·THE INSTITUTE FOR HISTORICAL STUDY

NEWSLETTER

Ann HarlowRichard RobbinsJohn RuskCornelia LevineMike GriffithGeorgia WrightNancy Zinn

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NEWSLETTER EDITORCOpy EDITORBOOK REVIEW EDITOR

Maria SakovichAnn HarlowAutumn Stanley

Mailing Address:P. O. Box 5743Berkeley, CA 94705

THE INSTITUTEis affiliated with theNational Coalition ofIndependentScholars (NCIS), the AmericanHistorical Association (AHA), and theNational Coalition for History (NCH).

The NEWSLETTER is sent to all Institutemembers, as well as college anduniversity libraries and other interestedscholar.s. The Institute appreciates alltax-deducti-bJe contributions made bynon-member·s who wish to remain on itsmailing list;,'

Thinking about what I might comment on in the wider worldthat pertains to the study of history, I kept coming back to whata historically discouraging time we live in. There was muchmore optimism about the future of America in the depths of theGreat Depression than there is now. In California restrictionson the state budget process have led to dismal results for theteaching of history in public schools and universities. Statehistoric parks are closing. The rocky national economycontinues to limit both private and government grant fundingfor museums and nonprofit publishers. This is the fourth NewYear in a row in which there's been a sense of "lets hope thisyear is better than last." There is plenty to be concerned about.

But sitting around and complaining won't help matters. Wecan all find things to do to make life a little easier for peoplewho are a lot worse off than we are and to work toward a moresustainable future. I'd like to recommend two magazines forsome positive thinking to counteract all the negativity in theregular media: Ode (odemagazine.com) and Yes! (yesmagazine.org). They may inspire you to new action, or at least provide abreath of fresh air.

I want to thank Mike Griffith for serving as our webmaster forthe past two years and recently finishing the project ofconverting the website to its new format. It doesn't yet have allthe features some members would like to see; we would needone or more website volunteers to meet that challenge. So ifyou have a vision for a website that will help attract newmembers, please think about what you can do to make thathappen. And please continue to think about people you couldinvite to join the Institute, since word of mouth continues to beour best source for new mem bers.

I hope to see you at our Annual Meeting in Oakland onSaturday, February 25 (details on page 11) and to inspire youto new action on behalf of your Institute for Historical Study!

Ann Harlow

On the Eve of Armageddon: Hitler, Stalin,and the Coming of the Second World War

At the Work in Progress (September 18), held atthe home of Lyn Reese, Richard Raackdiscussed his forthcoming book, "On the Eve of

. Armageddon: Hitler, Stalin, and the Corning ofthe Second World War."

In his analysis of the developments leading to theoutbreak of hostilities, Dr. Raack argued againstthe more generally accepted view that Stalinacted largely from defensive motives and that hesigned the pact with the Nazis as a last resort tokeep the USSR out of a conflict for which it wasunprepared. Raack believes that Stalin's motiveswere basically aggressive. For him a war inEurope was something to be desired. It wouldruin the capitalist powers, and even if Gennanywere ultimately victorious, that country would beprofoundly weakened. By standing aside, SovietRussia would emerge the big winner from the

-- -- ----co-I-,fTiCt;wlt1' increasedLenitory ~rntl-tfle-PTa5"pe-cr-of a Communist revolution greatly advanced.

In support of his argument, Dr. Raack offeredtwo documents for consideration. The first ofthese was a report regarding a speech that Stalinwas said to have made at a Politburo meeting, onAugust 19, 1939, regarding the prospect of apact with Germany. In it, Stalin summed up thesituation as follows: " ... it is in your interestthat a war should break out between the [sic]Germany and the Anglo-French bloc. For us it iscrucial that this war last as long as possible, sothat both sides emerge exhausted. For thesereasons we must accept the pact proposed byGermany and do everything possible so that thiswar, once begun, lasts as long as possible."

The second document was a communique sent bythe Comintern to the Communist parties in theBalkans. It stated that the Soviet Union was"wholly disinterested" in the war that might

break out in Europe. "We ha e do ided to bideour time. The revolutionary activi 'which iscontinuously developing under the guidance ofthe Communist pmiies in all countries willprepare a favorable ground for our futureintervention."

