River of Enterprise: The Commercial Origins of Regional Identity in the Ohio Valley, 1790–1850 by Kim M. Gruenwald (review)

Book Reviews Kim M. Gruenwald. River of Enterprise: than fariners or budding iii: inufacturers, a choice Tbe Commercial Origins of Regional Iden- she defends by clearly demonstrating that inerchants tity in tbe Obio Valley, 1790-1850. provided an allimportant link to markets beyond Bloomington: Indiaiia University Press, the Ohic) Valley dtiring its foi-mative peric, d,as the 2()() 2. 214 pp. ISBN: 0253341329 ( cloth), region' s seniisubsistence ec() tiomy transfc, rmed into 39.95. a market econoliiv. Using the letters and journals of Dudley Woodbridge, Sn and Jr., merchants of saw tlic river as a boundary rather tlan the center of its ecotioinic life. Gruenwald fc, cuses her study on merchants rather An impressive collection of supplementary sources reinforces her clailli. But Gruenwald does have sonic difficulty connecting the shift from region to border to a developitig transportation intrastructure . River traffic, as measured at ( lincinnati,fc, r example, continued to increase well into the 1850s, and did not drop off dramatically until after the Civil War. And the Marietta and Cincitinati Railrocid, the single transportion link across southern Ohio that could truly replace the Ohio River as an avenue of commerce ,tic, t coincidentally,became a truly viable enterprise only during the Civil War.'Also,since Gruenwild does not address an important counter argumentthat a national debate over slavery contributed to reconceptualizing the river as a political and economic bc,rderthe reader ends up intrigued and fasciiiated by her new model for regional development , but not entirely convinced. If anything, these criticisms are too sti-() ng. 6( 1 0 HI 0 VA 1. LEY HISTORY K] M M (, RUENWA!. 1) RIV_ER OF L Gruenwald has written a most readable, wellar gued monograph. The book succeeds at the ambitious task of trying to fill an extremely wide breach in our knowledge of these early commercial networks ,and at offering an alternative model for regional development in the Ohio Valley. For that immense contribution,River of Enterprise deserves high praise and a wide audience. Clinton W.Terry Mercer University,Atlanta 1 · John E. Pixton,. In, " 1'aith vs. Economics: The Marietta aiid Cincinnati Railroad. 1845-1883." Ohio Historical Qi, arterly 66 (January 1957): 1- 10. Simon J. Bronner, ed. Lafcadio Hearn' s America:Etbnograpbic Sketches and Editorials . Lexington: University Press of Kentucky ,2002. 256 pp. ISBN: 0813122295 cloth), $ 35.00. Akhough there is a substantial literature about the eight years from 1869 to 1877 that Lafcadio Hearn ( 18501904 ) spent in Cincinnati, much more attention has been devoted to the last fourteen years of his life spent in Japan. It is the contention of Simon J. Bronner, a professor of American Studies at Pennsylvania State University, that Hearn is significant as a writer of ethnographic sketches, a form he developed first as a reporter focusing mostly on the underside of the Queen City' s life in the 1870s. After a thirtythree page introduction, the bulk of this volume reprints thirtytwo of Hearn's sketches, fifteen of which appeared in Cincinnati newspapersthe Enquirer and the Commercialbetween 1873 and 1877. Most of the rest focus on New Orleans, which was the next stop in Hearn's odyssey. Some of what Hearn wrote about the Queen City has been aptly described as " gruesome," but much of it,as Bronner' s selections show,is devoted to depicting,sympathetically,the downtrodden and the exotic groups with which Hearn clearly identified. Tc, pics include Hearn's account of a round with an overseer of the poor,a description of the city's rag pickers,outcast life in the East End, a tour of the county jail, and a comparison of the gentile and " Hebrew"slaughterhouses, highly favorable to the latter. Many of the Cincinnati sketches feature African Americans, one of whom was briefly married to Hearn. Obviously, a great deal of what Hearn wrote about Gilded Age Cincinnati should be grist for the urban historian's 111111, but it has been little utilized. Those seeking further Hearn Cincinnatiana should consult the listing of 439( !) items in Jon C. Hughes' collection of Hearn's essays, Period of tbe Gruesoine 1990). Bronner' s concerns are not essentially historical apart from alerting us to some of Hearn' s available writings;he...