Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758: A Biography by Ola Elizabeth WinslowReview by: Herbert W. SchneiderThe American Historical Review, Vol. 46, No. 2 (Jan., 1941), pp. 417-418Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1838992 .

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JJWinslow: Jonathan Edwards 4I7

scot, while subject to the state of Maine, have no formal relations with the Federal government.

For over a generation Professor Speck has been salvaging the residual features of Northeastern Algonkian culture. Thanks to both his skill and the native conservatism, the results are far richer than might be inferred from the prolonged exposure to white contact. Those on linguistics, art, religion, and myth have largely been published, leaving ecology and social life as the main topics of the present volume.

Caucasian influences have not worked uniformly in these major depart- ments of life. The social structure has suffered sufficiently to thwart a defini- tive reconstruction. The author had for a long time conceived the basic unit of the area to be a loose band with patrilineally transmitted rights to exploit a particular territory. But the hitherto unpublished researches of Dr. Frank T. Siebert, which are summarized here, now incline him to interpret the organization as a weak, yet definite, clan system with unilateral descent, totemism, and exogamy (p. 204 f.). Somewhat confusingly, he has not con- sistently adhered to this view, so that one even encounters a flat denial of exogamy (p. 253). The difficulty results from the impossibility nowadays of securing wholly trustworthy statistics as to what marriage and residence were like at a time when the economic system of the patrilineal groups was in full swing (p. 23I). On the subject of a dual division, however, I am more sanguine: the data cited seem to establish nonexogamous moieties such as are known from other areas, too, as peripheral representatives of a full-fledged marriage regulating moiety scheme (pp. 234-36).

Material life, which looms largest in the book, had in essence suffered less when Professor Speck began his studies, and by eking out his observa- tions with those of earlier recorders he has achieved a remarkably vivid account of Indian existence near the outermost margins of maize growing. The preponderance of hunting and fishing, the correlated importance of river transportation, the manifold uses of birchbark, the seasonal rhythm of economic pursuits and travel, are all powerfully brought home to us. In this daily routine Professor Speck has shared to the utmost of his ability, and his spontaneous sympathy with aboriginal attitudes makes the total picture a singularly attractive and convincing one.

University of California. ROBERT H. LowIE.

JJWinslow: Jonathan Edwards 4I7

scot, while subject to the state of Maine, have no formal relations with the Federal government.

For over a generation Professor Speck has been salvaging the residual features of Northeastern Algonkian culture. Thanks to both his skill and the native conservatism, the results are far richer than might be inferred from the prolonged exposure to white contact. Those on linguistics, art, religion, and myth have largely been published, leaving ecology and social life as the main topics of the present volume.

Caucasian influences have not worked uniformly in these major depart- ments of life. The social structure has suffered sufficiently to thwart a defini- tive reconstruction. The author had for a long time conceived the basic unit of the area to be a loose band with patrilineally transmitted rights to exploit a particular territory. But the hitherto unpublished researches of Dr. Frank T. Siebert, which are summarized here, now incline him to interpret the organization as a weak, yet definite, clan system with unilateral descent, totemism, and exogamy (p. 204 f.). Somewhat confusingly, he has not con- sistently adhered to this view, so that one even encounters a flat denial of exogamy (p. 253). The difficulty results from the impossibility nowadays of securing wholly trustworthy statistics as to what marriage and residence were like at a time when the economic system of the patrilineal groups was in full swing (p. 23I). On the subject of a dual division, however, I am more sanguine: the data cited seem to establish nonexogamous moieties such as are known from other areas, too, as peripheral representatives of a full-fledged marriage regulating moiety scheme (pp. 234-36).

Material life, which looms largest in the book, had in essence suffered less when Professor Speck began his studies, and by eking out his observa- tions with those of earlier recorders he has achieved a remarkably vivid account of Indian existence near the outermost margins of maize growing. The preponderance of hunting and fishing, the correlated importance of river transportation, the manifold uses of birchbark, the seasonal rhythm of economic pursuits and travel, are all powerfully brought home to us. In this daily routine Professor Speck has shared to the utmost of his ability, and his spontaneous sympathy with aboriginal attitudes makes the total picture a singularly attractive and convincing one.

University of California. ROBERT H. LowIE.

Jonathan Edwards, 1703-i758: A Biogr-aphy. By OLA ELIZABET WINSLOW. (New York: Macmillan Company. 1940. PP. xii, 406. $3.50.) THIs is by far the most complete and scholarly account of Edwards's

career that has been written. Miss Winslow has made extensive use not only of the Edwards Papers but of many scattered references to Edwards from other sources. Furthermore her biography has profited by the critical studies of Faust and McGiffert in interpreting his mind. She shows convincingly

Jonathan Edwards, 1703-i758: A Biogr-aphy. By OLA ELIZABET WINSLOW. (New York: Macmillan Company. 1940. PP. xii, 406. $3.50.) THIs is by far the most complete and scholarly account of Edwards's

career that has been written. Miss Winslow has made extensive use not only of the Edwards Papers but of many scattered references to Edwards from other sources. Furthermore her biography has profited by the critical studies of Faust and McGiffert in interpreting his mind. She shows convincingly

