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REVIEW NOTICES
There are Jews in Southern Indiana
The Bloomington Story
By Katie Himm and Lana Ruegamer Eisenberg. Indiana Jewish History Publication No. 38
(Fort Wayne: Indiana Jewish Historical Society, 2009. Pp. 112. Illustrations, notes, index. Paperbound, $10.00. )
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| This small volume is packed with information on the history of the Jewish presence in Bloomington, Indiana, and Monroe County. Early chapters cover the first Jewish families to arrive in the town, including the Kahns in the 1840s and the Becovitz family from Eastern Europe in 1887. The authors discuss at length the central role of the Hillel organization, begun in 1938, for the university and for the larger Jewish community. History from the 1950s onward covers the discrimination and lack of accommodation through the 1950s and 1960s; the first local minyan begun in 1964; the Jewish Community Center begun in 1970 and its transition to a synagogue in the 1980s; the 1983 arson fire of the center later traced to two white supremacists; and the history of the rebuilt Congregation Beth Shalom up to the present day. The book is generously illustrated, and anyone interested in the history of the city and county, as well as those interested in the history of Jews in the Midwest, will find much of interest here. |
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The Indiana Constitutional Convention of 1850–1851
By Donald F. Carmony. Prepared for publication by Bethany L. Natali and Elizabeth R. Osborn. Indiana Supreme Court Legal History Series
(Indianapolis: IBJ Book Publishing, 2009. Pp. [xiv], 258. Illustrations, notes, appendices, bibliography, indexes. Paperbound; to order go to http://www.in.gov/judiciary/citc )
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| This book offers a complete reprint of a 1931 master's thesis, written by Donald F. Carmony, one of the twentieth century's foremost experts in Indiana history. In his introduction, State Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard reminds readers of the historic importance of the state's second constitution, which pointed to the growing need (among Hoosiers and others, including the citizens of Ohio and Kentucky) "to change their constitutions to better reflect the growing democratization in American society and politics" (p. v). Carmony's thesis provides eight chapters of analysis, including the issues that led up to the convention; the political, social, and economic changes brought about by the new constitution; and public reaction to the document. The thesis concludes with five appendices of primary source material, including the 1851 document and later comments by several convention delegates. The editors have added an up-to-date list of recommended readings to Carmony's original bibliography, as well as subject and name indexes. |
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Historic Photos of Indiana
By Scott M. Bushnell
(Nashville, Tenn.: Turner Publishing, 2009. Pp. x, 206. Illustrations. $39.95.)
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| This coffee-table book divides its photographic collection into four historical periods, covering the 1850s through the 1960s, and focuses on architecture, transportation, business, leisure, and famous Hoosiers. Among the unusual photos from the nineteenth century are those of a wedding party on a large boat on the Wabash & Erie Canal and an 1892 view of several men in suits, ties, and bowler hats field testing the Kleen Klipper lawn mower manufactured by Hoosier company Dille & McGuire. Readers can see early twentieth-century views of a circus parade in Peru; the city of Gary being built by U.S. Steel; and a Hoosier reunion of Grand Army of the Republic veterans. Photographs from the 1920s through the 1940s include a Gennett Records recording session; a troop of Boy Scouts placing markers along the Lincoln Highway; and women workers in the Fort Wayne General Electric plant during World War II. The book concludes in the 1960s, with photographs including a view of Robert Kennedy's 1968 campaign swing through the state. |
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Indiana's War
The Civil War in Documents
Edited by Richard F. Nation and Stephen E. Towne
(Athens: Ohio University Press, 2009. Pp. xi, 252. Maps, timeline, discussion questions, notes, selected bibliography, index. Paperbound, $18.65.). . . |
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