Quaker Experiences in International Conciliation (review)

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES117 Of importance is the fact that the growing population after 1814 in Norway constituted a continual pressure on the resources. All in all, the distribution of property and wealth had become more skewed during the half century after this year, especially in the good agricultural districts of eastern Norway and Trondelag. Later, during the period of mass emigration (1865-1915), the changes in the social economic pattern gradually resulted in a reduction in the need for manpower. On die other side of the Atlantic, though, hands were in demand. The author comes to the conclusion that the demographic factor is a decisively significant component in the mass emigration. Ingrid Semmingsen covers several aspects: Did ship-owners and skippers, by offering transportation, stimulate emigration? Or was it the other way around? Trials and triumphs in the emigrant's everyday life, glimpses from the settler's life in the land of freedom and opportunity are vividly described. In further chapters, among other fascinating items, we find such headings as "Encountering Americans," "Norway in America," "Politics and Organizations," and "The Immigrants Become Americans." After having read die book, one is left with a sense of having been in the living company of the people referred to in the text. The present publication supplies facts about the emigration. These facts certainly \vill enlarge our knowledge about the forces behind the mass movement, "Norway to America." Reference notes, as well as an interesting selected bibliography are provided . The bibliography contains mainly English titles, and there is an index. Twelve pages of illustrations (maps and old photographs) make an interesting addition to the text. When reading periods of Quaker history, one might realize the want of supplementary background information. Here the present publication will be very useful, even though Friends did not constitute a large contingency among the total number of emigrants. How many were the Norwegian Friends that left for America? This question will be rather difficult to answer, if at all possible. Compared to the total number of Quakers in Norway, it seems that a fairly high percentage found new homes on the other side of the ocean. This book is a valuable addition to other works covering our subject. It is recommended as an excellent introduction for anyone interested in the topic. It is hoped, also, that the younger generation with a Norwegian ancestry will find its study worthwhile. Oslo, NorwayBernt Heid Quaker Experiences in International Conciliation. By C. H. Mike Yarrow. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978. 308 pages. $10.00. "Geschichte" is the German word indicating "history," "story," or "concern ." "Geschichte" describes this book very nicely. It is good history; it is a story well told. It is clearly rooted in the Quakerly concerns of the author and the story's principal actors. What distinguishes this study from earlier accounts of Quaker experiences in international conciliation found in the journals and the general and specialized histories is the dimension of analysis. Mike Yarrow is a trained political scientist as well as a long-time participant in Quaker service activities , formally concluding that career in 1972 as Secretary of the Inter- 118QUAKER HISTORY national Affairs Division of the American Friends Service Committee. His story concerns British, American and sometimes Canadian and Australian Friends' service organizations in their conciliation efforts in Germany from 1962 to 1973, in India and Pakistan in 1965 and in Nigeria from 1967 to 1970. While not a direct participant in these sometimes dramatic experiences (though he was directly involved in similar efforts in Northern Ireland after his retirement), the letters, memoranda and reports of the participating personnel flowed across his desk in Philadelphia on a day-today basis. He, thus, was a trained observer-participant in these events, as well as in a position to make full use of the documentary sources in London and Philadelphia and to interview the participants themselves. One concern of Mike Yarrow's is to make a clear record of the three programs he studies here; another is to analyze the conciliation process into its various facets and to determine the circumstances under which the different types of effort are apt to be useful. He is clear that missions...