Given the span of years and the variety of subjects treated, it is surprising that this collection of the best learned essays of John P. Roche over the past twelve years does achieve a unity of thought. In one sense it is a compendium of the most intelligent Liberal position on the subjects treated; but more than that, each essay rings some variation on the theme of power and freedom. The three or four major lines of argument achieve unity at a point of convergence which, paradoxically, is not a solution, nor even a problem, but a massive dilemma. The dilemma, it is true, is latent. But the converging lines of argument bring it sufficiently to the level of conscious reflection that Liberals cannot much longer avoid confronting it. They will then find that it is one which they cannot solve and which they cannot bear to live with.
The dilemma comes to this: must we in the last analysis suppress political dissent from Liberal leadership in order to preserve the rights of Americans? It has already been discovered that intolerance is intolerable because it violates rights. And it is clear from the logic of the argument in this book that soon the Liberals must, on their own showing, find political dissent, at least illiberal political dissent, equally intolerable because it too is dangerous to liberty. Mr. Roche, we all know, would reject this conclusion. Yet it is logically present in his own thought.
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