Author: Kevin R. Kosar

Kevin R. Kosar is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. He is the host of the Understanding Congress podcast and the coeditor of Congress Overwhelmed: Congressional Capaity and prospects for Reform (2020). he has written the New York Times, National Review, the Atlantic, and many other publications.

Reviews and Coverage of the Republication of Edward C. Banfield’s Government Project

On By Kevin R. KosarIn Banfield Books

AEI Press republished Edward C. Banfield’s classic book, Government Project, in late December 2023. Copies of the book may be purchased at https://amzn.to/48S4nV2. The new edition retains Banfield’s original text, Rexford Tugwell’s original introduction, and a new preface by Kevin R. Kosar. Government Project tells the story of an attempt by the US government to remake the lives of some of its citizens by establishing a cooperative farm in Pinal County, Arizona, in 1937. These individuals were among the most desperately poor and disadvantaged in the nation. The farm was financially succeeded for a time, but in the farm’s seventh year of operation, the inhabitants shuttered it. Many of them walked away with hardly anything, to the shock and dismay of the government officials overseeing it. Government Project deftly explains what went wrong at Casa Grande. In telling this story, Banfield illuminates larger truths about human nature and the limits of governance.

Reviews and Coverage

Amity Shlaes, “Casa Utopia: The Tale of an American Collective Farm,” National Review, January 10, 2024.

American Enterprise Institute event, “Good Intentions Are Not Enough: Revisiting Edward C. Banfield’s Government Project,” January 20, 2024.

Kevin R. Kosar interviewed about Government Project on Jonah Goldberg’s The Remnant podcast, February 8, 2024.

Mark Pulliam, “Government Project: The Eternal Folly of Central Planning,” American Institute for Economic Research, April 1, 2024.

Dominic Pino, “Kevin Kosar Revives Edward Banfield,” National Review, April 9, 2024. A video of this dicussion apppears here.

Les Lenkowsky, “‘Government Project’ Review: Big Dreams, Bitter Harvest,” Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2024.

Kevin R. Kosar, “Old Lessons for the New Right,” The Dispatch, April 10, 2024.

Vance Ginn, Why Don’t Government Projects Work with Dr. Kevin Kosar, Let People Prosper podcast, April 15, 2024.

Howard Husock, “The New Deal’s Failed Kibbutz in the Desert,” AEI Ideas, April 19, 2024.

Mark Pulliam, “Remembering Edward C. Banfield,” Chronicles, May 1, 2024.

A new edition of Edward C. Banfield’s Government Project has been published

On By Kevin R. KosarIn Banfield Books3 Comments

AEI Press has brought back this classic book, which has been out of print since the 1950s. The new edition retains Banfield’s original text, Rexford Tugwell’s original introduction, and a new preface by Kevin R. Kosar.

Government Project tells the story of an attempt by the US government to remake the lives of some of its citizens by establishing a cooperative farm in Pinal County, Arizona, in 1937. These individuals were among the most desperately poor and disadvantaged in the nation.

Casa Grande Valley Farms was an elaborate venture that provided the Americans who volunteered to settle there with housing, work, and the opportunity to earn income. For five years, the farm succeeded. The revenues from the sale of its crops gave the Casa Grande settlers material comfort and wealth far beyond what they had ever possessed.

But in the farm’s seventh year of operation, the inhabitants shuttered it and walked away with hardly anything, to the shock and dismay of the government officials overseeing it.

Banfield’s Government Project deftly explains what went wrong at Casa Grande. In telling this story, Banfield illuminates larger truths about human nature and the limits of governance.

Buy a copy.

Reviews

“It is not a nice story.”
-Rexford G. Tugwell, administrator, United States Resettlement Administration, from the 1951 introduction

“Devotees of Aeschylus, Sophocles, or Dreiser will understand this book. With the relentlessness of a Greek tragedy, the story of this Resettlement Administration project… moves forward from relief and destitution… through hope, then security, to the very brink of success, only to disintegrate.”
-Howard J. McMurray, American Political Science Review

“Sociologists will find much meat in this book for the purposes of illustrating the processes of social interaction—conflict, co-operation, and attempts and failures at accommodation.”
-Lowry Nelson, American Journal of Sociology

Edward C. Banfield: A brief biography

On By Kevin R. KosarIn Biography

Edward Christie Banfield was born in Bloomfield, Connecticut on November 19, 1916.  He married Laura Fasano in 1938, who helped him produce the renown book, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society (1958). Banfield died in East Montpelier, Vermont on September 30, 1999.  (Mrs. Banfield died in New York City on August 20, 2006.)

