Book Reviews : Kurt Schumacher: A Study in Personality and Political Behavior. By LEWIS J. EDINGER. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1965. Pp. viii, 390. $8.95.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591296601900420
• Date: 01 December 1966
• Published date: 01 December 1966
• Author: W. Wayne Shannon
• Subject Matter: Articles

742

deals

with

this

basic

fact

of

organizational

life

only

with

non-quantitative

terms,

even

though

by

his

account,

the

gradual

shift

of

geographic

base

by

the

Union

away

from

the

South

to

the

states

of

the

Great

Plains

was

a

crucial

decision

in

the

history

of

the

organization.

Far

more

serious

is

the

paucity

of

data

on

the

impact

of

the

organization

on

the

ideological

lives

of

the

rank-and-file

members.

Surely

if

the

ideas

have

had

ramifications

on

the

membership

it

would

have

been

appropriate

to

examine

directly

data

on

the

connection

between

ardent

liberal

activists

who

run

the

organ-

ization

and

the

&dquo;hayseeds&dquo;

who

pay

dues.

The

reviewer

suspects

that

the

failure

is

one

of

research

execution

and

that

the

crucial

relational

problems

of

leader-to-

led

were

simply

ignored.

Several

strong

points

of

the

study,

though,

may

be

mentioned:

The

author’s

treatment

of

the

impact

of

business

sidelines

operated

by

the

ideologically

moti-

vated

leaders

is

fascinating,

incisive

and

penetrating.

Crampton

amply

considers

the

extent

and

practice

of

democracy

within

the

Union

and

persuasively

relates

the

failure

of

two-party

competition

within

the

Union

to

missed

internal

oppor-

tunities

of

the

1930’s.

A

bibliography

is

included

which

for

mystifying

reasons

does

not

include

either

Grant

McConnell’s

Decline

of

Agrarian

Democracy or E.

E.

Schattschneider’s

Politics

Parties

and

the

Tariff.

Each

of

these

now

classic

works

on

interest

groups

is

relevant

to

the

problems

the

author

seeks

to

resolve

but

neither

unfortunately

is

brought

into

the

discussion.

University

of

Arizona

JOHN

E.

CROW

Kurt

Schumacher:

A

Study

in

Personality

and

Political

Behavior.

By

LEWIS

J.

EDINGER.

(Stanford:

Stanford

University

Press,

1965.

Pp. viii, 390.

$8.95.)

As

the

subtitle

of

Lewis

Edinger’s

Kart

Schumacher

implies,

the

book

is

not

intended

as

a

usual

political

biography.

The

author

makes

clear

at

the

outset

that,

there

is

no

attempt

here

to

&dquo;write

a

definitive

biography

in

the conventional

sense&dquo;

of

the

man

who

as

leader

of

the

SPD

after

World

War

II

was

for

a

time

the

most

important

political

figure

in

Germany.

Rather,

the

book

is

offered

as

&dquo;a

study

in

personality

and

political

behavior.&dquo;

Edinger

maintains

that

the

study

of

political

behavior

has

suffered

from

the

reluctance

of

contemporary

political

scientists

to

regard

biography

as

intellectually

respectable

(i.e.,

properly

&dquo;scientific&dquo;),

that

other

more

fashionable

research

strategies

generally

exclude

personality

variables

from

the

consideration

they

deserve,

and

that

biography,

rightly

executed,

is

not

only

a

legitimate,

but

a

necessary

tool

in

the

kit

of

the

behavioral

scientist.

Kurt

Schumacher,

then,

is

intended

to

be

what

might

be

called

a

case

study

in

behav-

ioral

political

biography.

Its

explicit

purposes

are

description

and

causal

explana-

tion

of

the

behavior

of

a

&dquo;central

actor&dquo;

in

a

given

&dquo;situation&dquo;;

its

language

and

concepts

are

drawn

from

recent

behavioral

science

literature

(largely

from

what

is

called

&dquo;role&dquo;

or

&dquo;action&dquo;

theory

and

from

personality

theory) ;

its

tone

is

scientific

and

&dquo;value

neutral.&dquo;