Enormously Affected the City

Pittsburgh History, Summer 1990 mental collapse shortly before Artand Library Committee's ear- Inmany ways the Duquesne Club World War Iuntil his death in lier success, Paintings and Sculp- is, as the authors aver, "a micro- 1941, Idabore the burden ofcar- tureoftheDuquesne Club,byDavid cosm of the social history ofPitts- ing for the family. Thus, itisironic G. Wilkins. It also results from that the spinster found relief from Mark Brown's organization of the Decisions made the pressures of family life only Club's archives, to which he and when she died in1944 at the age the other authors were apparently within the club's of86. givenunlimited access. Since their While Brady's biography cap- efforts inevitably produced three walls have tures the paradoxical nature of distinct writing styles, the com- TarbelPs life experiences, it falls mittee decided to engage the tal- enormously short ofplacing those experiences ents of Robert Alberts as editor. withinthe complexities ofher time, The book is an all-Pittsburgh affected the city. ofexplaining whythat which seems undertaking, the authors being enigmatic about TarbelPs life locals. Brown is a graduate stu- burgh and of the United States" might also express some of the dent, Donnelly is a historical con- (ix).Typical ofPittsburgh and the tensions ofthat period. Neverthe- sultant and Wilkins is the chair- United States? Hardly, but deci- less, Brady provides a thoroughly man of the Fine ArtsDepartment sions made within its walls have insightful narrative ofTarbell, the at the University of Pittsburgh. enormously affected the city and writer,and Tarbell, the woman! Alberts's books on the history of even thenation. Likewise, the social the H.J. Heinz Company, and environment has greatly affected Kathleen C. Berkeley most recently, the University of the Club. Itis precisely this two- University ofNorth Carolina at Pittsburgh, have established his way relationship that The History Wilmington credentials in the field. ofthe Duquesne Clubtreats so well. Since its founding 116 years The book is arranged chrono- ago, the Club has been the down- logically into 10 chapters and an town home of the city's business epilogue. The authors did not The History oftheDuquesne elite, eclipsing every other club, intend that each decade be treated Club although the Pittsburgh Club has equally. Indeed the 1970s and held to even more exclu- 1980s are discussed in a single ByMark M.Brown,Lu Donnelly been be sive. In1890 the Duquesne Club chapter while the halcyon 1920s and David G. Wilkins;Robert C. its chapter. Although Alberts, moved to present location on merit an entire editor. Avenue, symbolically chapter Pittsburgh: theDuquesne Club, 1989. Sixth rather each includes the almost across Pp. xii, 188 pages. Foreword, the street from two other obligatory discussion of Club introduction, acknowledgements, institutions ofconsiderable influ- operations (e.g. the cuisine, serv- appendix, notes, index. ence, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral ice, decor, admissions policies, and theFirst Presbyterian Church. etc. ),itstudiously avoids that most Even the building itself is some- common feature of histories of institutional thing of a symbol. Its first story, this genre, namely being a who's histories isa difficultjob with its rough-hewn stone and who ofclubluminaries. Itpresents WRITINGatbest. Thehistorian fre- Romanesque arches, is vaguely selected individuals in specially quently ends up with a chronicle reminiscent ofanother local land- demarked sections (e.g. Gurdon ofanecdotes and unrelated topical mark, architect H.H.—Richardson's F.Flagg, who was manager of the treatments inan effort to satisfy all county courthouse so veryPitts- Club forhalfacentury), but mostly parties underwriting the book. burgh. ittreats individuals as theyrelate to Evidently the Duquesne Club in The Duquesne Club is, of the Club's history. Of particular Pittsburgh gave free rein to the course, much more than stone; interest was Carl Banning, a Ger- authors, for Brown,Donnelly and almost since its founding, mem- man-born member who, upon Wilkins avoided the usual pitfalls. bership in the Club has been "a seeing a parade ofsoldiers march- Even the origins of the book are mark ofsuccess equal to ordering ing past the Club, remarked that somewhat unorthodox. Unlike a custom-built yacht or commis- they were like "sheep going to most books of this nature, this is sioning a building from architect slaughter" and that they looked not a centennial volume; the Club Paul Rudolph" (page 137). From "like a bunch of bums"(63). The was founded in1873 (even though the perspective of an individual, year was 1918 and the soldiers it displays 1881, the year of its this is important, but from soci- were off to fight the Kaiser. Ban- incorporation, on its logo). The ety's vantage point the organiza- ning was not only expelled from book is due in part to the Club's tioncan be understood differently. the