Moralists and Modernizers: America's Pre-Civil War Reformers (review)

BookReviews59 lost to posterity (19). Foxton finds especially important the debate tracts, which circulated as the Quaker movement encountered and antagonized the more established religious traditions. Quaker women joined ably and earnestly in these efforts for two reasons which are fundamental to Foxton's conclusion: they thought themselves to be heirs to the radical implications ofthe Reformation , and they believed themselves to be called and inspired as prophets. The bibliographic entries are quite helpful. They include author's name, titles (which can be complex and lengthy), publisher, date ofpublication, number of pages, cross-reference information, and details about later editions. The one-sentence annotations often include biographical information , or indicate other signatories to letters, epistles, petitions or minutes. As research into the lives and writings of Quaker women in all eras continues, both the essay by Foxton and the annotated bibliographic entries will help many ofus to enriched and deepened interpretations and knowledge . Earlham CollegeMary Garman Moralists and Modernizers: America's Pre-Civil War Reformers, By Steven Mintz. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. xxii +179 pp. Bibliographical essay and index. Cloth, $38.95; paper, $13.95. The period from 1815 to 1860 saw the flowering ofan almost bewildering variety ofreform movements in the United States. This is the one place after 1800 that Quakers can be sure to make it into general U. S. history textbooks; anyone taking up antislavery, women's rights, prison reform, humane treatment of the mentally ill, and a variety of other subjects must notice the contributions of Friends. In some antebellum reforms, like abolition and women's rights, Quakers were central; in others, like communitarianism, they were often participants, but not key players. For those who seek a broad and strikingly original interpretation of the first great age of American reform activism, Steven Mintz has given us an incisive and provocative treatment. But it is not one in which we will learn much about the contributions of Friends. Mintz's achievement is to place reform in the context of a rapidly changing American society. He highlights the millennial expectations that so many historians have seen as central to these movements and their proponents, but also focuses on the growing sense of social disorder and disintegration that many perceived with growing immigration, urbaniza- 60QuakerHistory tion, and class and wealth stratification. This spawned, he asserts, three different types of reformers. Moral reformers emphasized the creation of a Christian society through moral suasion to combat ills like intemperance. Social reformers emphasized institutions, whether they be grim poorhouses or relatively humane asylums for the disabled. Radical reformers sought fundamental transformation to uproot evils like slavery and to guarantee basic rights to disadvantaged groups like blacks and women. The great strength of Mintz's work is balance. He carefully acknowledges the work of revisionist historians in the school of Michel Foucault who focus on reform movements as a means of instilling middle-class habits ofthrift and self-discipline and controlling the disorderly. Again and again, however, he points out how actions can be explained, often quite convincingly, by more humane motives, such as a very real desire to end human suffering, however unfortunate the results ofthat impulse might be. As noted above, this is not a work that has much to say about Quakers. Their role in certain movements, like humane treatment of the insane, is briefly noted, and there is some discussion of their participation in the antislavery movement. On the other hand, the section on women's rights says virtually nothing about the critical contributions by Quaker women— the Grimké sisters, Abbey Kelley, and Lucretia Mott are all mentioned, but from this one would never know that they were Friends. One should not overemphasize this small and somewhat parochial failure. Mintz has given us an extremely readable interpretation that does an admirable job of synthesizing the wealth of available material. Those more focused on Quakers as reformers will find his work exceedingly useful. Earlham CollegeThomas D. Hamm Forming American Politics: Ideals, Interests, andInstitutions in ColonialNew YorkandPennsylvania. By Alan Tully. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994. xiv + 566 pp. Maps, appendix, notes, bibliographical note, and index. $45. In this well-argued and richly-detailed study, Alan Tully compares...