Book Reviews
PR Politics in Cincinnati: Thirty-Two
Years of City Government Through
Proportional Representation. By Ralph A. Straetz. (New York: New York
University Press, 1958. xvii+312p.;
bibliography and appendix. $5.00.)
From an early day the political history
of Cincinnati has been a study in
contrasts. The home of such notable
national figures as Edward McLean,
Joseph B. Foraker, William Howard Taft, Nicholas Longworth, Judson
Harmon, and Robert A. Taft, it also
numbers among its sons such divergent
local political figures as Henry Hunt,
Herbert Bigelow, Murray Seasongood,
Charles Taft, and last but not least
George Cox and Rud Hynicka. With
actors such as these in "starring
roles," the political struggles that have
taken place in Cincinnati frequently
have had an influence, for good or for
evil, that has extended far beyond the
borders of the city. It is not surprising
then that Cincinnati politics, which is
often unedifying but very seldom
dull, has long held a strong fascination
for the student of the American
political process. During the first
quarter of the century, when Cincinnati
was listed by Lord Bryce as one of the
ten most poorly governed of the
larger American cities, an impressive
number of political commentators, in-
cluding Lincoln Steffens, wrote at
length on the low estate of the city. In
the second quarter of the century,
particularly after major charter reforms
had been effected in 1924, an equally
extensive body of writings appeared,
which has been largely devoted to the
achievements of the "Cincinnati Ex-
periment" and to the operation of a
new form of municipal government
based upon a small council, a city
manager, and a system of proportional
representation (PR).
PR, it may be noted, is that system of
voting (incorporated in both the
Model State Constitution and the Model
City Charter of the National Muni-
cipal League) which most nearly provides
for representation in a legislative
body on the basis of the actual voting
strength of the various parties and
interest groups involved. The Cincinnati
system of PR was used to select
the nine members of the city council
(who in turn appointed the mayor and
city manager), and as the system operated,
any minority group that could
muster ten percent of the city's vote
usually found representation in the city
council. On September 30, 1957, after
thirty-two years of existence, this
system, which has been called "a
bulwark of the continuing reform move-
BOOK REVIEWS 385
ment in Cincinnati," was defeated
at the polls after an extremely bitter cam-
paign.
It is against this background that the
author presents his study of Cin-
cinnati's experience with PR and the
conditions surrounding its use. The
purpose of the study, in his words,
"is to describe the political climate of
Cincinnati and to evaluate the
contribution of Proportional Representation
in this climate." In sixteen interesting
and closely packed chapters he dis-
cusses: the purposes and mechanics of
PR; the reasons for its adoption in
Cincinnati (which prior to 1884 was
dominated by the Democratic party
and for forty years thereafter was under
the almost uninterrupted control of
the Republican organization); the actual
performance of the PR system in
its thirty-two years of operation, with
a catalog of the chief arguments
made for and against it by friend and
foe; its impact on party organization
and responsibility, including its
effects on the two-party system; its relation-
ship to party and group activity in the
city council; its use by racial, relig-
ious, and economic groups to advance
their own interests; and finally its
total effect on good government and the
interests of all of the citizens. He
also presents a colorful account of some
of the more important issues that
were contested in elections held during
the period PR was in use and the
various campaign techniques employed by
the several contending groups.
He gives particular attention to the
hard-fought campaign which resulted
in the overthrow of PR and the complex
social and political factors involved
in this contest.
Since Cincinnati has now joined two
other major cities (Cleveland and
New York City) in discarding PR, some of
the author's views on its opera-
tion in Cincinnati are of special
interest. One of his views, which would
seem to run counter to the verdict of
the Cincinnati electorate in overthrow-
ing it, is that PR does not increase the
solidity of racial, religious, or econ-
omic group voting, or intensify the
differences between such groups. He also
concludes that PR does not weaken the
two-party system, although it does
provide "an opportunity for the
local organizations of our national parties
that flounder in minority obscurity to
re-establish a foot-hold" and gain a
"share in the power of
governing." Another view that may come as a sur-
prise to some is that "PR elected
councils have on the whole been conserva-
tive, balanced, experienced, with active
majorities and minorities, but only
as dynamic as the citizens of Cincinnati
have willed."
Although Mr. Straetz has undoubtedly
emerged from his study as a
staunch friend of PR, he readily admits
that "it provides no panacea" for
all of the ills that plague us as we
attempt to provide an effective system of
government for our great massed centers
of population. He is also quick to
point out that "no tinkering with
the election machinery will replace the
386
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
need for greater action and
responsibility" by the entire citizenry and its
leadership and that "no particular
election system is going to minimize
self-interest or
short-sightedness." Nevertheless, he strongly believes that
since PR "has provided a workable
and effective two-party system in one of
the largest cities in the country"
for over three decades, it deserves a new
hearing. If and when such re-hearing
takes place, Mr. Straetz's study, with
its informing background picture of
Cincinnati politics, would seem to pro-
vide a good place to begin. Although a
bibliography and appendix are in-
cluded, there is no index.
Ohio State University FRANCIS
R. AUMANN
The Frontier in Perspective. Edited by Walker D. Wyman and Clifton B.
Kroeber. (Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1957. xx+300p.;
bibliographies and index. $5.50.)
When the University of Wisconsin
celebrated the hundredth anniversary
of Lyman C. Draper's appointment as
corresponding secretary of the Wis-
consin State Historical Society in 1954,
the history department arranged a
series of lectures under the title
"Wisconsin Reconsiders the Frontier." Thir-
teen of them appear in this volume in
two groups, "The World Frontier" and
"The American Frontier." The
first group is the more pretentious and the
less valuable: four specialists in
European and Far Eastern history who dis-
cuss parallels with the American
frontier as Turner saw it write as if they
did not know what Turner had seen or
said, and as if they had not had much
time to consider their fields in that
perspective. A Latin-Americanist, Silvio
Zavala, has more misgivings; a historian
of Canada, A. L. Burt, finds a
closer parallel than any of the others,
as he has done already at greater
length with great insight. Walter P.
Webb presents a summary of his last
book, The Great Frontier (1952),
which revealed that he knew more about
the Great Plains than about economics or
European history.
The second section includes another
recapitulation, by Thomas P. Aber-
nethy, who summarizes effectively what
he has disclosed at great length
about aristocratic elements in the Old
Southwest in The Formative Period in
Alabama (1922) and later works. The contribution most nearly on
the plane
that Turner himself worked on in his
more substantial papers is Paul Gates's
paper on "Frontier Estate Builders
and Farm Laborers," which carries for-
ward themes of his Frontier Landlords
and Pioneer Tenants (1945) and
other works, with additional
documentation. Henry Nash Smith has some-
thing newer to say in an unpretentious
paper on "Mark Twain as an In-
terpreter of the Far West: The Structure
of Roughing It," which, like parts
BOOK REVIEWS 387
of his Virgin Land (1950), begins
as a modest explication de texte and
rises to insights about the larger
meanings of the West to the pioneer and
to the historian. Both Gates and Smith
are anti-Turnerian in that they have
challenged some of Turner's major
arguments; they are among the most
Turnerian of historians simply in the
fact of cerebration.
