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Book Reviews American Business and Foreign Policy, 1920-1933. By
JOAN HOFF WILSON. (Lex- ington: University Press of Kentucky, 1971. xvii + 339p.; notes, bibliography, and in- dex. $12.50.) Since 1929 the preoccupation of historians with the role and ideology of business in American life has been intense. Studies of the Gilded Age, such as those by Matthew Josephson and Charles Beard, looked upon businessmen as "robber barons" in domestic affairs. During the isolationist decade capi- talists became those "merchants of death" --munition makers and greedy bankers put- ting profit above human life--who led the United States into the First World War. From 1945 to the present Edward Kirkland, Allan Nevins, and Robert Wiebe along with other historians have broadened the scope of inquiry in domestic affairs to discover that business people had "dreams and thought" beyond profit, were entrepreneurial giants and reformers seeking order in the economy to increase the material well being of all. With respect to foreign relations, New Left historians now stress the role of businessmen in making the Open Door Policy the decisive one of the twentieth century and the pro- ducer of the Cold War. Other writers such as Joseph Brandes and Herbert Feis, in his Diplomacy of the Dollar, have focused their attention primarily on foreign economic ad- venturism during the 1920's. With her book, American Business and Foreign Policy, 1920-1933, Joan Hoff Wil- son must be given a respectable place among significant scholars in the field of business history. While her account is less witty, ur- bane, and authoritative than the monograph by Feis, it is broader in scope and analysis then his. In her introduction Mrs. Wilson indicates the purpose and scope of her study in these words: "There has been a tendency either to exaggerate or to underestimate the role played by the business community in the formation of foreign policy between |
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1920 and 1933. This study, therefore, ex- amines the attitudes and actions of individ- ual businessmen, industries, and business or trade organizations to determine the extent to which government officials were subjected to pressure from the various segments of the business community, and the degree to which they responded" (p. xi). Thereupon follows a clear overview of the general business views and foreign policy trends of 1920. Successive chapters deal perceptively with the diversified and chang- ing attitudes of business leaders toward dis- armament and the peace movement, com- mercial foreign policy, foreign loan suspen- sion, war debts, reparations, open and closed doors. Throughout her book the author re- fuses to take sides in the "legend of isola- tionism" in the 1920's debate. In perhaps her most valuable intellectual contribution, Professor Wilson concludes that official American foreign policy was neither isola- tionist nor internationalist, but was an "in- dependent internationalism." This she de- fines as an "unstable assortment of unilateral and collective diplomatic actions" and "not a foreign policy but... a pragmatic method for coordinating foreign affairs" (p. xvi). No monolithic businessman stereotype is given. There were, for example, "business isolationists" and "business
internationalists" in the public discussions of international or- ganization, peace, and disarmament. The author, too, sees no conspiracy on the part of the State and Commerce Departments to allow oil and other industrial magnates to conduct foreign relations in the contracts they made. Yet, the Federal Government in its policy of hands off private business, save for minimal rules easily circumvented or not enforced, led essentially to this result. Also affirmed is the existence of government of- ficials and business leaders who believed in the principle of the Open Door as the way to peace among nations. In actual experi- ence, however, the United States demanded open doors where other nations were highly |
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146 competitive and closed doors for herself in Latin America where she predominated. Scholars, to whom it is primarily ad- dressed, will find this book valuable. A spirit of fairness and balance pervades the analy- sis. The work rests on the foundation of broad research into government documents, business journals, monographs, newspapers, and books. Especially noteworthy is the effective use of research in the Hoover Presi- dential Library. Herbert Hoover becomes the central figure in the account as his changing views on foreign policy and busi- ness are carefully recorded for his tenures as Secretary of Commerce and President. Given this thorough use of the Hoover Papers, it is regrettable that Mrs. Wilson used neither the Harding nor