Book Reviews and Notices : The Year Book of World Affairs: 1949. EDITED BY GEORGE W. KEETON AND GEORG SCHWARZENBERGER. Published under the auspices of the London Institute of World Affairs. (London: Stevens and Sons Limited. 1949. Pp. viii, 342. 20s.)

• Author: W. Harold Dalgliesh
• Date: 01 December 1949
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200412
• Published date: 01 December 1949
• Subject Matter: Articles

630

The

Year

Book

of

World

Affairs:

1949.

EDITED

BY

GEORGE

W.

KEETON

AND

GEORG

SCHWARZENBERGER.

Published

under

the

auspices

of

the

London

Institute

of

World

Affairs.

(London:

Stevens

and

Sons

Lim-

ited.

1949.

Pp.

viii,

342.

20s.)

To

the

American

reader,

&dquo;Year

Book&dquo;

means

a

work

of

reference

which

concisely

outlines

the

situation

in

a

given

field

at

a

given

moment

and

reviews

all

major

related

developments

during

the

course

of

some

twelve

months.

To

the

London

Institute

of

World

Affairs,

however,

it

is

simply

a

name

applied

to

that

publication

which

contains

timely

articles

more

detailed

and

comprehensive

than

those

in

its

quarterly

periodical

World

Af fairs

but

not

so

fully

treated

as

items

appearing

in

book

form

in

its

Library

of

World

Affairs.

Twelve

articles

and

a

series

of

six

Reports

on

World

Affairs,

in

their

sociological,

economic,

geographical,

psychological,

legal

and

institutional

aspects,

reviewing

some

eighty

books

published

in

1947

and

1948,

com-

prise

this

issue

of

the

Year

Book.

The

articles

cover

a

considerable

range,

some

stressing

national

problems,

as

does

W.

Lewisohn’s

&dquo;Basic

Prob-

lems

in

Modern

China,&dquo;

some

international,

as

L.

C.

Green’s

&dquo;The

’Little

Assembly’

&dquo;;

some

could

have

been

written

three

or

four

years

ago,

as

in

the

case

of

Editor

Schwarzenberger’s

&dquo;The

Study

of

International

Rela-

tions,&dquo;

or

J.

Daniel’s

&dquo;Conflict

of

Sovereignties

in

the

Antarctic&dquo;;

others

review

developments

through

the

year

1948,

as

does

Susan

Strange’s

&dquo;Palestine

and

the

United

Nations.&dquo;

Some,

such

as

Hambro’s

article

on

the

International

Court

of

Justice

and

L.

B.

Schapiro’s

masterly

review

and

detailed

tabulation

of

&dquo;Soviet

Participation

in

International

Institu-

tions,&dquo;

contain

generous

reference

to

authorities;

others,

such

as

L.

H.

Guest’s

&dquo;The

Future

of

the

British

Colonial

Empire,&dquo;

dispense

with

cita-

tions.

Most

items

are

by

British

writers,

although

an

American,

Margaret

Ball,

has

written

on

&dquo;Recent

Developments

in

Inter-American

Relations.&dquo;

Despite

their

variety

the

articles

share

the

qualities

of

being

timely,

in-

formative

and

readable.

The

Reports

on

World

Affairs

are

given

under

the

titles:

Sociological

Aspects,

Legal

Aspects,

etc.

If

one

were

to

judge

by

the

number

of

books

reviewed

in

each

Report,

English

publishers

have

brought

out

the

bulk

of

significant

literature

dealing

with

the

sociological

and

geographic

aspects

of

the

field,

American

publishers

those

dealing

with

the

economic

aspects.

Only

in

the

Report

headed

Legal

Aspects

have

a

substantial

number

of

books

published

on

the

Continent

been

reviewed:

and

in

the

entire

series

of

Reports

but

one

book

published

in

the

Slavic

world

has

been

included.

This

seems

particularly

strange

after

reading

Schwarzenberger’s

remark

(p.

19)

that

&dquo;Students

of

international

relations

can

do

worse

than

try

to

analyse

any

situation

from

all

relevant

points

of

view.&dquo;

(Italics

are

the

reviewer’s.)