Federal Justice in Indiana: The History of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana by George W. Geib, Donald B. Kite Sr. (review)

144 Michigan Historical Review same section are untranslated. And these sections might also have more closely connected New World efforts with Old World support, e.g., the many Catholic Marylanders (including John Carroll and Charles Carroll) who attended the English Jesuit school in Flanders. In summary, Cushner offers awelcome introductory text on Jesuit efforts in the New World, based on an understanding of Jesuit spirituality and missiology, and comparative analysis that brings each aspect of the book into focus. Anthony J.Kuzniewski College of the Holy Cross George W. Geib and Donald B. Kite, Sr. Federal Justice in Indiana: The History of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2007. Pp. 350. Glossary. Index. Notes. Cloth, $29.95. This book details the history of federal courts in Indiana from the territorial period through the present. It was not until 1925 that Indiana's federal courts were divided into a northern district and a southern district, so the book necessarily includes the history shared by Indiana's two districts. The first chapters do an excellent job of intertwining local and regional histories with the formation of Indiana's federal court. Familiar topics like slavery and the Civil War appear in relation to court events. President Jackson's appointment of former Indiana Supreme Court Judge Jesse Holman to the federal bench, for example, demonstrates how national concerns over slavery played a role in the history of Indiana's federal courts. The authors recount how Holman traveled all the way to Washington, D.C, to meet with President Jackson in order to lay to rest Jackson's worries about Holman's abolitionist tendencies. These early chapters do a masterful job of avoiding the pitfalls of many legal histories?plodding biographies of judge after judge or recitations of case after case. Throughout each chapter of Federal Justice in Indiana, the authors include interesting biographical details about the courts' judges and discuss a few relevant cases. In addition, however, they also present interesting information about other aspects of life in the federal courts. Attention is given to the history and architecture of the buildings that housed the courts and the people (in addition to Book Reviews 145 judges) who served the court. From the outset, Geib and Kite identify moral reform as a common thread throughout the court's history, and they work to illustrate its various manifestations from Prohibition to the current deluge of drug-related cases before the federal courts. I wish the authors had maintained this unity and balance through the final chapter. Acknowledging that it is difficult to write about sitting judges, this section reads more like a checklist of topics to be covered before the end of the book. Complicated legal terms that are unfamiliar to the average reader and technical details about particular cases dominate the work's last sixty pages. Despite this shortcoming, Federal Justice in Indiana is an excellent resource that will appeal to a wide variety of readers. The information regarding the types of cases heard by the court, the shifts in the operation of the court, and changes in the legal profession will be of value to anyone interested in regional or legal history?not just Indiana or the federal courts in particular. Elizabeth R. Osborn Indiana Supreme Court Indianapolis, Indiana Ralph D. Gray. Meredith Nicholson: A Writing Ufe. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2007. Pp. 281. Bibliography. Illustrations. Notes. Cloth, $19.95. At the turn of the twentieth century, Meredith Nicholson was a favorite literary son of Indiana at a time when Indiana writers commanded the nation's attention. Along with such celebrated Hoosier authors as Booth Tarkington, James Whitcomb Riley, and George Ade, Nicholson published a series of works that mosdy used his native state as the backdrop. His fame rested on his writing in popular genres such as mysteries and adventure stories, although he also produced "problem" novels, works on Indiana history, and political essays. Nicholson had a trio of bestsellers in the early twentieth century, including his most famous work, House of a Thousand Candles. This Midwest gothic mystery was published in 1905. However, unlike other Indiana writers of the time, Nicholson...