Books in Brief

The Fringe on Top, by M. Stanton Evans with Allan H. Ryskind and William Schultz (American Features, $2.00). Meet the gang. Meet Professor Galbraith, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Senator Clark. Meet Dean Rusk, Edwin O. Reischauer, John Stewart Service, Owen Lattimore, Arthur Dean, W. W. Rostow, Charles Bohlen, George F. Kennan and William Wieland, all the gang. Some, not all, here; some, not all there; all, not some, way out there, for they are the elite who direct the awesome power of the U.S. Government, the “fringe on top.” In truth, they represent the extremism which, we are informed daily, is a principal domestic issue, but to which, we are misinformed daily, belongs only the radical Right. Extremists in power, that is the citizens’ concern: and the citizens had better heed the direction of all that power, as revealed in the copious quotes provided by Mr. Evans from the extremists’ own ex officio pronouncements, which insist that our government should be totalized to meet the twin threats of poverty and “the Russians” (who are not totalitarian, it says here). Mr. Evans’ effort is probably the best documentation extant of the rampant nonsense on the New Frontier. T.J. WHEELER

A Primer of Economic Development, by Robert J. Alexander (Macmillan, $5.00). Having amassed a considerable reputation as an “expert” on Latin America through a vast output of material on land reform, industrial relations, politics and government, Professor Alexander now tries his hand at economics, coming up with what he calls “a concise guide to the principles of foreign aid and problems of underdeveloped nations.” Unfortunately, this book is no more than a concise guide to the ideological preferences and biases of Professor Robert J. Alexander. As such, it attempts to make an authoritative low-brow case for extensive government planning, permissive inflation, massive foreign aid and widespread state intervention. While perhaps beguiling the uninformed general reader, it should cause a great many raised eyebrows among more responsible economists in the field. Their suggestion to Alexander would probably be to stick to an area where he is on firmer ground.

The Fringe on Top, by M. Stanton Evans with Allan H. Ryskind and William Schultz (American Features, $2.00). Meet the gang. Meet Professor Galbraith, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Senator Clark. Meet Dean Rusk, Edwin O. Reischauer, John Stewart Service, Owen Lattimore, Arthur Dean, W. W. Rostow, Charles Bohlen, George F. Kennan and William Wieland, all the gang. Some, not all, here; some, not all there; all, not some, way out there, for they are the elite who direct the awesome power of the U.S. Government, the “fringe on top.” In truth, they represent the extremism which, we are informed daily, is a principal domestic issue, but to which, we are misinformed daily, belongs only the radical Right. Extremists in power, that is the citizens’ concern: and the citizens had better heed the direction of all that power, as revealed in the copious quotes provided by Mr. Evans from the extremists’ own ex officio pronouncements, which insist that our government should be totalized to meet the twin threats of poverty and “the Russians” (who are not totalitarian, it says here). Mr. Evans’ effort is probably the best documentation extant of the rampant nonsense on the New Frontier. T.J. WHEELER

A Primer of Economic Development, by Robert J. Alexander (Macmillan, $5.00). Having amassed a considerable reputation as an “expert” on Latin America through a vast output of material on land reform, industrial relations, politics and government, Professor Alexander now tries his hand at economics, coming up with what he calls “a concise guide to the principles of foreign aid and problems of underdeveloped nations.” Unfortunately, this book is no more than a concise guide to the ideological preferences and biases of Professor Robert J. Alexander. As such, it attempts to make an authoritative low-brow case for extensive government planning, permissive inflation, massive foreign aid and widespread state intervention. While perhaps beguiling the uninformed general reader, it should cause a great many raised eyebrows among more responsible economists in the field. Their suggestion to Alexander would probably be to stick to an area where he is on firmer ground.