Book Reviews
Baseball: The Early Years. By Harold Seymour. (New York: Ox-
ford University Press, 1960.
viii??373p.; illustrations, bibliographical
note, and index. $7.50.)
The author of this important volume
started as a bat boy with the
Brooklyn Dodgers, earned a Ph.D. in
history at Cornell, and now is an
associate professor in a New York
college. He knows and loves his
baseball, and he knows his American
history, and so he has given us
what is without question the best book
on the subject. In the present
volume he covers from Valley Forge to
the formation of Ban Johnson's
American League in 1903. A second volume
is promised, and will be
eagerly awaited.
Professor Seymour's prodigious research
has effectively disposed of
several myths, such as Abner Doubleday's
"invention" of the game in
1839, and the claim of the Baltimore
Orioles for "the hit and run."
Baseball clearly developed from the
English game of "rounders" and
its various Americanized versions. From
an amateur sport for con-
vivial gentlemen, baseball changed
rapidly after the Civil War into
a commercialized amusement business with
distinct monopoly, not to
say feudal, characteristics.
The well-known Knickerbocker Club of New
York (1845) was pri-
marily an exclusive social club to which
members paid dues and an
initiation fee. For thirteen years, the
National Association of Baseball
Players, founded in 1858, tried to
govern amateur baseball clubs, and
there quickly developed a twilight zone
between amateurism and pro-
fessionalism that opened the door to all
kinds of hypocrisy. Boss Tweed,
for example, had the best players of the
New York Mutuals on the pay-
roll of the city street cleaning
department. To William A. Hulbert
belongs the credit for founding the
National League, which established
many of the feudal rules, such as the
controversial reserve clause in
players' contracts, and other
monopolistic practices which still charac-
terize modern organized baseball. From
1876 to 1900, no fewer than
twenty-one clubs were members of the
league at one time or another.
Competition brought on bitter trade
wars, with the American Associa-
BOOK REVIEWS 399
tion, and the Brotherhood War of 1890,
which resulted from the futile
revolt of the ball players against their
employers, and had many of the
characteristics of the efforts of unions
to force a recognition of collec-
tive bargaining. The movement had the
support of such famous players
as Connie Mack, Charles Comiskey, and
John K. Tener, and such
industrialists as Albert L. Johnson, the
brother of Cleveland's famous
reform mayor, Tom L. Johnson. By the
1890's, the National League,
consisting of twelve clubs, had a
virtual monopoly of the business, only
to meet its match in Ban Johnson,
president of the Western League,
and founder of the second "big
league" in 1903.
All of this complicated story is
recounted in great detail, perhaps
with a little too much detail, but it is
all there, the result of prodigious
research. Of more interest to the fans,
once known as "cranks," are
such matters as the evolution of the
pitching art, the curve ball, change
of pace, and the balk rule; salaries
paid the players; the infield fly rule;
baseball equipment, spring training,
double-headers, and ladies' day;
the role of the umpire; the influence of
the telegraph; and the emergence
of the expert sports writer, who continues
to be a powerful influence in
organized baseball. We read of such
famous players as Connie Mack,
Honus Wagner, Cy Young, Ned Hanlon, Nap
Lajoie, "King" Kelly,
and Willie Keeler; managers like
"Cap" Anson, and such eccentric
owners as Chris von der Ahe, of the St.
Louis Browns. There was a
long battle over Sunday games, and in
1897, the Liquor League and
the Ministers' Association of Cleveland
formed an unholy alliance on
the issue. In many cities, there was a
close liaison between club owners,
beer brewers, and transit companies. The
under-the-table payments
to outstanding players suggests the
present-day competition for col-
lege athletes by offering them athletic
scholarships.
All of this, and much more, is
interesting material for the general
reader. As a historian, the author has
constantly related the story of
baseball to the larger theme of American
social history, and particu-
larly the influence of industrialism and
urbanism, and the development
of better facilities of transportation
and communication, and the impact
of baseball upon American journalism and
the American language.
Western Reserve University CARL WITTKE
The Leopard's Spots: Scientific
Attitudes Toward Race in America,
1815-59. By William Stanton. (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1960. ix??245p.; index. $4.00.)
400
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Popular accounts of the history of
racism usually begin with
Count Arthur de Gobineau (often called
"the father of modern racial
theories"), who, in 1853, published
his Essai sur l'Inegalite des Races
Humaines. This is manifestly an oversimplification, for belief in
the
inherent superiority of one's own racial
group far antedated Gobineau,
and ethnocentrism, in one form or
another, is probably as old as the
human species itself.
William Stanton, in this excellent book,
The Leopard's Spots,
demonstrates that the issue was indeed a
lively one in the United States
in the first half of the nineteenth
century. He begins with the Jefferson-
ian idea that "all men are created
equal" which enjoyed considerable
vogue in the late eighteenth century,
despite the fact that the presence
of the Negro and the Indian placed
serious strains upon the equalitarian
faith.
In 1787 the Rev. Dr. S. S. Smith, later
president of the College of
New Jersey (Princeton), published a
widely read book in which he
undertook "to establish the unity
of the human species," to explain the
differences among the varieties of men,
and to reconcile the process
with the biblical story of creation.
Smith had many able supporters
who joined him in defending the
"monogenist" point of view.
On the other side were the
"polygenists," including some of the ablest
scientists of the period, who rejected
the biblical chronology, and who
insisted that the races of man were
distinct species, profoundly different
in their capacities.
The men who participated in the debate
were legion, but the principal
characters treated in this book are the
following:
Samuel George Morton, Philadelphia
physician and professor of
anatomy, eminent craniologist,
completely dedicated to science;
George R. Gliddon, popular lecturer,
master of humbug, implacable
foe of parsons, popularizer of
Egyptology, "with delusions of pro-
fundity, his mind was as shallow as a
mountain stream";
Josiah Clark Nott, physician of Mobile,
Alabama, who, when he first
read Darwin in 1859, said, "The man
is clearly crazy";
Louis Agassiz, distinguished scientist,
Harvard professor, critic of
Darwinism, who held that "though
the Negro is human, he is not of
the same species as the white man";
E. G. Squier, the first authoritative
voice in American archaeology,
co-author of Ancient Monuments of the
Mississippi Valley, whose re-
search raised doubts about man's having
appeared on earth only
4004 B.C.;
BOOK REVIEWS 401
John Bachman, Lutheran minister of
Charleston, South Carolina,
competent scientist, skillful debater,
spokesman for the monogenists,
formulator of a theory of his own that
approached evolution.
