The Transformation of American Quakerism: Orthodox Friends, 1800-1907 (review)

46Quaker History in them, Selective Service controlled and supervised the whole operation. The 1940 Selective Service Act died with the end of World War II but was succeeded by a new one passed in 1948. Curiously, this one provided for the simple deferment of conscientious objectors. The entrance of the United States into the Korean War in 1950 brought a revision of the Selective Service Act and the requirement that conscientious objectors do two years of alternative service. After favorable court rulings men who objected to military service on "economic" or "social" grounds, rather than because of "religious training and belief," were permitted to do alternative service. Many Mennonites, Friends, Brethren, and others are fearful that should the military draft be enforced again, the U.S. government will not recognize conscientious objection to war nor provide for alternatives to military service. Persons concerned with this problem will find Keim and Stolzfus's Politics ofConscience an indispensable help. Wilmington CollegeT. Canby Jones The Transformation ofAmerican Quakerism: Orthodox Friends, 1800-1907. By Thomas D. Hamm. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988. 261 pp. $25.00. Thomas Hamm has provided us with a comprehensive, critical analysis of the developments in so-called Gurneyite Quakerism in the Middle West, which is a most welcome addition to nineteenth-century Quaker studies. In the last two decades various scholars have nibbled away at various aspects of this topic, but in this volume all aspects of the subject have been examined. The first chapter describes American Quakerism as it existed at the beginning of the nineteenth century when quietism was still dominant, and the second outlines the schisms and changes which came before 1850. With Chapter III, "The Renewal Movement, 1850-1870," the author breaks new ground. Noting the changes that were apparent in mid-western Quakerism by 1860, he ascribes these to several influences. Hamm notes the economic and social changes, as well as the increased interest in education and knowledge generally . He identifies forty-one leaders of renewal, including fourteen from east of the Alleghenies. These men and women wished to hold firmly to traditional Quaker values, but, at the same time, to respond to new influences and to meet the needs of the new era. Hamm turns next to "The Revival, 1867-1880," through which a number of leading Friends sought to create a new vitality within the Society. The revival movement came from other denominations, but soon a number of Friends ministers warmly embraced it and carried it to the mid-western Friends as well as to North Carolina and New York. He has identified thirty-three leading revivalists, only five of whom had been part of the earlier renewal movement. One-third of those were in Indiana Yearly Meeting, and, while five were from New York, none was from Baltimore, New England, or Philadelphia Yearly Meetings. In Chapter V, "The Realignment of American Quakerism, 1875-1890," Hamm describes the separation of Conservative Friends in Iowa, Western, and Kansas Yearly Meetings where revivalist elements were dominant, and explains their affinity for the older Wilburites. He also identifies a militant revivalist minority with the holiness movement spearheaded by David Updegraff, Dougan Clark, John Henry Douglas, Esther Frame, and others, who were joined by Book Reviews47 a younger generation which included David Hadley, J. Walter Malone, and William P. Pinkham. In between was a moderate majority which included many leaders in eastern yearly meetings in addition to those like Barnabas Hobbs and Joel Bean in the west. The Friends Review was their journal, and they had much in common with the Renewal group identified in the 1860's. In his next chapter the author goes back to examine the controversies over the Inward Light, the pastoral system, the taking of sacraments, the Richmond Conference of 1887, and the case of Joel and Hannah Bean and Iowa Yearly Meeting. He concludes the text with a discussion of the bitter struggle over what was called the Modernist Movement and the counter-attack from Holiness leaders. Hamm has been highly successful in ferreting out vignettes and anecdotal material to use in introducing the various topics in his book, and these add an interesting dimension to his narrative...