The Center of a Great Empire: The Ohio Country in the Early Republic ed. by Andrew R. L. Cayton, Stuart D. Hobbs (review)

tion. In spite of its faults,Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley remains a " scientific treasure ( 69) as well as a historic one. Melissa Baltus University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign Andrew R. L. Cayton and Stuart D. Hobbs, eds. 7be Center of a Great Empire : ' Ibe ObiO Country in the Early Republic . Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005. 233 pp. ISBN 0821416200 ( cloth), 34.95. his brief but thoughtprovoking vol1 ume originated as a series of papers at the 2003 conference of the Society for Historians ofthe Early American Republic ( Sheer), held at the Ohio State University . The seven essays ( one of which was not on the SHEAR program but was written specifically for this book)explore a wide range of topics having to do with the Ohio Country in the early American nation, a subject of increased interest to professional historians and intelligent general readers. Both groups will profit from the diverse essays. All of the pieces are interesting,wellresearched , and wellpresented . Of special interest is Patrick Griffin' s work on Indian removal, in which he describes how the initial fluidity of Indianwhite relations gave way to a hardening of white attitudes and increased calls by the comparatively liberal elite and their longtime confrontational poorer brethren for removal. The federal government, Griffin maintains, acceded to these entreaties not so much because it wanted to than because it feared losing the allegiance of the West. Of equal interest and importance is Ellen Estinger' s perceptive piece of white attitudes toward African Americans in early Ohio. Both antislavery and antiblack , whites called for legislation ( in 1804 and 1807)deliberately intended to discourage black inmigration and,when that failed,embraced the American Colonization Society. As is wellknown ,other Ohioans covertly aided African Americans and were firm abolitionists. By the 1830s, white Ohioans were severely polarized on the issue, reflecting the growing debate in much of the Old Northwest and the free states in the East. SUMM ER 2006 Edited by Andrew R L. Ca> ton dS t D. Hobbs THE1 74 r 61 BOOK REVIEWS While Ohio theoretically was a blank slate upon which settlers could write what they pleased, Christopher Clark reminds us of the extent to which Ohio brought older economic, social, and cultural institutions and practices to a new environment, and was thus powerfully shaped by ch:iracteristics imported from the East" ( 147). Of the several points Clark makes, of special importance are his recognition of relationships between country :, nd town as well as between the " better ' and " lower" sorts and the pattern of familybased farming and household production. Unfortunately, space does not permit attention to b: given to fine works by Donald J. Rateliffe ( on the political elite's acceptance of popular political participation ), John Wigger ( on the thriving Methodist church),Kenneth Wheeler on the ' culture ofusefulness" in the many institutions of higher education), and Tamara Gaskell Miller ( on the durability of the extended family), but each has a good deal to teach us about what may well have been a harbinger of modern America in the Old Northwest. An excellent afterword and an extremely helpful thirtyeight page bibliography round out this superior collection. As expected, these historians are not always in agreement,especially on the issue of whether Ohio was a new society in a new land or an imported society in a new land. And, at last, the question that bothered early settlers then as well as Ohioans who celebrated their state' s bicentennial in 2003 remains: what, after all,is Ohio?Is it eastern,part of the Midwest , a variation of the East, or is Ohio none of these things or a mixture of all of them? Wisely,the editors allow all of us, after reading this fine contribution, to draw our own conclusions. Bruce Wheeler University ofTennessee, Knoxville James L. Butler and John J. Butter. Indiana Wine:A History. Bloomington: j Indiana University Press, 2001. 232 pp. ISBN 0253340365 ( hardcover),$ 14.95. 2 Tn 1802,a Swiss immigrant named Jean 1Jacques Dufour petitioned President 2 Thomas Jefferson to grant him and a 1 band of fellow Swiss settlers a parcel of E land on the banks of the Ohio River in 62 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY...