BOOK NOTES
| Published date | 01 December 1954 |
| Date | 01 December 1954 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1954.tb01223.x |
BOOK
NOTES
The British
Civil
Service
1854-1954
By
LL.
WYN GRIFFITH. H.M.S.O.,
1954.
Pp.
32.
Is.
THOUGH
well written this is rather a
disappointing publication, not because it
is a bad book,
it
is not, but because
it
is
an opportunity lost to do something more
interesting and lasting. In large part
this is a failure in aim but the book also
suffers from trying to cover too much in
too little space. The historical section
(some
18
pages) is not particularly good
even on the Trevelyan-Northcote Report.
The author is more at home in the second
part when he is dealing with the work of
the Civil Service today. But many civil
servants must have raised their eyebrows
just a little to read that
“
No
one can climb the steep ladder to
the top of a Department without two
endowments
:
a first-class brain and a
strong personality
”-
at least
in
a booklet published by the
Stationery Office at the direction of the
Treasury.
The Development
of
Local
Government
By WILLIAM
A.
ROBSON. Third Edition.
Allen
&
Unwin,
1954
Pp.
404. 25s.
PROFESSOR
ROBSON
has made extensive
revisions and additions to his prologue-
Local Government in Crisis; Part
11,
The Functions of Local Authorities
;
and
Part
111,
The Local Government Service.
This
is
an important, challenging and
widely read book, and even where one
disagrees with him, one cannot but admire
Professor Robson’s clarity and force of
exposition. One’s doubts about this book
still are to gauge what kind of picture it
leaves with the student and, in particular,
with the overseas reader. Will he have
the slightest idea
of
the great post-war
achievements
of
Local Authorities-small
as
well
as large
?
Will he have any clear
picture of English Local Councils as they
work today? In other words, will he
have the data to put Professor Robson’s
arguments about drastic changes in areas
into proper perspective
?
National Coal Board
Report and Accounts for
1953.
H.C. Paper 160. H.M.S.O.,
1954.
Pp.
208.
8s.
IN
addition to the usual statistical material,
accounts and comments on the main
matters arising during the year,
this
Report includes (in Appendix IV) a copy
of
a General Directive issued by the
Board to all Divisional Chairmen and heads
of Headquarters Departments, in October,
1953.
This was designed to bring up to
date and clarify the duties and responsi-
bilities
of
the various executive and staff
levels of the organisation and their rela-
tionships to each other.
It
is an important
document in the development
of
the
Board’s organisation. It will be interest-
ing to see what changes, if any, occur
in it as a result of the enquiry by Dr.
Fleck (Chairman of I.C.I.) and the four
other members of the Committee
appointed by the Board to review the
organisation as a whole.
Comparative Public Administration
THE
American Political Science
Reviea
for June,
1954,
contains
a
very useful
23-page bibliographical article by Fred
W.
Riggs entitled
‘‘
Notes on Literature
available for the study of comparative
public administration.”
The Human Enterprise
Process
By W. BROWNRIGG. University
of
Alabama Press,
1954.
Pp. viii
-1-
232.
$4.50.
THIS
is a new and interesting attempt to
analyse and explain the features common to
all forms of human enterprise.
It
will be
reviewed in our next issue.
The Housing Repairs and Rents Act,
1954
By ASHLEY BRAMALL. Sweet and
Maxwell,
1954.
Pp.
180.
8s.
6d.
THE
value
of
this layman’s guide to a very
complex and far-reaching measure is
amply demonstrated by the appearance of
a second edition within a month of the
publication of the original.
679
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