the Coolidge Papers. This reviewer suggests that an even fuller dimension to the study would have resulted had these manuscripts been con- sulted. DAVID JENNINGS Ohio Wesleyan University The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896. By RICHARD J. JENSEN. (Chicago: University of Chi- cago Press, 1971. xvii + 357p.; bibliogra- phical essay, index. $12.50.) Historians for some time have concerned themselves with the causes for particular voting patterns in the Midwest during the critical closing decades of the nineteenth century. Various explanations have been offered to shed light on the realignment of political power in the Midwest and upon that section's rejection of the Democratic presidential candidate in 1896 when his campaign addressed itself to the Midwest's own peculiar problems. Dismissing previ- ous themes, including economic and class conflict as the primary cause, Richard J. Jensen, Jr., suggests that voters' affiliation with religious groups did more to determine electorial behavior and values between 1888 and 1896 than any other cause. Jensen's work covers much of the same ground as did Paul Kleppner in his The |
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OHIO HISTORY Cross of Culture: A Social Analysis of Mid- western Politics, 1850-1900 which was pub- lished in 1970. While Kleppner looked only at Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin and over a greater number of years, Jensen narrowed his study in time but expanded the geogra- phical area to include Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Both histor- ians, while sensitive to the cultural, class, economic and social influences upon voter behavior, agreed that religion shaped the issues and the rhetoric of politics and also determined party allegiance in the Midwest. Both catagorized religion into two groups: the pietists who sought to reform society through positive governmental action, and the liturgicalists who looked inward, toward their own church structure, to discover the formula for a perfect society. Both used the quantitative approach, but Jensen's work goes beyond Kleppner's. He combined his data with a useful interpretive description of events to detail the winning of the Mid- west by the Republican party, not only in 1896, but for future decades. Jensen concluded that the years between 1888 and 1896 were disruptive years for both the major political parties in the Mid- west. Evenly matched in 1888, both parties had marched their loyal following off to the polls like two great armies going to combat. By 1896, however, voters were no longer staunch party members, but had gained a sense of nonpartyism. Shaken loose from party ties by local issues such as prohibition and the compulsory school law in Wiscon- sin, the major political parties could no longer regard certain ethnic or cultural groups to be tied securely to the party out of loyalty. Thus, challenged for leadership by crusading amateurs turned politicans, the political parties changed campaign tactics, and, rather than calling their armies to the polls to count the deserters, they modernized their techniques and began to merchanize both their candidate and their platforms for the awaiting electorate. Because of the entry into the political arena of crusading pietists, the professional politicians temporarily lost control of the Republican party between 1890 and 1893. Able to capitalize on the failure of prohibi- tion and the pietistic attack upon parochial |
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Book Reviews education, the Democrats obtained support from nominally loyal Republicans, especi- ally the Germans, and won significant vic- tories in the elections of 1890, 1891, and 1892. The depression of 1893, however, gave the Republicans hope for the 1896 presidential election. The Democrats, split on the money issue, nominated William Jen- nings Bryan in 1896. Rejecting the tradi- tional structure of the Democratic party, Bryan struck through the Midwest with cru- sading fervor. Calling upon the old-stock pietists to revive ethnic antagonisms, he attempted to form a moral coalition that would purge the country of corrup- tion, evil, and crime. Due to their own failures, the pietists rejected Bryan and turned to the Republican candidate, William McKinley. McKinley, spreading the cloth of Republican tariff protectionism over the country, made a vote for his party a mark of patriotism and promised protection and economic security to all ethnic groups, thereby recognizing the pluralism within American society. After rejecting the anti- catholicism of the American Protective As- sociation and the several attempts for a third party movement, the majority of the Mid- west electorate turned away from Bryan and endorsed the Republican party. Jensen's generalizations about the Mid- west were based upon thorough examina- tions of local incidents and sample census and election returns from selected counties, townships or precincts to determine ethnic and religious voting patterns. For instance, using sample voting returns and census fig- ures to determine a positive correlation be- tween voter denominations and party prefer- ence in fifteen scattered townships during the elections throughout the 1870's, he judged that his conclusions "probably held for the entire Midwest, and perhaps for the entire North...." (p. 59). Although he may be correct, the quantity of data used could be questioned and greater samplings should be made before historians accept his conclu- sions prima facie. The author's use of local sources, includ- ing local histories, sermons, state and county records, local business directories, and news- papers, is an example of the increasing use of local materials by historians to write |
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147 meaningful history. His lengthy annotated bibliography is a valuable guide to anyone interested in the social, religious, and politi- cal history of the Midwest and is an updat- ing of the growing amount of source and published materials available for the study of the region. Since the Midwest contained a quarter of the nation's voting population and both major parties between 1860 and 1912 selected the majority of either their presidential or vice-presidential candidates from the six states, Jensen's work is more than a study in regionalism. Rather, it is a contribution to the historian's general under- standing of national politics during the latter part of the nineteenth century. THOMAS H. SMITH Ohio University The Blacks in Canada: A History. By ROBIN W. WINKS. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971. xvii + 546p.; maps, bibliogra- phical essay, and index. $15.00.) Whether or not this book is an "extraordi- nary contribution to black history," as the fly-leaf blurb claims, abundantly clear is the fact that it is a major contribution to the his- tory of blacks and whites, Canadians and Americans, to name only the chief benefici- aries. Its scholarship is thorough, its thought profound, its perspective unblemished. It is based mostly on manuscript sources, white and black, and reveals there are vast quanti- ties of the latter. White sources, while use- ful and necessary, even though contempor- ary, are one step removed from the subject matter. Too much black history is angry overemphasis on what the white has done to the black and an underemphasis on what the black has done for himself and others. Much can be learned from Winks' splendid study. Numbering about two and a half percent of the total Canadian population, present day blacks are varied in historical origin and scattered in geographical location. They in- clude the following: descendants of slaves who came in at various times including the fugitive slaves of 1815 to 1861; the "Ma- roons," perennial rebels against the British |
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148 in Jamaica deported to Nova Scotia in 1796; the "Refugee Negroes," jetsam of the War of 1812 in the United States who gained their freedom by accepting the land prom- ises of British proclamations and found a haven in the Maritime Provinces; the blacks banished from California in 1858 who colo- nized on the island of Victoria in Puget Sound; the Negro farm colonists from Okla- homa who came to Manitoba, Saskatche- wan, and Alberta from 1909 to 1912; the Harlem fugitives from prohibition to Mon- treal in the 1920's; and the West Indians who have filtered in during the twentieth century. As prejudice developed--and the Cana- dian record is little better than the American --black reaction divided between self-help and militancy, which is mild. But black self- help was, and is, also divided. The Cana- dian Association for the Advancement of Colored People has little communication with its American counterpart and is scarcely a national organization at all, and the National Black Coalition reveals more differences than the resolving of them. There has been no Canadian Martin Luther King. The degree of black militancy in the Black Panthers, SNCC, and CORE has not reached the stage of self-help in Canada. Canadian blacks have viewed black unity, as in the United States, as dangerous, and be- lieve the American experience has resulted in more harm than good. The author shows that prejudice in Canada is the result of English "hierarchical mindedness"
