Book Reviews
In the Name of the People: Speeches
and Writings of Lincoln and
Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859.
Edited by Harry V. Jaffa
and Robert W. Johannsen. (Columbus: Ohio
State University Press
for the Ohio Historical Society, 1959.
xii??307p. $5.00.)
The historically minded are having a
field day in these years of the
1950's and 1960's in constant centennial
celebration of the events con-
nected with the Civil War. Real
contributions to the literature of
history are emerging which will be of
lasting value. There has always
been a gap between the well-known
Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858
and Lincoln's celebrated Cooper Union
speech of 1860. Lincoln and
Douglas in fact continued debating in
1859 and made significant in-
tellectual efforts that heretofore have
remained largely inaccessible in
uncollected documents. As this debate
took place in Ohio, it is most
appropriate that the Ohio Historical
Society should project a publica-
tion edited in part by a professor of
political science from Ohio State
University and published by the press of
that institution. Professor
Jaffa, the author of The Crisis of
the House Divided, a very penetrating
analysis of the debate of 1858, and
Professor Johannsen of the Univer-
sity of Illinois, an authority on
squatter sovereignty, have brought to-
gether the 1859 contributions of Lincoln
and Douglas, which they are
publishing for the first time.
The editors not only supply the text but
they describe the setting
and analyze the argument. The latter
demonstration shows clearly
that the positions of the two debaters
were both logically consistent
with the spirit of democracy, both parts
of the same doctrine. Douglas
argued for the right of self-government.
Lincoln argued for the recog-
nition of the equality of men before the
law. This contest emphasizes
an occasional inner conflict in
democracy between the will of the ma-
jority and the rights of the individual.
The continuance of this never-
ending debate to Professor Jaffa is
evidence of the basic integrity of
the idea and tradition of popular
self-government.
The editors likewise demonstrate that
the main purpose of this con-
test was not dialectical so much as
political. Douglas was seeking an
ambiguous formula which would permit
northern and southern Demo-
BOOK REVIEWS 299
crats to work together to stay in power
despite their increasingly an-
tagonistic constituencies, while Lincoln
was endeavoring to unite a
solid northern phalanx sufficiently
strong to seize and keep political
power. Douglas failed, Lincoln
succeeded.
The editors and the sponsors of this
work are to be congratulated on
their highly successful efforts. They
have filled an historical gap. They
have presented a very revealing example
of one of the mechanisms
which Americans have devised to operate
democracy. In this present
day when we are less logical but perhaps
no more realistic in our po-
litical operations, it is well to look
back at the use of a somewhat lost
art, political debating.
University of Pennsylvania ROY F. NICHOLS
The Present World of History: A
Conference on Certain Problems in
Historical Agency Work in the United
States. Compiled and edited
by James H. Rodabaugh. (Madison, Wis.:
American Association for
State and Local History, 1959. 129p.;
illustrations. $3.00.)
Twice in recent years (at Madison in
1954, and again at Columbus
in 1957) the American Association for
State and Local History has
devoted its annual meeting to an
evaluation of the historical society
movement in the United States. The
proceedings of the Madison meet-
ing were published under the title Ideas
in Conflict, those of the Colum-
bus meeting are contained in this
volume. Comparison of the two
reveals how rapidly leaders of the
historical society movement are
acquiring confidence in the importance
of their mission and in their
ability to accomplish it. At Madison in
1954 the principal emphasis
was upon such questions as "Are We
Really Spreading the American
Heritage?" and "Is Local
History Really Important?" At Columbus
in 1957--in part at least because of the
affirmative answers given at
Madison--these questions generally were
eschewed in favor of an ex-
amination, as the title of this volume
suggests, of the role of the his-
torical society and/or agency in the
larger world of history.
Four of the sessions consisted of panel
discussions of the historical
society as an educational institution,
the acquisition policies of presi-
dential libraries, the artifact in
history, and significant developments in
local history. Of the greatest general
interest, perhaps, was the last,
in which James Morton Smith discussed
colonial American history;
Francis P. Weisenburger, religious and
ethnic history; and Philip D.
Jordan, social and cultural history. Two
of the sessions were given
300
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
over to papers by individual historians:
a survey of historical activity
in the United States, by Thomas D.
Clark; and a discussion, by Roy
F. Nichols, of historical work since the
establishment of the National
Archives--a paper aptly entitled
"Alice in Wonderland After Eighteen
Years." Clark sounded a timely
warning against becoming "mired
down in the cannon ruts of the Civil
War," and reminded historians
that whatever they may write their
greatest contribution will still be in
the clear and meaningful presentation of
history in the classroom.
Nichols found the achievements of both
historians and archivists dis-
appointing, and called for a radical
change in methods, including an
overhaul of the whole Ph.D. program. He
also called for a reinstate-
ment of political history in the history
of the United States as one
means of achieving "a real sense of
meaning for our history." If nothing
else of value had been said during the
entire conference, this alone
would have made the proceedings well
worth publishing.
But, as I have tried to indicate, much
more of value--of great value
--was said, and these proceedings
constitute a significant contribution
to American historiography. They
demonstrate that in the present
world of history the historical society
has a vital role to play.
University of Nebraska JAMES C. OLSON
The Management of Small History
Museums. By Carl E. Guthe.
American Association for State and Local
History, Bulletin, Volume
II, Number 10. (Madison, Wis.: American
Association for State
and Local History, 1959. 76p.;
bibliography.)
This new Bulletin of the American
Association for State and Local
History is needed. The works of Laurence
V. Coleman and Arthur C.
Parker are hard to obtain, and most
historical societies, to which this
bulletin was sent, are not members of
the American Association of
Museums; thus they have not received
Carl Guthe's equally excellent
So You Want a Good Museum. This new work from Dr. Guthe not
only points the way to better museum
management but inspires the
proper attitudes towards the
significance of an interpretive museum.
His book is divided into four sections:
general considerations (physi-
cal facilities and organization); the
collections (their choice, acquisi-
tion, documentation, and preservation);
the interpretation (techniques
of research, exhibits, and miscellaneous
services); and finally, the social
significance of a well-run museum.
BOOK REVIEWS 301
Although Dr. Guthe distills his years of
field experience into a mere
seventy pages, general principles are
well explained. His description
of a historically significant artifact
is one of the best statements to be
found anywhere. His emphasis on the
interpretive exhibit should be
taken to heart by those societies or
museums which have not yet tried
to tell the story of their community's
unique historical development
within a regional framework. If Dr.
Guthe's ideas of integrity, effi-
cient performance, and public service
were adopted, historical museums
would soon join schools and libraries as
educational institutions war-
ranting the same public esteem and tax
support.
So well written is this work that the
two major shortcomings are
only those of emphasis and omission.
This bulletin would have been
even more useful if it had stressed the
historical society with a museum
rather than the historical museum per
se. The former description rep-
resents approximately 600 institutions
listed in the 1959 A.A.S.L.H.
directory; the latter is in a minority.
The county or local historical
societies may be stimulated to improve
their displays, but all too few
societies have the time, staff, money,
or space to mount a full scale
program. In the East, at least, the
preoccupation with the written rec-
ords, newspapers, and a library--often
genealogical--has led to manu-
script preservation and the periodical
publication rather than to promo-
tion and the interpretive museum. One of
Dr. Guthe's implicit assump-
tions is that there is another
institution in the community to preserve the
written records of history, while the
museum takes care of a systematic
collection of artifacts. In most cases,
however, the historical society
is called upon to perform both
functions.
