Signed by Will Durrant. A PROGRAM FOR AMERICA, 1931
Durant, Will. A PROGRAM FOR AMERICA. [New York]: Simon & Schuster, 1931. 146 pages. Original publisher's light green cloth with gilt spine lettering and the front cover lettered in blind. 20 x 12 cm. A very good copy in a good-only dust jacket. Minor dust-soiling to the head of the spine and joint. The leaves are a trifle age-toned but clean. The spine panel of the dust jacket is damp-stained and sun-darkened; small chips to the ends of the spine panel; light soiling to the front and rear panels. The flaps are uniformly trimmed, and no printed price is present; a hand-stamped price of $1.25 appears on the rear flap. The only other copy we have seen in the jacket was trimmed in a nearly identical manner. This was perhaps the product of repricing by the publisher, rather than "price-clipping" by the purchaser.
FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, on the front free endpaper, reading: "Will Durant to Leila Harris, 2-12-32." Leila née Harris Odgen (1919-1993) was the daughter of Arthur Israel Harris (1881-1963) and Irma Liebmann Harris (1885-1969), members of a prominent Jewish family in Atlanta, Georgia, and owners of the Atlanta Paper Company.
In this treatise, Durant grapples with the crisis of the Great Depression in the United States. He deplores the country's current economic, political, and moral state and offers several proposals to improve it. These included economic modernization and planning, cultivating a moral code based on cooperation and reciprocity, and reforming the government to make it more meritocratic and less corrupt. "The root of our political evils is the separation of leadership from knowledge; the cure of the evil lies in restoring their union. How? By making education -- i.e. specific and technical preparation for the functions to be performed -- a necessary qualification for office." -p. 128.
Very scarce in the trade.
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