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Cases in Public
Policy and
Administration
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Cases in Public
Policy and
Administration
By
Jay M. Shafritz
and
Christopher P. Borick
First published 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2011 Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retri eval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with
permission, in this textbook appear on appropriate page within text.
ISBN: 9780205607426 (pbk)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shafritz, Jay M.
Cases in public policy and administration / by Jay M. Shafritz and Christopher P.
Borick.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-205-60742-6
ISBN-10: 0-205-60742-X
1. Public administration–United States. 2. Public administration. 3. Policy
sciences. 4. Political planning—United States. 5. Political planning. 6. United
States—Politics and government. I. Borick, Christopher P. II. Title.
JK421.S52 2011
320.60973–dc22
2009044810
Contents
Preface xi
PA RT I
The Development of U.S. Public
Administration 1
CHAPTER 1
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of Scientific Management:
How the World’s Most Famous Detective Was a
Pivotal Influence on the Development of U.S. Public
Administration 1
CHAPTER 2
Muckrakers and Reformers to the Rescue: How the
Progressive Movement Created Modern Public
Administration from the Muck of Corruption,
Indifference, and Ignorance 11
PART II
Public Policy Making 23
CHAPTER 3
The Case for Understanding the Critical Role of
Doctrine in Public Policy Making: “Seeing” Policy
Evolve Through the Lenses of the Doctrinal
Development Cycle 23
CHAPTER 4
Who Really Made the Decision to Drop the First Atomic
Bomb on Hiroshima?: Was It President Harry S. Truman
or His Advisors, the Chief Executive or His Team of
Technical Experts? 35
PART III
CHAPTER 5
The Machinery of Government 42
How the Ideas of an Academic Economist, Friedrich A.
Hayek, Led to the Thatcher Revolution in Great Britain,
Inspired the Reagan Revolution in the United States, and
Pushed the World’s Global Economy into Its Worst Crisis
since the Great Depression of the 1930s 42
v
vi
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 6
PART IV
From German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to U.S.
President Bill Clinton: How Political Leaders Created
the Modern Welfare State Using Social Insurance as
an Alternative to Socialism 55
Intergovernmental Relations 70
CHAPTER 7
Gun Shows, Gun Laws, and Gun Totin’: Second
Amendment Fanatics Versus All Levels of
Government 70
CHAPTER 8
The Politics—Administration Dichotomy Negated
Again: How the Rove Doctrine Subordinated State,
Local, and National Environmental Policy to the
Service of the Republican Party 80
PA RT V
Ethics 87
CHAPTER 9
The Gas Chamber of Philadelphia: How a
1977 Incident at Independence Mall
Illustrates the “Banality of Evil” Concept
First Applied to Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi
Holocaust Administrator 87
CHAPTER 10
The Red Ink of Orange County: When Is It Ethical
for Public Treasurers to Gamble with Public Money?
