Stephen Birmingham, Roger Hilsman, and John Kenneth Galbraith

Maurice Dolbier acts as emcee at this Books and Authors Luncheon. Stephen Birmingham, speaks about New York's great Jewish banking families and his book about them, " Our Crowd"; Roger Hilsman, speaks about foreign policy and America's path ahead in "To Move a Nation"; and John Kenneth Galbraith speaks about "The New Industrial Society."


Emcee Maurice Dolbier opens the program by discussing the publication of the Social Register in 1888, a catalog of America's upper crust. Ward MacAlister felt that there were too many people included. He made a list of his own.
Dolbier noted that neither the Social Register nor MacAlister included Jewish families.
Stephen Birmingham wrote a book about "the 100," as the Jewish aristocracy on the late 1800s referred to themselves, "Our Crowd."
Dolbier goes into Birmingham's biography. He spent time writing copy as an advertiser, before writing books.

Birmingham begins his speech by recounting questions he has been asked when he has been plugging his book: he is commonly asked if he is Jewish.
The most common question he is asked is about what is so special about the German Jewish banking families. It is a difficult question to answer. He uses the Seligman family as an example in his book and in his speech. He recounts Joseph Seligman's transition into an American, which began in the 1830s - he gradually earned enough money to send for the rest of his family. Their business expanded from foot pedaling to stores to manufacturing and beyond. The Seligman family was paid during the civil war with Union bonds, which led to his career in investment banking.

He talks about the Seligman family's unique approach to education for the time. Joseph Seligman was university educated, and pushed for the same with the rest of his family. He talks about the continued saga of the Seligman family, which involves a murder-suicide and some unusual evidence tampering. He describes Mary Maxwell, the child who was orphaned in the murder-suicide, and the aftermath of the murders.

He describes the other 'characters' of "Our Crowd," including a women given to malapropisms. He reviews some of those strange language manglings.

He describes the Dodge family and Bernard Baruch and "Our Crowd's" unique handing of money. He talks about Jacob Schiff and Russia's denial to accept passports from Jewish people from America. Schiff donated money to Cornell after one of their staff, a Mr. Ickleheimer, got Russia to change its policies. He tells other stories about Otto Kahn and the Loebs.

He talks about the Our Crowd families and philanthropy. In Hebrew there is no such word as charity, there is the word tzadik, which means "righteousness." It is all-encompassing.

He talks about Mary Todd Lincoln in the aftermath of her husbands assassination, which upset the Seligmans. They put her on an allowance to keep her afloat during her insolvency. There was a bill passed to provide endowments for presidential widows.

He discusses the reticence of "Our Crowd." Julius Loeb had a saying: "better you shouldn't say it." He talks about perceived lack of interest in his book, a book which was actually quite successful. He worried about hate mail, which he had not received until earlier that week. He talks about receiving a letter from Westberg Pegler.
He talks about his pride in being the chronicler of 'Our Crowd' and to speak for them, who are so reticent.

Dolbier recounts a story from Our Crowd about a card game.

Dolbier starts to describe Hilsman's book. Hilsman had been given a Rockefeller grant to study foreign policy in the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. He was instead brought into the Kennedy Administration, taking over for Averell Harriman as Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs. He was able to contribute actively in foreign policy, not just theorize about it.

He discusses Hilsman's biography. His book of the day is 'to Move a Nation.'

Hilsman would rather not describe his book, instead talking about the fundamental forces at play in foreign affairs that will shape the world. He will split the difference.
The book is about three things:
1: How foreign policy is made
2. It is a memoir
3. It is about the Kennedy Administration and some of the events that took part in, including Laos, Vietnam, and the Cuban Missile Crisis and more.

He talks about Vietnam and what kind of war it was. The book ends with a discussion on improving foreign policy and the statecraft of JFK

He is going to talk about four major forces
1) The Cold War
2) Emerging Nationalism
3) Asia
4) and the problem of US foreign policy

He begins with the Cold War. There was a change that occurred in the USSR after the Cuban Missile Crisis. It lead to a brief detente in the Cold War. The USSR does not feel the ends justify the means when it comes to nuclear war.

He goes into the emerging nationalism that he feels is behind the Vietnam problems. He downplays the role of the Cold War in this. There are 4 things to say here: 1) there is a fear of neocolonialism. 2) There is an identity crisis - many of these national never had a prior official state. 3) Modernization is wanted. 4) and they want autonomy.

He feels Asia and Communist China are important but they can't be seen as a "yellow peril." There must be firmness and flexibility. They must be included in foreign relations.

He feels America will have to live with ambiguity and compromise. Military force is meant not to destroy but to achieve legitimate goals.

He urges the attendees to read his book if they want to know more. He has run out of time.

Dolbier introduces John Kenneth Galbraith. He describes the book he was writing when he, like Hilsman, was brought into the Kennedy administration. He revised his book completely after this was done. Dolbier tells us that his most recent book is considered the most important economic work since Veblen and Keynes. He describes the book and its praise.

Galbraith talks about the affinities he feels for his fellow writers on the stage. He describes himself as a veteran of the Books and Authors Luncheon. He gives facetious advise to his fellow writers. He talks about how difficult his books is and its unique position - it is too popular and too wonky.

He describes the vast apparatus that is the modern economy. The "machine" is far from perfect. It does not serve all of our needs, nor those of most of the world. The machine avoids specific areas - he describes the riots in some parts of New York and the peace in others.

He talks about the rise in amounts of good produced. Economic stability has also increased. He expect further rises in the machine's power and its economic increases. We have come to take it for granted that what is good economically is good overall.

He talks about the center of the machine - the great corporation. The corporation is interdependent with the state. The state extends economic authority in the corporation.

Galbraith's argument is that we are becoming the servants of the industrial system, the machine. More and more the machine tells us what we should want. and how much of it we should want. He uses cars as an example. He talks about the human needs that the machine cannot provide. The society puts a low value on leisure - he cites the rise in the average number of hours worked. He discusses its influence on education, and how it influences foreign policy. The Cold War underwrites the technology and the needs of the corporation and armed forces. He jokes about sending some of his betes noir into space.

He advises the audience to buy his book as well as those of Birmingham and Hilsman

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 150528
Municipal archives id: T2244