The appearance of Darwin's Origin of
Species in 1859 placed the
whole problem in a new perspective.
Darwin exposed the error of the
monogenists' belief that man arose
complete and perfected, distinct
from all other species, and, at the same
time, he proved the polygenists
wrong in their insistence that man
emerged in several places in several
distinct forms. He presented a revised
monogenist theory, according
to which man is the product of a very
long process of differentiation.
Many of the principals in this story
died before Darwin's book ap-
peared. Nott, however, lived until 1873.
Says Stanton, "When their
revolution was rendered irrelevant by
the Darwinian invasion, he
possessed the intellectual courage to
relinquish a theory built upon
a lifetime of labor and the good grace
to accept the new."
This is a solid, thorough, scholarly
volume, and it deals with a prob-
lem which has long had priority in man's
thought and interest. More-
over, it is presented in a lively,
interesting style. The titles of the
chapters are themselves sufficient to
arouse one's curiosity and entice
one to read the book: "Whoever
Heard of a Cross-eyed Race?" "The
Parson-skinning Goes on Bravely,"
"Kicking Up a Damn?? Fuss Gen-
erally," "Agitators Often Do
Much Good," and so forth.
Ohio State University BREWTON BERRY
George Caleb Bingham, River
Portraitist. By John Francis
McDermott.
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1960. xxviii??454p.;
illustrations, appendices, bibliography,
and index. $15.00.)
Readers of books about artists quite
naturally turn first to the illus-
trations. The pictures in this handsome
volume can hardly fail to
heighten respect for George Caleb
Bingham (1811-1879), "the Missouri
artist," who was one of America's
greatest painters of the everyday
scene. There are 79 black-and-white
plates of Bingham's paintings and
112 reproductions of drawings from the
artist's sketchbook in the St.
Louis Mercantile Library. The sketchbook
has not previously been
published in its entirety. Inclusion of
this remarkable group of draw-
ings immeasurably enhances the value and
appeal of Mr. McDermott's
book.
But George Caleb Bingham, River
Portraitist is much more than a
402
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
picture book. The text provides as
definitive an account of Bingham's
varied life as is likely to be written.
Mr. McDermott's industry and
resourcefulness in gathering data and
his concern for winnowing fact
from reminiscence, legend, and tradition
make the study a model of
biographical research. The book opens
with a description of life and
manners in the frontier communities in
which Bingham spent his boy-
hood. The middle section combines a
narrative of Bingham's career
after 1833 with analyses of his
paintings. The last part of the book
evaluates Bingham's achievement in
portraiture, landscape, historical
painting, figure sketching, and genre.
Bingham, a Virginian by birth, grew up
in river towns in central
Missouri. At the age of twenty-two,
having completed an apprentice-
ship to a cabinetmaker, he began
painting portraits. Thereafter he
supported himself mainly by taking
likenesses. In the course of his
career he must have painted at least a
thousand portraits. Bingham's
fame, however, rests on the series of
genre pictures he produced be-
tween 1845 and 1855. "Fur Traders
Descending the Missouri," "The
Jolly Flatboatmen," and other river
scenes belong to the first half of
the decade; "Shooting for the
Beef" and "The Emigration of Daniel
Boone" fall in the middle of the
period; and the political pictures--
"Canvassing for a Vote,"
"County Election," and "The Verdict of the
People"--bring the decade to a
triumphant close. Mr. McDermott,
who regards the Mercantile Library
sketchbook (1844-49) as Bingham's
finest monument, shows how the artist
used the sketches in his can-
vasses. With the help of the sketchbook
McDermott reconstructs some
of Bingham's lost paintings.
How a young man from the wilds of
Missouri, without artistic back-
ground, formal art instruction, or
galleries to visit learned to paint and
draw as well as Bingham did remains a
mystery. Mr. McDermott is
content to say that Bingham was a
self-taught artist who went on teach-
ing himself as long as he lived.
McDermott notes the happy combina-
tion of subject matter and temperament
in Bingham's work. Bingham
painted the world he lived in, not
places he visited. And, although
partisan, combative, and sensitive to
criticism, Bingham was at ease
in his world. Far from feeling alienated
from society he prided himself
on making an art record of "our
social and political characteristics as
daily and annually exhibited."
Today his paintings and sketches seem
not documents but poetic evocations of a
lost world.
Ohio State University ROBERT H. BREMNER
BOOK REVIEWS 403
The Civil War Dictionary. By Mark Mayo Boatner III. (New York:
David McKay Company, 1959. xviii??974p.;
maps, diagrams, list
of abbreviations, and bibliography.
$15.00.)
In all probability more books and
articles have been written about
the American Civil War than any other
war in recorded history. Prac-
tically every phase--military,
political, social, economic, administrative--
has been covered by general and special
studies, while hardly any
civilian or military leader, major or
minor, has escaped the attention
of biographers. No war in American
history has inspired so many
novels and plays or developed a more
devoted amateur following. In
view of the widespread popular interest
and the vast amount of litera-
ture available on this great conflict, The
Civil War Dictionary fills a
need long felt by librarians, scholars,
and amateurs.
This large one-volume compendium
contains entries on military of-
ficers, civilian leaders, campaigns,
battles, military organizations, weap-
ons, military terms, and various other
subjects. Over half of the space
is devoted to biographical entries,
which include all full-rank generals
on both sides and many outstanding officers
of lower rank. However,
the book contains a higher percentage of
Union officers than Confed-
erate officers. The compiler explains
that one reason for this is that
the Union army was larger and had more
officers. A second reason
is that the Confederates did not have
writers and statisticians such
as Heitman, Cullum, and Dyer. True, but
the author could have
remedied this situation to a degree at
least by consulting the service
records of the adjutant general's office
in the National Archives, which
contain extensive data on Confederate as
well as Union soldiers.
