Books

...Prof...

...The end of Gideon Jackson, and of his community, and of the whole experiment in democracy and racial equality which Reconstruction was, is indicated by the fact that South Carolina, and the Cotton South in general, is still a one-party, white-supremacy society, in which nearly all blacks, and most poor whites, are landless and voteless...

...He presents the grievances of both the husband and the wife, frequently in the form of case histories, and emphasizes that in some cases forgiveness is better than revenge...

...Sine« Albion Winegar ?,!··*, in 1879 and the few years sjssifctl published his series of aix Igajgftraetion novels, of which A Fool's I us1 was the moat iimportant, no im ?jrtts?t attempt bee been made to present a gttrsry form the story of the South, saesslUtelY after the War of the Seces-gea, front the viewpoint of the Negroes tsd whites who for a time labored there we?-ablish progressive, democratic, state ssasmsKiBta...

...Perhaps the book was shortened in the interests of paper-conservation...

...He urges too, that husbands and wivsa make every effort to know themeelves— that they recognize the motives and prejudices within themselves which hava made their marriage topple, before they seek to place the blame and dissolve their relationship...

...It is to be hoped that this novel will be so successful ai to induce other creative writers of democratic sympathies to rediscover this neglected and perverted period of our history...

...Thorr as Nelson Page, Thomas Dix< n, Ieliek Hergesheimer, Margaret Mitchell, esek ia his or her own way vied with eaa another in stamping upon the mind ef the reading-public a portrayal of Reronitruction ia which the only figures, art Yankee plunderers and black rapists aa the one hand and gallant, knightly whit* robed defenders of Southern civili-sstion on tke other...

...He is a realist who does not for a moment suggest that all divorces can or should be avoided...

...The descriptions of Gideon iaek-son's development, and.of the winning over of the poor whites, are completely convincing and the last stand at Carwell is ss gripping as El Sordo's fight on the hilltop, and more .meaningful...

...The author has chosen to write as he might talk in the privacy of his own office...

...Education Against Divorce By UA**Ak\tTSA**t* "CONSERVING MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY...

...And yet eve* those novelists most imbued with the spirit of democracy and •quality hare neglected to present "the other side...

...The issue could have been met, and should have been...

...Maemillan Co...

...Whatever the reason, the omission was a grave mistake...

...IN * foreword to his most recent book in the field of family relations Ernest R. Groves writes: "la my three 'decades of experience in helping people in domestic trouble I have found the three most common problems brought to the counselor are: how to make adequate preparation for marriage, how to improve sexual adjustment snd whether or not to get ? divorce...

...they have left the struggle to such historians aa DuBois, James Allen, snd A. A. Taylor, whose works, because of their wry echolsrly and well-documeated character, are incapable of . wide audience appeal...

...but this no more demonstrates the essential incapacity for self-government of Southern Negroes and poor whites thsn the Tweed Ring and Credit Mobiler scandals proved the same of the more prosperous, better-educated people of the North—nor was Georgia in Negro hands at the time of the notorious Yazoo frauds...

...the motion-picture m lasers', from the critically acclaimed Birth tf At Natten (based, despite its aueleedtag title, on Dixon's The Clont-sam) te the technicolor of Gont With the Wind, has probably been even more Ismenuble affective...

...But this failure to confront the problem squarely will doubtless be improperly employed to impeach the book's general validity...

...Freedom Road is the Story of Gideon Jackson, South Carolina Nefro, ex-slave, ex-Union soldier, who rises from the alal us of a virtually illiterate field-hand, through membership in the Constitutional Convention, to the position of a self-educated man of culture, member of the state legislature, Congressman, and, most important of all, organizer of a cooperative community on the old Carwell plantation where black ex-slaves and white ex-tenants for a few years find it possible to live and work together in mutual respect and understanding...

...To thia end he lista the national directors of marriage counselling services for Protestants, Catholics and Jewa, together with reputable counselling agencies scattered throughout the country...

...Nor ia it a coincidence that the moat powerful Fascistie •fganixauon svsr established in the United states should have assumed the «tie of the Ku Klux Klan and that one * the accused in the current sedition Wala should heed The Knight, of the White (lamellis, a revival of another of the anti-Metro, terroristic troops of the Confederate counter-revolution...

...1S8 pape...

...Groves has found it necessary to cushion the glaring facts which sre too often ignored...

...Groves is one of the pioneers ii\ developing marriage hygiene couraei for universities...

...There has been no dearth of novels, start start?s, and movies eulogizing the reactionary forces which, employing the welta-hooded Ku Klux Klan as storm trsesers and with the pmasive assistance ef the business interest* of the North, after a few years succeeded in stamping set the budding democracy and est abi i shuts...

...perhaps a difficult problem was solved by the easy method of avoidance...

...By Snoot «. Grouse...

...Any one who wishes a happy ending to this story will have to get out and work for it...

...the one-party, poll-tax, white-su-sisnsT South of Rankin and Bilbo...

...unfitness of Negroes, at least there and then, for participation in public life...

...1.76...

...In marriages which were obviously a mistake from the itart, he recommends divorce as the most sensible solution, but he slto points up the fsct that whst is true of hasty marriage ia also true of hasty divorce and many a wife has gotten a divorce in anger and regretted it forever more, He urge* that those contemplating such legal action discuss their problems with persons trained to offer help and guidance in what ia bound to be an emotional crisis...

...The great weakness is the fashion in which the author skips entirely tht years 1868-77—the period when South Carolina was under the Reconstruction legislatures—which has been stigmatized by conservative historians as an orgie of corruption, conclusively demonstrating the...

...It is always a question whether this far-from-simple subject is best handled in a straightforward, objective manner, or presented in the more intimate style of a personal interview...

...Conserving Marriage and the Family" is most certainly required reading for anyone thinking seriously of divorce and many other husbanda and wives might read this wise little volume with profit and avoid the pitfalls into which too many present day marriages are falling...

...That the need for such an honest discussion is so wide-spread is in itself a grave commentary on our lack of education and preparation for the creation of marriages that will endure...

...fgj United State« hat waited a lont tie* (er this book...

...Thit book is written in the belief that such education is better late than never and sets forth the most commonly recognized motives for divorce, together with the equally important but frequently unrecognized ones...

...The few errors of fact are unimportant: Andrew Johnson was not "almost impeached" but tens impeached and failed of conviction by a single vote (p...

...Hit present volume, "Conserving Marriage and'the Family" is aimed squarely at the third question — the basic causes of divorce snd ways in which it may be avoided...

...Reconstruction in the South was a process of growth and confusion, unhappily, if perhaps inevitably, marked by serious evidences of ignorance and corruption, graft and extravagance...

...The United States waited so long for this book, and it is so valuable that a further expenditure of time and effort would have been justified...

...Thoreau died in 1882 so could hardly have been "a recluse" six years later (p...

...141...

...Thst it does this in a flattering style is the book's only weakness, but perhaps after thirty years spent counselling emotionally upset women, Dr...

...William M—tlUno gives e di?orn*§ view of thit hook next week, and Porter replies...

...Bottom Rail on Top, vm, by Hamilton J. Eckenrode, Virginia Stat* historian, should be mentioned far the record as an exception in it« ? ft ? ism and lack of sentimentality...

...It is not surprising, in view of this consistently one-sided presentation, that in a treat Northern eity organised workers should have recently strack, ander the banner of White Supremacy, against the upgrading ef colored employee...

...Regardless, however, of this serious gap, and the occasional tendency to introduce, in*the Upton Sinclair manner, passages from a political treat into an historical novel, Freedom Road remains ? stirring and moving tribute to a revolution which failed, but which muat eventually be revived and achieved if this nation is to become other then a mockery of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address...