Book Reviews : Europe's Road to Potsdam. By WENZEL JAKSCH. Translated and edited by KURT GLASER. (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1963. Pp. xxiv, 468. $9.50.)

• Published date: 01 December 1964
• Date: 01 December 1964
• Author: Isaac A. Stone
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296401700441
• Subject Matter: Articles

829
genuinely effective; for it will inevitably come to recognize it as the best possible
system of government that a democratic community can adopt in pursuance of its
intrinsic aims and interests.&dquo; Given this point of view, the Union naturally encour-
ages the creation and continuation of legislative assemblies, no matter how power-
less they are in actual fact.
If one allows for a sufficiently long historical perspective, this point of view may
be sound. But by taking this view, and allowing for no qualitative differences based
on the actual performances of parliamentary assemblies, comparison can go no
deeper than form: the essence of the parliaments must be largely ignored. This book
does not discuss, then, as its conclusion suggests, &dquo;the constant features of parlia-
mentary practice.&dquo; It deals, rather, in a comparative way with parliamentary form
and fa~ade.
DONALD BARRY
Lehigh University
Europe’s Road to Potsdam. By WENZEL JAKSCH. Translated and edited by KURT
GLASER. (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1963. Pp. xxiv, 468. $9.50.)
The book under review is in no sense a political history of Europe. The occa-
sional and uncoordinated excursions into diplomatic history are on the whole unhelp-
ful because of their disjointed and tendentious nature and the high selectivity of the
material. The work is indeed not easily classified but can perhaps broadly be termed
a personal memoir since it reflects throughout the origin, national outlook, social
philosophy and career of its author, who is the energetic, articulate former leader of
the Sudeten German Social Democrats.
Although apparently meant to be a study of the nationalities problem in Central
Europe, the book’s concern in substance is first with the Czech people and secondly
with the Czechoslovak state established after World War I. Jaksch’s criteria of good
and bad are as clearcut as the good and bad &dquo;guys&dquo; in a Western film. The bad in-
clude the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the...