| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 245 words from this article are provided below; about 418 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Shien to teikoku: Amerika nanbu tabako shokuminchi no shakai to keizai (Tobacco smoke and empire: Society and economy in tobacco colonies in the American South). By Mitsuhiro Wada. (Nagoya: Nagoya Daigaku Shuppankai, 2000. vi, 425 pp. ¥5,800, ISBN 4-8158-0383-8.) In Japanese.

Early American history, which has long attracted the attention of the best of American historians, has not been very popular among foreign scholars. Japanese historians are no exception; they have concentrated their efforts on modern America, especially its political, diplomatic, economic, and racial aspects. Mitsuhiro Wada's Shien to teikoku, which purports to examine the society and economy in the southern tobacco colonies, seems to indicate a new trend.

The book consists of twelve previously published articles and three new chapters, all drawing heavily upon the works of early American historians. Over four-fifths of the book is devoted to Maryland, with sporadic references to Virginia. It covers all the major topics: demography, indentured servitude, Negro slavery, family, the tobacco economy, diversified agriculture, runaway slaves, and promotional tracts, to name a few, and an effort is made to grasp them in the context of the British Empire. Those chapters abundantly demonstrate the author's masterly command of the subject. The last two chapters, which deal with Newfoundland and the Regulators in North Carolina, however, are superfluous, interesting though they are. Their inclusion is difficult to justify, unless they could be made to conform to the intended theme of the book more directly.

. . .

There are about 418 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.