethnic
group. None of them were
wholly unaffected by the impact of
pragmatism; the effect of science
upon the long-established pattern of
thought about man, sin, and salva-
tion; the gulf between empiricism and
idealism, and the demand for a
more active social program.
The author has provided us with an
excellent synthesis of materials
scattered in many places, which it took
years to uncover, and whose
abundance is attested by fifty pages of
notes, arranged by chapters, at
the end of the book. The historian and
the general reader will be espe-
cially interested in the religious
experiences and affiliations of many
prominent public figures, such as
Presidents Garfield and Hayes, James
Gordon Bennett, J. P. Morgan, Daniel
Willard, Admiral Mahan, the
La Follettes, Joseph B. Eastman, Henry
George, Morris R. Cohen,
Mayor Gaynor of New York, Ignatius
Donnelly, W. T. Sherman, and
Lyman C. Draper, collector of historical
manuscripts and ardent cham-
pion of Spiritualism. Among American
religious leaders, one encounters
again such familiar names as Beecher,
Gladden, Josiah Strong, Arch-
bishop Ireland, Cardinal Gibbons, and
Father McGlynn, but Professor
Weisenburger has also rescued from
oblivion many others whose activ-
BOOK REVIEWS 91
ities were significant in this critical
period in American church history.
This is a good and valuable book, from
many points of view, but
especially because the author has
succeeded in maintaining the historical
objectivity of the scholar in an area
of controversy still charged with
considerable emotion.
Western Reserve University CARL WITTKE
Immigration As a Factor in American
History. Edited by Oscar
Handlin. (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1959. ix??206p.
Paper, $1.75.)
In an effort to acquaint students, even
those beginning their college
training, with source materials, books
of readings continue to be offered.
The volume here reviewed, prepared by a
leading Harvard University
professor, covers the field of
immigration from the early nineteenth
century to the present. The selections
deal with economic, political,
cultural, and related aspects, as well
as topics like the causes of immi-
gration, the perils of the Atlantic
voyage, problems of Americanization,
and movements toward restriction. The
readings are drawn, not only
from contemporary sources but from
standard authorities in the field of
immigration. There are also explanatory
comments.
One selection from Marcus Hansen has been
included which definitely
gives the erroneous impression that the
Finns, Latvians, and Lithuanians
are Slavic peoples (p. 12). Some may
conclude, moreover, that Pro-
fessor Handlin, in his salutary
revulsion against narrow-minded nativ-
ism, tends to embrace an uncritical
sentimentalism when he suggests
that those favoring immigration
restriction no longer have the confidence
in the future which characterized their
adventurous forefathers "who
had not allowed the environment to
dictate to them" (p. 201). In a
time of population problems approaching
the explosive stage throughout
the world, Professor Handlin may seem
to have ignored the significance
of some of the material presented in
this volume. As he notes the prob-
lem of famine and desolation in Ireland
during the 1840's, one almost
inevitably must be impressed by the
tragic situation of a people who had
lost the battle of trying not to allow
the "environment to dictate to
them."
The volume will probably serve a useful
purpose for large student
classes, especially where library
facilities are limited. For more advanced
groups, the book will hardly meet the
needs of students who ought to be
encouraged to read widely from many
types of sources. This is espe-
92 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
cially true because the present volume
gives little attention to the years
before 1815.
Ohio State University FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER
A History of the Newspapers of Ann
Arbor, 1829-1920. By Louis W.
Doll. (Detroit: Wayne State University
Press, 1959. viii??174p.;
illustrations, appendices, and index.
Paper, $2.50.)
It is impossible to handle old
newspapers without getting dirt on the
hands and nuggets of social history
firmly imbedded in the memory.
This volume is not, however, intended as
social history, although it
does illuminate the Michigan frontier
with references to the lost 600-
page Latin St. Augustine which the
minister expected that the finder
might want to read, and to the splashing
of tobacco juice into the
pews during church services. Dr. Doll
had little room for such material,
however, for he found the problem
substantial of telling in a limited
space the story of the sixty-nine
newspapers which have been published
in Ann Arbor. Because of the
thoroughness with which he has worked,
the fact that no copy of a surprising
number of these papers has sur-
vived has not reduced his labors, for he
has tried to reconstruct the
history of even these.
Dr. Doll has done his work with great
thoroughness, and has given
much interesting biographical material
on the founders of newspaper
publishing in Ann Arbor, but for their
successors he has lacked the
space for such treatment. By necessity
much of the material is pri-
marily statistical. There is an appendix
listing known copies of Ann
Arbor papers, and another showing the
span of life of the principal
papers. No one but an inhabitant of Ann
Arbor or a newspaper his-
torian will read through this book for
pleasure, but it is an exceedingly
useful repository of facts. When the
printing-shop doors of many
other communities are opened by similar
books, we shall know much
more about our origins.
American Antiquarian Society CLIFFORD K. SHIPTON
Congress and the American Tradition. By James Burnham. (Chicago:
Henry Regnery Company, 1959. xi??363p.;
index. $6.50.)
Much as the scholar gingerly handles the
latest volume from a known
propagandist of the far left, any new
work by Mr. James Burnham
prompts suspicion as to what the far
right is currently up to. In this
BOOK REVIEWS 93
instance the collapse of congress as a
major force in American govern-
ment is predicted unless sudden strong
action is taken, and if such
imminent collapse occurs, Mr. Burnham
sees an end to American
liberty. "The choice of liberty,
made for us at the nation's beginning
by the Founding Fathers, is now up for
review on the national as on
the world arena. Is it really true that
men can learn the value of liberty
only by losing it?"
In building his case, Mr. Burnham
divides his work into three parts.
In the first, which contains the most
useful information (scattered, how-
ever, within the guiding assumptions),
he discusses the origins of gov-
ernment in general and of the United
States government in particular,
and goes on to assess the degree of
fulfillment of the American tradition
from the Founding Fathers, prior to the
fatal turning point in 1933.
That tradition he sees as one devoted to
a distrust of all power and
therefore such a careful division as to
block its concentration in any
single governmental agency. Within it,
however, is included the con-
cept that government does have some
positive obligations, principally
to improve and expand the opportunities
for successful private enter-
prise. As to congress, Mr. Burnham
stresses that although power was
initially divided, it was never meant to
be divided equally. Legislative
supremacy was the starting assumption of
the Fathers, and congress
was given a set of power tools with
which it could preserve that
supremacy. Prior to the attrition of the
Roosevelt-Truman administra-
tions--as continued by the Eisenhower
administration--that supremacy
was respected by the executive
department. As to the courts, "cer-
tainly up through 1933 'judicial
supremacy' was more a polemical meta-
phor than a historical description of
the American system."
The latter two parts of the work bemoan
the post-1933 breakdown
of the tradition. In a pell-mell rush to
gain political direction, the execu-
tive and judicial branches have taken
over, and congress instead of
holding its head up proudly has become a
rubber stamp of the executive
will and a plaything of a judiciary
which has continually usurped the
legislative power. At the same time
these federal agencies have
encroached shamelessly on state
sovereignty, and through it all have
been aided and abetted by what Mr.
Burnham calls the fourth and fifth
branches of the government, the lobbies
and bureaucracy. Thus we
are nearing the "liberal goal"
of the all-out coercive state, which the
author believes is not only the
equivalent of communist totalitarianism
but counter to what the American people
really want.
Ohioans are given short shrift in Mr.
Burnham's search for examples.
94
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Bricker amendment and its background
do receive a full chapter
treatment and its failure of passage is
lamented as another loss of
congressional power. Robert A. Taft,
however, who, of course, is an
embarrassment to the thesis, is
mentioned only as a dutiful intermediary
between Eisenhower and congress
"urging acceptance of 'What Ike
Wants,'" and thereby helplessly
contributing to the further subordination
of that body of which he was so long a
member. Warren G. Harding
is, by implication, a partial hero,
since under him "the curve of relative
congressional power jumped upward."
In fact one gains the general
impression that a return to the Harding
era would please Mr. Burnham
immensely.
One can cavil considerably at Mr.
Burnham's thesis. His choice of
examples is carefully made so as to
avoid contradictory material and
his case is made always in absolutes.
But even if one does not share
Mr. Burnham's broad fears of
congressional collapse, he can find con-
siderable valuable factual material
collected here concerning a variety
of phases of both early and recent
constitutional development.
University of Minnesota PAUL L. MURPHY
The President's Cabinet: An Analysis
in the Period from Wilson to
Eisenhower. By Richard F. Fenno, Jr. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1959. xii??327p.;
bibliography and index. $5.50.)
Our president's cabinet is decidedly sui
generis and it never seems
to function the same under two different
presidents. Sometimes it
declines to near insignificance and
scarcely ever rises to great importance.
