Sister Kate: A Life Dedicated to Children in Need of Care by Vera Whittington (review)

BOOK REVIEWS361 throughout Mexico in the 1920's and 1930's following ten years of civU war and revolution. Revolutionary state formation provided opportunities for land, power, and revenge to some peasant communities in Michoacán whUe it represented threats to and an assault on the land-holding system, local power arrangements, and religious practices and institutions of other communities. What made the difference were divergent agrarian histories and not differences in class, ethnicity, or religiosity. "Popular receptions of anti-clericaUsm, as with agrarianism," PurneU writes, "were rooted in previous histories of agrarian and poUtical conflict at the local level" (p. 14). PurneU found that communities which survived the liberal assault on communal landholding in the nineteenth century and entered the new century with their landed bases and traditional institutions intact became Cristeros. Their identity was threatened by the state's anticlerical and land reform policies and they fought back. Those communities, on the other hand, that had lost their lands to capitaUst landowners—hacendados —became anticlerical Agraristas. The state offered them land and the opportunity to upend local elites aUied with local leaders and institutions of the Church. They willingly fought the "counterrevolutionaries," the enemies of their ally and patron, the government. In Mexico appearances can be deceiving. A church-state conflict is not strictly a struggle about religion or even the Church, particularly at the grassroots level. Scientists love elegant theories and mathematical proofs. History is often too messy to allow historians to craft elegant explanations. Histories frequently offer either dense analyses cluttered with exceptions and qualifications or overly simplified poUticaUy-correct generalizations.Jennie PurneU,however,has written a truly elegant history. She addresses a significant problem in Mexican historiography, carefully describes the inadequacy of the existing scholarship, and offers polished logic, solid evidence, clear language, and, as a bonus, an absence of postmodernist jargon. This is how it should be done. Thomas Benjamin Central Michigan University Australian Sister Kate:A Life Dedicated to Children in Need ofCare. ByVeraWhittington. (Nedlands, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press. Available in North America from International Specialized Book Services, 5804 N.E. Hassalo Street, Portland, Oregon 97213-3644. 1999. Pp. xxv, 454. $49.95.) This book studies an Australian case of a child-saver whose life was driven by Christian commitment. The original setting was the English Anglican 'Kilburn' sisterhood, the Sisters of the Church. In it, Kate Clutterbuck found purpose for her life. Born probably in 1861 of a prosperous banking family, she was professed in her Order in 1890. The KUburn Sisters under Emily Ayckbowm at- 362book reviews tracted women of weU-funded backgrounds to Uves of compassionate service: chUd care, schools, night shelters, at first in London and then elsewhere. Sister Kate arrived in Perth in 1901 , one of a party including adolescent girls from the Order's homes, to set up simUar rescue faculties in Perth. The self-confidence of these Sisters may have been informed by their fuUblown Anglo-catholic understanding of the Christian faith. Guaranteed, if modest , income from their EngUsh supporters helped; so did Mother Emily's strong leadership. Add their upper-middle-class sense of superior knowledge and skUl at the peak of British imperial self-confidence, and at least some of the explanation for the driving force of Sister Kate's Ufe becomes apparent. From 1901 to her death in 1946 this taU, fit Englishwoman pioneered, first, a major orphanage for chUdren as a Church of England charity. After her nominal retirement, she proceeded to create another under the auspices of the Aboriginal welfare Department. Both were minimaUst residential facilities on the edge of Perth. In both Sister Kate relied on the loyalty of many helpers: the first EngUsh 'orphans' stayed to serve for many years, and the same pattern repeated itself . Like other charities, ParkervUle Home relied on the energetic support of find-raising and pubUcity committees. A succession of cottages arose; a smaU community was created in the ParkervUle home during Sister Kate's tenure. The Queen's Park Home received chUdren mainly under the directions and funding of the Aboriginal Department. Again, with limited resources chUdren were housed, educated, and loved. In both places Sister Kate insisted on regular...