Book Reviews and Notices : The Missouri Basin's Pick-Sloan Plan: A Case Study in Congressional Policy Determination. By MARIAN E. RIDGEWAY. Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences. Volume 35. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 1955. Pp. xi, 403. $4.00; paper $3.00.)

• Published date: 01 December 1956
• Author: Ross R. Rice
• Date: 01 December 1956
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295600900426
• Subject Matter: Articles

1011

the

heritage

of

freedom,

it is

doubtful

that

any

frontier

could

alone

have

been

sufficient

for

the

establishment

of

liberty.

There

seems

little

doubt

that

Professor

Clough

has

succeeded

in

select-

ing

the

theorists

and

basic

documents

most

instrumental

in

molding

early

American

thought.

The

editor’s

problem

must

have

lain

primarily

in

deter-

mining

what

to

quote

from

each

theorist

or

document.

It

is

to

be

doubted

that

in

less

than

three

hundred

pages

anyone

could

have

improved

on

Professor

Clough’s

mode

of

selection,

and

the

problem

of

space

was

certain

to

harass

the

author.

Certainly

the

short

excerpts

from

such

theorists

as

Plato,

Aristotle,

Polybius,

Plutarch,

Harrington,

Grotius,

Burke,

and

many

others,

can

hardly

be

adequate

to

present

more

than

a

taste

of

their

contri-

butions

to

American

political

thought.

Even

thirteen

pages

from

Locke

or

eleven

from

Montesquieu

are

far

from

sufficient.

The

problem

of

selection

being

uppermost

to

a

book

of

this

sort,

the

editor

would

have

done

well

always

to

have

included

in

his

bibliography,

among

the

many

commentaries

and

occasional

direct

references

to

source

materials,

some

more

explicit

instructions

to

the

student

or

popular

reader

as

to

how,

today,

one

might

obtain

unabridged

editions

of

writings

by

the

theorists

from

whom

he

quotes.

It

is

quite

possible

that

Our

Long

Heritage

may

prove

useful

as

a

text

in

courses

in

American

political

theory.

If

political

scientists

have

been

asleep

at

the

switch

in

this

area

of

their

discipline,

they

should

especially

credit

Professor

Clough

for

venturing

into

a

field

of

research

so

pertinent

to

problems

of

American

democracy.

JAMES

L.

BUSEY.

University

of

Colorado.

The

Missouri

Basin’s

Pick-Sloan

Plan:

A

Case

Study

in

Congressional

Policy

Determination.

By

MARIAN

E.

RIDGEWAY.

Illinois

Studies

in

the

Social

Sciences.

Volume

35.

(Urbana:

University

of

Illinois

Press.

1955.

Pp.

xi,

403.

$4.00;

paper

$3.00.)

At

the

time

of

the

writing

of

this

review

the

Pick-Sloan

Plan

for

the

development

of

the

water

resources

of

the

Missouri

Basin

was

approxi-

mately

one-half

completed.

Professor

Marian

Ridgeway’s

book

analyzes

the

political

and

economic

forces

which

participated

in

this

legislation

for

the

Missouri

Valley

in

1944,

legislation

which

over

a

decade

later

is

nearing

the

stage

of

testing

in

usage.

Introductory

chapters

describe

the

Missouri

Basin’s

economic

contrasts

and

water

problems,

and

recount

its

early

history

of

water

resource

de-

velopment.

The

heart

of

the

volume

is

found

in

Chapters

4-8

which

trace

the

activities

of

personalities

and

groups,

both

in

the

basin

and

in

Wash-

ington,

D.C.,

which

attempted

to

promote

or

to

block

the

Pick-Sloan

legis-

lation

in

Congress

in

the

last

months

of

1944.

The

maneuvers

are

de-