NAVIGATING THE RAPIDS, 1918-1971: From the Papers of Adolf A. Berle

by Adolf A. Berle ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 11, 1973

The Berle papers will be of enormous value to students of modern American politics and diplomacy. We know him best perhaps for his role as an FDR braintruster and for the many books, especially The Modern Corporation and Private Property in collaboration with Gardiner Means. But this tireless man did so much more. He first taught business at Harvard and then law for many years at Columbia, he served New York City as La Guardia's chief economic administrator, he held the post of Assistant Secretary of State under Cordell Hull, he was Roosevelt's ambassador to Brazil, he headed for a time the New York State Liberal Party, he chaired Kennedy's Task Force on Latin America, he advised Truman and Johnson and Stevenson -- when lie found time to tie his shoelaces or record the ""diary file"" which comprises the bulk of this collection is a puzzlement. Max Ascoli puts it well in the introduction: ""Other passionate men find themselves in trouble for putting all their eggs in one basket, but there never were baskets enough for ali of Berle's eggs."" The obvious point here is that Berle's scope and level of experience and the longevity of his public service render this archive a rich and variegated documentary source. In addition to the diary file (of which only about a fifth is reproduced -- Berle kept it assiduously between 1937 and 1971), there are personal letters, a handwritten diary covering 1923-24, excerpts from his wife Beatrice's diary, and other documents which fill in the earlier years and the first FDR administration. What exactly might we expect from this cache? Not much gossip -- Berle was not a Harold Ickes -- nor any new material which will pull us up short, historically speaking; rather, reams of irresistibly interesting contemporary analysis and speculation, interlaced with the Berle wit and sense of participatory adventure. Just one example, dated September 30, 1938: "". . . the President certainly wanted action. My own idea -- that of translating the Nietzschean Ubermensch into a pacific animal -- was not without a certain charm. After all, if the superman existed by breaking the bonds of convention, why might he not break the bonds of the convention of war. . . . Since it is plain that Hitler is merely playing Nietzschean, we might try to take the philosophical discussion one stage further.

Pub Date: April 11, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION