Evening star., 1932-10-11
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
1. G.. NJ.

Nineteenth Century. New York.
Doubleday. Doran q Co.
A mans measure Is his own day.
What have been the weathers Of his
particular hour? What have they
brought Of benefits to be received and
bettered? What Of disaster to be
averted. or met? What has been his
life?
BY good chance, the prevailing winds
of life have been fair ones. And, lat
terly at least. the bulk Of days has
gone into the arts Of peace. Industry.
business, eduction, culture whatnot.
But now and then life goes on ram
page. Maybe, nature giving hint of its
true mastery in food and quake and
tempest. Maybe. man himself. revert
ing once again, openly, to his native
savagery Of blood lust and slaughter.
At this crisis or that one a man OF
action emerges. Instantly his own age
proceeds to take his measure and to
fit his apparel for the wear and tear
not only Of these passing days, but of
an exacting and critical future as well.
y
BY way Of Hoover, and His Times"
Edwin Emerson sets up a new claim
for history and offers a fresh method
for its study.
Current events, so the author main
tains, are history itself, no less than
are the most ancient of recordings, no
less than those nearer ones also that
sufflciently remote, have received the
historians accolade OF death and de-
cay. Today Is history as well as the
first day is.
And the fresh method? Very simple
sane and quite logical. Set of with
today in the pursuit Of any series OF
events, any period of momentous activ-
ity. At this point alone Is interest
spontaneous and keen. At this point
alone Is a readers sense of partaking
alive and productive. At this point
alone are means of learning. fresh and
reliable. The press, books in abun-
dance, the spoken word of informed
and impartial students. All at hand
The road OF history Is a backward
leading road, from the known present
to the unknown past. A way leading
into distance and obscurity, but lighted
now by the cleaning flares of current
knowledge and clear interpretations.
Many are laggard about giving well
come to this manner Of studying life at
one or another Of its salient points. II
Is, to many, an upsetting way. It In
terferes with beginnings and Sc
quences." Chiefly it disturbs habit and
routine. Yet, it is merely shift, SET
ting out with the immediacies of which
one Is a part, not cropping forward from
dark and forgotten pasts.
Good company these lettering school
men would have did they once face
about in this matter of learning his
tory. Darwin. Pascal, Francis Bacon
and many another adventurer of the
mind to keep them in good face.
To step into a slowly receding past
out OF a vivid and vital present for
likenesses and differences, for causes
and influences, for a clearing I'D OF
that past by the bright light of the
present-that, says many a wise man
Is the true study Of history.
In support of his own theory Mr.
Emerson has written "A History Of the
Nineteenth Century" In further SUP
port OF 1t he here offers Hoover. and
His Times" The history of a period
whose fruition covers less than one
presidential administration.
1t rained early in the afternoon of
that clustering Monday in March, 1929
when Herbert Hoover took the oath as
thlrty-flrst President of the United
States"
So the record begins. 1t continues
Dy way OF specific amplification of tine
Times through whose vicissitudes this
man became the President. We know
we were part OF 1t, are part of it. We
go along In sharpened recollections of
less, general and personal, of griefs nro-
found and ineracicable, Of hunger and
suffering in war-fought Europe, of reyo-
iutlon and famine in Russia, OF turmoil
In the Far East, Of immediate unemplov-
ment, OF unrest and resentment. An al
most terrifying picture. its spread world
wloe. the past few years offer. These
nurriedly seized, are the Times" by
Wnlch the leaders are to be measured. b.
Whlch, specifically, Mr. Hoover is a.,
present being measured.
mans measure is his own day. Bu,
tnls author is sane man, as we'll as q
Scnolarly and waywise one. Therefore
ne attempts to measure no human
summarlly, by the urgencies and de-
mands OF it. Besides. estimates are MT
yet due, not yet possible.
Mr.: Emerson's study points out the
road by way Of which Herbert Hoover he
came PRESIDENT of the United States. An
issue that demolished precedent bJ
plac.ng business man in the White
Rouse, wnere, as rule, only the states
man, or the politician, could hope fol
tenancy. But here. beyond question
was a crisis not fitted to purely poIiti-
cai TOOLS OF settlement. The world it.
sen was going business, becoming eco-
nomlc IN its aims and necessities. more
certainly than it was showing any other
olrectlon. Moreover, it was drawing to-
getner into something like a neighbor-
hooo, where before it had been OF
clearly separate and independent, parts
only man with eyesight strong for
world vision would do.
Mr.. Emerson takes us through this
training of Herbert Hoover for-cer.
tainly not for the exalted office te
which he succeeded - but instead
through the training of contact with
all parts OF the world where great ven.
lures were to be carried through. Busi.
ness ventures in China, philanthropiC
activities in Belgium and Russia. Biz
tnlngs, always big things, fell to thi:
mans hand. And always were these
met, SO the story runs, in an ADEQUATE
seizure, IN capable and productive
issue. Here is picture of Mr.. Hoover
as Secretary of Commerce, examining
the United States in both its domestic
ana foreign trade relations. Consulting
invariably, with competent industrial.
lists. Slipping, naturally, from this point
into the labor side of industry. com.
bining, correlating, building upon 8
basis OF fact and assimilated knowledge
toward the great economic future o.
this country, where both sides of tn,
labor game. the worker side and tn,
employer side, receive the attention
due in equal measure to both. Rather
an odd picture, this one Of a bushes.
man doing business, when tradition ex.
poets craftsmanship from the head Of
the country. Simple, after all. Since
the country itself has shifted from poll.
tics to industry as its prime preoccupa.
tion. For these pictures. straight ant
simple stories, but intimate and absorb
ing as well. a very human man sits
Sometimes, late in this accounting, tn,
Quaker parents appear. and earliel
origins have occasional place. But. il
the main, this is a portrayal Of Herber
Hoover himself in the midst of sucl
trying times as. carefully weighed. M
head Of this country has ever befor,
been required to meet. A war? Oh
yes. panics? To be sure Other ma