It is the general impression of this
reviewer that this is a reasonably
inclusive, accurate, and useful
reference work. He was pleased, for
example, to find a short sketch of
William Dennison, who was governor
of Ohio when the war broke out and later
postmaster general in Lin-
coln's cabinet. On the other hand, he
was disappointed at the in-
adequate sketches of Salmon P. Chase and
Edwin M. Stanton, who
played leading roles as secretary of the
treasury and secretary of war
respectively. The entry under
"strategy" was a disappointment also
because it merely quotes Webster's
dictionary and gives further refer-
ences. Now a person who looks up
"strategy" in a Civil War diction-
ary expects to find something on Civil
War strategy, not strategy in
general, and he feels let down at being
told that "the Principles of War
are the fundamental truths governing the
prosecution of war."
Ohio State University HARRY L. COLES
404
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The War for the Union. By Allan Nevins. Volume I, The Improvised
War, 1861-1862. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1959.
xii??436p.; illustrations, maps,
appendices, bibliography, and index.
$7.50.)
With the publication of this volume, one
of the most ambitious
projects of contemporary American
scholarship enters its mid career.
In a day when the emphasis in historical
writing is on specialization,
monographs, and cooperative works, Allan
Nevins has undertaken to
write single-handed a general history of
the United States from the
Mexican War to Reconstruction. Four
previous volumes entitled
Ordeal of the Union and The Emergence of Lincoln covered the period
between 1846 and 1861. The present
volume treats events from the
inauguration of Lincoln in March 1861 to
Lincoln's appointment of
Stanton as secretary of war in January
1862. The three volumes to
follow will bring the story up to
Reconstruction.
The theme of this and subsequent volumes
is that the Civil War
transformed an agricultural,
unorganized, decentralized society into a
modern, industrial, organized, and
centralized society. America in
1861, says Nevins, was a sleeping giant:
it had all the potentialities of a
"shaped, disciplined nation,"
but these potentialities lay dormant until
the Civil War produced an awakening. In
short, the Civil War pro-
duced modern America; nationalism
triumphed over individualism;
industry vanquished agriculture and
paved the way for the age of
John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford. All
this, so far as Nevins is con-
cerned, is entirely to the good. While
this general thesis is neither new
nor original, it is explored and
developed to an extent never before
attempted.
The book departs from stereotyped
military history in that battles
are passed over with scant attention,
while the social, economic, and
administrative phases of the war receive
thorough treatment. Nowhere,
so far as this reviewer is aware, can one
find a better account of the
raising and equipping of the armies and
the financing and economic or-
ganization for war, as well as
enlightening comparisons between Euro-
pean and American developments. In
marshaling a vast panorama of
detail, the author ranges over a wide
variety of original sources, some
of which have been used little or not at
all before.
Ohio State University HARRY L. COLES
BOOK REVIEWS 405
Patterns from the Sod: Land Use and
Tenure in the Grand Prairie,
1850-1900. By Margaret Beattie Bogue. Collections of the
Illinois
State Historical Library, Vol. XXXIV; Land Series, Vol. I. (Spring-
field: Illinois State Historical
Library, 1959. 327p.; maps, charts,
appendices, bibliography, and index.
$2.50.)
This book is a significant and original
contribution to an aspect of
American economic history as yet but
little studied, that of land owner-
ship, tenancy, and management. It
incorporates the results of research
into the records of an eight-county
block in Illinois adjacent to the In-
diana border, which was roughly
coterminous with the federal Danville
Land District. To a remarkable extent,
it is based on county-court
records and other manuscript material.
The first part of the study deals with
the frontier period, that is, till
about 1850. It describes the original
pattern of land ownership, and
evaluates particularly the role of
large investors, including Illinois and
out-of-state absentee speculators as
well as big local cattlemen grazing
and feeding for the eastern markets.
The second part is devoted to a
"transition period," which is
defined as running to about 1900. The
author shows how the eight-county block
reacted to local and national
economic pressures. Special emphasis is
placed on the origins and
development of farm tenancy and the
problems which accompanied and
followed its growth. There are also
valuable chapters on the relations
of the farmer and the mortgage agent
and of the farmer and the tax
assessor and collector.
While the book will have its greatest
appeal to scholars interested
in the problems associated with land
tenure, it has much of interest and
value for all agricultural historians
because it deals also in varying
degree with such matters as
agricultural improvement, draining, fenc-
ing, and the mid-nineteenth-century
cattle industry.
All in all, the study is a careful and
competent one, which it is a
pleasure to endorse.
Marietta College ROBERT L. JONES
The Papers of Henry Clay. Edited by James F. Hopkins and Mary
W. M. Hargreaves. Volume I, The
Rising Statesman, 1797-1814.
(Lexington: University of Kentucky
Press, 1959. xv??1037p.; illus-
trations and index. $15.00.)
406
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
All undergraduates know the name of
Henry Clay and can readily
identify him as a great American. After
a survey course in United
States history they know that Clay
campaigned unsuccessfully for the
presidency on three occasions. They can
repeat, meaninglessly, that
he was a Whig, that he espoused a set of
ideas called the "American
system," and that he was
instrumental in effecting some important
political compromises. They are at a
loss, however, if pressed to ex-
plain why historians (and the United
States Senate) regard Henry
Clay as one of America's most
significant and outstanding political
figures. In the jumble of fact and
fiction that is part of their historical
inheritance, schoolboys identify Andrew
Jackson with the common
man, Daniel Webster as a magnificent
orator, and John C. Calhoun
as the defender of the South. No such
positive image of Clay exists.
He is important, apparently, because he
lived a long time and because
everyone says he is. Perhaps the
publication of Clay's papers, the
editors state, "will contribute to
a better understanding of both Clay
and the exciting times in which he
lived, when locally, regionally, and
nationally his environment was rapidly
maturing; they believe that it
may also reveal something of the great
personal charm that endeared
'Harry of the West' to many of his
contemporaries."
Prior to this undertaking, surprisingly
few of Clay's writings had
been published. Some mid-nineteenth
century editions (Calvin Colton's,
in particular) are hopelessly
out-of-date; bits and pieces appeared in
various sources, many of which are now
relatively inaccessible. Clay's
unpublished material was widely
scattered. Any scholar interested in
a full-dress examination of these
documents would have had to travel
thousands of miles. Now, finally, it
will all be collected in ten hand-
some volumes. Indicative of the labor
poured into this first volume is
the fact that forty libraries and
institutions, located in seventeen states
and the District of Columbia,
contributed copies of their Clay holdings.
