Book Reviews: The Politics of Agriculture: Soil Conservation and the Struggle for Power in Rural America. By CHARLES M. HARDIN. (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press. 1952. Pp. 282. $4.00.)

Date01 December 1952
Published date01 December 1952
DOI10.1177/106591295200500466
Subject MatterArticles
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734
ing, some gentle and some not so gentle seducing, not to mention a certain
amount of raping; all done with sparkling enthusiasm to make the &dquo;World
Safe for Democracy.&dquo;
Then came the Korean elections of May 30, 1952. The peoples
of Korea marched joyfully to the polls to disavow the American puppet
government of Korea and with it the American protectorate. Much to
the astonishment of Ambassador Muccio and his advisers, the North
Koreans captured Seoul four weeks later.
To those who love their country and cherish its good name this is a
disturbing and saddening book. The crucible of Korea has proved that our
pretensions to world leadership, our methods of americanizing &dquo;Backward
Peoples&dquo; are presumptuous in conception and infantile, when not sadistic,
in execution. As a nation we seem incapable of grasping that these
&dquo;Backward Peoples&dquo; were civilized when our ancestors were feeding whisky
to Indians and hanging witches, that today, in every feeling, thought,
and action, except to amass wealth or build machines, these &dquo;Backward
Peoples&dquo; are culturally still far in advance of us.
,
This review may perhaps best be closed by quoting Caldwell: &dquo;We
might well heed a Korean proverb which says, ’When a man slips and
falls into a stream, it is foolish to blame the stream.’ &dquo;
_
Salt Lake City, Utah.

CHARLES SWEENY.
The Politics of Agriculture: Soil Conservation and the Struggle for Power
in Rural America. By CHARLES M. HARDIN. (Glencoe, 111.: The Free
Press. 1952. Pp. 282. $4.00.)
In this book Professor Hardin has provided the best discussion
of agricultural politics which has been produced in recent years. Despite
.
its unfortunate dust-cover billing as a volume on soil conservation, the
work’s real topic is stated by the second part of the subtitle, &dquo;the Struggle
for Power in Rural America.&dquo; The author’s approach is that &dquo;the study
of a single phase of agricultural politics - such as soil conservation -...

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