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Bryce Classic, Schlesinger Book Head Volumes in Public Affairs Area
THE AMERICAN COMMON-WEALTH, by James Bryce, edited and abridged by Louis Hacker (Putnam's Capricorn Books, two volumes, $1.45 each).
Occupying a place alongside De Tocquillevie for several generations has been this classic view of American government by an Englishman, which Louis Hacker considers "the greatest book ever written about America." Though the praise may be extravagant, this work undoubtedly deserves its position.
Though an abridgment, this twovolume paperback has been abridged by a leading scholar. Bryce studied American institutions in the Gilded Age, and though his views are necessarily colored by that flamboyant time, they are still valid ones.
He analyzes the institutions of our government, and how they work, the states and their place in the federal system, the parties and their bosses and operations, the characteristics of public opinion, some specialized views such as examinations of the Tweed ring and the idea of laissez-faire, and such institutions as the West, railroads, Wall*Street, religion and the like.
THE VITAL CENTER, by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (Sentry 11.55)
Schlesinger wrote this essay on American liberalism in the late forties. He tells us today that he would change little of it now, except perhaps to water down the vitriolic view of American business. For he has come to see that business must constitute part of the vital center that will preserve us from the fanaticism of either extreme right or extreme left.
This is the revealing aspect of "The Vital Center." Schlesinger is the bête noire of the far right, but this book and the "Age of Roosevelt" books should reveal this man as being far from a danger to "the American way."
The greatest danger to our system in 1949. Schlesinger thought, was communism, just as it remains
the greatest danger today. For this reason he has relatively little to say about attacks from the right. This is a lucid and valuable study, which should be reread by the students of '49 and read for the first time by the students of '63.
SOUTHERN POLITICS, by V. O.
Key Jr. (Vintage, $29.5).
Though written more than a dozen years ago, this book has become the definitive work on southern politics. It is thorough, authoritative, and well documented. On top of that, it is readable.
V. O. Key gives us insight into southern politics that we tend to forget in our stereotyped thinking of the "one-party South." It is not a one-party South; that is the first point to keep in mind. The patterns of Georgia politics are greatly different from those of Louisiana. There are bosses in Virginia; there are issues in Mississippi quite unlike those in North Carolina.
INSIDE RUSSIA TODAY, by John Gunther (Pyramid, 95 cents).
Wednesday, March 6, 1963 University Daily Kansan
Yet the insights Gunther brought to bear four years ago still have validity, and he has done some revision. It is not merely a political study, though politics must play a big role in such a book. The country itself, the geography, the terrain, the economics, the many peoples, the writers, the artists, even the ballet performers come under the quick scrutiny of Gunther.
There is much to say against the hop-skip-and-jump school of reporting that John Gunther has come to symbolize, especially when events and men change as rapidly as today. This book appeared in 1958; already, obviously, it has become dated.
And, even though some of this is dated, it, like the earlier "inside" books, can always have value for the portrayals it provides of Russia at a certain point in time.
SCIENCE AND GOVERNMENT;
by C. P. Snow (Mentor, 60 cents).
These were the Godkin lectures which Snow delivered at Harvard in 1950, and they come to us in this paperback with an essay in which Snow evaluates what he had to say two years ago.
Though he is best known to us for his superb novels, C. P. Snow is a physicist himself and in World War II was in charge of selecting scientific personnel for war research. His story here is one of some importance — the continuing question of the role scientists may play in government.
The specific question is the feud between Sir Henry Tizard, chairman of the Aeronautical Research Committee, and F. A. Lindemann, personal adviser to Churchill. Snow sides with Tizard in the dispute, which concerned the use of radar early in the war and the use of strategic bombing.
THE U-2 AFFAIR, by David Wise and Thomas B. Ross (Bantam, 60 cents).
This book presents an elliptic view of the spy plane incident which would have the reader believe that Eisenhower was a guileless, naive farm boy who was led down the path of imprudence by the "subversive" Central Intelligence Agency.
