Ohio History Journal

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BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

 

Men of Good Hope: A Story of American Progressives. By Daniel Aaron.

(New York, Oxford University Press, 1951. xiv+321p. $4.00.)

Men of Good Hope is a sympathetic but considered analysis of the social

philosophies of nine men whom the author believes have shaped or ex-

pressed progressive thought in America: Emerson, Theodore Parker, Henry

George, Edward Bellamy, Henry Demarest Lloyd, William Dean Howells,

and Thorstein Veblen-"precursors" and "prophetic agitators"-and Theo-

dore Roosevelt and Brooks Adams, latter day "pseudo progressives."

Anyone interested in the subject will inevitably be disappointed to dis-

cover persons he regards as champions of progressivism absent from Mr.

Aaron's list. Perhaps the omissions should be construed as a tribute to the

richness of our liberal tradition rather than as a criticism of this particular

book. Actually the coverage of Men of Good Hope is not as limited as the

table of contents would indicate, for the author makes a good deal more

than passing reference to many individuals such as Thoreau and Wendell

Phillips in addition to those he has singled out for intensive study.

It is unfortunate the book opens with a weak chapter. The author

makes the point that Emerson, the subject of his initial essay, was a "protean

figure" whose social and political views were often contradictory. Con-

sequently, he observes, it is almost impossible to write about Emerson's social

philosophy without frequent apologies and qualifications. Granted the dif-

ficulty of the task, Mr. Aaron's selection and organization of material does

little to advance his thesis that Emerson was a perfect representative of

progressivism. He may well have been, but this chapter does not prove the

point.

The rest of the book is much more satisfactory, the most rewarding por-

tions being the essays on Parker, George, Bellamy, Lloyd, Howells, and

Veblen. These chapters are written with understanding and assurance and

they give the reader insight into the thought of the men discussed as well as

revealing glimpses of their personalities and times. Mr. Aaron sees the same

argument running through the sermons of Parker, the prose-poem of George,

the sociological romances of Bellamy, the fact-studded tracts of Lloyd, the

realistic novels of Howells, and the academic monographs of Veblen: eco-

nomic and ethical considerations cannot be separated from one another. To

the author, this conviction is one of the earmarks of the Progressive.

In view of Aaron's emphasis upon the idealistic content of progressivism,

it is not surprising that he is rather critical of Theodore Roosevelt. He

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