| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 104.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 104.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

Jackson Turner Main. Inherited or Achieved? The Social Origins of the World's Leaders: 2000 B.C. to A.D. 1850. St. James, N.Y.: Brandywine Press. 1998. Pp. xviii, 375.

The empirical core and also the origin of this book lie in a detailed biographical study of community leaders in both "old" and newly settled counties in the British colonies of North America. Jackson Turner Main found that, especially in the "new" counties, they were far more likely to be "new men"—not just commoners but persons of somewhat obscure origin—than their counterparts in contemporary Britain. He then wondered how the American colonials would compare to leaders in other historical societies. The result is an astonishing tour through the scholarly literature available on leaders across the entire world during the immense time-span indicated by his title. Why does he eventually stop at 1850 and not carry on for the next short stretch of time? Because, Main engagingly tells us, he was getting tired: "since my bibliography has already reached one thousand items I thought other students might like to carry on" (p. xviii). 1

The book has three principal virtues. At the very minimum, it is an invaluable resource for comparative history, conveniently detailing what is known about the origins of leaders in history, listing one thousand bibliographic references for others to consult further. We might not have labored so hard ourselves on such a task, but we can gratefully appropriate the results! . . .

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