Abstract

The Rise of Carl Schurz

The article focuses the book "The Americanization of Carl Schurz," by Chester Vern Easum. Easum has done a thoughtful and careful study of the career of Carl Schurz from the time of his arrival in the U.S. until his commissioning as a major general. He has thrown, considerable light on the phenomenal rise in Wisconsin of the German-born American who scaled greater heights in political and military life. Prefacing his study with a concise sketch of Schurz's career in Germany as a student and revolutionist, Easum has devoted most of his attention to the Schurz of Watertown, Wisconsin and the amazing speed with which he became a State and national figure, a speed so great that he was nearly elected State Senator more than a year before he could become a naturalized citizen and was barely defeated for the lieutenant-governorship a year later, just before he received his final naturalization papers.