Dr. Raack acknowledged that the genuineness ofthe two documents he presented has beenquestioned, but he felt that those doubts wereunfounded.

During the discussion that followed Dr. Raack'spresentation, much attention focused on theSoviet Union's contribution to the victory in thelarger war that followed Hitler's attack in 1941.There was general agreement that until recentlyRussia's role in the defeat of Nazism was notsufficiently appreciated in the United States.Many of Dr. Raack's listeners were also gratefulfor his reminder of the fact that through all thetwists and turns of Soviet diplomacy, Stalin,Te\1er+ost sight-of revolutielilary-goais. -

The qualierly meeting of the CaliforniaRoundtable took place at the Marin home ofEdith Piness, with Charles Fracchia speakingon "Shaping the City: San Francisco and theGold Rush." Charles, founder and presidentemeritus of the San Francisco Museum andHistorical Society, teaches at City College of SanFrancisco and the University of San Franciscoand has written various books, including, mostrecently, When the Water Cmne Up tolvfontgoll1o)i Street: San Francisco During theGold Rush.

He spoke about how San Francisco has a uniquecharacter for reasons stemming from the Gold

Rush days. The city is known for tolerance,inclusivity, and unconventionality, not surprisingsince the Gold Rush brought together people

. from all over the world at a time when mostpeople never traveled fifty miles from home.Besides being diverse, the people who came werepredominantly male, young, and adventurous.They were risk-takers, not conformists.

One rarely hears ethnic slurs in the Bay Areacompared to other parts of the country, CharlessClid. Admittedly, racism has reared its head attimes in San Francisco, but by and large peoplehave gotten along. Jews, Italians, and Irish wereable to achieve positions of prominence in thenineteenth century more easily here thanelsewhere. The city is now forty percent Asian.

The early Chinese immigrants were looked upon. with "bemused tolerance" at first and integrated

into urban life. They participated in civic ritualslike parades. But anti-Chinese sentiment grew, inpari because of the growth of the labor move-ment. The concept ofa strike was alien toChinese cultural traditions, so employers foundthey could readily hire Chinese strike-breakers atlower wages than their regular workers. Thisbred increasing resentment among the workingclass, especially by the late 1870s due to aneconomic recession. Labor leader Denis Kearneyled some big anti-Chinese demonstrations.However, according to Charles, these weremilder and less violent than some riots that tookplace in other parts of the United States.

. Another way the discovery of gold set a tone forCalifornia's next ISO years was in being a sourceof sudden great wealth. Just eleven years later,the huge Comstock Lode of silver was found.Wealth fostered greater appreciation of the alis.Soon agriculture became another source ofriches, followed by oil, the enteliainment indus-try, aviation and aerospace, and electronics.Charles mentioned and recommended the

following books: Eldorado by Bayard Taylor,Cities in History by Peter Hall, The Rise of theCreative Class by Richard Florida, andCosmopolitans: A Social and Cultural Historyof the Jews of the San Francisco Bay Area byFred Rosenbaum.

The play readers recently completed readingTalesfrom Holly}vood by British playwright,screen writer, and film director ChristopherHampton. The play, which premiered at the MarkTaper Forum in Los Angeles in 1982, covers theyears from 1938 to the 1950s in Hollywood.During the thirties many German Jews andintellectuals fled Nazi Germany, first to neigh-boring European countries and ultimately to theUnited States, where a German emigre commu-nity established itself in Southern California.Among those who settled were Nobel Prizewinner Thomas Mann as well as his older brotherHeinrich Mann. Heinrich, who, despite beingrespected in pre-Hitler Germany, lived with hisyoung alcoholic wife, penniless and forgotten inLos Angeles for the decade of the 1940s.Thomas, however, who had been first welcomedat Princeton, lived comfortably with his wifeamong the emigres. Bertolt Brecht also livedamong them. An early enemy of National Social-ism, Brecht had escaped first to Switzerland, thenScandinavia, and finally to the Ur;ited States.

