Book Reviews and Notices : Elements of American Government. By JOHN H. FERGUSON and DEAN E. McHENRY. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1950. Pp. x, 803. $4.25.)

• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Author: Robert G. Dixon
• Date: 01 March 1951
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400146
• Subject Matter: Articles

169

undoubtedly

meet

with

favorable

response

for

courses

in

state

govern-

ment.

However,

it

seems

apparent

that

the

Lancaster-Breckenridge

vol-

ume

was

not

planned

for

the

sequence

but

for

the

single

unit

course.

There

are

separate

treatments

of

popular

control,

civil

rights,

and

fed-

eralism

under

slightly

different

titles

in

both

volumes.

The

Fellman

sec-

tion

devotes

94

pages

to

these

three

topics,

while

the

Lancaster-Brecken-

ridge

section

has

88

pages

under

the

specific

topics,

with

an

additional

31

pages

under

the

topic

of

&dquo;State

Finance&dquo;

(which

might

also

be

grouped

under

federalism),

making

a

total

of

213

pages

out

of

737

pages

of

contextual

material.

In

other

words,

29

per

cent

of

the

space

is

allotted

to

three

major

topics

out

of

a

total

of

twenty.

The

authors

and

publisher

have

performed

a

real

service

by

mak-

ing

available

in

one

volume

an

excellent

selection

of

readings

on

both

federal

and

state

government.

The

collection

is

especially

valuable

be-

cause

it

contains

excerpts

from

many

recent

publications

which

are

not

slavishly

traditional.

The

authors

have

avoided

a

disconnected

collection

by

tying

the

readings

neatly

together

with

pithy

comments.

Boston

University.

LASHLEY

G.

HARVEY.

Elements

of

American

Government.

By

JOHN

H.

FERGUSON

and

DEAN

E.

McHENRY.

(New

York:

McGraw-Hill

Book

Company.

1950.

Pp.

x,

803.

$4.25.)

The

appearance

of

this

abridged

survey

of

American

government-

national,

state,

and

local-rounds

out

the

Ferguson-McHenry

trilogy

for

the

basic

course

in

this

field.

The

other

volumes

are

The

American

Sys-

tem

of

Government

(1947,

1950)

and

The

American

Federal

Govern-

ment

(1947,

1950).

Persons

familiar

with

the

structurally-organized

America.

System

will

need

little

introduction

to

this

new

book

which,

through

the

familiar

devices

of

elision

and

deletion,

tells

the

story

in

thirty-four

chapters

as

against

forty-five,

and

in

733

pages

of

text

as

against

962.

Most

of

the

condensation

is

confined

to

chapters

on

federal

powers

and

on

state

and

local

governments.

The

authors

have

produced

in

their

series

worthy

competitors

to

the

increasing

number

of

texts

on

American

government

being

aimed

at

the

currently

diminishing

undergraduate

classes.

More

lucid

than

some

of

the

old

stand-bys,

the

Ferguson

and

McHenry

volumes

still

manage

to

give

the

encyclopedia

of

fact

desired

by

the

scholar.

Fresh

approaches

to

such

categories

as

the

commerce

clause

well

reflect

the

social

revolution

through

which

we

are

passing.

One

could

wish,

however,

that

in

the

section

on

domestic

functions

there

had

been

a

departure

from

the

&dquo;blanket

ap-