Junipero Serra and the Spanish Colonization of California

Eleven members of the History Book Club met on Wednesday evening, May 13th, to discuss Junipero Serra: California's Founding Father by Steven W. Hackel. One member present had also read Junipero Serra, pioneer colonist of California by Agnes Repplier, first published in 1933. The meeting was held as usual at the Kensington Row Bookshop. (The bookshop has copies of the book available for purchase; contact them by email or phone: 301-949-9416 )

Earlier in the evening, BBC America's news program had aired a segment about the controversy over Serra. The Catholic Church is planning to canonize him during Pope Francis' upcoming visit to the United States; it would be the first time that the canonization ceremony has ever been performed in the USA. However, others -- notably native American groups -- are protesting on the grounds that the California missions he founded were the sites of injustices to their Indian converts, high death rates among the Indians, and the destruction of Indian cultures.

Tuesday the Pew Research Center released its most recent survey data on the changing U.S. religious landscape. The study showed a significant increase in portion of respondents that identified themselves as unaffiliated, with corresponding decreases in Evangelical Protestants, Catholics, and Mainline Protestants -- all since 2007. It was noted that the change is largely due to the major change of religious affiliation of young adults. We noted that these results move the United States closer to Western Europe in religious affiliation, while Africa, Asia and Latin America are showing increases in affiliation to major religions. The findings again lent interest to the biography of Junipero Serra and the Spanish evangelical movement in the 18th century that appears to have been successful in recruiting large numbers of American Indians to the Catholic religion.

The book was chosen to complement club readings on colonization of the eastern United States with a book on the very different experience in California. The east was colonized by the English, notably by English members of religious groups that traced their founding to the Reformation; the Puritans, Quakers and other early colonists were at odds with the English government and its official state religion. (See the club's discussion of The Reformation: A History by Diarmaid MacCulloch.) On the other hand, California was colonized first by Franciscan missionaries deeply influenced by the Counter-Reformation; the Catholic Church was at the time the state religion of Spain and its colonies. The Franciscans were eventually replaced by secular parish priests when Enlightenment thought became more influential in Spanish and Mexican government. Thus the colonial history of California was quite different than that of New England, the mid-Atlantic states or the southern states.

Junipero Serra

Father Junipero Serra (November 24, 1713 – August 28, 1784) was born as Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer to a family of humble means.

• Hackel's book begins with Serra's early life in Mallorca. There he was given at age 16 to the Franciscan order to educate, became a Franciscan friar, was ordained a priest, and became a professor of philosophy training others. He took the name Junipero on formally becoming a Franciscan friar to honor of Fra Junipero, one of the first members of the Franciscan order and a direct follower of St. Francis. 
• The second portion of the book deals with his time in what is now Mexico after he had volunteered to become a missionary; again he was placed as a teacher, he successfully held meetings at which he spoke to large numbers of Catholics to encourage strengthening and renewal of their faith, and eventually became a missionary to the Indians in the Sierra Gorda region. 
• The final portion of the book focuses on Serra's work in Baja California as the Franciscan's sought to replace the Dominicans in the missions there, and on his most famous work starting nine of the 21 Spanish missions in Alta California (now the state of California).

The club members' discussion was quite animated. Several of the members present felt strongly that Serra should not be honored by canonization since he had used coercive force on the Indians; he had certainly beaten Indians and used soldiers to capture Indians who had left the missions in order to return them to the control of the missionaries. Another position in opposition to his being made a saint was that he was the formal representative of the Spanish government that saw the Indians as inferior and was guilty of cultural imperialism -- positions and attitudes he presumably shared. On the other hand, it was argued that his life was devoted to the Church and what the Church still regards as good works, and that he has been widely regarded as a saint ever since his death; miracles attributed to him have been certified by the Catholic Church hierarchy.

The Treaty of Paris Ended the War in North America in 1763. Source of Map

The Creation of the California Missions as an Instrument of State

Author Hackel states that it was the Spanish government that decided to colonize Alta California, and it did so largely to hold the territory for the Spanish crown. The government feared that other imperial powers might seek to colonize the region were the Spanish not to do so -- notably the Russians who had colonized Alaska and were trading for furs down the west coast of North America. It was noted that the British Hudson Bay company did in fact move into the West Coast in the early 19th century, as did the Russians and the Americans (at Astoria, the trading post established by John Jacob Astor's firm).

The first Spanish colonization began in 1770 and was conducted by soldiers and missionaries. The Franciscan missionaries were to convert California Indians to the state religion (Catholicism) and establish missions where communities of Indians would settle. The soldiers were to establish military posts, especially to protect San Diego Bay and Monterey Bay. Soldiers were also to protect the missions. It was noted that the Spanish state (through its colony of New Spain) paid the missionaries and provided supplies to the missions -- after all the church was part of the state and the creation of the missions was a governmental as well as a religious operation.

Santa Barbara Mission Church and Building as they exist today.

We noted that eventually the Spanish brought settlers to Alta California via the Anza Trail, which paralleled what eventually became the U.S.-Mexico border, and which eventually was used by the Fremont Expedition and American settlers of California. These first non-military, non-missionary settlers established pueblos in the San Francisco area, helping to secure the San Francisco Bay for the Spanish. (Soldiers were given bonuses if they married Indian women, thus presumably leading to another group of colonial settlers.)

Trying to Understand Serra in Historical Context

There was an effort by our club members to understand Father Serra in his own terms, He was a Spanish, Franciscan priest of the 18th century. He had taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (to his superiors in the Church); these vows were part of his order's dedication to follow in the footsteps of St. Francis. In Serra's time, such self sacrifice by people in religious orders was seen as highly meritorious, an indication of dedication to God.

One club member suggested that Serra would have believed that only people in a state of grace would live in heaven for eternity, and that active participation in the sacraments of the Catholic religion was the only way to assure that one would be in such a state at the time of one's death. Serra would have believed that pagan Indians of California broke many commandments -- they worshiped false gods. had multiple spouses without the sacrament of marriage, they stole, and they killed. As such they would be condemned to eternal damnation. Only through conversion to Catholicism could they have a chance for eternal bliss in heaven. Moreover, were they to leave the Catholic Church and return to their earlier beliefs and practices, they would be damned. Indeed. He would have believed that only through a complete cultural change, such as would be achieved by a convert leaving his/her Indian village and joining the mission community could his/her salvation be made likely. Of course, the change would be accompanied by living in a farming community, not a hunting/gathering tribe.

Statue of Father Junipero Serra in the U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall

It was also also pointed out that he was known to beat Indians who he perceived to have fallen into sin. It was suggested that such corporal punishment was common at the time, seen as comparable to the ways that parents disciplined their children. Indeed, Serra was thought to flagellate himself and to beat his breast with stones for religious purposes. When Indian converts left the mission community, sometimes soldiers were sent to bring them back. This was probably seen as assuring that they would not backslide, and would remain in the fold of their new religion.

It was noted that Serra and his fellow missionaries did not colonize Alta California to make money, to gain wealth, or even to gain power. Their purpose was more selfless. On the other hand, the missionaries presumably believed that they could gain much favor in the eyes of God (and the Church) by converting large numbers of Indians, teaching them about the Catholic religion, Confirming them as knowledgeable adult Catholics, and bringing them to live in the mission communities.

Serra personally in his years as president of the Alta California Franciscan mission community baptized thousands of children, instructed thousands of Indians in the Catholic religion, and confirmed an estimated 6000 people.  The missions he founded and the chain of missions that was extended after his death (in 1784) in the model he created baptized, instructed and confirmed many more. It was noted that there was some similarity to the way the Spanish colonized Texas, although in Texas they ran into the more warlike Comanche and Apache Indians (rather that the relatively peaceful California Indians). (The club read The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hamalainen in 2011).

What Can We Infer About Serra As a Person?

A member of the group read a passage from An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales by Oliver Sacks which suggested that Junipero Serra may have been a high functioning autistic person. Sacks in turn was actually quoting from a book by Uta Frith called Autism: Explaining the Enigma. The passage suggested that some people with autism behave in so other-worldly a fashion that they may have been seen as saintly (especially in the past before autism was discovered and described in the medical literature).

There may be some misunderstanding here. Junipero Serra took the name Junipero to honor a Junipero who was a follower of St. Francis of Assisi. That earlier Junipero has been thought to be autistic by some observers, and was a model of autism considered by  Uta Firth. He has been confused with Junipero Serra in at least one scientific paper. It seems unlikely that Father Junipero Serra was autistic.

It is difficult to understand a person from a different country who lived in a different century. We may make some assumptions:

• Father Junipero Serra was probably academically gifted since he was selected from among seminarians to teach, and eventually became a professor of Philosophy. Moreover, at least a couple of his students followed him to the New World and worked with him for many years.
• He probably became a gifted speaker on religious topics. One member said she was very impressed by the description of the arguments he had made in one of the missions to current Catholics (pages 48 and 49 of the book). He was asked to lead such missions to strengthen the beliefs of Catholic lay people several times.
• He was apparently able to teach Indians, often via translators, which implies a different skill -- one of cross-cultural communication.
• He was apparently able to accept the responsibilities of his vow of obedience to church superiors (even when he disagreed with what he was told to do).
• On the other hand, he could differ strongly and publicly with civil authorities. Indeed, he was often very effective in defending his positions against civil society officials, especially when the disagreement affected the missions, the missionary efforts, or ecclesiastical matters. Hackel describes his quickly produced memo to the Viceroy of New Spain, written when Serra had gone to Mexico City to protest a local civil official's rulings, as very clear, logical and effective.
• He seems to have had considerable leadership ability, regularly being chosen as a leader among the Franciscans. He seems to have gained the respect and affection of his subordinate Franciscans and the laity while leading the growth of the missions in California.
• A member described his moral strength, demonstrated for example through his constant travel for years even while suffering from a very badly swollen and ulcerated leg.
• He seems to have had little difficulty in living simply according to his vows of poverty. (He ate little, and that of what was available, dressed poorly, lived in the simplest of shelters, slept on a bed of boards, etc.)

It was noted that Confirmation in the Catholic Church is a sacrament, often administered to teenagers, that recognizes that they person receiving the sacrament has achieved a mature understanding of the tenants of the religion. (Father Serra was given special permission to perform the sacrament, which is normally administered by a bishop.) This was likened to Bar Mitzva in the Jewish religion,

This led to a question as to whether there were different levels of knowledge of church theology to be found in different groups in the Catholic Church, One answer was that there is a catechism used in the instruction of children, with age appropriate lessons, usually leading to adequate mastery for confirmation at about the age of puberty. From time to time the catechism is updated. However, others may have a far more sophisticated understanding of Catholic theology. A member mentioned a Jesuit priest friend of his who after receiving a PhD in Mathematical Logic at Cambridge University had continued to Louvain University in Belgium for a post doctoral degree in theology; he had a far more mature understanding of Catholic theology than the average lay person.

Serra's Impact on the Indians

It seems clear that Indian cultures in California were destroyed and Indian populations were decimated. It was suggested during our meeting that the loss of culture and death toll were much worse under the Mexican government than under the Spanish government it replaced in 1821, and were still worse after the Gold Rush of 1849 under the American government.

How great was the destruction under Serra? It was suggested that his missions in his lifetime were able to reach only a small portion of the Indians living in California (estimated at 300,000 at the time of his arrival). We wondered how much damage had been done by European diseases introduced by the previous landings on the California coast, how much was introduced by communication from other Indian tribes, and how much by the Franciscan missions. We did not have an answer. (It seems hard to believe that the decimation of the native American population of California by European diseases could have been averted by replacing Junipero Serra or even by not creating the mission network in the 18th century; that destruction seems to have happened almost everywhere in the Western Hemisphere, albeit earlier in some places and later in others.)

A reference states: "Of the 80,000 Native Americans baptized by the end of the mission era in the 1830s, according to the Los Angeles Times, some 60,000 had died, including 25,000 children under 10 years old." Hackel indicates that many of the baptisms were of children, and child mortality would presumably have been high in the Indian population even before the missions came to California. Still, the population density would probably have been higher in the mission communities than in the tribal communities living by hunting and gathering, and thus the transmission of lethal communicable diseases might have been higher in the missions. One doubts that Serra could have foreseen such an eventual result from his missionary efforts.

During the meeting, one member mentioned that he did not trust the high number of graves in mission church yards as an indicator of especially high mortality in the missions. We don't know the size of the population from which burials were drawn. In any case,  mortality rates were very high in the 18th century -- life expectancy was only 47 years in the USA in 1900. (It was mentioned that Father Serra may have lived as long as he did because he did not seek medical care; it is likely that doctors would have done more harm than good in the 18th century.) The member, citing Irish experience, noted that many people may have been buried in mission graveyards after the missions were closed, as Catholics sought burial in "holy ground". Another mentioned that statistics in Alta California were all probably doubtful in the 18th century.

The group seemed to agree that however high the mortality was in Serra's day, it was probably worse in the 19th century under the Mexican government, and almost surely later as people flooded into California after the discover of Gold and under the American administration.

One club member compared the cultural impact on the California Indians to that on the Africans who were brought to America as slaves. In both cases, Europeans deprecated the culture and even the humanity of the people. He noted an example in which the Ambassador of a South American country called the people living in his country with their native culture "savages". The self-assumed superiority of Europeans who set out to conquer and change Africans and native Americans was galling. Another member noted that cultures change, and that it is not the change so much as the way that it is imposed from outside that is so disturbing.

Spanish Colonial Chart of Racial Classifications in the Americas

A member mentioned the complex classifications that the Spanish used for social stratification in the American colonies, suggesting that class discrimination was confounded with racial discrimination. It was further mentioned that one of the factors leading to revolution against Spain was the discrimination against Criollos (whites born in the colonies) and the preference for whites born in Spain in appointments to governmental positions A member mentioned that he had been able to inspect church records in Indian towns in Mexico and Bolivia going back hundreds of years, and they only seemed to use a few classifications: white, Indian, African, mestizo (white and Indian). mulato (white and African) and zambo (all three genetic heritages).

