ECKENRODE, H. J., and BRYAN CONRAD. George B. McClellan: The Man Who Saved the Union. Pp. xi, 296. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1941. $3.50

DOI10.1177/000271624222100184
AuthorRoy F. Nichols
Date01 May 1942
Published date01 May 1942
Subject MatterArticles
242
fenses
are
then
presented,
with
related
crimes
considered
together.
The
method
throughout
is
quite
uniform:
first
a
descrip-
tion
of
common
law
origins,
followed
by
a
description
of
the
general
trend
of
state
enactments.
A
brief
treatment
of
certain
Federal
criminal
laws,
an
appendix
contain-
ing
the
uniform
acts
on
Fresh
Pursuit
and
Extradition,
and
the
recent
draft of
a
pro-
posed
Arrest
Act,
conclude
the
volume.
Viewing
the
book
as
a
whole,
it
is
ap-
parent
that
the
early
chapters
on
Police
Science
are
intended
for
the
instruction
of
the
police
neophyte,
whereas
the
subsequent
treatment
of
the
criminal
law
may
be
stud-
ied
with
profit
both
by
the
recruit
and
by
the
veteran
of
many
years’
standing
who
has
attended
and
survived
a
number
of
po-
lice
training
courses
of
varied
quality.
Both
parts
of
the
book
deal
with
the
ele-
ments
of
their
respective
subject
matters,
but
the
elements
of
criminal
law
are
neces-
sarily
more
difficult
to
present
than
are
the
general
aspects
of
police
science
and
the
policeman’s
art.
It
follows
that
Part
II
lacks
the
popular
interest
that
characterizes
Part
I;
but
in
our
view,
this
is
all
to
the
good,
since
there
is
nothing
to
be
gained
by
attempting
to
oversimplify
the
intricacies
of
the
law
of
crimes.
When
police
begin
really
to
master
that
subject,
they
will
have
taken
another
long
step
toward
the
oft-
heralded
but
apparently
elusive
goal
of
pro-
fessionalization.
Professor
Perkins’
book
takes
its
place
with
many
another
that
has
been
directed
toward
the
same
ends,
but
in
its
conscien-
tious
effort
to
provide
a
firm
foundation
for
the
policeman’s
study
of
the
criminal
law,
it
deserves
and
will
receive
especially
high
rank
in
its
field.
BRUCE
SMITH
Institute
of
Public
Administration
ECKENRODE,
H.
J.,
and
BRYAN
CONRAD.
George
B.
McClellan:
The
Man
Who
Saved
the
Union.
Pp.
xi,
296.
Chapel
Hill:
University
of
North
Carolina
Press,
1941.
$3.50.
The
United
States
does
not
make
war
easily,
and
when
it
does,
certain
of
its
po-
litical
habits
interfere
with
the
smooth
run-
ning
of
a
war
machine.
George
B.
McClel-
lan,
as
the
leading
general
of
the
Union
forces
in
the
early
years
of
the
Civil
War,
found
not
only
that
he
must
make
war
upon
his
enemies
before
him,
but
he
must
like-
wise
be
prepared
to
fight
a
political
warfare
behind
his
lines.
He
was
not
temperamen-
tally
fitted
for
this
dual
warfare,
and
thus
he
lost
both
conflicts.
The
authors
of
this
volume
are
sympa-
thetic
to
McClellan,
more
so
because
they
dislike
his
Northern
enemies
so
much.
They
have
the
advantage
also
of
being
familiar
with
the
military
terrain
of
northern
and
eastern
Virginia,
where
McClellan
did
most
of
his
fighting.
They
endeavor
to
defend
his
generalship
and
attribute
most
of
his
difficulties
to
the
political
warfare
in
the
North.
These
political
difficulties
are
not
blamed
on
Lincoln,
for
whom
they
have
respect, .nor
even
particularly
upon
the
radi-
cals
in
Congress
as
other
recent
study
seems
to
indicate;
rather,
they
are
certain
that
Stanton
was
the
villain.
Much
of
McClel-
lan’s
misfortune
they
assign
to
the
malevo-
lent
plotting
of
this
bitter
hater.
The
volume
traces
McClellan’s
life
from
birth
to
death,
and
endeavors
to
correct
the
balance
of
William
S.
Myers’
earlier
work,
which
the
authors
feel
neglected
the
military
factors.
They
analyze
better
than
anyone
else
the
difficulties
of
the
fighting
ground
and
McClellan’s
ability
to
overcome
them.
They
make
much
of
the
general’s
genius
as
an
organizer,
and
maintain
that
the
splendid
training
which
he
gave
the
Army,
his
plan
for
capturing
Richmond
which
Grant
followed
to
success,
and
his
victory
at
Antietam,
saved
the
Union.
They
try
to
be
fair
in
recognizing
McClel-
lan’s
faults;
they
are
fully
discussed.
How-
ever,
they
do
not
set
forth
as
clearly
as
they
might
the
extent
to
which
McClellan’s
failings
made
him
an
impossible
commander
in
such
jittery
times.
Those
who
&dquo;plotted&dquo;
against
him
were
less
moved
by
hate
than
they
were
by
a
desire for
more
-decisive
ac-
tion,
by
a
fear
that
McClellan
was
politi-
cally
treacherous
to
the
administration,
and
particularly
by
the
apprehension
of
popular
defeat
in
elections
because
of
a
lack
of
spectacular
results.
The
book
is
well
writ-
ten
and
has
the
advantage
of
a
number
of
excellent
battle
maps.
ROY
F.
NICHOLS
University
of
Pennsylvania
at SAGE PUBLICATIONS on December 4, 2012ann.sagepub.comDownloaded from

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