Review

Author(s): MILTON M. Klein

Review by: MILTON M. Klein
Source: New York History, Vol. 58, No. 1 (JANUARY 1977), pp. 83-86
Published by: New York State Historical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23169832
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Book
Next

are

considered
were

patternsof

or

acquitted.

Overall,

48%

15%

were

acquitted,

and

of the

from the records. Further tabulations

as to ethnic

those

the judgment

convicted

many
were convicted,

sex,

groups,

37%

accused

of those
cases

refine the judgment

and

regions,

geographic

Reviews

major

how

accused
disappear

patterns

of

categories

crimes. The conviction pattern for slaves is tabulated separately.

Again interpretations depend not only on computer runs but also
"literary evidence." Following some illuminating discussion Pro
fessor Greenberg frankly concedes: "There was no consistent pattern
ofjudgment in the criminal courts of eighteenth-century New York"
(p. 98).
that

Acknowledging

there

is

more

to

law

enforcement

"litany of statistics," the author in Chapter IV abandons

and

runs

turns

to

calendar

Newgate

treatment

of

than

computer
some

of

the flamboyant criminalsthose who are more than mere statistical

entities. This biographical data is woven into discussions of the
socioeconomic status of criminals, the function of jails, and the role
of pardons and reprieves. In Chapter V the author returns to quanti
tative history in comparing the incidence of crime for two periods:
1691 to 1749 and 1750 to 1776. The data show shifts in the patterns
of criminal prosecution but given the social ferment in the colony
it is remarkable
The

that

author

s last

the

two

were

changes

on the

chapters

not

even

effectiveness

greater.
of law

enforce

ment in New York are the most provocative and probably the most
open to challenge. Within my alloted space I can only say that I
disagree with the author's conclusions that the institutions of law
enforcement in eighteenth-century New York were "uniformly
weak" and that the judicial system was "thoroughly debilitated"
(p. 188). Based on my long association with the late Julius Goebel I
venture to say that he would agree with my appraisal. Some of
the supporting statistics are meaningless, in my opinion, and the
author has had virtually no experience with law enforcement in any
other comparable jurisdiction. Colonial administration is full of
complaints;

The

of

believe

author

the

has

taken

some

of

them

too

seriously. Perhaps my quarrel with Professor Greenberg is that he has

set an unrealistic standard by which to judge the efficacy of
eighteenth-century law enforcement. Despite this disagreement I
believe that the book in its presentation and interpretation of
quantitative data is a valuable contribution to the study of law
enforcement in colonial New York.
Impact

the

American

Revolution

Abroad:

Papers

Pre

sented at the Fourth Symposium, May 8 and 9,1975. (Washing

ton, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1976. Pp. viii, 171. $4.50.)
Reviewed
University

by
of

Milton
Tennessee,

M.

<

Klein,

Department

of

History,

Knoxville.

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NEW

That

the

HISTORY

YORK

was

Revolution

American

fought

and

won

an

in

inter

national context is a historical truism, but just what effect the

events in America had on the wider world is less clear. Contemporary
opponents of the French Revolution, like the German Friedrich
Gentz, sought to differentiate the two revolutions, regarding the one
made in America as acceptable because of its conservatism, rejecting
the other because of its libertarian excesses. Historians ever since
have debated whether our revolution was uniquely American or is
linked ideologically with the democratic revolutions in Europe and
Latin America that followed shortly thereafter or with those in the
Third World in our time.
Celebrations of the great centennials of American independence
offer superficial support for the thesis that the American Revolution
had persistent, world-wide impact. The Philadelphia
Exposition
of 1876 attracted exhibits from thirty nations; it was opened by the
Emperor Pedro of Brazil; and the special march commissioned for
the occasion was by the German composer Richard Wagner. Almost
one

hundred

countries

foreign

official

reported

of the

observances

recently concluded bicentennial of American independence, ranging

from the great exhibit at the National Maritime Museum in Green
wich, England, to a modest display of books about the United States
in the public library at Perth, Scotland.
It was appropriate, therefore, for the Library of Congress to
devote one of its very successful annual bicentennial symposia to
an assessment of the impact of the Revolution abroad, in the light
of two hundred years of writing on the subject, much of itparticu
larly in Germany, Japan, and Russiaof recent vintage. The result,
as reflected in these published proceedings of the 1975 symposium,
is disappointing. Not that the participants failed to complete their
scholarly

but

assignments,

rather

that

the

results

show

far

significant international influence of the American Revolution

we

have

All

the

heretofore
papers

been

seem

led

to

less

than

believe.

to substantiate

the

introductory

observation

of Robert R. Palmerwho has studied the international effects of

the Revolution more fully than anyone elsethat while the shots
fired at Lexington and Concord were undoubtedly heard 'round
the world and even generated considerable excitement, the precise
influence of those events abroad is not so easily determined.
Europeans felt the impress of the Revolution most directly, but
the

advent

of

the

French

Revolution

scarcely

twelve

years

later

diffused the impact of American affairs and merged them so in

extricably with developments in France as to make assessment of
the special influence of the one or the other almost impossible. In
Palmer's words, "the later the date the more difficult and un
realistic it becomes to try to identify any specific effects of the
American Revolution" (p. 6).

