Book Reviews
Charles Summer and the Coming of the
Civil War. By David Donald.
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960.
xvii??392??xxiv p.; illustra-
tions, bibliography, and index. $6.75.)
The War for the Union. By Allan Nevins. Volume II, War Becomes
Revolution. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1960. xiv??557p.;
illustrations, maps, bibliography,
appendices, and index. $7.50.)
Charles Sumner played a prominent role
in the Civil War era as
an abolitionist senator from
Massachusetts before the war, as chairman
of the committee on foreign relations
and staunch supporter of Lincoln
during the war, and as a radical
reconstructionist after the war. This
volume traces his career from his birth
to 1861; a second volume will
continue the story until Sumner's death
in 1874.
Sumner is one of the few leading figures
of the period who has not,
until now, been the subject of a
scholarly, full-length study. A perusal
of this excellent book suggests some of
the reasons why Sumner has
been heretofore relatively neglected:
the sheer magnitude of the task,
Sumner's lack of positive achievement
(at least in the period up to the
war), and his personality, which, though
dynamic, was for the most
part repulsive. The amount of material
relating to Sumner both in manu-
script and in published sources is
prodigious. The author tells us that
his task for the past ten years has been
not to discover or unearth Sum-
ner materials but to assimilate them.
Despite the bulk of materials re-
lating to his manifold activities
Sumner's early life was singularly
devoid of solid achievement. Perhaps he
could best be described as
a dilettante. Learned in literature and
the law but contributing to neither
field, he dabbled in various lines of
activity. He traveled extensively
abroad, and amongst the ruling
aristocracies, the literati, and the savants
of Europe he established friendly
relations which lasted throughout his
career. As a young man Sumner
undoubtedly presented a handsome
physical appearance; he dressed well,
talked well. and used flattery
generously--all qualities that would
recommend him to upper-class
society. But it must be added that
Sumner's enthusiasm for things
162
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
European was genuine; there seems little
doubt that as a matter of
temperament he preferred London, Paris,
or Rome to Washington or
even Boston. When not traveling in
Europe, Sumner lived with--
and off--his family in Boston and
carried on a desultory law practice.
From the 1830's on, Sumner was
interested at various times in pacifism,
prison reform, and abolitionism. In the
antislavery field he became
well known and carried on an extensive
correspondence with abolitionist
leaders all over the country, including
Salmon P. Chase and Joshua
Giddings of Ohio.
The peculiarities of the local political
situation caused Sumner to
be elected to the United States Senate
in 1851. Thus he entered politics
at the top. Using the floor of the
senate as a sounding board, he de-
nounced the fugitive slave act of 1850
and his anger reached a white
heat when congress in 1854 repealed the
Missouri Compromise and
passed the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Mr.
Donald brilliantly analyzes the
theoretical foundations of Sumner's
antislavery views. Very briefly,
Sumner believed that congress could net
protect slavery in the territories
for the simple reason that the states
never delegated such a power to
congress (unlike William Lloyd Garrison,
Sunller never attacked the
constitution as such). Thus Sumner
founded his views on a conserva-
tive, state-rights basis. Superficially
at least, this would seem to be
quite an intellectual feat, but Mr.
Donald maintains that this was not
original; others as well had found a
conservative rationale for aboli-
tionism.
Summer rose to national fame not from
any positive acccomplishment
either in legislation or political
thought but from an infamous brawl
on the floor of congress. In 1856 the
carefully prepared what he intended
to be "the most thorough philippic
ever uttered in a legislative body."
In his speech entitled "The Crime
Against Kansas" Sumner attacked
the institution of slavery, the laws
favoring or protecting it, and singled
out the aged and physically handicapped
Senator Butler for vitupera-
tion and ridicule. Preston Brooks, a
congressman from South Carolina
and a relative of the elderly Butler,
took it into his head that he must
punish the offender. Approaching Sumner
one day as he sat writing
at his desk in the senate. Brooks beat
him brutally with a cane. Some
historians maintain that the assault on
Sumner rather than the attack
on Sumter was the real beginning of the
Civil War. However that
may be, the incident certainly added
fuel to the flame of sectional con-
troversy; Sumner became the first martyr
of the new Republican party
and, as someone said, senator for life.
BOOK REVIEWS 163
In Nevins' second volume on the war for
the Union, Sumner is de-
scribed as a "theorist, agitator,
and rhetorician, a doctrinaire who lacked
insight into the men he attacked and the
measures he discussed, and
an egotist who let vanity override
common sense" (p. 203). Neverthe-
less we are told that his influence on
the national administration was
considerable. Lincoln, it seems, treated
him with respect and patience,
not only because this was Lincoln's
method of dealing with people in
general, but because the president
realized it would be folly for the
administration to run afoul of the
powerful chairman of the senate
committee on foreign relations. One has
the feeling all along, however,
that despite frequent visits from Sumner
and much unsolicited advice,
Lincoln followed primarily the dictates
of his own intelligence and
political instinct, little influenced by
the senator from Massachusetts
or any other one politician. For
one of the things that Nevins amply
demonstrates is that Lincoln was the
master politician of them all.
Nevins' first volume on the war for the
Union, subtitled "The Im-
provised War," covered the period
from the inauguration of Lincoln
to February 1862. This, the second of a
projected four-volume series
on the war and reconstruction, covers
the period to roughly June 1863.
The subtitle, "War Becomes
Revolution," is aptly chosen, because by
1862 the true nature of the conflict
began to be apparent. Parts of the
military story are oft-told tales, but
Nevins manages to infuse new
life into it by parading the vast
panorama before our eyes and relating
military developments to administrative,
social, and economic develop-
ments. Only the blockade, the financial
measures, and intellectual cur-
rents are reserved for later treatment.
While paying attention to the
classic campaigns in the East and to the
military genius of Lee and
Jackson, Nevins also gives due weight to
the war in the West. The
exploits of Grant at Forts Henry and
Donelson, the naval genius of
Farragut, the logistical importance of
the river fleet, and other aspects
of the western theater of operations are
described with unusual per-
ception. Militarily, the war became a
revolution because by 1862 it was
fully realized, at least by most
northern leaders, that the war would
be "total"; that it would call
for the utmost in human and material
resources. By the summer of 1862 Sherman
had already decided that
the war would take a turn toward the
extermination not only of the rebel
armies but of civilians as well. When
attacks occurred on the federal
steamboats in the Mississippi, Sherman
broke all restraints. "Insisting
on condign penalties, he ordered his
troops to lay waste all the houses,
164
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
farm buildings, and fields in a strip
for fifteen miles along the Arkansas
bank of the Mississippi" (p. 294).
But 1862 saw a revolution in the halls
of congress as well as on the
fields of battle. The most far-reaching
legislative program since the
first congress was enacted into law.
This program, which included a
homestead bill, the Morrill act
establishing land-grant colleges, the
authorization of the construction of a
transcontinental railroad, and a
high protective tariff, had far-reaching
and continuing effects. Together
with government contracts and subsidies
it helped to accelerate an
economic revolution that was already
under way before the war; it
spelled the end of the old agrarian
regime and the triumph of the new
industrial order.
Nevins' latest book seems to this
reviewer his best. As one follows
the story in its multifarious aspects,
he realizes that the history of the
war has never before been written. To be
sure, the Civil War has been
much written about--too much some will
say--but never before has
anyone attempted to fit all the pieces
together on such a vast scale.
