Potpourri of Reform
Greer, Thomas H.
BOOKS Potpourri of Reform Rendezvous with Destiny, a history of modern american reform, by Eric F. Goldman. Knopf. 503 pp. $5. Reviewed by Thomas H. Greer ERIC GOLDMAN has written a book...
...in my opinion he has "over-intellectualized" the subject...
...The book suggests, to borrow Goldman's oft-used term, a "potpourri" of reform notions, insights, and actions...
...The focus for the entire narrative is what Goldman would call the "liberal mind...
...The ideologies have a very real importance in themselves, and especially to the intelligentsia, but their casual relation to reform may be questioned...
...As the dust jacket says, "This is a most unusual book...
...Reform or conservatism can be readily propounded from almost any metaphysical position, as the history of religion easily demonstrates...
...He has plenty to say, and much of it is good...
...The author seems overly-concerned with the intellectual dilemmas of the "liberals," and he is inclined to interpret the whole of American reform in that frame of reference...
...Except for showing the continuity of the liberal position and ideology, Goldman does not carry any reform impulse through from beginning to end...
...He has placed undue emphasis, perhaps, upon the role of abstract ideas in reform...
...Goldman speaks of "dissolving the steel chain of ideas (conservatism)," of the struggle between absolutism and relativism, and other metaphysical problems...
...Reviewed by Thomas H. Greer ERIC GOLDMAN has written a book which will interest all literate persons concerned with reform...
...Perhaps Goldman would exclude all these from his concept of reform, but he does not make this point clear in the book...
...It would seem to be a strange concept of reform which fills pages with many names of obscure figures while omitting even the mention of such leaders as Sidney Hillman, John L. Lewis, Philip Murray, Norman Thomas, and William Z. Foster...
...His publisher has done a particularly attractive production job, and the book will doubtless stimulate and entertain a wide audience of readers...
...But for all that, Rendezvous with Destiny hardly measures up to its title or the bold claims of the dust jacket...
...In a sense hardly to be remembered, it is history...
...The author has seized upon a lively and dramatic title, and he has truly written an "exciting" and "provocative" story...
...But it is a bit too clever to be judicious history...
...There is no doubt that Goldman has read and talked very widely in the field of reform...
...The result, however, does not impress this reviewer as an adequate analysis of American reform or as a wholly reliable piece of history...
...It needs clearer definition, tighter organization, and more proportioned treatment...
...The jacket credits the author with the "gift of personal portraiture," and in numerous instances (especially Croly, DuBois, and Beard) the portraits are excellent...
...The writing style is likewise true to the claim—"scintillating, epigrammatic brilliance...
...It should go without saying that while the interested reader may find portions of Rendezvous with Destiny somewhat irritating (as did this reviewer), he will never find it boring...
...The work is purportedly a study of reform from the Civil War to the present, but it turns out to be something less than that...
...It is highly readable, even entertaining —chock full of anecdotes, barbs, and witticisms...
...Similarly, his facile generalizations are sometimes exaggerations based on slender evidence...
...It is rich in personalities, ideas, and historical color...
...insufficient attention is given to labor, agrarian, and socialist reformers...
...In fact, the book is more a chapter in the history of ideas than it is a study of reform...
...Goldman shows, in a number of fine passages, extraordinary talent for descriptive and dramatic narrative...
...It need only be pointed out that Franklin Roosevelt, the most effective reformer of them all, was not much bothered by doctrine or philosophical dilemmas...
...But others are mere caricatures—drawn from only one side and often consisting of sharp, abbreviated, and isolated quotations...
Vol. 17 • January 1953 • No. 1
