Book Reviews and Notices : Party and Pressure Politics. BY DAYTON DAVID McKEAN. (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1949. Pp. viii, 712. $4.75.)

• Date: 01 December 1949
• Published date: 01 December 1949
• Author: Robert E. Lane
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200456
• Subject Matter: Articles

672

The

author

concludes

upon

the

more

optimistic

note

that discrim-

ination

in

the

federal

government

declined

substantially

during

the

life

of

the

President’s

Committee

on

Fair

Employment

Practice.

He

also

finds

that

in

those

states

whose

F.

E.

P.

C.

laws

have

&dquo;teeth,&dquo;

&dquo;inroads

are

being

made

into

the

economic

manifestations

of

prejudice.&dquo;

Through

the

major

portions

of

the

book

the

author

handled

his

ma-

terial

in

an

impartial

and

scholarly

manner.

Some

of

his

conclusions,

however,

seem

premature,

considering

his

reliance

&dquo;for

the

most

part&dquo;

on

material

gathered

from

the

files

of

the

National

Council.

He

also

appears

to

minimize

the

time

and

educational

effort

needed

for

altering

the

deep-seated

social,

economic,

and

political

beliefs

which

block

the

achievement

of

fair

employment

practices.

It

took

the

Anti-Saloon

League

almost

two

decades

to

obtain the

VUebb-Kenyon

Act

and

nearly

a

quar-

ter

of

a

century

to

amend

the

Constitution.

Students

of

pressure

groups

and

civil

rights,

however,

will

find

the

book

a

valuable

addition

to

the

scant

literature

in

this

new

field

of

activity.

University

of

Washington.

H.

K.

HOSSOM.

Party

and

Pressure

Politics.

BY

DAYTON

DAVID

McKEAN.

(New

York:

Houghton

Mifflin

Company.

1949.

Pp.

viii,

712.

$4.75.)

Professor

McKean

returned

to

the

academic

life

after

having

tasted

the

pleasures

of

the

world

as

Representative

in

New

Jersey’s

state

legis.

lature,

WPA

administrator,

and

assistant

to

Governor

Charles

Edison

in

the

thirties

and

early

forties.

Even

now,

while

teaching

at

Dartmouth,

he

moves

in

a

political

medium,

serving

as

Democratic

State

Chairman

for

New

Hampshire.

(Truman:

107,995;

Dewey:

121,299.)

It

is

not

sur-

prising,

therefore,

that

he

should

have

searched

for,

and

finally

written

a

text

which

is

above

all

&dquo;realistic,&dquo;

&dquo;practical,&dquo;

and

without

illusions.

The

forte

of

the

book

is

the

understanding

of

those

elements

of

poli-

tics

which

were

once

dealt

with

as

&dquo;expos6s&dquo;

but

now

are

treated

as

the

major

substance

of

the

political

process

by

a

certain

&dquo;tough-minded&dquo;

school.

Throughout

the

work,

the

discount

of

the

forms

of

politics

and

reliance

upon

the

informal

manipulation

of

bosses

and

their

counterparts

serves

as

an

important

theme.

The

treatment

of

&dquo;party

behavior&dquo;

offers

the

greatest

scope

for

this

approach.

In

its

grasp

of

detail

this

section

is

extremely

stimulating

and

should

revive

the

most

blas6

of

students.

In

addition,

the

book

is

distinguished

by

an

excellent

integration

of

poli-

tical

and

constitutional

problems,

and

some

new

material

on

the

less

well

known

pressure

groups.

Everywhere,

it is

most

readable.