Book Review: The Manliest Man: Samuel G. Howe and the Contours of Nineteenth-Century American Reform

Abstract

The Manliest Man: Samuel G. and the Contours of Nineteenth-Century American Reform. James W. Trent, Jr. Amherst & Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012, 336 pp., $28.95. The latest biography on Samuel Gridley Howe, the first director of Perkins School for the Blind--which is located in Watertown, Massachusetts--provides background on the beginning of education of blind persons in the United States. The book also describes the philosophical underpinnings of those efforts and, as noted in the book's subtitle, this work places Howe's ideas and activities in the political context of 19th century America. The book takes its title, The Manliest Man, from a eulogy for Howe--an interesting choice for such a complex biography of a multifaceted man. Author James W. Trent asserts that Howe's sense of was the motivation for his great works in support of the powerless in America in the 1800s. Even as a young man, Trent writes, Howe seems to have regarded manliness as a matter of reason and restraint of passions, as well as of daring and adventure. The author does an admirable job of putting the reader in the mid 1800s, a time of political, religious, and philosophical conflict in a young democracy, which shaped Howe's beliefs and actions. Unfortunately, however, much of the information provided in the book on the religious and political conflicts of the day assumes readers have intimate knowledge of the period and its global and parochial issues. Additional detail would have made the book more accessible to the average reader. EARLY YEARS The first half of the book introduces readers to as a young undergraduate at Brown University, where he was known as a prankster. While a much more serious medical school student at Harvard University, is influenced by George Parkman, a Harvard professor known for his belief in the humane treatment of insane patients. As a result, carries a passion for the underdog and the powerless throughout his life. ACTIVISM IGNITED Inspired by a lecture given by the Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat and military officer, travels to Greece and supports Greek independence from the Turkish Ottoman Empire by providing medical and humanitarian aid and attempting to engineer the emerging society. In Greece, he moved away from his medical career and became a revolutionary and philanthropist. Upon returning to America, he considered a career in journalism rather than medicine. He published extensively on the Greek war for independence and looked into becoming the editor of a newspaper. It was during this time that Howe's education reformer friends Horace Mann and John D. Fisher completed a three-year effort to convince the Massachusetts state legislature to establish the New England Institution for the Education of the Blind, a school that was modeled after the work of Valentin Hauy, the founder of the first school for blind children in Paris. Fisher had been a college friend of Howe's, and he persuaded him to take the appointment to direct the new school. HISTORICAL CONTEXT The book reports in extreme detail the origins of the school, and places the activities surrounding the school's inception within the context of the issues of the day such as Nat Turner, leader of a slave rebellion, being hanged in Virginia; naturalist Charles Darwin setting sail on the HMS Beagle; and the founding of the New England Anti-slavery Society. Howe's first students and staff are described in wonderful detail, and researchers who are interested in the history of education of children who are blind will find much information in this book that will illuminate and delight them. sincerely believed that each individual had the right to achieve to their fullest potential and that his school should never serve a custodial purpose, but that it should always be an educational institution. …