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Reviews of Books

tempts at russification, Volga Germans turned to

Germany only after revolutionary confiscation of
grain, livestock, and property. The collapse of the
German empire dashed hopes for resettlement or
occupation of Volga German districts by the German army. Ultimately, Volga Germans fiad no
choice but to negotiate autonomy on tfie Bolshevik
regime's terms.
Eisfeld often subordinates discussion of Volga
Cerman concerns to an analysis of activities and
aspirations of German colonists elsewhere in Russia.
Such broader considerations were probably unavoidable; however, Eisfeld covers neither the narrower Volga German topic nor its wider setting
adequately. Eisfeld says tliat bis more inclusive approach resulted from failure to gain access to relevant Soviet and East German archives. This also
explains why the author concentrates on political
analysis at the expense of the important social issues
raised in his introduction.
The text is appended with a series of well-selected
documents. A map would have fjeen useful.
BENJAMIN L. BENFORD
Tuskegee University

PHILIP POMPER, editor. Trotsky's Notebooks, 19331935: Writings on Lenin, Dialectics, and EvoliUionism.
Assisted by YURI FELSHTINSKY. New York: Golumbia

Troisky, he places the notebooks in their biographical context and offers an analysis of the revolutionary's "dialectical style" in contrast to tbat of some of
Trotsky's Russian Marxist contemporaries. Among
Pomper's observations concerning matters biographical, I found particularly apt the suggestion
that Trotsky was attempting to characterize fiimself
in his descriptions of Lenin's strengths. On dialectical style Pomper sees Trotsky as emphasizing the
"catastrophic principle," in contrast to Lenim's espousal of "flexibility."
Without losing fiis critical balance. Pomper is
highly respectful of Trotsky's intellect, whicb has
justifiably impressed many observers, Trotsky
among them. Goncerning Trotsky's vanity and his
notebooks on dialectics and evolutionism, there is
one basic question (perhaps too elementary to
Trotsky and Pomper to prompt either of them to
address it at length) that I wisb Pomper's essay had
explained for me. Did Trotsky see tfie dialectic as a
heuristic device only? Or did he believe tfiat, with fiis
self-taught knowledge of science, based partly on
newspapers, he could discover bow tbe dialectic
works as a kind of "unified field theory," embracing
all tbe natural and social sdences?
ROBERT H. MCNEAL
University of Massachusetts

University Press. 1986. Pp. viii, 175. $25.00,

NEAR EAST
Tfie two notebooks and clutch of additional notes
tbat constitute tbe foundation of tbis book are
modest in bulk, roughly seven thousand Russian
words. These materials from the Trotsky papers at
Harvard University are meticulously presented in
both the original Russian and English translation,
with an introductory description of tbeir physical
format, footnotes in Russian on peculiarities of tbe
text, such as grammatical errors and color underscoring, and explanatory footnotes in English on
Trotsky's allusions, mainly to people. Scrawled in
pencil, witb many abbreviations, tbe notebooks presented problems of transcription, which Yuri Felshtinsky has solved. Of about thirty-eight pages of the
notebooks in translation, afxiut eight concern Lenin
and historypreliminary jottings for Trotsky's intended but unwritten life of Lenin. The rest consists
of a scattering of thoughts on dialectical philosophy
and science, which in Trotsky's mind formed a
single category. Pbilip Pomper shows tfiat this was
inspired largely by Max Eastman's cfiallenge to
Trotsky's Hegelian convictions.
Although this archival material by itself would
interest only a few specialists, Pomper's introduction, whicfi occupies almost half the volume, endows
the notebooks with high intellectual appeal. A master of tfie primary and secondary literature on

RALPH s. HATTOX. Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins

of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East. (Near

Eastern Studies, number 3.) Seattle: Department of

Near Eastern Languages and Givilizations, University of Washington; distributed by University of
Washington Press, Seatde. 1985. Pp. xii, 178. $9.95.
Tfie discovery in Etfiiopia or tbe Yemen tfiat tfie
coffee bean could be used for brewing a pleasant
and harmless hot drink was a noteworthy service for
human society. According to documented evidence,
it happened in the fifteenth century. From Arabic
sources and reports by European travelers in the
Near East, Ralph S. Hattox has put together the
available information and discussed its significance
in great detail. In particular, he wishes to point out
an important transformationif transformation is
not too strong a wordin Near Eastern society as
the result of the introduction of coffee. In tfie
Muslim environment coffee had three great virtues.
It was a stimulant that caused no real physical effects
(and those it did were mosdy in tfie imagination), in
contrast to wine, which was outlawed by the Koran.
It was conducive to socializing, in contrast to other
drugs tbat were, or were considered, introverting
and normally tended to make their users shun