Though there are many matters of detail
that one might question, this
reviewer has but two important
demurrers: he dissents from the view
that a revolution in the status and
outlook of the Negro was achieved
in 1862, and he feels that the volume
suffers greatly from inadequate
maps.
To take the last objection first: It
might be contended that what one
needs to follow the campaigns in detail
is not maps but an atlas. This
view would have argued for leaving out
maps altogether and perhaps
would have been defensible. But
evidently it was decided that the reader
needed some guidance. The maps supplied
are not defensible: they are
small, hard to read, and practically
useless.
In regard to the Negro, it cannot be
denied that simple freedom (for
the Negroes fortunate enough to be in
the paths of the liberating armies)
and limited enlistment in the armed
forces portended much for the future.
But a true revolution in the status of
the Negro had to wait at least
a hundred years, and some would contend
that true liberation has not
yet been achieved.
There is great irony in the drama that
Nevins unfolds: the South,
in the eastern theater at least, was
winning militarily but growing
weaker (day by day: the North was losing
but growing stronger all
the time. The war in the South brought
forth some of the best (as well
as some of the worst) qualities of the
old agrarian order, but it destroyed
that society. Even if the South had won
all its battles, it could not have
BOOK REVIEWS 165
preserved what it was fighting for. In
the North the war released
latent energies and in fact helped to
bring forth a new industrial society.
The irony is heightened by the further
realization that the aftermath
would enhance these divergent
tendencies: retardation and poverty in
the South; growth and expansion in the
North.
Ohio State University HARRY L. COLES
The American
Heritage Picture History of the Civil War. Edited by
Richard M. Ketchum; narrative by Bruce
Catton. (New York: Amer-
ican Heritage Publishing Company, 1960.
630p.; illustrations, maps,
and index. $19.95.)
Horsemen Blue and Gray: A Pictorial
History. Pictures by Hirst
Dillon Milhollen; text by James Ralph
Johnson and Alfred Hoyt
Bill. (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1960. vii??236p.; illustra-
tions, bibliography, and index. $10.00.)
The American Civil War has spawned many
pictorial histories. But
none matches the superb quality of this
one produced by American
Heritage's editors.
From the introductory Winslow Homer
painting of "Rainy Day in
Camp" to the final photograph of
the sad rows of unmarked, weathered
gravestones at Antietam, this volume
maintains the highest standard
of excellence. Its 836 illustrations
(more than one-third of them in
color) range from battle sketches by
professional illustrators for Harper's
and Leslie's to pencil drawings
by combat soldiers themselves, to photo-
graphs by Mathew Brady and Alexander
Gardner, to paintings by
Winslow Homer, Albert Bierstadt, Conrad
Chapman, and the Prince
de Joinville, to contemporary posters
and lithographs. The soldiers and
generals, campaigns and battles
naturally get the lion's share of space,
but politicians, financiers, reformers,
and other civilians behind the lines
are not neglected, and neither is the
naval phase of the war.
Two unusual features give an added touch
to the work. Color photo-
graphs by present-day photographers of
Civil War sites as they appear
today, taken at the same time of year
and in the same kind of weather
as when the fighting flared, often catch
the flavor of land and woods
and water as the men in blue and gray
must have sensed them a century
ago. Picture maps, showing not only the
terrain but "the ranks forming
for battle, the movement of troops, . .
[and] hand-to-hand combat."
provide the reader a clear view of the
action in the major battles.
166
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Accompanying the pictures, runs Bruce
Catton's sprightly narrative
of more than 150,000 words. This gives
continuity and meaning to the
pictorial story. Catton covers not only
the military campaigns and the
naval war and blockade but also
politics, the competing economies, the
diplomatic struggle, transportation, and
the civilian front. Here is the
war in its full, colorful, and tragic
dimensions.
Horsemen Blue and Gray is of course more limited in size and cover-
age, as its title indicates. One-third
the length of the American Heritage
volume, it provides a pictorial and
narrative account of the activities
of the Union and Confederate cavalry
units. Although it includes some
paintings and sketches by wartime
artists (all are done in black and
white), the bull of the pictures are
photographs drawn largely from
the Library of Congress collections, of
which Mr. Milhollen was curator
for many years. Some original maps help
give background and con-
tinuity to the picture story. The text,
as well as the illustrations, covers
familiar ground. Those dashing,
sometimes gallant, sometimes cruel,
Confederate horsemen--John Hunt Morgan,
Jeb Stuart, John Mosby,
William
Quantrill, Nathan B. Forrest, Joseph Wheeler, and Jubal
Early--are all here. So, too, are their
Federal counterparts--Alfred
Pleasanton, George Stoneman, George A.
Custer, and of course Phil
Sheridan. Other lesser cavalrymen from
both sides put in their appear-
ance, too. The editor-authors have come
up from their search with many
eye-catching pictures. The text helps
illuminate some obscure corners
of the war on horseback. The basic
difficulty of course is that still pic-
tures cannot recapture the sweeping
movement of cavalry warfare.
Some contemporary sketches help
alleviate the difficulty but provide
no full remedy, which is perhaps
impossible to achieve. The technical
reproduction here is generally
effective.
Those who like their study of history
well illustrated will find both
these volumes eminently satisfying.
Los Angeles
State College DAVID LINDSEY
Caniada and the United States: The
Civil War Years. By Robin W.
Winks. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press,
1960. xix??430p.; note
on sources and index. $6.50.)
Both as a student and as a teacher of
the history of Canada and
Canadian-American relations, I have
awaited the appearance of Pro-
fessor Winks's book. I had hoped that it
would fill some irksome gaps
in my knowledge of the subject. I had
hoped it would be a book whose
BOOK REVIEWS 167
inclusion in blackboard bibliographies
would stimulate my students.
Neither hope has been realized.
Canada and the United States treats virtually all the relations between
British North America and the United
States; and it is not a book
without merit. Some chapters place
events, 1861-65, under a more
revealing glass than any historian has
yet held over them. However,
this book has not replaced L. B.
Shippee's Canadian-American Rela-
tions, 1849-1874, to which Professor Winks pays very little reference.
And yet, on the other hand, reference is
made to countless articles, manu-
script collections, contemporary
newspapers, et cetera. At times, lengthy
references are given to substantiate
well-known historical events. The
book often seems
"over-researched." In one instance (p. 95) nine news-
papers crowd their comment into a single
paragraph. In another (pp.
126-127) a short paragraph of textual
material upon a minor matter is
supported by a paragraph-long battery of
abbreviated citations. It
seemed to the reviewer as if the author
often equated bibliography with
historiography.
At first glance, the book appears to
rest so comfortably upon the
bedrock of historical authority that
criticism of it would be out of the
question. And in addition to the usual
footnotes, Professor Winks has
buttressed his work with a lengthy
preface, giving acknowledgments
to a legion of individuals who either
read his manuscript or provided
him with research leads. The "Note
on Sources" is equally long and
pretentious.
For all the care given its scholarly
underpinnings, Canada and the
United States is open to serious criticism. For example, the
reference
to W. L. Morton's Manitoba (p.
