Book Review: Western Europe: The French Radical Party in the 1930's
| Published date | 01 March 1965 |
| Date | 01 March 1965 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000124 |
| Author | David Thomson |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
129
and
well
sprinkled
with
discerning value judgements
on
the moral
issues
raised
by
the
exercise
of
imperial
rule.
Few,
however,
attain
that
incisive
clarity
or
style
which
makes
her
works
so
eminently
readable.
Tropical Africa,
the
area
of
Miss
Perham's
most
abiding
interest,
receives
the
most
attention.
Mary
Bull examines
features
of
the
system
of
indirect
rule
in
Northern
Nigeria
which
developed
in Lugard's
absence
(1906-11);
Elizabeth
Chilver
documents
the
activities
of
German
and British
administrators
in
the
West
Central
Cameroons
(1902-54);
George
Bennett
describes
critically
the
paucity
of
spokesmen
for
African
interests
in
the
Kenya
legislative
council
before
1948.
These
three
authors,
unlike
many
who
have
written
on imperial
administration,
give
careful
attention
to
the
political
institutions
and
economic
pursuits
of
the
indigenous
peoples
on
whom
European
rule
was
imposed.
Although curiously
out
of
place
in
this
work,
a
study
by
Mary
Holdsworth
provides
a
timely
analysis
of
Soviet
polemics
and
studies
on
Africa.
D.
K.
Fieldhouse adds
another
article to the
scholars'
debate
on
"imperialism"
in
suggesting
that
questions
of
defence
and
security
were
decisive
factors
and
recurring
themes
in
British
imperial activity
in
both
the
late
eighteenth
and
nineteenth
centuries.
Canadians
seeking
a
national
restatement
of
their
constitution may
find
a
stimulating
point
of
departure
in
Professor
Robinson's
critical legal and
political
study
of
"autochthony"
and
the
transfer
of
power
in
former
British
dependencies.
Contributions
from
such
disciplines
as anthropology or from
schol-
ars
attached to
African
universities
would
have
provided
a
more
representative
sampling
of
the
academics engaged in
African
studies.
The
opportunity
to
provide
for
the
publication
of
essays,
such
as
Mr.
Fieldhouse's, reflecting
recent
trends
in
the interpretation
of
imperial
history
might
have
also been
further
exploited. None
the
less,
the
articles
selected
are
sufficiently
diverse
to
attract
a
wide
cross
section
of
scholars
who
have had
occasion
to admire
Miss
Perham's
work.
The
book,
therefore,
is
a
fitting
tribute.
University
of
British
Columbia
ROBERT
V.
KUBICEK
Western
Europe
THE
FRENCH
RADICAL
PARTY
IN
THE
1930's.
By
Peter
J.
Larmour.
1964.
(Stanford:
Stanford
University
Press,
327pp.
$8.50)
To
write
a
coherent
history
of
the
French
Radical
Party
for
any
period
is
a
formidable
undertaking: the
more
so
for
the
decade
of
the
'thirties,
when
it
was
even
more
than
usually
amorphous,
and
was
ceasing
to
fill
its
traditional
role as
a
party
of
the
Left.
Mr.
Larmour
has
come
nearer to
succeeding
than
has
any
previous
adventurer
on
these
treacherous
marshes.
Because
the
Radicals
were
an
indispensable
component
of
most
ministerial
combinations
of
the
later
Third
Re-
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