Only When You Win! 97
PART VI
Organization Theory 104
CHAPTER 11
Using Systems Theory to Understand How Sun Tzu
Predictably Turned Concubines into Soldiers in Ancient
China; and How Chaos Theory Explains Why Systems
Are Ultimately Unpredictable Even When They
Are Otherwise Understood 104
CHAPTER 12
Using William Shakespeare’s Plays to Prove That
He Was an Instinctive and Early Organization
Theorist: Whether in a Beehive or the Court of
Elizabeth I, He Knew How Honey (or Money)
Got Things Done 114
CONTENTS
PART VII
vii
Organization Behavior 124
CHAPTER 13
The Case of the Ubiquitous Chief of Staff:
How a Job Invented by and Once Confined to
the Military Escaped Its Uniformed Existence
and Is Now Commonly Found in Government
and Corporate Offices 124
CHAPTER 14
Organization Development in Hollywood War
Movies: From John Wayne in The Sands of Iwo Jima
to G.I. Jane and Beyond 132
PART VIII
Managerialism and Information Technology 139
CHAPTER 15
George Orwell’s Big Brother Is Bigger and Better than
Ever: Not Only Is He Watching You, He Is Counting the
Number of Times You Visit His Website, Taking Your
Picture, Converting It to a Series of Numbers, and
Destroying Your Anonymity! 139
CHAPTER 16
Did Al Gore Really Invent the Internet? And did
Gore Lose the 2000 Presidential Election to
George W. Bush by Threatening to Take
Away the Internet? 146
PART IX
Strategic Management 153
CHAPTER 17
How the U.S. Strategic Policy of Containment (of
Communism in General and the Soviet Union in
Particular) Gradually Evolved Just After World War II
to Win the Cold War in 1989 153
CHAPTER 18
The Rand Corporation as an Exemplar: The Origins
of and Increasingly Important Role of Strategic Think
Tanks 167
PA RT X
CHAPTER 19
Leadership 179
Implementing Strategy Through the Levels of
Leadership and Strategic Optimism: How
Strategic Leadership Invariably Devolves into
Tactical Operations 179
viii
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 20
PART XI
Was It Good Leadership for General Douglas
Macarthur to Take His Staff with Him When He
Abandoned His Army in the Philippines and
Ran Away to Australia at the Beginning of
World War II? 190
Personnel Management 200
CHAPTER 21
Why Advancement in Public Administration Has
Always Been an Essay Contest: Proofs from the
Presidency and the Bureaucracy 200
CHAPTER 22
The Case for Mentoring Junior Managers with
Executive Potential: How General Fox Conner
Set a Young Dwight D. Eisenhower on the Path
to the Presidency 211
PART XII
Social Equity 220
CHAPTER 23
Brown Reverses the Plessy Doctrine: How Thurgood
Marshall Convinced The U.S. Supreme Court that
Separate Is Inherently Not Equal, Laid the Legal
Foundations for the Modern Civil Rights Movement,
and Earned Himself an Appointment as the
First African American Justice on That
Supreme Court 220
CHAPTER 24
Government Regulation of Sex: Toward
Greater Social Equity at Work Through
Remedial Legislation, Judicial Precedents,
and Sexual Harassment Prohibitions Written
into Manuals of Personnel Rules 226
PART XIII
Public Finance 237
CHAPTER 25
Take Me Out to the Ball Game and You Buy the
Ticket: The Case for Public Stadium Financing 237
CHAPTER 26
The Fall of the House of California: How the
Richest State in the Country Cratered into
Budgetary Chaos and a Fiscal Nightmare 242
CONTENTS
PART XIV
Program Analysis and Evaluation 253
CHAPTER 27
Why Florence Nightingale, the Famous Nurse
Who Pioneered the Graphic Presentation of
Statistical Data, Is the Now-Forgotten “Mother”
of Program Evaluation and PowerPoint®
Illustrations 253
CHAPTER 28
The Often Ridiculous Nature of Public Policy and Its
Analysis: Why It Is So Important to Allow for Ridicule
and to Consider the Ridiculous 260
INDEX 271
ix
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Preface
his collection of instructive stories on public policy and its administration follows
Tillustrate,
an ancient tradition. Ever since prehistory, stories have been used by tribal elders to
indoctrinate, and educate. With the advent of writing, the stories, once
memorized, were recorded for greater permanency. Thus Homer’s two great works,
The Iliad, on the Trojan War, and The Odyssey, on Ulysses’ circuitous route home from
that war, were first narrative poems, part of the rich oral tradition of ancient Greece.
These were not just “fun” tales to listen to around the fireplace on a long winter’s
night. They offered serious instruction on how to conduct oneself as a warrior, on the
nature of honor, on military strategy and tactics, and on how to deal with the gods
that abounded in that world. Such stories were not mere entertainments, although
they were certainly entertaining; they presented the crucial lessons of life as the
ancient Greeks knew it.