The executive duties of the department
head are prescribed by statute,
but the collective counseling of the
cabinet has no basis but custom.
Sometimes a cabinet member is torn
between loyalty to the president
or responding to the pressures of
congress and his constituency.
Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones did
the latter until President
Franklin Roosevelt decided he could get
along without him.
Because most cabinet members have
constituencies a shrewd presi-
dent uses his cabinet to sound out group
sentiment on pending admini-
tration policies. The president's choice
of cabinet appointees rather
reflects his social philosophy. Fenno
shrewdly observes that "the
forces that interact in comprising the
appointment process [of the
cabinet] are the basic forces of the
American political system."
President Wilson at first wanted only
loyal party men in his cabinet,
but he switched to "good
administrators" and was finally interested
BOOK REVIEWS 95
only in willing followers. Harding was
so dependent on Attorney
General Daugherty that he had a private
wire to him from the White
House. Franklin Roosevelt's cabinet was
a "personal family."
Excepting only the secretary of state,
the prestige of a cabinet post
is so low that it is practically
impossible to lure a congressman into one.
Most cabinet members are virtually
unknown nationally before their
appointment. In contrast with Britain
there are few national leaders
available for the cabinet. Business men
are usually ill-adapted for the
cabinet, a conspicuous misfit being
Charles E. Wilson, who either
would not or could not conform to the
political role.
Professor Fenno emphasizes the constituencies
of the cabinet mem-
bers. The entire West is the
jurisdiction of the interior department and
so a westerner is appointed and the
agriculture department calls for a
westerner or a midwesterner. The post
office and justice departments
represent the party. Lincoln constructed
his cabinet of representatives
of the group-coalition of the new
Republican party. The National
Association of Manufacturers and
chambers of commerce are repre-
sented in the commerce department, and
labor likewise has its depart-
ment. Fenno disproves the old assumption
that these departments func-
tion primarily in the public interest.
A product of pure usage, the cabinet is
the least stable national poli-
tical institution. While President
Eisenhower has created a cabinet
secretariat, it has difficulty
constructing an agenda for the meetings,
and complaints of the triviality of
cabinet discussions persist. In con-
trast with the British cabinet,
collective responsibility does not exist
here. Thus Secretary of War Garrison
said to Secretary of the Navy
Daniels, "I don't care a damn about
your Navy and you don't care a
damn about my Army" (p. 133). Fenno
concludes that "the Cabinet
as it exists today is like the vermiform
appendix, a standing refutation
of the axiom that it is usefulness that
keeps it alive" (p. 255).
Ohio Northern University WILFRED E. BINKLEY
Preliminary Inventory of the Records
of the United States House of
Representatives, 1789-1946. Compiled by Buford Roland, Handy
B. Fant, and Harold E. Hufford.
(Washington: The National Ar-
chives, 1959. Two volumes. vi??587p.;
index.)
These two volumes provide ample evidence
of the rise and continuing
growth of a problem which concerns every
federal, state, and local
governmental agency, plus many private
businesses--the preservation
96
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of its official records. The agencies of
our federal government are in
the envious position of having the staff
and the nation-wide records
storage facilities of the National
Archives and Records Service avail-
able to help them solve the problems
associated with "records leukemia."
It is to be deplored that more of our
states, including Ohio, do not pro-
vide adequate records storage buildings
and consulting services to their
public offices.
By reading the brief, but interesting,
introduction to this records
inventory one gains an understanding of
the trials and tribulations of
those public servants who have been
custodians of this record group.
Although many early records were
evidently lost in moving from New
York City to Philadelphia and then to
Washington, where some docu-
ments were destroyed in the burning of
the capitol in 1814, a con-
siderable number still exist. By 1901
the volume of records was so
great that to relieve the overcrowded
space conditions the bound vol-
umes of the original house records were
deposited in the Library of
Congress. During the years between 1901
and 1946 this agency main-
tained many of the records of the house,
but in 1946 the records of the
first through the seventy-sixth
congresses, amounting to some 7,500
cubic feet, were transferred to the
National Archives. By the end of
1954, the records of the eighty-one
congresses, totaling over 10,000 cubic
feet, were on deposit there.
