In Defense of Yesterday : James M . Beck and the Politics Of

As Mr. Keller reminds us in his preface, the past decade is one in which the "conservative heritage" in American life has come into its own. In the last few years, conservatism has ruled in the federal government; it has pervaded the national climate of opinion; it has even acquired champions among intellectuals and college professors. More than this, the revival of conservatism has usefully modified the conventional interpretations of the American past by directing attention to neglected issues and continuities. Thus the conservative tradition itself, Mr. Keller points out, was too long treated as a series of discrete responses to the challenges of reform; in fact, he argues, it has "a political heritage as independent and self-sustaining as the progressive tradition." (p. 9). In essaying a biography of James M. Beck, Mr. Keller himself ably illuminates the strength and limits of American conservatism. Beck was born three months after the bombardment of Fort Sumter; he died six months before Franklin Roosevelt carried all states but two in winning his second term. His lifetime thus spanned the series of economic and political transformations which produced modem America. As a corporation lawyer perennially ambitious for political and public advancement, Beck was for many years near the center where large decisions were taken. He served as Assistant Attorney General under Theodore Roosevelt, as Solicitor General under Taft and as a Pennsylvania congressman under Coolidge, Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. In between, he was a member of leading Philadelphia and New York law firms. A rigid conservative by temperament and doctrine, he provides an excellent case study in the fate of 19th century conservatism in 20th century America. Mr. Keller's biography is based on the Beck papers. It is wellorganized and concisely written; and it presents an orderly and convincing study of Beck's career. It is particularly good in placing Beck in his political and organizational context and in suggesting relationships and patterns in conservative politics, as, for example, when it shows the continuity among such groups as the American Anti-Boycott Association, the National Security League, the Association against the Prohibition Amendment and the American Liberty League. In a similar vein, Mr. Keller astutely notes the leading role of corporation lawyers in the drama of mod"t Mr. Schlesinger, Professor of History at Harvard University and well-known author, war the recipieitt of the Pulitzer Prize for History in. 1945.