(indiffer- ence), not of slavery or of racial economic fear. If a black achieves a measure of equality, he is equal but "alien." Conse- quently, black efforts at reform have been slower and more restrained in Canada than in the United States. The Ontario Human Rights Commission, on the other hand, did not have much power until 1961 but is now doing the job--and there are no "mob" problems. For Ohioans, Winks' book is a tribute to the great pioneer work of Larry Gara who exploded the Canada North Star legend of the Underground Railroad. Winks shows that the reception of fugitives via Ohio and other states was cold indeed and that the "North Star" was a mirage. "As with
all too many leaps of faith," says Winks in the |
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OHIO HISTORY chapter on "A Continental Abolitionism," "the gap between the known and certain, and the unknown and assumed, would prove to be as wide as the real Ohio." The magni- ficent chapters entitled "The Coming of the Fugitive Slave, 1815-1861" and "The Cana- dian Canaan" demonstrate the same thing. Readers will not be surprised to discover that experience in Canada has enabled few blacks to cross "the River [of freedom] singing". RANDOLPH C. DOWNES Maumee, Ohio One Million Men: The Civil War Draft in the North. By
EUGENE C. MURDOCK. (Madi- son: The State Historical Society of Wis- consin, 1971. xi + 366p.; tables, bibliogra- phical note, and index. $10.00.) Though tens of thousands of books have been written about the Civil War, One Mil- lion Men is
the first general study of the En- rollment Act of March 3, 1863. Professor Eugene Murdock of Marietta College, who previously published studies of the draft in Ohio and New York, is to be commended for writing this readable and scholarly mon- ograph. Using contemporary newspapers, all-but-forgotten records at the National Ar- chives, and printed primary sources, he has pieced together an interesting account of how Colonel James B. Fry and his subordi- nates in Washington, local provost marshals and their staffs, and independent recruiters raised the men needed for the Union Army. Theirs was no easy task, for the nation had never before found it necessary to enact a conscription law, and many Yankees were determined to evade the draft. The 1863 Enrollment Act, notes Professor Murdock, can best be described as a semi- draft law. Though intended to encourage enlistments, the measure made it pos- sible for able-bodied men to avoid mili- tary service, because until July 4, 1864, one could fulfill his military obligation by paying a $300 commutation fee or hiring a sub- stitute. Critics of the law mistakenly alleged that these provisions made the conflict a rich man's war and a poor man's fight, and |
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Book Reviews they persuaded Congress to repeal the com- mutation clause. This had the unfortunate result of making it difficult for the lower classes to forestall induction, for substitutes could no longer be had for under $300. After July 1864, the price for substitutes skyrocketed to as much as $1000, and only the wealthy and the middle class could raise the money needed to avoid donning the blue. As time passed, bounties rose and the quality of recruits and substitutes declined. On the whole the provost marshals, en- rollers, and surgeons were a capable lot. To be sure, a few were crooks and alcoholics, but most were capable public servants, working long hours for comparatively low pay. Scores were killed or wounded while performing their duties, and despite draft riots, threats, and opposition from peace Democrats, most provost marshals executed the law in a reasonable manner. Similarly, though a few government surgeons accepted bribes to exempt healthy men from the ser- vice, the overwhelming majority tried to conduct fair and impartial examinations. Historians have traditionally dismissed the Civil War draft as a failure. Murdock dis- agrees. He is willing to concede that Con- gress should have regulated brokers, equal- ized local bounties and dealt more severely with deserters, but he claims that even if the federal draft system was an "odd way" to raise one million men, "it worked" (p. 344). Considering that there was no precedent to guide the congressmen, Murdock concludes, they should be given proper credit for fur- nishing Grant with the manpower needed to defeat Lee. Apparently Murdock agrees with Frank Klement that neither the Knights of the Golden Circle nor the Sons of Liberty rep- resented a threat to conscription in the North, for neither group is even mentioned in this study. This is not to imply that One Million Men ignores
the problem of draft resistance, for considerable attention is given to such centers of anti-war sentiment as Holmes County, Ohio, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, and New York City. None- theless one wishes that he would have given more attention to the role of Copperhead newspapers in promoting opposition to con- scription. |
