BOOKS
277
partly by rural and small-town groups of the same type as the Populists.
Strangers in the Land
can be strongly recommended as a comprehensive
and reliable survey of an important subject. On the other hand Mr.
Higham, whose own attitude is vigorously liberal and who is therefore
hostile to all brands of nativism, makes little attempt to interpret the
material he has assembled, and much of it can be understood only
in
the light of Mr. Hofstadter's book. Mr. Higham, for example, appears
to be somewhat surprised by the fact that "anti-foreign feelings steadily
gathered strength at a time when the dominant force of Progressivism
was also surging upward in potency and enthusiasm."
Mr. Higham ends his book at 1925 and does not mention Mc–
Carran; Mr. Hofstadter concludes with a brief discussion of the attitude
of the New Deal and does not mention McCarthy. Yet both books have
significant implications for the contemporary political scene.
The Age
of Reform
is, in fact, a most tantalizing performance, since Mr. Hof–
stadter seems to be constantly on the verge of making some illuminating
remarks about current issues but to be always on guard against generali–
zations that cannot be adequately buttressed with footnotes. He points
out, however, that nostalgia for the agrarian myth is still a significant
Two New Studies of Freud
FREUD AND THE CRISIS OF OUR CULTURE
$1
Lionel Trilling
"Interesting on many counts, as Trilling's writings invariably are. . . .
Unlike those who preach dissent for dissent's sake, he is trying to find the
right grounds on which to quarrel with contemporary society. That kind
of discrimination is what we need in a period in which there is too little
dissent and in which what dissent there is is too often half-baked."
-N. Y . Times Book Review
"A discussion of the interaction of biology and culture on the fate of
man which underlines the overemphasis on conformity in modern American
thought and upholds Freud's emphasis on biological necessity as a salutary
antidote."-Washington Post-Times Herald
EROS AND CIVILIZATION
$3.95
Herbert Marcuse
" Except for Ernest Jones' two notable books on Freud and his life,
this strikes the reviewer as the most significant general trea tment of psycho–
analytic theory since Freud himself ceased publication."
-N. Y. Times Book Review
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