The Midwest Quarterly; Vol. 1 No. 1

Authors

Theodor [Unknown]
Hans Beerman
Katharine F. Nutt
Alvin H. Proctor
Clyde C. Walton
Richard C. Welty
Midwest Quarterly Editors

Contents

The Story of a Russian Worker . . . Theodor [Unknown]

Hermann Hesse and the Bhagavad-Gita . . . Hans Beerman

The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857: The New Look . . . Katharine F. Nutt

Power Factors in Kansas Constitutional Revision . . . Alvin H. Proctor

Recent Civil War Writing . . . Clyde C. Walton

Are the States Obsolete? . . . Richard C. Welty

Abstract

in this issue...

Even before Vice President Richard M. Nixon had announced his mission to Russia, the editors of THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY had been fortunate in securing the manuscript of the lead article in this issue. With interest in the U.S. S. R. as high as it currently is, this rather charming autobiographical report of the life and hard times of a Russian peasant seems extremely appropriate for publication. In plain, unvarnished language it gives a painfully detailed picture of the grim problems its author encountered as his country passed from revolution to world war and into the far more thorough-going revolution out of which present-day Russia has come.

The story of how the article came to be written has interest of itself. In the summer of 1934, Professor (emeritus) and Mrs. EDGAR N. MENDENHALL toured the U.S. S. R. They arrived in Moscow in the middle of June and enrolled in the "School for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries" along with a group of fifty other American tourists. There they studied European literature for a month in the classes of Professor Alexander Mirsky. While atending this school, Professor Mendenhall became acquainted with one of the workers in the school building, a Russian who could speak some English, largely self-educated, and unsympathetic to the Communist Party. Always possessed of a strong intellectual curiosity, Professor Mendenhall asked him for detailed information about his life in Russia. A few days later this son of illiterate peasants gave Professor Mendenhall a fascinating sketch of his life written in English in his own handwriting. The editors are grateful to Professor Mendenhall for making the manuscript available to them. Readers will note a peculiarly Russian flavor to the article reminiscent of the works of Dostoevski and Pasternak, although the curious English of the author, unchanged by any editorial pen, rather defies easy analysis and identification.

Humanists have long been interested in the cultural ties existing among men and ideas of disparate geographical and ideological groupings. The literature of the world is rich in examples of these international or supra-national connections; one thinks immediately of Henry David Thoreau's borrowings from Oriental philosophy and the subsequent application of his ideas on civil disobedience by the late Mahatma M. K. Gandhi in India's struggle for national independence from British imperialism. East is east, and west is west, but the twain do meet more often than the careless reader of Rudyard Kipling's ballads may suppose. The second article in this issue is a case in point. It is concerned with the close philosophical ties betwen a modern German novelist, Hermann Hesse, and the Sacred Books of the East, most especially the Bhagavad-Gita.

HANS BEERMAN, the author of this analysis, joined the faculty of Kansas State College of Pittsburg in September, 1958, as assistant professor of literature. He was born in Berlin and traveled extensively in Siberia and northern India before coming to the United States as a student in 1940. He earned his bachelors degree at the University of Illinois and his masters and doctor of philosophy degrees at Iowa State University. An accomplished linguist, Professor Beerman is familiar with Danish, French, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish, in addition to his native German and adopted English. It would be difficult to find a man better qualified to write the article here published.

One does not immediately associate western Kansas with the subject of Indian nationalism, but scholarship in recent years has shown a disposition to become more and more international, thanks in no small part to the imagination of Senator J. W. Fulbright of Arkansas. KATHARINE F. NUTT, professor of history at Fort Hays Kansas State College, was granted a Fulbright lectureship to teach at Isabella Thoburn College in Lucknow, India, in 1957-58. Her article on Indian nationalism and new interpretations of the Sepoy mutiny of 1857 is one result of her experience in the East. Miss Nutt received her bachelors degree from Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia and her masters and doctors degrees from the University of New Mexico. She joined the faculty of Fort Hays State in 1952 and this fall leaves the full-time teaching of history to become bibliography and acquisitions librarian at the college's Forsyth Library. Professor Nutt prepared this article originally as a paper to be read at the 1959 meeting of the Kansas Association of Teachers of History and Related Fields at St. Benedict's College, Atchison, last March.