Another drawback is the lack of
pictorial material. Display tech-
niques cannot be taught by words alone;
either visits to other museums
or pictures of exhibits are needed to
illustrate the way to organize
meaningful displays. Diagrams or
pictures of what has been done with
certain inevitable periods in most
communities--Indian occupation,
frontier living, home industries, mills
and artisans, stagecoach or canal
days, the coming of the railroad, the
community in the Civil War, early
farm life, and so forth--would allow
each society to substitute details
which fit the local picture. Novices
then would be able to learn to com-
municate in this new museum language of
artifacts even before they
came to understand the principles of
grammar. In this case, imitation
would be the fastest first step to
improving present museum standards.
Eventually, with Dr. Guthe's clearly
stated principles in mind, this imi-
tation could lead to true understanding
and communication.
302
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
(This review was written before the
reviewer accepted his present
position as assistant director of the
American Association for State and
Local History.--EDITOR.)
American Association for RICHMOND D. WILLIAMS
State and Local History
No Stone Unturned: An Almanac of
North American Prehistory. By
Louis A. Brennan. (New York: Random
House, 1959. xii+370p.;
figures, plates, folded chart, end-paper
maps, suggested readings, and
index. $5.00.)
From time to time reasonably literate
laymen take turns writing
about American prehistory. It would not
be wise to leave this turn
unstoned. The author, Louis A. Brennan,
is a writer. He is "a native
of Portsmouth, Ohio," but now
resides in Ossining, New York. In
this random publication Brennan selects
those reportings from American
archaeology that intrigue, amuse, or
irritate him. The main thing for
Brennan is Brennan's reaction, and a
platform from which Brennan's
position is contrasted with pedestrian,
pedantic, and even puerile pro-
fessional opinion. Brennan is a writer,
and other of Brennan's writings
have been published (perhaps made
money), so, naturally, a writer like
Brennan can express opinions about
American prehistory and prehis-
torians and a random publisher will
accept this as a worthwhile book,
apparently because a writer has written
it.
It must be acknowledged that Brennan, or
someone, has subtitled
this account of Brennan's reaction to
his readings "An Almanac of
North American Prehistory," but it
is not this any more than it is a
North American archaeology summary or
study. The volume should
have have been subtitled "Brennan
Admires Some and Throws Others."
Brennan likes to ride
"horses," and one of his favorite sports is flaying
a dead "Hrdlickaism." This
term refers to a type of cerebral ossifica-
tion which caused some American
archaeologists to hang on to the idea
well into the 1930's that man was only
in the Americas for a few thou-
sand years. Brennan has, however, ridden
off in the other direction
too far and looks with favor on some
early "sites" without much solid
evidence to support their acceptance.
Brennan's main theme is that once the
first human couple came east
onto American soil further population
growth in America is to be ex-
plained by that first couple and further
American coupling. Brennan
would like to believe that this first
Old World couple brought only a
BOOK REVIEWS 303
very simple and primitive Old World
culture complex with them and
that later American cultural
developments are the result of the Ameri-
can environment and the genius of the
Amerind. Brennan seems to
resent the idea that the first couple
had to come from the Old World--
in any event, he insists, his first two
came over before there were any
Mongolians, for none of Brennan's
Indians can be called Mongoloids.
Brennan spends most of his riding and
speculations on the earliest
periods of the occupation of the
Americas, where little is known about
it, and spurs rapidly through the later
and far better documented cul-
tures. He has read widely and has given
heed, and even credit, to
individuals with some experience in
American prehistory. Brennan
has obviously enjoyed his reading and
study of American prehistory
and Brennan's book has obviously given
him a great deal of pleasure.
Brennan makes some shrewd observations
and has accepted many rea-
sonable interpretations but he is also a
patsy for some romantic and
fatuous ideas. If you liked your
interpretation of medicine from De
Kruif, of economics from Stuart Chase,
and of religion from Billy Sun-
day and Father Coughlin, then you may
well enjoy Brennan's almanac.
It may be argued that this is not a
review of Brennan's book--but
he did not adequately cover or interpret
his subject matter. If this be
a light and flippant view of a man's
handiwork, be it remembered that
No Stone Unturned as a publication should not be regarded as a serious
consideration of pre-Columbian American
prehistory by either the au-
thor or the publisher. It is, as I have
said, one man's reaction to what
he has read about American archaeology.
It is entertainingly written
in many parts, and like a mastery of
McGuffey's reader, may lead you
to better things.
University of Michigan JAMES B. GRIFFIN
Ernst von Schulenburg's Sandusky
"Einst und Jetzt." Translated
from
the German by Marion Cleaveland Lange
and Norbert Adolph Lange.
Western Reserve Historical Society, Publication
No. 115. (Cleve-
land: Western Reserve Historical
Society, 1959. x??325p.; illustra-
tions and appendices. $4.25.)
Sandusky's early history was shaped by
settlers from New England
and New York. After the 1830's, however,
a great number of Germans
began to arrive, and after 1850 this
influx increased so steadily and
substantially that in the last third of
the nineteenth century they de-
termined to a large extent the
population profile of the city. One of
304
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the most respected German citizens of
Sandusky, Dr. Ernst von Schul-
enburg, a physician and native of Berlin
(1849-1907), wrote a history
of the German element in his American
home town. Published in Ger-
man in 1889, the book has been out of
print for decades and has now
been republished in a good English
translation within the revived pub-
lication program of the Western Reserve
Historical Society.
Von Schulenburg attempted to write more
than the story of the San-
dusky Germans. He wanted to write a
history of Sandusky for the
Germans, with special emphasis on the
history of its German immi-
grants. This was not one of his best
ideas, since it induced him to begin
his book with a dry and somewhat naive
chronicle: when a church was
organized, a bank opened, a canal
started, when a courthouse was
built or postal service was installed.
Only after we have cut our way
through the thicket of eighty pages of
assorted and unassorted details
do we get to the real business: the
Germans. From then on the book
becomes valuable and interesting,
valuable for the factual material which
the author has rescued from oblivion,
interesting on account of his
approach and his attitude, which are so
symptomatic of the German-
American amateur historian of his time.
Very little is known about the Sandusky
Germans in the eighteen
twenties, although the author carefully
combed through the Sandusky
Clarion from 1828 to 1831. After 1831 there was a considerable
up-
swing of German immigration; Schulenburg
compiled a valuable list
of early German settlers from the fourth
decade. It is interesting to
note that the vast majority of these
immigrants came from southwestern
Germany (Palatinate, Wiirttemberg,
Baden, Nassau) and Switzerland.
With the rising curve of immigration
after 1850 the traditional social
organizations came into being: the
singing societies, turner societies,
Schutzenvereino, theater groups, benevolent organizations, and so forth.
The author does not gloss over the
elements of dissent and social con-
flict, the distrust of the ignorant for
the educated, and the disdain of
the upper social classes for the common
man. The Protestant German
churches in the city suffered from the
dilemma that beset all German-
American churches of the nineteenth
century: with increasing affluence
many German-Americans changed from their
immigrant Lutheran
church to the Episcopalians or
Presbyterians, while others were at-
tracted by a great variety of free-thinking
groups.
In connection with the beginnings of the
German press in Sandusky
and the participation of the Germans in
political life, the author dis-
cusses the problems of the
Americanization of his national group. It is
BOOK REVIEWS 305
symptomatic of the "tragic"
situation (to use John Hawgood's term)
of the typical German-American around
1880. He yearns in a senti-
mental and nostalgic way for Germany
without wanting to live there.
He wants to enjoy all the advantages of
the economically and socially
expanding American society without
really wishing to belong to this
society. The result was a certain
German-American isolation, a "Little
Germany," as we find it at this
time in St. Louis, Baltimore, and dozens
of other cities, among them Sandusky,
Ohio. And deep in his heart
Schulenburg knows--no matter how
strongly he deplores it--that this
isolation will be broken by the next
generation.
