Book Notes
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1957.tb00973.x |
| Published date | 01 June 1957 |
| Date | 01 June 1957 |
| Subject Matter | Book Notes |
BOOK
NOTES
Tyrannicide is not one
of
the commoner topics of discussion in political theory today,
but
a
joint book on
it
by Oscar Jiszi and John
D.
Lewis, which was apparently begun
before 1939, has now been published by the Free Press (Glencoe, Illinois) and the Falcon’s
Wing Press-Against
the
Tyrant:
the
Trodition
and Theory
of
Tyrannicide
(pp.
ix
+
288,
$4.50).
In the first part
of
this book Profcssor Lewis gives
a
succinct account
of
theories
of
tyrannicide
up
to 1660. Professor JAszi takes over in the second part: he proposes an
explanation
of
the relative absence
of
tyrannicide theory in later times, distinguishes
tyrannicide and ‘political murder’, and provides an interesting collection
of
instances. Both
parts are ably handled and the western reader will be likely to agree with the authors, and
Elie
Haltvy,
that there might have been some gain
a
gcneration
ago
if
‘tyranny’ had been
in
use instead of ‘dictatorship’. But by the same token he is likely
to
regret that the book
was
not published
a
generation ago.
Studcnts
of
the history
of
political thought are familiar with the first
of
Alan Gewirth’s
volumes on Marsilius
of
Padua,
Mnrsilirls
of
Pndiiu atid
Medievd
Political
Philosophy,
which appeared in 1951 in the Columbia Uiliversity series ‘Records
of
Civilization: Sources
and Studies’; and they will welcome the second volume, which contains Gewirth’s transla-
tion
of
the
Deferisor
Pacis
(the first complete translation into any foreign language) together
with a helpful introduction. (Columbia University Press; London, Oxford University Press,
pp.
xciv
+
450, 68s.)
Another familiar book which first appcared in 1951
is
R.
N.
Carew Hunt’s excellent
Theory
and
Practice
of
Conimunisrn;
readers will be glad to note that an extensively revised
second edition
of
this is now available. (Geoffrey Bles, pp. x+286,
18s.)
The Cambridge University Press have published an cssay on Burke-The
Moral Basis
of
Burke’s
Political
Thought
by Charles Parkin
(pp.
viii+
145,
12s. 6d.) which is concerned to
dig deeper than the commoner interpretations
of
Burke in terms
of
Prescription, Tradition,
Experience, and Prudence.
A
new volume in the Heinemann Books on Sociology is Raymond Aron’s
German
Sociology
(pp.
viii+141,
16s.).
Aron first produced this book in 1936, but the present
translation has been done by Mary and Thomas Bottomore from the French sccond edition
of
1950, and the author’s appendix on ‘Problems and Methods
of
Contemporary Sociology’
has been added from the German edition of 1953, together with his revised bibliography
prepared
for
that edition. The original work contains four main parts, dealing, respectively,
with systematic sociology (Simmel, von Wiese, Tonnies, Vierkandt, Spann); historical socio-
logy (Oppenheim, Alfred Weber, Marxist and other writings on the sociology
of
know-
ledge); Max Weber; and a general comparison of the trends
of
German and French
sociology. To these the appendix adds
a
firth part reviewing developments in German,
French, and American sociology since 1936.
As
might be expected, both exposition and
criticism throughout show much acuteness: see
in
particular the discussion
of
Mannheim,
parts
of
the discussion
of
Max Weber. and the ndw appendix. But the book has an unfor-
tunately jerky and scrappy quality. This seems to arise in part from the great amount
of
compression it involves; the author skips about from one topic to another, indicates diffi-
culties by formulating series
of
questions, and explains several times that he cannot stop to
dcvelop his points. But it may
also
be that the style
of
the German originals has affected
both the author and the translators: your reviewer has rarely seen
so
extensive a use
of
parenthesis; and the English, besides introducing the curious expression ‘continutor’, uses
one
or
two equivalents that tend to hold
up
the reader: ‘idea’ is generally better than
‘representation’, and ‘federation’ is surely
not
the most informative rendering
of
hund.
Despite these criticisms, this
is
an impressive work.
It
is not likely to help students
of
politics
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