Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS

George Fox's Book of Miracles. A Reconstruction from Many Records of an Unknown and Unprinted Book by the Founder of the Society of Friends. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by HENRY J. CADBURY, with Foreword by RUFUS JONES. (Cambridge: at the University Press; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1948. xvi, 164 p. Illustrations, index. *6.5o.) George Fox believed firmly that, with help from on high, he was able to perform miracles. In the pages of his famous Journal he briefly describes about a dozen of these, although his cautious editor, Thomas Ellwood, was inclined to tone his descriptions down. There was nothing hesitant, however, about Fox's own claims. He left a manuscript in which he described more than 150 miraculous episodes in which he had had a part. This manuscript disappeared in a manner not now known. In the present book Pro- fessor Cadbury has attempted with great ingenuity to reconstruct the missing work. What made the enterprise possible was an index prepared to go with a catalogue of George Fox's papers drawn up shortly after his death. In this index, the lost book of miracles kept bobbing up in the guise of the symbol "O"; Dr. Cadbury found some 350 entries in which this symbol appeared. As a rule each entry gave the opening and closing words of the passage to which reference was made. But, since each incident was usually catalogued under more than one word, the number of phrases about a given incident, and hence the information about it, increased as the study went on. Dr. Cadbury has pieced together the odds and ends of information thus supplied and has put them into a sequence which, fragmentary as it is, gives a sur- prisingly adequate notion of what the lost volume contained. The reconstruction itself occupies less than fifty pages. To this is prefixed a 100-page introduction which, to one reader at least, is of greater interest than the restored work itself, since Dr. Cadbury raises for discussion in it the main questions which a modern reader is likely to ask. Were Fox's miracles, for example, of the type which would now be called psychosomatic, cures of the body through the inducing of a better attitude in the mind? Most of them undoubtedly were. "Many of Fox's cures," writes Dr. Cadbury, "must be treated as the normal control of strong per- sonality over physical or mental illness." Or as Elizabeth Hooton put it, "his commanding presence, his piercing eye and the absolute assurance which his voice gave that he was equal to the occasion were worth a thou- sand doctors with their lancets." This does not mean, however, that the 396 1949 BOOK REVIEWS 397

ailments he dealt with were merely mental; only about eighteen of the whole number can be confidently so described. There were sufferers from agues and fevers, ulcers, scrofula and smallpox; one strange case is that of an eleven-year-old boy "grown almost double." In the light of what is now known about the influence of mind on body, particularly in persons abnormally constituted, there is no reason to doubt that many or most of these cures took place. What we hard-headed critics of the present day will find harder to believe, of course, is that they were miracles at all, in the sense of exceptions to natural law. Here Dr. Cadbury, I think, would be with us. At the same time, he is more patient with Fox than some of the rest of us would be. I must frankly admit that Fox is not to me a very attractive figure. It is not merely that he was ignorant— ignorant of medicine, of science generally, of history and philosophy; he was complacently ignorant. What is more, he was an egotist: Dr. Cadbury has to admit that "the whole manner of the book was to glorify Fox as the miracle worker." Fox habitually described his "miracles" in language copied from the Bible, a practice which had the double advantage of extreme vagueness as to the facts of the case and a dim and rich suggestiveness of supernatural presence. Dr. Cadbury feels able to describe him as "neither credulous nor incredulous but discriminating." I think this carries charity too far. Fox was a great man—granted. But it is possible to be a great man on the moral side and also to be a man of warped and contracted intelligence. Unhappily, Fox was both. Yale University BRAND BLANSHARD

Meeting House and Counting House. The Quaker Merchants of Colonial Philadelphia, 1682-1763. By FREDERICK B.TOLLES. (Published for The Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, Virginia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1948. xiv, 292 p. Illustrations, appendices, bibliographical essay, index. $5.00.) Even the most optimistic among the first settlers of Philadelphia would hardly have dared predict at the outset how quickly the city would grow or how rich its leading businessmen would become. Yet, as George Fox foresaw, the prosperity they soon achieved became the greatest single threat to the simplicity and spirituality which were the essence of their Quaker faith. This book is a study of the way of life of the men who domi- nated the commerce, society, and politics of the city for seventy-five years and of the interaction between their way of life and their religion. Four excellent chapters make clear the nature of the conflict implicit in the Quaker ethic as it applied to economic life. On the one hand were the principles of equality, simplicity, and peace, and the doctrine of steward- ship; on the other, were the inherited Puritan concept of the "calling," which implied a divine blessing upon the diligent pursuit of one's daily 398 BOOK REVIEWS July

