Book Reviews and Notices : Character Assassination. By JEROME DAVIS. (New York: The Philosophi cal Library. 1950. Pp. xix, 259. $3.00.)

• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Date: 01 March 1951
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400148
• Author: Alfred Diamant
• Subject Matter: Articles

172
hinted at here. There is no lack of detailed consideration of these &dquo;reali-
ties.&dquo;
Indeed, the attempt to demonstrate the ultimate significance
of shared moral sentiments is strengthened thereby.
HENRY FROST.
University of Utah.
Character Assassination. By JEROME DAVIS. (New York: The Philosophi-
cal Library. 1950. Pp. xix, 259. $3.00.)
Reverence for scientific method and objective investigation has become
so ingrained in us that, in recent years, even partisan attacks and defenses
have been given scientific trappings. It is therefore a pleasant surprise
to find a book which is so clearly a &dquo;tract for the times,&dquo; so openly devoted
to a cause, and so clearly written in the white heat of indignation against
injustice and wrongdoing. In this book, Jerome Davis has set himself the
task of recording the methods by which, since the seventeenth century,
the &dquo;powers that be,&dquo; the respectable elements of the American com-
munity, have attempted to subdue racial, social, religious, economic, 01
other &dquo;undesirable&dquo; groups, not by direct attack but by impugning their
motives and by assassinating their character. Mr. Davis also records this
type of attack on our leading Presidents, but he devotes most of his book
to a report of attacks on the Jews, the Negroes, organized labor, and
certain religious groups, such as the Federal Council of Churches. In
a long chapter he reviews the history of the Un-American Affairs Com-
mittee of Congress...