Much of the material in the initial
volume concerns Clay's legal activi-
ties, land transactions, business dealings,
and family relations. Leases,
deeds, tax bills, receipts, orders,
bonds, promissory notes, assignments,
bills of sale, and so forth, will not be
of much interest to most historians.
His political views, however, begin on
page 3; and these views indi-
cate that Clay, not Jackson, was the
better Jeffersonian. Under the
pseudonym "Scaevola," in the Kentucky
Gazette of April 16, 1798,
Clay argued for a convention to revise
the state constitution. Thoroughly
democratic in tone, his essay struck at
the aristocratic senate. Since
it was not elected by the people, Clay
wrote, it was "a body which to
BOOK REVIEWS 407
me seems adverse to republican
principles, and to be without use." For
"the enlightened representatives
of a free people should not be checked
by any power upon earth, except it be
the people themselves." The
volume goes on to cover the years of
Clay's service in the Kentucky
legislature, his first years in the
United States Congress, and his term
as one of the American ministers to
Ghent. Clay as westerner, as ex-
pansionist, as nationalist, as
politician, are all pictured; as is Clay's
emerging statesmanship--the wisdom
gained by hard experience. The
volume ends when the peace treaty with
Great Britain is negotiated.
Clay--the War Hawk of 1811--writes
privately to James Monroe:
"The terms of this instrument are
undoubtedly not such as our Country
expected at the commencement of the
War. . . . [However], we lose no
territory, I think no honor."
The editorial work is learned and
scrupulous, the index excellent. If
forthcoming volumes are as well
executed, those responsible will have
earned the gratitude of historians
everywhere.
Montana State University MORTON BORDEN
Grant Moves South. By Bruce Catton. (Boston: Little, Brown and
Company, 1960. xi??564p.; maps,
frontispiece, bibliography, and
index. $6.50.)
Mr. Lincoln's General, U. S. Grant:
An Illustrated Autobiography.
Edited and arranged by Roy Meredith.
(New York: E. P. Dutton
and Company, 1959. 252p.;
illustrations and index. $6.95.)
Together these two books make a strong
bid to install U. S. Grant
as the great military hero of the Civil
War. Both attempt to exonerate
him of blemishing charges concerning
his personal life and military
capacity that have lingered for nearly
a century.
Grant Moves South, the second of three volumes projected by the
late Lloyd Lewis, spans Grant's career
from the time he assumed com-
mand of an Illinois regiment in 1861
through the victory at Vicksburg.
Bruce Catton has supplemented the
extensive research of Lewis, which
had already borne fruit in Captain
Sam Grant, with additional investi-
gation of his own and has produced a
book not only adequate in scholar-
ship but written with the author's
characteristic lucidity and brilliance.
The emphasis is upon Grant the military strategist, who
early com-
prehended the significance of the
western waterways and understood
that the way to control them was to
destroy the armies defending them.
408
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The book is narrative, describing in
vivid detail Fort Donelson,
Shiloh, and Vicksburg, but in a larger
sense the author's purpose is to
defend U. S. Grant as a general and as a
person. Catton finds no factual
basis in the oft-repeated tales of
Grant's excessive drinking; if he ap-
peared at times to be anti-Semitic, he
was only reflecting the spirit and
attitude of his times. As a person,
Grant is depicted as wholly lacking
in pretension, devoid of the self-seeking
that characterized so many of
his associates, and a devoted and
attentive family man. While he was
a military realist, Grant was not
reckless in expending the lives of his
men--he removed from command
glory-seeking General John A.
McClernand after his costly and futile
assault at Vicksburg in May
1863.
The author is at his best in describing
battles, but he does not neglect
the problems of command of the Army of
the Tennessee: the necessity
of administering occupied territory,
routine but vital questions of health
and supply, the difficulties arising
when aggressive Yankee merchants
(including the general's own father)
moved south seeking speculative
profits in the cotton trade.
Roy Meredith's Mr. Lincoln's General is
a useful supplement to the
volumes by Lewis and Catton. A carefully
chosen series of prints and
photographs follow Grant from his
boyhood through Appomattox
Court House. Although Currier and Ives
prints and certain portraits
of political leaders are scarcely
relevant to the career of General Grant,
included are some rare prints of West
Point in 1839, Mexican War
illustrations, and one "gem"
of a sketch (p. 239) by Winslow Homer
of President Lincoln and his son Tad
visiting Grant at City Point in
1864. Mr. Meredith, compiler of a
similar book, Mr. Lincoln's Camera-
man, Mathew B. Brady, wisely does not reproduce here vast quantities
of commonly available photographs,
mostly by Brady, from the Civil
War period. More than half of the book
is devoted to Grant's career
before 1861. The text, a series of
scissors and paste excerpts from
Grant's Memoirs, is not equal in
quality to the illustrations. Lacking
any editorial link, the reader is
propelled from one detailed episode to
another. Apparently the excerpts have
been selected only because of
some rough equivalence to an interesting
illustration.
These two books are significant
contributions to the abundant Civil
War literature; they will provoke many a
lively discussion at Civil War
round tables. Yet there is lacking here,
as in most books on this subject,
any sense of the awful tragedy of this,
and of all wars. There is nothing
romantic in the grim slaughter of Shiloh
or Vicksburg. Perhaps a
BOOK REVIEWS 409
hundred years hence avid arm-chair
strategists will debate the tactics
of the "nice little skirmish"
at Little Rock Central High School in 1957.
San Francisco State College JOHN L. SHOVER
Anthony Wayne--A Name in Arms:
Soldier, Diplomat, Defender of
Expansion Westward of a Nation. Edited by Richard C. Knopf.
(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh
Press, 1959. 566p.; illustra-
tions, end-paper maps, bibliography, and
index. $7.00.)
