BOOK REVIEWS
Men of Good Hope: A Story of American
Progressives. By Daniel Aaron.
(New York, Oxford University Press,
1951. xiv+321p. $4.00.)
Men of Good Hope is a sympathetic but considered analysis of the social
philosophies of nine men whom the author
believes have shaped or ex-
pressed progressive thought in America:
Emerson, Theodore Parker, Henry
George, Edward Bellamy, Henry Demarest
Lloyd, William Dean Howells,
and Thorstein
Veblen-"precursors" and "prophetic agitators"-and Theo-
dore Roosevelt and Brooks Adams, latter
day "pseudo progressives."
Anyone interested in the subject will
inevitably be disappointed to dis-
cover persons he regards as champions of
progressivism absent from Mr.
Aaron's list. Perhaps the omissions
should be construed as a tribute to the
richness of our liberal tradition rather
than as a criticism of this particular
book. Actually the coverage of Men of
Good Hope is not as limited as the
table of contents would indicate, for
the author makes a good deal more
than passing reference to many
individuals such as Thoreau and Wendell
Phillips in addition to those he has
singled out for intensive study.
It is unfortunate the book opens with a
weak chapter. The author
makes the point that Emerson, the
subject of his initial essay, was a "protean
figure" whose social and political
views were often contradictory. Con-
sequently, he observes, it is almost
impossible to write about Emerson's social
philosophy without frequent apologies
and qualifications. Granted the dif-
ficulty of the task, Mr. Aaron's
selection and organization of material does
little to advance his thesis that
Emerson was a perfect representative of
progressivism. He may well have been,
but this chapter does not prove the
point.
The rest of the book is much more
satisfactory, the most rewarding por-
tions being the essays on Parker,
George, Bellamy, Lloyd, Howells, and
Veblen. These chapters are written with
understanding and assurance and
they give the reader insight into the
thought of the men discussed as well as
revealing glimpses of their
personalities and times. Mr. Aaron sees the same
argument running through the sermons of
Parker, the prose-poem of George,
the sociological romances of Bellamy,
the fact-studded tracts of Lloyd, the
realistic novels of Howells, and the
academic monographs of Veblen: eco-
nomic and ethical considerations cannot
be separated from one another. To
the author, this conviction is one of
the earmarks of the Progressive.
In view of Aaron's emphasis upon the
idealistic content of progressivism,
it is not surprising that he is rather
critical of Theodore Roosevelt. He
414
Book Reviews 415
recognizes that Roosevelt was "a
high minded and completely honest public
servant," but he notes as well
evidences of Roosevelt's "cosmic vanity and
inveterate opportunism." The
author's preference for the thinker over the
man of action is made evident by the
fact that he devotes three-fourths of
the chapter on Roosevelt and Brooks
Adams to the latter. His essay on
Adams is a perceptive critique of an enigmatic
figure. Aaron portrays him
as the formulator of a kind of
"romantic conservatism," an arch imperialist
and advocate of state socialism whose
much discussed pessimism "fluctuated
with his friends' political successes
and failures."
The last chapter traces the ups and
downs of progressivism in the ap-
proximately forty years since 1912 in a
summary but provocative fashion.
The most interesting part of this
concluding essay is the author's attempt to
explain the appeal of communism to
certain liberal Americans during the
nineteen thirties. As is the case
throughout the book the author approaches
this problem with commendable
objectivity.
Mr. Aaron is director of the American
Studies program at Smith College.
His book is an example of the many
valuable contributions to American his-
tory which are currently being made by
scholars trained in the field of
American literature. The literary
historian brings to the fore the intellectual
and philosophical currents which are apt
to be overlooked when history is
regarded solely as the narration of
political and diplomatic events. The
weakness of the literary historian is a
tendency to treat historical figures as
though they were exclusively men the
study of whose "success" or "failure"
may be measured in terms of logic or
rhetoric. In reading Mr. Aaron's book,
therefore, it is well to keep in mind
that the world of Theodore Roosevelt
was quite different from that of
Emerson; that the responsibilities of Wood-
row Wilson were heavier than those of
Thorstein Veblen; and that interest-
ing and significant though they may be,
aberrations in the mental processes
of individuals are seldom in themselves
sufficient to explain the course of
history.
Men of Good Hope is a work of erudition, sincerity, and courage. It is,
moreover, a timely book. We stand today
in peculiar need of reminders
such as this book provides of our
heritage of native radicalism. Although by
no means a complete history of American
progressivism, Mr. Aaron's ac-
count of the ideas of some of our
liberal thinkers may well serve as an in-
troduction to supplementary studies of
progressivism in action, not only in
politics, but in industry, labor, social
work, education, and the arts.
ROBERT H. BREMNER
Ohio State University
416 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Finney Lives On. By V. Raymond Edman. (New York, Fleming H. Revell
Company. 250p. $2.50.)
Charles G. Finney (1792-1875) was one of
the outstanding ministers of
the nineteenth century. Best known for
his remarkable success in the great
revivals of the 1830's, he also was
instrumental in the free church move-
ment in New York City; contributed,
first as professor and later as presi-
dent, to the development of Oberlin; and
played a prominent role in the
antislavery, temperance, and moral
reform crusades of the antebellum era.
V. Raymond Edman, president of Wheaton
College, has attempted in this
slim volume to examine the life of
Finney and evaluate his evangelistic
ideas. He divides his book into three
parts: the man, the methods, and the
message. The first section consists of a
biographical summary covering the
high points of Finney's career. The
second analyzes his revival techniques,
extensively utilizing his Lectures on
Revivals of Religion. The last section
contains five of Finney's representative
sermons. The book's thesis is that
Finney's revival methods and religious
message still survive and apply as
aptly today as they did in the
nineteenth century. Its chief purpose is to
serve as a handbook for future revivals.
The author has succeeded in reflecting
the spirit of Finney and his con-
temporaries. The book amply indicates
how this evangelist put religious
matters uppermost, how he subordinated
all other aspects of life in order to
save men's souls. His complete,
carefully worked out techniques for con-
ducting revivals are examined in detail.
One catches something of the moral
egotism of the evangelist as he lays
down rules to follow in praying and
preaching.
The book's defects, however, far
outweigh its merits. The author has fol-
lowed the nineteenth century style of
adulatory religious biography. He
has inserted long verbatim quotations
from Finney's Memoirs and other
works. He has not seen fit to document
his many references, and the reader
will look in vain for footnotes. The
bibliography is hardly adequate. There
is no indication that he has used the
valuable Finney Papers in the Oberlin
College Library, even a cursory use of
which would have richly improved
the work. He makes no mention of
Finney's important contribution to the
antislavery movement where his
evangelistic methods were so widely ap-
plied. Either he does not know or has
chosen to ignore Finney's Views on
Sanctification and his Lectures on Systematic Theology, both of
which
touched off considerable controversy and
brought down upon him criticism
from orthodox circles.