A member had been a Peace Corps Volunteer in a group most of whose members worked with Indians in South America. He noted how unsuccessful most of the group members had been in helping those Indians to a better life. Six out of some 40 of the group went home in less than two years with nervous breakdowns; he attributed this to their high motivation and their lack of success in improving matters. It was suggested that the Catholic Church, with a centuries long time scale, may have been more successful because it takes a long time to affect economic development, especially in populations experiencing economic discrimination. The former Peace Corps Volunteer mentioned that the most successful volunteer in his group had in fact worked with a Catholic priest who had been helping a community for decades; that successful volunteer replaced the priest in his development projects when the priest became sick. The point of this discussion (which may not have been clear) is that Junipero Serra perhaps should not be too seriously criticized for failing to find a way to greatly improve the lives of California Indians in the relatively short time he worked with them; development is difficult and people continue to make serious errors in development efforts even today.

It was mentioned that there were some 30,000 members of mission communities when the missions were secularized in the 1820s. By that time the missions had large herds of cattle and were producing a lot of food; indeed the secularization of the missions was likened to the expropriation of the monasteries in England under Henry VIII in that both were strongly motivated by greed. In any case, apparently the members of the mission communities wanted the missions to remain and wanted their communities to continue to enjoy the support of the church and government.

We got into a discussion of slavery in the Spanish colonies. While Indians had been made slaves soon after Columbus, the Spanish King was convinced by church officials to outlaw Indian slavery. However, slavery by Africans and descendants of Africans remained legal in Latin America until the 19th century. It was suggested that Indians were still being enslaved and sold in the British colonies of North America after that process had been outlawed by the Spanish. It was also suggested that the Spanish categorized Europeans as superior to Native Americans, and Native Americans as superior to Africans -- explaining why Africans continued to be enslaved but not Indians.

Should Serra be Canonized?

This topic generated considerable discussion. One member held strongly that since Serra used force to coerce compliance by Indians, whatever the legitimacy might have been in his time, that is not legitimate today and should not be given the apparent support of the Catholic Church by canonization of Junipero Serra.

In a similar vein, another member said that the cultural imperialism of the Spanish overlords was so far from acceptable today that Serra should not be honored.

An alternative view was that Father Serra exemplified fidelity to the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience that are still used in parts of that Catholic Church today. The Church continues to be evangelical, and Father Serra appears to have sacrificed much to serve as a missionary, and seems to have been successful in starting missions and leading mission development; he converted thousands. Thus his career seems to have exemplified things that the Church then valued and values still.

It was noted that in his time the people around him venerated his saintly ways. Some of his students followed him into the new world missions and venerated him for a lifetime. He was chosen to teach seminarians, to give lectures to help the faithful renew their faith, and to lead lead missions and missionary communities. At his death. people around him thought him saintly and divided his possessions so as to have relics of Father Serra to cherish. Since he died, people have prayed for his intercession and miracles have been attributed to those prayers after close scrutiny by skeptical church officials. These are all things suggesting that he be canonized.

Final Comments

The group that met was composed of people from many religions, with few Catholics among us. The most active and knowledgeable Catholic among our regular discussion participants could not attend, so the arguments in support of Serra may not have been as well presented as they might have been. Still, the differences in opinion about this seminal figure in California history were aired and discussed.

The discussion did illuminate California colonial history and allowed the members of the club who are already relatively familiar with East Coast history so recognize differences. Those differences are still important as the regional cultures have evolved until today.

The discussion also focused on important issues of cultural imperialism and social and economic development.

Generally, the group seemed to find the book easy to read and interesting. It was certainly topical in a way that history books seldom are. Moreover, the book related to a long term interest the club members have shown in the history of Native Americans.

Here are some posts by one of our members on his blog:

• Background for Reading About Junipero Serra and the California Missions
• A biography of Father Junipero Serra
• Fra Junipero Serra and his Religion

Come to the Kensington Celebration of the Day of the Book!

Sunday, April 26, 2015, 11am-4pm  Howard Avenue, Old Town Kensington, MD Celebrate the Book * Street Festival * Rain or Shine  This afternoon street festival celebrates the International Day of the Book with live music, author readings, open mic, activities for children and adults, storytellers, ...and books, books, books! Local authors, bookartists, publishers, booksellers, and literary groups line Howard Ave in Historic Old Town Kensington to show, sell, and discuss their works. All activities are free, rain or shine. Come celebrate with us!  Some members of the History Book Club will be present, signing their books.  Read more!

Local Kensington History Event

APRIL 28:  Chris and Ed Hyland from the Bantrak Club will have a small train and trolley display and will speak on the Kensington Trolley line.  You’ll enjoy the stories related to the trolleys as well as the history of the line. Chris is a long time and quite active member of the History Book Club.

MEETING DETAILS -  All are welcome at KHS programs.  These are held at the Town Hall, 3710 Mitchell Street, in Kensington, on the ground floor.  There will be coffee and cookies at 7:00 p.m. followed by the Program at 7:30, and a brief business meeting.

Sea of Glory: The History of the U.S. Exploring Expedition

On the evening of  Wednesday, April 8th, eleven members of the History Book Club met at the Kensington Row Bookshop. The next day would be the 150th anniversary of Lee's surrender to Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse. That surrender ended Civil War fighting in Virginia and assured the failure of the Confederacy, the survival of the Union and the end of chattel slavery in the United States of America. The following week would mark 150 years since the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Clearly 150 years ago America changed forever.

The club met to discuss Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 by Nathaliel Philbrick.

• Here is The New York Times review of the book. 
• Here is a long video with Philbrick discussing the expedition.
• Here is the Harvard University Library open collection of online materials on the expedition.

The U.S. Exploring Expedition (U.S. Ex. Ex.) consisted initially of six sailing ships of the U.S. Navy and 346 men, including officers, sailors and seven scientists. One of the ships would disappear en route to a rendezvous, never to be seen again. One would sink in the mouth of the Colombia River. One, the supply ship, would be sent back to the United States early in the voyage. One would be replaced at a mid point. More than 20 crew members died during the four year voyage, and others would be replaced; in total more than 500 men took part in the expedition.

The U.S. Ex. Ex. was led by Charles Wilkes, who was young for the command of such an ambitious undertaking; he was only a Lieutenant, also quite junior in rank for such a command. He was, however, experienced in making naval charts and familiar with the best methods and instruments for the purpose of the day. The other officers were similarly young and of relatively low rank for the responsibility they would bear. The scientists were experts in various descriptive sciences.

Perhaps the most significant purpose of the expedition was to produce charts to help the American whaling fleet reduce its losses from shipwrecks. Thus the U.S. Ex. Ex. was to chart Cape Horn and the southern tip of South America, many Pacific Islands, the coast of Oregon Territory and the Puget Sound. It was also to explore toward the South Pole and if land was encountered (as had been reported by whalers), to chart some of that land. Finally, it was to make scientific collections of plants, animals and artifacts of native cultures, as well as to study those cultures and their languages.

Source

The Science and Map Making

The U.S. Ex. Ex. produced some 240 charts. Members of the club noted that the chart of the Pacific Island of Tarawa produced by the Expedition was still the best available to the U.S. forces as late as the battle for the island in World War II.

A member mentioned that her father had been exempted from regular military service during World War II, and she later learned that because of his marine chart making expertise he had been recruited to make wartime charts of Pacific Islands. Another mentioned a friend, who had been a naval officer surveying charts off the coast of Alaska; the friend said he had loved the job except that the sailors on the ship kept jumping ship -- willing to walk a hundred miles in the wilderness to the nearest town rather than continue the job of surveying that coast. Charting dangerous waters in adverse climates is a tough job even in modern ships.

The U.S. Ex. Ex. brought a huge collection of plants, animals, and artifacts back to the United States. The were exhibited in the Patent Building for some 15 years drawing 100,000 visitors a year. Later those materials were to form a significant portion of the original collection of the Smithsonian. We noted that for the descriptive sciences of botany and zoology, such collections are the basis for taxonomic studies. Often it takes decades before a final taxonomy is agreed upon, and sometimes new species are identified from museum collections very long after the item in question entered the collection. Moreover, good taxonomy is a necessary basis for almost all further work in those sciences.

(Similarly, the collections of artifacts and the dictionaries of native languages made before the native cultures had extensive contacts with the outside world are still invaluable to anthropologists and ethnologists.)

As a result of prodding and lobbying by Charles Wilkes, who himself quickly produced a five volume history of the U.S. Ex. Ex., the Congress continued to fund the scientific work necessary to understand and document the materials collected by the Expedition; thus scientific works based on the Expedition findings came out for years after the ships returned. The earlier Lewis and Clark expedition had failed to follow up its explorations with published science.

Author Philbrick wrote that the U.S. Ex. Ex. led to the creation of

• the Smithsonian Institution (as a scientific organization as well as a museum), 
• the United States Botanical Garden (to house and display the live plants from the Expedition), 
• the United States Hydrographic Office and 
• the Naval Observatory. 

Thus the Expedition was instrumental in the creation of some of the first important scientific and technological organizations in the United States. Moreover, after the U.S. Ex. Ex., the Congress came to accept that the financing of science and technology was a function of the federal government.

The American Museum of Natural History in New York was not founded until 1869. Charles Peale opened a museum to the public in Philadelphia on July 18, 1786 and his son Rembrandt Peale opened a museum in Baltimore in 1814, but public museums were rare in the early days of the United States. However, private individuals had collections of curiosities and there was considerable public interest in seeing exhibits of materials from other lands and from the frontier.

Evidence was produced by the U.S. Ex. Ex. scientists in support of a proposal by Charles Darwin; he had suggested that as volcanic islands of the Pacific sank, the coral reefs surrounding them grew, thus maintaining the upper levels near the surface of the sea. In this way, after eons of time there would remain only a coral reef enclosing a lagoon and the underwater remains of a volcano. The U.S. Ex. Ex. also produced evidence that volcanic islands occurred in linear chains, with the youngest volcanoes at one end and the oldest and most eroded volcanoes at the other end; this finding was an important piece of evidence leading to the theory of plate tectonic motion.

Perhaps the most telling comment by author Philbrick is that prior to the U.S. Ex. Ex., while some people had done science in the the United States (and the colonies from which it was formed) they were amateurs; it was only after the Expedition that someone could plan to make a career as a professional scientist, earning a living from his scientific work.

Several members of the group were high school teachers, and they asked why the U.S. Ex. Ex. was not part of the High School history curriculum. One answer was that the Expedition had been created under the administration of Andrew Jackson, but returned when John Tyler was in office. The Tyler administration was not willing to give credit to Jackson's initiative. Another reason suggested was that there were courts martial after the voyage which reduced public acclaim for the Expedition's work. Still another reason proposed was the history of anti-intellectualism in American life. (A member took a crack at the question in a blog post after the meeting.)

The Route of the U.S. Exploring Expedition

The Adventure

In this book, author Nathaliel Philbrick chose to emphasize the adventures experienced by the members of the Expedition. There was certainly plenty of adventure in the round the world trip made in sailing ships in the first half of the 19th century.

• The U.S. Ex. Ex. not only sailed around Cape Horn, one of the most dangerous places in the world for sailing ships, but stayed there to chart the region. It seems that one ship was lost with all hands in that effort.
• Several of the Expedition's ships then went south, finding a channel through the ice toward the South Pole. The U.S. Ex. Ex. was one of the first if not the first expedition to make sight the Antarctic continent. Philbrick describes how it dealt with iceburgs, storms, dangerous lee shores, and freezing cold to chart 1500 miles of the coast.
• Then after a brief stop at Valparaiso, the Expedition went on to the Fiji Islands where its members charted the dangerous waters, faced angry and warlike natives who were cannibals (yes, they would eat members of the expedition that they killed or captured). A member who had lived in Valparaiso described it as one of the greatest places in the world to live; he would certainly have jumped ship there rather than face what was still before the men on the U.S. Ex. Ex..
• On landing in beautiful Hawaii, the leader of the expedition chose to climb its highest volcano -- over 14,000 feet in altitude. When the locally hired bearers could not continue, he sent back for sailors to carry the heavy equipment and supplies to the top of the mountain (in order for Lieutenant Wilkes to measure the local gravity). That involved a difficult climb over sharp and cutting lava surfaces, which were snow covered at the higher elevations of the volcano. Of course, at the top there was some danger of being killed by gases from the caldera or even by falling into red-hot lava. The crew built huts at the very peak, where they experienced a storm with hurricane force winds and sub freezing temperatures.
• A U.S. Ex. Ex. ship was lost trying to navigate the mouth of the Columbia River. It is one of the most dangerous places in the world were some 2000 ships have been lost -- the equivalent of one per month for more than 150 years. As the ship was breaking up, grounded on shoals, a small boat went out from shore again and again, successfully rescuing the entire crew. Then a small group from the Expedition traveled by land from the mouth of the Columbia River to San Francisco harbor, pioneering in unexplored territory.

We discovered what seemed to be a gender divide in the group over this account of the adventures of the members of the Expedition. Several women member of the group found this discussion excessive if not unnecessary. On the other hand, the men in the group seemed to find the book's combination of history of science and history of an adventurous voyage to be quite interesting and readable. We eventually seemed to settle on an opinion that the author had a right to choose how he would tell the story of the Expedition, but that readers also had a right to avoid the book if they objected to its detailed description of the dangers and hardships faced by its members.

The People and the Interactions

Charles Wilkes

A considerable portion of the book focuses on Charles Wilkes and his relations with the officers and crew that served under him.Wilkes was an experienced surveyor, who knew about the latest equipment and techniques of his time; he had successfully led a smaller team to chart U.S. coastal waters. However, he lacked the seamanship and the experience in command at sea that would have been expected of someone in command of such an expedition.

Many more senior officers had been considered for the command; some had refused it (perhaps wisely) while others had been dropped from consideration for various reasons. Wilkes was given the command of the Expedition, but denied the rank of Captain that should have gone with it, and denied the title of Commodore that would normally be attached to someone in command of a group of navy ships.

The navy is rank conscious, and the U.S. Ex. Ex. took place many years after the War of 1812. Promotions had been scarce for decades and officers were probably more concerned with rank than they might otherwise have been. It was noted that many of these young officers would later serve through the war with Mexico and the Civil War, when promotions were frequent, and that those officers would reach very high rank. Wilkes, without specific authorization to do so, assumed the uniform of a navy captain and flew the ensign of a commodore for years on this voyage. We assumed that his doing so was noted by his junior officers with disapproval. He also sometimes assigned commands to officers when other, more senior officers were available in the flotilla; that clearly engendered resentments.