THE CASE STUDY APPROACH
So it is not surprising that Greece was the society that produced the Western world’s earliest histories, what we now call case studies, on the ebb and flow of war, on the nature of
battles, and on political and institutional leadership. Ever since then, the study of political decision making and its subsequent administrative implementation has been undertaken by means of a case study, usually in the form of an in-depth analysis of a single
subject such as a war or battle. Wars tend to make excellent case studies because, at least
after they are over, they come with the three key ingredients all cases must have: a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War (404 BCE) is the progenitor of these
military and political case studies. His History provides a full account of the war between
the ancient Greek cities of Athens and Sparta. Thucydides made one of the most famous
observations on what causes war: “What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.” It is possible to discern in this one
sentence recognition of what has subsequently been termed the security dilemma, a situation in which one state takes action to enhance its security, only to have this action seen
as threatening by other states. The result is that the other states engage in countermeasures, which intensify the first state’s insecurity. The dilemma arises from the fact that
because of this process, actions taken to enhance security can actually end up diminishing it. There is also a dilemma for the second state in that if it regards the action as defensive and takes no countermeasures, it leaves itself vulnerable; whereas if it responds
vigorously, it will exacerbate the first state’s insecurity.
xi
xii
PREFACE
Although he was writing 2,500 years ago, Thucydides distilled the essence of the
Cold War conflict between the United States and the former Soviet Union, the current
security dilemma facing both Iran and Israel, and countless other international squabbles during the past two millennia. What makes a case useful is not just the information
it supplies about itself, but the utility of its wider applicability. So, although Thucydides
had no knowledge of the United States/Soviet Union conflict, the lessons of his case concerning ancient Athens and Sparta held universal truths.
This wider applicability of truths, ancient or not, is the essence of a good case. Thus
a case is worth reading not just because it is a good story; but because it teaches something beyond itself. Mere entertainment does not suffice for a good case. For example,
the story of David, a boy working as a shepherd in ancient Israel, may be interesting, but
it is not a case that offers larger truths. However, the story of David versus Goliath is a
classic case that has within it lessons of strategy, tactics, honor, fear, and asymmetrical
warfare—all issues that are still relevant today.
Military colleges and general staffs have long used the case study method to review
battles and study generalship. Generalship is not an occupation that gives its practitioners much of an opportunity to ply their trade. Thus most generals fight pitifully few battles. One of the prime reasons that Napoleon Bonaparte was so successful as a general
and for so long was that he kept France almost continuously at war. Consequently, he
was literally the most experienced general of his age by far—he fought almost sixty major
engagements. Even though he lost the last one, Waterloo in 1815, you cannot take all
those other victories away from him. Experience counts! And that is why case studies are
so useful: They are the only way we know to duplicate cheaply some very expensive—in
money and/or lives—experiences.
Wait, you say! What about simulations, whether as board games, interpersonal exercises, or computer games? All these are valid training techniques, but they are also just
variants of the traditional case study that goes back to Thucydides, who, by the way, was
also a general. Unfortunately, he lost the battle for a colony that the Athenians charged
him with protecting from the Spartans. As punishment, he was exiled from Athens for
twenty years. Fortunately, this gave him the time to write his classic book.
This same military case study technique is now widely used in a civilian context to
examine how policy proposals become law, how programs are implemented, and how
special interests affect policy development. College courses in business and public
administration often use a case study approach. An entire course may consist of case
studies (frequently combined into a casebook) of management situations to be reviewed.
The goal is to inculcate experience artificially. Any manager rich with years of service will
have had the opportunity to live through a lifetime of “cases.” If life is, as it is often said,
“one damn thing after another,” then a career in business or public administration is, in
a parallel sense, “one damn case after another.” By having students study many cases,
each of which may have occurred over many years, the case study course compresses
both time and experience.