occupation, and an emphasis in Quaker teachings upon such virtues as industry, frugality, prudence, honesty and order. These principles con- tributed to economic success, but success might lead in turn to the vices of luxury and pride. When the Quaker merchants began to attain real prosperity the implicit conflict became explicit. After a somewhat sketchy chapter on the nature of the merchants' business and their attitudes toward contemporary financial problems (this is not, of course, a study in economic history), the book proceeds to a description of their manner of living. Neither in their attitudes nor in their behavior did these grandees show democratic tendencies in advance of their times; they were, in fact, class-conscious aristocrats. Although they eschewed excessive ornamentation, their clothing was "of the best sort" and their houses were as comfortable and elegant as those of rich non-Quakers. Chapters on the literary and scientific interests of the Quaker merchants establish that at least some of them were "among the best-read and most cultivated men in Colonial America." They used their wealth generously to assist "the Lord's poor," and were often most public spirited, but clearly many of the magnates were not fully observing the principles of equality and simplicity. In secular affairs they were becoming more and more like "the world's people." There were Friends, however, who were disturbed by this trend, and when, in 1756, the international situation made it impossible for the Quak- ers to maintain their political leadership without being unfaithful also to their testimony of peace, matters reached a crisis. The Society of Friends underwent a reformation; Quakers withdrew from public office; a new spiritual sensitivity appeared, especially among the younger generation; and in time, many of them reverted to a way of life in harmony with "the simplicity of Truth." By the time of the American Revolution, Philadelphia Quakerism had come full circle. Professor Tolles has brought to his study both the techniques of a trained historian and the sympathetic understanding of a "convinced" member of the Society of Friends. The result is a thoughtful and illuminating interpretation of one of the most interesting groups of men in colonial America. Yale University LEONARD W. LAB ARE E

Gentleman's Progress. The Itinerarium of Dr. Alexander Hamiltony 1744. Edited with an Introduction by Carl Bridenbaugh. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1948. xxxii, 267 p. Illustrations, index. $4.00.) Dr. Alexander Hamilton, a Scotch physician, practicing in Maryland, undertook a journey for his health in the year 1744. Leaving Annapolis he traveled north through Baltimore and Philadelphia to New York, where he took passage on a river boat for a round trip to Albany. Upon his return he 1949 BOOK REVIEWS 399 rode out to the end of Long Island and crossed over to New London; his route then took him to Newport, Boston, Portsmouth and, finally, to York in present-day Maine. His return was by the same route, except that he did not cross over to Long Island, but continued to New York on the jnainland. This journey, which Dr. Hamilton estimated at 1,624 miles, he carefully chronicled. In the literature dealing with the colonial period, Dr. Hamilton's Itiner- arium takes an important place because of its value as a historical document. His shrewd analyses of what he saw and his detailed description of much which other observers have neglected promotes a clearer understanding of colonial life. The curiosity of the people, their rapt interest in theological questions, and their growing identity as Americans are outstanding impres- sions received from the book. "I found but little difference in the manners and character of the people in the different provinces I passed thro'," wrote Dr. Hamilton. His entire story is told with much wit and charm in a de- lightfully readable style. The manuscript of the Itinerarium^ now owned by the Henry E. Hunting- ton Library, was published in a limited edition in 1907. The need for a wider distribution of its text has been filled by Dr. Bridenbaugh's well-annotated and attractively printed edition, a publication of the Institute of Early American History and Culture. Drawings by Dr. Hamilton and his friends provide quaint, but spirited, illustrations. Philadelphia NICHOLAS B. WAINWRIGHT

Father Knickerbocker Rebels: New York City during the Revolution. By THOMAS JEFFERSON WERTENBAKER. (New York and London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948. xviii, 310 p. Illustrations, notes, index. $4.50.) For his latest volume, Father Knickerbocker Rebels^ Professor Werten- baker has chosen a subject which in whole, or in one of its various aspects, has fascinated scholars from the time Judge Thomas Jones wrote his loyalist History of New York during the Revolutionary War in 1784 (published in 1879 by The New-York Historical Society), down to William Cortez Abbott's popular New York in the American Revolution (1929) and Oscar T. Barck's scholarly New York City during the War for Independence (1931). It is interesting to observe how Professor Wertenbaker has handled a subject which has already been so thoroughly treated by other competent scholars. Even the infusion of new material, it might seem, could hardly be expected to provide new interpretations or viewpoints. Yet Father Knicker- bocker Rebels stands as a testimonial to the fact that no matter how familiar a subject may be, it still may be re-examined with profit, especially when undertaken by an erudite scholar who raises the writing of history to the high level of fine literature. 4OO BOOK REVIEWS July

Of the major works on the subject, Professor Wertenbaker's book parallels only that of Professor Abbott. The scope of Professor Barck's work is too limited for comparison, since it excludes the military history of the Revolution. The studies of Professors Wertenbaker and Abbott, on the other hand, include the military phases of that movement. They believe that a knowledge of the part played by New York City is essential to an understanding of the Revolution, it being the place where British generals and admirals formulated their policies, planned their operations, and sent forth fleets on expeditions to the various areas of conflict. Professors Abbott and Wertenbaker also see eye-to-eye on the causes that led to the Revolu- tion. Both men have a broad sympathy with all classes of people involved in the conflict and both depict the life of the civilian population. Moreover, both men employ the narrative form with which to tell a story, the writing of which they justify on the ground that a mass of new and relevant documentary material had recently been made available for their use. The new material used by Professor Wertenbaker consists mainly of the Sir Henry Clinton Papers, the Gage Papers, and the Minutes of the Asso- ciated Loyalists in the Clements Library at the University of Michigan, and the Sir Guy Carleton Papers in the library at Colonial Williamsburg. While this material supplements rather than revolutionizes past studies, it does serve to enrich our knowledge and understanding of the subject. It supplements our knowledge of the Philadelphia and Saratoga campaigns of 1777, Benedict Arnold's plot to deliver the Highland posts to the British, and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. It throws into sharper relief the position of New York City as the place where most of the provincial regi- ments were raised and the center from which the Associated Loyalists sent out their expeditions into New England and New Jersey to burn, plunder, and invite retaliation. It enriches our knowledge of the everyday life of the civilians in Loyalist New York and of their futile pleas for the restitution of civil government. It emphasizes their sufferings under the civil and military organizations of Sir Henry Clinton, so honeycombed with corruption as to cause Professor Wertenbaker to state that had this golden war against the British treasury been diverted into military channels, the war might have had a different conclusion. It increases our understanding of the bitter feeling produced between the Associated Loyalists and the British commanders—Clinton and Carleton—over the Huddy-Lippincott affair. Finally, it deepens our understanding of the poignant grief experienced by the Loyalists, when, in the hour of a British naval victory that virtually destroyed the French fleet, Great Britain concluded a treaty acknowledging American independence. This ended in the tragedy of tens of thousands of despairing British-Americans being forced into an exile which was relieved only by the humane efforts of Sir Guy Carleton to do what he could to make their lot less bitter. It is not so much the injection of this new material, however, that causes Professor Wertenbaker's study to stand out from the rest. It is primarily 1949 BOOK REVIEWS 4OI the method he employs that sets it apart. For whereas Professor Abbott and others limit themselves to a physical description of the city and view its activities from some vantage point in time and space beyond the city's limits, Professor Wertenbaker, being a cultural and social historian, recon- structs the scene in all of its fullness and interprets the life of the people as if he were a contemporary. He lives with the people and shares in their activities. He observes the progress of the war mainly as it affects the life of the Loyalists, plunging them alternately into hope and despair, noting their keen disappointment with the conduct of the war and their bitter criticisms of the British commanders. He observes the various moods of the city as it changes from a cosmopolitan Dutch-English trading town to one exclusively military in character during the few months it remained the military capital of America under Washington. He records the final change to the strange, tense, fearful city it became for the Loyalists under the two Howes, Sir Henry Clinton, and Sir Guy Carleton, but one which was, nevertheless, an oasis for them in the vast desert of Revolutionary America. It is this probing into the hearts of the people and soul of the city—the consideration of the problem from the sociological or human angle—that makes Father Knickerbocker Rebels a distinguished piece of writing. The weakness of the study lies in Professor Wertenbaker's failure to tell why it happened as convincingly as he tells what happened during the American Revolution. Primarily, the Revolution was a political and constitutional movement, but it was also economic, commercial, and social in character, and all must be duly weighed in treating the causes of the dis- agreement between the mother country and the colonies. Instead of brush- ing aside the new interpretations of the causes of the Revolution advanced by modern scholars on the ground that they obscure the obvious, his work might have been given a more enduring quality, in the opinion of this reviewer, had Professor Wertenbaker taken cognizance of all interpretations, which, recognizing the complexity of the problem, explore the deeper and more remote causes—such as diverging historical tendencies and states of mind—instead of stressing the obvious and immediate causes of the war. This reviewer could wish, too, that, in tracing the troubled steps by which the Americans relinquished their allegiance to the Crown, Professor Werten- baker had demonstrated that for the colonists independence was not an end sought, but one reluctantly arrived at. In the main, Professor Wertenbaker has gathered together the threads of many profound and real, as well as delicate and elusive, factors and forces and woven them into a colorful fabric of real beauty. The simple homage to Washington with which the study closes is presented with such sincerity and literary artistry that it will long remain a tribute not only to the father of this great country of ours, but to the enduring quality of Professor Wertenbaker's work. The New-York Historical Society E. MARIE BECKER 4O2 BOOK REVIEWS July