169n) is meaningless. Although, in
citing Morton, Winks implies his own
purpose to be the provision of
"additional light on the Red River
situation," an examination of the
pages cited in Morton's history fails to
shed any additional light. Chap-
ter Nine has a great many errors. Winks
writes of the "Dakotas" (p.
155), though there was only one Dakota
Territory till 1889. He states
(p. 168) that "nearly fifteen
thousand people" lived in the British Red
River Valley; but the census of 1870
listed less than 12,000. His ma-
terial on James W. Taylor (pp. 169-170)
is erroneous and/or mislead-
ing. And to say (p. 171) that the route
from Red River to St. Paul
"was opened once again only when
two thousand troops garrisoned the
many sod forts that dotted the
plains" is quite inaccurate. The route
was actually closed only during the
fearful fall days of 1862; and its
re-opening was certainly not dependent
upon American soldiers whose
168
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
sod (?) forts dotted (?) the plains.
Furthermore, to write (p. 174)
that one of Major Hatch's officers
"violated" the 49th parallel is most
misleading. One of Hatch's companies was
recruited in the Red River
Settlement. Both Hatch's officers and
men frequently crossed the border,
and the Masons among them helped start
Red River's Northern Light
Lodge.
Still other criticisms have to be
mentioned. The book's editing was
carelessly done. Presumably the Golden
Smith of page 25 is the well-
known Goldwin Smith of page 29. Fort
Garry's newspaper, according
to its masthead, is the Nor'-Wester, not
the Nor'wester. Some state-
ments seem unwarranted. For example, how
could there have existed
a true Anglo-American rapprochement in
1860, coinciding with the visit
of the Prince of Wales, when the young
prince's adviser, the Duke of
Newcastle, felt and later acted
otherwise? Chapter titles such as "Inter-
lude: Petites Choses" and
"Poisoning the Well" are more precious than
helpful.
In sum, this is a book that is long on
sources--historiographic "name-
dropping"--but short on analysis
and historical judgment. Often well
written, it is neither well nor
consistently organized. Though it was
presumably an excellent Ph.D. thesis, it
ought to have lain fallow for
several more years.
Michigan State University ALVIN C. GLUEK, JR.
The Idea of Continental Union:
Agitation for the Annexation of Canada
to the United States, 1849-1893. By Donald F. Warner. (Lexington:
University of Kentucky Press, 1960.
ix??276p.; maps, bibliographical
essay, and index. $5.00.)
This is the first of five books that
will be published for the Missis-
sippi Valley Historical Association by
the University of Kentucky
Press as the end product of an award
program initiated by the associa-
tion in 1958 to help stimulate research
and writing in American history.
The winner of the first award and author
of this book is professor of
history at Wisconsin State College, Eau
Claire.
Professor Warner says he chose to limit
his study of the annexation
movement to the forty-four years between
1849 and 1893 because these
years saw the movement at its greatest
intensity. However, the idea
of Canadian-American union actually
started in 1775 and persisted well
into the twentieth century. Professor
Warner, of course, mentions the
attempts of the colonies and later of
the United States to wrest Canada
BOOK REVIEWS 169
from Great Britain during the Revolution
and the War of 1812, tracing
the movement in a general way during the
next three decades. He con-
centrates his attention on the 1840's,
during a period when the people
of Canada obtained a fairly large
measure of self-government culminat-
ing in the confederation achieved in
1867. From that point he carries
the story on to 1893, when persistent
failure of the annexationists and
a growing Canadian nationalism finally
settled the question. The agita-
tion of 1911, well-known to students of
the history of the United States
and Canada, was not included, he says,
because it was "almost entirely
contrived and insincere." He
believes it was a successful attempt by
shrewd Americans to frighten the
Canadians into rejecting the reci-
procity agreement of 1911.
The main movements dealt with in the
body of the text were re-
markably similar in cause, course, and
failure. Economic in motivation
and often complicated by strife between
the English and the French
Canadians, movements for annexation
arose when Canada was in de-
pression and when the United States
seemed to be more prosperous.
Their strength centered where contact
was closest between the dominion
and the republic to the south, that is,
in the commercial cities and along
the border. They attracted some men of
influence, capital, or adventure
but never realized a majority support,
and usually wilted away with
the return to prosperity. The efforts of
the leaders for continental union
helped Canada gain status within the
British empire; and helped the
Canadian people of the West to win from
the federal government in
Ottawa the railways and other
concessions they needed for the develop-
ment of the new provinces. Thus Warner
concludes that the annexa-
tion movement promoted what it was
designed to prevent. It hastened
the day of confederation in the East and
helped bring the Canadian
northwest into the dominion.
The effect of the continental union
movement on the relationship be-
tween Britain and her North American
colonies is dealt with in the
last chapter. Warner says that it was no
accident that Canada was
always the leader on the way up the slow
and tortuous path to dominion
status and practical independence,
especially for the larger nations
comprising the British commonwealth. The
geographic proximity of the
United States gave to Canada an
alternative to British rule and curbed
any inclination the imperial officials
in London man have had to deal
brusquely with their North American
dependency.
Firestone Library and Archives WILLIAM
D. OVERMAN
170
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Windsor Border Region; Canada's
Southernmost Frontier: A
Collection of Documents. Edited with an introduction by Ernest J.
Lajeunesse, C.S.B. (Toronto: The
Champlain Society for the Gov-
ernment of Ontario, University of
Toronto Press, 1960. cxxix??374p.;
illustrations, plates, appendices,
bibliography, and index. $5.00.)
This work is volume four of the new
series on the early history of
various Ontario regions which is being
prepared under the direction of
the Champlain Society for the Ontario
government. The three earlier
volumes have dealt with The Valley of
the Trent, Royal Fort Frontenac,
and Kingston Before the War of 1812, and
in preparation are volumes
on the early histories of York, the
Muskoka-Haliburton region, and the
Grand River Valley.
The present volume concerns itself with
the area on the Canadian
side of the Detroit River from the time
of its first exploration in the
seventeenth century to the laying out of
the first towns in the last
decade of the eighteenth century. Much
of the material also relates to
the early history of Detroit. The volume
is divided into three main
sections: an introduction of 129 pages,
over 220 pages of documents,
and appendices of over 130 pages. The
heart of the volume is the
documentary section, and this contains
over two hundred documents
or extracts. It follows a roughly
chronological pattern, but this is
modified to allow for the development of
the eight topics into which
the section is divided. In turn, the
documents relate to visitors before
1700, the founding of Detroit and the
Huron mission, the coming of
settlers to the south shore, the pioneer
settlers and their farms, govern-
ment and law under British rule,
religion and education after 1760,
loyalists and land boards, and the first
towns--Sandwich and Amherst-
burg. The necessity of compressing so
much into these pages has meant
that some important topics have received
cursory treatment; only
twenty-nine pages are devoted to
"Government and Law under British
Rule." About two-thirds of the
documents have been published before
(many of them in the Michigan Pioneer
and Historical Collections),
and of the nearly seventy unpublished
documents, over one-third are
concentrated in the section devoted to
religion and education after 1760.
Though there is not extensive
documentation of any one subject, there
is a good general selection of documents
to illustrate the history of the
region.
Father Lajeunesse's introduction is
divided into the same eight topical
divisions as the documents, and succeeds
not only in commenting effec-
BOOK REVIEWS 171
tively on the documents themselves but
also in fitting them into a co-
herent and interesting narrative. It
serves both as an introduction to
this volume and as a useful general
account of the early history of
the Canadian side of the Detroit River.
