PHILIP RAHV
50
PARTISAN REVIEW
recalls to us the Williams of
In the American Grain,
a writer ravaged
by this hemisphere's occult aboriginal past. In some ways Dr. Williams
is really a medicine-man.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
AMERICA'S SIXTY FAMILIES.
By Ferdinand Lundberg.
Vanguard
Press. $3.75.
THE FOLKLORE OF CAPITALISM.
By Thurman W. Arnold. Yale
University Press. $3.00.
The interest and importance of a book are not, of course, confined
to the will of the author, the logic of his argument, or the abstract
beauties of his style. A book is an instrument of communication, a public
object. Once launched, the author has no exclusive claim to the rudder.
The book is what it does; the sea decides.
That is why it is always relevant to enquire into what happens to
books; who likes them and why; and how they are used. Both
The
Folklore of Capitalism
and
America's Sixty Families
are selling well,
unusually well for books which are expensive and on serious subjects.
The Folklore of Capitalism
is considerably ahead. Both received, and
are receiving, extensive critical notice. But there has been a notable dif-
ference between the receptions given to the two.
There has been scarcely a breach in the extravagant praise heaped
upon
The Folklore of Capitalism.
The daily critic of the New York
Times
gave it two of his columns-an act seldom precedented. Alfred
M. Bingham ventured a prediction: "It is quite possible that a hundred
years from now this book of Professor Arnold's and his previous
Symbols
of Government,
will be as much revered as· we now revere Darwin's
Origin of Species." The New Republic
was no less enthusiastic in its
adjectives and its comparisons: "I go the whole hog for
The Folklore
of Capitalism.
Bluntly, I think it's a great book. ...
Personally, I think
that Mr. Arnold has his fingers on something miles ahead of Marx-
in maturity, acceptability, and, especially, in usefulness." I am told that
Professor Arnold's New Deal colleagues (he is himself an ardent and busy
New Dealer) come into meetings with the book under their arms, like
16th Century statesmen with
The Prince.
Most interesting of all, there
has been virtually no attack from the camp of the Tories, the avowed
targets of Arnold's shafts.
America's Sixty Families
has had a normal quota of praise. But
few unconditioned superlatives; and no comparisons to Darwin or Marx.
"Provocative," "stimulating," "important," -the usual non-committal
