Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation: The Story of the Emancipation Proclamation (review)

296CI VIL W AB HISTOBT writing the kind of biography he did are perhaps best summed up in one of his descriptions of a Stowe heroine, Angélique Van Arsdel of We and Our Neighbors: Angie has no particular faults to overcome; she has simply been brought up in a fashionable home; and she matures spiritually as well as physically, without ever becoming, even in the slightest degree, fanatical about it until she falls in love with a man who is worthy of her, if any man could be, and embarks upon a useful way of life which gives every promise of being happy and successful for both of them. It is all exactly the way life should be—and seldom is. Joyce Appleby Claremont Graduate School Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation: The Story of the Emancipation Proclamation . By Frank Donovan. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1964. Pp. vi, 142. $4.00.) This book is not indispensable. Frank Donovan, newspaperman, ad writer, Pathe News scriptwriter, movie producer, and author, has put together a "history of slavery" in the United States from its inception to its ultimate extinction. Although the volume is well-organized and well-written, it simply refuses to tell us anything fresh or new. It is a sketchy, routine, superficial review of a story which has been much better told by a number of distinguished historians. As one proceeds through the pages he senses that he is reading some old textbook. The bare facts are all there in their traditional setting. The Compromise of 1850 was supposed to settle the issue of slavery in the territories, but Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Kansas-Nebraska Act destroyed that hope. "Bleeding Kansas," Dred Scott and John Brown next troop across the stage in inevitable order. Then comes Lincoln's election, secession, and war. No surprise here. It is impossible to say what the author's sources were because he neglects to include footnotes or bibliography. However, it sounds as though he used such slavery authorities as U. B. Phillips, A. B. Hart, and Kenneth Stampp, and follows this up with an outline of the politics of the 1850's, drawn presumably from some general survey. As we approach emancipation we are offered page after page of quotations from Lincoln's more celebrated speeches. Mr. Donovan makes no serious attempt to analyze the many forces operating both for and against emancipation, nor indeed does he dig beneath the surface on any other matter. The standard opinions are reported, but as one waits for some new insight or interpretation, he is hustled along to another standard treatment of another familiar problem. Was this book really necessary? Eugene C. Murdock Marietta College ...