Banfield worked for the Farm Security Administration during the New Deal before entering the University of Chicago, where he earned his Ph.D in political science.  He taught at there and at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.  He served as an advisor to President Richard M. Nixon and authored numerous studies on poverty, urban planning, policy, and politics, and American governance generally.

Banfield’s scholarship drew upon many sources, including his employment as a journalist and government employee, and his readings in philosophy, history, sociology, and economics.  Written in clear and often blunt prose, Banfield’s works attracted attention both within and without academia and, sadly, often elicited intemperate responses and personal attacks. Radical students, who were offended by Banfield’s research findings, protested and disrupted his classes and speeches.

Though many years have passed since they were first written, Banfield’s books remain insightful and intellectually provocative.

~

An intellectual biography may be found at https://edwardcbanfield.org/2015/09/04/who-was-edward-c-banfield-and-why-should-you-read-his-books-and-articles/.

Other biographical materials may be found on this website at https://edwardcbanfield.wordpress.com/category/biography/.

The best biography of Banfield was written by one of his star pupils, James Q. Wilson: “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court: A Biography,” Charles R. Kesler, ed., Edward C. Banfield: An Appreciation (Claremont, CA: Henry Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World, 2002), pp. 31-80.

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Recently rediscovered recording of Edward C. Banfield

On By Kevin R. KosarIn Audio and Video Recordings

Audio recordings of Edward C. Banfield are exceedingly rare. years ago, I posted a couple of them on this website. Over time, I have added a few more.

A few weeks ago, I was delightfully surprised to find an audio recording of Banfield from April 11, 1970. He was on a panel discussion of urban issues held by the Philadelphia Society. The conference, I hasten to add, included some big names: Milton Friedman, Walter Berns, and M. Stanton Evans.

The recording is quite clear, and Banfield speaks for over 20 minutes.

Edward C. Banfield talk on urban issues and solutions

Banfield states that it is helpful to think about urban problems through the lens of class. There are normal class variants of a problem and there are lower class version. Take unemployment as an issue: the normal class problem involves individuals who are disabled, people who are between jobs, etc. The lower class variant frequently involves individuals who do not want to work regular jobs preferring instead “the action of the street.”

He then takes up solutions to these problems, observing that different phenomena require different interventions, and that some problems are not readily addressable by policy. For example, he states that the libertarian proposal to reducing unemployment by abolishing rid the minimum wage to create jobs—well, that will not do much for someone who doesn’t care to take a job. This class framework he developed first in the publication of his book, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society (1968) and came to fruition in The Unheavenly City (1970).

Banfield’s comments range widely, and display is clear-eyed realism about the urban “problems.” I thank the Philadelphia Society for preserving and sharing the Banfield talk and the many other presentations.

Publicity photograph of Edward C. Banfield

On By Kevin R. KosarIn Other Materials

I found this photograph for sale on EBay, which was serendipitous. I had not seen it previously. Apparently, it was taken at Banfield’s office at Harvard University.

It was addressed to James Wilhelm “Jim” Wiggins, who was an Associate Dean and Professor of Sociology at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The back of the photograph has handwritten notes indicating that Banfield was a commencement speaker at Converse in 1971. Banfield and Wiggins were at a Philadelphia Society conference the year prior.

banfield-enduring-values-in-a-world-of-change-04-10-1970Download

Quite possibly, their relationship went back further. Wiggins coedited a volume titled, Foreign Aid Reexamined: A Critical Appraisal, in 1958. Banfield authored his own jaundiced assessment of American foreign aid (American Foreign Aid Doctrines) five years later, and may have read Wiggins’ volume. Additionally, Wigguns was a sociologist, and wrote about human behavior and coordination, which were topics central to Banfield’s research.

Students at Connecticut College walked out of Banfield lecture because they did not like what he had to say

On By Kevin R. KosarIn Other Materials
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In February of 1971, Edward C. Banfield trekked to Connecticut College, located in the state of his birth, to discuss his book, The Unheavenly City. He declared before the audience that he wanted to challenge the gloomy “conventional wisdom” about the condition of cities.

Contrary to the claims of much of the liberal intellgentsia and the media, cities were not in terrible shape, and many of the problems were actually annoyances. As for the real problems, Banfield explained he was dubious that federal government intevrentions would improve them, and might well make them worse. He pointed out that “that urban renewal has destroyed more housing for lower income people than it has created.”

The reports in the student newspaper note that students argued with Banfield for much of the two hours he was in the lecture hall, and some walked out.

Source: https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=ccnews_1970_1971

Three More Retro Reviews of Edward C. Banfield’s The Unheavenly City

On By Kevin R. KosarIn Banfield Books

In November 2023, Daniel DiSalvo, authored an essay titled, “The Unsolvable City” in City Journal. He notes that “[r]evisiting the still-controversial work of urbanist Edward Banfield can help put race relations, education, housing, crime, and other policy debates into a broader perspective.”