Near East
company. And, from the practical side, it was easily
transported and kept fresh, in contrast to other
drugs, among them coffee's compatriot, kat (Catha
eduUs). There were, of course, complications. Muslim jurists and religious scholars had much practice
in arguing, in analogy to wine, for the illegality of
drugs that threatened to become popular, such as
hashish. As could be expected, they made repeated,
if largely unsuccessful, attempts to declare coffee
unlawful on religious and medical grounds. They
looked with suspicion on its social character, because
it could lead to criminal and seditious associations,
which, indeed, it did on occasion. Moreover, and
this is Hattox's central theme, the coffeehouse did
not just ser\'e as entertainment but injected something entirely new into Muslim society. The coffeehouse provided everybody with an opportunity "to
get out of the house" at all hours and created new
social habits that had not been possible before (the
wine tavern always having been a definitely forbidden and thus immoral place restricted in its potential clientele). Why it gained enormous popularity is
difficult, and perhaps impossible, to explain. Consumption of coffee may have spread because of its
aforementioned combination of three special qualities. Once started, it received a big boost from
historical circumstances, such as the simultaneous
rise of the Ottoman empire with its wealthy center,
which soon set the tone for every fashion.

1011

ate blend of scholarly detachment, commitment to

feminism, and familiarity with the Islamic context of
their subjects. In other ways, Fanny Davis and
Judith E. Tucker are worlds apart. They belong to
different generations and differ widely in their
ideological preconceptions, their selection of
sources, their methodologies, and their interpretations.
Ignoring the titilating, exotic connotations of the
\vord "harem" for most Westerners, Davis elaborates a detailed ethnography of harem life among
upper-class Ottomans between 1718 and 1918. Her
chapter titles convey the gist of her approach: "The
Palace," "Childbirth," "Education," "Marriage," "Polygamy and Concubinage," "The Woman Slave,"
"Divorce," "Social Life outside the Home," "Social
Life within the Home," "Intrigue," "Costume,"
"House and Furnishings," "Architecture and Art,"
"Religion," and "Illness, Old Age, and Death." As
she approaches the end of her period, Davis notes
the increasing infiltration of Western dress, customs, and ideas.
Davis covers an impressive range of Western and
Turkish sources. Descriptions of harem life provided by Western men-<iiplomats, military advisers, and travelershave obvious limitations, and
Ottoman men did not publish on a subject they
considered deeply private. Fortunately, several
Western women left perceptive accounts of visits to
At any rate, coffee and its "house" became a Ottoman harems, and twentieth-century Turkish
noticeable and long-lasting fixture in Muslim society women who grew up in the haremsuch as Halide
and arguably a historical force to be reckoned with. Edibhave also published their memoirs. InterThe author is not concerned with its subsequent views in the 1960s with elderly Turkish women and
expansion elsewhere in the world or with the coffee their descendants round out Davis's picture.
bean as a commodity of great economic importance.
Davis herself was born in 1904 and died in 1984.
The decline of the coffeehouse in the Near East as
well as the Western world is easily understandable in Her lifespan thus slightly overlapped the era she
light of modern conditions, even if it is regrettable studied; she was nineteen when Mustafa Kemal
and a genuine reason for nostalgia. How it all began (Atatrk) deposed the last Ottoman sultan and
can be learned from this short book, which is written founded the Turkish republic. Although she apparently wrote The Ottoman Lady in the 1970s, Davis's
with great care and full, reliable documentation.
view of Islamic history resembles that of Hamilton
ERANZ ROSENTHAL
Gibb (1895-1971) and Gustave Von Grunebaum
Yale University
(190972)great orientalists of her generation^
more than that of many younger historians of the
FANNY DAVIS. The Ottoman Lady: A Social History from last twenty years. Her grasp of Islamic history is not
1718 to 1918. (Contributions in Women's Studies, as sure as Gibb's or Von Grunehaum's, but hke them
number 70.) Westport, Conn.: Greenwood. 1986. she focuses on the urban upper class and relies
primarily on the literary sources they produced. She
Pp. XV, 321. $49.95.
did not consult French, British, or other European
JUDITH E. TUCKER. Women in Nineteenth-Century Egypt. archives, and she leaves unmentioned the vast Otto(Cambridge Middle East Library.) New York: man archival collections, which Turkish and WestCambridge University Press. 1985. Pp. xii, 251. ern historians have lately been examining. Davis also
S37.50.
reflects the orientalists' tendency to reify a timeless
These studies make an interesting pair. Appearing "classical Islam," which she blames for the seclusion
of
Ottoman upper-class women: "By this time [the
nearly simultaneously, both are important contributions to the rapidly growingfieldof Middle Eastern fifteenth century] the Ottomans were giving their
women's studies. Both authors achieve an appropri- allegiance to classical Islam, and the uletnn, (members

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Copyright of American Historical Review is the property of University of Chicago Press and its content may
not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written
permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.