The remaining papers are less
significant, though they abound in interest-
ing detail. Frederic G. Cassidy
discusses "Language on the American Fron-
tier," which takes him into lengthy
extracts from writers as much removed
from the frontier as James Russell
Lowell and William Gilmore Simms, as
well as into lists of words borrowed
from German, Spanish, and French.
A. Irving Hallowell discusses "The
Impact of the Indian on American Cul-
ture," ranging from the
contributions of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine
Company to changing American attitudes
toward the Indian, which Henry
Nash Smith and Roy H. Pearce (The
Savages of America, 1953) have ex-
plored so perceptively. Walter Agard's
"Classics on the Midwest Frontier"
abounds in picturesque examples in
architecture, education, and journalism,
of the sort that R. C. Buley has
collected, and extending well past the fron-
tier, even into the twentieth century.
The editors have tried with somewhat
indifferent success to pull together
widely different approaches, reminding
us further that members of summer
conferences are not likely to talk as if
they listened to each other.
The mechanics of the volume seem
inoffensive, aside from some eccentric
variations in forms of citations and the
appearance of a former Ohioan,
Clarence Gohdes, as Clarence Golides (p.
231).
University of Oregon EARL POMEROY
The Presidency of John Adams: The
Collapse of Federalism, 1795-1800. By
Stephen G. Kurtz. (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1957.
448p.; illustrations, appendices, annotated bibliography,
and index. $8.50.)
This book's subtitle reveals more of its
contents than does the title, for
Adams does not emerge as a central
figure until well beyond the halfway
point. What Dr. Kurtz provides is a most
thorough analysis, virtually state
by state, of our earliest national
political rivalries. Out of it all comes, first,
a picture of party struggles corrective
of many commonly accepted views,
and second, a revised portrait of John
Adams, traditionally described as
an irascible bungler but a martyr to
peace.
The author's examination begins with the
calculated Republican effort to
prevent the implementation of Jay's
Treaty, which effort failed dismally be-
cause of the besmirching of Washington's
character, and runs through the
388
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
election of 1800. In between we are told
of the deliberate delaying for poli-
tical reasons of Washington's farewell;
of Jefferson's unwillingness to take
any leadership in the presidential
campaign of 1796, indeed, of his prefer-
ence for Adams' election as his
"senior"; of Virginia's desertion of Burr as
second choice for president in 1796; of
Hamilton's willingness to send
Madison or Jefferson as emissary to
France because he sensed the political
advantage that would accrue to the
Federalists; of Adams' hatred of Hamil-
ton and of his dissensions with the
Hamiltonians, particularly with respect
to defensive measures; and of Federalist
political gains made as late as 1799
in response to Adams' determined peace
overtures.
One of the great merits of this book is
that it gets us away from glib gen-
eralizations about grand issues of
principle--aristocratic control versus de-
mocracy, for example--and away too from
exclusive concern with the chief
actors on the national scene. We get
down to the infighting on the local
level. We hear from other newspapers
besides the nationally recognized
partisan ones. We have unfolded for us the
political strategy of the second-
and-third-string leaders. By making
generous use of correspondence among
politicians at all levels, Dr. Kurtz
throws light on problems of timing, the
seizure of the initiative by lesser
bosses like John Beckley from James Madi-
son, the rapprochement between Elbridge
Gerry and John Adams.
Adams is revealed as far more patient
with the incompetence of McHenry
and the disloyalty of Pickering than is
usually acknowledged. More import-
ant, Adams is shown to have more correctly
gauged the trend of public
opinion in 1798-99 than the
Hamiltonians. His bold stroke for peace with
France was motivated in part by his
desire to win reelection in the expecta-
tion that peaceful moves might forge a
third force that would return him
to the presidency. Adams tried to revert
to the bipartisanship with which he
had begun his administration. Dr. Kurtz
believes that the militarism and the
taxation program of the die-hard
Federalists bulked larger among political
issues on the local level than is
credited by historians who stress the alien
and sedition acts.
The collapse of the Federalist party,
then, came from the short-sighted
effort of the Hamiltonians to create a
standing army with Hamilton as effec-
tive head, the Hamiltonians ignoring the
wishes of both the president, who
had favored a defensive navy from the
beginning, and the president's large
personal following. The army, envisioned
as a tool of the Federalist party
for use against Republicans in a
possible war, was the bete noir of the Re-
publicans. For those willing to follow
closely this careful dissection of po-
litical maneuvering, this will be a
rewarding book.
Marietta College ROBERT J. TAYLOR
BOOK REVIEWS 389
Ill-Starred General: Braddock of the
Coldstream Guards. By Lee McCardell.
(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh
Press, 1958. x+335p.; illustrations,
bibliography, and index. $6.00.)
Lee McCardell, a professional
newspaperman, has written a life of Gen-
eral Edward Braddock which is obviously
a labor of love and the product of
arduous research. The heart of his book,
and the best part, is his account of
Braddock's famous expedition against
Fort Duquesne in 1754. With great
care and skill the author pieces
together the story of Braddock's taking com-
mand of the British forces destined for
use against French America, the
transporting of these regulars from
Ireland across the Atlantic, the build up
of men and supplies in Virginia for the
push over the mountains, the long
hard march to the forks of the Ohio, the
ambush and massacre of redcoats
and colonials by the French and Indians,
and the headlong flight of the
survivors with their mortally wounded
commander back over the primitive
road so recently and painfully hacked
out of the wilderness. The story ends
with the death of General Braddock. And
a corking good story it is, told
with an eye to detail and a sense of
color reminiscent of Kenneth Roberts
at his best.
Mr. McCardell's account reveals the
difficulties and frustrations met with
by the British general in his ill-fated
attempt to wage war in this rude and
distant land. Braddock found the
colonists reluctant to provide the troops
and supplies he required. The horses,
wagons, and food which they under-
took to deliver were time and again
either not forthcoming or seriously de-
layed, and when they did appear, the
over-priced horses often proved to be
decrepit, the flour wormy, and the meat
spoiled. Putting up with what was
to Braddock the general rascality and
incompetence of the populace was not
the worst of it; he also had to cope
with the perversity of American geo-
graphy, which laid upon him the harsh
necessity of moving and supplying
an army through an untracked and
unpeopled country of endless forest and
steep mountains only to meet at the end
an enemy who refused to fight a
proper battle. The facts of the case suggest
that many a far abler man than
Braddock would have had a hard time of
it, but Mr. McCardell makes no
attempt to minimize the limitations of
his portly and aging hero. Rather,
his treatment of the campaign tends to
confirm the traditional appraisal of
Braddock as a conscientious military
hack, reasonably competent in the Eu-
ropean battle situation but without the
imagination or the flexibility to
adapt his tactics to the demands of a
wild terrain or to Indian fighting.
