Book Reviews and Notices : Our Long Heritage. Edited by WILSON OBER CLOUGH. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1955. Pp. xv, 297. $4.50.)

• Date: 01 December 1956
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295600900425
• Published date: 01 December 1956
• Author: James L. Busey
• Subject Matter: Articles

1010
The introductions to the eight chapters account for nearly half the
book. They show a thorough familiarity with the critical literature and
are written on a very high level - are, for example, enormously more
intelligent and sophisticated than the work of the Carlyles. Not all readers
will agree with all of Mrs. Lewis’ views, and of course there is room for
difference of opinion on the selection of topics and of authors. But it is
doubtful that a more generally satisfactory job could have been done in the
space available.
But the problem of presentation of readings in medieval thought seems
to be insuperable. Most teachers would prefer full texts or longer cuttings
from fewer works, chronologically arranged. The topical arrangement, and
the exclusion of materials not susceptible to subsumption under one of the
eight headings, give a misleading appearance of finality. On the other
hand, under no other plan could the ground be covered at all. These two
volumes cover a great deal of ground, and will be extremely useful in the
teaching of political theory.
FRANCIS D. WORMUTH.
University of Utah.
Our Long Heritage. Edited by WILSON OBER CLOUGH. (Minneapolis: Uni-
versity of Minnesota Press. 1955. Pp. xv, 297. $4.50.)
Professor Clough, of the Department of English at the University of
Wyoming, has here performed a significant service to the study of early
American political thought.
There are, of course, numerous books of readings in classical and later
political thought. The particular purpose of Our Long Heritage, however,
is to provide a collection of excerpts from the writings regularly read and
admired by the founders of this republic. Introductory to each reading,
and to each topical section of the book, is a statement wherein Professor
Clough quite ably places the quoted theorist in proper historical context,
and provides some evidence of the attention given to the theorist in eigh-
teenth-century northeastern America.
At the same time, Professor Clough leaves...