694 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Enterprising Elite: The Boston Associates and the World They Made. By Robert F. Dalzell, Jr. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987. Pp. xviii + 298; illustrations, notes, appendix, index. $27.50. Few American writers have sketched personal disintegration with such assurance as William Dean Howells in his classic novella The Rise of Silas Lapham; the climactic conflagration of Lapham’s mansion in Back Bay serves both as a dramatic denouement and as a symbol of the protagonist’s failed attempt to enter the closed world of the Boston Brahmins. Howells’s literary account of Boston society in the late 19th century now has a historical prologue in Robert Dalzell’s sophisticated analysis of the creation of that same society during the antebellum era. The Boston Associates, a small group of wealthy and enlightened citizens who had made sizable amounts of money in commerce, established the Boston Manufacturing Company in 1813; the subse quent creation of Waltham as a center of textile manufacture was consequent on the adoption of the power loom, the investment of large amounts of capital, and the careful control of the project by the Associates. In 1820 the three textile mills at Waltham produced half a million yards of cloth a year, in 1822 dividends to stockholders amounted to 27 percent, and in 1823 the Associates established a second manufacturing town at Lowell. For the next twenty years, the textile industry rapidly expanded—despite the appearance of com petitors, the Boston Associates continued to make substantial profits. The standard interpretation of the creation of Waltham and Lowell by the Associates emphasizes the declining profitability of maritime trade for Boston investors; this analysis postulates that, with the opening of the Erie Canal and the subsequent rise of New York City as the principal entrepot, Boston capitalists were increasingly disin clined to invest in commerce and, since it held out the promise of higher profits, turned instead to textile manufacture. By way of contrast, Dalzell views the creation of the textile towns as an attempt to achieve financial security for several generations; manufacturing, unlike commerce, provided a steady source of income with a minimal need for constant supervision. Dalzell’s analysis is persuasive on its own account; his interpretation is strengthened by an examination of the actions of the Associates in ancillary areas. Thus, with regard to banking, transportation, and insurance, the Associates worked always to preserve their control over the textile industry. In the 1840s the railroads, for example, were generally more profitable than the textile mills, yet, because owner ship in the railroad companies was held by hundreds of small investors, the railroads were perceived by the Associates as concomi tantly more hazardous and unpredictable as investments. The Asso ciates did play a conspicuous role in the construction of the line linking Boston and Lowell, and since it was crucial for the continued TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 695 health of the textile enterprise, they continued to control the Boston & Lowell Railroad for several decades. In sharp contrast, their involvement with the Western Railroad (which extended the line from Boston to Albany) was short-lived. By mid-century, the world of the Boston Associates—textile firms supplying handsome profits; transportation and banking structures designed to maintain those profits; and, finally, cultural, political, and educational institutions to preserve control—was fast disappearing. The caution of the Associates and their imperative avoidance of unnecessary risks caused the Bostonians to miss new economic opportunities; the eventual decline of the textile industry signaled the passing of an era. Dalzell’s account of the varying fortunes of the Boston Associates, his subtle analysis of their control of the secondary industries, and his careful consideration of the spheres of culture and politics all combine to make an ultimately persuasive and powerful argument. Our understanding of the process of industrialization during the 19th century is greatly enriched by this detailed examina tion of one of the most significant elites in American history. Simon Baatz Dr. Baatz studied the history of technology at the University of Pennsylvania. His most recent book is Knowledge, Culture, and Science in the Metropolis: The New York Academy of Sciences, 1817-1970. Old South, New...
Read full abstract
Apr 1, 2023
Michael Calabrese 
Open Access