72 Indiana Magazine of History an especially new interpretation, but it is convenient to have it succinctly stated. There is much that is missing from this account of the railroad business of the 1850s. It does have brief vignettes of actual travels, comparing, for instance, Abraham Lincoln’s east-west trips of 1849 and 1861. For the most part, however, people and the problems they confronted do not come alive in these pages. There is no description of the development of modern business management in American railroad firms, a development which began during the decade of the 1850s. Nor is there a discussion of the opposition that railroads encoun- tered from persons who feared their impact on social customs or on established avenues of trade. (The author does explain, how- ever, that initially train operation on Sundays was much dis- puted.) Thus, in terms of the establishment of firms and the laying of track, the book appears definitive for the decade it discusses; but for some important human aspects of the story, readers will have to look elsewhere. Ohio State University, Columbus K. Austin Kerr

Finley Peter Dunne & Mr. Dooley: The Chicago Years. By Charles Fanning. (Lexington: The University Press of Ken- tucky, 1978. Pp. x, 286. End maps, illustrations, appendix, notes, index. $14.50.) The author focuses his study upon the over three hundred dialect pieces that Dunne published in the 1890s in Chicago newspapers about his mythical Irish folk hero, Mr. Dooley, a philosopher-barkeeper on Archer Avenue in Bridgeport. The book treats thematically four topics that underlie Mr. Dooley’s wit: daily living in Chicago’s Irish community; the problems in that community as the Irish adapted to American life; the workers’ views from an Irish ward in Chicago’s political arena in the 1890s; and Irish nationalism as it manifested itself in the American Irish. In addition to creating the weekly Mr. Dooley articles, Dunne wrote daily editorials, often on the same subjects. Fanning’s comparisons, which include numerous quo- tations, prove his argument that Dunne’s opinions as editor were usually more conservative than the views of Mr. Dooley, his wittier social critic. One of the values of this book is the skillful way in which Fanning traces events in Dunne’s life and relates the way in Book Reviews 73 which they emerged in his writings. The author also provides background information on political life in Chicago in the 1890s to help the reader to understand Dunne’s writings and the fact that back of Mr. Dooley’s humor there was a story of the struggle of the Irish to be assimilated, accepted, and suc- cessful in America. Fanning does this especially well in his explanations of poverty and politics among the Irish immi- grants. The gradual development of Mr. Dooley, wisest of saloon keepers on Archer Avenue, from a commentator upon the local Irish-Chicago scene into a critic-philosopher upon the national and international scene has been carefully documented and explained by the author. By the late 1890s Dunne wrote less about local politics and more about Irish nationalism, the Philippine question, and the Spanish-American war. Syndica- tion of the Mr. Dooley essays spread Dunne’s fame, and in 1900 he left Chicago permanently for New York and a larger na- tional audience. According to Fanning and other critics, some of Dunne’s best work appeared in these earlier Chicago writings. In a final chapter Fanning assesses Dunne’s contributions as a historian, as a literary realist, and as a philosopher. Although he obviously admires Dunne, Fanning objectively analyzes his weaknesses and importance. The author’s research on Dunne’s influence on Theodore Dreiser will interest students of Amer- ican realism. Fanning’s book contains far greater detail and pays more attention to the exact historical events about which Dunne wrote than does Barbara C. Schaaf’s recent Dooley’s Chicago (1977). Schaaf ’s journalistic style, however, makes for far easier reading. Fanning’s book includes quotations from almost all of Dunne’s Mr. Dooley essays, plus many in their entirety, and his frequent footnotes add more information to his com- mentary. Lincoln Steffens once described Dunne’s writings as a painful chore to read. The reader unfamiliar with the Irish dialect might find the same true of the many pages of Mr. Dooley’s essays in this book. However, members of the devoted Dooley clan will appreciate Fanning’s research and comments and will thank him as the Sherlock Holmes fans do those writers who further enlighten them about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Northeastern Illinois University, Bernard J. Brommel Chicago