Book Reviews 361 Claus, a Town in Spencer
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Book Reviews 361 Claus, a town in Spencer County, clearly reflects humorous motivations. Hoosiers may have been sober, but one explana- tion maintained by some for the state nickname suggests not all practiced sobriety. “[Tlhere was a lot of fighting in early Indiana taverns, and the frontiers-men scratched, gouged, and bit-often biting off noses and ears. Frequently follow- ing a fight a settler found an ear on the sawdust floor of a tavern and asked, ‘Whose ear?’ ” (p. 72). Recognizing the selective character of this survey, with its emphasis on current names, it is still surprising to find missing from the bibliography most of the extant early gazetteers. Chamberlain’s 1849 gazetteer is referenced, but not John Scott’s The Indiana Gazetteer (1826), Douglas’ and Maguire’s The Indiana Gazetteer (1833), or George W. Hawe’s Indiana State Gazetteer (1860). Reference to these gazetteers would have made some of the entries more com- plete. The North Vernon entry, for example, carries no men- tion that an early name for the community was “Tripton,” as reported in Hawe’s 1860 gazetteer. Other names for entries in the survey that are reported in Hawe but not shown in the survey entries are “Groves” for Fairview in Fayette County, “Clifty” for Milford in Decatur County, “Otter Creek” for Nebraska in Jennings County, and “Noah” for Marion in Decatur County. The complexities of working with over two thousand names in thirteen different categories, with seven variables of information, make such lapses understandable. More crit- ical for the student of places than the layman, they do not detract from the general value of the study. Most important, a beginning has been made in the study of place names in Indiana. Tri-State University, Angola, Ind. Donald Zimmer Hoosier Caravan: A Treasury of Indiana Life and Lore. Selected, with comment, by R. E. Banta. New and en- larged edition. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975. Pp. xx, 620. Regular edition, $8.95; deluxe, $10.95.) Hoosiers and Texans are soulmates; they enjoy talking and writing about their states. Neither is overcome with modesty. The talkers and the writers can, by a minor miracle, turn the faults of the inhabitants of their states into virtues. 362 Indiana Magazine of History And, indeed, most persons reading about Texas and Indiana are carried along with this concept. R. E. Banta, the editor of a newly revised and enlarged anthology of literature written by authors from Indiana should have no trouble getting people to join his Hoosier Caravan. The selections, amusingly and informatively intro- duced by the editor, reveal the patterns of thinking, loves, fears, and joys of both authors and protagonists. They en- gage deeply in life’s experiences. Emotions run high, humor is sharp (albeit sardonic at times), and thinking is profound. The imaginative authors from Indiana follow no trend. One passes from a reading of Kurt Vonnegut’s. “Times Change,’’ a poignant return to high school in Indiana (viewed as symbolic of the American experience), to the dramatic ex- cerpt from The Desperate Hours (1955) by Joseph Hayes. In a passage from his Raintree County (1948) Ross Lockridge ex- plores the heightened passions and ambitions of men during an antebellum fair in southerr! Indiana. His emotionally in- tense panorama contrasts sharply with the wry irony em- ployed by Booth Tarkington to chronicle changing urban values, as experienced by his Magnificent Ambersons (1918). Many selections are taken from history and folklore. One subdivision entitled “Utopia, Posey County, Indiana,” describes what editor Eanta calls “the strange doings at Harmonie” (p. 167). Strange “doings,” perhaps, but true his- tory: George Browning Lockwood and Marguerite Young skillfully unravel the Rappite and Owenite experiences. Folklore, however, may be the best means of arriving at the truth. An engaging tale of a tattered devil-wizard named Harshish, from Samuel Ginger’s Reminiscences (1905), gives numerous insights into the customs and minds of Indiana’s early settlers. Two of Indiana’s finest humorists, George Ade and Kin Hubbard, present legendary Hoosiers but harness their creations to provide amusing and penetrating commentary on contemporary life. Hubbard’s Abe Martin is the delightful apotheosis of common sense, while Ade re- counts the adventures of thc country bumpkin in the me- tropolis. It becomes difficult to single out authors when one knows that they have already been selected by a first rate editor. One can simply list the new authors added to the 1976 edition: David Wagoner, Howard Johnson, Kurt Vonnegut, Book Reviews 363 Jr., Joseph Hayes, William Edward Nelson, John Woods, Samuel Yellen, Cornelia Otis Skinner, and Bob Collins. The book is enjoyable. A Hoosier emerges-one who is human, full of intelligent common sense, and a sometime sophisticate who understands sophistry but chooses not to use it. Indiana University, Bloominyton Joyce G. Williams Contest for Empire, 1500-1 775: Proceedings of an Indiana American Revolution Bicentennial Symposium. Edited by John €3. Elliott. (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical So- ciety, 1975. Pp. xii, 95. Notes, map. Paperbound, $2.00.) This neatly printed, readable book consists of six essays. With the exception of the first, which is intended as an in- troduction, each essay is commendably documented, some from original, unprinted material difficult to locate. In this respect Jack M. Sosin’s essay on “Britain and the Ohio Valley, 1760-1775” deserves special recognition. Underlying all six essays is the suggestion that three centuries of international history preceded the Revolution and were relevant to it. The editor makes this point crystal clear in his prefatory remarks. It is a fallacy, still doggedly pursued by many historians, to treat the Revolution as though originating in quarrels over taxes and constitutional arguments suddenly coming to the fore in the interwar years, 1763-1775. It is good to see an essay by an anthropoIogist included in the series. James A. Brown’s paper, “The Impact of the European Presence on Indian Culture,” provides broad and thorough analysis of that topic. John J. TePaske’s paper, “Spanish Indian Policy and the Struggle for Empire in the Southeast, 1513-1776,” follows a similar theme, showing how the French, but more especially the Anglo-Americans, altered the whole structure of aboriginal society. Many factors other than firearms and liquor caused the Indians to lose their in- dependence. They grew completely dependent on European goods, “so covetous” of the latter “that they would go to any lengths to procure them” (p. 36). George A. Rawlyk’s essay, “The ‘Rising French Empire’ in the Ohio Valley and Old Northwest,” is refreshingly informative. Rawlyk, who comes from Queen’s University and understands the Canadian French, rejects the errors of Parkman, the New England .