If this were an account only of Braddock's
campaign in America and
nothing more, and it is a pity that it
is not, there would be little to complain
of. As a biography or as military
history, the book has serious structural
390
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
faults. For the first hundred or so
pages the author moves through the com-
plexities of a century of British
history, generously interlarding his account
of political, military, social, and even
ecclesiastical developments with court
chitchat and anecdote. The whole thing
lacks perspective, balance, and--what
is worse--point. Woven into the general
summary is a history of the
Coldstream Guards, Braddock's regiment
until 1753, and popping up along
the way whenever the record permits are
three generations of Braddocks,
whose connections with great events, if
any, were usually remote. In 1754
the biographer abruptly shifts his
focus, abandons his broad canvas, and
settles down for the rest of the book to
a detailed re-creation of the story
of the expedition. There is hardly even
a suggestion of the relation of Brad-
dock's defeat to the great war it
precipitated.
Mr. McCardell's Ill-Starred General indicates
that his talents lie in the
direction of military narrative. At
this, he can run circles around most so-
called professional historians.
College of William and Mary W. W. ABBOT
The American Business System: A
Historical Perspective, 1900-1955. By
Thomas C. Cochran. (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1957.
viii+227p.; tables, bibliographical
notes, and index. $4.75.)
This is the latest volume in the Library
of Congress Series in American
Civilization. It is intended for the
general reader, although it contains the
fruit of some original research
(principally on recent regional business de-
velopments) which will be of interest to
the specialist in history and
economics.
The author attempts "to see the
history of business forms and business
action in their essential relationships
to technological and industrial change,
and to suggest some of the interactions
of the whole complex with the rest
of American civilization" (p. 5).
He views the book as a study in economic
development intended to establish a
new "pattern for analyzing United
States economic growth" (p. 5)--a
pattern in which the businessman and
business organization are in the foreground.
A prominent theme is the
changing role of the businessman in the
economy and, more generally, in
the society, as that role is seen by the
businessman and by the society.
The author's purposes are diverse and
ambitious for so slender a volume.
This reviewer wishes that the book had
been devoted entirely to the last-
named subject. The pages on the role of
the businessman and the closely re-
lated subject of the changing forms of
organization and administration skip
BOOK REVIEWS 391
by. Would there were more of them. These
pages might have been set in
the context of broad social and economic
changes without detailed treatment
of the latter. But Professor Cochran has
attempted to go beyond this. As
noted above, he has tried to create a
new analytical pattern for the study
of economic development in toto. Unfortunately,
the promised new pattern
does not emerge with real clarity. The
narratives concerning technological
and social change often obscure the main
lines, rather than sharpening them.
The material on savings and investment
is formed into a separate, tradi-
tional pattern (marred by analytical
errors), which is connected but tenu-
ously with the general pattern. But
these shortcomings should not be over-
emphasized. The book is readable and
rewarding.
The book is divided into two parts. The
first deals with the period 1900-
1930. The author characterizes the
business system, seeks its roots, analyzes
contemporary views of the business role,
and attempts to identify the seeds
of change. The second part carries
forward to 1955. The effects of de-
pression, "welfare state,"
war, and boom on the character of business or-
ganization and the social place of
business are traced out. The volume ends
with an assessment of the present social
responsibilities of business and the
capacities of the business system to
bear them.
Ohio State
University ROBERT E. GALLMAN
Revivalism and Social Reform in
Mid-Nineteenth-Century America. By
Timothy L. Smith. (New York and
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1957.
253p.; bibliographical essay and index.
$4.00.)
American cultural historians have, in
recent years, made handsome amends
for an earlier neglect of religion as a
significant social force in American
history. Now, to the rapidly expanding
monographic literature in this area,
Timothy L. Smith has added a
well-written study, based upon remarkably
painstaking and wide-ranging research
and strengthened by an exceptionally
firm grasp of theology. His task has
been the difficult one of weaving the
tangled threads of denominationalism
into a coherent story. In this he has
succeeded admirably, doing full justice
to the complexity of the story while
keeping his central theme before the
reader.
Dr. Smith states his thesis at the
outset:
The gist of it is simply that revival
measures and perfectionist aspiration
flourished increasingly between 1840 and
1865 in all the major denomina-
tions--particularly in the cities. And
they drew together a constellation of
392
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ideas and customs which ever since have
lighted the diverging paths of
American Protestantism. Lay leadership,
the drive toward interdenomina-
tional fellowship, the primacy of ethics
over dogma, and the democratization
of Calvinism were more nearly fruits of
fervor than of reflection. The
quest of personal holiness became in some ways a kind
of plain man's
transcendentalism, which geared ancient creeds to the
drive shaft of social
reform. Far from disdaining earthly
affairs, the evangelists played a key
role in the widespread attack upon
slavery, poverty, and greed.
After examining the revivalist impulse
as it manifested itself in the various
denominations at mid-century, Dr. Smith
proceeds to measure its impact
upon perfectionist ideals, social
reform, and antislavery activity. He finds
that where "church historians have
assumed that revivals and perfectionism
declined in public favor after about
1842," the truth is that these forces be-
came increasingly important after that
period, to prepare the way for the
rise of the social gospel later in the
century.
It would be too much to say that Dr.
Smith has given conclusive proof
of his main thesis. While his account of
the revivals of 1858 is probably the
best that has been written on the
subject, the fact of this revivalist upsurge is
one which previous church historians
have taken into account. One would
infer from Dr. Smith's general
statements that this outpouring was the cli-
max of a steadily growing revivalism;
yet his evidence for such a continuity
is not particularly strong, and he
himself writes of "the intermittent and
local awakenings characteristic of the
years after 1842." Nor is his evidence
conclusive so far as demonstrating the
mid-nineteenth-century origins of the
attack on poverty and greed which
typified the later social gospel movement.
He perceives the beginnings of
Protestant institutional work in the slums
in the establishment of Phoebe Palmer's
Five Points Mission at mid-century.
But church workers had struggled with
slum conditions long before 1850,
while settlement-house programs remained
few and rudimentary by the
time of the Civil War, as Dr. Smith
concedes.
Dr. Smith has assumed on the part of the
reader a flattering degree of
knowledge in theological matters, and
most readers--including most his-
torians--will find much of it hard
going, despite the excellence of its style.
They will nevertheless find much of
value in it. The opening chapter, in
particular, presents a summary of
"The Inner Structure of American Pro-
testantism," which will reward the
attention of all who are interested in
understanding the American national
character.
University of Missouri GILMAN M. OSTRANDER
BOOK REVIEWS 393
The War for Independence: A Military
History. By Howard H. Peckham.
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1958. ix+226p.; end-paper maps,
bibliography, and index. $3.50.)
The military history of the American
Revolution has received much at-
tention in the past decade. At least six
single-volume surveys of the war
have been published besides the longer
works of Christopher Ward and
Douglas Southall Freeman. In addition,
there have been numerous works on
individual battles and campaigns, and
studies of some of the leaders of the
armed forces on both sides. One of the
reasons for the renewed interest in
the military aspects of the war is that
the William L. Clements Library at
the University of Michigan has in recent
years become a storehouse of
manuscript sources on this subject.
Professor Peckham, who is director of
the Clements Library, has made valuable
use of these sources in his new
survey of the war. His book, one of the topical
volumes in the Chicago His-
tory of American Civilization series, is
a concise account of the military
events of the war; the other aspects of
the Revolution are covered in an-
other volume in the series, Edmund
Morgan's Birth of the Republic:
1763-89.
