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University Daily Kansan
American History, Politics Popular
LINCOLN'S WAR CABINET, by
Burton J. Hendrick, Doubleday
Dolphin, $1.45. REUNION AND
REACTION, by C. Vann Wood-
ward, Doubleday Anchor, 95 cents.
THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN
POLITICS, by Samuel Lubell.
Doubleday Anchor, 95 cents.
American politics has been politics of accommodation. Within each major party we have found, almost from the beginning, men who recognized that some kind of compromise must be made with people of differing views both within their party and without.
Thus the grouping of these three books, which at first glance seem greatly dissimilar, for purposes of review. In Burton Hendrick's "Lincoln's War Cabinet" we see men essentially unharmonious brought together in a coalition government for the purpose of prosecuting a war. In C. Vann Woodward's "Reunion and Reaction" we see how a political deal was made between North and South in 1876 to prevent a second war between the states. In Samuel Lubell's "The Future of American Politics" we see the 20th century culmination of these efforts to achieve harmony.
"LINCOLN'S WAR CABINET" is an absorbing story, a truly specialized story of the Civil War. The great battles are important here only in the ways they reveal struggles within the cabinet, as, for example, after Fredericksburg and after Chancellorsville when the radicals became enamored first of Burnside and second of Hooker. The battles are important, too, as we see how a general like McClellan (and this is no brief in his behalf) became the pawn in a feud between the radicals and the moderates.
There are incisive portraits here—the scheming Seward, determined to be an American prime minister but gradually growing in stature; the ambitious Chase, creating presidential booms for himself almost from the time he entered the cabinet; the scurrilous Cameron, compromise secretary only; the faithful Welles, an early-day Ickes in his meticulous reporting of bickering within the official family; the fanatical Stanton.
"Reunion and Reaction" is most significant in its showing how the South of the postwar period was scarcely a solid South and how some leaders were willing to make any deals to secure industrial growth. Lest one conclude that the South was outside the dominant American movements of the seventies and eighties, let Woodward speak:
"ALL OF THESE GENTLEMEN
ALL OF THESE GENTLEMEN — Republicans and Democrats, Northerners and Southerners — found it necessary to come to terms with the dominant forces of the age in which they lived if they hoped to carry out their purposes . . . In public they spoke of the reconciliation of estranged sections, the solution of a national crisis, or the avoidance of violence and civil war. But if the votes necessary for the attainment of those purposes...happened to lie in the control of a Gould, a Huntington, or a Scott, then some sort of accommodation had to be reached."
Thus amity between the sections. Thus Hayes in the White House instead of Tilden.
What is particularly amazing about "The Future of American Politics" is that a book that seemed so topical in 1952 should have held up so well. It was a book of current events then; today it is a document in history. Here we have one of the most astute students of the American scene, one willing to cast aside preconceptions and make his own independent study of what is happening to the American voter.
LUBELL RINGS DOORBELLS.
He charts districts. He talks to people before and after elections.
And he is able to tell us why Truman won in 1948, to forecast why Eisenhower would win in
1522 and 1556. He saw, in 1552,
no chance of a Catholic in the
White House for some time, how-
ever.
* *
He describes the city, the South, the conservative revolt, the importance of hyphenated groups, the suburbs, and what he calls the myth of isolationism. He shows us how moderation and compromise have become important facets of American politics, as they were in the era of Lincoln and Tilden.
THE DRY AND LAWLESS YEARS, by Judge John H. Lyle. Dell. 50 cents.
Ignoring the fact that Judge Lyle injects himself into this book a bit too much, one may report that here is a vivid story of gangland days in Chicago. Judge Lyle was the gentleman responsible for arrest and conviction of some celebrated hoods, and the amazing thing is that the name of Eliot Ness never once figures in the story.
But other people made famous through the press, movies and television are prominently on view. Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans may protest, as they protested about "The Untouchables," but Dion O'Banion and Al Capone are here in full force.
But so are thugs of other nationality groups. This is a sordid tale that Lyle tells, yet one is caught up in it, as many Americans still are caught up in what has come to be almost a national legend—the gang era. We read again about Scarface Al's reign of terror in Cicero, about Roger Tuohy and his death years after the heyday of Chicago gangs, about the florist O'Banion and the now famous St. Valentine's Day massacre.
Lyle has one view of particular interest. He thinks Giuseppe Zangara was a tool of the Mafia and that when he assassinated Mayor Cermak he meant to get Cermak and not President Roosevelt. And if some authorities, such as a Chigago Tribune editorial writer, are to be believed, Judge Lyle himself played a key role in ridding Chicago of many gangsters and rallying public sentiment against them—CMP.
***
PROFILES IN COURAGE, by John F. Kennedy (Cardinal, 35 cents)—a reprint of the already classic book written when the President was a senator fighting a critical back ailment. The book won the Pulitzer Prize in biography, and is notable for its series of statements concerning men who went against public opinion to do what they believed right — John Quincy Adams, Sam Houston, Webster, Benton, George Norris, Robert Taft. Possibly the best of these biographies is that of Edmund Ross of Kansas, whose vote against impeachment of Johnson led to the political downfall of the Kansan.
**
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AND THE AGE OF ACTION, edited and with text by Alfred B. Rollins Jr. Dell, 50 cents.
Of most value as a desk reference, for the many excerpts from speeches, histories and reminiscences, is this paperback original. One may question what particular contribution it can make in its own right, however. It is a volume that has all the earmarks of having been hastily done. Rollins writes well, but his transitions from text to excerpts seem as cumbersome as, those in senior term papers—too much of the "As Frances Perkins has to say." kind of thing.
Rollins is even more sold on Roosevelt than Arthur Schlesinger Jr., whom he frequently quotes. A more balanced picture might be of help, and this comment comes from an admirer of Roosevelt. The story is essentially the same one Schlesinger is telling in "The Age of Roosevelt" and that James Burns told in "The Lion and the Fox."
The Greeks Search for Life
Probing the spirit behind the rise of an ancient civilization is a task to be undertaken by an expert. Miss Hamilton, who spent a lifetime studying the classic cultures, has so identified herself with them that she was able to write of them with a warmth that exceeds historical documentation and breathes new life into the characters who created the Golden Age of Pericles.
By Robert B. Simpson Lawrence senior
THE GREEK WAY, by Edith Hamilton. The Modern Library, $1.95.
THE ROCKY, wind-swept islands situated on the periphery of civilization became the spawning grounds of a passion for life unequalled before or since ancient Greece. The remarkable Greeks found life harsh. The struggle for survival on sparsely vegetated mountain slopes cut by severe winters demanded strong bodies and keen minds; yet it did not pre-empt time for play and reflective thinking. The same rugged individualist who tended flocks and tilled the soil trained his body for athletic competition, marveled at the beauty of a wild flower, and reflected on the morality of slavery. To the Greek the world was beautiful and full of minute and magnificent delights. His passionate pursuit of truth became the prolific parent of nearly all that we hold sacred to our own way of life.
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