Book Notes
| Published date | 01 June 1961 |
| Date | 01 June 1961 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.1961.tb00834.x |
| Subject Matter | Book Notes |
BOOK
NOTES
A
large-scale study of Plato’s
Laws
has
been produced by Professor Glenn
R.
Morrow
of
Pennsylvania in
P/ato’s Cretan City
(Princeton University
Press;
London, Oxford University
Press,
pp.
xxii+623, lOOs.),
This
expounds, interprets, and traces, with great thoroughness,
the
influence
of Plato’s recommendations against the background of the political and con-
stitutional experience of Crete, Sparta, and Athens.
A
short study of
Soziale Zdeen in Byzanz,
by Professor Gmegon L. %idler, has
been
published
in the.Berliner Byzantinistische Arbeiten of the Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften
zu
Berlin, lnstitut fur Griechish-Romische Altertumskunde (Akademie Verlag, pp.
70,
n.p.1.
John
B.
Morrall’s
Political Thought in Medieval Times,
which was first published by
Hutchinson’s in
1958,
has
now been re-issued in their University Library (pp.
154,
12s.
6d.).
In
Problems
of
Historical Psychology
(Routledge
Br
Kegan Paul, pp.
xf222,
25s.)
Zevedei
Barbu,
who
is
a lecturer
in
Social Psychology in Glasgow, is concerned ‘to present a few
selected examples, which should illustrate, on the one hand, the application of historical con-
cepts and methods to the study of the human mind, and on the other, the
use
to the historian,
of some of the conceptual tools of contemporary psychology’. The greater part of the
book
deals with two
main
examples-‘The Emergence of Personality in the Greek World’ and ‘The
Origins
of
English Character’.
w
Obligation
and
the Bdy Politic,
by Joseph Tussman (Oxford University Press, New
York,
pp. vi+
144,
32s.),
is
a sensible and not too difficult little book which examines several of the
central
concepts
of
political theory. It might
be
useful for the kind of student who tends to feel
at
sea
when he has to deal with the analytical sides of politics.
The new collections of constitutional documents from the Cambridge University
Press
present both familiar and novel texts, with full
commentaries
and references, and with useful
bibliographies. G.
R.
Elton,
The Tudor Constitution
(pp. xvi+496, cloth,
52,
6d.;
paper,
27s.
M.),
replaces
J.
R. Tanner,
Tudor Constitutional Documents;
E.
N.
Williams,
The Eigh-
teenth-Century Constitution
(pp. xvi+464, cloth,
5b.
6d.;
paper,
27s.
6d.).
covering
1688-1815,
does not precisely parallel other collections in period. The
first,
while retaining many of
Tanner’s pieces, reflects the editor’s interest by the inclusion of an appreciable amount on
administration. Parliament
is
also fully
represented.
Local government material
has
been
sub-
stantially reduced.
In
the second volume parliament
takes
a very prominent place, local
government
is
very well represented, while there is almost nothing on administration.
The fifth series of Whidden
Lectures
at McMaster University was delivered by
Sir
George
Clark and
is
now
published under the title
Three Aspects
of
Stuart EngW
(Oxford university
Press, pp.
vii+77,8s.
W.).’
The
three
aspects
are
insularity, social structure, and frcedom.
David Underdown’s
book,
Royalist Conspiracy in
EngW
1649-1660
(Yale University
Press;
London, Oxford University Press, pp. xvii+
374,48s.),
is
an
original and scholarly
narra-
tive account of the Royalist underground movement to overthrow the Commonwealth and
Protectorate. The author
dbcusses
the
structure
of
the Royalist
party,
its personnel and
factions, and he describes the organization and planning of conspiracy
as
well
as
its more
dramatic results. He also examin- the relation
of
the conspirators in wand with the exiled
Court and
assesses
their contribution to the Restoration.
J. Steven Watson’s
The Reign
of
George
IZI,
1760-1815
(Clarendon
Press,
Oxford, pp. xviii+
637, 35s.)
is
the latest volume in the Oxford History
of
England.
An
interpretation of this
critical period in English history which takes into account the research of the past forty years,
especially the detailed studies of politics and industry, has long
been
needed. The need
has
now
in great measure been satisfied. Mr. Watson’s chief interest in the age
is
its
politics. This
makes
for uneveness. Social and cultural history has
been
treated rather briefly. It
was,
however, a
right decision to put the general narrative into a solid political framework; and his account
of
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