Frederick C. Luebke

Regionalism and the Great Plains: Problems of Concept and Method

their thinking about certain aspects of national experience for many decades. Its meaning is imprecise because it has had to serve a broad spectrum of purposes. Inevitably regionalism means different things to different people; its content will vary with the purposes and standards of those using the concept. In literature, for example, a debate has been going on for a century over the merits of regionalism versus other theories of literary creation. Its intensity has waxed and waned with the times, but in our century regionalism in literature has achieved its fullest and best-known exposition in the works of such writers as Robert Penn Warren, John Crow Ransom, Allen Tate, and others, mostly southerners, whose works are strongly flavored with agrarianism and opposition to the industrialization of the South.

The Origins of Thomas Jefferson's Anti-Clericalism

Cannibals - mountebanks - charlatans - pious and whining hypocrites - necromancers - pseudo-Christians - mystery mongers. These are among the epithets which Thomas Jefferson applied to the clergy of the Protestant denominations and of the Roman Catholic Church as well. It was they who “perverted” the principles of Jesus “into an engine for enslaving mankind”; it was the Christian “priesthood” who had turned organized religion into a “mere contrivance to filch wealth and power” for themselves; they were the ones who throughout history had persecuted rational men for refusing to swallow “their impious heresies.”

European immigrants in the American West : community histories

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, immigrants from Spain, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Germany, England, and other European countries settled all across the American West. This collection of essays explores the rural and urban settlement patterns of these groups, their comparative histories, and the maintenance of their communities. Europeans came to the West from all directions via both coasts and Mexico. Luebke provides tables illustrating the distribution of foreign-born persons in the West and first- and second-generation immigrants by country of origin in the region. In addition to the volume editor, contributors include Henry Warner Bowden, Robert C. Ostergren, Dean L. May, David M. Emmons, Dino Cinel, William Toll, Anna Zellick, Carol K. Coburn, Josef J. Barton, and Royden K. Loewen.

Book Review: Human Migration: Patterns and PoliciesHuman Migration: Patterns and Policies. Edited by McNeillWilliam H. and AdamsRuth S.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978. Pp. 442. 122.50.

politics. Bostons Irish provided Father Charles Coughlin with many of his most enthusiastic followers, as the radio priest built a constituency around opposition to the New Deal, anti-Semitism and fascism. Other Irish preached American isolationism and Bostons City Council issued a report charging that alarm about fascism was part of a communist plot. Wrapped in these private visions, seeing Jews compete successfully for good jobs and decent housing, and under the influence of Coughlin some turned to irrational violence against the Jews while the church and the police, both Irish dominated, did little to stop it. For the Jews ethnic identity also reflected international events, but in a painfully different form. They perceived the dangers of narrow ethnic chauvinism and they turned instead to supporting a liberal pluralist position. Between the Irish and the Jews ranged a gulf of vast disagreement, but Bostons Jewish community channeled its response toward such ideals as civil rights and social welfare goals, even trying to win some good will by contributing

Bonds of Loyalty: German-Americans and World War I

250,000 to the Catholic Church. In telling this story Stack has produced an efficient study-although Andrew Greeley in his foreword twits Stack for being too harsh on his own Boston Irish-that has the sober ring of truth to it. It gives us pause, reminding us of the dangers inherent in our diverse society. It should be read with care.