The Reconstruction of American History ed. by John Higham (review)

THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW compass the wholecontinent of NorthAmerica. American expansionism, however ,acquired a special ideology sloganized asManifest Destiny andtheMonroe Doctrine, whichaidedself-deception andhelped ereate theillusion of thepurity andmoralsuperiority ofAmerican diplomacy. The thrustof the American empire, finallycompleted aboutsixtyyears ago, has not been restricted to a westward land movement. One drive was to the southand into the Caribbean, transformed by 1917into a UnitedStates controlledlake .Commercial andreligious impulses carriedAmerican powerinto thePacific .andtheFar East,culminating in extensive territorial acquisition and the promulgation of the OpenDoorpolicytowardChina.The onlyeffective continental challen e to American owth came from the at one time thinl g gr y ,p,,opulated andeconomically backward British colonies ontheSt.Lawrence: 'Canada hasbeen theother colonizing power in NorthAmerica." In general,the authorcovers well-explored groundin theseinte retative essays. He .agrees with recentevaluations of the Monroe Doctrine asnegatively warningEuropebut positively proclaiming for the UnitedStates the political andeconomic leadership of thewestern hemisphere, andhetooviewstheAmericaninterest in California andtheOregon territory asprimarily commercial, rather than agricultural, in origin.Mostrewarding are the two essays treatingthe diplomacy of the American Revolution andthe Frenchalliance, wheremuch original research hasbeendoneby the authorandstimulating newinterpretationsare advanced. The Frenchalliance whettedthe American appetite for territorialgrowth ,andit wasthe disappointment of thosehopes by subsequent Frenchdiplomacy whichrenderedthe alliancemoribundlongbeforeit was scrapped in 1800.The onlyquestionable viewsin the bookseem, to thisreviewer , to be the rather harsh evaluationsof PresidentPolk's motivesand diplomacduring theOregon andTexas controversies y ß Professor VanAlstyne hascompressed withina fewpages nearlytwocenturies of American expansion The essas,crispandwell-written, will therefore appeal ß y primarily tothegeneral reader. D•IEL M. S•ITH University of Colorado The Reconstruction oi American History. Editedby JoI•I•HICH•M.NewYork: TheHumanities Press. 1962.Pp.244.$6.50. THISVOLUME CONSISTS OFA SERIES OFESSAYS onAmerican historiography. The eleven contributors belong to a generation ofAmerican historians whichachieved sehol.arly prominence in theyearssince WorldWar II. In addition to Professor ohnHi ham'sIntroduction, these essasrangefroma discussion of earl AmeriJ g y y canPuritanism to an analysis of the changing American self-image. Eachof thesetopicalessays evaluates recenthistoriographie contributions against the backdrop of earlierinterpretations. The resulting collection, Professor Higham asserts, demonstrates that "thereconstruction of American history is vigorously underway." The term"reconstruction" is perhaps misleading. Despiterepeated andoften successful attacks on Beard,Turner,andvarious revisionists, Higham's generationhasfailedto formulate a freshsetof unifying causal explanations. In fact, the currenttrendtowardculturaland intellectual history hasbrought within thepurviewof contemporary American historians a widerangeof subjects and materials whichprevious generations tendedto brushasidein the search for underlying causal forces. It isthisbroadening of thescope of historical inquiry BEVmWS 59 ratherthana freshcausal reconstruction whichmarks themainscholarly contribution ofthisnewgeneration. This generalization is borneout in the ten essays whichfollowHigham's Introduction. With a few notableexceptions, the continuing contxoversy over basiccausal forces stillfocuses on issues inherited fromoldergenerations. As Professor DonE. Fehrenbacher suggests inhisessay onCivilWarhistoriography, the currentrevoltagainst "revisionism" hasled to a revivalof the evenearlier "nationalist" emphasis on slavery. Professor WesleyFrankCraven, whoassesses the historiography of the Revolutionary era,findsthe ideasof George Bancroft re-echoed in the contemporary nee-conservative school. In sharp contrast to this dearthof newcausal interpretations,stwarresearch in cultural andintellectual history hasopened newvistas ontheAmerican past.Professor RichardSehlatter credi(s recer/tstudies of Puritanthought with overttuning the harshand distortedindictments of VernonParrington. The historiography of the American West,discussed by Professor Earl Pomeroy, hasbeenmarkedly enriched by Henry Nash Smith's Virgin Land: T, heAmerican West asSymbol andMyth. In a similarfashion, M•arvin MeyersThe lacksonian Persuasion: Politics and Belie[hasprovided a newapproach to whatProfessor WilliamWardtermsthe ageof the common man Althouh lesspronounced in somefields,the main ß g patternis clear.SinceWorld War II the inventory of basiccausal explanations hasremained relatively staticß Butin the realmof culturalandintellectual hisø tory,Higham's eneration hasmadesubstantial andoftenoriginal contributions g ß As evidence of thesemaintrendsin contemporary American historiography, The Reconstruction o• American Historyis a briefbut filuminating collection. Highamandhis collaborators, moreover, havenot ignored the important interpretativecontributions of othergenerations. Thus,in additionto its genuine scholarly merit,TheReconstruction o•American History issuitable forcollateral reading inundergraduate history courses. CHRISTOPHER LINDLEY University of Rochester British RegalJan Rightin MedievalEngland.By MARGARET HOWELL. London:University of London, The Athlone Press [Toronto: OxfordUniversity l•ress]. 1962.Pp.xvi,264.$6.00. Dmu•c • MmDL•. XCES Englishkingsclaimedthe right to appropriate part or all of therevenue of vacant bishoprics. In addition theyclaimed therightto present sedevacante to those ecclesiastical benefices whichsedeplenawerein thegiftofthebisho To etherthese claims constitute whatweknowasregaljan P. g , right MissMargaretHowells bookis the firsts...