Word: free
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...epic sort: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado . . . Kansas, Kentucky and Maine . . . Nebraska, Ohio, the Dakotas . . . Vermont and Wisconsin and Wyoming. The voices from the floor were rich with the flavor of the broad land. They spoke with local pride: Georgia, the empire state of the South . . . the great, free state of Maryland . . . Virginia, the cradle of democracy . . . Hawaii, standing on the threshold of statehood...
...Smoke. The corridor outside became a shambles of broken glasses and beer bottles. Reporters squatted or sprawled in complete exhaustion. Drawn by news of free drinks, swarms of drunks and doxies mobbed the celebrities as they emerged, asked silly and insulting questions...
...Laski's book is both a general political history of the U.S. and a detailed analysis of American professions, trades, culture and state and federal governments. Every aspect of American life is judged from the standpoint of the militant, orthodox socialist who believes that government planning must replace free enterprise as the cornerstone of democratic life. A dependence on stock socialist phrases thus flaws many parts of the book. The American Democracy, for all its numerous flashes of donnish wit, is also windily repetitive, and some times dated in its judgment...
Respected Villain. Laski insists that he has written this book "out of deep love of America." He admits that the businessman's energy, skill and audacious vitality are (like the qualities of the best U.S. newsmen) "unsurpassed." He even concedes that the big businessman's faith in free enterprise is shared by such a large number of lesser U.S. citizens that labor has not even been able to build a political party worth the name. Therefore a successful anti-capitalist revolt is impossible unless the U.S. businessman is willing to lend a hand in arranging his own execution...
...more Laski indulges his distaste for the American businessman, the more reckless he grows in boosting the merits of a collective economy and in minimizing its dangers. His bland references to the U.S.S.R. as "the great experiment" which threatens free enterprise with "successful socialism" are likely to chill the spines of many who otherwise might hear his opinions with respect...