Dynasty of Iron Founders (review)

Book Reviews107 chapter on the origins and roots of the school and ends with a moving and imaginative epilogue by the current headmaster. No area of inquiry seems to be neglected, yet the reader is not overloaded in any area with more than he/she can digest. Contributions by friends ofthe school, parents, trustees, administrators, teachers, and students make this a rich patchwork quilt. It is especially gratifying to seethe inclusion ofhistoricalessays produced byFriends Select students in connection with the tricentennial celebration. George SchoolNorman K. Tjossem DynastyofIronFounders. ByArthur Raistrick. York, England: TheEbor Press, 1989. 331pp. £10.50. One ofthe major sites ofEngland's industrial revolution, onthe upper reaches oftheSevern Riverbetween Birmingham and Shrewsbury, is Coalbrookdale, where Abraham Darbyand four succeedinggenerations ofDarbys pioneered in converting coal and iron into thousands of useful products. They were founders in two senses ofthe word: operators of foundries for casting iron, and initiators ofavery effective organization for converting raw materials into products that were sold throughout Great Britain andthewholeworld. Theydiscovered newwaysto smelt iron ore (with coke instead of charcoal), to make iron castings, to design steam engines, and to build bridges. Andthey were Quakers, exemplifying the practical experimenters who foundnewwaysto serve society throughimprovedtechnology and humane labor relations. This book combines industrial archaeology with family history. It is a revised and augmented edition ofa 1953 study by a well-known Quaker historian, issued under the auspices ofamuseum dedicatedto preserving the site ofthe initialworks. Its story runs from 1699 to the present, concentrating on the 18th and 19th centuries , when the Coalbrookdale Company was supplying products like pots and stoves for countless households, and at the same time producing cast-iron gates, statues, and ornaments for estates, pumps and boilers for industry, components for steam engines, and plates and beams for bridges, cranes, and ships. The men and boys who worked fortheCompany, numberingas manyas 4,000 around 1850, strove for quality and reliability under conditions ofstrenuous competition with other producers in the UK and abroad. Readers interested in engineeringhistory and/or Quaker genealogy will findthis an informative study. It includes 38 plates, 12 illustrations, and numerous accounting recordsthat give avivid sense ofthe locale and activities being described. The book is available for £10.50 (including postage and handling) from William Sessions , The Ebor Press, York, Y03 9HS, England, and would give ideal preparation in advance of a visit to the Ironbridge Gorge Museum itself. Haverford CollegeHolland Hunter Hedge of WildAlmonds. South Africa, thePro-Boers& the Quaker Conscience 1890-1910. By Hope Hay Hewison. Portsmouth, NH: Heineman Inc.; Cape Town: David Philip Publisher; and London: James Curry Ltd. 1989. 408 pp. Illus. $23.50. Paper. TheAnglo-Boer (''Boer") Warof 1899-1902posed manyintractableproblems. As withVietnam, itmatchedthemassive conventional armyofaworldsuperpower ...