Gordy : Political Parties in U)iitcd States 393 Here are three books with practically the same title and dealing with the same general subject. They are, however, quite unlike, because the writers have set themselves different aims, have adopted different meth- ods of treatment, and have had widely different standards of workman- ship. Two of the writers are professors in western colleges ; the third is a retired congressman. I had hoped to find in Mr. Hopkins's book, written as it is by a man who has had the advantage of contact with large affairs, the human touch too often wanting in books about American politics written under aca- demic influences. But his treatise can scarcely be considered a serious contribution to political history. The text is little more than a running account of national elections from the beginning down to the present time, interspersed with brief and unedifying references to well-known events which are supposed to have affected parties and candidates. There is no evidence of research, no illuminating discussion, no skill in arrangement, no charm of narrative. His comments on public men are very much in the style of congressional eulogies. Jefferson, whose de- parture from Washington in 1809 was anything but triumphal, retired, according to Mr. Hopkins, "crowned with honors and happy in the prosperity of his country." Andrew Jackson's achievement at New Orleans is magnified by doubling the strength of Pakenham's army. It is asserted without qualification that the financial disturbance following Jackson's removal of the deposits was " an artificial panic, started by the brokers and agents of the banks and hostile politicians." Throughout, party platforms and similar utterances are accepted at their face value ; there is no attempt whatever to go behind them to determine what par- ties have actually stood for. An appendix — nearly half the book — gives in full all the platforms adopted by national conventions. Of Professor Gordy and Professor Macy it may be said that both have taken their subject seriously, both have written candidly and without ap- parent inclination to arraign or to defend any party organization. Pro- fessor Gordy' s book is the second edition, somewhat revised, of the first of four volumes in which he proposes to cover the whole field of our political history. It brings the narrative down to the end of Jackson's administration. Treating with much care and in considerable detail the formation of the Constitution, the great constructive measures of the early congresses, and the foreign and international difficulties of the new government, the work is really more than a history of parties. A more accurate title would be " A History of Government in the United States, with Special References to Party Controversies." Professor Macy's narrative is confined to the period from 1846 to 1861 ; but he gives more space to general discussion, to the philosophy of the subject, than Pro- fessor Gordy. Perhaps the latter will in a future volume give us more at length the general views which in his close study of specific controversies he has not, as yet, found occasion fully to set forth. In truth, however, it is no light undertaking to interpret in any broad way the history of American politics. One finds it easier and safer to
