The Englishman in Kansas (review)

184CIVIL WAR HISTORY the Virginia Military Institute faculty. The major portion of the volume , though, is devoted to the General's Civil War campaigns. The final chapter is entitled "Assessment." Stonewall Jackson as Military Commander is good military history written by a capable professional, but unfortunately the reader will find in it little that is new of even controversial. In the valley campaign Jackson "displayed strategic and tactical skill of the highest order . . ." (p. 95) but his "part in the Seven Days' Battles did not match up to the reputation he had gained in the valley (p. 119)." Lee won the Battle of Chancellorsville "thanks to his own skill, and the spectacular genius of his principal lieutenant. ... (p. 202)." To the author Jackson "was more than a Cromwell. It would be fairer, he writes, "to call him an American Napoleon (p. 221)." Interesting illustrations and useful maps do, however, add to the value of the work. John G. Barrett Virginia Military Institute The Englishman in Kansas. By T. H. Gladstone. Introduction by Frederick Law Olmsted. Foreword by James A. Rawley. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1971. Pp. lxvi, 328. $6.50.) Thomas Gladstone, a junior correspondent for the London Times, visited the United States in 1856. Aroused by the mass of contradictory assertions on the Kansas question, Gladstone went to that territory in the midst of its severest battles between pro-slavery and free-state forces and has left us a remarkable set of observations. Gladstone, having grown up in England, was not steeped in the emotionalism of the American quarrel over slavery, but he was far from an impartial observer. Abolition was a cause which many Englishmen had made their own, and the London Times, according to the authoritative history "yielded to none in its hatred of slavery." Indeed preconceptions allowed Times reporter Gladstone to pass the following typical judgment: "Among all the scenes of violence that I witnessed, it is remarkable that the offending parties were invariably on the proslavery side (p. 64)." And there is not a single reference to John Brown. Still Gladstone correctly predicted that Kansas would be a free state. He was also aware that much of the fighting in Kansas, as modem research has confirmed, was more over land, less over slavery and even less over black freedom. His reportage suggests that violent incidents occured with chilling impunity, and his observations make credible the hypothesis that mob action is often carefully planned. Gladstone had a good eye for revealing commentary in local newspapers. For example, he quotes the editor of the Kickapoo Pioneer, who in referring to freestate men, wrote: "Wc know of no better method, than for every man BOOK REVIEWS185 who loves his country and the laws by which he is governed, to . . . kill off this Godforsaken class of humanity." Gladstone's writings are also valuable for their vivid depiction of the "Western way of life." He describes in some detail both rural and urban settings, juxtaposing in each the rough life of the frontier and the dynamism of nascent capitalism. His report on a visit to the Sioux and other observations on Indian tribes, while generally condescending, favorably contrast "savage" existence with the civilization of lawless whites. This reprint of the increasingly rare Englishman in Kansas is a welcome source for students of ante-bellum America. James A. Rawley supplies an adequate forward, but the omission of an index is unfortunate. Gerald Sorin State University of New York, New Paltz Sarmiento's Travels in the United States in 1847. Translation and introductory essay by Michael Aaron Rockland. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970. Pp. xiii, 330. $9.50.) The publication of this work makes available for the first time a complete English edition of the account of Argentina's Domingo Faustine Sarmiento's first trip to the United States. In his introduction Professor Rockland provides the reader with a very useful summary of Sarmiento's career as writer, revolutionary, educator and political leader, with special emphasis on his relationship with the United States. Sarmiento came to the United States in 1847 as part of a study tour to assist the government of Chile in establishing a modem system of public education...