Club but also imprisoned for a 94 Book Reviews half-year for his remarks. In the working-class labor history and nism, Marxism,Methodology and hysteria of the time even million- women's history, and can see that the State: AnAgenda for Theory," aires had to be careful. the result is greater than the sum in the journal Signs. The authors have skillfully of the parts. Kleinberg raises issues signifi- woven the history ofthe Duquesne This is not a narrow study. cant to continuing research on Club within the larger fabric of Kleinberg has focused on a major industrialization and gender. For American history, and they do it industrial "hotspot," Pittsburgh, example, she addresses concerns exhaustively. In the Banning af- a place given a lot ofattention by over the differences between the fair, some seven different sources progressives and governmental experiences ofmen and women in were researched, including two social scientists, and has included dealing with the wrenching newspapers and Carnegie Library's inher study a complex analysis of changes ofindustrialization. Klein- Pennsylvania Room. Unfortu- demographics; she has interwoven berg discusses what she calls "the nately, the endnotes are not num- and differentiated the various fac- asymmetric family." She describes bered in the text, making them tors of class, gender, race and the situation ofPittsburgh women difficult to use. Still, this book ethnicity. Kleinberg has much to who lacked access to the work and would be a fine reference work for say about theimpact ofindustriali- wages ofiron and steel mills and the student of American social zation in the late nineteenth and were reduced to virtual depend- history but for its limited accessi- early twentieth century on work- ence on male wage-earners. This bility;it is only available to Club ing people's lives, and their re- "asymmetrical family" contrasts members, though the persistent sponse to it.While not the focus of withthe family-economic relation- researcher willfindithoused in a the work, a reader can glean infor- ships ofpreindustrial lifein which few regional libraries. \u25a0 mation on the dynamics of pro- work relationships were less pro- gressive reform efforts and pro- nounced: men and women both Joseph F. Riskel gressive ethnocentric, class moti- worked atproductive labor and in Duquesne University vations. In particular, Kleinberg the proximity ofeach other. observes that the "social engineers" Kleinbergmakes a second major condemned families that put the point, asserting that the unpaid individual second and the family household work of women was The Shadow of the Mills: first. essential tothe wage-earning abili- Families The book depicts neither work- ties ofmen. Itwas the women who Working-Class in ing-class men nor women as pas- maintained the household, raised Pittsburgh, 1870-1907 sive historical actors. Being espe- the next generation of workers, By SJ. Kleinberg cially careful in her portrayal of Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh women in industrializing Pitts- Press, 1989. Pp. xxv,414. Introduc- burgh, Kleinberg seems to have The author tion,illustrations, notes, bibliography, grounded her approach inthe wise index. words that Jane Collier wrote in addresses what her essay on "Women InPolitics," wehave a manifes- in Women, Culture and Society she calls 'the tation of the kind ofhistory (Stanford:1974): "The model asymmetrical FINALLYGerda Lerner has called for woman of my argument.. :is not in TheMajorityFinds ItsPast {New the affectionate daughter, hard- family.' York:1979). Thisis not a women's working wife, or loving history and not a labor history, but mother... but the cold, calculating a true work of synthesis: a labor female who uses all available re- offered emotional support and history that counts women's un- sources to control the world sustained the bonds of family and paid work inthe home as "labor," around her." This approach im- community. and a women's history that em- mediately dismisses the sexist cul- Kleinberg's book informs my phasizes gender. Kleinberg has tural assumptions and biases so own research on women's lives written a history of working-class ingrained ineven the most analyti- and the constructions ofgender in life inPittsburgh with both sexes cal ofrecent scholarship. Indeed, a the coal camps of southern Ap- present and with full cognizance major strength ofKleinberg's study palachia inthe early decades of the of the genderness of the processes is that she avoids equating twentieth century. Italso comple- of industrialization and moderni- "women" with "family," and ments Jacqueline Dowd Hall'sLike zation. In this book, one can see thereby heeds Catherine MacKin- a Family: TheMakingofthe South- the integration of twosub-catego- non's caution to women's histori- ern Cotton MillWorld(Chzpd Hill: ries of the New Social History, ans, in her 1982 article "Femi- 1987), which deals with the cot- 95.

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