Book Reviews
Manuscript Sources in the Library of
Congress for Research on the American
Revolution. Compiled by John R. Sellers, Gerard W. Gawalt, Paul H.
Smith,
and Patricia Molen van Ee. (Washington,
D.C.: Library of Congress, 1975. iii
+ 372 p.; indexes. $8.70.)
The Library of Congress is many things
to many people: a legislative library;
a leader in the introduction of new
library techniques; the world's largest
depository of written materials; and the
custodian of internationally significant
collections in a number of fields. Over
many decades, the Library has also
made a valuable contribution to American
and world scholarship through the
compilation of a series of
bibliographies, catalogues, guides, and other refer-
ence works. Some years ago, the Library
established an American Revolution
Bicentennial Office that has sponsored
several symposia on the Revolution and
conducted a survey of the Library's
manuscript sources for description in this
guide.
Under 1617 entries, the guide lists all
of the Library's collections of original
manuscripts, photostats, microfilms, and
transcripts on American history from
1763 to 1789. Two-thirds of the entries
cover "Domestic Collections," which
include papers of public men, government
records, diaries, account books, and
orderly books. The other entries list
"Foreign Reproductions," material on
American history during the period,
which was copied for the Library of Con-
gress from foreign archives in England,
France, Spain, and other countries.
Each entry lists the name of the
collection, its size and dates, the location of
originals in cases where the Library of
Congress holds reproductions, and
reference to other guides to the
individual collections. Most entries also in-
clude a short biographical
identification of the person or family whose papers
are listed, a note on principal
correspondents in the collection, and a descrip-
tion of the collection, which may range from a single
line to half a page.
Students of black history, architecture,
religion, and other aspects of Ameri-
can life will find some materials
pertinent to their work listed here. There are
papers of Paul Cuffee and Pierre
L'Enfant, of the Pennsylvania Abolitionist
Society and the Society of the Cincinnati,
of blacksmiths, clergymen, planters,
and country storekeepers. The
overwhelming emphasis, however, is in the
fields of political, military, and
diplomatic history, and on the papers of promi-
nent American white males. This fact is
explainable more by the interests of
earlier scholarly generations than by
the myopia of the guide's compilers. For
the study of these subjects, the
original manuscripts in the Library of Congress
are indispensable, and its reproductions
of material in other libraries in this
country and abroad makes a massive group
of manuscripts conveniently avail-
able in one place. One is compelled to
use these great collections whether one
is interested in the events that led to revolution,
the military engagements, the
history of diplomacy and government
during the Confederation, or the men
who wrote the Constitution of 1787. Here
are the diaries and journals of re-
volutionary soldiers and British
officers, the family papers of American
loyalists and the Proceedings of the
Loyalist Claims Commissioners, official
records of a number of states and of
most major European powers. The repro-
Book Reviews
161
ductions of British materials include
manuscripts in the British Museum, the
Public Record Office, the Lambeth Palace
Library, and the several ministries
that dealt with colonial affairs and
prosecution of the war.
A short sampling of some of the private
papers listed gives some sense of the
importance of this volume: the Adams
family (608 reels of microfilm),
Franklin, George Clinton, Galloway,
Gates, Nathanael Greene, Hamilton (111
vols. and 3 boxes), Hancock, Jared
Ingersoll, Lafayette, Jefferson (50,000
items), Henry Laurens, Monroe, Madison
(108 vols. and 8 boxes), Gouverneur
Morris, Robert Morris, Rochambeau,
Caesar Rodney, Mercy Otis Warren,
Washington, the Lee family, and the
Livingston family. The originals or repro-
ductions of some of these materials are
available in other libraries; others are
unique to the Library of Congress, which
has filmed many of its manuscript
collections for purchase or loan to
scholars around the country.
The guide lists a number of collections
containing materials on the Ohio
country. Some of these are miscellaneous
collections on the western region-
e.g., the Northwest Territory Collection
and the thirty volumes of Kentucky
Manuscripts. The Library also holds the
papers of a number of men directly
involved in land speculation or
settlement of the Ohio Valley or who played
other roles in early Ohio history. Among
these are the papers of Thomas J.
Clay, William Croghan, John Fitch, Simon
Kenton, Duncan McArthur, John
Cleves Symmes, John D. Woelpper, and the
Nathaniel Wright family.
The Ohio Academy of History is
sponsoring the preparation of a guide to
sources on the American
Revolution-printed, as well as original and photo-
graphic reproductions-that are in Ohio
libraries. Though Ohio libraries have
few original manuscripts on the period,
they are rich in printed and filmed
editions, and the Academy guide will
assist the student of the Revolution in
identifying the closest library that
holds material he requires. It will not, how-
ever, supplant this distinguished guide
to Manuscript Sources in the Library of
Congress, a fitting contribution to the
American bicentennial commemoration
from the nation's library.
Cleveland State University John Cary
Logistics and the Failure of the
British Army in America: 1775-1783. By
R.
Arthur Bowler. (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1975. xii + 290p.;
notes, bibliography, index. $12.50.)
This monograph is a penetrating and
well-researched administrative history.
Along with two other volumes, Norman
Baker's Government and Contractors:
The British Treasury and War
Supplies, 1774-1783, and David
Syretts' Ship-
ping and the American War, 1775-1783, Bowler's book marks an attempt to
rewrite the administrative history of
the War for Independence.
The central question that Bowler focused
on is the same one that has fasci-
nated historians for years-why did
presumably invincible Britain lose the war
to a group of quarrelling colonies? The
answers have tended to fall into three
categories: 1) the intense commitment
and ability of the colonists, 2) foreign
intervention and 3) administrative and
strategic errors on the part of the
British. Bowler's volume clearly falls
into the third category.
162 OHIO HISTORY
Those authors who have sought to explain
the failure of the British army in
America usually cite the administrative
errors of both the leadership in Eng-
land and the Commanders-in-chief in
America. Bowler does not wish to ques-
tion these interpretations, but rather
to expand and deepen our understanding
of the British loss. He seeks to
demonstrate in this book "that the fighting
efficiency of an army is very often a
function of its logistical efficiency and to
point out where logistical and
administrative problems in America affected the
course of the war."
The British logistical organization had
not yet developed into the logical and
efficient structure twentieth century
warfare introduced. Several governmental
departments-the War Office, the
Treasury, the Board of Ordinance and the
Navy Board-coordinated the war efforts
for Britain. In America, four exten-
sive departments were responsible for
logistics-quartermaster, commissary,
barrack master and engineer. The major
portion of Bowler's book focuses on the
activities of these agencies and
departments. The story is one of repeated failure.
The problem of securing sufficient food
was perhaps the most persistent
logistical dilemma. Shortly
after the beginning of the war, the British disco-
vered that they would not be able to
rely on the American countryside to feed
the soldiers and citizens living in New
York. A complex system of importing
food from England had to be established,
but until after 1781, when it really did
not matter militarily, there was never a
sufficient quantity of food, and much that
did arrive was inedible. Without
sufficient provision reserves the British com-
manders were hesitant to embark on
expeditions into the American interior.
They recognized that unfriendly
civilians were not apt to make food available to
hungry British soldiers. Thus, according
to Bowler, the generals were forced to
remain in the captured American cities
rather than venture into the interior. The
failure of Generals Thomas Gage, William
Howe and Henry Clinton to be more
aggressive was based, at least in part,
on the inability of the British to logistically
support an army in the field for more
than a short period.
Bowler has done extensive research into
British records, especially Treasury
documents, and his thesis is convincing.
He has confined his discussions to a
very limited topic, but the questions he
raises about war-time activities need to
be examined further. In the past
Revolutionary historiography has been con-
cerned primarily with military,
political and ideological themes. Bowler's vol-
ume reminds us that while these factors
are important, we need to consider
more thoroughly the everyday
administrative and logistical problems of the
British if we are to have a clear
picture of why they lost the colonies.
Ohio American Revolution David C. Twining
Bicentennial Advisory Commission
Passage Through the Garden: Lewis and
Clark and the Image of the American
Northwest. By John Logan Allen. (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1975.
xxvi + 412p.; illustrations, notes,
bibliography, index. $18.50.)
The University of Illinois Press has
long had a reputation for producing
outstanding books detailing the
explorations of Lewis and Clark. In 1962 the
Press issued the definitive Letters
of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by
Book Reviews
163
Donald Jackson. Seven years later the
Press offered Paul Russell Cutright's
massive Lewis and Clark: Pioneering
Naturalists. With the publication of John
Logan Allen's superb Passage through
the Garden, the University of Illinois
Press has maintained its well-deserved reputation among
Lewis and Clark
scholars.
Passage through the Garden is no mere retelling of familiar events. Rather,
Professor Allen has chosen to explore
the geographical concepts which shaped
the expedition and the ways those
concepts changed during the journey. Using
the interpretative framework developed
by Henry Nash Smith and Leo Marx,
Allen offers a perceptive analysis of
the two central images that dominated the
thinking of Lewis and Clark as well as
their patron Thomas Jefferson. Those
twin ideas were that the Northwest was
an agricultural garden, and, more
important, that a water route-a Passage
to India-existed linking the Missouri
to the Columbia and on to the Pacific.
Carefully tracing those ideas from
Spanish, French, and English sources,
Allen correctly points to the way Jeffer-
son's agrarian republican hopes for
America made geography into wish-
fullfillment.
Perhaps the most challenging chapter in
Professor Allen's study comes early
in the book and is entitled "Image
of the Northwest, 1803." While Allen has
frankly described this chapter as
"highly speculative," his speculation proves
both fertile and firmly rooted in
historical evidence. Noting the close working
relationship between Jefferson and
Meriwether Lewis, Allen details the
sources of their geographical ideas.
Using what geography they knew and what
they hoped was true, the President and
the Explorer envisioned the Northwest
as a garden penetrated by an easy water
route to the Pacific. "Thus," writes
Professor Allen, "was the image of
the Northwest in 1803 a combination of fact
and rumor, of theory and conjecture,
with a sprinkling of hope added for
seasoning."
When the explorers left St. Louis on May
14, 1804 to begin their trek to the
Pacific, they were firmly held in the
grasp of geographical images and expecta-
tions centuries old. As Allen explains
so precisely, the real accomplishment of
the expedition in the months to come was
to "change the nature of the Ameri-
can knowledge of the Northwest. The
captains would replace conjecture and
speculation, wild reasonings of
theoretical and logical frameworks, with scien-
tific observation. They would fill many
blank spaces on the maps of the
Northwest with facts recorded and
verified rather than guessed at and hoped
for." Lewis and Clark found neither
the Passage to India nor the Garden in the
West. Refusing to cling to outmoded
expectations, they confronted reality and
thereby transformed the mental geography
of North America.
Passage through the Garden is an impressive book, painstakingly re-
searched and lucidly written. Graced
with forty-seven useful maps and illustra-
tions, John Logan Allen's work will be
of lasting value to anyone intent on
pursuing Anglo-Americans and their
changing image of the land they inhabit.
This monograph is a model of what can be
achieved by wedding the history of
exploration to the discipline of
historical geography.
Youngstown State University James P. Ronda
164 OHIO
HISTORY
Essays in Nineteenth Century Economic
History: The Old Northwest. Edited
by David C. Klingaman and Richard K.
Vedder. (Athens: Ohio University
Press, 1975. xiv + 356p.; illustrations,
notes, index. $12.00.)
Those who have followed the recent
efforts of economists to develop a
regional economic history for the
antebellum South will see in this volume a
likely beginning for a similar
evaluation of the Old Northwest. Once again
economists, rather than historians, are
at center stage, and the questions and
methods are theirs. Of eleven essays,
all but one focus on the antebellum
period. The exception is a fascinating
though exceedingly complex piece (67
endogenous variables and 72 equations)
in which Jeffrey Williamson argues
that declining inter-regional transport
costs, by favoring the high-bulk, low-
value agricultural products of the
Midwest over the low-bulk, high-value in-
dustrial products of the East, fostered
economic growth during the Gilded Age
but also "had a very powerful
negative influence on American industrializa-
tion. . ." (p. 318).
Over two-thirds of the essays deal with
some facet of the general subject of
economic growth. Robert Gallman and
Richard Easterlin explore productivity
in agriculture. Although both
acknowledge the importance of the shift of pro-
duction to geographical areas of higher
yield, Easterlin concludes that an
unfavorable price situation prevented
newer states from translating productiv-
ity advantages into additions to income.
It is also worth noting that Easterlin's
emphasis on low productivity levels in
areas undergoing settlement is an idea
dating at least to Percy Wells Bidwell's
and John I. Falconer's History of
Agriculture in the Northern United
States (Washington, D.C., 1925). The
theme of economic growth is also central
to Donald Adams' judicious essay on
the role of the banks in maintaining a
money supply conducive to economic
growth and as financial intermediaries.
In each case their contribution was less
than optimum. Income grew considerably
faster than bank money, and banks
often neglected demands for long-term
capital. Adams also remains skeptical
of even the theoretical necessity
for banks as financial intermediaries. Edward
Rastatter makes a case for the neutral
role of another kind of intermediary, the
land speculator. Readers familiar with
Robert P. Swierenga's Pioneers and
Profits (Ames, Iowa, 1968) will recognize this thesis as
essentially the new
orthodoxy, but the burden of Rastatter's
proof is fresh: population "varied
positively and significantly with land
values" (p. 133). Land, moreover, was
settled and producing within two years
of its sale at public auction and, there-
fore, the land speculator could not have
"significantly retarded or distorted the
settlement of the public lands" (p.
135). Rastatter is on unfirm ground only in
his dismissal of the possibilities of
monopolization. This conclusion is based on
the assumption that land markets were in
some significant sense national or
regional, when for large numbers of
settlers they were local-often, in fact,
limited to a specific auction. In such
circumstances market power could and
did exist. The role of institutional
factors in the process of growth and expan-
sion is also the subject of a confused
essay by Roger Ransom on canals.
