ABSTRACT
This chapter utilises the publication of Brownlow’s autobiography, A Passion for Anonymity and other material as an occasion for a re-assessment of the debate about his famous report and of the contemporary but neglected work of the Brookings Institution. It provides some estimate of what may, in fact, be done about enquiry and recommendation in this field. The chapter explains the history of the Brownlow and the Brookings reports and the actual content of the Brownlow report. Whatever Brownlow’s work achieved in terms of actual reorganization it is certainly true that the work of the Byrd Committee and of the Brookings Institution has been all but forgotten. The Brownlow report essentially consisted of several recommendations and these, in the final report, were just what Brownlow had anticipated in his hotel room before the Committee had been created. In the Brookings reports, one can find both an attack on the Brownlow position, and a statement of an alternative.
