Book Review: International Politics and Economics: Major Controversies of Contemporary History

DOI10.1177/002070206702200211
Date01 June 1967
Published date01 June 1967
Subject MatterBook Review
Book
Reviews
International Politics
and
Economics
MAJOR
CONTROVERSIES
OF
CONTEMPORARY
HISTORY.
By
Jacques
de
Launay.
1965.
(Oxford:
Toronto:
Pergamon.
xii,
331pp.
$6.60)
Historians
have
been slow
to
adopt
the
scientist's
use
of
abstracts.
The
scientists
claim
they
could
not
possibly
keep
up
without
these
digests;
the
historian
has
scarcely begun
to
discover
their
possibilities.
So
one
opens
such
a
work
as
this
one
with
a
feeling
of
great
hopefulness.
The
preface
makes
quite
sizeable
promises:
an
entirely
new
method
almost
eleven
thousand
works
a
detailed
analysis
a
group
of
historians
a
large
number
of
assistants
24,960
IBM
punched
cards first-hand
evidence
from
a
vast
number
of
sources
five
years
to
complete
numerous
Journeys
throughout
Europe,
the
United
States
and
the
Soviet
Union.
And
so
forth.
Not
merely
the
summary
of
the
best
that
is
known,
it
would
seem,
but
fresh
evi-
dence
and
new
conclusions.
The
reality
is
less
exciting.
Undeniably
pertinent
questions
are
posed
and
sensible
answers
given,
but
the fresh
evidence
is
not
important,
much of
the
better
evidence
does
not
show
itself,
and
the
conclusions
are
largely (perhaps
justifiably) routine.
Was
the
Serb government
involved
in
the
Sarajevo
murders
Not
proven.
Did
France
encourage
the
Russians
to
mobilize
that
July
9
Very
likely
yes.
Did
the
German
military
men
dictate
the
Empire's
conduct
in
the
war
9
Yes.
Was
Wilson's
intransigence
decisive in
the
Senate's
rejection
of
the
Treaty
of
Versailles
9
Yes.
Was
Stresemann
sincere
Yes,
he
didn't
hide
his
views.
Did
Mussolini
plan
the
Marseilles
murders in
1934?
No.
Did
the
November
5,
1937
conference
prove
Hitler
was
bent
on
war?
Colonel
Hossbach
didn't
know
and
it
cannot
be
proved.
Did
the
Soviets wish
to
provoke
war
in
19399
No. Did
F.D.R.
know
Japan
would
attack
Pearl
Harbor?
No.
Many
more
questions
and
many
more
equally acceptable
answers.
What
Mr.
de
Launay has
to
say
is
interesting,
even
if
his
selection
of
evidence
puzzles
and
on some
questions,
at
least,
he
has
by
no
means exhausted
the
materials
available.
Someone
has
been
nodding
in
the
great
procedure.
The
book
contains
a
good
many
curiosities,
some
terrible
trans-
lations
into
English,
and typographical
errors
which
create
confusion-
thus the uninitiated
will
have trouble
realizing
that
the
"Doyle
Theory"
disguises
the
name
of
the
French
military
plan
of
1939
to
move
for-
ward
to
the
line
of
the river
Dyle.
References
are
often
incomplete and
eccentrically
presented.
And
why
one
wonders, should
Georges Bonnet
be
"shrewd"
just
because
he
is
a
native
of
PNngord?
Why
should
Robert
Aron
be
cloaked
as
"another
French
writer
named
Aron"
' It's
a
pity
to
mar
.
serious
and
useful
book
with
such
blemishes.
Because
the
book
ts
useful.
It
simply
is
not
up
to
the
billing
in
the preface

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