| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

A Fragile Capital: Identity and the Early Years of Columbus, Ohio. By Charles C. Cole Jr. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2001. xii, 292 pp. $45.00, ISBN 0-8142-0853-3.)

Columbus may now be the largest city in Ohio, but that ranking was never a sure thing. In fact, during the first forty years of its existence, the very survival of the city was in question. This book outlines the problems faced by Columbus during its early years (from 1812 until 1850) and argues that its inhabitants were successful because they were able to balance their individual self-interest with their community desire for security and stability. The amount of detail about Columbus that is squeezed into just 292 pages is fascinating and will surely appeal to anybody who wants to know more about the city's history. That same fascination with facts, however, may stand in the way of historians of a larger American history from gaining a larger understanding of the processes of frontier urban settlement. . . .

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