Furthermore, the author's historical
background at the beginning of the
Book Reviews 417
book is an over-simplification. He
overemphasizes, the "vulgarity of the
frontier" (p. 18) and tends to give
a stereotype of that section. His interpre-
tation of the Second Great Awakening, a
decade after which "all of Ameri-
can life had been lifted to new
spiritual and moral heights" (p. 17), is
open to question. Although America may
have been "vastly different and
better because of the revivals led by Finney"
(p. 80), there is ample evidence
that the effects of revivals were often
quite transitory. It is probably a typo-
graphical error that the date of the New
Lebanon Convention is given as
1826 on page 62 instead of 1827.
Finally, one must question the author's
basic premise, that Finney's reli-
gious ideas and revival techniques can
still apply to the twentieth century.
While Billy Graham echoes an earlier
call and while protracted meetings
and anxious benches still survive in
isolated communities, the nineteenth
century evangelist has been antiquated
by the Civil War, by the industrializa-
tion of America, and by Darwinism. The
grandchildren of Finney's followers
have found evolution more convincing
than original sin, the test tube more
efficacious than the anxious seat, and
the search for knowledge more satis-
factory than conversion.
CHARLES C. COLE, JR.
Columbia University
General Charles Lee, Traitor or
Patriot? By John Richard Alden. (Baton
Rouge, Louisiana State University Press,
1951. ix+369p., maps, illustrations,
and index. $4.75.)
General Charles Lee (no relation to the
Virginia Lees), second in com-
mand to Washington, prominent and
controversial figure of his time, is
generally disposed of with a sentence or
two, plus an explanatory footnote,
in most textbooks and general histories.
The account usually runs something
like this: As a result of the French
alliance and the addition of French sea
power to the American cause, the British
in June 1778 were forced to evacu-
ate Philadelphia. This action gave
Washington one of his rare chances to
seize the initiative and to attack the
British as they retired across New Jersey.
General Washington planned aggressive
action against the British and would
have executed a crippling blow had it
not been for the insubordination and
disaffection of General Charles Lee, a
native of Britain in the American
service. Disregarding his orders to
attack, General Lee retreated before an
insignificant contingent of the British
Army. Furious over this disobedience
of orders, General Washington, when he
arrived on the field, called Lee
418
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
a "damned Poltroon," deprived
him of command, and taking charge himself
rallied the retreating Americans to save
the day. So tradition has it.
Now along comes a revisionist to
reexamine tradition and to set us aright:
General Lee was guilty neither of
insubordination nor of depriving the
Americans of a victory; General
Washington did not curse on the battle-
field; and it was General Lee's rather
than General Washington's tactics
that saved the day. These being the
facts of the case (according to our
author), General Lee has suffered
unjustly at the hands of General Wash-
ington, the Continental Congress, and
historians generally.
Doubtless it was a worthy project to
attempt to revise the superficial and
summary treatment accorded Lee in most
general histories. Yet, as is often the
case with revisionists, the question
arises whether the author has not gone too
far in an attempt to prove his point. He
states, for example, that in general-
ship Lee "seems to have been
superior to Washington and Nathanael Greene."
The case for Lee's generalship would
seem to rest mainly on his performances
at Charleston and Monmouth, for on no
other occasions does he seem to
have played a crucial role. Lee was
appointed second major general in the
Continental Army in June of 1775. By
July he was at the American camp
in Cambridge and served during the siege
of Boston. Early in 1776 he was
ordered to New York to superintend the
defense of that city. In March he
was put in command of the Continental
forces in the South. Arriving at
Charleston in June he promptly advised
the South Carolinians against any
attempt to hold Fort Moultrie on
Sullivan's Island. Lee's advice was dis-
regarded and since he was not in charge
of South Carolina troops, prepara-
tions for holding the fort went forward.
What followed is pretty generally
known. Cannon ball from the British ships
sank harmlessly into the soft
palmetto logs of Moultrie's fort;
repelled on both land and sea the British
were forced to abandon their plan for
invading the South in 1776. In spite
of this outstanding success the author
suggests that tactically Lee was right,
that it was only luck and Providence
that saved the stubborn South Caro-
linians. Yet Lee is praised to the skies
for his masterly handling of the situa-
tion, and the victory at Charleston is
portrayed as his most glorious hour. It
is worth noting in this connection that
Lee himself, never one to hide his
light under a bushel, gave the main
credit to Colonel William Moultrie and
the South Carolinians.
Late in the summer of 1776 Lee was
ordered to rejoin the main army in
New York. When he arrived on the scene
he advised Washington to retreat
from Harlem Heights and to abandon Fort
Washington, advice which, ac-
cording to the author was sound (no
matter what the outcome Lee's tactical
Book Reviews 419
advice seems always to have been
"sound"). After the British captured Fort
Washington and began their pursuit of
Washington across New Jersey, Lee
set up as a solo artist. Despite
repeated orders to join the main army he
held back, apparently with the idea of
playing an independent role and
striking the British in a series of
guerilla attacks. Lee was loitering near
Morristown when he was suddenly taken
prisoner on December 13, 1776.
There was some talk of his being taken
back to England and tried for deser-
tion, but he had prudently resigned his
half pay in the British Army when
he joined the American cause. After much
negotiation he was exchanged in
April 1778 and rejoined the army as it
was starting for the Monmouth
campaign. On Lee's role in that fateful
episode the author concludes: "He
may not have performed brilliantly at
Monmouth, although the evidence sug-
gests that his tactics were fundamentally
sound." Perhaps the soundness or
unsoundness of Lee's tactics had better
be left to the military experts. Waiv-
ing for the moment the purely military
aspects one may nevertheless inquire
into Lee's attitude at the time. Since
his capture he had ceased to advocate
American independence and had in fact
worked toward a negotiated peace
with a privileged position for the
United States within the British Empire.
While a prisoner he even went so far as
to present his captors with a plan
for bringing the war to a close. It is
this action, perhaps even more than
what happened at Monmouth, that has
caused some historians to charge him
with treason. It is this charge too,
perhaps, that led the author to choose a
subtitle in the form of a question:
Traitor or Patriot? After reading the
evidence this reviewer is inclined to
answer, "neither." When it suited his
purpose Lee pled for and worked toward
American independence. But he
grew weary in the cause and began to
advocate compromise and conciliation.