Importantly, Banfield’s book reminds us that American cities have always been raucous places, and their problems may be managed but cannot be solved. “The foundation of Banfield’s urbanism is an interconnected argument: most of what we view as urban ‘“’problems’ are not really problems at all, and the genuinely serious issues are not amenable to ‘policy solutions’ that are technically feasible and morally legitimate in a democratic society.”

Read more at https://www.city-journal.org/article/reassessing-edward-banfield.

Note: DiSalvo, a professor at City College of New York-CUNY, also wrote “Edward C. Banfield Revisited,” for the autumn 2023 issue of National Affairs.

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An earlier retro review (May 2020) was written by Craig Trainor at Quillette: “Return to ‘The Unheavenly City’.” He writes,

“The Unheavenly City leaves the reader in little doubt that only one of Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s two “truths” is actually correct. Culture—the habits of mind, conduct, beliefs, and values—“determines the success of a society,” and that politics is far too limited an enterprise to change the deeply ingrained cultural orientation of those who comprise it. That is a lesson it is never too late to learn.”

Read the full review at https://quillette.com/2020/05/17/return-to-the-unheavenly-city/.

~

Mark G. Brennan reviewed The Unheavenly City in the May copy of Chronicles.

“In The Unheavenly City, Banfield suggested, like Plato did, that we judge society “by its tendency to produce desirable human types.” He grounded his analysis of urban decay in the primacy of culture over bureaucratic edifices, government tinkering, and liberal do-gooderism. Unlike today’s Ivy League professors with their Ph.Ds and New York Times subscriptions, Banfield grew up on a Connecticut farm where common sense trumped an academic CV. As such, he could distinguish a muddy pigsty from an urban slum, which he defined not by the decrepit nature of its housing but rather by its “squalid and vicious” style of life.”

You can see the review at


Bureau of the Budget Appropriations Bibliography of 1963 lists a Banfield article

On By Kevin R. KosarIn Other Materials
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A bibliography on research resources on appropriations mention an American Political Science Review article by Edward C. Banfield. The bibliography notes Banfield’s wry observation: “In all the discussion of congressional reform no one has suggested that the objective of budgeting and appropriating is to secure the most desirable allocation of resources among alternative uses.”

Banfield’s observation was not wrong then (1949) nor today. Despite the enactment of the 1974 Congressional Budget Act, which aimed to rationalize budgeting, pluralistic politics and the demadns of the administrative state still dominate budgeting decisions.

Letter from Edward C. Banfield to President John F. Kennedy’s administration after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, April 25, 1961

On By Kevin R. KosarIn Other Materials
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Martin W. Sandler located this letter some years ago, and shared it in his book, The Letters of John F. Kennedy (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013, pp. 237-238).

Banfield sent the letter on Harvard University letterhead just a few days after the Bay of Pigs Fiasco (April 17-20). He begins, “Dear former colleague,” leaving one to wonder whose name Banfield wrote on the envelope. Many who taught at Harvard went to wokr in the Kennedy Administration. More digging is needed to figure out the intended recipient.

The letter ended up in the Kennedy archive, and the above PDF came from Sandler when he sought permission to republish the letter from Banfield’s daughter.

One wonders how JFK —or whomever opened it– responded!

Video of Edward C. Banfield discussing the common good and statesmanship at an American Enterprise Institute conference, November 30, 1987

On By Kevin R. KosarIn Audio and Video Recordings

Here, Banfield reminds fellow attendees of the conference on Democracy and the Constitution that the American Founders conceived of two forms of happiness, individual and national happiness, and that the earliest Americans imagined humans as selfish yet also expected those who served in office as statesmen to rise above their selfishness in pursuit of the common good. Banfield notes this dualism raises interesting questions, such as whether we can judge the motives of voters who cast ballots self-interestedly.

Banfield speaks for several minutes starting at 37:32: https://www.c-span.org/video/?2990-1/democracy-constitution

This event also featured Robert A. Goldwin (American Enterprise Institute), Professor Benjamin R. Barber (Rutgers University), Professor Terrence Marshall (University of Paris), Judge Abner J. Mikva (U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit), Edwin Yoder (Washington Post), and a young Charles Krauthammer (Syndicated Columnist).

Banfield apparently first collaborated with Robert Goldwin in 1957, when Goldwin edited a series of didactic short stories for the American Foundation for Continuing Education. Banfield wrote three stories for them.

Goldwin (1922-2010), it must be noted, was the editor and author of many books on governance issues, including AEI Press “constitutional studies” volumes like as How Federal Is the Constitution? (1982) and Separation of Powers: Does It Still Work? Tributes to Goldwin may be found here.