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.73 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 17:16:26 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

418 Reviews of Books

that Jonathan Edwards was "neither Puritan nor fiery" (p. I38); he helped to break down Congregational ecclesiasticism by conceiving religion as in- timately personal, and he relied less on the fear of hell-fire to bring sinners to God than on an indwelling "supernatural light" in virtue of which a man can see "a calm, sweet cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost every- thing". The "almost" in this sentence is interesting; it appears from this biography that Edwards derived his sense of the "awful sweetness" of God from solitary communion with nature (his own descriptions of his conver- sion are full of "nature mysticism"), and that in human society he had "abundant reason to be convinced of the troublesomeness and vexation of the world, and that it will never be another kind of world". This last remark, by the way, he made as he embarked on his duties as tutor at Yale College, after he had spent several "sweet and pleasant" months on the banks of the Hudson.

The desocialization of religion in the mind of Edwards and in America in general, following the Great Awakening, is described excellently in this biography. The influence of Dutch pietism on Edwards, however, is ignored, and his brief residence in New York among the Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed is passed over as of no significance, whereas it may throw light both on his pietism and his Presbyterian leanings. The break with Thomas Clap and with Yale after Edwards had definitely turned "New Light" is given brief mention, but no explanation is offered of Edwards's invitation to Princeton. The career of Edwards is a chapter in the Presbyterianizing of New England; this comes out not merely in his theology but in his defense of the Hampshire Association and his attacks on the theories of the Congre- gationalist "covenants". In the general history of America Edwards is im- portant not as a defender of Puritan orthodoxy but as a pioneer preacher of the separation of religion and society. The story of his exile from Northamp- ton makes dramatic the departures of his mind from "the New England way".

Columbia Univetsity. HERBERT W. SCHNEIDER.

418 Reviews of Books

that Jonathan Edwards was "neither Puritan nor fiery" (p. I38); he helped to break down Congregational ecclesiasticism by conceiving religion as in- timately personal, and he relied less on the fear of hell-fire to bring sinners to God than on an indwelling "supernatural light" in virtue of which a man can see "a calm, sweet cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost every- thing". The "almost" in this sentence is interesting; it appears from this biography that Edwards derived his sense of the "awful sweetness" of God from solitary communion with nature (his own descriptions of his conver- sion are full of "nature mysticism"), and that in human society he had "abundant reason to be convinced of the troublesomeness and vexation of the world, and that it will never be another kind of world". This last remark, by the way, he made as he embarked on his duties as tutor at Yale College, after he had spent several "sweet and pleasant" months on the banks of the Hudson.

The desocialization of religion in the mind of Edwards and in America in general, following the Great Awakening, is described excellently in this biography. The influence of Dutch pietism on Edwards, however, is ignored, and his brief residence in New York among the Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed is passed over as of no significance, whereas it may throw light both on his pietism and his Presbyterian leanings. The break with Thomas Clap and with Yale after Edwards had definitely turned "New Light" is given brief mention, but no explanation is offered of Edwards's invitation to Princeton. The career of Edwards is a chapter in the Presbyterianizing of New England; this comes out not merely in his theology but in his defense of the Hampshire Association and his attacks on the theories of the Congre- gationalist "covenants". In the general history of America Edwards is im- portant not as a defender of Puritan orthodoxy but as a pioneer preacher of the separation of religion and society. The story of his exile from Northamp- ton makes dramatic the departures of his mind from "the New England way".

Columbia Univetsity. HERBERT W. SCHNEIDER.

Cockpit of the Revolution: The War for Independence in New Jersey. By LEONARD LUNDIN. [The Princeton History of New Jersey.] (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1940. PP. Xiv, 463. $3.75.) PROFESSOR Lundin has made a welcome contribution to a fuller under-

standing of the military history of the American Revolution. In this second volume of The Princeton History of New Jersey he has treated the crucial struggle of I776-77 in that state with commendable scholarship, devoting the greater part of his book to this phase of the war. Though the emphasis throughout is on military events, there is a particularly useful introductory chapter on New Jersey in 1776, a discerning analysis of the social and eco- nomic factors that made for internal dissension on the eve of the war, and

Cockpit of the Revolution: The War for Independence in New Jersey. By LEONARD LUNDIN. [The Princeton History of New Jersey.] (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1940. PP. Xiv, 463. $3.75.) PROFESSOR Lundin has made a welcome contribution to a fuller under-

standing of the military history of the American Revolution. In this second volume of The Princeton History of New Jersey he has treated the crucial struggle of I776-77 in that state with commendable scholarship, devoting the greater part of his book to this phase of the war. Though the emphasis throughout is on military events, there is a particularly useful introductory chapter on New Jersey in 1776, a discerning analysis of the social and eco- nomic factors that made for internal dissension on the eve of the war, and

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.73 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 17:16:26 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions