Confederate Propaganda in Europe: 1861-1865 by Charles P. CullopReview by: W. David LewisThe Journal of American History, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Jun., 1970), pp. 153-154Published by: Organization of American HistoriansStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1900588 .

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Book Reviews 153

who could "escape from the degradation of being Jewish" (p. 212) and to whom all traditional ties would seem restrictive. This book's chief fault is its biographical and episodic method. As a result, the fascinating cluster of suggestive social, economic, religious, political, and cultural themes do not quite come into focus, for they are not fully spelled out, developed, or con- solidated within a larger urban framework. Perhaps the author's intent will be served best if this book stimulates the kind of comparative scholarship that will explore the American urban frontiers as social and cultural cruci- bles in an ever-changing and elusive America where ethnic place and prece- dence have eluded classification by historians and where the variables of era, region, and ethnic mix have generated a melange of local experiences that badly need to be understood and appreciated. SAN FRANCISCO STATE COLLEGE MOSES RIsCHIN

Confederate Propaganda in Europe. 1861-1865. By Charles P. Cullop. (Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1969. 160 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. $6.95.) The history of propaganda is a subject of obvious timeliness and merits

more attention than has previously been given to it. Although Confederate propaganda has received coverage in general studies such as Owsley's King Cotton Diplomacy and in a few specialized articles, Charles P. Cullop's concise monograph is the first book-length analysis of the topic and thus fills a niche that has somehow remained vacant in the densely packed shelves of the Civil War library. Its chief protagonist is Henry Hotze, an Alabam- ian of Swiss birth who went to Europe as a Confederate agent late in 1861, established a newspaper called the Index to promote sympathy for the southern cause, and performed valuable work for his superiors by securing the insertion of loaded materials in the British and French press, disparag- ing northern financial stability in order to discourage potential investors in Union bond issues, attempting to counter the work of federal recruiters among prospective immigrants, and abetting the continual effort to secure diplomatic recognition for the embattled Davis government. Cullop's evi- dence goes far to substantiate his claim (p. 130) that "Hotze had no equal among all the Confederate officials sent to Europe." More tenuous is the larger impression which he seeks implicitly to convey: that thanks in large part to Hotze's activities, the Confederate propaganda program was better than its Union counterpart and failed in its mission because of the superior overall advantages of the North, the Richmond government's misplaced faith in the power of a cotton shortage to induce European intervention, and the high-level ineptitude which plagued Confederate diplomacy at crit- ical moments. The validity of this line of argument will depend partly on the results of future research in northern propaganda efforts, but it seems clear from Cullop's own work that the Confederate propaganda program

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154 The Journal of American History

suffered from its own inherent weaknesses, especially in spreading the ser- vices of a good man entirely too thin for really effective results. Neverthe- less, this is a highly commendable work, well grounded in the published and unpublished sources, intelligently organized, and clearly written. Its limitations lie partly in the underdeveloped nature of the field of study to which it is a pioneer contributor, and its virtues, while undramatic, are sub- stantial. STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, BUFFALO W. DAVID LEWIS

George Bourne and The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable. By John W. Christie and Dwight L. Dumond. (Wilmington: Historical Society of Delaware and The Presbyterian Historical Society, 1969. xi + 206 pp. Notes. $5.00.) This timely republication of Bourne's study, with biographic, biblio-

graphic, and interpretive information, provides another look at the begin- nings of radical abolitionism. The authors show that Bourne knew the facts of slavery at first hand; that he had an intimate knowledge of the Bible; that he was influenced by unofficial Presbyterian doctrinal statements and in turn influenced the anti-slavery fight in the Presbyterian church; and finally and most important, that fifteen years later William Lloyd Garrison capitalized on his relationship with Bourne and his recently acquired knowl- edge of Bourne's writings in getting the Liberator established and in fur- thering the myth that he himself was the founder of radical abolitionism.

In crediting Bourne with being the source of much that has been consid- ered Garrisonian, the authors go so far as to contend that with Bourne's writings available, Garrison's "To The Public" address "would have been little more than a sophomoric exercise" in composition (p. 91 ). They have succeeded admirably in exposing Garrison's largely unacknowledged debt to Bourne. They have not examined the possibility that Bourne also borrowed from Garrison, nor have they examined contributions to "Garrisonian" rad- icalism from other sources.

It is unnecessary to dispute the authors' interpretation of Garrisonian ex- pertise in the fine art of appropriating that which another had written (Bourne did it too), to contend that the authors find Bourne where Bourne does not exist. The article by "A Colored Baltimorean" (William Watkins) is a case in point. There is no reason to suspect either Garrison's integrity in assigning authorship, or the likelihood of Watkins' having writ- ten it. He was indeed a man of the stature and attributes described by Gar- rison (pp. 93-94); he wrote for various periodicals before and after 1831; he was personally acquainted with Garrison; he was one of the earliest sup- porters of the Liberator.

Bourne did contribute substantially to the success of the Liberator and to

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