A Political Christmas Pie
THOMAS, NORMAN
A Political Christmas Pie A Skeptic's Political Dictionary. By Max Nomad. Bookman. 171 pp. $3.00. Reviewed by Norman Thomas It would be hard to find in all America a man more learned in the...
...A few samples of its flavor: "Anti-Communist: Anyone opposed to the Kremlin crowd either because of its hostility to capitalist privilege or because of its threat to civil and cultural liberty...
...His purpose is stated in the introduction: "To help those few decent people, in the words of Chamfort, who may be hiding somewhere, 'to see through clearly the political doubletalk of yesterday, today, and the threatening tomorrow.'" The book is a long series of apothegms, inevitably of uneven quality but of a high average in wit and erudition...
...Original sin: Man's desire for power—his basic corruption...
...Creeping socialism: Any pro-labor measure adopted by a Democratic administration...
...To great learning Max Nomad adds wisdom...
...It is the 58th variety of socialism invented and christened by the Republicans...
...The policies and prejudices of those in the first group are the Kremlin's invisible weapon for the conquest of Asia and Africa...
...His is a "melancholy radicalism," but disillusionment has not driven him to reaction...
...It is a kind of dietetic Christmas pie guaranteed to produce no intellectual fat, but stimulating for him who will pull out an astringent plum...
...He writes as a skeptic of the extravagant hopes of movements, all of which he has studied and of some of which he has been a part...
...Reviewed by Norman Thomas It would be hard to find in all America a man more learned in the history and literature of all the movements of revolt of the last 150 years than Max Nomad...
...If these samples interest you, by all means buy the book...
Vol. 37 • February 1954 • No. 5