Taking all his faults and misdeeds into
account, however, he was not a
traitor of the stripe of Benedict
Arnold. Some of his contemporaries ac-
curately took the measure of the man
when they described him as a soldier
of fortune.
Though one may question both Lee's
military genius and his patriotism
there can be no doubt that he was a
bizarre and fascinating personality. His
life was filled with story-book
adventure. In addition to his Revolutionary
War exploits he served in both America
and Portugal during the Seven
Years War. Finding advancement in the
British Army slow he entered the
service of the king of Poland. As
"general and adjutant" in the Polish Army
he had a series of stirring adventures in
the Balkans and Turkey. Widely
traveled and well read by the standards
of his profession, Lee could and did
pass for a scholar. Physically ugly, he
had many women but no wife, if we
420 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
exclude the Iroquois maiden that he
temporarily annexed on his first sojourn
in America. His character was marked by
a pronounced eccentricity which
manifested itself in sharp contrasts; a
slovenliness in dress but a liking for
bathing, social gaiety but private
melancholy, a low opinion of mankind but
a strange fondness for dogs. He could
express himself both orally and in
writing with rare wit, clarity, and
perspicuity. Sophisticated and worldly but
at the same time humane and considerate
of his inferiors Lee, in short,
embodied many of the virtues and vices
of his time.
HARRY L. COLES
Ohio State University
Yankee Eloquence in the Middle West;
the Ohio Lyceum 1850-1870. By
David Mead. (East Lansing, Michigan
State College Press, 1951. 273p.
$4.50.)
Within the kind of limited compass which
characterizes our contemporary
historical scholarship, Dr. Mead has
written a thorough work. He has out-
lined chronologically and geographically
the schedules of fifteen important
eastern lecturers, such 'as Emerson,
Bronson Alcott, Wendell Phillips, and
Theodore Parker, in their Ohio tours
between 1850 and 1870. The record
illuminates, quantitatively at least,
eastern influence upon the Ohio lyceum
system during the third quarter of the
nineteenth century. In addition, by
careful use of Ohio newspapers, which
constituted his principal source ma-
terial, the author has systematically
recorded the mixed reactions by western
editors to eastern orators and their
talks. In the course of trailing lecturers
and quoting editorials, he has carried
his story on occasion to the very
brink of serious questions about the
role and function of the lecture system
and at other times to anecdotes about
men and events which help to en-
liven a pedestrian narrative.
The opening chapter provides the only
framework of generalization
within which to place the facts that
flood the following fifteen short chap-
ters. Several fertile suggestions help
to explain the incentives for and the
obstacles to the eastern lyceum system
in Ohio. In general, the motive of
New England orators was declared to be
the lofty one of diffusing Christian
morality and wholesome knowledge, the
standards for which were pre-
sumably set by these sane, cultured,
Protestant intellectuals. There seemed to
be an implicit fear among easterners of
the upper class that their cultural
hegemony might be scuttled by the
growing numbers and the moral "in-
stability" on the frontier. The
subjects selected by eastern lecturers were
literary, moral, scientfic, historical,
or travel, but rarely political. The search
Book Reviews 421
for eternal and transcendent values was
considered 'a more elevating (and
perhaps safer) experience than the
divisive discussions of partisan politics.
It was the rare courage of a Wendell
Phillips, vigorously defending
abolitionism, that turned the lyceum
platform in scattered instances into a
forum for crucial democratic discussion.
With the opening of the West through
railroads, skilled orators from the
East swarmed into the new areas to
elevate minds, save souls, and collect
lecture fees. The westerners, however,
as Mead quite aptly suggests, were
not passive recipients of this cultural
onslaught. They frequently evinced a
strong desire to encourage the growth of
an independent culture, though the
author does not suggest the auspices
under which this sectional enthusiasm
flourished or the values upon which it
rested. Furthermore, the craving in a
new, growing area for practical
knowledge rather than metaphysical sermons,
coupled with the lack of time on the
frontier for cultural pursuits, acted as
real limiting factors on the growth of
the eastern lyceum system in Ohio.
The inadequacies of this able work can
be attributed largely to errors of
omission. Mead has failed to give a
systematic account of the content of
the many lectures to which he alludes.
In what fashion is the reader to
evaluate the sharp criticism or
unqualified approval by Ohio newspapers
of the lectures of Brownson or Beecher or
Emerson? Except for the rare
instances in which the author has quoted
specific points in the lectures from
editorials, the nature of the eastern
message to the West remains a mystery.
The chapter on Emerson is particularly
unrewarding in this respect. The
author leads the reader to the editorial
attacks on the great transcendentalist
in Akron in 1856, in Cleveland in 1857,
or in Warren in 1865. But what
did Emerson say? One can surmise the
nature of the message from knowledge
of the lecturer's philosophical
position, but it was a legitimate part of the
work of the author to scour the writings
and biographies in order to sum-
marize the teachings of his orators.
In addition, this book, which ends
abruptly without summary or con-
clusion, is slight in interpretative
reflections which give greater validity
to assembled data and often serve as
hypotheses for further research. It ap-
pears significant to the reader that
Americans, who indulge so predominantly
in frivolous entertainments today, were
willing to patronize formal lectures
in the mid-19th century. Is this a sign
that intellectual ferment was a prod-
uct in American development of social
mobility and pioneering expansive-
ness? Is the virtual disappearance of
cultural fluidity, under the impact of
the dulling conformity imposed by the
mass media of information, as Reis-
man and other social scientists have
pointed out, correlated with a period
422 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
of diminishing opportunity and growing
social control? Along another line
of questioning, the author might have
addressed himself to the relationship
of western interest in practical
knowledge and the formation of certain im-
portant American themes, such as success
and progress. Is the demand for
practical learning a fundamental
component of a growing middle-class cul-
ture, as Louis Wright noted in his
discussion of middle-class behavior in
Elizabethan England? The Ohio lyceum
was, after all, a system of public in-
formation. As such, it reflected, in its
motives and function, something of
group or class behavior in the East and
West, something of the values that
flourished in both sections. Out of this
material Dr. Mead might have forged
something as original interpretatively
as his work is thorough factually.
HARVEY GOLDBERG
Ohio State University
A Friendly Mission: John Candler's Letters
from America, 1853-1854.
Edited, with an introduction, by Gayle
Thornbrough. (Indiana Historical
Society Publications, XVI, No. 1. Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Society,
1951. 122p., itinerary, index. Paper,
$1.00.)
