Book Reviews : The Man at the Door with the Gun. By CEDRIC BELFRAGE. (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1963. Photographs. Pp. 253. $4.50.)
| Author | Willard F. Barber |
| Published date | 01 December 1964 |
| Date | 01 December 1964 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/106591296401700416 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
801
performed
and
the
meaningfulness
of
the
activity
to
the
performer
are
basic.
The
more
reluctant
one
is
to
perform
a
task,
the
more
he
should
be
paid;
the
more
enjoy-
ment
one
derives
from
the
doing
of
the
work,
the
less
the
payment
due.
For
con-
venience
the
Cup
of
Life
is
divided
into
measurement
units
called
Pides
and
coupons
will
be
printed
in
denominations
of
Pides.
The
Pide
rate
for
each
activity
will
be
a
matter
of
agreement
on
the
occasion
of
each
transaction.
There
is
much
more,
but
for
those
whose
curiosity
is
uncontrollable
these
details
are
best
discovered
by
reading
the
book.
Suffice
it
to
say
that
Mr.
Berger
promises
those
who
heed
his
precepts
nothing
less
than
the
Good
Life.
The
cataloguers
of
the
Library
of
Congress
have
classified
this
book
under
&dquo;Economics
-
Miscellanea.&dquo;
NED
V.
JOY
San
Diego
State
College
The
Man
at
the
Door
with
the
Gun.
By
CEDRIC
BELFRAGE.
(New
York:
Monthly
Review
Press,
1963.
Photographs.
Pp. 253.
$4.50.)
Cedric
Belfrage
describes
himself,
in
references
scattered
throughout
this
vol-
ume,
as
a
student
of
revolutions,
an
exile
not
permitted
to
enter
the
United
States,
and
the
holder
of
a
British
passport.
He
states
that
he
is
attempting
to
show
the
United
States
through
Latin
American
eyes.
This
purpose
is
not
achieved.
The
interviews
held
with
a
succession
of
leftist
leaders
in
the
Latin
American
countries
that
he
visited
on
a
recent
five-months’
tour
gave
him
a
singularly
uniform
and
dis-
torted
view
of
this
country.
To
the
reviewer
it
appears
that
the
real
purpose
of
the
volume
is
to
tell
an
English-reading
audience
of
the
conditions of
misery
and
unrest
in
Latin
America.
These
conditions,
to
a
leftist,
are
the
stuff
of
which
revolutions
can
be
made.
Indeed,
&dquo;The
Man
at
the
Door
with
the
Gun&dquo;
is
stated
to
be
a
revolu-
tionary.
Latin
American
societies
as
varied
as
those
of
continental
Brazil,
of
land-locked
Bolivia,
of
the
welfare
state
of
Uruguay,
and
the
dictatorship
of
Haiti,
are
not
easily
categorized.
First
impressions
of
landscapes,
twenty-minute
interviews
with
political
outcasts,
and
causal
conversations
with
taxi
drivers
do
not
suffice
for
either
a
diag-
nosis
or
a
prognosis
of
the
social
ills
of
a
hemisphere.
And
when
it
comes
to
making
prophecies,
the
author’s
limitations
become
quickly
apparent.
Two
illustrations
may
be
cited.
&dquo;If
a
generals’
coup
against
Goulart
was
attempted
at
this
point,
it
would
only
hasten
the
socialist
revolution.&dquo;
(In
the
coup
in
the
Spring
of
1964,
General
Branco
headed
a
regime
that
is
anything
but
socialist.)
Writing
about
Panamanian
students,
Belfrange
declares:
&dquo;Close
by
was
the
Zone
fence
with
gates
that
could
be
closed
if
the
youngsters
let
their
emotions
run
away
with
them.
The
situation
was
in
hand....&dquo;
(The
tragic
riots
in
Panama
erupted
within
a
fortnight
from
the
release
date
of
the
book.)
Despite
the
vivid
and
even
dramatic
style,
the
lack
of
a
sense
of
chronology,
even
within
chapters,
detracts
from
the
acceptability
of
the
ideas
which
the
author
tries
so
hard
to
implant.
A
paragraph
on
the
Dominican
Republic
is
inserted
in
the
middle
of
the
chapter
on
Haiti;
an
evaluation
of
the
Alliance
for
Progress
occurs
in
the
section
on
Venezuela;
remarks
about
Brazil
unexpectedly
appear
in
the
chapter
To continue reading
Request your trial