THE SEARCH FOR A USABLE PAST

by Henry S. Commager ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 22, 1967

Henry Steele Gommager is a very distinguished historian --so distinguished, in fact, that the designer of this book has fashioned a pretentious HSC monogram for the opening of each chapter. The author, however, has survived worse fates -- the McCarthy era was especially repugnant to him. So too he will survive his incarnation at the hands of those who believe history is a gentleman's game of preserving stuffed facts. Commager is a gentleman, but he is also a scholar. The twenty-two essays in this volume, most dealing with the American scene and some written in the 1930's, are erudite and almost always convincing. The author has little of the fire of Vernon Louis Parrington, but he is able to write with warmth and insight of such diverse personalities as James Madison, Lester Ward, Abner Kneeland and Jane Addams. Possessing a sure sense of synthesis, he sweeps together the ideas and movements of a period into a credible whole. Commager, known as a political libertarian, is a Brahmin at heart and he clings to the faith of the fathers as the Whig historians did to the Magna Carta. Even Alexander Hamilton might blush if he read Commager's judgment of the work of the Constitution makers: ""They worked out sound and lasting political solutions to the problems of class, interest, section, race, religion, party."" For such rhetoric one can hope that the author is not remembered, for there is much of value here.

Pub Date: May 22, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION