Encounter paperbacks

"This is an account of ... the great betrayal which occured when the United States turned its back on Wilson's pledges and failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and join the League of Nations"--Foreword.

Herman Finer makes the classic response in this book to those who would argue that individual freedom is endangered by trends toward a planned society. Professor Finer's bold statemant is a reassertion of his confidence in man's ability to shape his own destiny in a society. This book is a lucid response to Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom and Hayek's opposition to social planning. Professor Finer examines and dissects Hayek's thesis and exposes his fallacies. Finer attacks his subject with logic and wit, exposing error and hidden agendas. Finer had world recognition in his field. This is a worthwhile read for those interested in political science and economics.

"Widely hailed for his realistic portrayals of the common soldier of the Civil War, Bell Irvin Wiley upset carefully cultivated, deeply held southern myths about the Lost Cause with the 1944 publication of The Plain People of the Confederacy. His look at the Confederate experience of soldiers, African Americans, and women also sparked a debate about the reasons for southern defeat that continues among historians to this day. Republished here with Paul D. Escott's new introduction and fresh appraisal of the book's influence, this classic work reveals a far more complex, conflicted, and intriguing society than the unified and idealized version created and perpetuated in the wake of surrender.". "Wiley broke new ground by challenging southern myths about a contented and loyal slave population, a self-sacrificing citizenry united in support of states' rights, and a military unmarred by cowardice and vice. Unearthing a wealth of correspondence, government documents, and other firsthand accounts, Wiley brought to center stage the question of popular morale and insisted on its importance in shaping the fate of the Confederacy. He showed that the Confederacy was racked by dissension and that the heart of the South's problems lay in class resentments and poor governmental policy rather than in military reverses."--BOOK JACKET.