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Book
The

in this

essays

volume

bear

Reviews

to another

testimony

of Palmer's

astute observations, that "impact" is more readily visible than

"influence." Thus, while Uberai irtellectuals in France, Holland,
and

even

Russia

were

events

by American

inspired

to urge

and

hope

for changes in their own countries, they could not often discover
the specifics of such expected change i-the American model. France,
Claude Fohlen points out, faced the task of destroying the rem
nants of feudal privilege, and for this the American experience
offered few clues. In Russia, N. N. Bolkhovitinov emphasizes, the
Decembrists sought to reorganize Russian society internally and

to

overthrow

external

tsarist

autocracy;

in an American

guidance

foe.

German

and,

revolution

liberals

again,

directed
the

accepted

found

they

little

an

largely against

American

of

concept

federalism as a useful device for reforming the Holy Roman Empire,

but in German hands, the concept was linked neither with democ
racy nor with republicanism. Even in the era of World War I, "any
significant impact of either the constitutional pattern or the political
ideas brought forward by the American Revolution was scarcely
imaginable" (p. 162). The conclusion is that of Erich Angermann,
the German participant in the symposium. In far-off Japan, Nagayo

Homma

there

notes,

was

obviously

no

immediate

response

to

the

American Revolution, but even when the political reformers of the

Meiji era in the mid-nineteenth century looked for constitutional
models

to

Germany,

modernize

not

in

the

the

United

Japanese
States.

state,
Dutch

they
patriots

found

were

them

in

enthused

but ideo
by the American example of national independence;
logically, their political ideal was that of mixed governmenta
of monarchy,

balance

aristocracy,

and

democracyrather

than

of

American republicanism. In any case, reform was crushed in 1787 by

the Prussian invasion, and when it was revived during the French
Revolution,

the

American

model

seemed

old

and

"somewhat

Utopian"this from the Dutch scholar, J. W. Schulte Nordholt.

The impact of the American Revolution was most immediate and
direct in Britain, Ireland, and South America. But in Britain,
despite the glowing endorsement of liberals like Richard Price and

John

Cartwright,

American

developments

ultimately

strengthened

rather than weakened the hierarchical aristocratic structure. So

writes J. H. Plumb. The impact on Ireland is not made very clear
in Owen Edward's somewhat turgid essay; but his conclusion is
that the most visible and significant effect of American developments
was to lend support to those Irish radicals who insisted on the use
of physical force to achieve Irish political aims. The American
Revolution appeared to legitimize such use of force. Finally, in
South America, where Washington became a universal hero and the
was the "guiding star" of the
American War for Independence
liberators of Spanish America, the American Revolution was in

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NEW

YORK

HISTOR

fluential precisely because

Revolution.

In

as

a social

Tom
stand

Paine
not

it was viewed

America

South

tion was understood

not

as

as so unlike the French

the

elsewhere,

American

largely as a war for national

Revolu

liberation

and

reformation.
was

sure

1776

in

that

apparent

but
only for themselves
that the rest of the world

perfectly

articulated,

the

Americans

for the
did

whole

not

see

were

the

a
making
it is quite

but

world;

American

Revolu

tion through Paine's democratic prism. And yet everywhere, for

reasons not always exactly explicated and in language not always
the

successful

revolt

of the

Americans

some

how inspired hopes for a brighter future. That each nation saw this
future in its own distinctive terms does not gainsay the immediate
and the continuing impact of the American Revolution abroad. It
merely

leaves

Eagle

and

that

two

event,

hundred

years

as still

later,

a tantaliz

ingly complicated and elusive historical phenomenon, the meaning

of which will continue to challenge historians and the repercussions
of which will continue to affect the rest of the world into the
era of the Tricentennial.

Military

Sword:

The

Federalists
in

Establishment

and

America,

the

of

Creation

1783-1802.

By

the

Richard

H.

Kohn. (New York: The Free Press, 1975. Pp. xx, 443. $13.95.)
Reviewed
berea

by

paul

david

department

nelson,

of

history,

college.

In this fine book, Richard H. Kohn tells the story of the emergence
of America's military establishment during the years from the end
of

the

Revolutionary

War

the

to

election

of

Thomas

Jefferson.

Writing military history in the best sense of the word, he shows

the interrelationship of things martial with society, politics, and
thought during the years that the new nation groped to form its
institutions.

He

points

out

that

arguments

among

Americans

about

the type of military establishment they would have were intimately

tied up with, indeed were "at the very heart of' (p. 296), numerous
debates between Federalists and Republicans on various other issues
during the Articles period and the era of Federalist ascendancy.
Central

to tinderstanding

this

military

discussion,

argues

Kohn,

is the recognition that there were fundamental differences in the

world views of "nationalists and their Federalist successors" on the
one hand, and Republicans on the other. Nationalists believed that
the opposition was destroying the revolution by attacking "def
erential society," "mercantile capitalism," and the concept of a
regular army. Conversely, Republicans feared the loss of "localism"
and favored "a more isolationist and defensive foreign policy, a
less diverse and more egalitarian society," and a national defense
based on militiamen (p. 299).

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