Mr. Peckham depicts a small war fought
over a vast battlefield. He shows
how a poorly disciplined army of
civilians won a victory over professional
troops. The strategy of the British army
as well as that of the American
forces is clearly presented; the leaders
on both sides are succinctly char-
acterized. Unlike the authors of several
of the other studies of the War for
Independence, Mr. Peckham does not limit
his work to the land campaigns;
he also devotes a chapter to naval
operations. Those readers who are in-
terested in the fighting which occurred
west of the Appalachians will find a
short description of that action. The
value of a citizen army, the importance
of the rifle, the use of flexible
tactics on land and sea, and other lessons of
the war which changed military thinking,
particularly in Europe, are sum-
marized.
The author presents some new estimates
on the size of the American army.
His figures greatly reduce the usual
numbers given and indicate that only
about 100,000 men ever took up arms in
the American cause, with never
more than 30,000 men in arms at any one
time. His estimate raises the cost
of the war in lives, showing that the
American fatalities (including those
dead from illnesses and wounds) amounted
to from 10,000 to 12,000 men.
The War for Independence is written for the general reader rather than
the specialist in the field. Like the
other volumes in the series, it is not foot-
394
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
noted but has a selective bibliography
for each chapter. Unfortunately there
are no maps in the body of the book, but
the end papers do contain maps
of the northern and southern theaters of
war. In this brief but selective vol-
ume the author has presented a well
balanced and highly readable account
of the events which brought us our
independence.
Ohio State University WILLIAM T. BULGER, JR.
The Living Museum: Experiences of an
Art Historian and Museum Direc-
tor--Alexander Dorner. By Samuel Cauman. (New York: New York Uni-
versity Press, 1957. xi+216p.;
illustrations, appendices, bibliography,
and index. $10.00.)
This is an arrogant book about an able
and arrogant man. The title is
clumsy and forbidding; it is a shock to
realize that the book was planned
to appear during the lifetime of the
subject. It is fitting that the introduc-
tion is by Gropius, who states with characteristic
humility that "Alexander
Dorner regards himself simply as an
agent in the drive for the solution of
the major problems of our time; the
integration of arts and humanities with
science and industrial life" (p.
vi). Author, subject, and school make enor-
mous, almost exclusive claims, which are
allowed by most of the world.
"Without the new kind of design
developed at the Bauhaus as re-established
at Dessau, there would hardly exist any
modern design at all" (author's Pre-
face, p. ix). The effects upon modern
English prose style may not be so
happy.
There are as many pioneers of modern art
as people who claim that they
played outstanding roles in the
development of the atom bomb. Alexander
Dorner is such a case. He was there in
the early days of the Bauhaus, whose
history is now being re-created. The
Abstract Cabinet in the Landemuseum
is now to become famous, as history
brings out the fact connected with the
currently fashionable. After Hitler came
to power, Dorner came to rest at
the Providence Museum, where his friends
claim that his installations made
history. In the accounts of his two
museums there is much dropping of
names and much philosophy: "Walter
Gropius, Mies Van der Rohe, and
James Johnson Sweeney were waiting in a
New York hotel when the
Normandie arrived at its pier" (p. 122); "Therefore
Goldschmidt and his
spirited followers were almost as much
opposed to the Hegelian trend as to
the neo-Kantian" (p. 127).
His career had a descending curve,
perhaps a sad one, for as Seneca says,
"It is when the gods hate a man
with an uncommon abhorrence that they
drive him into the profession of a
schoolmaster." It is difficult even for the
BOOK REVIEWS 395
author to claim that a teacher in a
remote female seminary such as Benning-
ton is in a position to change the pulse
of things. The photograph on page
187 showing seminar members with the
Tree of Life chart they created may
be touching, but it is hardly to be
taken seriously as a contribution to art
history.
And yet the fortune of the Bauhaus
movement, from museum installation
to popular skyscrapers, has been
extraordinary indeed, and we accept as
modern, as the only contemporary style,
what may be merely the fumbling
of a few simple and arrogant minds.
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts MAHONRI SHARP YOUNG
The Long Haul West: The Great Canal
Era, 1817-1850. By Madeline Sad-
ler Waggoner. (New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons, 1958. 320p.; illustra-
tions, end-paper map, bibliography, and
index. $5.75.)
This volume tells in lively and
entertaining fashion the story of Ameri-
ca's canals and their contribution to
the "Big Push" of westward migration
in the early nineteenth century. It
makes no pretense of being a scholarly
study, but rather seeks to breathe life
into this drama of our past with vivid
phrasings and extensive use of
contemporary chronicles. The author's style
is often quaint and "folksy,"
abounding in such chapter titles as "A
Hankerin' for Westerin'" and in
expressive spellings like "canawls" and
"canawling" (happily not used
throughout). Frequent use is made of the
kind of homely detail which is familiar
as the stock in trade of historical
novelists. After all, who but a
footnote-bound pedant could cavil at the
portrayal of nineteenth-century authors
sitting down with "blackberry-
juiced quill pens" in hand to
scratch out their thoughts and observations on
canals and the American West?
Roughly half the volume is devoted to
the Erie Canal, recounting not
only the long struggle to get the idea
of such a canal accepted but also the
difficulties attending its construction,
the ceremonies marking its completion,
the problems encountered in its
operation, its effect on patterns of migra-
tion, and the pleasures and pains of
travelers on its watery path. Since New
York's "Big Ditch" stood head
and shoulders above all other man-made
waterways in success and in significance,
this seemingly disproportionate
emphasis is perhaps justified. In
addition, the canal systems of Pennsylvania,
Ohio, and Indiana each receive a
chapter, while some of the other efforts in
the East and in the Mississippi Valley
come in for briefer mention. To set
the canal era in historic perspective,
the author sketches in as well the stor-
ies of the Cumberland Road, that
inadequate and bone-shaking route to the
396 THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
West which briefly served the nation
before the coming of canals, and of the
Iron Horse, whose competition spelled a
premature end to the heyday of the
canal.
Despite the obvious virtues of this
volume as a highly readable populariza-
tion, this reviewer must take exception
to the enthusiastic publisher's blurb,
which tells us that this is "the
first complete account of America's colorful
canal-building era." One never
knows how seriously such dust-jacket prose
is intended, but this is certainly going
too far. The present work is by no
means as comprehensive as its closest
counterpart, Alvin F. Harlow's Old
Towpaths, another popular account published a generation ago in
1926. In-
deed, a comparision of the two books
suggests that Mrs. Waggoner's main
achievement has been to popularize the
discussion of canal history still
further, by the omission of much of the
important detail which characterized
the older book, and the inclusion of
extensive anecdotal material. Further-
more, some uncomfortably close parallels
between the two books in content
and organization are noticeable
(compare, for example, Waggoner, Chap. 1,
with Harlow, Chaps. 2 and and 3, and
Waggoner, p. 268, with Harlow,
p. 106).
As might be expected in a popular study
of this kind, there are no foot-
notes. Documentation consists of a
nine-page bibliography, which might
be more acceptable were it not for its
failure to mention many standard
works. For example, in her long list of
works consulted, the author cites
but three of the seventeen items on
canal history comprising the biblio-
graphy for the canal chapter in George
R. Taylor's recent and authoritative
economic history of the period, The
Transportation Revolution, 1815-1860,
a work which is itself not cited.
An adequate scholarly history of the
canal era in America would be an
important contribution, but until one
appears, it is this reviewer's feeling
that Harlow's old study will remain much
more satisfactory for any serious
purpose than the present volume.
Baldwin-Wallace College MARTIN DEMING LEWIS
The Republican Era, 1869-1901: A
Study in Administrative History. By
Leonard D. White. (New York: Macmillan
Company, 1958. ix+406p.;
index. $6.00.)
In this last volume of his extensive
study of administrative history, Pro-
fessor White has traced the evolution of
the American system from 1869 to
1901. As in the preceding volumes, The
Federalists, The Jeffersonians, and
BOOK REVIEWS 397
The Jacksonians, he treats his subject with skill and sound scholarship.
The
four volumes encompass a century of
administrative history.
Mr. White pictures the administrative
stage on which the scene of the
dominating conflicts of the politically
dreary post-Civil War period took
place. First is the struggle between
president and congress; and second, the
contest between politician and civil
service reformer. As he sees it, there
was a close relationship between the two
controversies, because the recon-
struction of the executive power, sunk
to a low point during Johnson's
administration, involved the victory
over congress in the making of political
appointments. Quite naturally, he
develops at length the early efforts of the
civil service reformers, the passage of
the Pendleton act in 1883, and the
discouragingly slow acceptance of the
merit system, not only by the politi-
cians but by the people at large. Only a
few readers will have much interest
in the dry and perfunctory accounts of
the departments of treasury, war,
navy, interior, agriculture, and post
office, 1869-1901.
Mr. White, who died early this year, has
made no attempt to gloss over
the "good old days." Indeed,
he labels the Republican era as "thirty years
of intellectual stagnation" in the
field of administration, and decries the
low level of political standards. Basic
in his view was the general acceptance
of the patronage system, the notion that
to the victor belong the spoils.
Every president from Hayes to McKinley
suffered from the onslaught of the
spoilsmen and the baying of the pension
hounds.
Ohioans will quickly note that three
sons of the state, Hayes, Garfield,
and McKinley--four, if Harrison is
counted--were presidents during this
Republican era. None of them men of
eminence, they did, however, con-
tribute materially to the growing power
of the executive and show interest,
if not real leadership, in the struggle
for the merit system.
Ohio State University EVERETT WALTERS
A Selective Bibliography of Important
Books, Pamphlets, and Broadsides Re-
lating to Michigan History. By Albert Harry Greenly. (Lunenburg, Vt.:
Stinehour Press, 1958. xvii+165p.;
illustrations, bibliography, and index.
$25.00.)
The title of this volume might have been
A Critical and Narrative Biblio-
graphy, for, in addition to the facts of publication, the
compiler, frequently
evaluates a book, gives a brief account
of the contents, includes other pert-
inent information about it, and provides
a biographical sketch of the author.
This is truly an interesting book. As
Howard H. Peckham wrote in the in-
troduction, "it can be read."
398
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Mr. Greenly for many years was a
collector of Michiganiana. The books
about which he wrote were in his own
library, and he was intimately ac-
quainted with the contents.
Arrangement of the entries is largely
chronological by date of publication,
although the grouping of titles under a
subject head sometimes causes a
divergence from this scheme. The first
body of books consists of writings
by Frenchmen. Most of them, such as
Champlain, Hennepin, Lahontan,
Sagard, and Charlevoix, are well known.
The second group was published
during the British regime in Michigan.
The first two are the Diary of the
Siege of Detroit in the War with
Pontiac, and the Journal of
Pontiac's Con-
spiracy, 1763. Mr. Greenly here discusses the authorship of the
manuscripts
from which the printed versions were
made. In this section are ten books
on Indian captivities which occurred
during both the British and the Ameri-
can regimes.
In the early American period are
included a dozen books on General Wil-
liam Hull's disastrous campaign, several
from the press of Father Gabriel
Richard, six speeches by Lewis Cass, six
books by Henry R. Schoolcraft, Dr.
William Beaumont's Experiments and
Observations on the Gastric Juice, and
about fifty items dealing with the
Michigan-Ohio boundary dispute and the
Toledo War. Most of them are government
documents which might well
have been omitted. This group contains
also the Journal of the Michigan
Constitutional Convention, 1835, and the
Journal of the first convention of
assent, 1836, which refused to accept
the terms congress imposed for ad-
mission to the Union. Mr. Greenly does
not mention the so-called Frost-
Bitten Convention, which in December of
the same year bowed to the edict
of congress.
Other books included are the first
directory of Detroit, 1837, the first
history of Michigan, 1839, the Rev.
Isaac McCoy's History of Baptist Indian
Missions, 1840, and a curious attack on McCoy, entitled Missionary
Abom-
inations Unmasked. There are also sections headed "Lake Superior and
the
Upper Peninsula," "The Mormons
in Michigan," "Michigan in the Civil
War,"
"Lumber-Salt-Saginaw," "Grand Traverse Region," "Grand
River
and the Grand River Valley," and
"Automobile Industry." The last is en-
tirely inadequate.
After the entrance of Michigan into the
Union, little space is given, as a
rule, to each book, although exceptions
are the treatment of McCoy's writ-
ings and those of James J. Strang, the
Mormon king of Beaver Island.
Unfortunately there are some historical
inaccuracies. On page xvi the
statement is made that "Detroit and
Mackinac . . . were not finally surrend-
ered by the French until 1796." On
the same page the author dates the
BOOK REVIEWS 399
"commencement of the first railroad
of importance in Michigan westward
from Detroit" in the 1840's. As a
matter of fact, the Michigan Central
reached Ann Arbor in 1839 and Kalamazoo
in 1846.
Father Louis Hennepin is said to have
been the first explorer of the
Mississippi River north of the Illinois
(p. 7). As a matter of fact, Louis
Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette had
paddled down the Mississippi
from the mouth of the Wisconsin in 1673,
seven years earlier. This error
is related to another on the same page.
The author has Jolliet and Mar-
quette traveling southward along the
west coast of Lake Michigan, reaching
the Illinois River by the Chicago
portage and entering the Mississippi from
the Illinois. This was the route they
followed in reverse on their return.
Again, on page 137, the author gives a
garbled account of the murder of
James J. Strang. Combining his arrest in
1854 with his assassination in 1856,
he makes of them a single incident.
Since the author intended his book to be
selective rather than complete,
there is little ground for questioning
his choices. Nevertheless, one wonders
why he omitted Caroline S. Kirkland's A
New Home--Who'll Follow. Per-
haps he regarded it as fiction. If so,
it is much truer to life than Flavius J.
Littlejohn's Legends of Michigan and
the Old Northwest, which is included.
In spite of these failings, Mr.