The major portion of the ap-
pendices is devoted to the French and
Latin texts of those documents
given in translation in the main body of
the work, and the rest is de-
voted to various lists of officials,
land holdings, and genealogical data,
material which any historian of the area
will find useful to have at hand.
The value of the work is increased by
the excellent maps and illustra-
tions. All in all, this is a most
attractive volume, and a welcome addition
to an excellent series.
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee REGINALD HORSMAN
American Philanthropy. By Robert H. Bremner. (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1960. viii??230p.;
suggested readings and index.
$4.50.)
American Philanthropy is to be commended as an interestingly writ-
ten pioneering venture, but it must be
regarded as a sampling of pos-
sibilities in this area of historical
scholarship, rather than as anything
approaching complete or penetrating
coverage of the topic. It is difficult
to infer what criteria were used to
select material--why these particular
philanthropists and projects were
included, and why there are long
time-gaps after passing mention of some
innovation.
According to the introduction, this was
to have been "a survey of
voluntary activity in the fields of
charity, religion, education, humani-
tarian reform, social service, war
relief, and foreign aid." One might
then wonder at the space devoted to
publicly financed enterprises. If
(as this reviewer is inclined to feel)
the author justifiably thought
that the significance of voluntary
efforts can only be seen if they are
weighed against concurrent tax-supported
provisions in the same field,
then the treatment is most inconsistent,
for publicly supported activities
are mentioned for some periods and
subjects and completely ignored
in others.
Part of the disconnected and sketchy
coverage is no doubt due to
the lack of previous systematic
research. The content in brief summary
volumes on most topics is usually drawn
from an array of well-sifted,
authoritative, scholarly treatises. In
this work, whatever happened to
come to the attention of one individual
author or what especially ap-
172 THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
pealed to his imagination and interest
seems to have been strung to-
gether in almost hit and miss fashion.
The attention given each item
does not seem governed either by the
monetary size of the donations,
or the total repercussion on American
social life and philanthropic
practice. Thus war relief is recounted
in sprightly style, and seems to
have received disproportionate space,
considering the number of years
involved, while popular education and
foreign missions are dealt with
briefly now and then.
This uneven treatment seems especially
regrettable when Dr. Bremner
himself throws out many
thought-provoking analytical ideas that could
have added much unity and illumination
if they had been applied
throughout. Thus he hints at speculation
over what might be the social
function of philanthropy when he
suddenly refers to "the way philan-
thropy is supposed to work" in
describing the shift of provision of
talking books from a voluntary
experiment serving relatively few to
governmental coverage for all; but he
does not test this hypothesis
with other examples. Earlier, charity
schools were said to have been
a hindrance to the free public education
movement. One regrets that
the reader is left to make all such
comparisons wholly on his own.
Of Herbert Hoover, Bremner comments,
"He revered charity too
highly and attached too much virtue to
casual giving--so much, in fact,
that he was tempted to place the interests
of the benevolent before the
needs of the necessitous." There
were a number of other instances when
the satisfaction of the giver similarly
seemed of paramount concern,
and some comparisons, guided by Dr.
Bremner's acute analytic ability,
would have been illuminating.
The most valuable contribution of this
book will probably be the brief
biographical profiles of the long
procession of philanthropists, from
Squanto, who offered primitive
agricultural education to the Pilgrims
in 1620, to disc jockey Peter Tripp, who
stayed awake two hundred
hours for the 1959 March of Dimes. Their
varying motivations and
philosophies include the doctrine of
stewardship, religious obligation,
desire for social justice,
"atonement" for dubious money-making prac-
tices, and desire for public
exhibitionism.
As a collection of fascinating
anecdotes, the book is entertaining
and well worth rapid perusal. This
reader hopes Dr. Bremner will
follow it up with a more unified and
comprehensive analysis. We should
have not only a sampling of the types of
philanthropic activity and some
of the captivating people who engaged in
it, but also a review of the
recurring problems and typical choices
that have to be made in every
BOOK REVIEWS 173
endeavor, together with the long-range
impact on American society.
Of these, we are given only an
occasional intriguing hint.
St. Louis, Missouri. MURIEL
W. PUMHREY
South Pass, 1868: James Chisholm's
Journal of the Wyoming Gold
Rush. Introduced and edited by Lola M. Homsher. (Lincoln:
Uni-
versity of Nebraska Press, 1960.
vi??244p.; maps, illustrations, notes
and bibliography. $4.50.)
End of Track. By James H. Kyner as told to Hawthorne Daniel. Intro-
duction by James C. Olson. (Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press,
1960. 280p. Paper, $1.60.)
Each of these moderately priced
contributions should give added
impetus and justification to the current
vogue for western Americana.
South Pass deserves the more extended notice on two counts. First,
it
is an uncommonly handsome specimen of
book design. From jacket
to footnotes it reflects a loving
carefulness that would do honor to a
fine private press. Second, the Chisholm
journal itself is an eminently
readable one printed here for the first
time.
James Chisholm was a recently
naturalized young Scot who had been
sent by the Chicago Tribune to
report from the scene of the fresh gold
strikes in Wyoming's Wind River
Mountains. His editors doubtless
regretted their decision, for the news
value of this bonanza dwindled
rapidly. But his private journal,
recently given by the family to the
Wyoming State Archives, could only
increase in value. It is a true
journal, as distinct from a mere diary
that chronicles the days and
doings. Despite the threat of an encounter with Indians that might have
left him "prematurely bald,"
Chisholm wrote fluently and sometimes
eloquently of persons and places that
interested him: "Society in the
city of Miner's Delight consists of
three females. The first is a plump,
dumpling-faced woman built very much in
the shape of a bale of cotton
drawn together in the middle, and with a
big coal scuttle on the top"
(p. 104). Other sights brought other
moods, as when he entered "the
bare dreary melancholy plains, partially
snow clad, and looking like a
vast winding sheet considerably
ripped" (p. 32). His profile of Moun-
tain Bill Rhodes alone is worth the
price of the book.
Chisholm's present editor has added
biographical material, explana-
tory and background notes, maps, and
illustrations from the journal,
all of which will be useful to someone.
This reader found some of the
174
THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
annotation annoyingly overdone (e.
g., pp. 20, 80, 91, 93) and a por-
tion of the Supplementary Notes of
doubtful utility.
Kyner's memoir is an attractive reprint
in paperback of a work that
on its first publication in 1937 was
praised by reviewers as much for
its breadth of appeal as for its
documentation of a relatively neglected
aspect of western railroad building.
Doubtless in part because it was
"told to" a professional
writer by the eighty-nine-year-old Kyner, it
is a skillfully told story. Civil War
buffs will want to note the dramatic
Shiloh battle episode, in which this
sixteen-year-old Lancaster, Ohio,
boy lost part of a leg. Political
historians will appreciate his frank "con-
fessions" of Nebraska legislature
days in the early eighties. Railroad
historians will find details of
construction problems here from Kyner's
career as a grading contractor in
Nebraska, Idaho, Colorado, and Wy-
oming between 1881 and 1900, and
something on the Lancaster and
Hamden fiasco of 1893 in Ohio. And
television script writers surely
ought to check through Kyner's anecdotes
for fresh variations on the
malefactions of payroll robbers, painted
women, and professional gam-
blers. He and his friends more than once
acted out the "facedown"
with their pockets full of Derringers in
the best Dodge City style.
