A Setting for Excellence: The Story of the Planning and Development of the Ann Arbor Campus of the University of Michigan by Frederick W. Mayer (review)

Book Reviews 117 historical context. Thus, Henry Baxter emerges as a one-dimensional, in Martin’s words, “man of his times” (p. 176). Yet, disappointedly, readers learn little about the complexity of the man or his times. Lesley J. Gordon University of Akron Frederick W. Mayer, A Setting for Excellence: The Story of the Planning and Development of the Ann Arbor Campus of the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015. Pp. 184. Illustrations. Index. Notes. Cloth: $49.95. Fredrick W. Mayer, successful campus and city architectural planner, has written a skillfully detailed architectural history of the evolution of the University of Michigan campus in A Setting for Excellence. The campus first took shape under architects A. J. Davis and Ithiel Town in 1838 and 1839 as part of a Federal plan. By the 1870s, the campus comprised a “collegiate row” of buildings, including Haven Hall, University Hall, the observatory, the chemical laboratory, the Medical Building, and two original dormitories (Mason Hall and South Wing). The second half of the nineteenth century ushered in an era of laissez-faire opportunism which culminated in the “City Beautiful” movement, and city planners began aggressively reevaluating urban infrastructure and aesthetics. Mayer explores how the eclectic style of the post-Civil War decades signaled a deterioration in the aesthetic cohesion of the campus: carpenter style for the Pavilion Hospital and College of Dental Surgery, while the Heating Plant, General Library, University Museum, West Physics Building, Tappan Hall, Engineering Shops Building, and Waterman Gym were constructed in the Romanesque Revival style, and other buildings displayed Italianate and Second Empire motifs. Clearly, a new period of campus expansion was underway and with it the abandonment of classical collegiate fraternity. The Beaux Arts mode of design moved the Michigan campus firmly into the twentieth century with its accompanying industrial and demographic changes. Enrollment nearly tripled from 1900 to 1923, and by 1910, the campus reached the limit of its forty-acre central area. To solve this problem, campus designers renovated pre-existing buildings and relocated peripheral academic activities away from the central campus. In 1921, supervising architect Albert Kahn constructed six new 118 The Michigan Historical Review halls of an unprecedented scale in an early modernist-Beaux hybrid style between colonial Georgian and Gothic. Mayer shows how the campus embraced a research-oriented focus during the latter half of the twentieth century, as architects decided upon a central campus plan with a pedestrian center, a vehicular periphery, and an overall sense of order by incorporating modern infrastructural solutions into its architecture. Mayer skillfully weaves the intricate history of the University of Michigan’s architectural transformations into the broad cultural changes of United States history. By utilizing over one hundred figures, Mayer presents a visually appealing mix of narratives and images to convey the evolving character of the campus. However, although sweeping in visual scope, Mayer confines his discourse to a select group of university administrators and architects, neglecting other voices inside the university. He never fully integrates architectural culture into the university’s academic climate, focusing instead on infrastructural demand. Additionally, the absence of footnoted citations and a reliance on secondary sources makes referencing difficult. Nevertheless, the detailed narrative and visual data alone will set Mayer’s work apart as a valuable encyclopedic volume. E. Wesley Reynolds, III Central Michigan University Michael A. McDonnell, Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America. New York: Hill and Wang. 2015 Pp. 416. Illustrations. Index. Notes. Cloth: $35.00. In Masters of Empire, Michael McDonnell reframes the narrative of French, English, and Anishinaabe encounters from first contact to the American Revolution. McDonnell describes a powerful Anishinaabe confederacy, centered at Michilimackinac, as the dominant player manipulating peripheral colonial powers for their own economic and political interests during a formative period in colonial America. He challenges authors like Richard White whose seminal work, The Middle Ground, characterizes tribes in the Western Great Lakes in the seventeenth century as needy refugees fleeing Iroquois expansion who required ‘imported imperial glue’ to reconstruct themselves. McDonnell, instead, notes the “profound strategic and commercial importance of the straits of Michilimackinac” which contributed to Anishinaabe power during this ...