Book Reviews and Notices : Foreign Governments. BY MARIO EINAUDI, ANDREW GYORGY, JOHN N. HAZARD, HENRY P. JORDAN, PAUL M. A. LINEBARGER, JOHN BROWN MASON, FRITZ MORSTEIN MARX, AND W. HARDY WICKWAR; EDITED BY FRITZ MORSTEIN MARX. (New York: Prentice-Hall. 1948. Pp. xxxii, 713. $4.75.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200332
• Author: Charles O. Lerche
• Published date: 01 September 1949
• Date: 01 September 1949
• Subject Matter: Articles

450

American

states.

Apart

from

an

introductory

chapter

on

&dquo;Dictators

and

Democrats,&dquo;

Professor

Macdonald

follows

strictly

the

geographical

method

in

organizing

his

material.

This

reviewer

is

of

the

opinion

that

the

topical

method

of

presenting

contemporary

Latin

American

politics

and

govern-

ment

is

better

suited

to

the

needs

and

interests

of

the

North

American

student

than

is

the

geographical

one,

especially

when

twenty

countries

have

to

be

crowded

in

individual

packages,

into

six

hundred

pages

only.

The

author

attempts

to

present

his

material

in

a

lively

and

readable

style,

but

it

is

doubtful

whether

the

limitations

of

space,

accentuated

by

the

use

of

the

country-by-country

method,

can

thus

be

overcome.

Professor

Mac-

donald’s

book

is

the

first

of

its

kind

in

the

field,

and

will

therefore

be

useful

despite

its

limitations.

WILLIAM

EBENSTEIN.

Princeton University

Foreign

Governments.

BY

MARIO

EINAUDI,

ANDREW

GYORGY,

JOHN

N.

HAZARD,

HENRY

P.

JORDAN,

PAUL

M.

A.

LINEBARGER,

JOHN

BROWN

MASON,

FRITZ

MORSTEIN

MARX,

AND

W.

HARDY

WICKWAR;

EDITED

BY

FRITZ

MORSTEIN

MARX.

(New

York:

Prentice-Hall.

1948.

Pp.

xxxii,

713.

$4.75.)

In

recent

months

textbooks

in

&dquo;comparative

government&dquo;

have

been

pouring

off

the

presses

to

fill

the

postwar

lack

remarked

by

teachers

of

the

subject.

At

the

present

writing

scarcely

a

publisher

does

not

have

a

work

on

the

subject

either

in

circulation

or

in

the

press.

Some

have

been

of

evident

worth;

others

frankly

were

put

together

to

fill

an

urgent

need.

They

show

the

effects

of

haste.

The

present

volume

is

easily

the

best

to

come

to

this

reviewer’s

attention.

Written

by

a

&dquo;team&dquo;

after

the

manner

of

which

Fritz

Morstein

Marx

is

so

fond,

the

range

of

the

work

is

wide,

and

the

battery

of

authors

con-

tains

men

whose

familiarity

with

their

respective

areas

is

evident.

Not

all

the

faults

of

collaborative

ventures

are

avoided;

styles

and

treatments

vary

and

one

may

legitimately

differ

with

the

particular

topics

selected

for

emphasis.

Nevertheless

it

is

obvious

that

Mr.

Morstein

Marx

took

his

editorial

duties

seriously

and

technically

the

work

is

first

rate.

Worthy

of

particular

mention

is

the

notable

effort

made

by

the

group

to

transcend

the

ordinary

limitations

placed

on

studies

of

foreign

governments

by

the

inclusion

of

extensive

treatments

of

such

fields

as

welfare

activities

and

ideological

conflicts

within

the

different

states.

Provocative

also

is

the

editor’s

attempt

at

synthesis,

made

in

Part

I,

&dquo;Ideas

and

Ideals,&dquo;

and

in

the

concluding

section,

&dquo;Sovereignty-Road

Block

or

Stepping

Stone?&dquo;

Political

events

today

move

far

more

rapidly

than

the

best

efforts

of

modern

scholars.

Professor

Linebarger’s

status

as

an

authority

on

the

China

of

Chiang

Kai-Shek

is

unquestioned;

it

is

unfortunate

that

to

this