Case studies, in effect, allow students to live many lives, to replicate the cases that
made up the lives of others. Thus relatively young students can gain much of the
insight and wisdom of a manager who has had the equivalent of hundreds of years of
PREFACE
xiii
experience. In theory, this makes them so wise beyond their years that employers will
eagerly seek them out. In allowing students to borrow the experiences of others, case
studies seek to solve the problem of creating on-the-job experiences in those who have
no actual experience.
IN THE TRADITION OF THUCYDIDES
The modern case study as a specific vehicle for conveying social science research
became fashionable in the period between the world wars. These case studies were
inspired by the case history approach used in medical research. Now the term case study
is used for a bewildering variety of presentations, some so methodologically rich that
they sag with statistical analyses, others straight historical narratives that tell a story
from beginning to end. Sometimes such cases are written specifically for teaching purposes and have only a beginning and a middle. The end, known to the instructor, is
kept from the students until after a presumably lively class discussion allows students to
come to their own conclusions that are then compared to the reality. Then, of course,
there are legal cases, the precedent-setting opinions of judges used to teach law; these
are not our concern here.
Within the fields of public policy and administration, two kinds of cases have
emerged. The first is historical, much like those of Thucydides. They recount events
and seek to draw lessons. The best of them are also gripping stories, with much of the
dramatic suspense and surprising outcome of a novel. However, the case study format
is also used as a way of framing and presenting the results of formal empirical research.
Here observational or survey techniques yield quantitative data that can be validated
by statistical methodologies, similar to formal experiments in the natural sciences and
medicine. These latter types of case, used increasingly as the basis for research designs
in public policy and administration, and also in doctoral dissertations, are not our
concern either.
This book is a collection of historical cases—informal history presented as good stories or explanations of policy-making and/or administrative phenomena. Our efforts are
unabashedly in the tradition of Thucydides in that we hope all our efforts are useful
enough to have wider applicability. Although the cases are clearly concerned with public
policy and its administration, they are written, as far as practical given the nature of the
subject matter, in an informal journalistic manner. Even though we do not offer news as
such, our case study format tends to follow the journalistic credo that a news story
should contain these essential elements: who, what, why, when, where, and how.
A MESSAGE TO GARCIA
Case studies are not just explorations into techniques of how to accomplish this or that
critical task; they must also be, at heart, inspirational. That is certainly what the Greeks
expected of their cases. Readers today are still inspired by the story of The Iliad and the
exploits of Ulysses depicted in The Odyssey. Cases ultimately must be able to inspire
readers toward new achievements.
xiv
PREFACE
A modern, compared to ancient Greek, case that illustrates this inspirational aspect
is Elbert Hubbard’s (1856–1915) A Message to Garcia (1899). Hubbard, who is generally
credited with first observing that “life is one damn thing after another,” was an American
publisher and writer. During the Spanish-American War, he learned of the exploits of
Andrew Rowan, an Army officer sent behind enemy lines to Cuba to coordinate military
efforts with the Cuban revolutionaries fighting for independence from Spain.
This tale of initiative in the face of daunting challenges exhorts the reader to take a
similar “don’t ask questions, get the job done” attitude toward his or her job. Rowan’s
job was to get a message through to Calixto Garcia (1839–1898), who had long been
leading the fight for Cuban independence. Rowan’s inventive way of overcoming of
every obstacle—harsh jungles, smelly bandits, poisonous snakes, the usual—that got in
his way becomes an inspirational saga, as written by Hubbard, that sold over 40 million
copies and was known by practically every literate American throughout most of the
first half of the twentieth century. It was required reading for U.S. officers in World
Wars I and II; and large businesses bought copies in bulk for their managers. The very
title, A Message to Garcia, became a catchphrase for accomplishment, for a “can do” attitude, for doing a difficult task despite all, and for demonstrating your worthiness as a
member of your team.
Inspirational case studies come in many forms. For example, consider the inspirational nature of Shepherd Mead’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
(1952). This book, when made into a play, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1967,
despite the fact that it was really a Broadway musical comedy (made into a film in 1967).
