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Scholars have shown that Kenneth Burke's research on drug addiction at the Bureau of Social Hygiene shaped his rhetorical theory in Permanence and Change, but less attention has been paid to another facet of this research, criminology, and its influence on Attitudes Toward History. In Attitudes, Burke uses a criminological framework, called the "constabulary function," to characterize the rhetorical strategies political and economic elites use to bolster a deteriorating social order while deflecting attention away from broader, systemic problems. The constabulary function and its attendant terms-alienation, cultural lag, transcendence, symbols of authority, and secular prayer-provide a vocabulary for sociorhetorical critique. I examine how Burke's theory of the constabulary function grew out of his criminological research, consider how that theory informs key terms in Attitudes.
From 1926 to 1930, Kenneth Burke researched illegal drug use and criminology while ghostwriting a book for Colonel Arthur Woods, a member of John D. Rockefeller's Bureau of Social Hygiene. Scholars have explored how this experience shaped some of Burke's own work: Paul Jay, William Rueckert, Debra Hawhee, and Jordynn Jack have mentioned the resonances of Burke's drug research in Permanence and Change (1935), The Philosophy of Literary Form (1941), and Language as Symbolic Action (1966), whereas Ann George and Jack Selzer have mentioned that crime terminology shows up in Attitudes towards History (1937). Yet, aside from Hawhee's analysis of the term "efficiency," scholars have not fully addressed how Burke's criminological research for the Bureau of Social Hygiene informed Burke's theories of rhetoric in his 1937 book, Attitudes toward History. In fact, Burke's connection to the Bureau helps to explain an important but curious term in Attitudes, the "constabulary function." This term is especially interesting because, whereas the terms "crime," "criminal," and "drugs" appear periodically throughout Burke's corpus, the term "constabulary function" appears only in Attitudes.
Attitudes reflects Burke's broad range of interests in the 1930s, including ecological, Freudian, Marxist, and Popular Front thought (Seigel; George and Selzer Kenneth Burke). Not surprisingly, Attitudes includes traces of the many conversations in which Burke participated, especially among the leftist circles such as the League of American Writers, John Reed Club, and the Popular Front. Yet, Attitudes also bears footprints from conversations Burke had with the decidedly un-leftist New York Police Department (NYPD)...