THE CROSS OF THE MOMENT

The author takes a gloomy glance at America today and finds, as others have done, a lack of a sense of history or purpose, an aimlessness, an apathy that strikes him as a ""queer and unhealthy"" change from the high tension of the '30's. Much of the book is devoted to a contrasting of the two eras. In support of his points, Cochran uses as authorities virtually everyone from Moses to Norman Mailer. Fortunately, he interweaves his quotes- however many- effectively into the text. Nevertheless, the book has a disjointed air as the author's eye roves over a field ranging from laissez faire capitalism to the Beat Generation. He suggests that the nation ought to recapture the world revolution leadership it has lost to the Russians, for which ""we are spectacularly placed"". He argues that our Jeffersonian rhetoric, our pluralistic ways, our democratic traditions in combination with rock and roll, Coca Cola, and mass culture are a proved formula to excite the blood of urban man the world over, were they attached to a generous attitude and a viable perspective for a world integration. And he maintains that a lessening of the power of the U.S. business community and a growth of government planning will be essential to the task of resuming world leadership.