Book Reviews and Notices : American Government and Politics. BY CHARLES A. BEARD. (New York: The Macmillan Company. 1949. Pp. viii, 832. $5.00.)

• Published date: 01 December 1949
• Author: Totton J. Anderson
• Date: 01 December 1949
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200459
• Subject Matter: Articles

675

with

care

and

comprehension,

and

bulwarked

with

an

abundance

of

sta-

tistical

and

bibliographical

material.

Dr.

Frazier’s

starting

point

for

this

thorough

analysis

is

significant.

It

is

his

contention

that

the

Negro’s

Af-

rican

culture

and

social

organization

were

virtually

wiped

out

by

slavery,

and

that

starting

with

his

days

on

the

slave

plantation

the

Negro

began

to

take

over

the

culture

pattern

of

the

white

community.

Thus

for

Dr.

Frazier

the

history

of

the

Negro

in

the

United

States

constitutes

a

socio-

logical

case-study

of

the

difficult

process

of

cultural

assimilation

of

the

colored

race

in

a

predominantly

white

environment.

The

importance

in

this

process

of

the

northward

and

urban

movement

of

the

Negro

popula-

tion

receives

the

very

great

emphasis

that

it

deserves,

and

the

improved

status

of

the

Negro

in

the

northern

cities

is

explained

and

clarified.

It

is

by

no

means

in

derogation

of

the

objectivity

of

this

work

to

add

that

Dr.

Frazier

does

have

a

basic

contention,

and

one

that

is

amply

supported

by

the

factual

material

at

his

command.

The

improvement

and

advancement

of

the

Negro

is

unmistakably

linked

to

his

greater

integra-

tion

in

the

general

American

society.

Dr.

Frazier’s

study

demonstrates

the

seriousness

of

the

handicap

imposed

on

the

Negro

by

his

relative

isola-

tion

from

the

rest

of

the

community.

The

policy

implications

are

clear

enough;

eliminate

not

only

legal

inequality,

but

segregation

as

well.

University

of

Wisconsin.

LEON

D.

EPSTEIN.

American

Government

and

Politics.

BY

CHARLES

A.

BEARD.

(New

York:

The

Macmillan

Company.

1949.

Pp.

viii,

832.

$5.00.)

This

is

the

tenth

edition

of

a

work

which,

during

the

past

four

decades,

has

been

one

of

the

best

known

introductory

textbooks

in

then

field

of

American

government.

The

posthumously

published

manuscript

was

prepared

by

the

late

Charles

Beard

in

collaboration

with

his

son,

Professor

William

Beard,

who

was

in

turn

assisted

by

his

distinguished

mother,

Mary

R.

Beard.

The

revision

of

Parts

I,

II

and

III

on

national

government

has

been

particularly

thorough,

encompassing

the

rearrangement

of

materials

deal-

ing

with

the

essential

features

of

the

American

system,

liberty,

and

the

popular

basis

of

government;

the

updating

of

the

war

and

postwar

period,

and

the

augmentation

of

bibliographical

citations.

The

traditional

treat-

ment

includes

500

pages

on

national,

200

on

state,

and

100

on

local

government.

The

characteristic

approach

is

maintained

which

has

been

the

hall-

mark

of

this

study

in

recent

years,

namely,

emphasis

on

first

principles

and

basic

trends

rather

than

on

encyclopaedic

presentation

of

factual