Few people possessed a more enlightened
sense of the wrong and evil
of slavery than did the English Quakers.
Once the stigma of slavery and
the slave trade had been erased in the
British Empire, the Society of Friends
sought new lands to which they might
carry their antislavery crusade. At
the London Yearly Meeting in 1853 four
English Quakers were selected to
tour the United States and to present to
the political leaders of America a
lengthy memorial against slavery. While
traveling through this country,
John Candler, a member of this four-man
deputation, penned a series of
letters to his wife in which he made a
conscious attempt to understand, in-
terpret, and express the complex
meanings of his American experience.
These revealing letters are the sensitive
record of a trip through twenty-six
of the thirty-one states then in
existence.
The collection is 'a kaleidoscope
recording of the social, economic, and
political pattern of America during the
early 1850's. The bulk of material
is presented by physical description,
sometimes emotionally toned, but more
often merely observed and noted. There
are many passages which evoke
intimately the grandeur and spirit of a
land where "everything in nature is
great." Candler's description of a
meal served him in Columbus, Ohio,
where "the table groaned under the
weight of good things," his awe at see-
ing a cob of corn which had twelve
hundred grains, his impressions of
energetic Indiana, where
"everything bespeaks a giant growth," and an
Book Reviews 423
ecstatic picture of the limitless
American plains are all among the English-
man's most satisfying experiences.
Candler's critical comments are reserved
for the manners of some Americans, the
crudities of local lodgings, and
the inconveniences and delays of
traveling in the United States. In the eye
of this sensitive Quaker some
midwesterners were "coarse, rude, and pro-
fane," while their southern brethren
were "low-lived, tobacco chewing, idle
trash of white men." An inn was an
"incommodious domicile to travellers
who have any refinement of
manners." The rigors of traveling 10,237 miles
through the United States by steamboat,
railroad, stagecoach, private car-
riage, and on foot obviously elicited
scornful criticism.
Where slavery and the slaveholder were
concerned, John Candler had
no perspective, no sense of relation or
proportion. He believed uncom-
promisingly that slavery, in the words
of John Wesley, was "the sum and
substance of all villainy."
Although the New York Herald referred to Candler
and his colleagues as
"abolitionists," a term which the four Friends feared
might expose them to the "terrors
of Lynch law," the Quaker mission was
received, on the whole, with respect
throughout the country. President
Franklin Pierce heard their calm appeal
and assured them of a safe passage
in the South. Most southern governors
honored the sincerity of the Quaker
mission, listened sympathetically, and
objected moderately, although Sterling
Price of Missouri "girded on his
proslavery sword" and angrily returned
the Friends' memorial. Interestingly
enough, some of Candler's choicest out-
bursts are directed against hypocritical
northerners and their governors, men
like Joel A. Matteson of Illinois,
William Medill of Ohio, and Horace
Seymour of New York, whom Candler
accuses of hiding their prejudice
against the Negro under the cloak of
political expediency. After spending
only two months in America, Candler was
so disgusted with the determina-
tion of "the great mass of
democracy" to uphold anti-Negro discriminations
that he saw no immediate prospect of
change except through divine in-
tercession.
Miss Gayle Thornbrough's editing of A
Friendly Mission is, in the best
sense, complete. She has tied the
letters together in an interesting continuity,
and has identified carefully the
historical persons and episodes mentioned.
Besides appending an itinerary, listing
routes, dates, mileage, and means of
conveyance, she has an index of
exceptional fullness, clarity, and conven-
ience. The Indiana Historical Society is
to be complimented for publishing
A Friendly Mission. This is the kind of work that more state historical so-
cieties should be publishing.
HAROLD M. HELFMAN
Ohio State University
424 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
This Is Detroit: 250 Years in
Pictures. By Milo M. Quaife and edited
by
William White. (Detroit, Wayne
University Press, 1951. x+198p. Cloth-
bound, $3.50; paper, $2.00.)
Detroit is two hundred and fifty years
young, the bustling, dynamic
powerhouse of our national might. The
city has grown through oppressions
and depressions from a remote outpost
where Antoine Sieur de la Mothe
Cadillac and his brigade of bateaux and
Indian canoes first landed on July
24, 1701, to the motor capital of the
world and the arsenal of democratic
nations. This Is Detroit is the
official publication of Detroit's 250th Birth-
day Festival Committee and undertakes to
present by picture and descriptive
text the story of this dramatic growth
from the quiet "City of the Strait" to
an industrial metropolis.
The compilers of this pictorial account
have recognized frankly the hazards
of dividing their work into two
chronological sections, 1701-1901, and 1901-
1951. Obviously there is a scarcity of
available pictures to record the changes
during the first two hundred years, and
too many materials illustrating the
last five decades of the city's greatest
growth. Therefore, few will criticize
the choice of illustrations to be found
in the first seventy-four pages of the
book, although an obvious omission is
one of Detroit's greatest spiritual and
cultural pioneers, the Rev. John
Montieth.
Probably every reader, however, will
have some quarrel with the editor's
selection of significant personages and
happenings of the past fifty years.
Why include several pictures of Wayne
University and not even one of the
University of Detroit, Marygrove
College, or the Detroit Institute of Tech-
nology? Can an outsider correctly
understand Detroit's cultural life without
seeing the Garrick Theater and the late
Jessie Bonstelle, or the Detroit Sym-
phony Orchestra under the baton of the
late Ossip Gabrilowitsch, or the con-
troversial Diego Rivera murals at the
Detroit Institute of Arts? Do not the
thousands of people lining the Detroit
River to watch Gar Wood and his
succession of Miss Americas fight to
retain the Harmsworth Trophy belong
to the Detroit diorama, and is not the
automobile speedster, the late Barney
Oldfield, with his inevitable cigar, a
part of the Detroit picture?
As a native Detroiter, this reviewer's
reactions to the section on the "Mod-
ern Metropolis" go even deeper. Dr.
Milo M. Quaife is an eminent historian
with a distinguished lifetime of reading
and writing about Detroit; and
Professor William White of Wayne
University is an ex-journalist who should
recognize the robust and chromatic
history of a city. Yet their last one hun-
dred and twenty-four pages are, in the
main, a mere Baedeker of buildings,
devoid of the intense vitality and
spirited energy that really is Detroit. By
Book Reviews 425
ignoring action pictures and
concentrating on still shots and the concrete
and steel of downtown Detroit, the
authors give the reader no excited thrill
of discovery or of participation. The
pictures chosen are generally too inert,
too formal, and lacking in human warmth.