The book plumbs the details of the incident which submarined the Paris Summit meeting, and in so doing adds continuity to help the reader gain a proper perspective.
In the past few years Jules Feiffer has become a cartoonist greatly beloved by those of us who don't mind seeing our pet institutions and heroes attacked. Here is an assembling of his cartoons which reveal the amazing Feiffer talent not only for cartooning but for accurate reproduction of what people say and how they say it.
SICK SICK SICK, by Jules Feiffer
(Signet, 50 cents).
MAN AGAINST MYTH, by Barrows Dunham (American Century, $1.95).
Man: the No.1 Subject
You can change human nature. It's false to believe that the rich are fit and the poor unfit. There are no superior or inferior races. There are not necessarily two sides to every question. Art and politics can mix. Thinking doesn't necessarily make it so. You don't have to look out just for yourself. Problems are not merely verbal. Words can hurt you. You can be free, and pay social security at the same time.
These are among the conclusions in an amusing, engrossing, convincing volume called "Man Against Myth." Barrows Dunham has set out to shatter a few icons that have dominated our thinking. In view of recent happenings in Oxford, Miss., one can conclude that everyone still has not come around to the Dunham view on race, and the continuing fight of many against security makes it apparent that Dunham failed to convince some about the freedom-security myth.
THE PSYCHOANALYST AND THE ARTIST, by Daniel E. Schneider (Mentor, 75 cents).
"Mankind has yet some distance to travel before it achieves the fulfillment of genuine humanity." This is the contention made by the anthropologist, Ashley Montagu, in this new paperback volume.
MAN IN PROCESS, by Ashley Montag (Mentor, 75 cents).
Here is a highly readable analysis of what psychiatry has done for our understanding of the arts in the 20th century. The author goes back to "Oedipus Rex" and proceeds up to modern times to describe how psychic forces are captured and expressed in art.
Montagu deals with several questions — why war is one of the most unnatural inventions of man, who man weeps, why he swears. And he tells us that we need to understand other societies in order
to understand ourselves. In particular, he discusses such concepts as blood, religion, race and caste. The difference between the savage and civilized man is skin-deep, he says.
THE SUPER-AMERICANS, by John Bainbridge (Siegel, 75 cents).
John Bainbridge (Signet, 13 cents).
This is a book about Texans. And John Bainbridge tells some amusing and perceptive stories, several of which appeared in the New Yorker.
There are stories here about oilmen and cattlemen, sports lovers who play big and think big, states-righters and chauvinists. Most of the familiar stereotypes are present, but one must reflect that in talking about Texas the seemingly wild fantasies always have quite a bit of truth about them.
TWO CENTURIES OF ECUMENISM by George H. Tavard (Mentor-Omega, 75 cents) - Printed in convenient pocket paperback form. this timely review of the Christian church's "search for unity" gives the reader real perspective on the current council of Pope John XXIII. Father Tavard's book traces the development of modern ecumenism from its birth in the 19th century, describing efforts at reunion such as the Oxford movement and the Catholic conversion of Cardinal Newman; the Lambeth conferences, the Malines Conversations between Canterbury and Rome; the World Council of Churches, and the "Die Sammlung" movement among German Lutherans today.
CHINA, by Felix Greene (Ballantine, 95 cents)—This paperback reprint of a British-American reporter's coverage of "the biggest story in the world" offers citizens of the United States a timely look at "the Country Americans are not allowed to Know." A real contribution to greater U.S.-Chinese understanding, for which the author makes an eloquent plea.
SEARCHLIGHT BOOKS
9—ENVIRONMENT AND POLICY IN WEST AFRICA
Under the General Editorship of GEORGE W. HOFFMAN and G. ETZEL PEARCY Available in May About $1.45 eac
By R. J. Harrison Church. A concise but lively account of the problems, policies and prospects of West Africa, analyzed in relation to the West African environment and to the world in general.