We also noted that Wilkes, who had been close to his officers on a previous charting effort and at the start of the U.S. Ex. Ex., seems to have changed behavior radically early in the four year voyage. He became isolated from his officers and his discipline became more harsh. Philbrick suggests he became arbitrary and sometimes unjust in his treatment of subordinates. We noted that in the 1840s it was common for ship's captains to isolate themselves from crew and officers, and that discipline was much harsher than would be accepted today. Books by Patrick O'Brian and the Mutiny on the Bounty Trilogy were cited, as was Rocks and Shoals: Naval Discipline in the Age of Fighting Sails.

Wilkes' orders were secret, which seemed more appropriate for a military expedition than a scientific and technical one. That secrecy was likely to have contributed to the anxiety of the crew. Indeed a member commented on the ward room reaction as each new destination was disclosed, and each seemed even more dangerous than the previous ones. Still, secret orders to captains and commodores were common at the time.

It was noted that long naval voyages in sailing ships were subject to mutinies. Sailors might jump ship in port and never return. Strong disciplinary measures were thought at the time to be necessary. A member noted the danger of judging actions of people in the past by the standards of our time.

Author Philbrick draws heavily on letters home, journals and memoirs of the voyage from the junior officers, and those documents show strong aversion to Wilkes and disagreement with his actions. Philbrick draws especially heavily on the writings of William Reynolds, one of Wilkes most effective critics. Reynolds had been very positive about Wilkes early in the voyage, but turned against him for the latter years of the Expedition; he is described also as a very effective writer. Certainly a group of those officers brought charges against Wilkes and testified against him in Wilkes' court marshal (he was found guilty of only one charge by the senior officers on the panel and continued in the navy rising ultimately to the rank of admiral.)

A confusion was unearthed. Charles Erskine, a crewman in the U.S. Ex. Ex. much after the Expedition published Twenty Years Before The Mast: With The More Thrilling Scenes And Incidents While Circumnavigating The Globe Under The Command Of The Late Admiral Charles Wilkes 1838-1842; that book is quite critical of Wilkes and Philbrick draws on Erskine's writings occasionally. A much more famous book is Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, a cousin of one of the U.S. Ex. Ex. scientists. Several of our members were familiar with the latter book which describes a voyage made at about the same time as the U.S. Ex. Ex., but shorter and to California. Some had apparently mistaken Dana's book for Erkine's book.

Most of the members present seemed to accept author Philbrick's apparent position that Wilkes lacked many of the command skills that would have made for a better shipboard environment. Others pointed out that his skill as a surveyor, his iron will, his dedication and perseverance in the carrying out the tasks set for the Expedition, and (yes) his leadership made the Expedition exceptionally successful. It was suggested by the latter members that while author Philbrick had mined existing sources extensively and considered the evidence carefully, he might be wrong in his conclusions about Wilkes. For the group as a whole, the question of Wilkes leadership remains open.

The Government

The book shows the federal government in the 1830s to be slow and indecisive in the authorization of the U.S. Ex. Ex.. Congress in the 1830s and 1840s seems unwilling to spend money on even important efforts for the promotion of commerce and trade. Politicians in both the Jackson and the Tyler administrations appear petty, and perhaps willing to put political advantage before the more general interests of the country; few seemed to fully appreciate the importance of the U.S. Ex. Ex. nor the magnitude of the task that was given to the Expedition leaders and members.

It was suggested that the 100,000 people a year visiting the U.S. Ex. Ex. exhibit for 15 years helped convince the politicians that funding science might gain them votes. A member commented: "What, ineffective government in the USA! Who would have thought?"

The Big Question

A member asked what seemed to be the big question -- why did the government assign so large a task to one big expedition rather than divide the tasks between two smaller expeditions? European governments were in fact mounting more but smaller expeditions at the time -- expeditions with far more limited objectives than those of the U.S. Ex. Ex..

It was suggested that there might have been several reasons for the U.S. government's choice. For example, there might have only been a limited number of officers available with the requisite skills to chart difficult shores, or there might not be enough of the needed equipment (very expensive at the time) to equip two expeditions, or that that was simply not the way the government chose to do it. ("There is the right way, the wrong way, and the navy way!") We failed to adequately explain to ourselves why that choice was made. 

It was noted that the class from which leaders were drawn in the United States in 1840 consisted of relatively few but quite distinguished families; Wilkes for example was the nephew of Elizabeth Ann Seton who established the first Catholic school and the first order of nuns in America; Wilkes' nephew, James Renwick, was a successful architect who among other projects designed "the Castle" building of the Smithsonian and the Renwick Gallery.

Final Comments

While the weather was finally nice for a meeting of the club, the turnout for the discussion was smaller than usual; there were reasons -- one person out of town, one or two not feeling well. Still with hundreds of downloads of the summaries of these discussions, we were surprised that a few more people don't come to the meetings.

The discussion was lively and spirited. People were caught up in the issues raised by the book. Perhaps the key issue discussed is why there is relatively little interest in how the modern world of our daily experience came to be. Certainly the history of science and technology is less frequently taught in schools than it might be.

For some of the member of the History Book Club, Sea of Glory was a page turner, combining important aspects of history with an adventure story and vivid descriptions of clashes among people dedicated to their professions and experiencing danger; for others, perhaps not so much.

Here is a blog post on the book by one of our members, written before the meeting.

Possible Books for June 2015 -- Books of Local Interest

Books on History of the District of Colombia

You might be interested in "The 50 ‘essential’ Washington history books" by Mike DeBonis in The Washington Post of 08/19/2011.

You might also be interested in the PBS special on Benjamin Latrobe which is available as a DVD.

Grand Avenues: The Story of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C. by Scott W. Berg. 4.2 stars, 352 pages. Book talk by Scott Berg. Here is a review of the book in The Washington Post. In 1791, shortly after the United States won its independence, George Washington personally asked Pierre Charles L’Enfant—a young French artisan turned American revolutionary soldier who gained many friends among the Founding Fathers—to design the new nation's capital. L’Enfant approached this task with unparalleled vigor and passion; however, his imperious and unyielding nature also made him many powerful enemies. After eleven months, Washington reluctantly dismissed L’Enfant from the project. Subsequently, the plan for the city was published under another name, and L’Enfant died long before it was rightfully attributed to him. Filled with incredible characters and passionate human drama, Scott W. Berg’s deft narrative account of this little-explored story in American history is a tribute to the genius of Pierre Charles L'Enfant and the enduring city that is his legacy.

Empire of Mud: The Secret History of Washington, DC by J.D. Dickey  4.6 stars, 320 pages. Book talk by J.D. Dickey. Review in The Washington Post. Washington, DC, gleams with stately columns and neoclassical temples, a pulsing hub of political power and prowess. But for decades it was one of the worst excuses for a capital city the world had ever seen. Before America became a world power in the twentieth century, Washington City was an eyesore at best and a disgrace at worst. Unfilled swamps, filthy canals, and rutted horse trails littered its landscape. Political bosses hired hooligans and thugs to conduct the nation's affairs. Legendary madams entertained clients from all stations of society and politicians of every party. The police served and protected with the aid of bribes and protection money. The city’s turbulent history set a precedent for the dishonesty, corruption, and mismanagement that have led generations to look suspiciously on the various sin--both real and imagined--of Washington politicians. Empire of Mud unearths and untangles the roots of our capital’s story and explores how the city was tainted from the outset, nearly stifled from becoming the proud citadel of the republic that George Washington and Pierre L'Enfant envisioned more than two centuries ago.