Nevertheless, it inspires. It inspires those who seek to rise in the corporate world to do so
by sucking up to the big boss, to his ugly secretary, and to anyone else who needs sucking
up to. Inspirational? Yes, to a limited number of suckers who don’t realize that this case is
a parody of the business world, but hardly widely applicable.
Real knights of the organizational realm earn their spurs by taking “a message to
Garcia,” by accomplishing something that is admirable. Widely known case studies
such as Garcia illustrate, define, and project the character of a nation. The ancient
Greeks might seek to emulate Ulysses’ cunning, determination, and devotion to his
family. Now the Americans, who always had famous heroes such as George Washington
and Abraham Lincoln, suddenly had as a role model an ordinary man doing an extraordinary thing. This offering up of a role model—an exemplar to be admired and imitated—has always been one of the most important functions of a case study. Remember
Ulysses.
ADVENTURE FOLLOWS
The cases in this book are in this tradition of narrative instruction, of narrative inspiration. Included are twenty-eight stories or explanations of public policy making
and/or administrative phenomena. For the most part, these provide information that
every student and practitioner should know. They were all (but one) written by the
same team, so they have the same style and tone. If you liked reading the various
PREFACE
xv
editions of Introducing Public Administration by Jay M. Shafritz, E. W. Russell, and
Christopher P. Borick, then this collection should have comparable appeal to you. The
organization of this work has the same chapter arrangement as Introducing Public
Administration, but the cases are all independent; they can be easily mixed or matched
with any other core text.
Before a case can be of instructional value, it must be interesting enough for students to begin to read it, and then hold their attention. That is why, we have sought to
create cases that highlight the great drama of public policy and the ingenuity of its concomitant administrators. As much as possible we sought out adventure. We wanted to
tell thrilling stories that emphasized the true-life adventures of public policy makers and
administrators.
Even though we start out with a story of the world’s most famous fictional detective,
the story is true because it deals with a fictional character’s influence on real events. The
only other major use of fiction is our use of Shakespeare’s plays to understand organization theory (Chapter 12); snippets of fiction are used here and there to illustrate aspects
of organization development (Chapter 14), government surveillance (Chapter 15), and
policy analysis (Chapter 28).
Not all of the cases that follow are strictly historical. Certainly all the biographical
cases are; but others are procedural in whole or in part because they do not so much provide a case as make the case for a process or way of thinking about public policy and its
implementation. For example, Chapter 3 makes the case that doctrine is pivotal to
understanding public policy, and Chapter 12 makes the case that Shakespeare’s prose
and poetry anticipated many of the findings of twentieth-century social scientists and
organization theorists.
For the most part, we offer histories in the form of adventure stories that every student of public policy and administration should know. Readers will learn:
• How Lincoln Steffens and the muckrakers paved the way for the development of
modern public administration (Chapter 2)
• How the decision was made by President Harry S Truman to drop the first atomic
bomb on Japan in order to end World War II (Chapter 4)
• How the ideas of an academic economist and a famous novelist led to the recession
that started in 2008 (Chapter 5)
• How the current U.S. welfare state was inspired by a German chancellor (Chapter 6)
• How a Nazi war criminal inadvertently provided the world with a lesson in bureaucratic ethics (Chapter 9)
• How Sun Tzu, in ancient China, understood the essentials of modern systems
theory (Chapter 11)
• How Napoleon Bonaparte encouraged the job of chief of staff to escape from the
military and live in contemporary civilian offices (Chapter 13)
• How Al Gore really deserves just a little bit of credit for inventing the Internet
(Chapter 16)
xvi
PREFACE
• How an obscure state department bureaucrat wrote the policy of containment that
allowed the United States to win the Cold War with the Soviet Union (Chapter 17)
• How the RAND Corporation was invented and, in turn, invented strategy for the
nuclear age (Chapter 18)
