Book Reviews and Notices : Liberalism and the Challenge of Fascism; Social Forces in England and France (1815-1870). BY J. SALWYN SCHAPIRO. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1949. Pp. 421. $5.00.)
| Date | 01 December 1949 |
| Published date | 01 December 1949 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591294900200424 |
| Author | Charles R. Nixon |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
641
The
distinguished
editor
assures
us
that
this
revision
made
possible
&dquo;numerous
corrections
of
detail
in
other
parts
of
the
book.&dquo;
He
also
wants
the
public
to
know
that
&dquo;the
additions
embodied
in
this
new
edition
were
prepared
almost
entirely
by
Dr.
Geoffrey
Bruun.&dquo;
The
publishers
are
to
be
commended
for
having
undertaken
this
revision,
and
they
are
to
be
urged
to
keep
the
book
up
to
date.
It
is
too
valuable
to
be
allowed
to
fall
behind
time
and
the
needs
of
the
numer-
ous
students
of
historv
and
political
science.
EMIL
LUCKI.
University
of
Utah.
EMIL
Liberalism
and
the
Challenge
of
Fascism;
Social
Forces
in
England
and
France
(1815-1870).
BY J.
SALWYN
SCHAPIRO.
(New
York:
Mc-
Graw-Hill
Book
Company.
1949.
Pp.
421.
$5.00.)
Few
concepts
are
so
often
used
and
so
little
understood
as
&dquo;liberal.
ism.&dquo;
It
has
been
a
popular
badge
during
a
century
and
a
half
of
the
most
rapid
and
far
reaching
social
and
economic
changes
and
therefore
can
be
clearly
understood
only
within
the
historical
framework
of
this
period.
Professor
Schapiro’s
excellent
study
of
the
development
of
liberalism
in
the
nineteenth
century
should
therefore
be
of
great
value,
even
to
those
whose
major
concern
is
with
the
present.
Primary
attention
is
given
to
what
he
calls
bourgeois
liberalism,
which
predominated
in
the
period
1815-1850,
in
which
liberalism
is
asso-
ciated
with
utilitarianism,
classical
economics,
and
the
interest
of
the
middle
class.
Professor
Schapiro
does
not,
however,
like
Laski,
identify
liberalism
solely
with
this
period
or
set
of
interests.
He
suggests
that
a
unique
virtue
of
the
system
of
liberal
politics
created
by
the
middle
class
was
its
flexibility
in
transcending
the
narrow
class
interests
on
which
it
originally
rested,
and
its
ability
to
accommodate
itself
to
the
new
forces
in
society
that
developed
with
the
rise
of
the
working
class.
This
adjustment
was
advanced
by
John
Stuart
Mill
and
Alexis
de
Tocqueville,
both
of
whom
saw
that
the
working
classes
must
be
given
a
share
in
political
power,
and
that
they
would
use
their
power
to
miti-
gate
the
conditions
of
economic
and
social
distress
generated
by
indus-
trialism.
The
transformation
of
bourgeois
liberalism
into
democratic
liberalism
thus
involved
both
an
extension
of
the
suffrage
and
the
aban-
donment
of
laissez
faire.
This
picture
of
the
development
of
nineteenth
century
liberalism
is
not
new,
but
certain
aspects
of
Professor
Schapiro’s
treatment
of
it
are
particularly
valuable.
He
very
skillfully
sets
the
various
elements
of
liber-
alism
within
the
context
of
the
life
of
the
period,
so
that
he
depicts
the
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