Quaker History

Book Reviews59 the book is lacking. Scottish Enlightenment influence on Murray, which plays such an important role in understanding the impact of his English Readeron American culture, forexample, is addressedmore by association with the works ofspecific writers, rather than a carefully reasoned analysis of Murray's own thought in the context of those writings. Additionally, frequent genealogical references to the Murray family (as helpful and painstakingly researched as they might be) and the author's constant vacillation between Murray's story and the broader intellectual, economic and political context detract from the more substantive narrative, diminishing the coherence of an otherwise insightful work. Having said that, it is important to note the significance ofMonaghan's contribution to the history ofbook publishing. While he doesn't pretend to offer the definitive account ofMurray's English Reader, he does provide a briefbut cogent analysis ofthe text. He argues that the subtle influence of Scottish Enlightenment philosophy, with its emphasis on civic humanism, non-Calvinist Christian piety and the development of a moral sense, cultivated republican values among American school children and paved the way for a more active citizenry in the early republic. An equally impressive appendix offers a meticulous examination of Murray's publishing numbers, revealing that the Reader found a receptive audience in America during the period 1815 to 1840 as anti-slavery sentiment was growing. The five million copies that were published suggests that the textexercisedaprofoundinfluence onastudentgeneration that would eventually embrace the abolition of slavery (Murray also published ten million copies of other texts during the same period). Predictably, Abraham Lincoln referred to the Reader as "the best schoolbook ever put in the hands of an American youth." Monaghan's work should encourage future scholarship on Lindley Murray and his Reader, which is conspicuously absent in the historiography of American education. That, alone, is a wonderful contribution. William C. KashatusChester County Historical Society, West Chester, Pennsylvania Sojourners No More: The Quakers in the New South, 1865-1920. By Damon D. Hickey. Greensboro: North Carolina Friends Historical Society and North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1997. xvi + 175 pp. Illustrations, table, sources, and index. Paper, $20. In this updating and popularizing of his Ph.D. dissertation, Damon Hickey provides a brief, readable account of how southern (essentially North Carolina) Friends transformed themselves from "Sojourners in a 60Quaker History hostileregion" (xi) intopartofthemainstreampopulationoftheNew South. Because so little has been written about southern Quakers, especially their evolutionbetweenthe CivilWarandthe earlytwentiethcentury, Hickeyhas animportantand , insome ways, heroic storyto tell. Forthemostparthe tells thatstory well, recognizing the weaknesses and failures ofsouthernFriends as well as celebrating their successes. During the post-Civil War period, North Carolina Friends were rescued frompoverty and disarray throughthe workofthe Baltimore Association to Advise andAssistFriends inthe SouthernStates, foundedandledbyFrancis T. King, the Quakerphilanthropist. This aspect ofthe story is obviously of considerable importance, but, as it seems to me, more significant and riveting is the flounderingjourney from old-fashioned Quakerism to evangelical renewal—complete with a brief flirtation with radical Holiness— that characterized the spiritual progress of southern Friends. It is not an entirely uplifting trek, for before settling into moderate evangelicalism supported by a pastoral system which seemed the best of existing alternatives , North Carolina was unable to avert a Separation. Conservative Friends, after refusing to accept the Five Years Meeting's Uniform Discipline , established theirown YearlyMeeting in 1904. Hickey could scarcely be expected to present a full-blown account ofNorth Carolina Friend in so slim a volume, but his description ofcontinuing struggles over the modification oftraditional beliefs and practices is both engaging and informative. The author attempts to incorporate many ofthe leading lights ofsouthern Quakerismintohis narrative,butonlyafewemerge as distinctpersonalities. The most important of these is certainly Mary Mendenhall Hobbs who is honored not only for her tireless educational and organizational activities but also because she insisted onputting the best interests ofthe body ahead of any particular theological agenda. Hickey believes that more than any other individual, including her husband Lewis Lyndon Hobbs, long-time President ofGuilford College and Clerk ofNorth Carolina Yearly Meeting for thirty-seven years, Mary Hobbs guided southern Friends through the dangerous waters of Separation, past the fearsome shoals of Holiness fanaticism and into a secure harbor of moderate evangelicalism, thus ensuring...