TURBULENT ERA. A DIPLOMATIC RECORD OF FORTY YEARS,

1904-1945• ByJoseph C. Grew. Edited by Walter Johnson '57. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1952.vols., 1560 pp. $15.

Professor Walter Johnson '37 of the History Department of the University of Chicago has made a notable contribution to our understanding of the diplomatic history of our nation in the "turbulent era," 1904-1945. He has done this through his skill in the careful selection and judicious editing of a vast mass of information contained in 168 bound volumes of the papers of Mr. Joseph C. Grew.

These papers consist of elaborate diaries, letters, speeches, records of conversations, memoranda, dispatches, press clippings, etc. As woven together in chronological order and grouped in topical chapters they mirror the stress and strains that accompanied our national emergence to world power in the first four decades of the present century. The two large volumes read as an uninterrupted narrative, so adroitly has Dr. Johnson put the variety of original material together, though essential source matter is frequently presented in footnote form.

Mr. Johnson was favored in having "the most widely experienced diplomat in the American service" for his subject and in having a man who had assembled data and recorded personal reflections of a most illuminating nature. The work spans Mr. Grew's career from consul in Cairo in 1904 through posts of increasing responsibility in the diplomatic service in Mexico City, St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Vienna, where he was in charge of the embassy when war severed relations in 1917; following a war-time tour of duty in the State Department he served as Minister to Denmark and Switzerland, then as UnderSecretary of State to Hughes and Kellogg, and then abroad again as Ambassador to Turkey and Japan. He was head of our mission in Tokyo during the ten critical years, 1931-1941.

Delectable pen pictures are given of numerous national rulers and leaders; diplomatic episodes are recounted in picturesque language; political intrigue and crisis and clashes of personalities enliven the factual record. The whole is a very interesting and impressive historical product that adds much to our understanding and perspective of world diplomacy in the tragic first half of this century.