Greenly's bibliography is an interesting
volume and a useful tool for those who
want to know about Michigan in
books. Illustrations, usually the title
page of an important work, give the
reader a glimpse of the typography of
the various periods, and an index
facilitates the finding of authors and
books in the bibliography.
University of Michigan F. CLEVER BALD
Culture Under Canvas: The Story of
Tent Chautauqua. By Harry P. Harri-
son as told to Karl Detzer. (New York:
Hastings House, 1958. xxviii+
287p.; illustrations and index. $6.50.)
For over two decades at the start of
this century, the big brown tent,
pitched near Main Street or in a nearby
pasture, symbolized summer-circuit
chautauqua. In this volume Harry P.
Harrison, directly associated with canvas
culture from the beginning, portrays the
rise and fall of this nation-wide ex-
travaganza in mass education,
entertainment, and persuasion. Published ten
years after Victoria and Robert Case's We
Called It Culture: The Story of
Chautauqua, it tells the story more intimately and thoroughly, but
with the
same sympathetic bias.
Roots for the traveling tent reach back
to Josiah Holbrook's early nine-
teenth-century lyceum, James Redpath's
lecture bureau, and Methodist Bishop
400
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Vincent's late nineteenth-century
laboratory for Sunday School teachers at
Lake Chautauqua. In 1901, still in
college, Harrison joined Keith Vawter,
the founder of summer chautauqua. After
purchasing one-third interest in
the Redpath bureau, Vawter hired
Harrison to sell winter lyceum courses
to South Dakota communities. Then, three
years later, equipped with a new
pair of duck pants, necessary apparel
for a platform superintendent, he
plunged with Vawter from winter lyceum
into circuit chautauqua, a career
he pursued until the last big tent
folded.
Like a good speech to entertain or a
seven-day chautauqua program, Harri-
son's narrative lacks a closely knit
organization, but likewise suffers few
dull moments. Rich in reminiscence, yet
short on precise documentation, it
calls forth an endless parade of
political debaters, elocutionists, preachers,
chalk talkers, magicians, humorists,
operatic stars, bands, bell ringers, quar-
tets, and, finally, even actors for the
culture-starved but puritanical folk
who jammed the tents, yet sincerely
feared the theater.
Freely intermixing personal
recollection, historical fact, thumb-nail bio-
graphy, and folksy anecdote with brief
but perceptive analysis, Harrison ex-
plores the reasons for success and
failure in his band of troupers. "Old
Dependable," William Jennings
Bryan, receives the most searching rhetori-
cal criticism, and top billing as the
greatest name of all. But after examining
speaker, audience, and setting, the
author remains genuinely puzzled by
Bryan's never-ending appeal, as year
after year, through fair weather and
foul, the undiminishing multitudes
tirelessly packed the tents on "Bryan
Day." Although the "Great
Commoner" specialized in "mother, home, and
heaven" panegyrics, others, like
"Fighting Bob" La Follette, used the tent
platform as a political stump; countless
agitators for penal reform, woman's
suffrage, prohibition, and innumerable
"isms" opened new vistas for eager
listeners. Moreover, managers struggled
manfully to promote free and full
discussion of public issues,
successfully resisting the attempts of Wall Street
to control this potentially potent
propaganda medium.
But as the mud on Main Street gave way
to brick, the horse and buggy
to the Model-T, so staged performances
under the tent succumbed to an
early chautauqua novelty stunt, the
flickering screen; and personal appear-
ances by singers seemed less attractive
than music through ear phones. Man-
agers found it impossible to sell their
fantastically cheap tickets; the big
brown tent fell in 1934; but the
tradition continues at Lake Chautauqua and
other permanent sites. This account
offers the reader more than nostalgia; it
lends new insight to an era, its
political and social issues, its advocates, its
audiences, its performers, and its
culture.
Oberlin College PAUL H. BOASE
BOOK REVIEWS 401
The Mind of Alexander Hamilton. Arranged with an introduction by Saul
K. Padover. (New York: Harper and
Brothers, 1958. vi+461p.; index.
$6.50.)
Heritage from Hamilton, with a
Selection of Personal Letters. By
Broadus
Mitchell. (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1957. 160p.; illus-
trations. $3.75.)
These two volumes constitute a portion
of the studies and eulogies of
Alexander Hamilton prompted by his
bicentenary in 1957. Both cite evi-
dence, presumably authentic, of
Hamilton's birth in 1755. Apparently this
information was not established soon
enough to have moved the bicentennial
celebration to 1955.
Saul K. Padover, a professor in the
graduate faculty of the New School
for Social Research, is an old hand at
editing anthologies of the writings of
the founding fathers. He has previously
performed this service for Wash-
ington, Jefferson, and Madison. In such
a work, of course, the editor under-
takes to present what he believes to be
an accurate portrayal of the character
of his subject through a selection of
writings chosen for the purpose. Pro-
fessor Padover has done his job
skillfully. All of the papers have been
available previously, but they are here
woven together to give a picture of
Alexander Hamilton from youth through an
uncommonly active life to his
premature death at the hand of Aaron
Burr. Whether the evaluation of the
strengths and weaknesses of Hamilton
will be altered in any way by the
forthcoming publication of the
definitive edition of his works by Columbia
University cannot now be known. It is
clear beyond doubt that he was a man
of deep and sincere convictions. It is
clear, also, that he had boundless
energy and ingenuity in seeking the
practical achievement of his goals.
Whether these convictions and this
practical drive made him a patriot or a
mere bigot, present opinion may vary as
it did in his own day. Furthermore,
most of the time Hamilton seems to stand
forth as the embodiment of the
highest morality through his
self-sacrificing devotion to a conception of the
public good. But again, pettiness and
even venality have not been totally
absent.
Heritage from Hamilton is a work of quite different sort. While more
than a third of its small bulk is made
up of a selection from Hamilton's
letters, the book is essentially the
Gino Speranza Lectures in Columbia Uni-
versity for 1956-57. Broadus Mitchell,
professor of economics at Rutgers
University, has written widely in the
fields of economics and economic his-
tory. The jacket of this book informs us
that he is currentlly completing the
final volume of a definitive biography
of Hamilton.
This work has little of narrative
quality about it. Rather, it is an analysis
402
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of Hamilton's role in relation to the
great issues of his time, many of which
remain as issues of today. Professor
Mitchell has chosen his words care-
fully. His style often reveals elegance
both of conception and expression.
He presents Hamilton to us as
"Continentalist," "Finance Minister," and
"Party Leader." Under the
heading "Continentalist" we see the Hamilton
who opposed all divisiveness among the
colonial governments. He could
see strength--and even survival--only in
a central government so consti-
tuted that it could override local
differences of outlook and present a single
face both internally and externally. For
this view he argued, wrote, and
fought. As "Finance Minister"
we see Hamilton as secretary of the treasury,
establishing not only the immediate
financial operating procedures of the
new government but also, in his famous
"Reports," the long-range goals
which he thought it should seek. As
"Party Leader" we see the practical and
sometimes scheming partisan trying by
hook or crook to translate his po-
litical and economic ideals into
succesful operation.