College of Wooster THOMAS E. FELT
La Follette's Autobiography: A
Personal Narrative of Political Ex-
periences. By Robert M. La Follette, with a Foreword by Allan
Nevins. (Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1960. xi??349p.;
frontispiece and index. Paper, $1.95.)
This volume is, in La Follette's words,
"a personal narrative of po-
litical experiences" that covers
his public career from its start in Wis-
consin in the 1880's to the presidential
campaign of 1912. It was first
published in 1913.
The Autobiography is an intensely
personal, and hence partisan, ac-
count. Recent studies by George E.
Mowry, Richard N. Current, Robert
S. Maxwell, and Herbert F. Margulies
indicate that the story related
by La Follette needs revision on many
details. But then La Follette
was not writing history; the Autobiography
was intended as an inspira-
tional tract "to cheer on the
fighters" for reform legislation. The result
was the standard progressive morality
play: the valiant public servant
struggling to overcome the entrenched
forces of greed and special
privilege.
BOOK REVIEWS 175
In carrying on this fight, La Follette
suffered from much the same
confusion of purpose that afflicted so
many of his fellow progressives.
There was the La Follette who entitled a
chapter "Progressive Govern-
ment Produces Business Prosperity."
Notwithstanding his denuncia-
tions of T. R., notwithstanding his own
reputation as a firebrand, many
of his utterances had a strikingly
Rooseveltian ring. "The object of our
legislation," he wrote, "was
not to 'smash' corporations.... It is the
special discriminations and unjust rates
that are being corrected; the
privileges, unfair advantages, and
political corruption that have been
abolished. Where these do not exist the
object has been to foster and
encourage business activity." (p.
150.)
There was, on the other hand, the La
Follette who clamored for more
vigorous trustbusting to restore
competition. This was a demand at once
reactionary and revolutionary. It was
reactionary because it harked back
to the simpler conditions of an earlier
age; revolutionary because its
implementation would have required the
dismantling of the existing
power structure of the American economy.
No one can know if this
solution was feasible; the remedy was
never tested. But if the test had
been made, perhaps no one would have
been more appalled than La
Follette himself. Like so many of his
contemporaries, he never suc-
ceeded in making clear how he would
break up the trusts without smash-
ing corporations.
Despite its shortcomings on details, the
historian can gain from La
Follette's Autobiography insight into the mind of a leading figure of
the Progressive era. It has been long
out of print. Students of the period
owe a debt of gratitude to the
University of Wisconsin Press for making
it once again available, in a reasonably
priced, paperbound edition.
Ohio State University JOHN BRAEMAN
The Crusade Against Slavery,
1830-1860. By Louis Filler. The New
American Nation Series, edited by Henry
Steele Commager and
Richard B. Morris. (New York: Harper and
Brothers, 1960. xvii??
318p.; illustrations, maps,
bibliography, and index. $5.00.)
The publishers had tentatively announced
this as a book on abolition
and reform, but it now emerges as a
study of the antislavery crusade
alone. The change in emphasis focuses
attention on both its strength
and weakness. Professor Filler treats
some reform movements other
than antislavery, but he evaluates them
mostly according to their con-
176
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tribution to what he believes to be the
more significant reform. Ac-
cording to one of the editors of the
series, Professor Filler views slavery
as "the supreme moral issue of that
age." Consequently, some of the
other reform movements receive little or
no recognition in their own
right. Spiritualism, with its expansion
of the horizons of the new
science, some of the communitarians'
search for a brave new world,
and the peace crusade are a few of these
relatively slighted reforms.
But Professor Filler does view the
reform impulse as an entity and he
discusses its various manifestations as
segments of a whole.
Scholars have too long accepted the
validity of those works which
have promoted Theodore Dwight Weld and
some other western aboli-
tionists as the major figures of the
antislavery crusade. In contrast,
Professor Filler places William Lloyd
Garrison in the forefront of the
abolition movement. Garrison was the
symbol of abolition to many of
his generation, and this study should
help to give proper perspective
to his work. Yet it does not
underestimate the contributions of others;
the antislavery movement had many
factions and each had an important
contribution to make. The heated
factional debates among the anti-
slavery disciples, the author points
out, led many writers to overlook
their basic agreement.
Professor Filler also sharply questions
the idea that there was a
fundamental difference between moral and
political abolitionism. Ac-
cording to his findings the moral
abolitionists played an essential role
in paving the way and creating the
setting which made political aboli-
tionism possible. After the reform
became political it continued to be
influenced by moral crusaders both
within and outside the ranks of the
antislavery politicians. The distinction
between political abolition and
free-soil doctrine is clearly drawn: the
free soilers were basically anti-
Negro. Yet some of the political and
moral abolitionists were anti-Negro
too, as the study shows. The author
gives little attention to those factors
other than the slavery issue which
caused sectional arguments.
The author does not hide his admiration
for the abolitionists, but
he refuses to gloss over any unpleasant
material which his research
has uncovered. He calls attention to the
religious bigotry of Elijah
Lovejoy and others, the race prejudice
of some of the abolitionists, and
the irresponsible acts and crimes of
John Brown. The book also singles
out some of the more neglected but
significant personalities of the re-
form movements.
Professor Filler credits the
abolitionists with making a major con-
tribution to the ultimate extinction of
slavery. Yet if they are to receive
BOOK REVIEWS 177
some of the credit they must also share
responsibility for the method
used to accomplish the reform. The
abolitionists paid little attention
to the practical means of implementing
their antislavery views. Per-
haps if they had been more aware of the
implications of some other re-
forms of their day they might have made
a more positive contribution
to the means as well as the end of
abolition.
Copious footnotes and a very useful
twenty-two page annotated
bibliography attest to the soundness of
Professor Filler's research. He
used numerous published and manuscript
sources as well as unpub-
lished dissertations. His
interpretations are provocative and they should
send other scholars to the sources for a
confirmation or refutation of
his ideas.
Grove City College LARRY GARA
The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle. By Henry J. Kauffman. (Harris-
burg, Pa.: Stackpole Company, 1960. 376p.;
illustrations, glossary,
bibliography, and index. $12.50.)
Fortunately for the ever-increasing
number of collectors of the unique
Kentucky rifle, the year 1960 saw the
production of two fine books on
this colorful subject. Although this
type of firearm has long been known
as the Kentucky rifle, most of these
rifles were actually made in Penn-
sylvania and used by the Kentucky
pioneers.
The earliest book dealing exclusively
with the Kentucky rifle made
its unheralded appearance in 1924, and
has now become one of the rarer
books connected with early American
firearms. This fine compilation
was the work of the venerable
Captain John G. W. Dillin, who com-
pleted the book during the productive
years of his long life. Following
the Dillin book by more than thirty-five
years came Joe Kindig's monu-
mental treatise entitled Thoughts on
the Kentucky Rifle in Its Golden
Age, published by George Hyatt, Wilmington, Delaware, in
1960
($27.00), a massive quarto volume of 561
pages bulging with 262
finely photographed and richly produced
illustrations made from Mr.
Kindig's private Kentucky rifle
collection, which ranks as one of the
finest in the world.
