Book Review: International Politics and Economics: A World of Peoples. The Reith Lectures 1965
| Author | King Gordon |
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200109 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book
Reviews
International
Politics
and
Econonmcs
A
Woato
oF
PEoPLEs.
The
Reith
Lectures
1965.
By
Robert
Gardiner.
1966.
(New
York:
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press.
93pp.
$4.15)
We
must
be
grateful
to
the
B.B.C.
for
persuading
Robert
Gardiner
to
give
the
1965
Reith
Lectures.
For
Robert Gardiner
is
a
quiet
man,
not
much
given
to
voicing
words
into
a
mike
or putting
them
down
on
paper.
Since
graduating
from
Cambridge,
with
later
studies
at
Oxford
and
the
London
School
of
Economics,
Gardiner
has
been
an
adminis-
trator.
After
thirteen years
in
the
civil service of
his
own
country
Ghana,
and a
stint
in
the
Congo
with
the
United
Nations Operation,
Gardiner
for
the
past
five
years
has
been
Executive
Secretary
of
the
U.N.
Economic Commission
for
Africa.
A
World
of
Peoples
discusses
the
problem
of
race
relations
in
the
modern
world.
The
book
gives
a
good
summary
of
most
of
the
study
that
has
gone
into
the
subject;
the
chapter
notes
provide
a
useful
select
bibliography.
But
the
book
has
special
qualities
which
come
out
of
Gardiner's
own
experience
and
which lend
it
authority.
Gardiner
is
an African,
the
son
of
a
proud
family
who stood
firm
for
their
people's
rights
against
colomal
rule.
He
writes
from
deeply-
felt
experience:
"Here
we
come,
I
think,
to
the
crux of
the
misunder-
standing
that
has
led
to
so
much
rancour
and
so
much
bloodshed.
For
it
has
been
the conviction-conscious
and
unconscious-of
many
colon-
izing
powers
that
on
the
other
side
of
the
confrontation
there
is
nothing.
Too
often have
they failed
to
recognize
that
even
the
poorest
people,
even
those
whose
way
of
existence
is
evidence
of
a
complete
inability
to meet
the
challenge
that
nature
poses
to
man,
even people such
as
these
can
have
their
own
dignity and can
be
jealous
of
it.
Gardiner takes a
hard
look
at
the
heritage
of
discrimination
which
takes
shape
in
the
problems
faced
today
by
the
new
nations
in
Africa
as
they
attempt
to
open
up
the
chances
of
a
decent
life
for
their
peoples.
One
cannot
build
a
new
society
on
injustice.
A
special
effort
is
called
for
to
redistribute land,
make
available
job
opportunities
for
Africans, expand
education,
and,
finally,
secure
a
place
in
the
world's
markets
for
the
products
of
the
newly-developed
industries.
Peoples,
long
discriminated
against
by
the
West,
must
be
given
a
chance
to
attain
equality.
Towards
the
end of
the
book,
Gardiner
speaks
as
an
internationalist,
as
an
active
participant
in
the
United Nations
programme
of
economic
development.
"Our
age,
he
says,
"has
caught
the
vision of
world-wide
economic
co-operation;
but
so
far
we
have
only
a
hazy
notion
of
its
importance
and
its
possibilities.
A
concern
for
the rights
of
human
beings,
regardless
of
their
status,
is
a
new
phenomenon
in
the
world.
A
common
effort
to
promote
and
guarantee
these
rights
is
one
way
to
resolve
the
racial
problem.
"Statesmen
of
all
races,
Gardiner says,
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