Books on Montgomery County History

Montgomery County (MD) (Images of America) by Michael Dwyer. 4.0 stars, 128 pages. Nicknamed the "Gateway to the Nation's Capital," Montgomery County is home to a number of federal agencies and a highly educated and affluent population that has grown increasingly diverse in recent years. Established in 1776, Montgomery County now consists of urban centers like Bethesda and Silver Spring; suburban neighborhoods like Wheaton, Germantown, and Potomac; and scenic rolling farmland interspersed with historic villages, like Brookeville and Barnesville. An additional 50,000 acres of federal, state, and county parkland provide numerous recreational opportunities for its residents.

A Grateful Remembrance: The Story of Montgomery County, Maryland 1776-1976 by Ray Eldon MacMaster and Richard K.; Hiebert. unrated, 422 pages. Out of print, but lots of copies available online.

Montgomery County (Then & Now) by Mark Walston, Only one rating, 128 pages. Ranked among the 50 most populous counties in the nation and in the top 10 of the wealthiest, it boasts the most educated workforce in the United States. Through the juxtaposition of old and new photographs, noted author and historian Mark Walston chronicles the progression of county life in all its variety, offering historical insights into how modern Montgomery came to be.

Biographies 

My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass. 432 pages (300 of the original text itself) 4.6 stars. The book is available in a free online version from Project Gutenberg. Here is a brief text and videos on Douglass from the History Channel TV network. Ex-slave Frederick Douglass was born in Maryland and lived in Washington for many years; his estate at Cedar Hill is now a National Historic Site. This book is his second autobiography-written after ten years of reflection following his legal emancipation in 1846 and his break with his mentor William Lloyd Garrison/ It catapulted Douglass into the international spotlight as the foremost spokesman for American blacks, both freed and slave. Written during his celebrated career as a speaker and newspaper editor, My Bondage and My Freedom reveals the author of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) grown more mature, forceful, analytical, and complex with a deepened commitment to the fight for equal rights and liberties. 

Fortune's Fool: The Life of John Wilkes Booth by Terry Alford. 464 pages (340 pages of text), 4.3 stars Only hardcover $21.74. Here is Terry Alford discussing the book on C-SPAN's Book TV. Here is the Kirkus Review of the book. In Fortune's Fool, Terry Alford provides the first comprehensive look at the life of an enigmatic figure whose life has been overshadowed by his final, infamous act. Tracing Booth's story from his uncertain childhood in Maryland, characterized by a difficult relationship with his famous actor father, to his successful acting career on stages across the country, Alford offers a nuanced picture of Booth as a public figure, performer, and deeply troubled man.

Life of Josiah Henson: Formerly a Slave by Josia Henson. 4.7 stars, 100 pages. Also available free online as a digital book. There are some reviews on Goodreads. The character Uncle Tom, fr om Harriet Beecher Stowe's bestselling novel, ""Uncle Tom's Cabin,"" is based on the life of Josiah Henson (1789-1882). Born in Maryland, Henson escaped and fled to Dresden, Ontario, Canada in 1830. In 1841, a group of abolitionists, including Henson, created a community/school for runaway slaves called the British-American Institute for Fugitive Slaves. On the 200 acre parcel, Henson and his friends built a grist mill and a saw mill. After emancipation, many of the former slaves returned to the United States , though Henson remained in Canada until his death in 1882.

Alone by Richard Bird. 296 pages, 4.4 stars. It is no longer in print, but widely available used online. Both Amazon and Goodreads have reader reviews of the book. This is the 1938 edition of Admiral Bird's account of his Antarctic Expedition. When Admiral Richard E. Byrd set out on his second Antarctic expedition in 1934, he was already an international hero for having piloted the first flights over the North and South Poles. His plan for this latest adventure was to spend six months alone near the bottom of the world, gathering weather data and indulging his desire “to taste peace and quiet long enough to know how good they really are.” But early on things went terribly wrong. Isolated in the pervasive polar night with no hope of release until spring, Byrd began suffering inexplicable symptoms of mental and physical illness. By the time he discovered that carbon monoxide from a defective stovepipe was poisoning him, Byrd was already engaged in a monumental struggle to save his life and preserve his sanity. Bird was a distinguished member of Virginia's Bird family. 

The Sword & the Pen: A Life of Lew Wallace by Ray E. Boomhower. 5 stars (but only 2 reviewers), 161 pages. From fighting for the cause of freedom during the Civil War to writing of one of the best-selling books of all time, Lew Wallace of Indiana enjoyed a remarkable career that touched the lives of such famous figures in American history as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Twain, James Garfield, James Whitcomb Riley, and Billy the Kid. Included here mostly because he led the Union Troops in the Battle of Monocacy.

Sickles the Incredible - A Biography of General Daniel Edgar Sickles By W. A. Swanberg. 4.7 stars, 433 pages. The book is out of print but lots of copies available online. Reader reviews are available on Amazon and Goodreads. Sickles was involved in a number of public scandals, most notably the killing of his wife's lover, Philip Barton Key II, son of Francis Scott Key. He was acquitted with the first use of temporary insanity as a legal defense in U.S. history. He was one of the Civil War's most prominent political generals, serving in the Army of the Potomac. His military career ended at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, after he insubordinately moved his III Corps to a position where it was virtually destroyed. And those are only a few of the aspects of his life.

Roger B. Taney by Carl Brent Swisher. Unrated (published in 1935, out of print but some copies available online.) 608 pages.
or
Life of Roger Brooke Taney : chief justice of the United States Supreme Court by Bernard Christian Steiner. (published in 1922, scarce on paper) Available free online here. There is a useful reader review of the book on Goodreads.
Taney, a Marylander, is most remembered as the author of the Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court, of which he was Chief Justice from 1836 to 1864. He also served as Secretary or War and U.S. Attorney General but was the first man to be rejected for confirmation by the Senate when nominated Secretary of the Treasury. He was a central figure in President Jackson's successful effort to close the Bank of the United States. After Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in parts of Maryland, Taney ruled as Circuit Judge in Ex parte Merryman (1861) that only Congress had the power to take this action.

Not our usual kind of thing, but since F. Scott Fitzgerald is buried in Rockville:

The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 4.2 stars, 352 pages. A self-portrait of a great writer 's rise and fall, intensely personal and etched with Fitzgerald's signature blend of romance and realism.
or
Beloved Infidel by Sheilah Graham. 4 stars, 338 pages. Autobiography, love story, and literary history, this classic memoir is "the very best portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald that has yet been put into print". So wrote critic Edmund Wilson about this international best seller in 1959. 

Not quite local interest, but here is one more book to consider:

Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution by Jack N. Rakove (Pulitzer Prize winner) 3.6 stars, 464 pages (365 pages of text). Here is a video of Prof. Rakove's discussion of his book from C-SPAN. Here is the H-Net review of the book. From abortion to same-sex marriage, today's most urgent political debates will hinge on this two-part question: What did the United States Constitution originally mean and who now understands its meaning best? Rakove chronicles the Constitution from inception to ratification and, in doing so, traces its complex weave of ideology and interest, showing how this document has meant different things at different times to different groups of Americans.