This book is a collection of letters
exchanged by General Anthony
Wayne and the three secretaries of war
under whom he served between
1792 and 1796 while carrying on his
mission to pacify the Indians north
of the Ohio River. The letters seek to
bring into proper perspective
the Indian wars of the Northwest during
the early years of our nation-
hood. They also endeavor to show that
Wayne's successes, both
military and diplomatic, opened the door
to westward expansion and
made certain the failure of the
international intrigues in the trans-
Allegheny West which had as their
purpose the establishment of an
Indian buffer in the region north of the
Ohio Valley to hold back the
westward movement. The letters so ably
edited by Mr. Knopf are a
part of the Wayne Collection of public
papers at the Historical Society
of Pennsylvania.
This is a valuable work on an important
event in the early history
of our nation. The letters have been
chosen with care. They reveal
that Wayne was anything but mad. Rather,
he was skilled in the arts
of both war and diplomacy. He was a
perfectionist who demanded the
most of himself and of his men. The
letters bring out clearly the handi-
caps and the innumerable difficulties
which confronted Wayne in secur-
ing and then supplying troops for
service in the distant West. The cor-
respondence has been made all the more
valuable for understanding the
events in connection with Wayne's
western mission by detailed identi-
fication notes by the editor. He also
has an excellent general introduc-
tion giving the background of Wayne's
campaign against the Indians
of the Northwest and pointing out the
significance of the latter. The
letters are arranged by years. The
editor has a good brief introduction
to the correspondence for each year. In
each introduction, Mr. Knopf
orients the reader to the nature of the
letters which follow.
The reader is aided also by several fine
maps and drawings. The
latter are detailed and contain much
valuable information on Wayne's
410
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
expedition. There is also a selective
classified bibliography on the
latter at the end of the book. There are
several excellent reproductions
of Wayne. Pictures of Henry Knox, Thomas
Pickering, and James
McHenry, the secretaries of war under
whom Wayne conducted his
western mission, also appear.
This book has much of value for the
student of the early West. Both
the editor and the University of
Pittsburgh Press are to be highly com-
mended for a first-rate contribution to
our understanding of an im-
portant phase of our national history.
Modesto (California) Junior College GEORGE E. LEWIS
William Nast: Patriarch of German
Methodism. By Carl Wittke.
(Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University
Press, 1959. vii??248p.;
frontispiece and index. $4.95.)
Carl Wittke has given us another
portrait of a leader among the
German immigrants, this time of the
father of German Methodism.
William Nast, born in Stuttgart, in
Wurttemberg, on January 15, 1807,
of Lutheran parents, enjoyed the
advantages of a university education.
As a student he heard the lectures of
Professor Ferdinand Baur, a man
devoted to the scientific study of the
beginnings of Christianity. Among
Nast's classmates was David Strauss,
author of The Life of Jesus, a
scholar who had a direct influence on
the first exponents of biblical
criticism in the United States. Young
Nast, already a highly pietistic
young man, rejected the cold rationalism
of his professors, but he ac-
quired a respect for learning and
scholarship that eventually made a
mark on early American Methodism.
In 1828, at the age of twenty-one,
William Nast sailed for the United
States. Not long after his arrival he
found employment as the tutor of
the two sons of a widow, Rebecca Duncan.
His employer, some eighteen
years his senior, owned a comfortable
estate in Pennsylvania. A romance
developed, but the young immigrant,
given to periods of depression
when he was overcome by a deep sense of
sin, found his friend in-
capable of sharing his strong religious
feelings.
In 1833 Nast found a position as a
librarian and instructor in German
at West Point. While at the military
academy he first encountered
Methodism. The school's worldly
atmosphere disturbed him, and he
soon left and went West. For a short
time he taught in the preparatory
division of Kenyon College. In 1835 he
experienced a deeply emotional
BOOK REVIEWS 411
conversion and joined the Methodist
Church. That same year the
Ohio Conference appointed him missionary
to the German population
in Cincinnati. A year later the
conference named him missionary to the
Germans throughout the state. During
that year Nast rode horseback
about four thousand miles.
His reputation as the father of German
Methodism rests in part on
his being the first German to serve in
the ministry of the denomination,
but it was as editor of the German
Methodist periodical, Der Christliche
Apologete, that he made his greatest contribution. He wrote on
heavy
theological questions, supported the
antislavery and prohibition move-
ments, and informed his readers of
political developments in the father-
land. Somehow he found time to write and
to edit a total of fourteen
books. Nast was scarcely an original or
creative scholar, but he per-
formed a service in making available the
ideas and interpretations
of European theologians. A life-long
project entitled Commentary on
the New Testament embodied more of Nast's own conclusions. De-
fense of the Bible as an inerrant and
valid presentation of the divine
provided a major theme.
Carl Wittke has performed a labor of
love in the deepest meaning of
that phrase. Few historians of his
reputation would take time out to
preserve for the future the record of a
rather obscure figure. Fewer
still would bestow on Nast the almost
loving treatment that Professor
Wittke has done. Much of what Nast
represented would not jibe with
the author's humanistic convictions, but
he has risen above making
unkind judgments and sought to
understand the Methodist pietist in
his own terms.
Michigan State University PAUL A. VARG
The General's Wife: The Life of Mrs.
Ulysses S. Grant. By Ishbel
Ross. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company,
1959. xii??372p.;
illustrations, bibliography, and index.
$5.00.)
To the historian, this biography has
more value for what is implicit
than what is explicit. Making no
pretense at a critical study, the author,
most of the time, takes the optimistic,
naive, and credulous Julia at her
own valuation and that of her friends.
Analysis by the biographer of
situations or predicaments is scanty,
but from the unadorned, routine
telling of the subject's experiences
there emerges a picture of a woman
of courage, and of devotion to her
family. She was throughout a loyal,
412
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
unfailing helpmeet to her husband,
within the range of her own under-
standing and of his. Presumably he could
not have been happy with a
wife of greater depth and keener
perspective; her pride in him unfail-
ingly sustained him, even through the
calamitous final years.
However, few historians would
agree--except in a minor connota-
tion-that Julia was "one of the
most potent women in American
history" (p.335). The biographer's
conclusion to that effect may be
due in part to a lack of historical
scholarship. For example, she refers
to the Grant of 1880 as one whose
"popularity with the public was
real" (p.275), although
that popularity was not so overwhelming as to
make the majority of his party willing
to nominate him for a third term.
