Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-17
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THE TRAGIC ERA: The Revolution
After Lincoln. Claude G. Bowers.
Houghton Miffiin Co.
/. C.. NJ.

AIJer Lincoln. Claude G, Bowers.
Houghton Miffiin Co.
Jefferson and Hamilton" and "The
Party Battles OF the Jackson Period
both came into an immediate recogni-
ton and welcome, an appreciation that
has spread and deepened markedly upon
better acquaintance.
Here was something new, or so 1t
seemed, in the historical attitude.
Domestic history, therefore, prompter
In Its seizure of the American mind,
closer In its grip. than a more remote
consideration could have secured.
Current, too, q perennial motif run
ming along with the present toward q
widening and even more deeply sig
ni1icant future. as Justify alive as when
it set out with the founding OF the
new Nation something like a century
and half ago.
Such the basic elements upon which
this writer has built. But it is, after
all, the manner of the building, the
way OF the man himself, that has cleo
trified thread of American history
to great network Of immediate con-
facts and communications.
Claude Bowers has chosen to be an
expert in history, a specialist In the
tWo-pArty system that has, so far been
the instrument Of political achievement
in the United States. He has become
a scholar in this field, a trained ex-
positor OF the system in its purposes.
its powers, its points Of divergence, its
adaptations to changing conditions, its
achievements along the way. But he
has brought even more than this into
the service OF demonstration and illu-
mination. He has brought himself. A
man of truly enviable industrw, stu
dent Of exacting standards, a story
teller and a journalist of highly dra-
matte powers. And here he goes
for facts, for every manner OF
fact bearing upon the history Of the
two-party system and upon the men
who. now on this side and now on that.
embodied the system as an Instrument
of American expansion In its vision of
freedom, in its ideals Of democracy.
Musty Official records, forgotten docu-
ments, old newspapers, books, letters,
even hearsay tracked down to its kernel
of possible truth-al quarry for this
man. An overload Of
matter. Then came the systematic
digging out from under this top-weight
of notwithstanding, testing. throw
ing away there. holding fast here, set
ting in order. Then only art came into
play, the art Of the story teller giving
IOIOk SlObEHiCiL, OuoPCkloC dii0
climax to the grave business of building
up vital part of the history of the
country. And SO there have come to
hand these two volumes of history,
reading like adventure, looking like
as they emerge-authentic,
contributory to the history
Of this day as they were true construc-
tive elements in their own day. Vivid
as the morning, these stories bear the
reader along. partaker in the activities
Of the men of both parties, those who
rnent OF our national growth by way OF
the laws and rules Of Government.
Overenthusiastic? Well, perhaps,
though think not. You must grant
that it is exciting to come wide awake
all at once. ready to go, to get into the
movement of important
events where, hitherto, one has been
East asleep under the dreary business
of technical historic treatment, or, worse
yet. under the blight of the familiar
history. You will wake up,
100, when you reach these two studies in
history produced by the journalist,
man Of greatly important period of
American history.
-
hilo al ldSI, We are WIFI 1Ilc
Tragic Era" Claude Bowers again.
once more out into his chosen
field. American politics, this time for
the period Immediately following the
Civil War. The account reaches from
the assassination of Lincoln to the con-
tested election of Rutherford B. Hayes.
Its high point Is the struggle of factions
In Congress to seize, in effect, the full
powers Of Government through sys-
tematic overriding of the executive
right of veto. The climax of this strug-
gle is embodied in the Impeachment
against Andrew johnson.
Here you will find the untiring re-
search man digging into ever manner
of authentic source for material. You
will find every page documented with
references Of true record. You will
meet, if this were possible, an even
greater gusto of statement, more
dramatic seizure of the period, deep
ening Of the colors Of national gloom
and Of the tragic tones of national
disaster. Naturally, you will meet all
this, since the man is an artist and
a dramatist with truly epic theme in
his hands for shaping and projecting.
One reads every word Of this Tragic
Era" ia an excitement indescribable.
Horrible moments, terrifying pauSes of
sequence, to be followed by even more
violent outbursts of injustice and in
fanny. Such is, in the main, the effect
of The Tragic Era"
Coming to in a measure one asks
himself, rs this history? Is it in any
true sense proper material of hiStory?"
What Is its value as either precept or
warning? Here is moment when man,
collective man. reverts to the brute that
is still clearly inherent In mankind.
Wars, unfailingly, result in such re-
versions-temporary, to be sure, but
that would excite only horror
in times of peace, become plausible
measures of reconstruction" as the
immediate aftermath of war. Such was
the case 10 years ago. Such was the
case go years ago. Such will be the
case 10,000,000 years from now If war
continues to hold man down to his
brutal origins. No, this Is not history
nor is it proper material for history.
Rather may it be the concern of the
specialist in lunacy, of the expert in
those cases Of dementia that lead to
homicide. This subject belongs to the
collective madness that follows war,
that is, indeed. a part of war itself.
Work for the psychiatrist, this, not for
the historian. Yet, since this Is his
tory, or poses as such, let us look at
it a minute. The war is over. Lincoln
is dead. The extremists from the North
are fatuously fierce for Negro emanci-
patton, for seizure Of Southern property,
for every other imaginable form of
treatment toward the de-
feated South.
That is a perfectly natural position
for the extremists to take. They always
do. If the South had been victorious,
measures of purely brutal
behavior would have been instituted by
it. No getting away from that, since
both tribes, Northern and Southern,
were of the man tribe. Such brutali-
ties have followed every war. The con-
ouering animal Is q brute in the main.
This we know to be true, and it stands
true in this case However, there was a
leaven of sanity left after the war, else
the ultimate outcome could not have
been that which it has been. This is