Book Notes
| Date | 01 July 1936 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1936.tb02444.x |
| Published date | 01 July 1936 |
Book
Notes
"he
Municipal
Year
Book,
1936.
Edited
by
James Forbes.
Pp.
1578
+
Ivi.
(The
Muni-
THE
1936
Municipal
Year
Book
is
already well known to
all
officials, societies,
etc.,
responsibly connected with local government, and to
all
serious students of
municipal
affairs.
This
is just
as
well, for
it
is
not
possible
in
a
brief space
to
review
a
volume
of
1,650
closely printed pages,
nor
even to give
a
list
of
its
contents.
But
some
of
our
overseas readers and new students of local govern-
ment may not find
it
unwelcome
to
be assured
that
in
this country the Municipal
Year
Book
is not merely the most authentic and comprehensive encyclopadia of
local government
as
practised in the United Kingdom-it
is
the
only
one.
If
one desires
a
convenient reference
to
powers, policies, or persons
it
is
to
this
volume that one
turns
first.
cipal
Journal,
Ltd.,
London.)
30s.
x.
Y.
z.
bcd
Gowpment
in
England.
By
E.
L.
Hasluck,
M.A.,
F.RHist.S.
Pp.ixf363.
THIS
is
an
account
of
the
English
Id
government system, With some accouDf
of its working,
on
the whole conpetenlly done, lively
in
parts,
without much
originality,
which
perhaps
is
not
.to
be
expected
in
what appears
to
be
primady
intended
as
a
text-book.
The doubt
arks
as
to
the
kind.
J3
students are expected
to
know
a
lot
of
detailed
facts,
then
let
them
be
set
out
in
concise
tabula
form.
But
students
should not
,be
encouraged just
to
memorise facts. What they should be stimu-
lated to do
is
to understand the underlying principles
of
present conditions and
past developments,
with
facts
chiefly
fitting
into their place
as
part
of
this
understanding. Until more
is
done
in
this
respect,
the
study of government, and
of
social
organisation and service in general,
is
nat
likely
to
take
its
pqer
place
as
one
d
the very
best
means
of
general training of mind.
As
for
the
ordinary
citizen,
or
even one of
thee
birds deemed
rare
by the author,
a
citizen
who
takes
a
live interest in
his
local
government, one scarcely sees
him
reading
a
bk
d
this
kind without
tsars.
The author
touches
on
a
number
of
current prablems-the system
of
local
taxation and possible alternatives,
the
apathy
of
the
elector,
regional
area%
the
inroads
of
central departments,
uvk
education
and others-but necessarily
only skimmingly within the space
at
:his
disposal;
a
treatment not likely
to
be
of
much
service
for
student
or
general
reader.
The
gibes
at
the ordinary
elector
and the
ordinary
member
of
Council
are
overdme and
rak0
questions
whether
there
is
behind
oheon
a
bd
enough experience and sduent knowledge
of
the
significance
of
local
government.
But
as
I
have
indicated, the
book
is
good
of
its kind. Incidentally, the index
seems
scarcely sufficient.
(Cambridge University
Press.)
12s.
6d.
net.
Of
its
kind
it
can
be
commended.
I.
G.
G.
340
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