Reviews Industrializing American Shipbuilding: The Transformation of Ship Design and Construction, 1820-1920 by William H. Thiesen (University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2006, 302pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-81 30-2940-6; $59.95hc) William Thiesen's new book is a welcome addition to the large, but often intellectually unsatisfying, historiography of American shipbuilding. Combining the intellectual history wi th the nuts and bolts detailing of shipbuilding techniques, Industrializing American Shipbuilding documents the gradual emergence and grudging acceptance of theory, new materials, and methods in the design and construction of ships in the United States during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In key areas he builds on and surpasses the regionally focused work of historians David Tyler (The A merican Clyde, 1958) and Brian Heinrich (Ships fo r the Seven Seas, 1997), two important chroniclers of the shift from wood to iron and steel. In addition to thoroughly examining the rise of scientific shipbuilding in England and the cultural resistance to this in the United States, Thiesen documents the wo rk process with loving but controlled detail. One begins to understand more fully the notion that the shift from wood to iron in the United States represents a conservative force. The m ethods of design and fabrication followed long-established wooden patterns, even when such emulation was not required and indeed counterproductive. Despite American res istance to embracing new ideas, Thiesen convincingly documents the pervasiveness of the ideas as well as the often frustrated efforts of engineering greats, such as John W Griffiths SEA HIST ORY 11 8, SPRING 2007
and John Nystrom, to bring a higher level of reasoning to the design and construction of ships. During the closing years of the nineteenth century, American shipbuilders made great strides embracing theoretical designs, steel construction, and developing an array of new tools and methods for erecting ships. Much of this knowledge, Thiesen reveals, stemmed from close contacts with ship designers in Great Britain and rendered practical and necessary by the United Stares's rapid expansion as a world power. Historians of shipbuilding will find parts of familiar stories here; however, Thiesen's praiseworthy efforts to root his exhaustive research in the historiography of technology give the book added significance and intellectual rigor. It is far from the last word on this important topic-much remains to be done to flesh out the mentality behind the design for the early steel vessels beyond that of basic construction. Early embrace of iron and a dedication to theoretical principles created a gulf between British shipbuilders and their American cousins. In describing this process and in detailing the reconnection of these shipbuilding cultures through a shared revolution in naval technology, Thiesen has made an important contribution to the field. JOHN ODIN JENSEN Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Cradle of Violence: How Boston's Wtzterfront Mobs Ignited the American Revolution by Russell Bourne (John W iley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2006, 272pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-47 167551-2; $24.95 hc) Russell Bourne's title ap tly describes the book's theme, how a gro up of undisciplined rabble from the lower social classes of Boston initiated the American Revolu-
tion, but the title does not mention that this rebellious effort was also done wi th the help of a few charismatic and sophisticated leaders. In Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower, the author noted that few Americans are familiar with New England history between the establishment of the Plymouth colony and the first events leading to the Revolutionary War. In the first section of Cradle of Violence, Bourne deftly recaps that very history that took place in the vicinity of the fishing and m erchant port of Boston. The excesses of Royal Governors Sir Edmund Andros, Francis Bernard, and Thomas Hutchinson becam e the genesis for American resentment of the arrogance and taxation burden applied by their British brethren across the Atlantic. This antipathy led to spontaneous (and occasionally instigated) uprisings by local waterfront rebels who rallied around the Liberty Tree near Boston Common . The remainder of the book describes how impassioned insurgents, ordinary men, fishermen, dockworkers, shoemakers etc. such as Ebenezer Mackintosh, C rispus Attucks, Samuel Maverick, and William Molineux, armed with marlinespikes and "willow wand" cudgels, fought British soldiers in the streets and intimidated or humiliated their Tory neighbors with simple marine tar and feathers in a classic mobocracy struggle. These unrefined residents of Boston's tempestuous North and South ends were cunningly led by prominent political agitators like Jam es Oris, Samuel Adams, and John H ancock, with Dr. Joseph Warren, John Adams, and Paul Revere playing vital supportive roles. Bourne suggests that the War oflndependence might never have happened excep t for the violent actions of this maritime mob and the exploitation of these events by thei r better-known patriot leaders. The scholarly, well-written Cradle of Violence is a worthy addition ro maritime historiography, particularly of New England. Lours ARTHUR NoRTON West Simsb ury, Connecticut 47