The book treated in the present review
was written by the man who
was responsible for much of the research
for Mr. Kindig's fine volume.
It embraces a wealth of hitherto
unrecorded information relating to the
history of this particular type of rifle
and to the skilled craftsmen in
178
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
wood and metal who made this unique
weapon, thought by many
present-day authorities to be the most
graceful firearm ever devised.
The Kauffman volume has 293
illustrations, which, as with the Kindig
book, give excellent details of Kentucky
rifles and their various parts.
Mr. Kauffman gives a masterly concept of
the Kentucky rifle in all
its multitude of ramifications, and also
enters into the "accoutrements"
that go into the shooting of the rifle.
In this particular chapter, one of
the most interesting in the book, the
author explains the making of
black gunpowder, the chipping of the
flint that produced the spark that
ignited the powder in the barrel, and
the fashioning of cow's-horn re-
ceptacles used in carrying the powder.
Of the thousands of Pennsylvania-made
Kentucky rifles that have been
preserved in public and private
collections, and the hundreds that have
been chosen to illustrate the three
books here mentioned, there are really
not more than a few dozen rifles that
could be called superlative speci-
mens, insofar as the overall design of
the embellishment is concerned.
This observation would include the
carving of the stock, the numerous
inlays of silver, brass, and other
metals, and the engraving of these
metal inlays. In many of the rifles the
actual execution of the cut-out
metal inlays is exceptionally well
performed and shows a masterly skill
which would be comparable to the
craftsmanship of eighteenth-century
artisans in other fields of endeavor. It
is the conception of the actual
design of the inlay embellishments,
however, that falls short in so many
of the rifles of the Kentucky group.
This criticism of the lack of pleasing
design of the ornamental features of the
Kentucky rifles should not be
too severe when it is considered that
each individual gunsmith had to
be proficient in forging, smithing,
woodworking, carving, metal cutting
and piercing, and wire inlaying, and
have at least a fair skill in engrav-
ing. There were few other crafts carried
on during the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries where
such diversified adroitness was
required. Perhaps this versatility,
spread over such a wide field of
activity, explains why the actual
designs of so many of the early rifles
are not as pleasing in form and
delineation as might be hoped.
No doubt the most important section of
Mr. Kauffman's book, and
certainly the part that required the
most research, would be the nearly
two hundred pages that are devoted to
the biographies of Pennsylvania
gunsmiths.
Mr. Kauffman has given gun collectors a
superb volume with abundant
information and informative
illustrations, not only pictures of rifles, but
photographs of old gunsmiths' shops,
powder horns and flasks, as well
BOOK REVIEWS 179
as facsimiles of old maps, newspaper
advertisements, trade cards, broad-
sides, and other interesting material
relating to the Kentucky flintlock
firearm. No gun-collector's library
would be complete without these
works of Dillin, Kindig, and Kauffman,
all authoritative writers on the
Kentucky rifle.
Ohio Historical Society DARD HUNTER, JR.
The Territorial Papers of the United
States. Compiled and edited by
Clarence E. Carter. Volume XXV, The Territory
of Florida, 1834-
1839. (Washington: National Archives, 1960. v??790p.; index.
$6.00.)
This volume contains papers relating to
the administrations of Gov-
ernor John H. Eaton from his appointment
in April 1834 to his resigna-
tion two years later on his appointment
as minister to Spain, and of
Governor Richard K. Call to his removal
in December 1839 at the
request of the secretary of war.
The fiercest internal struggles in the
Jackson administration were over
by this time, and the only change in the
national administration was from
the "Old Hero" to his
hand-picked successor Van Buren, so that the
charges of gross immorality and
malfeasance in office against office-
holders prospective and present which so
enlivened the preceding volume
are comparatively rare. Although the
marshal of East Florida allegedly
kept his regular office hours of from 9
or 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. (the dinner
hour) only one or two days in every two
or three months, a recent pre-
decessor had been accused of charging a horse, saddle, and bridle to his
stationery account, so apparently
standards of honesty had improved--
if not of service to the public. We do,
to be sure, learn that the legislative
council expended its entire
"regular appropriations" on the employment
of "about one clerk for every two
members" and of charges against a
former postmaster at St. Augustine of
intemperance, overcharging, and
abstracting money from letters--charges
which did not prevent his sub-
sequent nomination as county auctioneer
and justice of the peace by two
successive governors.
Petitions for roads and harbor and river
improvements, and descrip-
tions of construction problems, are
informative on engineering methods;
vide the successful use of a diving bell in removing rock
from a river-
improvement cut. Descriptions of mail
routes and requests for their
extension contribute to our knowledge of
transportation and communica-
1SO
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tion. Several detailed descriptions of
Florida topography and agri-
cultural possibilities are of interest.
The genealogist and local historian
will perhaps be more interested in the
names attached to certain petitions
than in the documents themselves.
A controversy over whether or not Indian
Key should be established
as a port of entry and the seat of a new
county might interest the his-
torical novelist; the opposition claimed
that Indian Key was owned and
controlled by a single man, a wrecker of
questionable character, who
"combines in himself, the
legislative, judicial and executive authority,
as lord of his insular
proprietory," and who had garnered the signatures
for his petitions from ships' crews
"for a glass of grog each time."
The most important theme is, of course,
the Second Seminole War,
which broke out late in 1835 and was to
continue well into 1842. The
material on the war would, indeed, have
been overwhelming had it not
been for the general editorial
principles that less relative emphasis should
be placed on Indian and military affairs
than on civil administration,
and that papers already printed should
not ordinarily be republished.
The Seminole War material does not so much
add to our basic knowl-
edge as reinforce with additional detail
information already available in
published documents. This reinforcement,
nevertheless, and such new
information as is presented, is
exceedingly valuable and will henceforth
be indispensable, as will also, no
doubt, be the material on the end of the
war in the succeeding volume. Worthy of
mention are Governor Call's
suggestions for establishing military
colonies and "Old Hickory's"
famous diatribe against the Floridians
as "damned cowards" for their
failure to "put down the war."
Casual use of the invaluable index
reveals some examples of haste.
"Picolata . . . deserted by
inhabs." and "Rodman, John, arrested for
hiding slaves" are not justified by
the text. "The friendly Chief Charley
O Matler," whose murder by Osceola
inaugurated the Seminole War,
is twice mistakenly identified in the
notes with Neamathla, a Creek chief
who figures in earlier volumes of this
series.
This volume, like the others, will
obviously be indispensable to any-
one with a special interest in
territorial Florida in general or the Sem-
inole War in particular.
University of Oregon KENNETH WIGGINS PORTER
BOOK REVIEWS 181
Letters of Francis Parkman. Edited and with an Introduction by Wilbur
R. Jacobs. (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, published in
co-operation with the Massachusetts
Historical Society, 1960. Two
volumes. lxv??204p., xl??286p.;
illustrations and indexes. $12.50.)
These two volumes containing more than
four hundred Parkman
letters include all the significant
correspondence discovered in some eight
years of collecting that "involved
thousands of miles of travel and an
extensive correspondence with letter
sleuths in Europe, Canada, and
many parts of the United States."
Approximately one-third of the let-
ters had been printed previously but
often in defective form and without
editorial explanations.