The American Presidency in Action, 1789: A Study in Constitutional History. By JAMES HART. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1948. xvi, 256 p. Index. #4.00.) Professor Hart describes his work "as an intensive study of the constitutional beginnings of the Presidency in action." Employing historical materials and the methods of the political scientist, he has diligently inquired into the nature of the presidency during the relatively brief period from April to December, 1789. Among the major topics considered are the Presi- dent as chief of state and as administrative chief, the President and Con- gress, the President and the Senate, and the establishment of the great departments. Relying on standard printed sources, as well as on such pertinent monographs as those by Corwin and Thach, the author has not succeeded in presenting much that is unfamiliar in the way of factual material. Neither has he produced important new generalizations or interpretations. The most useful section of the book is that which deals with the establishment of the first departments of the Federal government. Nearly sixty pages are given over to an extended account of the significant debate over the President's removal powers, a debate whose outcome Hart maintains was crucial in determining the nature of the presidency. Not wholly in accord with the conclusions expressed by Corwin in his President's Removal Power under the Constitution, Hart nevertheless finds it difficult to uphold the extreme "constitutional grant" doctrine of Chief Justice Taft in Myers v. United States. The relations of Washington with the Senate are presented in an able manner, but the brief chapters on the President as an adminis- trator (ten pages) and on his relations with Congress (twenty-three pages) are inadequate. A fundamental fault in the book is its restricted scope. Leonard White, in his recent excellent study, The Federalists, chose a period (1789-1801) that was long enough and possessed sufficient unity to enable the author to take firm hold of his subject and bring forth worth-while conclusions. The period treated by Professor Hart does not constitute a logical segment for the purpose of studying the constitutional history of the presidency. Readers will find the book extremely difficult because of its astonishing organizational flaws, and they will doubtless object to the superabundance of quotations. Some will wish that contemporary newspapers, rather than the inadequate Annals, had been used for the analyses of Congressional debates. In the case of this book, the wedding of historical materials and the methodology of political science has not been a fruitful union. Rutgers University RICHARD P. MCCORMICK 1949 BOOK REVIEWS 403

American Children through their Books, 1700-1835. By MONICA KIEFER, with a Foreword by DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1948. xvi, 250 p. Illustrations, bibliography, index. $3.50.) American children, in early days "little men and women," but by 1834 individuals with rights and privileges of their own, come to life in this book. We begin to understand their "War with the Devil" as we examine the weapons placed in their hands: the New England Primer, the dozens of other catechisms to supplement their study of the Bible, and such morbid works as A Legacy for Children, a collection, printed in 1717, of the "last expressions and dying sayings" of the eleven-year-old Quakeress, Hannah Hill. By the last fifty years of the period covered, we recognize a gentler attitude in the treatment of children reflected in the more moderate religious in- struction. The titles alone show this change: Thomas' A Curious Hiero- glyphick Bible; represented with Emblematical Figures for the Amusement of Children: designed chiefly to familiarize tender Age, in a pleasing and diverting Manner, with early Ideas of the Holy Scriptures (1788), and again, Thomas Gallaudet's modern sounding The Child's Book of the Soul (1831). In colonial days, medicine for the body was trusted far less than medicine for the soul. Man knew little enough of the healing art, accepted almost none of the advancements gradually being made across the sea, and saw his many "Young Victims of Kitchen Physick" frequently bled and constantly dosed with nauseous and sometimes poisonous concoctions. The section entitled "Learning of Divers Sorts" will interest present-day teachers. The struggle for public schools, the kinds of textbooks used, the gradual widening of the subjects taught and many odd and amusing inci- dents are presented with care and a gentle humor. Familiar indeed is the problem of low salaries and the "need for a well-chosen library." We read with enjoyment the proof that modern bewailings have a long history. "The Art of Decent Behavior" reminds us that "prophets of woe chanted their jeremiads for the spoiled children of the early nineteenth century" and complained bitterly over "illegible penmanship." The author's quick summaries in each section of the general attitudes toward religion, schooling, medicine and manners prove useful refreshers for the reader. Within this framework, the picture of children which evolves from examining this book is stimulating and suggestive. Occasionally, the author seemed to see these far away days in the gray pattern they assume when contrasted with our modern conception of the right of every child to fun and gaiety and freedom from responsibility. Perhaps the scene was not so desolate when it was quick with life itself. Social historians know there has been little serious study of the life of children in the first two centuries of our history. Our understanding of the adult world in colonial and Revolutionary days will be clarified when we see more clearly both the attitudes toward children and the outlook of children. 4O4 BOOK REVIEWS July

Miss Kiefer has indicated some of the many influences at work on the lives of men, women, and children in the period from 1700-1835. The canvas is an enormous one. In the field of literature alone there are books for children, books about children, books by children—each category demands a detailed treatment. Miss Kiefer has done a useful and entertaining book which points up the necessity for a number of other such specialized studies.

