HISTORY OF THE G. O. P.
HUITT, RALPH K.
History of the G.O.P. The Republicans: a history of their party, by Malcolm Moos. Random House. 564 pp. $5.95. Reviewed by Ralph K. Huitt IN 1856 "an aggregation of Free Soilers, Independent...
...Many readers will feel that this is not good history, but that it does the author credit just the same...
...The party is not taken out of its context, but the focus is properly on the character and fortunes of the Party itself...
...A party in power is what its public officers do...
...But Moos is sure that "the real renaissance of the Republican Party will not flow from the building of abstractions about conservatism...
...The result is a long but highly readable book, though some readers may be put off by the author's addiction to journalese and metaphor, pure and mixed...
...Republicans may benefit from the rapid expansion of the middle class, as they have from the growth of suburbs...
...In his last chapter Moos answers these questions with sober realism...
...Rather it will come from what the Party does, from its "response to the demands made by the people it represents...
...A party out of power is its reaction to what the majority party does...
...In less than a decade they had nominated and elected Lincoln, freed the slaves, saved the Union, and passed a law which was to give away public land equal to the area of France...
...How could their subsequent history possibly match such a beginning...
...The author is fair—sometimes painfully so, his party brethren may feel...
...Consequently the Party's chances to keep its non-orthodox amateur in the White House are good, to capture the Congress bad...
...Nevertheless, in sixty years of its century of existence the Republican Party has tenanted the White House and its history is at many points the history of the nation itself...
...Malcolm Moos, a Johns Hopkins professor of political science, has chosen to keep his eye on the national Party, paying special attention to conventions, campaigns, and elections, and on the party's Presidents and kingmakers...
...The author believes nevertheless that in an era of closely-divided Congresses a Republican President may successfully lead across party lines, as Eisenhower has done...
...Furthermore, state parties in our system may fairly claim more than footnote mention...
...There is, however, one bit of putting the Party's best foot forward...
...It could not—and fortunately for all of us, it did not have to...
...One page is devoted to McCarthy's activities, more than four to denunciations of them by small minorities in the party...
...Below the Presidential level it is dominated by an orthodox wing of conservative professional politicians, men who generally are reluctant to accommodate to the "political movement of the times...
...In some sections (notably the South) progress is slow, and some groups (notably the intellectuals) are not at home in the party...
...It is a Party friendly to business in which paradoxically there is tension between politicians and businessmen...
...The appearance of a Party history by a lifelong Republican, on the Party's centennial which is also a Presidential election year, is both good and bad timing...
...The Party's prospects are mixed...
...What is the character of the Republican Party...
...How can party history be lifted out of general political history...
...Reviewed by Ralph K. Huitt IN 1856 "an aggregation of Free Soilers, Independent Democrats, Conscience Whigs, Know-Nothings, Barn-Burners, abolitionists, teetotal-ars" calling themselves the Republican Party nominated their first candidate for President...
...It is a minority party...
...It is a book for everyone who likes politics...
...This poses a problem for its historian...
...It is good for obvious reasons, but bad because people with good sense may mistakenly pass up what they think is a "campaign" book—which it is not...
...What is its future...
Vol. 20 • October 1956 • No. 10
