THE EPIC OF INDUSTRY
Malcolm Keir. (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1926.) The Pageant of America series, vol. S.
Very, few of us ever outgrow our youthful liking for pictures. Even college professors have been known to bury themselves in the Rotagravure sections of their Sunday papers before turning to the more solid financial and murder news. For those of us who retain our enthusiasm for pictures the present volume looms as an oasis on the barren desert of black ink with which we are surrounded.
For some years the Yale University Press has been engaged in giving us a pictorial view of American history. One phase of this effort is at present finding expression in The Pageant of America a series of books of beautifully reproduced pictures showing various phases of the development of the United States. An impressive list of editors and authors gives a guarantee of the excellence of the work.
This volume by Professor Keir is a pictorial history of the more outstanding of modern industries. Starting with the age before the machine, it first presents the coming of the artisan and of the factory system. Then follow chapters on the development of some of the more important industries of the United States, such as coal, oil, electricity, cloth manu facturing, iron and steel, meat packing and lumbering. The story is brought to an end with a chapter on the development of organized labor. Over half of the book is composed of pictures, ranging in subject from Sixteenth Century treadmills and windlasses to the present packing plant of Swift and Company. As might be expected the majority of the pictures are of fairly recent origin—owing partly to the recency of the Industrial' Revolution in the United States and partly to the scarcity of old prints.
Professor Keir's part in the undertaking was the writing of an introduction for each chapter and a brief descriptive sketch to go with each picture. In this function he has been very successful particularly when one considers that the text must be written to fit the pictures, and not vice versa. The introductory sketches are admirable both in material and tone, while the descriptions of the pictures are clear and cogent. Professor Keir chooses his words carefully, producing a maximum of infermation in a minimum of space, and thus giving adequate explanations wherever the space permits. He has been particularly clever in the way he produces a sense of unity and continuity among material which normally might appear somewhat disjointed.
Paradoxically "The Epic of Industry" has certain drawbacks which are due for the most part to its very excellences. Owing to the great number of pictures, Professor Keir's descriptions have often been limited to two or three sentences, leaving the interested reader with a desire—not for less pictures but for more text. At times the pictures seem poorly arranged logically—as in the case of the treatment of labor organization; even Professor Keir's best efforts fail to produce any great assurance of coherence and logical continuity. Possibly the requirements of the artistic arrangement of the pictures have produced this result. Now and then important parts of the development have been omitted or minimized, while relatively unimportant matters have been stressed—presumably again because of the number and type of the pictures available. Errors of fact and typography are notable by their absence—if we except a few such small points as the incorrect dating of early log cabins (p. 8.)
If the present reviewer is at all typical, the reader of "The Epic of Industry" will follow the pages of the book with interest, and close it with an eager desire to see further volumes of the series. As a contribution to the understanding of the history of the United States the entire series will be of the greatest interest and importance to everyone who desires further information on our social and economic heritage.
Professor W. D. Drayton Henderson is the editor of a new edition of "The Book of the Courtier" by Count Castiglione. This edition has recently been published as one of the Everyman series. The book is prefaced by "A note on Castiglione and English Literature" by Professor Henderson.
Professor Arthur J. Eames of Cornell University and Professor Carl L. Wilson are the authors of an article entitled "Carpel Morphology in the Cruciferae" whicfi appears in the American Journal of Botany, volume IS.
Professor F. E. Austin is the author of an article which appeared in the School ArtsMagazine for May entitled "How to Make a Model Tug."
Mr. A. W. Birnie is the author of art article "Expanding the Heating Plant" which appears in The Welding Engineer for April 1928. This is a story of the activity which, devastated the campus last year; Mr. H Card 'll is the editor of this magazine.
The Entrance to Dick's House
