Hocus-Pocus Liberalis

Now and then a book comes along, of indifferent merit in itself, that has the highest generic interest. It typifies a whole species or family of books; the marks of a phylum are upon it. And the political geneticist scarcely needs to look beyond the biographical blurb on the jacket to know what careful dissection will disclose.

Such a book is A Century of Civil Rights, by Milton R. Konvitz and Theodore Leskes. Dr.Konvitz is a professor of law and labor relations at Cornell, a member of the national legal committee of the NAACP, a trustee of the American Civil Liberties Union, and a member of the Workers’ Defense League. He has held all the respectable fellowships (Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Ford Foundation, and Fund for the Republic). He has written a number of books on civil rights, and is a member of the New York State Advisory Commission on Civil Rights. Mr. Leskes, who takes second billing in the title credits, though his contributions to the book are quite superior to Dr. Konvitz’s contributions, is identified merely as director of the legal division of the American Jewish Committee, and as a participant in civil rights cases before the United States Supreme Court.

JJ

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James Jackson Kilpatrick

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Now and then a book comes along, of indifferent merit in itself, that has the highest generic interest. It typifies a whole species or family of books; the marks of a phylum are upon it. And the political geneticist scarcely needs to look beyond the biographical blurb on the jacket to know what careful dissection will disclose.

Such a book is A Century of Civil Rights, by Milton R. Konvitz and Theodore Leskes. Dr.Konvitz is a professor of law and labor relations at Cornell, a member of the national legal committee of the NAACP, a trustee of the American Civil Liberties Union, and a member of the Workers’ Defense League. He has held all the respectable fellowships (Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Ford Foundation, and Fund for the Republic). He has written a number of books on civil rights, and is a member of the New York State Advisory Commission on Civil Rights. Mr. Leskes, who takes second billing in the title credits, though his contributions to the book are quite superior to Dr. Konvitz’s contributions, is identified merely as director of the legal division of the American Jewish Committee, and as a participant in civil rights cases before the United States Supreme Court.