Contrary to Ransom's own conclusions about
the positive contributions of the
canal system, the data presented
here indicate that of the Ohio and Indiana
canals, only the Ohio Canal was of much
benefit to the region, by any
economic or social definition. The
additional suggestion that canals promoted
extensive economic growth, and that the
transformation to industrialization
Book Reviews
165
was dependent upon the railroad and the
telegraph (the former because of its
ability "to move people and goods
rapidly" [p. 264]) is unproven in these pages
and ignores evidence of pre-railroad
industrialization.
Several essays explore the concept of
the region's rapid maturity and its
implications. From their perspective of
population movements, Richard Ved-
der and Lowell Gallaway date Ohio's
maturity to 1840, when the state became
a net exporter of human resources. Don
Leet's discussion of the relationship
between fertility and settlement
interprets maturity as an ongoing process,
characterized by the development of
stress. Stress is generated when an ag-
ricultural area ages and experiences a
decline in available opportunities, and
Leet believes it is this decline, rather
than ongoing urbanization, which ex-
plains declining fertility. I only wish
the author had gone further and presented a
more elaborate explanation and
historical framework for what is essentially a
mathematical relationship. If the
primary assumption is that children are con-
ceived in order to provide farm labor,
then surely the farm-labor market (the
availability of hired hands) becomes a
factor worthy of study. What Leet sees
as declining opportunity might just as
well be interpreted positively-as evi-
dence of the existence in more settled
areas of a highly structured, efficient
farm-labor market, obviating the need
for a child labor force.
The converse of declining opportunity at
maturity-substantial opportunity
at an earlier stage of development-is
presented in an essay on Ohio wealth by
Lee Soltow, which demonstrates the
positive relationship between the average
value of property in real estate and
chronological age. Soltow concludes that
these rewards to age were in substantial
measure a function of the opportunity
to acquire land in a frontier
environment. One can agree with this, I think,
without finding in it any evidence of equal
opportunity or equal distribution of
wealth. One crucial question, of course,
is which younger people eventually
acquire property? And it goes without
saying that Ohio must also have been a
superb place not to accumulate
wealth. David Klingaman provides additional
information on the distribution of
wealth in a narrowly conceived and focused
discussion based on northeastern Ohio
sources. In the last analysis, however,
Klingaman's data-oriented approach may
prove of more value than William
Parker's "From Northwest to
Midwest: Social Bases of a Regional History."
Parker's essay is myth-perpetuating (the
newer societies of the west were
democratic and homogenous), overly
simple (Midwesterners are composites of
various types, including Yankees,
southern hill people, peasants and gamblers),
and cryptic (on the causes of the Civil
War). Much of the material is entertaining;
almost all is highly speculative.
This collection has all the strengths
and weaknesses of the new economic
history. Most of the authors are
concerned with questions of production and
efficiency rather than distribution, and
they see growth proceeding naturally
and inexorably, rather than being
fostered by intelligent entrepreneurship or
hindered by the machinations of
speculators. The critical unstated assumption
is that growth is beneficial. It follows
that policies which resulted in growth are
also beneficial. The transfer of income
from the poor to the rich through infla-
tion is called "involuntary
saving" and considered a necessary tool; leisure is
treated as socially desirable, by
definition, although clearly leisure, too, is
often forced on one group by another
(e.g. compulsory retirement policies). I
am not sure that the pervasive emphasis
on growth is not a misplaced remnant
of the competition with the Soviets over
GNP. The reader who has no such
166 OHIO HISTORY
doubts, or who can transcend them while
he examines this volume, will be
amply rewarded for his attention.
State University of New York William Graebner
College at Fredonia
Slavery and the Churches in Early
America, 1619-1819. By Lester B.
Scherer.
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1975.
163p.; notes, index. $5.95.)
Christians have good reason for
embarrassment about the intimate and
long-standing connection between their
faith and so wretched a system of labor
and racial control as African slavery.
From St. Paul and Augustine of Hippo to
Cotton Mather and Bishop Berkeley, as
Scherer observes, theologians and
prelates have managed to twist the
Gospel of Jesus into justifications for
human bondage. Why, one asks, did it
take the church so long to reach liberta-
rian conclusions that even a
slaveholding Deist like Thomas Jefferson found
self-evident? Professor Scherer notes
the irony of that circumstance, but he
does not speculate on so perplexing a
subject; instead, he ably describes two
centuries of churchly fumblings,
apologies, misgivings, and half-conscious un-
ease.
Too often church scholars (like most of
us) speak to each other, and usually
in parochial and pietistic terms,
especially in regard to their denominations'
gradual but allegedly benign evolution
toward antislavery. Scherer, however,
is largely free of technical jargon,
aiming for lucidity, brevity, and a salutary
objectivity. He is most persuasive when
treating theological explanations for
the enslavement of Africans and for the
Christian necessity of masterly be-
nevolence. Yet, like too many other
liberal historians, he fails to grasp the full
social context: a traditional Hobbesian
society in which life for most people
was "nasty, brutish, and
short." For instance, he asserts that according to
seventeenth-century English thought,
"the social hierarchy did not slide gently
downward to slavery; slavery was an
abyss" (p.25). For the last decade,
Lawrence Stone, J. H. Plumb, and Edmund
Morgan have argued otherwise.
Indentured servants, apprentices,
redemptioners were also, though only tem-
porarily, unfree menials without status
or effective rights. Only as productivity
and accompanying ideological changes
advanced were Africans left frozen in
the lower reaches of a worldly hell.
Without taking account of the larger con-
text of labor arrangements, Scherer
leaves the impression that Christians were
singularly ill-disposed toward blacks,
whereas for most of the period he covered
white property-holders and their
clerical friends tenaciously clung to all means
of retaining power against the potential
rages of the dispossessed.
Scherer seems most persuasive when
handling religious rather than social
themes. For instance, he draws a very
useful distinction (Troeltsch's famous
dichotomy) between "church"
and "sect." The former institution, as he
suggests, reflected the traditional task
of relating religious belief to worldly
activity (including slaveholding), while
the sect, in this case the American
Quakers, strove for a higher standard,
though at the expense of political influ-
ence. His recital of how Quakers moved
toward antislavery is an excellent
synthesis of that tangled story. He is
most at home with Anglicans, New
Book Reviews
167
England Puritans, and Virginia
Presbyterians, but he neglects the Baptists who
frequently included slaves as full
church members, contrary to the practices of
their ecclesiastical and social betters.
Unfortunately, the author says almost
nothing about black reactions to white
evangelism; we are left wondering if
Christianity arrived at the slave cabin
door sometime after 1819-a very doubt-
ful proposition.