Aside from the fact that Schulenburg
presents himself as such a
typical German-American of 1880, his
book is valuable for the raw ma-
terial it presents: the roster of German
families (more than 900 names),
the list of societies, churches,
business enterprises, newspapers, and so
forth. Modern (but nonetheless badly
reproduced) illustrations of the
1950's look a bit incongruous in a book
that deals with Sandusky of
one hundred years ago.
Ohio State University DIETER CUNZ
The Bold Cavaliers: Morgan's 2nd
Kentucky Cavalry Raiders. By Dee
Alexander Brown. (Philadelphia and New
York: J. B. Lippincott
Company, 1959. 353p.;
illustrations, end-paper maps, bibliography,
and index. $6.00.)
In The Bold Cavaliers, Dee
Alexander Brown has written more a
history of the membership of the Second
Kentucky Cavalry than a his-
tory of the regiment per se. Thus
he begins his account with the night
late in September 1861 when John Hunt
Morgan and the rest of his
Lexington Rifles (who were to form the
nucleus of the Second Ken-
tucky) moved out of the city on their
way to join the Confederate
army and ends it only with the release
of the last captive member of
the regiment in June 1865, long after
the Second Kentucky had been
extinguished as a distinct organization.
Despite his consulting of sev-
eral collections of personal letters and
papers, Brown has produced
little that is new: his account leans
heavily (as it must) on those of
Basil W. Duke, Morgan's brother-in-law
and second in command. He
does, however, provide a service in
bringing together the stories of all
of Morgan's Kentucky men, especially of
those interned in Chicago's
Camp Douglas after their capture in Ohio
and of those who accom-
panied Jefferson Davis in his last days
as president of the Confederacy.
306
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Aside from the date of Shiloh being
given as April 6, 1863 (p. 45), the
reviewer found no error of fact in
Brown's account. It might be ques-
tioned, however, why another such work
is needed.
As might be guessed from the title, The
Bold Cavaliers is another in
a long line of celebrations of the man
on horseback, complete with
plume and sash. Although the author
tries several times to explain his
use of the term "cavalier," he
never makes clear what he means by it
except that it has something to do with
romanticism, Robin Hood, and
Sir Walter Scott. Some of Brown's
confusion may be illustrated by
his statement that "the image [of
the cavalier] took the form of the
frontiersman ideal--a Daniel Boone-Davy
Crockett type" (p. 22).
Basil Duke is described at one point as
being "half-cavalier, half-
alligator horse" (p. 154). It is
perhaps significant that Brown hardly
uses the word after the events of
Buffington's Island. Given such an
outlook, it bothers the author not at
all that Morgan disobeyed a direct
order from his commanding officer in
order to embark on a raid which,
aside from terrifying a large proportion
of the citizens of Ohio and
Indiana and giving them something to
talk about for the next hundred
years, accomplished little except the
throwing away of a large cavalry
force which the Confederate army could
ill afford to lose. For Brown,
it is enough that the figure of Morgan
the cavalryman is romantic.
Despite a simulated bibliography and
generalized footnotes, The Bold
Cavaliers is not a work for the serious student either of the
Civil War,
of military history generally, or even
of John Hunt Morgan. But Walt
Disney should find it fascinating.
Ohio Historical Society F. M. WHITAKER
Thaddeus Stevens: Scourge of the
South. By Fawn M. Brodie. (New
York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1959.
448p.; illustrations,
bibliography, and index. $7.50.)
In this book Mrs. Brodie continues the
high quality of writing which
she exhibited in her earlier book, No
Man Knows My History: The
Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon
Prophet. Since a number of biogra-
phies of Thaddeus Stevens have appeared,
the author was able to cor-
rect some previously published errors.
For example, it was not
Stevens who was expelled from Dartmouth,
but a nephew by the same
name. Stevens took a public stand
against slavery as early as 1823, not
in the mid-1830's, as stated in other
biographies. Lydia Smith,
BOOK REVIEWS 307
Stevens' Negro mistress for many years,
was born in Pennsylvania
of a white father and was never a slave
as was often rumored. In the
first half of this book, Mrs. Brodie
has kept her subject in the center
of her narrative. Indeed, on every page
she has fascinatingly shown
that in Stevens "the entanglement
of good and bad lay on the surface
for all to see" (p. 49). This Dr.
Jekyll-Mr. Hyde personality was
equally as evident in the subject's
private life as in his public career.
The last half of this biography deals
with the role of Thaddeus
Stevens in the Civil War-Reconstruction
era. No new facts have been
unearthed in this well-plowed field of
American history. Moreover, to
this reviewer, the author in this part
of her book does not seem to
keep her subject always in the
spotlight. Perhaps the national tragedy
was too all-inclusive or possibly in an
age of triumphant hate others
should share the narrative's attention
with the hero. At any rate, the
author has sometimes written more of
national drama and less of
Stevens' role in the house of
representatives.
Although the subtitle of this thorough,
scholarly book is "Scourge
of the South," the writer makes it
plain that Stevens was never the
eternal foe of the South. He had,
however, sworn everlasting enmity
against the peculiar institution of the
Southland. The bitter antagonist
of slavery, Stevens never retreated
from his stand nor retracted his
words. With the abolishment of slavery
by the thirteenth amendment,
the Pennsylvania congressman centered
his passionate hatred upon
President Andrew Johnson. It was
largely Stevens, as the author cor-
rectly contends, who succeeded in
wresting control of the reconstruction
program from President Johnson. Stevens
was determined to have
the president impeached, and when the
trial resulted in failure, he
could only shout, "The country is
going to the devil" (p. 354). Within
ten brief weeks Old Thad was dead.
From his early years at the bar Stevens
made money rapidly, but
twice during his life he suffered the
loss of his moderate fortune.
Never resorting to bankruptcy
proceedings, Stevens always paid his
debts. The author's succinct evaluation
of her subject in this area of his
activities was that Stevens was "a
Radical (politician) first and a
business man last" (p. 170).
This is a significant addition to the
books that have been written
about Thaddeus Stevens and his period
of American history. Ameri-
cans will do well to read this fine
book.
University of Florida GEORGE C. OSBORN
308
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Slavery: A Problem in American
Institutional and Intellectual Life.
By Stanley M. Elkins. (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press,
1959. viii??248p.; appendices and index.
$4.50.)
There is no other word for this book but
brilliant. Mr. Elkins has
attempted two tasks: one, to master
enough of the literature of his
subject to be able to handle it with
confidence, and, two, to develop a
method which would permit him to handle
it with profitable results.
In pursuit of the first aim he has read
a wide variety of works, from
those by Ulrich B. Phillips to others by
Kenneth M. Stampp. More-
over, he has attempted to understand the
authors themselves: what
ideas motivated them in their work, what
influences directed their in-
vestigations and conclusions.
In pursuit of the second objective, Mr.
Elkins has considered various
materials and approaches which might be
brought to bear on slavery,
and which might help to bring out its
import. These materials and
approaches have been of the kind now
usually termed "interdiscipli-
nary," and deriving from
psychology, sociology, and other disciplines.
Our author's hope has been that they
would help provide insights
into slavery; these would, in turn,
suggest hypotheses which could
be tested. As a result, the study of
slavery would advance beyond old
preconceptions, undigested data, and
aimless generalizations. It could
begin to move toward socially
significant conclusions.
Not the least interesting pages are
those of Appendix A: "Essay on
Materials and Method." In this, Mr.