10—INDONESIA: The Crisis of the Millstones
By Benjamin H. Higgins with Jean Higgins. An examination of the country's resources, culture, history, and politics as they relate to the preparation of a plan for economic development.
11—JAPAN: Industrial Power of Asia
By Robert B. Hall, Jr. A brief view of Japan as a fast-developing, modern, urban-industrial society, showing some aspects of its changing role in the world as a result of its regained industrial power.
12—THE LOWER MEKONG
By C. Hart Schaaf and Russell H. Fifield. Presents a historical, geographical, and political picture of the Lower Mekong Basin-Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and the Republic of Vietnam-describing the vast development project now in operation in this area.
13—THE HIMALAYAN KINGDOMS
By P. P. Kavan. The evaluation of the complex politic-geographic pattern of the Himalayan Kingdoms of Bhutan, Sikkim, and Nepal, introducing the reader to the political geography of the Himalayan states and presenting the geographic basis of external interactions taking place within the region.
14-PAKISTAN: EMERGING DEMOCRACY
By Robert D. Campbell. A political-geographic description based upon the assumption that the chief ingredient of politics is the power relationship; the relationship of dominance and submission between governors and governed in a nation; and the relationship of dominance and submission among nations
INSIGHT BOOKS
Under the General Editorship of DAVID C. McCLELLAND with ROBERT C. BIRNEY and RICHARD C. TEEVAN Available in May About $1.75 each
9—TRANSFER OF LEARNING
Edited by Robert F. Gause and Robert C. Birney. The articles selected trace the historical development of the vital concept of how previous learning affects subsequent learning up to present times.
10—CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN LEARNING
Edited by John R. Braun. A significant survey of the modern literature on learning, emphasizing theoretical and empirical discussion of reinforcement, preconditioning, inhibition-affects, anxiety and other problems connected with the learning processes.
11-READINGS IN PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Edited by Herbert G. Quay. Nineteen research reports that investigate, by empirical methods, problems of a historical concern to the field of abnormal psychology. The articles chosen represent a variety of experimental techniques. 12-PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WRY
Edited by Robert A. Baker. Satirical essays by noted psychologists and scholars attacking the problems besetting modern psychology. Although lighthearted in vein, the book has a serious purpose-to restore the human element to the science of behavior.
13—RACE, SCIENCE AND HUMANITY
By Ashley Montagu. Explores the broad implications of the concept of race and examines specific aspects of racial theories particularly the relative intelligence of Negroes and whites in the United States. 14—PRIMATE SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Now available - A National Government Edition of
14-PRIMATE SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
By Charles H. Southwick. Comprised of sixteen selections, most of them based on original field studies, that trace the beginnings, growth, and current directions of the study of primate social behavior.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES
By Guy R. Hathorn, Howard R. Penmanm and the late Harold Zink. Concerned primarily with the national scene, this new book contains several chapters to reflect new and up-to-date events and legislation; e.g., the 1962 congressional action on major legislation, executive policy-making decisions and other impacts of the present administration. Nat'l Law's Ed. (paperbound). March, 1963. 672 pm.
Ideology in Conflict: Communist Political Theory
By Deiter Dus. A compact presentation focusing on the nature of recent tensions within the Socialistic bloc as they are reflected in key speeches and reports by the parties and leaders of the Socialist States. In particular, conflicts between the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China, Yugoslavia and Albania are examined, bringing to the forefront the various conflicting Communist positions on fundamental questions. May, 1963 (paperbound) - 192 pp.
LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS IN PERSPECTIVE
Available at your college book store-or write
D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, INC. 120 Alexander Street Available at your college book store-or write:
By Martin Needler. A concise survey of Latin American politics which discusses the historical and social background, the institutions of government, political parties, the military and political violence, and public policy. Order is imposed on the chaos of events and institutions, and intelligible patterns revealed. May, 1963 (paperbound) - 160 pp.
Princeton, New Jersey