The chief deficiency of the book lies in
its paucity of original research. Even
in a brief survey such as this there
should be room for archival work, especially
since the religious sources in both
northern and southern repositories are so
rich and still untouched. Yet, the final
opinion must be favorable. Though the
materials and the interpretations, both
borrowed from recent secondary
sources, are familiar to the specialist,
Scherer's well-organized, uncomplicated
narrative is an appealing volume
suitable for a general audience or under-
graduate class.
Case Western Reserve University Bertram Wyatt-Brown
The Search for a Black Nationality:
Black Emigration and Colonization 1787-
1863. By Floyd J. Miller. (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1975. xiii +
295p.; notes, bibliography, index.
$10.95.)
The concept of a "black
nationality" has acquired more substance, if not
more precision, over the last three
decades as historians have traced through
two centuries of complex permutations
the impelling drive among blacks for
self-realization, without demeaning
dependence upon whites. Floyd Miller's
book focuses on this subject with
rigorous comprehension and comprehensive
rigor during the nation's first 75
years.
His understanding of black-initiated
colonization movements and their chief
movers is impressive; from Paul Cuffe to
Martin Delany and J. Theodore
Holly, the men and their movements
emerge in human dimension. Miller's
scholarly probing is exemplary, exhuming
a wide range of primary and secon-
dary sources which he has explored with
indefatigable care.
His treatment of emigration as a
manifestation of black nationality is cohe-
rent. Paul Cuffe's abortive efforts in
this country and in Sierra Leone, inhibited
by apathy and war, reflect admirably
upon this little-known man of extraordi-
nary capacity. The American Colonization
Society effort in Sierra Leone and
the first Haitian settlement are
tragedies of error, marred by misunderstanding,
yet these early fumblings were essential
growth experiences for blacks and
whites. Emigration had a renaissance in
the 1850's, attributed to the energetics
of Lewis Woodson, whose disciple, Martin
Delany, organized American and
Canadian blacks and eventually
contracted for land just east of Lagos in what
is now Nigeria. Holly's interest was
Haiti and although he prospered there, his
settlement evaporated.
Several threads of black history are
tied more tightly by this study. The
dominance of whites, suffocating black
aspirations, is a recurrent theme. The
American Colonization Society, for
example, spread like a blanket over emig-
rationist plans after 1816. Intraracial
disputes, documented with debilitating
frequency, demonstrate once again that
the American black community con-
sists of individuals who think and act
independently to free the race of imposed
168 OHIO HISTORY
shackles. James Forten and Frederick
Douglass, for example, could never
quite accept emigration while Delany,
Henry Highland Garnet and others be-
came its most ardent disciples. Others
moved between the poles of emigration
and abolition, or even among the various
poles of emigration itself (to Canada?
to Haiti? to Africa?), manifesting that
very human trait of flexibility or, less
charitably, indecisiveness.
These important conclusions-white
dominance, black squabbling, and black
inconsistency-need such clarification if
we are properly to understand both the
evolving role of black people, as
individuals and as a community, in American
society, and the compelling thrust of
black nationality.
Even as early as the first half of the
nineteenth century black nationality had
developed into three interdependent, yet
independent ideologies. The first was
the idea that being black in America
carried a special, affirmative identifica-
tion, a mark not so much of skin color
but of tradition, perspective and com-
munication. An amalgam of African
background, slavery, the caste of pre-
judice, Christianity, and multiple random individual
experiences, this belief is a
forerunner of what we know today as
black culture. In the earlier period, it was
often expressed defensively: "We
have always adopted the policies that white
men established for themselves,"
Delany wrote in 1852, "without considering
their applicability or adaptedness of
us" (p. 132). The emigration movements
were a positive expression of this idea.
Black nationality also came to mean a
coming together of black people to
fight for the same opportunities of
citizenship, education, employment, resi-
dence and similar rights enjoyed by
whites. The multiplicity of national and
state conventions, particularly in the
1830's and 1850's, makes this clear, even
though the conventions' specific
objectives varied in time and place. Rarely
would blacks gather without some
outpouring of resentment against their op-
pressed state, some insistent demands
for equal rights. Before H. H. Garnet
turned to emigration, he was a militant
abolitionist: "America is my home, my
country, and I have no other," he
proclaimed in 1848. "I love whatever of
good there may be in her institutions. I
hate her sins" (p. 188).
Black nationality, finally, included the
idea of a black nation, within or
without the boundaries of the United
States. Most versions of this began with a
black community, expanded into a
thriving country with a sound economy and
a strong government. Whatever the
version, the projection was independence
for black people. Delany's word was
"self-reliance," but Holly, who later
became a prominent Haitian, put the
challenge more dramatically: "You are
less than men if you would permit any
amount of sufferings and privations to
prevent your going forth to build a
nationality of your race to do service in the
cause of God and humanity" (p.
241).
Miller's book highlights the importance
of an emerging black nationality for
blacks and whites. It deserves a wide
audience.
Heidelberg College Leslie H. Fishel,
jr.
Book Reviews
169
Allies for Freedom: Blacks and John
Brown. By Benjamin Quarles. (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1974. xiv
+ 244p.; illustrations, notes, bib-
liographical note, index. $7.95).
More than a decade before his assault on
Harpers Ferry, John Brown be-
came almost single-mindedly preoccupied
with the plight of Afro-Americans,
free and slave. He sought their
friendship as equals and without prejudice, and
he died to eliminate their oppressions.
Blacks, in turn, trusted and cooperated
with Brown, and they canonized him after
his death. Brown's relationship with
blacks symbolized the potential for
strong black-white cooperation and was
founded upon the "liberal vision of
the brotherhood of man."
This is the essential message of
Benjamin Quarles' most recent book. It is
sustained by prodigious research and
gracious writing, and makes enjoyable
reading. Yet Allies for Freedom suffers
from certain deficiencies. The author
never makes clear which general elements
of the black community aided
Brown before his hanging or which
canonized him after his death. Quarles cites
the words and deeds of national black
leaders like Frederick Douglass, W.E.B.
DuBois, and Kelly Miller; but what were
the social and economic backgrounds
and the fundamental concerns of the many
"anonymous" blacks who signed
petitions, wrote private letters, and
passed on an oral tradition exalting Brown?
Nor can we ignore the many blacks who
were indifferent toward Brown or
even the minority who were hostile in
the decades between Harpers Ferry and
modern times. If Professor Quarles is to
demonstrate that a Brown-black tradi-
tion of cooperation extended beyond a
limited Negro leadership elite, more
precise analysis of both the black
masses and black leaders seemingly cool or
hostile to Brown is imperative.
Complexities, variations, and conflicts among
Afro-Americans must be explained.
One may also question Quarles' claim
that the relationship between Brown
and blacks symbolized a viable tradition
of black-white cooperation in pursuit
of "man's common humanity."
