The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 571

Book Reviews

guffaws bearing heartbreak to the contestant as he flamingly pero-
rates "Give me liberty or give me death." "No competent dram-
atist," explains Bedichek, "risks a line burdened with such inten-
sity of emotion until he is sure that he has conditioned his audi-
ence for its reception," but "still we sometimes risk placing a child
in a situation where a suppressed titter is a tragedy."
On and on this recital of Bedichek quotations could continue,
but it must stop somewhere. This is a book to pore over, to read
slowly, to savor, and to come back to.
Although historians should know better than to predict, I am
prepared to make at least a couple of guesses. I would guess that
this book will not be read by very many people. If nothing else,
the title will scare them away. But I would also hazard that this
book will become a sort of educational Bible, ranging far beyond
Texas and far beyond now, and that its influence will long be
felt when neither Bedichek nor this reviewer nor this generation
of Interscholastic Leaguers cares a hoot about educational the-
ories. It is a book which will annoy some, but which will buttress
and articulate the theories of others who care about what happens
to the children we try to teach. As much as I hate to go overboard,
I must say I will not be surprised if it does not prove to be one of
the most influential books ever to emerge from a Texas author.
Of course, every reviewer, to keep his union card, has to find
something wrong with a book. So let me offer these two quibbles:
(1) the book is inadequately titled-it is so much more than its
title implies; and (2) the author should have put this book out
in two volumes-one volume for those interested in the philo-
sophic generalities of educational competition, and a second
volume on the more specific topic of the Interscholastic League.
Having said that, there is not much more that can be found
to quarrel with. It is an expression of an educated mind of which
Texas can truly be proud.
JOE B. FRANTZ
The University of Texas
The Cavalry of Christ on the Rio Grande, 1849-1883. By Bernard
Doyon, O.M.I. Milwaukee (Bruce Press), 1956. Pp. xv+252.
$5.00.
This book recounts the development and expansion of the

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