Book Review: Western Civilization: A Political, Social and Cultural History
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205100600130 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Author | D. C. Masters |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
81
war,
Britain
is
still
a
great
power,
and the
only
power
that
can
give
to
Europe
the
leadership
that
is
required.
Power,
he
observes,
does
not depend
solely
on
military
resources.
That
is
no
doubt
true,
but
some
formidable
difficulties
remain.
Whatever
the
cause,
it
is
evident
that
the
present government
in
Britain
is
not
especially
eager
to
assume
the
leadership;
and
one
weakness
in
Mr.
Voigt's
book
is
the
absence
of
any serious
discussion
of
Britain's
actual
position
and power
to
influence
Europe
at
this
time.
He
appears
to
assume an
indefinite
continuance
of
the
present arrangements
between
Great
Britain
and
the
United
States;
and
it
is
evident
from many
passages
that
it
is
to
American
rather than
to
British
policy
that
he
looks
for
the
restoration
of
Europe
and
the
prevention
of
the
disaster
which
threatens.
This
is
a
scholarly
and
a
deeply
interesting
book.
Mr.
Voigt writes
with
vigour
and
clarity.
He
has
a
wide
knowledge
of
the
intricacies
of
European
politics
and
of
the
men
who have
had
a
part
in
them.
His
conclusions
are
firmly
and
unequivocally
stated,
and
he
is
not
sparing
in his
criticism
where
he
considers
it
due.
There
is
here
no
suggestion
that
war
is
inevitable.
The
differences between
the
two
political
systems
that
are
now
battling
for
Europe
are
sharply
drawn;
but
Mr.
Voigt writes with the
conviction
that
an
understanding
of
those
differences
is
the first essential
to
the
restoration
of
conditions
in
Europe
under
which
the
two
systems
can live
in
some
sort
of peace.
University
of
Toronto.
D.
J.
McDougall
WESTERN
CIVILIZATION:
A
POLITICAL, SOCIAL
AND
CULTURAL
HISTORY.
Vol.
I: to
1660. By
John
J.
Van
Nostrand
and
Paul
Schaeffer.
1949.
(New
York,
Toronto:
Van
Nostrand.
x,
535
pp.
$4.75.)
This
volume
is
a
comprehensive
description
of
western
civilization
from
its
origins
to
the
emergence
of
the
modern
system
of
nation
states.
The authors
are
essentially
humanist
in
outlook.
Since
the eighteenth
century,
they
suggest,
the
why
of
history has
been
answered
not
in
terms
of
any power
outside
man
but
purely
"in
terms
of
human
responsibility".
The
authors
have
great
faith
in
the
idea
of
progress
"Civilization
may
be
only
a
veneer,
but
the passing
of
time
gives
to
the
coating
an ever-increasing
depth and
firmness."
Bishop's
University,
Lennoxville.
D.
C.
Masters
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