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149 Murdock is to be praised for making use of draft records at the National Archives, but it should be noted that his footnote refer- ences to items found in Record Group 110 are of limited value to scholars. His cita- tions should have been more complete, for they merely indicate in which packet of documents he found his material. They neither specify pertinent page numbers in the historical reports he consulted nor do they indicate whether he used the letterbooks of outgoing and incoming correspondence filed with these reports. These criticisms, however, are minor and are not intended to detract from this fine study of the Civil War draft. ARNOLD SHANKMAN Emory University From the Freshwater Navy: 1861-64; The Letters of Acting Master's Mate Henry R. Browne and Acting Ensign Symmes E. Browne. Edited
by JOHN D. MILLIGAN. (An- napolis: United States Naval Institute, 1970. xx + 327p.; illustrations, appendix, biblio- graphy, and index. $13.50.) In the story of our Civil War, one of the more interesting chapters concerns the role of Yankee and Rebel sea forces, the "web- feet" as Lincoln called them. Surprisingly, in the years since 1860, one can count less than 2,500 works referring in whole or in part to these navies--far less than the num- ber devoted to the Battle of Gettysburg alone. Recent students have attempted to remedy this neglect, but much remains to be done. The part taken by the federal Navy in the capture of Vicksburg and the "opening" of the upper Mississippi continues to have a special fascination. Naval officers of the western theatre, operating at first under the Union Army, built a fleet of armored steam- boats--some of the strangest craft ever to fly a Navy ensign--to carry the war south. This phase has been particularly ill remem- bered. A poor state exists when one must still concede that Alfred T. Mahan's first book, The Gulf and Inland Waters, written in 1883 without benefit of the Official Rec- |
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150 ords, is the
best general account available. Even worse, prior to the publication of the volume under review, Henry Walke's ill- tempered 1877 memoir, Naval Scenes and Reminiscences ... on the Western Waters, stood as the only important first-hand mono- graphic contribution from the pen of a Yankee participant. The Union's fresh water fleet, known at times as either the Western Flotilla or Missis- sippi Squadron, was constantly in need of officers and men. In addition to regular naval officers such as Ohioans Walke, James A. Greer, and John C. Febiger, hundreds of lower echelon officers, lieutenants, ensigns, and mates - "acting" volunteers for the emergency-were recruited along the rivers and the Great Lakes. Among these were the Browne brothers, Henry and Symmes, who signed on at the recruiting station in their home town of Cincinnati. After mustering in, the Brownes found themselves junior officers aboard the new "City Series" ironclad Mound City, based down river in Cairo, Illinois. Aboard that stern-wheeled scow, sistership of the famous Carondelet, the
young men participated in some of the great land-sea battles for clear- ance of the Mississippi water way. Under Flag Officers Foote and Davis, the actions were hot at Island No. Ten, Plum Point Bend, and Memphis. In mid-1862 while on an advance up the White River into Arkan- sas, Henry was killed along with nearly a hundred of his fellow crewmen when the ship took a Confederate cannonball in her boiler. Symmes, who was unhurt, was trans- |
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OHIO HISTORY ferred after the disaster to the
"timberclad" Tyler and
later to the "tinclads" Signal and Forrest Rose. The Browne boys, like many other Civil War participants, were conscientious and constant letter writers. Before his death, Henry wrote mostly to his parents; Symmes, the younger of the two, sent the bulk of his correspondence to his sweetheart, Fannie. In this third volume of the Naval Letters Series, Professor John D. Milligan has brought into print those notes that still re- main. As one who has used these interesting and data-filled letters, a prize possession of the Ohio Historical Society, this reviewer is pleased to see them compiled into a single volume. By carefully excluding nonessential tidbits and providing modern spelling and punctuation, the editor has performed an outstanding service to Civil War scholars. To this collection, he has added photographs and charts and has appended a list of statis- tics on "Vessels of the Fresh-Water Navy," as well as a well constructed index. Now after nearly a hundred years, one can place another useful eyewitness account on the shelf next to Admiral Walke's. With no axe to grind, From the Fresh Water Navy breathes even stronger life into the routines and struggles of those long-forgotten heroes who fought to preserve the Union along America's interior streams. MYRON J. SMITH, JR. Huntington Public Library Huntington, Indiana |