FIRST EDITION OF BUREAUCRACY RUN AMUCK, INSCRIBED BY LAWRENCE SULLIVAN TO HIS DAUGHTER

SULLIVAN, Lawrence. Bureaucracy Runs Amuck. Indianapolis and New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1944. Octavo, original burgundy cloth, uncut. $300.

First edition of this work taking on the organization and managerial policies of the Roosevelt Administration, inscribed on the half title by the author to his daughter: "To Mio & her Hero—with love from Pop. Washington, April 1944."

"Criticism of governmental mismanagement for the inquiring, this is a survey of danger signals in the runaway federal bureaucratic expansion explained in terms of a 'planned economy' becoming 'planned confusion.' The threat of muddled governmental controls to our victory program are underlined. Here is the picture of inefficiency, of divided authority, tangles in food, manpower, housing, printing, war contracts, labor, transportation, etc., etc., which lead inevitably to debt, inflation and bankruptcy. He shows the contrasts in Canada's successful handling of the same problem, in one chapter. Too bad this was not paralleled throughout. An indictment of the unlimited emergency powers of the bureaus, of their divided authority and overlapping fields, of the excessive growth of the bureaus and their mismanagement, and an indication of the corrective action needed. With figures of over 3,300,000 on the civil payroll of the government, of 46 lines of business activity and 77 economic pursuits in which government is involved, this emphasizes the breakdown of the necessary protective mechanisms, governmental inability to handle practical needs… A book to give aid and comfort to the enemy of the administration" (Kirkus Reviews). "The volume contains an illuminating account of OPA and other wartime bureaus" (Flynn, The Roosevelt Myth, 424). Without scarce original dust jacket. This copy is humorously inscribed to Sullivan's daughter.

Book nearly fine, with only mild toning to spine.