Quarles admits that Brown mistakenly as-
sumed that most blacks were militant and
ready for violent action against racial
oppression. He also acknowledges that at
least "a few" blacks hesitated "to
join a movement led by any white.. ." Finally,
Quarles notes "that black
abolitionists and their white
counterparts were often in sharp disagreement as
to priorities and role, with black
reformers becoming more self-consciously
black during the 1840's and
1850's." Given Brown's misreading of black wil-
lingness to commit violence, and given
the sharp disagreements between white
and black abolitionists that Quarles
delineates so well in his Black Abolitionists
(1969), the Brown-black relationship
could not have been one of total trust and
confidence. Brown shared with many other
white abolitionists the vision that
slavery retarded more than Negro
liberty-that it held back the millennial
"Kingdom of God." Black
abolitionists usually had more precise and tangible
goals. For most of them, the elimination
of Southern racial bondage and the
extension of civil rights for freemen
were specific and self-contained ends.
To be sure, Brown may have had greater
empathy and more immediate
concern for blacks than most of his
white abolitionist contemporaries. But
there must have been very serious
strains in the Brown-black relationship as
well as strong harmonies. The
relationship must have been complex and ambi-
valent. After Brown's death, canonizers
could invent a mythic white hero who,
in his relationship to blacks, evidenced
none of this strain and ambivalence. It
170 OHIO HISTORY
would seem, then, that even a judicious
and thorough historian like Professor
Quarles shares something with Brown's
canonizers. Like the canonizers,
Quarles seems to allow the simple
post-execution hero image to color his
appraisal of the living John Brown.
Bowling Green State Univeristy Lawrence J. Friedman
The Mariposa Indian War, 1850-1851;
Diaries of Robert Eccleston: The
California Gold Rush, Yosemite, and
the High Sierra. Edited by C. Gregory
Crampton. (Salt Lake City: University of
Utah Press, 1957. Reprinted 1975.
vii + 168p.; illustrations, notes,
bibliography, index. $10.00.)
C. Gregory Crampton's The Mariposa
Indian War reproduces for a wider
reading audience a work previously known
largely to specialists and to the
Bancroft Library Friends. Crampton's
efforts are directed to editing some of
the diary materials recorded by Robert
J. Eccleston during his sojourn in the
Sierra country during 1850 and 1851.
Although the title indicates that the
book will give us new information about
the so-called Mariposa Indian War, such
is really not the case. What Eccles
records is an additional facet of the
California mining frontier. Details of the
daily toil involved in working for gold
in the high mountain streams, of the costs
involved, and of the rigors of mining
camp life in general are the major legacy
of the Eccleston materials held by the
Bancroft Library.
There is little or no material about the
Sierra Indians in this work. Ethno-
graphic detail is provided in only one
passage, and pencil sketches of natives
and native dwellings are omitted from
the reproduced materials.
The contribution of the book is to the
literature of the mining frontier;
nothing more should be claimed.
Certainly the rigors of stream mining de-
scribed here should help as we seek a
better understanding of the true nature of
mining camp life, apart from Bret Hart's
Outcasts of Poker Flats. Worthy of
note, too, are the amusements, such as
horse racing, and the general instability
of mining frontier life, which should
help us understand the psychology of the
frontier. For those interested in the
history of mining, or even the early his-
tory of the Yosemite area, this will
prove an interesting little book, but for
those interested in native American
studies, this will be of only tangential
interest.
Marietta College James H.
O'Donnell, III
Laura Clay and the Woman's Rights Movement.
By Paul E. Fuller. (Lexington
University Press of Kentucky, 1975. x +
217p.; illustrations, notes, bibliog
raphy, index. $12.50.)
Laura Clay, one of the most prominent
sectional suffrage leaders and prog
ressive southerners, who died at
ninety-two in 1941, left to historians one of the
richest collections of papers and
correspondence that exists on the women'
rights movement. Paul Fuller is the
first historian to give this material th
significant attention it deserves. The
author traces Laura Clay's life from he
Book Reviews
171
childhood in the home of her famous
father, the abolitionist Cassius Clay of
Kentucky, through several chronological
periods culminating with the wo-
men's suffrage amendment. In this
excellent biography the author manages to
enlist the reader's admiration for this
extraordinarily energetic and devoted
woman. Clay is depicted as a progressive
southerner who could separate points
of view from personality, and
diplomatically received both triumph and defeat.
She was involved in numerous women's
rights activities that put her in touch
with many women across America. For
example, she worked for the passage
of laws that provided equity in property
rights between husband and wife, and
a coguardianship law. Her efforts at
coeducation in Kentucky are also noted.
Most of all it was Clay's position on
the national suffrage movement that gave
her special notoriety. In her mind
female suffrage should come through the
states, and therefore she appreciated
the national amendment in so far as it
served to publicize the suffrage issue
generally. Here Fuller makes his
strongest point. Clay opposed the
federal amendment because, in her words, it
would "diminish the people's
watchfulness over the legislation which affects
their own particular requirements."
The New York Times, among others, took
this to mean that Clay's opposition was
based on a typical southern prejudice
against Negroes. While Clay did not deny
that racial bias influenced the issue
in the South, Fuller emphasizes that
"her objections to the federal amendment
were based on the principle of
federal-state relations." The states, she be-
lieved, should be able to extend the
vote at their own discretion to avoid the
dangers of enfranchising untrained
votes, especially "in this time of world
revolution." Fuller's effective
analysis of these points is supported by exten-
sive documentation that goes beyond the
Clay papers. Although compact al-
most to a fault in a couple of places,
this overdue biography of Laura Clay is
quite readable and deserves a place
along with the works of Eileen Kraditor
and Ann Frior Scott in understanding the
Southern women's suffrage move-
ment.
Muskingum College Joe L.
Dubbert
An Ohio Reader. Volume I: 1750 to the Civil War. Volume II: Reconstruction
to the Present. Edited by Thomas H. Smith. (Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1975. 324p.
and 439p.; notes. Paper, $4.95
and $5.95.)
These two volumes contain selections
from the entire chronological range of
the history of Ohio, bringing
conveniently together some fascinating materials
printed previously in widely scattered
places. Students and teachers of the
state's history, as well as the general
public, will find a wide choice of docu-
ments describing the land which became
Ohio, some of the peoples who came
to live there, and social and political
problems which they encountered over
the past two centuries. Of course no
compilation of readings can include the
personal favorites of every purchaser,
but anyone interested in history who
opens these volumes should find
selections of interest.
Each volume is broken into chronological
periods with appropriate topics
developed for each section; each
section, but not each document, has introduc-
tory comments by the editor. Thus the
reader will find accounts of Indian wars,
172 OHIO HISTORY
tales of travel through the developing
region, reports by government officers
and journalists of social and economic
conditions, and examples of how
Ohioans disagreed on political issues in
episodes such as the 1912 Constitu-
tional Convention. The editor's choices
reflect the history profession's con-
cern with exploring Black experiences,
and its awareness of differing opinions
on the role of women in government and
society.
The writing of state history poses
difficult conceptual problems. As the
editor points out in his introductory
remarks, the boundaries are man-made.