Little of the seamy side of his
administration or of her possible relation
to it comes through. Arthur is termed a
"scholar" (p.277).
The first one hundred pages of the
volume naturally suffer from the
pedestrian nature of the happenings
chronicled therein. The subse-
quent description, of some of the
Grants' experiences during the Civil
War, the presidency, and the trip around
the world, contains much of
interest. One gets a good picture of the
life of the wives of those
northern generals who with their
children stayed with their husbands
in the battle areas from time to time.
Also the costumes, table settings,
and manners of the "Gilded
Age" emerge in the narrative. The
bibliography and the notes suggest wide
reading, apparently for surface
material for the most part. The textual
pages are innocent of note
numbers; the notes are relegated to page
groupings at the end of the
narrative, so that the historian can
only make his own assumptions as
to which sources apply to which
statements.
It is to be doubted that extant
materials would have permitted a more
satisfying biography of Julia Dent
Grant. Therefore, the writer of it in
all probability simply did the best she
knew how, under the circum-
stances.
University of Pennsylvania JEANNETTE P.
NICHOLS
The Electric Interurban Railways in
America. By George W. Hilton
and John F. Due. (Stanford, Calif.:
Stanford University Press,
1960. ix??463p.; illustrations, charts,
bibliographical note, and index.
$9.50.)
This work deals with one of the most
colorful and neglected eras in
transportation history. The authors are
to be commended for the com-
BOOK REVIEWS 413
pilation of what appears to be a
complete and authoritative economic
history of the industry. Mr. Hilton is
an assistant professor of eco-
nomics at Stanford University and Mr.
Due is a professor of economics
at the University of Illinois.
The volume is divided into two parts.
Part I describes the building
and the technology of the interurbans,
their passenger and freight
traffic, and their regulation by public
authorities. Part II presents the
histories of more than three hundred
different companies that com-
prised the industry.
This history will be of special interest
to Ohioans, for not only did
the electric interurban railway movement
get its early start in this
state but no "other state
approached within a thousand miles of Ohio's
interurban mileage of 2,789." No
Ohio town of 10,000 or more was
without interurban service, and there
were highly developed networks
along the shore of Lake Erie and from
Toledo south to Cincinnati.
Although some interurban lines were
built in the 1890's, most of
them were constructed in two bursts
"between 1901 and the panic of
1903, and 1905 and the panic of
1907." The interurban network took
shape in an atmosphere of great
optimism. The statement, made in
1903, that the interurbans were
"the latest harbingers of a higher state
of civilization" was in no way
exceptional. Few industries have arisen
so rapidly yet declined so quickly, and
no industry of its size has a worse
financial record. The typical interurban
was designed to perform the
least profitable kind of railroad
service, short distance passenger trans-
portation. It was built with a cheap
physical plant and meager provision
for depreciation and maintenance,
burdened with heavy fixed charges
for electricity, and set in a
geographical pattern that in great measure
was the result of mere chance. The
history of the interurbans is so
dominated by their financial failure
that it is difficult to consider
seriously their positive contribution to
American transportation develop-
ment. Their principal influence was in
conditioning the rural popula-
tion to a greatly increased mobility,
the mobility which was fully realized
with the general acceptance of the automobile.
The interurban also
initiated the commercial decline of many
small towns.
Most interurban companies faced the
constant danger of bankruptcy,
and the draining of earnings for loan
interest seriously impeded the
ability of the companies to modernize by
reinvesting their earnings.
Initial disabilities included the lack
of high-speed entrances to down-
town areas, poor track construction,
excessive grades and curvature,
poor signal systems, and inadequate
ballast. As the roads began to
414
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
emphasize longer-distance travel, such
limitations became more serious,
yet by then the funds for major
improvements were often lacking. A
decline set in about 1918, and in the
decade 1928-37 the industry was
virtually annihilated. The decline was
caused primarily by the rise of
the automobile, which was brought into
production almost simultane-
ously, but developed more slowly. It
seems clear that if the automobile
had been developed earlier, the
interurban would never have existed.
The reader of this volume will gain a
good understanding of the
economic history of the interurban
industry, but the social historian
will probably find much to be desired.
The omission, for example, of
any reference to labor organization,
working conditions, or strikes
among the trainmen is apparent at once.
But as an economic study the
volume is comprehensive and excellent.
Firestone Library and Archives WILLIAM D. OVERMAN
The Calumet Region: Indiana's Last
Frontier. By Powell A. Moore.
Indiana Historical Collections, Volume XXXIX. (Indianapolis:
Indiana Historical Bureau, 1959.
xiii??654p.; illustrations, maps,
bibliography, and index. $6.00.)
This excellent book is a history of the
extreme northwestern corner
of Indiana, which borders on the
southern shores of Lake Michigan.
The area consists roughly of the
northern halves of Porter and Lake
counties and is known as the Calumet
region because of two small
sluggish rivers, the "Grand
Calumet" and the "Little Calumet," that
formerly flowed through the area. They
now are so filled with the
wastes and sewage of this highly
industrial area that they do little else
than simply "lie there,"
stagnant and malodorous.
Because of the sandy and swampy
character of the soil and the
absence of natural harbors this was the
last section of Indiana to be
settled. Even the removal of all Indian
claims by 1832 and the con-
struction of railroads through the area
by 1852 did little to bring settle-
ment. Not until the latter part of the
nineteenth century, when heavy
industry could no longer find sufficient
lake-shore space in Chicago
and began to expand eastward along the
Indiana shore, did the Calumet
region come into its own.
The Standard Oil Company began to build
its great refineries at the
present site of Whiting, Indiana, in
1889; Inland Steel gave birth to
East Chicago by erecting its first
furnaces in 1901; and the United
BOOK REVIEWS 415
States Steel Corporation founded Gary in
1906. Since that time its
network of man-made harbors and canals
plus its proximity to the
greatest railroad center in the world
have served to attract industry
of every variety.
The industry in turn has attracted
laborers, skilled and unskilled,
from all corners of the globe. Southern
and eastern Europeans largely
supplied the need for labor until World
War I. Thereafter southern
Negroes and Mexicans were the major
immigrants. The Calumet
region has as cosmopolitan a population
as one is likely to find any-
where. Furthermore, the population is so
concentrated that even natives
of the area have difficulty in
distinguishing where one city leaves off
and another begins. Unfortunately, with
this has come all the multi-
tudinous problems that are invariably
associated with such communities:
labor unrest, slums, vice and crime of
every description. Its political
history has been as pungent as the
industrial fumes which distinguish
the region's very atmosphere.