Elkins asserts the value of study-
ing the works of his predecessors in the
field, rather than undertaking
a primary investigation himself. He is adding,
he believes, the com-
ponent of hypothesis, or
"proposal," as he calls it, so that questions
will be asked with respect to slavery
which have not been asked
before. He defends his use of
analogy--between Nazi concentration
camps and southern plantation controls,
for example--as both stimu-
lating and (within limits) true.
His hypotheses proper contain novelties
which have attracted the
interest of some historians and are
calculated to stir long, long thoughts
in any student of the subject. In
viewing the slave, he has sought to
avoid the mere rationalizations of the
white supremacists, and also the
wishful thinking of the equalitarians.
Among many other works which
offered him clues and ideas was Frank
Tannenbaum's Slave and Citizen,
which discusses slavery in Latin America
and suggests a comparison
between it and that north of the Mexican
border. Gilbert H. Barnes's
BOOK REVIEWS 309
The Anti-Slavery Impulse also seemed persuasive to Mr. Elkins: it
finds the source of true abolitionist
strength in American religious
feeling--deep, moral, and
compelling--rather than in what seem to
Barnes the ineffectual harangues of
William Lloyd Garrison and
his followers.
Mr. Elkins' hypotheses can be briefly
summarized. Southern slavery
lacked the reins of crown, church, and
institutions which made Latin
American slavery human and fluid.
Hence, slavery in the South
quickly became a system of
"unmitigated capitalism," offering the Negro
no gradations of opportunity. As
trapped as in a later concentration
camp, he became child-like and
dependent; "Sambo" was a reality in
the pre-bellum South. In the North, the
lack of adequate institutional
controls created an unbridled
intelligentsia, capable of the most ex-
treme individualism, the most
irresponsible evaluations of slavery.
Under such conditions, a Garrison could
flourish and persuade the
North of the absolute immorality of
slavery. With an inflexible South
opposed to an inflexible North, civil
war resulted.
There are so many points upon which one
would wish to comment,
that it seems necessary to ask what the
center of this inquiry might be.
Shall one discuss Mr. Elkins'
concentration camp-southern plantation
analogy? Or compare Latin American
slavery with southern slavery?
Or ask why, if Garrison was
ineffective, according to Barnes, he
encouraged the irresponsible
intransigence of the North, according to
Elkins?
As stated above, Mr. Elkins builds much
upon the thesis of Barnes,
which assumed that the leader of
abolitionism was Theodore Dwight
Weld--indeed, that Weld was one of the
greatest statesmen of his
time. It must suffice to say, here,
that the Barnes thesis was fantastic:
that Weld was, certainly, one of the
notable abolitionists of the 1830's
--one among many--but that before the
1830's were done, he had had
to give up his work as an agitator, and
that by 1842 (long years before
the Civil War) he had left the public
scene almost completely. Barnes's
view of Garrison was founded firmly on
ignorance of the milieu which
made and sustained Garrison, and
supported by a few partisan con-
cepts with attendant data. Yet Mr.
Elkins not only accepts the inade-
quate premises and judgments of this
work, but builds upon them, and
proposes corollaries to them.
Two conclusions thus seem in order.
First, one must separate Mr.
Elkins' work from his intentions. To
draw upon sociology, psychology,
history, and the rest in the interests
of a deeper understanding of social
310
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
factors and experience is praiseworthy.
It helps to break the pattern of
inane repetition which time-servers
cling to and seek to perpetuate. It
opens argument, and suggests new
directions of inquiry, in the tradi-
tion of James Harvey Robinson, Charles
A. Beard, the elder Schlesin-
ger, and others. But all of these
historians had set down bases of hard
research before they indulged themselves
in high-level suggestion and
conjecture. And they labored to keep
their centers of inquiry hard,
direct, and approachable.
But more important: hypotheses and
experiments in social conjec-
ture are most usable as a leaven to
persistent and purposeful research.
When one has turned numerous pages of
newspapers, pamphlets, books,
and manuscript materials, it is
refreshing to take the long view, to ask
what all the data seems to add up to,
what possibilities they contain.
There has been too little of such work,
certainly in the field Barnes
explored. He is, of course, in no sense
responsible for the improper
regard he was accorded. It is, rather,
for his profession to inquire
why his non sequiturs were not
better investigated. Given a better
controlled, a better-worked field, such
labors as those by Mr. Elkins
can be helpful and evocative.
Antioch College Louis FILLER
The Papers of John C. Calhoun. Edited by Robert L. Meriwether.
Volume I, 1801-1817. (Columbia:
University of South Carolina
Press for the South Caroliniana Society,
1959. xliii??469p.; frontis-
piece, genealogical table, bibliography,
and index. $10.00.)
This is the first volume of a work which
has for its purpose the
printing of all the important papers of
John Caldwell Calhoun. It will
completely supersede the volume of
correspondence published in 1900
by J. Franklin Jameson and the six
volumes of speeches published by
Richard K. Cralle in 1853-55. Editor
Meriwether spent six years in
gathering the 30,000 documents in the
collection from which the mate-
rials in these volumes will be drawn. He
died while this first volume
was in galley proof, but the program is
sponsored by the National
Historical Publications Commission and
will be continued by another
editor supported by the University of
South Carolina, the South Caro-
lina Archives Department, and the South
Caroliniana Society.
The first volume consists of one hundred
and fifty-nine documents,
judiciously selected. They are prefaced
by a ten-page introduction
covering the career of Calhoun for the
period of the volume and by a
BOOK REVIEWS 311
five-page explanation of the plan of the
work; and they are followed by
nine-page calendar of Calhoun papers not
in the volume but cata-
loged in the Calhoun Collection of the
South Caroliniana Library.
Presumably each successive volume will
follow the same excellent pat-
ern.
Each letter or document herein printed
is followed by its location
and when necessary, with footnoted
annotations and cross references.
The table of contents, preface,
introduction, genealogical table,
bibliography and index are excellent.
Every scholar of the period is
indebted to Professor Meriwether for his
painstaking accomplishment.
The paper, binding, and type (Caledonia)
are first rate, and the R. L.
Bryan Company of Columbia is to be
congratulated for a task well
done.
Most Americans remember Calhoun as the
tough, crotchety, taciturn,
emaciated nullificationist of the 1830's
and 40's. They forget that
he was a handsome youth, that his was
one of the most brilliant minds
America had produced, that he was an
ardent nationalist and an eminent
statesman, and that he gave every
promise of being a successful presi-
dential candidate. But an honest cabinet
decision and his disdain for
Mrs. Caton ruined his relations with
President Jackson and destroyed
his chances of succeeding him. Rejected
by the northern wing of his
party, he made the mistake of
championing state sovereignty when a
consolidated union was in the process of
formation, of defending agri-
culture in a country rapidly becoming
industrialized, and in support-
ing an immoral slave system that had to
be destroyed.
His career ended in frustration and
tragedy because, despite the
brilliance of his intellect, the cogency
of his logic, and the purity of
his personal life, he championed dying
causes, supported the status
quo, and tried to hold back the wheels
of history--even if it disrupted
the very union to which he had dedicated
his youth.
This volume covers those early patriotic
years of his college and
congressional life when he favored a
second war with Britain, a tariff,
the bank, internal improvements, and
could write, "Let us bind the
Republic together with a perfect system
of roads and canals. Let us
conquer space" (p. 401).
The historical fraternity may look
forward with pleasure to the
ensuing volumes of the Papers of John
C. Calhoun and the unfolding
of the true picture of the dramatic
tragedy which was his life.
University of Oklahoma ALFRED B. SEARS
312
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
In the Days of McKinley. By Margaret Leech. (New York: Harper
and Brothers, 1959. viii??686p.;
illustrations, bibliography, and in-
dex. $7.50.)
