Book Review: Commonwealth of Nations: The Habit of Authority
| Author | John Bowle |
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070206702200133 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REviEws
121
The
British
were
the
only
people
who
went
through
both
World
Wars
from
beginning to
end.
Yet
they
remained
a
peaceful
and
civilized
people,
tolerant,
patient,
and generous.
Traditional
values
lost
much
of
their
force.
Other values
took
their
place.
Imperial
greatness
was
on
the
way out;
the
welfare
state
was
on
the
way
in.
The
British
empire
declined;
the
condition of
the
people
im-
proved.
Few
now
sang
"Land
of
Hope
and
Glory"
Few
even
sang
"England
Arise"
England had
risen
all
the
same.
If
Mr.
Taylor
is
in
some
ways
a
maverick among
Oxford
historians,
in one
matter
at
least
he
runs
thoroughly
true
to
type;
his
invincible
provincialism
is
in
the
best
tradition
of
the
series.
(Some
readers
will
remember
the
magnificent account
of
the War
of
1812
in
J.
Steven
Watson's
The
Reign
of
George
III,
where General
Brock
becomes
Colonel
Brook
and
two
naval
officers,
one
named
Cochrane
and
one
named
Cockburn,
are
apparently
combined
into a
single
gentleman
called
Cockrane.)
Anyone
or
anything
that
is
not
English
or
at
least
European
is
not
worth
being
accurate about.
The
names
of
American
historians
and
a
South African
prime
minister
are
misspelled.
The
relationship
of
the
Dominions
to
the
cancellation
of
the
Anglo-Japanese
Alliance
is
totally
garbled;
we
are
told
that
Mackenzie
King was
responsible
for
raising
the constitutional
question
at
the
Imperial
Conference
of
1926,
which
is
the
reverse
of
the
truth;
Canada
gives
a
"firm
refusal"
at
the
time
of
the
Chanak
episode,
which
she
didn't;
and
the
chronology
of
that
affair
is
quite wrongly
stated.
Finally,
the
book
contains
no
in-
dication
that
Canadians
fought
anywhere
in
the
Second
World
War,
except
at
Dieppe.
Cheer
up, chaps;
we
ought
to
be
used
to
this
by
now.
University
of
Toronto
C.
P
STACEY
THE
HABrr
OF AUTHORITY.
Paternalism
in
British History.
By
A.
P
Thorn-
ton.
1966.
(Toronto:
University
of
Toronto
Press.
402pp.
$7.50)
"The
main
theme
of
English
history" writes
Professor
Thornton,
"is
a
tradition
of
successful
paternalism.
Tius
kind
of "government
for
the
people"
has
had
extraordinary
success,
and
it
is
now
coming
to terms
with the
current
demands
of
full
democracy.
Since
adaptability
in
England
has
always
been
better
thought
of
than
principle,
pragmatism
has
prevailed,
and a
"handing
over"
of
power
has
avoided
revolution.
All
this
has
reflected
the
realism
of
those
in
power
as
much
as
the
English habit
of
deference.
Professor
Thornton writes
with
vigour
and
wit.
When,
in
1381,
the
peasants
appealed
to
Domesday
book,
unprinted
until
1783,
one
wonders,
he
remarks,
"what
they
thought
was
in
it"
and
he
pays
just
tribute
to
that
"comic
masterpiece"
1066
and
AlZ
That,
because
it
vindicates
the
common
man.
In
the
view of
the
Establishment,
William
the
Conqueror,
though a
Bad
Man,
was
a
Good
Thing;
but
the
English
at
the
time
did
not
think
so.
They
paid
the
penalty
of
failure
by
being
"singularly
ignored"
for
"most
history
is
what
the
tlunker
thinks
important"
Both
Milner
and
Sidney
Webb, he
points out,
were
basically
"improving
landlords" impatient
of
the
tenantry,
domestic
and
external,
and
To continue reading
Request your trial