This set describes the records of the
first seventy-nine congresses,
1789-1946, consisting of about 9,100
cubic feet. The arrangement of
records is first by congresses and then
by the following major func-
tions of the house: (1) legislative
proceedings, (2) impeachment pro-
ceedings, and (3) records of the office
of the clerk. The first grouping
includes minute books, journals, bills,
resolutions, committee proceed-
ings, reports of other agencies,
petitions, memorials, and election
returns. Group two consists of those
documents which could be used
in drafting articles of impeachment. The
clerk's records include bill
books, correspondence, various records
of registers, orders of the day,
and printing accounts. Not included are
the financial records of the
clerk, with minor exceptions. Volume I
contains the years 1789-1899,
and Volume II those from 1899 to 1946.
Also in Volume II are the
following appendices: (1) Glossary, (2)
Standing Committees, 1789-
1954, (3) List of Speakers, (4) List of
Clerks.
Although the National Archives may make
available for use only
those records which have been printed,
unless otherwise directed by
action of the house or in writing by the
clerk, this record group offers
BOOK REVIEWS 97
tremendous rewards to the researcher
willing to utilize the material
which is not restricted.
Ohio Historical Society BRUCE C. HARDING
Seventeenth-Century America: Essays
in Colonial History. Edited by
James Morton Smith. (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina
Press for the Institute of Early
American History and Culture, 1959.
xv??238p.; index. $5.00.)
This group of nine essays was first
presented in April 1957, at a
symposium planned by the Institute of
Early American History and
Culture to commemorate the 350th
anniversary of the founding of
Jamestown. After a rather long wait,
students of colonial history not
present at this conference have been
amply rewarded, for this is a gen-
erally excellent volume. Included in the
collection are the following
contributions: "The Significance of
the Seventeenth Century," by Oscar
Handlin; "The Moral and Legal
Justifications for Dispossessing the
Indians," by Wilcomb E. Washburn;
"Indian Cultural Adjustment to
European Civilization," by Nancy O.
Lurie; "Social Origins of Some
Early Americans," by Mildred
Campbell; "Politics and Social Structure
in Virginia," by Bernard Bailyn;
"The Anglican Parish in Virginia,"
by William H. Seller; "The Church in
New England Society," by
Emil Oberholzer, Jr.; "The Anglican
Church in Restoration Colonial
Policy," by Philip S. Haffenden;
and "Seventeenth-Century English
Historians of America," by Richard
S. Dunn.
Although space does not permit a
detailed analysis of each of these
essays, at least four seem especially to
merit a closer look. Handlin
packs into ten pages a whole quiverful
of points with which he charac-
terizes the century under discussion. He
uses his familiarity with the
problems of immigration to explain the
disorder which was a common-
place in the lives of the colonists and
shows how the hardships of those
first years added to the instability of
the period. In conclusion our
attention is called to the colonists'
sense of mission wherein, Handlin
feels, lies the significance of the
seventeenth century.
Miss Campbell's admirable research into
the English origins of seven-
teenth-century colonists makes
particular use of two immigrant-ship
passenger lists. Her analysis of both
the Bristol and London records
shows that artisans out-numbered
laborers about five to one, dealing a
sharp rebuke to those whose reaction to
the F.F.V. school had carried
them to the other extreme. The fact that
many early colonists had come
98
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
from the West Country has led Miss
Campbell to the grass-roots level
to learn still more of their origins.
Bailyn's essay traces the gradual
separation of social and political
leadership in Virginia through the
course of the seventeenth century.
It was the growing divergence between
local and central authority, par-
ticularly reflected in Bacon's
Rebellion, which so completely altered the
old order. By the century's end, real political
power was dispersed
through the many branches of planter
families, unchecked by the Old
World institutions of primogeniture and
entail, which were ineffective
as centralizing forces in land-rich
America.
Oberholzer's examination of the Puritan
Church's administration of
ecclesiastical discipline commands
attention not only for its originality
but also for its vigorous presentation.
The author gives us new insight
into the legal principles and procedures
of the Puritans, well illustrated
by cases from local church and county
records. But in his conclusion
he goes beyond the narrow bounds of his
topic with a challenge to other
historians of American Puritanism to
match the scope and excellence
of William Haller's great study of the
English movement.
The primary difficulty of any collection
of essays is unevenness of
style and subject-matter, and the
present volume by no means solves
this problem. But its theme for the most
part is faithfully pursued by
each of its parts and the result stands
as a valuable presentation of the
fruits of recent scholarship in
seventeenth-century colonial history.