In the Days of McKinley is biography on a grand scale; its theme
is the presidency of William McKinley
from the moment Hanna began
to boom his nomination in 1895 until
death came from Czolgosz' bullet
wound in 1901. Nine-tenths of the book
is devoted to these six years,
only one-tenth to his earlier life.
Margaret Leech has used as models
her own Reveille in Washington and
the biographies of Allan Nevins.
She works a broad canvas: the
presidential campaign that brought
the nation to McKinley's front door, the
bumbling successes and
failures of the Spanish-American War, the
controversies raised in
acquiring an empire, and the internal
issues of the currency and the
tariff. She reveals a woman's touch in
recapturing the intimate life of
the McKinleys in Canton and in
Washington and in recreating the
housekeeping arrangements and social
functions at the White House.
The book is peppered with pen portraits
that are discerning (some-
times puncturing) but always lively, of
admirals and generals, diplomats
and politicians.
In spite of the attention lavished on
other matters, McKinley is
seldom lost sight of; he is the central
figure around whom the story
pivots. Few presidents have been more
fortunate in their biographers.
Miss Leech has rescued McKinley from his
doting, uncritical admir-
ers as well as his detractors. He comes
alive as a person. He was "in
all his greatness, good," according
to his friend Charles G. Dawes, and
it is this goodness, this sweetness of
personality, which Miss Leech
makes believable. She reveals the
strength of this trait in his tender
relations with his epileptic and
possessive wife, in his friendship with
that "frank, profane, cheerfully
ignoble realist who was so useful to his
fortunes," Mark Hanna (p. 69). On
the other hand, she shows its
weaknesses: a sentimental taste in music
and literature, an uncritical
acceptance of certain men, notably John
Sherman and Russell Alger,
two cabinet members whose appointment
the author condemns as
"bad mistakes" (pp. 100-102).
She does not spare McKinley's other
limitations: his anti-intellectual-
ism (he prided himself on learning from
people, not from books) and
his reticence at critical moments. He
was, in the author's phrase, "the
captive of caution and indirection"
(p. 177) in the Spanish crisis after
the sinking of the Maine, on the
Philippine question, on the Puerto
Rican tariff, and in the selection of a
vice president in 1900.
BOOK REVIEWS 313
These deficiencies, to be sure, are a
part of the familiar portrait of
McKinley. Had Miss Leech stopped there,
she would have added little
that was new. But she redresses the old
imbalance by bringing out his
very real talents. He worked calmly and
evenly, seldom ruffled. He
was his own master and wrestled alone
with his conscience to make
the great decisions that were forced
upon him. In his political opinions
he was a conservative but not an Old
Guard reactionary. He cham-
pioned what he considered to be the
principles of Lincoln. La Follette
praised him as a man who "was
generally on the side of the public
against the private interests" (p.
35). He refused to bargain for office.
The high tariff with which his name
will always be identified, he be-
lieved would be a boon to all. His
labor record as governor of Ohio
and president was a good one. There was
flexibility in his thinking:
he moved from isolationism to
internationalism, from high tariff to
reciprocity. Sometimes he appeared too
flexible. Pacifists never forgave
him for overcoming his own hatred of
war to lead the United States
into the conflict against Spain, but
the momentum towards war by the
spring of 1898 was too great for any
man to stop. McKinley, the
practical statesman, yielded to the war
spirit in an effort to control its
direction. Again, anti-imperialists
were never reconciled to his change
of mind on the retention of the
Philippines--a course that he had once
described as "criminal
aggression." However, his decision was well
grounded on the reports of firsthand
observers and seemed the least
objectionable of the alternatives
available to him. It was a betrayal
of his intellectual limitations that he
publicly ascribed his decison to the
voice of God, which he heard kneeling
in prayer one night. But such
an explanation was typical of the man
who retained a devout evangelical
piety all his life. Moreover, his
desire to care for and uplift the Filipi-
nos was sincere; he placed their
welfare second only to that of the
American people.
Although this biography may disappoint
some Ohio readers because
of its relative neglect of McKinley's
career in the Civil War and in
Ohio law and politics, the author's concentration
on the presidential
years is amply justified. After all,
had he never been elected president,
he would be little known outside his
native state. There is no formal
bibliography, but manuscript sources
are listed, and a section entitled
"Notes and References,"
contains rather full notations on the source
of statements in the text.
Kenyon College LANDON WARNER
314
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The United States: A Modern History.
The United States to 1865.
By Michael Kraus. The United States
Since 1865. By Foster Rhea
Dulles. The University of Michigan
History of the Modern World,
edited by Allan Nevins and Howard M.
Ehrmann. (Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press, 1959.
xi??529??xip., illustrations,
maps, bibliography, and index;
x??546??xixp., illustrations, maps,
bibliography, and index. Each, $7.50;
the set, $15.00.)
If Americans do not know their country's
history in many versions,
the fault is not that of our historians.
Both the quantity and quality of
one- and multi-volume histories of the
United States have increased
markedly during the last decade. Rare is
the year that does not see
one or more new survey histories. Three
entirely new two-volume
texts appeared in 1959; another handsome
two-volume text was dis-
tributed in March 1960, and the promise
is of more to come.
The ground has been gone over and over;
emphases have been shifted
in every possible direction; and each
new author or team that joins the
increasing host must be tempted mightily
to have something new or
distinctive to challenge such old
favorites as the Morison and Com-
mager, Hicks, Baldwin, and other leading
texts. This is a highly com-
petitive field, with rich rewards in a
steadily expanding market.
The principal achievement of the authors
in these two volumes is to
present a generally accurate,
fast-moving, and well-proportioned synthe-
sis which incorporates the results of
the best scholarship. Each author
has attained a good balance between the
topical and the chronological
approach. Thus, Professor Kraus in
"The Deep Abyss" chapter, con-
siders southern nationalism, divergent
sectional interests, Dred Scott,
Democratic disunity, the Lecompton
constitution, Cherry Creek and
Virginia City, Lincoln's rise, the great
debates of 1858, Harper's Ferry,
the elections of 1860, and secession.
This is presenting a very concen-
trated synthesis of history as it
happened, with attention to continuities
without oversimplifying the recurrent
complex pattern. Professor
Dulles has the more difficult task as he
attempts to bring the story
through 1958, but his several books in
various phases of American
history have qualified him admirably for
the endeavor.
The authors do not follow the same
organizational pattern. Pro-
fessor Kraus has twenty-one chapters in
six books; Professor Dulles
has thirty-two chapters and makes no
effort to group them under broad
headings. Although the classification is
not entirely accurate, Professor
Kraus tends to fuse the economic,
political, and social developments
BOOK REVIEWS 315
somewhat more than does Professor
Dulles. This is a matter of pre-
ference as well as interpretation. Each
author has succeeded in main-
taining a very high level of reader
interest.
Professor Kraus has eliminated
practically all consideration of
Spanish and French influences in early
America--but one can't include
everything. He could, however, have
avoided repeating the hoary tale of
a Florida "purchase." There
was no Florida purchase in 1819 or any
other time, as Brooks, Bemis, and
several other authors have carefully
shown. Nor had the United States
"already recognized the independ-
ence of several Latin American
states" by the fall of 1822.
Professor Dulles occasionally is
satisfied with the easy explanation of
events. Thus, the destroyer-bases deal
is presented without mention-
ing the major objective, which was to
get the United States into the
war. At least this is what Churchill
himself referred to when he wrote,
"There was another reason, wider
and more powerful than either our
need for the destroyers or the American
need for the bases." (Their
Finest Hour, pp. 403-404.) Instead of calling this deal a gross
viola-
tion of neutrality, Professor Dulles
sees it as "modifying the original
concepts of American neutrality."
