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Report on Conservatism 
The American Right Wing. By Ralph E. 

Ellsworth and Sarah M. Harris. (Occasional 
Papers, number 59) Urbana: University of 
Illinois Graduate School of Library Sci-
ence, 1960. 50p. $1.00. 

Subtitled "A Report to the Fund for the 
Republic, Inc.," The American Right Wing 
presents a survey, of greater breadth than 
depth, of the literature of conservatism dur-
ing the middle years of the last decade. Ow-
ing to the death of Miss Harris in 1959, the 
study has not been carried beyond 1958. 
Consequently, it does not discuss the sup-
posed revitalization of conservatism which 
followed the reelection in that year of Sena-
tor Goldwater, and which came to light in 
the sharpened conflict within the Republican 
Party, in the widely publicized new wave of 
conservatism among university undergrad-
uates, and in the fuss over the John Birch 
Society. Nor do the authors intend to pro-
vide a history of Right Wing movements or 
a full exposition of Right Wing philosophies. 

T h e authors do provide a high-spirited 
dash through a wilderness of rightist organ-
izations, publications, and spokesmen, and 
enliven some occasionally dreary conserva-
tive strictures with wry observations of their 
own. No semblance of pale neutrality will 
be found in the body of the report, for their 
attitudes, ranging from amusement to con-
tempt, are evident throughout, in spite of 
what seems to be a protestation of impar-
tiality among Mr. Ellsworth's scholarly dis-
claimers in the Preface. 

Rightist groups and publications are 
treated in turn according to certain clusters 
of ideas. These ideas are overwhelmingly 
negative in tone: the Right Wing is anti-
Communist, anti-union, anti-integrationist, 
and sometimes anti-Semitic; it is opposed to 
progressive education, liberalized immigra-
tion, foreign aid, the Supreme Court, and the 
United Nations; and it is especially cogni-
zant of the many threatening features of a 
strong and active federal government. T h e 

Right Wing favors decentralized government, 
individualism, and Chiang Kai-shek. 

Among the diverse bodies mentioned in 
the report may be found such "moderate" 
groups as the medical and bar associations 
which defend the status quo insofar as their 
special interests are affected, together widi 
such extreme examples of the psychotic right 
as the Christian Nationalists and the Anglo-
Israelites. T h e reader is rightly warned, in 
both text and notes, to beware imputing the 
notions of a few groups to all the organiza-
tions cited. 

The American Right Wing is spotted with 
many small errors caused by careless typing. 
It is in large part a bibliographical essay, 
but its utility is diminished by the lack of 
a separate bibliography and an index. With 
an index, the work would be a more useful 
adjunct to the brief listings in the First Na-
tional Directory of "Rightist" Groups, Pub-
lications, and Some Individuals. 

From this lively account of American con-
servatism and Right Wing extremism in 
1958, the reader should gain a fuller under-
standing of the several viewpoints at one end 
of our political spectrum, and a better ac-
quaintance with the voluminous, but often 
little known, literature of these movements. 
T h e authors perform a further service by 
placing in perspective such curious items in 
the rightist canon as the opposition to men-
tal health programs and the campaigns 
against fluoridation of w a t e r . — R i c h a r d Zum-
winkle, University of California, Los Angeles. 

Manuscript Inventory 
American Literary Manuscripts; a Checklist 

of Holdings in Academic, Historical and 
Public Libraries in the United States. Com-
piled and published under the auspices 
of the American Literature Group, Mod-
ern Language Association of America, by 
the Committee on Manuscript Holdings. 
Austin, T e x . : University of Texas, [I960], 
xxviii, 421 p. $5.00. 

Many guides to manuscript collections and 

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