While large events are in preparation in the area of Russo-American relations, and Indian historians revise their interpretations of past events, all is not static here in the Sunflower state. In November of 1957 Governor George Docking appointed ALVIN H. PROCTOR, then chairman of the Department of Social Science and professor of political science here, a member of the Committee on Constitutional Revision. Professor Proctor, now Dean of Graduate Studies at Kansas State College of Pittsburg, attacked the problem with characteristic energy and thoroughness. He has actively participated in many a committee session and become thoroughly acquainted with the complex problems of constitutional revision. One by-product of this experience is the article he has contributed to this issue of THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY.

Professor Proctor received his bachelors and masters degrees here and, after Pacific duty in the U. S. Navy during World War II, earned the doctor of philosophy degree in history at the University of Wisconsin in 1948. His interests in constitutional revision began at Madison; his doctoral dissertation was on William E. Gladstone and the British Constitution. A member of the Faculty since September of 1948, Professor Proctor has been an active participant in the Citizenship Clearinghouse, an organization designed to encourage college students to take an interest in both state and national politics. The article published here was originally prepared for and read at the April, 1959; meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association on the campus of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

With the centennial of the most American war just around the corner, interest in the intersectional con:8.ict of 1861-65 has never been higher. Books and articles, movies, radio and television shows on a variety of Civil War subjects are well-nigh a glut on the market. But, curiously, the market refuses to be glutted. When the editors discovered that CLYDE C. WALTON had read a paper, "Recent Writing about the Civil War," at the annual meeting of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association in Denver last April, they were quick to invite him to send them that paper. Examination of it disclosed an interesting, critical, and somewhat unorthodox attitude which recommended publication. Clyde Walton, Illinois State Historian, is in a position to speak with some authority on the subject of Civil War writing: he has been editor of Civil War History since its inception in March of 1957, and under his direction that quarterly journal has achieved considerable stature among students of the Civil War, both professional and amateur. Far from accepting the :8.ood of Civil War material with unstinting praise, he raises a quizzical eyebrow and asks questions which should disturb and stimulate historians-perhaps even to the point where they will compose a rebuttal or two.

Since Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in April of 1865, the state's rights cause has fought a discouraging rearguard action. With the growth of interstate commerce and national organizations of every kind and description, state boundaries have persisted almost in spite of the political and economic facts of American life. The question of the relationship of the states to the nation has occasioned argument, comment, and discussion among political scientists since before the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. RICHARD C. WELTY, associate professor of political science here, is far from unique in his concern over this question, but his discussion of the subject has a style and quality all its own. In view of the current state of cold war between Washington and sundry state capitals, not the least of which is Little Rock, Professor Welty' s analysis is timely and valuable.

Well-known on the Pittsburg campus as a stimulating classroom personality and an articulate argufier on a variety of subjects, Professor Welty brings to his discussion a wealth of information and preparation. After having completed his bachelor of arts degree at Fort Hays Kansas State College, he earned his master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees in political science at the University of Colorado. He joined the Faculty here after a year's teaching at Hamline University, Minnesota. His article was originally prepared as the first of the 1958-59 series of Great Issues Lectures sponsored by the Department of Social Science.

Recommended Citation

[Unknown], Theodor; Beerman, Hans; Nutt, Katharine F.; Proctor, Alvin H.; Walton, Clyde C.; Welty, Richard C.; and Midwest Quarterly Editors (1959) "The Midwest Quarterly; Vol. 1 No. 1," The Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought: Vol. 1: Iss. 1, Article 1.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/mwq/vol1/iss1/1