Should one then focus exclusively on the
man-made entity, which would re-
quire a concentration on government
history to the exclusion of broader social,
economic, and intellectual developments
which have shaped so much of the
recent historiography of our national
life? Or should the writer of state history
simply adopt as his or her domain
anything which happened in the state, or the
activities of anyone who happened at
some point to live within its boundaries?
Just as the writing of state history
often suffers from a lack of a clear definition
of purpose, so do these volumes. Thus
they inform us of how nineteenth
century government struggled with the
problems of establishing public educa-
tion, without one word on the system of
higher education; yet room is found to
include excerpts from hardly unique
contributions of Ohioans in Congress to
the debates over "manifest
destiny." The second volume contains vivid de-
scriptions of the living conditions in
which some Ohioans found themselves in
the burgeoning urban-industrial society
of the late nineteenth and early twen-
tieth centuries, with no mention of the
role of the state government in promot-
ing immigration or the shift in the
source of migration to southern and eastern
Europe. The editor reveals some
confusion of purpose when, in the introduc-
tion to the second volume (which repeats
the introduction to the first volume),
he states "Ohio history can be seen
as a microcosm of national history" (p. 9),
and then begins his next section with
"the reconstruction period. . .had a
different meaning in Ohio than in the
South" (p. 15). This reviewer wished for a
clearer purpose than his assertion that
we study state history because some-
how it collectively adds up to national
history.
The writing of state history is made
difficult, furthermore, because it re-
quires the historian to take into
account changing interpretations developed in
the national historiography. These
volumes do so only to a limited extent in
their samples of Black and women's
history. One comes away from them
unaware that, nationally, historians are
conceptualizing their work around the
increasing bureaucratization and
centralization of power in society, unaware of
recent insights into the class biases of
some reformers, or the role of state
government in promoting local business
interests. Insights into the ways social,
political, and intellectual life were
shaped by successive waves of immigration
must be found elsewhere. Research by
political historians, who have systemat-
ically described patterns of grass-roots
political behavior in the late nineteenth
century and found Ohioans bitterly
divided on matters of religious belief and
ethnicity, is unrecognized here. In sum,
the interpretive framework implicit in
these volumes is of the liberal genre
without recognition of contradictory in-
terpretations developed in the
profession in the past decade.
Undoubtedly these volumes will be useful
in courses on Ohio history. An Ohio
Reader is an interesting attempt to fill a void in the
conveniently available
literature of our state's history. It
supplements and enriches existing secondary
accounts. It will be the future task of
scholars to sharpen our focus on the
Book Reviews
173
purposes of state history, and perhaps
to enlarge our understanding of the
historical roles of state government.
The Ohio State University K. Austin Kerr
Ohio-An American Heartland. By Allen G. Noble and Albert J. Korsok. (Col-
umbus: Ohio Division of Geological
Survey, 1975, xiii + 230p.; illustrations,
tables, notes, bibliography, index.
$5.00.)
Not since Alfred J. Wright's Economic
Geography of Ohio, published in
1957, has there been a comprehensive
geography of the state. Allen Noble and
Albert Korsok, both members of the
geography department at The University
of Akron, have not only filled this
void, but have done so admirably. Professor
Noble developed six of the 12 chapters,
Professor Korsok four, and two other
members of the Akron department each
contributed a chapter. Despite some
unevenness in the approach and quality
of the chapters, the book is a well-
done, unified whole.
There are certain similarities between
this volume and Wright's: for one,
both are published by the Division of
Geological Survey (this is Bulletin 65 and
Wright's was Bulletin 50). The physical
appearance is similar, but it must be
added that the present volume is
superior in terms of typescript, photographic
selection and layout, and in the varied
and effective maps, charts, and draw-
ings that it includes; and, finally,
there is similarity in organization although the
present volume has a broader focus and
reflects a pronounced effort by the
authors to relate aspects of Ohio's
geography to certain trends apparent in
current geographic research. Wright, on
the other hand, provided the reader
with considerably more historic
perspective and emphasized more strongly a
regional approach.
After a short "Introduction"
which attempts to place Ohio in perspective
relative to the nation, an historical
treatment of "Settlement in Ohio" follows.
The chapter is well-done although this
reviewer, for one, would like to have
seen more attention given to the impact
of the unique role of alternative land
survey systems upon settlement and
development. The process of historic
settlement leads, but not quite
naturally in the text, to a discussion of popula-
tion. And here, as in later chapters, an
attempt is made to tie theory (in this
case, von Thunen's model and Weber's
industrial location model) to Ohio's
"real world" experience.
Chapters 4, 5, and 6, dealing with
physical landscape, agriculture, and the
extractive industries, respectively, are
the most conventional in approach. A
traditional descriptive treatment of the
state's geology, climate, vegetation,
and soils characterizes Chapter 4; the
discussion is reinforced by relevant maps
and sketches. The section on agriculture is noteworthy
for its emphasis upon
land values and incomes in an urban
state. There is, as well, the expected
discussion of major commodities and
agricultural regions, but major attention
is focused on the state's changing agriculture. The
chapter on extractive indus-
tries is largely descriptive, based, as it is, upon
available production data.
There is too little effort here to
consider these activities in any but a superficial
way. For example, given the scope of our
energy resource problems and related
174 OHIO HISTORY
environmental issues, the treatment of
these topcis is skimpy indeed.
In Chapter 7, "Manufacturing in
Ohio," the approach is less stereotyped and
more rewarding. For example, after
suggesting that Ohio is favorably situated
for industrial development, Noble
discusses several of the key factors affecting
location decisions and, to a limited
extent, draws upon location theory to help
explain Ohio's growth as an industrial
state. While these factors are never
strongly treated in the chapter, the
author does, at least, provide the interested
reader with a few basic concepts
relative to industrial location and industrial
classification for Ohio cities. The
final part of the chapter is given over to a
description of the industrial mix of
major industrial centers: Noble carries this
difficult task off quite well by
emphasizing the historical evolution of industry
in the respective city and by placing it
in perspective relative to those factors
responsible for industrial change.
In a way, it might have been useful to
have included the introductory pages
of Chapter 8, "Transport and
Commerce in Ohio," in the first one or two
chapters of the text. The historical
review has relevance to the settlement of
the state; the two subjects could have
been dealt with accordingly. In the main,
however, this chapter deals with present
transportation systems. Specific at-
tention is given to the different
experiences of Cleveland and Cincinnati vis-a-
vis their "shipping patterns,"
and there is a short but worthwhile discussion of
retail and wholesale trade in the state.
It is Chapter 9, "The Urban
Geography of Ohio," that strikes this reviewer
as one of the two or three most
innovative. There is a nice mix of topics here
ranging from, but not limited to, a
consideration of the phenomena of site and
situation as factors affecting the
initial location and later development of many
Ohio cities (including some as small as
Conneaut and as large as Cleveland), to
an attempt to classify by function these
communities, and to a very well-
developed section on the internal
structure of Ohio's cities in which basic
theories (i.e., concentric zone, sector,
multiple nuclei) are postulated and then
applied to state examples. Excellent
visuals accompany the discussion includ-
ing maps of the internal structure of
several cities, computer-generated maps of
urban pollution, and an interesting
series of maps that report on various qual-
ities of social geography, such as
ethnicity, homicides, etc., of selected Ohio
cities.
