Book Reviews and Notices : Handbook of the United Nations and the Specialized Agencies. (New York: Department of Public Information, United Nations. May, 1949. Pp. xvii, 222. $1.00.)

• Date: 01 December 1949
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200418
• Published date: 01 December 1949
• Author: Hedley V. Cooke
• Subject Matter: Articles

636

pinning

of

economics,

and

thus

avoids

superficiality

in

dealing

with

what

.

are

necessarily

politico,economic

problems.

Early

and

late,

Cole

empha-

sizes

rather

than

obscures

the

fact

that

his

assumptions

are

those

of

a

British

Fabian

Socialist.

To

commend

these

and

other

qualities

in

the

author’s

work

is

not,

however,

to

grant

it

a

laisser

passer

for

all

its

opinions

and

judgments.

To

single

out

only

one:

Cole

is

inclined

to

approve

institutions

and

pro,

grams,

foreign

and

domestic,

of

Socialist

Britain

or

Communist

Russia

be-

cause

of

his

acceptance

of

the

theories

and

motives

which

he

believes

to

guide

them;

shortcomings

in

practice

seem

to

count

for

much

less.

On

the

other

hand,

disapproval

is

directed

at

many

things

American,

not

so

much

because

of

failures

of

accomplishment

in

terms

of

his

own

standards,

but

because

he

dislikes

the

theories

of

unfettered

private

enterprise

that,

by

his

attribution,

underlie

them.

Whatever

one’s

views,

however,

Cole’s

book

contributes

to

a

useful

discussion

of

the

principal

international

issues

hefnre

the

cnntemnorarv

world.

DELL

G.

HITCHNER.

University

of

Washington.

DELL

G.

HITCHNER.

Handbook

of

the

United

Nations

and

the

Specialized

Agencies.

(New

York:

Department

of

Public

Information,

United

Nations.

May,

1949.

Pp.

xvii,

222.

$1.00.)

This

is

a

useful,

indeed

a

necessary,

volume

for

the

teacher

or

stu-

dent

of

international

organization.

Also,

many

laymen

will

probably

find

in

it

answers

to

questions

which

have

aroused

their

curiosity.

Except

that

it

contains

no

full

texts

of

the

charters

of

the

United

Nations

and

specialized

agencies,

all

pertinent

data

which

could

possibly

be included

in

a

small

handbook

are

present.

Particularly

interesting

to

the

reviewer

were

the

brief

but

meaty

statements

as

to

the

functions

and

organizational

setups

of

the

specialized

agencies

and

of

the

UN

Secretariat.

Explanations

serving

to

link

the

formal

provisions

of

the

charters

with

actual

performance

are

to

be

found.

The

following

is

a

good

example:

.

&dquo;It

is

one

of

the

functions

of

the

General

Assembly

to

initiate

studies

and

make

recommendations

for

the

purpose

of

encouraging

the

progressive

development

of

international

law

and

its

codification.

The

Assembly

has

established

for

this

purpose

an

International

Law

Commission,

com-

posed

of

fifteen

persons

of

recognized

competence

in

international

law.&dquo;

The

volume

is

also

valuable

as

a

directory

of

persons

associated

with

the

United

Nations

or

specialized

agencies

in

important

capacities.

University

of

Wyoming.

HEDLEY

V.

COOKE.