Spades are still spades. Occasionally,
too, there is a statement that is not
true. The landings during Operation
Torch, for example, were not "made
with clocklike efficiency," nor
did all "differences over future
policy" disappear after the decision to
make a cross-channel attack. These may
be quibbles and picayunish,
and no author can be expert on
everything that must go into survey
history. However, when professors come
to choosing texts for their
courses, they may be inclined to judge
general excellence by how
well the author handles matters in which
they themselves are expert.
Professors Kraus and Dulles have not
made themselves vulnerable on
very many counts.
Technically both volumes are only
moderately attractive. Proof-
reading generally was good, although
someone should be told that
Darwin did not write a book on the Origin
of THE Species, that the
poet's name is Edwin (not Edward)
Arlington Robinson, that the 49th
parallel was never established as the
northern limit of Spanish terri-
tory after 1763. There are very few
errors of this nature. There are
no illustrations; the maps are few and
unattractive. The short, briefly
annotated bibliographies contain carefully
selected titles.
The University of Michigan History of
the Modern World has a very
difficult objective in trying to reach
both the elusive general reader and
the student. But the difficulty of this
objective hardly justifies the
316
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
claim, "Now, for the first time in
a generation, the full, magnificent
panorama of American history has been
brought up-to-date." (Adver-
tisement in The Reporter, March
17, 1960.) The author of this enthu-
siastic blurb obviously failed to
consult the editors, the authors, or the
card catalogs available in Ann Arbor.
Such advertising is a rank dis-
service to two excellent volumes that do
provide a firm foundation
upon which to base a more extensive
study of American history.
Miami University HARRIS GAYLORD WARREN
Edison: A Biography. By Matthew Josephson. (New York: Mc-
Graw-Hill Book Company, 1959.
xii??511p.; illustrations and index.
$6.95.)
This book is the fascinating and
detailed story of a man whose in-
ventive skills have doubtless never been
excelled. How this genius,
with less than a year of formal
education, became America's most
famous inventor and the foremost
electrical engineer of his day makes
for intriguing, if sometimes involved,
reading. The birth pangs of
each of Edison's many inventions are
described in enough detail to
satisfy all but the most technically
minded; however, the most illumi-
nating features of the book lie not in
this area but in the accounts of
Edison's efforts to make his inventions
financially remunerative. Edi-
son was interested in inventing a device
only if it had an immediate
practical use and could make money. He
was a hard-headed business-
man who had little or no understanding
of science for science's sake. He
produced, marketed, and dramatized his
new inventions in the same way
that some men produced, marketed, and
advertised soap, as a livelihood
--and he was markedly successful at it.
Edison, as the author likes to point
out, was full of the joy of life.
He loved a good joke and was perplexed
by others who did not share
his enthusiasm, but this book is no
biography of a man's personal life.
The accounts of his two marriages and of
his relations with his chil-
dren are conspicuous by their brevity. A
picture of Edison as a hus-
band and father emerges only in a rather
negative way, for his fanatical
devotion to his work left him little
time for the distractions of family
life. A man who could work in his
laboratory until past twelve on the
first day of his marriage was capable of
neglecting his wife and family
throughout the remaining years of his
life--and he did. The people
who were important to Edison were the
men who served him in his
famous Menlo Park laboratory, plus the
impressive array of big busi-
BOOK REVIEIWS 317
nessmen like J. P. Morgan, Jay Gould,
and Henry Villard, whose
financial careers were intricately
interwoven with that of the great
inventor.
Edison emerges from this biography as a
"transitional figure" in
the world of science. He was not a
lonely figure in a small workshop
who stumbled half accidentally onto some
great boon to mankind. He
worked rather in a large laboratory
supervising a team of technically
skilled men. Yet it was his own,
privately financed laboratory, and
these were men he had hired personally.
The discoveries which were
made were credited to the man Edison,
and the more than one thousand
patents obtained from the United States
Patent Bureau all bore his
name. Further, the approach used by
Edison was to a great extent the
ancient empirical method. The era of
expensively equipped corpora-
tion laboratories in which crews of
highly trained but little-known
scientific robots turn out new devices
on almost a production line
schedule to be patented and marketed
solely in the name of the com-
pany they work for--this still lay
ahead. Menlo Park, says the author,
was the "pilot model" for the
research laboratories of the future.
Mr. Josephson has written an excellent
book. He has obviously made
use of the known source materials on
Edison, including much that
Dyer and Martin did not have the
opportunity to see in preparing
their earlier work on Edison. The author
writes with the same dra-
matic flair that characterizes all his
books, and he makes throughout this
particular volume very effective use of
quoted dialogue. The book thus
is sufficiently scholarly to make a real
contribution to historical knowl-
edge without the burden of the pedantry
for which many academic
historians are unfortunately so famous.
Bowling Green State University ROBERT W. TWYMAN
Nicholas Biddle: Nationalist and
Public Banker, 1786-1844. By Thomas
Payne Govan. (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1959. xii??
428p.; illustrations, bibliography, and
index. $7.50.)
Within the last three decades there has
been a revival of interest in
the study of the Jacksonian period.
After World War I one of the
most popular books was Claude G. Bowers'
Party Battles of the Jack-
son Period. The book was marred by its intensely pro-Jackson bias;
but the general public enthusiastically
heralded it because of Bowers'
dramatic descriptions of the
nullification crisis and Jackson's quarrel
318
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
with the United States Bank. Bowers was
an active participant in na-
tional politics; and therefore he
delighted in vividly portraying the
political maneuverings of the leaders of
the Jackson era. Although
Bowers revealed some of the weaknesses
of the "popularizer" of his-
tory which Allan Nevins recently called
attention to in his presidential
address to the American Historical
Association, Bowers' book appealed
much more to the general public than did
the more scholarly works by
Catterall and John Spencer Bassett.
Then came the financial crisis of 1929
and the great depression. The
financial problems of the Roosevelt
administration created more interest
in the titanic struggle between Andrew
Jackson and Nicholas Biddle.
With the exception of Arthur M.
Schlesinger, Jr.'s The Age of Jackson
none of the books published on the
Jackson era attracted the attention
of the general public. But as a result
of Fritz Redlich's The Molding
of American Banking, the functions of a central bank and the extent to
which Nicholas Biddle tried to make the
United States Bank the fiscal
agent of the government became clearer.
W. B. Smith's account, The
Economic Aspects of the Second United
States Bank carefully examined
the relation of this bank to the
economic development of the United
States and the validity of the charges
against it. Bray Hammond's
Banks and Politics in America, a caustic, brilliant appraisal of banking
practices and theories and of
personalities of the Jackson period, did
arouse enough popular attention to win
for the author a Pulitzer prize.
But what was still needed was an
impartial biography, if such can
be written, of Nicholas Biddle, the man
and the banker. This is what
Dr. Govan says it was his intention to
write when he began his research;
but he confesses that although his book
is in "biographical form" it is
not a full story of Biddle's life.
Nevertheless, as a result of the author's
careful research, we have a much more
complete account than can be
found anywhere else of Biddle's family,
his early youth, education,
European travels, courtship, marriage,
and family life, his participation
in Pennsylvania politics, and his career
as a man of letters. These de-
tails are related in an attractive
style, and are a valuable contribution
to a proper understanding of the man.