The political aspects of Hamilton's
thought have had more thorough re-
view than the economic. Why should this
man, an avowed admirer of the
Wealth of Nations and its argument for freedom of the individual, devote
his own career to the establishment of a
strong central government to plan
and preside over the affairs of the new
nation? Such questions remain
enigmatic and may always do so. Mitchell
inclines toward the view that
Hamilton, like Friedrich List and others
of later years and lesser note, re-
garded full economic freedom as an
accompaniment of strength. Lacking
strength, as the new state governments
obviously did, the only path toward
prosperity and ultimate economic freedom
lay in a central government
powerful enough to enforce a unity of
policy which might create the pre-
requisite strength (p. 62). If this is a
correct interpretation, a reincarnated
Hamilton in mid-twentieth century might
find himself on the opposite side
of some public issues from many of his
avowed followers. In any case,
enough of Hamilton's issues remain as
our issues that any additional light
upon them is to be welcomed.
Ohio State University ROBERT D. PATTON
The Gingerbread Age: A View of
Victorian America. By John Maass. (New
York and Toronto: Rinehart and Company,
1957. 212p.; illustrations,
bibliography, and index. $7.95.)
The historical period covered by John
Maass in The Gingerbread Age
runs from 1837 to 1876. The earlier date
indicates an America which was
primarily agricultural; however, by
1876, America had developed to a posi-
BOOK REVIEWS 403
tion of great industrial power. This was
an enormously creative and pro-
gressive era during which many so-called
modern conveniences in heating,
cooking, lighting, and plumbing had
become a part of home life. Architec-
turally speaking, American Victorian,
according to Mr. Maass, is the archi-
tecture of our first industrial age.
American Victorian has now become
history, and there is a movement to
preserve some of the specimens of this
period with a reverence similar to
our zeal regarding eighteenth-century
examples of colonial architecture. The
general revival of interest in
Victoriana stems from the post-World War II
years when the charm of gingerbread
design began to be lauded by dealers
and decorators.
Since we have returned to comparative
simplicity in design, it is difficult
to appraise the effect of
"gingerbread" on American life during its heyday.
It brought exuberant color, more and
larger windows, high rooms, big kitch-
ens, and ample storage space in cellar
and attic. This architecture was an
expression of its time: "Victorian
buildings are perfect symbols of an era
which was not given to understatement.
They are in complete harmony with
the heavy meals, strong drink, elaborate
clothes, ornate furnishings, flamboy-
ant art, melodramatic plays, loud music,
flowery speeches, and thundering
sermons of mid-nineteenth century
America." Buildings were designed as
fittting ornaments and Victorian
architecture is strongly rooted in civic pride
and suggests much in terms of developing
the social strata of a town. Today,
these once respectable residences near
the center of town have taken on a
blighted appearance. Now rooming houses,
they all too often are neglected
and have a gloomy, unpainted, shuttered
character that hides their early
splendor.
The Victorian architects were
jacks-of-all-trades. They doubled as engin-
eers. There were few trained designers
and no architectural magazines at this
time. The pattern books filled a great
need and were instrumental in spread-
ing architectural ideas and methods
across the country. A number of Gothic
stone mansions appeared, but stonework
and hand carving was too costly for
widespread use. However, the expensive
Gothic was translated into "Car-
penter Gothic," in which
gingerbread and curlicues were fashioned from a
more easily worked and inexpensive
material, wood. "These characteristic
Americana have steep gables, and pointed
windows; sometimes they were
sheathed with vertical boarding . . .
considered particularly fitting for a
Gothic cottage because of its upward
tendency."
The Gingerbread Age presents an interesting view into a dynamic period
of American development. The
illustrations and drawings are representative
of many types of building, residences,
churches, barns, as well as public
404
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
buildings. Perhaps
"gingerbread" is still too prevalent for us to award it
much attention and respect. It stands
boldly between two periods of simplic-
ity. As it becomes a rarity and more a
part of the historical past, probably
our admiration will grow. But there is
the danger that the best examples of
Victoriana will be torn down along with
the objectionable ones. Then we
will treasure all the more this
excellent pictorial treatment of Victoriana in
its finest flower.
Ohio State University GEORGE L. WILLIAMS
Industrial Medicine in Western
Pennsylvania, 1850-1950. By T. Lyle
Hazlett
and William W. Hummel. (Pittsburgh:
University of Pittsburgh Press,
1958. xviii+301p.; illustrations,
appendices, bibliographical essay, and
index. $6.00.)
The nineteenth century, as most medical
historians know, was marked in
the United States by the rise of the
factory system, the organization of labor
unions, the introduction of new and
complicated machines, and a gradual
awareness that both private and public
agencies should protect the health
of the citizen. This century witnessed
an unfolding of a research based upon
empiricism and a philosophy of
humanitarianism. Legislatures passed acts
regulating hours of labor, demanding
safety devices for industrial machinery,
prescribing conditions under which women
and children might work, and
creating state departments of health
whose duties were to prevent disease,
assure safe water supplies, provide for
prenatal care, and, in general, seek
to establish a sanitary environment.
The protection and medical care of the
worker soon became a major con-
cern of both private physicians and
state agencies. Actually, of course, as
the authors of this history of
industrial medicine in western Pennsylvania
make clear, individuals such as
Bernardino Ramazzini in 1700 and C. Turner
Thackrah in 1831 had published root
volumes on the effects of the trades,
arts, and professions on health and
longevity. The authors' first chapter (and
it is rather too lengthy) traces these
backgrounds of industrial medicine.
Subsequent chapters carry the story from
the work of pioneer physicians to
recent times. There is a section on the
literature and research in the field of
industrial medicine. Many workers in the
field are well acquainted with this
material, but it may prove useful to
others who wish a rather general guide
to further reading.
Perhaps the essential interest--and
contribution--of this study lies in the
fact that western Pennsylvania developed
early as a railroad and a steel cen-
ter, thus becoming a sort of a proving
ground for industrial medicine; that
BOOK REVIEWS 405
the Pennsylvania Department of Health
was not established until 1885, thus
for many years throwing the burden of
treating the worker upon private
physicians and voluntary associations;
and that one of the authors of this
volume, Dr. T. Lyle Hazlett, is an
outstanding leader in the field of indus-
trial medicine, having served as medical
director of the Westinghouse Elec-
tric Corporation in Pittsburgh, chairman
of the department of industrial
medicine at the University of Pittsburgh,
and chairman of the medical board
under the occupation disease act.
It is not surprising, therefore, that
this volume should emphasize the
contributions of individuals and
associations that Dr. Hazlett knew and with
which he was associated. It could be
that he himself suggested the book's
organization--the surgical phase,
1900-1915, preventive medicine, 1916-
1930, medical engineering, 1930-1941,
medical relations, 1940-1950. This
somewhat original approach, although provocative,
seems not to make full
allowance for other significant factors.
It would be instructive, indeed, if
more attention had been paid to local
ordinances and state statutes de-
signed to protect the health of the
worker in the same general manner that
attention is paid, for example, to the
department of labor and industry. Yet,
to offset this apparent underemphasis,
there is full and detailed information
on safety provisions in general and in
such companies as the United States
Steel Corporation. The authors must be
congratulated also for the careful
attention paid to mental hygiene in
industry.
