Quaker History

Book Reviews61 make any obvious factual mistakes, this treatment tends to rob her subjects of their full dignity, and to suggest their motivation came more from the unconscious need to overcome their social oppression, which was certainly necessary, than from a genuine movement of the Holy Spirit. While her treatment ofQuakerwomen is more respectful thanthat ofsome ofherother subjects, one might wish for a less arch tone. Readers wishing a more indepth treatment ofthe same period would do well to go on to read Phyllis Mack's Visionary Women, or the anthology by Mary Garman, Judith Applegate, Margaret Benefield, and Dortha Meredith, Hidden in Plain Sight, for treatment with more depth. One might wish also that Davies had examined the origin ofthe Quaker women's business meeting, that seedbed ofQuaker gender democracy that protected the ideas ofthe English Revolution and nursed them into flower forcoming generations. While Quakerwomenmight seemat one with many oftheir Puritan sisters, their roles as foremothers oflater leaders ofwomen resulted from the institutionalization oftheir pioneering. Formanyreaders, however, this lively book will serve as an introduction to a fascinating subject that must be understood before the advances of women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries can be evaluated. One hopes Stevie Davies has many readers. Margaret Hope BaconKennett Square, Pa. TheLife ofHerbertHoover. Vol. Ill: MasterofEmergencies, 191 7-1918. By George H. Nash. New York: Norton, 1996. 672 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. 945. George Nash has dedicated himselfto researching and revealing the life of Herbert Hoover in extensive detail, and this volume meets the high standards set by his previous scholarship. The last volume ofthis ongoing biography, covering the years 1914-1917, endedwith Hoover inLondon as founderandadministrator ofone ofthe most successful humanitarianefforts in history: the relief commission that provided food and other vital assistance to the more than seven million Belgians trappedbetween the German and British armed forces. In 1917, the U.S. entered the Great War, whereupon "Hoover of Belgium " enteredWoodrowWilson's government as head oftheFood Administration . Again, Hooverprovedtobe the consummatebureaucrat, building anefficientandeffectiveagencyforregulatingfoodpricesandconsumption while expanding production and exports to America's allies. As Food Controller he impressed many with his energy, "extraordinary grasp of 62Quaker History perplexing and intricate problems," and "magnetic leadership" (p. 503). Stressing his slogan, "Food Will Win the War," Hooverbecame a "benevolent bogey" (p. 159), exhorting the nation voluntarily to observe wheatless and meatless meals. His flair for publicity made the food campaign one of the mostprominent aspects ofthe wareffort, buthis flairforself-promotion engendered only envy and bitterness from other government officials. Indeed, Nash does not sugarcoat his subject; he carefully portrays and assesses a personality that could be thin-skinned, humorless, and imperious —traits that would later weaken Hoover's presidency. Readers interestedin the Quaker orfaith dimensions ofHoover's life will find little enlightenment in this volume. Despite an extensive fifteen-page index, there areno entriesfor"Quakerism" orsimilartopics. Nashdoes note that by 1918 Hoover "had not attended a [Quaker] meeting for years" and that "Sundays were devoted not to Sabbath observance but to automobile excursions into the countryside," usually ending near a stream where Hoover, ever the engineer, would construct dams with stones to divert the water from its course. The usually prim and tidy Hoover would emerge wet and muddy, looking "like a tramp" but thoroughly refreshed and invigorated , (p. 428) Clearly, Nash's Hoover found emotional and mental sustenance in his work, both humanitarian and recreational, rather than in the faith ofhis youth. Reading all of Nash's 656-page opus is not for the faint-hearted. Although the exhaustive research is exemplary, the detail can be mindnumbing . Fortunately, Nash writes with clarity and grace, invoking "the sultry dews and damps ofdowntown Washington" in the summer of 1918, orthe character ofa life lived in "constant overdrive." In the end, the rewards forthe reader are both increased knowledge anddeeperunderstandingofthe disciplined, talented man who would later serve as our thirty-first president. Alice Almond ShrockEarlham College Journey ofthe Wild Geese: A QuakerRomance in War-Torn Europe. By Madeleine Yaude Stephenson and Edwin "Red" Stephenson. Pasadena, CA: Intentional Productions, 1999. xviii + 316 pp. Illustrations. $ 17.95. Beginning with Madeleine Yaude's first report from France in April 1946 to the American Friends Service...