Montana labor news., 1939-10-19
BOOK REVIEW
"My America" by Louis Adamic.
Harpers, 1888. $50 pages. $3.50.
Reviewed by RICHARD LAKE

Carniola, has been exploring the
American jungle for a good many
years now; and from time to time
he reports on his findings. Because
he is an immigrant, Adamic has
fewer of those prejudices and pre-
conceptions that guide most of us
in our search for understanding Of
our country. Most of us feel that
there are some things we know
without question. Adamic feels that
he must find out about everything.
1t is not surprising then to find that
in his mind America is a land no
body knows; and that what this
country needs is more Darwins who
will do an objective job of investi-
eating her vast obscurity.
If lot of US are agreed that what
we need is a new definition of
Americanism and a restatement of
what is worth fighting for in our
American heritage, then we owe it
to ourselves to study carefully what
Adamic has to say. It is long and
diffuse; wordy and full of doubts
and qualifications; for this man isn't
content with snap decisions nor
with pat formulas. He is an artist,
anxious to build up a rich and
realistic picture of the America that
has taught him the truths he has
learned; and he is a dynamic thinker
who believes that the truth of a
situation is the living drama of it.
Out of the story of his friend
Cantrell, Adamic develops his work.
ing hypothesis. Cantrell was lead
er in the Socialist movement and
the labor struggles that eliminated
in the Los Angeles dynamiting and
the Mcnamara case of 1901. Out
Of CantrelPs story, Adamic gained
for the first time a sense of a basic
American incongruity that provided
the key to explanation of much that
was confusing in the nations life.
He understood that while America
was politically a democracy, she was
industrially a dictatorship and eco
nomically an oligarchy. And this
incongruity was the source of all
manner of contradictions, hidden
conflicts, social and political per-
versions, neuroticism, and violence
within the country as a whole, with
in groups and institutions, and with
in individuals. It put the country
out of focus"
Armed with the insight provided
by the understanding Of this incon-
gruity, Adamic plunged into his
self-appointed adventure of apply
ing it to the land. His book is the
record of his experiences. 1t is
harder to summarize than a good
novel. The range of Adamic's in
terest and the extent of his activity
are amazing. He knows well and
describes piercingly many of Amer
ica's outstanding persons: John L.
Lewis, Phil LaFollette, Mary Austin,
Harriet Monroe, Upton Sinclair,
Harry Bridges, Sinclair Lewis, Rob-
inson Jeffers. His knowledge of i'm
migration problems, relief, depres-
sions, the labor movement radical
groups, new ideas in social planning
and in education, is intimate and
thorough. The ideas and attitudes
of average people from all social
strata - industrialists, hitchhikers,
shopkeepers-do not escape him.
The fine synthesis that Louis
Adamic brings out of his experience
has mostly to do with the rediscov-
cry of ourselves as Americans. We
need revolution and we need long
slow social planning-not merely vio-
lent upheavals. To achieve these
things we need look no farther for
our plans of action than our own
revolutionary traditions. We need
creative intelligence and courage to
understand our incongruity and cor
rect it. We need to see realistically
the long way to a new society and
we need vision enough to avoid
short cuts. We need to keep out of
war and to keep out of the worlds
wars; and we need to encourage our
own radicalism rather than rely
upon European varieties. We need
to foster what little democracy we
have by vigorous and friendly criti-
cism.
Louis Adamic is no oracle. His
doubts and hesitations sometimes
make his book tedious reading. But
his essential honesty, his refusal to
accept brave-sounding slogans mere
ly for their sound, his zeal for get
ting at the root of things no matter
how it hurts the ego-these are
qualities that make his thought al
ways challenging. No dogmatist, he
does not ask you to agree with him
without reservation; instead he feels
with John A. Rice of Black Noun
tain College that discipleship is the
graveyard of ideas, and that we
must teach people to create rather
than accept.
If you have an idea about America,
compare it with Louis Adamic's.
You will find the comparison mu-
tually Illuminating