Dickinson College THELMA M. SMITH

A Calendar of Ridgely Family Letters^ 1742-1899, in the Delaware State Archives. Vol. I. Edited and compiled by LEON DEVALINGER, JR. and VIRGINIA E. SHAW. (Dover, Delaware: Public Archives Commission, 1948. 349, 36 p. Illustrations, index. Privately distributed.) Among the families which have remained long prominent in Delaware social life and politics is the Ridgely family. Descended from an early settler of Virginia (who married a Howard) and from the Earls of Wemyss, and subsequently intermarried with the family of Lord Erskine, it carried on the aristocratic tradition secure in its own state against the harsh blows of rude American change. An outstanding characteristic of the family has been a long-range tendency to preserve letters. Some present members of the family with a sense of historical responsibility have turned a great number of these over to the Delaware Hall of Records, and Leon deValinger, the State Archivist, has made them generally available in this calendar. Aside from a few random references to serious trouble between England and America (foreseen here as early as 1767), to the dissolution prevented only by the expectation of a reformation from the convention in August, 1787, and to preparations for the quasi war with France, this is essentially a record in American social history. So fully and carefully have the original letters been abstracted that this calendar in itself gives interesting facts for readers in many fields. A family always careful of money, its letters reveal incidentally that in 1753 butter was dear at seven pence a pound. In 1790, a hat cost eight shill- ings, four pence, but by 1803 a hat (in this case, black plush and feathered) was ten dollars. A bargain discovered in Philadelphia in 1795 were women's shoes at $1.25 a pair. At New Ark Academy (ancestor to the University of Delaware), board in the late eighteenth century was sixty dollars a year and tuition, five pounds, although in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, board was much higher. And so the reader is able to cull many such items depressing to the modern victim of inflation. More encouraging to us, perhaps, is a comparison of health conditions. The necessary preoccupation with serious illness led to many references which make up a valuable source for medical history. Constant themes are 1949 BOOK REVIEWS 4O5 ague, "Flux & Divers other disorders." Jail-fever proves fatal in many- cases; Mr. Willing has died "of the Palatine Fever"; Sister Polly has bilious fever; and Sister Ruthey "is in a decay." In middle Delaware in 1786, the "small pox is all about this neighborhood, except in Dover, and . . . they intend to Inoculate there on Sunday next." If disorders were many and strange, so were the causes and cures. A "nervous fever" was "undoubtedly brought on by abstaining from animal food and from every kind of drink, water excepted." Miss Ann Ridgely was warned "in continuing in the bath at Brandy wine [presumably in or near Wilmington] so long as you did." A physician had a patient bled for pleurisy thirteen times; Dr. Caspar Wister for bowel complaint pre- scribed rhubarb with chalk, gum arabic, and laudanum; and, oddly enough, after Phineas Bond was thrown from his horse onto his head he continued "weak and languid"—despite frequent bleedings. The relatives and friends of the Ridgelys were often afield from the family center, writing home on places and persons far from the Green at Dover. We find revealing, and sometimes uncomplimentary, comments on Wilmington, Lancaster, Philadelphia, Washington, and the state of Rhode Island. Buonaparte's brother was increasingly involved in personal matters in Baltimore; Burr by 1804 was "very like an old monkey"; and the Queen of England took much snuff. Although this is only Volume One in the series, the subsequent volumes are definitely projected. Already published is a companion collection of narratives and letters—Mabel Lloyd Ridgely, ed., The Ridgelys of Delaware £5? Their Circle. What Them Befell In Colonial &? Federal Times: Letters 1751- 1890 (Portland, Maine, 1949)—which gives in full the most valuable items. This book is essential to a complete understanding and appreciation of the Calendar; it contains three genealogical charts, indicating the principal writers of letters, and portraits of several of them. University of Delaware HERBERT H. FINCH

The Maryland Germans. A History. By DIETER CUNZ. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1948. xii, 476 p. Illustrations, appendix, index. $5.00.) A history of the Germans in Maryland is more than a contribution to a yet unwritten comprehensive history of American immigration. It is a very real contribution to the study of regional social history; in this case, to the history of the "forgotten region" — the Middle Atlantic area. Here, in a region lacking that sectional tradition so marked in both New England and the South, we find that diversity of social institutions and cultural life upon which composite nationality, "that juxtaposition of non-English groups," made such an indelible impression. This study is concerned with immigration, settlements, some outstanding 406 BOOK REVIEWS July individuals, and especially with the problem of Americanization. Dr. Cunz has included within the scope of his book all German-speaking immigrants from Central Europe and all American-born Germans through the third generation. The story of the Maryland Germans covers three centuries and falls into three well-defined periods: The Colonial Period, 1640-1790; The Middle Ages of Immigration, 1790-1865; The Last Generations, 1865-1940. In no other Middle Atlantic state except Pennsylvania did the Germans make as vital a contribution as they did in Maryland. "The historical func- tion of the Western Maryland Germans was to supply the Tidewater Colony of the Calverts with an agrarian hinterland. The task of the Baltimore Germans was to help organize a commercial center." The life of the Western Maryland Germans rested upon the land and the church. By the opening of the nineteenth century the Western Maryland Germans had become thoroughly Americanized, a process retarded in Baltimore by continuing immigration and a new German national consciousness. After 1815 a new wave of immigration reinforced the old. Only Baltimore attracted these immigrants: Germans seeking land headed for the Middle West; those seeking commercial and industrial opportunities remained in Baltimore. The characteristic feature of German life in Baltimore was the social club, which became the center of German-Americanism, an urban, middle-class movement supported by artisans and businessmen. As long as immigration continued in enough force to keep the Germans in a strong minority, German-Americanism flourished in Baltimore. It was encouraged by the founding of the Bismarck Reich, which released the national consciousness of the Germans and retarded their assimilation. The movement collapsed during the first World War, and, as it was beginning to revive, it received its death blow from National Socialism. Although Dr. Cunz has written a scholarly history, exhaustive and well- documented, his treatment lacks warmth and color. For example, the book contains only one chapter on "everyday life." No attempt was made to fathom the intangible contributions of the Germans to American civiliza- tion, and in some cases the contributions of Germans who remained outside the German-American movement have been overlooked. Important trends, such as the problem of Americanization and the change in the character of German immigration during the second decade of the twentieth century, are buried under a mass of detail. Special mention must be made of a few of the biographical sketches which add so much to the interest of the history: the manorial lord Augustin Herrman, the physician Charles Frederick Wiesenthal, the early nineteenth-century printers Samuel Sower, Matthias Bartgis, and John Gruber, and the liberal Forty-eighter Carl Heinrich Schnauffer. Perhaps the comprehensive study made by Dr. Cunz will inspire a similar history of the German element in Pennsylvania. Mary Washington College HENRIETTA L. KRONE 1949 BOOK REVIEWS 407