Islam Under the Great Caliphs

A dozen members of the History Book Club met on March 11, 2015 to discuss The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the Abbasid Empire by Amira K. Bennison. It was a balmy evening -- a welcome change after what seemed a long winter. We were hosted again by the Kensington Row Bookshop; the owner was a gracious host as usual.

The date was the anniversary of the first creation of the Army Corps of Engineers in 1794 by the Continental Congress. The anniversary of the first knowledge based enterprise of what would become the United States of America was a fortuitous time to consider the empire that created libraries of works from Greece, Rome and Persia, added to that knowledge base, and passed the heritage of knowledge on to others.

Here is a review of the book, and here author Bennison talks in a video on the cities of the Abbasid empire.

The discussion opened with a member commenting that Bennison's book described an empire founded by Arab Muslims who exploded out of the Arabian peninsula to rule a huge area. The Caliphates from the 7th to the 13th century ruled a huge area, ranging from the Atlantic coasts of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, into Sub-Saharan Africa, across the Middle East to India, and even down the coast of East Africa. The Caliphates spread Islam where they ruled and they revived trade. In a time when Europe was experiencing the Dark Ages, the Abbasid Empire was translating books from the Byzantine and Sassanid empires, and thus from earlier Greek, Roman, Persian and even Indian sources. These books were copied and distributed, and eventually translated back into Latin and other European languages igniting the Renaissance. We seldom hear about the greatness of Islamic culture at the time, and this book seemed to the member to be a welcome reminder of the accomplishments of the early Muslims/

Another member read an email that had been sent by one who could not attend, as follows:

Although I thought the book had too many names, I thought her coverage of that period of Islam was very interesting. The contributions to western culture were interesting, although not that new. Also, I found the coverage important of the theories of creative and uncreative as intellectual threads in Islam. The importance of different haddit and their role in their culture is also not discussed that much in talking about Islam, just like Talmud and different approaches to it in Judaism is not understood very well. For Moslems it is not just the Koran and for Jews not just the Old Testament. It is not just law in both, but literature, etc. 

She (author Bennison) does tread lightly on any persecution of Jews and Christians in the period she covers. Also, the present day nostalgia for this period of power is not addressed and is part of the issues today. An interesting book but not written in a compelling style; sorry to miss the meeting.

Source

A member chimed in that he had disliked the book as he read the first two of its six chapters, but having read the entire book came to regard it as one of the best books he had ever read. His enthusiasm was due to the breadth of knowledge commanded by its author and shared in this brief book.

Still another member harshly criticized the book. First she found the writing lacking in clarity and elegance, citing examples of torturous sentences and difficult to follow excerpts. Another noted that in this respect the book share a fault found in the writing of many modern professional historians. The book was also criticized for use of many terms drawn from Arabic and unfamiliar to our general audience -- perhaps defined on first appearance, but often unrecognized on a later appearance many pages later. It was suggested that a glossary would have helped.

The Knowledge Survey

An important chapter in the book focused on the translation movement in the Abbasid empire. In this chapter, author Bennison would frequently mention a classical author or an author writing in the period of the Caliphates, and then identify one or more of that author's works. Such references would perhaps be adequate for someone already well acquainted with the authors in question and with their works. However, at least some members of the club found that chapter to be convey little serious knowledge. Yes we learned, that many translations had been done and many books written, including books with new knowledge, but had only the foggiest idea of what was in those books.

The chapter did make the point forcefully that knowledge systems were far more active in the Caliphates than in western Europe at the same time. On the other hand, a member pointed out that the number of writers and scientists a thousand years ago was tiny when compared to the numbers today.

A member mentioned The Book of Roger, described briefly by Bennison. None of the other members was familiar with that title. However, this was a great and famous book by al-Idrisi, a geographer and cartographer -- an Arab who lived in the 12th century. "Roger" was King Roger II of Sicily for whom al-Idrisi created the book. Al-Idrisi is today known as one of the founders of the science of geography.

The Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily in 1154

In a similar vein, a member asked who was familiar with al-Farabi, resulting in blank stares. Al-Farabi is salso mentioned in Bennison's book. He was a renowned philosopher who wrote on political philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and logic, as well as a scientist, cosmologist, and a music scholar. Our member had visited the most important university in Kazakhstan -- Almaty's al-Farabi Kazakh National University. (The point being that important thinkers, well known in Islamic countries, are not known in the west, and that Bennison's treatment of this philosopher/scientist did not clarify for us the importance of such an outstanding figure in other parts of the world.)

We noted that early in the Caliphate period, many of the key positions in government were by necessity occupied by Christians and Zoroastrians who had learned the duties of their positions under the previous regimes. It was questioned whether these folk would need translated versions of the books describing their duties. One response was that they might want copies of the books for their own reference (and to share information with others who did not read the languages of the originals). Later in the Caliphate, when there were more Arabic speakers available for government positions, the translations might have been even more necessary; Bennison also mentions that by that later time, non-Arabss had to be fluent in Arabic to get good jobs in government.

We spent some time talking about the efforts in Spain to translate books from the Caliphate libraries into languages that could be understood in Europe, notably Latin and the Spanish dialects. The club some time ago had read The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain by Maria Rosa Menocal. That book had given a description of how Christians, Jews and Muslims living together in Toledo after it had been reconquered by Christians contributed substantially to that work.

Another criticism was made that the book's focus tended to exclude practical technologies. For example, those involved in the long distance trade must have wanted maps and written documents to which they could refer. Thinking of documents from the Egyptian Genizah (which were a treasure trove of texts from the time of the Caliphates) we noted that even if ships captains sailing the Indian ocean did not need great maps and charts, they did use books with information on the exports available and the imports desired at the ports along their routes.

As another example, we noted that there was an extensive water related technology, from canals to qanats. So too, we know that there was water lifting technology used by the ancient Egyptians (see figure on right) which is still in use, and the Archimedes screw was also available technology from ancient times That is still used today. How were these technologies modified and spread? The book is silent on such topics, perhaps because these were not the topics of the educated men of the time, nor of the school of history to which Amira Bennison belongs.

The Religion

A member asked what did "sunna" mean, a term used in the book occasionally but not redefined each time used. That led to a discussion of the felt need by the early Muslims to supplement the Koran by knowledge of the sayings of Mohammed and the practices of Mohammed and the community of believers he gathered around him (the Hadith and the Sunnah) . Thus there was an effort to record such material in the early days of Islam from people with direct knowledge, or from people to whom it had been conveyed by those who heard it from those who were in contact with Mohammed. Eventually there came to be an effort to define canonical versions of these materials, discarding those which were not trusted. This effort seemed to us similar in some ways to the efforts of the early Jews to define canonical texts of their religion and to those of the early Christians to define a canonical New Testament. (The Book of Peter was mentioned as a purported gospel what was rejected.)

Of course, the content of the Koran was completed by Mohammed, and a member pointed out that extreme care was taken in assuring correctness of copies of the Koran, even when it was copied by hand before the development of the printing press. Faulty copies of the book were (and apparently still are) buried in a respectful manner. It was noted that early manuscripts of the old and new Testaments of the bible have been found with errors crossed out; experts studying these corrections have been better able to understand the biblical texts.

