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Dorothea Dix: New England Reformer. By Thomas J. Brown. Harvard Historical Studies. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 422. Illustrations. $29.95.)
Before the Civil War, Dorothea Dix enjoyed an international reputation as one of the leading reformers in the United States. Even today, her labors to establish and improve asylums and prisons are frequently lauded in textbooks. Many historians have been less kind to Dix, arguing that her benevolence was the result of never mentioned childhood abuse, or objecting to her conservative views on issues like slavery and women's rights. However, this well written and copiously researched work presents a sympathetic and intimate portrait of one of the best-known reformers in antebellum America.
This intimacy is unusual, because Dix gave few details about her earliest experiences. The reticence to discuss her childhood led previous biographers to assume that some event in her early history influenced her personality and motivated her career in reform. Thomas J. Brown chooses not to search for evidence of childhood trauma or abuse. Instead, he makes fresh use of letters and diaries of Dix's closest and earliest companion, Anne Heath, to track Dix's early years. Brown uses their lifelong correspondence to add depth to his depiction of Dix's innermost feelings. He also tracks her fascinating correspondence with luminaries like James Buchanan, William Ellery Channing, and Lydia Maria Child. Throughout the text, Brown gives ample attention to the waxing and waning of...