Lincoln's Herndon. By DAVID DONALD. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1948. xvi, 392, xxvi p. Illustrations, bibliography, index. $5.00.) Some men achieve fame and greatness by virtue of the noble deeds they do; others win fame because of their influence over great men—Colonel House or Harry Hopkins, for example. Neither of these generalizations fits William H. Herndon. He was personally neither great nor noble, nor did he have any appreciable influence over his law partner and friend, Abraham Lincoln. He deserves this detailed and competent biography because he walked in the shadow of the great man. After all is said and done, Billy Herndon was important because he was the chief builder of the Lincoln mythology, of the legends about Lincoln that are the heart of the American folk religion. Mr. Donald has written a compelling book, a book that will be of service not only to Lincoln scholars, but to all Americans concerned with the shaping of their national traditions. Herndon was a child of the frontier. He grew up in Springfield, Illinois, where his father was a tavern keeper. After a brief education, Herndon studied law and in 1844 entered into partnership with Lincoln. The association lasted until Lincoln left Springfield in 1861; in this interval of seventeen years occurred most of the controversies and strains that made a civil war almost inevitable. The contrast between the reactions of the two men to the momentous political developments is indicative of the fundamental differ- ences in their characters. Herndon was rash and impetuous, naturally an early Abolitionist. Lincoln, on the other hand, was never an Abolitionist and was almost always cautious in dealing with the slavery issue. Mr. Donald has dealt with this phase of Herndon's and Lincoln's careers with a sure hand and discerning judgment. Like many other men, Herndon in later life eagerly claimed credit for having brought Lincoln into the Republican party and for having persuaded Lincoln to do the things that made his nomination and election as President possible. Mr. Donald is no eulogist. On the con- trary, he examines each of Herndon's claims one by one and demolishes most of them. The result, happily, is a fair and wise estimate of the relationship of the two men during the prairie years. Just as Herndon had no important role in shaping Lincoln's political judgments, so he also had no part in making Lincoln President or in in- fluencing Lincoln's course during the Civil War. It was after Lincoln's death, after his canonization as a folk demigod, that Herndon really came into his own. Now he was the most authentic living source about Lincoln's life before 1861, and he feasted on the publicity and acclaim that were ac- corded him. With assiduous energy he turned to the task of collecting information about the martyred President. In his search for information and in his efforts to present Lincoln as he really was, Herndon insisted on finding and telling the bare truth—as he saw it. The picture that emerged from Herndon's researches and memories was on the whole pleasing and in accordance with the folk legend that was 408 BOOK REVIEWS July already well developed. But Herndon insisted upon portraying Lincoln as an infidel, as ambitious and ruthless, as having obscene thoughts, and as living in great domestic infelicity. This was his undoing. The defenders of Mrs. Lincoln, the Christian ministers, and the Republican politicians who had a vested interest in keeping the Lincoln shield untarnished all descended upon Herndon. He was completely demolished; his influence was gone; he became a lonely, bitter, impoverished old man. In the last third of the book Mr. Donald has described Herndon's journey into a veritable hell, the long, drawn-out years in which Herndon struggled to keep alive and to write his biography. Finally the opportunity did come, and the author has given us a brilliant analysis of Herndon's life of Lincoln. But even this final triumph was completely hollow, tragic. The reader may quarrel with Mr. Donald over some of his interpretations and conclusions. On the whole there are few generalizations; the story carries itself. No one, I think, will question Mr. Donald's integrity and honesty as a biographer. This must have been a most difficult book to write, for every biographer craves a deep sympathy for his subject and Herndon was anything but a lovable character. He was boastful, vulgar, dogmatic, quarrelsome and, for a long period in his later life, a drunken sot. Donald has sympathy and understanding for Herndon, but nowhere do I get the feeling that any of the unpleasant details are suppressed. I emphasize this characteristic of the book, because it is primarily a personal por- trayal of Herndon, not a political history of the Lincoln era. Finally, this reviewer cannot refrain from saying a brief word in praise of Mr. Donald's industry and scholarship. He has written almost entirely from primary sources, and his research is truly superb. Have any stones been left unturned? None that this reviewer knows of, except perhaps for two monographs that were published probably after this book was completed. The book is a tribute not only to Mr. Donald's industry and intelligence, but also to his friend and teacher, Professor James G. Randall. At long last Carl Sandburg's question, "When is someone going to do the life of Bill Herndon?" has been answered. Princeton University ARTHUR S. LINK

