Books in Brief: A Hero in Spite of Himself

A Hero in Spite of Himself: Brand Whitlock in Art, Politics and War, by Robert M. Crunden (Knopf, 479 pp., $8.95). The author of The Mind and Art of Albert Jay Nock (1964) now turns to the career of one of America’s truly gentle souls, Brand Whitlock. Born in Ohio in 1869, Whitlock grew to manhood in the school of politics exemplified by John P. Altgeld of Illinois and Mayor “Golden Rule” Jones of Toledo. Professor Crunden’s skillful analysis provides a needed corrective to the “status revolution” thesis of the late Richard Hofstadter and to several other theses of Progressivism as well. Whitlock’s Progressivism, Crunden writes, derived from his religious vision of the world. In 1905, Whitlock became mayor of Toledo, where his reformist administration and avuncular relationship to his constituents made him one of the most beloved political leaders in modern American history. He also worked with Theodore Schroeder, Lincoln Steffens, Leonard Abbott and other libertarians in Schroeder’s Free Speech League. Then he served as Woodrow Wilson’s minister to Belgium during the War, becoming a hero to the Belgians during the German occupation. A Brussels boulevard which continued the Boulevard St. Michel was named after him following the War. One day, a child said to his mother: “Why must we always walk along the Boulevard St. Michel? Why can’t we go down the Boulevard St. Whitlock?” Reformist politician, novelist and statesman, Whitlock had his faults, as Crunden honestly shows. “Saints frequently have faults, but surely all of them are intermediaries between the world’s suffering people and their fate.” Thus Dr. Crunden concludes his superb exercise in American biography.

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D. J. C. Brudnoy

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A Hero in Spite of Himself: Brand Whitlock in Art, Politics and War, by Robert M. Crunden (Knopf, 479 pp., $8.95). The author of The Mind and Art of Albert Jay Nock (1964) now turns to the career of one of America’s truly gentle souls, Brand Whitlock. Born in Ohio in 1869, Whitlock grew to manhood in the school of politics exemplified by John P. Altgeld of Illinois and Mayor “Golden Rule” Jones of Toledo. Professor Crunden’s skillful analysis provides a needed corrective to the “status revolution” thesis of the late Richard Hofstadter and to several other theses of Progressivism as well. Whitlock’s Progressivism, Crunden writes, derived from his religious vision of the world. In 1905, Whitlock became mayor of Toledo, where his reformist administration and avuncular relationship to his constituents made him one of the most beloved political leaders in modern American history. He also worked with Theodore Schroeder, Lincoln Steffens, Leonard Abbott and other libertarians in Schroeder’s Free Speech League. Then he served as Woodrow Wilson’s minister to Belgium during the War, becoming a hero to the Belgians during the German occupation. A Brussels boulevard which continued the Boulevard St. Michel was named after him following the War. One day, a child said to his mother: “Why must we always walk along the Boulevard St. Michel? Why can’t we go down the Boulevard St. Whitlock?” Reformist politician, novelist and statesman, Whitlock had his faults, as Crunden honestly shows. “Saints frequently have faults, but surely all of them are intermediaries between the world’s suffering people and their fate.” Thus Dr. Crunden concludes his superb exercise in American biography.