Hampton had translated several plays byAustrian playwright Odon von Horvath, whosuffered an untimely death in Paris when abranch of a tree fell on him during a storm.Hampton makes the deceased Horvath thenarrator and central character of the play and hashim marry an idealistic Jevvish writer, HelenSchwaliz. Horvath is intrigued by the Hollywoodscene and on occasion revels in it, though he is

also conscious of the suffering he observesand displays real sympathy for the unfortunateHeinrich Mann. Hampton has Horvath drown ina swimming pool accident in 1950. The cynicalBrecht, on the other hand, despairs of anddespises life in the United States.

Hampton provides graphic and amusingdescriptions of the clash of this diverse, enticingcommun ity with the less-than-sympathetically-described motion picture establishment. In theplay there are also a few quick appearances ofwell-known Hollywood names, including theMarx brothers, Greta Garbo, and JohnnyWeissmuller. The denouement comes in the late1940s and early 1950s when the former refugees

. from total itarian ism face another form of it withthe investigations of Senator McCarthy, theHouse Un-American Activities Committee. andthe Hollywood Blacklist.

The play reading group will meet again onJanuary 10. Anyone illterested in atteiidingshould contact Joanne Lafler.

At our October 22 meeting at the Oakland homeof Joanne Lafler, we discussed published

. biographies we liked or disliked. Unsurprisingly,our choices reflected the kind of biographies wewere writing.

Rob Robbins, whose own book deals with aRussian administrative figure, liked JonathanSteinberg's Bismarck: A Life; Edmund Morris,The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt; RobertService's Trotsky; and Alex Storozynski's ThePeasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and theAge of Revolution. Despite its fascinating topic

Rob did not like Linda Himelstein's The King ofVodka (the story of Smirnov).

Bonda Lewis recommends The Life of Monsieurde Moliere by Mikhail Bulgakov, although itmay be more fiction than biography. JoanneLafler, sharing Bonda's interest in theatre, likesMrs. Jordan's Profession: The Story of a GreatActress and a Future King (William IV) byClaire Tomalin. By the same author, she likedJane Austen: A Life and Samuel Pepys: TheUnequalled Self Gillian Gill's We Tvvo: Victoriaand Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals also wonJoanne's approval. She would not recommendIrrepressible: The Life and Times of JessicaMitford by Leslie Brody, who does not write welland has nothing new to say about her fascinatingsubject.

Ellen Huppert looked at family histories andfound Gillian Gill's ighfingales an excellentexample, where the famous daughter, FlorenceNigl1tingale, is·placed within her family context.Best of all was The Hare with Amber Eyes byEdmund de Waal. He explored his own familysaga from its beginnings in Odessa. throughprosperity marked by great mansions in Viennaand Paris, before the Nazis interrupted all Jewishlife in Europe and family members dispersedaround the globe.

Elizabeth Nakahara enjoyed W Eugene Smith:Shadow and Substance by Jim Hughes, whichused letters to enrich the biography of the Lifemagazine photographer. Also good is KatherineGraham's autobiography, Personal History, bythe former publisher of the Washington Post.Less satisfying is Diane Fujino's Heartbeat ofStruggle about activist Yuri Kochiyama; toolittle personal is included, and the book is tediousrather than engaging.

Liz Thacker-Estrada liked Richard Ellmann'slife of Oscar Wilde, and she found two

biographies by Patricia Bnidy to be helpful forher own work: Martha Washington: AnAmerican Life; and A Being So Gentle: TheFrontier Love Story of Rachel and AndrewJackson. On the other hand, Paul Finkelman'sMillard Fillmore consistently denigrates thatPresident's achievements, unlike Robeli J.Scarry, whose biography of Fillmore reflects hisyears of painstaking research.

In early December, the group met at the home of. Rob Robbins and enjoyed the splendid view of

the ocean from his Sunset area home in SanFrancisco. The ensuing conversation was equallyenlivening. Beginning with a discussion ofwriters' groups and organizations, we listedmany useful groups. National organizations suchas the Women's National Book Association havelocal branches which hold monthly meetings.Others, such as the Authors' Guild, offer servicessuch as workshops and website support. TheCalifornia Writers' Club (founded by JackLondon!) has local chapters which hold meetingsand offer workshops. Many other suggestions,including professional organizations, were made.

