Carleton Putnam - Race and Reality: A Search for Solutions

A SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS - wraps -
A SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS

By Carleton Putnam

This book is a sequel to CarletonPutnams Race and Reason, which hassold over 150,000 copies Since its publication six years ago. Race and Realitybrings up-to-date the story begun in theearlier volume. Readers familiar withthe latter will find summarized herePutnams essential viewpoint set in afresh perspective. They will also findadded documentation and much thatthrows new light on the worlds deepening racial crisis.

Written in the form of a midnightsoliloquy, Race and Reality recounts theauthors experiences with the scientifichierarchy since 1961. It traces to itssource our national bewilderment on theNegro question. It also reviews thebalance of the evidence in regard to thehidden facts. The book then tells the inside story of the Stell trial and exploresthe methods by which the truth about ithas been evaded and ignored. Finally,in a question and answer section similarto that in Race and Reason, it deals withthe scores of related issues which sooften confuse the central problem. Inthe last two chapters, it focuses on thatproblem and proposes a solution.

Stuart Campbell, in a lead review inthe American Bar Association Journal,forecast that Race and Reason would become one of the most important booksof this generation. The same might wellbe predicted for the present work.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS PRESS
WASHINGTON, D. C.

Although sympathetic in some ways to theSouthern viewpoint, Carleton Putnam is nota Southerner. His first American ancestors,both on his fathers and his mothers side,arrived in Massachusetts twenty years afterthe Mayflower. One of his grandfathers was aNew York publisher, the other a justice of theNew York Supreme Court.

Putnam received his science degree fromPrinceton and his law degree from Columbia.After an outstanding career as an airline executive he retired from the board chairmanship ofDelta Air Lines in 1954 to write a biographyof Theodore Roosevelt. Allan Nevins considered his first volume remarkable, theSaturday Review called it infinitely engagingand the Atlantic Monthly praised it as admirable and formidable.

In recent years the author has been divertedfrom Roosevelt by his concern over the racequestion. With the publication of his widelyacclaimed letter to President Eisenhower in1958 he became involved in a Controversywhich has continued ever since. Believing thatrace is one of the most crucial as well as leastunderstood subjects in the modern world, hehas devoted the past decade to investigatingthe issues and dispelling public misconceptionsin this field. His books Race and Reason andRace and Reality contain the substance of hisfindings.

Putnam penetratingly analyzes how liberal dogmatism has paralyzed the ability to doubt popular views even in academic cloisterswith resultant prevention of publication of research on racial questions. My personal investigations verify some specifics and thegeneral tenor of Putnams extensive reporting of such effective suppression... I urge thoughtful citizens to read Putnams analysesand, in keeping with constitutional principles of freedom of speechand press, to provoke public debate between the unpopular ideas hepresents and those currently popular. I urge this action in theinterest of replacing prejudice, prejudgment and bias with scientificmethod and objectivity even though I by no means accept all of hisconclusions. I have also learned by both spoken and written communication that several members of the National Academy ofSciences share Putnams conclusion that there do exist significantgenetic differences in distribution of potential intelligence betweenraces.
William Shockley, Nobel laureate and a leading memberof the National Academy of Sciences.

Race and Reality is the only work thus far published whichelucidates the facts in this highly controversial and profoundly emotional field. It is objective and unprejudiced. It sets the pathwayto truth.
John C. Satterfield, Past President, American BarAssociation.

This treatise is worthy of prompt and careful study by all Americans who are concerned with the racial problem which confrontsthis country.
Richard B. Russell, United States Senator; Chairman, Armed Services Committee.

I confirm the scientific soundness of this book. If the NationalAcademy of Sciences has any factual material to rebut the testimonyin Race and Reality I have yet to see it. On balance the evidencePutnam presents is overwhelming. Because every item may not beconclusive is no reason for basing public policy on the assumption thatthe opposite of the evidence is true.
Wesley C. George, formerlyChairman, Department of Anatomy, University of North CarolinaMedical School.

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A SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS

By Carleton Putnam
Author of Race And Reason
Public Affairs Press, Washington, D. C.

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Copyright, 1967, by Carleton Putnam
Published by Public Affairs Press
419 New Jersey Ave., S.E., Washington, D. C. 20003
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 67-19407

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The great difficulty we have in facing the race problem is that a whole generation of educated Americanshave grown up under Professor Boas teachings...These are the people who are now in power in theUnited States and they dont know what its all about....That leaves the race question to be solved only by themore uneducated people in the country. That meansits going to be solved in a pragmatic way which isalways, of course, the most disagreeable way possible.
Extract from a confidential letter to the author fromthe son of a former President of the United States.

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CHAPTER I MIDNIGHT IN MAINE	1
CHAPTER II THE FANTASY	15
CHAPTER III THE FACTS	46
CHAPTER IV THE DAY IN COURT	67
CHAPTER V DECISIONSON AND OFF THE RECORD	87
CHAPTER VI POINT COUNTER-POINT	95
CHAPTER VII VISTA AT DAYBREAK	176
CHAPTER VIII MORNING	182
INDEX	186

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Along the coast of Maine in September there are days whenthe air is like wine and the sky is an infinite blue. One searchesfor symbols of clarity to describe such days, for they lend themselvesto wide vistas across the land and within the mind. Moreover,on Mt. Desert Island a man is on an eastern frontier wherehe can still find detachment from crowds and controversies, asense of sanctuary and an inducement to meditation.

On some nights the stars are as bright as the stars of Arizona.I remember such an evening at Seal Harbor in 1966 when I wason a vacation from the debates and contention which had persistedsince the publication of my Race and Reason: A YankeeView in 1961. It was a tempting night to review and to ponder.

The inducement was doubled by an isolated study, an open fireand a brief case stuffed with papers. So I pondered in the studyand fed the fire, trying meanwhile to distill some meaning fromthe experiences of half a decade. I had closed Race and Reasonin a contemplative mooda mood of recapitulationand now Iwondered if the time had not arrived to evaluate the interveningyears.

Were I to write the first book over again, what would I change?As for its basic thesis, all that I had said had been validated in theperiod since it appeared. The passage of Civil Rights Acts, thepro-Negro pressures of government departments and the Negro-orientedstance of the opinion-forming agencies of our society hadonly resulted in increasing racial tensions throughout the country.Disorders in Philadelphia, New York, Rochester, Cleveland, LosAngeles and other cities were symptomatic of a seething hostilitybeneath the surface everywhere.

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