Although this volume concerns itself
with western Pennsylvania, one can-
not but wish that Messrs. Hazlett and
Hummel had raised their sights
sufficiently to compare and/or contrast
the development of industrial medi-
cine in their area with that in the
remainder of Pennsylvania and had, here
and there, indicated even briefly what
was going on in the same field in other
industrial areas throughout the entire
country. Workmen's compensation was
not confined to western Pennsylvania nor
was the safety movement or the
contributions of the United States
Public Health Service or the development
of similar approaches in other states.
One cannot do everything in a single
volume, however, and this study is a
fair mirroring of the growth of in-
dustrial medicine in a restricted area.
And this area has exerted proud in-
fluence throughout the United States,
not only in the writings of such
leaders as John Milligan, Webster B.
Lowmann, and John B. Lowmann but
also by the work of the Mellon Institute
for Industrial Research and the de-
partment of occupational health of the
graduate school of the University of
Pennsylvania.
University of Minnesota PHILIP D. JORDAN
406
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Ireland and the American Immigration,
1850-1900. By Arnold Schrier.
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1958. x+210p.; appendix
tables, notes and bibliography, and
index. $4.50.)
Considering the size and importance of
the Irish element in the American
population, surprisingly little of a
scholarly nature has been written about
the history of the Irish immigration,
and almost nothing about the effects
of the Irish exodus upon Ireland itself.
This book seeks to redress the bal-
ance. It is the result of a year and a
half of study in Ireland, and is based
upon the examination of many primary and
secondary sources on both sides
of the Atlantic, including immigrant
letters, and data gathered by question-
naires and interviews with Irishmen who
returned from the United States
to their native land.
The first two chapters are introductory
to the main theme, and describe
conditions in Ireland which led to the
flight from hunger to a land of hope,
whose image was derived largely from
thousands of "America letters"
which described the attractions of this
new "driving country." Thereupon
the author examines in detail the reaction
of emigration on Ireland, the fu-
tile efforts of the press to stop the
drainage of population, the attitude of
the Catholic Church, and proposals to
dam the flood through home rule,
the development of industries, and
making the Irishman more thrifty and
productive at home. The author analyzes
the effects of emigration upon the
number and size of Irish farms and the
change from tillage to pasture land,
and upon labor, wages, employment, and
general living conditions. In his
most interesting chapter, he deals with
the customs, legends, love charms,
and ballads which grew up in Ireland as
a result of decades of emigration
to the United States. The most
interesting of these customs undoubtedly was
the "American wake," the
conversion of an ancient ceremony to a new pur-
pose to bid farewell to emigrants whom
one was not likely to ever see
again. Finally, the author deals with
the effects of the reimportation of men
and money from the United States into
Ireland. The remittances from Irish
laborers and servant girls reached
amazing totals, and "American money"
was spent for a wide variety of
purposes, some of it for political agitation
in the days of the Fenians and the Land
League. The number of "returned
Yanks," however, represented a mere
trickle, for Irishmen were not "birds
of passage." Nevertheless, the few
Irish who returned had some influence
upon their home community, although they
apparently made little impression
on Irish politics.
The author has made a real contribution
to the story of Irish-American im-
migration. His narrative suffers
occasionally from too much detail and an un-
BOOK REVIEWS 407
necessary belaboring of familiar and
obvious facts. The concluding chapter
is unnecessary in so short a book,
because it is a mere recapitulation and to
some extent a restatement of points
already made in the preface. These are
matters of minor importance, however.
The book represents sound scholar-
ship and prodigious research, and its
footnotes and appendices will prove as
important for scholars as the narrative
itself.
Western Reserve University CARL WITTKE
Prince of Carpetbaggers. By Jonathan Daniels. (Philadelphia and New York:
J. B. Lippincott Company, 1958. 319p.;
frontispiece, sources and ac-
knowledgements, and index. $4.95.)
During the Civil War General Milton
Smith Littlefield fought at Shiloh
and organized Negro battalions for the
North in Florida and the "en-
chanted" Sea Islands off the
Carolina coast. After the conflict, through lavish
entertainment and bribery of legislators
in North Carolina and Florida, this
elegant "Prince of Bummers"
profited handsomely from the loot of state
treasuries, the theft of railroads, and
the hoodwinking of European bond
buyers. While the stealing lasted, the
tall and bearded officer, whose exterior
was "beautiful to behold,"
lived in regal splendor; when others gained con-
trol, Littlefield became penniless,
jumped hotel bills, and now lies in an un-
marked grave near New York City.
Jonathan Daniels is the liberal editor
of the Raleigh News and Observer
as well as the prominent author of a
number of books. His latest work rep-
resents the piecing together of a
"continental jig-saw puzzle" from blocks
gathered in a nation-wide search for new
material on the Prince of Carpet-
baggers. Daniels was assiduous in his
detective work, but the brand-new find-
ings were slim beyond material from the Grand
Rapids Press on Littlefield's
early life in Michigan, and a
"mutilated scrapbook and some other papers"
which had belonged to the general. The
unfortunate mutilation was perpe-
trated by the general's son, a minister
famous in later years as a compiler
of sacred hymns. The excisions might
have clarified financial transactions
now difficult to comprehend, as well as
the nature of Littlefield's involve-
ment with Mrs. Ann Cavarly--a woman of
mystery appearing and reappear-
ing in his wanderings--who disdained a
carpetbag "but moved with a bon-
net box and a Saratoga trunk."
One understands that it was imperative
for Daniels to bridge the gaps
from public documents and well-known
secondary works, and he uses this
material with scholarly and stylistic
competence. Nonetheless Littlefield fre-
408
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
quently becomes lost in discursions that
bring in local color, political his-
tory, and biographical sketches that
sometimes go beyond what is usually
considered adequate identification of
collateral dramatis personnae. If the
reader's mind is on Prince Littlefield,
this device can be disconcerting. Some
will also find fault with Daniels'
testament that he is "not much of a man
for footnotes," although
"without cluttering the narrative" he has made a
scholarly attempt to cite references in
the text. This reviewer is still uncer-
tain as to the extent and size of the
"mutilated scrapbook and some other
papers" which are all that remain
from the hand of General Milton Smith
Littlefield.
This study, written by a southerner,
makes it objectively clear that carpet-
baggers were but one evidence of a
national "reign of shoddy," and that
Gould, Fisk, and Littlefield from the
North were matched by southern "re-
spectables" like Swepson, Hawkins,
and Ransom, who carted away a bounte-
ous share of booty. By comparison the
Negroes--so often blamed for the
excesses of carpetbag rule--were forced
to resort to a legislative "smelling
committee" in an ineffectual
attempt to even sniff at the rich pickings. They
could not compete in financial
skulduggery with either General Littlefield or
General Ransom, the latter a southern
Christian gentleman who before the
war was said to have prepared a pious
creed for his slaves: "Love Jesus.
Obey the Master. And don't steal Mr.
Ransom's corn."
Western Reserve University C. H. CRAMER