Books in Brief: Democracy and Communism: Theory and Action

Democracy and Communism: Theory and Action, by Richard V. Allen, Hall Bartlett and Kenneth Colegrove. (Van Nostrand, $6.95). This textbook for highschool students is an outgrowth of the original one written some years ago by Professor Colegrove. Though he is still listed as the third author, most of the current edition is new material written by Richard V. Allen of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, and Hall Bartlett, Professor of Education at C. W. Post College. Their aim is to “set before high school students the basic differences between democracy and Communism,” and while they do explain the American free enterprise system, the bulk of the book dwells on the history, theory and practice of Communism throughout the world. As might be expected with any book that aims for acceptance in large numbers of public schools, the truth sometimes becomes fuzzy, especially in discussions of such topics as “Current American Domestic Concerns,” and for example, on page 35, where we learn that “equality of educational opportunity” and “equality of economic opportunity” are among the “unalienable” rights enunciated by Jefferson. But this is quibbling when one considers the level of sophistication of the audience at which the book is aimed, and the overall soundness of the presentation: as the authors concede, “no Communist would regard this book as impartial.” The authors do not hesitate to write, in regard to Cuba: “The fact that many influential commentators insisted Castro was not a Communist or a Communist sympathizer served to confuse many Americans”—and illustrate their point with a quotation from Herbert Matthews of the New York Times. Considering the present state of the public schools and of popular delusions on the subject, one can’t go much further than that. Grading on the curve, this gets an “A.” D. FRANKE