Book Reviews: Capitalism and Socialism on Trial. By FRITZ STERNBERG. Translated by Edward Fitzgerald. (New York: The John Day Company. 1952. Pp. 603. $7.00.)

• Date: 01 December 1952
• Published date: 01 December 1952
• Author: Vaughn D. Bornet
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295200500423
• Subject Matter: Articles

678
of war remember this. The medicine against communism and totalitarian-
ism is neither war, nor rearmament, nor threats, nor propaganda of hate,
but peace, and lack of emergency.&dquo; However, he does not offer much
practical advice on how to obtain &dquo;peace&dquo; and &dquo;lack of emergency.&dquo;
Sorokin shows himself to be a better Christian than social scientist,
and perhaps that is what he intends. His book should be a warning not
to generalize about terms which are undefined, not to mix mysticism and
science, and not to present statistics of classes of events which are exces-
sively vague.
-
QUINCY WRIGHT.
University of Chicago.
Capitalism and Socialism on Trial. By FRITZ STERNBERG. Translated by
Edward Fitzgerald. (New York: The John Day Company. 1952. Pp.
603. $7.00.)
It is the transparent purpose of this wordy, astigmatic, yet often
suggestive book to trace to its author’s satisfaction the nineteenth century
rise and the twentieth century fall of capitalism. Democratic socialism is
not here on trial, whatever the title may intimate. It is evident that the
conviction and sentencing of capitalism at the hands of this German-born
and European-oriented socialist advocate was foreordained. &dquo;Capitalism
will hardly survive the twentieth century,&dquo; he prophesies, and he suggests
that the world &dquo;may plunge into barbarism.&dquo; Still, &dquo;there is a chance
for a democratic socialist development.&dquo; The danger of a new world
war can be resolved, possibly, by the rise of a &dquo;United Socialist Europe&dquo;
on Russia’s western frontier.
Peering into the future the author suggests: &dquo;Once a united Europe
arose, too strong to be threatened by Russian military aggression-a Europe
which combined economic progress with political and personal liberty-
then there would be every likelihood that, in answer to the moral challenge
such a Europe would represent, the Russian dictatorship would be com-
pelled by force of circumstances to give...