FAITH IN FREEDOM
McAlisterColeman
Faith In Freedom ARE MEN EQUAL? by Henry Alonzo Myers. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.50. Reviewed by AAcAlister Coleman IHAD a rewarding time reading this thoughtful book and I know The Progressive's...
...But it will never reach this extreme...
...He answers the question in his title by stating that the idea of equality meets the pragmatic test, that it is at the heart of the success of any free society, and that "the story of American democracy is the story of the discovery of new ideals of personal freedom, and of the transformation of these into realities, into private rights obtainable by all...
...Reviewed by AAcAlister Coleman IHAD a rewarding time reading this thoughtful book and I know The Progressive's readers will eat it up...
...What, "never...
...He shows us how what has been called the "American Credo," i.e., that "all men are created equal," has been woven into our national being by all our outstanding prophets and leaders, Jefferson, Emerson, Melville, Lincoln, Whitman, Bellamy, and the rest...
...We may quarrel with his dogmatic statement that "as time goes on, the new ideal" (equality as forecast by Bellamy) "will tend more and more towards economic equality...
...But we salute him for his forthright defense of the central faith of every genuine democrat in these dark times when that faith is being besmeared and belittled by totalitarian liberals and reactionaries alike...
...He boldly asserts at the outset that the ideas of equality in the Declaration of Independence may be intellectually defended even in our days of widespread skepticism about the ideal...
...Professor Myers has been leading discussions on American civilization at Cornell University, and in this book he sets down the interesting gist of those pow-wows in an eminently readable fashion...
Vol. 9 • July 1945 • No. 29
