Books in Brief

Goals for Americans, The Report of the Presidents Commission on National Goals, by Henry M. Wriston et al. (Prentice-Hall, $3.50). It is possible to read the decline of American principle in the permutations of American rhetoric. Where once our statesmen spoke of liberty and individual vigor, current discourse is burdened with “public sectors” and “national purposes.” In trying to combine the old and the new, this collation of essays and legislative proposals is notably unsuccessful. It unblushingly invokes freedom to support government intervention, American interests to sanction foreign surrenders. The contradictions are unavoidable, for the commission made the mistake of beginning its effort with a discussion of first principles. And the clearest fact to emerge from the discussion is that, in America, government is empowered to establish “goals” for no one. m. s. evans

The Story of Mount Washington, by F. Allen Burt (Dartmouth Publications, $6.50). Although Mount Washington is not very high (6,288 feet), it is still the highest mountain in New England and one of the highest east of the Mississippi. Also it has a respectable colonial history, for it was first climbed by Darby Field in 1642 (for reasons unknown) long before most American mountains were even discovered. People began to climb it with some regularity in the next century and they have been climbing it ever since. In our day 50,000 get to the top annually either by the delightfully archaic cog railroad, or by the carriage road, or self-propelled. Yet in spite of all that commuting and in spite of a lunch bar with coffee and hot dogs at the summit, the mountain isn’t spoiled. It might be, but it isn’t. And anyone who climbs it by way of Boott Spur or Lion Head can still feel pleased with himself. Despite lunch bar, weather observatory, radio tower and assorted buildings, Washington is not a mountain to be taken lightly. Thirty-three have died on it, the last three only three years ago. These casualites are all listed in the appendix of F. Allen Burt’s en-

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Goals for Americans, The Report of the Presidents Commission on National Goals, by Henry M. Wriston et al. (Prentice-Hall, $3.50). It is possible to read the decline of American principle in the permutations of American rhetoric. Where once our statesmen spoke of liberty and individual vigor, current discourse is burdened with “public sectors” and “national purposes.” In trying to combine the old and the new, this collation of essays and legislative proposals is notably unsuccessful. It unblushingly invokes freedom to support government intervention, American interests to sanction foreign surrenders. The contradictions are unavoidable, for the commission made the mistake of beginning its effort with a discussion of first principles. And the clearest fact to emerge from the discussion is that, in America, government is empowered to establish “goals” for no one. m. s. evans

The Story of Mount Washington, by F. Allen Burt (Dartmouth Publications, $6.50). Although Mount Washington is not very high (6,288 feet), it is still the highest mountain in New England and one of the highest east of the Mississippi. Also it has a respectable colonial history, for it was first climbed by Darby Field in 1642 (for reasons unknown) long before most American mountains were even discovered. People began to climb it with some regularity in the next century and they have been climbing it ever since. In our day 50,000 get to the top annually either by the delightfully archaic cog railroad, or by the carriage road, or self-propelled. Yet in spite of all that commuting and in spite of a lunch bar with coffee and hot dogs at the summit, the mountain isn’t spoiled. It might be, but it isn’t. And anyone who climbs it by way of Boott Spur or Lion Head can still feel pleased with himself. Despite lunch bar, weather observatory, radio tower and assorted buildings, Washington is not a mountain to be taken lightly. Thirty-three have died on it, the last three only three years ago. These casualites are all listed in the appendix of F. Allen Burt’s en-