The stranger to Detroit gets
too few pictures of how Detroiters
actually lived-for example, the delirium
of the city when wild crowds gathered on
the steps of the City Hall to
celebrate Armistice Day, November 11,
1918; applestands, bread lines, men
crowding around employment offices as a
fumbling city fought its way out
of a depression; the exploits of the
Purple Gang and the Black Legion;
derelicts shuffling down Michigan
Avenue; Grosse Pointe debutantes and
weary office workers window-shopping
along Washington Boulevard. In-
stead of merely showing a street of Old
Detroit, why did not the editor
select a picture of milady strolling
down the selfsame street? Why show
posed portrait photos of Ty Cobb and Joe
Louis when there are thousands
of shots showing the "Georgia
Peach" and the "Brown Bomber" in action?
The book is wonderfully rich-looking and
attractive in its printing and
design; and the Wayne University Press
is to be complimented on a solid
job of craftsmanship. But since This
Is Detroit must be judged on content
rather than on appearance, this reviewer
feels that the general failure of
the compilers to train the eye of their
camera upon the action-packed drama
of a people living in a great city does
not justify the title used.
HAROLD M. HELFMAN
Ohio State University
The Serene Cincinnatians. By Alvin F. Harlow. (New York, E. P. Dutton,
1950. 442p., bibliography and index.
$4.50.)
This is the sixth volume of the Society
in America Series to appear and
the only one to deal with a city in the
Middle West. Alvin F. Harlow has
put his long experience in social
history to good use in deftly weaving events
and personalities into a mosaic which
covers the entire scope of the Queen
City's one hundred and eighty-three
years. The result is a narrative both
pleasing and informative which is a real
boon to those curious about the
past of Ohio's oldest metropolis.
Few realize how baffling the problem of
writing good urban history has
been. The customary political or
economic approach has never been very suc-
cessful when applied to cities; after
all, how many care about last year's
aldermen? Sacrificing objectivity,
amateur authors included dreary and vol-
uminous biographical summaries of
subscribers in order to assure sales.
426 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
But if such works were purchased, they
were seldom read. Only recently
has a more sophisticated author group
appeared, stressing the multiple
themes of social and cultural history
for interpreting urbanism and convinc-
ing a number of publishers that there's
really gold in "them thar" cities.
Hence the editors have carefully stated
that "the aim of these volumes is
to portray the individual characteristics,
to underscore the idiosyncracies, and
to trace the growth of . . . [urban]
societies with special emphasis on local
traditions and on the personalities
which embodied them." Within these
limits one can find little fault with
Harlow's well-told story. Certainly the
serenity of Cincinnatians, which has so
impressed the author, is unlikely to
be disturbed by the many good things
said about them. Almost anyone could
read with profit the excellent chapters
describing Cincinnati porkpacking,
the German community, and those musical
triumphs in which Theodore
Thomas played such a stellar role.
Whenever the interest flags, Harlow is
ready with an anecdote--about the pious
cable car magnate who scrupul-
ously resigned the presidency of his
company every Saturday night only to
be reelected promptly on Monday morning,
thus neatly preserving his Sab-
batarian principles--about the educated
cobbler who reprinted rare items
of Americana in his humble shop and astounded
an ex-Governor of Vermont
with his learning-or about the
pickpocket, victimized by post-Civil War
feminine fashions, who complained,
"'Since the damned overskirts come
inter style, I haven't made me
salt.'"
The professional historian, too, can enjoy
a narrative which is frankly
pitched to catch the layman's eye, while
he will observe much which the
general reader may only sense or perhaps
miss altogether. First he will note
that many things are described with
artistry, but few are explained. For
example Civil War excitement in
Cincinnati rates a chapter, but the impact
of that struggle upon the city's
economic structure or its way of life is not
developed. There is only a casual
reference to the great influence which
Cincinnati exercised upon midwestern
neighbors in its ever-fluctuating
hinterland, and none at all to the
municipal sources from which ideas were
borrowed.
While Harlow's tendency to overstate may
gratify Cincinnati pride, it
will weaken his book with many. His
addiction to claiming "firsts" will
not inspire confidence among those
familiar with the history of science and
the almost insoluble problem of
determining priority in the discovery of
inventions. Again we read, "There
was a passion for education in the
Mississippi Valley which in the course
of time lifted it to a plateau
of literacy higher than that of the
East," (p.139) a statement which will
Book Reviews 427
raise eyebrows in more than one section
of the country. One of the very few
misstatements occurs on page 143 where
William H. McGuffey (to this
reviewer's horror!) is credited with
"four years as president of Ohio State
University" when in fact it was
Ohio University at Athens which was the
scene of his stewardship.
But these are indeed small matters to
set against the general excellence of
The Serene Cincinnatians. It is to be hoped that Ohioans will give it the
generous patronage which it thoroughly
merits.
FREDERICK D. KERSHNER, JR.
Ohio University
Lake Port (Lucas County Historical
Series, III). By Randolph C. Downes.
With a chapter on architecture by G.
Harrison Orians. Illustrated By Kathryn
Miller Keller. (Toledo, The Historical
Society of Northwestern Ohio, 1951.
xii+457p. Maps, illustrations,
acknowledgments, bibliography, index.
Paper, $3.15.)
Dr. Randolph C. Downes, author of Frontier
Ohio and Council Fires on
the Upper Ohio, is director of the Historical Society of Northwestern
Ohio
and editor of the society's quarterly
and is a member of the history depart-
ment of the University of Toledo. With
this volume he has completed the
third in a series of six volumes on the
history of Lucas County, Ohio. The
first two volumes were The Conquest (1948)
and Canal Days (1949),
which brought local historical events
down to about 1850, and in this
volume the author covers the period
between 1850 to and including 1875.
Toledo, in the optimistic planning of
its early promoters, was to become
a principal terminus of shipping on the
lakes and the leading city of the
West. The building of docks and the
preparing of extensive plans for rail-
road lines into the city were toward
this view. But as the western movement
expanded Toledo failed to hold the lead,
and railroad improvements with
lines extending westward and eastward to
the Atlantic brought about stiff
competition with lake transportation.
Turning from a discussion of
transportation developments, the author
next gives his attention to the slavery
question and politics shortly before
the Civil War. National problems he
relates closely to local events. When
the Civil War broke out after compromise
failed, many Lucas County men
joined the Ohio Northwest Regiment,
which came to be known as the 14th
Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Other
men formed brigades, companies,
and parts of companies in the 25th,
27th, 47th, 67th, 100th, 130th regiments
428
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
and the 3rd Cavalry, and saw active
service in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Mississippi, Virginia, Georgia, and the
Carolinas. Impact of the war at home,
soldier life, songs, prison life, the
anti-administration "copper-heads," and
the political scene for ten years after
the war are all reviewed in the first
half of the book.
