Book Review: High Tide and after
| Author | J. B. Conacher |
| Published date | 01 March 1963 |
| Date | 01 March 1963 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206301800132 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEW
123
British-Russian engagement
in
which
the
United
States
was
little
more
than
an
onlooker
wishing
to
withdraw
from Europe as
soon
as
pos-
sible
(pp.
16-18);
or
the
comparison
drawn
between
the
British
approach
to
the
United
Nations, an effort
to
make
it
work
as
a
truly
effective
world
organization, and
the
American approach,
which was
to
use
it
as
a
forum
of public
criticism
of
the
Russians
(p. 188).
But
the
pity
is
that
the author
is
as
sparing
as
he
is
with
generalization
and
personal
opinion.
In
the
final
chapter,
on
"changing
patterns,"
he
is
a
bit
more
daring
in
interpretation,
while
refraining
from
recom-
mendations
of
his
own.
Here
the
question pondered
is
how
Britain
may
by
some
form
of
association
with
others
help
create
a
larger
entity
which can
play
a
role
in
world
politics
on
a
par
with
the
two
super-powers
of
the
postwar
period.
Analysing
the
possibilities
of
a
combination with
Western
Europe, with
the
Commonwealth,
or
with
the
Atlantic
Community, he
comes
to
rather
negative
conclusions
on
all
three,
"at
least
in
the
period
under
review,"
which
ends in
1959.
What British
instinct
and
British
popular
feeling
preferred,
Mr.
Wood-
house
believes,
was
interdependence
and
flexibility
rather
than
any
surrender
of
sovereignty to
a
larger
unit.
Perhaps this
seemed
the
best way
to
protect
British
interests
in
a
world
in
which
rigidity
seemed
to
be
giving way
all
along
the
line,
even in
the
cold
war.
Yet
was
it
any
more
than
an
elaborate
definition
of
muddling
through?
Could one
say
with
any
confidence,
even in
the
encouraging
atmosphere
of
1959,
that
no
bolder
policies
would
be
necessary?
Council
on
Foreign
Relations
JOHN
C.
CAMPBELL
-IGH
Tmig
AND
AAFTER.
Memoirs
1945-1960.
By
Hugh
Dalton.
1962.
(London:
Frederick
Muller. Toronto:
S.
J.
Reginald
Saunders.
xiv,
453
pp.
$10.00)
This,
the
third
volume
of a
larger
work,
is
an
interesting,
informa-
tive
and
readable
autobiography
in
contrast
to
those
of
some
of
Dalton's
former
colleagues who
lacked his flair
for
writing
or
who
had
more
inhibitions about
making
the sort
of
frank
personal
revelations
that
give such
a
book
both
meat
and
spice.
That
Hugh Dalton
had a
good
opinion
of
himself
his
best
friends
could
not
deny
and
it
comes
out
on
every
other
page
of
this
volume.
He
is,
however,
always
generous
in
acknowledging
the
work
of
his
subordinates and
one
is
readier
to
overlook such
human
weakness
in
a
hearty
extrovert
who
manages
to
convey
so
well
the
vitality
of
his
life;
his
age removes
any
suggestion
of
self-promotion,
unless
it
be
in
the
pages
of
history,
and this
is
presumably
part
of
the
purpose
of
the
autobiography.
Yet
the
reader
is
left
with
the
impression
that
the
autobiographer
enjoys
writing
about
his colourful
life
almost
as
much
as
he
clearly
enjoyed
living
it.
In
this,
as
in
a number
of
other
characteristics,
not
least
in
the
scope
and
frankness
of
his
memoirs,
he
reminds
one
of
Sir
Winston
Churchill,
a
comparison to
which
he
would
probably
not
object.
With
the
help
of
a detailed diary from
which he
quotes
freely
Dalton
brings
to light
much
of
the
inner
history
of
the
great
Labour
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