BOOKREVIEWS
Carlotta R. Anderson. All-American
Anarchist: Joseph A. Labadie and the
Labor Movement. Detroit: Wayne State
University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8143-
2707-9
Carlotta Anderson's monograph on her
grandfather Jo Labadie is a work of love.
Her devotion and affection for the man and
his work are apparent on almost every page.
Yet the book is much more. As its title and
subtitle indicate, Anderson's book is at once a
biography of Joseph A. Labadie, a story of
urban America in the late nineteenth century,
a study of anarchism in the United States,
and a chronicle of the American labor
movement in its earliest phases. At times,
particularly in the beginning, the sheer
complexity of the relationships between
Labadie's life, anarchism, and emerging labor
organizations like the Knights of Labor is in
fact nothing short of bewildering. Yet as
Anderson painstakingly outlines the growth
and development of each of her subjects, a
fuller, clearer picture emerges. By the time
Jo Labadie reaches middle age and more
familiar characters like Samuel Gompers
appear in his life, the reader has gained a
greater understanding for and appreciation
of both the interrelationships involved and
their importance in the development of
contemporary urban life in post-industrial
America.
Anderson's work is well-researched
and capably written. She brings to the task a
wealth of personal information, including a
fascinating array of pictures culled for the
most part from family scrapbooks. In addition,
she draws on the impressive resources
of the Labadie Collection at the University
of Michigan, a collection constituted initially
of her grandfather's papers but augmented
significantly over the years from a number of
different sources until today it is one of the
finest repositories anywhere for primary
source materials on the history of the
American labor movement and anarchism.
And she uses her sources effectively,
admirably achieving the goal which she sets
herself of bringing "Jo Labadie and his time
and place to life in a way that will be of
interest to the general reader as well as the
scholar" (14).
Anderson deftly steers a path between
the detail on organizations, persons, and
philosophical points of view that would
interest scholars of the labor movement and
related historical and sociological phenomena
and the personal anecdotes about Jo
Labadie and his beloved Sophie, the outspoken
social anarchist and his devout Catholic wife,
which might claim the attention of the general
reader. The undertaking is, of course, not
without its dangers; one risks leaving both
types of readers unsatisfied.
For the most part, however, Anderson
successfully negotiates the terrain. There
are moments in the early chapters when the
reader looks in vain for more detail on the
newly wed Labadies and their young family,
and the scholar will likely lament missed
opportunities in the portrayal of Terence
Powderly, the autocratic and controversial
leader of the Knights of Labor, and the notorious
Emma Goldman, queen of the anarchists
and the leading advocate of free love
at the time. Despite the tantalizing detail on
Powderly, it is difficult to form a complete
picture of the man or even Labadie's opin-
Book Reviews__________________
ion of him. With Goldman one notices the
discrepancy between Labadie's recollection
of certain events involving "red Emma" and
Goldman's own account in her autobiography
many years later. Yet Anderson, having
set the scene for a unique independent
appraisal of one of America's most controversial
social activists based on the documents
and information at her disposal, stops
short of a judgment. Once again, it is even
difficult to gauge Labadie's own attitude
toward Goldman. In large part, however,
Anderson succeeds in meeting the dual
demands of her readership. Particularly in
the later chapters, as the story of Jo Labadie
reaches into the twentieth century, Anderson
offers up an engrossing tale which will command
the attention of any reader.
The physical volume itself is well laid
out. Scholars may encounter some difficulty
in trying to coordinate the endnotes with the
appropriate sections of text as the running
chapter heads carry the title of the respective
chapter while the notes refer to a chapter
by number, which in the text proper only
appears at the beginning of each chapter. To
be fair, however, the location and identification
of the notes will probably not disturb
the general reader, who will not have to consult
them to understand the text. It is a
shame, on the other hand, that it is not more
readily apparent that the various verses,
mottos, and aphorisms that grace the beginning
of each chapter all stem from the hand
of Jo Labadie himself.
All in all, Anderson's biography of
Joseph A. Labadie, the gentle anarchist, is a
thoroughly engaging and informative contribution
to the literature. Although
Anderson makes no claim to providing
more than a long-needed biography of her
grandfather for both professional historian
and layman alike, she has significantly
advanced our understanding of the philosophical
modes of thought and social mechanisms
which lay behind the industrialization
of the United States.
Antonius Holtmann, ed. Ferner thue
ich euch zu wissen...: Die Briefe des
Johann Heinrich zur Oevesfe aus Amerika
1834-1876. Bremen: Edition Temmen,
1995. ISBN 3-86108-277-2
This is a fascinating if somewhat complex
volume. Although on the surface the
work purports to be a thoroughly annotated
collection of the letters of nineteenth-century
German immigrant Johann Heinrich zur
Oeveste to relatives back home in Oldenburg,
it is, in fact, three separate but integrated
pieces. Antonius Holtmann's learned
introduction not only details the genesis and
development of the project which led to the
publication of zur Oeveste's letters but provides
an erudite and sweeping review of the
history of German emigration during the
nineteenth century. The only possible drawback
to the introductory section might be
the density of Holtmann's prose. His command
of the field is sovereign, and his prose
style in German masterly, but reading that
part of the text may prove a challenge for all
but the most knowledgeable, both in their
command of German and their knowledge
of immigration history.
The second section, on the other hand,
will be accessible to a broad cross section of
readers. Holtmann promises to let zur
Oeveste speak for himself through his letters
and delivers on that promise. There are
many footnotes, certainly, but the page
design is such that the notes complement the
letters they annotate rather than complicate
the reading process. Johann Oeveste's style
is simple and straightforward. The text is
riddled with quaint and antiquated spellings,
failed attempts at rendering English
—120—
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names phonetically, and many downright
mistakes, yet all of that seems only to add to
the charm. The reader is fascinated by the
tale of one family's history in its new homeland.
The third section is basically a glossary
of terms which elucidate the social, political,
and economic circumstances both in the
adoptive American and the native European
homeland. Taken together with the notes,
this section provides a wealth of informa-
tion on the immigration to the United States
from German-speaking lands.
In all, this volume has much to offer.
With a modicum of training in German and a
small portion of historical awareness any
reader will find zur Oeveste's letters an
entrancing read. For those willing and able
to venture further, the introduction, notes,
and glossary provide their own reward in
the sheer volume of useful information they
supply.
— Randall Donaldson
Loyola College in Maryland
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