"Outside the field of business and
commerce, Toledo's most emphasized
achievement was in its school
system," Dr. Downes states as he examines
the growth of the city's schools between
1850 and 1875. Toledo adopted a
high school athletic program before the
Civil War and the school super-
intendents were very advanced in their
programs. A search for practical edu-
cation led to the establishment by Jesup
W. Scott and his sons of what later
came to be the University of Toledo.
In succeeding chapters Dr. Downes writes
of Toledo's church life and
religious movements, literature and
science, civic improvements, sports and
recreation, the German settlers, the
Negroes, women's rights, and the temper-
ance movement. Dr. G. Harrison Orians
contributes a chapter on early
architecture of the county.
The typography follows the style set by
the first two volumes, and is
similar to textbook arrangement, with
principal topics set forth in boldface
type at the beginning of each paragraph
or groups of paragraphs. Of added
interest are illustrations and maps in
the text drawn by Mrs. Kathryn Miller
Keller of Toledo. The book's paper
covers, however, are not substantial.
WATT P. MARCHMAN
The Hayes Memorial Library
A Documentary Survey of the French
Revolution. By John Hall Stewart.
(New York, The Macmillan Company, 1951.
818p. $6.00.)
With the appearance of John Hall
Stewart's A Documentary Survey of the
French Revolution few college teachers will wish to take the time or
trouble
to "organize" or
"reorganize" their courses on the French Revolution. Pro-
fessor Stewart of Western Reserve
University, with a greater expenditure of
time, energy, and thought than most of
them can afford, has done the work
for them. Included in this volume the
college teacher will find a history of
the Revolution in Mr. Stewart's running
commentary on the documents pre-
sented, an outline in the detailed table
of contents, complete bibliographies
with volume, chapter, and even page
references at the close of each chapter,
and a glossary in the index.
Book Reviews 429
The very same features of the book which
will appeal to college teachers
will no doubt be welcomed by the
students. Here is a far more complete col-
lection of documents than is found in
Anderson's Constitutions and Other
Select Documents. Unlike Legg's Select Documents which deals (in
French)
only with the Constituent Assembly,
Stewart's well-translated and judiciously-
chosen documents cover the entire
revolutionary decade. Consisting mainly
of excerpts from the memoirs of
contemporaries, Higgins' The French Revo-
lution differs considerably from Stewart's book which is
primarily a col-
lection of public documents. Thus the
former is not replaced by the latter
but serves, in fact, as an excellent complement
to it by giving the student
more of the flavor and atmosphere of the
Revolution.
Although designed chiefly for teachers
and undergraduates, the book
will have some value for the graduate
student as an introduction to the litera-
ture, primary and secondary, of the
French Revolution. Of course, of far
greater value to the graduate student is
Mr. Stewart's own earlier volume
entitled France 1715-1815. A Guide to
Materials in Cleveland.
The author does more in his Documentary
Survey of the French Revolu-
tion than simply present a series of documents. Each
chapter, section, and
document is preceded by a commentary.
These commentaries tell in concise
terms the history of the Revolution and
give unity and continuity to the
text. The unity found here is certainly
unusual for a book of this sort and
may be explained by the fact that the
work was originally intended as a his-
tory of the Revolution, with documentary
insertions. Apparently, as the
author states in his preface, only the
limitations of space prevented the
realization of the original plan.
Special mention deserves to be made of
the ideas expressed by Professor
Stewart in his concluding chapter. Here
he summarizes the immediate con-
sequences of the Revolution by comparing
France of 1789 with France at
the close of the century. Although he
concedes that many changes had oc-
curred along political, economic,
social, religious, and intellectual lines-
"never prior to 1799, had so much
been achieved by one people in such
a short span of time!"-the author
nevertheless points out that for an ac-
curate evaluation of the Revolution one
must weigh the "apparent achieve-
ments" against the "actual accomplishments."
He makes no attempt to ap-
praise the ultimate consequences of the
Great Revolution, asserting that this
might conceivably involve "the
entire history of west Europe since 1799."
CHARLES MORLEY
Ohio State University
430 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Architecture of the Old Northwest
Territory: A Study of Early Architec-
ture in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Part of Minnesota.
By Rexford Newcomb. (Chicago, The
University of Chicago Press, 1950.
xvii+176p.+xcvi plates. $20.00.)
Here is an interesting volume, of value
to the social historian and to the
lay reader who has a predilection for
the study of old buildings and antiques.
It is the most extensive work of its
kind ever undertaken on the Old North-
west, a section which has felt the
cross-currents of virtually all the architec-
tural trends in the country.
Specifically, this book covers the
period from the beginnings of French
settlement in the Illinois Country and
at Detroit to the time of the Civil
War. It treats successively the pioneer
structures of the first settlements in
the territory, the influence of southern
forms upon the architecture of the
lower Northwest, the introduction of New
England colonial styles, the
domination of the Greek Revival from
about 1830 to the Civil War, and
the spread of the Gothic Revival from
England and the Atlantic Seaboard
to the Old Northwest.
The French used logs and stone in the
construction of their buildings.
Most common in the Old Northwest was the
poteaux en terre house in which
the walls were built of heavy logs set
vertically in the ground. The log
cabin, so well known to Americans, was introduced
by the Swedish colonists
in the 17th century and found its way to
the Northwest in the 18th. The
log construction served the pioneers in
the heavily wooded sections of the
Northwest until well into the 19th
century.
The beginnings of organized settlement
under the Ordinance of 1787 in-
troduced two new architectural
influences, one from the South and the other
from New England. The Southern Federal
style is distinguished by a "pre-
dilection for brick, the symmetrical
disposition of the structures, wide central
halls, detached service buildings,
classical frontal porticoes . . ."; the New
England influence was felt in the
erection of Georgian homes, followed by
the chastened Federal style of the East.
The Old Northwest, however, really grew
up under the influence of the
Greek Revival, introduced to this
country by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. By
1830 production in the Northwest had
reached a point sufficient to enable
the growing population to build substantial
homes. By that time the Greek
Revival was in full swing and thousands
of homes, schools, churches, and
other buildings were erected in that
tradition during the next three or four
decades. In the same period the Gothic
Revival, also introduced by Latrobe,
Book Reviews 431
flourished, though it failed to achieve
the popularity of the classical forms
except in its use on church and academic
structures.
