John M. Dixon is an historian of early America and of the early modern Atlantic world who teaches at the College of Staten Island, CUNY. He received his Ph.D. in American history from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2007 and regularly teaches courses on the history of America before 1865, the history of New York, and American thought and culture. In addition, his research interests include intellectual and cultural history, the Enlightenment, New York history, and American Jewish history. His current research explores the early modern Atlantic world through the Jewish experience and his forthcoming project is funded by the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish history at New York University. The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden, published in 2016, is his latest book which follows the political and intellectual life of eighteenth-century statesman Cadwallader Colden in British colonial New York.
The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden traces the larger picture of British America’s intellectual circles by following the social, political, and intellectual life and career of the aforementioned statesman and man of science. This book argues that colonial American intellectualism in the age of Enlightenment was not a revolutionary detachment from Europe, but a dynamic transatlantic exchange of ideas in which loyalist elites with “metropolitan connections,” like Colden, served as intermediaries between local colonial knowledge and that of European scientific institutions and patrons. It is unique in the historiography of intellectualism in pre-revolutionary colonial America because it focuses on the intellectuals that were imperialist, elitist, and royalist. The author argues that this side of pre-revolutionary American history is important because, even though it does not “fit comfortably into our standard historical narrative of early America,” it was an important piece of “early modern intellectual culture,” (8). The Enlightenment in British America, then, was shaped by the interaction of “European, African, native, scholarly and artisanal knowledge that occurred,” because of the imperialist concerns of elite men in the colonies (3).
The book is divided chronologically into three parts, detailing Colden’s life through his intellectual pursuits. Part one of this book describes Colden’s early life, education, and his first years in the American colonies. It begins with an overview of the tumultuous years of the Glorious Revolution which gave way to great intellectual and political change, that Dixon describes as never being far apart. In Scotland, despite sectarian religious violence that saw faculty expulsed from the University of Edinburgh, where Colden would study, reforms were made to modernize Scottish education which included the implementation of many new courses such as language, botany, natural philosophy, and public law. It was during these tumultuous years in which Colden was raised and studied. His pursuits at the University of Edinburgh were in line with Enlightenment thought and he developed an interest in natural science and philosophy, with exposure to Newtonianism, and began to cultivate a reputable position in society. The biography continues with Colden’s personal and intellectual pursuits by describing his early years in colonial America, establishing contacts and himself as a reputable doctor and gentleman. The author uses this portion of the book to emphasize the burgeoning transatlantic exchange of knowledge and intellectual pursuits of which Colden took part. This portion of the book concludes with Colden’s marriage, his solidification as a learned physician, and his move from Philadelphia to New York where he was appointed New York’s Surveyor General by Governor Hunter through their connection in the same intellectual circles.
Part two of The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden, follows Colden’s early political career in the colonies with an emphasis on his first major written work The History of the Five Indian Nations. After British America gained the rights to trade with Native American populations in the continental interior after the War of Spanish Succession, there was a push to expand and redirect economic efforts to the west. Political conflicts hindered this expansion and there was an increased effort to gain “credible geographic and historical knowledge of the continent,” (63). Colden saw this as a new opportunity to become an expert on the geography and history of North America. Dixon argues that cartography played a crucial role in the imperialist visions of North America that colonial leaders desired and which the British government in London was unconvinced of in the 1720s. The author argues here that New York’s proximity to the Iroquois, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca peoples gave the colony imperial significance. Colden’s “The History of the Five Indian Nations,” gave him scholarly credibility and standing as a leading expert on the geography of North America on both sides of the Atlantic. It was an outwardly political tract which asserted that Britain had economic dominance over these territories to trade and settle and was published internationally.
In addition, Dixon spends time with Colden’s retreat into being a “gentleman at leisure,” following the political turmoil of the 1730s and 40s in New York. He spent his time here pursuing scientific and philosophic endeavors for the benefit of the public and engaged the help of his family, servants, and enslaved persons. Colden also participated in transatlantic scientific correspondence networks and utilized an increasingly powerful print culture to distribute knowledge. It was during this time he penned, “The Principles of Action in Matter,” where he claimed that the universe was made of “self-moving material,” (104). The publication of this work did not catapult him to the success he wanted and was largely discredited. Colden blamed this failure on European prejudice against colonial intellectualism. Dixon argues that the failure was on a lack of clarity in Colden’s theory and the practical inability to quickly respond to criticisms in Europe across the Atlantic. Despite this failure, Dixon claims that Colden’s intellectual contributions helped propel the transatlantic culture of knowledge exchange between the colonies and Europe.
Part three tackles Colden’s later life as the lieutenant governor of New York amid the increasingly political (and revolutionary) backdrop of the British American colonies. His appointment coincided with George III’s succession to the throne and put him in a vulnerable position in a higher office amid an unstable political scene in New York. At the same time, younger educated professionals overshadowed his “intellectual authority,” and “decades of intellectual and political struggles,” had worn him down (7). Fractious parties and political alignments led to “social disunity” and “corruption, conspiracy, and anarchy,” in the 1750s and 1760s (129). At this point, Dixon argues, Cadwallader Colden became disillusioned, and his vision of an enlightened government was fading. By the time of the Stamp Act of 1765, Colden was a universally disliked lieutenant governor with defamatory tracts being distributed broadly. The author argues here that despite his “universal dislike,” and poor historical reputation, that Cadwallader Colden was an important figure in transatlantic Enlightenment thinking, who championed colonial intellectualism. In this manner, Dixon’s book is most similar in the historiography of transatlantic knowledge exchange to books like Delbourgo’s “Collecting the World,” or Woodward’s “Prospero’s America,” though Cadwallader Colden’s actual scientific achievements compared to the likes of Hans Sloane, for example, leave something to be desired.
The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden is written in an accessible manner, with the intent being that anyone with interest in British colonial intellectualism and the Enlightenment could understand the author’s argument. A caveat, however, is that Dixon writes on the assumption that the reader is familiar with broader scientific and historic concepts. Though overviews of major events and theories are given, these explanations fall short of being helpful to those who don’t have that background of knowledge. John Dixon’s research is thorough, with archival evidence from the University of Edinburgh, Harvard University, the National Records of Scotland, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Colby College Museum of Art to name a few. For readers, the book lacks pictorial evidence that could contribute to the author’s argument, and which would make it more accessible to a non-scholar audience. Dixon cites many pieces of correspondence and Colden’s own published work which survive in archives but does not include visual representations of the evidence that he uses in his argument. These issues, however, are small and may be a reflection of a personal preference on my part. Overall, this is a thoroughly well-researched and well-written book arguing the importance of British colonial intellectual achievement during the Enlightenment.
