Book Notes
| Date | 01 September 1959 |
| Published date | 01 September 1959 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1959.tb01946.x |
| Subject Matter | Book Notes |
BOOK
NOTES
D. G.
CHARLTON’S
book
Positivist Thought
in
France during
the
Second Empire,
1852-
I870
(Oxford University Press, pp. ix+251,
35s.)
should prove useful to British students
as it covers in detail some ground that is not too familiar in this country. After an account
of the nature of positivism, the author discusses Comte, Littrt5, Claude Bernard, Renan,
Taine, and the relations between positivism and the Parnassians. There is a full bibliography.
Positivism in a more extended (and not altogether clear) sense
has
also been discussed in
Noel Annan’s
L.
T.
Hobhouse Memorial Lecture
The Curious Srrength
of
Positivism in
English Polirical Thought
(Oxford University Press, pp.
21, 3s.).
Further ground that is not
too familiar in this country is covered in
Ethics in a World
of
Power:
the
Politicat Ideas
of
Friedrich Meinecke
by Richard
W.
Sterling (Princeton University Press; London, Oxford
University Press, pp. ix
+
318, 36s.),
a well-documented introduction to Meinecke’s thought
with a very full bibliography.
The greater part of Joseph Grimond’s
The Liberal Future
(Faber, pp.
197,
12s.
6d.)
is
concerned with economic and social questions; but students of politics may find
a
special
interest in the first three chapters which deal with political principles, political theory, and
political reforms, and chapter
9
which deals with international relations.
Students of social history will wish to see vol. xx of the BibliothBque de la Revolution
de
1848-Le
Cholera:
la
premiZ.re kpidhic
du
XIXe
sibcle
edited by Louis Chevalier
of
the Collbge de France (pp. xvii
+
188,750
fr.). It deals mainly with the epidemic in different
parts
of
France; but it also contains chapters on Russia, by members
of
the U.S.S.R.
Academy of Sciences, and on the United Kingdom,
by
David Eversley
of
Birmingham
University.
The local community cannot very well be studied in all its manifestations unless by the
chance survival of an adequate range of archives. These exist
for
Exeter, and, in
Exerer,
1540-1640.
The Growth
of
an
English Country Town
(Oxford University Press for Harvard
University Press, pp.
31 1,454
Dr. Wallace
T.
MacCaffrey has made thorough and effective
use
of
them to build up a picture of municipal government, economic and social life which
is convincing in its analysis and, in most respects, in its synthesis.
Gervas Huxley’s biography of a Caroline courtier, monopolist and minor office-holder-
Endymion Porter The Life
of
a Courtier,
1587-1649
(Longman’s,
1959,
25s.),
is readable,
but throws little light, and no new light, on Charles 1’s government.
In
British Public Finance and Administration,
1774-92
(Oxford University Press, pp.
320,
45s.),
J.
E.
D.
Binney has undertaken the difficult task
of
describing the unreformed British
financial and administrative system and, at the same time, assessing the reforms inspired by
the Commissions
of
1780
and
1785.
It
is
not easy to see Mr. Binney’s period as a unit:
1774-80
was neither a reforming nor a normal period, and
1792
was not the end of the
period of reform. Mr. Binney deals more successfully with finance than with administration:
his description of the organization and functions of the Treasury, for example, contains
errors, and his treatment of the interaction of politics and administration
is
not very satis-
factory. His examination
of
the contribution of individual reformers is interesting but
gives rise to some repetition.
The seventh volume in the University of London Historical Series is
Persia and the
Defence
of
India,
1884-1892
by Rose Louise Greaves (Athlone Press, pp. xii
+
301, 42s.).
Miss Greaves has drawn upon previously unused material in the Gladstone, Salisbury,
Kimberley, and Lytton papers. Extensive extracts from the documents are given in appen-
dixes, and
there
is
a
very
full
bibliography. The essential argument
of
the book is that
‘Lord Salisbury’s policy in Asia shows a consistent development, and it forms
a
coherent
pattern’.
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