This volume traces the development of
each of these architectural influ-
ences throughout the Old Northwest,
discussing the modifications in design
which various regions introduced. It
attempts also to set the architectural
developments in their proper historical
scene. The architectural styles dis-
cussed are supported by brief
descriptions of numerous examples of buildings
and by about twenty-five figures and
ninety-six plates. A glossary of archi-
tectural terms and an extensive
bibliography add to the value of the volume.
The chief criticism of the book lies in
the numerous errors of fact in the
paragraphs dealing with the history of
the Old Northwest. The author's
presentation of the history of the
Indians is inadequate, and the location of
the famous Fort Ancient is near Lebanon
in Warren County, Ohio, not at
Newark (p. 6). The section on the
discovery of the Northwest by the French
is admittedly sketchy, but it leaves out
LaSalle's contact with the Ohio Val-
ley in 1669-70 and the coming of coureurs
de bois to the lake regions after
Groseilliers and Radisson. In the
chapter on the Westward Movement there
are errors in connection with
Connecticut's land claims in Ohio (p. 36), land
donations for education purposes (p.
36), the interpretation of the Ordi-
nance of 1787 (p. 37), the appointment
of directors of the Ohio Company
(p. 39), the history of the Moravian
mission villages in Ohio (pp. 39-40),
the Symmes Purchase (p. 40), and the
date of completion of the Ohio Canal
(p. 42). The southern Republicans did
not hold Ohio's governorship until
1830 as the author claims (p. 62);
Thomas Worthington was not Ohio's
first governor, nor does he seem to have
had a middle name (p. 63); Adena,
Worthington's home, was built in 1806-7,
and there is evidence that Latrobe
drew plans for the house (p. 63); the
measurements and description of
Adena are not correct (p. 63); the
National Road ended at Vandalia,
not St. Louis (p. 100), and the Society
of the Separatists of Zoar was
founded in order to set up a program for
paying for the land purchase not
to care for the old and needy (p.155).
The reviewer has not attempted to
check details on the history of the
states other than Ohio. On the whole these
errors are relatively insignificant, but
they do mar the book.
For Ohioans it may be of interest to
note that of 200 pictures of houses
on the plates in this volume 80 are of
Ohio homes. The book is beautifully
printed and the plates are excellent.
JAMES H. RODABAUGH
Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society
432
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Journals of the General Assembly of
Indiana Territory, 1805-1815. Edited
by Gayle Thornbrough and Dorothy Riker,
with an introduction by John
D. Barnhart. (Indiana Historical
Collections, XXXII. Indianapolis, Indiana
Historical Bureau, 1950. ix+1106p.,
appendices and index. $6.00.)
In 1950 the state of Indiana celebrated
the sesquicentennial of the found-
ing of Indiana Territory in 1800. Such
an occasion calls for special efforts,
not only speech-making, parades,
exhibits, and other forms of publicity and
celebration, but also contributions of a
more lasting nature. From the stand-
point of scholarship it is befitting
that the Indiana Historical Bureau should
make generally available important
documentary materials concerning the
territorial days of the state. The tasks
of scholars and other interested persons
are manifestly eased by such
publications. While the labor of adequate and
competent editing is seldom recognized
and given its due credit anyone who
has done serious historical research
will recognize immediately its value and
indispensability. The content, manner of
presentation, and importance of
the source materials here "Offered
in Observance of the Indiana Territory
Sesquicentennial, 1800-1950" speak
well of the work of the Bureau.
In the 1787 ordinance establishing the
government of the "Territory of
the United States northwest of the River
Ohio" provision was made for suc-
cessive steps of development leading to
the formation of "not less than three
nor more than five States." As had
been envisioned by its drafters sufficient
settlement and sentiment warranted
advancement of the eastern part of the
territory about a dozen years later. In
1800 a division was made in the
Northwest Territory with its western
portion becoming Indiana Territory.
There was to be established in the newly
created territory "a Government
in all respects similar to that provided
by the ordinance [of 1787]."
By 1805 Indiana Territory had grown and
developed to the point where
it was ready for the semirepresentative
stage of territorial government. That
meant there would now be a bicameral general
assembly composed of a
legislative council and a house of
representatives. The present volume is
composed primarily of the journals of
the general assembly of the territory
as copied from the original manuscripts.
Of the house journals, those for
1806, 1807, and 1810 have not been
located. Except for the 1813-14 session,
the council's journals have not been
found. The council journal for 1808 was
printed, however, in the Vincennes
(Indiana) Western Sun and has been
reprinted from its files. In the absence
of journals for the sessions as noted
above, the editors have included
pertinent available documents that indicate
the principal transactions of the
assembly.
Book Reviews 433
With the papers of the territorial
governors (Messages and Letters of
William Henry Harrison [which contain in addition the papers of John
Gibson, acting governor, 1812-13, and
Thomas Posey, governor, 1813-16],
VII and IX of the Indiana Historical
Collections), their official records
(Executive Journal of Indiana
Territory, 1800-1816, III, No. 3, of the Pub-
lications of the Indiana Historical Society), the territorial
laws (The Laws of
Indiana Territory, 1801-1809, of the Indiana Historical Collections Reprints
series; and The Laws of Indiana
Territory, 1809-1816, XX of the Indiana
Historical Collections), and the present volume a rather complete story of
territorial Indiana is made readily
available to interested scholars and re-
searchers.
John D. Barnhart's introduction,
"The Democratization of the Northwest
Ordinance," gives further publicity
to his thesis that "the frontiersmen . . .
[assumed] the burden of self-government
more rapidly and with fewer re-
strictions than the authors of the
Ordinance had anticipated." Professor
Barnhart's essay highlights the
territorial legislative history.
A most valuable contribution to this
work by the editors are the biographi-
cal sketches of the members of the
territorial legislature. Among them are
found such one-time Ohioans as James
Scott, friend of Thomas Worthington,
pioneer settler along the Scioto, and
Adams County judge; Benjamin Cham-
bers, relative and helper of Israel
Ludlow and resident of Dayton and Cin-
cinnati; John Paul, businessman, member
of the Ohio constitutional con-
vention, and proprietor of Xenia;
William Hendricks, Cincinnati lawyer;
Ezra Ferris, Baptist preacher and
schoolteacher in Lebanon; and James Dill,
veteran of the Anthony Wayne campaign,
Cincinnati businessman, and law
partner in offices of the St. Clair
family. These forty-odd sketches represent
a prodigious amount of culling and
collecting of information that is generally
obscure and unavailable. As other
collections are uncovered and made avail-
able to researchers (e.g., the William
Polke papers recently deposited in the
manuscripts division of the Indiana
University Library), some of these
sketches can be enlarged. Substantially,
however, they are presently of a
definitive nature.
