Liberty, Justice, Order: Essays on Past Politics

Can politics and government foster social justice and economic equality in American society? That question animates this collection of 13 thoughtful essays and reviews written during the last 45 years for such publications as the New Republic and Yale Review . Blum, a Yale professor of history emeritus and author of such books as V Was for Victory , presents Franklin Roosevelt as a reformer who wanted to enlarge the middle class while preserving the corporation as an engine of capitalism. He praises the record of the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren but exposes flaws in its decisions that opened a door to future modifications by conservatives. There are surprising portraits of Woodrow Wilson as a self-styled interpreter of God's will; FDR's vice president, Henry Wallace, as a friend of workers, an internationalist and an austere moralist; poet/essayist Archibald MacLeish as an apostle of liberal democracy, ethnic pluralism and art in the service of activism. These essays are especially interesting for the historical context and political past in the light of which they view America's current social problems. (Oct.)