Book Reviews and Notices : Great Britain, The United States and the Future. By J. E. TYLER. (Library of World Affairs, No. 5. London: Stevens and Sons, Ltd. 1947. Pp. 130. 8s.)

• Author: L.C. Green
• Published date: 01 September 1948
• Date: 01 September 1948
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294800100348
• Subject Matter: Articles

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Great Britain, The United States and the Future. By J. E. TYLER. (Library
of World Affairs, No. 5. London: Stevens and Sons, Ltd. 1947. Pp.
130. 8s.)
As with so many recent books on current affairs, Mr. Tyler’s Great
Britain, the United States and the Future has been a victim of the bottle-
neck in British book production. It may well have been true in April, 1947,
the date of the Preface, to write that &dquo;in general, apart from the cost in
money and effort, it would appear that domestic considerations will for-
bid a policy of all-round intervention by the United States.&dquo; Since that
date the world has been presented with the Marshall Plan and the Truman
Doctrine, and the United States now appears to be committed to the preser-
vation of what it conceives to be the democratic way of life wherever it may
be threatened.
The learned author is not to be blamed for not having foretold this
development, for recent history has shown on countless occasions that Ameri-
can policy is well-nigh unpredictable, and this is particularly so at a time
like the present when this policy is in a formative condition and when, as
Mr. Tyler points out, so much depends on the way in which the Soviet
Union behaves. Thus, at the beginning of this year few would have believed
that conscription was possible in the United States. The recent coup in
Czechoslovakia, however, has made the issue one of an immediate nature
that has been accepted without a great deal of controversy.
.
Perhaps the greatest value to be derived from Great Britain, the...