But the historical significance of
Biddle in our national history is
his conflict with Jackson and the
latter's determination to destroy the
useful and well-managed United States
Bank. Dr. Govan has there-
fore devoted the major portion of his
book to the bank war and the
final destruction of the bank. He has
based his account primarily on
the extensive collection of Biddle
manuscripts in the Library of Con-
BOOK REVIEWS 319
gress. Biddle was a very facile writer;
and Dr. Govan has so carefully
read Biddle's correspondence that he has
produced the best defense of
Biddle's actions so far published. He
has, he confesses, written an
"apologia" of Biddle, adding
that he could have done "nothing else and
remain loyal to the evidence." And
since the evidence is based pri-
marily upon Biddle's own defense of his
actions, he carefully refrains
from any severe criticism of him. Thus,
for example, in his discussion
of what he calls Biddle's
"extraordinary operations in cotton" and
stocks, Dr. Govan never refers to them
as "cotton speculations" or
mentions how rash they were. He finds
excuses for Biddle's use of
bribery in obtaining a state charter for
the bank, "as he [Biddle] had
done before," on the ground that
Biddle's purpose was "to gain some-
thing useful for the Bank." He
places much of the blame for the final
collapse of the bank upon the lack of
leadership of Biddle's successor,
upon Biddle's agents in London for
disregarding his orders for the im-
mediate sale of the cotton they held,
and upon John Ingersoll's un-
fortunate circular. But what about the
soundness of Biddle's cotton
price stabilization program?
Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the
author's evident bias in defense of
Biddle's policies, this is an important
book which should be consulted by all
students of American history.
University of Cincinnati REGINALD C. McGRANE
Escape to Utopia: The Communal Movement
in America. By Everett
Webber. American Procession Series. (New
York: Hastings House,
1959. xvii??444p.; illustrations,
bibliography, and index. $5.50.)
In this latest volume of the American
Procession Series, edited by
Henry G. Alsberg, Everett Webber has
written a lively account of the
American communal movement from its
European origins until its
twentieth-century survivals.
Necessarily selective, the author has
devoted successive chapters to
better-known communal experiments,
including the Shaker villages, the
Rappite settlements, Nashoba, New
Harmony, Brook Farm, Fruit-
lands, Icaria, Amana, and Oneida. But we
find also a strange assort-
ment of lesser ventures. In the 1790's
Coleridge and Southey made
plans for a "Pantisocracy" in
America. The Winchellites in Vermont
awaited the end of the world on January
14, 1801. Josiah Warren at-
tempted to exchange labor instead of
money at his villages of Equity
and Utopia in Ohio in the 1830's and
1840's. Thomas Lake Harris
"became God" to followers who
settled at Brocton, New York, in 1867;
320
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and in the 1890's, Cyrus R. Teed, known
as Koresh, convinced two
hundred faithful at Estero, Florida,
that they were living inside the
earth. Conspicuously missing is a full
discussion of Mormonism, which
appears only in a chapter on James Jesse
Strang entitled "King Jimmy
and His Saints."
Webber's work has emphasized the
diversity of the American com-
munal movement, but he finds
characteristic patterns in its history. The
prophets drew strength from the appeal
of millenialism and promised
salvation from the sins of the
individual or of society. The founding
of each New Zion was followed by a
precarious struggle for survival,
achieved because a religious creed
commanded hard work or a secular
creed involved the whole personality. In
Webber's view the utopians
were primarily escapists, who drew
together in tight communities or
fled to the wilderness. They pooled
labor and goods to rid themselves
of parasitic middlemen, but attracted
the lazy and opportunistic instead.
Failure resulted from many causes, but
even the most successful com-
munes courted death when they meddled
with marriage or family or-
ganization. The fundamental flaw, Webber
concludes, was the belief
of the prophets that they could remake
the world and that in the new
order, human nature could be changed.
Although the tone of the book
is thoroughly skeptical, the reform
spirit in utopianism is recorded with
sympathy. The author sees the Icarians,
for example, as motivated by
"the belief that a great, unselfish
thing was being done for humanity"
(p. 230).
Unhappily for the critical reader,
Webber has given only sketchy
treatment to the economic and political
organization of the communes,
and he is vague regarding the statistics
of their growth. There are no
footnotes, and important points are
frequently presented with gross
oversimplification. We are told of
"Luther's own account of his being
frightened into the religious life by a
thunder storm" (p. 274); that
"Mormons ordinarily interpreted
their sacred writings as justifying
them in taking anything they could from
gentiles" (p. 259); and that
Kansas was "opened for settlement
in a disgraceful Congressional horse
trade" (p. 287). Criticism must
also be made of the free-swinging
style which colors the narrative. For
example, Webber writes that
James Strang's companion was "a
well-stacked schoolma'am of nine-
teen" (p. 241); that "the
angels had told Harris that the Mrs. Harris
of the flesh was a bit off her
rocker" (p. 321); and that in the 1840's
"the intellectuals were having
their binge in Transcendentalism, Uni-
versalism, Unitarianism, the ascendancy
of scientific outlook, and nulli-
BOOK REVIEWS 321
fication of the Bible" (p. 299).
Finally, the book is marred by over-
emphasis on the erotic eccentricities
which were found in nearly all of
the communities discussed. With these
serious limitations, Webber has
gathered together much useful detail
about the personalities and beliefs
of American communitarian utopianism.
Miami University RONALD SHAW
The American Heritage Book of the
Pioneer Spirit. By the editors of
American Heritage. Editor in charge: Richard M. Ketchum. (New
York: American Heritage Publishing
Company, 1959. Book trade
distribution by Simon and Schuster.
400p.; illustrations and index.
$12.95.)
This is as handsome a collection of
pictures--more than 480, of which
150 are in color, according to the squib
on the dustjacket--as one can
get for the money, apart from the
volumes of American Heritage itself.
In addition, there are "150,000
words of narrative," including "chapter
prologues" by Allan Nevins. Anyone
who knows some American his-
tory will welcome the pictures; almost
anyone who does not will learn
some from them and the text, and learn
most pleasantly. This kind of
library-table book should stimulate the
right kind of traffic at libraries
and bookstores.
Unfortunately the editing is not what
the well-stimulated reader will
learn to demand. The pictures carry
credit lines but usually not dates
or names of artists. The
"complete" index does not cover the illustra-
tions. It may be that the late Robert
Taft was not thinking of popular
works when he berated historians for
identifying illustrations as "from
the Library of Congress," which
they would never do for an item in a
book. But even the most nervous readers,
of the breed allegedly pre-
disposed to take flight at the first
suggestion of ibid. and op. cit., might
like to know whether an artist was also
a witness, or even lived in the
same century as the persons he painted.
They will learn the date of
publication of a drawing of LaSalle (1698)--though
nothing about
the artist--but not that George Catlin
painted the next illustrations
(pp. 28-31) well over a century later.
The text offers less than the
illustrations, if only because the writers
undertook to provide a framework for
items that have little in common,
except general pictorial interest and
attractiveness within the American
scene. (Thus while western themes
predominate, we have cuts of six
322
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
members of the continental congress and
the constitutional convention
[pp. 110-113], Lincoln in 1858 and 1860
[pp. 196-199]--though not
the Civil War--Andrew Carnegie, J. P.
Morgan [pp. 360-361], and
Samuel Gompers [p. 365].) The most
effective passages, and also the
shortest, are the only ones signed in
the text--by Allan Nevins--though
the names of other contributors
("first-rank authors") appear in the
Table of Contents. Interpretations are
at best traditional: thus Edward
Braddock appears as a blunderer,
Braddock's road not at all (pp. 100-
101); the purpose of the pony express is
"to carry the mails even
faster," and service stops when it
proves "more romantic than profit-
able" (p. 314). Most details are
more accurate, though Theodore Roose-
velt did not say, "I took the
Panama Canal and let Congress debate"
(p. 383), but "I took the Isthmus,
started the canal, and then left Con-
gress--not to debate the canal, but to
debate me."
It is a pity that other editors of old
pictures, like Taft, have not been
able to command the commercial and
technical resources of the staff of
American Heritage, including access to the illustrations that appear in
other projects. (My nine-year-old son at
once recalled some of the
same pictures in books that Simon and
Schuster publish for children.)
Yet it is a minor miracle that any
substantial picturebook pays off the
high cost of engraving. We may look
forward to American Heritage,
which can do it, going on to issue
albums on special topics.
University of Oregon EARL POMEROY
The Urban Frontier: The Rise of
Western Cities, 1790-1830. By
Richard C. Wade. (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1959.
360p.; bibliographical note and index.
$6.00.)
This compact little book, which is both
descriptive and analytical,
deserves a prominent place in the
growing literature of American urban
history. Originally a doctoral project,
the expanded work carries for-
ward the Schlesinger urban thesis
embellished by certain socio-psycho-
logical interpretive insights. The
pattern of treatment closely parallels
that of Carl Bridenbaugh in his two
excellent volumes on the urban
frontier of the colonial and
revolutionary periods. Like Bridenbaugh,
Professor Wade has chosen five embryonic
cities--in this case St. Louis,
Pittsburgh, Lexington, Louisville, and
Cincinnati--on which to base
his discussion of urban frontier advance
in the Ohio Valley region.
The book bisects at the War of 1812,
which hastened city growth by
bringing tariff protection and the
steamboat. In each half, developments
BOOK REVIEWS 323
are treated under the main headings of
economic bases, social structure,
social problems, and culture in the fine
arts sense.
There is food in plenty here for every
taste, including labor, the
tariff, education, political parties,
class status, and race. In the early
Ohio Valley cities Wade finds the
immediate appearance of class
cleavages, sharp status awareness, and
the denial of egalite. Negroes
were disliked and feared, segregation
appeared early and helped cause
the first appearance of police forces--a
depressing story. The towns
were conservative indeed by modern
lights. They professed Hamil-
tonian theories of finance and
bureaucratic services, repudiated revival-
ism (though other kinds of religion were
strongly entrenched), stressed
a practical, vocational school
curriculum, while constituting the western
stronghold of Federalism and Whiggery.
Not surprisingly, the princi-
pal source of urban population was
immigration from Europe and sea-
board cities, with very few drawn in
from the surrounding farms.
The highly stratified and impersonal
urban society which gave leader-
ship to the countryside, was itself held
together by the promise of
shared cultural advantages. All the Ohio
Valley cities looked eastward
for their ideas and ideals, esteeming
Philadelphia as the model par
excellence.
The underlying thesis of The Urban
Frontier, while never explicitly
argued, is clear enough, and it is
profoundly anti-Turnerian. It runs
something like this: Spearhead towns
dragged the rest of the frontier
along with them. As a whole, the
frontier was developed by urban
centers of dominance, which furnished
capital, organized communica-
tion and transport, and marketed the
produce of the farm. Frontier
culture came from its nearby cities,
where learning was sheltered and
new ideas arose. Frontiers provide
grievances; cities provide intel-
lectual leaders. Thus there are two ways
of life upon every frontier--
an urban and a rural way--with ruralites
utterly dependent upon
urban aid and control. Undoubtedly this
is an interpretation of great
strength, and Professor Wade argues it
with skill and force.
Nevertheless, there are several points which
may well be raised here.
If the Ohio Valley towns were mere
"western marches" of the urban
East while the urban East was itself an
extension of urban Europe
(with emulation the dominant and
characteristic attitude all along the
line), what becomes of American national
independence and original-
ity? Is this not to assert a degree of
cultural colonialism quite at
variance with American ambition and
actual achievement during these
very years? Another question: Professor
Wade paints a picture of
324
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
western cities linked to both eastern
cities and western farmers. But
which link was stronger? Did the towns
rule the farmer, or the farmer
rule the towns? Many a fact points in
the latter direction--that most
migrants went to farms, that state
capitals were never located in large
urban centers, that state legislatures
kept jealous control over city
charters and election districting.
Finally, there is the matter of the two
different ways of life, urban and rural.
Can it be that the alleged dif-
ferences were outweighed by the
similarities? Of course the towns
competed for settlers, depended upon
commerce and small manufac-
tures, adored speculative enterprise,
and drew heavily from eastern
example. But then so did the farmers.
Both had their aristocrats and
their plebs, too. It is to be hoped that
Professor Wade's excellent study
will lead to increased speculation
concerning the degree of truth in both
frontier and urban interpretations of
American history.
Teachers College FREDERICK D. KERSHNER, JR.
Columbia University
The Bark Covered House, or Back in
the Woods Again: Being a
Graphic and Thrilling Description of
Real Pioneer Life in the Wil-
derness of Michigan. By William Nowlin. (Detroit: printed for the
author, 1876; offset reproduction,
Dearborn Historical Museum,
1959. xiv??250p.; illustrations. Paper,
$2.00.)
This excellent history of Michigan
pioneer life has a remarkable
history itself. It was written in the
winter of 1875 by William Nowlin,
farmer and pioneer who, as a boy in
1834, migrated with his parents
from New York to Michigan. The
manuscript was privately printed
in 1876 at the suggestion of Levi
Bishop, president of the Wayne County
Pioneer Society. This edition is now a rara
avis valued at $250 per
copy. In 1881 the Michigan Pioneer and
Historical Collections repub-
lished a part of it in Volume 4 of their
publications. A modern edition,
edited by Milo M. Quaife, was published
in 1937 by the Lakeside
Classics and is now quite scarce. The
present volume is a photo-offset
reproduction by the Xerox Company of
Rochester, New York, of the
original 1876 edition. This permits
reduced production costs as does
the binding process, which consists of
drilling holes for screw-bolt paper
fasteners which hold the pages securely
to the cover of card stock
embellished with an attractive wood
tone.
Nowlin's story is a straight account of
pioneering as observed by
BOOK REVIEWS 325
and participated in by himself. It
reveals a strong, dignified, industrious
family life in the Dearborn area. It is
thus authentic and sometimes even
technical, as in the description of the
constructon of a "Dutch" or
"stick clay" chimney or the
building of a railroad from Detroit to
Dearborn.
This pioneering revealed by Nowlin rings
true. There is a minimum
of sentimentalizing. The old farm in New
York is poor. The father
makes a preliminary visit to Michigan in
1832. The family moves west
with a modest sum of money, that is, it
is not heroically penniless. The
woods are cleared in part by the ax, but
mostly by fire. The livestock
problem is difficult--"marsh
hay" will not do. Corn will grow tall, but
will not ear well in the first
over-shaded clearings. Buckwheat would
"catch and grow very stout" on
new and stumpy ground. Intensive
deer hunting helps pay off the mortgage
if you are generous with gifts
of the forequarters, but save the
"saddles" for the Detroit market. It
takes a long time for a road to be
cleared and corduroyed--throwing
clay in the low spots helps in dry
weather, but is rather disagreeable
in wet seasons. Mosquitoes are pests to
the nervous type, but unnoticed
bloodsuckers to tough farmers like Mr.
Pardee. Mother Nowlin is
rewarded with her trip back East before
she dies, but the offer of a
new farm in New York is no inducement to
desert a job well done in
the Dearborn country.
Although Nowlin's story is of Michigan,
it has a universal pioneer
appeal. An anecdote concerning his visit
to Canada reveals the Cana-
dian Negro suspicion of white visitors
from across the border as
potential slave catchers. And Ohioans
will appreciate the Toledo War
better by observing the sympathies of an
average Michigan pioneer
anxious to see his territory become a
successful state.
The book belongs in every library
collection which seeks to include
authentic books of pioneer life.
Historical Society of Northwestern Ohio RANDOLPH
C. DOWNES