DALE O. SMITH. U. S. Military Doctrine: A Study and Appraisal. Pp. xiii, 256. New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce; Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1955. $3.50

• Author: W.D. Puleston
• DOI: 10.1177/000271625630400129
• Published date: 01 March 1956
• Date: 01 March 1956
• Subject Matter: Articles

154

those

who

read

it,

he

feels,

will

await

with

interest

the

succeeding

volume.

HENRY

H.

SIMMS

Ohio

State

University

RALPH

KORNGOLD.

Thaddeus

Stevens.

Pp.

xiv,

460.

New

York:

Harcourt,

Brace,

and

Company,

1955.

$6.00.

Thaddeus

Stevens

remains

one

of

the

most

paradoxical

and

little

appreciated

fig-

ures

of

the

Civil

War

period.

Loving

free-

dom

as

few

men

of

his

time

did,

he

hated

with

equal

ardor.

Possessed

of

intellectual

stature

and

genuine

political

shrewdness,

occupying

a

dominant

position

in

govern-

ment

during

the

early

postwar

years,

he

is

remembered

chiefly

for

his

bitterness,

his

hatred,

and

his

frustration.

More

than

a

decade

ago

Richard

Current

wrote

an

ex-

cellent

biography

of

&dquo;Old

Thad,&dquo;

yet

many

questions

were

unanswered,

many

prob-

lems

unsolved.

Now

Ralph

Korngold,

au-

thor

of

a

popular

joint

study

of

Garrison

and

Phillips,

attempts

a

new

appraisal

of

this

strange

man.

The

author

has

divided

his

book

into

four

parts.

Law

and

Politics

tells

of

the

barren,

unhappy

Vermont

childhood;

the

study

of

law;

the

early

days

in

Pennsyl-

vania ;

and

makes

up

about

one-fifth

of

the

volume.

Congressional

Interlude

is

a

rela-

tively

brief

discussion

of

Stevens’

early

Congressional

experience

and

the

events

that led

to

Secession.

About

two-thirds

of

the

volume

is

devoted

to

the

struggle

of

Stevens,

first

against

Lincoln

and

then

against

Johnson.

The

early

years

of

Stevens’

life

are

treated

in

conventional

fashion.

It

is

with

his

last

decade

that

the

author

is

chiefly

concerned.

Here

the

author

be-

comes

a

pleader

in

attempting

to

show

that

Johnson

was

as

incompetent,

as

un-

stable,

and

as

unprincipled

as

he

was

so

commonly

portrayed

a

half-century

ago

and

in

attempting

to

show

that

Lincoln

was

inferior

in

vision,

courage,

and

char-

acter

to

Stevens.

The

author

loves

freedom

and

those

who

fought

for

freedom.

He

seems

to

assume

that

all

who

have

fought

for

freedom

are

inherently

good,

competent,

even

superior.

He

attempts

to

increase

the

stature

of

Stevens

by

belittling

all

who

opposed

him.

He

even

goes

to

the

extreme

of

commit-

ting

almost

every’

sin

recognized

by

the

objective

and

painstaking

historian.

In

one

section

of

approximately

thirty

pages,

this

reviewer

finds

careless

proofreading

(p.

172),

misquotes

(p.

174),

misinter-

pretations

(pp.

175, 179,

194),

faulty

logic

(pp.

184,

189),

sensational

and

unsup-

ported

statements

(p.

197),

oversimplifi-

cation

(p.

198),

and

an

uncritical

use

of

sources

(p.

201).

The

author

has

repeat-

edly

gone

to

old,

discredited,

and

strongly

biased

sources.

It

is

not

necessary

to

malign

Andrew

Johnson,

to

distort

and

misinterpret

the

leadership

of

Lincoln,

in

order

to

admire

the

courage,

recognize

the

superb

political

leadership,

and

regret

the

lack

of

apprecia-

tion

commonly

accorded

Thaddeus

Stevens.

Mr.

Komgold’s

heart

is

in

the

right

place;

it

is

unfortunate

that

he

chose

such

un-

critical

means

to

arrive

at

such

question-

able

conclusions.

RALPH

ADAMS

BROWN

State

University

of

New

York

Cortland,

N. Y.

DALE

O.

SMITH.

U.

S.

Military

Doctrine:

A

Study

and

Appraisal.

Pp.

xiii,

256.

New

York:

Duell,

Sloan,

and

Pearce;

Boston:

Little,

Brown,

and

Company,

1955. $3.50.

General

Smith,

class

of

1934

West

Point,

flew

thirty-one

combat

missions

in

World

War

II

in

command

of

a

B-17

group.

Subsequently

as

director

of

education

at

Air

University

he

compiled

Air

Force

Leadership,

the

official

manual

of

the

Air

Force.

His

text

will

convince

any

reader

that

he

writes

with

authority,

sincerity,

and

deep

conviction.

Beginning

with

the

views

of

Washington

on

our

military

policy,

he

outlines

the

doctrines

of

Clausewitz,

Jo-

mini,

Dennis

and

Alfred

Mahan,

and

others

preparatory

to

relating

the

impact

of

avia-

tion

on

land

and

sea

power.

In

his

Intro-

duction,

he

reminds

readers

of

the

danger-

ous

Anglo-American

habit

of

denouncing

war

as

something

so

unholy

that

it

must

be

ignored,

not

studied,

and

he

chides

Americans

of

today

who

still

refuse

to

study

why

wars

continue

to

recur.

The

General

offers

his

countrymen

much

ex-

cellent

advice.