This chapter is followed by another
imaginative and innovative discussion,
"The Countryside and Small Town in
Ohio." Some attention is given to the
origins of towns and to place names, but
the principal contribution is an exten-
sive section (15 pages) that emphasizes
house, barn, and fence types, and gives
detailed attention to town patterns. The
discussion is enhanced immensely by
18 drawings of house and barn types, and
by 19 representations of town pat-
terns. It is here, rather than in the
second chapter, that the cultural heritage of
the state is most effectively treated.
"The Social Geography of
Ohio," the subject of Chapter 11, is a topic never
dealt with in earlier geographies of the
state. Here, issues of poverty and income
differences are considered. Using
government data, a series of maps has been
constructed to illustrate "Measures
of Disadvantage" within the state by county
for such subjects as per capita public
assistance, housing quality, infant mortali-
ty, etc. Distinctive regional
differences are anticipated, of course, and the data
presented here support one's
conjectures-Appalachian Ohio is as distinctive in
its social geography as it is in its
physical geography!
Book Reviews
175
The final chapter is a highly
generalized discussion of the problems that face
the state and of some possibilities for
resolving them. Specifically, attention is
focused on the urban environment (need for better
planning), the physical
environment (pollution and resource limitations), and
Appalachia (an addi-
tional argument that suggests that
somehow this region can become a major
recreation area and, thereby, support
itself). A special section deals with the
idea of promoting more satisfactorily a
recreation and tourist industry in the
state. And, finally, brief attention is
given to government (it is suggested,
perhaps naively, that metropolitan
government may resolve local government
problems) and to the proliferation of
government services.
Those of us who teach courses in the
Geography of Ohio welcome this
up-to-date text. It provides not only the background
and data for traditional
subjects, but offers a number of new
approaches (i.e., new to Ohio geog-
raphies) and numerous well-conceived
visuals as well. There is a solid though
not exhaustive bibliography and two
appendices relating to population data and
to population growth trends. There may be shortcomings
and even flaws in
both the approach and content of the
volume, but if there are they are more
than offset by the numerous good
features that this volume possesses.
The Ohio State University Henry L. Hunker
History of Willard, Ohio, with
Pioneer Sketches of New Haven, Greenfield,
Norwich and Richmond Townships. By Joseph F. Dush. (Willard: The
Lakeside Press, 1974, xiii + 318p.;
illustrations, index. $17.95.)
Writing local history presents a very
challenging dilemma. An author who
attempts what Mr. Dush has attempted in
his History of Willard, Ohio may on
the one hand aim his work at the home
folks, in which case there will appear
substantial lists of people associated
with one project or another which may
satisfy the desire of the local citizens
to see their names in print, but which will
only weary the more professional
historian and cause him to write an unfavor-
able review. On the other hand, he may
forego such details as the lists and seek
to write a discerning history in which
the community is placed on the larger
stage of county, state and nation. But
here, unless he is writing about a great
metropolitan area, he may well discover
that his volume remains on bookstore
shelves unpurchased and he, or his
sponsors, is saddled with debt.
Mr. Dush may well have tried to satisfy
both his neighbors and historians in
this work. He has done better by the
home folks. We understand. Still there are
some things omitted that the local
citizens should know which would also have
pleased the historian. For example, no
one can gainsay that railroads are the
raison d'etre for
the founding of Willard, yet one searches in vain for the story
of the building of Willard's first
railroad. All we get on that is "The Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad Company purchased
several shorter lines of railroad in Ohio,
among them the Sandusky, Mansfield and
Newark lines that ran north and
south through Huron County just west of
New Haven." All of us are entitled to
the details about when and why and how
this line was built and also when it
was purchased. Without this line there
could have been no later Chicago Junc-
tion.
The reader gets frequent glimpses of the
story of the Baltimore and Ohio
176 OHIO HISTORY
main line and its Willard installations,
yet the book is finished with the feeling
that that is just what it gives:
glimpses. One could wish for a thorough job such
as the author has done for Midwest Industries and the
Donelly Co., both of
which received detailed and apparently
complete treatment. By the time one
completes this book these companies seem
to be more solid institutions in the
community than the venerable Baltimore
and Ohio.
One wishes that the planning of fringe
aspects of all books were as well done
as for this one. The book is physically attractive, it
has a useful index, a
pleasing format and inspired drawings in
the margins. Mr. Dush is to be highly
complimented in these areas. There is one omission: a
useful city map with
named streets to help the outsider
(maybe even the resident) keep up with the
author as he moves around over the city.
The History of Willard, Ohio is a
useful work of local history, pleasant to
read, with acceptable organization, good research in
some areas but weaknes-
ses in the treatment of the railroads
and a tendency to remember the home
folks at the expense of the historian.
Ohio Northern University Boyd Sobers
Ethnic Groups in Ohio with Special
Emphasis on Cleveland: An Annotated
Bibliographical Guide. By Lubomyr R. Wynear et al. (Cleveland: Cleveland
State University, Cleveland Ethnic
Heritage Studies Development Prog-
ram, 1975. vi + 254p.; notes,
appendices, indexes. $6.50.)
The recent mushrooming of interest in
ethnic studies in the United States led
the Cleveland Board of Education and the
Intercollegiate Council on Ethnic
Studies under the direction of Dr. Karl
Bonutti, as well as the Catholic school
system in Cleveland, to a joint effort
to receive funding support from the U.S.
Office of Education, Department of
Health Education and Welfare, to produce
this very excellent bibliographical guide.
Professor Lubomyr R. Wynear of
Kent State University headed the team of
scholars who compiled and anno-
tated the entries.
Greater Cleveland, with an ethnic mosaic
of over sixty ethnic and racial
groups, seemed a logical place to treat
in such a study. The book begins with a
listing of general reference sources and
a list of general works on ethnicity in
the United States. It moves on quickly
to a more specific consideration of the
ethnic groups in Greater Cleveland about
which there is likely to be the
greatest research interest, such as (in
alphabetical order): American Indian,
Appalachian, Arab-American,
Black-American, Byelorussian, Chinese, Croa-
tian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian,
Finnish, German, Greek, Hungarian,
Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish,
Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Puerto Rican,
Romanian, Russian, Scottish, Serbian,
Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Swiss and
Ukranian-American. The book concludes
with an appendix that contains a
directory of archival holdings in
Cleveland and a listing of repositories of
Cleveland ethnic newspapers, as well as
a chart of the recent ethnic popula-
tions of Cleveland and the United
States.
Both the scope of the book and its
intended audience are purposely limited.
By his own avowal, the author has
restricted the listings to: "selective" items
in the English language only, with an
emphasis on "reference and monographic
Book Reviews
177
publications." Dissertations and
masters' theses were also included, as well as
a few periodical articles. The book was
designed for use by junior-high and
high-school students as well as college
undergraduates.
