Book Reviews: Modern Britain 1885–1955, Party Politics: Vol. I: Appeal to the People, Vol. II: The Growth of Parties, The Bargainers: A Survey of Modern Trade Unionism, Breakaway Unions and the Small Trade Union, The American Voter, Convention Decisions and Voting Records, La Cour Suprême et le Problème Communiste Aux États-Unis, Brisbane 1859–1959—A History of Local Government, Government in Zazzau, 1800–1950, Government and Politics in Pakistan, The Anthill, the Human Condition in Communist China, Thought Reform of the Chinese Intellectuals, Documents on International Affairs, 1957, John Locke: Two Treatises of Government, Locke on war and Peace, Montesquieu: Pioneer of the Sociology of Knowledge, An Introduction to Democratic Theory, Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought, The Idea of Order: Contributions to a Philosophy of Politics, Charles Booth, Social Scientist, Political Man
| Published date | 01 June 1961 |
| Author | R. S. Milne,Allen Potter,F. G. Carnell,Henry Pelling,S. I. Benn,J. E. S. Hayward,K. W. J. Post,W. R. Ward,W. H. Greenleaf,Alan Burges,J. H. Burns,Joseph Frankel,Brian Rodgers,Howard Warrender |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1961.tb00833.x |
| Date | 01 June 1961 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
BOOK REVIEWS
MODERN BRITAIN
1885-1955.
By
HENRY
PELLING.
(Nelson.
Pp.
This book offers the first taste of a new
History
of
England
in eight volumes paradoxically
published in Scotland. The editors, Professor Christopher Brooke and Mr. Mack Smith, have
assembled a distinguished
team
of
writers, and aim
to
produce
books
that
are
‘reasonably
short-long enough that the reader may feel he has
really
been shown the ingredients of
a
period, not
so
long that he
loses
appetite for anything further’. The notion of a series designed
to stimulate rather
than
satisfy
the reader is a noble one-how far
is
it fulfilled in the present
volume?
Mr. Pelling’s narrative of seventy crowded
years
is in dimensions an essay,
in
form a text-
book, and in some of
its
aspects
an evocative chronicle reminiscent
of
the B.B.C. Scrapbooks.
Chapters of roughly equal length each discuss first international affairs, then domestic politics,
and finally
social
change. Mr. Pelling succeeds in telling a readable story without excess of
detail, but inevitably
has
shorn his textbook
of
much of the factual material
required
for
examination purposes. Students of government, for example, will be surprised to find that the
only reference
to
the Representation of the People Act
of
1918
explains that
it
required a
deposit of
€150
from parliamentary candidates to be forfeited in
the
event of their failing
to
secure oneeighth of the votes cast. Again,
in
the sections upon social life, Mr. Pelling tries
fairly to evaluate the trends
(in
most fields other than religion) but has to devote valuable space
to enumerpting trivia more likely to create nostalgia than understanding.
This
is true also of
a
well-produced
series
of plates, of which some
are
interesting historical documents, but others,
such
as
the wedding of
Princess
Elizabeth, are merely evocative. Most students would no doubt
prefer the long essay on the period which Mr. Pelling is well equipped
to
write, but they have
here a sane and well-balanced account which they
can
recommend
to
their older children or to
neighbours in reminiscent mood, and which
may
even prove a stimulus to further reading.
xii+212.
18s.)
University
of
Manchester
W.
R.
WARD
PARTY POLITICS:
VOL.
I: APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE, VOL. 11:
THE GROWTH
OF
PARTIES.
By
SIR
IVOR
JENNINGS.
(Cambridge
University Press.
Pp.
xxxiv+388
and
pp.
vii3-404.
45s.
each.)
The volumes under review
are
to
be
followed by a third, dealing with leading political ideas.
All
three
may
be
considered
as
a sequel
to
the author’s
Cabinet Government
and
Parliament.
Appeal
to
the
People
falls into a number of sections. The first consists of the history
of
elec-
toral boundaries, the history of the franchise, and two shorter historical accounts of the
machinery of elections and corruption. In all of
these
chapters there is scope for Sir Ivor’s
talents
as
lawyer and historian. As in
Cabinet Government
and
Parliament
he has collected the
necessary references and precedents, both ancient and modern, and has commented on them
with wisdom. The chapter on the decline of electoral corruption
is
of particular brilliance.
In the rest of the volume the legal and historical approach is not
so
appropriate, hecause the
subject-matter is more political, sociological, and, latterly, statistical. The middle section deals
with the political influence
of
newspapers, with party propaganda and other more indirect
types of propaganda, and with concepts of rank and class. Here the treatment is less adequate.
There is mention
of
the varying degrees
of
activity among party members, but there are no
general references to militants or to opinion leaders. Nor, when mention is made of ‘the ruling
few’,
is
the argument linked with any reference to theories about
Plites.
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