The Age of the Great Depression. By DIXON WECTER. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1948. xiv, 362 p. Illustrations, bibliography, index. $5.00.) Professor Wecter's very excellent The Age of the Great Depression begins on the eve of national tragedy in 1929 and ends with the calamitous attack of the Japanese at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Few times in American history have a dozen short years brought so many complexities and so much change. The task of weaving the multitude of contradictory threads together into a logical and understandable—and wieldy—whole was a monumental one. 1949 BOOK REVIEWS 4O9

But there was more than that to do: the fabric in some way had to be made to emphasize basic facts, without completely smothering surface expressions which at the time the history was being made seemed fundamental. Mr. Wecter in scarcely more than three hundred pages of narrative has set a high standard for chroniclers of our recent past to follow. The Age of the Great Depression is, in intent, a social history, but its pages reveal with striking clarity how intimately related people and government have become. The dome of the Capitol or the shadow of Franklin D. Roosevelt falls everywhere: over the marching veterans, over the tenant farmers, over the "Okies and the Arkies," over the idle, over the great mass of discontented, and even over the crumbling walls of a remarkable industrial structure that had withstood many a storm. To some it seemed at the time that Marc Connelly's Angel Gabriel had indeed spoken with vision when he shouted, "Everything nailed down is comin' loose." But Mr. Wecter with caution, with a host of facts, and with a fine literary hand has pictured the nation in its strange upheavals as a nation still tied firmly to the past, though groping toward new ideas and new ideals. His story is made up of wealth and poverty, of changing living habits, of new government functions, of growing unions, of youth in search of opportunity, and of age in quest of security—all interwoven with and affected by education, literature, art, religion and science. Over all, of course, is the New Deal and its multitudinous agencies. The author accepts many of the Roosevelt premises as guiding principles of the future, although he admits with frankness that war alone dried up the great army of unemployed and set the wheels of industry in motion. Wecter's volume contains within its brief compass an astounding array of facts, and it reveals a sweeping familiarity with the social structure of America and with the people of which it is made. It would be too much to expect that no one will quarrel with the author. There will be disagreements as to the factual material in instances, there will be objections to the organization, and there will be complaints that too little interpretation is offered. But facts are frail things often shifted in contemporary history, organization is ever open to controversy, and interpretations are ventured hesitantly under the circumstances. Few will deny that the volume is an outstanding contribution to the literature of the depression period and a splendid res- toration of the events of yesterday that were about to slip from our minds in the glamor of prosperity. The Age of the Great Depression is to this reviewer, at least, not only the best book on the period that has appeared, but also a very fine one with which to close the History of American Life series, a project begun nearly twenty years ago under the able editorship of Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger and the late Dr. Dixon Ryan Fox. There is an unusually complete bibliography, and the college edition contains a bristling (though poorly placed) array of footnotes. Temple University JAMES A. BARNES 4IO BOOK REVIEWS July

Detroit's First American Decade^ 1796-1805. By F. CLEVER BALD. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1948. xii, 279 p. Illustrations, bibliography, index. $4.50.) This volume is intended "to bridge the historical gap between the British regime and the establishment of the Michigan Territory." The story of this frontier town begins with the delivery of the British fort to the Americans in 1796 under terms of the Treaty of Paris. The problems to be solved in the new occupation were not easy ones. Throughout these early years the British continued their influential position, the French maintained their superior numbers among the population and their influence on the city's speech and customs, the Indian and fur trade problems had to be resolved by whichever government held the city. Although Detroit in 1805 retained in many respects much of the fundamental character of 1796, the govern- mental contribution of the Americans and its inclusion in the widening orbit of the United States was making it truly an American city of the future. This story is readable and well documented, and has sufficient variety in its detail to give feeling, as well as fact, to the narrative. It is an important addition to the frontier story, for it has the Janus-like quality of mirroring the frontier fort-trading post existence on the one hand, and, on the other, of reflecting through the period of transition the bright promise of a great American city.

Forest Conservation in Colonial Times. By LILLIAN M. WILLSON. (Forest Products History Foundation Series: No. 3. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1948. 32 p. Bibliography. $0.50.) In this pamphlet Mrs. Willson has brought together the major facts and factors in early colonial conservation. The abundance of forest land, the prodigal use of timber for a variety of purposes belied any conservation trendy although the endangering of the lumber supplies in specific woods or for particular uses resulted in both colonial and royal restrictions. The range of these restrictions point up both the importance of timber in the colonies and the extent of its exploitation. Laws and regulations from virtually all the colonies are cited to support the claim of conservation efforts in the early days of this country. Mrs. Willson, however, while recognizing the existence of conservation laws and while explaining the conditions fostering them, has avoided the easy error of generalizing from specific situations. The colonists had a conservation heritage from England which in many instances served them well in America, but on the whole "English timber practices had no economic justification in America." For this reason such laws were never fully successful. 1949 BOOK REVIEWS 4II

