Book Review: Commonwealth of Nations: English History 1914–1945
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200132 |
| Author | C. P. Stacey |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
120
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
which
only
stir
up opposition,
but
by
quiet
deals
and
by
blurring
and
fuzzing
the
issues.
If
the
public knew
what
was
going
on,
it
would
object,
even
though
the
measures
are
sound
and
necessary.
Mr.
Kraft
would
presumably
cite
the
1966
civil
rights
bill
as
an
example
of
what
happens
when
the
public
does become
interested
in
what
is
going
on,
and
the
politicians
and
the
bureaucrats
have
to
draw
back.
But
if
his
analysis
is
correct,
such
events
will
become
increasingly
rare.
University
of
Toronto
G.
M.
CRAIG
Commonwealth
of
Nations
ENGLIsH
HIsTORY
1914-1945.
By
A.
J. P
Taylor.
1965.
(Oxford:
Clarendon
Press.
Toronto:
Oxford
Umversity
Press.
xxvii,
709pp.
$9.00)
When
I
was
at
Oxford,
far
back
in
the
mneteen-twenties,
English
History
(if
my
memory serves
me) stopped
in
1884;
to
study events
later
than
that,
it
was
presumably
considered,
would
risk arousing
dangerous political
emotions
in
the
undergraduate.
But things
have
moved
on.
When
the
Oxford
History
of
England
was planned, before
the
Second
World
War,
it
was
thought
safe
to
take
the
story
down
to
1914.
Now
the
planners have
become
still
more
daring.
They
have
recognized
that
events
as
late
as
1945
are
history-
and
they have
entrusted
the
last
extension
to
Mr.
A.
J. P
Taylor.
The
result
justifies
their
boldness.
It
is
one
of
the
best
books
in
the
15-volume
series,
and
undoubtedly
the
most
interesting.
If
it
sometimes
illustrates
its
author's
impish
approach
to
history
it
also
reflects
his
penetrating msight,
his
comprehensive
knowledge,
and
his skill
with
the
pen.
Students
will
read it
for
pleasure
as
well
as profit; and
I
am
sure
that
many
people
outside
of academic
life
have
already
found
it
a
fascinating
guide to
the
retrospective
understanding
of
their
own
times.
There
is
no
more
absorbing
account
of
the
British
share
in
the
two
World
Wars
and
the
predominantly
grim interlude
that
separated
them.
The
judgments
are
highly
personal
and
frequently
acidulous,
the
point
of
view
fresh
and
independent;
but
both
are
usually
well
grounded
in
very
wide
reading.
Particularly
pungent
are
the
comments
on
per-
sonalities,
not
least
in
the thumbnail
biographies
provided
in
footnotes.
The
final word
in
these
is
often a
clincher.
On
King
George
V
"his
trousers
were
creased
at
the
sides,
not
front
and
back"
On
H.
H.
Asquith
("the
first
prime
mimster
since
the
younger
Pitt
who
is
said
to
have
been
manifestly
the
worse
for
drink
when
on
the
Treasury
Bench")
"In
cabinet, Asquith
wrote
letters
to
Venetia
Stanley"
On
Curzon
("one
of
nature's
rats")
"Many
of
the
best
stories
against
Curzon
were
made
up
by
Curzon
himself.
On
Churchill
(who
takes
some
very
hard
knocks
in
the
book)-
"the
saviour
of his
country"
The
central character,
how-
ever,
is
no
individual,
but
the
English
people:
not
just
"the workers"
as
with
more
leftishly
inclined
writers,
but
the
whole
people.
I
cannot
resist
quoting
the
author's
final
sentences:
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