Bearing in mind this limited scope and
purpose, the book must be judged to
be an excellent new tool for use in
social science research classes with a racial
or ethnic focus. It is well organized
for easy and quick use by less sophisticated
students.
This reviewer is impressed by two final
points. One is the fact that Professor
Wynear's very fine bibliographical guide
is a good research tool in itself. The
other point is that the book was
obviously designed to fit in perfectly with a
whole series of monographs on the
various Cleveland ethnic minorities, some
of which have already been published and
others of which are due off the press
in the near future. One might wish that
other cities would follow this example.
Xavier University Paul L.
Simon
The American Heritage History of
Railroads in America. By Oliver O.
Jensen.
(New York: American Heritage Publishing
Company, 1975. 320p.; illustra-
tions, bibliography, index. $29.95.)
Railroads in America, by Oliver O. Jensen, editor of American Heritage
Magazine, is a
popular treatment of railroading in the United States. Tracing the
industry from its beginnings a century
and a half ago to the present era of Amtrak
and Conrail, Jensen suggests that
"The history of American railroads sometimes
seems ... a paradigm of the history of
the republic itself. Both were created
through heroic struggles, both swelled
to imperial influence and power; both, as
is the way with empires, have fallen on
difficult, uncertain times" (p. 7).
Through a combination of narrative
essays and contemporary observations, the
author discusses a variety of
specialized topics, including the evolution of rail
motive power, construction of the first
transcontinental line, station architec-
ture, and the industry's romantic image
in the American mind. Although the text
is considerable, photographs, line
drawings and other illustrative material com-
prise the bulk of the work.
This publication is a high-quality
"buff" book, full of nostalgia for the railfan
and the general reader alike. Both will
admire the book's marvelous illustra-
tions, its gracefully written text, and
the coverage of colorful topics. Serious
students of railroad history, however,
will probably find little of value in Mr.
Jensen's text. Repeatedly the author
demonstrates his rather shallow grasp of
general American history and an
insufficient knowledge of railroad history.
There are numerous examples of his limitations,
but two will suffice. When
Jensen discusses government regulation
of the rail network, he seems totally
unaware of most "standard"
studies, including Gabriel Kolko's classic Rail-
roads and Regulations, 1877-1916. And when Jensen describes the railroad
station he not only ignores the
all-important standardized structure, but he
incorrectly asserts that
"carpenters armed with jig saws constructed fanciful
Gothic ornamentation; arched windows,
for instance, or scrolled supports for
the eves" (p. 217). Rather than
being the products of skilled and imaginative
local craftsmen, these ornaments were
more likely fashioned on machines in
many woodworking factories of the East
and the Middle West. Finally, this
178 OHIO HISTORY
reviewer, although a dedicated railfan
himself, is annoyed by the constant
"digs" at the non-rail
transportation industry, the Interstate Commerce Com-
mission, and over-all government
policies vis-a-vis American railroads. How-
ever, if one shares Mr. Jensen's point of view, these
comments should be
appreciated.
The University of Akron H. Roger Grant
Thurber: A Biography. By Burton Bernstein. (New York: Dodd, Mead &
Company, 1975. ix + 532p.;
illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $15.00.)
Any book whose first chapter begins with
the sentence, "Columbus is a
depressing place," can't be all
bad. As first sentences go, it ranks right up there
with "Arma virumque cano" and
"Call me Ishmael." Burton Bernstein's deflat-
ing opening is a positive omen. Although
he had insisted on sole control of the
final manuscript, the temptation in an
"authorized" biography, especially when
some principals of the story are still
living, is to soften edges, to spare feelings, to
avoid conflicts. Luckily, Bernstein
resisted the temptation. Thurber's widow,
Helen, found the book "too
negative," but its tone reminded me of the definition
of a friend as someone who knows all
your faults and still likes you.
Bernstein has produced a useful and
readable biography. As official biog-
rapher, with access to Thurber's papers
and letters, his research is as thorough
as could be wished. He does a workmanlike
job on the drudgery of biography-
listing names, places, dates, yet
refrains from overwhelming the reader with
detailed trivia. He often, and
commendably, allows Thurber to speak for himself
by quoting extensively from private
letters. He manages the mass of biographic
material well: the tragic childhood
accident which eventually cost Thurber his
sight; his sometimes stormy
relationships with his family; his ambivalent feel-
ings about Columbus, his home town, and
about Ohio State, his alma mater. A
very useful selected bibliography of
material by and about Thurber is also
provided.
Bernstein, with a keen understanding of
the difference between public and
private virtue, does not feel it
necessary to turn Thurber into a plaster saint. We
are shown the talented artist and the
sometimes tortured human being. Thurber
fluctuated between fits of alcoholic
rage and subsequent sobered apology; he got
divorced; he had extra-marital affairs.
He also wrote stories and drew cartoons
which have been favorably compared to
the works of Mark Twain and Henri
Matisse, respectively.
Bernstein's prose is sometimes
distracting and annoyingly self-conscious.
Using the German "echt" when
"best" or "vintage" is meant, as in "the story
is not echt Thurber," is overly
pedantic. For the most part, however, his prose is
at the service of his story.
Thurber's long association with the New
Yorker and its unique founder and
editor, Harold Ross, is also duly
chronicled. Some of the best anecdotes in the
book concern Ross. When another
cartoonist objected that Ross refused his
work and printed "stuff by that
fifth-rate artist Thurber," Ross was quick to
correct him. "Third rate," he
said. Although Bernstein does not indulge himself
in celebrity anecdotes for their own
sake, with a man like Thurber they are
inevitable. Some are titillating:
Thurber in a speakeasy, throwing a glass of
Book Reviews
179
whiskey at Lillian Hellman; some are
amusing: Thurber forging Ross' signature
of approval on his cartoons to get them
printed; some are genuinely astonishing:
the blind Thurber being guided to his
extra-marital liaisons by a young New
Yorker office boy, Truman Capote.
Bernstein's straightforward narration of
Thurber's disintegration and increas-
ing paranoia during his final years
makes harrowing reading. But Thurber
himself was unsentimental about death.
In a letter to his brother Robert in 1928,
he wrote: "There ought to be some
point to it all and I live in the hopes that the
adventure of death is something equal to
the adventure of life which is pretty
colorful and interesting even if hard.
It would seem strange to me if God made
such a complicated world and such
complicated people and then had no more to
offer than blankness at the end, so I
live in the curiosity and the hope and the
excitement of what there may be
afterwards. ..."
No doubt there will be other (more
positive?) biographical treatments of
Thurber. And certainly there will be
more detailed literary and artistic criticisms
than Bernstein, limited by the
biographic form, was able to provide. Neverthe-
less, for an understanding of Thurber as
man and artist, Bernstein's work is
essential reading.
The Ohio Historical Society Patrick G. Miller, Jr.