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BOOK REVIEWS wideranging understanding of the complexities of German history, German immigration, and GermanAmerican history make Roebling's views understandable to modern readers. Further, unlike that of Steinman or Schuyler, Tolzmanns John Roebling is a realista believer in the order of the world and in man' s ability to make progress, but always a pragmatist . As an example, Roebling, after immigrating to Pennsylvania in 1831, experienced firsthand the challenges and hardships awaiting immigrants, causing him to rethink Etzler's assertions. "'[ T] he hardships that are connected with emigration , especially for one who is taking the first step, wrote Roebling of Etzler's book, are not given enough prominence therein. I blame Etzler's carelessness and bold, unfounded assertions for this"'( 3). In Pennsylvania, the hardwork ing Roebling initially farmed by day and invented in the evenings. He became one of the first engineers to appreciate the inherent weaknesses of wrought iron chains used in suspension bridges and promoted wire cables. He established a factory to manufacture the wire ( later moved to Trenton, New Jersey)and began designing bridges, such as his famous Niagara River suspension bridge, completed in 1855, that carried heavy locomotives and railcars. Tolzmann accurately details the process leading up to the construction of the Covington and Cincinnati Suspension Bridge, completed in 1866 ( and later renamed the John A. Roebling Bridge). He cites the importance ofAmos Shinkle, the president of the bridge company, and also the role of Roebling' s friend, Ohio state senator and fellow German American, Carl Reemelin. Tolzm·, inn' s knowledge of German Americana allows for anecdotes that humanize rather than deify Roebling. For example, Roebling enjoyed meeting with his friends and fellow authors, Heinrich A. Rattermann and Peter Kaufmann, at Nicholaus Schmitt' s tavern in Cincinnati' s Overthe Rhine district, where one of their favorite topics was " German philosophy, especially the work of Hegel" ( 21). John A. Roebling began construction ofhis famous Brooklyn Bridge in 1869,but an accident at the worksite led to tetanus, and he died on July 22, 1869, at age sixtythree . ' Ihe work on the Brooklyn Bridge was completed by his son, Washington Roebling. Tolzmann details John A. Roebling' s legacy, through his son and his company, offering an appendix listing the bridges the company built between 1844 and 1952. In a unique twist,he tells how the suspension bridge at Cincinnati inspired Joseph Baermann Strauss, a German American in Lincinnati, to study engineering. Strauss designed more than four hundred bridges worldwide,including the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. As a work for modern readers, Tolzmann' s Jobn A. Roebling and His Suspension Bridge on tbe Objo Ri' ver avails itself of the best of older and respected research, while still delivering a realistic image of a man and his place in engineering history. Paul A. Tenkotte Thomas More Collecre b EdwardSteersjr. Lincoln Legends: Myths,Hoaxes,and Confabulations Associated witb Our Greatest President. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008. 282 pp. ISBN: 9780813124667 cloth), $ 24.95. GeraldJ. Prokopowicz. Did Lincoln Own Slages?« lnd Other Frequently Asked Questions About Abraham Lincoln. New 78 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS York: Pantheon Books,2008. 345 pp. ISBN: 9780375425417 ( cloth), $ 24.95. Gerald J. Prokopowicz notes that a 2002 online search found nearly fifteen thousand books about Abraham Lincoln, placing the sixteenth president behind only Jesus Christ,Shakespeare,and the Virgin Mary. One is not surprised by this tally. It seems that every week new books about Lincoln appear and with the approach of the two hundredth anniversary of his birth both scholarly and public interest in Lincoln seems particularly intense. One topic of enduring interest is the mythology surrounding him,as evidenced by two recent studies, Edward Steers Jr.' s Lincoln Legends:Mytbs,Hoaxes,and Confabulations Associated with Our Greatest President and Prokopowicz's Did Lincoln Own Slaves? And Other Frequently Asked Questions About Abraham Lincoln. Steers, a specialist on the Lincoln assassination who frequently appears on television as a Lincoln expert, devotes his study to finding the truth behind a number of Lincoln legends. Reflecting Steers's past work as a scientist, the book is written in a methodical, detailed style, and it is quite effective in exploding a number of...

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