The History of Newberry County South Carolina. Volume One: 1749-1860, and: Thomas County, 1865-1900 (review)

188civil war history program that provided for battleships and lesser vessels as a part of a battle fleet deterrent, for nickel steel armor, for heavier armament, for two fleets, for increased professionalism, and for reform of his department and navy yards. Cooling describes political conditions at the time of the passage of the important Naval Act of 1890 and the relationship of the secretary and businessmen, especially Andrew Carnegie, in constructing the modern navy. Tracy's "generally austere personality" (p. 83) and Cooling's proseit often reads like a dissertation—will discourage some readers, yet this slim biography clearly indicates that Tracy, a close ally of President Harrison, was an influential nationalist, navalist, and expansionist. Cooling's reasoned biography is an important addition to the literature of the navy at a significant period. Students seeking additional details about the navy or Tracy should find the bibliographical note a useful compilation. G. Thomas Edwards Whitman College The History of Newberry County South Carolina. Volume One: 17491860 . By Thomas H. Pope (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1973. Pp. xvii, 389.) Thomas County, 1865-19(X). By William Warren Rogers. (Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, 1973. Pp. xiv, 486. $15.00. ) Here is local history with a vengeance. Both of these books deal with the story of single counties. And because both take a full volume to cover a limited time span, they both have great detail. Further, each is a part of a larger project. One, the study of Newberry County, South Carolina, is the first part of a projected two-volume work by Thomas Pope, a Newberry lawyer. The other, on Thomas County, Georgia, is the third volume in an ongoing series by William Rogers, a professor at Florida State University. Generally professional historians are excited by enthusiastic amateurs ; certainly I am. Traditionally local history has been the special province of amateurs. Today few professionals, other than some colonialists , write book-length studies of counties (here I am excluding urban history). Current cries for in depth and detailed treatments of such topics as social structure and mobility, political organization, agricultural practices and developments, racial patterns demand research on the county level. Thus, amateur local historians can perform a distinct service to the understanding of the American past by helping lay foundations on which more general studies can be built. Because of that belief and because of my special interest in South Carolina, I approached Pope's volume with eagerness. Anticipation soon turned into disappointment. Mr. Pope has not written a history book reviews189 of anything; instead he has put together lists of men, events, and places. In his book you can find the name of every ferry across every river in Newberry County, the name of every Newbcrrian in the Mexican War, and the name of almost everything else. Mr. Pope has obviously spent many, many hours digging up facts but he has neglected to ask important questions. He gives more space to the doctors and dentists who practiced in Newberry than he does either to his treatment of agriculture and slavery or his chapter on political aspects ( but a dozen pages in each instance). He asks no analytical questions about nullification, secession, the Southern radicalism prevalent in Newberry (though he bemoans its existence) about plantation agriculture. Perhaps in his second volume Mr. Pope will ask and try to answer significant questions. Professor Rogers does ask the questions; he also gives the lie to my earlier generalization about professional historians and county history. He does try to explain what happened in one place over time. His detail on items such as race relations, the social and political activity of blacks, the politics of agrarian radicalism, the pervasiveness of boosterism, the love affair with railroads will prove interesting and informative to scholars of the postbellum South, as well as to citizens of Thomas County . This is a solid book. My only basic reservation about Rogers's work on Thomas County concerns its dimensions. I, for one, doubt that the history of Thomas County deserves three volumes, with more, I assume, to come. William J. Cooper, Jr. Louisiana State University Grace King of New Orleans: A Selection of Her Writings. Edited by...