The Builders (1919)

Summary

V.P., Boston Transcript, 1 November 1919

To show that the time has passed for the south to harbor her sectional differences and to vote solidly for one party, regardless of the platform of either side and the characters of the men seeking office, is the purpose of The Builders, a new novel by Ellen Glasgow, of Richmond. In her clear and forceful story the author pleads for a united Americanism and a doing away of party limitations that the country may develop along lines most essential permanently to overcome the acute problems now confronting it. Miss Glasgow has placed the action in her own city in that restless period when the world was wondering whether or not America would enter the war and through the first year of her participation in the struggle. The characters are portrayed vividly and each is representative of a phase of society.

David Blackburn, the central figure, is a man governed by high principles and a wide and lofty vision of the needs of his country. He has made his fortune in industry and is respected and understood by the better element of his employees. His friends like him well enough, but having the grave misfortune to be a Republican, he is looked on always with suspicion, for it is never forgotten that he stands for the party which liberated the negroes and sanctioned the terrors of reconstruction.