Reviews of the following books: The Early Potters and Potteries of Maine by Lelyn Branin; The Promise of Power: The Emergency of the Legal Profession in Massachusetts 1760-1840 by Gerard W. Gawal

Ballou, Ellyn C.

Burden, Charles F, M.D.

English

University of Maine

Maine History Volume 20 Number 3 Article 4 1-1-1981 Book Reviews Charles F. Burden M.D. Ellyn C. Ballou Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal  Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Burden, Charles F., and Ellyn C. Ballou. "Book Reviews." Maine History 20, 3 (1981): 212-216. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal/vol20/iss3/4 This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maine History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact um.library.technical.services@maine.edu. BOOK REVIEWSThe Early Potters and Potteries of Maine. By M. Lelyn Branin.(Augusta, Maine: Maine State Museum, 1978. Pp. 262. H ardcover. $22.00.)T h ere  are many aspects of M aine’s past that are deserving o f in-depth study. In this respect, much has been accomplished by Roger G rindle’s m onographs on the lime and granite industries, as well as by Jenn ie Everson’s w onderful book on the technical aspects of ice harvest­ing, William A. Baker s superb two-volume study of the shipbuilding industry at Bath, and by Richard W ood’s and David C. Sm ith’s independen t and com plem entary studies o f lum bering in Maine.A lthough not o f  equivalent economic im portance, M aine’s redw are and stoneware m anufacture is o f even g rea ter interest to many people, particularly to antique collectors. Both pottery types, handsom e relics o f a time when containers were more precious than our present throw-away glass and plastic, have deservedly received much attention as folk art.Lelyn B ranin has written a definitive study of the pottery  industry in Maine for the two centuries between the end o f Ind ian  pottery making after the coming of the white man and the beginning of the present-day pottery tradition. M odern pottery may be defined as an art form  with utilitarian usages, as contrasted with the utilitarian objects with artistic aspects that characterized stoneware and redw are from  the early 1700s to the early 1900s with which B ranin concerns himself.212Early Potters and Potteries of Maine dem onstrates the effect o f the Industrial Revolution on a typical m anu­factory. A po tte r worked u n d er the apprentice system to learn his trade. Sometimes w aterpow er for his wheel, wood for his kiln, perhaps a horse for his pugmill, and clay from  a nearby riverbank were the simple sources o f most o f the m aterial and energy needed. Potters were trained  and, in tu rn , trained  others u n d er the apprentice system. They were often assisted by m em bers o f their families, and  they frequently farm ed in the late spring and sum m er and occupied themselves with potting in the colder m onths. From  this simple hom e craft o f the late 1700s and early 1800s, Branin traces its transform ation into three or four large concerns em ploying many potters. Am ong these was the Winslow en terprise  in Portland, which developed into a large com plex o f buildings, kilns, docks, and railroad sidings, operated  by over two h u n d red  employees by the tu rn  o f the century.B ranin has obviously searched diligently for every available scrap o f inform ation about every po tter and pottery-m aking concern in Maine. His thoroughness in recording this inform ation is the book’s only drawback — wading th rough  num erous deed descriptions makes the text a bit ponderous for light bedtim e reading. No doubt, such is the quandry  o f every au tho r and publisher of a definitive historical work. Should one om it a considerable portion o f the docum entation in o rd e r to make the book appealing to a larger audience and deposit the extensive background m aterial in one o r two appropria te  places for consultation by the few scholars who require it? Perhaps we will be forced to do this if the energy shortages effect publishing the way they have hom e heating.Early Potters and Potteries of Maine is an outstanding  exam ple o f a scholarly, definitive study by a non-historian. It belongs in every public and research library in the state.213Anyone with m ore than the slightest in terest in the subject would do well to own a copy. We hope that similar studies will be forthcom ing on such com parable eighteenth  and n ineteen th-cen tury  Maine industries as cabinetm aking, silversmithing, clockmaking, and tool m anufacturing.Charles E. B urden , M.D.Bath, MaineThe Promise of Power: The Emergence of the Legal Profession in Massachusetts, 1760-1840. By G erard  W. Gawalt.(W estport, Conn.: G reenwood Press, 1979. Pp. 225.H ardcover. $19.95.)G erard  Gawalt has w ritten a work which refines and adds statistical support to earlier studies o f A m erican law and lawyers before 1850. The Promise of Power rem ains only a prom ise, however, as Gawalt draws few conclusions concerning the effect o f the leadership by lawyers he has docum ented.T h e  book provides valuable inform ation and analysis of the em ergence o f the judiciary and lawyers as a th ird  branch o f governm ent. W hen early statutes th reatened  professional m onopoly, judges underm ined  legislative in ten t by contrary  in terpretation . Lawyers also tu rned  back legislative attem pts to replace courts with arbitration. T h e  book’s descrip tion o f  these institutional trends are its strong  point.Less successful are the passages concerning lawyers themselves. T h e  work does not make the era come alive to the read e r (and is probably not m eant to). It contains some puzzling observations which are either214w rong o r irrelevant. At note 20, page 121, fo r exam ple, Gawalt writes: “Lawyers now [1835?] spent most o f their time p reparing  legal papers that would keep their clients out o f court ra th e r than working on adversary actions in court.” Such a m ajor developm ent, if real, dem ands fu rth e r scrutiny. Yet it appears once w ithout substantiation or fu rth e r discussion. A less im portan t e rro r appears at page 116, where the au th o r claims lawyers abandoned calling each o ther “b ro th e r” early in the n ineteenth  century. While this may be true  of Massachusetts lawyers, Maine lawyers ceased using the term  only when women began to en ter the profession in significant num bers in the 1970s. While the mistake is m inor, it indicates a lack o f background familiarity with the profession and the region.M ainers will find particularly interesting Gawalt’s report (pp. 83-91) o f the role one of their own attem pted  to play in reform ing the legal profession. Jo h n  G ardiner, a lawyer with impressive English training and contacts, practiced in Pownalboro after the Revolution. As representative to the Massachusetts legislature, he unsuccessfully proposed a com prehensive code governing bar meetings, admissions, fees, prevention of conflict o f interest, free legal services for the poor, simplification of language and procedure, and im prisonm ent for debt. Maine, in fact, adopted G ard iner’s “no standards” admissions policy from  1843 to 1859. W hether this change had any real effect ought to be explored and m ight have added to Gawalt’s work.T he book does docum ent m ore accurately than previously the progressive en trenchm ent o f the legal profession and a lawyer judiciary. It also provides passages o f interest such as the G ardiner story. Ultimatelv, however, Gawalt fails to grapple with the result o f the achievem ent o f power. To say, as he does in his introduction, that lawyers were too individualistic to use pow er as a g roup  underestim ates them .215Lawyers have always used legislative and judicial power, and sometimes executive power. Lawyers may disagree am ong them selves, bu t they have never been  so individualistic as to pass up opportunities to benefit themselves and their clients. As those best educated in how governm ent works, lawyers have been able to do this better and m ore subtly than anyone else. T h e  seeds for studying their effect are within this book. T he fascinating tables showing a high proportion  o f lawyers in Congress as com pared with the state legislature point to one area o f exam ination. How did the difference in lawyer dom ination affect laws passed (or no t passed) by these two bodies? O ther ways to approach the problem  m ight have been to exam ine the effect on statutes o f the lawyers assigned to codify them , to compile voting records by profession, to see w hat the bar lobbied for and against, and to exam ine the decline o f lawyer participation in today’s legislatures.Ellyn C. Ballou Portland, Maine216

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