The value of the Journals of the
General Assembly of Indiana Territory
has been considerably enhanced by the
editorial contributions of Miss Gayle
Thornbrough and Miss Dorothy Riker and
the introductory essay of Pro-
fessor Barnhart.
DWIGHT L. SMITH
Ohio State University
434 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
The Valley of the Lower Thames,
1640-1850. By Fred Coyne Hamil.
(Toronto, University of Toronto Press,
1951. xi+390p., illustrations and
maps. $5.00.)
This is an intensive study in the local
history of the Lower Thames, or
more specifically, of the present County
of Kent, a geographical protuberance
of the province of Ontario opposite the
Detroit River and Lake St. Clair,
and economically, a part of the Lake
Erie region. Kent today is a rich
agricultural section. The river, once a
highroad of travel and commerce
and a unifying force, lost much of its
importance with the coming of the
railroad in the 1850's.
Beginning with the earliest explorations
and the story of the Indians,
the author treats the several waves of
settlement that mark the development
of the valley-French Canadians centered
around the great marshes, American
Loyalists who came after the Revolution,
Moravians eager to Christianize the
natives, Scotch-Highlanders at Baldoon,
British and American immigrants,
and Negroes who came via the Underground
Railroad. The main events
in the history of this area to 1850 are
presented in minute detail, in-
cluding the system of land grants and
the troublesome crown and clergy
reserves; the economic development of
the region, crops, crafts, and in-
dustry; shipping, stagecoaches, inns,
and roads; public health and early
medical practice; the rise of Chatham as
"an emporium of the West";
churches, revivals, and missionaries;
Indian Wars and the War of 1812;
political unrest which led to local
self-government and attacks on the
special privileges of the "Family
Compact" in Upper Canada; the Rebellion
of 1837 and its aftermath of border
violence; and the eventual achievement
of self-government. Ohioans will find
especially interesting those sections
which refer to such prominent
individuals as David Zeisberger, Duncan
McArthur, and William Henry Harrison,
and to Wayne's advance down
the Maumee, General Hull's inept and
ill-fated campaign around Detroit,
the attack on Fort Meigs in which
militia from Kent took part, and the
border disturbances of the late 1830's
in which people from northern Ohio
and the large lake ports were involved.
The author was trained in the
universities of Canada and the United
States and is a native of the region of
which he writes so well. At present
he is a member of the department of
history of Wayne University. His
book is a model of what can be done with
local history as a means to a
better understanding of events that have
national and international sig-
nificance. It is based on prodigious and
patient research in a mass of
original and secondary sources, and is
carefully documented and in-
Book Reviews 435
terestingly written. The index is
excellent, and maps and plates valuable.
The volume meets the highest standards
of historical craftsmanship.
CARL WITTKE
Western Reserve University
Federal Records of World War II. Vol. I, Civilian Agencies; Vol. II,
Military Agencies. (National Archives Publication No. 51-7. Washington,
D. C., Government Printing Office, 1951.
1073, 1061p. Paper, $2.50 ea.)
Over two thousand pages is a lot of
writing just to describe in general
terms the records of one government in
one war. But then it is a big govern-
ment, and it was indeed a big war. In
fact it has been estimated that the
federal government accumulated over ten
million cubic feet of records during
World War II, enough to fill a
continuous line of four-drawer file cabinets
reaching all the way from the nation's
capital to Chicago. In view of the
neglect and indifference accorded the
records of the federal government in
World War I and of the long drawn-out
process of putting those that were
preserved in order, the control over the
records of World War II indicated
by the publication of this Guide less
than six years after the conflict ended
is a tribute to the staff of the
National Archives and the records staffs of
the numerous government agencies whose
records are described therein.
The Guide is intended to be
general only, "so that persons wishing to find
information on particular subjects will
be able to determine which, among
many, are the groups of records most
likely to contain the information they
desire." More detailed finding
media are, in most cases, available in the Na-
tional Archives or in the respective
agencies having custody of the records
in question. (Not all records described
have been transferred to the National
Archives.) The period covered is
generally from the beginning of war in
Europe in 1939 to the completion of
demobilization following the surrender
of Japan in 1945.
Volume I, Civilian Agencies, covers
the records of such regularly con-
stituted civilian departments and
branches of the federal government as
congress, the federal courts, and the
various executive departments (except-
ing War and Navy), in so far as their
functions embraced matters relating
to national defense. It also covers the
records of the numerous emergency
civilian agencies, such as the War
Resources Board, Selective Service, the
Office of Production Management, the
Office of Price Administration, and
over forty-five other civilian agencies
created specifically in response to the
war needs of the country.
436
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Volume II, Military Agencies, covers
the records of the War Department
and the Army; the Navy; the various
interallied and interservice military
agencies such as the Combined Chiefs of
Staff, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and
the Office of Strategic Services; and
the records of the various theaters of
operation including the American,
European, Mediterranean, African, Mid-
dle East, China-Burma-India, and
Pacific.
For the purpose of description,
arrangement in the Guide is by major de-
partment or branch of the federal
government; related agencies or other
governmental units are described
thereunder. This is a welcome departure
from the procedure usually followed in
National Archives guides, namely
the "Record Group" arrangement
reflecting the relative order of accession
rather than any logical relationship
existing among the various bodies of
records accessioned.
The descriptions of the records of each
separate governmental unit are in
two main parts: (1) a brief history of
the unit itself and a description of its
functions, particularly as they relate
to the war effort; and (2) a descrip-
tion of each specific series of records
created by that unit, including such
details as their nature (whether
correspondence, reports, minute books, etc.),
how arranged, approximate volume in
cubic feet, name of the agency cur-
rently (summer, 1949) having custody of
the records, and mention of such
additional sources of information
concerning the unit or its records as are
available from books or other library
materials.
A most useful feature of the Guide is
the comprehensive index to both
volumes appearing at the end of Volume
II. That index covers not only the
various designations by which the
branches and departments of the Govern-
ment whose records are described are
known, but also the names of in-
dividuals mentioned in the descriptions.
It also covers the numerous subjects
on which those records contain
information. Under "Rubber" and the various
subheads thereunder, for example, are
over one hundred entries as well as a
cross reference to "Tires and
Tubes." This is the kind of indexing that
makes a guide of real value to the user.
JAMES N. YOUNG
Library & Archives
The Firestone Tire &
Rubber Company