Book Reviews : Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth Century. Edited for the Department of Political Science Washington University. William N. Chambers and Robert H. Salisbury: Washington University Press. $2.75. The End of American Innocence. A Study of the First Years of Our Own Time, 1912-1917. Harry F. May. Cape. 35s. The Affluent Society. John Kenneth Galbraith. Hamish Hamilton. 21s. The Waste Makers. Vance Packard. Longmans. 21s
| Published date | 01 April 1961 |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711786100200313 |
| Date | 01 April 1961 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
188
Nasser
is
said
to
have
given
Communism
&dquo; the
greatest
victory .. ,
since
the
fall
of
China &dquo;.
The
truth
is
that
the
&dquo; Instinctive
American
sympathy
with
subject
peoples
&dquo; is
not
only
highly
variable,
but
often
extremely
ill-
informed
however
generous
in
nature.
To
conduct
foreign
policy
by
a
series
&dquo; of
gusts
of
emotion &dquo;
is
as
disastrous
as
conducting
war
by
the
same
method,
vide
Professor
Blackett.
What
the
author
has
to say
should,
however,
be
studied
by
the
rest
of
the
world
for
its
possible
impact
on
the
policy
of
the
Democratic
adminis-
tration.
From
this
angle
three
themes
are
significant.
First
is
the
prime
importance
which
the
author
attaches
to
disarmament.
He
is
sincerely
alarmed
at
the
prospect
of
war
by
accident,
i.e.,
miscalculation;
and
believes
that
a
more
determined
effort
must
be
made
to
reduce
tension
by
disarma-
ment,
rather
than
awaiting
a
reduction
of
tension
before
disarming.
But
he
is
not
prepared
to
scrap
the
United
States
ability
to
deter
aggression
or
to
fight
limited
wars.
The
other
two
themes
both
have
a
strong
moralist
tinge-so
inseparable
from
the
American
political
philosophy.
One
is
that
the
United
Nations
should
be
more
actively
used
as
a
vehicle
of
American
policy
towards Asia
and
Africa
in
place
of
regional
organisations
or
multilateral
action-It
will
be
interesting
to
see
if
this
advice
is
followed
now
that
Western
domination
of
voting
in
the
Assembly
is
a
thing
of
the
past.
The
other
is
that
when
dealing
with
the
newer
nations
principle
is
a
better
guide
than
power
politics.
But
&dquo; power
politics &dquo;
is
as
difficult
to
define
as
it
is
to
escape-principles
without
power
politics
are
completely
ineffectual,
however
good
their
intentions
or
however
moral
their
contents.
Mr.
Dean
Rusk
can
no
more
escape
that
paradox
than
could
Mr.
Dulles
though
it
is
to
be
hoped
that
his
method
of
deploying
power
will
be
more
adept.
Democracy
in
the
Mid-Twentieth
Century.
Edited
for
the
Department
of
Political
Science
Washington
University.
William
N.
Chambers
and
Robert
H.
Salisbury:
Washington
University
Press.
$2.75.
The
End
of
American
Innocence.
A
Study
of
the
First
Years
of
Our
Own
Time,
1912-1917.
Harry
F.
May.
Cape.
35s.
The
Affluent
Society.
John
Kenneth
Galbraith.
Hamish
Hamilton.
21s.
The
Waste
Makers.
Vance
Packard.
Longmans.
21s.
The
first
book
of
this
group
consists
of
papers
delivered
by
five
distinguished
academicians,
Professors
Hartz,
Beer,
Lindblom,
Pennock
and
Epstein,
at
a
conference
at
Washington
University
in
1958.
At
a
time
when
not
so
much
the
theory
as
the
performance
of
democracy
is
called
in
question
in
so
many
parts
of
the
world,
this
contribution
to
the
subject
is
most
apt
to
the
moment.
It
is
treated
in
specialized
essays
which,
while
drawing
on
conventional
political
theory,
take
into
particular
account
the
experience
and
institutions
in
the
two
Anglo-Saxon
democracies.
The
chief
problems
and
dilemmas
of
to-day
are
discussed
with
balance
and
much
good
sense
emerges.
Even
when
no
solution
is
found
there
are
valuable
suggestions
as
to
the
topics
which
require
further
research,
topics
that
are
as
vital
to
the
functioning
of
British
democracy
as
they
are
to
that
of
the
United
States.
Basically
the
contributors
are
optimistic
in
their
conclusions.
&dquo; Demo-
cracy ;
Image
and
Reality
&dquo; by
Professor
Hartz
is
at
once
alarming
and
reassuring.
It
is
no
use,
he
says,
to
yearn
nostalgically
for
the
classical
democratic
age
nor
to
hope
to
fashion
the
democracy
of
our
time
in
its
image.
Modern
society
and
culture
throw
up
problems
which
require
an
adaptation
of
the
conventional
democratic
forms
which
can
only
be
achieved
without
disaster
if
the
actual
functioning
of
democracy
is
more
carefully
studied.
And
yet
in
its
current
competition
with
communism
it
is
possible
to
draw
comfort
from
the
fact
that
within
Communist
States,
as
is
already
beginning
to
be
apparent
in
Russia,
the
challenge
posed
to
them
internally
is
likely
to
be
deeper
and
less
easily
soluble.
Professor
Beer,
in
&dquo; New
Structures
of
Democracy:
Britain
and
America
&dquo; is
rather
more
pragmatic.
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