Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)
BOOK REVIEWS - Davis D. Joyce: D. W. Meinig: The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History. Volume 2: Continental America, 1800—1867. Yale University Press, 1993. 636 pp
is beyond this reviewer. (Some, however, might want to take issue with his contention that it was an "unusually severe" one.) We cannot continue to look at subsequent parts of Continental America at such length. Suffice it to say that in part two, "Expansion," Meinig turns his focus inward to look at such topics as the filling in of the continent through westward expansion, the development of a transportation network, and the development of cities and industries. How, one might understandably wonder, could Meinig possibly have anything fresh to say about Frederick Jackson Turner's much used, abused, debated, and for many relegated frontier thesis? But his modestly-described "geographic assessment" of Turner's "notoriously elusive concept" is more than just fresh —it is brilliant At its heart are two of Meinig's 86 illustrations: one a two-page diagram of the "Classic Turnerian Pattern" of the six stages from "savagery" to "civilization" (wilderness, trader's frontier, rancher's frontier, farmer's frontier, intensive agriculture, and city and factory); and the other a two-page diagram presenting "An Alternative Pattern: American System of Regional Development" from "North American Traditional System" to "Modern World System" (Indian society, imperial frontier, mercantile frontier, speculative frontier, shakeout and selective growth, and toward consolidation). Describing the illustrations with words does not do them justice —that is why they are illustrations —they need to be read, studied, thought about. Some might not agree with the reviewer for the History Book Club when it offered Meinig's volume to its readers that Turner's model was "rendered all but useless for explanatory or even descriptive purposes," but few will differ that Meinig offers "a sophisticated, coherent alternative." While commenting on Meinig's illustrations, it should be noted that some are maps, which are brilliant and some are pictures, which do not work as well, in part because some readers will need a magnifying glass to see the features to which Meinig calls our attention. Meinig is remarkably sensitive and insightful in his historical/geographical perspective on the African American presence. "Just as the severity of the United States as an imperial society is attested by the common plight of the American Indians," he writes, "so the severe se178
