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BOOK REVIEWS81 ness of the value of dramatic rhetoric, and argues that Webster utilized a deliberately selective "aesthetic of history" to promote his own strongly Federalist politics. The second halfofthe book analyzes the contours ofthe themes of Constitution and Union so passionately articulated by Webster. Erickson focuses his attention on three of Webster's most common motifs: the Pilgrims, George Washington, and the "semi-divine" nature of the Union itself. The final chapter ties everything together by asking the questions "Why was the constitutional Union so important to Daniel Webster, and why were Webster's representations so meaningful to liis listeners?" Erickson finds the answers in Webster's juxtaposition of grim prophecies with positive alternatives, his effective combination oflegal and poetic imagery , and his ability to impart to his audience a sense of participation in—and responsibility for—the outcome of an unfolding drama of momentous significance. The Poetry ofEvents is a valuable book, whether for students of Daniel Webster the man, nineteenth-century political and intellectual history, or American political rhetoric. It is not without its flaws: some of Erickson's arguments seem overdrawn and exaggerated, particularly those on religious motifs and Webster's depiction ofthe Union as a divine entity. The book could also have profited from some attention to the ideas about law, commerce, and nationalism that Webster expressed in his work as an attorney . Webster's greatest impact may have been his influence on shaping American legal doctrines, and his legal rhetoric was as much informed with the imagery of Constitution and Union as his political rhetoric; yet Erickson 's examination ofthese subjects is virtually nonexistent. All things considered , however, Erickson has done a goodjob ofilluminating the subtextual dynamics that gave Daniel Webster's oratory such power and brilliance. He has analyzed more than twenty major speeches in some detail , with briefer reference to ten more, so the book is adequately grounded in the material. Erickson's arguments are well supported with evidence and effectively presented. The Poetry ofEvents will make a particularly useful complement to the final series that concludes the documentary edition of The Papers of Daniel Webster, Speeches and Formal Writings, 2 vols. (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1986, 1988). Alan Berolzheimer Associate Editor, The Papers of Daniel Webster Middle Tennessee Society Transformed, 1860-1870: Warand Peace in the Upper South. By Stephen V. Ash. (Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1988. Pp. xiii, 299. $32.50.) Professor Ash argues that the thirteen tobacco-growing counties of the Nashville Basin constituted a "Third South," a region distinguished from 82CIVIL WAR HISTORY either the highland farms or the cotton belt by its diverse society and rich economy. (Some 43 percent of white farm families owned slaves and household wealth averaged $9,79 1 .) With twenty-five towns, perhaps 550 schools and academies, and a half-dozen large factories and foundries, these counties constituted a Tennessee heartland. The region also had a peculiar Civil War history in that it was occupied by the Federal army for three years. Ash's primary focus is then upon the region's social history during secession, occupation, black liberation, and reconstruction. After generalizing from census data (using the SPSS analytical package) about the social world of the planters, slaves, and yeomen, the author buttresses his arguments with numerous illustrations from the rich collections of local records. His findings portray a prewar rural white society bound together by a social ideology of hierarchy, community, and slavery. When faced with the secession crisis, whites staunchly united in favor ofthe Confederacy . But after Union victories at Forts Henry and Donelson in early 1 862 the black community enjoyed a time of "Jubilee" while the whites entered a period of "Lamentations." Union occupation policy, at first indulgent towards slavery and secessionists, quickly became draconian. Ash principally credits the Union army with destroying the economy and alienating the citizenry, but not with liberating the slaves, most of whom walked off the plantations on their own. As to political arrests, "the merest hint ofsedition or disobedience from the pulpit was usually enough to provoke the Federals to close a church's door or lock up its minister" (p. 101). Most...

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