Revtews 95

A reading of the book suggests that some in the FBI do not understand librarianship and the mission of universities. Apparently, some FBI agents are unfamiliar with (or misinterpret) govern- ment administered depository library programs and the information dissemination program of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) (see pages 85, 89-94). These agents would probably be surprised to learn that both the Superintendent of Documents and NTIS participate in legally mandated international programs for the exchange of publications.

Foerstel. a librarian at the University of Maryland and opponent of the FBI’s program, draws on published literature, his experiences and those of fellow librarians, declassified material, statements of members of Congress, and personal correspondence. He uses this source material effectively when recounting what is known about the program. He is at his weakest when discussing counterintelligence in general, export control law and regulations. and the attempts of the Reagan administ~tion to control the release of scientific and technical information and to privatize NTIS.

The book ends abruptly without addressing information policy issues and what can be done, other than merely strengthening First Amendment rights, privacy and confidentiality laws, and the Freedom of lnfor~ti~~n Act. Clearly, Foerstel adopts a narrow perspective on information policy and fails to see ways to “pressure” the FBI and an administr~ti~~n. He might have added a chapter in which he speculates about the Future and the implications, if any, of change in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc.

Hearings published in 1989 and cited in the book' reprint some key primary source material. Foerstel. in effect. builds on this material and adds his perspective. Nonetheless, these hearings provide a chronology of events that would benefit some readers of Sur\~ei//unce in the Stacks. There should have been an appendix that chronicles the program from its beginnings in the 1970s. He might also have reprinted some key documents, including executive orders. so that readers could draw their own conclusions. Despite the inability of the author to place the program effectively within a larger policy context, this reviewer recommends Surveillunce in the Srucks. Nonetheless. there still remains a story to tell.

NOTE

I. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights. FBI

Cortntr,rirli~//i$~~~~ Visirs IO Libraries (Washington, DC: GPO. 1989).

*Peter Hrrnon is Professor. Simmons College, 300 The Fenwey. Boston. Massachusetts 021 15

Theodore Roosevelt and the Rhetoric of Militant Decency By Robert V. Friedenberg. (Great American Orators, Number 9). New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. xviii. 209 pp.. $42.95 (hardcover). ISBN O-3 13-26448 1. LC 90-3648.

Reviewed by Tom Howard.*

Theodore Roosevelt continues to be a regular subject of scholarly appraisal. Professor Friedenberg joins the parade with a study of TR’s oratory. The book identifies and examines “five basic themes that undergird his speaking” and “constitute the basis of Roosevelt’s beliefs that William Allen White so aptly characterized as militant decency” (p. 17). These themes are power, order, work, social responsibility, and character. They are discussed in terms of foreign policy. civic virtue, and progressive reform.

The publisher’s blurb should not have promised a linkage of TR’s oratory to classical rhetoric- Professor Friedenberg nowhere addresses that topic. The critical analysis runs only 99 pages. It is followed by the texts of six of Roosevelt’s best-known speeches, a “chronology of speeches” that

96 GOVERNMENT INFORMATION QUARTERLY Vol. Y/No. l/l’)92

covers some 1,685 addresses from 1882 through 1918, a bibliography, and a brief index. The publishers justifiably point out the potential usefulness of the chronology of speeches-it is certainly a most welcome publication of raw data.

Friedenberg depends heavily upon particular secondary studies for the framework in which he places Roosevelt’s oratory; students of TR may find their opinion of this book’s arguments rising or falling according to their attitudes towards those earlier works, all of which arc highly favorable. Friedenberg unquestioningly accepts Roosevelt as “progressive.” (The capitalization of that word is inconsistent; it is impossible to tell if he means with a small or a big “p,” or both.) He asserts that Roosevelt was on the cutting edge of the quest for racial justice. and that he was. at least by the standards of the day, something of a feminist. The scholarly debate over TR’s racial attitudes will no doubt continue, but the claim that women and their rights had in him a particular friend seems forced, to say the least.

The reviewer is in no position to know where (writing, editing, typesetting, or proofreading) to lay the blame for some star-tingly bad prose-“Three Rooseveltian characteristics informed on his speaking” (p. 15). But none of the unfelicitous phrasing nor any of the numerous mechanical errors seriously impair the author’s ability to communicate his theses. Still. they force the reader to work harder to extract Friedenberg’s ideas from the text, and they do not reflect well upon anyone involved in the publication process.

That Friedenberg successfully communicates his themes does not make this work necessarily worth purchasing. The already-scant 99 pages of text are actually inflated-the repetitious nature of the chapter conclusions makes them little more than restatements of the introductions. And that the book succeeds in demonstrating that TR used his oratory to express a coherent and developing-over- time political philosophy does not overcome the problem that this philosophy was both simple and simplistic, in the judgment of the reviewer. This is not Friedenberg’s fault. to be sure. Ncvcrthcless. it adds to the feeling that this subject is not properly suited to book-length trcatmcnt. Specialists in

Theodore Roosevelt or political oratory may want to own this volume: all others would at most want to borrow it from a library.

*Tom Howard. P.O. Box 596. EarlwIle. Near York 13332

News in the Mail: The Press, Post Office, and Public Information, 1700-1860s. By Richard B. Kielbowiscz. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 1989. 221~. 9‘39.95. ISBN O-313-26638-7. LC

89-l 1859.

Reviewed by John A. ShuleP

Taking the approach that the medium influences the message, Richard Kielbowiscz crafts a careful analysis of 18th and 19th century Federal postal policies influences on the “free” flow of information in America. However. Kielbowiscz’s definition of public information is bound more by format and medium than policy:

Before the advent of the telegraph, the postal system afforded the only widespread and regular means of transmitting public information-newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, books and circulars-throughout the sprawling developing United States. Government intelligence, political news. reformer’s propaganda. religious doctrines. market data, cultural fare, and simple diversions-these and much more were found on the pages of newspapers, magazines. and pamphlets carried by the post (p. I).

He outlines how these two rapidly evolving national institutions. the public post and the private press. became inextricably linked agents of public communication. The Federal government offered