Transatlantic Russell

Abstract

Reviews Transatlantic Russell by Nicholas Griffin Bertrand Russell's America, vol. II: 1945-1970; A Documented Account. By Barry Feinberg and Ronald Kasrils. Boston: South End Press, 1983; London: George Allen & Unwin, 1985. Pp. xii, 423. lIlus. US$25.o0 and $10.00 (paper); £14.95. TEN YEARS AFTER the first volume was published by Allen and Unwin, Barry Feinberg and Ronald Kasrils have brought out the second volume of their chronicle of Russell's multifarious relations with the USA. This long delay, apparently, was no fault of the authors'. Despite the fact that the first volume covers fifty years to the second's twenty-five, and that Russell's interests in the USA during the earlier period were a good deal more various (including a long period of residence), the second volume is longer than the first. This indicates, first, the fulness of documentary record for the last years of Russell's life; second, the extent of Russell's political concern with America during the bellum americanum; and, third, the political interests of the authors. For this volume, even more than the first, is a political record. On the personal side, for these years, there is much less to tell: no extended periods of residence, and only two lecture tours (in 1950 and 1951). Both tours are described in some detail-the authors relying for personal details on Julie Medlock's regrettably still unpublished memoir. Medlock's task as a publicist for the first tour was made easier by the fact that Russell's Nobel prize was announced in the course of the tour. On the second tour, during five days in New York, Russell took part in a three-day forum organized by the New York Herald Tribune, taped five CBS broadcasts, spoke at Columbia University and attended many receptions: not a bad performance at seventy-nine. Unfortunately, we don't get many details, beyond the occasional title, of Russell's many talks at universities and colleges during these tours. Many of these talks were political, but a number were philosophical. For example, the original purpose of his first tour was to give a short philosophy course at 72 Transatlantic Russell 73 Mount Holyoke College. It's unfortunate that we don't learn more, even at an anecdotal level, of his classes. Material newly acquired by the Russell Archives can fill this out. There is less, also, in this volume ofcommentary on American life and mores. Only a couple ofthe articles reprinted in Part II fall into this (quite extensive) genre of Russell's writings: a review of Albert Ellis's The Folklore ofSex (1951) and an article from the New York Times Magazine for 1952 headed "The American Way ... is Dour". Two more, "The American Mentality" and "Political and Cultural Influence of U.S.A." (both of 1949), border on the genre, but both have a political subtext: the improvement of political relations between Britain and the USA. In the first pair of articles Russell is mainly concerned to deplore the small role ofimpulsein American life, which becomes dour in consequence. Where the impulse exists it is, of course, thwarted, especially in large organizations : "The more energetic you are and the more vision you have, the more you will suffer from the impossibility ofdoing any ofthe things that you feel ought to be done" for "you will find yourself invariably under the orders of some big man at the top who is elderly, weary and cynical" (p. 336). Ofcourse, it is a mistake to write as ifsuch things happen only in the uSA-each of us could, after all, cite at least one such example from north of the border. Some of his other commentary applies across the border as well. For example, his comparison of the "large and airy" offices of university administrators with "the holes and corners in which the professors are housed" (p. 24). This eternal verity ofNorth American academic life is mentioned in illustration of the power and prestige of business in American universities: " ... when I was invited to dinner ifmy host wished to do me honour he invited me to meet business men rather than professors, on the ground that they stand higher...