POETRY, UNLIMITED
193
encouragement Mr. Villa would never have gone on to write the
Emperor's New Sonnet."
I wish that I had had the wit to invent this story, a parable of the
way in which critics can guide and encourage the poet to the fullest
realization of his powers-but in these matters art limps trembling be–
hind reality. I thought of calling a fairy tale of this kind
The Perfect
Fool,
but then it occurred to me that it would be better to call it
The
Perfect Fools.
Randall Jarrell
LIBERALISM REVISITED
SOCIAL THOUGHT IN AMERICA: THE REVOLT AGAINST FORMAL·
ISM.
By
Morton G. White. Viking. $3.50.
The disappointment of liberal hopes has committed this gen–
eration to the revaluation of liberal ideas. In its easier and more ag–
gressive aspect, this revaluation has taken the form of an exploration
and an eventual rej ection of the doctrines of Marxism, as developed
abroad and especially as incarnated in the Soviet Union. The field of
ideology, like ancient Kentucky, has become a dark and bloody ground:
and liberals have discharged their frustrations, like musket balls, at
their enemies, not to speak of their friends. It has all been very ex–
hilarating, but not always to the point. For the preoccupation with
Marxism in the thirties was, in an essential part, the reflection of our
own philosophical weaknesses; it sprang in part from the inadequacy of
our native traditions of social thought.
Any thoroughgoing revaluation of liberalism must consequently
be no less concerned with overhauling these native traditions and de–
fining the weakness in them which created the susceptibility to Com–
munism than it is with the repudiation of Communism itself. Mr.
Morton G. White's brilliant new book addresses itself to the men and
issues which created the background of the social thought of the thirties.
It focusses in particular on the five men who did as much as any other
to shape liberal ideas-Dewey, Holmes, Veblen, Beard and Robinson.
It demonstrates that these man represented impulses and attitudes suf–
ficiently comparable so that they can be profitably discussed as a school;
it discusses the impact of this school on American thought; and it pro–
vides an acute philosophical and historical commentary on their intel–
lectual contributions. The result is a book which is not only an exciting
