Book Notes
| Date | 01 October 1962 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1962.tb01000.x |
| Published date | 01 October 1962 |
| Subject Matter | Book Notes |
BOOK
NOTES
As its sub-title shows,
The
First Whigs; the Politics
of
the Exclusion Crisis
by J. R. Jones,
(Oxford University
Press
for the University of Durham, pp.
224, 30s)
is
a
study of the politics
of the years
1678-83.
Analysis of the Whigs is confined to
an
introduction and the story
of
Whig efforts to force Exclusion on Charles
I1
by electioneering and parliamentary pressure is
the main theme. Emphasis is placed on the
high
degree
of
party organization achieved by
Shaftesbury, the singlemindedness
of
Whig agitation and the personal success which their
defeat was for the king. Above all it appears clearly that in relying on Parliamentary tactics the
Whigs
were blind to the reality of the royal prerogative; power in parliament meant nothing
until the king could
be
bound by it.
The end
sories
of
The Political Correspondence of
Mr.
CladFtone and Lord Granville
edited
by AgathaRamm (Clarendon Press,
2
v. pp.
xlviii+482+508,168s)covering
the decade
1876-
86,
opens
with a good introduction on the influence of the personality
of
individual ministers,
on how
a
cabinet works, and on the disintegrating effect on a cabinet of lack of leadership by
the Prime Minister. The correspondence itselfadds very little to what is known already about the
period, but catches the atmosphere of
a
cabinet in which things are going wrong. There are
some interesting passages on the development of modern political parties, as when Gladstone
in
1880
writes of
a
selection conference for a Liberal candidate at
L+eds.
‘I
cannot stomach the
notion of sending a young
man,
or
any
man,
to speak on trial, as if he were in an examination
at Oxford’.
Duncan
Burn
has followed
his
well-known and authoritative book on the
Economic History
of
Steelmaking,
1867-1939
with
a
volume on
The Steel Industry
1939-1959:
a Study in Competi-
tion and Planning
(Cambridge University
Press,
pp.
728, 80s).
The same deep knowledge
of
both
the
economic and technical aspects is displayed in even greater detail. Necessarily. opinions
advanced after
an
era of nationalization and denationalization are more controversial; but this
minute study, supported by comparative examinations of the European Coal and Steel Com-
munity and the American industry under anti-trust attack, must now be the tint reading
of
all
concerned with recent events in the industry.
English Radicalism:
l’?te
End?
(Allen and Unwin, pp.
640,
70s)
concludes
S.
Maccoby’s six
volume survey of Radicalism from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Slightly overlapping
its immediate predecessor to provide continuity, it covers
a
period of about thirty years from
1906
onwards, the main theme being the effect
on
Radicalism, as voiced by the weekly,
The
Nation,
of the
rise
of
the
Labour Party and the decline and disintegration of the Liberals.
Hugh Thorburn’s
Politics in New Brunswick
(University of Toronto
Press,
London: Oxford
University Press, pp.
xt-217, 48s)
is the third study of
an
Atlantic province in the ‘Canadian
Government
Series’.
It
is
an
interesting desaiption (with perhaps too little analysis) of the
social
structure, elections, and political parties of this post-Confederation ‘back-water’.
Two recent
books
by
Dr.
James
Eayrs
are very important contributions to the understanding
of
Canada’s
position
in
world affairs.
Northern Approaches: Can& and the Search
jor
Peace
(Macmillan, pp.
xiii
+
195,
30s)
is
a
collection of
some
of the author’s recent talks and articles
on
a
variety of subjects of crucial importance to Canada’s foreign relations-the ‘Great
Deterrent’, the Commonwealth, UNO, and neutralism.
In
The Art ofthe Possible
(University
of Toronto
Press,
London: Oxford University Press, pp. viii
+232.56s)
Dr.
Eayrs
uses
Canada’s
foreign policy
as
a
vehicle for
a
much-needed and wellexecuted analysis of federal government
policy-making.
Social Purpose for
Cd,
edited by Michael Oliver (University of Toronto Press, London:
Oxford University
Press,
pp. xii
f472,
64s)
is
a
left-ofctntrt critique drawn largely from con-
tributions at Canadian universities. The full range of Canada’s social, economic, and political
problems
is,
for the most part, calmly and thoroughly scrutinizad.
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