The fourth and final volume in the Handlins' monumental study (Liberty in Expansion, 1989, etc.) of the development of liberty in American history. Like earlier books in their series, this volume explores a cohesive theme: ``the forces that narrowed or expanded peoples' ability to act'' in the period after 1920. The authors divide their survey into three parts. In the first, ``The World Made Safe—For Despair, 19201950,'' they trace the transformations in the relationship between Americans and their government wrought by the successive shocks of the Depression, the New Deal (and the vast governmental bureaucracy created by it), and the Second World War. While often still embracing the traditional American view of the limited role and powers of government, Americans came to view the government as playing a significant role in creating conditions in which both liberty and equality could thrive. In the second section, ``Leveling Out, 19501970,'' the authors sketch how entitlement programs like the Great Society, changes in social mores, and increasing emphasis on self-gratification failed to relieve tensions between the demand for equality and the desire for liberty. Furthermore, the drive to achieve equality of results (as opposed to equality of opportunity) for women and members of ethnic and racial minorities undermined the traditional idea of liberty by ``shift[ing] emphasis away from the merits of individuals to entitlements as group members.'' In their last section, ``Equality's Challenge,'' the authors sketch a troubling portrait of a society in which a superabundance of material wealth and an almost anarchic emphasis on liberation from social and moral constraints have not prevented widespread despair and unhappiness. Eloquently though lugubriously, the Handlins point out the paradoxes of a society in which a deteriorating moral consensus and a quest for equality of result have undermined both liberty and equality.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-017513-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
This ran in the S.E.P. and resulted in more demands for the story in book form than ever recorded. Well, here it is and it is a honey. Imagine ten people, not knowing each other, not knowing why they were invited on a certain island house-party, not knowing their hosts. Then imagine them dead, one by one, until none remained alive, nor any clue to the murderer. Grand suspense, a unique trick, expertly handled.
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1939
ISBN: 0062073478
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939
SEEN & HEARD
More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that...
Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett (Free Fire, 2007, etc.), once again at the governor’s behest, stalks the wraithlike figure who’s targeting elk hunters for death.
Frank Urman was taken down by a single rifle shot, field-dressed, beheaded and hung upside-down to bleed out. (You won’t believe where his head eventually turns up.) The poker chip found near his body confirms that he’s the third victim of the Wolverine, a killer whose animus against hunters is evidently being whipped up by anti-hunting activist Klamath Moore. The potential effects on the state’s hunting revenues are so calamitous that Governor Spencer Rulon pulls out all the stops, and Pickett is forced to work directly with Wyoming Game and Fish Director Randy Pope, the boss who fired him from his regular job in Saddlestring District. Three more victims will die in rapid succession before Joe is given a more congenial colleague: Nate Romanowski, the outlaw falconer who pledged to protect Joe’s family before he was taken into federal custody. As usual in this acclaimed series, the mystery is slight and its solution eminently guessable long before it’s confirmed by testimony from an unlikely source. But the people and scenes and enduring conflicts that lead up to that solution will stick with you for a long time.
More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that periodically release the tension between the scheming adversaries.Pub Date: May 20, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-15488-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2008
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