+ No Am 212:859 D ’20 850w
“‘The passing of the new freedom’ gives him some claims to rank as a political satirist—that rare bird in American letters.” E. L. Pearson
+ Review 3:419 N 3 ’20 140w
BECKER, CARL LOTUS. United States; an experiment in democracy. *$2.50 Harper 342.7
20–13591
The book gives all the outstanding facts of our political history with such impartiality as to appeal to the reader’s critical faculty and to challenge independent conclusions. A “habitual dislike of thinking” the author holds to be a characteristic of Americans, which at the present time exposes them to the danger of mistaking the “form for the substance of democracy” and may prevent America from being in the future what it was in the past—“a fruitful experiment in democracy.” Contents: America and democracy; The origins of democracy in America; The new world experiment in democracy; Democracy and government; New world democracy and old world intervention; Democracy and free land; Democracy and slavery; Democracy and immigration; Democracy and education; Democracy and equality.
“It is to be hoped that the inaccuracies will not seriously injure the usefulness of a readable book, which is on the whole filled with sagacious comment and treats in a telling way a number of traits and tendencies of American democracy.” A. C. McL.
+ − Am Hist R 26:337 Ja ’21 560w + Booklist 17:10 O ’20
“The author has given a valuable sketch of the political history of America.”