• How gaining high office is so often an essay contest won by those who can write
well, such as Woodrow Wilson, as well as by those who can cheat at writing well,
such as John F. Kennedy (Chapter 21)
• How Dwight D. Eisenhower was started on the road to the presidency by a mentor
he found in the Panamanian rainforest (Chapter 22)
• How Thurgood Marshall led the legal fight for civil rights and made it possible for
Barack Obama to become president (Chapter 23)
• And how Florence Nightingale gathered statistics during the Crimean War that
helped lead to contemporary program evaluation (Chapter 27)
The case topics were selected because we found them interesting. Sometimes we
took a paragraph or two from our introductory text and developed it into a case. Sometimes we took a case that had been retired from the text (and now exists only in earlier
editions) and expanded and updated it into a new case. More often we started from
scratch with just the germ of an idea that we nurtured into a case.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank the following reviewers for their assistance on this book: Peter
L. Cruise, Mary Baldwin College; Samuel T. Shelton, Troy University; and Allen
Zagoren, Drake University. We are especially grateful to Jeffery K. Guiler of Robert
Morris University for his many suggestions on the Sherlock Holmes chapter. Robert
Seskin, the treasurer of the Siena Community Association, offered essential advice on
the ethical mandates and fiduciary responsibilities of those who are stewards of public
funds. Peter Foot of the Geneva Center for Security Policy offered invaluable assistance
with earlier versions of Chapter 14, “Organization Development in Hollywood War
Movies.” This case originally appeared in Jay M. Shafritz and E. W. Russell, Introducing
Public Administration, 2nd edition (New York: Longman, 2000); then in a revised version that appeared in Public Voices, Vol. 4, No. 2 (2000). This was also the situation
with Chapter 12 on Shakespeare. The material originated in Jay M. Shafritz,
Shakespeare on Management: Wise Counsel and Warnings from the Bard (New York: Birch
Lane Press, 1992). Material from that work was adapted for an article, “Shakespeare the
Organization Theorist,” which appeared in the first issue of Public Voices, Vol. 1, No. 1
(Fall 1993). The current chapter is a new adaptation from the original source. We are
also indebted to Albert C. Hyde, formerly of the Brookings Institution, who, being a
resident of San Francisco, was uniquely situated to write Chapter 26 on the state of
California’s fiscal woes. Finally, we are happy to thank Eric Stano, Longman’s political
science editor, who helped to conceptualize this project and used his good offices to
bring it to life.
PREFACE
xvii
This book has been a collaboration of two friends. Although we are separated by
both generations and geography, we have a common interest in good stories that illustrate the subjects we have spent our academic lives teaching. We hope that our work provides readers with an interesting and insightful perspective on a field that touches so
many aspects of our daily lives. Naturally, all omissions, mistakes, or other flaws that
may be found herein are solely our responsibility. We are hopeful that this will find sufficient acceptance that subsequent editions will be warranted. Thus, suggestions for
improvements and enhancements will always be welcome.
JAY M. SHAFRITZ
Professor Emeritus
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
University of Pittsburgh
[email protected]
CHRISTOPHER P. BORICK
Political Science Department
Muhlenberg College
[email protected]
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CHAPTER ONE
Sherlock Holmes and
the Case of Scientific
Management
HOW THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS
DETECTIVE WAS A PIVOTAL INFLUENCE
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF U.S. PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
PREVIEW
Mickey Mouse and Santa Claus are his only rivals to having the world’s
most instantly recognizable silhouette. Almost everyone in the literate world
knows that a deerstalker cap on the head, a drooping pipe in the mouth, a
short-caped overcoat on the shoulders, and a magnifying glass in the hand
mean that Sherlock Holmes is afoot. The demand for Sherlock Holmes stories, both original and derivative, has been unrelenting ever since this intellectual action hero first appeared in London’s Strand Magazine in 1891.
Untold numbers of novels, stage plays, films, radio dramas, and television
programs have used the Holmes character both seriously and in parody.
However, the following case offers something that has never been seen before: Sherlock Holmes coming to life and taking his place on history’s stage.
FROM FICTION TO HISTORY
This is a true story about something that is fundamentally untrue, the career of Sherlock
Holmes. How can there be a true story about a fictional character invented by an amiable country doctor and alive only in the imaginations of his fans? “Elementary, my dear
reader,” as Holmes himself might say.
The truth of this story lies not in the existence of the character but in the influence
the character has had on real events and real people. This is a case of a fictional detective
being so influential that he has moved beyond the realm of literature and into the reality
1
2
Part I THE DEVELOPMENT OF U.S. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
of history. A few years after the Sherlock Holmes character was first presented to the
public, he came to life not as a living individual but as a force in human events. As you
will see, there is nothing supernatural afoot.
Although it rarely happens, it is unquestionably true that fictional characters can
play critical roles in historical events. Perhaps the most telling single example of this
phenomenon is Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This depiction
of the cruelty of slavery did much to create the political climate that led to the U.S. Civil
War of 1861–1865. Consequently, when wartime President Abraham Lincoln met Mrs.
Stowe for the first time in 1863, he said, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the
book that made this great war!”
Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin specifically as abolitionist propaganda, to influence
the national debate over slavery, but Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) did not have
any such high motives in mind when he conceived Sherlock Holmes. The author was a
struggling young physician with few patients and consequently a lot of time on his
hands. His marginal medical practice gave him the free time to write a story about a new
kind of detective, one who would treat crime as physicians treated disease: by combining modern science with ancient logic.
CONCEIVED AS POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT
Conan Doyle’s goal was simply to write a popular entertainment that would supplement
the income from his medical practice. In this he would be bitterly disappointed—if only
initially. He had already published more than two dozen short stories, but he was unable
to interest a regular publisher in the first Sherlock Holmes story, the novel, A Study in
Scarlet. After several rejections, his only option was to sell it outright to a magazine—for
only £25, less than $3,000 today. Thus Holmes made his debut as one feature among
many in Beeton’s Christmas Annual for 1887—hardly an impressive start for what would
become the single most popular and best-loved literary creation of all time.
The novel proved popular enough that it appeared as a book in London in 1888
and in a U.S. edition in 1890. However, Conan Doyle made nothing from these books,
as he had been required to assign all rights to Beeton’s. Meanwhile, he went on to new
writing projects that did not include Holmes. But then the United States came to the
rescue, and Holmes was resurrected.
Because the United States did not have a law governing international copyrights
until mid-1891, British authors, who conveniently wrote in English, were easily and frequently pirated. As a result, even though he was not paid for it, some of Conan Doyle’s
short stories as well as the first Holmes novel were more widely read in the United States
than in Great Britain. While pirates in the publishing trade effectively steal from authors
by not paying them with cash, they at least pay them the compliment of selling their
work to an expanding audience.
Conan Doyle’s growing reputation, following in large measure from this literary
piracy, directly led to a momentous dinner invitation. The U.S. editor of Lippincott’s
Monthly Magazine, Joseph Marshall Stoddart, was in England in early 1889 seeking to
commission new stories for both the U.S. edition of the magazine and a new English
Chapter One SHERLOCK HOLMES
3
version that would be published simultaneously. Thus he invited two promising
young authors to dine with him at the Langham Hotel in London: Conan Doyle and
Oscar Wilde.
The buttoned-down provincial physician could hardly be more of a contrast to the
flamboyant urbane wit long known for his outrageous dress. Nevertheless, the two
seemed to get on splendidly with each other and with Stoddart. The dinner was such a
success that by its end, each author had agreed to provide a new novel that would be first
published in the magazine. Conan Doyle would produce another Sherlock Holmes adventure, The Sign of the Four (1890). His new friend Oscar Wilde, whose great plays
were still to come, would create his classic, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).
This literary dinne