A member questioned "just what is the difference between Sunni and Shiite Islam, and among the various sects within those major branches of Islam. We could not answer that question; indeed, one member noted that he could not answer that question for Christian religion, It was suggested that a standard reference be sought, such as this on Wikipedia.

The Aga Khan, is seen by some 15 million Nizari Ismailis as their imam. He is believed by his followers to be the most recent in a continuous line of religious leaders from Mohammed, via Mohammed's son-in-law (married to Fatima) and nephew. A member noted that one of his friends had gone from working in USAID to working in the Aga Khan Foundation, which deals primarily with members of the Ismaili faith. The member reflected on his friend's comment that it was easier to get things done when he had the authority of the imam believed to be in direct line from Mohammed behind him, than when he worked for USAID.

Prejudice Against Non-Muslims

Under the Caliphates, Muslims were especially favored. However, Jews and Christians as "people of the book" were usually accorded privileges not accorded to animist or followers of other faiths. Christians and Jews were required to make a payment to the state, for which they of course benefited from the protection of the state. (Author Bennison states, however, that this payment was comparable to that required of Muslims, who are required by their faith to make charitable donations, but not required under the Caliphates of other people of the book.)

Slavery was institutionalized under the Caliphates, but Islam forbids making Muslims slaves. Thus under the Caliphates, slaves were obtained from the Christian west, or from the non-Muslim north. It was pointed out that there was also a slave trade with Africa. Some years ago the club chose to read The Sultan's Shadow: One Family's Rule at the Crossroads of East and West by Christiane Bird, which describes the Arab slave trade in East Africa, albeit much after the end of the Caliphates. (This book was so admired, that it was chosen by the club a second time.) Slaves were encouraged to convert to Islam, and many did so over time.

The period discussed in the book (from the middle of the 7th century to the middle of the 13th century) was one of tribalism and continuing warfare between tribes. While Mohammed led in the reduction of tribal warfare in the Arabian peninsula and Islam eventually allowed trade to take place by land and by sea over a huge, pacified area, there were incursions by Turkish and Mongol peoples (who eventually converted to Islam). We noted that at this time, Western Europe also saw prejudice and conflict, noting the Normans, Goths, Vandals and other warlike peoples who exemplified prejudice against other peoples.

The Islamic State (IS)

Not surprisingly, the Islamic State came up for discussion in out conversation. One member had circulated a recent report by Cole Bunzel published by the Brookings Institution, and another mentioned a recent article in The Atlantic magazine. Still a third member mentioned a recent edition of a serious magazine published by the believers in the Islamic State; she had previously circulated a link to the edition to club members.

Islamic State Territories

Source: "What ISIS Really Wants", Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, March 2015

While both emphasize jihad and seek to reestablish "a Caliphate", IS is distinguished from Al Qaeda in that it aspires to be a state, holding land and governing while Al Qaeda is a movement seeking to influence policy through international terrorism with members in many countries . Obviously, of the two, the IS is now the more in the news and now the more visibly successful. The IS is described as based on theological arguments promulgated by its founders. The IS jihad targets both apostates to Islam (as it describes them) and unbelievers; it emphasizes jihad against Shiites. While we did not discuss the history of the IS in any detail, it is important to recognize its claim in 2014 that it was the Caliphate.

Why do people volunteer to fight for (and against) the Islamic State. One member, with long experience as a high school guidance counselor mentioned that many young men he counselled told him of their intent to become soldiers; some people really want to become warriors. Other members added that while there are American soldiers who have volunteered to serve seven or more tours of duty in Afghanistan/Iraq, many others serve one tour, go home and then never go into active combat again. American Sniper, the movie, was mentioned as exemplifying a type of American soldier focused on the technical aspects of combat (perhaps not dissimilar to some of the volunteers for the IS); in response it was pointed out that Chris Kyle, the man portrayed in the film, had volunteered to be a Navy seal and a sniper, and had completed very difficult and very effective training for the function he would fulfill. He must be seen as an exception rather than a typical soldier.

A member mentioned that technology is now available at very low cost to produce quality videos and digital documents and that it is easy and cheap to distribute them online. Not only does the IS do so, but so too does the Donetzk People's Republic. We should not infer from such publications that the publishers are large, strong, well financed organizations. Thus the Islamic State may be less than it appears. A member noted that March 9th and 10th, 2015 were the 70th anniversary of the firebombing of Tokyo by the U.S. air force in World War II; more than 100,000 people were killed, more indeed than by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki. The horror of those events put the atrocities of the IS, of which they distribute videos, into perspective.

We diverged into a discussion of the fear that has been generated in the American public by media coverage of admittedly horrible events of violent terrorism, but events that are in the greater scheme of things of no great importance. As a result, the United States sometimes does not focus on more serious problems, such as automobile accidents and gun related deaths, focusing efforts and treasure instead on less dangerous and less pressing problems (e.g. shoe bombers and underwear bombers).

Violent Religions Extremists vs. Muslim Terrorists

One member moved the direction of the discussion by complaining that she did not understand why the members of the IS were seldom described as Muslim terrorists since they clearly were Muslims. There has been a recent effort to focus discussion more on "violent extremists", albeit that many of them profess religious motivation. On the one hand, the vast majority of Muslims clearly are not violent extremists; on the other hand, the relatively recent Rwandan genocide and Srebrenica genocide were committed by violent extremists who were not Muslims. We seemed to agree that violent extremism comes in many forms, and that all forms of violent extremism should be opposed.

We noted that there are many evangelical religions, and extremists professing quite a few of these religions are willing to be violent. Our member recalled as a child being emotionally quite upset by the idea of friends and relatives who she then believed must go to hell since they either refused to join her church (or if members to go to services); another member comments, "but then you grew up". It was noted that Pope Francis (like the leaders of many churches) has emphasized the need for people of different religions to live together in peace.

One member, citing many years working with Muslims in several countries with majority Muslim populations and who had American Muslim friends said that he found the entire discussion of Muslim terrorists at odds with his own experience. He people with whom he had worked tended to be secular in outlook, and were much more interested in promoting peace than in encouraging conflict.

Final Comments

This was quite a lively discussion, one that seemed to involve most of the club members who were present. While there were complaints about the book, it seemed that there was agreement that the author was well informed and that the topic was worthy of our attention. Americans probably should reflect more about that "golden age of Islam" and the dept that we owe however indirectly the contributions made to world heritage under the Abbasid, Umayyad and Fatimad Caliphates.

One of the members has posted comments on the book on his blog:

• The Early Islamic Empire
• The Great Caliphates -- The time of Huge Islamic Empire and Muslim Leadership of World Knowledge

There were several recommendations and announcements of events at the meeting, including:

• The Kensington Day of the Book Festival, Sunday, April 26 11-4pm 
• A book talk by Mary Louise Kelly on her novel, The Bullet, at Politics and Prose, March 22, 5 pm Kelly is the niece of a long-time, active History Book Club member; a couple of members who read Ms. Kelly's earlier novel recommended it highly/
• Chris Hyland will give a talk on the railroad and trolley history of Kensington on April 28th at the Kensington City Hall. His model railroad will also be on display. Time 7.00-9.00PM; Refreshments at 7.00 Talk begins at 7.30
• A member recommended the film Of Gods and Men, an award winning French film dealing with a Cistercian Monastery in Algeria in the early 1990s.