Harvard University BENJAMIN W. LABAREE
American Business Cycles, 1865-1897. By Rendigs Fels. (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press,
1959. xiv??244p.; illustrations,
appendices, and index. $6.00.)
This important book, written by a
specialist in business cycles, gives
us the fullest analytical discussion so
far available of business cycles in
the United States in the last third of
the nineteenth century. It is both an
analytical history in the light of our
present understanding of business
cycles and a consideration of the
implications of that period for the gen-
eral nature of business cycles. As such,
it covers far more than a mere
factual description of the cycles of
that period.
In order to define the analytical tools
to be used in such an undertak-
ing, the author considers in detail the
principal methodologies of research
in business cycles and some selected
theories of present-day economists
mainly the theories of Joseph A.
Schumpeter, John R. Hicks, and
BOOK REVIEWS 99
Robert A. Gordon. Dr. Fels then
synthesizes his discussion and applies
the results empirically to the cycles of
the period with separate chapters
on 1865-79, 1879-85, 1885-88, 1888-91,
1891-94, and 1894-97. The long-
wave depression of 1873 to 1897 is also
treated. Two appendices cover
the Twenty-Year Cycles, and the Month of
the 1887 Peak.
Why was the period 1865-1897 chosen for
this study? In the author's
own words: "The particular span
chosen for study coincides with a period
of falling prices. This makes the period
a natural unit. It also embraces
a period in which severe depressions
were unusually frequent" (p. 20).
In explaining the declining prices and
the frequent depressions during
this period, the author departs from the
traditional monetary expla-
nation, which stresses the silver
question (from the "crime" of 1873
demonetizing silver to the resumption
act of 1875, to the Bland-Allison
act of 1878, to the panic of 1884, to
the Sherman silver purchase act
of 1890, to the Baring crisis of 1890,
to the panic of 1893, and finally,
to the presidential campaign of 1896)
and lack of investors' confidence
in the United States monetary standard
as the underlying factors. The
author also expresses some disagreement with
Milton Friedman's recent
study which stresses changes in the
money supply as the basic cause of
the business cycles of that period (pp.
210-211). Instead, Dr. Fels em-
phasizes the non-monetary or
"real" factors of economic growth as the
primary explanation, making use of
Schumpeter's innovation theory,
Hicks's development of the acceleration
principle and its interaction
with the multiplier, and Gordon's
analysis of investment opportunity.
To be more specific, the chronic hard
times of the 1880's and 1890's
are attributed mainly to the decline of
railroad construction (Schum-
peter and Alvin H. Hansen) and the
magnified decline of the demand
for investment goods resulting from a
falling rate of growth in the
demand for consumers goods (the
acceleration principle).
While this non-monetary explanation adds
a valuable, fresh point
of view to the traditional
monetary-standard explanation, the book,
nevertheless, neglects to devote due
space to recognizing the shortcom-
ings of the national banking system as a
very important factor in
causing, or contributing to, the
business "panics" of that period. Ad-
mittedly, the author does state that
"cyclical weakness was less important
for the panic than structural banking weakness"
(p. 100), and yet he
stops short of elaborating upon the
"structural banking weakness"
under the national banking system, such
as the inelastic money supply,
the fictitious reserve requirements, the
lack of a central bank, and so
forth, except to mention briefly these
topics in one short paragraph (pp.
100
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
100-101). The slight treatment of these
topics, however, may be justi-
fied on the ground that this book is a
scholarly work addressed to pro-
fessional economists, historians, and
economic historians, not to the
general reader uninitiated in basic
economic knowledge.
In fine, it is the reviewer's opinion
that this book has very well suc-
ceeded in using the present-day
theoretical tools to analyze the historical
events of business cycles and also in
using that period to test the validity
of current cycle theories. The author
shows in his lucid analysis that
changes in the secular growth factors,
for example, completion of the
railroad network, could cause cyclical
and long-wave depressions even
in the absence of external,
disequilibrating forces such as the money
supply or the silver question. Such
external forces, in the experience
of that period, served to aggravate the
business decline. This may be
called the central theme of the book. It
seems to me, however, that the
highly technical Chapter Three on
"Price and Wage Flexibility During
Cyclical Contraction" could be
omitted without disrupting continuity
on the central theme of the book.
Rendigs Fels is professor of economics
at Vanderbilt University
and a member of the editorial board of
the American Economic Asso-
ciation.
Marietta College WEN-YU CHENG
The Army Air Forces in World War II. Edited by Wesley Frank
Craven and James Lea Cate. Vol. VII, Services
Around the World.
