Book Reviews : The Politics of Mis-Representation. By WILLIAM C. HAVARD AND LOREN P. BETH. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1962. Pp. xiii, 293. $5.00.)

• Author: Charles G. Mayo
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296401700121
• Published date: 01 March 1964
• Date: 01 March 1964
• Subject Matter: Articles

142
time, [make] a detailed tracing of Belgian negotiations with the new Provisional Gov-
ernment and other European powers during the first few months after the fall of
Louis Philippe,&dquo; his source material is heavily oriented toward diplomatic rather
than domestic affairs. Hence he is much more successful, indeed eminently so, with
the diplomatic than with the domestic portions of his work. There is, for example,
almost no reference to the suggestion (made in the Chambre 28 February 1848) that
Belgians be vaccinated against the virus of French-inspired republicanism by broad-
ening the franchise. For months debate on this proposition occupied the Liberal
press. The eventual electoral law, though it was not enacted until November, was
nonetheless the most obvious of the political sequels of the February Revolution and
certainly should have been emphasized.
Similarly, reliance on reports of diplomats in Belgium (plus, curiously, The
Economist rather than contemporary Belgian journals) for information about local
Belgian conditions suggests that the study might have been subtitled, View of the
Problem from a Diplomatic Pouch. A less specialized bibliography would also have
greatly improved the interpretation in several places. Some of Canon Simon’s recent
work on Leopold, the Constitution, and political parties would have been helpful in
the earlier chapters while the studies of Maes, LeConte and others would have tied
together many scattered bits and pieces concerning the Belgian Legion and the two
&dquo;invasions.&dquo;
I
Most distressing of all, however, is the abrupt way the author concludes the
work - with but a single summary paragraph ending at the bottom of a page. When
the reader turns that page, in mid-thought as it were, he suddenly finds himself con-
fronted with the &dquo;Index of Persons&dquo; without really realizing how it got there. It
seems almost like an unfriendly act on the part of the author.
.1 ALLAN H. KITTELL
Montana State University
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