The Hudson: A History, and: The River Where America Began: A Journey along the James (review)

Contemporary Americans who motor along ribbons of highway often lose sight of the critical role played by the mighty and majestic rivers of North America. Bob Deans, author of The River Where America Began: A Journey along the James, and Tom Lewis, author of The Hudson: A History, came of age in the environs of their beloved rivers, and each makes a strong case that his river represented the cradle of European–American civilization as well as the major gateway into the western frontier. Both wax poetic about the importance of place in the lives of historical actors. Their books are heartfelt and engaging.

Deans, a journalist for Cox Newspapers and former president of the White House Correspondents' Association, is a Richmond, Virginia, native who fondly recalls his childhood along the James. Tom Lewis is professor of English at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. His earlier work, Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highway System (New York, 1997), spawned a documentary that presents an impressive analysis concerning the social consequences of modern transportation arterials.

The River Where America Began and The Hudson open with discussions of the topographic characteristics of their respective regions as well as the geologic and climatic conditions that contributed to the formation of these grand bodies of water. The remainder of the books focus on people, with Deans providing extensive discussions of Powhatan and his vast confederacy, the first settlers to Jamestown, the Virginia dynasty of the Revolutionary era, and Virginians who figured prominently during the Civil War. Lewis, on the other hand, glosses over the Native American presence along the Hudson and directs most of his attention toward the prominent Dutch and English families who settled and subsequently dominated the valley through four centuries. He gives scant regard to what most scholars believe were the defining moments of Hudson River historiography—the fur trade, the "purchase" of Manhattan, the English seizure of New Amsterdam, the French and Indian War, the land riots as prelude to the Revolutionary War—yet he does fine work describing the many colorful personalities who had an impact on the region.

Both writers could have benefited from Kim Gruenwald's highly effective narrative of the Ohio River, John Seelye's examination of rivers in early American life and literature, Donald Worster's Rivers of Empire, Richard White's study of the Columbia, and John McPhee's chapter on the Mississippi in The Control of Nature. The Hudson and The River Where America Began also needed to pay more attention to how humans modified their physical environments. Lewis in the closing chapter of his book briefly addresses the twentieth-century pollution generated by Anaconda Wire and Cable (copper), General Electric (PCBs), and Consolidated Edison (nuclear reactors).

Lewis and Deans's books suffer from what is becoming a growing trend among respectable publishers and authors who eschew traditional footnotes or endnotes, thus making it difficult for scholars to verify factual material. Yale University Press elected to use "explanatory notes" for The Hudson, whereas Rowman & Littlefield went with no formal references at all. Deans's book simply includes a bibliography as well as occasional references in the text, some of which were not cross-listed in the list of sources at book's end. These shortcomings aside, persons rooted in or who live near the shores of the Hudson and James Rivers will treasure these volumes. Readers of the Journal of the Early Republic who study regions or geographic features may also find value in these two monographs.