Next was a colloquy on how to get started, keep. going, and overcome blocks in writing. Our

conclusion was that while each writer has to findher own time and methods, suggestions wereappreciated. One given is that it is most useful toset aside a time each day exclusively for writing,whether it is thirty minutes or three hours. Thewrit;ng time must be dedicated so that even theneed to research some point must be ignored untillater. Other ideas included beginning byrereading a past chapter for revision before goingon to new territory. Most agreed that writingwithout too much searching for just the rightword was more productive, as everything willhave to be revised later. It isn't necessary to startat the beginning as missing parts can always becomposed later: "Write it large and kick it into

. place." Attacking a writing task piece by piece,

or in the words of Anne Lamotte, "Bird by Bird,"helps.

Pages that had been circulated were discussed,with one common theme emerging: the issue ofbalancing necessary historical background withmaintaining reader interest and focus on thesubject of the biography. No easy answers there!

You may have noticed that the Institute has anew website. If you haven't seen it yet, go towww.tihs.org to check out the new look. Thenew website was built using Google Sites, a freewebsite building service. While the content ofthe new site is not substantially different from theold, using Google Sites to host the website hassome practical advantages. First, Google Sites isfree, meaning the Institute no longer has to payfor website hosting, a not insubstantial amount ofmoney. Second, the website building tools atGoogle Sites, if sometimes rudimentary, are (andpresumably always will be) up-to-date. To editits former web page, the Institute had been relyingon Microsoft Front Page, a program so obsoletethat Microsoft no longer supports it. Finally, ifdesired, it's possible to incorporate other niftyGoogle apps into the new website.

This new website would not have been possiblewithout the Herculean effOlis of John Rusk, whocreated, refined, and maintained the previouswebsite for a decade for the Institute. WithoutJohn's ded ication and work, the Institute wouldnot have a website at all.

Comments on the new website may be e-mailedto the Institute at:instituteforh istorica Istudy@gmail.com.

Mike Gr(ffitlr

SPECIAL EVENTS

The Rise and Decline of theHomogeneous Society

"The Rise and Decline of the HomogeneousSociety," might also be called, "FromHomogeneity to Multiculturalism." In his speechat the Institute's annual dinner, U.c. BerkeleyProfessor Emeritus of History Richard Herr

· chronicled the worldwide evolution from enforcedhomogeneity to a broader concept thatil1corporates minority communities.

Humans, Prof. Herr explained, naturally desire ahomogeneous society. that is, one in which allmembers share a common feature, such aslanguage, class, or ethnicity. "The obvious wayto achieve such a society is to assimilate thenonconforming groups into the majority. Forexample. the French Revolution on August 4.1789 abolished nobility. Henceforth, everyFrench person was simply a citizen."

In Western democracies, leaders promoted onenational language to ensure the efficient

· functioning of government and industrialization.They nationalized the predominant language bymandating its use and by teaching it inelementary schools. During the 1880s, inFrance's Third Republic, teachers punished non-French-speaking school children by making themwear a shoe around their necks. A commonlanguage became necessary as manufacturersmoved workers around to different jobs inincreasingly mechanized production, therebynecessitating a common language amonginterchangeable laborers.

When assimilation failed to create ahomogeneous society, some countries resOlted toexclusion. A common German fear, that the pure-bred population might become polluted via

· miscegenation, resulted in policies to maintainGennanness. "Under Bismarck, Germany heededthe complaints of local German communities and

expelled many Jewish and Polish immigrants."Later, when the large Pol ish population resistedbeing Germanized, the German Empire decreedin 1913 that only persons born of a Germanfather could become German citizens. In asimilar vein, the United States excluded Chineseimmigrants of a patticular class and deniedcitizenship to those and their children alreadyhere. U.S. immigration policy, however, favoredassimilating European immigrants by givingcitizenship to their children born on Americansoil and by Americanizing those children inpublic schools. Prof. Herr cited another exampleof American exclusion policy: Jim Crow lawsmarginalized post-Civil War African Americans,which politicians justified as a "separate-but-equal" policy. In theory, this meant twohomogeneous communities existed in the samesociety, but in fact, the minority community wasnot equal to the majority community.

"The drive for homogeneity reached its horribleclimax in·the Soviet elimination of the Kulaks,ostensibly to create a classless society, and in theGerman elimination of Jews and others seen asthreats to the purity of the race." "One wouldhave thought that these examples would havediscredited the demand for homogeneity," Herrcontinued, "but far from it. After World War If,the number of Germans driven out of Poland andCzechoslovakia, a violence sanctioned by theAllies, was greater than the deaths in theHolocaust."

Since World War If Western nations have facedthe issue of homogeneity in different ways. TheUnited States has continued to see ahomogeneous community as the ideal, ending"separate but equal" education by forcedintegration of schools and resisting affirmativeaction because only individuals, not groups, haveconstitutional rights. France, too, remainsstrongly devoted to the ideal of homogeneity. Onthe basis of a constitution that harks back to the

SPECIAL EVENTS

eighteenth century revolutions, it also maintains· that only individuals, not groups, have rights. Itrefuses to support regional efforts to preservehistoric languages in the public schools.

Spain and Great Britain, which do not have sucha constitutional tradition, are more flexible. TheSpanish democratic monarchy has conceded localautonomy to Catalonia, the Basque provinces,and Galicia, making their languages official intheir regions and giving them control over localeducation. In 1997 Great Britain gave Scotlandits own parliament and Wales an assembly, withauthority· over local cultural matters.

Feminists, according to Prof. Herr, "have beendivided between those who seek incorporation as _

· equals into male-dominated 'patriarchal' societyby 'breaking the glass ceiling,' and those-aminority-who seek separate-but-equal statuswith a conmmnity of their own." Someseparatists have called the glass breakers"honorary men." But increasingly, "feministshave maintained that they do not want to becomepart of male society, but that both genders mustbe equal parts of 'humanity. '"

This trend toward relaxed homogeneity showsthat the basic concept is not a tyraJmy of themajority but a COlmnonpsychological need forconmmnity. People appear uncomfortable \V-henadistinct group won't-or can't-fit in. To lessenthis discomfort, societies should adopt a broaderIdentity that includes minorities. "Rather than

· forcing minorities to assimilate into majorityculture, multiculturalism seeks to unify them allinto a broader culture in ",,"hichall conummitieshave equal value," says Prof. Herr. "This may bethe \,;av forv,-ard for the t\ventv-first centurv toJ _ J

overcome intolerance fostered by thehomogeneous ideal."

Cathy Robbins reports that "Reviews of AllIndians Do Not Live in Teepees (or Casinos)have been gratifying, and the publisher reportsgood news from the sales front with half the firstprinting sold already \vithin three \Neeksofrelease." On November 10, Cathy was a gueston the radio program, "Native America Calling,"a live, talk-call-in show broadcast coast-to-coastand world-wide on the intemet.

"Now that the o"mers have demolished the JuanaBriones' home in the City of Palo Alto," JeanneMcDonnell writes, '"I'm left with my boardactivities for the Palo Alto HistoricalAssociation: my position as chair of the historyconmlittee of the Women's Club, which has thespecial duty of working toward the centelmial ofthe clubhouse in 2016; and the project ofdeciding where and how to display reillilants ofthe Briones house so that at least that \-villbe areminder of nineteenth-century Califomia and theHispanic people of that time. At the very least,among these duties, I will assure that the century-old club building will not suffer the fate of thatmuch older stmcture."

Two members' articles have been published inFeminist Writings from Ancient Times to theModern World: A Global Sourcebook andHis to r)' (Tyffany K. Wayne, editor; ABC Clio,publisher, 2011). Both are in Volume 2, and eachcenters around a selection of each individualfeminist's writing: Karen Offen's entry, number119, "Feminism," (1907) is about feministactivist Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix. SondraHerman's entry, number 156, "Nation andFamily," (1941) is about the Swedish socialrefonner Alva Mvrdal.

Maria Sakovich presented a paper, "Russians atthe Angel Island Immigration Station" at theCalifomia State Park Foundation Hidden StoriesConference featuring Russian influences inCalifomia (September 22). A few weeks later

she presented her work on the 1920s and 1930sRussian footprint in San Francisco's FillmoreDistrict for the Congress of Russian Americans.

Welcome to new member Jim Shere, director ofthe Glen Ellen Historical Society and executivecommittee member of the Sonoma Valley

· Heritage Coalition. Jim has been working with aprivate collection of documents and aJiifactsbelonging to a local ranch. "The discovery ofthese," he bel ieves, "suggests that there is anunexplored and rich trove of material sti II storedat vClxiouslocations in the Valley of the Moon, allof\ 'hich urgentl f need to be documented andeventually recorded and preset ed."

Welcome back to lapsed members CharlesFracchia, Ross Max,vell, and Thomas Snyder.

· The IHS Board is delighted to announce thisyear's recipients of minigrants to SUppOlihistorical research. Grants are based on scholarlymerit and all fields of historical study are eligible.The amounts change each year with theInstitute's financial situation; this year each IHSmember grantee was awarded $500, which couldcover expenses such as travel, copying,translation services, and conference registration,in pursuit of his or her subject. The fourrecipients are: Ellen Huppert, Steven Levi,ShaJ'an Newman and Jackie Pels.

Ellen Huppert will work at the BentleyHistorical Library, University of Michigan, usingthe nineteenth- and twentieth-century correspon-

· dence and diaries of five "ordinary, yet unusual"Michigan residents for a book, "In Their OwnWords." The book will move "from Michigan'sfrontier days to the increasingly urban andindustrial society of the twentieth century."

Steven Levi will examine the life of Walton E.Cole, a Unitarian minist r whose papers are atthe Unitarian Church in Upland (Los Angelesarea) and Harvey Mudd College in Claremont.Cole was a singular voice opposing FatherCharles Coughlin, whose national radio broad-casts spurred on anti-Semitism in the 1930s.

Sharan Newman is researching the Eliot familyof St. Louis, Missouri, who were deeply involvedin the establishment of a variety of publicinstitutions, including soup kitchens, publicschools, and orphanages, as well as significantcontributions to the founding of WashingtonUniversity. She will visit the archives at theUniversity and the Missouri Historical Society.

Jackie Pels, founder of Hardscratch Press, isundeliaking research for a poem she has beencommissioned to write to celebrate the 200thann iversary of the founding of Fort Ross. Thenarrative will be "from the perspective of one ofthe Aleut men ... drafted from their Alaskanvillages to accompany the Russians to 'NewAlbion. ,,,

Banda Lewis and "Performances Off theShelP'

A few pieces of furn iture, other props, and softlighting transformed the stage of the utilitarianKoret Auditorium in the San Francisco PublicLibrary and beckoned the November audienceinto the 1928 boudoir at The Cats in Saratoga,California. We are about to meet suffragist andpoet Sara Bard Field on her forth-sixth birthday,shortly before the festivities begin. We find herreminiscing and for the next hour we share hermemories and some stories from the first half ofher life.

What a splendid introduction to an historicalfigure. Banda Lewis wrote the script based onprimary sources. With dramatic skill Lewis

conveyed not only events but also reactions andemotions. History might appeal to a lot morestudents in school if the curriculum included such

· insightful and vivid portraits of "ordinary"women.

Sara Bard Field is not the only figure from thepast that Bonda portrays. Her Performances Offthe Shelf offers a variety of one-woman shows onwomen writers and activists. Intrigued, I laterinterviewed Bonda.

What motivated you to bring histOfT andtheater together? For holV long have you beendoing it? I am by profession and training anactor. Before beginning this series of shows I hadperformed in theaters allover the United States_and in Northern Europe. About twenty years ago,a dear friend and colleague rang me out ofthe

· blue and announced that she thought I should bedoing a one-person show on Jane Austen.Period. End of conversation. I trust Judy withmy life. so there was reason to listen. I began toreread Austen's novels. This after telling myselfthat such a project was clearly impossible-Icouldn't write and had no idea how to do a one-person show. And besides, I knew nothing aboutthe part of England where Jane Austen had lived.

But I was intrigued, so having finished herpublished writings, the surviving correspondencecame next. And at some point I became aware ofthe fact that I'd spent the previous Christmas notfour miles from her home at Steventon, and twoyears before, I'd been in her very street in Bath.

· So from all those experiences came Tea andSensibility, a show on Jane Austen.

From the beginning I wanted, if possible, to useprimary sources exclusively. As actors, we canlearn about a character in several ways: we canobserve and give presence to both what thecharacter says about herself and what actions shetakes, and what others say and do about and

toward her. To an actor developing a characterthose are the cards and the character must beplayed with that hand. So I decided from thebeginning not to use secondary sources, but torely solely upon what the character says aboutherself(and by extension that would include whatshe writes) and what others say about her, howshe behaved toward others and hovv othersbehaved toward her. My desire in performance isto convey the person's thoughts and her way ofputting them down on paper.

What otherfigures have you portrayed? AfterJane Austen, the next was Louisa May Alcott.Then Isabella Bird, the most published travelwriter of the nineteenth century. Queen Victoriawas one of her biggest fans, as was Disraeli. Shewas a real adventurer. With her I began playingwomen most people didn't know about. Next wasAmelia Jenks Bloomer, editor and publisher ofthe first women's rights journal, The Lily (1849-1853). Absolutely anyone who was working inwomen's rights in those years contributedaIiicles. But who now knows who Bloomer was?And while I was working on Bloomer's show, in1996, Jeanne McDonnell, founder and executivedirector of the Women's Heritage Museum,asked if I would do a fifteen-minute "departing-from-San Francisco" speech as a woman I'dnever heard of: Sara Bard Field, feminist andpoet. I'm a complete sucker for an interestingsubject, so of course, I agreed! Those first fifteenminutes eventually evolved into interviewingField's daughter and granddaughter, which withthe Field papers in the Huntington Library arethe basis of my one-hour performance.

I also created "The Powder Keg," a study ofnurses to armies in the United States and GreatBritain between 1811 and 1949. There aretwenty-two characters, composites from thehundreds I researched. No one knows theirstories! I did the research at the Royal ArmyMedical Corps Museum in Ash Vale, Surrey, the

. Florence Nightingale Museum in London (duelargely to a grant from IHS), and in the UnitedStates, at the Library of Congress, the NationalArchives, the Army Center for Military History,the archives of Women in Military Service ofAmerica, and the Red Cross archives. I have alsotaken abouttwenty oral histories of World WarII nurses who served in the British and Americanforces.

What I have loved about doing these shows is thediscovery of new facets of well-known Iives orthe discovery of the amazing lives of unknownwomen. I enjoy the combining of first-personscholarship with writing the character into a lifethat can be presented on stage.

What is your goal with these portraits? Toshow these women to the world, and tell theiramazing stories, and to impress viewers with thefact that these were ordinary women who, facedwith extraordinary challenges, helped to changetheir world-as the viewer can, too. Though I ama BA theater major with an MA in drama lit andtheater history, I understand history from thepersonal point of view; history isn't about superpeople, it is about us.

What kind o.freactions do you getfromaudiences? They are generally amazed anddelighted. In performance they can hear thesewomen's voices and understand that they were

. ordinary people like us, who by doing what theyhad to do, became heroes. Only courage makesthem different from us-and we possess thatsame courage to do what must be done.

A typical reaction is something that happened inFresno at a history teachers' conference. After aperformance as Louisa Alcott, one teacher toldme that she had loved Alcott all her life and hadwished with all her heart she could meet her.Then she hugged me and said, beaming, "Now Ihave met her. I am so happy!" 1fT reach one

person in this way, my intention is realized. I amutterly blessed to be able to do what I love.

Judith Strong Albert, Minerva's Circle:Margaret Fuller's Women (Paper Mill Press,

2010)

Using a wealth of printed and archival letters andjournals, Judith Albert gives a stunning portraitof a group of women who came together from1839-1844 at the Boston bookstore of ElizabethPeabody. The women subscribed a small amountto attend the meetings, held for several weekseach autumn, to hear talks by Margaret Fullerand to discuss issues of importance. Fuller,already known as a writer and educator,surprised the patiicipants by using the topics tochallenge them into questioning their place in theworld as women. She asked them to look insidethemselves, to ask what their purpose was."What are we born to do? And how shall we doit?" she demanded.

These "conversations" reflected the growing needof women to define themselves as distinct fromthe standard roles of daughter, wife, and mother.Not all of those who attended were prepared toaccept Fuller's call for sexual equality. Albelifollows the stories of Fuller and three of herlisteners who did.

Elizabeth Peabody was a strong supporter, givingthe women space to meet. She tackled thesituation of women's lives by devoting hers toearly childhood education, introducing theconcept of the kindergarten to America. Lyd iaMarie Child, already known for her children'sstories and books of househo Id advice, was alsoan ardent abolitionist who wrote pamphletsagainst slavery and the Northerners who refusedto protect those who ran from it. She also fought

BOOK REVIEW

for the rights of Native Americans. For her thesubjugation of women was part and parcel ofthese injustices.

Caroline Healey Dall began by being doubtfulabout the nascent women's rights movement.Over her long life her opinions changed, and she

. became a strong advocate for the financialfreedom of women. Although her relationship

. with Fuller was turbulent, she later produced abiography of her early mentor.

As Albert unrolls the lives of these women inparallel chapters, we see the common threads. Allof the women had a parent who was either physi-cally or emotionally absent. All were attracted byor belonged to the Unitarian church and theTranscendentalist movement. William ElleryChanning, Bronson Alcott. and, especially, RalphWaldo Emerson were influential in their lives,although all four women were determined enoughto openly disagree with their erstwhile teachers.Each woman knew the panic of insolvency andall wrote copiously in their journals as well as intracts, books, and articles. Through their wordsthe poignancy of their struggle is brought to life.

The book concludes with a historiographicalessay on the American fight for universalsuffrage. Albert demonstrates the echoes in themovement of concepts that were part of thoseautumn conversations. Finally, there is abibliographic chapter on works by and about thefour women.

While the subject matter is fascinating, theorganization of the book presupposes priorknowledge of Fuller and her milieu. The secondchapter, an imagined typical meeting, introducesmany women \vho are on Iy briefly mentionedafterwards. A reader not familiar with the Bostonintellectual scene of the time could easily become

. confused. While this episode is charming, itmight be better placed toward the end.

Fuller and her circle are not as well known orlauded as the Seneca Falls women. Albertdemonstrates that their contribution to themovement, still unfinished today, was as great asthat of Stanton or Anthony. Their work ineducation and social justice began the work thatcame to fruition in the late twentieth century .Fuller, Peabody, Child, and Dall may have feltthat they were only throwing a pebble into a verylarge pond. Albert's study shows how far theripples have spread.

The annual meeting will be at the Oakland PublicLibrary Rockridge Branch, Saturday, February25, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Following morningcoffee and a business meeting, at which we willelect new board members and nominatingcommittee members, there will be a cateredlunch. The program after lunch will includeseveral shol1 talks by members about theirresearch projects. If you are interested in beingone of those speakers, or perhaps giving a longerpresentation at a Work-in-Progress meeting,please contact program chair Georgia Wright,gwrightI88@earthlink.net.

January 10January 14January 15February 25

Play Readers meetingBoard meetingBiography writers meetingAnnual meeting (Rockridge branch, Oakland Public Library)

Members are encouraged to let us know all their news - a paper being given at a conference; a new job orposition; the awarding of a grant or fellowship. Please send all material for the NEWSLETTER either bye-mail tomsakovich@juno.com or to the Institute's postal address giveil i)elvAlso, we welcome the opportunity toreview members' newly published books. Contact Autumn Stanley at autumn_stanley@sbcglobaI.net.The deadline for the next NEWSLETTER is February 28,2012.

The NEWSLETTER is the official publication of the Institute for Historical Study, a scholarly organizationdesigned to promote the research, writing, and public discussion of history. Membership in the Institute is opento independent and academically affiliated scholars who are in agreement wi~h its aims and who have acommitment to historical study. Membership inquiries should be sent to the Institute address.