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BOOK REVIEWS |
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THE NEW COMMONWEALTH, 1877- 1890. By John A. Garraty. (New York: Harper & Row, 1968. xv ?? 364p.; edi- tor's introduction, preface, illustrations, bibliographical essay, and index. $7.95, $2.25 paper.) With the welcome appearance of Profes- sor Garraty's masterful synthesis and re- evaluation of the Hayes to Harrison period of our national development, we have the most important study of these highly sig- nificant, but long neglected years since the 1930's when Ida M. Tarbell and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., wrote companion volumes covering 1878 to 1898 for the pioneering History of American Life series. Garraty's work is richly documented, evi- dences a thorough grasp of primary sources and secondary materials, and offers greater detail than Robert Wiebe's more broadly conceived and thought-provoking The Search for Order, 1877-1920 (1967). The New Commonwealth, 1877-1890 is also far better balanced in its approach than either of two other recent interpretations repre- sentative of the growing revival of interest in the 1870's and 1880's: Ray Ginger's The Age of Excess (1965)
and Fred A. Shan- non's posthumously published The Centen- nial Years (1967).
The present work estab- lishes a major turn in our historical under- standing of an era traditionally portrayed as one wholly dominated by an economic revolution, tragically handicapped ineffec- tive politicos, and cultural deprivation. This harsh appraisal is considerably soft- ened by Garraty who terms these years the time when the United States became a mod- ern nation. The New Commonwealth, a volume in The New American Nation Series, bears scant resemblance to its predecessor in the old American Nation set of the early 1900's, which concentrated heavily upon political history and foreign affairs. The |
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extent of the broadening of the concept of history during the last sixty years and the impact of issues relevant to today's society upon historical writing is clearly reflected in Garraty's organization and emphasis. In eight lengthy chapters, brimming with sta- tistics and examples, he pictures first, the social milieu, and then turns to the great forces working beneath "the glitter and the gold" of the age which transformed iso- lated, rural, agrarian, and nativist America into the urban and industrial world of the twentieth century. He stresses a growing in- stitutionalization of American life, whether the trend away from individualism toward increased reliance upon group action was in agriculture, industry, corporate develop- ment, the rise of unions, or the growth of government bureaucracy. Urbanization and immigration receive extended analysis. Fi- nally, the author includes an excellent re- visionist resume of presidential politics and changing patterns of social thought in the Gilded Age. In his massive sweep through a busy and formative age, one misses only an in-depth discussion of the cultural and artistic achievements of the time, purposely excluded because these topics will be cov- ered in a forthcoming volume by John Wil- liam Ward. In his reassessment Garraty inclines to the side of the industrial statesman rather than the robber baron thesis, cites as de- cided accomplishments the prevalence of large-scale philanthropy and the spread of mass education, and praises the achieve- ments of science and technology. He singles out great painters, like Eakins and Homer, and able architects, like Richardson and Sullivan, to counteract charges of cultural poverty. Two of his best chapters deal with political history, supposedly a topic better left alone for the period in question. He deftly explains the remarkable party equi- librium of the era, and re-ranks the Presi- dents, with Hayes and Garfield gaining in |