The only criticisms I might have of Mr.
Moore's work are quite
minor. He deals rather lightly with the
political history of the region,
which could be historically important,
and which, I am certain, would
be fascinating if recounted in more
detail. I am not sure that I agree
with the author that "a regional
history should be devoted to things
economic, social, and cultural [with] a
minimum of emphasis on
political affairs." Also,
unfortunately, he has carried his story from
the region's beginnings only to 1933,
which he describes as the "forma-
tive years." While I sympathize
with any writer faced with the enormity
of the task of covering the complex
history taking place thereafter, still
one cannot help wishing it had been
possible to bring it further.
What Mr. Moore has completed is
excellently done. It is well writ-
ten, and he has obviously undertaken a
prodigious job of research. His
bibliography, which lists only the
sources cited, should satisfy the most
demanding of scholars. His chapter on
the great immigration of
Negroes, Mexicans, and southern
Europeans and his description of
their impact on this region is quite
good. Other chapters which are
outstanding are the ones dealing with the
Prohibition era and with
the area's labor problems. The author's
account of the great steel
strike of 1919, I believe, will make a
real contribution to the history of
labor. Mr. Moore, who happens to be a
fine teacher, has proven with
this book that he is equally adept at
scholarly writing.
Bowling Green State University ROBERT W. TWYMAN
416 THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Minority of One: The Biography of
Jonathan Blanchard. By Clyde S.
Kilby. (Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company,
1959. 252p.; illustrations,
bibliography, and index. $3.95.)
Appearing in the Christian Cynosure of
January 4, 1883, was a
statement by Jonathan Blanchard that
might be regarded as symbolic
of his life. Said he, "The
minorities have done the good in this world:
the majorities only register it."
Though by no means always a "minority
of one," Blanchard was unashamed to
be different. "He had discovered
that principle too often becomes the
victim of expediency. Because the
status quo is bad and tends to get worse, he felt it both a civic
and
spiritual obligation to swim against the
current."
About this theme, Clyde S. Kilby,
chairman of the department of
English at Wheaton College, Illinois,
has constructed a fascinating
biography of one of nineteenth-century
America's most controversial
educational and religious leaders.
Striving to build a "Perfect State of
Society" on the rock of Jesus
Christ, Blanchard became an iconoclast
striking out against the institutions of
slavery and secret societies, which
seemed to him to deny Christ. As preacher
he served both Congre-
gational and Presbyterian churches. As
college president he guided
the destinies of both Knox and Wheaton
colleges, the former from
1845 to 1858, the latter from 1860 to
1882.
Eminently readable, the book is of
particular significance to Ameri-
can historians for its introduction of
hitherto unpublished material
relating to Thaddeus Stevens, John
Greenleaf Whittier, Theodore D.
Weld, Salmon P. Chase, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, John Rankin, and
others who worked with Blanchard in the
abolitionist crusade. Students
of higher education will be delighted
with Dr. Kilby's treatment of the
formative years of the Lane Seminary and
Oberlin, Knox, and Wheaton
colleges. Those whose principal interest
is Ohio history will find both
interesting and valuable the three
chapters dealing with Blanchard's
career as a theological student and
minister in this state from 1837
until 1845.
Unfortunately, the book is not free from
error. The dust jacket
informs us that Blanchard
"established two colleges -- Knox and
Wheaton." Within the book one finds
that both schools were going
concerns, if not financially stable,
when Blanchard became president
of each. One might question whether
"Judge Levi Platt, the leading
citizen and business man of Plattsburgh,
sent so much timber up to
Montreal one spring that his men could
not carry back the solid silver
BOOK REVIEWS 417
which he received for it" (p.33).
On page 87 the reader will be sur-
prised to find Benjamin Harrison
a candidate for the presidency in 1840,
and again on page 105 that President
Blanchard's recommendation for
appointment to key Knox positions of
three close relatives was "not
because they were relatives and friends
but because they were the most
efficient to be found under the pressing
circumstances." On page 191 the
"nineteenth" should be
substituted for the "twentieth" century.
Certainly the most serious error is one
of omission. Having de-
veloped the lengthy and detailed story
of Blanchard's involvement in the
abolitionist movement for the best part
of two-thirds of the book, the
author then fails almost completely to
discuss his subject's reactions to
the Civil War, the Emancipation
Proclamation, and the thirteenth,
fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments
which would consummate that
movement.
On the whole, however, the book has been
ably written. It is well
that it has been published for use in
this the centennial year of Blan-
chard's assumption of the presidency of
Wheaton College.
Kent State University PHILLIP R. SHRIVER
Medicine and Society in America,
1660-1860. By Richard H. Shryock.
(New York: New York University Press,
1960. viii??182p.; index.
$4.00.)
Professor Shryock, long known for
distinguished contributions to
the history of science and medicine,
has, in one small volume, presented
an excellent summary and interpretation
of the healing art in the United
States from colonial days until the eve
of the Civil War.
In four closely packed chapters, the
author, clearly and succinctly,
traces the origin of the medical
profession, the development of medical
thought and practice, the progress of
health and disease, and the story
of medicine and society in transition.
The bulk of the book carries the
narrative to 1820, while the final
chapter--the period of transition--
bridges the gap between 1820 and 1860.
Professor Shryock points out, truly
enough, that both research and
practice altered during this forty-year
interval. Traditional and sub-
jective techniques were being molded by
scientific developments in
England, France, and Germany; empiricism
was replacing romanticism;
something like systemic medical research
was appearing for the first
time; time-honored theories were falling
before established facts.
Pathologic research was to become the
rule rather than the exception.
