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BOOK REVIEWS American Jewish history,so called because of the influx of the Germanspeaking Jews of Central Europe who started life on the frontier as peddlers and evolved into settled entrepreneurs. Shevitz finds this pattern is largely accurate, although even during the socalled Germ·an period the Ohio River communities assimilated a great number of Alsatian Jews. In addition, Shevitz is one of a cadre of historians to challenge the conventional wisdom that these early Jewish immigrants were anxious to shed their Jewish identities and assimilate into the American mainstream.What emerges from these pages is an extensive network of communication and familial ties that provided such things as business partnerships , suitable marriage partners, and religious support across the region. Shevitz asserts that although the secular organizations, such as the fraternal order of B'nai B' rith, tended to dominate Jewish life in large cities, the synagogue served as the focal point of Jewish life in small towns. Religious institutions played an important role in all nineteenthcen tury American communities, and as such the synagogue served as a means of legitimizing the presence of the Jews to their Christian neighbors while also providing a venue to maintain their distinct ethnicreligious persona. Less convincing is Shevitz' s attempt to demonstrate that the stagnation, and later decline, of Jewish communities along the Ohio River derived in part from the size of these communities at their height. In the end, the economic decline of the old Northwest, with its concomit;int demographic reduction, seems a more logical explanation. Shevitz provides a fascinating glimpse into the nature of smalltown Jewish life, and the role Jews played in shaping their world. Although she sometimes is careless with facts ( asserting that half of the Jewish population lived in New York City in 1939)and occasionally makes assertions that seem to move beyond her evidence, Shevitz' s book is both enjoyable and worth reading. Frederic Krome University of CincinnatiClermont College George W.Gieb and Donald B.Kite, Sr. FederalJustice in Indiana: ' Ibe History oftbe United States District Courtfor tbe Southern District ofIndiana. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society,2007. 350 pp. ISBN 9780871952028 ( cloth), $ 29.95. he lower federal judici·ary has begun to attract the attention of scholars. Books such as Roberta S. Alexander' s A place of Recourse: A History oftbe U S. District Court miv @ 1. EE& At JESIBI for the Southern Districtof Obio,18032003 2005), Richard Cahan' s A Court tbat Shaped America: Chicago' s Federal District Court from Abe Lincoln to libbie Hojjman 2002), Kermit L. Hall and Eric W. Rise's From Local Courts to National Tribunals: Tbe Federal District Courts of Florida. 18211990 1991), Steven H. Wilsoris ' 11} e Rise offudicial Management in tbe US. District Court,Southern District of Texas,18552000 2002), and Charles L. Zeldeds Justice Lies in tbe District:Tbe US. District Court,Southern District of Texas, 19021960 1993) have begun the process of building a historiography of the lower federal judiciary to enable scholars to understand more fully the pressures, strengths, weaknesses, doctrinal advances, and case loads of these important, but underappreciated , judicial institutions. While the lion' s share of scholarship has 78 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS been and will continue to be on the U.S. Supreme Court, legal historians and court historians are offering muchneeded interpretations of the lower federal judiciary. Aimed at a general rather than a scholarly · audience,FederalJustice in Indiana: ' Ibe History of tbe United States District Coul't for tbe Southern District of Indiana, tells the story of the origin and development of the federal courts in Indiana and, after 1928, the Southern District of Indiana. Coauthors George W. Geib, a historian, and Donald B. Kite, Sn, an attorney,trace the outlines of the institutional history of the federal judiciary in the Hoosier state from territorial court up to the modern court comprised of multiple judges. Thev trace the institution's development by surveying the judges, clerks, marshals, magistrates , and bankruptcy referees/ judges who have served on the court. Given the paucity of scholarship on the topic and the intended gener·al · audience, a biographical approach is reasonable. Supported with paintings or photographs of the judges, the chapters chronicle the arrival of a...

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