Vol. 45 No. 3 1978 - page 460

460
PARTISAN REVI EW
theory has to be concerned today. He di scusses onl y certa in aspec ts of
Ha bermas's works, but thi s pa rt of the book offers a clea r a nd cogent
summary o f Ha bermas's contributi o ns to p ro blems o f ep istemo logy
and method-a ltho ugh Bern stein does no t pay suffi cient a ttenti on to
lur L ogik der SozialwissenschaJt en,
in wh ich Ha bermas exp li citl y
traced th rough severa l of the themes tha t are prominent in Bern stein 's
own study.
T hi s is an impress ive work , and I am persona ll y very sympa thetic
to
the arguments th at it presents.
It
rema ins however something of a n
ho rs d'oeu vre tha t lacks a ma in course. Bern stein ma kes it appa rent
tha t he does no t beli eve tha t Ha bermas has
all
the a nswers
to
the
prob lems tha t are posed in the contempora ry p hase o f deve lopment of
the soc ia l scien ces, but he does no t se t o ut hi s own views in an y de ta il.
ANTHONY GIDDENS
REMEMBERING RANSOM
GENTLEMAN IN A DUSTCOAT, A BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN CROWE
RANSOM.
By Thomas Daniel Young. Louisiana State University Press.
$8.95.
One day, for reasons I ca n ' t remember , John Ra n som was
tellin g me a bo ut a n a uto bi ograph y a loca l industri a li st-a se lf-made
man-was in the process of writing. Somehow, in the course of the
ta lk , I as ked him the titl e of the proposed book. With a sli ght smil e a nd
reli shin g every word , he sa id, "Well , I'm a fra id he ca ll s it ,
Up From
Mudville."
I tho ught of tha t incident when I fi rs t saw the titl e of
T homas Da ni el Youn g's bi ograph y and imag ined tha t Ra nsom , sittin g
in the book-lined study in Heaven , where he mos t sure ly is, must have
smil ed the same smi le.
The title,
Gen tleman in a Duslcoat,
comes from o ne o f Ra nsom 's
fin es t a nd mos t cha rac ter isti c poems. Some of h is poe try is no t ironi c
but I su spect iron y was hi s fi rst instinct, a nd thi s example probab ly
wou ld have cha rmed him. " P iazza Pi ece" is a bo ut a bea utifu l youn g
lady who stands on her tre llised porch wa iting fo r her lover . Suddenl y,
the roses arc dying a nd, th rough the vines. she sees a n o ld gentl eman in
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