Book Reviews : The Idea of Fraternity in America. By WILSON CAREY MCWILLIAMS. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. Pp. xiv, 695. $14.95.)
| Date | 01 December 1974 |
| Published date | 01 December 1974 |
| Author | Thomas Ilgen |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591297402700412 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
732
following
Beard
call
&dquo;economic
determinism,&dquo;
is
examined
in
&dquo;Tenth
Federalist
Revisited,&dquo;
lust
in
&dquo;The
Jefferson
Scandals&dquo;;
envy
in
his
work
on
Adams
(not
published
here) ;
religiosity,
fanatical
and
hypocritical,
in
&dquo;Was
Alexander
Hamil-
ton
a
Christian
Statesman?&dquo;;
and
each
is
rejected
as
insufficient.
So
Adair,
at
first,
concluded
that
not
private
passions,
but
ideological
and
even
theoretical
motives
lay
behind
the
fame
of
the
Fathers
(&dquo;That
Politics
May
Be
Reduced
to
a
Science:
David
Hume,
James
Madison,
and
the
Tenth
Federalist&dquo;) .
Thus,
he
initiated
the
revision
of
revisionist
historiography,
e.g.,
of
Beard,
Jensen,
Hofstadter,
as
well
as
the
current
interest
in
the
ideological
origins
of
the
Revolution
and
the
Constitution.
But
Adair
was
not
afraid
to
change
his
mind.
The
purity
of
(political)
science
conflicts
with
practical
experience
(&dquo;
’Experience
Must
Be
Our
Only
Guide’:
History,
Democratic
Theory,
and
the
United
States
Constitution&dquo; ) .
Adair
came
to
conclude
that
the
Fathers
experienced
themselves,
above
all,
as
founders
of
a
great
republic,
rivals
of
Plutarch’s
heroes
for
fame:
&dquo;no
angels
they,
but
passionately
selfish
and
self-interested
men.&dquo;
Thus
Adair
echoed
the
words
of
Lincoln’s
Lyceum
Address,
&dquo;Passion
has
helped
us,&dquo;
but
could
not
take
seriously
the
balance
of
Lincoln’s
sentence,
&dquo;but
can
do
so
no
more.&dquo;
It
is
difficult
to
explain
that
combination
of
gentleness
and
acuity
which
marks
Adair’s
insights
into
the
Fathers’
character
and
into
the
rise
and
fall
of
their
reputations
over
the
past
two
centuries.
But
today,
as
political
scientists
inquire
into
the
depths
of
the
political
personality,
his
modest
historical
approach
appears
to
be
Sophistication
itself,
next
to
the
more
popular
means
of
a
Barber,
Lasswell,
Maslov.
San
Jose
State
University
JOHN
WETTERGREEN
The
Idea
of
Fraternity in
America.
By
WILSON
CAREY
MCWILLIAMS.
(Berkeley:
University
of
California
Press,
1973.
Pp.
xiv,
695.
$14.95.)
In
an
intriguing
and
yet
at
times
ponderous
undertaking,
Wilson
Carey
McWilliams
explores
the
relatively
neglected
concept
of
fraternity
and
attempts
to
measure
its
vitality
in
American
political
thought.
He
assumes
that
there
is
a
&dquo;nature
of
fraternity,&dquo;
and
that
cradled
somewhere
between
kinship
and
society
it
is
a
vital
necessity
to
the
&dquo;nature&dquo;
of
human
identity.
The
argument
attempts
to
show
that
man
needs
the
encouragement
and
emotional
security
that
come
with
fraternal
relations
or
friendships
in
helping
him
to
overcome
his
own
weaknesses
and
insecurities.
Yet
the
very
intimate
nature
of these
relationships
prohibits
their
expansion
beyond
the
smallest
communities.
Thus,
attempts
to
universalize
the
lessons
of
fraternal
experiences,
such
as
calls
for
Universal
Brotherhood,
are
cer-
tain
to
fail.
Fraternity
is
a
means
that
is
necessary
for
man
to
more
effectively
deal
with
the
ambiguities
and
uncertainties
of
his
world.
When
it
is
treated
as
an
end,
as
it
is
in
Christian
calls
for
the
Brotherhood
of
Man,
or
Marxist
claims
for
a
class-
less
society,
the
concept
becomes
subject
to
misuse
that
at
best
breeds
meaningless
sentimentality,
and
at
worst
justifies
authoritarian
crusades.
The
juxtaposition
of
an
identified
psychological
need
and
its
inapplicability
as
a
universalizable
pre-
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