Ohio: The History of a People by Andrew R. L. Cayton (review)

Book Reviews Andrew R.L. Cayton. Obio: Tbe His- American state " ( vi) For Ca> ton,the overarching tory of a People. Columbus· The Ohio theme of Ohio's history 15 " the transformation ofa State University Press, 2002 472 pp radical imperative to do good into a conservative ISBN 0814208991 ( cloth), $ 35 00 desire to live well " ( vii) The lives and work of a multitude of Ohioans exemplify for him a social Writing a state history ( or a good one at any evolution that began with a nascent nineteenthcen rate ) is a formidable task How does one tury middleclass culture of respectability provide a coherent narrative for an essentially ar- undergirded by a belief in progress and in serving bitrary political entitythe boundaries,population, the public interest From that starting point Ohioand culture ofwhich blend so Indistinctly with those ans have moved to a more individuallv focused of neighboring states; Many state historians have twentiethcentury ethic of material wellbeing and resolved this conundrum essen- selffulfillment Cayton's attentially by ignoring it, choosing to tion to these larger themes, howfocus on the relatively welldefined ever,does not prevent him from record of the state's political history or sidling into unabashed Vill V hagiographies of famous residents THE HISTORY OF A PEOPLE The scene on tlie Kent State Univeisity and their deeds However,Andrew campits at aiound noon on May 4, R L Cayton has risen to this un1970 National Guardsnien advancing toward people protesting Ante), can enviable challenge by teasing out i 13,».' -' " f* intervention in Cambodia on Blanket themes and meanings in Ohio his- Hill below Taylor Hall Courtesy of Kent State Univeistty,Kent,Ohio tory for a unique and useful con- .Ly» *,< n »*= il tribution to the genre 3 Cayton,a celebrated historian of the Midwest and a Distinguished 45 ':' 14 Professor of History at Miami Uni- Miwil'"'» - , .,« s ,4 11 » t,«« i=»* st : k f versity,organizes his material ina thematic and chronological style, his chapters ( e g., Improving Ohio,Considering Ohio, Defining Ohio) simultaneously reflecting both general eras and p ' 44,1 14 hir , 9,; r S underlying motifs Drawing on copious 4 social,economic, political, and literary data from a wealth of primary and secondary sources, he insists that the book iS " above all a narrative driven by the , i $, stories people have told about life in an SUMMER 2003 55 BOOK REVIEWS exploring a number of other ideas and experiences, nor does it undermine the narrative cohesion of the book as a whole. In this, his volume is far superior to Walter Havighurst' s now dated thematic study Obio:A History. Despite its many excellent points,this book ( like any) has some shortcomings. There are, for example ,a few factual errors, for example, the minimum number of acres for purchases under Congress' s 1820 Land Act was 80,not 8 Ip. 16]; the dates of Rhodes' s and Celeste's terms as governor are misreported Ipp. 385 and 3931; and former Daytonian Larry Flynt publishes Hustler,not Penthouse [ p. 390]). But these small glitches are not enough to detract significantly from the text' S utility as a reference. In addition, Cayton's laudable desire to let the words of Ohioans tell the story too often gets the better of his own manifest literary gifts. As a result, many sections are littered with fragments of quotationsoften as short as one or two wordsinterspersed with similarly fragmented links of his own. The overall effect can be distracting , leaving the reader to wish the author had brought his considerable talent to bear on paraphrasing a bit more. Other significant limitations in this book arise from Cayton' s otherwise welcome thematic approach . For example, his presentation sometimes precludes a meaningful discussion of aspects that do not " fit" within his thematic contexts, for example , Ohio's Native American,colonial,and territorial heritage. At the same time,Cayton's desire to emphasize his major themes sometimes feels forced, resulting in generalizations that seem too broad. The idea of " progress"is a useful theme to be sure, for example,but did the pioneers clearing their land in the early 1800s understand this concept ,if they thought about it at all,in the same way that industrialage progressives did? Was it true that nineteenthcentury Ohioans never meant for their art, architecture, songs, and literature to be strictly ornamental, but " always in the cause of something larger than aesthetic satisfaction?" ( 76) Were all " respectable Protestants" of the late 1800s really " aware of the dilemma created by their advocacy of a public culture that reflected their values and silenced alternatives?" ( 215) Statements like theseas well as several others starting with Ohioans felt" or " Ohioans thought" leave the critical reader asking, " Can he really say that?" None of this is meant to slight the importance of this work to the field of Ohio history. While it does not replace George Knepper's classic Obio and 1ts People as a comprehensive volume o f the state's history ,it is not really meant to do so. Rather,it serves as an impressive complement to that work,and one that all devotees of the subject must read. Kevin Kern University of Akron Gregory Evans Dowd. War linder Heaven: Pontiac,tbe Indian Nations, and tbe Britisb Empire. Johns Hopkins University Press,2002. 384 pp. ISBN: 0801870798 ( cloth) $ 32.00. I ndian resistance to the assertion of British authority over the region that is now the American Midwest has been studied by several historians recently,but prior to the publication of Gregory Evans Dowd's War Under Heaven,the last scholarly monograph with a sharp focus on Pontiac to appear was Howard Peckham' s Pontiac and tbe Indian Uprising which was published in 1947. Since that time most discussions of Pontiac' s War have presented it as an episode in a larger process occurring over decades on a continental scale. Thus in The Middle Ground Richard White begins his analysis in New France in the seventeenth century and proceeds through the end of the War of 1812. Eric Hinderaker in Elusive Empires and Dowd himself in his earlier book,A Spirited Resistance, start their stories in earnest in colonial Pennsylvania,and proceed like White to the nineteenth century. War Under Heaven is different, both in focusing on 56 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY ...