The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 73, July 1969 - April, 1970 Page: 301

Book Reviews

The Western Hemisphere. By Wilfrid Hardy Callcott. (Austin: Uni-
versity of Texas Press, 1968. Pp. xii+5o6. Bibliography, index.
$1o.oo.)
Professor Wilfrid H. Callcott, the author of long standard studies
of liberalism and church-state relations in Mexico and more recently
of a monograph on the Caribbean policy of the United States, here
broadens the scope of his focus on United States policy in terms of
both geography and time. In the volume at hand he endeavors to trace
and examine the rise of an awareness of the unity of the Western
Hemisphere in international affairs and its effect on United States
policy to the end of World War II.
To substantiate his thesis that such essential unity exists and that
the concept has not lost its significance, Professor Callcott traces the
slow evolution of the concept from its sentimental beginnings to its
more forceful political, economic, and strategic blossoming in the
twentieth century, a process fortified by depression and war. Empha-
sizing politico-strategic and economic matters, the author examines
each period through geographical subdivisions. True to his concept,
he includes Canada, but has as much trouble integrating it with Latin
American relations as might be expected.
There is good coverage of the highlights of hemisphere policy, with
special attention to both the theory and practice of the Good Neigh-
bor program. However, the very breadth of the subject and the
"chopping" procedure employed to demonstrate the emergence of
policy result in over-simplification and incompleteness. For example,
in the various sections on Mexico there is no mention of Mexican
asylum for Zelaya; Magdalena Bay is touched upon only in connection
with the Lodge Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine; and the so-called
"Carranza Doctrine" appears not at all. The Constitution of 1917
is mentioned only briefly in relation to the subsoil and Carranza's
tax decrees, while Dwight Morrow's mission is accorded an overly
simplified account.
This reviewer also is concerned with the author's sources. Pro-
fessor Callcott notes his heavy reliance on United States and British
diplomatic correspondence and the private papers of participants and
policy-makers. Noteworthy by their absence are the papers of Dwight
Morrow (Amherst) and Arthur Bliss Lane (Yale). Puzzling is the
omission from the list of published English works of Quirk's two
key volumes, Howard Cline's study of Mexican-United States rela-
tions, and Frank Tannenbaum's several perceptive analyses of Mexico

301ol