POWER by Adolf A. Berle. 603 pages. Harcourt, Brace & World. $10.
Adolf Berle's scrutiny of power began well before minority demands for Black Power, student power, etc., gave the subject its present topicality. A veteran intellectual, with special credentials in law and economics, he has been in and out of government service for more than a third of this violent century. As everything from ambassador to special consultant and Assistant Secretary of State, he watched how power was actually used in a variety of crises from the 1933 bank holiday to the Cuban missile showdown. Despite the old American distrust of...