Portrait of Illinois: Transitions after the Civil War
John H. Keiser, Building for the Centuries: Illinois, 1865 to 1898. The Sesquicentennial History of Illinois, Volume 4. Published for the Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission and the Illinois State Historical Society. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977. $12.50.

DR. JOHN H. Keiser has written an excellent book about a critical period in the history of Illinois. It is a mark not only of his considerable ability, but of his determination that he was able to produce the manuscript for this book while serving full- time as academic vice president of Sangamon State University, Springfield.

Slightly more than 60 years ago, the Illinois Centennial Commission decided to produce an authoritative history of Illinois as a part of their program to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Illinois statehood. The six-volume Centennial History of Illinois, which was published between 1917 and 1920, was quickly recognized as the major, multi-volume history of Illinois. Fifty years later, the Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission, aware of the substantial body of scholarship that had been produced in the intervening years, but also cognizant of the need to study more contemporary events, decided to improve and expand the Centennial History of Illinois by commissioning three new volumes which, when added to the earlier work would constitute a Sesquicentennial History of Illinois. Dr. Keiser's book is to be volume 4 (the others are yet to be published).

From rural to industrial
The years between 1865-1898 were a period of rapid and significant change for the people of Illinois, for in this brief time the state moved from a rural to an industrial economy, experienced an incredible population explosion and struggled with the problems which accompanied significant shifts in commonly perceived values. Indeed, so much happened and there were so many changes, that the two issues faced by all historians became major problems for Dr. Keiser: (1) what trends to discuss and which events to emphasize; and (2) how to organize his material.

He has used a wide variety of original sources from the Illinois State Historical Library, including but not limited to the papers of Sidney Breese, Shelby M. Cullom, Joseph W. Fifer, Richard Oglesby, Lyman Trumbull, Richard Yates and John P. Altgeld, as well as government documents, autobiographies, collected works, newspapers and reference materials. Secondary works which are listed in his extensive bibliography total almost 400 additional citations. From these sources he has selected with perception and restraint the major events of the period and also has identified trends which contributed to the development ment of the state from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the 20th century.

More machines, fewer men
The result is an excellent summary and review of what took place in Illinois in these years. I can think of no better way to study a particular event of this period than to find it in the index of this book, read the appropriate chapter and then use the extensive footnotes as a guide to further reading. As for the organization of his material, Dr. Keiser wisely rejected the standard chronological approach for a more interesting topical arrangement. In addition to a brief introduction and conclusion, there are nine chapters: (1) People and places; (2) Structure of governmental power; (3) Politics: of men and machines; (4) Agriculture: more machines, fewer men; (5) Rails, rivers, and mud; (6) Industry: from chimneys to smoke stacks; (7) Labor struggles for power; (8) Chicago: the ultimate city; and (9) Prairie culture.

Altogether, an immense amount of factual information has been included in Building for the Centuries, so much information that only an author as skillful as Dr. Keiser could prevent the book from being little more than a dull and unrewarding stringing-together of bits and pieces of factual information. It is perhaps of interest to note that the original fourth volume of the Centennial History (Ernest L. Bogart and Charles M. Thompson, The Industrial State 1870-1893, Springfield: published by the Illinois Centennial Commission, 1920), which covers a somewhat smaller time span, found it was necessary to have 20 chapters in order to review much of the same material.

Transition in values
Dr. Keiser's basic thesis is simply that the changes that occurred in Illinois constitute a transition from the values held by Abraham Lincoln and exemplified in his life to a set of new and different values, barely perceived and less understood, but none the less real. Dr. Keiser is at his best in developing this point: "His life had embodied all the deepest beliefs of the Prairie State: Rural and self-sufficient, self-taught, and possessed of a native wit superior to the decadent easterners. Needing only his own ability and hard work to rise from poverty to the nation's highest honor, Lincoln confirmed the deeply felt frontier myths and personified what seemed lasting and good in in American life. Now he was dead.

Changing times
"And so they laid him away, and loosed millions of words in eulogy over his body, little knowing it was the ideal itself that was being interred. For times were already changing, and in the new urban-industrial age the Lincoln values could not compete and would become anachronistic touchstones stones done service by men whose lives denied them. The thousands weeping over the bier could have also been weeping over the passing of their age, for in the confusing years ahead, those values that were then the center would not hold. Or, as a later poet would mourn, 'a formula, a phrase remains. But the best is lost.'"

Building for the Centuries: lllinois, 1865 to 1898 is an important book and I recommend it to everyone interested in Illinois history. 

36/ March 1978/ Illinois Issues