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From his first days of government service in 1934 to his final hours as United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai E. Stevenson stood out as an uncommon man in this nation's history. Today, years after his death, there exists a unique interest in Stevenson as a special personality on the American political scene. Millions still remember him as the individual who struck in them the sparks of political consciousness and awareness. In Adlai Stevenson, Patrician Among the Politicians, Bert Cochran gives a superb analysis and interpretation of Adlai Stevenson, the man and the public figure. By weaving historic events. class formations, social theories, conflicts among nations, and the play of individuals into an integrated design, the author reveals the character of Stevenson in all its sharpness and distinction. We see not only the human being, but an entire era, and we grasp the social forces and the clash of interests and ideas that affected both. Disconnected events fall into place and 'reveal Stevenson's specific place in three turbulent decades. Adlai Stevenson, Patrician Among the Politicians is biography on the grand scale. It presents the whole man, warts and all, while bringing to life a segment of our national history and its immediate bearing on the critical events of our own times, and tracing the flow of events from one decade to the next. The initial discussions of the American political dilemma and the role of the Upper-Class Man in our history, together with the concluding essay on the Intellectuals in the Cold War, complete an unforgettable biography that one reviewer has called "really a book and a half." |
