Book Reviews : Fundamentals of National Government. By CULLEN B. GOSNELL, LANE W. LANCASTER, and ROBERT S. RANKIN. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. 1955. Pp. vii, 490. $5.00.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591295600900151
• Date: 01 March 1956
• Published date: 01 March 1956
• Author: Robert F. Karsch
• Subject Matter: Articles

221

The

author

backs

his

argument

with

hundreds

of

cases

and

does

a

fine

job

of

tracing

the

lines

of

influence

from

treatise

to

legal

enforcement,

but

one

wishes

he

were

not

so

limited

in

interpreting

the

ideological

pressures

on

the

three

men.

They

lived

in

an

age

of

explosive

nationalism,

but

Mr.

Jacobs

neglects

the

effect

of

nationalist

sentiment

on

their

thought.

More-

over,

Cooley’s

doctrine

of

inherent

limitations

on

legislative

power,

subject-

ing

state

legislatures

to

the

veto

of

the

federal

judiciary,

had

widespread

effects

in

promoting

nationalism

and

national

expansion.

This

study,

written

from

a

background

of

thorough

and

perceptive

scholarship,

will

be

a

valuable

technical

aid

to

anyone

interested

in

consti-

tutional

law

or

the

development

of

legal

thought

in

America.

Yet,

like

so

many

good

books

in

the

field,

it

is

crippled

by

its

prose

style.

This

book

sug-

gests

that

it

is

time

for

the

graduate

schools

to

teach

that

style

is

relevant

to

scholarship

and

that

the

canons

of

felicity

are

not

merely

counsels

of

perfection.

Ohio

Wesleyan

University.

E.

V.

WALTER.

Fundamentals

of

National

Government.

By

CULLEN

B.

GOSNELL,

LANE

W.

LANCASTER,

and

ROBERT

S.

RANKIN.

(New

York:

McGraw-Hill

Book

Company,

Inc.

1955.

Pp.

vii,

490.

$5.00.)

Of

several

brief

standard

treatments

of

American

government

published

in

recent

years

this

one

seems

to

be

pre-eminently

satisfactory.

All

the

essential

data

appear

to

be

included,

with

sufficient

elaboration,

so

that

the

book

definitely

avoids

the

impression

of

superficiality.

Considering

the

task,

this

is

no

mean

achievement.

Chapters

6

through

24

show

almost

no

departure

from

the

traditional

portrayal

of

the

traditional

units

-

interstate

relations,

Constitution,

citizen-

ship,

civil

rights,

parties

and

pressures,

Congress,

the

presidency,

the

courts,

administration,

and

special

subjects

like

finance

and

welfare.

All

this

is

a

quite

dependable

boiling-down

of

the

tried

and

true

-

with,

it

may

be

suggested,

little

either

of

prejudice

or

imagination.

Indeed

there

would

not

be

much

room

for

imaginative

treatment

without

distorting

the

well-

compacted

pattern.

One

hiatus

might

be

noted

-

the

chapter

on

pressure

groups

omits

consideration

of

&dquo;good

government&dquo;

associations

like

the

League

of

Women

Voters

and

welfare

organizations.

The

distinctive

features

of

the

book,

other

than

the

good

job

of

selecting

and

compressing

which

it

does,

are

its

first

five

chapters.

These,

by

directing

attention

to

theoretic

foundations

-

natural

rights,

popular

sovereignty,

separation

of

powers,

the

rule

of

law,

and

federalism

-

give

the

student

a

thought-provoking

introduction

to

American

government.

This

part

of

the

book,

totaling

eighty-five

pages,

is

a

fuller

and

more

gratifying

treatment