Book Reviews and Notices : Peace or Power. BY HAROLD BUTLER. (New York : The Macmillan Company. 1948. Pp. 269. $4.50.)

• Published date: 01 September 1948
• Author: F.H. Soward,Russell H. Fitzgibbon
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294800100323
• Date: 01 September 1948
• Subject Matter: Articles

327

Not

the

least

enjoyable

feature

of

the

book

is

the

manner

in

which

the

author

inserts,

without

intruding,

something

of

his

own

meditations

on

the

nature

of

things

psychological

and

political:

on

magnanimity

and

appease-

ment,

on

the

role

of

the

state,

on

the

fate

of

the

British

aristocracy,

on

the

corroding

effect

of

adulation

on

public

figures,

on

the

requirements

of

modern

administration.

There

is,

too,

in

this

day

of

specialization,

some-

thing

very

pleasing

in

the

obvious

and

wholehearted

admiration

the

book

exudes

for

the

&dquo;brilliant

amateur&dquo;

who

loves

knowledge

in

all

fields

for

the

sake

of

knowledge

and

is

the

better

in

his

own

field

for

it.

Like

all

books,

Personality

is

not

perfect.

At

times

its

author’s

pictures

are-must

be-oversimplified,

and

the

same

charge

is

true

of

some

of

his

observations

on

events,

as

with

his

characterization

of

the

Chinese

civil

war.

Nor

are

the

sketches

uniformly

good.

Mr.

Salter

is

more

at

home

in

his

own

back

yard,

and

his

pictures

of

foreign

figures,

though

possibly

the

more

objective,

are

not

drawn

with

the

assured,

flowing

lines

that

charac-

terize

those

of

his

countrymen.

Mr.

Salter

on

Balfour

speaks

with

a

feeling

of

authority;

on

Roosevelt

or

Mussolini,

with

implied

apology.

Indeed,

his

repeated

use

of

the

terms

&dquo;English&dquo;

and

&dquo;unEnglish&dquo;

as

descriptive

adjec-

tives

indicates

his

own

recognition

of

his

deeper

inner

association

with

things

at

home.

Personality

in

Politics

is

not-and

makes

no

pretense

at

being-a

world-

shaking

book.

It

will

not

change

the

course

of

events

or,

probably,

even

much

influence

interpretation

of

them.

But

it

will

no

doubt

serve

as

a

use-

ful

tool

of

the

future

historian,

and

meanwhile

it

will

brighten

up

the

long

winter

evenings

for

many

a

discerning

reader.

JOHN

M.

SWARTHOUT.

Oregon

State

College.

Peace

or

Power.

BY

HAROLD

BUTLER.

(New

York :

The

Macmillan

Com-

pany.

1948.

Pp.

269.

$4.50.)

Readers

of

The

Lost

Peace

will

turn

eagerly

to

Sir

Harold

Butler’s

latest

book

while

newcomers

will

find

it

an

excellent

introduction

to

the

problems

of

our

time.

Just

as

the

first

volume

was

influenced

by

the

au-

thor’s

twenty

years

with

the

I.

L.

0.,

so

the

second

reflects

his

four

years

at

Washington

in

the

United

Kingdom

Embassy

and

his

travels

in

western

and

central

Europe

in

1946.

That

journey

prompted

an

analysis

of

Eu-

ropean

conditions

which,

the

author

soon

found

had

to

be

broadened

to

include

the

relationship

to

Europe

of

the

United

States,

the

U.

S.

S.

R.

and

the

British

Commonwealth.

The

result

is

a

compact

survey

which

be-

gins

with

&dquo;The

Peace

that

Failed&dquo;

and

ends

with

the

Truman

Doctrine

and

the

Marshall

speech.

On

the

whole

this

is

as

suggestive

and

well

written

a

monograph

as

we

are

likely

to

get

for

sometime.

In

its

insistence

upon

economic

factors,