Book Reviews : Federalism, Bureaucracy, and Party Politics in Western Germany: The Role of the Bundesrat. By EDWARD L. PINNEY. (Chapel Hill: University of North Caro lina Press, 1963. Pp. vii, 268. $5.00.)

• Published date: 01 December 1964
• Date: 01 December 1964
• Author: Donald Douglas Dalgleish
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296401700455
• Subject Matter: Articles

844
The Burden and the Glory may be placed in the last category. It consists of
excerpts (only a few full texts) from Kennedy’s speeches and press conferences dur-
ing the last two years of his administration, beginning with his University of Wash-
ington address in November 1961, and concluding with the speech before the Dallas
Citizens’ Council which was to have been delivered on the day of his assassination.
The statements are grouped under the seven topics from peace to science and educa-
tion. Editor Nevins has not attempted annotation but in each case adds an explana-
tory note about the occasion and indicates where and when the remarks were de-
livered. One wishes that Nevins had included some analysis of his own, but his notes
nonetheless make the work considerably more useful than the conventional volumes
of statements of public men. Some readers will find the excerpts too brief and wish
the editor had carried the full transcript. But with over fifty subjects included, com-
plete text would have made the volume an unwieldy one and reduced its use for the
general reader if not for the student.
On
re-reading the President’s later speeches and remarks, one is impressed anew
with the clarity of the prose, the idealism and optimism of its content, and his appre-
ciation of the enormous complexity of the problems facing the nation. At the same
time he could speak bluntly (but with restraint) as exemplified by the James Mere-
dith and steel price crises. Many of the excerpts of news conferences and statements,
however, omit Mr. Kennedy’s wit. Here is a subject certain to attract the talents of
a writer before long, as the Kennedy humor was without peers in the presidency.
An important gap in the literature is Kennedy’s presidential leadership. When
campaigning, Kennedy discussed the nature of the presidency and the Democratic
party. But after the Senator became the prime actor he said little about the role of
the President and of the political parties. Political...