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1958. lii??667p.; illustra-
tions, maps, appendix, glossary, and
index. $8.50.)
This is the final volume of the history
of The Army Air Forces in
World War II. As such it serves both as a summary of the preceding
volumes of the series and a catch-all
for a discussion of less spectacular
phases of the army air force
organization.
More than the other volumes, each of
which covered a particular facet
of the army air forces' mission, this
one, because of its composition, is
more a series of disconnected essays
dealing with such diverse topics as
morale, the air transport services,
engineers, and redeployment. As such
it fills in gaps, but likewise varies in
quality of presentation; such a chap-
ter as the one on "Aviation
Engineers" is an excellent organizatior
study while, on the other hand, the
chapter on morale is a strangely
pedantic and detached observation report
which, if it really does reflec
the complete story of air force morale,
shows that airmen and their
BOOK REVIEWS 101
officers were a strange lot indeed when
compared to servicemen in
other branches of the army. This is all
the more extraordinary consid-
ering the background and experience of
its author. The other chapters
and sections are ranged in between these
extremes.
In spite of the weaknesses above
outlined, this volume still carries
forth the same "let the chips fall
where they may" objectivity of its
predecessors. This is particularly
apparent in the chapters on "The
Medical Service of the AAF" and
"Women in the AAF." These point
out clearly the troubles and problems
encountered in both these services
and particularly strike at conflicts of
policies and attitudes which ad-
versely affected the potential
effectiveness in both areas of endeavor.
The final chapter on redeployment and
demobilization presents no
new material, but very poignantly
reiterates how public opinion, noisily
exercised, had traditionally damaged the
military service following our
major wars. That, so far, such wholesale
demobilization of men and
the instruments of war has not been
disastrous appears to be a matter
of fate being on our side. In the event
of future conflicts we may not
be so fortunate.
The sections on air transport, weather,
and communications, and
the chapter on air-sea rescue, which
comprise the remainder of the
volume, are well-organized and complete
(insofar as space has allowed),
if not written in excellent prose.
Illustrations are, as usual, well
selected and fine additions to the text.
Maps, while satisfactory, might
have been more judiciously placed in
relation to the narrative.
All things considered, this volume is a
worthy climax to an historical
series, almost monumental in scope,
which will serve for many years to
come as a standard reference for
students of military history. Its
editors deserve the highest praise for
persevering in this work, and the
numerous authors who have contributed to
it also are to be commended
for their expert handling of multitudes
of difficult topics with objec-
tivity and scholarly precision. While
later efforts along these lines
might alter some interpretations herein
included, there is little doubt
but what the basic facts and theses will
remain little changed.
Anthony Wayne Parkway Board RICHARD C. KNOPF
Covered Bridges to Yesterdays. By Hazel and Chalmers Pancoast.
(Newark, Ohio: Chalmers Lowell Pancoast,
1959. 95p.; illustrations.
$5.00.)
As timber covered bridges fade one by
one from the scene, there
102
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
seems to be a steadily increasing
interest in them. This interest finds
expression in many different ways. It
varies from a well-ordered pro-
gram to collect and preserve
photographs, anecdotes, and information
of technical and historical
significance, and to preserve a few representa-
tive covered bridges themselves; to a
doting nostalgia that obscures
their real historical importance and
advocates preservation of every cov-
ered timber bridge regardless of restoration
cost, traffic safety, or the
plain unfitness of some covered spans.
This interest has spurred much writing
on the subject. Several books
and numerous articles on covered bridges
have been published recently.
Mr. and Mrs. Pancoast's Covered
Bridges to Yesterdays is a bit
difficult to classify. It is not, and is
not claimed to be, a definitive history
of covered bridges. It is more in the
nature of a scrap-book, including
snapshots, newspaper clippings, letters,
poems, cartoons, and casual,
random comment on covered bridges. As
such, it lacks continuity.
There is a good bit of repetition and
much sentimental reminiscence
with many "bees buzzing in the
rafters," many "winded horses resting
in the shade," and "clear,
cool streams gurgling over the rocks."
Despite its deficiencies, Covered
Bridges to Yesterdays has something
for all devotees of the timber covered
bridge. The photographs of the
Newark railroad bridge, the
"Moscow" bridge, the Horn's Hill bridge,
and the Black Hand bridge, alone, are
well worth the price of the
book.
Cincinnati JOHN A. DIEHL