The Pabst Brewing Company: The History of an American Business by Thomas C. CochranReview by: Lewis E. AthertonThe Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Jun., 1949), pp. 155-156Published by: Organization of American HistoriansStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1895733 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 155

other chapter of the same type concerns alumni in the judiciary, and the last chapter has brief biographies of the nineteen authors.

The authors are a group of alumni representing the various professions. There may be some virtue in having an engineer write a sketch of an engi- neer, or a lawyer, a businessman, a journalist, and so on write the sketches of those in their own profession, but it is certain to lead to unevenness of con- tent. There are no footnotes nor is there a bibliography. The sources for the sketches are probably almost entirely from the Michigan Historical Collec- lions, and sometimes the authors substitute conjecture where facts might be ascertainable. As President Alexander Ruthven says in the foreword, "The volume does not purport to be a history" and with this statement historians will not quarrel, for to them it will have little appeal. It will not, however, have been written in vain if it draws attention to the fact (not only to the state legislature but also to the people of the state and the widespread alumni) that the University of Michigan has provided and will always provide leader- ship and talent to the nation as well as the state. This alumnus has found the volume of interest even though at times it provoked more questions than it answered.

College of St. Thomas J. HERMAN SCHAUINGER

The Pabst Brewing Company: The History of an American Business. By Thomas C. Cochran. (New York: New York University Press, 1948. xii + 451 pp. Illustrations, foreword, tables, appendixes, bibliography, chronology, and index. $5.00.)

This volume traces the history of the Pabst Brewing Company from its founding in 1844 to the present, with chief emphasis on the period 1873-1919. Jacob Best, Sr., a German immigrant brewer, and his sons operated the busi- ness as a family partnership in Milwaukee in its early years. Gradual ex- pansion by adding profits to the working capital of the firm characterized business policy before the coming of Captain Frederick Pabst in 1864. His aggressive leadership, financial ability, and willingness to expand through the absorption of other firms contributed to the rapid growth of the companv. The business was incorporated in 1873 and its name changed to the Pabst Brewing Company in 1889. In the 1890's the company entered a period of profitable stability in contrast to its earlier rapid expansion. Prohibition in 1919 compelled it to turn to various expedients such as soft drinks and cheese manufacture. The Pabsts were ready to resume production when prohibition ended, and have continued to emphasize high-quality beer. Although a merger with the Premier Malt Products Company in the early 1930's ended family domination of the company, it was built primarily by the Best-Pabst families.

All aspects of the story are covered. Technological developments, produc- tion, and marketing receive major emphasis, but attention is devoted to labor

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156 THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL REVIEW

policy, community activities, and relations with the government. Perhaps a fourth of the book is devoted to the period since 1919. The thirteen years of prohibition witnessed the rise of new business problems not connected with brewing. The highly competitive marketing situation after the repeal of pro- hibition prevents full or interpretive writing in some aspects of the industry because "trade secrets" cannot be released, but the story for the more recent period is developed sufficiently in all cases to dispell any impression of sketch- iness.

This first volume in a series to be edited by Professor Cochrane sets a high standard. In this work he has resolved a number of the troublesome problems in writing business history in a most commendable way. In refusing to in- terpret business history narrowly, he has been able to set the Pabst company story within the national pattern. Although given access to Pabst company records, the author has not made this an official company history or an apology for business. He has given credit to company executives for policies directly emanating from them, but has wisely avoided any attempt to isolate and identify that part of company success which came strictly from entrepreneu- rial leadership. Locational theory and concepts of imperfect competition ob- viously were used in asking questions of the material at hand. In writing it, however, he has avoided all terminological jargon. As a result, general reader and scholar alike will find the book very much worth reading. Cochran dem- onstrates that scholarship and a fairly wide range of reader appeal are pos- sible and desirable in the field of business history.

University of Missouriz LEWIS E. ATHERTON

The Th'irsty Land: The Story of the Central Valley Project. By Robert de Roos. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1948. xii + 265 pp. Illus- trations, maps, and index. $4.00.)

The Central Valley is the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers of California. The project is primarily, though not solely, an irriga- tion project. Only the San Joaquin Valley is "thirsty." The project also in- cludes flood control on a big scale, bona fide improvement of navigation, supply of water for industrial and domestic uses, prevention of the seepage of salt from San Francisco Bay into valuable farm lands in the adjacent delta, and, of course, the production of hydroelectric power. The most strik- ing engineering feature is the transfer of an enormous amount of surplus water from the Sacramento River into the San Joaquin Valley. The transfer involves lifting the water 209 feet by electric power generated by the Sacra- mento itself 200 miles from the pumps.

The author's primary interest is in the numerous issues of public policy that are involved. He is only incidentally concerned with the engineering and construction problems of the project.

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