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Book Review: Chabag: Schweizer Kolonie Am Schwarzen Meer, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

The founding of hoogeneous, ethnically defined settlements represents perhaps the most colorful aspect of migration history. The colony Chabag, located in Bessarabia where the Dnjester river flows into the Black Sea, provides a find example of such a story, traced by H. Gander-Wolf as a labor of love. The settlement, founded in 1822 by the botanist and vine-grower Louis Vincent Tardent from Vevey in French-speaking Switzerland, lasted for five generations until the turbulence of World War Two forced the inhabitants to return to their homeland. Although this study is written by a descendant of the settlers, it is remarkably free …

Other Books Received

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

A collection of books received.

Book Review: Amicable Agreement Versus Majority Rule: Conflict Resolution In Switzerland, Frank Tachau

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Writing a review of a book about Swiss politics for Swiss-American readers is not an easy task for a non-Swiss political scientist. Unfortunately, the Swiss political system has simply not been a very popular subject for investigation by American political scientists. Since Switzerland is the oldest and perhaps most successful multi-ethnic political system in Europe, if not the world, this lack of attention and popularity is very regrettable indeed, The appearance in English translation of this book by Jurg Steiner of the University of North Carolina (with teaching affiliations at the Universities of Zurich and Geneva as well) does a …

Book Review: Rapperswil Im 19. Jahrhundert, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

The seven essays assembled in this book present excellent examples of the great value of local history for the professional historian. Eugen Halter, now a retired schoolteacher, had gathered a wealth of material that highlighted aspects of the 19th century economic and social history of the town of Rapperswil. Thus he offers in one chapter a sketch of the region's economic situation about 1850; in another he descries the stormy career of the liberal clergyman Felix Helbling (1802-1873). who had been greatly influenced by Ignaz Vital Troxler (1780-1866) and Heinrich Zschokke (1771-1848), two leaders of the liberal movement which after …

Bookreviews, George A. Codding Jr.

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Dear Dr. Burckhardt:

During the research for a new book on Swiss federalism, I had the occasion to renew my acquaintance with a book which has probably received far less attention among those interested in Switzerland than it perhaps should have. The book in question is William Gorhan Rice, Law Among States in Federacy: A Survey of Decisions of the Swiss Federal Tribunal in Intercantonal Controversies (Appleton, Wisconsin: C.C. Nelson Publishing Company, 1959), the writing of which was subsidized, according to the author, by the Penrose Fund of the American Philosophical Society and the University of Wisconsin.

Book Review: Alte Und Neue Welt In Historischer Perspekitive: Sieben Studien Zum Amerikanischen Geschichts-Und Selbstverstandnis, Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

This small book contains seven essays by Dr. Guggisberg, Professor of History at the University of Basel and member of the Board of Advisors of the Swiss American Historical Society. Except for the first one, they were previously published in various learned journals, yearbooks, an Festschriften.

Book Review: La Genese De Nova Friburgo. Emigration Et Colonisation Suisse Au Bresil 1817-1827, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Nicoulin's work on the making of Nova Friburgo is a thoroughly researched and well-presented study, but somewhat limited in its interpretive dimensions. Manuscript materials in Swiss federal, state, and village archives have been extensively consulted as well as archives in Rio de Janeiro and in Nova Friburgo. The author has furthermore perused a great many printed sources all of which enabled him to reconstruct the story of an emigration which in 1819 involved over 2000 Swiss and had the active support of Swiss governments as well as of Brazilian authorities. A 70-page appendix offers the reader a useful sample of …