Ohio History Journal

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BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

The United States, 1830-1850: The Nation and Its Sections. By Frederick

Jackson Turner. (New York, Peter Smith, 1950. xiv+602p., maps and

index. $5.00.)

This book was originally published by Henry Holt in 1935. For several

years it has been difficult to obtain, and scholars and librarians have reason

to be grateful both to Henry Holt for releasing the book and to Peter

Smith for the reissue. Technically this photo-offset edition is excellent,

and it is doubtful if any but an expert in such matters could distinguish

this from a letterpress edition.

When this volume appeared over fifteen years ago it was variously

hailed as Turner's greatest and crowning achievement and as his most

dismal and pitiable failure. The reasons for this wide disparity of opinion

are not far to seek. Although he had done a prodigious amount of re-

search and had labored over fifteen years, Turner had not finished the

book when he died. He had written most of the chapters but had only

outlined some, and his notes indicate that he meant to recast others. Had

he lived he would certainly have revised and edited the whole. Fully recog-

nizing these inadequacies, some of Turner's friends and colleagues neverthe-

less felt that the work should be published. Avery Craven, one of Turner's

former students, undertook the job of seeing the book through the press.

Craven wisely decided not to attempt to finish the book or to make large

scale revisions but to do only a minimum of editing. The fact that his-

torians have found the work immensely valuable and have demanded a

reissue would seem to vindicate the judgment of Craven and the others.

It would indeed have been a pity had not the fruits of Turner's

last years of research been made available. A pity for at least two reasons.

In the first place this is one of only two books of Turner's which attempt

a narrative account of a fairly extended period (Turner's other "history,"

called The New West, covered the period 1819-29). Turner was probably

at his best in the interpretative essay. But he was no less a master of

minute research and the amount of detail presented is no less than amazing.

A second justification for bringing out this unfinished volume is that it

represents the latest development in Turner's thinking about the meaning

and significance of American history. "Latest" is used advisedly, because even

had Turner lived to be a Methuselah he probably would never have essayed

final answers. He was content rather with proximate explanations.

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