The Journals of Josiah Gorgas, 1857–1878 ed. by Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 845 gerford’s volume of 1928, but not James Dilt’s outstanding 1993 study ofthe B&O, which focuses on the geographical and technolog­ ical factors in that carrier’s history before 1853. Instead of Don Hofsommer ’s 1986 study of the Southern Pacific Railroad, he uses the popular history by Neill Wilson and Frank Taylor, written in 1952. Missing from the footnotes are references to the works ofAlbro Mar­ tin, H. Roger Grant,John Stover andJames A. Ward, among others. The interpretation might have been altered by attention to John Stilgoe’s Metropolitan Corridor, which relates the railroads to the changing landscape, and by William Cronon’s study of the relation­ ship of Chicago to that city’s railways and the environment. While one-fourth of the book is devoted to Canada, there are no references to major books such as W. Kaye Lamb’s History ofthe Canadian Pacific Railroad. Comparative geography and history can add to our understanding of the rise of institutions in different nations. Colleen Dunlavy’s ex­ cellent volume comparing railway development in Prussia and Ger­ many with the United States during the 19th century is a classic ex­ ample of the melding of business and economic history, the history of technology, and historical geography. Ironically, many of Dun­ lavy’s findings are quite different from those postulated by Vance. Five years ago I reviewed with enthusiasm Vance’s Capturing the Horizon, a new edition of a volume that had been published in 1986. In the decade since, Vance has not utilized a vast array of major secondary works that would have modified or clarified his theses. North American Railroad does little to advance our understanding of the evolution of the railway systems on this continent. Keith L. Bryant, Jr. Dr. Bryant is professor of history at The University of Akron. He is the author of History of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (New York: Macmillan, 1974) and ArthurE. Stilwell, Promoter with a Hunch (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 1971), and coauthor with Henry Dethloff of A History of American Business (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1983). TheJournals ofJosiah Gorgas, 1857-1878. Edited by Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1995. Pp. xi+312; illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. $39.95 (cloth). The publication of a complete version of TheJournals ofJosiah Gor­ gas, the chief of ordnance for the Confederate Army, certainly whet­ ted my appetite. Surely Gorgas would be able to tell us a lot about the fate of the Confederate Ordnance Bureau, how it obtained weap­ ons, how it manufactured them, what shortcuts it took. However, the journals offer little to historians of technology. Perhaps Gorgas’s stated purpose interfered: “The journal begun 846 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE this day January 1,1857] is dedicated to my children and is devoted to their gratification and instruction” (p. 3). By aiming high he has flown well over the head of this reader, since I was looking less for moral instruction than for grubby technological details. Gorgas of­ fers almost no description of his wartimejob, his later work, or his military or civilian associates. He has far more to say about egg prices than about Confederate ordnance costs or accomplishments. Most of the journal is a pretty tedious repetition about his family and friends, their visits, their illnesses, and an indirect account of the war and political goings-on around him. Social historians will appreciate what he tells us about how war­ time and postwar society operated, and Gorgas’sjournal also illumi­ nates how much or little was known or believed about some impor­ tant campaigns, generals, or battles by intelligent and well-informed Confederates. But there are few comments on his personal involve­ ment in the war, except during the retreat from Richmond when he expressed unhappiness at the burning ofthe railroad bridges that set most of the city ablaze during the Confederate retreat (p. 159). Similarly, of the details of his later iron-founding business we learn almost nothing. Local or social historians may find the journal valu­ able, but it offers little to military, political, or technological histo­ rians. Russell I. Fries Dr. Fries...