SOURCE: An Introduction to Freedom and Responsibility in the American Way of Life by Carl Lotus Becker. Alfred A. Knopf, 1945, pp. vii-xlii.

In his introduction to Freedom and Responsibility in the American Way of Life, Sabine notes that Becker consistently questioned democracy, aiming for an "idealism without illusions and a realism without cynicism. '

Carl Becker united in a remarkable way the quality of incisive and critical intelligence with humanity of feeling and action. He had experienced in his own thought all the negative influences of modern scientific and philosophical criticism. He had subjected the intellectual framework of the democracy which he loved to the keenest and coolest analysis and had allowed his wit and irony to play over its illusions and its failures. He had found in the framework of the democratic tradition much that was traditional only, much that reflected the religion and the science and...