Early Bays of Oil. A Pictorial History of the Beginnings of the Industry in Pennsylvania. By PAUL H. GIDDENS. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1948. x, 150 p. Illustrations, index. $6.00.) With a minimum of text to supply readable continuity, Mr. Giddens has presented not only a chronological pictorial story of the early days of the Pennsylvania petroleum industry, but has illustrated the life of the people of the oil regions. The volume is dedicated to John A. Mather whose photo- graphic history of this industry is one of the most complete undertaken for any major business. Books, newspapers, and magazines have also been drawn upon to comprise this attractive and informative picture book on one of Pennsylvania's important industries. The individual oil magnates, the many persons in varying occupations who made the new industry a reality, the development of techniques and machinery—all are depicted in this social and economic history.

The Scotch-Irish in Pennsylvania. By GUY S. KLETT. (Pennsylvania History Studies: No. 3. Gettysburg: The Pennsylvania Historical Association, 1948. ii, 46 p. Bibliography. $0.50.) The Scotch-Irish in Pennsylvania, the third pamphlet in the Pennsylvania History Studies, is not a definitive study of this nationality group in Penn- sylvania, but rather a survey of its contributions to and its part in the history of the state. Mr. Klett begins his story with an analysis of the name Scotch-Irish and with a brief discussion of their Old World backgrounds. The Pennsylvania story is primarily one of the eighteenth century, and includes the various aspects of the settlement and development of a particular group in a new environment: their conquest of the wilderness, their participation in the conflicts and political life of the new American nation, their occupational, religious, and educational activities. It is an impressive story, for in the fields of the mind and the soul, the Scotch-Irish were as unyieldingly persistent as they were on the frontier or in making a livelihood.

The Territorial Papers of the United States. Vol. XVI, The Territory of Illinois, 1809-1814. Compiled and edited by CLARENCE EDWIN CARTER. (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office,. 1948. xii, 506 p. Index. I3.25.) As is the case in the other volumes comprising the Territorial Papers of the United States, this volume on Illinois has been compiled from government and public land documents, letters, petitions, some Indian affairs papers, and other relevant materials. Again the chronological arrangement is used: papers relating to the foundations of the territory of Illinois, 1809; papers relating to the administration of Acting Governor Pope, 1809; papers relating to the first administration of Governor Edwards, 1809-1812; papers relating to the second administration of Governor Edwards, 1812- 1814. These volumes provide invaluable documentary source material for the story of American westward expansion and territorial organization. 412 BOOK REVIEWS July

The Candidates; or, the Humours of a Virginia Election. A Comedy, in three Acts. By COLONEL ROBERT MUNFORD of Mechlenburg, Virginia. Edited with an Introduction by JAY B. HUBBELL and DOUGLASS ADAIR. (Williamsburg: Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1948. 43 p. $1.50.) The Candidates (1770), in a handsome brochure form, is an offprint from the April, 1948, issue of the William and Mary Quarterly. It should appeal to all who have an appreciation of the political satire in literature and history. It represents a few more "firsts" in American culture, and, for all its comedy, reveals much of the immediate pre-Revolutionary political sentiment. ARTICLES From time to time as they come to our attention, we plan to publish from other periodicals the titles of articles which contribute both to Philadelphia and to general Pennsylvania history. For obvious reasons, we are not in- cluding Pennsylvania History and the Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, and recommend to our readers the publications of the county historical societies for items of local and genealogical interest. A Brief Sketch of Military Operations of the Delaware During the War of 1812. DELAWARE HISTORY, September, 1948. The Charcoal Iron Industry in the Perkiomen Valley, by Alfred Gemmell. BULLETIN OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, October, 1948 (continued). Concord Quarterly Meeting of Ministers and Elders, 1701-1801, by Robert J. Leach, BULLETIN OF THE FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, Spring, 1949. Franklin Returns from France, by Charles F. Jenkins, PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 1948. B. Franklin, Printer—New Source Material, by William E. Lingelbach. AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY BULLETIN, I948. Henry Ernest Muhlenberg, by Paul A. Wallace, IBID. Inflation and Controls: Pennsylvania, 1774.-1779, by Anne Bezanson. TASKS OF ECONOMIC HISTORY, Supplement VIII, 1948. The King's Customs: Philadelphia, 1763-1774, by Alfred S. Martin, WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY, April, 1948. Philadelphia and the Revolution. French Diplomacy in the United States, 1778-1779 [the letters of Conrad-Alexandre Gerard], translated by Jules A. Baisnee and John J. Meng. RECORDS OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY, continuing from December, 1945. Sir William Keith's Justification of a Stamp Duty in the Colonies, by R. A. Preston. CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, June, 1948. The Story of Negro Mountain, by Arnett G. Lindsay, NEGRO HISTORY BULLETIN, April, 1949.