Other Countries

• Author: Russell H. Fitzgibbon
• DOI: 10.1177/000271625530000172
• Published date: 01 July 1955
• Date: 01 July 1955
• Subject Matter: Articles

174

author’s

talent

for

introducing

pertinent

details

sometimes

leads

one

to

think

that

he

might

have

been

an

eyewitness.

His

sympathy

for

the

Liberal

party

and

its

courageous

struggle

for

reform

against

the

host

of

Hohenzollern

reactionary

forces

is

convincing.

The

question

is

left

open,

how-

ever,

if

the

progressive

program

of

the

Liberal

party

for

electoral

reform

and

po-

litical

equality

was

genuine,

in

view

of

their

surrender

to

Bismarck

when

he

too

es-

poused

German

unification.

This

surrender

was

at

its

worst

a

sign

that

the

Liberal

party

was

insincere

in

championing

a

pro-

gressive

program.

At

best

it

was

a

demon-

stration

of

weakness.

The

party

thus

showed

that

only

the

tenuous

cord

of

the

unification

issue

held

together

its

divergent

groups.

Excessive

and

long

quotations

impair

somewhat

the

refreshing

flow

of

the

nar-

rative.

Direct

translations

are

often

styl-

istically

awkward

and

idiomatically

inac-

curate.

Examples

of

these

weaknesses

are

the

use

of

&dquo;under-officer&dquo;

instead

of

&dquo;non-

commissioned&dquo;

officer

(pp.

107,

237),

&dquo;un-

selfconscious&dquo;

(p.

285),

and

&dquo;handworker&dquo;

which

is

used

throughout

the

book.

The

book

has

no

index.

However,

these

flaws

and

the

numerous

typographical

errors

do

not

seriously

detract

from

the

value

of

the

study.

ROBERT

MUELLER

New

York,

N.

Y.

OTHER

COUNTRIES

ARTHUR

P.

WHITAKER.

The

United

States

and

Argentina.

Pp.

xv,

272.

Cambridge,

Mass.:

Harvard

University

Press,

1954.

$4.75.

The

United

States

and

Argentina

is

the

fourteenth

volume

in

&dquo;The

American

For-

eign

Policy

Library,&dquo;

initiated

by

Sumner

Welles

and

now

edited

by

Donald

C.

Mc-

Kay.

It

is

the

fourth

of

those

volumes

dealing

with

Latin

America;

relatively

little

of

the

panorama

of

the

twenty

republics

now

remains

to

be

covered.

It

seems

to

be

a

general

directive for

the

authors

of

the

series

that

they

set

the

stage

for

consideration

of

the

problems

of

The

United

States

and-whatever

the

country

or

countries

in

a

given

volume

happens

to

be.

This

makes

for

confusing

and

seem-

ingly

contradictory

titles

for

the

volumes

individually

and

for

the

series

as

a

whole.

Thus,

in

Professor

Whitaker’s

excellent

vol-

ume

on

Argentina

the

&dquo;United

States

and&dquo;

part

is

limited

to

two

chapters

and

parts

of

one

other;

it

is

hence,

at

least

quanti-

tatively,

a

minor

portion

of

the

whole

volume.

Granted

that

restrictive

premise,

little

of

a

critical

nature

can

be

said

about

the

vol-

ume

under

review.

Much

that

is

superla-

tive

would

have

to

be

included

in

any

de-

tailed

review

of

the

book.

It

is

written

in

Professor

Whitaker’s

customarily

brilliant

style

and

with

his

broad

grasp

of

the

intri-

cate

interrelationship

of

factors

and

prob-

lems

as

they

affect

the

country

with

which

he

is

dealing.

In

the

initial

chapter

he

sets

the

stage

in

terms

of

land

and

people.

Four

follow-

ing

chapters

trace

the

relations

with

the

United

States

and

the

domestic

develop-

ments

in

the

pre-Per6n

period.

Four

more

deal

with

the

Per6n

era

and

a

concluding

one

seeks

to

look

into

the

future.

An

ex-

cellent

brief

bibliographical

essay

is

added.

A

few

unimportant

points

of

fact

might

be

questioned

but

will

not

be

at

this

point.

This

reviewer

must

respectfully

protest,

however,

against

identifying

Juan

Manuel

Blanes

as

an

Argentine

painter

even

&dquo;by

adoption.&dquo;

Blanes

in

residence,

inspiration,

and

allegiance

was

Uruguayan;

as

his

eminent

biographer

Salterain

y

Herrera

says

of

him,

&dquo;Vive

con

los

ojos

puestos

en

la

patria,&dquo;

and

the

patria

was

definitely

Uruguay.

This

book

complements

well

Blanksten’s

Perdn’s

Argentina.

The

two

remain

easily

the

best

books

of

recent

years

dealing

with

this

strong

and

puzzling

country

of

South

America.

RUSSELL

H.

FITZGIBBON

University

of

California

Los

Angeles

CHARLES

ROBEQUAIN.

Malaya,

Indonesia,

Borneo,

and

the

Philippines.

Translated

by

E.

D.

Laborde.

Pp.

xi,

456.

London ;