Theodore H. White. In Search of History: A Personal Adventure. Pp. 561. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. $12.95

• Author: Donald B. Schewe
• DOI: 10.1177/000271627944100138
• Published date: 01 January 1979
• Date: 01 January 1979
• Subject Matter: Articles

217
agriculture. Hampton graduates carried
In 1976 Theodore White began work-
the Armstrong gospel throughout the
ing on what was to have been the fifth
South.
of his Making of the President books.
But if the author found Armstrong an
During the campaign, however, White
unsatisfactory educational leader for
began to doubt his own assumptions
freedmen, he was even more critical of
about America and American politics, and
Booker Taliaferro Washington, Arm-
more particularly his own conception of
strong’s star pupil, who founded Tus-
history. He laid aside his chronicle of
kegee Institute in Alabama in 1881. Al-
the election and wrote instead this book,
though Washington did not admit white
to be not &dquo;mere storytelling,&dquo; but an
superiority, he saw his fellow blacks
attempt at history, which &dquo;organizes
mainly as a reservoir of reliable and
and analyzes facts to tell ’what it is
compliant labor, and the author likens
really all about.’ &dquo; The result is a
him to the earlier black overseer &dquo;who
combination of autobiography, an epi-
worked diligently to keep intact the
sodic account of fifty years of American
very system under which they both
history, and an essay on White’s con-
were enslaved&dquo; (p. 66).
cept of the meaning of America’s
The author moves on from Hampton
existence.
and Tuskegee to the General Educa-
The Prologue, Epilogue and three of
tion Board and other agencies which he
the chapters are told in third person,
says sponsored industrial education to
while the balance of the volume pro-
assure a supply of menial black labor
vides a first person account of White’s
s
for northern-financed railroads and other
life from his birth in a Boston Jewish
enterprises in the South. Captains of
ghetto in 1915 to his interview with
finance and industry, such as Rocke-
Jacqueline Kennedy just one week after
feller, Morgan, and Carnegie pass in un-
her husband’s assassination. The author
favorable review, as do many educa-
traces...