Defender of the old guard : John Bricker and American politics /

Davies (Univ. of Nevada, Reno) began work on this biography of Ohio senator John Bricker in the late 1960s. Finally completed, it now stands as the only published account of the life of this noted conservative politician of the 1940s and 1950s. As such, it is an important addition to the material available on the public figures of that era. Davies covers Bricker's early years, tenure as Ohio's attorney general, three terms as governor, political campaigns (including his 1944 vice-presidential run), and his relationship with fellow Republican Robert A. Taft, with whom Bricker shared the Ohio political spotlight for many years. The book's emphasis, however, is Bricker's 12 years in the US Senate and, above all, on his authorship of the controversial and ill-fated "Bricker Amendment" on treaty law and constitutional supremacy. Bricker's personal life is often neglected in this study, but Davies treats his subject fairly and dispassionately. In fact, the major complaints about this well-written and enjoyable book will come both from Bricker's detractors, who will not see the work as critical enough, and from the Senator's admirers, who will not find him painted in a positive enough light. For a book that strives to be a work of objective history, such criticism is high praise indeed. Advanced undergraduate; graduate; faculty. S. K. Hauser; University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee