Political Book Notes
Political Book Notes Public affairs books to be published in December. Cesar Chavez: The Rhetoric of Nonviolence. Winthrop Yinger. Exposition Press, $6.50. Of making many books there is no...
...Scribners, $8.95...
...Transformations of the American Party System, Political Coalitions from the New Deal to the 1970s...
...Putnam’s, $7.95...
...The European Revenge...
...We are treated to a loving description of Chairman Wright Patman and the indelible imprint of his populist style on the committee...
...Of making many books there is no end...
...Bernard Bellush...
...No indeed...
...That is precisely the point...
...Grossman...
...The Money Committees: A Study of the House Banking and Currency Committee and the Senate Banking, Housin and Urban Affairs Committee...
...Very few public speakers discuss their kidneys in public...
...Press, $12.50...
...Unfortunately, Congressman Henry Reus is now chairman-Patman having been expelled by colleagues who got fed up with his indelible populist style...
...Rulin Congress: A Study of How the House and &mate Rules Govern the Legislative Process...
...Arthur J. Magida’s chapters on the House and Senate Interior Committees are the best of a bad lot...
...Energy: The Policy Issues...
...Everett Call Ladd, Jr., Charles D. Hadley...
...As one staffer put it, ‘Sparkman thought Proxmire had too much power.’ ” This may have seemed inportant in 1972, when the book was researched, but it is of absolutely no interest today...
...Norton, $12.50...
...Such a practice simply reinforces the observation that he relates or identifies with his audience as a relation...
...Robert C. Reinehr...
...the House and Senate Interior, Agricud yt uOref The Environment Committees: A Stu and Science Committees...
...Leste...
...Gilbert Ware, ed...
...Grossman...
...Robert Heller, Norris Willatt...
...Grossman...
...Grossman...
...There are biographies of committee members (at least one of them dead, several others back in private life), profiles of the staff (which has also under...
...Some do exhibit operations, scars, however...
...Expenditures for the day care and education of children under six have now risen to over $6 billion, incidentally, with government, at various levels, paying over half of this...
...Senator Sparkman is now head of the Foreign Relations Committee...
...The information is deposited in undigested lumps, rather than being deployed selectively to advance a certain argument...
...The solutions the book finally recommendsopen meetings, more staff, et cetera-are perfectly sensible but also perfectly conventional...
...Nelson-Hall, $8.95...
...Johns Hopkins, $8.50...
...Kidneys are a delicate subject even among close friends and relatives...
...Meant to be the flagship of the flotilla of Congress Project books published this month, Ruling Congress at least manages to stay afloat...
...University of Chicago Press, $9.50...
...Temple Univ...
...Radio Power: Propaganda and International Broadcasting...
...Salamon, Ralph Nader Congress Project...
...The harvest of Ralph Nader’s Congress project-this part of it, at least-is not any new understanding of the way the revenue committees work, nor any attempt to understand the process from the member’s point of view, but an enormous compendium of details...
...At one point the author helpfully observes: “That the drug culture of the sixties coined the expression ‘spaced out’ as an indicator of high fantasy is not surprising...
...gone considerable change), and, the most vduable feature, histories of some of the more notorious chapters in tax legislation...
...The Failure of the NRA...
...The chapters on the Agriculture Committees are more uneven-heavy on newspaper clips, with a few choice quotes culled from undergraduate political science essays...
...Norton, $8.95...
...Siff and Weil use the congressional rules and rulemakers to help unlock the mysteries of the legislative process...
...Ralph Nader Congress Project...
...Child Care and ABCs Too...
...The Machine That Oils Itself: A Critical Look at the Mental Health Establishment...
...Chavez shares his human condition openly with his farm worker audience...
...Gary D. Eppen, ed...
...The Revenue Committees: A Study of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees...
...Poor abused Senator Proxmire has taken over the chairmanship of Senate Banking...
...To help minimize the financial burden, the authors suggest that the best thing is to combine day care with preschool education...
...Ralph Nader Congress Project...
...Ted Siff, Alan Weil, Ralph Nader Congress Project...
...Turning to the “rhetorical analysis of the March 10 speech,” a paragraph-by-paragraph study, we read that the “curious element in this paragraph is his special reference to his kidneys...
...The chapters on the science committees are devoted primarily to a denunciation of the moon landing program...
...Winthrop Yinger has devoted the major portion of this book to analyzing one speech by Cesar Chavez, his “underlying thesis” being that “the essence of Cesar Chavez and the dominant characteristic of hs speaking power is identification...
...Most good books on Congress use the same device, but the Nader authors do manage a few interesting observations in discussing two little-known centers of congressional power: the parliamentarians and the conference committees...
...This book is a hodgepodge of several studies pulled together so that the Nader Congress Project could add another few notches to its gun...
...The same problem exists in the sections on the House Banking Committee...
...What is surprising is that Ralph Nader allowed this frivolous book to be published under his name...
...It is a useful book, precisely because it has what the other studies lack: a perspective on Congress which is:remored from the daily round of lobbying and legislation on Capitol Hill...
...From the Black Bar...
...By 1972, the annual cost per child kept in day care centers that are funded by federal programs was $2,110...
...This out-of-dateness is true of all the Nader books reviewed in this section...
...In the greyest and flattest prose imaginable, “manpower specialists” Levitan and Alderman tell us that the number of young working mothers is increasing, the number of child-care facilities is becoming inadequate (although they are increasing, too), and the cost of keeping children in day care centers is soaring...
...Sar A. Levitan, Karen Cleary Alderman...
...The chief problem with this book is conveyed in a passage about a relatively unimportant subcommittee shift within the Senate Banking Committee in 1972...
...Juhan Hale...
...He manages to convey the historical background of congressional land management policy and strip mine legislation...
...The study notes that “the main loser in this re-organization appeared to be second-ranking William Proxmire...
Vol. 7 • December 1975 • No. 10
