Albion W. Tourgée (review)

108CIVIL WAR HISTORY sor at Cambridge University, where he specializes in American history. However, rather than his overseas background being a disadvantage it proves in several respects to be an asset. This is to be seen particularly in his demonstration of how the U.S. Constitution itself greatly handicapped the establishment and implementation of Reconstruction policy, and by his placing of the Radicals in the general context of mid-nineteenth century liberal bourgeois movements. Also worthy of special note is his description of the personnel and processes of Congress in the postwar era; from it one obtains a better understanding not only of Reconstruction, but of American government as a whole during this period. Brock wrote this book before the appearance of John and LaWanda Cox's Politics, Principle, and Prejudice, and thus did not have the benefit of their researches showing that Johnson was motivated by other than a blind doctrinaire belief in states rights—that his intransigent attitude toward Congress was in large part the result of a determination to form and lead a new political party combining conservative Republicans and Democrats. But this lack, for which of course Brock cannot be criticized, in no way impairs the overall merit of his work, which has clearly profited from the new school of Reconstruction historians, especially Eric McKitrick 's Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction. I would like to conclude this review with two statements: First, An American Crisis is written in a splendid literary style for a work of an analytical type, one worthy of the finest traditions of British historiography . Secondly, to pay Brock perhaps the highest compliment that one historian can pay another, I wish I had written this book. But since I haven't, I am glad he has. Albert Castel Western Michigan University Albion W. Tourgée. By Theodore L. Gross. (New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1963. Pp. 176. $3.50.) Albion W. Tourgée was not an accomplished literary artist. The works of this recently rediscovered Reconstruction novelist, Union officer, schoolteacher , lawyer, judge, editor, and politician have great value for both Civil War enthusiasts and readers interested in understanding the background for the racial injustices experienced by the Negro. The primary value of Professor Gross's book is the close attention paid to many of the Tourgée works which have long been out of print and are not readily available in most libraries. In this study the author has striven to pay tribute to Tourgée, but the key weakness of the work is expressed by the prefatory statement that "there is still no full-length examination of Tourgée as a Reconstruction author." Professor Gross has also missed the opportunity of preparing such a study. This volume, Number 39 in the Twayne United States Authors Series, might have remedied the situation; but rather than BOOK REVIEWS109 thoroughness, an attempt is made to fulfill the publisher's description for the entire series, to offer a compact, critical, and analytical study of the author's works. Professor Gross correctly points out that Tourgée served as northern interpreter and reporter of Reconstruction, as well as apologist for the Negro. But it is an oversimplification to suggest that in his several Reconstruction novels Tourgée, who looked upon himself as a secular missionary to both Negro and misguided southerner, saw problems in terms of good and evil. Tourgée pinpointed not only the resistance of soutiierners, but the policies of the Radical Republicans as well for the failure of Reconstruction . The author recognizes that moralist and humanitarian Tourgée left his writings as a record of the political and social failure of the whole nation to reconstruct the South. But his was not the only voice of protest; not all southern writers were at the extreme end of the spectrum of prejudice . The Reconstruction writings of George Washington Cable, briefly mentioned in this study, and Sidney Lanier, also pointed to the failures of Reconstruction, caused by southerner as well as carpetbagger. Both of these southerners, like Tourgée, offered their suggestions for overcoming the South's problems. Tourgée helped organize the North Carolina Loyal Reconstruction League, a pro-Negro organization, in 1866. He also became...