Professor Jacobs has reproduced the
letters as nearly as possible in
their original form, even including
Parkman's deletions. Bad handwrit-
ing, the result of the historian's
defective vision, and the necessity of
translating letters to French
correspondents, which were written in
French, added to the usual editorial
burdens. Each document has been
carefully annotated as to source, date,
correspondent, proper names,
and statements requiring clarification.
In places, quotations have been
included from letters to Parkman to make
his replies intelligible.
Tables of contents give brief summaries
of the subject matter of all
letters in the two volumes, and a number
of illustrations sharpen the
reader's interest. Most appealing is a
photograph of the partially blind
historian's writing guide, a wire
"gridiron," with his colored spectacles
beside it. A reproduction of a painting
of Lilium Parmanji attests to
his high reputation as a
horticulturalist.
The arrangement of the letters in
chronological order reveals Park-
man's peaks and depressions, the gains
and the frustrations of his
struggle with illness, "the
Enemy," always present or lurking in the
shadows. In the editorial introduction
of some thirty pages, Professor
Jacobs suggests the possibility of the
presence of neurotic elements be-
hind his various ailments. The letters
seem to bear this out. At times
he displayed surprising physical vigor,
visiting and tramping over his-
toric sites, camping and fishing in the northern
New England woods,
making trips to Canada and to Europe,
and usually returning little the
worse for his exertions.
His conservative and aritocratic
views are brough out especially
in
a series of Civil War letters to the Boston Daily Advertiser
in which
lie deplores the lack of a cultured
intelligent leadership, calling Lincoln
in September 1862 the North's
"feeble and utgainly mouthpiece" (p.
153). He engaged in a sharp controversy
with advocates of woman
182
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
suffrage in 1879-80, but generally his
research and writing and personal
matters fill his pages.
Parkman's love of the woods interested
him in Indian life, which he
viewed at first hand on his western trip
of 1846. The result was The
Oregon Trail. Seven letters provide new information on this
adventure.
His histories begin with Pontiac and
then backtrack to cover the story
of New France and Anglo-French
rivalries. Jared Sparks and George
Bancroft were early guides and friends.
Lyman Draper in Wisconsin,
Pierre Margry in Paris, and Abbe
Henri-Raymond Casgrain in Can-
ada provided documents and advice,
although the abbe evoked one of
Parkman's rare displays of resentment by
criticizing his treatment of
the expulsion of the Acadians.
This reviewer's microscope discovered
these minor slips: Edward
Everett was born in 1794, not 1764 (I,
78); the "union party" of 1850
was not the Republican party (I, 80);
the "Woods" referred to in the
letter of October 17, 1862 (I, 156),
must have been Benjamin and
Fernando, New York Copperheads, not the
president of Bowdoin; and
in the Harvard History Club picture (II,
opposite p. 264), the black-
bearded figure in the back row is Wilbur
(not William) H. Siebert,
now a venerated professor emeritus of
Ohio State University.
All in all, the world of historical
scholarship is indebted to the editor,
the University of Oklahoma Press, and
the Massachusetts Historical
Society for this notable contribution.
Ohio State University EUGENE H. ROSEROOM
The American Indian Wars. By John Tebbel and Keith Jennison. (New
York: Harper and Brothers, 1960. 312p.;
illustrations, end-paper
map, bibliographical notes, and index.
$4.95.)
This volume is intended for the
non-specialist reader and covers, in a
rough kind of catalog, the American
Indian "wars" that everyone has
heard about and a few that are less well
known. In essence it is con-
cerned with a series of climaxes in the
conflict between the original
inhabitants of the United States and the
whites who took away their
country. This is a topic of much
interest to Americans on which there
has been no modern general popular work,
and the authors of this vol-
ume deserve credit for what they have
accomplished. They have chosen
dramatic and significant instances of
the conflict of groups of American
Indians and whites, have described
outstanding leaders on both sides,
BOOK REVIEWS 183
have indicated how impossible it is to
describe the groups and in-
dividuals involved either as
"good" or "bad," and have shown how
circumstances and accidents of human
personality, history, and geo-
graphy influenced events. They have also
indicated the blind, inevitable
ruthlessness of the whites in taking,
through their superior technology
and size of population, what lands they
wanted, beginning with the
First white settlement on the east
coast. They have done this, in general,
with sympathy and insight into the
motivations of the humans involved
on both sides. The authors jointly have
a lively style and have selected
excellent, often contemporary,
illustrations of persons and scenes im-
portant to the actions described.
There are, however, important criticisms
that should be made about
this work. The coverage of the subject
is uneven, with primary atten-
tion being devoted to the struggles east
of the Mississippi, somewhat
less to "wars" with the Sioux,
and very little to the conflicts in the
rest of the country. The authors seem to
have been much more interested
in the eastern materials, with the
consequence that the selection of inci-
dents and groups discussed, especially
for the western half of the con-
tinent, is arbitrary and not
comprehensive. The map entitled "Locations
of Principal Indian Tribes,"
reproduced on the end papers and as a
fold-out, illustrates this lack of
balance. The groups indicated on the
map are only the ones written about in
the text, not all of the significant
Indian groups in the United States, let
alone in "America." It also
seems strange to read about any subject
including Indians of the Amer-
ican Southwest and find no mention of
the Zuni or Hopi Indians, to
read descriptions of Papago Indians and
none of the equally important
Pima,
Yavapai, or Havasupai Indians, to read of the slaughter of the
Nilcos in Arkansas by De Soto in the
1540's, a group which is not
known in later historical times, and not
to find mention of the much
more spectacular and important Pueblo
rebellion against the Spanish
in the 1680's.
The authors' lack of sophistication
about American Indians also is
apparent in a number of instances, as
when, for example, they occasion-
ally seem to chide the different groups
of Indians for not realizing
what the ultimate cumulative effect of
the various white settlements and
land demands would be and for not
uniting in time to be effective in
their opposition to the whites (the
authors might have seen in the
history of the formation of modern
European states comparable faction-
alism and illuminating parallels) ; or
when they can find no reason for
the Iroquois wars in the seventeenth
century, when it has been demon-
184
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
strated that there were powerful
economic factors involved. Another
indication of the authors' lack of
cultural sophistication can be seen
in their treatment, for example, of the
Shawnee Prophet, the Creek
war, and the Ghost Dance, where they
fail to point out the common
nativistic elements involved.
Another kind of criticism is that there
seems no attempt made to
present anything more about the
conflicts than a chronicle; there is
no integrating concept or analysis of
the information to give the ma-
terials significance. The nature of the
wars, what they meant to our
development as a nation, and their real
impact on different groups of
Indians are not discussed. The incidents
are strung one after another
without being related, and, since all
are treated in the same superficial
manner, they finally become monotonous
reading despite the brisk style.
Granted that the treatment of the
Indians by the whites has been
consistently disgraceful in practice,
whatever the intentions may have
been, this is only a small part of what
could be said about American
Indian wars, and it has been pointed out
by a number of authors. My
ultimate disappointment with this volume
may he a tribute to what the
authors have accomplished for the narrow
range of the subject which
they have considered and my wish that
they had attempted more.
Indiana University DOROTHY LUBRY
Nebraska Place-Names. By Lilian L. Fitzpatrick. Including selections
from The Origin of the Place-Names of
Nebraska, by J. T. Link.
Edited by G. Thomas Fairclough.
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 1960. xi??227p.; bibliography and
index. Paper, $1.50.)
This book reprints two studies of Nebraska
place-names: an index
of town and county names (1925) by
Lilian L. Fitzpatrick and portions
of a narrative discussion that also
includes names of rivers and topo-
graphical features (1933) by John T.
Link. Together, they are an
interesting survey of Nebraska
onomatology, but perhaps their chief
interest for readers of the Quarterly
lies in a comparison of the place-
names of Ohio and Nebraska.
In general, one finds the same kinds of
names in both states but in
different proportions. Each state has
many places named for prominent
individuals, both local and national;
but Nebraska seems to have more
towns named for railroad directors,
surveyors, and station agents or
their wives. Because of the rapid
settlement of Ohio, most of its com-
munities had been named by 1840, but
Nebraska was able to commem-
BOOK REVIEWS 185
orate heroes of a later generation.
There are counties named for Lincoln,
Grant, Howard, Stanton, Thomas, Custer,
Sheridan, Garfield, Fremont,
Hooker, Sherman, and Greeley--the latter
also containing a comple-
mentary town named Horace.
There seem to be fewer Indian names in
Nebraska, perhaps because
the Indian became a romantic symbol in
Ohio long before he ceased
representing a menace farther west.
Indian names include Nebraska
itself, Omaha, Nehawka, Ponca, and Keya
Paha County. One suspects
that such names are closer to their
Indian originals than most Ohio
Indian names. Many names in both states
are descriptive of some local
feature, but, of course, those of
Nebraska recall the frontier: e.g., Ante-
lope County, Calf Creek, Alkali, and
Bighorn. Nebraska apparently
has more names with a literary flavor: e.g.,
Ruskin, Emerson, Lowell,
and Dumas.
Like Ohio, Nebraska has borrowed many
names from other communi-
ties, often the settlers' point of
origin, but there are fewer from New
England and more from Central Europe
(Praha, Buda, Odessa). Box
Butte County has three towns named for
Ohio originals: Alliance,
Berea, and Girard. The town of Ohiowa
was settled by emigrants from
Ohio and Iowa. Perhaps because choices
were somewhat limited and
there was greater competition for
unusual names when Nebraska towns
were settled, there seem to be more odd
names, chosen out of whimsy
or desperation: e.g., Alvo,
Biscuit, Gem, Geranium, Joy, Kola, Ceresco,
Bee, Ingleside, Vim, Raven, Optic,
Surprise, Sartoria, Magnet, Rain,
Mascot, Tonic, Venus, Wahoo, Tamora
(tomorrow), and Wynot (why
not ?).
A final difference is that the data are presented with a greater degree
of certainty than could be expected in a
survey of Ohio names. The
compilers could consult fairly recent
records and often could interview
persons who remembered the founding of
the towns in question.
Wittenberg University WILLIAM COYLE
Vanishing Crafts and Their Craftsmen.
By Rollin C. Steinmetz and
Charles S. Rice. (New Brunswick, N. J.:
Rutgers University Press,
1959. 160p.; illustrations. $4.75.)
Old Clocks. By H. Alan Lloyd. (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1958.
176p.; illustrations, bibliography,
glossary, and index. $7.50.)
Vanishing Crafts and Their Craftsmen is a nostalgic lament and an
admiring tribute. In the text, Rollin C.
Steinmetz writes warmly and
186
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
informally of fourteen nearly extinct or
rapidly disappearing crafts (al-
though the literal-minded might prefer
to identify some of them as occu-
pations or institutions) and of a
practitioner of each. As editor of the
Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Sunday News,
he is imbued with an interest
in grass-roots history and he is
personally acquainted with the people
whose stories he tells here. The
interesting photographs, about five in
each chapter, are the work of another
Pennsylvanian, Charles S. Rice,
who is perhaps best known for his
photography of the Amish people.
The author's admiration of (in a sense,
almost affection for) the men
and women he discusses is clearly
reflected on every page. The various
craftsmen receive a casual biographical
treatment and the techniques
of most of their occupations are
described in a cursory fashion. Although
the more traditional and representative
craftsmen--blacksmith, wood
carver, and potter--come in for their
share of attention, most of the sub-
jects are engaged in less typical
pursuits, among them lime burning,
candy making, charcoal burning,
one-room-school teaching, button and
comb making, cigar making, and so on.
While the reader will undoubtedly concur
in Mr. Steinmetz' ap-
preciation of the historical importance
of the handcraftsman and perhaps
sympathize with his lament over the
disappearance of most of the breed,
he may remain unconvinced that this is
quite the calamity it seems. That
the knowledge and skills of most of
these people should be forever lost
would indeed be regrettable. They should
be recorded in both word and
picture, in even greater detail than in
this volume, and, if possible,
some of their practical experience
should be transmitted to younger
generations but not necessarily for the
perpetuation of these small busi-
nesses as such. Many of these and
similar crafts are kept alive today,
not only at the places mentioned by Mr.
Steinmetz but at the Farmer's
Museum at Cooperstown, New York, the
Henry Ford Museum and
Greenfield Village at Dearborn,
Michigan, and a few other institutions,
as well. Here, it seems to this
reviewer, lies the best hope, for through
this medium the skilled craftsman can
simultaneously perform a greater
educational function, preserve
long-obsolete techniques, and produce
articles of high quality. While we may
agree that many people would be
happier working independently with their
hands than in an office or
factory, and that occupations which give
workers a chance to earn their
own way, produce wanted commodities, and
maintain self-reliance and
personal dignity deserve preservation,
it is not difficult to understand
why so few youngsters choose to follow
in the footsteps of the vanishing
craftsmen. It may be true, as the author
asserts, that the people in this
BOOK REVIEWS 187
book find themselves again in a position
to do battle with the giants,
that there is a demand for their
products, and that they have prospered.
But prosperity is a relative term and
most Americans today are not
attracted by the prospect of spending
years as an apprentice learning a
craft which produces this degree of
prosperity.
Any disappointment the reader may feel
over the omission of numer-
ous important occupations is anticipated
by the author, who limited his
scope to his own part of the country.
Aspiring to be only a random
sampling of a variety of crafts now all
but forgotten as a means of liveli-
hood, the book attains its modest goal.
H. Alan Lloyd's Old Clocks is one
of more than a dozen volumes
published in the Practical Handbooks for
Collectors series. These run
the gamut from coins and books to
furniture, silver, and the like. Mr.
Lloyd, a fellow of the British
Horological Institute and the author of
several earlier books on clocks,
addresses himself here primarily to the
amateur collector. In this relatively
brief study he dispenses a wealth of
historical and technical information
designed to augment the amateur's
background knowledge of the subject. Herein
lies the key to advan-
tageous use of the book, for it
presupposes at least an elementary famil-
iarity with the story and mechanics of
clocks. There is much of value
here even for the advanced collector,
but the complete neophyte will soon
find himself in over his head.
Most of the text is devoted logically to
English clocks, with Conti-
nental and American clocks each
receiving one chapter. A brief bibliog-
raphy and glossary are helpful, and the
liberal use of photographs is to
be commended. The author's somewhat
leaden style renders Old Clocks
laborious reading but does not detract
from its value as a reference work.
Henry Ford Muscum and Greenfield
Village JOHN S. STILL