Book Reviews and Notices : Report on America. By ROBERT PAYNE. (New York: The John Day Com pany. 1949. Pp. 279. $3.50.)

• Author: Henry Frost
• Date: 01 March 1951
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400147
• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Subject Matter: Articles

170

proach&dquo;

common

in

most

standard

texts

in

favor

of

more

detailed

treat-

ment

of

selected

topics

of

especial

national

concern.

Choices

of

which

elements

to

highlight

and

which

to

subordinate

or

eliminate

would

not

meet

unanimous

acceptance,

but

some

general

agreements

should

be

possible.

Such

topics

as

collective

bargaining

and

labor

disputes,

crop

controls

and

parity

formulas,

business

competition

and

standards

of

serv~

ice

seem

to

call

for far

more

elucidation

than

has

usually

been

given,

especially

in

terms

of

processes

of

control.

Stress

on

processes

will

give

the

student

frames

of

reference

with

which

to

assimilate

new

facts

in

the

field

of

national

policy

after

he

passes

beyond

the

reach

of

teachers.

Would

condensation

of

material

of

the

type

appearing

in

the

treatment

of

farm

loans

and

federal

land

banks

be

too

high

a

price

to

pay

to

achieve

this

end?

A

serious

question

may

be

raised

concerning

the

occasional

splitting

of

customarily

unified

topics.

For

example,

presidential

nominations

are

discussed

in

the

chapter

on

electoral

processes,

but

the

electoral

college

is

not

taken

up

until

three

chapters

later

in

connection

with

the

office

of

the

President.

Material

on

Congress

is

separated

by

a

chapter

on

gen,

eral

aspects

of

the

presidency

from

the

topic

of

the

President

and

Con,

gress.

Information

on

treaties

is

divided

between

the

chapters

on

presi,

dential

powers

and

foreign

relations,

six

chapters

intervening.

One

may

easily

cope

with

novelties

of

arrangement

confined

to

chapter

sequence,

but

the

splitting

of

topics

across

chapter

lines

makes

difficult

the

task

of

the

teacher

who

wishes

to

re-order

the

material

to

his

own

tastes.

University

of

Marylatid.

ROBERT

G.

DIXON,

JR.

Report

on

America.

By

ROBERT

PAYNE.

(New

York:

The

John

Day

Com-

pany.

1949.

Pp.

279.

$3.50.)

Robert

Payne

is

a

much-travelled

Englishman,

accredited

by

his

publisher

with

being

a

&dquo;citizen

of

the

world.&dquo;

He

is

an

author

of

biog-

raphies

of

Sun

Yat-sen

and

1rlao

’~’se-tur~g

and

of

other

volumes

inters

preting

social

life,

particularly

in

Asia.

His

Report

on

America

is

said

to

rest

on

two

years

of

close,

personal

exploration

of

the

American

scene,

combined

with

observations

of

the

reactions

to

America

as

he

has

found

them

elsewhere.

It

is

not,

then,

a

systematic

survey

of

American

culture,

but

rather

an

examination

of

those

aspects

of

America’s

past,

present,

and

future

which

the

author

considers

most

relevant

to

an

understanding

of

America’s

role

in

the

world

situation.

Nevertheless,

the

book

is

prodigious

in

scope

though,

perhaps

inevitably,

variable

in

depth;

and

it

teems

with

a

notable

array

of

samplings

of

American

life-patterns

and

problems.

So