418
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Under the stimulating impact of
European investigation, more and
more American physicians journeyed
abroad for post-graduate train-
ing. In foreign centers they were
introduced to new conceptions in the
area of public health, were made aware
of advances in pharmacology,
were stimulated by novel surgical
techniques. But Americans at home
also advanced. Thus ether anesthesia
was introduced in 1846 at the
Massachusetts General Hospital. A
decade earlier, lectures on dental
surgery were given at the University of
Maryland. In 1850 Daniel
Drake brought out his monumental Diseases
of the Interior Valley of
North America, a classic contribution to the study of environmental
aspects of disease. In short, medical thought
was becoming somewhat
more critical.
Of particular interest and fascination
is the author's analysis of the
development of medical thought and
practice in the decades prior to
the Civil War: medical schools
increased, faculties and students grew,
practice became more professional,
additional licensing power was
granted to faculties, women were (to
the disgust of some) entering the
profession. The American Medical
Association was formed in 1847.
On the debit side, professional
standards fell, clinical facilities were
inadequate, university affiliations
were few, rival systems competed vig-
orously with one another, no serious
attempts were made to suppress
quackery, and regular faculties
frequently were "rent by dissensions
within as well as by rivalries
without."
In addition to praising contributions
and describing faults, Professor
Shryock sketches the rise of the
general and specialized hospital; dis-
cusses the training of nurses; reviews
briefly mortality statistics; and
explains the beginnings of a sanitary
movement which eventually was
to expand into not only national
quarantine and sanitary conventions
but also, as the years crept by, to
evolve into public-health programs.
These essays, first presented in 1959
as the Anson G. Phelps Lectures,
should be of the utmost assistance and
a real delight not only to medical
students, nurses, public health
officials, and members of the allied sci-
ences but also to the layman interested
in discerning what the American
of 1860 did not comprehend--"that
science was moving . . . toward
the creation of a type of medicine
which would eventually exert a
profound influence on the health of the
American people."
University of Minnesota PHILIP D. JORDAN
BOOK REVIEWS 419
The Stark County Story. By Edward Thornton Heald. Volume IV,
Part 3, The American Way of Life,
1917-1959. (Canton, Ohio:
Stark County Historical Society, 1959.
xvi??1065p.; illustrations,
maps, bibliography, and index. $11.00.)
This is the concluding unit of Mr.
Heald's six-unit story. It also
concludes Volume IV, which aims to tell
the history of Stark County
since 1917 in three volumes or parts.
Part 1 is entitled Free People at
Work, 1917-1945, and Part 2, The Suburban Era, 1917-1958. Part 1
emphasized Canton and its industry and
Part 2 the suburbs, the rural
areas, and county-wide government and
social organizations. Part 3 is
a rather miscellaneous one. It
"rounds out the private industry story,"
bringing up to date some industries
treated in earlier volumes. All
mercantile establishments in business
twenty-five years or longer, not
previously reported on, are included.
The automobile agencies in Mas-
sillon and Alliance take two chapters
under the title of "The Automobile
Age." There are chapters on the
transition from streetcars to buses
and the development of the freeways. The
church story is brought up
to date, as are the colleges and other
cultural organizations, including
the YMCA, the YWCA, boys clubs, women's
organizations, and old
age homes. Politics are covered by a
listing of mayors, senators, repre-
sentatives, a judge, and a rear admiral.
Some outlying communities are
modernized, and several more
"Unusual Persons" described.
The radio background of the project, which
characterized the previous
volumes is followed. Each chapter
heading contains the date or dates of
the broadcasts from 1952 to 1959. The
bibliographical note states that
the broadcasts and their publication
"represent a cooperative enterprise
in which more than 1,500 persons have
given information, checked
script copy and verified
manuscript."
Now that the entire work is completed,
an overall statement of its
value can be made. The set, 4,987 pages
in all, was written by and for
Stark Countians. The author gives some
interesting light on this in
his preface:
A prime objective throughout the six
volumes has been to pro-
vide reference materials which have
heretofore not existed. Discarded
information might be the very item
called for. The lengthy indices and
detailed references are designed to
serve the school, college, library,
research student, newspaper, or company
organization, or curious person
who has a question about Stark County. .
. . That our books serve this
purpose in Stark County is confirmed by
their very heavy usage at the
public libraries, and by the comment of an editor of a
newspaper that
420 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
they could get along without a
dictionary before they could do without
The Stark County Story. In fact, it was the need of an index at this
same newspaper that was a stimulus to
the whole project.
Certain things not pleasing to Stark
Countians are omitted or played
down. An example is the story of the
gangster murder of the Canton
Daily News editor, Don Mellett, on July 16, 1926. This, says the
author,
"shattered normal political life
and gave Canton bad publicity." The
story is told in two paragraphs as part
of the thirteen and a half page
laudatory account of Canton's great
industrialist, Henry M. Timken,
who gave money to help apprehend the
criminals because the freedom
of the press was at stake. A strange
perversion: Timken the hero
instead of Mellett. Fifty-eight
broadcasts on Canton's "presidents and
mayors" were omitted because it
was considered inappropriate to have
Canton officials without Massillon and
Alliance officials. The extended
treatment of William McKinley is
another piece of laudation and gives
a most distorted and sophomoric view of
the man. Mercifully enough,
Jacob S. Coxey gets a pretty fair
handling.
In spite of this, The Stark County
Story represents some progress.
Information that would perish with
those who had it has been saved
by indefatigable interviewers. Archives
and diaries and scrapbooks have
been ransacked and resurrected. It is
observed that the Canton Repo-
sitory, the fifth oldest newspaper in Ohio, has been entirely
microfilmed,
although it is clear that the author
has not studied it to catch its full
revelations of Stark County history.
The biographical and institutional
coverage is a bit superior to that of
the subscription county histories,
with their devotion to subscribers.
However, this superiority is not as
great as the author says it is. It is
quite clear that the overstress of
industrialists and businessmen is
largely responsible for making the
publication financially possible.
The world of scholarship outside of
Stark County will be unimpressed
by this work, save by its massiveness
and the peculiarly provincial
method of its financing. There is no
real synthesis, no analysis of the
vast array of facts assembled. As the
author says, it is a reference book
stimulated by a local newspaper that
wanted an index. Few people
elsewhere have such a need. Readers of
these volumes can acquire no
deeper understanding of the history and
the people of Stark County
and the cities of Canton, Massillon,
and Alliance than they had before
the books were written.
Historical Society of Northwestern
Ohio RANDOLPH C. DOWNES